Midst of the Heat Haze, a fairy tail fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail in any way, shape or form. I also do not own the song which this story is based from, which was by the producer Jin, entitled Kagerou Days.

Hey guys! This is different from my usual oneshots, which are usually fluff-filled and such. Instead, this is tragic, and is also more focused on Natsu's point of view, rather than having a main concentration on Lucy like I usually had in other oneshots.

I'm sorry if the story gets confusing. It was based off a song, Kagerou Days, which was made by the producer, Jin. This story was my adaptation of the song, after the hundreds of times I listened to it.

I hope you enjoy!

Midst of the Heat-Haze

It was all meant to be a normal summer's day. But that all went away when trapped in the midst of the heat haze.

He woke up at 12:01 pm, on the 15th of August, to the midday sun shining on him with warmth, reflecting the incredibly nice weather outside. He stretched his hands up into the air, letting out a loud yawn to help him in fully waking up for the rest of the day.

It was the middle of the last month of summer, and he was going to savour the chance to sleep in for as long as he could before school would start again the following week. His dad had probably gone to work, leaving him to fend for himself for the rest of the day. He didn't mind. His old man had a lot of work to get to – he should've been given an award for being able to juggle raising a thirteen-year-old boy as a single parent and running a successful company leading the world in its technological advances.

Checking the iPhone he laid on his side table one last time, to make sure that the time was right and he wasn't confused from sleep, he hopped out of bed and made his way to the kitchen to find something spicy to make into his brunch.

After eating and dressing up for the day, he bolted out the door as fast as his legs could push him and made his way to the park, hoping that there would be someone new to play with. Arriving there, he was crestfallen at seeing a fairly empty playground. The realisation dawned on him that the previous week, his friends had said they had to go to school a week earlier than him, saying the pieces of information with bitterness.

Sighing, he walked up to the swing set and sat down, absentmindedly beginning to look up at the sky and think of how life was absolutely boring without any friends to play with. Looking around, he was alarmed enough to make him fall flat on his back as the form of a small girl peeked at him from the other swing that he had thought was empty.

With nothing better to do, he brushed off the sand from his clothes and sat back down to view the girl beside him more clearly. She looked young – probably twelve or so. Part of her golden blonde hair was tied into a ponytail, the rest of her hair free and flowing down to her shoulders. Her chocolate-brown eyes were warm, twinkling with curiosity as they stared back at him. In her lap was a cat with bright blue fur – nearly the same colour as the summer sky above them.

"You don't have school yet?" he asked, mentally beating himself for not thinking of a better line to start a conversation with.

She shook her head in reply to the question. He was surprised when her mouth opened and a polite response came out. "No. I go to boarding school. I'm meant to leave tomorrow."

He nodded and sat himself back down on the swing, gripping the chains which held it up and turning to face her. He smiled wryly, wondering whether the girl was lucky or not. "Sounds cool. I think my dad wanted me to go to boarding school, but I was too hyperactive or something. Hey, tell me your name!"

She seemed startled at his forwardness, but covered it up with a smile. "Lucy. My name is Lucy."

He cracked a grin, silently thinking that he was fortunate to have met the girl. "I'm Natsu. And it's great to meet ya!"

She hummed to herself, muttering something that he didn't catch. Quizzical, he waited until she realised her confusing actions and explained boldly. "Ah! Your name, it means summer, right? Well... Even though it's the only time I get a break, I'm not very fond of the summer. I actually sorta hate it."

"Oh... Is that so?" he asked, pouting immaturely for play. "Does that mean you don't like me?"

She shot him a scandalised look, her small right hand stroking the cat's fur which appeared to be soft. He smiled toothily, making it clear that he was only messing with her. Getting the message, it was her turn to pout, but she managed to do that unsuccessfully, ending in a giggle.

Continuing to chat for the next half-an-hour or so, it was almost as if they had been friends for years instead of just minutes. After small discussion about it, they decided that it would be nice for the both of them to head to the small bakery near the park that he had passed by on the way.

Making their way, they fawned over the small blue cat, which looked as if it were enjoying the attention gotten from the pair. Unexpectedly, as they were nearing the road crossing they needed to pass to make their way to the shop, the cat leaped from Lucy's arms. Frantic, and without him being able to stop her, Lucy began running after her dear pet, which had swiftly managed to get itself onto the road. Without thinking, he watched the girl speed up, her feet finding its place on the dark gravel. All seemed according to plan...

Until the traffic light which had been green just a second before had changed to a bright and glaring red.

