(Complete)
(Really old work, will contain inconsistencies and errors)
(Work Dated: April 2018)
An old factory stands tall and alone in a barren field. A sprawling family manor was recently renovated into an international hotel. With its quaint stree...
The atmosphere was cold and oppressive even with the searing sunlight. It turned the back of Firenze's eyelids a brilliant scarlet, bringing him to his senses. He woke up on a hay bale, kept on a horse cart parked outside a village square.
He rubbed his bare neck, baffled at the crowd of people pushing past each other, wearing loose shirts, dirty pants, and greyscale skirts. Not wanting to be questioned by another soon-to-be-dead-teen, he jumped off the rickety old cart and waded into the crowd.
He felt jubilant when a woman walked right through him and smacked a thieving child. She walked through him again, dragging the boy by his ear to stand in a long queue. The queue stretched pretty far, and its origin was in front of a government ration outlet. The police officers keeping an eye on the queue, wore uniforms out of Firenze's WWI and II documentary collection.
This period would be the Great Depression.
Sure enough, no one in the crowd wore an expression other than melancholy.
I'm the ghost now. Let's see where this goes.
A peal of laughter, hurriedly hushed by a male whisper attracted his attention to an alley nearby. When he got there, he saw a young couple, the female doubled over with laughter and the male trying to calm her down. They looked way too familiar for his comfort.
It was Bill, he realized with a shock.
"–you want to get us arrested, Vera? Sheesh."
The girl had brown hair, freckled skin and brown eyes. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and panted, grabbing her stomach.
"Where do you even get these jokes from?! Oh Lord, I don't know."
"Is your father happy about your mama eloping with Luc?"
"Of course not, you idiot," said Vera. "You should've seen his face, all red with anger. I haven't seen mama so happy before, maybe she and Luc really are soulmates. Oh, I had given little Anna my old dolls the other day and you should've seen the way she had them dressed up. I can't believe I have a sister now!"
"Now, now Lady Saultaire, emotion is rather odd coming from a cold hearted mistress like yourself," said Bill, as he curtsyed and kissed her hand.
"I'll be off now. Your rashes doesn't bother you much, do they?"
Vera slowly pulled back her sleeves and showed him the patches of red, bumps and prickles on her forearms. She bit her lip when Bill twisted and turned her arm.
"The medicine works, I swear!"
"You've been skipping doses, haven't you?" He asked in a graver tone.
Firenze who had been wishing for a bag of popcorn while watching the the whole exchange, moved forward to get a better look. The mist from earlier had begun closing in on them.
"Vera, please try to understand. This could take your life. This is not simple eczema or ringworm, this is an allergic reaction to siren saliva. You're an alchemist's apprentice, dealing with chemicals and organisms that could kill you easily. Please, take the medicine properly."
"That's exactly what Luc had said the other day."
"Who's there?!" Barked a voice from within the whiteness behind him. Shadows gathered around, batons slapping the palms of hands, boots stomping the earth as the officer's voice grew aggressive. The mist enshrouded him like a wave breaking on a shore.
Barry popped into existence somewhere on his right, with the rattle of his chains. When Firenze looked up, and the mist cleared, he was in the god-forsaken wheat fields again.
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