~CoME bAcK hErE~

Distorted laughter fills the hallways, nearly drowning out the sound of running feet that pound desperately against the floor. Exhausted pants mix in with the laughter and running as feet skid across the carpeted floor to turn a corner and rush down another corridor. The runner keeps this up before they finally reach a hallway lined with doors and leading towards a dead end.

"SHIT!" comes the inaudible gasp as eyes search feverishly down the walls lined with mismatched doors, but unable to find what it is that they are looking for.

"Where are you?!" the figure screeches out desperately when they hear the laughter and distorted voices inching ever so closely. It wouldn't be long before they rounded the corner and caught her, which is the last thing the panting female wanted.

Still searching the doors, the sound of the laughter ceases causing the girl to freeze up at the sudden silence. So thick you could cut it with a knife while your ears rang violently.

Looking over from where she had come from, the girl waits patiently, silently, for any sign that those creatures were no longer looking for her. She does everything in her power to control her breathing so that the sound did not attract her unwelcomed companions as she remained staring at the corner with sweat pouring down her face and a chill encompassing her body.

Were they gone?

After what feels like an eternity the girl finally sighs in relief and leans her head against the wall she was now using as support to catch her breath. Her breathing comes out in jagged gasps and she clutches her chest where it burns to breathe while wondering how long she had been running away.

~CoMe plAy~

~PLaY wITh uS~

Choking on her own scream, the girl whips around to find a red eye and warped hand peeking out from around the corner and staring at her. The bright red eye causes her heart to cease as she slowly backs away while keeping her eyes on the peeking eyeball, worried that if she looked away it would rush to catch her within seconds.

Bumping into a door, the girl fumbles with her left hand in search of the doorknob that is not the correct color, but twists it open anyways. Taking a deep breath, she pushes the door open behind her, jumping into the room and closing the door just as the creatures surged around the corner to attack her.

The door locks behind her leaving her to greet the next nightmare she needs to defeat…


Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

rEAd oN if YoU sO dArE!


"I'm home!" Natsu calls out while slamming the door behind him and shrugging off his jacket to hang it on the nearby coatrack.

Silence greets him, not that Natsu is surprised, as he kicks off his shoes and walks through the living room to find his cat lounging on the couch. His tail swishing lazily while he keeps his eyes closed, unperturbed by his owner's noisy entrance. The only acknowledgement the cat gives Natsu is a loud purring that resonates through the silence and reaches Natsu's sensitive ears.

"Ya lazy feline," Natsu grumbles while heading into the kitchen to search the nearly empty fridge for something to eat.

He isn't all that hungry, having been fed at the hospital by the friendly nurses and cafeteria ladies, but he wants something to munch on; however, Natsu does not find anything worth his while and makes a mental note to go to the store later on in the day to buy more groceries with the allowance his uncle gave him on a weekly basis.

It was meager what Metallicana gave Natsu, but Grandine had also gotten into the habit of sending the teenager money whenever she could so that Natsu wouldn't be left without change. This was a great help because Natsu had begun to worry on how he would survive living home alone while Jellal was away and his uncle was at work; however, he still didn't know how it was that the light and water hasn't been cut off since he hasn't paid for either since his dad's accident.

Sighing, Natsu closes the fridge door, wincing when it slams shut, and waits a few seconds for the reprimand that doesn't come. Natsu doesn't dwell on the silence further as he makes his way towards the staircase to trudge up the carpeted steps to go to his room. He keeps his eyes trained on the ground, ignoring the pictures lining the stairs with happy faces as he follows the ivory carpet up to the second landing, still not brave enough to look up.

When he reaches the landing, Natsu turns his head to the right to find the door to his dad's room. The room hasn't been opened in weeks, Natsu never finds it in himself to open the door and go through the doorway to enter the lonely room; in fact, Natsu hasn't gone into his dad's room in years. He doesn't even remember too well what it looks like.