It was a sound that he would've done anything – given up everything – to forget. The massive delivery truck sped like a wild animal, the horn it blasted for warning useless. She had stopped for just a moment – a fraction of a second – in her running to stare at her unforseen oblivion. The agonising shriek she that tore from her throat as the vehicle made impact had wracked through his entire body, echoing into even the deepest reaches of his mind.

The scent of the sticky summer atmosphere had mingled with the iron stench of her crimson blood, the combination giving him a choking sensation. Nausea overwhelmed him as he pressed a shaky hand against his mouth in a futile attempt to not let anything sick come out. He closed his eyes, shaking his head in absolute denial.

'It's all a lie. It's all a dream. This can't be happening. This can't be –'

In the midst of the heat-haze that surrounded him, in the haze of happenings he wished were just lies, he must've begun turning delusional. Beyond the lifeless body and the horrific scene, on the other side which they were meant to have reached safely, he saw a figure. It was his reflection. His mirror image, the difference being the fact that the image was tinted fully red – the same colour as the liquid that stained the entire scene before him.

The figure, which he had dubbed the 'Heat Haze', jeered at him, laughing at his demise as he reaffirmed the one thing he didn't want to hear.

"This is all real!" the Heat Haze shouted.

As the pedestrian crossing light flickered to green, the cricket's sound echoed in his ears - from his mind or from the park behind him, he wasn't sure where it came from. Glancing up, he took a final look at the light blue of the summer sky before it darkened away into a black murkiness.

..O..

He woke up with a jolt on the 14th of August, a few minutes past noon. Outside his window chirped a cricket, the sound annoying him more than it should have. On his bedside table was his alarm clock, the ticking sound calming him slightly. His erratic breathing slowed, as well as the pounding heartbeats in his chest.

The dream... No. Nightmare. The nightmare he had was almost too vivid to recall. Everything was so real. Maybe watching too much anime got him into thinking things like that.

The rest of the day passed normally, with him playing on the PS3 more often than not. His father came home late and they had pizza together, and at 1:30 in the morning, he finally went to bed.

On the 15th of August, at 12:01 pm, he woke to the dazzling rays of the sun outside. Looking out his window as he rubbed away the sleep from his eyes, he saw that the weather was incredibly nice, the perfect summer day. After grabbing something spicy for brunch and getting himself dressed, he sprinted out the doorway without a single word and headed for the park.

At the swings by her lonesome self, except for the cat on her lap, was a girl. He stopped in his running as a painful throb pulsed through his mind. The girl seemed familiar. Blonde hair that was partly tied up in a side ponytail, brown eyes that sparkled with curiosity and a blue cat that had fur the colour of the summer sky. The girl... He had definitely seen her before.

He approached her cautiously. Noticing that someone else had joined her, she looked up and greeted him with a warm smile. "Hello there," she chirped.

A smile grew on his face, but the feeling at the bottom of his stomach was uneasy. "Hi. I'm Natsu. What's your name?"

"Lucy."

Her voice pronouncing that name sent a shock through him. That voice was familiar. That name was familiar. She was familiar.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he asked her sheepishly, "Uhh... Have we... Have we met before? You seem really familiar to me."

A light giggle tumbled out of her mouth as she shook her head in response. "Nope. I don't think we've ever met. I don't usually come here. Only for the summer, when I'm away from boarding school."

He nodded. The uncomfortable and nauseating feeling in his stomach grew worse.

"I'm Natsu," he began, covering his uneasiness with a grin. He held his hand out as an invitation to her. "And since you seem bored, how about coming over to my house? We have tons of games! We could order some pizza too! And I promise that I'm not creepy or anything."

She stood up, the swing creaking behind her as if it resented her departure. Letting her pet cat go to the floor to stand by her side, she stretched her arms out and laughed. "Okay then. If you're so sure."

They began walking, and that only fuelled his anxiety. In front of them, he saw a crossroad, the pedestrian light a bright, striking green. Impulsively, he caught her forearm with his right hand, gripping it tight. She paused in her steps, turning her head back to look at him worriedly.

He smiled. "I know a shortcut to get to my house. Let's take that route instead," he lied.

Without any argument from her, he began to run, taking her with him. The pit of his stomach churned with displeasure – something truly awful was going to happen. He was going to do anything at any cost to not let anything happen, especially to her.

"N-Natsu!" she squeaked, trying to keep up with his speed. He knew that he should've slowed down, or even stopped entirely so that she could have a small break to get some air, but he didn't want to stop. If he did, he knew that something bad would happen, and not to him.

