10AN: Started for a Tumblr fic meme "It's all your fault" and turned into this 18k word fic somehow.
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA
Summary: Ed and Al find a promising lead and it takes them and Mustang and Hawkeye to a "haunted" house. They have to confront what haunts them in order to find answers and a way out of their predicament. Light RoyAi, heavy on the team bonding.
Haunted
Chapter 1
Ghosts
"A haunted house?" Roy repeated as Ed continued showing him his findings. The enthusiastic kid had notes spread all over his desk along with a stack of files he had checked out of the records room. He was surprised Ed wasn't making some snide remark in reply and was even more perplexed when he looked at him with his eyes shining bright with excitement.
"Well, that's what the locals say, but it's not like ghosts are real. I mean whatever is going on there is something to do with alchemy and this guy's research is really hard to understand. " Ed realized Mustang was just staring at him. "I guess, we're asking you to look at it and see if you can make some sense of all this."
It was polite. Cordial. Weird. Roy looked over at Riza and she gave him a look that said 'don't be an ass' and he looked at the notes put on display for him. He could see why the boys were hitting a wall, these notes were hardly worth submitting with the application for state certification. This alchemist, Leonard Grange, appeared to be a basket case on paper and it was doubtful he was any better in person. "Considering these notes, I'm not surprised he was denied certification."
"Why would he submit his notes in the first place?" Al leaned on the desk. "Brother didn't have to show his research at the exam, he just had to show his ability."
Roy flipped through a journal. "Clearly desperate. He was looking to become a state alchemist so he could make something of these theories. I don't know what to even categorize what I'm seeing here. It's part necromancy, part insanity and part carnival physic. How did you two even find this guy?"
"Well, we were talking to Sheska and she remembered reading about him." Al said.
Ed leaned on Mustang's desk and pulled a newspaper out of a file. "He did all his research in his house. He died in there and it was condemned after being deemed unsaleable. Obituary says he was alone, nobody attended his funeral or the auction for his property. Now I just need someone with enough clearance to get us an address."
"Ah." Roy said. And there it was. The real reason the kid was being nice.
Ed shot him a glare. "What was that 'ah' for?"
"Just was waiting for you to get around to revealing what you really wanted here."
Ed slapped the folder shut. "Look, I know this seems like it's a stretch. A haunted house. An alchemist who was working on communicating with the dead..."
"It's all we have right now." Al said and watched Ed clean up his notes. They were desperate. "It doesn't seem like it would be useful for getting back our bodies, but if this man was able to open up a line of communication with another dimension, maybe it's where my body is. Maybe it's a start to opening up a portal to that place so we can get our bodies back."
"What about equivalent exchange?" Roy asked as Ed tried to grab his favorite executive pen in his pile of paperwork and walk off with it. He slapped his hand down and stopped it from disappearing. Riza gave that to him as a gift. It wasn't a real present, just something she went out and bought after he told her his pen dried out and he couldn't sign any more paperwork that day, but she gave it to him and it was precious. Red and gold, like flames, not like Fullmetal Pen Clepto. "You exchanged your limbs and body, there must be balance."
"We don't know until we look into this. From some of his notes, " Ed threw the top folder down on the pen. "He had theories that souls and bodies were drawn to each other. A magnetic pull."
"That was something we heard before, from Barry the Chopper." Al reminded the Colonel.
"And he said his research showed that the body does retain a connection to it's lost parts like in the event of a lost limb or something." Ed could see Mustang was ready to roll his eyes. He really wanted to look at the files about Grange's exam, but that was off limits to even Mustang, so he'd settle for an address to the house where he left all his research. "So, if that portal can be opened, maybe that is all that is keeping souls and bodies apart. I saw a gate. I saw a being. I saw a place separate from this world. So what if this guy found a key to that?" Ed asked and pointed to some of the paperwork in the man's file.
Roy read it, it still sounded so desperate to him. A man trying to just reach out across the boundary of death and talk to dead people again. Then there was something he saw, a sentence that stood out now. "Memories are what keeps a person alive, once the memories fade so does the soul."
Ed watched him shuffle through the pages to find a picture of the array the man was experimenting with. He squinted as he looked at the runes and something in his attitude changed. Ed was glad he picked up on it so quick, he knew he was losing the Colonel's interest. "Yeah, that's what we saw too. That his array isn't about human transmutation or soul binding or anything related to that field at all. It looks like it's psychological, like he felt souls were energy created by the body. That souls were a philosopher stone that powered a human being. I want to see his actual research because there are parts that we've heard before and even if the whole makes no sense...maybe there is a link he discovered in the process."
