Meanwhile, in the library Lucy stumbled through the door panting for air. Hiro's nose was deep within a book. He was reading the book at an incredible speed. Actually he had about 10 books already next to him and another 30 books to the other side. He could read a 1000 page book in less than 3 minutes. Lucy stared at him in awe. 'Even Levy couldn't read that fast. He makes the speed glasses look like a turtle!' Lucy thought to herself in shock. She sat down next to Hiro Inspecting the pile of books. All seemed to be related to mind magic spells and spell breaking. Hiro took a peek up from his book over to the curious mage next to him. She looked exhausted. The small man gently laid the book down onto his lap. "Lucy..." He began catching the attention of the girl. "You haven't been sleeping well have you?" His concerned face looked her in the eyes. Lucy instantly went into defense.
"Oh well...erm... I've not really been tired lately I just..." She began to stutter. But stopped herself. "I just couldn't sleep. That's all." She admitted. For some reason she felt like she shouldn't tell Hiro about the nightmares. They're probably just her imagination, and she didn't want to worry Hiro anymore.
"I see. I'm sorry Lucy." Hiro sighed putting the book down on the coffee table and standing upwards. Lucy stood up as well looking at the man before her in confusion.
"Wait. You're sorry? For wh-"He raised his hand to the tip of her forehead. And his index finger touched her head; it was extremely hot like she was coming down with a fever.
"Sleep." His calm voice instructed. Lucy's body was suddenly exhausted and she collapsed in his arms. He eyes fell down but her temperature rose and her heart began to pound. Lucy body began to quiver and shake with cold sweat. But what shook Hiro was the terrified screams. Soon enough everyone was standing in the doorway.
"What happened?" Erza demanded.
"Lucy!" Natsu ran to Lucy's side. Hiro gently passed her over onto Natsu's lap. His arms wrapped tightly around her pulling her close to him. "She's like Ice!" Natsu exclaimed.
"Yet she has an incredibly hot fever." Hiro quietly mumbled. Gray kneeled besides the sleeping mage and pink-haired boy, placed his hand on Lucy's forehead then withdrew it quickly.
"She is boiling!" Gray exclaimed followed by a high pitched scream from Lucy. Natsu quickly drew her in holding her tighter till she stopped screaming and calmed.
"What's happening to her?" Erza demanded of Hiro. But his face was empty.
"I'm not sure yet. But this has given me some ideas." He muttered.
"But I saw you at the door! You put her into this!" Natsu accused the white fox.
"No Natsu. I made her sleep this is none of my doing. However I need prove if this is to support my hunch." He replied.
"What hunch!" Gray snapped.
"It doesn't matter now. I just need to go somewhere. Natsu take her to her room and lay her down carefully. You need to stay close to her; your body heat will stop her from getting hyperthermia. Wendy i'm afraid your magic won't help her now, but you need to get a wet cloth and put it on her fore head to cool of the fever. Change it every 10 minutes. Gray I need you to use you to fetch some Ice cold water to give Lucy to drink frequently. Erza would you please come with me." Hiro commanded. Everyone nodded and went straight into action. Natsu gently lifted the limp body into his arms holding her close as he went up the winding stairs into her room. Wendy, Gray and Carla disappeared off into the kitchen.
Natsu laid on the soft warm bed pulling the blanket over the two of them. He lay besides her keeping her close to his skin. She was like an ice cube, but he wouldn't let her get any further away from him. Happy hovered at the end of the bed holding his paws gently onto the sleeping mages feet. She still screamed and yelled, fought and cried but Natsu wasn't letting her go. It was torture to hear her scream like that and not be able to do anything. He buried his head into her hair pulling her as close as he could. She began to settle. But instead of screaming she cried. The screaming didn't stop completely but it wasn't as often. Gray and Wendy came in fetching two buckets of water. Both were ice cold. Wendy dipped a cloth into the water, hesitating as the cold water skated across her skin. But she continued to push it down under the surface. She pulled it up after it absorbed a lot of the water and squeezed it ringing out most of the water. She folded it and gently placed it over Lucy's forehead. Gray dipped a glass into the other bucket. He held it in his hands and ice began to run along the glass. It almost froze the water. So that it was the coldest it could be without being Ice. Wendy tipped Lucy's chip up opening her mouth slightly and pinched her nose. Gray carefully tipped some of the water into her mouth, trying not to spill any. The water went down a success; she was able to drink most of it slightly choking on it. But it was necessary to get her to drink it. Natsu pulled her back towards him afterwards. Wendy and Gray took seats at either end of the room.
