a/n: i was going to put the entire story in one chapter, but i'm certain it will be rather long, so i will be breaking it up. maybe once it's complete i'll move everything into one chapter

i have gotten into ed sheeran's music lately. he is very inspiring.

I See Fire

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Lucy dropped the last sealed box on the floor in the empty room and looked around. New home, new life, was what she thought. The room itself was rather spacious given to the fact that she has only just arrived and has yet to unpack. She inhaled the air and cringed at the scent of mildew that soaked the old paint charred at the walls and filled the room, and undoubtedly was soaked in the carpeting as well. But she smiled and walked further into the apartment and looked more into her new home. The place was cheap and was in good shape, so how could she turn it down? Though there were some cracks and holes in small places, but they were small and not as noticeable, so Lucy was sure she can make it here.

She walked out of the living room area and into the kitchen where the carpet cuts off into tile and eyed the sink and cabinets, which all seemed to the in good looking condition, she noted. The wood used for the floor boards and and cabinets were made out of cedar, which was a great plus since it would help keep bugs and termites out of the house, and was very much appreciated. It was nice to have and gave the kitchen a good lighting against the cream colored walls and old pastel linings. There was a perfect amount of space for her dishware to go in and still leave plenty of room for more. It was a cute little kitchen, like one she had always wanted.

Lucy backed up away from the sink and cabinets and walked into the short hallway that rounded back into the living room and peeked her head into the first opened door that came up on her left—the restroom.

Silently, she reached her arm in and flicked on the light and watched it flicker multiple times before lighting up the small square room. The flooring was thickly tiled with small squares and a light grey shade. The walls were white as well as the shower, bathtub, and sink. The sink, though, drew in most of her attention as well as the tub. They were old fashioned—a bowl sink and a legged tub. She walked a few steps in and ran her finger over the round rim of the sink before she seemed satisfied with what she had seen, turned back around, flicked the light off and pulled the door to. Many people were actually looking in to buy this place like herself, but the landlady told her that once they entered the house and looked inside, they immediately turned it down and ran off. Something about the this apartment room scared them.

"Hm . . it's a nice apartment, " Lucy hummed to herself as she peeked in the second door that came up on her right, which happened to be the main bedroom, "Wonder why no one wanted it?" The master bedroom was at least ten-by-twenty in length and width against all four walls. There were two windows in the room on opposite sides where sun was pouring in on the carpeting, giving the room a bright lighting against the emptiness of the open space. The walls were white with grey trimming and floorboards, and it was a simple setting that Lucy knew she would find joy living in. She closed the door to a quiet click and looked down the shaded hall, finding her eyes set on the last door at the end. Unlike the other two and the rest of the apartment, the door looked worn and charred, Lucy noticed as she walked up to it. Her eyes narrowed at the bubbled paint peeling off the wood, and the discolored golden knob in front of her.

She hummed under her breath and pressed her lips together, turning and feeling against the walls for a light switch, and flicking it up once she felt it. What was behind this door, she didn't know, but that didn't help her growing curiosity about it. The landowner told her nothing of an extra room, and it wasn't in the pictures or even in the article she first found the place in.

Lucy reached her hand out in front of her and gripped the golden knob, immediately ripping it away with a loud shriek of pain. She scattered a distance of a good few feet away from it, gripping her stinging palm in the fabric of her shirt in a hurry. It felt like she had touched a burning coal fresh from a fire, and the doorknob itself was steaming from heat. In a panic, Lucy stepped forward again and placed her other palm against the wood of the door and tried to feel for any heat of any sort, but felt nothing but the cool and lifeless feeling of the of the hollow door beneath her fingertips. She leaned back a little, still gripping her burned hand to her stomach in effort to cease the still sizzling pain. There was a sudden chill that startled her, prickling up the hairs of her arms and down her spine and making her breath hitch for a split moment before regaining herself.

"Moving service! Miss. Heartfilia?" Lucy yelped at the sudden knocking coming the front door, whipping around in another panic before she realized it was the movers with the rest of her belongings and sighed in relief.