"Alright." Roy said and pushed the paperwork over to Ed and made sure his pen was not swept up in the process. He put his pen in his drawer and made sure it wasn't out in the open any longer. There was something that struck a nerve about all this and he couldn't put his finger on it. "I'll make some calls, but I'm coming with you."
"Why?" Ed said dryly. He wanted help, not a chaperon.
"I don't think Grange really understood what he was dabbling in. I don't think he cared." Roy stood up and grabbed his coat. "I've seen alchemists like this. So driven by a need to find answers that it blinds them to anything else."
Riza watched the boys tense and Roy didn't realize it as he put his jacket on. That struck home for them, they had seen Shou Tucker go down that path. She knew Roy was talking about someone else though, his own teacher, her father.
Roy finished buttoning his jacket and continued. "They don't see right or wrong, they don't see any boundaries what so ever. So when you walk into this house you're walking into a mad man's lair. It's haunted because it was everything that haunted him. I'm going with you."
Days went by and Riza was finally to the point where she didn't think it was cute anymore that Roy and the Elrics were running around the Grange house sharing discoveries and excitedly talking about alchemy theory. "We have been here for days, sir. Work is piling up at the office. Work that you will be held accountable for."
Roy looked up from his place on the floor of the living room and blinked at her. "It's all your fault."
"How so, sir?" She asked and crossed her arms as she looked down at him carefully regarding his notes and looking at an array painted on the floor with something that wasn't paint.
"You gave me that look that said, 'Don't crush their hopes and dreams, go take the kids to the haunted house'." Roy tapped his pen on his notepad as he considered the markings on the ground.
She did encourage this. She also didn't expect the dead man's house to be covered in his notes. Floors, walls...covered in scribble. He even wallpapered over old notes so he could write more. No wonder the locals stayed away from this place, she was surprised no one burned it down yet.
"I think I figured this one out!" Ed hollered from the kitchen. "I think...I can fix this."
She looked down at Roy and waited for him to react to that with more than an amused smile. Then she went over and bent down and said, "Do you really want Ed activating an array?"
"There is nothing even close to being coherent and complete in this house.." Roy said and picked up his coffee to take a drink. "Let alone something even a prodigy could finish in two days. He's a brilliant kid, Riza, he doesn't activate anything he hasn't gone over thoroughly. Try being a little supportive and appreciative of his talent."
Riza glared at him. He looked back up at her and frowned, words didn't even need to pass between them at all for her to communicate her message.
"Fine." He put his coffee down. Nothing said, 'Get your ass in there and stop him before he loses another limb' like the unwavering glare she was giving him right now. "Hey Fullmetal, maybe we should check your work before you fuck something up...you know like what little body you have left."
"Don't call me little, asshole."
And then there was a glow and Riza knew Roy's casual side had just done more harm than good. It had been cute, had been cute that the boys were all alchemy nerds gushing and fawning over new material, but now she worried about the damage these three could do together. "Nice."
Roy stood up and dusted his pants off. "He was going to do the exact opposite of what I said anyway."
Riza walked with him to the kitchen and they both turned the corner to see Ed standing there staring at them. He looked terrified and she wanted to go over and protect him, but there was nothing to protect him from. "Ed, what's wrong?"
Roy was surprised to see Ed pale and shaking, staring past him at a stove covered in pots and pans. Riza went over and put her hands on the boy's shoulder, touched his cheek to make him look at her and Roy felt something brush up next to him. He didn't want to look away, but he had to when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Something too light to be Alphonse. Then a whisper in his ear that made all the hairs on his neck raise and his heart stop beating for a second.
"God look at her Roy, can you imagine her with your own kids?"
"Hughes?" Roy whispered and turned to look at a ghostly apparition beside him. "Are you two seeing this?"
Ed's voice cracked as Hawkeye tried to pry his eyes away from the woman in front of his eyes. "I see...my Mom."
"What?" Riza asked and looked around. Ed was paralyzed, she could feel him shaking under her touch. Roy was staring in to space beside him. There was nobody there. "What are you two seeing?"
"Hughes." Roy said and watched his best friend lean against the door frame and push his glasses up his nose.
"My Mom." Ed croaked out. She wasn't like the nightmare visions he had of a half made human. She was like he wanted to remember her, vibrant and loving and smiling as she stirred a pot on the stove.
