NaNoWriMo 2008 – Fullmetal Alchemist Fanfic – Chapter 1

Chapter 1


Maes paced a small path, back and forth, working off his agitation as he stared at the blackened, smoking wreck of the warehouse. The engineers – yet again – were testing the remaining frame of the building, to make sure it was safe. He could tell that most of the roof was gone, since he could peerk through several of the windows along the sixth (the top) floor, and see stars through the haze that still hung in the air after the fire had been put out. None of the Investigations people were ever allowed into these buildings before these tests were done, no matter how urgently they needed to find clues about what had started the blaze. There had been a close call in the very first burned building, five months ago, when a precarious wall collapsed onto the spot were two investigators had been standing about ten seconds earlier, and that was the end of just sauntering in to start peeking around.

Maes had made that decision himself, and of course he knew it had been the right choice. But that didn’t prevent him from chomping at the bit, wishing he could just get in there and start looking. Who knew what clues might be glowing in there, gradually fading and disintegrating under the influence of the water, to leave them clueless (in so many ways) once again?

He’d thought – everyone had thought – that the arsonist had finally stopped, when there had been that two-month silence after his string of seven burned buildings in the prior two months. But that hope had been dashed tonight, when Maes had been awakened by the shrill ringing of the phone in the darkness, and informed that another empty warehouse near the edge of the city was ablaze.

This made eight in total. And he had no doubt that whoever had started this fire tonight was the same person who had instigated the previous seven. Which meant, he admitted gloomily to himself, that it probably didn’t matter how quickly they got inside to look around. There had been no useful clues whatsoever, the first seven times, and it was very probably that there would be none tonight either.

He made himself stop pacing, and cast a glance at his companion, who had remained utterly still and silent at his side, through all the hustle and bustle of the cleanup and the tests.

( Disturbing undercurrents )