What Ed's Done

Day 1: October 28

Ed's eyes slowly creaked open, pain striking him as the midmorning sunshine burned his retinas. His body ached all over, to the point where even the slightest movement sent splinters of pain throughout his body. Thick saliva filled his mouth, and swallowing only helped to burn his throat and churn his stomach even more that it already had been.

It wasn't too often that the happy-go-lucky Ed woke up in a rotten mood. Sure, he had those rough mornings where he just wanted to pull the covers up and pretend the sun hadn't risen yet, but very rarely did he want the world to just go away and leave him alone until he felt better. This was the epitome of those mornings.

With a long moan, Ed tried to force himself up, but the pain and nausea tripled as he elevated his body, so he gave up and plopped back down. He bit his lip, focusing all his energy on not vomiting.

When his tongue ran across his lower lip, Ed noticed a revolting taste in his mouth. It reminded him of the tastes he got that one time when he was so thirsty that he drank from Rolf's garden hose and that other time when his tongue got stuck in his basement drain.

He steadily forced himself to reach up and touch his face, finding that something had dried and crusted around his mouth. He scratched a little off and took a peak at it, his eyes widening in shock when he found that both the flakes he had scraped off and the stuff covering his hand was dark red.

Ed's eyes trailed up; in his peripheral, Ed could see splatters of dark red all over the walls, primarily covering his B-movie posters and any other area close to his bed. He once again tried to sit up, the pain dialed down and otherwise ignored as Ed inspected himself. The same red substance had stained his tank top and boxers, and patches of it lined his arms and face.

He shook profusely, his breaths coming out short and choppy. Blood. It had to be blood. Ed had seen this plenty of times in horror movies. He knew what it meant.

When he took a better look at the room, he found that it had been totally destroyed, leaving it in an even greater mess than it usually was. Splotches of red painted a few spots here and there. His model rockets were scattered, some whole and some in millions of pieces. Possibly what was most shocking was that his closet door had been caved in and yanked off its hinges, and the small window had been broken, which explained that cold breeze Ed was noticing for the first time.

On shaky legs, Ed stood up and treaded to his bathroom. He turned the sink on, waiting a few seconds as the rarely-used contraption forced water through its rusted pipes, and started to rinse his hands off as he looked back on the events that led up to this point:

Last night, Ed and Eddy had travelled into the woods to plan their Halloween party; Edd had stayed home to work on his AP history report. When they finished, they took a wrong turn on the way home and wound up in the Peach Creek cemetery. Once they got through that, they returned to the cul-de-sac and called it a night. Ed went home, went down to his room, put his night clothes on and then… nothing. He couldn't remember anything else between changing his clothes and waking up in his blood-stained bed.

Splashing water on his face seemed to help Ed pull himself together a bit quicker, as if getting the red substance off of him washed away the agony he woke up with. Changing his clothes provided him with some much-needed comfort too, and soon all Ed was left with was a light headache and the sticky reminders on his wall.

Ed swallowed hard, wondering whose blood that was.

Leaving the mess behind, he headed upstairs to the kitchen and popped some bread in the toaster. Fortunately, nothing about the kitchen looked out of the ordinary. One thing was strange, though: Where was Sarah? According to the wall clock, it was already past ten o'clock. Sarah never slept in this late.

What if…?

Curious as ever and beyond concerned for his baby sister, Ed bolted for the stairs. In his run, the nausea returned, so he continued upstairs on a steadier pace. He stopped dead cold in front of his sister's door.

He lifted a shaky hand up and knocked. "Sarah?"

A long moan was the only response.

Ed knocked louder. "Sarah? Are you okay?"

"Ed…"

She sounded hurt. That was enough to make Ed yank the door open and dash inside.

"SARAH!"

Compared to Sarah's room, Ed's ruined basement might as well have been a five-star hotel. Sarah's bedroom had been all but totally annihilated. Even the incident where he and Eddy crashed through the roof didn't compare to this. The pink and red wallpaper had been almost completely torn off. The dresser and bookshelf were both broken to bits, their remnants scattered all over the room. The carpet and walls were splattered with even more blood, their stains so prominent that many were still dripping wet. The rug and curtains were in shreds, though the window remained unbroken. The bed legs had collapsed and the canopy's supports destroyed so that the material covered all but the top of Sarah's head.

"Baby sister!" Ed cried as he scrambled to get the canopy off. "Are you okay?! Who did this?!"

He gasped and forced back tears when he saw his sister. Her face was frozen in terror and every few seconds she convulsed. There were bruises all over her and her left arm had a gaping wound in it, which had caused a puddle of blood to form on her bed. She was pale from the blood loss except for a dull grey in her cheeks, probably a sign that she would throw up any minute now.