"Did you bring some friends for dinner?" Tricia asked and looked at the adults who were in the kitchen with them. "Edward, I thought I told you not to talk with strangers. Did this couple need help? Where is Al?"
Ed finally broke loose and turned around to look for Al. Where was he!? "AL! ALPHONSE!"
"You don't see him? Hughes is right next to me." Roy asked as Riza stood in the kitchen just unsure what to do as Ed screamed for his brother beside her.
"Right next to you at the alter too I hope." Maes sighed. "If you ever ask her to be your wife in this lifetime. I have my best man's speech memorized you know."
Roy looked at her and she gave him the look of 'what the hell are you talking about'. Then Ed tried to break free of her hold and screamed again in a full fledged panic.
"AL!"
"I'm right here brother." Al came through the other door from the hallway to enter the kitchen. He looked at everyone's faces and breathed a sigh of relief. "You see them too then?"
"See who?" Riza asked as Roy leaned away from something that wasn't there, Ed turned back to look at the stove and Al looked down at something beside him.
"Hughes." Roy replied.
"Mom." Ed said and watched her turn to him and smile.
"Nina and Alexander." Al looked down as Nina giggled and took his hand.
And then the room went silent as they all looked at each other and tried to comprehend what was going on. Riza looked over at Roy, disbelief on his face, and then she saw movement behind him. She drew her gun, "Sir!"
Roy spun and stepped into the kitchen, pulling out his gloves in the process. Hughes winked at him and gave him a thumbs up as he went to stand beside Riza. "You see him?"
Riza swallowed hard as a figure materialized in the doorway. She kept her gun pointed at him. "Yes. My father."
"What?" Roy asked and watched her hand tremble.
Berthold Hawkeye narrowed his eyes at his apprentice and saw the array on his gloves. "Riza, is this how he uses my research? He's preparing to defend you, with my alchemy. I told you this could never be used as a weapon."
She moved closer to Roy, as scared as she was of her father in life she was more terrified of the idea that death could not contain him. How angry he would be of what Roy did with his research? What steps he would take to make sure it would never be used like that again?
"What the fuck did you do Fullmetal?" Roy asked.
"I don't know." Ed said and his Mom gave Mustang a disapproving look for his language. Then Tricia realized Hawkeye had her gun out and Mustang had an array embroidered on his gloves, striking a pose like they always did, ready to meet anything and defend them from danger. Ed felt something different now as he realized his Mom, or whatever she was, was now sacred and trying to remain still and hide in the corner. "I know you're scaring her, so please...calm down."
"I felt Hughes touch me." Roy said and Ed started moving towards the stove. "Ed...we don't know what we're up against here."
"Up against your Lieutenant as usual." Hughes winked.
Ed touched Mustang's sleeve. "Just...trust me OK?"
Roy let his hand lower and looked at the poor kid who was gripping his sleeve tighter as he tried to assess the danger. Ed couldn't offer an explanation or any reasons why he should listen, he just needed him to stop scaring the woman he was staring at. "Lower your weapon, Lieutenant."
Riza hesitated. She had never drawn a gun on her father or wanted to, but she also didn't want to feel that powerlessness again like she did when he was growing up. It took a minute for her to drop her arms and holster her weapon, telling herself that she didn't rely on her gun to be her confidence.
When he finally realized no harm would come from these ghosts they were all individually seeing, Roy knelt down on one knee and examined the array on the kitchen floor. The ghosts remained at a distance, mere fixtures in the room. "Fullmetal, what part did you add to this?"
"This here." Ed said and pointed to a section by Mustang's knee. His Mom relaxed and went back to cooking.
"Is he an alchemist too Ed?" Tricia asked and looked over at the transmutation circle and give her son a proud smile.
"Yeah." Ed said and watched his Mom just glow with pride.
"Did you find a teacher?" She asked.
Ed wanted to scoff at the idea of Mustang being his teacher but he also didn't want to admit to his ghost mother that he joined the military. "He's helping me with my research."
Roy narrowed his eyes at Ed who continued to converse with his dead mother, but his voice took on a almost innocent and humble tone. Then Ed shot him a look, a pleading look, to just play along; to not seize this opportunity to destroy him as he struggled with this image of a woman who he knew was gone, but could not take the chance of disappointing. Ghosts weren't real, but these visions were. If Tricia Elric found out what her boys did, it would tear both of them apart. He looked up at Riza who was experiencing the same thing, terrified of being judged for her actions. He looked back to Ed, and softened his own voice to pay him the compliments he never voiced. "Brilliant connection to make, that this could be a projection of memories."
