The voice of a professional reporter called Lucy from a dream of black and red hearts. Fake and real. Sunlight crawled through the drapes and made gold on the ceiling. Lucy followed the voice to Lisanna's bed, where she lay with her phone held up so she could watch the news.

"What is that?"

"They found the girl they were looking for."

Lucy threw her blankets off and knelt at the edge of Lisanna's bed. It was cold. The heatwave ended and fall was finally here. Lisanna shifted over and pulled back her blankets and Lucy took up her invitation, climbing into her bed and sharing her pillow so they could watch the horror together.

The reporter stood outside the Clover Police Department building. Wind gripped her copper hair and her light fall coat was done up to her chin. Her makeup was applied with a gentle hand. It made her look professional and solemn.

"I'm here today at the Clover Police Department with one of the lead Detectives working the Black Heart case. He'll be joining us in just a moment to give a statement regarding Natasha Green, the body of the latest victim found in the forest around East Mill Park yesterday."

A picture of the girl popped up on screen. Lucy's breath arrested in her lungs as she looked into familiar eyes. Her hair was dry and pinned back by her daisy clips, her skin glowed with life. The white pouf dress she was wearing in her picture was identical to the one she'd shown to Lucy, though. This picture had been taken the day she died.

"That's her," Lucy said over the reporter. "That's the girl I saw the night Natsu kissed me. That's the girl I chased back to the hill yesterday. I knew she was out there. I knew it."

The crowd made a kerfuffle. The reporter checked over her shoulder; Detective Fernandez was descending the stairs.

'Here is Detective Jellal Fernandez to make a statement."

The camera swung behind the reporter and the lens focused on Jellal. He came to rest behind a portable podium in a sombre black suit and shirt. His tie was up tight to his throat and his hair was slicked back from his face. He looked stoic and unapproachable but when he spoke, Lucy could hear the tension in his voice.

"On Friday, September twenty-seventh, Miss Green was reported missing by her fiancé when she did not return from catering a children's party held by the fountains in East Mill Park. Police made every effort to locate her from the moment she was reported missing to the moment she was found yesterday afternoon by myself and Clover PD techs on the banks of Muller Creek, life signs absent.

"The nature of her injuries suggest that she was taken by the killer the media is calling Black Heart. Her family wishes that no media personnel contact them at this time and we request that you respect their right to privacy."

One reporter in the front of the group mimicked everyone's thoughts. They didn't care about her family. They wanted a roast. "You never put out any social media requests looking for her and you made no announcements. Why is that?"

Fernandez's stress was wrapped in plastic; if Lucy didn't see the bead of sweat on his temple, she'd never know he was under pressure. "That option was discussed at length but in the end was not considered viable."

"Viable?" a reporter with blonde hair squeaked. "You could have saved that girl's life had you just made a Facebook post. You know that, right?"

"No comment."

"If you're going to start spewing that, maybe the police should send out someone that will comment. A girl is dead. You chose not to act—"

Jellal's facade cracked. "All due respect, Miss Relight, this killer finishes with his victims in moments. Miss Green's clock was ticking the second he got her away from the crowd. No Facebook post would have saved her."

The crowd hushed. Detective Fernandez was pushed out of the way by a woman with long, silky hair. "Thank you, Detective. I'll take over from here."

"Captain Milkovich, why wasn't the public notified about Miss Green's disappearance?"

"That's a police matter and I cannot comment."

"Someone has to!"

She spoke right over the reporter. "The Clover Police Department is deeming East Mill Park off-limits to the public. Anyone caught on its premises will be arrested immediately. Signs will be posted to this effect. The curfew is still in effect and I stress, do not approach strangers, do not travel alone, and always inform your loved ones of your whereabouts."

Everyone started talking at once. Lucy couldn't focus on what they were saying. In the corner of the screen, they were showing a picture of Natasha Green. She stood in front of a table full of food at the edge of the park, where there were almost no trees and the city was right there. Anyone would feel safe there on an unseasonably hot fall day, the sun blazing.

"How did he lure you away?" Lucy wondered aloud. "How?"