"Just a moment!" She called to them, giving the dark door one last glance before she shut the hall light off, and turned around.

That following night after her and the movers settled her furniture inside the room, Lucy peeled her bed covers down and crawled underneath them and lowered her head down to her pillow. It was late—very late—since she stayed up later than planned unpacking and writing in her journal. She twisted her light off and felt her limbs melt into the covers and warmth that enveloped around her as sleep crept to her eyes, luring her slowly in a sleeping state. And although her body was heavy with exhaustion, her mind and nerves were fully aware of everything around her. The ticking clock in the kitchen, the rustling of leaves from the tree outside her window, and soft droplets of water from the sink. They sounded absolute to her and the sounds themselves was oddly calming. Her room was dark and her bedroom door was opened wide, she wasn't completely settled in yet and not all comfortable, but enough.

A long sigh made its way through her parted lips as Lucy turned to her other side, shifting the bed and flipping the sheets around and under her feet. Her arm came up and under her pillow to support her head as she finished getting comfortable, and once she did, she let out another sigh through her nostrils, feeling her body melt once more. There was a silence in the house soon after her movement ceased, and Lucy found herself noticing it more than she would have like. She peeked an eye open but didn't move an inch of her body. She scanned her room, every corner and crease until her sight landed to the hallway, pitch dark and nothing but the shapes of the doors and faint shadows coming from the windows in the living room. The door at the end of hall drew her attention, though she couldn't see much of it, it was almost as if she felt it there.

Her burned hand was better—the pain was not there anymore, but slight swelling and redness of the skin was left behind. The small injury didn't bother her much, it was the fact that the door was able to burn her like it had. Lucy also asked the movers when they were here about the apartment since they work in the area and had been here on multiple occasions, but all they did was glance around and kept silent, leaving her question in the air. Their faces had lost the color to them when she brought it up.

It was making her too curious. And it was also creepy if it was thought about.

As if the apartment itself didn't have enough noise or dense air in it, the door Lucy was still watching started to creek. The sound rang through the hallway and into her nerves and making her muscles stiffen up in panic. Her heart pounded in her chest from the shock of it as well as her eyes widen. Her nails gripped the sheets as the door slowly opened on its own, watching the old wooden door dissolve in the darkness. Her throat and the inside of her mouth started to feel dry a few moments after the noise stopped. The room, from what she can see, was completely dark. Not a window in sight, even, or furniture—just a dark space behind a door.

Lucy swallowed and willed her stiff arms to move and push herself up to a seated position, slowly. She squinted her eyes and leaned forward a bit, but the hall was too dark to see in. So as quietly as she could, her covers was pushed off and she slipped of the mattress and stepped her way to her door-frame. Her breathing was hollow and her heart was still hammering in her ribcage, but her curiosity beats the fear.

The moment she stepped foot outside her doorway, she felt something soft and cool rush against her ankles, causing her to jump and ram her back against the nearest wall, and let out a scream, "Eek!" She thrashed and kicked her feet in effort to rid the sudden feeling, but the sound of a door slamming shut made her freeze. Lucy straightened up and felt the walls for the light switch and flicked it in a hurry, and jumped up to the door. Without a thought she grabbed the doorknob and started jiggling it, only to find it locked.

Now she was utterly confused, and partly sure she was dreaming some absurd scene. The door was open, right? To be sure, Lucy nudged it and pulled at it again, but it was indeed locked. Brows furrowing, she pressed her ear against the doors surface and held her breath, listening closely for any movement or sounds coming from inside the room. She stayed in the position for what seemed to be minutes before closing her eyes and pushing back. Lucy backed away from the door slowly, switched the light off and walked back to the door-frame of her bedroom. Laughter was then heard—soft and almost distant like, but it was there, most definitely. The voice was masculine and boy-ish, but Lucy was in no mood to stick around and listen much more. The sounds ceased the moment she clicked her door shut and she found her way back beneath her covers.

