"What do you mean they're not dolls?" Natsu asks while giving a nearby wooden doll a strange look before turning back to Lucy who can't stop crying, "What else could they be?"

Lucy's lip trembles while more tears spill down her cheeks. Natsu tries his best to swipe them away, but they keep spilling while Lucy tries to find the strength to tell him what she means. How could she though? How could anyone ever talk about such an atrocious thought? But what if it was true? What if she was right?

"Luce?" Natsu says her name so sweetly and cups her cheeks with his hands so gently it makes more tears pour out of her eyes. He lifts her head up so that she'll look at him and his eyes are so sincerely worried it both warms and breaks her heart. "Luce, talk to me… please."

Breathing in a heavy breath, Lucy grabs Natsu's forearms to find strength in his hold as she murmurs out, "I think they're the missing children from the old orphanage. At least… their spirits stuck in these old, mangled dolls."


Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

rEAd oN if YoU sO dArE!


Lucy's words nearly knock him off his feet as he takes a step back to balance himself. It's hard to wrap his head around what he just heard, and no matter how hard he tried to imagine he just couldn't process such horror. It didn't make sense, because how could someone, anyone, harm innocent children, much less kill them in cold blood and get away with it?

Natsu remembers the old reports of missing children, many of which he'd learned while travelling and finding the old missing posters at the train station that were still there. He remembers Juvia had once tried to scare them with the fact that those missing children, their posters now dirty and falling apart, were all from the orphanage. She had said that they had all mysteriously went missing, and that before the old orphanage had closed and everyone was transferred to the building closer to town, children still disappeared.

None of those kids had ever been found…

"You're saying those kids…" Natsu pauses and looks around the room at the toys playing, "That these kids were… all killed?" he asks, the idea burning his head with how he just couldn't believe it while Lucy nods solemnly. "But… but why?" Natsu asks, his voice rising an octave as a panic overtakes him causing the room to spin, "Why would anyone murder kids?!"

~iMmOr… TaLi… Ty~

A small voice grumbles beside Natsu, and he turns to find the marionette who favored hugging his leg climbing up onto the bed he and Lucy had been sitting on moments ago. He struggles to climb the bed, but when he finally succeeds he stands up tall and raises both arms up proudly while screeching, "IMMOTALTY!" in a clear child-like voice. They didn't sound older than five.

Up until then all the dolls had had the same garbled voice that rose and fell in different octaves. They had never once sounded human, which had helped with scaring Lucy and Natsu along with their grotesque appearance. They were something to be feared, but the more time they spent with these creatures the more and more they were less frightening… less monstrous… more… alive.

Around them, each with their own happily sweet child-like voices, the other dolls repeat the word "Immortality" like a chant. A few giggle, others laugh outright, and it dawns on Lucy that these really were children. Children did not understand the concept of mortality and its counterpart. Only children would treat this disturbing topic like a game.

"Immortality? What does that even mean?" Natsu asks, shaking his head, "Who kills children for immortality? How could someone kill another person to gain immortality? How would that even work?"

Lucy shakes her head, thinking, while covering her mouth with her left hand and wrapping her right arm around her abdomen while murmuring, "Elizabeth Bathory," through her fingers.

"Who?" Natsu asks, finding the name somewhat familiar, but he couldn't remember from where.

"Elizabeth Bathory used to bathe in the blood of virgin women thinking that… that it would help retain her beauty and youth," Lucy whispers, her eyes fixated on a nearby portrait of children with missing faces, "She… she thought it would help her live forever. The fountain of youth, she had called it." Lucy shakes her head and scoffs a humorless laugh, "She eventually died, however, but what if… what if our killer thought it could actually work… but with children?"

Natsu is too disgusted to speak. This idea was only upsetting him the more he realized how many dolls filled the room. Too many to fill the broken beds lined up around them. It made his stomach churn the longer he thought about it, his rage only building up with every new doll he spotted.

"He used to call it bath time," a porcelain doll sitting at the edge of another nearby bed states while swinging her legs. Her voice is as clear as the marionette's, but her voice sounded slightly older, more aware. Her voice reminded Natsu of Wendy.

