Chapter 12: E

"You ready?"

"Let's go"

The team filed into the infirmary, and immediately felt something push on their bodies. It was as if a domino effect: their heart slowed down to a deadly beat of one beat per minute, their eyes hung with exhaustion, and all the bones in their body seemed to turn to smush. It was almost like an illusion, a sick show for all to see of deadly magic.

"You all feel that?"

"Y-Yeah."

Mariam turned to Xavier. "Did you feel that when you went in here the first time?" She asked, her eyes peering at him from the darkness. Apparently, Xavier was as breathless and shocked as Mariam. "N-No, not at all. Maybe Wendy thought thought since Gray and Lucy liked us, perhaps she would show herself," Xavier said, peering around for the said spirit.

"Then they might have a parental or sibling relationship, her and Gray and Lucy. Do we know what age she died at or when?" Serena asked. Her female teammate blushed. "No, I didn't get the chance to find out. Aran was so adamant about keeping Team Salamander's backstories' hush hush. And I don't understand why," She shrugged.

Serena headed towards the middle of the room, where all the beds faced. Her teammates followed close behind, drifting off to the side. Mariam stepped further towards her friend, and set down the candles needed for the séance and lit them carefully one-by-one. The three joined together in a joint circle, and focused, grabbing each other's hand firmly.

"Hello, spirit that resides here. We would like to help you, so if you can, please try to show yourself," Serena said, firmly. They waited a couple of minutes, before a soft creak sounded west of the group, up in the corner of the room. Someone or something is here. Serena breathed deeply.

"We hear you, spirit. What is your name?" The trio fully expected something like the glass letters would happen again, but it stayed silent. It seemed the ghost was scared of them. "Anyone in this room that would like to speak to us, please make yourself known," Mariam added. But that too wouldn't awaken the spirit here.

Mariam and Serena made quick eye contact, and the latter grabbed the EVP machine where Xavier left it, and the loud, mechanical screaming filled the quiet room. This séance took the same course of Gray and Lucy's, only this time, Serena hoped she wouldn't frighten them to death.

Xavier took the reins. "The machine in front of us is called an EVP. It'll help you communicate with us. Please use it," He said. They waited a couple more before they heard:

"...not talk..."

The voice sounded remotely like Lucy's and Serena realized Gray and Lucy were back. Perhaps hiding her from Spirit Seekers.

Mariam opened her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows, biting her lip. She had come to the same conclusion as Serena.

"... sorry..."

"No, it's ok, spirit."

"... Lucy..."

Well, that answered that.

After the promise of a failed session, the team packed up their stuff. Once again, the candles were tucked away, right into their little backpack. Serena bowed her head as a show sign of respect, and dipped out of the room into the long, stretching hallways.

"God damnit, that was bogus. Besides the thing with Gray and Lucy, nothing else exciting happened," Serena huffed. "Well, it's still super early in the night. I think it's only 10 now," Mariam offered, showing her phone's screen that, sure enough, displayed it to be 10pm. "But we've been in here since 8! And in the span of two hours, that's all we got?" Xavier piped up from the back.

"He's got a point. How long did we talk with Gray and Lucy for? Thirty/Forty minutes? Because the interlude between the glass letters and the last verbal response from them was about fifteen, and the whole letter thing was about five. So, in reality, that whole encounter was about only ten to twenty minutes long," She said, counting off her fingers. Mariam hummed.

"Damn, how'd you figure that out yourself?" She said, a smile working its way to her face. Serena was about to reply before someone piped up from the back: "All she needed to do was look at the time we finished the seance to the time we started, and do simple subtraction."

"Hey!" Serena shouted, pivoting around to face the boy, her face a perfect definition of controlled anger. Xavier, on the other hand, was smiling happily, letting out a barking laugh at the site of his teammates's anger. "What, it's true?" He said, sending a big, toothy smile towards Serena. Who's anger only grown immensely.

"It actually took real math to figure out-"

Creaaaaakkkk

The two fighting teammates turned around to face the void, their eyes searching for any sigh of the perpetrator. Serena smiled a wildly devilish grin, and, with Xavier stepped forward towards the ghost with Mariam following closely behind with the EVP switched on, it's screaming filling the empty void that the ghost had filled.

"...team..."

A heavily masculine voice sounded out - and her mind immediately clicked to Gray. Mariam brought the machine up, and looked at with determination, taking a step further.

"What about your team?" Serena asked the darkness. The team slipped back into their professional positions.

"... Lucy... Gray... E-..."

E? Who's named E? Serena racked her mind for any mages in Fairy Tail's history, but due to her lack of personal knowledge of Fairy Tail, there was no one special named E. And all E named mages were mostly in the last two hundred years - farther away from the timeline Team Salamander shared.

