Chapter Two: The Accident

"And you know what… if she figured that out eleven and a half months ago… she wouldn't be here sharing her story with all of you."

Every single head in the classroom - including Miss Strauss's head - shot up as soon as Lucy uttered those words. Every single pair of eyes shot open wide and were glued to the screen. Every single jaw was wide open, after that statement went through every single person's ears. It was as if they were told someone had been incinerated. Lexi turned her head to face Lyon, who sat, with an expression of shock-horror. Her eyes closed for a few moments as she shook her head. Rogue placed his hand on Sting's shoulder as he pressed his forehead against his fingers, dumbfounded. He then raised his head up to look in front of him, and saw Natsu leaned back on his seat. Lisanna noticed the horrid expression in his face - as if everything he was told in the past was a lie and he was just finding it out for the first time.

"There's no way…" Lyon whispered, as he turned to Loke behind, "I couldn't even -"

"Neither could I." Sting interrupted Lyon, as his eyes fell on his desk.

…

"My name is Lucy Heartfilia, and I'm the surviving member of Fairy Tail." Lucy confessed to a dumbstruck crowd, who were either murmuring to each other, banging their heads against their hands, or just looking around the crowd not sure what to do. Lucy watched them for a minute, as if she expected a reaction like this. She sighed, as she took a sip out of the water bottle and cleared her throat. "It's been a year since the girls had died, and for that entire year, I've been on a roller coaster ride going through life."

Lucy crossed her ankles, and pressed her palms on the edge of the stool, facing the audience with an unusually confident expression, "I know, the expression is overused. People always say their life is a roller coaster. But most times, there's a good chance that's not the case. My life has truly been up, down, and confusing in the last year. I felt overjoyed at certain moments, and then there was the time I almost killed myself. There were times where I genuinely felt like there was someone I could turn to, and then there was the time I pushed every single one of them away cause I just didn't know what to do. All within a year."

Lucy sighed, and folded her arms. "However, I'm going to start from the beginning. I'm going to talk about the accident, and the exact moment my life went to hell. The exact moment I discovered I was all alone, and also, the exact moment I changed myself completely to make sure that part of me no longer existed."

...

*One Year Ago*

Sting and Lyon were waiting - they could either be waiting for the good news, or bracing themselves for the worst news possible. The building was noisy, the ambulances were loud, and people were yelling at each other, trying to get the girls into an emergency room to try and save their lives. The police didn't have a lot so far, but it was a drunk-driving incident.

Some guy drinking one too many bottles of vodka couldn't tell the difference between a red and a green light, and rammed right into another car, trying to drive across the crossroads.

The police confirmed the guy to be dead on the spot, but the girls were rushed to the nearest hospital to be treated immediately. Sting and Lyon - being the second closest thing they had to family - were called and informed about the accident.

"Yukino's going to be okay, Sting.." Lyon said, with obvious doubt in his tone, while trying to hold out the tiniest bit of optimism. "Yukino, Sherry, Sherria, and Lucy are all going to come out alright. They have to…"

Sting didn't say anything - it looked as if he couldn't. He had called Rogue, but with the traffic jam outside the crime scene was delaying his arrival time substantially. The news had yet to cover the story, as they were probably waiting for a status update on the girls. They have been in the emergency room for two hours, and there was no update. The boys hadn't eaten for hours, but they couldn't stomach anything even if they tried. Despite holding out that little bit of hope, they were secretly bracing themselves to hear the worst. The accident happened to be extremely brutal.

The boys were forced to wait another hour and a half as the surgeons were trying to save the girls. After the hour and a half, much to Sting and Lyon's devastation, the surgeons that were in the operation room had come out to break the news about Yukino's and Sherry's death. The surgeon had also notified them that Sherria wasn't going to make it either. Sting was about to hit the floor, but was able to stand due to the fact that he was holding onto Lyon's shoulder, and Lyon wasn't able to react at all. They knew the chances of the girls surviving wasn't likely… however, no one could ever be completely prepared to confront a death. Lyon and Sting had walked away, not acknowledging the surgeon any longer just before he was preparing to tell them about Lucy.