Throughout the rest of the night until the sun was softy peeking through her window, Lucy did not sleep a wink. Her nerves and the sounds didn't allow her close her eyes for more than a few minutes, so when she was up and out of bed, Lucy was slow and sluggish on finishing unpacking. Multiple times through the time of the day, her eyes would wonder to the end of the hall and gaze for a moment or two.

The short events that took place last night were mysterious, but Lucy also thought that maybe she was seeing and hearing things from lack of sleep—she wanted to believe that.

There was no way . . this apartment was haunted, right?

Lucy wished she could have laughed at that thought.

Ever since that question entered her mind, Lucy was constantly looking for answers. When her first day of school came, during her breaks she was in the library in the mystery, horror, and supernatural sections and even on the media computers researching about the area her apartment was in. Any death history? Recent summonings? What was the building built on? Questions like those. She spent long afternoons and her lunch periods in the library building doing countless searches and readings that soon she drew the attention of blue-haired girl, who was currently walking up behind her with her own books held against her chest and reading glasses on the bridge of her nose. The girl took the seat across from the Lucy, startling her, and gave a friendly smile before speaking in a low voice.

"You're Lucy, right?" The girl whispered, "I'm Levy! I always see you in here."

Lucy blushed in slight embarrassment for the possible image she was giving everyone from always coming in here, and barely socializing outside of her classes, "It's nice to meet you, Levy," Lucy smiled back, "And I'm just doing some research on . . . something."

"You're into those types of gener's?" Levy question, nodding towards the small stack of book and magazines neatly set beside her arm, "They're nice to read once in a while, but that's a lot. And I see you constantly in those sections, too. What kind of research are you doing, if I may ask?" Levy set her own books aside on the table and stood from her seat and walked around to table to claim the chair beside her, and scooted closer with interest and peered curiously at Lucy's computer screen.

"U—Um . . " Lucy hesitated a bit, staring cock-headed at the monitor screen. She didn't know if it was the best idea to tell a girl she just met about her suspicions of her own apartment, even if the stack of haunted books and ghost stories didn't give way that she was some freak, saying her apartment is haunted would. But she sighed and bowed her head, "I think there's a ghost in my apartment, but I'm not sure." She waited a few moments for it to sink in the girls thoughts before Lucy peeked over to see Levy's expression. It was calm and understanding, but curiosity was also in there. Lucy felt relieved, like a small weight was lifted off her chest, and she gave a small smile.

"Sounds scary!" Levy mumbled, "What if there is? How do you sleep at night?"

"Well it's only in that one room," Lucy said, turning back to the computer and leaning her chin in the palm of her right hand, frowning, "The door opened on its own the other night and I felt something rub against my legs, and I was sure I heard someone laughing."

Levy now wore a horrified expression, "Can't you get another apartment? Get out of that place, Lucy!"

"Ladies! Quiet down back there." The librarian hissed at them from the check-out counter on the other side of the room. Both girls smiled apologetically toward the woman before turning back to their conversation.

"I can't just pack up and leave. I just moved in! And besides the place was a good deal and is in good shape." Lucy said, "I like it and don't plan on moving out."

"You're going to stay there? What if you get possessed, Lu?" Levy asked, nervously gripping the back of her seat, "Come stay at my place for a few nights! It's an all girls complex."

If the fact that Lucy had already gotten a pet name didn't make her happy enough, the sound of an all-girls complex did. The image of slumber parties, get together's, girl talks ran through her mind, but Lucy knew she enjoyed the peace of living alone. It wasn't crammed or suffocating. It' wasn't that she was turning down the idea of staying with Levy for a night or two—that made her happy, it was just that she would like to settle completely in her apartment and get used to it rather than avoid the problem that was rising from night to day in it.

"Thank you, Levy! But I would like to spent some more time in the apartment before going somewhere else," Lucy smiled kindly.

Levy paused, then shrugged, "The offer stands." A short silence followed between them and Lucy turned back to the computer screen and closed a few of the tabs that are present, finding the information a tad private for the eyes of her friend and mentally noted to revise it later again when she got home. Levy scooted a little closer to Lucy and plucked one of the books up from the pile between them on the table and opened to a random page and scanned her eyes through the paragraphs, "I'm no expert on this stuff, but did you try communicating with it?" She asked, "To see what it wants or why it's there?"