Ed gently held her, unable to hold the tears back anymore. "Sarah, please speak to me!"

Sarah didn't move or speak, but she eventually let out a little hiccup.

"It's okay, Sarah. Big brother will get help!"

He gently placed Sarah back on her bed and rushed downstairs by means of tripping and tumbling down the stairs. Back in the kitchen, Ed picked up the phone and went to dial the numbers.

Darn it, what number do you dial for 911?! Nevermind, Sarah needs help NOW!

He thought of calling his parents, but they wouldn't listen to him. They almost never did. Besides, they couldn't be bothered at work right now. So, instead, Ed put the phone back down and ran outside, sprinting across the cul-de-sac towards the residence of the first person he could think of:

"DOUBLE DEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Ed crashed through the door of the last house on the street, catching a fully-dressed Edd off guard.

"Double D, Double D, Double D!"

"Ed, w-what is it?!" Edd insisted.

"It's Sarah! She-She's hurt!"

"What?!"

"Come on!" Ed ran back outside.

"Ed, wait!" Edd stumbled after him, having a hard time keeping up with his friend's long, strong legs. When he finally made it to Ed's house, Ed was already heading upstairs, and Edd was panting like he was on the home stretch of a marathon. "Ed…"

He walked the last couple steps to Sarah's room, gasping in horror at the sight of the mess it had become. Ed was crying over his petrified sister, and Edd slowly knelt down beside him. "W-When did you find her like this?"

"Just now…" Ed sobbed.

Edd inspected Sarah, checking her vitals, studying her arm wound and anything else he felt was important. "Oh dear… She needs medical attention. I'll call an am-"

"No! She needs help now!"

"Ed…!" Then Edd thought of something. "Wait, Mutt's father is off today. We'll take her over to their house."

"Okay…" Ed sniffled, effortlessly picking Sarah up.

Edd comforted his friend as they turned to leave the room, looking around and shuddering at the sight of the blood. "Who on Earth could've done this?"

Just then, Sarah jolted and gasped. A raspy noise escaped her throat.

"Sarah…?" Ed choked up.

Sarah seemed to be trying to say something, but the one noise she kept repeating was incoherent to the two Eds.

"What is it Sarah? Say something!"

"It's okay, Sarah," Edd said. "Dr. Kanker will take care of you. Everything will be alright."

Ed's stomach was churning again as he remembered the sight of his own room. He was covered in blood too, but he was otherwise unscathed. Even worse was that he couldn't remember anything. What if he was a part of this? What if… he was responsible for this?

While Henry Kanker took care of Sarah in his office, Ed and Mutt sat quietly in the living room while Edd paced and talked on the phone. He had already called Eddy and asked him to come over, but knowing that sleepyhead, it would take a while for him to show up. Now Edd was on the phone with the police, describing the scene he and Ed had discovered in Sarah's room.

"Yes, it had been utterly ruined and there was… blood everywhere. …Hers was the only room destroyed and there didn't seem to be any signs of someone breaking in."

My window was broken… Ed thought, though he didn't dare speak up.

In a rare moment, Ed was thinking hard about this. If his window was broken, maybe the culprit had broken in through his room and hurt Sarah. But why was Ed covered in blood when he woke up? Did the culprit just splatter blood on him to make him think it was his fault? Yeah, that could make sense.

But then why did Ed wake up feeling like he slept on a rollercoaster from Hell? His mind traced back to all those monster movies he had watched in his life, namely the ones where the main character turns into a monster at night, mauls his victims then wakes up in pain with no memory of the night before. A lot of that description fit what had gathered so far.

No. No, that couldn't be. Nothing in the world would bring Ed to hurt his beloved little sister. Right?

Just as Edd finished his phone call, the front door flung open and in stepped Eddy, who looked like he had just woken up with a hangover. "Alright… what's so important?"

"It's Sarah," Edd replied. "Someone broke into her room last night and brutally injured her."

Eddy blinked away the sleepys in his eyes. "Is that it?"

"Eddy, her room is a mess and covered in blood! She and Ed are terrified!" Edd protested, appalled by Eddy's apathy.

"What's with you today?" Mutt asked. "You're usually on top of things when there's a crisis. And, yeah, you've never been a morning person, but you can still wake up pretty quickly."

"I barely slept last night," Eddy grumbled. "Kept having weird dreams."

Before anyone could comment on that, a door closed upstairs and Dr. Kanker walked down into the living room. At the sight of him, Ed ran over to him, practically begging for good news. "Is she okay, Doc? Will she make it?"

