Hello there! I apologize for taking so long to get this chapter out. Lately, I've been dealing with some mild writers block, which isn't fun, and an ungodly amount of homework. It's quite annoying. But, here's chapter 14 for ya. :D

*I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. If I did, I'd probably be rich. And I'd be able to pay The Monkees to give me a private concert.*

Read on!

**This is unbetaed since my beta is super busy this weekend and since we're both gonna be busy this week, I wanted to upload this while I could**

Chapter 14: No Longer There

A bell jingled as the bookstore door flew open, letting in a burst of cool air. It feel shut with a thump as the doors opener, a girl in her teens, strode through the aisles to a handful of shelves in back. She came to an abrupt stop, her hand shooting out to grab a manga novel. The girl flipped though it quite quickly before shoving it back on the shelf and pulling out another.

"Do you need any help miss?"

The girl glanced up to find an employee, a man in his twenties, standing at the end of the aisle.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks."

The employee gave a nod and walked away. Once his footsteps had faded away, the girl turned back to the book she was holding and resumed her frantic search. She kept going until she had reached the last one on the shelf. She shoved the last book back with irritation.

"Well damn." She whispered, crossing her arms and glaring at the manga. "That certainly didn't work."

The girl with no face was back. She was sitting in a desk, tapping a pencil against its surface. There was an empty desk behind her, and an occupied one in front of her. All the other desks in the the room were foggy and hard to make out.

The occupied desk held a familiar looking brunette girl; currently staring at the board and doodling on a piece of paper. The empty desk was, well, empty. Almost as if no one sat in it at all. Alice tilted her head to the side a bit, as if the movement would lead to an answer. It didn't. She knew for a fact that it was a school desk, in a classroom, meaning that seven different people sat in it at seven different times everyday. But for some reason it seemed off-limits. Like someone was supposed to sit there and no one else was allowed to. It was a feeling that Alice couldn't quite describe or understand.

She turned in a small circle, trying to see the rest of the class room. Everything was blurry though, and hard to decipher. The room was a mess of colors.

When she had finished her rotation, her eyes found the faceless girl again. And the faceless girl was turned toward her.

Alice's eyes widened as a face slowly started to take shape. Nothing distinct, but a lot more than before. The girls eyes weren't quite there, but Alice could tell she was being stared at.

"Come home soon, Allie."

"Wh-what? I don-"

"ALICE!"

Alice woke up with a loud gasp, sitting up quickly and smacking her head into something hard. She let out a cry of pain as the thing she had hit fell back. She opened one eye to find that "the thing" had been Edward and that the male was now rubbing his forehead and grumbling.

"Geez, Allie. You have a hard head."

"Sorry?"

"Huwh. Just get dressed and come downstairs already. We're starting your training today."

"Alright!" Alice exclaimed excitedly, watching as Ed sighed again and disappeared through the door. She leapt out of bed, grabbing her clothes and heading for the bathroom.

~X~

"Arrghhhh, all this science is making my head hurt!" Alice complained, falling back to lie on the floor.

"'All this science'? We've only just started." Ed scoffed, giving her a look that clearly meant he wanted to laugh.

"But there's soooo much. And there's math too! Math and science were always my worst subjects!" Alice whined, rolling to her side so she wouldn't have to look at Edward.

"Come on, Alice. It's not that bad." Al said, patting her shoulder.

The Elric brothers had been attempting to teach her alchemy for the past two hours. It hadn't been going well.

"I didn't realize there was so much...sciencey shit...in alchemy." Alice muttered, hiding her face in her arms.

"Sciencey? That's not even a word!" Edward exclaimed, lightly kicking her in the side.

"Ouch! Ed, why must you torment me so?"

"Oh hush, Allie. This is nothing! You should be lucky I agreed to teach you! Just imagine what Teacher would be doing right now!" Ed snapped, pausing as all three teens shuddered.

"Well, maybe I should just give up. How can I perform alchemy if I can't manage the science parts?" Alice grumbled.

"It's not all about science, Alice," Al said, giving her shoulder a slight push so that she was forced to lie on her back. "You've done alchemy before, you can do it again."

"What? I have?" Alice, stopped for a moment, thinking. Ah, right. At Lab 5. She had made the wall explode. "But that had to be due to adrenaline. People can do all sorts of things when hyped up on adrenaline."

"That's true," Ed replied. "But you can still do it."

"No, I really don't think I can." Alice said, sitting up, her brown hair flying into her face as she leaned forward. "How 'bout I just throw rocks at people?"

"That's not going to work, Alice." Ed grumbled, his eye twitching.

"Yes it will." She mumbled, standing up. "I'm taking a potty break. Don't follow me shrimp."

"Shrimp? Who are you calling shrimp?" Ed exclaimed.

Alice just laughed, heading out of the room. Her smile slowly disappeared as the door shut behind her.

