When the Lights Go Out

Chapter 2

Let There Not Be Light

Unexpected was … inadequate. She was just there with the light. Illuminated as nothing else had been for hours.

"What the hell?" Natsu roared, and Gajeel caught sight of the pretty-in-pink hair. So … Levi wasn't the only one with light. It was a general center of the room light.

But still … it seemed to him to come from her.

"Sorry I didn't give a warning. The test turned into the real thing. I replaced Fried."

"Why?" Bunny chick. A good question.

"Fried might be able to do more to the enchantments from outside, and I should be able to crack things from here. Especially if I can get to the library. Plus the number of people was set when the enchantment closed. Someone had to replace him."

"Heh, bet he's confused as shit," said someone still drenched in shadow.

"Bet he's not," creepy-eye chick spat in return.

Then something crawled up Gajeel's back and jabbed a needle in his neck.

There was screaming.

Light went out.

Light came on.

Something crawled across the ceiling. Something with six legs and a non-restrictive skeletal system.

He blinked and Evergreen was still bitching about Fried's greatness.

What the fuck was that?

"Kid," he said in a low voice, "you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

Not the answer he wanted. Just him then. Shit, what was going on? He wanted to talk to Natsu, but the fire dragon was brooding hard over Erza's disappearance. It was a surprise he even noticed Levi's rather impressive entrance.

At the very least, he and Wendy could both hear the clacking. He could smell things. And now he was having severe hallucinations. If Natsu felt anything, Gajeel was sure he wouldn't be able to hide it. Too straight forward. Not one to keep silent.

Without answers he turned back to Levi, who was in conference with the Master. She was haloed in the light she brought with her, but he still wasn't sure the light was the best idea. It pushed at the shadows in a way that made them wiggle like serpents.

He chuckled under his breath and Lily looked up at him; in the dim light Gajeel read the expression on his face as concern.

"It's this bad and everyone is calm. It'll be interesting to see the change when the shit hits the fan."

The cat squared his small shoulders, "We'll be ready."

But Gajeel wasn't so sure. He felt feelers on the thin skin of his ankle, but when he took a moment to check, there was nothing there. The kid made no movement to indicate anything was wrong with her.

Levi's soft steps brought his eyes to her again. She sat on the bench across the table from him. "The Master said you went after Erza?"

"Weren't you supposed to be trying to get us the hell out of here?" he grumbled.

"Master told me to focus on Erza. Fried might manage something from outside without my help."

"I doubt it," he shot back without realizing what such a declaration might mean to the girl. She was attempting to suppress a smile and color darkened her cheeks.

He could see slithering in the shadows cast by her eyelashes.

No one else said anything. Possibly he was still delusional. Hallucinating.

He could hope. It was wrong that her eyes appeared so shifty. Very unlike herself. Almost scary.

Even with the smile. Especially with the smile. That familiar smile harshly punctuated by the melting darkness at the corners.

Smoke curled in the newborn light. He checked Salamander a number of times, but there was no fire. No fire. Only smoke. And the smell of things he still couldn't put a name to.

Levi wanted to go search for Erza herself, since she had the light, but since the light was a biproduct of her skin that she created before entering the enchantment, very little of the light would remain. Her leaving would let the darkness take the hall again. It was discussed, it was debated, and Gajeel began to hear and smell the beginning of wear in the guild.

Not long now. They'd be at eachother's throats soon.

In the end, the fact that Levi would need the library outweighed all the other arguments. She would search on the way there and then bring books back to the main hall as quickly as she could. Gajeel wanted to volunteer to go with her, but he couldn't trust himself. And he wanted to see what would happen when the darkness returned. He was tired of the snakes. Tired of the prick of needles. For him darkness was safer than light.

Erza's team – minus Lucy – went with her. But he didn't miss the quick glance she threw his way. He wasn't one of her cronies, but they had briefly been teammates. The tightness in her lips almost, almost looked like betrayal.

Her eyes coiled in shadow.

He managed to contain his revulsion. Besides, whatever played between his skin and his bone was of far more concern. He nudged the kid, but she did not respond to him.

Nudged her again.

Again.

Spoke her name.

Finally she turned. Barely could he distinguish her pale skin from the black that surrounded them. Her face tilted up. There was no face. No eyes. No mouth. No nose. The cheeks were hollow. The chin sharp. He waited for the hallucination to pass. Her face remained unchanged. Her scent was her own. Her own and something else.

What crawled under his skin made lumps in her.

Split her.

Shadow rolled out as smoke. As wind. Even in the darkness he could see it. It was darker than darkness. Moist like clouds and rank like the fumes trapped in a week-old corpse.

He waited for it to take him, but his skin was whole.

There was screaming again, but this time he did not come to. This time the screaming went on for minutes. Hours. Days. People shook her. People touched her. People stayed the fuck away because what she was was not what she should be. What she was was awful.

And Gajeel still didn't have a fucking clue what was going on.

After all the smoke or fumes or mist dispersed into the air, the girl's body disintegrated. Crumbled like old, rusted metal. There were more screams and moans, and the white cat was catatonic.

Gi hi hi hi, catatonic. Clever.

Not exactly the time, though. He kept the pun to himself. It was gallows humor, and in his experience, not well received.

It wasn't that he liked the kid. Liking wasn't exactly something he did all that well. But she was his kind. A dragonslayer. There were only three of them, and that meant something. She was tough, even for a squirt, and she'd get tougher. Would have gotten. Not now. She'd be a … would have been a ... challenge when she got older, and he'd looked forward to that because he liked challenges.

She was also – he was prepared to grudgingly and mentally admit – his nakama. Not a word he'd say out loud, but true even so. He might notlike her, but he sure as shit didn't want her dead. And it was a flat fucking insult to have her killed right fucking next to him and be unable to do anything to fight it. It wasn't even that he couldn't stop it; it was that he didn't fight it at all.

"Can you feel it?" he growled to everyone and no one. The girl wasn't there to ask anymore. "Something's in here. Something that ate into her." He ground his teeth and glared at nothing. Nothing. Nothingness. "It's eating at me too. Can anyone else fucking feel it?"

No one answered.

Because no one was there.

He felt alone before, but now he actually was.

Author's Note: Not as long as the first chapter, but hey, whatever. The language in this is probably a little … um … eloquent for Gajeel, but as it's 3rd person I'm going with it. And I'm also going a little off of the anime when he meets Edo Gajeel (not a character in the manga) and claims to be cultured or classy or what have you – which made me laugh my butt off. Gajeel, classy. Yeah, sure! He obviously considers himself to be more clever than he sometimes appears. And as brash as he and Natsu often are, they occasionally say smart things. Not often, but sometimes.

Don't expect chapter 3 this fast, please. The speed of this was … unexpected.

Not really a horror writer – I tend to slant towards contemplative romance – so I hope this is going over okay. Please review and let me know!