The picture cycled into a feed of Fernandez and his team cordoning off the area the day Natasha Green was found. It was still raining; everything looked shiny and gloomy. Lucy could see where she and Natsu had been laying. If she had followed the hearts to the left instead of the right yesterday morning, she would have tripped over Natasha. Instead, she'd found a heart in a tree with her initial on it.

Natasha's body was beneath a sheet already, and above her head, caught in the bark of a craggy bur oak was her construction-paper heart. Its edges had flopped, soggy with rain and torn by the wind, and its black colour had started to bleed out, so it looked like a slug, slimy and insufficient.

Lisanna closed the webpage and the silence resounded through the room. "Hey," Lucy protested.

"We're not going to learn anything from that. The police don't know and even if they did, they're not sharing for the killer to see. It'll only make him cover his tracks better. What time do you work?"

It was Monday. She'd almost forgotten. "Ten until six."

Lisanna chewed the edge of her thumb. "It'll be getting dark by then. We'll be out too late."

"Then we go before."

"You won't make it to work on time. It's already quarter to nine."

And she had no way to get to the mall quickly; she'd have to walk. "Just meet me after work, please, Lisanna? We'll look for her and call it off before it gets dark."

"The sun sets at eight."

"That's two hours. We'll be back before then."

"Miss Porlyusica isn't going to like that we're wandering around at all."

"But we'll be together," Lucy said. "And we'll be back before the curfew." She crossed her fingers under the blankets, just in case she was lying. "Please."

Lisanna sighed. "Fine."

"Yes! Thank you." Lucy threw back the covers so she could start getting ready for her day. She showered and put on the jumpsuit she'd bought when she first arrived at Rose's. Eventually, she'd have to go back to the thrift store, her wardrobe was seriously lacking and if the heat spell truly was over, it was going to start getting cold soon.

Lisanna got into the shower after Lucy. Lucy left her to her own devices. Downstairs, there were three girls in the kitchen. Erza's long scarlet hair was in a topknot; she was scowling at the TV on the wall where the picture of a blonde man with a baby face took up the screen. Under his image scrawled the details of his misdeeds. Lucy caught kidnapping and forcible confinement. He stood in a courtroom in orange and was about to go into trial. He flipped incessantly through a stack of cards. How he was even allowed those, Lucy didn't know. Maybe he just knew the right people.

Wendy slouched in her chair at the kitchen table, picking apart a piece of toast slathered in drippy peanut butter. It was all over her cheeks and her fingers but she didn't seem to care. Her eyes were red-rimmed. She'd been crying. Lucy gravitated towards her naturally; her way was blocked by Minerva. Her hands were on her hips and there was gloss on her lips and a bit of meanness in her eye.

"I hear you start a new job today, Lucy."

"Yes," Lucy said hesitantly.

"In the mall."

"At Green Earth."

"Isn't that next to Carma?" Minerva named an overpriced store for outdoor equipment.

"I guess."

She pulled a piece of glossed flyer paper out of her back pocket and handed it to Lucy. On it was a red raincoat and boot combo. "Medium for the coat, size seven for the boots."

She thought of the coat in the closet and her heart dropped. She feigned ignorance, though, in case this wasn't what she suspected it was. "If you give me the money I guess I could stop by on my way back—"

"No," Minerva said shortly. "You're going to buy it for me."

No such luck. "I don't have that kind of money." The coat alone was two hundred.

"You should have thought of that before you stole my stuff and ruined it."

"I didn't—"

"Even ask? I know." Minerva pushed the flyer against her chest. Lucy stumbled back. The paper fell between them. "Pick it up so you can show them. I want that one exactly."

Lucy's stomach tingled and it was almost like she was close to the Black Heart again. Terrifying and exciting. She pushed around Minerva, heading for the heart of the kitchen and the coffee. "I'm not doing it."

"You ruined mine. There's sap all over it, and a button is missing. My boots have a hole in the side of the foot and they're soaked. It's like you were rolling in the mud like a fucking pig."

Lucy muttered, "Because that's going to make me want to buy you stuff."

"I don't care what you want." Minerva was right behind her. Wendy's eyes widened and Lucy tensed so she was ready, or mostly, Minerva grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. She'd picked up the flyer again and shoved it at Lucy. Lucy pushed her aside.

"Get away from me."