"Communicating?" Lucy questioned, furrowing her brows in thought. No, she didn't try that. Though the activity hasn't been going on for long, should she give it a try?

"Yeah, like, talking to it. If you see something—or someone—ask it simple questions." Levy suggested, "It says here to try writing your questions on a piece of paper and leave it somewhere on a table with a pen, and to check on it to see if you get a written reply back."

"Does that actually work?" Lucy asked, leaning over and peering curiously at the page.

"It can be worth a try?" Levy shrugged.

That was true. What did she have to lose? It could be worth a shot to try, and it was simple and easy, so why not? Lucy nodded and stood from her seat, gathering her pile of books and took a sharp turn to go put them back on the shelves, but collided into another person that was walking up near to the two of them. The books cluttered to their feet one-by-one in the quiet library and attracted the attention of almost everyone in it.

"Shoot." Lucy muttered, bending down to pick up the mess. The person she hit, a male, leaned down also to help. He set his own book aside and started to neatly place hers in a short pile beside them, and Lucy watched this from the corner of her eye. His hands were rough looking and red along his knuckles and around his wrist and palms, healed burn wounds swirling along his pale skin and fading into it. They didn't look fresh, at least a couple months old if her judgment was any right.

Picking up the last of the books and pressing it against her chest, Lucy pushed herself up from her kneeling position and looked the male in eye, and gave him a small apologetic yet thankful smile.

"Thank you for helping me pick them up," She said, "and sorry for bumping into you."

The raven-haired teen shook his head and brushed passed her, giving Lucy's words barely any acknowledgment. Levy stood from her seat a few feet from them and blocked him halfway, crossing her arms and giving him a half-hearted scold.

"Gray, you could at least accept her apology!" Levy scolded.

Gray held his hands up in reason and moved around the shorter girl, and looked to Lucy and mumbled, "You're welcome." And he disappeared a few aisles away from them, out of sight.

Levy sighed and dropped her shoulders, "He's been distance like that ever since. . ." Lucy saw the sadness and hurt clouding her eyes as the girl stared at the area the male walked away in. The look left a heavy and unsettling feeling against her gut, and Lucy found a strong dislike to it. She was about to question and try to sooth it in anyway she could, and ask what she meant by 'ever since' before another male walked up between them suddenly, startling them both. Lucy reared away and seemed to grip the books in her arms protectively like an old lady would her purse and watched as the male towered his height over Levy's petite form who jumped at his presence and flushed.

"Ga—Gajeel!" Levy yelped, earning a shush from the librarian. And just like that the sadness vanished from the color of the girls eyes, and was replaced with a stronger feeling that Lucy can only category as love.

She softly cocked her head at the scene and observed the differences of the two that stood out most to her. They were definitely opposites, anyone could tell just by briefly looking at the two of them together, but Lucy saw something about Gajeel that maybe Levy didn't. For the short girl, whose feelings were obvious to anyone with the right mind and eye, she wore her feelings of her sleeve. Lucy could tell that Levy felt strongly for the male standing over her just by the flush of her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes. Gajeel may have seen this and chose to ignore it for maybe personal reasons, but Lucy knew he felt something for Levy, too. It was in his eyes and the way he grins at her, and he shows it by teasing and poking fun.

Lucy smiled and hugged her books in a dreamily fashion and sighed. So even people like them could find love? How nice that was.

Moments passed before the two love-birds noticed her existence again and turned to her, and Levy wasted no time on introducing them. The blunette wrapped both her hands around the larger males wrist and pulled him right in front of Lucy and cheerfully smiled.

Gajeel, though, grunted and sized her up and lingered his eyes on the books that Lucy gripped against her chest and said, "Freak."

Even with the protests and scoldings of Levy, Lucy laughed.

