When Natsu thought about his childhood, the one thing that always popped up to the front of his memory was a forgotten and empty white rocking chair.

This particular chair still sat on their back porch, hidden in a far corner and has been nearly forgotten for many years now. No one ever used the chair except for guests, but only when there were no other chairs for them to sit on. Aside from them, neither Natsu nor Igneel have given the chair much thought or care since Natsu was five years old and even though it was basically forgotten, they could not get themselves to throw the precious chair away.

When she was alive, Christabel used to spend endless afternoons sitting in her rocking chair on the shaded back porch. After daycare or school, Natsu could always find his mother rocking away in her comfortable chair staring out at her thriving garden while surrounded in a golden glow. Gold was the color Natsu thought of the rare times he allowed himself to think of his mother.

Natsu remembers how tired and sick his mother appeared while surrounded by the bright flowers Igneel tended to in her stead. Still, even though she was in pain she never stopped smiling when she would catch Natsu spying her from the door screen not too far from where she sat. She would call to him and wait with open arms for him to rush into them so she could scoop him up and cradle him in her thin tired arms.

Sometimes, Natsu can remember his mother's soft smell tingle his nose on days when he felt sad and alone. Her smell, floral and earthy, always calmed him on days that weren't going so great. He knew that it was because when he was little and having a bad day he would seek out his mother's comfort and bury his nose in her shoulder. He'd let her rock him, even when he started becoming too big to fit in her lap and fall asleep to her rocking and humming.

At the end of the day Natsu could count on his mother sitting in her chair and enjoying the weather where he'd then rush into her waiting arms. She'd then rock and sing to him, tell him stories, or listen to him tell her about his day at daycare or when he started school. Christabel would listen to every word he said even when he would sometimes go on a tangent, and no matter how sick and weak she felt she would always give him a smile and cuddle him close to her.

The day Natsu lost her, she had not been in her rocking chair when he arrived home and after that day the chair became forgotten.


Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

rEAd oN if YoU sO dArE!


Natsu is hit with a wave of nostalgia that leaves a weight pushing against his chest. He can feel his throat tightening and his eyes burning slightly as he tries to push the gold and warmth to the back of his head where they emerged from. While he struggles to push the chair away in his mind, his eyes begin adjusting to the brightness of the room as he scans the furniture to find it just the way he had left it the last time he had been in it.

The feelings that overwhelm Natsu as he scans the room are strange. He hadn't felt this emotional when he had entered his parent's room what should have been the previous night. That time he hadn't been assaulted with all of the feelings that were now swirling in his chest and he wondered if it was because he was stuck in this nightmare that he felt so homesick. He wanted nothing more than to get out and see his father and sit in his mother's old chair to see out her warmth and comforting smell.

"It looks just like I last saw it," Natsu murmurs down to Lucy who is now clinging onto his arm and scans the room with wide worried eyes.

Lucy's eyes flit from one piece of furniture to the other, trying to find anything odd about the room that shouldn't be this bright. Every saferoom that she had ever been in was only ever illuminated with fluorescent lighting or fireplaces that bathed the rooms in a dull yellow glow. The brightness that resembled sunlight was foreign to her eyes that were used to the dark, and this change in scenery had her on edge.

She knew she shouldn't worry; the doorknob was gold which meant that this was a safe room and that they should go in before nighttime fell upon them again. They needed to rest, but Lucy wondered if they should really enter this room when it went against everything she knew. There was also the fact that this was Natsu's room. What if this was a trap and it wasn't a safe haven but a nightmare ready to tear him apart? What cursed vision would try to assault Natsu if they went in and closed the door behind them?

If this was Natsu's parents' room would his father show up bloodied and decomposing like hers had? No… probably not since he was still alive unlike Jude.

Whatever nightmare it was that awaited them inside, Lucy did not want Natsu to experience it. She'd gone through enough trauma having to go into her own nightmare rooms to not want the same fate for Natsu.

"Natsu…" Lucy's voice wavers while she clutches onto his arm a bit tighter, "I don't think we should go in there."

"But it's safe," Natsu murmurs, almost in a daze.