It was hours of sat around listening to the suffering cry's of Lucy's pain. Yet everyone stayed and endured the horror. Natsu had buried his head into the mages neck with her soft hair and vanilla with strawberry scent surrounded him. But his sense of hearing was too good. She had calmed greatly since she first fell asleep. She didn't show any signs of waking up. Every 10 minutes Wendy would change the towel and Gray would give Lucy a fresh glass of Ice water. Wendy was with the two exceeds collecting fresh water to refill the buckets with. Natsu was staring into the girl in his arms angelic face. Gray watched Natsu looking over her with such a concerned look. "She'll be alright Natsu," The Ice-mage tried to console his friend. Natsu looked over at his rival in the corner of the room. He looked just as worried as him. "Lucy's tough as nails. There's no way this will K-" Gray stopped himself then looked down at his feet.
"Kill her?" Natsu's face looked undisturbed by what he just said. Gray knew he had been thinking about it also. Still...he didn't mean to blurt it out like that. However the lack of emotion Natsu was showing angered Gray. Rage pounded through his face. Natsu noticed this. "Don't worry. Lucy won't die. She can't die. She's apart of team Natsu. We won't let her." Natsu calmly said settling his friend's flood of emotion. He returned to looking down at her face. Gray nodded accepting that Natsu won't let anything come to their friend. A Sudden scream made Natsu and Gray jump.
Wendy and the two cats return bearing two pails of water. Wendy places one beside the bed and Happy and Carla jointly placed theirs next to Wendy's. Wendy pulled the cloth from Lucy's head dipped it in water and gently returned it. It was keeping her fever at bay. But it didn't stop the screams. Wendy hesitantly returned her hands. She was still frightened by Lucy's shrieking. But the boys just gritted their teeth and held strong through the terrorized cries of hurt.
It may have only been a few hours but it felt like years for everyone. It was getting dark outside; the sun had just set when Erza and Hiro returned. As they quietly walked into the room they found a sleeping Wendy in the chair holding onto two exceeds an exhausted Gray in the other chair in the opposite corner of the room and a desperately sorrowful Natsu clinging onto Lucy. As they entered it immediately alerted everyone. Lucy was crying by now, the fire mage kept her head buried in his chest as the tears fell down her soft cheeks. Everyone's eyes darted over to the pair of wizards walking through the small door. There faces all full of hope. But Hiro just hung his head low, walked over to Lucy removing the cloth and placing his hand on her head to check on her fever. He gently pulled his hand back replacing the cold cloth back onto Lucy's head. He also held onto her rest checking her pulse. After about 20 seconds he placed in back down tucking it under the sheets.
"Did you find anything out?" Gray finally asked breaking the cold silence. Erza looked down at her feet.
"I'm afraid not." Hiro unemotionally replied. His face looked over at the window. Soft white light drizzled through the night into the room. All the lights were off and they all sat in darkness.
"We told Fairy Tail about our circumstance but told them not to come because we don't need any unnecessary bodies hanging about, worrying." Erza reported blankly. Her eyes focused on the sleeping mages. Cold sweat trickled down her forehead and her face a pale white. Hiro looked even more concerned as his look gazed back at the girl. Everyone was being quiet for some reason. Natsu caught a glimpse at the old man.
"What is it?" Natsu asked with a dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach. He instantly regretted it. Hiro's deep gaze into the boy's eye's made Hiro feel worst. He knew they all obviously cared about Lucy deeply. But what the young mage was feeling was remarkably different. He cared for her much more than the rest.
"She should have woken up by now. My spell shouldn't have lasted this long." The distant man explained. All their hearts fell to the pit of their stomach. "This spell must be sto-" He stopped shooting a look down at the sleeping Lucy in shock. He hand reached up and gripped tightly onto Natsu's vest.
"N...Na...Natsu." She mumbled. The mages looked at her in shock.
"Lucy! You're awa-" Natsu smiled in glee.
"No." Hiro interrupted. "She is still sleeping. But she still seems to be connected to her surroundings." Hiro looked inspired. He shot out the room followed by Erza out the door. They ran quickly to the other side of the house. It's an inconvenience that the Library is on the opposite side of the lengthy mansion than the guest rooms.
