I've finally stopped procrastinating and actually edited the first chapter, so I could post it! XD I'm glad I'm able to post the first chapter before my family vacation. Enjoy the first chapter!
"Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible - it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could."
~ Barbara de Angelis
Not too long after my father was arrested, Lucy joined FTBI, and we got a couple new members to our team. The team now consisted of: Jellal, Ultear, Meredy, Gray, Natsu, Lucy, and me. Sometimes Levy joined our team as well but that wasn't often.
Sitting at my office desk, I twisted the ring that was on my right ring finger. It has been a month since Jellal proposed, and I still remembered it clearly. He had proposed when we were on vacation.
We were at Akane Resort as a reward to ourselves for catching my father. Although, I didn't do a lot of the fun activities, like swimming or anything that would involve me needing a swimsuit. Wearing a swimsuit would just expose too much skin. Too many scars. In fact, I barely even wanted to show my face, which still had stitches in it. Jellal kept on encouraging me though. "Erza, you shouldn't hide in the hotel room the entire time," Jellal sighed, "Don't you want to do anything?" "B-but-" I started. He knew that I was too nervous to do much, but he wanted to make sure that I was happy. Jellal knew for a fact that I didn't like staying in the hotel room.
"I already know what you're going to say, and I don't want to hear it," Jellal interrupted, "Erza, you look beautiful. Don't let your scars discourage you." When I hesitated, he spoke again. "Come on, you'll have fun. I promise," Jellal grabbed my hand and pulled me off the chair that I was stubbornly sitting on. "Alright," I sighed, hugging him, "Let me change into different clothes first." Jellal nodded, "I'll wait outside." While he left the hotel room, I went over to my suitcase, and I dug out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. After changing into different clothes, I brushed my hair and put on my usual knee-high black boots. With my head ducked down, I left the hotel room and awkwardly went to where Jellal was waiting. "What's with the glum look?" Jellal asked. "It's not a glum look," I argued. "Sure looks glum to me," Jellal pointed out. He nudged my arm, causing me to look up at him, "You look less like someone crushed your cake when you smile." I laughed, "Well maybe Natsu crushed my cake already." We walked around the resort until sunset, only stopping for food once. Soon, we were at the end of a dock, sitting on a bench and watching the sun set. Just as we were leaving, Jellal stopped. I turned around to face him just as he got down on one knee and pulled out a small velvet box with a ring in it. Joyful tears formed at the corners of my eyes as a large smile grew on my face. "I've loved you ever since I got to know you. From the moment I met you, I knew you were the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Erza Scarlet, will you marry me?" he asked. Unable to find my voice, I nodded excitedly. Jellal stood up, and I hugged him as tightly as I could, not wanting the moment to end.
I smiled at the memory of Jellal proposing to me. It seemed as if it were yesterday. For just a moment, it seemed as if nothing could go wrong; everything was at its usual. Jellal was in his office, I was in my office, Ultear and Meredy were most likely somewhere in FTBI together, Natsu and Gray were probably fighting in the cafeteria, and Mira was her usual cheerful self.
Meredy suddenly came into my office, worry clouding her usually cheerful eyes, "Have you seen Ultear?"
"No, I thought she was in the cafeteria with you," I responded, getting up from my seat.
Meredy shook her head; she looked as if she were about to cry, "I already checked there; I was in my office."
"Go ask Gray, I'll ask Jellal," I replied, nearing the doorway.
Meredy ran out of the room, to Gray's office, meanwhile I walked across the hall, to Jellal's office. When I walked in, Jellal looked up from the paperwork on his desk and smiled at me.
"Hey," Jellal greeted.
"Hey, have you seen Ultear? Meredy can't find her," I responded.
Even Jellal looked quite worried after hearing that, but before Jellal could respond, we heard Meredy yell at Gray, "What do you mean you don't know where she is? Nobody else does, so you should!"
It was rare for the pinkette to yell, so I was quite startled by the fact that I could hear her from down the hall. Judging by the look Jellal gave me, he was also quite startled.
"Please tell me you know where she is," I mumbled, a little too hopefully.
"Sorry. Has she checked Ultear's house?" Jellal asked. I could hear the worry in his voice even though he was trying to hide it. Normally Ultear would be with Meredy or causing trouble for Gray.
"Not sure," I shrugged just before Meredy came into the room.
"Um Jellal doesn't know where she is," I stated, "Have you checked her house?"
"Not yet, but that'd be a good idea," Meredy mumbled breathlessly.
"Jellal and I will go with you," I decided.
Jellal got up and followed us out of the building. We walked to Jellal's car; at some point, we had randomly decided that he would drive. I sat in the passengers seat, meanwhile, Meredy sat in the back.
When we got to Ultear's house and knocked on the door, there was no answer. Meredy tried calling her phone, that of which we could hear ringing, but there wasn't an answer. It just rang until it went to voicemail.
"Does she have a spare key anywhere?" I asked, turning to Meredy.
Meredy bent down and rolled up her right pant leg, revealing some duct tape with a key sticking out of it.