Minerva was surprisingly strong. She pinned Lucy the counter and shoved the flyer in her face with such force, Lucy's cheek stung. "If your fat ass doesn't come back with this you're not coming back into Rose's."

"Get away from me!" Lucy pushed her. Minerva pushed her back. Lucy slapped her. Minerva wailed and suddenly, Lucy's face and scalp burned, though she couldn't say why, it all happened so fast. She attacked back without much skill. Her neck stung and so did her shin. She hit something soft and Minerva hissed.

Then Minerva was suddenly gone and Lucy was free. There was blood on the floor and tension in the air. Wendy broke it with a gasp and Lucy could focus. Erza had Minerva pinned to the floor and punched her as wild as any beast.

Minerva was yelling, Wendy was yelling, Erza was, too. Lucy's own voice was caught in her throat until Miss Porlyusica came around the corner with a broom in her hand and a voice like a banshee, sharp enough to wake the dead. The girls separated.

Miss Porlyusica dealt with it as efficiently as she dealt with anything. She sent Minerva to get cleaned up, put Wendy to work on the floor, told Lucy to get to her job, and took Erza into her office. Lucy strained to hear what was being said when she walked by but aside from the occasional sniffles, she got nothing.

Mondays were always quiet days in the mall so Lucy had some privacy in the large twenty-stalled washroom. She poked and prodded her cheek. It was swollen. And a little discoloured. Not badly but bad enough. She'd never been hit before and discovered that now that she had, she had a hard time not touching it and not staring at it.

Scarlet passed beneath one of the fluorescent lights and gleamed in the mirror. Lucy met Erza's eyes. She looked docile now; it was difficult to believe she'd pinned Minerva to the ground not even an hour before. Unless, of course, Lucy looked at her hands. Those were bruised and split and swollen.

"I thought this is where I'd find you. Are you okay?" Erza asked.

Lucy prodded her cheek again. "It doesn't really hurt."

"It'll hurt worse when all of the adrenaline wears off."

"You've been in fights before?"

Erza half-smiled. "A time or two."

"Was Miss Porlyusica mad?"

"Is she ever not?" Erza pulled out some concealer from the purse she carried and handed it over. "It might work." Lucy daubed it on and most of the bruise went away. The swelling was still there. "Here. Try this." Erza adjusted Lucy's hair around her face.

"Thank you."

Erza's smile was bare-bones. Her phone started vibrating. She answered a text message. "You're sure you're alright?"

"Yeah. Thanks." She supposed, though Erza had scared her.

"I have to go. Have a good day at work, Lucy. And be careful coming home."

"Thanks," Lucy called at Erza's retreating back.

She spent a little more time fixing her makeup. She'd had no time to put on mascara or lip gloss before she left Rose's. A touch of eyeliner above her eyes. Lucy looked herself over in the mirror with a critical eye. She adjusted her jumpsuit. It was supposed to be a little low cut but this was a lot. A lot of everything. Cleavage. Skin. Her bra wasn't thick enough so she could see the outline of her semi-erect nipples and she hated it. People were going to look and when they looked, they sometimes thought they could touch.

Not everyone. Not. Everyone.

Stop. Stop thinking about it. Otherwise, she'd go insane. You're fine.

Lights and noise bombarded her when she stepped out into the food court but Erza's scarlet hair was recognizable in the clatter. She was at a table with J. Fernandez. He was in civilian clothes and despite his rocky press conference, he was smiling. Leaning into her, even, the tips of his fingers touching her hand. And Erza smiled back. Lucy started towards them, an accusation tangling around the black heart in her mind.

"Lucy!"

She turned and there was Loke, grinning at her from behind a pair of shaded glasses. She checked the clock over the washrooms. She only had five minutes before she needed to start work. She looked back towards the table. Erza was rising. Jellal remained where he was. And she couldn't hunt her down. Loke was waiting. "Sorry. I'm coming!"

"It's okay," Loke said. "I'll walk you there." He fell into step beside her. On the wrong side, of course. Lucy fixed her hair over her face to try to avoid awkward questions. "It looked like you were going to run off on me."

"Sorry. I saw my friend and I wanted to tell her something."

"Do you need to go back?"

Lucy looked back. Erza was at the exit doors now and heading outside. Jellal was still where she'd left him. "No. I'll text her."

