Hey guys! This is the second chapter to this story. It's shorter than the first, but I wanted to leave it on a bit of a cliffhanger (plus I plan on trying to update another story of mine tonight if I find the time). As usual, I hope you enjoy this chapter and as always, please review!
(Also - Alexa. Thanks for your input! That was actually something I had already planned on doing! Don't worry, you'll see some of that in the next chapter.)
Everyone was in a stunned silence after the lights clicked back on and the screams were heard. All eyes trailed towards the body, except for Wendy whose eyes were covered by Gray's hand.
"Hey what's the big idea?!" Natsu yelled, standing up from his seat, chair falling behind him due to his speed.
"I-I don't - Lester!" Margaret yelled, her open mouth covered by her hands.
"We all need to get out of here, now!" Gray yelled, standing up from his seat. Everyone nodded their agreement and got up to rush out of the room, Gray carrying a frightened Wendy.
Natsu made it to the large oak door first, pulling roughly at the handles. They wouldn't budge.
"Come on flame brain! Open the door!" Gray yelled moving to push Natsu out of the way to try himself.
"Try all you want Popsicle, it ain't moving." The Dragon Slayer stated, defeat evident in his voice.
"What did you call me, Ash Tray?"
"Wanna go Ice Princess?"
"Enough you two!" Erza yelled, stepping in between the fighting pair. "This is serious. Your fights can wait." The two mumbled their agreement, stepping away from the door. Erza moved to inspect it.
"This is pointless! Ill just blow right through it!" Natsu yelled, fists flaming as he went throw a large fire ball at the door. Lucy moved to stop him, but didn't do it in time. Natsu hurled the ball at the door, but to no avail.
"What the - ?" Natsu didn't finish the thought, his own magic bouncing off the door and hurtling back towards him, slamming him into the brick wall harboring the fire place.
This caused more hysterics throughout the group, Wendy was crying and Mira was also nearly in hysterics. Lucy and Erza ran over to check on Natsu, who was merely stunned by the event, even though the brick wall had a rather large dent in it. More people were talking and getting hysterical, pulling on the door. Even the owners were shaken up.
"Everybody listen up!" Erza yelled, stalking back over to the group. Lucy stayed behind and helped Natsu stand up. The pair made it back over to the group once Erza had everyone mostly calmed down. Everyone was still pretty scared, even Gajeel and Levy seemed startled, standing close to one another for comfort. "There is no need to panic. The door seems to have a magical barrier that is blocking us from escaping. Mrs. Harrison, was there anyone else on the estate tonight that we didn't see?"
Margaret blinked, startled out of her frightened daze. "Only the Chef. We gave to other staff members the night off, expect for the ones you saw. It is only us, the chef, the three other staff members and - Lester." Tears brimmed in her eyes over her loss, her husband moving to her side and grasping her hand for comfort. Erza furrowed her eyebrows, a puzzled appearance on her face.
"Are you positive?" She asked again.
"Unless one of you kids let someone in, there is no one here we don't know of." Mr. Harrison replies, anger in his voice.
"Calm down. I'm sure we can figure this out. First we need to break up into team, see if theres another exit. The Harrisons will come with me and stay on the ground floor, they're the most targeted right now. Grey, Juvia and Wendy will go check the East Wing. Natsu, Lucy and Happy will check the second floor. Levy and Gajeel, check the West Wing. And Cana, Mira and Elfman will check the third story." Erza dealt out the orders, the others nodding in agreement, all having a grim face of determination.
Everyone set out to do what Erza asked of them, separating in the mansion.
"This place is huge." Lucy said, running up the stairs behind Nastu.
"You can say that again, even just exploring the second floor is gonna take forever." He complained, taking the stair two at a time. Lucy hadn't realized how dark it had gotten outside until she passed a window.
"Natsu, look."
"What? It's just a storm Lucy."
