Prompt: Nightmares

Just Another Sleepless Night

No sooner had her eyes closed had her mind drifted into an almost seamless state of fogginess. The interior of her room vanished, the presence of the other blue furred body dissolving before she could even react.

She sat there for a while, staring into a black void. There was no faint smell of sandalwood, no fan slowly whirring in the semi-darkness, nothing but the black nothingness. Thoughts stopped forming, and time itself seemed to cease. She just floated there like a ghost surely felt as they waited in purgatory.

The edges of her consciousness seemed to shift and a slight weight pressed on her from all angles. Colors began to flare up at the forefront of her vision, blurry but still ever present. She started to smell the subtle warmness that wafted into her dream, one that reminded her vaguely of the guild hall. There was still something lacking in it, something off. It was as if someone had tried to recreate that scent of beer and other humans but couldn't quite figure out that last ingredient.

Her vision shifted again and more colors coming into view. Colors became blobs. Blobs became somewhat recognizable people. They didn't really look like their real-life counterparts, rather electing for a more blurry, ghost-like entity but something inside her could easily identify them. A blurry blue ball had plopped down next to her elbows resting on the table and dug into what looked like, and smelled like, his newest catch of fish. She didn't need her brain reminding her of his name to know that the figure was Happy. Erza, or the blurred figure with distinct red hair that belonged to no other, sat on her right, her legs more than likely crossed and staring at the two at the other end of the table. The aforementioned other two took the forms of two blurred out figures, one with a black top and the other with…pink. Gray and Natsu, likely going at it again, she mused. The sight of his unruly pink hair and the sound of his name on her tongue twisted her stomach. Her heart tugged.

She swallowed and returned her focus to the bickering pair despite not being able to quite comprehend their words. The five of them sat around a table together, laughing about something stupid one of them had said or yelling at the other for trying to pick a fight with the other. Normally, Erza would have intervened by this point, but Lucy guessed that she was either too preoccupied with eating cake or frankly found the two's actions trivial at best, preferring instead to stay in the comfortable chaos that surrounded them from all angles. She felt her laughter bubble into her chest and couldn't help but release it as well. This automatic sense of belonging, of home, kept her at peace, kept her whole.

She begged her mind to let her live in this moment, to relish in it, if only for a moment.

Her consciousness had other plans, as it normally did, and she felt the solidity begin to slip around her.

She watched these seemingly inconsequential moments unfold from an omniscient standpoint. She was in her body yet…not. Like someone was conducting her like a puppet and left her consciousness to fend for itself. She saw her mouth move, felt her body lean forward and watch the two boys at the end as they went at it. She giggled yet again but didn't feel the happiness from it, not really.

Something about this dream felt…off. A sense of dark foreboding washed over her and the dream seemed dripped and melted from her vision.

"No!" she cried out, finally in control of her voice again. Her hand reached out, desperately trying to grab at the memory. She knew what was coming next and tried in vain to hold onto something, anything, to keep from seeing it again. But it was too late, and her mind was morphing again.

She could feel her brain working as it reformed her dream. In the darkness, she could feel the heat of the fire, smell the blood from her comrades. Her view faded into focus again. A scream erupted from behind her and instinctively turned in its direction.

Her world flashed into vivid focus, each tiny detail sharpening with life-like accuracy. Her breath caught, and the hair on her arms stood on end.

The surrounding buildings were burning and crumbling and falling to ruin. There was just so much chaos everywhere, so much confusion. Chunks of heavy debris peppered the small clearing around her and fires blazed even in areas where there was nothing to burn. Smoke clouds billowed into the sky like dark cotton candy. Its stench wafted around her, coating her in a layer of soot and burrowing its way into her nose.

She spared a glance down at herself to see that she was not without injury. There was a pretty sizable gash on her leg, and if. Lucy thought that she would have felt a break, at the very least, but her arm was the least of her worries.

Screams surrounded her, seeming to echo along the buildings and bounce around her head. She slammed her hands to her ears, but the screams kept coming. Grunts and war cries sounded around her as they attacked a shadowy villain. She watched as they threw everything they had at it while it only laughed and slashed their attacks away like flies.

"Lucy!" a woman screamed behind her. Lucy whipped around, but the figure sped past her in a blur of red, making her hair fly back at the wind she had kicked up with her speed. "Stay back!"

"Don't worry, Lucy! We got this!" cried a man from her other side. She turned again, but he too raced past her.