He looks around the room, trying to find anything out of place but finds everything to be just the way it was back home. It almost felt like he had never left. Maybe everything that had happened was all a big dream and he would soon wake up to Happy's incessant purring.

~Come in~

Natsu steps forward, crossing the doorway and entering the room fully. He drags a startled Lucy who clutches his arm tightly when they both enter the room fully and Lucy can't help but feel a startling difference in the air. It was warmer in the room, feeling as if you were being wrapped in a comforting blanket whereas the hallway was cold. It made her want to relax, but the hairs at the back of her neck were still standing on end when she remembered whose room this was.

Just because it was warm and inviting did not mean that a nightmare was not waiting in a dark corner they couldn't see. She couldn't let down her guard, not if it meant keeping Natsu safe.

Together, they enter the room further until they're standing in the middle of the room several feet away from the door. Lucy shivers as her legs itch to run out of the room to get her far away from this place, but she is rooted in place beside Natsu who continues to scan the room.

He sniffs the air, his nose beginning to tingle with a familiar scent that lingers in the air and pulls him to go further into the room. He continues to scan the room until his eyes begin adjusting to the brightness and he spots something across the room near the window partially hidden behind the fourposter bed which had it's thin white curtains drawn making it impossible to see who was there. The pull he's felt since first laying eyes on the door to his parent's bedroom is coming from the direction of the hidden figure. He feels himself wanting to walk around the bed to see what it was that was calling him, but Lucy's hold prevented him from taking another step.

"Natsu, please," Lucy begs, the anxiety in her rising and showing in her panicked voice as she begins to pull them to leave.

She has spotted the hidden figure by the window as well, but her anxiety and fear cloud over the warm peaceful feeling that wants to overtake her. All she can picture in her head is her father's rotting corpse calling out her name and reaching a handout towards her. She's terrified that that is what awaits Natsu beside the bed, and she can't let him go through that. Still she pulls on his arm, attempting to get him back out the door, but he doesn't budge. He simply takes a step towards the bed like a sailor lured out to sea by siren song. He was being pulled closer and there was nothing Lucy could do except try to get him to listen to her to no avail.

The smell of a warm summer garden assaults Natsu's nose and a humming begins to fill up the room startling both teenagers with the sudden noise. Lucy freezes at the sound of the unfamiliar song, but Natsu recognizes it instantly has him racing forward, dragging Lucy with him. Lucy cries out at the sudden movement and within a few steps they're both peering around the bed's


"You know I can see you right? Are you just going to stand there all day or are you going to come say hello?"

Natsu jumps at the sound of his mother's voice and laughter that floats through the air like bells. He peers through the screen door for a second longer before finally opening the door and poking his head out far enough for where his mother can fully see him. A large smile on her part greets him and he feels those familiar butterflies he always gets when she smiles at him as if years have passed since she last saw him.

"There you are," Christabel murmurs while reaching out her arms towards him, "I've missed you," she then says while gesturing with her hands for him to get closer, but Natsu stays rooted where he stands. Christabel can only hold in her mirth knowing that this was a daily ritual of theirs by now. She never understood why it was her son was always so shy around her, though, she had to guess it had to do with her worsening condition.

"Dad says I'm too big to be carried all of the time," Natsu pouts while holding his hands behind his back and kicking the floor abashedly.

"Nonsense," Christabel says while continuing to gesture with her hands for Natsu to approach her, grasping the air insistently until her son finally looked up from staring at his feet to meet her eyes, "You'll never be too big to fit in my arms."

Without needing much prompting, Natsu runs into his mother's arms who, with great difficulty, pulls him up into her lap and she asks him about his day. He nestles his face into her shoulder wishing he could bury his face into her hair, but only a scarf covered her head now. He clings to his mother's dress and listens to her humming resume when he doesn't talk about his day.

He wants to ask her to stay forever. For her to get better so that they could finally play together instead of spending all their hours cooped up on the rocking chair on the back porch, but he finds he can't find the words to say anything. They get stuck in his throat and he feels like crying, but he doesn't know why.

Maybe tomorrow he'll tell her. Today he'll just let her rock him until his father comes to retrieve them for dinner.

Tomorrow would be better… right?