They reached the sidewalk of another street in a few minutes, in which he began to slow down to appease her. Even though they were far, far away from the place that had given him the worse stomach ache he'd ever had, he still felt nausea. He knew that panicking and acting strange would make Lucy suspicious, so he needed to act as normal as he could, or as much as he could manage.

He walked onto the road, letting go of his hold on her. He could just imagine that with how hard he was gripping onto her forearm, he might've left a mark. Putting a smile on his face, though not as natural as his daily one, he turned around with his mouth already running off. He was too oblivious to notice other pedestrians looking up, pointing at something above them with fear and shock. "Hey Luce! Sorry for that! I just wanted to get my heart going and thought a decent run would do the trick and –"

His sentence trailed off as he glanced up, his face morphing into one of horror. Just like in his dream, time slowed down around them. Lucy, innocently absentminded of what was to come, kept nodding in interest to his words. Then, for a split second, she mimicked his action and looked up, seeing iron poles used for construction dangling precariously above of her. And then... they fell.

Her unbearable shrieks mimicked the screams from his dream in sickening harmony. They were the exact same; no mistaking it. The iron pole had pierced straight through her, like a skewer. The bottom half had pinned itself to the ground, dyed in the unmistakable crimson colour that he had seen a few too many times than what was necessary. His senses went into overdrive, the metallic smell even more revolting in the humid heat. Sounds from all around him merged in a horrendous symphony – her agonising cries mixed with gasps of horror from civilians a complete contrast to the faint sounds of wind chimes tinkling as the breeze blew past.

His own screams had joined the chorus only moments later, as a torrent of indescribable, yet awful, emotion swept through him. Was he stuck in another dream again? There was no other solution. He was stuck in another nightmare of his own concoction, and would wake up in a few moments to resume life as normal. Yes, that was the inconceivable truth. It must have been.

"You already know that you're lying to yourself," a sinister voice beside him whispered. He jumped and backed away, faced once more with his Heat Haze image, the boy smirking knowledgably and with no remorse over whatever trauma his experience may have caused him. "Nightmares? That would only be a simple solution. Oh no. This is much more complicated than that."

Natsu stared at him agape.

"This is the real thing!"

He fell to his knees, clutching at his head, fingers digging in his rosy spikes, as pain slammed into his mind. Accompanied with it was the threat of being consumed by a darkness which would take away his consciousness. As his vision blurred, like it had in his dream – or what he had considered a dream – he gazed back helplessly at the beaten profile of his companion.

The Heat Haze must have been a playing trick with his mind. Because... Lucy was smiling.

..O..

He jolted out of his bed with a start, covered in a cold sweat. His breathing was heavy and laboured, as if he were running miles and miles beforehand. In his panic, his hand knocked around items scattered across his side table – his phone falling onto his bed. A nervous wreck, he turned it on.

The 14th of August, a little bit past noon.

Instead of calming down like he thought he would, his heart only kept racing, keeping on track with his mind, which was thinking of incredulous possibilities at miles a minute. 14th of August? How could that have even been possible? The day before was the 15thof August.

The day when he saw an innocent girl die in front of his eyes.

He laid back in bed, trying to sort through his thoughts. Outside, a cricket chirped. He found the annoying sound somewhat ominous.

He continued the day with confusion about dates and time, and a scary sense of déjà vu. His dad came home late that night, in his hand a pizza. He found it strange, wondering why they'd have pizza again. He went to bed at 1:30 am and had a dreamless sleep, which he found a blessing.

At roughly 12:01 pm the next day, he arose from his sleep. Wanting to make sure that his phone wasn't acting up again, he turned it on. His eyes grew wide in disbelief and fear.

It wasn't August 17th like he presumed it to be.

It was August 15th.

Panic started to rush through him. What was going on? Could someone have been playing a cruel joke on him? It wasn't the 15th of August. It couldn't be the 15th of August.

After getting dressed and eating breakfast, he ran out the door, determined to get to only a single place in the neighbourhood in the hope that his awry suspicions were all wrong. Passing by the familiar surroundings of the trees and bushes, he finally reached the playground, eyes reaching the pinnacle point of the area which would end all his fears.

His heart stopped.

A little girl sat there, gazing up at the blue skies above them. Her hair was a bright blonde, tied up in a peculiar style. In her lap was a blue cat, who seemed to be napping peacefully as she stroked its fur. He couldn't see the colour of her eyes, but if he wasn't mistaken…

The girl looked down, eyes raking across the park, sensing that there was another presence nearby.