The room is probably covered in dust, Natsu muses while keeping his hand firmly grasped on the banister, his eyes still glued to the pristine white door with the golden doorknob.

Natsu wants to shrug off the thought, that he can always go in and clean the room when his father wakes up, but an invisible force pulls him towards the white door. His steps are slow and small, as if he were walking against his will, but he reaches the door before he even realizes he's moving.

A heavy weight presses into Natsu's gut when he places his hand on the cool metal of the doorknob, the same feeling he always got when looking at his father's door. Not because he was scared what might lay behind the door, but more like aware that there was nothing behind the door. Not Igneel, not his mom… no one. Even with that knowledge, Natsu continues to turn the knob slowly until the lock clicks open and the door gives to allow the boy to open the door fully.

~Don't open it~

Startled at the cold feeling rushing down his spine like ice, Natsu whirls around to look behind him and clutch the back of his neck. It had felt like someone had dropped an ice cube down his back, but the hallway was empty. If someone had been behind him and tried rushing down the stairs to keep from getting caught, Natsu would have either heard or smelled them, but there was nothing. No other living person within the house except Happy who was still lazily sleeping down in the living room.

"Creepy," Natsu mutters before pushing the door open to find the room untouched.

Bright afternoon sunlight pours in through the clear uncovered windows, showering the room in clean golden light that almost makes the room look ethereal. Champagne walls are covered in picture frames and paintings of blurred landscapes of places Natsu has never seen before. Natsu always wondered if his mother had painted them, knowing Igneel was never good at art except cooking, and if the places she painted were places she had been to before.

Turning away from the paintings, Natsu looks over at his dad's bed to find it neatly made and covered in a bit of dust. He notes that he'll have to wash the covers soon so that the light-yellow embroidered cover, decorated in hand-stitched pastel flowers, doesn't become moth-eaten. The white pillowcases, also embroidered with lace lining, also have collected a bit of dust that makes Natsu worry if the pristine white will be stained grey. These were, after all, his dad's favorite covers.

Running his finger over the white old-fashioned dresser that sat to the left of the door which also had a vanity built into it. Natsu watches the grey film of dust and dirt cling to his finger while motes fly through the air and cause his nose to itch. On the dresser there are different crystal containers that looked like they had perfume that no one ever used. Pictures of Natsu when he was little also rested along the dresser in front of the mirror that glared back at Natsu as if seeing him as a stranger.

He felt like a stranger in this room.

The rest of the room is decorated in more feminine furniture that would make his female friends swoon and his male friends crow in laughter, which they have done before. Natsu's entire house was decorated in "girly" old-fashioned furniture and decorations save for his room and his father's study. Pastel colors and floral print were the dominating themes throughout the house, and even their lawn had an "enchanting woodsy cottage feel." At least that was how Levy had described it the first time she had come over to his house.

When seeing the house, one would think it belonged to a single librarian who always got lost in their daydreams, not a burly man and his rebellious teenage son; however, Igneel refused to change the décor of the house since Natsu's mother passed away. This was, according to Igneel, Natsu's mother's house.

Natsu remembered bringing his friends for the first time when he was in middle school and all the taunting he would get from Gray, Elfman, and even Mirajane. They only stopped their taunting when they realized Igneel kept it as it was as a memento to his and his wife's love story.

Igneel Dragneel was a no-good troublemaker when he was a teenager who flirted with anything wearing a skirt, at least that's was what Metallicana used to say. He was the most troublesome of the three Dragneel children and although smart, he lacked the motivation to keep his grades up in school. This had caused him to repeat his junior year, which he had decided to slack off again until he met her.

Christabel Friar was a transfer student all the way from Pergrande Kingdom, a few countries north of Fiore. Her family had come down in attempts to build their own trading company in the prosperous Fiore and settled in Magnolia where the infamous Love&Lucky trading company made its home just a way out of the bustling town. Christabel's parents had actually hoped to find a way to create a business deal with Fiore's oldest trading company.

