"LET. GO. OF. ME!"

Jumping out of the room she had escaped into, the girl slams the door closed behind her when she is able to escape her assailants grasp. Panting in the empty hallways that glows in a dull orange light she has come to realize as this place's "daylight."

No other noise comes from the hallway while the girl catches her breath, and when she has finally caught her breath she tries to turn the doorknob of the door she just came out of.

Locked.

Sighing in relief, Lucy pushes her disheveled hair out of her face and brushes the knots out with her shivering fingers. She tries to take in a calming breath, but her hands continue to shake from what she encountered in the room, but at least she was safe from the creepy monsters that chased her at night. Thankfully this place had its moments where she was left alone, like right now where the only sign of life in the long winding hallways was herself.

She had never enjoyed being alone until she got to this place.

Remembering how it was that she got here, Lucy's heart clenches at the memory of a dare and a boy with kind eyes she had liked. She wondered if he was still looking for her, if her father even realized she was gone…

"Don't think about them… just think about surviving," Lucy scolds herself while shaking her head.

As much as she missed Macbeth and even her intimidating father, Lucy knew that thinking about them did not help with her. They were a distraction and if she had any hope of ever getting back to them she needed to remain focused on surviving and finding a way out.

Taking a step down the now changed hallway, Lucy finds stairs with the smell of food reaching her. Her stomach rumbles in response as she all but runs down the flight of stairs and finds herself in the kitchens where fresh food was waiting for her to take her fill. She doesn't wait to dig into the turkey sitting on the large counter and the sides that come with it, no longer worried if the food was poisoned. She'd learned a little while back that this food was perfectly safe to eat, but never really knew where it came from or who left it here. All she knew was that she had to eat before nightfall, when the food tried to eat her.

Lucy continues to eat when she hears a creak on the floorboards behind her. She freezes because no one is supposed to be roaming the halls and making noise except herself.

~Don't turn around~

She hears the warning in her head, but impulsively turns anyway to find nothing or no one behind her.

Lucy wondered if something in this cursed place was going to change, and wondered if it had something to do with what her "nightmare" behind the door had told her about no longer being alone…

Was someone coming to join her in this cursed world?


Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

rEAd oN if YoU sO dArE!


"RISE AND SHINE!"

Early morning sunlight bursts into the dark living room where the tired boys do their best to shield their eyes from blinding light. Each one sprawled on a different couch, save Jellal who must have snuck back to his room sometime in the middle of the night. Gajeel had taken up the three seater couch while Laxus took the loveseat. Natsu was curled up in one of the armchairs while Gray was curled up underneath the coffee table.

"I can't believe you boys are still sleeping," Erza's distinguishable voice follows after what the boys recognize to be Cana's loud annoyingly cheerful voice.

"Wha time issit?" Gajeel asks in a tired slur, searching around him for his phone.

"Seven in the morning," Mirajane says cheerily while reaching her boyfriend and planting a soft kiss on his temple and receiving a groan in return.

"THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!" Gray exclaims while popping his head out from under the coffee table littered in empty pizza boxes and plastic cups, "It's a weekend and you want us to wake up early?!" he asks in disbelief.

The trio of females look at one another before nodding with bright smiles, looking unaffected at the males' annoyance.

"How the hell did you even get in here?" Natsu asks while sitting up to squint at the girls, remembering Jellal had locked the door last night.

Erza twirls a set of keys in her finger and Natsu doesn't have to guess who it was that gave her those keys.

"I'm going to kill Jellal," he grumbles while searching the room for his missing cousin.

"Whaddya want?" Gajeel asks while glaring at the females. Unafraid of getting either one of them angry unlike Natsu and Gray who were all terrified of the red-head everyone at school called Titania.

"We came to pick you all up to have breakfast at 8-Island," Mirajane explains, "Everyone else is already on their way there to save us a table so you all have half an hour to get ready."

"By others, you mean…"

"Your girlfriends," Cana says with a smirk when Gajeel turns beet red and Natsu and Gray both answer with a blunt, "I don't have a girlfriend."

"Just hurry up and get ready," Erza commands before climbing the stairs to go and wake up her boyfriend.

Knowing there was no fighting the terrifying females, Natsu follows Erza upstairs to go to his room to change. When he gets there he can't help but crumple to the ground, shaking all over from the aftereffects of the recent nightmare he had had.

He'd had another nightmare while his friends and cousins were sleeping right beside him; however, this nightmare left him wondering what had happened because he couldn't remember anything about it. He only remembers there being darkness without any light around. The only thing he could distinguish was the sound of his name being called out as if from a great distance.

Natsu also remembers running towards the voice, but he never seemed to be able to reach it until suddenly he heard his name being whispered right next to his ear with the feel of a bony hand on his shoulder. The shock he had gotten from the feeling of a bony hand on his shoulder had woken Natsu up in the middle of the night around three in the morning.