Ed was surprised and relieved. He also felt a flush of encouragement as Mustang decided to play along.
"Your father would be so proud." Tricia said and then looked around. "Where is Alphonse? Dinner will be ready soon."
"Right over there." Ed pointed at Al who was now seated on the ground with his own imaginary friend. "He's...using alchemy to move around Dad's old armor so he can..play with a friend of his."
"You boys are amazing." Tricia said and returned to stirring a pot on the stove.
"It's a projection of our own memories, right?" Roy nudged Ed and he nodded.
"Yeah, it was more of a hologram that formed from a memory for as long as the array was activated." Ed looked at his corrections on the circle. "I modified it so it was more like a projector of memories instead of an image made by alchemy."
"So in theory these ghosts only share the same memories we share with them." Roy asked and Ed nodded. Was he in here this whole time playing with this hologram? It was function as something that could manipulate light to create a three dimensional image of whatever he wanted. A sideshow attraction at it's core, but with enough gibberish to make it look like something tangible. Of course, Ed saw it as a puzzle and fixed it so it did work. Work without it's own power.
"Memories can be fabricated." Al said and Nina finished making him a flower crown. "We all have imaginations."
Ed looked over his shoulder at Al who placed something invisible on his head. Al struggled with figuring out exactly what he was and now all his concerns were coming crashing down on him. Alchemy had just made memories into ghosts. Memories kept ghosts alive. What if he was just a fabrication? He could almost hear his little brother's thoughts and he regretted his actions all the more now. "Al..."
"Brother, just think about the ghosts we're seeing. I'm not seeing Mom, you are. She haunts you, I just miss her. Nina...it haunts me I didn't see what she was trying to tell me about her Mom." Al listened to Nina giggle and clap in joy as she looked at how well the flower crown looked on him. "The circle before was just a created hologram, now it's something that none of us actually made. They just showed up."
"These poor kids." Hughes said and put his chin on the chair he was sitting on backwards. "Nobody their age should have to be questioning their existence and actions like they do."
"We've had this conversation before Hughes." Roy said and thought about what Al was saying in connection to the array he was studying. What if it was just a projection of memories, fresh and buried, that they relived in their minds? "If you really want to help me out, why don't you tell me who killed you?"
Ed whipped around and stared at Mustang who was now focused on the chair in the corner. Everyone went silent, including his Mom who looked mortified by the things Mustang kept saying.
Hughes cocked his head. "You're killing me, Roy. I'm sitting here waiting on you to realize what you have right in front of you. The family you have but tell yourself you don't deserve. It kills me to watch you tear yourself apart for something that...I could leave behind me. I hate seeing you lonely and miserable. Especially when you are actually really good at this when you're not trying to chase everyone away."
"Also something you've told me before." Roy said his theory now confirmed. "Replaying memories, all of it."
"It's something you need to keep hearing. I'm not giving up on you, asshole." Maes smirked.
Roy turned to Riza. "What's your Father doing?"
Riza glanced back at Berthold who was hunched over at the kitchen table now. Watching. Scrutinizing. "Judging us."
"I misjudged you." Berthold Hawkeye said as he glared at his daughter. "I raised you to be independent and yet you followed him into the military."
"You didn't raise me, I raised myself." Riza snapped back and regretted it immediately. Everyone looked at her. She felt all eyes on her and realized her agitated state had allowed this outburst. "That was not a replayed memory. We never had that conversation."
Roy leaned over to Ed and whispered, "Does your Mom know about your automail?"
"She hasn't said anything..." Ed's eyes widened and he looked down and made sure his glove was still on his hand. "I can't. I know this isn't real, but I can't."
"Has she said anything that hasn't been said before?" Roy whispered.
"Well she never met you." Ed replied under his breath. "Yet she's definitely reacting to you."
"Did you ever consider what she would have said if she did?" Roy asked and Ed looked ashamed. "It's normal, I still think about what my parents would have thought about me and they've been gone twenty five years."
Ed grudgingly admitted, "Yeah, I considered it."
Roy waved Al over and he put his hands out to pet an invisible dog and little girl. He crawled over and joined in once he was sure his ghosts would not overhear them. "Have you experienced any new conversations with your friends over there?"
"She's a little kid, she just wants to play." Al said and saw Ed look guilty. "This is how we would play."