Unlike the girls of Fiore who enjoyed dressing comfortably due to the usually warm weather, Christabel always dressed a bit old-fashioned with long or short-sleeved blouses or dresses with ruffles on them and long pleated skirts that hung just below her knee. She paired her attires with dark colored tights and loafers with small heels on them. She also wore very little makeup and the jewelry she wore was always thin and dainty, which allowed her natural beauty to show. She was the image of a sophisticated librarian who was always too busy studying to go out with friends and enjoy herself like most teenagers her age did. She had actually skipped a grade when she was younger which meant that she and Igneel were Juniors together.

A week after the first day of the new semester, Igneel had wanted to prank one of his teachers by placing a bucket of dirty mop water over the doorway and waited with his friends for their teacher to walk in. Unfortunately, Christabel had entered before the teacher, pulling the door open and sending a cascade of dark water down on her head.

Shocked silence had filled the room while everyone stared at Christabel who stood absolutely still with the bucket covering her face. After the initial shock had left everyone, Igneel and his fellow pranksters began to laugh, thinking the sight before them was far too hilarious to pass up a laugh.

Pulling off the bucket from her head, Christabel had glared nastily at the group of boys who had laughed the loudest, burning golden eyes meeting dark obsidian. The knowledge in her golden eyes showing Igneel that she knew just exactly who had placed the bucket of dirty water over the door. Without a single word, Christabel had stormed towards Igneel and upon raising her hand Igneel instinctively shut his eyes to await the blow that never came.

When Igneel had opened his eyes again, he was met with the sight of furious tears spilling down Christabel's face, her hand still hanging in the air just an inch from Igneel's cheek. It was at that moment Igneel claimed that he had felt his heart pull for the first time in his life, and the first time he ever really regretted pulling a prank on someone. He couldn't help following after Christabel when she turned and ran out of the room in embarrassment.

Natsu always recalls the rest of their story like a cliché romance movie with Igneel jumping over every hurdle in order to get Christabel to go out with him. Natsu's mother had hated the red head with a passion, but upon learning more about the male and saw what a sweet and caring mad he really was, she couldn't help but fall in love with him as well. Eventually, against the wishes of her friends and family, Christabel agreed to go out with Igneel.

Igneel never hid anything from Natsu and told him about how much they fought, but they always found a way around their problems by talking to one another and never lying. They fought hard for their relationship, with their adversary's always being Christabel's family, but they couldn't fight the fact that Christabel's father had decided to move the family back to Pergrande Kingdom the year she and Igneel were finally seniors and months away from graduation.

Christabel's father would have taken her by force save for one minor detail that came up.

Christabel announced her pregnancy on Christmas causing her family to disown her and leave her in Magnolia where she moved in with the Dragneels who welcomed her with open arms. Christabel was only sixteen while Igneel was nineteen.

Grandine had told Natsu that after finding out he was going to be a dad, Igneel took on as many jobs as he could while continuing school so that Christabel wouldn't have to worry about anything. He had even rented them an apartment to live in together while they finished school and asked her to marry him the day they moved into their tiny new home. A month after their graduation Natsu was born and a month after that they finally got married.

Igneel eventually entered and graduated the fire academy and has worked as a firefighter since then. Christabel became a stay -at-home wife and took college classes online to get her degree, but Igneel always said that she was happy in the home he had bought her. A home she decorated to her heart's content and raised her baby boy, wanting nothing more than to fill the home further with more children… but that dream never came to be.

Both Christabel and Igneel were happy the years that they remained together, and the announcement that Christabel had leukemia only strengthened their bond. Christabel fought off cancer for three years before she passed away a few months after Natsu's fifth birthday.

His mother's passing had been a hard one that Natsu vaguely remembered. He remembers being so confused at all the crying people dressed in black that visited his home regularly. He also remembered his father shutting down and always locking himself in his room leaving his grandparents to care for him which confused him further. He didn't know why his dad was so sad and why everyone always told him mommy would not be coming home anymore.

