There was no end to the storm. The sky had only grown duller and dirtier as the day slipped into the evening. The grumbles of thunder came in waves. Each time one landed and Lucy was brought back from the world alone she'd created on Natsu's couch, she was reminded that her lips were bruised and her body was buzzing and the Black Heart's note was burning a hole in her own heart.

She couldn't stay there forever.

"I should get going." She'd said so twice before; Natsu had distracted her both times, once with a movie and once with his mouth.

He checked his Dollarstore watch. "Happy's going to be home soon, too. Let me get your clothes."

He rose and disappeared out into the hallway. Lucy took the opportunity to do what she hadn't been able to since she closed the drapes. Peek out into the park. It was abandoned now. Anyone brave enough to go through the storm had done so earlier in the day when it was a little bit lighter. Now that the sun was setting, darkness settled like a death shroud and there was nothing. Absolutely nothing beyond the veil.

Lucy felt Natsu come up behind her. He didn't touch her but she felt him wanting to. She waited for repulsion. Something settled in her gut, some sticky feeling she couldn't put a name to. It wasn't bad, though.

Natsu asked. "Why do you like the park so much?"

"Sometimes, you love the things that scare you." He was silent. Lucy asked, "Does that sound nuts?"

"No," he said eventually. "No, not nuts."

She faced him. He held her shirt and her jeans and his expression was complicated. She asked, "What scares you?"

He tried a smile. "Nothing much." He was a liar. And a good one, Lucy thought. Or at least, he was good at moulding that particular lie. He'd practiced it a lot. Maybe even in the mirror, like she'd practiced her facial expressions.

Natsu held out her clothes for her. "Here."

Lucy took them. A braver version of her would take her borrowed shirt off there. She'd drape it on the couch and bring him into her. She'd kiss him, and he'd rid her of the rest of her clothes, and the fear that she wouldn't let anyone else touch her like that again. Instead, she took everything into the washroom and changed there under the watchful eye of Natsu's fish.

When she returned, he was holding out her raincoat for her and all she could see was the black heart sticking out of the pocket. The top of the golden L. She wriggled into the jacket before he could notice and did the buttons up all the way to her neck. "Thanks for having me over."

Natsu bent and started putting on his shoes. "You should come by again. I had fun."

His words washed over her, she was staring at his shoes. "What are you doing?"

He looked up. "Getting my shoes on?"

Lucy said very clearly, "I don't need you to bring me home."

"I can't let you go on your own. It's getting dark."

"I'm fine."

"I felt bad about it the other night," he said dismissively. "You had your friend with you then, though, so I thought maybe it was okay. I shouldn't have."

There was a no outsiders rule at Rose's. She'd lose her spot if someone saw her bring him around. "I appreciate the thought, but can't let you walk me home. I can't."

She must have really sounded desperate because he stopped pulling on his shoes and straightened so he could search her eyes. "You don't have anything to be ashamed of."

"What would I be ashamed of?"

"Where you live?" he suggested. "I picked you up off the side of the road in Magnolia and brought you to Clover. You crashed on my couch. I'm not expecting riches. I don't care."

"That's fine, I just can't," Lucy reiterated after a moment. "I appreciate the thought, but it's complicated."

Natsu sighed. "Then let me call you a cab."

She didn't think he was going to settle for anything other than a yes. She nodded. Natsu pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times. Then he closed the app. "They'll be here soon."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

It could have been true. He was smiling slightly and he didn't look at all mean. Lucy took his hand. He searched her eyes again before kissing her, giving her plenty of time to tell him no or to think of excuses. He let her go. Lucy wished he hadn't. That quick peck felt more intimate than any of the other kisses he'd given her that day. "Let's go downstairs."

Moving outside of his apartment was like breaking a spell. Lucy looked at their hands linked together and thought she was crazy. She looked at Natsu's face and thought he was crazy, too. What was he doing inviting a girl he didn't really know into his apartment? And kissing her after he so blatantly pointed out that he'd picked her up off the streets and driven her to a new town. Inviting her to stay on his couch. Pursuing her when she ghosted him and cold-shouldered him and then kissed him in direct contradiction to everything she'd said up until that point. Those were the actions of a mad man.

