The story finally seems to get going again. Still think it can be better, though. Thanks for reading!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 53: Inside The Curse

Four years after the events surrounding "The Squid"

Name: Tilly Sasaki Gold

Age: 18

Occupation: Mage of Sabertooth

Every now and then, I glance at the masked man in the corner of the room. He's sitting cross legged on the ground, his hands on his knees, and for as far as I can tell his eyes are closed. He hasn't moved since we came back from our 'training'.

You'd think this would make a perfect time to chat with everyone, catch up on what has happened the past four years. Rose and Martin act like they're married, Caroline is about to be married to some guy she dragged along with her, Jake looks like he could be Gajeel's dad instead of his student, Samdy and Sasha aren't speaking but keep glaring at each other just like they did back in school, Ary acts as if she's the mother of six. Lucy has left us not long ago to check on Levy. And then there are Greg and Floyd, the twins. After the school broke down, they were pretty set on leaving for Fiore. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do, so I shyly asked if I could tag along. They both looked at one another, shrugged and said 'OK'. Now, four years later, we're pretty much inseparable. The guild's not a fan of cliques, but it was all of us or none of us. Sting was pretty fond of the twins, which I understood. Invisibility isn't exactly a combat skill. But it pays the bills.

Someone sighs. All heads turn to look at Ravin. We wait. A pretty long time. I'm surprised my classmates have the patience. It is Gajeel who eventually breaks the silence.

'Spit it out already.'

Ravin sighs again. 'Well...Kai has secured an opening for us.'

That looks good on paper, but the way he says it doesn't make it sound that way.

'But…?' I say. Ravin stands up.

'It's a bit different than we expected. I'm not sure whether to tell you, or to let you see it for yourselves. It's difficult to explain.'

There's another silence. Then Jake stands up. 'Well, just send us in, then.'

Ravin looks at Gajeel for a moment. 'Alright. But once you've entered, I can't help you. You're on your own, and the only way to get out is to break the Curse. And you can only do that by making Kubo wake up.'

'Yeah, I know,' Jake says quickly, almost a sneer. He seems nervous. Ravin just nods.

'You'll go first, then.' Without a warning, he plants his palm in the middle of Jake's face. His legs give out immediately, and he falls back into his chair, snoring.

'Oh, and before I forget,' Ravin says then, 'remember that you're inside a Curse. None of it is real.'

He then moves on to Gajeel, who looks strangely subdued. I quickly realize why.

This was never how it was supposed to be. He accepted a job, over four years ago, to teach some good-for-nothing-kids with magic abilities at some weird school on a distant continent. He was supposed to get the money at the end of the semester and leave. Kubo got in the way. When I saw Gajeel for the first time, I thought he was epic. Later I accidentally overheard him whispering with Kubo about Fairy Tail and thought all kinds of horrible things, but Gajeel promised it wasn't like that. I became part of a conspiracy and I wasn't supposed to tell anyone what I knew. That wasn't hard at first, but then I became friends with Rose and Lily. For a long time, though, all seemed to be good. I almost forgot about Kubo and his weird plans. Until El Paco showed up on Lux. Then it all went downhill, for Gajeel as well.

Gajeel had no ill intentions from the start. When Kubo explained his plans, he kindly listened and nodded, but knew that he would not cooperate in any way. He would try to stop it. He would do his best to make sure me and my classmates wouldn't be harvested for our magic powers. And he tried. And he failed.

Three of our classmates are dead. That wasn't how it was supposed to be.

I can't imagine what the guilt must feel like. And four years have passed before he managed to get us all back together. At least, what is left of us. Four year of guilt and feeling like a failure.

And up until now he didn't show it. He grinned as he saw us enter the inn. He grinned when proposing to play tag. He grinned while we played tag. He might've just been happy to see us, or it was a coping mechanism. A mask, to hide the fact that he beats himself up over his failure.

Just right before he's entering Kubo's Curse, I see it. A glimpse of the suffering from the past four years. This is the only way to make it right. Which is why everyone needs to be here. Not only for our revenge. He has to redeem himself.

'Yo,' says one of the twins. He grabs my shoulder, I think it's Floyd. 'Where's your head?'

It's not only a way of asking what I'm thinking, my head is literally gone. Invisible. It happens when I overthink.

I shake my head and make myself reappear again. 'Nowhere.'

He frowns. 'It's gonna be fine.'

It's one of those few times he's serious. I nod. 'I know. Thanks for reminding me, though.'

Soon, only me and the twins are left in the room. For some reason, Caroline has decided to drag her fiancé along too. I wonder how that's gonna go.

'I'll see you peeps on the other side,' says Greg, giving a thumbs up. Ravin places his hand on his face and soon Greg's gone.

'What he said,' says Floyd then, as he is up next. He squeezes my shoulder. I don't have any brothers myself, but they suit nicely. It can't be any other way after four years.

'You ready?' asks Ravin then. I'm the last one. I take a deep breath. The gloved hand is strangely cold and I barely have time to mentally respond to it. I fade away, and I fall.

