Chapter 1
The sound of keys rattling against each other filled the empty hallway.
It became a pattern somehow. Or to be more accurate, a daily routine.
What followed next was the mutter of a few words under hushed tones that were undoubtedly posession of a female's. Soon after was the sound of a doorknob being twisted before a door was shut.
Lucy Heartfilia lived a mediocre life.
She worked as a marketing personnel for a magazine agency that was rather popular. That is, if someone mentioned its mother magazine brand. MouSTYLEche is a high-end fashion magazine catered to men with preferences of luxury tuxedos and handmade polo shirts that were probably made with the hands of unpaid child labourers in third-world countries. It, along a few other publishing companies, were under an umbrella company that reigned over Magnolia. Fairy Tail didn't have a specific category as to where they fit in. They weren't a publishing company but they owned quite a percentage of stock in other big companies too. They weren't a finance company. Yet, they have the power to publish an article that could possibly call the end of a politician's chances of running for president.
Dumping her bag onto the floor next to her clothes cabinet, the blonde slumped back-first onto the bed as she stared up at the ceiling.
Being an author right off the bat after university was just a dream among nightmares that loomed reality. Being a content writer was an easy job many assumed everyone could master. Write, grammar check, fancy words and sent out. She had no choice but to fall to someone else if she wanted to keep her place at Strawberry Road.
"Even God himself can't help me." She mumbled to herself before sitting up and preparing herself for a bath which would follow through before a sleep and the repetition of her unenthusiastic life.
--
She didn't remember turning the lights off to her room.
That was odd.
But then again, her mind has been in a maze for the past few months that she wasn't really surprised that she probably forgot she did.
"Great." Lucy said to herself as she tightened the string that was holding her robes together before using her right hand to switch the light back on.
Wait, what?
"I remember paying the bill for this month." She said aloud this time as she tried flickering the switch on and off several times.
Lucy wasn't going to give up on being not only deprived of an actual life but also light.
She cursed slightly before making her way into the living room. Just as she was about to take a step in front, a small gust of wind blew at her legs and she felt the hair on her arms stand.
Lucy froze at where she stood before trying to eye behind her. The temperature of the room dropped slightly and she was brought five years back.
"Lucy." A low voice, sounding almost like a rasp called out and she found herself turning towards it.
It was here.
Or him, to be exact.
The blazing red scales that covered almost half of his head was still prominent and almost glistening in the dark. Those majestic wings with small claw-like tusks at the junctions of where the skin of his wings joint were still as wide as she remembered. His teeth that were almost like a human's except for a said few that almost seemed a bit sharper than the rest.
What she remembered the most distinctively was the colour of his hair. A bright pink with light undertones that screamed to her and yet, called for no attention.
It was him.
She called him END.
He still looked exactly the same and if she wasn't the slightest bit scared yet mystified, she would have beat herself up for looking like a hag right now even though in person, the two of them would look around the same age, around their early twenties.
"W-What are you doing here?" She managed to croak out as her throat suddenly felt dry.
His lips slowly curved into that familiar smile before his piercing onyx eyes stared straight into hers.
"Your tongue may not be mine but your soul is." He said with a smirk and Lucy couldn't help but feel herself gulp.
"I already sold my soul to you. A promise was a promise. What do you want?" She asked yet again, her usual demeanor slowly returning as she remembered that there was nothing more for him to take away from her.
The smirk on END's face never dropped as he said, "I need a favour, Lucy."