Day 69: Breakfast

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar scowled, both relieved and angry that he had woken up once again in his own bed. That lanky man who had become his new roommate on the night of his death was sound asleep one bed over.

This was coming to be the new "normal." It was infuriating.

As always, he begrudgingly followed his nurse into the cafeteria and took a seat. He preferred to file in with the majority of the patients in order to avoid sticking out, but no such luck this morning.

Scar stared at his food rather than starting in on it, despite the newly found appetite that had been lost thanks to that blasted sickness. He had a lot to think about. He hadn't managed to find Frank last night. The damn intercom had beaten him to it. And judging by Tsubaki's reaction to him, he had been out for at least a day's time. How many had noticed? Cared? It couldn't have been many.

But it was the few who did whose detection Scar was desperate to avoid.

[Eddyyyy!]

Comments

[envy_the_sinners]

"It is uncommon that the main hallway is guarded at all... never mind by something deadly." Though, Scar shouldn't be surprised. He had never heard of monsters getting into the M-A hall, either, and yet he had been ambushed by several.

"They're moving closer to the patient rooms, then." That was bad. The rooms were supposed to be safe. What if they broke through completely?

[fullmetalheart]

Ed bit his lip. "Isn't that where we're supposed to not need to worry about stuff getting us?"

[envy_the_sinners]

"Until now, the rooms have always been safe. But I was killed in the M-A hall, which is only one hall over from the dorm hallways." His fingers tightened around his fork.

"If the trend continues, we're as good as dead."

[fullmetalheart]

"...Fuck. Not good." Ed rubbed at his forehead. "I'm going to hope that the one in the hallway you were in was an aberration, because I have no idea what the hell to do if they do move closer."

Then he scowled. "I wish they didn't fuck with my alchemy. My attack on last night's monster shouldn't have taken that much out of me."

[envy_the_sinners]

"But if it is the common trend, we need to rethink our options." Strolling about at night was not going to cut it, anymore. This sickness was starting to look like a distraction from something more sinister.

But what?

"You're damn lucky you can still effectively use it." Scar was all but powerless, here.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed grimaced. "Anything major is out. I might have been able to do what I did last night a couple more times that night, but I wouldn't bet on it. And if I could, I probably would have been useless after."

[envy_the_sinners]

"Then use it conservatively. It might save your own energy, as well."

No more 'emergency' kitchen visits, then.

[fullmetalheart]

"Believe me, I wasn't expecting to need to blow up a monster's arm to make it let go of Lloyd's throat," Ed said drily. "I'm fully intending to save transmutations of that scale for emergencies."

[envy_the_sinners]

"So what kind of creature was it, then?" Scar ought to make some sort of mental profile of what he was up against. Especially if it was making its way into the main hall.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed scratched at the back of his neck. Due to the dark, he didn't get a very good look, not to mention the whole being preoccupied with it attacking Al thing.

"It basically looked human, although creepy, once it revealed itself. Or herself, I suppose since it looked female. There was also lots of hair that it used to trap Al with."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar frowned, stabbing at his pancakes.

"Did it have ghost-like qualities? Or something else...?"

[fullmetalheart]

"We were kinda distracted by--" Ed cut off with a shiver as he felt what seemed to be an extremely cold hand clamp down on his arm. "What the hell?"

Ed looked down at his arm and didn't see anything. That is, nothing beyond the claw-marks that formed in his arm that proceeded to have blood well up.

[envy_the_sinners]

"The hell-" Scar cursed almost in unison with Edward. Those marks hadn't been there only a moment ago.

"Patients have never been attacked in the day time before." He glanced around the cafeteria, but nobody else seemed to be experiencing anything similar. Back to Edward. He looked closely at the new wounds.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed stared down at his arm and watched a trickle of blood make its way to the table. "I don't believe this."

[envy_the_sinners]

"You don't feel as if you've been poisoned, do you?"

[fullmetalheart]

Ed gave Scar a confused look. "Why would I?"

[envy_the_sinners]

"I don't know! I am only trying to cover the bases. Injuries can do strange things, here." And nobody had ever been hurt randomly during the day. "The thing you fought last night. Did it ever land a hit near your arm?" It was the best explanation Scar could think of.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed shook his head as he pressed his right hand against the injury to try to make the bleeding stop. "No. But I did destroy the thing's left arm. Right before the bleeding started, it felt like something cold grabbed me."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar's eyes narrowed.

"And you're certain it wasn't a ghost?"

[fullmetalheart]

"It. Might have been?" Ed stared, as he continued to stare down at his arm as if it betrayed him.

[envy_the_sinners]

"Lust and I encountered a spectral creature several nights ago that inflicted wounds merely by touch," he added by means of explaining himself. "Although the delayed effect is strange. You should at least get something to wrap it, for the time being." Scar took a glimpse around, uncertain if they ought to ask a nurse. He opted not to. He didn't trust the bastards.

[fullmetalheart]

"Wonderful. I wonder how many different kinds of monsters there are," Ed said and tossed his head a bit to get his bangs out of his eyes and also looked around.

[envy_the_sinners]

"This place has been keeping people holed up for months. One would think a list of the beasts would have been compiled, by now." But he had never heard of one. Perhaps they were changed and switched out too often for that to be possible?

Or everyone was too busy fighting for their own lives to take the time to make such a list.

"And the library is useless, so I have heard. There is no way to research. No true information anywhere."

[fullmetalheart]

Ed forgot about his arm and stared at Scar. "There's no science books?"

[envy_the_sinners]

"Only fictional nonsense, so I have heard."