Author's note: A Halloween fic for all of our lovely followers. Hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful Halloween.
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and it's characters belong to Hiro Mashima.
It was finally October in Fiore. The leaves melted into brown and orange hues and the temperature fell, turning the light summer winds into a cold harsh wind and causing the citizens to cozy up. But most importantly, preparations began for-
"Halloween! Muwahaha!" Natsu yelled, as he jumped in front of Lucy and Levy. His arms were spread out, showing off his new black and red cape and vampire fangs.
"What's so special about Halloween?" Lucy questioned. Levy snickered beside her. Lucy was not going to like where this was heading.
Natsu's arms lowered. "Whats so special- LUCY It's Halloween, the best time of the year!"
"Why, because of the free candy?" Lucy mocked.
"I ain't gonna lie, that's part of it, but no. It means the annual scare off is on!" He cheered raising his arms once more.
"The annual scare off?" Lucy turned to Levy while Natsu became distracted with whirling his cape around.
"Its a competition Fairy Tail does every Halloween. Basically we try to scare each other until only one victor remains. Magic is allowed as long as we don't destroy anything and eliminated members can still scare the remaining competitors." Levy answered.
"Yeah, and it's awesome!" Natsu yelled.
"Er, if I don't want to participate-" Lucy started.
"It's mandatory." Erza answered, walking up with Gray and Gajeel trailing her.
"What ya guys talking about?" Gajeel inquired.
"The scare off competition I told you about." Gray said turning to Gajeel.
"Yes, it truly shows the strength and serenity of each member." Erza proclaimed.
Happy flew up next to Natsu. "Hey Erza, weren't you one of the first to be eliminated last year?"
Erza's face darkened. Gray and Natsu both started laughing.
"Oh, that was awesome, you should have seen your face!" Natsu said, doubled over with his arms crossed over his stomach.
Gray wiped a tear from his eye. "We got you so good."
Lucy looked back and forth between them. "Wait, both of you scared her?"
"Yeah, it was a temporary truce. Worked perfectly too." Gray answered. Natsu walked up next to him and fist bumped him.
"You caught me off guard and used my weakness against me." Erza glowered.
Both boys just started laughing again.
"Wait, what did you do? What's Erza's weakness?" Lucy asked.
Natsu answered. "Oh, it was so simple! We just got-"
But before Natsu could finish, Erza kicked both boys in the head.
They fell on the ground, dazed.
Erza flipped her hair behind her back. "It was nothing, won't happen again. Besides, it's not me who you should worry about. It's Levy."
Lucy whipped her head to Levy, who sat back with a smirk on her face.
"Levy, huh?" Gajeel appraised.
"Yes, Levy might not seem like it but not only does she not scare easily, she is also masterful at coming up with pranks."
Gajeel looked Levy over. "Ya don't say."
Erza continued. "She's won two years in a row. Five years overall. Only Laxus has beaten her."
"Levy-chan? Really?!" Lucy blanched.
Gajeel made a devilish grin. "Well, hope you don't mind losing, cause I'm gonna be the one who beats you this year, shrimp."
Levy met his stare and smirked. "I'd like to see you try."
A few weeks later, the number of competitors had shrunk. Natsu managed to be one of the first members eliminated. Lucy had scared him by complete accident. All she did was walk up from behind him to ask a question, and Natsu screeched. If only everyone was that easy.
Gajeel sat at the bar, sulking. Over the past three weeks, Gajeel had tried everything he could think of against Levy. Thinking she would be an easy target, he put a mask on and jumped out of a corner for his first attempt, but she didn't even flinch. She just smirked and kept walking.
Damn that smirk. How is she doing this? That wasn't even the worst of what he tried.
After his first failed attempt, he tried tying a giant fake spider to a string and flinging it at her while she was reading. No reaction. He dressed a mannequin up as a demonic clown and placed it right outside her window. Nothing. He hid a fake body in her shower, with blood smears and everything. Nope. He even conspired with Mira and came up with an elaborate prank, where he had Mira mimic Levy's form behind a fake mirror, then transform a into mutilated zombie and scare her when Levy glanced at the mirror. Levy just stood there and yawned. Yawned! It was a fool proof plan, perfectly executed, and that little brat just yawned.
Gajeel fumed. He only had a few days left and he was running out of ideas.
The doors to Fairy Tail swung open, and in walked the said blue haired mage.
Gajeel watched as Levy sauntered over to her usual reading spot, plopped down, and opened her book.
He stood up and walked over until he was in front of her. Then he slammed his fists down onto the table, creating a loud bang. Levy didn't even jump. She calmly looked up at him and closed her book. She was absolutely infuriating.
"Yes, Gajeel?" She asked sweetly.
"I have to know how you're doing it."
She looked at him, eyes wide with fake innocence. "Doing what?"