The television had been left on with only static dancing on the bright screen signaling the end of the fifth movie the boys had watched, who were all now passed out around the living room. The sight of his friends and cousins had calmed Natsu's racing heart and reminded him that what he had just witnessed was a simple nightmare. Nothing was real and he was perfectly safe.

Attempting to shake off the feeling of the bony fingers on his shoulder, Natsu had gotten up to get a glass of water in the kitchen. The dull overhead stove light did little to bother his eyes as they adjusted rather quickly while he got his water. After that Natsu had walked back towards the living room only to stop dead in his tracks to stare at a lonely figure standing behind the couch Laxus was sleeping on.

From the dull white light of the still lit television, Natsu seemed to notice that the lonely figure was a girl dressed in a strange outfit. It looked foreign and a bit exposing with a green bra and matching long skirt with gold trim that stops just above her ankles. She seems to be wearing sandals on dirty feet and wonders that if there was more light than that coming from the television.

Around the girl's arms, Natsu recognized silver cuffs hugging the girl's biceps with bangles hanging from her wrists while long golden hair tied in a long braid hangs on her back. Looking at her closely, Natsu almost seems to recognize who she is… either way she seemed a bit beautiful. Appearing like an ethereal being.

The sound of jingling metal makes Natsu jump when the girl begins to turn towards him. Natsu waits with bated breath and chokes when the sight that greets him isn't a pleasant one.

Dark, blood encrusted holes greet Natsu, replacing the eyes that should be looking back at him instead. Blood dribbles from the holes in bloody tears as the girl moans out in pain and sorrow. It makes Natsu's chest hurt when she reaches a bruised and bloody hand towards him, almost as if she were begging for him to take her hand, but Natsu can't move.

"I'm… scared," the girl cries desperately, "I'm so scared…"

"Why?" Natsu asks, frozen in his spot and unable to look away from the crying girl.

"I don't… want to be here anymore," she murmurs while taking a step towards Natsu, causing his whole body to tense up.

"Where? You don't want to be where?" Natsu can't help but asks and swallowing hard when the girl stops just a foot away from him. Her fingertips slightly grazing his cheek feeling cold and sticky with blood.

"Where we're meant to be together~

Turning to run away from the terrifying figure, Natsu heads for the stairs, but stops when he finds a dark figure standing at the top of the stairs. It stares down at him with glowing eyes that seem to laugh at him and the last thing he hears is the girl's voice in his ear whispering, "Please Natsu, come and save me!"

Natsu was then awoken by the loud arrival of Cana, Mirjane, and Erza who were waiting downstairs for them to join them for breakfast. All the while Natsu was trying to get his wits about him and wonder who that girl was and why it was that he felt the need to find out who she was and how he could save her.

But how could he save her if he didn't know where she was

X

Startling blue eyes gaze across the table, watching Natsu stare out the nearby window. He had been grumbling all morning along with the other boys since they got to the restaurant who all wore matching faces of exhaustion. Each one unhappy at having been woken up at such early hours of the day.

"Your food is getting cold," Lisanna says while leaning her head on her hand.

Natsu blinks a few times before turning to look over at Lisanna, seeming as if barely remembering where he even was. It takes a minute before he looks down at his plate piled with food he didn't even remember ordering, then realized he didn't order anything. The waitress just simply brought it for him because it was what he always ordered. A stack of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and a slice of toast all heaped on his plate just the way he liked it.

"I'm not really all that hungry," Natsu murmurs while poking his pancakes with his fork.

Lisanna and all of their friends sitting in the booth behind Natsu jump in surprise and turn to stare at the pinkette's back while he continued to prod his food. They just couldn't believe what it was that they just heard.

Natsu Dragneel was not hungry… impossible!

The last time Natsu had refused to eat was the four days after Igneel had been admitted at the hospital after his accident. Natsu had not left Igneel's side for those four days until Porlyusica scolded him and warned him that if he didn't eat properly she would personally make it so that he wouldn't be able to go and see his father. She'd even call child protective services and get him into a foster home if he didn't shape up, which he quickly did after that warning.

"Hey, is everything alright?" Lisanna asks with that worried look Natsu hated. It made his stomach churn just seeing his best friend look so troubled over his well-being.

"I'm fine Lis, just still can't seem to sleep well," Natsu answers while rubbing his face tiredly.

Lisanna still doesn't look convinced that what he's saying is true, so he forces a smile and digs into his food while trying to make it look like he was enjoying it. The food is cold and dry as Natsu tries hard to swallow down the food he shovels into his mouth. He only forces himself to finish half of what's on his plate and drink all his orange juice feeling even worse than he had earlier. His stomach hurts from being forced to take in food it didn't even want in the first place; however, Lisanna looks much happier that he's eaten something as she goes back to enjoy her own meal of oatmeal with fruit.

