At the nearest hotel, Mystogan was on the phone telling his brother and sister-law what happened. During the talk his father was sitting in a chair out cold while his niece was sitting on top of the guest beds being hugged by a female ghoul and having her hand held by a male one. Both ghouls were invisible to him and he didn't pay attention to his niece quietly speaking to them.
"I wanna go home." Wendy said.
"I know dear and you will tomorrow." Juvia said. "You've been through a lot tonight. Get some sleep."
"I'm scared. I don't want to sleep."
"We're right here." Gray said. "We'll be here with you all night and we'll keep watch for anything."
"You have to shut down sometime."
"We'll switch off between. I promise you one of us will definitely be conscious and watching you."
But that still didn't ease her into going to bed. So Juvia just held her close and rocked her while humming a lullaby softly into her ear. Eventually she fell asleep and luckily for them Mystogan did not notice the unseen forces tucking Wendy into bed.
"Gray just what on earth happened back there?" She asked him.
"I don't know. But apparently something was trying to kill her and it used household appliances to do it. Obviously the work of a ghost or ghoul."
"Then why didn't we see it? If one was present then we should have been able to see who was there."
"Good point but nothing alive could do what we just witnessed. It was a poltergeist. I've seen many of them but never one where I can't see the spirits at work. It's bizarre."
"And why attack Wendy?"
"Maybe the house was built on a burial ground and they're pissed off their resting place was disturbed."
"That would explain why they kept her uncle out of the house but not why they want to kill her. Gray you know that spirits like that don't really mean any harm they just want peace and most of the time a spirit can't even think to harm a child. They see them as the ultimate innocent."
"Good spirits that is. Maybe it's a bad one who slipped through the cracks. That's happened before. Remember that exorcist incident we read about it in the In-Between news?"
"Oh yes. Oh that poor little girl. I can't imagine anyone being so heartless as to torment a child like that."
"Technically Juvia we're all heartless."
"You know what I mean. But thank heavens Zeref manged to drag that horrid soul out of her body and lock him back where he belongs."
"Zeref is good at his job but everyone makes mistakes and I don't think whatever attacked her came from that house. I think it followed her from the In-Between and it may still be following her."
"In that case we better watch her closely."
And watch her they did. They watched her all night, they watched her during the drive back to her house, and they watched her as she was going to her bedroom. It wasn't until her parents came in to talk to her that they finally left her alone and went to the empty flat to explain where they had been to Lucy.
"Okay back up." Lucy said. "What happened?"
"Something or someone from our world possessed her uncle's house and tried to kill her." Gray said.
"Is she alright?"
"She wasn't hurt but I think she might have been traumatized."
"Any idea who did it?"
"No we didn't see anyone and that's what's worrying us." He said. "Lucy by any chance did you see anything come out of our doorway to the In-Between?"
"No. Not at all."
"What about going back in? Did you see anything go in?"
"Nope. It had been closed ever since Natsu left. He still hasn't come back yet."
"Seriously? What's taking him so long?"
"Maybe he got jumped by more people who owes money to."
"If that's the case then I better go find him. You two stay here and keep an eye on Wendy."
Gray opened the door in the wall and went inside. The first place he checked was where Cana worked but he didn't find him in the waiting room and when he asked if anyone had seen him they said that he had left five hours ago. He went around asking other ghosts and ghouls if they knew where he was but none of them did. He was just about to give up when one ghost told him that he was last seen trying to get into Zeref's apartment building.
Gray went there and at last he found him. At the moment he was being thrown out of the building by Zeref's imp security guards.
"Come on guys let me in! You don't understand! I'm Zeref's brother!" Natsu protested as they carried him out and then threw him into the nearest dumpster.
"You come back here again and I'll run through the mutilation machine!" The head security guard shouted before he and the others went back inside.
"Don't you threaten me!" Natsu shouted back. "When I tell my brother that you imps go through his private liquor cabinet, he'll use you all charcoal!"
"So this is where you spend your time when you go off on your own." Gray said with a grin. "In the dump. Can't say I'm surprised."
"Very funny." Natsu said getting out of the dumpster. "Actually this was a one time thing. Which I'll never forget!"
He shouted on the last part so the imps could hear.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were going to see our case worker?" Gray asked.
"I tried but she wouldn't see me. I waited all night and when she still wouldn't show I decided to go right to the source."
"You tried to see Zeref?"
"Yep. I hoped that maybe he had come back from business and would be willing to talk but one he's not back and two his security system fails to understand that I'm family!"
He shouted again on the last part.
"You know they stopped listening to you as soon as they dumped you right?" Gray said.
"Well the joke's on them because before they threw me out I managed to grab something from my brother's secret stash." He stuck his hand in his jacket pocket and pulled out what he had swiped. It was a small glass bottle which contained a blue liquid.
"What's that? His favorite drink to take shots with?" Gray asked.
"Nope it's one of his potions."
"Potions? You mean his special ones that he makes for emergencies only? That no one is allowed to touch or use except him? Natsu he'll annihilate you if he finds out you took it."
"He won't annihilate me I'm his brother. Besides he won't care if I take it, I found it in his rejection shelf."
"Rejection shelf?"
"You know potions he tried to make but they failed or he couldn't get it just right so he gave up on it. In other words doesn't want it anymore."
"Do you even know what that stuff is supposed to do?"
"It says on the label that Zeref made it to give ghouls the experience of being alive again. Once ingested the potion makes the ghoul look exactly how they did in life. With working organs, the ability to be seen and heard by the living, sensations, the whole nine yards."
"Well no wonder it failed. It's impossible for something like that to happen. Of course it was failure."
"Maybe or maybe it does work but it had a side effect that he didn't like."
"What do you mean?"
"Sometime ago Zeref made a potion that would strengthen my body and keep my limbs from being torn off as easily. It worked but as a side effect I grew a third eye. It wore off after several hours and I didn't mind but he thought the third eye was too freaky so he chucked it." Natsu took the top off the bottle and looked at the content inside. "It sure looks different from all the other potions he makes."
"How so?"
"Well for one thing it actually has color. His are usually either black or white or some gloomy shade." Natsu sniffed it a little. "Man I wish I had a stronger since of smell. Here what do you think?"
Natsu moved the bottle toward Gray who accidentally inhaled some of it through his nose.
"Get that stuff away from me! I don't want- Ah...Ah...Ahchoo!" He sneezed some of the potion on to a dead flower.
"Well aside from making you sneeze it's probably harmless." Natsu decided.
"You're not actually going to drink that are you? You don't know what it could do to you."
"What more can it do? I'm dead."
"Well if you have to be stupid enough to drink something that you don't know will do to you at least wait until we're back home. Where no one can see how horrific you might turn out except for the people who won't judge you...Harshly that is."
"Good idea. I wouldn't want anyone to look at me like I'm weirdo."
"Natsu everyone already does that."
"No they don't."
"Yes they do."
"No they don't."
"Yes they do."
They walked away from Zeref's apartment while bickering, unaware that as soon as they were gone the dead flower that Gray had sneezed some of the potion on was miraculously restored to life.