She wondered if this scared him and if he loved it the way she loved having the Black Heart's eye.

Rain beat against the foyer glass. Cleaning agent stung Lucy's nose. She sat down on the worn wooden bench off to the side and Natsu joined her. Together, they watched cars whiz by. The streets were empty of pedestrians. Water burbled up from sewer drains, just swirling and swirling, never draining.

"This storm's Steven King-esque," Natsu said finally.

"You read his stuff?"

"Watch."

"What's your favourite?"

"The beginning of IT," he said very specifically.

"Just the beginning?" She'd read the book and it'd kept her awake well into the wee hours in the morning. Not the clown, specifically, but Beverly's father. Are you still my little girl?

"Yeah. When Georgie's running out into the rain and his boat's floating down the street. Before he gets taken by the clown."

"Why just that part?"

"It's got suspense and fear without any of the reveal," he said. "You know something terrible is going to happen and you're biting your nails, waiting, but Georgie, he's happy. His big brother Bill's made him a boat and he's loving the rain."

"Do you have a brother, Natsu?" Lucy asked on a whim.

"Sure. His name's Zeref. He never made me boats," Natsu said. "He loved me, though."

"Where is he now?"

He shrugged. "He's a C and E visitor."

"C and E?"

"Christmas and Easter."

"So he's not in town?"

He shrugged again a little too nonchalantly. "Sometimes. He actually contacted me the other day. He wanted to get together."

"Did you?"

Natsu focused on the driving rain. "I haven't answered him yet."

"But you'd like to." Lucy knew that expression. He and Zeref had things. Maybe not the same way she and her father had things, but their relationship was complicated. He wanted Zeref to be something he wasn't.

Lights washed into the foyer. Natsu stood and took out his wallet. "That's your cab. Here." He handed Lucy some money. She tried to refuse, so he walked out and gave it directly to the cabdriver with instructions to give Lucy the change, despite her protests. Then he squeezed Lucy's hand and disappeared back inside. The door closed between them and she could either stay there and get soaked or she could use his cab money and head back towards Rose's.

"Where to?" the cab driver asked once the door was closed and she was shivering in the backseat.

"Union Street," Lucy said.

"House number?"

"Just the top of the street, where it meets Bay," she told him and the cab jolted off. She didn't want anyone knowing where she was going. She'd walk the rest of the way back.

The news played out of the speakers. The caster was covering the torrential downpour, and then she spoke a bit about the murder investigation and the ongoing curfew, reminding everyone of the eight-thirty deadline. The wipers went nonstop, cutting out most of her words. Lucy listened as intently as she could, trying to figure out if there was another girl missing for sure or if the caster was just talking about the last victim. It was hard to say.

The cab slowed to a stop at the intersection of Union and Bay. He gave Lucy three dollars' change. She said thank you and pulled up her hood.

Fat raindrops smacked into her coat and made hearing impossible. Her boots squelched. She watched the cab drive through a stream of water and thought of Natsu and Georgie and families. How a person could put a lot of stock into them and how sooner or later, the gloss was going to go away and they were going to let you down. She wondered if Natsu was the letdown or if it was Zeref, and who decided that Christmas and Easter get-togethers were enough. Natsu, she reasoned. Because Zeref was doing the reaching out, trying to contact him again. So what was it that Zeref did that Natsu thought was so damn bad?

Lucy was practically stepping on a pair of bare, pale feet by the time she realized her way was blocked. She gasped in a breath and stepped back; her hood fell and she could look at the girl in front of her.

She was as dead as she'd been the night before, her chest gaping, her hair wet and plastered to her thin, pencil-like neck. Her lips were blue and there were dark bags under her eyes. Blood ran from the hole in her chest, not like she was bleeding but like the rainwater was washing the blood away. And the evidence.

They stared at each other for ten solid seconds before Lucy could make her throat work. "Are you here for me?"

She never answered. Lucy tried other things. "He killed you, didn't he? And the police haven't found you yet. Where are you? How do I get to you? Tell me."