There's air blowing past my ears. It's dark, then there's one bright spot. There's smoke, stars, then green.

There's a forest beneath me. Beneath me, which means I'm actually falling. From the sky.

I have no air in my lungs to scream. The trees are coming at me fast. I cross my arms in front of my face and close my eyes. Branches break and leafs rush and scratch my limbs. I feel my pants ripping and I just hope there's any fabric left when I reach the ground.

Then it stops. I feel that I land. Slowly I remove my trembling arms from my face, to see that I landed in a net made my the twins.

'You sure are lucky to be last,' says Samdy, stretching his back. His landing obviously wasn't as great.

'Should really think about that next time,' says Martin.

'Next time?' repeats Rose. 'What do you mean, next time? You wanna do this more often?'

I crawl to the end of the net. 'Thanks, guys.'

'No problem,' the twins say in unison. As I noticed before, we're in a forest. Not a Fiore-kind-of forest, but one more similar to back home. When I say 'back home', I mean the other continent.

It seems to be midday, the sky is bright blue and the sun is shining. Just as perfect as you'd think a dream to be like.

Everyone made it, including Kai. He stands not far from the group, and he's staring at Jake. Jake is staring back at him. They say nothing.

'What are they doing?' I ask, to no one in particular. The twins come to stand on either side of me.

'It's been like that since we got here,' Floyd says. 'I went up to say hi, but Gajeel said to leave them be for now.'

'My guess is that they're either really mad,' says Greg, 'or just very, very happy to see each other.'

'In their case,' Floyd says softly, pointing at Sasha and Samdy, 'it's both.'

Samdy quickly jerks his head in our direction. 'What did you say?'

'Did you notice there aren't any birds around?' says Mark all of a sudden. It's such a dumb, but at the same time remarkable observation that everyone is just a bit stunned. Even Jake and Kai turn their heads.

'It's because none of this is real,' says Gajeel. He stands next to a tree, arms crossed and looking grumpy. He points to something behind him. 'Take a look.'

Behind the tree he's standing next to, there is a clearing. We seem to have ended up at a top of a hill, which gives a view over the rest of the Curse. There is a pittoresque looking town at the edge of the forest. Small, gingerbread-looking houses, a clocktower and one main road leading out of it, over another hill where it disappears. That is probably as far as the Curse goes.

'What the hell is this?' I hear Samdy mumble.

'It's different, like Ravin said,' says Sasha, and for the first time she's not sneering, 'but this is just…'

'It looks like Disneyland,' says Rose, 'or a picture of a children's book.'

'That's pretty accurate,' says Kai then. 'The people are about as human as cardboard. They're nice, but weird. And a bit weary. I think it's best we try to blend in.'

Jake nods. 'Right. But that means…' He turns to Gajeel. 'You should better stay behind. Kubo will recognize you instantly...but not us.'

'Not all of us have changed as much as you, though,' Caroline says. The twins make a giggling sound, but it wasn't a burn at all.

'I mean, I could make everyone invisible?' I say. Jake shakes his head.

'That'll make it too complicated. My guess is that the guy who viewed us as cattle won't remember our faces that well.'

'And even if he does,' says Ary, who hasn't said anything today so far, 'I might have a solution-'

There's a high, giggling sound, which alarms us a bit. Then we realize it's coming from Gajeel. It's a kind of 'hee-hee-hee'.

'What?' asks Samdy. 'What's so funny?'

That only makes Gajeel laugh even more. There's literal tears coming out of his eyes.

'Dude,' mumbles Floyd.

'Is he OK?' whispers Mark to Caroline, but it's so loud everyone within a mile could hear it. Gajeel wipes the tears with a finger away.

'Nothin'. Just...you know.' He doesn't look any of us in the eye. 'Ah, forget it.'

I think it's one of those moments where he suspects we'll know what he means when he's not saying it. I eye Floyd, who shrugs.

'Anyway,' says Ary then, 'as I was saying, I might have a thing for that.' She searches inside her long sleeves and then reveals...duct tape.

'Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?' asks Sasha. And for the first time in seemingly a million years, Ary smiles.

When all of us have completely 'redone' our faces, we head for the town. We reach it quite easily, distance inside a dream isn't the same as in reality. Just to be sure, Gajeel stays behind in the forest.

Kai enters the town first. He's already familiar with the townspeople, so he's just going in to check if it's not too crowded.

'I think my nose is coming off,' says Greg. A small piece of see-through duct tape is slowly coming off. 'Ugh, that hurts.'

'Shuth upf fow a secf,' says Martin, whose mouth is completely butchered. Rose laughs behind her hand. 'Youf twoo!'

Kai then pokes his head around one of the buildings at the end of the town and beckons we can come. One by one we leave the forest. I try to walk as normally as possible.

The town is even more innocent from up close. The bricked streets are pink, the houses look like candy and the people are all smiling and humming.