Natsu blinks at the memory that had overtaken him and feels a deep mournful warmth bloom in his chest at the sight before him. A beautiful woman, not some grotesque creature they were so used to seeing, sat in a white rocking chair. Her body was pointed in their direction while her face was turned towards the window as she stared outside with a longing look on her face that also looked a little bored. The woman wore an old-fashioned white nightgown that nearly covered her feet and was covered in ruffles. Her hair was long and brown, and her eyes were a startling gold that were almond shaped just like Natsu's. She was beautiful and Natsu could almost cry at the sight of her.

"You know I can see you right?" Both Natsu and Lucy jump at the sound of the woman's soothing voice. She looks away from the window making eye contact with Natsu and a large welcoming smile encompasses her face as she tilts her head to the side, "Are you just going to stand there all day or are you going to come say hello?" The woman then asks and suddenly a bashful feeling overtakes Natsu that he hadn't felt in years.

Natsu walks forward so that he is no longer hidden behind the bed and stands before the woman whose smile warms further at the sight of him. She's smaller than he remembers, but that doesn't stop him from feeling tiny before her. He couldn't seem to breathe or stop shaking, and his vision was blurring with tears he was fighting so hard to hold back.

"There you are!" The woman then exclaims, sounding as if Natsu had been the one lost and not herself. As if he'd been the one who had left. "I've missed you," she exclaims while opening her arms and gesturing with her hands for him to go and give her a hug.

Lucy tightens her hold on Natsu's hand she is still holding while hiding slightly behind him, prepared to pull him out of the room at a moment's notice. Natsu, however, doesn't acknowledge Lucy's tight hold on his hand and can only stare at the woman still gesturing for him to get closer with both arms outstretched towards him.

Natsu can feel his lip quiver as the woman continues to silently ask for him to go and hug her. He wants nothing more than to jump into her arms. To bury his face into her shoulder just like he used to when he was little. He wants to know if she'll smell like warm golden afternoons and not the musty damp smell he had gotten used to that permeated this place. He wants to know if she felt whole and warm and real. He wants to know if this is real.

"D…Dad says I'm… he says I'm too big… to be carried anymore," Natsu finds himself telling the woman, much to Lucy's surprise, and the woman's smile only grows as she chuckles while shaking her head.

"We both know you'll never be too big to fit in my arms," she laughs, and again Natsu feels small like when he was a kid. Small enough for his mother to scoop him up into her arms and settle him in her lap where she would rock him until the sun set and Igneel called them in for dinner.

For a second it felt like he was falling. The world seemed to tip forward and blur before him, but it wasn't until his knees hit the ground that Natsu realized he had rushed forward and fallen into his mother's arms.

The familiar floral and earthy scent Natsu had almost completely forgotten envelops him along with his mother's thin arms that hug him tightly. It feels so real Natsu can only wonder in a daze if this was a dream and if it was he never wanted to wake up from it. This was, after all, the first time in years that Natsu has been held by his mother, causing him to realize just how much he's missed her since he was a little boy.

"You've gotten so big," Christabel sighs happily while running her fingers through Natsu's hair.

"You've gotten smaller," Natsu mumbles while wrapping his arms around Christabel's waist and buries his face into her stomach.

Natsu has so many questions he wants to ask her. What was she doing here? If she was here was Igneel also somewhere nearby? Was this the afterlife? Was this a dream? Why had Lucy's father not been able to appear normal like her?

Was there a way out of here?

Too many questions to ask at once. Natsu then wonders which to ask first knowing exactly what he should ask first but wanting to be a bit selfish and spend as much time with his mother as he can. Should he really be wasting time asking questions when he could simply spend it wrapped in his mother's arms for hours on end? They were in a safe room after all, there was no danger in here so long as they never left the room… but Natsu wasn't stupid. He knew that sooner rather than later he and Lucy would have to leave to get more supplies if they wanted to last longer.

Time would never stop ticking, especially in this place where time hardly seemed to pass at all.

"How is this possible?" Natsu finally finds himself asking.