Her eyes were a warm, chocolate-brown.

He kept cover behind a tree to keep him away from her prying eyes. All the while, his thoughts and heart just wouldn't stop racing. Why was she still there? Hadn't she elaborated enough that she was going to a boarding school the following day?

But that meant that she was going back to her school on the 16th of August.

And everywhere around him, it was the 15th of August.

And for the past few days, he knew what happened on this '15th of August'.

So he stayed there in his hiding spot, watching to see if anything dangerous would come to her. If it did, then he would do anything in his power to stop it – to make sure that she lives. She sat there, looking around her, a hopeful look in her eyes as she waited for someone – anyone – to come around and simply talk. But he was resolute in his decision to keep away from her.

Around thirty minutes after he arrived, she begun to swing. She moved back and forth like a pendulum, a look of pure joy replacing the melancholy one that she had previously. His steely expression softened. Maybe the past two tragic happenings were merely a dream. The Heat Haze had been mistaken. This girl… Lucy… He'd never truly meet her, and she would be alive and happy and safe when she goes back to school.

And then he got that sensation. That sickening sensation in the pit of his stomach. The one that always appeared right before Lucy…

His head snapped up, looking around their surroundings to see what threat would come to her harm. He couldn't see anything. He couldn't find anything that could endanger her. Then what was it? What was the thing that was going to kill her?

He looked back at her, body turning cold when he saw what was happening. At her swing forward, the chains of the old swing broke. But instead of falling safely on the ground, there was a problem. Lying right in her landing path was a jagged rock he hadn't noticed before. The part of the abnormally large rock sticking out was sharp – deathly sharp.

Time slowed as she was milliseconds away from it. Some type of mortified sound ripped from his throat as he began running out to catch her – to stop the tragedy again. But he wasn't running fast enough. His speed was slow. It was much too slow. And she was descending so quickly, as a chilling shriek rung high through the air.

He was too late. Her body was sprawled across the dirt ground, face down. He knelt beside her and grabbed her hand in a futile attempt to find any semblance of life from her. Unshed tears blurred his vision. The heat made him dizzy. Behind him, a mirage-like image formed, taking steps forward to stand beside him. He didn't turn around to see what the figure was, already knowing their identity.

"Are you thinking of escape?" the Heat Haze asked menacingly. "See if you can beat whatever has trapped you in this paradox, and then you can have your escape."

He succumbed to the darkness that had threatened to overwhelm him, already expectant of what lay ahead of him.

..O..

Instead of waking up as usual in his bed, his sight was greeted by something much more troubling. It was a dark empty space, nothing more could be used to describe it. Just… space. But in front of him, an exception to the emptiness of the space, were clocks. There were hundreds – possibly even thousands – of clocks, all moving at various speeds. They were hung against what seemed like an invisible wall, hanging in the air directly in front of him. However, there were three simple clocks, which wouldn't have caught his attention any other time in the mass of clocks in front of him.

Had they not been liberally coated in blood.

Along with the fact that their hands were frozen at a specific time – 12:35.

"Can you make any conclusions from what you see in front of you?" asked the Heat Haze from somewhere near him. The voice was magnified in the empty space, sounding louder than what a normal voice should be. "August 15th. Precisely 12:35 pm. She will always die."

His hand clenched. "I… I won't let this happen. I won't let someone innocent die so cruelly. I won't stand for this!"

The Heat Haze cackled, the sound striking through every fibre of Natsu's body. It paralysed him out of fear. But his eyes still carried his determination, not wavering even through his fear.

"Well then… I never knew that I was so headstrong. Interesting to see myself in another perspective." A figure appeared beside him, a ghostly hand drifting along the clock on the left – the one which Natsu imagined to be the first death. "Good luck trying to find the solution, real-world me. There is only one. Let's see if you're smart enough to figure it out. And that's only the easy part in finding your… escape."

He glared at his reflection. The Heat Haze shrugged, ignoring whatever spite his real self held. The last memory Natsu had before the darkness swallowed him again was a mischievous smile, borne from someone that you unconsciously knew was pure evil.

..O..

The fourth 'August 15th', he had run out of the house with a burst, determined to make sure that he could stop whatever force was controlling their tragedy. At that park, she was already sitting on the swings, blue cat in lap and a twinkle of curiosity in her eye. Without giving warning to her, he grabbed her forearm and charged away.

"H-Hey! Let go!" she cried out, struggling against the tight hold he had on her.