She was angry. No, she was pissed. Alchemy shouldn't be this hard! She strode down the hall, past the bathroom, and out the front door. She wasn't entirely sure where she was going, but she couldn't stand being in that house at the moment. Plus, leaving would be better for everyone. When Alice got pissed, she got pissed. It wouldn't be long before she was cussing at puppies and scowling at everything. She wasn't pleasant when she was pissed.

Alice walked down the street, weaving to avoid the occasional person. Her mind wandered as she walked. Why was she even trying to learn alchemy? Surely it wouldn't be long before she got sucked back home. Or killed...like Emily. Argh, why had she thought of Emily? She had managed to distract herself so well; the only thing alchemy seemed to be good for. And now she was thinking of her again.

This was stupid. Alice was being stupid. What was she even doing? Why should she be learning alchemy? What was she gonna do with it? She was smart enough to not bring Emily back. So what else was it good for? Why were the Elric's even bothering? Ed seemed to trust her now, but what if that was just an act? What if he really just hated her?

Damn it, she shouldn't be thinking these things. Emily was gone, Alice sucked at alchemy, and Ed would never like her back. That was it. So she needed to stop worrying about it.

"Hey, young lady. You look awfully sad. Want someone to make you feel better?"

Alice froze, looking up in surprise to find a handsome young man with light blonde hair and emerald green eyes standing beside her, smiling. He was dressed in slacks, a dress shirt, and a vest. Fancy to Alice; normal to him. But, Alice had to admit, it looked quite good on him.

"Well..." Alice said, giving him a tiny smile, the normal high-school girl that she had been suppressing around the Elrics slipping out. "Why not. I'd love to feel better."

"Then you've met the right man. My name is Henry Sutton." Henry's smile turned to a dazzling grin and Alice blushed as she took his hand.

"I'm Alice Smith. But you can call me Allie if you'd like."

"Well, Miss Allie, why don't I take you somewhere fun? I'm absolutely positive you'll love it."

Alice just nodded, unable to speak as the man took her hand and began to lead her down the street. She didn't care where he was taking her, just as long as he was there.

"Brother, Alice isn't anywhere. You've already looked a dozen times."

"But she has to be here. She said she was going to the restroom. Why would she lie?" Edward asked as he paced the kitchen. Al was sitting at the table, watching. A sigh escaped the younger Elric, making his armor rattle.

"Maybe she went for a walk and forgot to tell us. She probably wanted a break." Al said.

"But how could she just forget to tell us? I'm going to throttle her when she gets back!" Ed exclaimed, angry.

"Brother! There's no need to be so threatening. Or angry. I'm sure she's fine."

"You don't know that! Look at what happened to Emily! What Envy goes after Allie? If she went for a walk, then shes all alone and if Envy-"

"Ed. Stop it." Al interrupted, standing. "Alice is stronger than you think, she'll be fine. Besides, Envy would have struck already if it was that important."

Ed opened his mouth to respond but was stopped by the sound of the phone ringing. After staring at Al in surprise for a moment, Ed went over and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Fullmetal, you better not be busy, 'cause I need your help with something."

"Colonel? I kinda am, so this better be good."

"There's been reports lately of a young man seducing women and killing them. This usually doesn't concern us, but it seems as though he may be using alchemy to lure the women in."

"Alchemy?"

"We believe he uses it to change his appearance."

"Huhn. And women really fall for it?"

"Yes, Fullmetal, they do. Now stop wasting time. We have a general idea of where he may be hiding. I want you to go check it out."

"Fine. But I need to go find Alice first."

"Alice is missing?"

"Well, not quite missing. She just left the house without telling us."

"I'd hurry up if I were you, Fullmetal. I'm sure Alice is fine. Just go check this out first, okay?"

"Alright, you useless bastard. We're going."

"What'd you jus-" Edward cut him off by hanging up the phone, turning to his brother as he did so.

"Come on, Al. The faster we get this done, the faster we can go find Allie."

MEIN GOTT. IT'S DONNEEE.

This chapter anyway. I've gotta say, I had no clue Alice was gonna wander off and run into a hot guy till she actually wandered off...I know that sounds weird, but seriously. I can't control this story sometimes hahah.

I apologize for my sporadic updating. I've been super busy this year. I just finished my term paper, so I decided I'd finish this while the writing kick was on. I'm going to try my best to make my updates better...

It would help if you all reviewed too...*cries* No one seems to review anymore...

Here, I'll give you some questions you can answer, maybe that'll help...

1- What do you think of Henry?

2- Any ideas about the 1st half of this story?

3- Does my updating make you mad?

4- Why are my teachers so mean?

5- Does anyone else feel there should be a legal limit to how much homework one can receive?

6- Why is my Chem teacher so boring?

Please review! You'll make my world.