I had a wonderfully horribly sad story idea so here it is. Whether you like it or not, this story will continue so haha. I don't own FT, no matter how much I wish I did.

It'd been a month since Natsu was presumed dead. Lucy was a wreck. The only person who offered her comfort was Happy. The entire guild seemed to have turned against her overnight. Even Levy, her best friend next to the dragon slayer, was hurting her. Everyday, at least one person would come up to her and hurt her. They all blamed her for Natsu's death and some claimed to have only been nice to her in the first place because Natsu would've beat them up for bullying her. Now that he was gone, the only thing in their way was a small blue cat that was easily batted away. Actually, that's a lie. Wendy, Gajeel, Juvia, Charla, and Lisanna all tried to protect her since they had joined the guild later.

Thanks to the guild, Lucy now cried herself to sleep every night. Wendy had to heal her everyday and she had had to move so that Gray and Erza would stop coming in the middle of the night to beat her up. Lucy, already torn up about Natsu's death (since you know, she loved him), was slowly fading away. Nightmares interrupted any sleep, the most prominent being the night he died.

Natsu swung his arm over her shoulder, laughing as Gray searched for his clothes. Erza glared at the boys, one for laughing, the other for stripping in the first place. They'd selected a mission to round up some bandits. It hadn't been to hard and Lucy had managed to get a good hit in. She hadn't told her friends yet, but she'd been training. She was going to tell Natsu soon though. Lucy's eyes glazed over as her overactive mind imagined exactly how else Natsu's "I'm all fired up!" catchphrase could be used. A faint blush painted her cheeks as she snapped back into reality. Natsu was grinning at her again, as if he'd read her mind. Erza pulled her out of her embarrassment with a shout.

"Someone's coming!"

Natsu jumped into action, throwing Lucy behind him and setting his fists ablaze. Erza pointed back the way they'd come and Natsu went charging. He came back a few minutes later pissed off.

"No one's there Erza. Geez."

Lucy dusted herself off and walked up to Natsu. He dropped his arm over her shoulder again and Team Natsu continued the way it had been going. Then someone did come. They came with shadows. The shadows grabbed Lucy and pulled her away from the group, screaming. Natsu ran after her, completely on fire this time. The man controlling the shadows released Lucy and threw her at Natsu, who extinguished himself just in time to catch her. Then a shadow shot towards them, aiming for Lucy's heart. Natsu shoved her out of the way and took the hit. The shadows disappeared as suddenly as they'd appeared. Natsu fell to the ground, blood dripping out of his mouth and chest. Lucy ran to the man, laying him gently on his back and hovering over his face, trying to put pressure on the wound.

"Please Natsu, you can't die. Please," she sobbed, her tears mixing with his blood on her hands. Natsu smiled at her weakly and whispered something in her ear that the others missed. Her sobs intensified and she pumped his chest, begging for him to come back. Erza pulled the blonde away from the corpse and kicked her in the stomach.

"It's your fault. If he hadn't taken it for you, you'd have died and he'd have survived," she hissed. Lucy stared up at her in shock. Lucy tried to stand and run, but Gray trapped her in his ice cage. They took her back to the guild and paraded her as Natsu's killer, no matter how many times she begged them to understand that it wasn't her fault. Only the ones who actually cared about her listened.

Lucy sat up in her bed, a sob stuck in her throat. Her face fell into her hands as tears erupted between the fingers. The blue cat on her lap hissed at the water until he noticed its source. He stood up and buried his head in her chest. She held him for a while, falling back onto the pillows with a groan. The most recent injuries had left her bedridden for a few days and the nightmares just kept getting worse. She fell asleep slowly, tears tickling her nose.

Wendy watched her blonde friend limp into the guild. The blue cat hovered around her head like a worried mother. Lucy plopped down at the table that Wendy was at. She greeted her tiredly, not even bothering to pretend she wasn't tired. She'd started wearing longer shirts and blue jeans to keep the stares off of her. People tended to notice her more if they could see the new and old wounds.

"How'd you sleep?" Wendy asked cautiously. Lucy gave her the famous 'are-you-freaking-kidding-you-did-not-just-ask-that' look that she'd been giving her more.

"Like a baby. I was up every few hours."

"At least you got some sleep."

Lucy chuckled dryly. She stood up and leaned over to Wendy. A tired expression crossed her face as she spoke. "I'm quitting. I'm done with them."

Wendy nodded, understanding what she was saying. "Well, I'm coming with you. Gajeel, Lisanna, and Juvia made me promise that I would if you did. They still have some hope of changing the guild's opinion."

Lucy sighed and pulled Wendy up, giving her a small smile. "Tell them thank you while I tell Master what we're up to." Wendy smiled back and ran off to find the others. Master Makarov was blissfully unaware of the situation inside of the guild, since he was so busy with paperwork. Lucy crossed the room, ignoring the jeers and false catcalls. She climbed the stairs and walking into his office without knocking. He looked up at her, surprised.

"Hey, Lucy. What can I do for you?"

Lucy smiled at the small man. "Wendy, Happy, Charla, and I are leaving the guild."

He gasped. "Why?"

Lucy groaned, face-palming. "You really need to pay better attention. Just ask Gajeel, Juvia, or Lisanna."

The man gave her a confused look but she shrugged it off. He sighed and took off her guild mark, telling her to send the other three up when she left.

"No need. They've been waiting at the door to see if you would cry." Lucy crossed the room and pulled the door open, making Wendy and Happy fall over. Charla scoffed at them and flew calmly into the room. Once they'd made the three promises and a fourth to come back and visit (which they probably would break), they took a deep breath and turned to face the lion's den. Happy and Charla flew the two girls over the heads of the guild so they'd be harder to hit. They rushed outside and ran all the way to the train station. Since the girls were just going to disguise themselves in another town, they didn't see the need to bring anything other than jewels with them, which they had in their pockets. They paid for the first train out of Magnolia.

Depressed yet? Mwahaha. Leave a review if you want, I really don't care. If you have ideas about where this should go, I'm all ears. :)