The girl reached for her. Lucy was too paralyzed to do anything but let it happen. Her touch was ice on her hand, winter cold. Her hand slipped through Lucy's, though, and left Lucy shaking. The dead girl twisted away then and started running through the rain. Lucy forgot to be afraid and chased after her, feet moving too fast, rain stinging her eyes and her cheeks.

They ran and ran, over the sidewalk and across roads. Cars honked as they got deeper into the city, back towards Natsu's house. Back towards the park. Towards the hill they'd raced carts down, where Lucy had first laid eyes on her.

The road narrowed and trees loomed like sentinels. Watchful and knowing. They sheltered the cart, garbage and cigarette butts, they kept secrets like the dead, unspeaking.

The girl dashed right, into the bushes at the base of the hill. Lucy tried to follow her but the next step she took was into a pothole the rain had made and hidden and her ankle twisted. Down she went, into the mud and the gravel and the puddle. She gasped; her leg was numb. That feeling was quickly being replaced, though, and she didn't like its substitute. Tears sprung to her eyes and a frustrated and pained yell came from her chest.

Her ghost was gone. And her ankle was burning.

A strong hand closed around Lucy's shoulder. She was sure it was the Black Heart, come to take her. Half hoped so the mystery would be solved. But a familiar voice asked, "Are you okay?" and she knew it was nothing so mystic or terrifying. "That was a nasty fall."

"Did you see her?" Lucy mulched out. "Did you see her here?"

He came to crouch in front of her. L. Dreyar's hair was plastered to his head and his coat was soaked through, like his partner's, who stood a short distance away. "Who?"

"There was a girl," Lucy told him. "She ran through here. She had a hole in her chest."

Dreyar's face tightened. "You saw someone get hurt?"

Lucy realized what he was asking her. "No. She was one of the Black Heart's—"

"You found a body?"

"No. She found me. I was walking back to Rose's and she just showed up and—"

"Go back to the part with the Black Heart. I'm not following."

"She was already dead," Lucy said clearly. "She came out nowhere and she was trying to tell me something. Then she ran off. I chased after her and I fell."

Dreyar's mouth compressed. "Ghosts."

"Yes. Ghosts." Lucy realized how silly it sounded aloud; there was no going back. "She's not one of the victims you've already found. She's new. The girl you're looking for, I bet. Tell me what she looked like."

"You know I can't give you details of an ongoing investigation."

"Yes, but she's trying to tell me something. I think she wants me to help you find her."

Dreyar bounced on the balls of his feet, his hands steepled against his mouth. He took them away to ask a straight-faced question. "Have you been taking any drugs?"

"What?"

"You're under a lot of pressure. Looking for escape. Psychedelics, maybe? Narcotics busted a girl from Rose's not too long ago. She was high on 'shrooms."

"I don't do drugs."

He continued to study her, looking for something Lucy couldn't name. "Have you been sleeping enough lately?"

"Of course."

One brow went up. "Really?"

"That's what I said," Lucy reiterated. "Why are you acting like I'm lying?"

"Because. Rose's matron doesn't know everything but believe me, she has an uncanny ability to know when kids aren't in bed."

Did she know that her and Lisanna snuck out? That they'd crept back over the fence and onto the roof, past her window? He didn't say that, though, and Lucy wasn't about to give him any information that he didn't already have. "Being awake isn't a crime."

"No, but a tired brain thinks things up," he said gently. "Plays tricks on us."

"I'm not crazy." She didn't think so, anyway. Not in any way that mattered.

"No. But ghosts don't exist."

"But—"

"They don't. You know that, Lucy."

Once, she thought she did. "I saw her."

"I believe you thought you saw something, but it wasn't our girl."

"So you admit you're looking for someone. Tell me what she looked like—"

"Enough."

Lucy bit the inside of her cheek to keep her eyes from watering.

Dreyar went back to pressing his hands against his mouth and Lucy made herself think, maybe you have been imagining things. He was right, she had been under a lot of pressure lately. A new city. A killer to obsess over. A girl she liked to kiss and a boy that liked to kiss her. She kept thinking about her father. And if he was looking for her.

Dreyar took in a deep breath. "Can you stand?"

