notes: y'all know i never beta my own work. it's tragic. will i also ever do it? no.
notes2: we all know that gray is a shady ass bro, but we love him anyways. he's the real chaotic neutral of this story. is he even in this chapter? no.
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" The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. "
— HP Lovecraft
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ii. that kind of music just kills my soul
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Natsu stares at the small hunk of cold metal before him, unimpressed. Lucy peers at the object from behind him, small fingers kneading the fabric of his jean jacket. His one and only predominant thought is why. The girl behind him peers up into his camera, sucking in a deep breath between her teeth.
"As you can see, some people believe that there are cursed objects, and that some even might be inhabited by demons from another world."
Natsu might actually need an aspirin. Or and entire bottle of whiskey. Maybe both. Probably both.
It's a flute.
Lucy is scared of a flute.
It would be funny if it wasn't so ridiculous.
"That is batshit," Natsu says, monotone. "Why the hell would a spirit want to inhabit an inanimate object? That doesn't make sense to me. Especially when there's perfectly good hunks of flesh walking around, ripe and fresh for the pickin'."
The blonde gives him a disgusted look, moving to stand beside him instead of behind him. "Gosh, you're so morbid, Natsu." She stares at the flute. "There's multiple theories of why spirits do this, which we'll get into later, but one thing remains clear: weird things have happened when people possess supposedly cursed objects."
Natsu rolls his eyes, so hard he could bowl a strike, and turns the camera from the flute to her. "Oh please, do enlighten us."
Lucy snaps her fingers, and her curled hair bounces. At least she isn't wearing a pink pompom hat this time. "That being said, let's get into it."
They just had to have one demon episode every once in a while. Why on God's green earth, Natsu did not know. People were seriously obsessed with some wonky crud, in his opinion. Demons scared Lucy more than ghosts, which was saying something. If she didn't want to find a ghost (even though she's always claiming that she does) then she definitely doesn't want to encounter a demon, of all things.
He really, really should've insisted on her taking up needlepoint.
The two of them are in a museum in Clover, a town only a few hours drive from their hometown of Magnolia. Much to Natsu's chagrin, it just so happened to be a museum for the 'supernatural.' The final annoying kick to his ass is that the museum is also one of the mind-numbing, cheesy mystery spots that unfortunately exist around the country. It's a tourist trap hunk of junk if he's ever seen one. And trust him, he has.
What really gets him is that people pay money—money—to experience a dining set that's glued to the ceiling drip a cornstarch, water, and food coloring cocktail down on them. Or to stare at a wall painted with dozens of black and white circles inside each other. Or look at a surprisingly large collection of reportedly cursed objects. The flute in featured in this week's episode is supposedly one of the most haunted objects in Fioré.
Lucy and Natsu position themselves in front of the tripod they'd previously set up, and Lucy does her best deep and mysterious voice. (This is because Natsu absolutely refuses to do anything but be a skeptic who's just along for the 'dumbass waste of my time ride.') "This week, we're investigating the Lullaby Flute in an effort to answer the question: Are Ghosts Real?"
Natsu sighs for the gazillionth time in the past two months and shakes his head repeatedly. "Why can't it be like, a creepier instrument? The clarinet has always seemed a little shady to me. Or the bassoon. Have you ever seen a bassoon? Fucking hell of an instrument, I say. Flutes are….they're not very intimidating."
Lucy blinks at him. "Wha—"
He's on a roll, however. "Like, if some asshole were to give me a flute that was supposedly 'haunted,' I'd be like, 'yea um….sure. Thanks. I guess….for the flute.' I wouldn't be like," here, he screams and waves his arms wildly, "AGH! Not this cursed object! It burns!"
"That's—it's not—" Lucy snorts, "that's not how it works."
Natsu looks straight into the camera as Lucy switches back to her conspiracy theorist voiceover. It's kind of hilarious because her pitch is too sweet-toned to be anything near creepy. He just doesn't have the heart to tell her, and apparently no one else does either.
"Let's get into the history of the flute. It was first documented around 1876, after the unexplainable mass death of 12 people. These 12 men were on the surrounding town councils of the nearby counties. It was a chilly Sunday evening after a bi-annual meeting when the men were reportedly seen roaming around like the dead. They were unresponsive to anyone, and had a faraway look in their eyes. Soon thereafter, the men fell over, and were pronounced dead."
"What," Natsu deadpans, interjecting. "People saw these guys just wandering around like zombies, and their decided course of action was to just let them stumble around and not to help?"
Lucy shrugs. "It was 1876. I'm sure the meeting adjourned after dark. Maybe people thought these guys just went out and had too many drinks or something?"
"How—how many drinks are you gonna have before you're so slopped that you don't even like, babble dumb shit?" Natsu wheezes. "That's—no. No. That makes zero sense to me."
The blonde turns back to the camera. "Before one of the councilmen died, it's reported that he mumbled the words 'flute' and 'lullaby' to a man at his side. Further investigation into the tragic and sudden deaths of these 12 men showed that all of them suffered unexplainable bleeding from their ears. The deaths of 12 people at once, especially 12 councilmen, under such peculiar circumstances immediately rose suspicion."
