Chapter 12

It was strange. The next morning, I felt completely fine. Like I wasn't even sick the day before.

     "Weird," Edward said when he took my temperature that morning. "You're completely normal."

     "Hm," was all I mumbled. "Now, get out so I can get dressed."

     The idiot just stood there, a grin appearing on his face, his arms crossed.

     I pushed him out the door and locked it after I closed it.

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I fingered the locket, which was around my neck once again. I don't know why, but I didn't want to take it off.

   "I want to go to the carnival again," Edward said suddenly as I sat down at the kitchen table. "or at least spend the day together."

     "Why this all of a sudden?" I asked.

     "Well, uh, no reason," Edward stammered quickly. "Just--Just to celebrate you getting better, is all."

     "There's something you're not telling me," I said automatically. "Edward, just tell me."

     He hesitated for a few minutes, and then sighed before saying, "I'm leaving with Al first thing tomorrow to brush up on some alchemy training."

     I felt like my heart was caught in my throat.

     "You're leaving?" I barely managed to squeak out. "Why? For how long?"

     "Well," he said, as if not sure where to begin. "I need something to keep my mind off some things, and I think I've bothered you enough. I need to do more than loaf around, and here's my chance. You'll have the house to yourself again, just the way you were before I lived here."

     "Ed--you--I--" I couldn't finish a statement. I couldn't bring myself to say that he didn't need to go.

     Instead of saying something, I just clutched my hand around the locket, stood up from the table, and ran from the house in my bare feet. I ignored Edward shouting behind me for me to stop. I ignored the rocky dirt road on my bare feet. The only thing I focused on what how much my heart was hurting, and my strong urge to throw up.

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It was stupid how I reacted to things I didn't want to happen. I ran away like a little girl, hoping that if I ran far enough, things wouldn't change. And I thought that my first lesson in life I had ever learned was that things didn't always go your way.

     I stopped running to catch my breath. The wind was picking up, and some clouds were rolling in, just barely blocking the little sunlight that illuminated the rolling hills.

     I looked behind me, wondering if Edward had ran after me. He should've knew by now that it wouldn't have made a difference.

     "The b*****d's leaving me...!" I choked out, feeling tears run down my face. He was going away to study ALCHEMY for God's sake! He was already a (former) State Alchemist, so why did he need to go study alchemy with his brother!? It made no sense to me.

     I looked around me, aware that I had no idea where I had run off to. I was standing in the middle of the graveyard where I had run the first time. And the odd thing was....I was standing by Edward's mother's headstone. Trisha Elric.

     I took a deep breath and said to myself, "Don't get so mad. It's not like--like we're together or anything, right?"

     I then felt myself blushing madly, realizing what I had just said, and sighed in defeat. I fell to the ground, sitting in front of Trisha's headstone.

     "Why can't I just admit to anyone but myself that I don't want him to leave?" I whispered to myself. "He can't leave me."

     I got up and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. The locket Edward had given me seemed to weigh a million pounds hanging around my neck. I took it off and looked at the back of it, how Fullmetal had been etched there in elegant letters. I opened the locket and stared at the picture inside.

     My heart ached, it's beat accelerated, and I was sure it was going to pop out of my chest at any given moment. How I just wanted to let Edward know that I didn't want him to leave...

     I made up my mind. Shoving the locket in my pocket, I stood up, placed a hand on Trisha's stone, and thought that I should pay a visit to my own mother and Serah before I left.

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I eventually found them, but not before the sun started setting. The clouds that had rolled in earlier had completely rolled away. The sky was a bright yellow-orange, and the air was warm, if not a little cooler. September was approaching fast.

     "Hi, mama," I said quietly, kneeling in front of her headstone. I put my hand on her headstone and closed my eyes, picturing her as best as I could. I actually missed her a little, even though she really hadn't done anything for me as a mother when my father was in charge. My mother had been strangled by him. So had Serah.

     "Lucille," said a rough voice. I froze, my eyes wide. That urge to throw up was back again, but this time in fear.

     It was his voice. The Bad Man.

     "Don't be afraid," he said, sounding like he meant it. "I'm tired of this." I quickly stood up and glared at him.

     "I'm not falling for your damn tricks anymore!" I screamed. "I'm not running anymore! You don't own me, and I'm not taking this anymore!"

     "I know," he said. "I really didn't expect to see you here."

     "What the hell were you even doing here?" I shouted, not ready to give him a break. "You have no right to come here to Serah and my mother!"

     "I know, Lucille," he said, a sound of sorrow in his voice. "I've been so blind over the years...I'm sorry."

     "You're lying!" I shouted, stomping my foot like a child. "There's no way that you couldn't have a clue of what you did to Serah! Of what you did to your WIFE!"

     "Lucille, I--"

     "You strangled BOTH of them!" I screamed. "You MOLESTED Serah! You God-damned pervert...!" The tears started. All of those years of surpressed rage pouring out again. I wanted him dead and gone.

     "I...I know I did," he said, sounding older than he was. "I know I wasn't even close to being a father to you. And now I'm doing what's right."

     "Which is?" I said warily, not really knowing what to expect.

     "I'm turning myself in to the military," he said, looking me in the eyes. Somehow, I knew he wasn't lying. He was going to turn himself in.

     "What happened that made you realize all of the wrong things you did?" I asked, calmed down some.

     "I had an epiphany," he said, staring at mom's headstone, and then Serah's. "Men like me need to get locked up, or--preferably--die." He sighed and rolled around his right shoulder---his AutoMail.

     "My arm feels like it's about to fall off," he said with a small laugh. "I haven't gotten a repair or tune-up in years."

     "Don't you dare go near the Rockbells," I said suddenly. "If you do, I swear I'll kill you...!"

     "You were an assassin in the military at such a young age. I have no doubt in my mind that you'll be able to kill me."

     He turned away from me and said, "Well, I better go sell some stuff for pocket money if I'm going to head to Central and turn myself in."

     "You're going to be in jail, maybe killed," I said. "Why the hell would you need money?"

     "I need to have something in my will before I die," he said. And he walked away, a small breeze rolling through the grass and trees once again.

     "What was that all about?"

     I turned around and saw Edward. He looked confused and uneasy.

     "Were you there the whole time?" I asked him.

     "Yeah," he said. "I came running after you, and after I lost track of you, I just felt like I should be here. So, I stumbled upon that whole conversation with you and your dad." He paused. "Do you trust him on what he said?"

     "Yes," I said without hesitation. "He's a corrupt man, but he will make the right desicion now. I know he will."

     "If you say so."

 

 

Author's Note

this took too long....lol. Sorry, Cloud and Koda haha

Shining in the Sky:

Reviews

[Emunah June.]

I dont trust him....

[Anonymous]

NO! EDWARD! DON'T LEAVE HER! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY DID THE BAD MAN SUDDENLY WANT TO TURN HIMSELF IN?! WHAT IS HE PLANNING?! GAAAAH!