Months had passed where Natsu remained at his grandparent's house until the day Igneel crashed into the Livingroom looking ragged and in need of a bath and shave. However, his dark obsidian eyes shone with a light that gave everyone hope for his recovery.

"Your mother came to me in a dream," Igneel had said with the widest smile he shined at Natsu after lifting him up, "She scolded me for abandoning you and leaving the house to go into ruin. She even yelled at me for allowing her prized magnolia tree to dry up… I'm sorry for leaving you bud."

Natsu had welcomed the return of his upbeat father and enjoyed nothing but the adventures they would both go on whenever his father didn't have to go to work. They both sometimes even lived in the fire station when Igneel had too much work to do. Igneel also made it so that Natsu always had something to remember his mother by. Telling him endless stories about her and the trouble, even as adults, that Igneel would get them in.

As Natsu grew older, he finally understood what it meant to miss his mother whenever others would talk about theirs leaving him wondering how different life would have been if Christabel had never passed away? This always led him to worry about his father and his line of work as a firefighter, making him wonder if he'd ever lose his dad to one of the fires he was sent out to fight.

If only he had known that it would the recklessness of another person who would almost take his dad away from him instead of the fires Igneel had trained to defeat.

Moving through the room, Natsu plops himself on his parent's bed and running his hands over the soft fabric of the cover underneath him. He remembers the nights he used to sleep with Igneel when he would get nightmares as a kid and of a faint memory of thin fingers brushing through his hair and comforting him. He was more than certain it wasn't Igneel who had the habit of ruffling Natsu's spiky locks, so he was guessing that it was his mother that used to run her fingers through his hair when he was little.

Natsu wondered how different life would have been like if his mother had never gotten sick and his dad had never gotten into an accident…

X

The sound of loud purring startles Natsu awake who sits up with a jolt to search around his unfamiliar surroundings. It takes him a few minutes to remember where he is before finally realizing that he had fallen asleep in his parent's empty room. The smell of dust clings to his nose making it itch with no sneeze coming to relieve his discomfort. He also realizes that the loud purring came from Happy who was staring at him with large eyes that glistened in the faint darkness.

Falling back on the soft bed, Natsu sighs heavily wondering when it was that he had passed out and turning to look at the nearby clock and seeing that it was half past eight. He had gotten home at around three in the afternoon which meant that he had slept for a total of five hours. He also notes that outside of his parent's window it was dark with the faint glow of streetlights shining into the dark room.

"Mrow," Happy calls while nudging Natsu's leg with his head thinking that the teenager had fallen back asleep, but Natsu simply reaches out to scratch him behind the ear while staring up at the ceiling.

He wants to go back to sleep, still feeling tired but not too exhausted as he realized he had once again had a dreamless sleep; however, Happy's insistent purring and headbutting reminds him that he still had someone to take care of and feed. Natsu then wonders if Jellal had fed Happy in the morning before leaving off with Erza for the day. Judging from Happy's calm attitude, Natsu deduces that his cousin had indeed fed his gluttonous cat before leaving the house.

"I'm going!" Natsu groans when Happy turns his head to bite his fingers when the teenager makes no move to get up.

Sitting back up, Natsu reaches over to turn on the nearby lamp only to find something slide off his lap and fall onto the soft rug. Reaching down to pic up what looks like a picture frame, Natsu turns it around to see what was on it only to find that it is a picture of him holding his mother's hand in what looks like to be Magnolia's Cherry Blossom grove.

He somewhat remembered that day that happened a few months before his fifth birthday, running around and catching falling cherry blossom petals while his mother and father sat at a nearby picnic blanket. It was a Dragneel family tradition to go to the Sakura festival every year, a feat the Dragneel men no longer partook in, and spend the whole day and night at the grove to enjoy the festivities.