"You don't say!" Natsu scoffs.
"There were no solid leads or evidence of any kind, aside from a few strange pieces of information that was picked up. It was said that earlier in the day, a passerby had witnessed a shadowy figure lurking outside the meeting hall. Another person had heard what they thought was flute music, and after only a few seconds of listening, the witness had suffered an immense headache that required them to lie down all afternoon to remedy it," Lucy reports.
Natsu already knows where this is going. "They think it was this damn flute. If that's true, then I'm the demon lord."
She shoots finger guns at him, choosing to ignore his last statement. "We have a winner. This flute was picked up by a man who found it on along the road near the meeting hall a few days later. Upon trying to play the instrument, the man reportedly experienced excruciating pain and fell unconscious. The flute has since been passed down through various hands, some owners even experiencing seizures and vomiting after attempting to play it."
"So what? You think it's connected?" Natsu feels very, very tired.
Lucy is beginning to loons little squeamish. "Well, yes. There is a strong theory that the flute houses a very powerful demon, and that is was released on purpose to kill the councilmen. The thing is, though, no one knows who or why anyone would do that. Any record of the flute's original registered owner stops after 1876. It's like the man just disappeared."
"Unbelievable," he remarks, actually not believing any of it. "What if they also just...drank bad water or something?"
She stares at him, mouth agape. Her lip gloss looks nice today. It's so pink that's it's almost red. He wonders what it would look like—
"You...you think that drinking bad water just causes someone to bleed from the ears? Twelve grown men to just…what? What? I am not even comprehending your logic."
Natsu shrugs, slightly miffed. "Hey! I'm not a doctor. I'm just saying, that's a lot more believable than, 'hey! All of our councilmen just jerked over due to untraceable causes! It was probably a metal tube demon!'"
Lucy pinches the bridge of her nose, and he feels like maybe he just lost boneless chicken wings tonight. He's only a little sorry. "You're...okay. Sure. Whatever."
"Anyways! I'm gonna play the demon flute!" he announces cheerfully, much to Lucy's outwardly expresses horror. "To prove that this is all complete and utter tomfuckery!"
His partner appear as if she might pass out, so he quickly guides her to a nearby bench with the guy from Scream poorly painted on it. "Natsu," she protests, looking a peculiar shade of pea soup green. "I don't think…."
"It'll be fine," he gives her a grin, turning back to where the flute lies on a velvet pedestal behind a roped off area. "Nothing is going to hurt you."
He picks up the slightly battered flute (he supposed all the dents are from the people dropping it when they pass out) and rolls his eyes. Then, Natsu lifts the thing to his mouth.
"Do you even know how to play the flute?" Lucy feebly questions, fingers trembling as she tightly grips the edge of her plaid skirt.
Truthfully, Natsu really couldn't give a damn. He attempts to convey this through a careless shrug, and then moves his fingers to the keys. Lucy stares in terrified and awed wonder as he proceeds to play a shitty version of 'My Heart Will Go On.' It's actually the worst thing she's ever heard in her life, and if all the former flute players were this terrible, it's no wonder why people experienced severe headaches afterward. His playing sounds like drinking straight shots of lemon juice and white vinegar, but for your ears. It brings tears to her eyes, but not because it's beautiful. There are no words in any of the 5 languages she knows to express how ugly it sounds.
It would actually be hilarious if she weren't so afraid.
Natsu hits a particularly awful high note, and that's when he starts laughing, unable to finish. He spreads his arms wide, a smug shit-eating grin on his face. "Would you look at that? We're both still alive. No bleeding, no fainting, no seizures."
"Please never do that again," Lucy pleads, possibly more pale than before. "My heart will not go on if you do. If you get possessed, don't say I didn't warn you."
He smirks at her and sets the instrument back down. "Well, I say that this flute is just a flute."
She narrows her eyes at him. "Not anymore. Not after that. You've defiled it."
Natsu shoves his hands in his pockets and laughs.
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Later that night, they are both sprawled on the couch at Lucy's apartment. They rarely ever go to Natsu's place to edit the videos. Lucy says it's because it feels kind of like a morgue to her. Plus, she claims that he's a hoarder who apparently goes to flea markets to get some of the crap he's got in his house. He just rolls his eyes, and allows her to believe what she wants. He likes Lucy's apartment, anyways.
The clock reads 12:04 am, and she is fast asleep on his shoulder. He pulls a blanket over her and sighs, deciding to finish their editing goal for that night himself. Natsu scrolls through the footage from earlier that day, and comes across something that makes him pause.
It's one of the clips of him playing the flute.
He turns the volume down and clicks on it.
Hits replay.
Zooms in.
Replay.
Natsu glances at Lucy, and then deletes the clip from the hard drive.
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[ don't you ever take your demons—always keep them on a leash ]
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tbc.
notes2: italics on ffnet are a real biotch. i'd say fight me but they already are, so.