"Um..." I mumbled.
"She tapes it to me everyday, so I won't lose it. Sometimes I tape it on myself, so she doesn't have to bother with it," Meredy nodded, taking off the tape and grabbing the key. She stood up and unlocked the door, letting us in.
When we got in the house, we called for Ultear. Again, she didn't answer. We entered the kitchen and saw Ultear sprawled out on the ground, covered in blood. I rushed over and knelt down by her, checking for a pulse. Ultear had several large wounds on her body. There was one going diagonally across her back, a few down her arms and legs, and it seemed that there were some on her stomach. It also looked as if she were stabbed a few times in the arms and hands, and she had a couple small wounds on her face.
"Call an ambulance," I instructed Meredy, who already had her phone out, "She's unconscious, but she's alive. Barely..."
After quickly running to the bathroom and grabbing some towels, Jellal knelt down on the other side of Ultear and helped me control the bleeding. Only moments later, an ambulance was in front of the house and paramedics came in with a stretcher. I helped them lift Ultear onto the stretcher, and Meredy followed them to the ambulance. Meanwhile, Jellal and I stayed back to try and figure out what happened.
There were no signs of a forced entry. In fact, there were no signs that anyone else had been in the house.
"Do you think it could've been a suicide attempt?" I asked Jellal.
"It could be, but what reason would Ultear have to commit suicide? Plus, why would she want to endure that much pain, just to end her life?" Jellal responded.
"I don't know what reason she'd have to end her life, but I do know that some people tend to feel more relaxed when they put themselves through pain," I responded, "It's almost like when we first met. When you were helping the paramedics try to get me in the ambulance, and I stabbed myself. It was to put myself at ease."
Before Jellal could respond, the cops showed up. A female officer with long, blonde hair and light blue eyes walked over to us.
"What did you two find?" she asked, knowing we were part of FTBI because we had talked to her before.
"We think it could've been a suicide attempt," Jellal explained shakily. We both hoped we were wrong on that part.
"Who would want to go through that much pain just to end their life?" she asked, disbelief clear in her voice.
Jellal looked at me, almost as if to answer her question.
"Technically, she could've been subconsciously trying to commit suicide," I mumbled quietly. They kept talking for a little bit, while I stayed quiet and stood behind Jellal.
"Is it okay if we go visit her at the hospital?" Jellal suddenly asked hopefully.
"Yeah, we've got it from here," she nodded.
Jellal and I hurried out of the house and to his car. We sat in silence on the way to the hospital; we just couldn't find any words to say. What could we say though? We had just found our friend nearly dead in her house, and there were no signs of forced entry.
Once we were at the hospital, we ran inside. When I was just about to ask for the room number, we heard Meredy yelling.
"Ultear! You need to stay here!"
How is Ultear even conscious?
We couldn't hear Ultear's response.
"No, you aren't well enough to leave!" Meredy suddenly shouted again.
Jellal and I quickly ran in the direction of her voice. When we turned into one of the hallways, we saw Meredy standing in the doorway of one of the rooms, her hands on her hips. Meredy looked in our direction when she heard our footsteps.
"Oh thank goodness," Meredy sighed in relief.
"Shit..." I heard Ultear mutter.
Meredy stepped to the side and allowed me and Jellal into the hospital room.
"Ultear, I know hospitals suck, but nearly two hours ago, you were close to death. You're staying here, even if I have to strap you down to the hospital bed," I stated sternly. Usually, I'd be more understanding with her, but there was no way I would allow her out of her hospital room after she had nearly bled to death. Ultear would have to suck it up and stay there until the doctors allowed her to leave.
"Good luck," Ultear scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"Do you not realize that you're currently missing a lot of blood right now?" I rolled my eyes.
"I do-" Ultear started but stopped as a doctor came to us. Ultear sighed, sitting on the bed in the room. The doctor looked at us questioningly but otherwise ignored us.
"Ultear Milkovich, we were looking at your hospital records and your parents-"
"That's what you're holding?" Ultear cut him off, looking over at the clipboard he was holding. I couldn't tell if she was curious or upset.
"Yes," he nodded, "We have missing information."
"Give me it." she held her hand out. He passed her the clipboard and a pen, and Ultear furiously scribbled something onto the paper. After she was finished, she simply set the pen on the clipboard and handed it back to him.
"But that's not-" he started.
"Possible?" she cut him off, "Deal with it."
"We need records-"
"What are you going to do, call them?" Ultear scoffed, "No you don't."
He persisted for a while, claiming that her parents needed to know she was injured. Every single time, Ultear refused to tell him anything. After a while, he gave up and left the room.
"Um... Ultear? What was that about?" I asked, although I doubted I'd get an answer. That of which I didn't.
"Nothing," she answered, looking at me like I was stupid. I knew all too well that no matter how hard I tried, I wouldn't get an answer from her. Ultear is the type of person whereas, if she doesn't want you to know something, she will make sure you never know it.
