Chapter One
"Hey…"
"Hm?"
"How long have we been here?"
"A couple hours maybe. I don't know…"
The small girl just hummed in reply, shivering. The room they were huddled in was unbearably cold, and for some reason, Levy McGarden felt very weak. She couldn't fathom where she was, but it seemed every room of the dark mansion held a new horror that tried to murder the two of them. She looked up at the man beside her.
He was chewing on a discarded piece of metal, biting into it like it was beef jerky. She just blinked, her eyelids feeling heavier as she tried to fight off sleep. But she couldn't afford that. She was in a place she didn't know with someone who was eating iron.
The man seemed to pay no notice to her, glancing around the dark room for the thousand time.
Levy sighed pulling a blanket off the bed and covering her shivering figure, slumping against the wall. Why did she feel so weak? She hadn't even used that much magic!
"Hey, shrimp."
"Don't call me that…"
"How did you get here?"
Levy just squinted at him through the dim light, racking her brain. But nothing came to mind. All she could remember, was that her name was Levy, and she was a solid script mage.
"I can't remember…"
"Me neither."
"Is that all?"
"... One more thing."
"Yes?"
"Who are you?"
It was a quiet evening at the Fairy Tail guild while Mira was cleaning up, the last of the wizards finishing up their nightly conversations before heading home.
"Mira-chan," Lucy Heartfilia, blonde beauty of the guild, walked up to the barmaid, who was drying the last of the beer mugs. "Have you heard anything from Levy and Gajeel? They went on a mission a couple days ago, and I haven't heard anything from her."
Mira turned her attention to the celestial mage, frowning.
"I haven't actually. The client confirmed that they checked in, but that's all." Lucy frowned at this.
"Luuuce, let's go get dinner?" Natsu walked up behind her, resting his chin on her shoulder. Lucy smiled at him, patting his hair and thanking Mira.
"Alright. where do you want to go?"
His response was cut short when the guild hall doors burst open, a black exceed shooting through them at full speed.
"Help!" He cried desperately and everyone looked at him in shock. He was shaking, eyes wide, and flying in circles.
"Lily?! What's wrong?"
"Gajeel and Levy are missing!"
Team Natsu, with the company of Juvia and Lily, all trudged along through the dark forest, following the dark-furred exceed. It had only taken a couple hours to get to the town by train, so it was around midnight when the team arrived.
"Man… These woods are creepy at night…" Lucy shuttered, stepping closer to the fire dragon slayer beside her. Natsu just laughed.
"Don't be so jumpy, Lucy. There are probably only a couple ghosts."
"A couple what?! Natsu!" He grinned childishly at her outburst, slinging an arm around her shoulder and kissing her hairline affectionately.
"Man, you are too easy. Relax sunshine, I'll protect you." Lucy grumbled at him, blushing at the pet name he had given her when they started dating. Natsu just grinned wider while Happy blushed, rolling his tongue at them.
"Lily, what exactly happened?" Juvia asked, walking close to Gray, with a finger in his belt loop. She knew her boyfriend didn't like public affection, so she just trailed behind him closely.
Erza hummed, crossing her arms as Wendy tried not to trip over several tree roots.
"Yes. You said they went missing?"
Lily turned in the air, still a little shaken, but thoughtful.
"It happened a couple days ago. I didn't even remember till today."
Lucy frowned. "You forgot they went missing?" And Lily nodded.
"The job we took on was to rid a mansion of dark magic. But the second the two of them walked in, the doors shut, and the building vanished."
"Vanished?"
"Okay, now I'm really freaked out!" Lucy squeaked.
"Yes. I couldn't get in before the doors shut. And after they did, I couldn't remember what I was doing there." Lily replied. Erza put her hand to her chin in thought. "There it is!"
The group looked up to see a gargantuan building, like an ancient castle, sitting in the middle of the woods (imagine Wayne Manor from the Christopher Nolan Batman movies). Lightning cracked behind it and Lucy jumped. How did that even happen?! It's not that cloudy!
"Alright team," The scarlet-haired knight turned to the group of wizards, hands on her hips. "We don't know what to expect in there, so we go in cautiously. We need to rescue our nakama."
"Alright! I'm all fired up!" Natsu pronounced excitedly. "I can't wait to see the look on that hard-head's face when I save his ass." The celestial mage behind him sweatdropped. Of course he would be thinking about that.
They walked across the large lawn. Aside from the fact that the mansion was in the middle of the darkened woods, and the breeze around them seemed to whisper warnings, the lawn and the house itself looked rather well kept. The team creeped up to the large doors, all on guard, with magic at the ready. Natsu grinned at Lucy over his shoulder and Gray instinctively made sure he could feel Juvia's presence close behind him.
Erza stepped within five feet of the door, when it creaked open, squeaking slowly and ominously.
She withdrew for a moment, readied her sword and looked to the team, who nodded. She stepped forward, Natsu and Gray at her flank, Juvia and Lucy behind them, and Wendy at the rear with the exceeds.
They walked in carefully, stepping into the building.
It was damp and cold the second they walked in, and Lucy shivered, the smell of sulfur stinging her nose. Natsu sneezed.
The adults had entered the doorway when Wendy bumped her nose hard, stumbling back and holding her face.
"Nani? There's something blocking the entrance!" Happy pushed on an invisible wall in the doorway, one that was keeping out the sky dragon slayer and the cats.
"Natsu-san! Erza-san!" Wendy pounded her fists against the enchantment, trying to get their attention. But the mages inside didn't seem to hear her.
"This is what happened last time! We have to get them out!" Lily said urgently, banging on the wall with his paws.
"Natsu!" Happy yelled as the door began to creak shut.
"Gray-san! Lucy-san! Juvia-san!" Wendy cried, but to no avail. The door clicked shut.
The stone building began to warp and they all gasped as it vanished before their very eyes.
Wendy blinked, looking up at the exceeds.
"Charles… What are we doing here again?"
"I… I don't remember."
Muahaha
~Cas