Wendy found it hard to sleep that night because she was so excited about tomorrow. If only morning would come faster. Time never seemed to move at the speed you wanted it to go. She was finally starting to doze off when she heard a creaking noise coming from above. At first she thought that she was just imaging things until the creaking noise started to get louder. Fearing that it might be something super natural she got out of bed, slipped on her dressing gown, and crept out of her bedroom.
When she entered the hallways she could hear the creaking noise better and she could also hear the sound of her mother snoring as she slept in the master bedroom and the sound of her father taking a late night call. But the creaking noise was much more important to her and just as she suspected, she heard it coming from the flat where her undead friends lived. She opened the door and went upstairs where she knocked on the door of the first apartment which was answered by Lucy.
"Wendy what are you doing up?"
"Sorry to bother you but I kept hearing strange noises. I thought maybe something was wrong."
"What kind of strange noises?"
"A creaking noise. Like someone was trying to sneak in."
"Really? Hmm...I'll go get Juvia and the boys and we'll investigate."
The four ghouls started to look around their flat for any sign of anything or anyone supernatural who didn't belong. They found nothing. No they did find something, they found some strange ooze coming from a crack in the wall.
"What is that?" Wendy asked.
"Ectoplasm." Gray said. "Someone from the In-Between managed to get into this house."
"What? Are we safe?"
"Don't panic. We'll deal with whoever it is. Everyone follow the trail of slime."
The ectoplasm trail led them out of the flat and to the living room area where there stood Sting and Rogue.
"How did you two get in here?" Natsu asked.
"Nevermind that. It's time to pay up Natsu." Sting said.
"I don't have enough to pay you back Sting. I'm sorry, business has been slow."
"You'll either pay with coins or with your body parts. Now what's it going to be?"
"Gentlemen now is not the time or place to be doing this." Gray said. "Please return to the In-Between and save this matter for a more appropriate time."
"And what if we don't?"
"Then we shall have to use brute force to remove you two from here."
"I'd like to see you try."
"Please I'd rather not resort to violence in the presence of a child."
"We're not moving until we teach that undead worm Natsu a lesson."
"Very well but remember I tried to be courteous."
With that said Gray snapped his fingers and his cane appeared in his hand. Which he then used to swing at the two ghouls, he managed to hit Sting right on the head but he missed Rogue.
"Hey!" Sting shouted angrily. "This doesn't concern you, you meddling jerk! Get him Rogue!"
At once Sting's partner Rogue went to confront the sharply dressed ghoul.
"So we meet yet again Gray." He said getting into a fighting position.
"Do I know you?"
"Yes you do!" He replied in an insulted manner. "Exactly 50 years, 208 days ago, at 18 minutes and 41 seconds passed 2:00 am you manipulated my shadow minions to turn against me and beat me up."
"Really? I have no memory of that."
"What do you mean you have no memory of that?!"
"I mean I don't remember doing that at all. What do you want from me?"
"Oh! Just shut and let me kill you!"
"I'm already dead stupid."
"I'll kill you twice!"
Rogue lunged for Gray and the two started to beat each other up. Sting then tackled Natsu and Lucy joined in the fight after summoning a spear to use. Soon in all out brawl broke out in the living room and Juvia could only watch while keeping her arms protectively around Wendy's shoulders and occasionally move her out of the way of flying derbis.
"Oh dear." She said. "Why must they always resort to violence?"
"Should we help them?" Wendy asked.
"Oh no trust me they have it handled. The best thing we can do is just stay out of their way."
"You mean this has happened before?"
"Oh yes plenty of times, granted it wasn't with these two but yes this isn't our first brawl."
As the fight went on, Jellal suddenly walked into the room still conversing on the phone with his co workers.
"Yes I know that we're behind schedule but I can't come in tomorrow I'm sorry." He had no idea that there was a fight going on right behind him, not that he would see it if he turned around anyway. "Because I promised my family that I would spend time with them tomorrow and I never break a promise...I'll be there first thing Monday morning, relax won't you?"
"Dad?" Wendy said.
"Shh!" Juvia hushed. "He can't see them or hear them but that doesn't mean they can't hurt him. Ghouls like Sting and Rogue like to hurt the living, right now they're distracted but keep quiet and don't let them know he's there."
Wendy nodded and kept silent but she watched her father fearfully. Hoping that he wouldn't end up getting hurt in all this.
"Listen while I've got you on the line." Jellal said over the phone. "Any suggestions for new material I should look into?...For the last time I don't do nudes...Why?! I have a wife and kid you moron! There's no way I'm taking pictures of trash like that! Come up with something better!...Okay I'd be willing to do exotic birds but how exotic are we talking here?"
By the time Jellal left the room Gray, Natsu, and Lucy had finally managed to overpower Sting and Rogue and throw them back into the In-Between.
"This isn't over!" Sting shouted just before he was thrown into the doorway to the other side.
"Yeah, yeah." Natsu said erasing the door that had been drawn on the wall.
"What was that all about?" Wendy asked.
"Natsu has a habit of borrowing coins from some interesting ghouls." Juvia told her.
"Borrowing coins and apparently causing damage to their property." Gray said. "And every time Natsu does something stupid like that, we get dragged into trouble along with him."
"Hey what happened with Rogue's car was an accident." Natsu said.
"And the coins?" Lucy asked.
"I'll pay Sting back it's just taking a little longer than I thought it would."
"Will they come back to the house?" Wendy asked.
"Hopefully not but they're like the mafia." Gray said. "Once you do them a disservice they never give up until the score is even."
"So they will be back?"
"Possibly."
"But we'll do everything we can to keep them out of this house." Juvia assured her. "You just go on back to sleep and leave the rest to us."
"Okay. Just keep them away from my parents."
"We will."
Wendy wasn't sure if they were capable of keeping her and her parents safe from dangerous ghouls like Sting and Rogue. But she had no other choice but to trust them. So she left the flat and went back to bed hoping that nothing unexpected would happen tomorrow.