Christabel's smiling face shines at the camera as she tries to keep her hair out of her face while holding onto Natsu's pudgy hand who was too preoccupied with a dandelion in his hand to give any notice to the camera taking a picture of him. Natsu laughs at his younger self who had not realized at the time that only a few months later Christabel would give in to her sickness and leave her two favorite boys behind; yet, somehow in the picture she did not look sick or weak if not full of life and health. Igneel had told Natsu that they had believed Christabel was getting better, but that the deceptive disease took her in her sleep only five months later.

Looking at the picture and tracing his mother's gentle face with his finger, Natsu can understand why Igneel had never married, not that he would have hated him if he had. Igneel always said that Christabel was the only woman in his life he ever needed and he'd spend the rest of his own life cherishing her memory and raising the son she had given him.

This, however, was not mutually agreed upon by Igneel's older siblings and friends who always tried to set up the male on blind dates, but those dates never led to anything. Igneel never seemed to go out with the same girl twice, which led his siblings and friends to try to set him up with someone else, but Igneel only ever showed up to those dates so as not to be rude. Afterwards, he was always home before ten to relieve the babysitter and tuck Natsu into bed.

Sighing, Natsu places the picture down on the nightstand where it belongs next to his parent's wedding picture before turning off the lamp. He then stands up and heads towards the hallway with Happy following him. Natsu then holds the door open for Happy and taking one last look inside the room he then closes the door tightly behind him.

Heading down towards the kitchen, Natsu shuffles around gathering Happy's dinner which always consisted of a can of tuna or other kinds of fish that the feline loved to eat.

Placing the food on the ground for Happy to eat, Natsu then goes to make himself a peanut butter sandwich, too lazy to make any actual food for himself. He's only barely beginning to spread the peanut butter on a slice of bread when he hears a creak in the floorboards which makes him jump. The sound of the nearby dripping faucet also gets to him as he waits for the sound to return, but nothing happens. Not even Happy twitches which meant that Natsu must have just heard it in his head, though that thought does not make him feel any better.

Looking back at his food, Natsu suddenly hears the creak again, and then again, as if someone were slowly walking.

"Jellal?" Natsu calls, wondering if it was his cousin moving through the house not realizing that his cousin might have come home while he was asleep and was in his own room upstairs, because that's where the creaking seemed to be coming from the floorboards.

There's no answer and Natsu puts his food down to stand under the doorway to look around the living room and up the nearby staircase that led upstairs as the noise suddenly stops. Nothing looked out of order and Jellal's shoes were nowhere to be seen at the shoe stand by the doorway with only Natsu's shoes and Igneel's untouched work shoes sitting idly in their stand. Natsu's jacket was also the only one hanging on the coat hanger.

It's lonely quiet nights like these that Natsu didn't like being home alone and wished he would have stayed at his cousin's house down the street rather than be home alone with his gluttonous cat. Maybe he would go and stay at his cousin's tonight to hang out with Gajeel, but he also wanted to sleep in his own bed since it was a lot more comfortable than the Redfox's pullout bed in Metallicana's office which is where he supposedly slept.

Sighing, Natsu scratches the back of his head as he turns to go back to the kitchen wondering if he should continue making himself the peanut butter sandwich or just go to bed when he hears another creak right behind him. The noise makes him freeze as a chill runs up his spine.

~Don't turn around~

Just as the words ring inside his head, a hand drops down on Natsu's shoulder making the teenager jump and give a fearful yelp. He turns in time to find four pairs of startled eyes looking back at him weirdly.

"Yo flamebrain, it's just us," Gray says with his hands up in the air to show he was no threat, looking fearful of Natsu punching him again like he had done the day before.

Behind Gray, Gajeel has a few pizza boxes stacked in his arms while Jellal had two large bottles of soda in each hand. Laxus stood behind Jellal which was a strange sight since Natsu had thought that he'd be out with Mirajane.

"Don't you guys know how to knock?!" Natsu asks angrily while glaring at the quartet, the cold chill still running up and down his back.

"We did knock, but you never answered the door," Laxus says as he moves through the living room to take a seat in an armchair.

