Wendy blew in frustration. She had combed through nearly every book in the library that had any information about the town of Magnolia and who had lived in it but she found absolutely nothing about the old house. It was like there was no history about it at all. No records, no dates, nothing. How could that be?
"So you didn't find anything?" Gray asked when she told them what happened the next morning.
"Not a thing." She said. "It's so weird. This house has been here for a century and there's no written history about it in this entire town. It's like it just appeared out of nowhere or something. Had no one lived here before me and my parents moved in? Do you guys know?"
"Not for sure." Juvia said. "But it was completely abandoned when we moved in."
"Cana doesn't recommend us moving into houses that have live people living there." Natsu said.
"Well someone must have lived here before we all showed up. Other wise why was the house built in the first place?" Wendy said.
"Well I'm not an expert on stuff like this but from what I've learned from being amici with the undead mafia it's that when something has been around for a long time and there's no known record of it anywhere it usually means that somebody's trying to hide something."
"I don't understand."
"What I'm trying to say kid is that maybe there were records of this house but someone got rid of them."
"Okay but why would someone do that?"
"Duh. Why else would anyone get rid of records? It's to cover up a secret. Question is though what's the secret and who's the someone that's trying to keep it under wraps?"
"Okay either I've finally reached the pearly gates or Natsu is making sense." Gray said.
"As I said when you get involved with mafia you learn some things."
"But if it's all covered up how am I supposed to find out anything?" Wendy asked.
"Just because it's covered up here doesn't mean it's covered up in other places." Natsu said. "That's the funny thing about history, it never goes away completely and it always gets around one way or another."
"I get it." Wendy said. "So Magnolia doesn't have anything on this house but it's neighbor town Edolas might. My Uncle Mystogan lives there and he's one of the top historians in that town. I can't say for sure if he'd know anything but it wouldn't hurt to ask."
"Smart thinking kid."
"I'll ask my parents if I can stay with him and my grandpa for a day or two. That way not only can I talk to him but maybe I could check their library for something."
"Do you want us to come with you dear?" Juvia asked.
"I don't know. I'm worried that something might come out of your world and terrorize my parents while I'm gone. You four stay here and- Wait a minute I only see three of you. Where's Lucy?"
"She's gonna be out for awhile." Natsu said. "Last night she had a flashback that took a real toll on her."
"She'll be alright but there's no telling when she'll come to." Juvia said.
"Okay. But again I think it would be best if you all stay here and make sure that nothing happens to my parents."
"We'll protect them with our existence." Gray said. "But just in case you need us take this."
He handed something to Wendy. It was a stone with a hole in it.
"What's this?" Wendy asked.
"It's a spirit stone. If you look through it you can see things for what they really are but if you whistle through it we'll hear you and come running."
"Thanks. Where did you find stones like these?"
"You don't really find them. You have to make them."
"What do you make them from?"
"Body parts of imps."
"Eww!" Wendy said dropping it. "Don't tell me you killed imps to make this."
"Of course not. I took their decayed skeletons and crushed up the bones to make it."
"That's gross."
"Perhaps but hey whatever works."
She looked at the stone in disgust. Though it made her sick to her stomach to think about what it was made from, she never could know if there would be a supernatural emergency while she was gone. So she picked it up and put it in her dress pocket.
"I'm going to go talk to my parents about going to stay with my uncle."
She left the flat. Once alone the three ghouls turned to look at Lucy's body which was still motionless.
"How long do you think she'll be like that?" Natsu said.
"Cana said it could take days." Gray said. "You know what I would like to know is why didn't she ever tell us that she worked at that club?"
"She was embarrassed to." Juvia said.
"You knew?"
"She told me but she made me promise not to tell anyone else. Apparently she was worried you two would think less of her."
"Why? It's not like she's a strip dancer not that I would think less of her if she was one."
"Oh you know how she is about men. She has a very low opinion of them and thinks they're all either stupid and perverted or judgemental and mean."
"Why does she think that?" Natsu said. "Where did that belief come from anyway?"
"I don't know. I don't think she even knows where it comes from. It's like an instinct or something."
"Maybe she was an amazon in life."
"Natsu the amazons weren't real." Gray said. "They were the stuff of myth and legend."
"Whatever. The point is this hatred toward men is really annoying."
"If you ask me it might have something to do with her flashback." Juvia suggested. "I'm not a psychiatrist but last night she looked like an abuse victim."
"You think she could've been abused when she was alive?"
"Possibly. But I don't know for sure."
"Should we talk to her about it when she wakes up?" Gray asked.
"We can try. But there's no guarantee that she'll tell us anything. She might not remember anything to tell us."
"I still can't believe how she acted back there. I mean she is violent but she had never tried to hurt anyone seriously. Last night though she was ready to take us all out."
"I'm just glad that Wendy didn't see any of that." Juvia said. "Being as young as she is she probably wouldn't understand that it wasn't Lucy's fault and the attack would have most likely made the poor thing scared to death of Lucy."
"Oh God that's right what if one of us goes crazy like that in front of the kid?" Natsu asked. "We'd probably traumatize her."
"Or worse." Gray said. "Actually hurt her."
"I don't wana even think about that." Juvia said. "Besides we can't hurt the living...Right?"
"Um..." Gray said. "Technically we can because we can touch them."
"Oh dear."
"Maybe we should talk to Wendy about this. Explain to her what we're going through and make her understand."
"Do you think someone her age would? It might scare her if she doesn't understand."
"She is mature for a twelve year old and it'll probably be way more terrifying to her if it happens again and she doesn't know what it is."
"You have a point there. Alright we'll talk to her about it when she gets back from Edolas. However we have to handle this delicately and not go into too many gory details."
"Of course but we also have to be straightforward and blunt. Make sure that she gets the truth."
"In a gentle way."
"With calm reasoning."
"And emotional support."
"You guys sound like parents discussing how they're going to tell their kid about sex." Natsu joked.
"You know you're not really helping." Gray said.
