Chapter 12: The pressure is weighing down
She thought about running, but couldn't. Her legs were made of rubber. Her heart pounded and the beast charged. She had no chance of escaping.
Lucy braced herself for the attack, but it never came. Instead, there was a single gunshot.
"Capricorn!" Lucy cried. There was more glass breaking and more of the inhuman growls.
"You must go Lucy. Your parent are waiting for you. Tell them I will meet you once you reach the hideout. Go and keep the knife."
Lucy nodded and ran up the stairs without looking back, tears in her eyes.
"Mom! Dad!" She cried, running towards their bedroom. She heard growling and she willed her legs to go faster. Why were the hallways so long?
Suddenly, her parents' bedroom door opened and her father fell backwards, her mother hugged against his chest.
"Dad!" She cried again. She froze when she saw the pistol in his hand, aimed at the inside of the room. The trigger was pulled twice and she heard wailing.
"Lucy!" Her father whispered and her mother sobbed, brown eyes glistening.
"RUN LUCY!" She screamed. She started convulsing and drops of blood ran down her face like tears.
"Dad. Please." Lucy whimpered.
"Go with Virgo to the roof. She and Capricorn will help you. I love you more than words can say." Her father said, apologizing with his eyes.
He slowly lifted his hand to show Lucy the bite mark. "Forgive my Layla."
"NO!" Lucy cried as her father also started shaking. How could it be? All the people she loved… gone ... like ashes.
She felt it in her heart when they died and started transforming. She couldn't move again, but not out of fear. She just had no reason to. She watched as her parents' eyes liquified and they turned to her, shaking with sobs.
She played the last scene over and over in her head.
"RUN LUCY!"
"I love you more than words can say."
The words played like a loop in her head.
The zombified versions of her parents approached her, grunting, and chattering their teeth menacingly.
She searched inside her heart for the desire to survive. What was there to live for? Her parents were gone. Her best friend and sister too. But then she thought of Virgo and Capricorn, loyal servants of the Heartfilia household. They had raised her and she knew that they were family. The small ember of hope ignited as Lucy swung her knife in front of her, killing the zombies in front of her.
The blood spewed everywhere, coating her face and clothes, but she didn't care. She wiped her face with her sleeve and willed the tears to stop flowing, unsteadily walked to the discarded gun and pocketed it. They wouldn't stop. Disgusted at herself for what she had just done, she vomited, the stench overwhelming her nostrils.
Virgo came down the stairs, still human.
"Lucy? Lucy! We gotta go!"
She saw the dead bodies on the floor and wept silently.
"Oh Lucy." She ran forward and embraced the sobbing girl. "Why don't we go?"
"My humblest apologies, Mistress and Master Heartfilia."
Natsu was silent for the majority of the story.
"That must have been tough."
Lucy wiped away a tear that had escaped. "Yeah. But, it eventually got better."
"Ya know what Luce?"
"What?"
"You're really strong," Natsu said.
"Thank you, Natsu."
Natsu tried to ignore how his heart fluttered at the way she had said his name. But could he really?
No less than 15 minutes later, they'd arrived at the resort. Lucy carried Wendy on her back while Natsu woke up Gray, ordering him to wake up Erza. There was no way Natsu was gonna risk his life.
Erza didn't hurt Gray too badly when she woke up and was mildly embarrassed when Natsu mentioned she had snored.
Together, they made their way to the hotel making sure that they were alert and ready. It was dark and any remaining zombies were bound to be active.
It was rather nerve-wracking as they waited for something… anything to pop out and attack them. But.. nothing was there. Lucy hated the anxiety building up in her stomach and held on to Natsu's hand.
Wendy curled her arms around Lucy even tighter, still sleeping.
The elevator was busted, so they reluctantly took the stairs, trying to pretend that there weren't any blood stains on the carpet. The imagined that there was no smell of dead bodies or dead pets. It was a ghastly scene for sure.
Wendy finally woke up once they had reached the second floor and shyly offered to walk for herself. Lucy set her down, a little thankful to have a lighter load to carry.
Gray attempted to make small talk, but no one was in the mood. It was when they finished searching the 6 story hotel that they accepted that they had officially cleared quadrant 4.
"Good work, guys," Lucy said, exhausted. They took a break to eat food after Wendy almost fainted from hunger.
"I betcha Master's gonna be shocked." Natsu gloated. "I'll betcha we were faster than the Thunder Legion on their first mission."
Erza chuckled. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Natsu."
"But Erza… If it is?" Gray said.
"Then we can brag. But not before we know for sure." Erza said.
"Then let's go!" Natsu cried, jumping up.
"One second," Lucy said. "I just want to check a room."
"Why? Erza asked.
"My family had bought a room here. I just wanted to see if perhaps I can find any old belongings." Lucy said.
"Bought a room? As in owned it?" Gray said, shocked.
Lucy nodded.
"You must have been loaded."