Lucy wiggled her ankle. It was sore but she thought maybe she'd just twisted it. She held out her hand and he helped her up. He even steadied her. He smelled very faintly like liquor and cigarettes. And he had bags beneath his eyes. Lucy concluded that she wasn't the only one under a lot of pressure lately.

"Have you heard anything from my father?" She asked mostly to smudge out his resounding enough.

Dreyar pulled away from her and glanced his partner's way. Fernandez was examining the bush Lucy had indicated and the ravine behind it. "He's still looking for you if that's what you mean." Of course he was. Jude Heartfilia was the kind of man that would hunt her to the edge of the earth. "I talked to my captain, though, and she thinks for now as long as you're at Rose's and you're not making trouble and trouble's not coming for you, to let you be. You're of age. You're not doing anything illegal as far as we can tell. Are you?"

"No, of course not."

"Then." He shrugged. "Unless you want to come talk about what pushed you out of Magnolia?"

Lucy studied the ground. "No, Sir."

"What's it going to take to get you to reconsider?"

"Nothing because I have nothing to report," Lucy said adamantly.

"I can get you a female officer if that's what you prefer."

Her entire chest and her neck were hot. "No, thanks. I'm fine."

"When you're not, you know how to find me." A huge gust of wind brought along more rain. Dreyar looked back for his partner, who was crouching down and examining something. "Come on, let's take Lucy back."

"Go without me," Fernandez said absently. He was poking something with the end of his pen. Lucy strained to see and glimpsed white and yellow. Kind of like the hairclip in her pocket.

Dreyar's attention sharpened. "Did you find something?"

"Just take care of her and get back here."

Dreyar's hand hovered over Lucy's back, stopping her from going forward, towards him. "Come on."

"You're going to leave him alone?" Lucy stalled.

"There're units in the area," he responded.

"But don't you want to see?" she temped.

"I want you to move it." Completely gone was his nice-cop attitude. Here was a businessman, sharp and to the point. He all but bullied her up the road and to the car she supposed she should have noticed when she zagged down the street, it was parked crookedly at the top, still mostly in the narrow laneway.

He got the back door for her. Lucy looked down the street one more time before obliging. Dreyar's partner stepped forward into the bushes in his nice Blundstones. He was going to get mud in his shoes.

Another wave of rain pushed against the windshield. The car came alive and the wipers swiped the drops aside. Dreyar picked up his radio and spoke into it quickly. Lucy caught bits and pieces of what he said but mostly, it sounded garbled to her. Dispatch came through on the other side, and then the car was rolling forward.

Lucy put her head against the cool window; warm air came from the vents and told her how cold she really was. Soaked through again. "How long does it take to catch a killer?"

Dreyar drummed his fingers. "Usually, we've got a witness by now and would be chasing some leads."

"So you haven't had anyone?"

"The closest we've got is a lady that said she thought she heard someone walking through the bushes once." He met her eyes in the mirror. "Most people are unreliable. Once in a while, though, you get a solid lead."

He seemed more talkative without his partner there. Lucy asked, "Have you given any thought as to how he's leading them away?"

"That's all I think about," he muttered.

They sat in silence for the space of two intersections. "Has he ever left notes for anyone?"

"Notes?"

"For his victims?" Lucy asked with forced casualness.

"Not that I'm aware of." He was just as casual. "Do you think that's something we should be mindful of?"

Lucy was always on the lookout for traps and recognized his camouflaged attempt to dig for information. "Just a thought." Silence again. Dreyar turned the car. Lucy asked, "Will you tell me what your partner found when you know?"

Headlights swung across Rose Place's driveway. "What part of police investigation don't you get?"

"Sure, but I think I deserve to know what he found."

"And I think I deserve a million dollars. Too bad the lottery doesn't agree with me."

"Detective—"

"I told you, Miss Heartfilia, if you wanted to get involved in policing matters, there're courses for that. Go to school like the rest of the chumps and apply to the Clover PD. Otherwise, I can't help you."

