🏁 Come Back To Me🪭 🤕

The Paving of Hell's Roads

so the reason is simple enough but trying to convey that through craziness and trying to understand is hard... so... sorry if it sounds like mumbo-jumbo because it really isn't. ugh, perspective!

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Alphonse watched his brother silently as the older man waited patiently at the table for Edward to turn around. He had crouched down in a corner, swaying back and forth, holding an ignition glove to his chest. All he would say was 'I wasn't thinking' and the man, who Alphonse assumed was the psychiatrist, seemed quite patient with his brother. Finally, it looked as if Edward seemed to snap back to reality, and he turned around.

"Who are you?" he asked, blinking.

"I'm Dr. Chambers. Do you know where you are?"

Edward looked around. "A... room."

"Do you know where?"

"I wasn't paying attention..." He looked at the mirror that was there and turned his head. "But probably headquarters."

"That's correct."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm here to help you."

"I'm fine. I know what I did. I made a mistake and wasn't thinking."

"As you have said before. Are you willing to tell me about it?"

"No." he said, looking at the doctor with an accusing look. "Do you think I'm crazy?"

"I believe you are having a lot of trauma."

"So you do."

Dr. Chambers smiled. "It's not my place to tell you that. It is my job to listen to your concerns and help you navigate them. As I mentioned, you just went through a very traumatic experience."

"I wore my red coat and now Roy is dead. I wasn't thinking..."

"I see... Tell me about this red coat."

"It's like blood. It's too obvious." He said with a snort. "That's what the Colonel had said. He got mad at me because I wore it."

"But didn't you always wear it? It was a signature piece of clothing for you, was it not?"

"It was just comfy and I like the color red... well, I did."

"But you don't now?"

"Red is the color of blood." He said like the doctor should know.

Dr. Chambers nodded. "That is true..." He opened up a file that was on the table in front of him. "To help you with this issue, I was given access to your personal file. It says here that your mother died and your brother wears a suit of armor due to a... mishap in alchemy."

"Yeah." He said, walking back and forth with the ignition cloth in his hand. "Mishap..."

"Can you tell me about that?"

"It's a secret. I can't tell."

"I won't tell."

Edward made a face at him. "I don't talk to strangers."

Alphonse couldn't tell if his brother was crazy or not. His answers dipped between the two as if his mind was always flickering on the edge of madness but would never fully commit to it. The door opened on his side of the two-way mirror and Havoc walked in.

"How's it going?"

"I'm not sure. Brother is either crazy or he isn't but even he can't seem to figure that out on his own. He goes from babbling to talking normally. He answers the questions but they seem... I don't know..."