The Forgotten Locket: Chapter Four

The fourth chapter!

CHAPTER FOUR

Yes, there he was again, towering above me, his empty glowing eyes filled with concern.

“Anita? Are you okay?” he said.

“Y-yes, I’m fine,” I replied quickly, scrambling up to my feet. “Some guy just ran into me.”

Alphonse paused for a moment. “Was he blonde and short?”

I thought about it for a while, and then nodded. The kid that had run into me was blonde and had to be at least the same height as me; and I was pretty short, honestly.

“That was probably Edward,” Alphonse sighed.

“Who’s Edward?”

   Alphonse looked at me, appearing puzzled. He shifted from one foot to another. “Don’t you remember?” he said. “Edward, my older brother.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed, a little too loudly. “R-right.”

That guy was Al’s brother?

“I just wonder why he was running around like a crazy person...” muttered Alphonse. “He’s been acting weird lately.”

“He looked like he was in a hurry.”

“But for what?” Alphonse sighed. He shook his head and bowed to me quickly. “I better go find him. I’ll see you later, Anita.”

I waved to him as he hurried along to find his brother. My mind was whirring, trying to process everything. I wondered why Edward was in such a rush.

 

 

 “Wouldn’t a pretty gal like yerself like to try ‘an win?”

“N-no, I’m fine,” I muttered to the man, shaking my head. The elderly man with a glazed lazy eye grumbled and went back to organizing the money he had collected previously. He had tried to con me into playing a carnival game that was a guaranteed lose outcome, so I didn’t accept, despite his so-called “flattery.”

I bowed swiftly and whisked away from the stand. I adjusted my sakura hair pin and decided to just take it off. I shoved the hairpin into my jeans pocket that I wore under the kimono. I didn’t really know what you were supposed to wear under a kimono, let alone anything at all, so I wore dark jeans and a lime green tank top.

I’m getting tired. I might as well change out of this kimono and go find Kimi... I thought.

I sighed and headed for a public restroom. While in a stall, I slipped off the silky dress and folded it up. I accidentally stepped in a puddle of toilet water that was on the floor and let out an “Eeeugh!”

“I think I heard a noise,” said a strange voice outside of my stall. It sounded male, so my face flushed and I went to the back of the stall.

Oh my God, is there a pervert out there? I thought, my heart pounding.

“Nobody’s here. Don’t worry,” said another voice. This one sounded female, and very familiar. “Now, back to business, got it?”

I peeked out of the crack of the far stall and stood up on the toilet so that nobody could see my feet. I couldn’t see anything but two shadows around the corner.

“I told you the entire plan, so now we just need to find that kid. I hear him and his little brother wandered into this city and are living here, now, working for the military. That kid is as close we’ll get to finding the Philosopher’s Stone!” said the woman.

Philosopher’s Stone? That sounds so familiar...           

“Yeah, but what does he even look like?” said the male voice.

“They say the brothers have blonde hair and golden eyes. I hear that the little brother is some kind of freak that never takes off his armor suit, and the older one is a pipsqueak.”

The woman laughed. I was really scared to even move, so I just remained frozen and silent, listening to the conversation.

“Okay, so, what’re their names?”

“Are you clueless? They’re Edward and Alphonse Elric. The Elric brothers.”

My throat closed up. I hit my head on the stall wall, hard, sending a crash noise through the bathroom.

“Who’s there?” demanded the woman. I heard high-heeled shoes clicking loudly on the hard floor, getting closer to my stall. I breathed heavily and prayed to God that she didn’t open the door.

“It came from the last stall,” muttered the male. The woman walked closer to my stall, slower and slower, until both of her shoes were placed directly in front of the door.

The door swung open and two hands with long nails grabbed me by the arms and flung me out of the stall in the blink of an eye. In a second, a bag was over my head and my wrists were tied up with rope. Something heavy struck my head and I was out like a light.

 

 

“Quit squirmin’! Jeez!” spat the male voice, tightening the ropes around my wrists. I couldn’t see past the blindfold, and couldn’t yell because of the cloth in my mouth, so I cursed at him through muffled chokes and kicked at him. I felt my bare foot collide with his jaw and I smirked in satisfaction. He whined about it to the female but she just told him to keep quiet as she drove the van.

“I’m not gonna hurt you! Just keep still!” he said, tying up my ankles so I couldn’t kick him in the face again. I thrashed around as much as I could to try and squirm out of the ropes, but I pretty much knew that it was a useless attempt. After he’d tied me up, I managed to get the gag out of my mouth.

“B*****d!” I hissed. I heard the male exclaim in disgust.