"Sarah's just fine," Henry replied in a calm tone. "I've taken care of her more serious bruises and bandaged her arm. She's stopped bleeding, and her blood loss is minimal enough that her body should be able to resupply it. Her more serious condition seems to be acute stress reaction."

Ed raised half of his thick eyebrow.

"She's in shock, Ed," Mutt explained.

"Oh…" Ed backed off a few steps. "Can you fix that?"

"With any luck, she should be well again in two to three days," Henry said, sitting down next to Mutt and ordering the others to do the same. "Now Ed, I want you to tell me everything that you can remember leading up to this. Anything you remember or think is important."

"Gee, that's gonna be hard," Eddy mumbled as he plopped down in a chair.

True, that would be hard, but not because of Ed's usual ignorance, but because everything between his return home and his wakeup call was a blank. Aside from that, though, his biggest question was whether or not he should tell them about his own bloody encounter.

Perhaps it was best if only Edd, Eddy and maybe Mutt heard that part. Who knew what would happen to Ed if an adult heard about that?

"Well…" Ed began. "Last night, Eddy and I were doing Halloween-y type stuff in the woods, and when we were done we came home through the graveyard."

"Did you come across anything there?" Henry asked.

"No, not really. I did see this cute kitty, though…"

"Oh, there you go again with the stupid cat," Eddy groaned. "Can we skip this part? Please?"

Ed wasn't in the mood for cute things, so he complied. "When we got home, I went right to bed and slept all night. After I woke up, I went up to check on Sarah and found her room all trashy and…" He trailed off and shuddered before he could mention the blood.

"So you don't remember hearing or seeing anything out of the ordinary up until then?" Henry questioned.

Ed just shook his head.

"I called the police while you were upstairs with her," Edd spoke up. "I told them everything we knew. They should be over shortly."

Henry sighed. "Thank you, boys. Ed, you should probably head home, call your parents and let them know. I'll keep Sarah here for now, so if they want to see here, feel free to come over."

"Okay." Ed stood up and walked over to the door. For some reason, he didn't have the heart to go up and check on Sarah yet, so he simply called over his shoulder, "Take good care of my sister."

"I will," Henry assured him as he walked back upstairs.

Alone with his friends again, Ed sharply whispered, "Follow me."

Edd and Mutt looked rather surprised by Ed's sudden edge, but they didn't protest, quietly standing up and following Ed out the door. Mutt had to drag a drowsy Eddy along, but other than his whiny moan, the four didn't make a sound.

Ed led the group back to his house and around back to the basement window. Edd gasped, Mutt froze and even Eddy seemed shocked to see the shattered window, and Ed stared at it with bewilderment as if he was seeing it for the first time too. "Just wait," he murmured, opening the window and maneuvering inside around the broken glass.

Once he was in, Mutt helped Edd get past the glass and Eddy -nearly wide awake by that point- swooped in on his own. A horrified silence fell at the sight of the mess that was Ed's room.

"Geez, Lumpy!" Eddy exclaimed. "I know your room is a pig sty, but… holy crap!"

With an uneven heart, Ed tilted his head towards the stains on the walls, which Edd nervously observed. "More blood…?"

Ed nodded.

"Ed, a-are you okay?"

"Yes… but when I woke up, I was all achy and pukey."

Mutt joined Edd and took in the scents in the blood and in the air, his keen wolf nose able to catch things the Eds couldn't. "Oh yeah, someone was in here last night."

"And you don't remember anything that could've caused this?" Edd asked.

"Uh-uh." Ed shook his head. "I don't even remember going to sleep, guys."

"Well, that's nothing new," Eddy said, kicking at Ed's overturned armchair. "You probably don't even remember what you had for breakfast this morning."

"I didn't have breakfast this morning."

"...Okay, you got me on that one." Eddy inhaled sharply through clenched teeth at the sight of Ed's closet door. "It's a wonder how you slept through all of this."

"Guys…?" Ed whimpered. "What if… I hurt Sarah?"

"Say WHAT?!" Eddy and Mutt shouted in unison.

"What if it's like in the movies? What if I did something horrible last night and woke up without remembering any of it?"

"Oh, shut up, Ed!" Eddy cut in, though his tone was sympathetic rather than irritated. "We know you, and we know that you would never hurt Sarah."

"Eddy's right, Ed," Edd added, pushing away the absurdity of that statement. "You would never do something like this under ordinary circumstances. I'm sure there's a highly logical reason for this attack."

Mutt elbowed Edd. "While 'logical' is the last word I would use to describe anything that goes on in this town, I think you and I should do some tests on this blood."