'Good day!' says a man to me, while lifting his top hat. I then realize how weird the people look, and what they're wearing. The women wear long dresses which cover their bodies from neck to ankle. The bottoms of the dresses are wide and make them look like walking birthday cakes. The men all wear some kind of dark suit, have a walking stick and a top hat. The children wear school uniforms. There's people from all kinds of ethnicities, but they all wear the same style of clothing.

I look down at my ripped pants. We were worried about getting recognized, but I think standing out is even worse.

'Damn,' Kai says, half smiling, 'kind of forgot about that.'

'Good afternoon!' says a woman, and she bows. I quickly bow as well. I see her look me up and down really quickly, but she says nothing else.

'Is there a store somewhere?' I ask.

'That shouldn't be necessary,' says Jake. 'This is a dream. We should be able to imagine it.'

'But it is Kubo's dream, is it not?' says Ary.

Jake opens and closes his mouth. Ary is right.

'So do we look for a store, or…?' says Caroline. Before we can decide what to do, there is a sound that makes each of us shiver. At first, I just get scared. Then there's shock. Because we recognize that sound. The sound is a voice. I'm barely able to turn around.

There she is. She hasn't changed at all in the last four years. She looks exactly as when she died. She makes the sound again.

'Hey!'

It seems all the pieces of tape we've stuck to our faces let go at the same time. Kubo might not have recognized us with them, but our classmate who saw us basically every day would.

Rose nearly faints, but remains on her feet to give Lily a hug.

'What the hell?' I mumble. I'm not sure how it's possible, but I feel tears streaming down my face. Lily. How the hell?

'Let's go somewhere else,' warns Kai then, pointing at a few townsfolk who turn their heads in surprise. We move into an alley, where Lily one by one gives us a hug.

'How...how is this possible?' says Rose when Lily comes back to her.

'I have no idea!' she says. 'You look so grown up!'

'I might have an explanation,' says Ary then, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. 'Kuchiha told me something about the time when the Curse got activated. Apparently, a part of a person can remain inside the Curse, while not being…'there' in reality.'

Lily frowns and I suddenly fear something bad, but I don't have time to think when I ask her: 'You do know you're dead, right?'

Behind her glasses, her eyes become big. Her mouth falls open, her eyebrows turn all the way up and look almost straight across her forehead. But all she says is 'Oh. That explains a lot.'

We quickly give a recap of what we're doing here. Lily is still shocked, but seems to cope with it well. She basically accepts it, somehow. And that brings up another suspicion in me, but I don't feel like asking. I'm scared what she might answer.

'Well,' she says after the recap, 'I could help with the clothes. I'm, apparently, part of it all anyway. Not sure how.'

She looks at Rose and squints her eyes in concentration. But after a second, Jake interrupts. 'Uh, just to be sure...maybe we can try something else first? I don't want any extra limbs or something like that.'

Lily blinks. 'You look even older.'

'I know,' says Jake, while searching through his robes. When his arm appears again, he's holding a knife. 'Just...try adding a belt to it. Or something-'

It has happened as soon as he said it. There's a belt attached to the shaft of the knife.

'That's...convenient?' says Greg. Jake inspects the new belt, holding it close to his face.

'Jeez, you're not CSI,' says Kai, which makes me giggle. He looks older, as if he wasn't stuck in a mind prison for the past four years. He looks tired, though. I never had a good friendship with him personally, but he was one of us. Is one of us.

'Alright,' says Jake then, 'imagine us some clothes.'

Lily makes us clothes one by one. Sometimes, she takes a look on the main street we were just in, to get some inspiration of what the people are wearing. Soon, all the boys are wearing dark suits and hats, and the girls pink, blue, purple, yellow, green and other light coloured dresses. All I can think is cotton candy. My dress is mint-green. That's what Caroline tells me, anyway. It's hard to move around in, but not as suffocating as it looks.

Because none of this is real. Remember that.

'I know this is serious and all,' I hear Mark say to Caroline, 'but I kind of enjoy this. It's like playing dress up.'

I see multiple heads turn to glare at him, but Caroline just hugs his arm and smiles up to him. Ever since we met up with Lily, she seems kind of lost. She's constantly staring into nothingness and nothing that is said really seems to get through.

If Lily is here, who else might be?

'Let's go now,' says Kai. I notice he and Jake stay close, really close and almost touching, but they don't. Both of them hesitate. Are they afraid of what we might think?

'It's definitely the second,' says Greg in my ear, 'I'm certain of it.'

'I never expected it, though,' says Floyd. I turn around to look at him.

'Expected what?'

He shrugs. 'Well, you know...those guys…'

'Is that something for you to expect?' I ask. It takes him a few seconds to realize what I'm saying.

'Oh, no, that's just...their business. I'm just saying…' Floyd looks at his brother, but he's not going to help him.

I suddenly feel guilty. I didn't mean to sound mad. 'Just…pay a little more attention to what you blurt out.'

The others have already gone back to the main street. I follow them.