"Um okay... Anyways, how are you feeling?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Alive," she mumbled, "Duh,"
"Yeah... Obviously," I grumbled, annoyance clear in my voice. I guess she decided to be stubborn about everything; she probably decided on that the second I told her she had to stay at the hospital.
Ultear rolled her eyes, not caring how much she annoyed me, "Can I leave now?"
"No, you're still missing blood," I retorted. If she was going to be stubborn and persistent, so was I.
"So?" Ultear sighed, "I feel alive! We just went over that! Didn't we?"
"Uh... Yeah, but you still lost a lot of blood..." I mumbled in disbelief; was she really that careless or is there something else she doesn't want us to know?
"I did, didn't I…?" Ultear sighed. It seemed like she was giving up on leaving.
"Y-yeah..." I stammered, "You were kind of bleeding to death when we found you..."
"I know…" Ultear mumbled, looking down at her hands. For a moment, it looked like she had a bad memory flashing through her mind, but she quickly focussed on something else.
"Okay, uh... Yeah, okay," I muttered, unsure of what to say. Had I been this difficult each time I was in the hospital? I was starting to feel bad for the doctors.
"So... Ultear," Meredy butted in, "Do you remember what happened to you?"
"Yes," she answered bluntly.
"Um... Could you tell us?" Meredy asked.
"Yes, I could," she answered again. There was that stubbornness again, and that told me the other thing she didn't want us to know/
"Will you tell us?" Meredy corrected herself. She looked at Ultear hopefully, but her friend seemed to have different plans. As in, she was determined not to give us an answer she'd be satisfied with.
(Ultears POV)
"No, why would I do that?" I looked to them like they were crazy. Why would I tell them what happened? Wait, I did know these people, right? Yeah. Pinky is here. Of course I know these people. I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
"Um... B-because we're your friends, and we want to know what happened," Pinky mumbled.
"Too bad, I'm not telling you," I replied. I did know what happened, right? Yeah... There was... Um... Well I do remember! Maybe.
"Ul-" Pinky started to protest.
"Nope, not telling," I shook my head.
"Okay..." Erza muttered, "Um, Jellal and I need to finish some stuff at work, but we'll be back later..."
Thankfully, they didn't say anything else. They just left. Pinky was still there though. In fact, she didn't leave almost at all. She didn't speak for a while after Erza and Jellal left. She just sat at the edge of the room, staring off into space.
(Erza's POV)
I felt bad for leaving Ultear, but I didn't really know what more I could say. At least, I didn't lie. Jellal and I actually did have work to finish at FTBI.
"Jellal, what do you think happened to Ultear?" I asked while we were on our way to FTBI.
"Well, we thought it was a suicide attempt, right?" he responded.
"That's what I thought. I want to know what you think," I mumbled.
"Honestly, I'm not so sure what I think," Jellal sighed, "There's a part of me that believes it was a suicide attempt, and there's a part of me that thinks she was attacked. The latter is because of some of the injuries she got. There's no way she could've given them to herself, right?"
"You would think she would tell us if she was attacked though," I mumbled, looking out the window. The Ultear I knew would've yelled at me for not letting her out of the hospital; she would've been determined to find the person that hurt her and kick his ass.
Jellal nodded, "True, but Ultear is… picky to say the least."
"That's true..." I sighed, "I wish she'd at least tell us a little more..."
"I wonder if she's embarrassed," Jellal chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood a little.
I lightly laughed, "Could you really see Ultear being embarrassed? When she first found out we were engaged, the first thing she told me was 'make sure you don't get pregnant'."
Jellal laughed, "True. Anyways, we're here."
We got out of the car and walked into the agency.
"Hi!" Mira greeted, "I heard about Ultear... How's she feeling?"
"Alive," I responded.
"Um..." Mira mumbled, confused with my response. Usually, I'd give them a slightly better response than that.
"That's the response we got from Ultear," I explained.
"Oh, is Meredy with her?" Mira asked.
"Yeah," Jellal nodded.
I yawned and rubbed my eyes after realizing I was having a hard time keeping them open. Sadly, Jellal noticed this and turned his attention to me.
"Do you want to go home? I can finish the paperwork," Jellal offered.
"Thanks," I mumbled.
"Here, you can take the car, I'll just walk home later," he reached in his pocket for his keys. Remember when my car got destroyed by my fathers friends? Well, I never got a new car; I enjoyed going to work with Jellal. Plus, we live together now.
"It's fine, I'll walk," I assured him. I didn't want to risk him getting hurt while he was on his way home. Not after what happened with Ultear; I was starting to believe more and more that she had been attacked.
"Let me at least give you a ride home," Jellal insisted. He was also worried about me.
I smiled, "I can walk. I'll be fine, I promise."
"Call me if you need anything," Jellal kissed me.
I nodded then left the building, leaving him to talk to Mira. Sighing as I stepped into the night air, I began my walk to the home I shared with Jellal.
When I was halfway home, I suddenly felt something hard hit me, knocking me to the ground. My head hit the ground, and I blacked out.
So... How was it? Did you like it? Honestly, I've been quite nervous about this first chapter... That's why I've been procrastinating. Anyways, please leave a review!