Watching his friend eat cheerfully, Natsu can't help but feel his spirits lower even more because of how happy and normal he wants to feel again. He knows that he's been down in the dumps a lot recently and he only seems to get worse. He doesn't want to be sad or tired or so mopey all the time, but he just doesn't know how to higher up his spirits. Every day just feels like a drag and he only ever feels like he's barely hanging on, and the fact his dad still hasn't woken up or that the nightmares don't let him rest doesn't help in the slightest. They only leave Natsu wondering when he'll ever be happy again so that he'd stop burdening everyone around him.

"The swelling in your cheek has gone down," Lisanna chirps cheerfully and Natsu unconsciously prods his cheek where Gray had decked him two days ago.

"Yeah, it has," Natsu murmurs while pushing his plate away and looking out of the window to his right, "It's going to be cold tonight," he then mentions while watching a light breeze rustle the orange leaves of a nearby tree.

"Yeah, that's what Mira said, but I think we'll still have fun," Lisanna says with a little jump in her seat, "I think this Halloween will be a lot of fun! And don't say that you're not going, remember that you promised that you'd hang out with us tonight," Lisanna interjects before Natsu could tell her that he was planning on staying at the hospital for the night.

He had completely forgotten that he had said he would go out with his friends. In fact, he had forgotten what day it was in general only remembering when he looked up to find all of the spooky decorations adorning the restaurant. He also remembered that his friends had been planning to hang out tonight for weeks, as was their tradition every year when Halloween came around and any other holiday they celebrated together.

"But..." Natsu tries to find a way out of the event, not feeling up to dressing up and going around the neighborhood and asking for candy or joining parties that they passed by. All he wanted was to go back to the hospital and spend the night with his dad, or even just go home and brave his nightmares. He just wanted more sleep.

"No buts mister. You promised!" Lisanna puffs her cheeks to show her resolve to get him to join their friends, and Natsu couldn't say no to her. Especially if she decided to go and tell the others that he was planning on ditching them which would not go well with Erza or Cana.

The guys would also probably drag him along kicking and screaming. After all, if they were going to suffer being dragged around by the girls then so was Natsu. No one would get out of this no matter how much they complained or tried to run away. They all knew they wouldn't get too far.

"Fine," Natsu sighs and Lisanna smiles victoriously while she finishes her breakfast. All while Natsu continues to stare out of the window, watching leaves float gracefully through the air with last night's nightmare playing over and over in his head...


So sorry to have disappeared on you all. I had planned on updating three weeks ago. I wanted to update the first week of March but due to midterms I had to push it back another week and then with all this chaos that has been going around due to the virus I've had to wait until now to update. Currently everything is going well here where I live, people are just insanely overbuying everything from toiletries to food. All of our schools have also been given extended spring breaks with university classes being moved online until further notice. I unfortunately still need to go to work, but currently that's all I need to do this week so hopefully if nothing goes wrong I should have another update for you either tomorrow or wednesday.

I'm also going to be posting a few short stories on my Wattpad account to give you guys more reading material while we wait out this "self-quarantine" phase of this epidemic, so go ahead and look out for that.

Anywho, I hope you all are doing well and taking precautionary measures to keep yourselves and your loved ones safe.

On another note, I am trying to portray depression as accurately as I can through Natsu and the struggles he is going through. Depression is a serious mental health issue that a lot of people brush aside when they see someone going through it. Telling themselves that they're fine when in reality they don't understand what a person is going through, the battles they are mentally fighting, to be able to wake up in the morning and get the things that need to be done for their own sake as well as the sake of those that they love. Also remember that just because someone look fine does not mean that they are not going through something troubling. Be kind and take the time to listen, or even just reminding those around you that you are there for them to help in any way that you can. Don't force them to talk if they don't want to say anything or force them to get help if they are not mentally prepared to receive that help. Simply stick by their side and let them know that they are heard, and if you are going through depressive episodes, don't be afraid to seek help. I'm always here to listen and aid in any way I can if you ever need an ear and a little push.

Be kind, educate yourself, practice good mental health, End the stigma!

Shout Outs

Great amazing thanks to my Fantastic Favorite...

- jessicadancer89

To my Fabulous Followers...

- shootingstarssel

- WeirdInsomniac

And to my Fantabulous Reviewers...

- shootingstarssel = We'll find out soon what exactly it is that is chasing Lucy. Natsu needs all the hugs in the world, especially during these trying times. Laxus' expression has a lot of meaning behind it, and perhaps soon we'll learn what that meaning is.

- Amanny = She was the best and I'm happy you liked the chapter.

- stranger1999 = I haven't fully decided on their relationship yet. I could make them cousins, friends, or acquaintances but I haven't yet decided which would be the best choice. More explanations on Lucy's disappearance will come out in further chapters. So many questions that will be answered... eventually lol.

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!