Misery Looms

Chapter 14 - Back to The Beginning P.t 1

"You came," Lilith said, voice laced with false surprised.  

She sat cross-legged in a chair hidden within the folds of the shadows.

It wasn't like Ed had a choice. Once clock stuck midnight, limbs moved on their own and when Al asked where he was going, a lie about a walk because sleep wouldn't come, slipped between lips and replaced the truth Ed so desperately wanted to yell out.

"What you do what?" Ed said, trying to sound intimidating, that no matter who Lilith was or hell, whatever she had done to silence him, he wasn't afraid.

However, the façade was weak and cracking within the room where moonlight from the broken window scrapped against chipped paint and pieces of furniture; they both knew it was a lie.

Ed stood in the middle of the door frame, waiting for the next command.

A soft thud came from the corner were Lilith sat. Ed knew the sound of a book closing anywhere, simply from the endless amount of hours Al and he spent in the library. There was movement within the shadows, moonlight caught the edge of a book that was laced in-between fingers. There was an eerie calm as Lilith placed it under the chair.

She knew she had time.

There was no need to rush. Every drawn-out second within the abandoned building was hers to use and play with. It meant that she could execute the plan with precision because if Ed didn't return home in the morning what cop or Military officer would have thought to check a random abandoned building on a random street.

If anything they would comb through the back alleyways near the hotel, maybe even venturing to Ed's favorite spots within the city and as the twenty-four-hour mark slowly slips passed that's when they would be huddled around the phone waiting for a ransom call that would never come.

Maybe Lilith would call only to torture everyone with the information about the last night he was alive.

Even as those thoughts slowly slipped into Ed's exhausted mind what made the realization worse was that he couldn't even fight back, couldn't try to slip out the front door and run. Ed was stuck here bending to her every will.

"What I want is simple, you," Lilith said. "Come here."

Once words left lips and occupied dust-filled air, Ed had no choice, but to follow the command.

He had dedicated the entire walk over here trying to regain control, but it all failed. He was exhausted of this fight, of the secrets and lies caught between Al and him.

No, exhausted wasn't right, hated made more sense. There was always one thought, one question woven in-between each desperate attempt.

How was she controlling him?

Lilith got up from the chair with a wide and wicked grin and watched as Ed walked towards her.

Every alchemy book, transmutation circle and law he could remember took over once it became apparent he had gotten nowhere with any of the other ideas.

Yet, nothing was adding up which meant there was a piece of information missing and Ed knew just where to look. However, getting into the library or even getting his hands on the books needed was going to be tricky.

Sneaking off to the library wasn't out of the question and as much as Ed wanted it to be the first thing that was tried, he had to be more stealthy. Al and he had been spending more time at the library within the last couple of weeks. Ed could simply wander down the rows of bookcases, picking books off the shelves and flipping through the pages before Al ever noticed and even though that approach was going to take longer, it was the safest.