“Deal with it,” snickered the woman driving. The male grumbled under his breath and walked away. I was left alone in the back of the van, being thrown around from the bumpy road and hitting my head against the car wall. I cringed in pain and curled up in a ball, very uncomfortable with the ropes rubbing my skin raw.

“You okay back there, girlie?” yelled the woman. I sneered and struggled to sit back up.

“No, I’m not ‘okay!’” I spat. “I’m tied up with a blindfold in the back of a van with two psychopaths! What do you think?”

The woman laughed. “So you really haven’t figured out who I am yet?” she said.

“No, but I don’t care! Just let me out of this car! Take me back to Kimi!”

“She already knows exactly where you are, kiddo!”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded. The woman driving laughed again and swerved the car into a ditch, stopping abruptly and sending me almost flying into another wall. Suddenly I heard someone come into the back of the van again and a hand ripped the blindfold away from my eyes. I saw big chocolaty eyes with flakes of mascara under a black mask, and a grin that spread from ear-to-ear. My eyes widened.

Kimi!

 

 

“Alchemy?”

Kimi poured the hard alcohol into her wine glass and sipped, sitting back in her chair. She nodded, her brown eyes gleaming.

“Yes, alchemy,” she said. “Although I can’t perform it, the Philosopher’s Stone is still worth a great value to explorers and alchemists alike...”

“But why are you searching for it?” I asked her as she poured me a glass of the Scotch. I pushed the glass away as she handed it to me. She shrugged and drank it.

“For profit,” she said with a smile. “Do you know what I do for a living, Anita?”

“I thought you were an office worker or something...”

“I’m a bounty hunter.”

“Huh. A bounty hunter.”

“Yep! I look for anyone with a big bounty over their head to turn in, or sometimes eliminate, if my employer wants such to happen... I use the money to travel around with my partner to find the Philosopher’s Stone. I can only imagine how much it’s worth...”

“No wonder you’re the gambling type,” I muttered. “But why’d you tie me up and bring me here? This doesn’t make sense.”

Kimi smirked and glanced over at her partner, Jace. He was picking at a pencil eraser and rolling his eyes at me. I stuck out my tongue at him.

“Honestly, I didn’t know it was you, Anita,” she admitted. “I didn’t really take any time to notice who it was until Jace started tying you up, heh.”

“Well,” I said, clearing my throat, “can I go home now? This has all been quite exhausting.”

“I have a few questions for you, first, Anita,” Kimi interrupted, her voice becoming serious. “That boy that ran into you at the festival is someone we’re looking for. His name is Edward Elric. He’s otherwise known as the Fullmetal Alchemist.”

“He’s an alchemist?”

“A state alchemist, to be precise,” Kimi added. “He works for the military. Anyway, Anita, I need you to tell me some things about him. I know that you’re friends with his brother, Alphonse Elric, aren’t you?”

“Um, well, not exactly, but I do know him,” I stuttered. “Why?”

“Did you see where they both went after you ran into them?”

I thought about it, and recalled that they both went east from the festival grounds, back in the direction of my new house. My skin went into a cold sweat when I thought about what Kimi could have wanted with them. Would she kill Alphonse and his brother? Should I lie to her?

“No, I didn’t see where they went,” I concluded.

“Oh, really?”

Kimi gave a smile that sent shivers down my spine, but I kept my blank expression.

“Why are you looking for them?” I asked her, trying to swerve the conversation away from anything that I knew about.

“Eh, I don’t ask questions about why the employer wants what they want. The person who wants these guys turned in didn’t explain,” Kimi sighed. “But I heard that they had something to do with the Philosopher’s Stone, and if they do, that’s my priority.”

“Uh-huh.”

Kimi poured a glass for me with water instead of the alcohol. I took it and drank greedily after realizing how thirsty I was. I sat back in my chair when the glass was empty.

“Kimi,” I said tiredly.

She turned to me after taking a sip of her Scotch.

“I don’t know if I’m cut out for Japan.”

Kimi laughed, her smile strangely adding tension to my headache. I felt sick and exhausted.

“I’ll take you home, then,” she said, standing up. “But remember something.”

I glanced up at her, shocked at how her smile disappeared and her eyes hardened.

“If you utter a word of what I’ve told you tonight to anyone, especially the Elric brothers, you’re dead.”

Reviews

[Keevan]

YAY! You're working on this again!!!!

Okay, first off, they live in Amestris, not Japan. 2nd, I love how you change Lettie's name to Kimi. (xD) Third, I'm lovin' the idear. Keep going! :D