Once the two reached the library Hiro jumped through onto a ladder and slid across the book shelves searching frantically for a book. He showered the shelves of one book shelf in particular searching for the book; tossing aside any other books in his rampage. Suddenly he stopped. He pulled out an enormously thick, old and musty mould-green book, with entwined gold around the spine, out of the book shelf. He slid down the ladders and returned to the re-quip mage at the entrance of the door. His flicked through the pages at lightening speed. Erza was completely shell shocked watching him read the pages at about 30 per second. He stopped about mid way through the book and slammed it down on the table. Erza peered in at the page on show. "What's that?" Erza asked. Hiro was studying the page quickly absorbing all the information he needed. He closed the book swooping it up with several other books under his arm. He began to rush out the room again with a quiet, obedient Erza following behind.
Once they returned to the room they found a frantic Gray and Natsu pinning Lucy down by the arms. She had become more violent by the second. She was screaming at the top of her lungs. Luckily, the two male mages were able to over power Lucy. "I never realized Lucy was this strong until now." Gray admitted yelling to the struggling Natsu.
"You didn't?" Erza asked, actually shocked by the ice-makers confession. He shot her a sharp look but Hiro just pushed through towards Lucy. He placed his hands on her temple like her did when he was reading Lucy's mind. Natsu quickly caught on grabbing Hiro by the wrist.
"What are you doing? You can't do it. It hurt Lucy last time!" Natsu yelled. Hiro just pushed aside the boys grip.
"I need to get a good look. She's going to be in pain for a while but I need to get a good look to help her." He growled. He was no longer the kind, innocent man they had first met; he was now a serious and strong mage trying to help his close friend. Natsu just nodded bracing himself for the even more painful screaming coming from the frantic Lucy. He focused all himself on just keeping her pinned down, hoping that he would be able to dismiss the cries. But he was wrong. Lucy's screaming got worst, horrendously worst. Natsu couldn't take it. He cried to Hiro to stop. But Hiro would let go that easy. He just lifted his hand against Natsu's forehead.
"Sleep." He whispered. Natsu fell back onto the other side of the bed and Erza took his place holding down Lucy. Erza felt guilt about Natsu but not as guilty as she felt looking into the face or her suffering friend. Hiro was trying his best to concentrate over the screaming. His face broke into sweat as the intensity showed. Lucy's body struggled more. Even Erza had problems holding her down. Gray was sat above Lucy holding her down by the shoulders and her arm. Erza had her legs and other arm clammed down on the bed. Her nails tore into the sheets. Carla hurried Wendy out the room. She saw the horror in the small dragon slayers eyes and couldn't take it. Happy sat holding onto the unconscious Natsu.
Lucy's eyes suddenly shot open. Hiro pulled back quickly leaping of the startled Lucy. She was beginning to glow. Erza and Gray weren't quick enough to avoid the blow. Lucy's body caused an explosion blowing away the two mages. They were flown backwards into the walls with tremendous force. They both were knocked unconscious. Wendy ran into the room as a desperate and awake Lucy staggered passed Wendy knocking her out the way. She was trying to escape. Like her life depended on it. Wendy didn't know what to do; she wouldn't be able to stop Lucy. Quickly, Wendy and Carla ran over to Natsu and Happy. Wendy shook Natsu trying to rouse him from his sleep. As his eyes opened he began to mumble. "Lu...Luce... Lucy!" He snapped back into consciousness. "Where's Lucy!" He shouted at Wendy. Tears were rolling down her eyes.
"She left out the door heading west. I couldn't stop her and she knocked everyone else out!" Wendy replied. Natsu looked around the room at his unconscious friends.
"Wendy. Help everyone else. I'm going after Lucy!" He commanded the small healer. She nodded Natsu got to his feet and ran after his friend with a certain blue exceed following behind. Wendy began to run up to Erza with her hands hovering over her wounds glowing blue.
"Lucy! Lucy!" Natsu called. He couldn't see her anywhere. Wait! See her...he didn't need to see her. He can smell her. He wouldn't ever forget that smell anywhere. He sniffed the air picking up a faint smell of vanilla and strawberries. He had her! He raced down following the scent. 'I have to protect her. I must find her!' Natsu thought to himself pushing himself faster and faster into the direction of Lucy.
Hey guys, hope you liked this chapter!
Don't forget; Review, Favourite and recommend. And If you want more Endless nightmare Don't forget to follow.
If you like endless nightmare why not reading some of my other stories
- A-ccentric