"Sure, no problem."

He seemed so nice. "Has the store been busy today?"

"Nah." He told her, "I'm training another guy, too, so that's perfect."

"You hired two new people?" Did he double up in case one of them didn't work out? Did that mean that she'd have to try extra hard to impress him? Because she wasn't off to a great start, almost showing up late, nearly running after Erza when he approached her.

"The Holliday season comes up quick. As soon as September's done, we have to start pushing for Christmas."

"Brutal."

"That's retail." Green Earth's forest green sign lit up the north side of the mall. Lucy liked all of the knickknacks in its glass cases. The faeries sitting on their toadstools, dragons, witches and other mythical creatures.

Loke entered the store first. Lucy was bombarded with the scent of candles and incense. There were three people inside, two customers and a man standing behind the cash. He had long green hair tied back behind his head. His eyes flitted over Lucy before landing on his customer again. He had a gentle way of speaking and a nice smile.

The customers paid and Loke stepped up. "Freed, this is Lucy. You'll be working together Mondays and Wednesdays."

"Nice to meet you," Lucy said. He mimicked her and shook her hand.

"I'll put Lucy on the cash first since you've had the morning. Those boxes in the back need to finish being unpacked," Loke suggested. "Come find me when you're done. Or if you have any questions."

"No problem," Freed responded and disappeared.

"He's shy," Loke said. "He'll warm up, I think."

A tall man with hair so blonde it was almost white walked in, looking at their wares. Loke rolled up the sleeves of his over-the-top white dress shirt. "Have you ever used a cash register before?"

"No."

Loke smiled. "Well, let me show you."

The day slipped by. Slow and steady and full of things to remember. By the time six o'clock rolled around, Lucy was dizzy from spinning back towards the cash so much. Freed had finished at three, which meant that he hadn't been packing bags for her for the last three hours and she felt his absence though his conversations had been sparse.

"That's a wrap," Loke leaned his hip against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. The cords on his arms weren't as defined as Natsu's but they were definitely there. The suit and the careful and artful style of his hair, the subtle spray of cologne that didn't give her a headache? He cared about his image quite a lot. "What do you think of your new job?"

She straightened the flyers at the cash. "I liked it." It was the most people she'd seen in a long, long time and it felt good to talk to them. She almost didn't feel crazy packing a goat figurine for a guy wearing all black. She almost didn't feel like her father loomed above her, silent and oppressive, the ghost of his hands on her, making her want to tear apart her skin.

"Lucy?" Loke looked concerned.

She blinked. "Huh?"

"You can really get in your own head, huh?"

She flushed. "Sorry. Pardon?"

"I asked if you wanted to head across the street and grab some takeout for your dinner? I'll buy."

As good as it felt not to think about the Black Heart for a few hours, she needed him in her head. "I have other plans." And they waited for her outside of Green Earth in a pair of ripped up jeans and a long-sleeved red and black striped shirt. Lisanna smiled. Her mouth was painted the colour of blackberries and her hair was a nimbus around her head. There was a dark green backpack on her shoulders.

"Sure," Loke started unhooking the slider from the side of the store so he could lock it up for the night. "No problem. Thanks for all your hard work today. You did great. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Definitely," Lucy said. "You don't need any help closing up?"

He shook his head. "I'm good."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow." Lucy got her stuff from beneath the counter and met Lisanna out in the hallway. "Ready?"

"No."

Lucy took Lisanna's offered hand and squeezed it. "Well, I am." More than. Now that she had time to think about it, the excitement made her giddy. She couldn't wait to be out there, hunting for Isla Morris. "What's in your backpack?"

"Food, water, scissors and a flashlight."

"What are the scissors for?"

"Protection."

In case she needed to sink them into the Black Heart's ribs. Lucy felt faint.

"Are you okay?"

"Perfect." Better than perfect. She was so excited, she could die, walking out there, finding the Black Heart's first victim, solving the case the police couldn't.

Lisanna grabbed the fringe of Lucy's hair and pulled it back. Lucy looked through her lashes at the purpling bruise. It was starting to show through her concealer and her hair wasn't hiding it as much as it was before. "Wendy said Minerva hit you."

Lucy fixed her hair. "It's fine."

"She also said Erza hit Minerva."