"Tch, don't play dumb. All year long you jump at the slightest noise, but now nothing? I ain't buying it."
Levy grinned mischievously. "Is it frustrating you?"
"Yes! Just freakin' tell me already!" He growled.
Levy scrunched her face in concentration and rubbed her chin. "No, I don't think I will."
"GAH, you little-" his eyes skirted to her arm. Her sleeve had slid down her arm, and his eye caught on some black ink on her skin.
He shot out and grabbed her arm.
"Hey!" She protested, but he ignored her and pulled down her shirt sleeve.
On her skin, written in perfect penmanship were the words: "Unafraid and calm"
Levy jerked her arm out of Gajeel's grasp and looked away, her checks slowly reddening.
"Hah! I knew it! I knew something wasn't rig-" Levy smacked her hand over his mouth and glanced around the guild.
"Don't talk so loud!" She exclaimed with panic in her voice. She removed her hand, and sighed.
"Look, can we go somewhere private? I'll explain everything there."
She looked into his eyes as he slowly nodded.
"Good, follow me."
Levy got up and walked towards the guild doors. Gajeel followed her dutifully. She continued walking even after passing the guild gates. Gajeel noticed that it was a particularly cold and cloudy night. The air buzzed with electricity as if a thunderstorm was brewing and sharp winds tore through the tree branches. He raised a studded brow towards Levy's back.
"Where are we going?"
"To Fairy Hills." Levy answered.
"Why the hell we going all the way over there for? Ain't this private enough?"
Levy looked back at him, with furrowed eyebrows. "I want to be sure no one will overhear us."
Gajeel rolled his eyes and continued following her. Women could be so difficult.
After an unholy amount of time, they arrived at Fairy Hills. Levy led him into her room, and closed the door behind him. Gajeel glanced around. It was more like a library than a room. Rows of bookshelves covered the walls, and even more stacks of books scattered the floor, their height taller than Levy herself. Figures Levy would have a room like this. How can someone even read this many books?
Levy motioned for Gajeel to sit down on a plush chair. Gajeel plopped himself down and looked at Levy expectantly.
She took a deep breathe.
"Okay, so this is kind of pathetic, but hear me out. Since everyone knows I scare so easily, I thought that if I could prove myself and win the Halloween Scare Off, people would stop seeing me as the scared book worm. So, when I discovered my magic could transcribe traits into a person, I decided that this was my chance. It takes a lot of magic to wear it all day, but it works. No matter how many times people jump out at me, I feel no fear. All I have to do is scare everyone else. Sometimes, when I can't figure out a way to scare someone, I'll just write "afraid" on them."
She wrapped her arms around herself and frowned. "I know that it's sort of cheating, but I didn't want to be the weak nerd anymore. I wanted everyone to see me as brave, for once."
She glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
Gajeel was silent for a bit, absorbing her words. He grinned, before he burst out laughing. Levy whipped around to him.
"W-Why are you laughing!?" Levy demanded.
Still laughing, he answered, "That's genius, shorty! I shouldn't have expected any less."
Smirking, he looked at her. "Don't ya worry, yer secret is safe with me."
"Really?"
"Of course. I ain't no rat."
Levy's face relaxed, and she gave a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, Gajeel." Levy said sheepishly.
Gajeel grunted in acknowledgement. Then, a thought struck him.
"How about next year, you and me team up and take this whole guild down? Whaddya say?"
Levy looked into his eyes, smiling. "That sounds fun. Next year it is, then."
Then, Levy's smile twisted, becoming sharp. "Well, since I'm already sharing secrets, do you want to know one more?"
Gajeel tilted his head. "Um, sure."
Levy grasped his arm, and pulled him out of his chair. Gajeel let himself be led into another room. Gajeel squinted at the lack of light. He felt Levy's hand release his arm.
"There's something I've wanted to show you, but I wasn't sure how you would take it."
Levy reached out and switched the light on.
A choking sound escaped Gajeel's throat.
Now illuminated, Gajeel saw that they were in Levy's room. But this was not an ordinary bedroom. On the walls of Levy's room, rows of shelves were nailed into the floral wallpaper, each one filled with motionless porcelain dolls. There had to be at least a hundred of them. Each of them varied in hair color, shape and dress. But they all had the same black eyes and blank expression. The dolls all faced the center of the room, watching Gajeel and Levy silently.
A sweat broke across his brow.
"Say hello to my friends!"
Something about the way she talked made Gajeel flinch. She made them sound alive. Levy looked over them fondly.
"I started this collection about four years ago. I started with one, and then they just… grew. I never told anybody because I was afraid they would think it's strange."
The dolls eyes seemed to follow them as Levy led a frozen Gajeel to one of the shelves.
"These guys over here are my favorite. Look, they're our guild members!"