Erza was about to scold Gray for being rude, but Natsu beat her to it.
"It doesn't matter if she was 'loaded' or not and really, it's none of your business."
Wendy was surprised by Natsu's outburst.
His eyes dared Gray to challenge him. Wendy was glad Gray had the common sense to back down because she knew what Natsu was like when he was like this. Dangerous.
"I'm just gonna go," Lucy said, escaping the awkward silence in the room.
"I'll come with you," Natsu said, not giving her a choice. "Which room?"
"213."
They made their way down to the second floor and looked for the room. Once there, Lucy reached into her shirt and pulled out her necklace. It held a lot of keys. She unhooked one and opened the door.
"Hello?" She called. There was silence. Natsu and Lucy crept in the room, using a flashlight for guidance.
They relaxed when they had swept the whole room and found nothing threatening.
Lucy raced to the table, where a picture of her parents on their wedding day. Without warning, she smashed it. Glass fell off the table in shards.
"Is everything okay?" He asked, wary.
"Yup. I found what I was looking for." Lucy said. She held up another key and hooked it to her necklace.
She then proceeds to grab a piece of paper and pen, drawing the tattoo she had seen on Wendy's arm.
"That's the fairy tail symbol! Why are you drawing it?"
"If anyone from my former party survived somehow, they'll come here sooner or later. I just want to let them know where I am."
Natsu nodded, knowing what it was like to not know where your loved ones were. He followed Lucy as they returned to the group to head back.
"Ready when you guys are," Erza said, getting up. They walked to the car truck and all hoped in as Gray began the long drive home. It was decided that Lucy and Natsu would sleep since they hadn't gotten any on the ride there.
"Just don't bust my ride, Streaker," Natsu said, yawning. He then clambered into the backseat, laying his body across Lucy's lap. Lucy subconsciously started to play with his hair as she drowsed off.
It seemed like two minutes had passed when Gray was shaking them awake. Natsu was confused to why Erza was pinning his arms and legs down.
"The hell?"
"You attacked Gray in your sleep. It was rather cute."
"Cute?" A vein bulged.
"Yeah, cute. It was like you were protecting Lucy." Erza said. Now that Natsu was more awake, he vaguely remembered dreaming of Gray trying to steal his Lucy away. Wait… when had she become his? Nonononono. Now was NOT the time for romance.
"Yeah right. I probably thought you were too ugly."
"Oi!"
"Wuzgoinon?" Lucy said, still half asleep.
"Natsu attacked Gray in his sleep and Jellal is yelling at us to hurry up so he can get back to sleep. We need to get checked by processors to make sure we aren't infected or anything." Wendy said, feeling as exhausted as Lucy sounded.
"Mmm," Lucy replied, already following back asleep, so Natsu simply carried her on his back. Lucy snuggled deeper into his neck, her breath tickling him. "Alright, let's go, Luce." He said.
He carried her to the processing room where a sleepy Mirajane was waiting.
"Oh dear! It looks like Lucy overworked herself." Mirajane exclaimed, waking up. "Set her down over there!"
Natsu complied and awaited further instructions.
"I'm sure Lucy would like some privacy," Mira said pointedly.
Natsu flushed and turned around to leave when Lucy grabbed his hand, stopping him.
"Please. Don't go."
Mirajane nodded at Natsu who stayed by Lucy's side. There was nothing much to it really. Natsu turned away as Mirajane undressed Lucy to make sure there weren't any bite marks or new cuts.
When she was finished, she dressed Lucy in new clothes and let Natsu turn around again. This time it was his turn. He didn't mind if it was Mirajane processing him. She was a kind girl.
When he was done, she handed him the gauntlet.
"This probably saved her life." She said.
Natsu examined it. There was a bite mark. But when?
"You might want to take her to your mom tomorrow morning."
Natsu nodded. "I'll tell Wendy to take her."
Mirajane shook her head. "It's better if you do it. You're the only one who can carry her."
"But I won't know when she wakes up."
"Just sleep with her. From what I've heard, you had no problem with it last night.
"Eh? OH NO! It's not what you think. I just fell asleep. Nothing else. Damn it Levy." Natsu flushed.
Mirajane giggled as Natsu repositioned Lucy on his back and made the trek to her room. It was 6 AM, 25 hours since they had woken up.
When he entered, his sister was already snoring away on her bed. It seemed that Erza had gone to stay with Jellal for the night, but she had left a note with a message from Gramps.
Master says you can sleep in tomorrow. We have the next two days off.
Natsu smiled as he lay Lucy on her bed. He was happy that Mirajane had changed her into pajamas. It saved him a lot of energy which let him go straight to bed as he snuggled next to Lucy.
Awwww... *breathes deeply* Okay, so thanks everyone! The Plot has BEGUN and y'all are about to be shocked by Laxus!
Responses:
Ushindeshi: Yeah I know, but it's important that Lucy gets a backstory, no matter how sad.