He ignored her pleas. "My name's Natsu. I heard that there was someone dangerous coming to the park, so I needed to get any innocent bystander out of there."

Her mouth shut closed, holding back a remark of his rudeness that she was about to spout out. Thankful that she wasn't about to get angry at him, he ran with her to the nearest overhead bridge. But he felt that they were too slow. Time would catch up to them.

"Hurry!" he ordered out.

They reached the bridge at a quicker pace than what he thought was humanly possible. Nothing would harm her there. There was nothing dangerous there.

Waiting at the middle of the bridge, only for his eyes to see, was the Heat Haze, looking smug as ever.

"It's no use," the Heat Haze told him.

His face went aghast as behind him, the girl that he was holding on so tightly a fraction of a moment ago was falling, down the large number of steps that they had climbed previously. The Heat Haze laughed at his misery. A bellow tore from his throat as her body fell limp on the concrete at the bottom of the stairs. Blood started pooling around her. In a psychopathic mindset, it almost looked like an artwork.

He succumbed to darkness. He had failed again.

..O..

The fifth 'August 15th', he led Lucy to a part of the town he knew was safe, since it was always busy. It would provide them with cover, was what he thought. News about an escaped convict was the topic of gossip that afternoon. He couldn't prevent anything when a mystery man wearing a hood stabbed her in the back – said escaped convict. He cried out in frustration when that darkness overtook him.

The sixth 'August 15th' had him leading her to somewhere he deemed safe – his home. He took the route which passed by a river. She had stumbled upon a rock and tripped, rolling down the slope until she hit the river. He had always assumed that the river wasn't deep, but still followed her down out of paranoia. He grew cold at the sight of something reddening the water. He waited a little at the river's side, holding the false hope that it wasn't true. Her body never surfaced.

The seventh and eighth 'August 15th's were similar to the first. Vehicles were the cause. Blood had splattered everywhere. Her body lay lifeless on the gravel road, limbs angled unnaturally. People looked at the scene in shock. He looked at it in hopelessness. Another two failures. Two more clocks stopped and stained with blood.

The 9th 'August 15th' had her mauled by a rabid dog that had found its way to the park. Trying to fend it off was no use. It ripped her like a piece of meat. It was the most gruesome death that he had witnessed to date. Instead of angled limbs, they were shredded, parts of her undistinguishable to tell through the blood that coated them. That death was unforgettable, the term used in a macabre sense.

The 10th 'August 15th' flew right past him, as the one previous to that burned his mind, making him forget all else. The ones following all rushed past him, as each and every attempt he made did nothing. Each and every time, she died again and again. And each time she died, he was always the front row spectator.

It wasn't possible to stop time.

She would always die.

There was no solution.

However, even thinking that last thought, there was still something deep in him – the intuitive part of him – that knew something. That knew the only possible solution to it all. But that was a desperate measure, one to leave if nothing else worked.

There must have been some other way.

..O..

There were no other existences between 'August 14' and 'August 15'. He could barely remember the days, months and years previous to the timeframe which trapped him. He would never know the days, months and years that would come after it. It would always and forever be those two tragic days; two days that had driven him to the point of absolute madness.

Countless times had had him blacking out, making him due to repeat the cycle over and over again. Even when the figure wasn't there, Natsu had grown so accustomed to it that in the depths of his mind, he could hear the Heat Haze's evil laugh.

He had tried everything to save her. Everything. He had repeated the same two days for what he knew was decades.

Thousands upon thousands of clocks lined the invisible wall, faces dyed in crimson and hands paralysed at 12:35. All his attempts. All of them failed.

There was only one solution. He knew about it a long time beforehand. It was as if somewhere in him, he always knew.

A single clock met his vision, its clean surface a contrast to those that had been tainted after each tragedy he didn't prevent. It hadn't stopped yet, hands moving at a constant pace.

The next August 15th, he would see to it that those clock hands would still continue to move, that clock surface still clean and untouched of the blinding red.

He had always assumed that there was something more waiting for him after the two days, once he beat it. In a tale like theirs, one would expect that there was only one ending for them; the tragic one. But he knew that somewhere – he didn't know where, but he knew it was out there – another possibility existed. The possibility that one day, he and Lucy would be able to play together once more, as snowflakes decorated their scenery.

Beyond the paradox of the fine summer's day, it had to exist.

There was nothing left for him to lose.

..O..