Gajeel's eyes scanned the shelf. Sure enough, it was filled with dolls identical to their guild mates. Well, identical in hair and clothing. The expressions still mirrored the other dolls. Cold and lifeless.
"Oh look, here's Natsu. Cute, isn't he?"
Gajeel eyed the doll Levy gestured at, forcing himself to act nonchalant. It's innocent pink hair betrayed the rest of the features. It's eyes were slanted and mouth twisted into a frown. It's black eyes bored into him. Jerkily, he looked away.
"Yeah… cute."
Levy put the demon Natsu doll back and turned to him. "Did you know that some ancient cultures believed that you could transfer souls into dolls and bring them to life? Some believed that dolls were just vessels for demons to possess. Kind of like Bixlow's magic."
Levy glanced at Gajeel, before turning to him completely, frowning. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, peachy." Gajeel's heart was pumping and his eyes kept darting around to the countless number of dolls that stared at them. Their lifeless bodies looked like they were ready to jump out at him in any given moment.
Suddenly, Levy's window blew open. With a loud crack, her overhead light burnt out and the room descended into darkness.
"Oh! What was that?" He heard Levy gasp.
In the now darkened room, the dolls seemed to have grown in size and number. Gajeel slowly backed towards the door. Out of the corner of his eye, a shadow shifted.
A loud slam behind them made both Levy and Gajeel yelp and whirl around. Levy hurried over to the now closed door and jiggled the handle.
"It's locked!?" She turned back to Gajeel, who stood in the center of the room.
Click, click, click
"What is that?" Levy asked, voice wavering.
Gajeel looked for the source of the sound, which was difficult to do in this dammed darkness. His palms were sweating profusely now.
Levy suddenly gave out a weak chuckle. "Okay, okay, I get it. You got me, Gajeel. You can stop now."
"Sorry, shrimp. This ain't a prank." Gajeel said with a voice that sounded steadier than he felt.
A low guttural laugh echoed off the walls encasing them. Gajeel's gut wrenched.
Gajeel felt Levy come up behind and clutch his shirt, almost causing him to jump out of his skin.
"Gajeel…" He heard Levy whimper.
The tone in Levy's voice brought Gajeel to his senses. He had to be the brave one. He can't afford to look weak in front of Levy, of all people.
A scraping noise made them both jump. It's deep sound echoed in the room.
Steeling his nerves, Gajeel slowly walked towards the wall where the sound resonated from. It was the wall where the Fairy Tail replica dolls sat. Now adjusted to the darkness, Gajeel could see them staring at him, with their soulless eyes. Gajeel's hair stood on end. The scrapping sound seemed to emanate from behind the doll that resembled Pantherlilly. With a trembling hand,
Gajeel reached out for the doll and-
"Boo."
With a very manly screech, Gajeel flew backward, falling to the floor. Pantherlilly flew off the shelf and Levy switched on the lights. Both of them were clutching their stomachs and laughing hysterically.
Gajeel's heart raced as he looked back and forth between the two.
"Wait! You planned this?! Levy?!" He whipped his head around to Levy, who was leaning against the wall for support, still laughing.
Gajeel snapped his head back to where Pantherlily was floating.
"You goddamn traitor!" He growled.
"It was a test of courage and you failed spectacularly." Lily grinned.
Levy's giggles finally calmed down to a huff. She pushed herself off the wall and stuck her hand out for Gajeel to take.
Reluctantly, Gajeel accepted her hand and stood up. He observed the room around him, taking in the creepy ass creatures sitting on the shelves around them. He hated to admit it, but he was impressed. She got him good.
"Okay. How'd you know about the dolls?"
Levy smiled. "I saw the way you cringed when Lucy came into the guild with those porcelain dolls that one day. I knew that would be the key."
Gajeel blanched. "That was eight months ago!"
"Levy is the reigning queen for a reason." Lily nodded. Levy stuck out a peace sign.
Levy lowered her hand as her face turned serious and she glanced away. "But I wasn't lying about what I said earlier. Just so you know."
"Well. Like I said, I ain't no rat."
A slow smiled spread on Levy's face and she beamed at him. "So then, next year we're still a team, right? You had some pretty good pranks, that mirror thing with Mira was great. Together we'll be unstoppable."
"Hell yeah." Gajeel agreed.
"There's still people left this year." Lily offered.
"Oh, yeah!" Gajeel said. "I know bunny girl is still in. She's been freaking out all month, I don't know how she hasn't been eliminated yet."
Levy giggled. "That's my fault. I made the guild promise to not scare Lucy until the end, so she would be anxious all month."
Gajeel brows flew to his hairline. He chuckled, and gave Levy an awestruck look. "Ya know, I like this diabolical side of you, shrimp."
Levy grinned. "Oh, you have much to learn, Redfox."