New Land! The New Face, New Name, and Familiar Stranger

A Chapter by Emunah June.

Grandma had taken Ed and Al out of the house. After that, I didn't see them ever again. Winry kept crying, so I hobbled back home in the rain, against all her calls of me to get in the house. When I had walked in, Mother and Father were shocked at my appearance. "Mommy.....Edward's dead.....Edward's dead!!" I had screamed. The tears and vomit trailed all the way to the bathroom, where I had falled asleep, cheek pressed against marble toilet. The next morning, I refused to talk about anything. The tears still came, and the naseua still made me make trips to the bathroom. "Wanna talk about it?" Father asked many times, but I still kept quiet. That night, Mother came into my room. I was laying in bed, not moving. "I heard about what happened with Edward and Alphonse. I'm so sorry you saw such things," Mother said as she had stroked my head. I then let the tears roll again. "He was such a nice friend! I...I....I'm going to miss him! And Al...him too! Mommy, why did Edward have to die?! Why do people die?!"

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

The blood fell from the bottom of my dress and pooled onto the floor. The spike had lodged itself into my stomach. At first, I stayed silent. Then, I felt tears run down my face as my hands felt my blood dripping onto my fingers. Envy looked shocked that he had missed, then excited. "Take a look at this, Fullmetal: your precious friend is dying! Shows what kind of friend you are, letting her take the fall for you! Disgusting, Fullmetal, very distgusting," he said as he threw me into the floor. My eyes widened, the pain increasing with each passing second. The ceiling began to gets fuzzy, and soon lights were dancing behind my eyes. "Three times....three times....I almost died now...." I said outloud. My stomach pains increased, and soon vomit trailed out of my mouth. My body was too weak to retch, so it just sorta leaked out. Darkness began to fill my line of sight. "See this Fullmetal? This is what happens to those who try to be heroes! Or heroines...in this matter," Envy snickered as he kicked my face. Blood dripped from my mouth, mixing with my vomit. "Koda!" I heard Al scream from high up. I could feel my life slipping away from under me as the worlds colours mixed together. The pain was so intense, I couldn't scream. I wanted to, but I couldn't. Screaming was just too hard and tiring.

I felt something cold touch my face.

I couldn't move my head. It hurt too much. "What's touching me...?" I choked as more blood spewed from my mouth. "Just me," I heard Ed say softly. It must be his AutoMail hand. "Ed...I'm so sorry..." I whispered before I closed my eyes. I felt something wet drip down my face before all pain ceased and I was completely enclosed in black.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

I felt cold winds brushing past my face. When I opened my eyes, I was in a land of yellow light. Was this....heaven? No....it was somewhere else. I looked in front of me as a large gate began to form. In the center of the gate was a large eye. The gate was scratched beyond all belief, and it was 300X my size. It was so large....

Koda...

I looked up.

Koda....

"Who's there?" I called. Nobody was around, but then the gate suddenly began to open. There was no light, nor darkness coming from this gate. Instead, there was just nothing. The large creaky doors slowly opened, and my eyes widened as I saw what was inside.

Hands. Nothing but little, black hands, clawing at each other and trying to move. When the doors fully opened completely, the hands lunged out of the gate. In my defense, I raised my hands in front of me, but it was no use. Soon, the hands were encasing over my body and began to pull me in. I screamed, but nothing would stop them. Faster and faster, I was pulled into this large gate. I reached out one of my hands to hold onto the doors, but they closed too fast and I was soon trapped in this darkness, with these hands pulling me in farther and farther. I don't know why I said it, but as I was being pulled in, I screamed "Help me Edward! Save me!"

Of course, no one came to my rescue, and the speed of me getting pulled increased.

Is this how I'm going to end up? Forever being pulled into an endless darkness? Is this how I'm destined to spend my afterlife?

My question was shortly answered when I was no longer consious.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Slowly, my eyes opened. "Ooh....where am I?" I asked myself. The feeling of me being pulled was no longer there, but a tingling sensation swept over me. I soon began to feel the taste of dust in my mouth. When I was fully aware of where I was, I looked around to see many woman and children with me. "Ooh..." I said again as I held my head in my hand. "Miss Noah? Are you okay?" A small girl asked me. "No...ah?" I asked her. She gave me a weird look, then sat back down. It was then with a gasp that I realized I was no longer me. Instead of being light skinned, brown haired and blue eyed Koda, I was now dark skinned, brown haired and brown eyed Noah! I looked at my clothes to see that I was now wearing clothes of that of an old times gypsy. "Noah, you okay? You don't look like yourself," a woman next to me asked. I looked at her with a pleading look. "I'm not supposed to be Noah....I'm not supposed to be...." I told her, hoping she would understand.

Of course, she didn't.

"Noah, we're going to serve tea soon. Why don't you drink some with us and see if that makes you feel better?" she asked me. "Yeah....yeah okay.."I answered as I sat back in my seat.

We were all sitting in a moving bandwagon on the road. It was moving, and I was surprised when the motion didn't make me sick. We bumped and rattled along the road until eventually, we came to a town that was completely unfamliar. I sighed, hoping I would be able to find my way home from there. We all stepped out of the wagon, one of the women helping out with her hand. I stepped onto the street, and soon I realized that we were at a carnival. People were drinking and laughing and playing games. Children were showing their parents prizes they had won. Everything was so out of place for me. I was scared as the group began moving again. The group began to pass a large attraction, and it seemed like it was a rocket launching setup.

What I saw in the middle made me stop where I stood.

A blonde haired, blue-eyed man sat in the middle of the work, and it looked like he was cleaning and readying the rocket.

And he bore an uncanny resemblance to Alphonse!

I walked slowly over to him, wondering what to say or what to do. How did he get out of the armor? What happened? Where were we? Where was Ed? What was going on? I was walking until a fat man pushed me onto the ground. "Ugh....gypsy! Watch where your going!" he said, spitting on the ground next to me. As he and his buddies walked away laughing, I struggled to stand up. When I did however, the man was gone. I sighed. I thought for sure that I was going to be able to get out of here. It was then that a hand touched my shoulder.

"You..."

I turned around to see a man behind me. He had blonde hair in dreadlocks, large glasses, and some facial hair. His face was serious, but at the same time, friendly. "Who are you?" I asked, deeply confused. "Come with me if you want to know what's going on," he said as he turned around and began to walk away. I followed him, hoping that in doing so I would be able to get out of here.

Don't follow a stranger!

Why not? Everything else has been WAY off for me...

prev chapter