"I think so too."

"After all… something about this blood smells… weird."

"Weird how?" Eddy asked skeptically.

"I don't know. It's just…" Mutt shook his head. "Let's just get some samples before the cops show up."

"Agreed." Edd smiled at a distraught Ed. "Don't worry, Ed. We'll figure this out."

When Ed didn't respond, Eddy wrapped an encouraging arm around him. "Lighten up, big guy. You're no more a monster than you always have been."

That lighthearted joke brought a little smile out on Ed's face. "Thanks, guys."

Hours passed.

The police arrived, Ed's parents came home from work and a thorough investigation of the house began. The last thing Ed wanted was for his room to become part of the search, but they went down there anyway. When they did, much to his shock, the broken window had been replaced and the blood stains were gone. He hid this shock and found it relieving that they didn't ask him anymore questions, but his friends denied any connection to the sudden repairs.

Meanwhile, Eddy was doing some last-minute yard work, raking leaves in the dusky sunset. He couldn't help but look up at Ed's house every once in a while. It was strange, but there seemed to be a haze surrounding it. It wasn't even a physical phenomenon; it seemed more like Eddy's vision screwed up every time he looked at the house.

He couldn't put his finger on it, but when they were down in Ed's room, Eddy had gotten a weird sense of déjà vu.

Oh well. Eddy finished up the leaves, put the rake away and went back inside, ready to put this weird day behind him.

Across the street, Edd was studying the blood samples he had taken from Ed and Sarah's rooms. Two of the three samples were exactly the same, the third one being Sarah's own, untainted blood from her bed. The other two, though… Edd couldn't understand what they were. Both seemed to be a mixture of different bloods; one part was Ed's B-positive blood and the other part… was nothing like he had ever seen before.

When he told this to Mutt, the latter left without another word, leaving Edd to ponder his discovery on his own. Part of him was starting to believe that Ed could've very well had some part in the event, but his heart always denied it.

And right next door, Mutt ascended the staircase and walked into his house's spare bedroom, where Sarah was being kept. She was still awake, and the state of her shock seemed to have changed. Her expression, while still wide-eyed and open-mouthed, had turned sad in a way. The astonishment had passed, replaced with heartbroken horror.

He knelt down next to her and gently placed his warm hand on her cold arm. "Sarah?"

Sarah's mouth closed slightly and her eyes creaked his way.

"What did you see?"

"E-E-E-E-E-"

"It's okay, Sarah…"

"Ed."

Mutt froze up. "Say again?"

"E… Ed."

He stared at Sarah, his hand slowly sliding off of her. Then Mutt stood back up and left the room.

Edd's garage door slid open effortlessly and Mutt appeared in the gap, the light from the activating streetlights outlining him. "Double D!"

He jumped up slightly from Mutt's sudden presence. "What is it?"

"I got Sarah to talk."

That brought Edd to his feet. "You did? What did she say?"

As Mutt closed the garage door, he explained, "I asked her what she saw, and all she said was 'Ed.'"

Edd blink in surprise. "Ed…?"

Mutt brought himself face-to-face with his sock-headed friend, his face sad and solemn. "I don't know what this entails, Double D, but I think it's safe to say that one way or another, Ed is involved in this mess. We both know that there's something weird about the blood we took, and we know that part of that blood mix is Ed's."

"And the other part is someone else's."

"Something else's."

Edd's eyes widened. "…What?"

Mutt suddenly grabbed his wrist. "We need to go see Ed."

"Mutt, what exactly are you implying here?" Edd questioned as he was dragged out of the garage.

"I'll explain later. First I gotta know-"

He was cut off by a sudden gust of wind. Wind that seemed to blow in every direction at once, freezing the two boys where they stood. Mutt looked around, his face screwing up as a strange but familiar scent touched his nose.

"Mutt, please just tell me what you're thinking!" Edd begged.

"Double D, look!"

Edd followed Mutt's finger, which led to the roof of Ed's house. Under the light of the moon, Edd could just barely make out a shadowy figure. A gasp escaped his throat just as the figure leaped away. The wind came to an abrupt stop and the world became eerily silent.

"M-Mutt? Did you see what I saw?"

Mutt nodded slowly. "Get back inside. I'm going alone."

Edd saw no point in arguing, so he nodded and whispered, "Be careful."

As Edd ran back to his house, he looked over his shoulder and watched as Mutt sprinted away and yanked his shirt off, a clear sign that he would soon take on is Star Wolf form. Edd didn't know why he needed it, especially if that figure was what Edd thought it was, and he desperately hoped it wasn't.