Ed pointed to where he had done his work on the floor. "I changed this part here. I think Grange was trying to create a being from memories, trying to skip the whole corporeal aspect of it and therefore avoid human transmutation. This array was incomplete and full of just fake garbage, so I...fixed it. "
"That's what I found upstairs. He wanted the spirit, the soul, since a body without a soul is just flesh not human. " Al agreed. "He wrote this all over his bedroom, they're like philosophical notes. A debate with himself on what really is life, what gives a body a spark that makes it a individual human. Since bodies are all just common elements, he figured he could just leave it out and avoid dabbling in the taboo."
"That makes sense." Ed said. "This array here is like a hologram. I modified it so it wasn't some hokey parlor trick. The theories were all here he just didn't understand how to apply it. So I changed it, now it's a projection reversal, using our eyes to send out images verses seeing things and sending them to the brain. "
"However this is more than just images, it's more than just a film being replayed. " Roy said. He could see why Ed thought it would be harmless because the basic parts of it were, just as he said, a simple light show. He thought giving it better definition would simply give the hologram a film to play.
"That's why I don't know what happened. It wasn't that complex. All it was supposed to do was make a hologram of a memory and only for as long as my hands were on the circle. I was the one controlling the memories." Ed explained. "It's why I activated it because it's not supposed to be interactive. I shouldn't be able to talk to Mom about you. Hughes shouldn't be able to touch you. Nina ...shouldn't have a dog with her. All this does is replay a memory."
Al could see how distraught Ed was about it and he knew why. He was eager to see if it worked, just to see Mom one last time. It didn't have anything to do with why they were here, but it was too tempting to ignore. So he had been working for days in the kitchen reading all these notes and work to try to figure out where Grange went wrong and he probably just overachieved and reworked the circle for a completely different theory. "This isn't why we came here though. This guy was supposed to be working on talking to ghosts and instead he's making a movie from his memories."
"I told you, part carnival sideshow." Roy said. "This is the kind of stunt you pull when you want to grab someone's attention at your state exam. This is what you show them even if its a hoax. You daze and amaze the crowd and they give you a chance to make something of it."
"Like a talking chimera." Al whispered and Ed looked at him horrified, but understanding where he was going with that. "So you think this guy is just a fraud?"
"I think this circle was just smoke and mirrors, meant to get him certification. Once he got the backing of the State for his work, he would have be allowed to do the research and it would take him in totally different direction. That is what we have seen in this house and in his file. However to get in the door he had to prove he had something and this hologram was it." Roy sat back and Ed chewed on his lip thinking about that. "What you did was take a mad man's work and turn it into something tangible in two days. This is no longer Grange's work, it's yours."
"Thanks." Ed said dryly.
"It's amazing Ed, this is not your specialty." Roy said and Ed and Al both looked at him with a little more fire in their eyes. Just the slightest encouragement was all they needed. Maes applauded in the corner and ruined the moment. "Grange was really trying to create ghosts. We have to look at the bigger picture here and see what other factors are at play. This entire house is relevant information. What I was working on in the living room was about phantom limbs. Grange had a stack of research notes and patient journals from the veterans hospital in there, they were buried in the closet. Grange used to work there, it may be what gave him the idea that something that is no longer a functional body part still maintained some ghostly connection to it's core body."
Ed absentmindedly rubbed his automail arm as his mother looked at him with a warm and happy glow. Mustang was right, the hologram was worthless. A Parlor trick. He was trying to con his way to certification so he could reap the rewards of research access and funding. So they had to go back to what they came here for, trying to understand exactly what Grange was trying to accomplish. It was time to look at the real facts. "Winry said that the high percentage of amputees that still had nerve sensation in missing limbs was what gave scientists the hope that automail would serve as a functional substitute. That the severed nerve endings still reported back to the brain, even if the connection was cut further down the lines the nerves still tried to connect. It's why complete control is still available. I remember waking up...feeling like my arm was on fire and it just wasn't there. Or that my leg was being pulled off. I felt that and it was very real pain."
"Silly boy, that's why you have to stop falling asleep in your father's study and use your bed." Tricia said. "Stop falling asleep on your arm or leaving books laying across your leg, Ed."
Ed closed his eyes. Shit. He made a mistake mentioning that and realized it too late. However Mom responded with a memory, a memory of him waking up in tears because he couldn't feel his arm because he fell asleep at the desk and woke up and panicked. He screamed and cried and she came in to see what was wrong. A memory of her telling him it would all be OK. He opened his eyes and nodded to her.