Around them the dolls giggle as if she had said a funny joke. A few even begin to chant "Bath time! Batch Time!" excitedly while the slightly broken porcelain doll stares at both Natsu and Lucy. There was a knowing look in her one good eye, the other cracked and empty showing nothing but the dark, empty, inside of the doll.

Lucy staggers before turning and rushing towards a nearby bin, dumping the little contents of her stomach inside of it. Her retching silences the entire room while everyone stares at her in wonder. Natsu stumbles into a nearby molding nightstand, knocking down a few trinkets that scatter across the floor.

The room is now too bright, too colorful, and the empty faces staring at him from the portraits hanging on the walls scream at him. The lifeless eyes of the dolls bore into his soul, and he has never felt more suffocated in his life until now. He had never heard of something so despicable happening in or near his hometown, and this revelation was worse than anything he could have imagined; Especially now that he realizes Juvia could have become one of these dolls, because according to her the disappearances were still happening just before the orphanage she had lived in moved closer to town.

An image of Wendy, his younger cousin, and Romeo, the little boy from his neighborhood who adored Natsu, being among the crowd of children haunts him. He thinks of Asuka, the little toddler Lisanna took care of often. Of Sting and Rouge who were only a bit younger than Wendy, and any other little kid in his life being amongst the sea of trapped souls in the broken dolls before him. An eternity of suffering with nothing to do but play and hide.

It makes his stomach churn and threaten to heave. It makes his chest and eyes burn. It makes him furious, because someone took the future from children who were still too innocent to fully comprehend what had happened to them. For all he knew these kids thought this was all just a funny dream where they could be strange looking dolls and play endlessly. One day they'd wake up and hopefully get adopted, but until then they'd continue to play and welcome any new toys that showed up again and again and again…

Taking a deep seething breath, Natsu closes his eyes and does everything he can to keep his anger in check. His hands clench into fists and shake at his sides as he fights the urge to burn down everything in front of him. He wanted to kill the sick bastard that had done this. Wanted to wring their neck and beat them for every child they had stolen a life from.

Behind him, Lucy wipes her mouth sloppily after emptying the contents of her stomach and sits back on the ground while wrapping Natsu's cloak around her tightly. She closes her eyes while tears stream down her cheeks, wishing that this nightmare would end once and for all.

Was their fate going to be the same as that of the dolls? Did this mean that they would never get out of here? Were they trapped in this misery forever?

"Is there a way out of here," Natsu asks, his voice causing Lucy to open her eyes to find a few dolls floating around her and asking her if she was ok. That if her tummy was hurting she should go and lie down.

The Porcelain doll simply stares at Natsu with her one good eye as if she didn't understand the question, but her tiny voice simply says, "He won't let you leave," and before Natsu can demand for her to tell him anyway, familiar heavy footsteps resound from outside the only door that led into the room. It caused a heavy hush to befall the room.

"It's nighttime already!" a doll Natsu can't see screeches sending all of the dolls into a frenzy, "He's coming!"

"HIDE!"

Around them, the dolls – children – scatter throughout the room in a frenzy to look for somewhere to hide. Their sudden fear and the familiar sound of the heavy footfalls has Natsu jumping into action as he rushes to Lucy, pulls her to her feet, and drags her towards the nearby closets. He pulls one of the broken bifold doors open and rushes Lucy to crawl through the small opening he makes before crawling in behind her. They make their way as far from that broken door as they possibly can after closing it hastily behind them. Not a second later do they hear the door to the nursery crash open with the dolls screaming in fear as they all scurry into their own hiding spots.

Natsu protectively pulls Lucy into his side without making too much noise and has the idea to cover Lucy's head with the hood of his cloak. He does what he can to make them blend into the shadows of the closet while listening with bated breath to what was going on in the room beyond the closet door. There was nothing but silence and that made it so much worse with how badly both Natsu and Lucy wanted to heavily breathe.

"There you all are," a deep hoarse, but calm, voice says from somewhere in the room, "I've been looking everywhere for you all," the man says while trying to sound friendly, but the rough tone of his voice only made him sound dangerous. "I must say that this has been the most successful game of hide-and-seek we've played in a while, but it looks like I win this round."