A tired moan rumbled from Lucy's throat and lips as she pushed open the door to her room and wobbled her way inside. Her hand slapped the wall to find the light switch as her foot closed the door behind her. She walked her way in the living room and dropped her bag on the love-seat and lowered herself down into a seated position. Her keys slipped from her fingers and dropped the floor at her feet, but she was too worn out to care. Levy insisted she go with her and Gajeel to grab an 'after school snack', and they ended up staying out a few more hours than Lucy planned.

"Ugh—alright Lucy, up we go!" Lucy softly groaned as she pulled herself up from the seat that her limbs seemed to melt in. She stood straight and stretched her arms up towards the ceiling, smiling in delight at the pleasure of feeling her muscles loosen and shoulders pop. She stretched her legs as she walked towards the kitchen and flicked the light on, walking over to the cupboards and setting a mug on the counter for herself to use. Once she poured herself a cold drink and took a few sips from it, Lucy set her mug down on the counter and walked towards the hallway, and stopped at the end upon noticing her bedroom door was wide open and the light was on.

Lucy quirked a brow this, because she was sure she didn't leave it on when she left this morning. She cautiously approached the room with her side sliding against the wall beside her, and caught eye of the door at the end of the hall, darkened and barely lightened from the moon light pouring in from the living room. Her fingers twitched at the sight of it. The door was open, pulled to a crack that was wide enough for to slip her hand in if she tried, but her nerves know better than that. They were screaming in fear and prickling heavily against the hairs of her skin, going against what her minds wanted to do. The curious feeling overwhelmed her, but she resisted and turned towards her own bedroom, and nearly cried out in surprise. Books and papers covered the floor and bed, clothing was thrown and hanging from the corners and wings of the ceiling fan. Her bed sheets and pillows are twisted around and hanging off the sides of the bed, and her dresser drawers were wide open, as well as her delegates had been touched, she saw.

Any nervous emotion settled from her body in an instant as her tired state caught up to her. Lucy had no energy suddenly and wobbled her way through the doorway to straighten things the best she could, thinking she'd look into dealing with it tomorrow. She wanted to clear off her bed and climb inside it, and not even bother with changing her clothes or bathing. She pushed clothes and books off the ends of her bed and listened to them clutter and pile on the floor at her feet. She threw her pillows to the top of the bed and tossed the tip of her quilt back, and fell forward into the bed. Her limbs melted into the plush of the mattress as a long sigh left her parted lips. Lucy found her straight position comforting and brought her arms up and curled her fingers beneath her chin, feeling her eyelids fall and bringing her to the darkness of her own mind. Her body, for what seemed like automatically, lost feeling as she fell in a doze with a soft snore. The sounds of the night her mind was fully aware of. The ticking clock in the kitchen, the rustling of leaves from the tree outside her window, and soft droplets of water from the sink.

She was fully aware of what time of the night it was and how dark everything seemed to be, even with her eyes closed. She was fully aware that it was around this time of night she heard the noises and laughter from the door at the other end of the hall, and just that small thought, she can feel her nerves start to bubble up again in her chest, but she kept still with her eyes closed.

Then just for a split moment did it seem that all the noise stopped.

Just for a split moment did she feel a rush of cool air run up her bare legs, circling her ankles before vanishing against the fold of her knee.

And just for a split moment, she felt a slightly warm pressure against her cheek. It was misty like, but warm. Lucy felt the muscles in her arms tense for that moment before, oddly, she relaxed. Her nerves calmed and her body became heavy with sleep, and she felt herself being pulled rapidly from consciousness. She didn't think anything of it or the feeling that caressed her skin and tickled the hair around her eyelashes. It felt curious and innocent, and almost like she was imagining it.

With her soft breathing filling the room shortly after, the form of boy emerged above her, kneeling on the balls of his feet at her head. He peered curiously at her features with empty eyes, an unknown emotion shading and clouding his translucent orbs. A cat appeared beside him, rubbing it's misting fur against his leg, bringing a grin to his lips.

They vanished after that, leaving Lucy in her peaceful slumber, and closed the door at the end of the hall behind them.