CHAPTER 1

THE NOTE

The smell of rotting flesh burned my nostrils. Where was I? The place was dimly lit with torches sporadically placed wherever one would fit, which, wasn't very often. My captor held me tight by my arm, I could feel a bruise forming and with every step, his grip tightened like a constricting snake. Lucy, Gray, Cana, and Lissana trudged along side of me. Our hands were bound with thick, course rope that cut into our wrists. Gray, was half conscious, focusing all his will power to keep walking. Large bruises and deep cuts were present on all of our beaten and battered bodies. We had all put up a great fight not to be captured, all, that is, except me. I am weak, I couldn't fight very well without someone to help me. I simply didn't put up much of a fight since I don't have much fight inside my small little body.

Suddenly we all came to a screeching halt as Lucy, exhausted, injured, Lucy, fell to the hard stone ground of the dungeon. The guard assigned to her looked down at her with a icy, condescending glare and wound his foot up to deliver a sharp kick to her already bruised ribs.

"No! Stop!" I screamed to the guard.

My plan to avert the guards attention away from my friend worked, not in my favor of course, but it worked. I out of everyone, had the least amount of bruises and cuts on me so what would one kick do?

"Oh, got a bit of fight in ya finally. Well good, you will be the first subject for interrogation." He said evilly.

"No Levy!" Lisanna called out to me with sad eyes.

The man's voice was slimy and had a tone to it that made his whispering tones scarier that if he shouted. I shrunk back but it was already to late. He roughly grabbed my arm and dragged me away from my friends.

"Just put them into that cell right there. It's closer to the interrogation room. Ha ha ha ha..." he laughed evilly.

As he drug me along, I felt a pang in my stomach. I was starving. I hadn't eaten since last night and my body was telling me so in a most unpleasant way. The guard suddenly stopped before a small door. It was a black iron color and gave off an aura of pure terror. My mind began to wander back to my aching stomach but I was snapped out of my moment of self pity as the dark door swung open. My stomach twisted into knots and I lost my appetite as my brain registered what my eyes were seeing. My assumptions of what were inside the interrogation room were not correct. While I had thought this would be a room with a table and two chairs, I was dead wrong. God, save me.

(Earlier that morning)

NATSU'S POV.

The guild was full of tension as I walked into. I could smell a whole cocktail of mixed emotions, all of which, weren't the best of ones. Terror, rage, worry, these were just some of them. I looked around to see where my group was, but, the only one I saw was Erza. I couldn't smell any of the others but I knew there were here, they never came in late. I ran over to Erza to ask her where the others were. When I reached her, she looked up towards me. Her eyes, now, were the color of her hair, red and puffy from crying.

"Erza! What's wrong?!" I asked.

"They are gone. All they left was a note. They took Lucy, Happy, Lissana, Cana, and Levy." She said with a solid expression and a monotone voice.

My blood boiled when I heard one specific name. Lucy. My whole body burst into flames. I would kill whoever laid a finger on my mate. I would kill them if one single hair was misplaced.

"Natsu, calm down!" someone said.

"Who...who were the... who are the bastards who..." I began but was cut off.

"Phantom Lord" A voice said from behind me.

The voice was deep and obviously male. It was slow and monotone, like Erza's voice. For some reason it sounded enraged and pained. Every syllable was forced like this person had a deep hatred towards the guild. One whiff of the scent the person gave off and I knew who it was, Gajeel.

I turned arround to see him sitting on a table. His glowing red eyes turned downward towards the floor. He slowly looked up. I could sense the hatred radiating from his body. His eyes were full of pure rage.

"Read this." he commanded as he handed me a piece of paper.

Natsu walked over and grabbed the piece of paper. His eyes scanned it, pausing when he read the name Lucy on the threat. He was so consumed with rage that he was smoking. A cloud of steam began to float off his body.

"They...Will...Die." he said as he turned the piece of paper into a pile of ashes.

Dear fairy tale scum,

You will notice that you are missing a couple of brats. Don't worry, we are taking extra special care of them for you. You probably don't know this, but we took one of your members for every single one we want to meet with. It would make it a lot easier if you would come quickly, we wouldn't want to keep your friends waiting for too long. Who knows, something, bad, may just happen to them.

We give you til four O' clock tomorrow. If we don't see anyone by then, we might just have to put these poor little brats out of their misery.

sincerely,

Master Jose