"So it's possible that what made this more real, is that our brains are tricking our nerves into feeling something that wasn't there. " Riza stepped forward and knelt down next to the boy just to put a hand on his shoulder and offer some support. She hated that the boys had gone through so much. All three alchemists leaned in closer to check certain parts of the array and she realized she might have sparked something in them.
"That's not what I activated." Ed said. "I activated an array that was supposed to reverse memories and show them like they were being projected like a film. That was not creating or destroying it was simply flipping an image, like taking pictures, having the image on a negative and then creating photos from that negative. Nothing was created or destroyed, it just changed direction. Input into output. "
"Your mind doesn't know that." Roy said. "This is playing memories, memories that you have strong emotional ties to. The memory of the limb, the memory of the person beside you, the memory of the presence of that person staring at you from other side of the room...it sticks with you. You're right, you didn't create anything, you're just taking it out of the safety of your brain that has tried to censor things from you. What you're seeing is memories unfiltered. And our brains aren't supposed to function like that so they are trying to fire off nerve endings to make sense of it."
"Shit." Ed sat back and toyed with his braid. He didn't take into account how the brain would react to these images or unknowns. That was where he screwed up! That was what made ghosts seem real after all, the brain trying to make sense of something it could not identify; Seeing things in the dark that weren't there, triggering a fight or flight reflex, triggering a self-preservation instinct.
"Edward!" Tricia chided. "Please watch your language."
"Sorry Mom." He said without thinking, then he rubbed his eyes with his hand.
Roy looked up at Hughes and realized that most of his memories involved Hughes either hanging on him or hovering around him. He was an overly affectionate and physical man, there were not many memories where he didn't touch him at least once. His brain, seeing the image of Hughes being close or his senses feeling his proximity must have filled in the sensory feelings. "So to reverse this...we need to be careful because we aren't dealing with an understandable element here. We have very little knowledge of how the brain works and right now it's trying to adapt to what it's experiencing. We can't rationalize this away."
They all fell silent as they considered that statement. Riza knew Roy was more than aware of the struggles of the psyche from his inability to ever come home from Ishval. When he woke in the middle of the night it took a lot to actually help him realize he wasn't still in the desert. The war haunted her too, but apparently not nearly as much as her father. She had been scared of him, but she didn't realize how much Roy's use of flame alchemy tied into that fear. Rationally, she knew that man was dead and could do no harm to his apprentice, but fear was not rational. There was nothing about Berthold Hawkeye that was rational. So when she looked over at him, hunched over a crusty bowl of soup, a shiver went down her spine and she knew Roy was completely right.
Al looked over as Nina hugged Alexander and it became very clear why he was seeing both of them. He knew that they were one entity at the end and wondered if subconsciously he considered them connected in death as well. He feared that maybe they were really just one entity in his mind, that reversing this process would erase all the other images and remind him of the one ghost he could not shake; the little girl who he envied for having a childhood and a Dad that was home, the pet he wasn't allowed to have, and ultimately the corruption of the one thing he believed to be honest and fair in this world, alchemy. He knew that was also the reason Ed was seeing Mom.
"I have a question." Riza said and they all turned to her, somber expressions on their faces. Alchemists scared of the unknown instead of transfixed by it. "If Ed activated the array, how did it affect all of us?"
"It's a haunted house. This is house is his research." Roy said. "I bet there is a circle within the house or arrays connected to this under all the trash laying around. Ed fixed the array, he applied it to the individual instead of what Grange did which was make it a hologram. The other arrays, must have acted as a prism, pulling in the light needed for refraction. At least that's how I've seen it done before. If the prism arrays are still up it could act as an outer transmutation circle and encompassed us all."
"Sorry." Ed said and looked at the gouge marks in the floor that he had ignored earlier. Now they looked like more than areas where furniture had been dragged. They looked like lines that spread out from this array. They were perfectly placed at four parts of the circle, too perfect. Shit. He had been too eager to see if this trick worked. There was still so much of this house they had yet to explore.
"It's better this way Ed." Al said. "I don't think we would have believed you if you told us any of this, had you been the only one affected. I would have assumed you were affected by mold, or sleep deprivation...I wouldn't have understood unless I was experiencing it too."
"Let's see where these cuts in the floor lead to so we can figure out the complete array." Ed said and stood up, scared of what he might find under all of this. He needed to see the extent of the damage. "I'm pretty sure if I left it how it was instead of making it work, we would be able to leave this house and leave it all behind us."