"Yeah, but there wasn't any storm when we first got here, and now it's pouring down rain." As if to prove her point, thunder boomed so loudly that it shook the building, the crystal chandeliers shaking from the vibrations.
"I don't like this, I don't like this at all." The Dragon Slayer said, scrunching up his nose and stepping onto the second floor, desperately looking around.
"We should split up, I can take the left side and you take the ri-" Her offer was cut short by Natsu speaking.
"No way. We already split up too much for my liking from the group. And if people are being killed I want you in my sight, not off on the opposite side of the mansion."
Lucy was startled by his protective manner, but simply nodded. She observed the second floor, which looked like it had hallways too the left and right, and in the middle were two large oak doors, much like the front doors.
"We're looking for a window or something that we can unlock, maybe a fire escape." Lucy commented, ignoring the big room and deciding to take to the hallway to the left. Doors lined each side, all appearing to go to guest bedrooms or other such random rooms. Lucy tried a few, but all were locked. When the rattled the door, it didn't budge an inch, like a door usually would in its frame. "These are locked shut, I think it's the same magic used on the front door." Lucy noted, trying some more door handles. Natsu jumped into help, taking the opposite side of the hallway Lucy was.
They traveled down the length of the entire hallway, looking for unlocked doors yet only found one, at the very end. Lucy opened the door quietly, opening it into a rather large library, books covering all four walls. It appeared to stretch all the way to the third story, the ceiling impossibly high to of remained just in the second story. The only window was a large one, a sky light on the ceiling of the room.
"And how are we supposed to get up there?" Lucy whined, pointing to the skylight.
"Aye, aye!" Was the only warning Lucy got before a blue tail wrapped around her waist and she was lifted into the air.
"Happy! A little warning next time!" Lucy yelled at the cat, looking down on a chuckling Natsu. Happy brought her up to the window, Lucy bracing herself against it and looking for a latch to open it. She found it, it firmly placed in the 'locked' position. She tried to turn it, but it was stuck. "Okay Happy, watch out." Lucy gave no further warning as she took her foot and kicked the window as hard as she could. The glass shattered, pieces falling down on the girl, who shielded her face with her hands, earning many sharp pieces embedded in her arms.
"You okay?!" She heard called from below, watching Natsu step out of the way in time to keep from getting too hurt by the falling glass.
"I'm fine! Just got some glass in my arms. I'm gonna go check out the roof!" Lucy yelled back down, carefully bracing her hands on the sides of the skylight before she stopped. She noticed rain falling down form the sky... but she wasn't getting wet.
"Hurry up Lucy! You're so heavy I don't know if I can hold on longer!" Happy whined.
"Oh shut it cat, just gimme a second." The girl muttered. There seemed to be a shield that was blocking the rain from getting in... emOr us from getting out. Lucy pounded on the invisible shield, it was as hard as glass, and there was no breaking through this. She sighed. "Take me back down Happy."
The cat happily complied, flying back down to land Lucy next to Natsu.
"So what's the deal?"
"There's some kind of force field of something blocking us form getting out. My guess is it surrounds the house mansion. Probably what was blocking the front doors from opening."
"Doesn't explain why the other doors on this hallway wouldn't open."
"My guess is it's another spell, something designed to only keep us in certain parts of the house... but why?" The blonde asked.
"That seems to be the question."
The pair spent another 15 minutes checking the hallway to the right, and only found a few windowless bedroom open. They tried the large doors in the middle, and opened it to a Grand Ballroom. All the windows were locked tight, and weren't moving. The three descended the stairs after a few more minutes, defeat written across their features.
They were almost the last to join the group, nearly everyone else already coming back down to report their findings. Apparently the East and West Wing were closed off, and nothing on the ground floor was open. Multiple types of magic were used to try and break down doors or walls, but whatever they through at it merely came flying back towards them or had no effect. Suddenly, Mira came running down the large stairs, tears in her eyes.
"Cana! She's gone!"