Chapter 3: Hints

The next day, I decided to sleep in. Normally, I would get up early and do some workouts such as jogging and push-ups. But today I felt like staying in. Yesterday was not a day to remember and I didn't feel like adding on to my already stressful life. However, someone had different plans for me.

As I was in and out of sleep, I could hear the people outside going about their daily routines. One voice in particular I heard was that of the kid I had seen yesterday. Even though I didn't see him, I could tell from his incessant complaining. Once again, a feeling of déjà vu came over me. I wondered if I was once like that kid, all annoying and what not. I hoped not.

I decided to go back to sleep afterwards, but before I got into a deep sleep, a rock flew through my window and sent glass flying across my room. A couple of pieces managed to hit the foot of my bed and rested on top of the blue comforter that I was under. I jumped up out of my bed and headed carefully to the broken window, avoiding the shards of glass on the floor. Outside, I saw that the culprit was none other than the pink-haired boy, Natsu Dragneel. With him was the blue exceed Happy, who was hovering over next to Natsu. Obviously, I had a mind to go downstairs and beat the pulp out of him. However, I reconsidered after Gray, who was with Natsu, did it for me. The two started their usual fight scenario, but before they could do any damage to each other (and the property), I stopped them and invited them inside. It was better than leaving the two to their own devices. As we were walking back inside, I happened to spot the landlord, who looked furious. When he spotted us, he stomped towards us with his fists clenched. His light brown hair on his head pointed upwards. Veins were popping out of his head and his hazel eyes were as fierce as a raging bull. Before I could say anything, he immediately scolded us and stated that I would have to pay for the damages. I bowed vigorously, apologized and dragged the boys to my apartment before the landlord did anything rash.

"What the hell was that for Natsu? You could've just knocked on my door like a normal person," I said furiously.

"I didn't feel like comin' up so…" Natsu said, with his expression showing a little sympathy.

"So you broke my window?"

"Why don't you use your head for once flame brain?" Gray said.

"What was that ice queen?" Natsu retorted.

Not wanting things to escalate again, I offered them something to eat, which immediately quieted Natsu down. Both of them agreed and after asking Happy (the only civilized one in the group (myself not included)) what he wanted, I rushed into the kitchen and grabbed some leftovers I had made for the guild yesterday. In one container, it had baked chicken legs and breasts. In another held some rice seasoned with green and yellow peppers. Finally, I had some leftover steak that was marinated in my homemade barbeque sauce. To be honest, I didn't remember where and how I learned to cook, but I was glad to have that skill under my belt.

As soon as I heated up the food and bought it out, Natsu and Happy's mouths began drooling. Once I fixed their plates, the two said "Itadakimasu" and began chowing down on the food, first attacking the chicken. I made sure to give Natsu the largest piece of chicken, since he would end up eating the most out of us. Meanwhile, Gray ate at a slower pace, deciding to savor the flavors in the food.

"As usual," Gray said in between his chewing, "your food is the best."

"Aye sir!" Happy added on.

"Thanks."

"Yea," Natsu said, with his mouth full of food, "it's soooo good."

While they ate, I proceeded to sweep up the glass in my room and took a quick shower. As I was putting my clothes on, I couldn't help but notice the sword that was resting on the wall near my closet. Like two years ago, it still had the chain wrapped around the blade. However, when I went to pick it up, it was noticeably heavier, so much so that I couldn't even pick it up with two hands. This was the case ever since I arrived in Magnolia. I didn't comprehend how in the world a sword could increase in weight, but I took it as a precaution for me not to use it, at least not until I regained my memories.

When I returned, Natsu was sprawled out on my couch sleeping, with Happy resting on the couch with him. Gray was still sitting in the chair, except now he was missing all of his clothes but his underwear. This resulted in a good kick to his chest. As much as I could tolerate Gray's stripping habit, I would not allow it in my apartment. The ice mage took the hint and saw that he was without his clothes. With the sting of my kick still felt, he went to put his clothes back on.

"Honestly," I said, rubbing the bridge of my nose with my thumb and index fingers. "So why did you guys come here? Is the master looking for me again?"

"Not this time. We were just worried about you since you weren't at the guild today."

I guess my plan to spend the day at home was more trouble than I thought. I ended up doing exactly what I didn't want to do: have the guild worrying about me.

"Well, I'm fine, as you can see. I was just tired and felt like…" I was cut off by Gray.

"Stop lying to me. Something's obviously up with you, so spill it," Gray said, his tone clearly showing concern and anger.