Curious, Natsu tries to peek through the cracks in the bifold door to get a look at the man talking, but only gets glimpses of white and green. He does, however, notice that the man is moving through the room which causes the hairs at the back of his neck to rise. He is still far from the closets but the closer he gets to the back of the room the more the air seems to get harder to breathe in. It is as if there was a dark suffocating cloud around the man… the murderer.

"Well the game is over now children," the man says, causing a collective whimper to echo through the room, "You all know the rules of the deal we made," he continues while making his way further into the room, "You've lost, and I want my prize, so tell me where it is."

Game? Prize? What was this man talking about?

Beside him, Natsu feels Lucy clutch tightly onto his vest, her hand shaking in fear. Natsu simply clutches her shaking hand with his while straining his ears to hear anything else beyond the door. He hoped the man left soon so that they could get out of here and back upstairs towards the endless halls of doors. At least up there he felt safer with the familiarity of the nightmare and safe rooms. Those nightmare rooms didn't feel as threatening as the man stalking the nursery did. The evilness that clung to him was nothing either of the teenagers had ever felt before.

"I won't wait forever you know. Tell me where my prize is, or you're all in deep trouble," the man warns causing a shudder to pass through every being within the room. "I'll give you till the count of three," the man says, stopping his slow walk through the room somewhere where Natsu can't see through the openings in the bifold door. "One," the man enunciates slowly, his voice echoing making it hard to pinpoint exactly where he was, "Two…" he continues after a few seconds of silence, his voice now louder.

"Three."

Lucy and Natsu's eyes meet at the whispered number, but just as Lucy opens her mouth to either scream or say something, the door of the closet before them bursts open. Splintered wood hits both Natsu and Lucy, with the light from the nursery blinding them as they try to get their bearings; however, before Natsu can jump in between Lucy and their attacker, Lucy is ripped out of Natsu's arms with her screams tearing through her chest.

"NO!" Lucy cries while Natsu tries to reach through the door for her, but a heavy booted foot crashes into his chest as he tries to stand, knocking him back into the closet and leaving him breathless.

Natsu coughs from the heavy blow and even spits out blood as the hoarse voice outside the closet cackles victoriously. He tries to lift himself from the ground but finds it hard to stand with pieces of broken wood weighing him down. Not to mention the swirling of his head as he wonders if he hit it after crashing back into the closet.

"I'm sorry I'm late my pet. I would have introduced myself much earlier had the children not kept you hidden from me these past couple of years," the man says to Lucy who struggles in the man's hold, unable to see him because of the hood still covering her head, "But now we can finally go on with the plans," the man continues, causing Lucy to freeze.

Plans?

An image of a bathtub filled with blood enters Lucy's head and she begins to scream and thrash as hard as she can, but the man is too strong. He overpowers her, holding her tightly against him and using the cloak to bind her, limiting her movements to just being able to kick her feet; however, even that opportunity proves to be useless as the man hardly even flinches when Lucy kicks her heels into the man's shins.

"Lu…cy," Natsu groans from where he continues to struggle to get his bearings in the closet, his head hammering while the world spins and he struggles to breathe.

"You'll have yours in due time," the man says, directing his attention to Natsu, "But for now you can enjoy spending your time around the manor. Children, reset the game. We'll begin playing again soon. Let's see if you can keep our new friend from me longer than you have kept my pet here from me this time," the man challenges before turning to leave.

"No! NO!" Lucy screeches, her voice growing further and further away before all that is left is a deafening silence that causes Natsu's ears to ring.


So I know it has been a real hot minute since I've updated, but of course as usual life has been insane these past couple of months. I really hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it and I am hoping to be back soon with a new chapter. We are also getting close to the ending with only a few more chapters left to go, so hopefully we can reach this goal soon!

Anywho, I hope y'alls new years is going by well and I can't wait to finish this story to get on to some new projects and stories for you all to enjoy! I've also been cooking up something in the background which I hope to show you all in the near future! Also, don't forget I've also got short stories with original characters waiting for you in Wattpad with my same username, so don't forget to go and visit me there too!

Shout outs

Thank you to all of my Fangtabulous Followers, Favorites, and Reviewers for keeping up with my erratic posting schedule. I apologize a thousand times and more for leaving you with the cliffhanger that I did, but thank you for remaining with me anyway. You all are the best and I love every single one of you.

Well that's all 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!