"Yeah."

Lisanna sighed. "Did Miss Porlyusica give you trouble?"

"No." Lucy pushed open the front doors and stepped out into the cooling evening. Her arms were goosebumps already and the sun had just barely started to set. Lisanna got closer to her. That was nice, feeling her body next to hers, her warmth. Lucy wanted to mull over what it meant but there wasn't enough room in her mind for everything. So she let it be.

"That's lucky. Minerva was cleaning the oven when I left. Tara told me once that Miss Porlyusica only makes girls do that when she's really, really mad at them." Lisanna stopped at a bench before the crosswalk and shed her bag. She pulled an Orthoimage and a bagel from it. She gave the latter to Lucy and poured over the former. Lucy's stomach rumbled.

"You didn't have to bring me this."

"You probably wouldn't eat tonight if I didn't." The offhanded way she said it was both startling and relieving. She didn't say it like Lucy should be ashamed, she said it like it was fact and fact should be handled like fact. Clinically and precisely.

Lucy ate the side least gobbed with butter first, thinking she'd work her way up to it.

"We'll start here first." Lisanna pointed to the edge of a farm field that bordered a set of apartments. It was in the annexed section of Clover, where the city was expanding rapidly. Those apartments were new. Isla must have paid a good penny to be in them.

"She was going to school so she probably had some kind of bursary," Lucy said aloud, thinking of the digging she'd done the previous night. "And the restaurant she worked at was close to the college." Which was also within walking distance of her apartment. "We printed Orthos of that area as well, right?"

"I have everything in a ten-kilometer radius."

They were going to be at this forever if they didn't get lucky. "Remember when you said sometimes, the things you think about come true?"

Lisanna's cheeks reddened. She didn't look at Lucy when she put everything but one Ortho away. "I can't control it."

"You haven't even tried."

"I have before. It doesn't work."

"Well, do you feel good about going to this farm?"

"No, I feel terrible about it."

Her words gave Lucy chills.

"Come on, the sun's setting," Lisanna said and crossed the street. Lucy dropped the napkin her bagel came in into the garbage and followed.

Walking was the slowest way to go. Lucy would have spent what little was left of her cash on a cab to get there quicker but she was afraid of leaving a trail. Or throwing the Black Heart off if he was watching. She wanted him to know that she was onto him. When he was nervous, he'd make mistakes, she'd wager, and when he made mistakes, he'd get caught.

The city fell away behind them and the edges of urban sprawl took over. Buildings cropped out of forested areas looking out-of-place, apartments and townhouses were nestled in between farm fields. "Do you think he lives in one of these?"

"Yes," Lisanna said.

Lucy was again overrun by chills.

"Do you think he's watching us?"

"He's probably been watching for a while."

Was she just being paranoid and dire? Or was this another Lisanna-knows situation?

Lucy watched the road and houses with a critical eye. None stood out more than the other.

"This way." Lisanna cut from the main road towards a farm field. There was a fringe of cedars that ran the ditch and once they passed those, they were out of sight of the road and in front of a small pond ringed by cattails and the occasional cedar. The sun set the puffy clouds on the horizon ablaze. Scarlet and russet and marigold took the sinister grounds ahead of them and gave them a picturesque quality. She could be standing on the fringe of reality, about to peek behind a veil that hid something grotesque.

"It's beautiful here."

"That's where she worked." Lisanna pointed west across the field to the top of a white-roofed and squat building. "And there's the lot where she went missing." She pointed to the north, where, just barely, Lucy could see the black tarmac of the industrial lot. "And…" She moved her finger just a little east. "That's the apartment building she lived in." The farmer's field was central to them all. But it wasn't close, exactly.

"He's never dragged his other victims very far before, did he? So why the first one? Why not leave her where she could be found?"

Lisanna's expression was blank. "I don't pretend I know what he does with them."

That's your thing. She didn't say it but Lucy knew she meant it. And she didn't care. "If she is here, nothing about this is the same as the others. Who was she to the Black Heart? A friend? A girlfriend? A friend he wanted to be his girlfriend?"

"Or maybe she was no one?"

"No. All of this is methodical. It's planned. He rages when he kills them, but even that has a note of thought in it. He does the same thing every time. Every time. Even as he's cutting them open and taking their hearts, rushing, he knows what he's doing." Compulsive. Everything he did was compulsive.