They both charged at the cackling monster whose voice had taken on a more demonic form. Lucy opened her mouth to make a sound, but nothing came out. She gripped at her throat in confusion and tried to take a step back. Her feet remained rooted to their position, refusing to budge even an inch.

A bright flash blinded her for a moment. She tried to shield her eyes but inevitably closed them against the blinding light.

When she opened them, the scene had changed. The once rugged Magnolia looked hellish, more so than it had been before. She turned to look at her surroundings again only to stop when her eyes landed on the three bodies surrounding her. The first had fiery red locks but also a bright red pool surrounding her and reflecting the fires that burned her home around her. Broken pieces of silver lay scattered about her broken form like fallen leaves. The woman didn't move, didn't breathe, didn't even twitch. Just lay there a stiff as a board. Lucy's uninjured hand shot to her mouth. She stumbled back, accidentally nudging the other figure with her foot. She whipped around and lost her footing. A sharp pain shot through her hips and wrists but she couldn't take her eyes off the person in front of her…or what remained of the person. She tried to clench her eyes shut, tried to shift them away, but her body stayed fixated on his charred flesh and crumpled form.

Her heart threatened to beat out of her chest. Her breathing so labored that her head lightened and black dots peppered her vision. Finally, her body listened and shook away the dark specks, allowing her to avert her gaze only for it to land a few feet away from her on the final form. Her heart dropped and blood drained from her body. Warm tears pricked the back of her eyes as she slowly crawled forward.

Shaky hands reached forward to his bruised and battered form. Tentatively, she touched his blackened, blue fur and crumpled when she felt how cold it was. She reached her trembling fingers around his small blue form and pulled him to her chest. She cradled him to her chest as sob after sob racked her body. Happy, the annoying yet loving cat that had wormed his way into her heart, lay in a battered heap in front of the very person he was trying to protect. She had stopped asking why the world refused its endless onslaught on her and how it could be so cruel.

A deep, gut-wrenching chuckle sounded from a few feet away from her. It never said anything, never asked for anything...yet took everything she wanted and held dear as if it were nothing. She carefully placed the small bundle next to her and out of the demon's sight. She clenched her fists and stood. She lifted her eyes to face him, that blackened monster that had taken everything from her.

Its entire body was made of shadow and seemed to drip corruption and darkness from its outstretched limbs. She stared into its sharp, golden eyes without backing down. Refusing to obey her bodies trembling fear and need to surrender. His curled horns jutted out of his forehead and looped around so that their dripping tips pointed behind him and protected his neck from a possible attack. Inky, black wings stretched to their fullest span behind him, their sheer size enough to wrap around them both and still have room for him to finish her off. But today was not the day she died. Today was not the day she left this earth.

"I know you're still in there! I know you can hear me!" she cried at the creature, trying to make her voice stronger than she knew she was.

The beast snarled and dropped into a crouch. Lucy pressed her nails further into her palm, feeling the breaking of skin. She had to keep this up. She couldn't lose hope yet.

"You're stronger than this, and you know it! You can't give up like this!" she cried.

A roar, gruesome and petrifying, erupted from the demon's maw as he pounced. He landed on Lucy in an instant and raised his razor sharp claw. Her heart stopped. She clenched her eyes shut, pleading for it to be quick. She felt the warm liquid before she felt it. She felt it seep into her hair and roll past her ear. It trickled down her neck and coated the whole right side of her face.

The weight disappeared as fast as it had appeared and when she wrenched her eyes open again, she realized that the scene had changed yet again. That and half of her vision was completely black. The area from her shoulder to the right side of her face that two seconds earlier had been exposed to the extraordinary blaze of Magnolia now lay covered under thick and uncomfortable gauzy material.

The demon still stood before her, but this time, he seemed a lot more drained as if the attacks were finally getting to him. She could see the way his chest heaved, and his once cocky demeanor sagged. He was bent over slightly. He held one arm close to his chest and closed his wings behind him.

Her friends were nowhere to be found. The entire area was clear of rubble. No fires. No buildings. No screaming. Just a smoky mist that circled them like a pack of lions stalking its prey.

Lucy glared at the monster and summoned her stardress. Despite her narrowed eyes and bared teeth, she couldn't help the tears that flowed from her eyes. That small sliver of hope she had started her dream with struggled to stay afloat amidst a sea of doubt and despair.