"So you just decided to break into my house?" Natsu asks while continuing to glare at the four males.

"I live here too so it doesn't count as breaking and entering," Jellal says with a shrug before passing Natsu the soda bottles to go get cups, "Also, the door was unlocked when we got here."

Natsu says nothing as he watches his friend and cousins go about their business seemingly ignoring his presence as they pass out cups and plates while picking out a horror movie Gajeel had recently bought. Natsu peeks up at the second-floor landing, which was dark, and shakes his head so that he's not thinking about the noises he had heard only moments before.

"What are you guys all doing here?" Natsu asks as he places the sodas on the coffee table and takes a seat beside Gajeel who hands him a box of pizza without tearing his eyes away from the screen.

"Bros night," Gray mutters while opening and pouring himself soda from where he sat on the ground.

"Ice princess was worried about the way you were acting yesterday apparently. Said he wanted t' check up on ya," Gajeel states before taking a large bite of pizza, "But I was curious on what I missed so I tagged along."

"There's nothing wrong with me," Natsu grumbles while nibbling on his slice of pizza and trying to fight off Happy who had appeared out of nowhere at the smell of more food.

"I'll say!" Gray exclaims while whirling around and pointing at his swollen and bruised left cheek, "You decked me in the face without warning!"

"That's not really news," Gajeel says while chuckling when a zombie gets their head sliced off in the movie. "Classic," he mumbles before taking a sip of his soda which Jellal had poured for him and the others.

"Why did you punch Gray Natsu?" Jellal then asks while taking his own seat in another armchair, paying no mind to the movie playing on the television.

Natsu looks at all the males watching him intently, feeling like maybe he should tell them all about his dreams and what it was that was bothering him. However, he remembers Gray's talk in the infirmary and how easily it was that his friend had waved off the topic, making him feel silly. He didn't want that to happen again so Natsu simply shakes his head and says, "I don't want to talk about it," in a grave voice. This only leads all the males to give him worried looks.

No says anything after that and Natsu remains staring at the television where a woman wandered into a room without a care in the world, only to almost be trapped in the room when the door swings to shut behind her. Thankfully a friend of hers stops the door and they both run away in fear.

Natsu doesn't understand why he does it, but he then turns to look at Laxus who looks at the scene with a sad look on his face…


So sorry that I'm barely updating today. I had forgotten to update on Friday like I had promised. For some odd reason I thought I already had but I hadn't lol. Still I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

It's full of filler content but if you've read my work before you know that every bit of information is important because it always comes back later on in the story, so try and make your guesses as to why I elaborated on Igneel's and Christabel's love story.

Anywho, if you want a visual representation as to what Christabel's clothing looks like, google 'Anathema Devices from Good Omens' as she is the inspiration for how I dressed up Christabel in my mind.

Also, just a mention that this story is based and inspired by a lot of different movies/shows I've watched over the years, but I will also be adding personal experiences that have happened throughout the years. Yes I am a believer and admirer of the paranormal and boy do I have stories to tell...

Shout Outs

Great amazing thanks to my Fantastic Favorites...

To my Fabulous Followers...

And to my Fantabulous Reviewers...

- shootingstarssel = I just realized that I always write off my characters having struggles, lol then again I'm an angsty writer who loves a happy ending... but will we have a happy ending this time? I guess we'll have to wait and see. Also, your guess is spot on lol.

- stranger1999 = I hadn't even realized I had written Natsu with a sad background until I was revising this chapter and was like "oh..." but then again this is an angsty story like my other ones because I apparently love to make my characters suffer lol. There will be a few more Lucy POVs in the future, but for now we'll only have small clips.

- Amanny = Thank you, I'm happy you liked it!

Well that's all the shout outs for today.

If you're enjoying my spine-chilling story give me the honor by Following, Favoriting, and Reviewing - remember, reviews are the reminders I need in order to update faster - and if you have any questions or haunting ideas you can also PM me and I'll gladly add it into the story.

Until next time my ghoulies!