"Or you don't actually know anything about him and you're totally wrong."

Lisanna wasn't usually so pessimistic. At least, not in Lucy's experience. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just uncomfortable." She stepped over a mound of dirt. "It's creepy being out here, knowing that Isla was taken from just over there. Doesn't it bother you?"

Lucy chose to take the question rhetorically. What was the point of lying to seem normal? Lisanna already knew she was strange. "Do you think Isla meant the pond when she said she was in someplace deep, dark and damp?"

"That would be soaking, not damp," Lisanna said.

But it was the best option she had. She got close to the pond. The ground squished and soaked into her toes. She hated that feeling but loved this, the anticipation. Do you think you're going to look in and see her? She was horrified by the prospect but still marched into the cattails wearing her determination on her sleeve. Lisanna crunched in behind her more slowly and more careful.

"We're trespassing."

"You're the one that stepped on the property first." It seemed Lisanna had forgotten.

"I know. I don't know what I was thinking. It's so light out still."

"I thought you didn't want to be out in the dark?"

"I don't," Lisanna emphasised.

"The farmer can't see us, anyway." They were protected now; the cattails were thick here. Lucy avoided a hole in the ground left by a cow hoof. It was so strange to have urban and rural side-by-side. Magnolia was all city all the time. Its graffitied walls and garbage-choked streets made it seem rather tame in comparison to this strange place.

"What are we looking for?"

"Honestly?"

"Yes." Lisanna sounded like she was going to cry.

"A body."

"There's no body here."

Lucy looked back over her shoulder. Lisanna was clutching her elbows and standing in a puddle two inches deep, and she looked certain. Lucy was also certain. "There's something here." And she was going to find it.

More determined than before, she did a round of the pond, slashing through cattails and tromping over orange discarded cedar leaves. Nothing and more nothing. She wasn't going to give up, though. If she could find nothing in the farmer's field, she'd go where she should have first.

Lisanna burst out of the reeds with cattail fluff in her now-messy hair. "What are you doing?"

"Going to the parking lot."

"Are you crazy? We're going to have the cops called on us."

"Then I'll say sorry."

"Trespassing—"

"They're not going to charge me." The world couldn't be that unjust.

Lisanna fell into a sulky silence. How did you argue with the irrational?

Lucy was breathing heavily by the time they passed by a well on the north edge of the farmer's field. She used its crumbling brick to keep herself up when her ankle twisted in the ditch on the other side, hidden by canary-reed grass. She broke through the thick, taupe stalks and found herself in a ditch, facing a hill of short, green grass.

The parking lot was lit with only one working lamp. It shone hunter-orange light down on black and degraded tarmac and glittering glass and white cigarette butts. She could practically feel Isla Morris in this place. She was here because…

"It would have been easier to walk through here to get to her apartment." Faster. She wouldn't have had to go around the block, she could just cut through the field and be at her back door.

She walked to the west side of the lot where Isla would have come from. Someone had used snips to cut a hole in the chain-link fence. It'd been peeled back and tied with a piece of rubber-coated wire. Someone frequented this spot. Or multiple someones.

There was graffiti on the wall. Someone had etched,

Dark, dark, dark, dark and an eye that had been blacked out. The pupil was red. The lines used to make it were jagged.

Lucy touched it, expecting to feel something. Lisanna took her hand away from it. "Don't."

"It's only art." His art.

Dark. Dark. Dark. Dark.

Lucy shook off Lisanna's hand and moved to the other side of the wall. There she found the other half to the mural. This eye was almond-shaped and grey. Much less menacing, and more neatly constructed. It was also his. She touched it and tried to see what he did. He was divided. Two things at once. She moved back to the darker eye. She wasn't interested in the man that had control. She wanted the killer. It was almost like he was looking at her.

"I'm getting closer," she told him. "I'm going to peel back the rock you're hiding under and you're going to be mine." He wasn't going to take anyone else away and he was going to suffer for the harm he'd already caused.

Lisanna backed into the chain-link fence and something clattered to the ground. Lucy spun around and found the culprit. It was a film canister from a manual camera. Her heart throbbed in her ears. She scurried forward like a spider and scraped her knees on the ground to get it. It had moisture on the plastic. It'd been out in the storm. But it was left for her. Like the camera in the park had been.