His voice sounds thick, as if he had been crying for hours, and his eyes are glassy with unshed tears. He looks up at his mother who smooths his hair with her gentle fingers while her eyes rove lovingly over Natsu. The last time she had seen him this close was when he was small enough to still be carried by her. Christabel mourned the years she lost with her son and wanted nothing more than to consume every precious second she had with Natsu; however, she couldn't forget why it was she had come to him. She needed to give him the answers he sought after to get out of this nightmare.

"There is so much I want to talk about, but our time is limited," Christabel says while caressing Natsu's face, "I've been waiting here for you to arrive so that I can help you and Lucy get out of here."

At the mention of her name, Lucy jumps and takes a step back when the woman's eyes, amber like Natsu's, look up and meet her own chocolate brown. Lucy still has the eerie feeling that something was wrong, but she also can't shake the feeling that this woman whom she has never met before looks familiar. She just can't put her finger on where Lucy has seen this woman before. It pokes at the back of her head, but no memory of her can be found within Lucy's head making her wonder if it was just this place messing with her head again.

Christabel smiles kindly at Lucy who hides peeks around the side of the poster bed like a shy child. Lucy can feel the warmth from the woman's kind smile fill her with a familiar light that causes the room to glow. It makes Lucy feel small and shy, and the feeling of wanting to hightail it out of the room dims slightly; however, it does not disappear completely making it difficult for Lucy to fully trust this stranger.

Whether she was Natsu's mother or another creation of this cursed place, Lucy could not trust her. She needed to be the one ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble and drag Natsu with her if she had to. He was the only reason she hasn't left the room yet. She would be damned if she ever left Natsu behind to deal with his own nightmare.

She would be there just like he has been there for her since his arrival.

Tilting her head to the side, Christabel opens her mouth to coax Lucy to come out of hiding from behind the bed when her smile falls, and her eyes widen. Whirling around before Christabel can say anything, Lucy comes face to face with the tangled ball of dolls Natsu had chased away earlier floating only a few inches away from Lucy's face.

~fOuNd yOu~

Screaming, Lucy tries to turn and run instinctively towards Natsu when small hands grab her ankles and pull her feet out from under her.

"NATSU!" Lucy cries out as the dolls jump over her, clamping their tiny little hands all over her before she is dragged out of the room, her nails digging into the carpet futilely.

"LUCY!" Natsu screams, turning around and standing to his feet in time to watch the tangle of dolls drag Lucy out of the room and into the dark hallway out the open door.

They had forgotten to close the fucking door!

"No, no, NO!" he panics, already stepping to chase down the demons to save Lucy.

He had promised her he wouldn't leave her side, and in a moment of weakness he had done just that and now she was taken from him. He was a fucking idiot.

"Natsu!" grabbing his wrist before he could rush away, Christabel urges her son to look at her and her heart breaks at the wild, terrified look in his eyes, "The truth is in the children," she murmurs while stepping towards him and holding his face between her hands again, "No matter what, do not forget the truth is in the children," she repeats urgently, praying that he is listening. "Please forgive me for bringing you here," she then pleads before releasing him and pushing him towards the door.

Again there are far too many questions rushing through Natsu's head, but he knew there just wasn't any time. Not when Lucy's life was in danger.

"I love you mom," Natsu murmurs, earning a sad smile from Christabel.

"I love you too, be safe my love," she answers back and without another word Natsu turns and races out of the room with only one thing on his mind.

The truth is in the dolls…


So it has been MONTHS and I am very sorry to have made you all wait this long for a new chapter.

This chapter kicked my butt all of these months, not to mention the rollercoaster that is life had a thing or two to do with this late update, but thank you the amazing help from my lovely friend DecemberRome I was finally able to whip up this chapter just as we are entering spooky season.

Again forgive me this incredibly late chapter, but I am hoping to churn out a new chapter next week since this was the only chapter I was having any real issues with. Don't worry, this time I wont make another impromptu disappearance again if not DecemberRome will have my head. Thank you again for being so patient with me and I can't wait to finally finish this story for you all! You guys deserve the world!

Anywho, I hope you all have been doing well and I can't wait to hear from you soon!

Great big shout out to all of my Favorites, Followers, and Reviewers. You all keep me pushing forward to continue posting content for you!

Until next time my lovelies!