"Please." Her voice quivered and barely made it above a whisper. "Don't make me do this."

A final strand that barely held her heart in place snapped when the creature bared its teeth and snarled. The bright grin was gone, teeth too sharp to even remotely resemble his.

"I don't know why you keep fighting. He's gone. I made sure of that the moment I took over. And you know it," it growled.

Those words, no matter how much time had passed since that day, would never leave her head. Would never stop their unending reverberating orbit around her mind.

His eyes narrowed, taunting her. Her throat tightened. There was no trace of onyx anymore, solid gold swallowed it whole and drowned any remaining trace of him.

The dam shattered like glass releasing furious; hot tears streamed down her cheeks, soaking her already bloodied bandages. One blade slipped from her grasp and gripped the other with both hands, knuckles white. She shrieked an inhuman scream that almost mimicked that of the demon's. Her body raced forward, and she plunged the sword deep into the shadowy demon's withering form. The demon's golden eyes bulge wide, and he lifts an arm to throw one final attack her way. Before she could think, she rips the blade from his thick body and stabs it straight into its heart.

Its dark body froze, claws outstretched and inches from her head. Its mouth dropped. It struggled to make a noise but couldn't get enough air. Time itself seemed to stop as the demon's blood poured from its wound, coating her blade. Warm liquid dripped onto her face and mixed with her salty tears to cascade from her chin in full, pink drops. She didn't need to look up to know that the blood was from the demon's gaping maw above her.

She heard its breathing struggle, felt its energy drain from its taut muscles that pressed against her chest. With a grunt, she ripped her blade from its body. It crumpled to the ground with a soft thud.

A few moments later, Lucy released a barrage of wails as golden particles filtered through her reaching fingers.

That night, she was lucky if she got any more sleep.

Happy squirmed in his comfortable ball with his head buried underneath the thick, comforting material of Natsu's scarf. The soft, golden rays of mid-afternoon that filtered across Lucy's wood floor replaced with a suffocating darkness that pressed at him from all angles. A quick glance at the digital clock on Lucy's nightstand confirmed that it was, in fact, the middle of the night. He felt the girl against his back twist and turn in her sleep and tried his best to ignore her. It had been almost a year, but Happy had yet to get used to her nightmares. They both had trouble getting over what had happened and were soon nearing the precipice that marked their inability to overcome such an obstacle as this.

Happy wasn't dumb. He knew what was going on. He was aware that his home would never be the same so long as fifty percent of them was gone. He had decided long ago that being around someone who was going through the same thing he was, if not a bit worse, was better than sleeping alone in a house that did nothing but remind him.

Lucy shifted wildly against him. Happy frowned and stood to turn and face her writhing form. It always was the same: She'd start off smiling then slowly shift into a darker, more terrified Lucy. She would kick and thrash and cry out as she got deeper and deeper into her dream. Sometimes she'd wake, other times she'd just cry herself to sleep.

Happy had his fair share of nightmares but those he usually experienced during the day when he would sleep the longest. But even then, they were never as severe as these. He couldn't blame her. He hadn't been the one to commit the most. He wasn't the one that delivered the killing blow. He had just heard about everything from a third party and saw as Lucy stepped into the guild hall, her eyes bloodshot and wide, her bloody sword hanging limply by her side and the lack of color in her entire figure leaving her looking like an empty shell. An unpainted doll.

He glanced down at her when he heard her sniff. His heart ached for her, more than he would admit. The line of silent tears trailed perpendicular across her nose, reflecting the bits of moonlight filtering through her window still slightly ajar. Her fingers instinctively lifted the edges of the scarf over her nose and burrowed into it as much as she could.

He waited to see if she had truly settled down for the night. Her ragged breathing steadied. Her kicks morphed into the occasional twitch and her eyes, which had been clenched with a death-like vice, relaxed. She looked almost fake, peaceful and calm.

Happy padded over, circled a few times, and settled in a curved crevice at the base of her ribs but still in contact with his scarf. Just as Happy's eyes closed and his breathing evened, he heard her whisper the word that almost made him lose it right there.

"Natsu."

A/N: Yikes...talk about a HAUNTING experience, huh? No? Just me? Alright... Well we figured out how she got her scars, visible and...not so visible. I just can't stop torturing her can I?

What do you guys think? What could that creature in her dreams be? Why was Lucy pleading with him? And what could Natsu have to do with it?

(please make sure to leave spoilers out of the reviews!)