To think that by hiding the truth from Gray, I was actually making him worry more. I was mad at myself for not letting him know sooner. I mean, we were best friends since I first came to this guild. He showed me around, and introduced me to everyone. He was like the brother I never had (or thought I didn't have, to be more accurate). And here I was taking this friendship for granted. As I was about to tell him what was going on, I suddenly had another flashback. My head began to hurt. I placed my hand on my forehead in order to keep it up. In the flashback, I saw my first face. It was that of an old man with grey thin hair and a grey beard. He was smiling at me. It looked as if he was trying to say something to me, but I couldn't catch it. He then placed his hands on my head and everything after that went dark. When I recovered, I had found myself on the floor of the living room, with Gray standing above me, calling out to Natsu, who had woke up and gotten off the couch to get some help. Before he left though, I stopped him, telling him that I was fine. Gray visibly didn't agree with me and told Natsu to help him pick me up. I began slipping in and out of consciousness, with Gray yelling at me to hold on. The two boys, with Happy following close by, rushed me to the guild hall. As they were doing so, with the citizens of Magnolia looking at us in shock, I felt extremely drowsy and closed my eyes shortly after. The last thing I remember seeing was the sun, partially blocked out by a cloud.

"That cloud's really dark," I thought to myself as I slipped into unconsciousness.

When I had awakened, I found myself on a bed with white sheets covering everything except my head. The room that I was in was pretty bland. It was primarily four white walls with five beds in a row, all having white sheets on top of them. In front of my bed, there was a window that was left slightly open, letting a breeze into the room. The white linen curtains waved gently as the wind came in, making an elegant show.

My head was still in pain as I was forced to close my eyes a few times in order to block out the light. When I had regained my eyesight, I saw a tall woman standing to the right of me, with the first thing that I recognized being her pink hair. She stood at a table, appearing to be mixing some herbs in a mortar, smashing down on them with a pestle. When I tried to get up, I found the task extremely difficult to do. My whole body felt like bricks. I couldn't even lift my head an inch off of my pillow. The woman must've noticed my movements and glared at me with menacing eyes.

"You won't be getting up anytime soon," she said, in an irritated tone. Continuing on, "Makarov, you know I hate humans yet you asked me to come here to treat one."

"Makarov? Master Makarov?" I questioned. I looked to my left, still unable to move and saw the master sitting on a chair next to my bed. His legs were not even close to touching the floor and his eyes were at the same level as my head. It looked like he could barely see over my chest.

"I know, but I figured that you would want to help out one of my kids, seeing as you did it before, Porlyusica."

"Before?" I wondered. It soon clicked that this must have been the same lady that fixed Erza's eye. It didn't take long for me to put my trust in her.

"Thank you," I muttered loud enough so she could hear. I could barely talk due to my body suddenly feeling weaker.

"Shut up. How am I supposed to concentrate on this medicine if you keep talking? Stupid humans!" (On second thought, I retract my former statement and will be taking back my "thank you").

At any rate, she finished making her medicine, putting a dark green liquid mixture into a bottle for me to drink. As I drunk it down, its bitter taste making my mouth pucker up, I started falling into unconsciousness again. The world around me got dark again, and I was placed into my imagination.

As I was sleeping, I began having one of the most vivid dreams I've ever had. It was much more vivid than my last vision. In it, I had just opened my eyes and saw that I was in a dimly lit room, with its only source of light being a candle that was a few feet away from me. I was lying on a bed. It was a simple silver-colored metal bed, only being big enough for one person. The pillow and covers were all black and the pillow had a white stripe that ran across the width of it. As I got up, I faintly heard some arguing behind a closed door. Getting closer to the door, I heard an emphatic "NO!" on the other side. The voice was that of a female. As I cycled through my thoughts, I recalled that it was the same voice I heard before that told me to run. I opened the door slowly and saw that there was a man and a woman arguing. The man was about six feet. His hair was black and slicked back. He had an unkempt beard and tattered clothes, which consisted of a tattered black cloak which went down to his calves. Underneath it, I could see brown pants that had rips and tears in them and brown boots in which the pants were tucked in. His face was showing immense anger and frustration at the woman. Meanwhile, she was kneeling on the floor. She had on what looked like a maid's outfit from a distance, consisting of a white bandana on her head, a white apron and an olive green dress underneath it. She was also barefoot. Like the room I was in, the other one was dimly lit, but had a few candles scattered about, with varying degrees of intensity.

"He's an abomination, a plague I tell you. He shouldn't be left to live. Let me just kill him, please," the man said. It appeared that he was trying to persuade the woman into letting him kill someone, but in my oblivious state, I didn't know who he was referring to.