The three shared a look and ventured towards the sound.

"Was this E person a mage during your time, Gray?"

Silence. Serena could feel the tenseness radiating off of Gray. Whoever this E person was... they were a touchy subject for Gray.

"Gray, who's E? We only want to help you." Mariam shouted above the machine.

"... help?..." And was accompanied by something that sounded like a pitying laugh.

"I think we've upset Gray," Xavier said. "Yeah, no kidding," Mariam replied, her voice small. She didn't like how Gray was reacting to this E person; and, by the looks of the way this conversation was going, it was best to leave. Now.

But she ignored it.

"Gray, could you please tell us who's E?"

A sound that could only be described as slamming sounded from the main hall. The three ran quickly as they could and down the steps, to hall. There was no enormous amount of pressure, nor any bad vibes. Just not in here.

Serena ventured off to the bar and slipped underneath the door to the back. There, was the door that was in Serena's nightmares.

The basement.

"Hey... all, perhaps you'd like to see this.." She said, shouting. Her voice doesn't sound like hers. A couple of footsteps sounded out, and she could feel the warning presence of her teammates behind her. That was reassuring.

"I don't understand... we've not been down here, unless one of the mages left this open by accident," Mariam apprehensively said. "You think this was like this? When we got to the guild, this door wasn't open. I think the door opened just now when we heard the slamming noise," Xavier confidently said. "We need to think about all the possibilities-"

The two looked to Serena: who had stepped closer to the door, and placed her hand on it, peering in down the stairs. "Uh, Serena?" Mariam said.

"Why don't we go in?" She said, pauses between each word, as if she was doubting her own choices. "But we didn't bring any charms or anything with us and we have no protection against the entities. What if we get hurt!" Her teammate protested. The ravenette bit her lip.

"True... but, what if they're friendly ghosts. I mean, they wouldn't try to hurt us if they weren't, right?" She reasoned. Mariam shook her head. "No, again, we don't know what kind of stuff lingers down there," The blonde shot right back.

"Besides, what if that's E like Gray was talking about it? It very well could be, and from the way he was talking about them, I'd say they're not a friendly ghost like Wendy, Gray, or Lucy," Xavier stepped up. Their ravenette friend hummed.

"Yeah, I guess so," She finally said, closing the door. It was then when the team started to walk away, did they hear another loud bang from inside.

Serena whipped around, mentally preparing for whatever lurked, but it was only the door. And it was closed this time.

So, whatever... thing that had made that notice, must've made it from deep within the murky basement.

Before anyone could stop her, Serena bounded down the stairs at light speed, with Mariam trailing behind her.

'Something could've broken, someone could've gotten hurt.' She thoughtlike a mantra as she stumbled down the stairs.

Her thoughts were broken when she was enveloped into that dark, depressing atmosphere all over again, her stomach dropping in fright. It was dark, only a void like upstairs. Except, this time, it felt so much more... unwelcoming, like if you were to stumble into a dangerous animal's territory.

Serena stumbled back and collapsed onto the ground, feeling hot tears burn her skin. Faintly, she could hear her teammates calling to her and a warm touch to her back, but she felt as though she was the ghost in this situation.

"Serena! Yo, Serena! Answer us... please!"

"S-Serena... c'mon, please..."

The weight only increased once her friends came into the picture, as if it was scared of more company.

Serena only came back to life once she was tackled in a hug by her friends, who were desperately sobbing and yelling to come back to us. She gasped and fingered her friends, tears welling up in her eyes like a dam stopped.

"You guys... I- I'm so sorry, I should've listen to you," She whispered, cringing at how breathy her voice seemed. Mariam's voice came muffled from her shoulder. "No... it's ok, you're safe." Xavier was engulfing the rest of her body, silent, but Serena could feel the tears trailing down her right shoulder.

'Deep breaths, Serena, deep breaths.' She repeated, shaking her head. She let out a billowing breath and turned around, eliciting surprised squeaks from each. But they calmed, seeing the large smile she wore - never minding the crinkles of wear she wore.

"See? I'm good," Serena said. And to prove it, stood up without any disturbances, holding out her hands to imply Xavier and Mariam to do the same. They did.

"C'mon, let's go, I think that's all good for-"

"Friends"

The trio's attention turned to the EVP, not noticing it's still on. "Huh, I thought you turned that off upstairs?" The ravenette said. "I guess you didn't. C'mon, everyone, let's just go," Xavier said, his eyes peering distastefully towards the void.

"Right."

Well... that chapter was something, wasn't it? So, I'm pretty sure everyone knows who E is. Except, I'm sure the question everyone's asking is what the duck is going on there? Well, you'll see *insert Kokichi's laugh*

Anyway, stay healthy, stay safe, and have a good day/night! Bye~!