A car swung into the parking lot and Lucy's heart beat harder. She turned with the canister clutched to her chest and looked into the bright headlights. She could see nothing. Lisanna stood beside her with her hand shading her eyes. The car pulled right up to them after a moment and the lights turned off. The window went down and all Lucy could think was, this is him. This is the Black Heart. Lisanna was right. He was watching us. And now he's come to… To kill her? To mock her? She'd found what he wanted her to find, not what she was really hunting for. Facts. Proof. Condemnable evidence. All she had was undeveloped film and it could have been ruined for all she knew.

"Hey."

The word didn't make sense until Lisanna said, "Hey, Natsu." Then Lucy saw that the car was cherry red. Natsu was behind the wheel. There was someone beside him. She thought at first it was Happy but his build was dissimilar. He was thicker through the shoulders than Happy and his hair was messier. Natsu opened the door and got out and with the interior light bouncing off his passenger's sharp features, she knew immediately without introduction that she was seeing his brother.

Natsu asked, "What are you doing out here?"

"We're waiting for Ogra. What are you doing?" Lisanna's lie threw Lucy for a loop. Who was Ogra and why were they supposedly waiting for him? Lisanna wouldn't look at her. Lucy put the canister into her pocket and went with it.

"Same." He looked back into his car. His brother's elbow was on the windowsill and he scrolled through his phone with a bored expression. When Natsu turned back, he looked more determined. "Did you walk here?"

"Yes. Are you going to offer us a drive?" Lisanna asked.

"Yeah. Of course. Get in."

Lucy was left standing on her own as Lisanna plopped into the car through the passenger's rear door. She leaned forward around the seat and spoke to Natsu's brother, hand held out like she could make friends with anyone, anywhere. He took a moment to drop his phone but he shook her hand and smiled a smile that didn't meet his eyes.

"Looks like Christmas came early," Lucy said.

"You were right. I did want to see him." Natsu shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked a pebble across the ground. It hit the eye mural and skated under the chain-link. "Is it weird if I invite you over to hang out with us?"

The canister was a cylindrical bomb in her pocket. She needed those photos developed. And Natsu was the guy to do it for her. She figured it'd be an easier pill for him to swallow if she spent a few hours actually enjoying his company rather than just using him to develop whatever dirty secrets the Black Heart had left for her. "I think that'd be fun."

He turned the full force of his boyish grin on her. "Great."

Chain-link rattled as a man stepped through the hole and into the parking lot. He was so tall and so thick, he almost looked comical. Natsu greeted him the same way Lucy imagined he greeted everyone, with a show of teeth. "Hey, man."

Orga looked at Lucy and in the car. "Party tonight, Dragneel?"

"Zeref's in town."

"Lucky me." Lucy understood Orga better when Natsu handed him some cash and he fished in his pocket for a baggy of weed. "You know where to find me when you want more."

Natsu looked at Lucy expectantly. She'd never bought drugs in her life and didn't know what to say. Of course, Orga didn't know about Lisanna's lie and barely spared her another look as he exited the parking lot again.

"Didn't you want some?"

"I just remembered, I'm trying to save up for a new phone," Lucy lied badly.

"Oh. Okay." Natsu was easygoing and didn't pry anymore. "This is plenty anyway. If you want."

She'd never had any before. Trying to make the decision to experiment made her feel as nervous as she had when she was standing on top of the hill and Natsu was holding the cart for her.

"No pressure."

"I know. I've just—I've never tried it. This was Lisanna's idea." If Lisanna could lie, so could she.

Natsu looked surprised. "Okay. That's cool. Well, we can go back to the apartment and if you decide you want some, that's fine, and if you don't, that's fine, too."

"Sure."

Lisanna slid across the backseat and opened the door. She was smiling like she hadn't since they left the mall. She was much more comfortable here, navigating these situations. Lucy would rather deal with the Black Heart. "Did you get it?"

"Natsu did."

"Let's go, then." She already knew that Natsu had invited them over, just like she already knew Lucy had said yes.

A/N: Hi. I'm creating a monster. Apologies in advance.