"NO, a thousand times NO," the woman said, tears rushing down her face. "He's not an abomination; he's just a human being like th-." She was cut off by the man, who swiped his hand at the woman, missing her and hitting a glass on a nearby table, knocking it to the ground. The woman shrieked while I flinched, hiding most of myself behind the door.

"Bullshit!" the man shouted back. He then grabbed her by the throat with one hand, tightening his grip with every word. "That kid is just as I said, an abomination. And the fact that you would defend such atrocity must make you the same way." He threw her onto the ground. As she was trying to catch her breath, I couldn't resist the temptation and walked out of the room into the scene. As I stood in front of the two, the man started shouting at me.

"You! You monstrosity! You don't deserve to live on this earth no longer." He pulled out a small dagger out of his sleeve and charged towards me. Again, I heard the woman yelling.

"Run! Get out of here!"

Before the dagger made contact with me, I woke up in a feverish sweat. I was sitting upright; my body no longer feeling heavy. I was panting loudly and vigorously, trying to catch my breath. As I looked around, I could see that I was back in the real world, seeing the other beds to my right and left. The room was mostly dark, but the moon's light was shining through the window that was still open.

I gripped the cover tightly, still shaking like a leaf. "What the hell just happened?"

I couldn't go back to sleep. My mind continued to race back and forth over the details of the dream. It was too vivid for me to automatically consider it a flashback into my past. This was especially true considering I couldn't feel nor vividly see anything in my "flash attacks" (as I called them).

"Why was that man trying to kill me?" I looked at my right hand that I had raised into the air, palm facing me. "Am I really an abomination?" It was that question that kept me up for the rest of the night.

The next morning, I had bags under my eyes and a grouchy attitude. As I got out of bed, I looked out the window to see the beautiful sun in the distance, gracing me with its beauty and warmth. I basked in it for a few minutes before making the bed and stepping out of the room. I briefly took survey of my surroundings, commenting that I was in the Fairy Tail guild. As I walked to the bar which was to my right, I saw the master there, sitting on top of it.

"Good morning Makarov-sama," I said, giving him a fake smile.

"Hey Drayden, how ya holdin' up?" he asked.

Clearly I wasn't fine, but I tried my best to shake off my discomfort. "I'm fine sir. I'm just gonna head home real quick to shower and I'll be back soon, okay?"

"Okay, don't be gone too long."

"I won't," I said, giving the master a gleeful smile and a thumbs up.

While it usually feels like an eternity walking from the guild hall to my apartment (as it's halfway into Magnolia), I ended up blanking out the whole way there, which made it feel like only a minute had passed. Checking my pockets, I realized that due to yesterday's incident, I left home without my keys. Understanding that I was locked out of my own apartment, I lamented over my misfortune.

"Really? I just had to have that stupid flash attack didn't I?" I thought to myself.

As I was sitting on the ground next to my apartment door, the landlord came out of his apartment and walked over to me. Instantly, I got up and started speaking.

"I'm terribly sorry for what happened yesterday. It won't happen again I assure-"

"It's fine," the landlord said, earning himself my signature confused face. "Your friends from Fairy Tail came back and apologized. That pink-haired boy even offered to put in your window for me. I must say, you got some loyal friends."

"That I do," I said, laughing quietly.

"Oh, and here's your spare key. I made sure to hold on to it like you said." The landlord handed me a bronze key.

"Thank you thank you thank you," I said rapidly, giving the middle aged man a hug. He then walked off to go about his routine. As I turned the key in the lock and opened the door, my mind quickly went back to that room where I saw the man and woman. The fear in the woman's eyes and the cold, piercing ones in the man's made me drop my key and stare straight into my living room, trembling. As the thought disappeared, I once again saw my living room.

"I need a seat," I muttered to myself, walking over to the beige couch that Natsu was sitting on yesterday. I began to recollect my thoughts, trying to piece together the parts of the puzzle. So far, I had the buildings and smoke, the dead body, the blood, the screaming woman, the man who attacked me, the old man and the sword.

"Just what exactly did this mean?" I thought to myself, sitting on the couch using my hands as support for my head. I screamed at the top of my lungs, no longer content with my frustration. As I breathed loudly, I decided to temporarily forget about the issue and take my shower.

"No point in worrying about this now," I said. "I need to hurry up and get back to the guild before I make anyone else worry."

Author's note: Finally figured out how to do this lol. I hoped you guys enjoyed this latest chapter as well as the last two. Thank you guys for reading and review :)