She was in a coma for four weeks - she had slept the state-held funeral service for the girls. Lyon and Sting hadn't come to visit her, and they didn't bother checking up on her condition. The only person that did keep tabs on Lucy's well-being was her grandfather, who visited the hospital every day to get a status update on her condition. When Lucy had finally woken up from the coma, she was taken in by Grandpa to live with him, instead of going back to the apartment she had shared with the girls.

"You have to do something about that apartment, Lucy." Grandpa mentioned to Lucy during dinner, hours after she had been discharged from the hospital. Lucy shook her head, without making eye contact, and barely touching her salad.

"But, how are you -

"Grandpa, the money we get… got…. from Spotify will pay the rent." Lucy interrupted, as she took a sip of her water. "I'm not staying here forever - I'm just going to let you know that right now. I'll move back when the time is right."

Grandpa folded his arms, looking extremely disapproving of the decision she had made. "You're going to live in that apartment all by yourself?"

Lucy sighed, "If I have to, yea."

Life wasn't going to be the same - anyone could predict that. However, Lucy's attempt to go back to carrying out the basic things she had always done before without wanting to kill herself didn't go in her favour. There was only a month and a half left of the junior year at Fiore Composite, and in the weeks she had been caged away from reality, rumours spread like wildfire - the kind of rumours that damage one's dignity the more they go around.

Who survives a crash like that without getting her skull crushed? Hah, she definitely set this up.

Did she really hate her friends that much?

I wonder how much she bribed that poor guy to kill himself just to kill her friends… I mean, even if she bribed him, would it matter? He's dead. That's so dumb…and sad…

She had no control over the situation - Lucy could do nothing to shut them down. No one would believe her anyway; everyone already had a set opinion on what they thought of Lucy, and because of that, she was being attacked on a regular basis. She was isolated from everyone - she had nobody to confide to, and no one she could share her side of the story with. She wanted to tell someone it wasn't her fault… but, no one would, because no one wanted to listen to what she had to say. She would get pushed into lockers, tripped in hallways, pushed off of chairs, and no one helped her. Sting and Lyon never once came by to check up on her, her grades here slipping due to the emotional abuse she was facing in school, and she had turned to smoking weed to help her cope with everything - including the deaths of Yukino, Sherry, and Sherria. Once the school year ended, her summer continued as a constant droning of emotions and pain.

"I'm switching to Magnolia High for my senior year, Grandpa." Lucy exclaimed as she looked agitating through the documents she had to fill in order to transfer her credits, her marks, and her personal information to the new school.

"Why though?" Grandpa asked, confused and frustrated, as he stood by her bedroom door watching her sort through the documents frantically.

"Because…" Lucy's fists began to clench and her voice was audibly shivering, "... because I can't… I can't FRICKING TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Screaming at the top of her lungs, and scaring her Grandpa, Lucy got off her study table chair and collapsed to the floor, sobbing. Grandpa ran over to her, and held her as she continued crying, not slowing down even a little bit. "I can't walk through those doors again, getting attacked, verbally abused, accused of things I had no part of! I just can't do it again - not anymore! Grandpa… I just... I JUST CAN'T!"

"Okay, sweetheart…" Grandpa reassures her as he hugged her and stroked her hair, trying to calm her down just a little bit, "You can switch to Magnolia High, I'll support you on that." He could understand the pain she was going through, just by hearing the agony in her voice. She wasn't just dealing with the deaths of the three most important people in her life… she was being harassed by people who didn't care about what she had been through already. Grandpa noticed she had calmed down a little, and he left the room to let her finish the paperwork, and left her be for a little while.

Lucy continued sitting on the floor, rubbing her eyes to dry her tears furiously. They open again, and they fell on the black guitar that sat right in front of her, against the wall. She eyed it, like it was the devil. She got up, reached for the guitar, and she left the room with it in her hand. She made her way in the backyard of her house continuing to hold on to the guitar. Once she went outside, she held the guitar in both of her hands, brought it over her head, and smashed it on the concrete pathway. The guitar broke apart vigorously - strings flying everywhere. Shreds of material spread across the concrete path.

True agony has the power to destroy the depths of love - no matter how throbbing and real.

My reviewers: Simin-chan, xXWannabeXx, bloodRayneee, dynamitelol, and to my guest reviewer, Ana-chan!