"But I want to know—"

He got out and got her door for her. He oozed no-nonsense. Lucy got up and got out. He ushered her up the walkway and the stairs and hammered on the door. While they waited for Miss Porlyusica, he turned on her. Rain was running down his temples and collecting on his jaw. "Listen to me. Enough is enough. You keep showing up where the Black Heart is and it doesn't look good, Lucy. If you're on the hunt, stop. If you're involved, come clean. If you know more than what you're saying, I need to know. No one likes a hero. Especially an under-rested one."

Her cheeks were hot all over again. "I'm not crazy."

"And I'm not mean. Now we're both liars."

How wise was it to scream in a cop's face? She wanted to.

Miss Porlyusica yanked back the door at that moment. She looked Lucy over head-to-toe with disappointment. "Minerva has been looking for her rainwear. You best put it back before she sees it on you."

Lucy's lip trembled. She pushed into the manor, leaving Dreyar and his nan to talk lowly about things she didn't think she'd be privy to.

A long shadow spread across the back of the house. Lisanna found its deepest pitch, a place beneath a huge, dripping cedar, and nestled into it to wait, crouched on the ground, knees up around her chin. There was a cigarette butt beside her. She picked it up restlessly and flicked its fibreglass filter with her jagged nail. That, and the residual drops of rainwater were the only external sounds that met her ears. Inside, though, she could hear Minerva raging. Someone had taken her raincoat and her rain boots and no one was fessing up.

Lisanna closed her eyes and attempted to focus her senses on the outside world. She hadn't been at Rose's for very long, but sometimes, it felt like this little back alley was the only quiet place in the manor. Someone was always going on about something.

The door burst open and Erza came out in a huff; the illusion was shattered. She was in a tank top and a pair of tights and sandals, despite the cooler weather. She was putting a cigarette in her mouth. Lisanna didn't know she was a smoker.

Erza flicked her lighter and puffed a cherry to life before acknowledging Lisanna. "I thought I was the only one that knew about this place."

"I found it the other day when I was taking out the garbage."

Erza blew out cigarette smoke and coughed. So she didn't smoke regularly. "Don't tell Minerva about it."

"I wouldn't."

Erza tapped the end of her cigarette agitatedly. "What are you doing out here?"

Lisanna imagined telling Erza about Bickslow's note and about the parking lot and the moon and the bruises the concrete bumper left on her ribs. She'd tell her everything she swore not to confess. Erza would take it all stoically and simmer on it until she decided she was either enraged or apathetic. She was predictable. There was safety in that. Lisanna didn't feel like being safe just then.

"I just needed some air. Why are you out here?"

"Air," Erza said mimicked shortly.

"Is everything alright?"

"Minerva's driving me crazy these last few days. She's waiting for a job offer and she's met someone and I can't stand her. She's happy one moment and psycho crazy the next. I'll be happy when she leaves Rose's."

Lisanna said, "I saw them. We. We saw them. Lucy and I. The boy Minerva met, I mean. I think she really likes him."

"You mean when you were sneaking around the other night?"

Feeling brave and insane, Lisanna asked, "How would you know if you weren't sneaking around yourself?"

Erza could have said anything, really, and Lisanna wouldn't have been the wiser, but Erza was a terrible liar. Her neck went red and her eyes dropped to the ground. She was flustered.

"Do you meet someone out here?" Lisanna ventured. "Were you here when Lucy and I were out here? Is that how you knew we weren't upstairs?"

"It's against the rules to tell anyone where Rose's is. If Miss Porlyusica knew someone had leaked that information, they'd lose their spot at the shelter," Erza said firmly. "I would never jeopardize myself like that."

"But if you didn't expressly say where it was? If someone figured it out?" Lisanna hedged. "You wouldn't really be breaking the rules."

Erza stamped on her cigarette butt. "Here's some advice. If you're scared you're going to get caught, chances are you're doing something wrong and you should stop. If you can't stop, tell someone. Maybe they can stop for you."

Lisanna didn't know if she ever wanted to stop.

Erza turned from her and started back towards the manor. "Your friend better hope Minerva doesn't realize she took her rainwear."

The door closed. Lisanna was alone again. She leaned back against the tree with a sigh and pinched the cigarette butt between her fingers. All the rest on the ground had a ring of pomegranate lip gloss around the filter; this one didn't. Did it belong to Erza's mystery friend? Or did someone else know about this place?