After eating and dressing up for the day, he ran out the door in a hurried sprint, a single destination in mind. The playground wasn't empty when he arrived. A girl sat on one of the lonely swings. Part of her golden blonde hair was tied into a ponytail, the rest of her hair free to her shoulders. Her chocolate-brown eyes seemed warm. In her lap was a cat with bright blue fur – nearly the same colour as the summer sky above them.

With nothing better to do, he approached the girl, seating himself in the empty swing beside her. After a glance over at her familiar appearance, an enigmatic emotion flashing across his dark eyes when he did so, he piped up.

"You don't have school yet?"

The girl was surprised, but still replied in with that polite tone of hers. "No. I go to boarding school. I'm meant to leave tomorrow."

He smiled fondly, hoping that it didn't look scary to her. "Sounds cool. I think my dad wanted me to go to boarding school, but I was too hyperactive or something. Hey, tell me your name!"

She grinned in response. "Lucy. My name is Lucy."

He cracked a grin of his own, giving her his full, undivided attention. "I'm Natsu. And it's great to meet ya!"

She muttering something that he didn't catch. Patiently, under a guise of looking confused, he waited until she realised her confusing actions and explained boldly. "Ah! Your name, it means summer, right? Well... Even though it's the only time I get a break, I'm not very fond of the summer. I actually sorta hate it."

"Oh... Is that so?" he asked, a thought of irony coming to mind. "Funnily enough… I'm not that fond of summer either."

And for the next half-hour or so, they talked, getting to know each other until it felt as if they'd known each other for years, rather than just a fraction of an afternoon. After a small discussion about it, they mutually agreed to head to a nearby café he had passed to get something to cool them down in the hot weather.

While they walked, they fawned over her cat which she had affectionately named Happy. Happy seemed to like the attention they were giving him, an adorable creature just like Lucy described. Unexpectedly though, just as they were nearing a pedestrian crossing, Happy jumped out of Lucy's arms and began running forward, soon managing to get itself on the road. Lucy, in her frantic panic, began running to chase it, but Natsu beat her to it, pushing her away from the tragedy he knew was about to happen.

Everything was according to plan.

The traffic light which had been green just a second before had changed to a bright and glaring red.

The impact was more painful than he could've ever imagined. The speeding delivery truck had slammed into him with reckless force. His surroundings became bleary, many parts of his body shutting down – the sign of his impending death. His twisted body, along with those chocolate-brown eyes that he had grown to love were similar to hazy reflections. Something splattered on his face. He knew it was red; his own blood.

Instead of the usual laugh that the Heat Haze had, the mirage-like figure stood off to the side, dumbfounded by what he saw. Natsu grinned at him, managing to mouth the words, "I beat it". He was surprised to see tears form in his reflection's eyes.

Though muffled, he was very aware that someone screamed. Lucy. He glanced at her to see her mortified expression. Had he looked like that during her deaths? He didn't need to know anymore. It was 12:35. She was still alive. That was all that counted.

But something shimmered beside her, seeming to appear out of nowhere. Through his rapidly closing eyes, he glimpsed at the figure. The figure was a pale blue. The figure was a reflection of Lucy. Lucy's Heat Haze.

No… It wasn't possible. He had found the solution, hadn't he? He had saved her. They would be able to escape their distorted prison. That was what his sacrifice was for.

But before he could do anything, darkness swept over him. But it was different from the many previous it. He knew that it was permanent.

He succeeded at letting her live. But… he failed at beating time.

..O..

Lucy stood in an empty space, completely tinted in shadow. In front of her were clocks, propped up against an invisible wall. All of them were stained in a dreadful blue tint. All of them had hands stopped at precisely 12:35. All of them were fractured.

A blue girl passed her, reaching a fist to a nearby clock that had stopped its hands, but was still left intact.

The Blue Heat Haze slammed her hand against the glass surface of the clock, cracking it into pieces.

..O..

She woke up at 12:01 pm, on August 14th, to bright rays of sunshine hitting her face and the sound of a very annoying cricket chirping right outside her windowsill. She propped herself up into a sitting position and leaned her head against the windowpane. Hot tears formed in her eyes and blurred her vision.

"I failed this time, too…" she muttered softly. The tears ran down her cheeks as a feeling of despair pooled at her stomach. Cradled in her arms was a cat with peculiarly blue fur. Happy mewled at her, as if it wanted to comfort her in some type of way. It wouldn't work.

For in day's time, she would have to see an innocent boy die right in front of her eyes.

Her blue reflection – the Blue Heat Haze – appeared beside her and smiled wickedly.