Chapter 21

A Chapter by Keevan

I skipped out on dinner. I wasn't very hungry, and I usually never was. How I was able to keep up my strength, don't ask me. Before, I wouldn't have been able to give an answer. But now, I'm pretty sure that the answer is plain and simple: Homunculus don't need to eat. It makes sense, considering Homunculi aren't even human.

I just sat on the porch steps outside and smoked, hearing the laughs and reminiscing going on inside the house.

Then I heard my name mentioned. It was Winry.

"Why did Lucy come here with you guys?" Winry asked.

"Because," Edward said, sounding like he had food in his mouth. "she went through something traumatic, and Colonel Loud Mouth thinks that if she get's away from Central for a little while, she'll be able to talk about it."

"But why does the military have to know?" That was Pinako.

"Beats me," Edward said.

"I think that he thinks of her as a daughter, and he cares about her safety," Alphonse said.

I almost swallowed my cigarette when he said that.

"So, he's just a concerned father-figure," Edward finished. "Even though it's extremely hard to imagine, that's what Al believes."

"Oh? And what do you think, Brother?" Alphonse asked Edward, a challenge in his voice.

"My theory is that morrally bankrupt colonel with a god complex is just using her as another peg of his ladder for his climb to power. And a broken peg is just going to slow him down."

I dropped my cigarette in the grass. Edward used the same exact excuse that I always had. I shook my head and stood up, not wanting to hear anymore of their conversation.

The sun was setting, but I didn't care. I started walking down the dirt path. Then I started jogging, until I broke out into a full-on run.

I ran down the path, past houses and fences, surrounded by the rolling hills and acres of grass. I ignored the wind whistling in my ears. I didn't know where I was going.

I just ran and ran and ran.

______________________________________________________________________________

I collapsed on a grassy hill somewhere under a tree. There was only one hose nearby.

I collapsed because my legs gave out, something they don't normally do now-adays. It was because of running mixed with stress, I'm guessing. When I was running, it occured to me how much stress I was really under.

I sat under that tree and tried to collect my thoughts.

Okay, I said to myself. you just found out you're a Homunculus, an artaficial human. You were made that way because of some lab procedure against your will, and you were lied to. You lost your memories because of that. You aren't human. You're existance is a lie. You shouldn't be alive....

My thoughts gradually became more negative as time went on. The sky darkened. I looked up, and clouds rolled in. It started raining.

Hello again, depression.

My gaze shifted to the house. It looked familiar. The way that the porch railing curved, and the way that there was a big dent on the door...from the Bad Man punching it...

It felt like my heart was caught in my throat. That house...was the house that I lived in for eight years.

The lights were on. He was home...

No, I thought to myself. He can't still live there. He had to have moved away or something. It's been eight years!

"Lucy, there you are!" I jumped and stood up, immediately falling back on my knees again. My legs were still wobbly and shaky.

Edward was standing there, first looking annoyed, and then a litle worried. He bent down so he was leven with me and said, "Why are you all the way across Resembool?"

I looked down and wished that I could speak, but I didn't know if I could.

I decided to try.

"I heard you...talking," I said, kind of surprised that my voice sounded a little better. But it still hurt to talk. I coughed to try and clear it.

"You heard that, huh?" Edward sat and crossed his legs. "Well, which theaory do you believe? Mine, or Al's?"

"I don't know," I replied, coughing again. "I guess...a little of both." I remembered how he let me live with him for four years, that night when I turned up on his porch, my memory completely erased. Living with him had led me to believe that I'd lost everything because of Human Transmutation because all of his talk about alchemy, which he taught me when he didn't have to work. Then I bended it into my own power, by decomposing my body and recomposing it afterward.

But then again, he was set on becoming Fuhrer, and he's made it pretty clear that nothing's going to stop him.

"Lucy," Edward said, waving a hand in front of my face. "Lucy, you asleep?" I blinked. "What?"

"You zoned out," he said. "Come on, it's dark out. Let's go back to Winry's."

"She doesn't like me," I said, coughing yet a third time.

"She does, she's just a little incomfortable around you." Edward stood up and held out his hand to me, wanting me to take it. He wasn't wearing his gloves, and his AutoMail was right in front of my face. My mind flashed to the Bad Man again, and I think I whimpered. I backed away a little and stood up, ignoring the fact that my legs were still wobbly.

"Why don't you like my AutoMail?" Edward asked, finally catching on that I was afraid of it. He stuck his hand in his coat pocket.

"Because of..." I said. But then I started coughing.

And coughing.

And coughing. I couldn't stop. And it was staring to hurt.

"Lucy, are you okay?" Edward asked, now alarmed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the light on the porch of the house turn on. I fell to my knees and coughed into my hand one final time.

There was a lot of blood in my hand.

"Lucy, let me see," Edward said. I shook my heand and wiped my hand on my pants, saying, "Just mucus. I'm fine."

"Well, look who's a big girl now."

My heart started racing. My blood turned to ice. Edward was looking behind me, where the voice came from.

It's for big girls only.

Don't worry about it, Lucille.

Stupid kid! Do it right!

The Bad Man was right behind me.

prev chapter