"If you want one, you only have to ask, kitten. Don't smoke that."

Lisanna didn't turn around; he'd be expecting that. "You shouldn't be here."

"I should be where you are."

"You want to be where I am, it's different. You can really mess stuff up for me, being out here." She said the last thinking about Erza.

"It hurts me to see you like this. You've cut out everyone in your life, me, your sister, your brother. He's worried about you. We all are." He came to stand in front of her. His leather boots were caked in mud and dead leaves. He crouched so he could see into her eyes.

Lisanna drank him in. Even when he kissed her, she kept her eyes open. Her heart was in her throat. She spoke around it when she could. "I'm afraid of him."

Bickslow knew she wasn't talking about Elfman. "He'd never hurt you. Never. He loves you. Everyone loves you." He got on his knees in front of her and cupped her face. He used his thumbs to smooth from the bridge of her nose under her eyes, down her cheeks to her lips. "Everyone."

He kissed her again. What an easy thing to get lost in, a kiss. Soon enough, he was palming her breast. Lisanna lifted into the touch, all at once hot and cold with memory. She wanted him to touch her more. And more. She wanted to be dizzy with it. She wanted to be insane with it.

She pulled up her sweater and let him in. His fingers smoothed over the material of her bra and her head spun. Bickslow was an addiction. He lifted her up and dropped her at unexpected times and as she told Lucy, she lived for the fall. Most girls wanted the I love you's, and the hand holding and the searing stares. Lisanna? She wanted his cold shoulders, his distant gaze like there was always something more on the horizon, she wanted his lunatic laughter, it started and it had no end in sight. Unsettling in her bones.

It was sick. Mira told her that. She told her that one day, it was going to get her into trouble, and Mira had been right. Trouble had come for its dues and Lisanna was shortchanged.

Bickslow hovered around her now-pale bruises. He told her to stop thinking about that night but that's where his head was at. Submersed in the past. Did he like what he saw then? Lisanna hadn't known as it was happening and she didn't know now. He was still an enigma. And wasn't that part of the appeal?

He stroked between her legs over her pants and she sighed. He always knew how to please her. A roll of his thumb, two, and she was arching into his touch, greedy for more. His mouth worked busily on hers and his breath puffed against her cheek. She'd missed this. All of this. How did she ever think she could live without it?

Then he pulled away and without his mouth on hers, she wondered how she could ever live with it?

"You should go."

"Thing were just getting fun, kitten," he whispered.

A dark thrill moved from Lisanna's head to her toes. "You need to go."

"You don't mean that." He tried to come in. Lisanna pushed him back.

"I do. I came here for a reason. I don't want you near me anymore. I don't want to see you anymore. Not unless—"

He turned mean. "Unless we go to the police? You could have done that days ago, but you'd rather hide."

Lisanna pushed back from him and yanked her shirt back down. "Leave." Bickslow laughed his lunatic laugh. Everything was a game. Always. "Get away."

"Alright, alright," he held up his hands; there was still that mocking grin on his face. He stood and she could see him pressing against his pants, but he had the ability to be greatly patient. "I'll see you around, kitten. Think of me." The last was a command Lisanna didn't think she could ignore.

Bickslow turned away and shadows enveloped him. There was a tall cedar fence surrounding the property back here; he lifted himself over with little issue and then he was gone.

Lisanna worked on getting her breathing back under control. Her skin felt electrified. Every little touch could be made into something sweet. Between her legs was wet and she wanted to touch herself and hated that he'd left her with that feeling.

Then backdoor squealed open, stealing the opportunity from her. Lucy came out with a blue-box full of recycling. Like she felt Lisanna's eyes on her, Lucy turned and pegged her even in the shadows. "There you are; I've been looking everywhere."

Lisanna got her noodle-like legs under her. "You have?"

"Come upstairs with me," Lucy said. "I have a ton of stuff to tell you." She had the same manic-like glow Bickslow had. Dangerous, Mira whispered in her head, but Lisanna didn't know how to love anything that wasn't.