"Come on Dad, we'll stay upstairs the whole time." Lucy said, pleading with her father to let Erza and Juvia stay the night.
"Lucy I don't want two wild teenage girls in my house during one of my meetings." Jude said.
"Dad you know Juvia, she's not wild at all and Erza is very mature. I don't want to spend the whole night alone in my bedroom, can't you let me do anything fun?"
Jude sighed before answering.
"It's just those two coming? No one else?"
"Yes."
"And you will stay upstairs?"
"Yes sir."
"Alright they can come over."
"Thank you Dad. I promise that you won't regret this."
She called up Juvia and Erza, telling them the good news. They arrived at her house at exactly six o'clock with sleeping bags and pajamas.
"I'm so glad that my dad let me do this." Lucy said. "I've really missed our sleep overs Juvia."
"Me too." Juvia smiled when she said that but her face looked unsure of something.
"Everything okay?" Lucy asked.
"She's just a little upset because she ran into that woman again." Erza said.
"The one who was so interested in your locket?"
"Yes." Juvia answered. "She gave me a warning. She said that we shouldn't look at the full moon."
"Juvia we're mermaids not werewolves." Erza said. "Next time you see that woman I think you should just get away from her. She sounds crazy to me."
"Let's just forget about this and focus on having a fun night." Lucy said. "We can start with pedicures."
"Oh no." Erza said.
"I'll get the nail polish."
Lucy left her bedroom to grab some nail polish from the bathroom. One of the bottles fell out of the medicine cabinet and spilled into the sink.
"Oh great!" She said.
She turned on the water to wash the polish down the drain before before it stuck to the sink. She glanced toward the window of the bathroom and looked directly at the full moon which had risen into the night sky. Suddenly she became transfixed by the moon, she couldn't tear her gaze away from it. Then she found herself becoming very drawn in the water flowing from the faucet. She reached her hand out and waved her fingers all through the water.
"What's taking Lucy so long?" Erza said.
"Maybe she's having a hard time finding it." Juvia said. "This is a pretty big house."
"Hi guys." Lucy said coming back into the room.
"Where's the nail polish?" Juvia asked.
"Oh we didn't have any."
"Since when do you not have nail polish?" Erza said. "You're like a cosmetics saleswoman."
"We just don't have any. Why don't we have something to eat? I'm starving."
"Good idea." Erza said. "Let's order a pizza."
"And while we wait for it to come we can make strawberry cupcakes for dessert." Juvia said.
"Oh boy!" Erza cried with the excitement of a little child in her eyes.
"On the way here I bought the strawberries and the cream we could use for the frosting."
"Actually I have a craving for raw fish." Lucy said.
"Raw fish?" Juvia and Erza said.
"Yes. Preferably sardines. We have plenty of them in the kitchen. I better hurry downstairs and get some before Dad's associates get here."
She quickly headed downstairs leaving her friends in great confusion. They followed her soon afterward and saw her scarfing down as many sardines as she could.
"Does she normally do this at sleepovers?" Erza asked.
"No. In fact last I checked she wouldn't even eat sushi." Juvia said. "Lucy are you feeling alright?"
"I'm fine. I'm just hungry." She said. "So very hungry."
She was eating them like she was a savage beast who hadn't of eaten a decent meal in years. It was repulsive.
"Lucy do you need a napkin?" Erza asked.
"No but I could use another can of sardines." The blonde said emptying out the last one into her mouth. "I need more."
"More? But you've gone through six cans."
"Lucy I think you've had enough. Why don't we get changed into our pajamas and put on some music?" Juvia suggested.
"I have a better idea, let's go swimming."
"This late?" Erza asked.
"Why not?"
"Because you're not allowed to leave the house after dark. It's one of your dad's rules." Juvia said.
"So? I don't care."
"Since when? You've always been a stickler for the rules."
"You really need to lighten up. Come on let's sneak out through the window and climb down the roof. That way my dad can't see us."
"Lucy by any chance did you hit your head on something?" Erza said.
"She's probably just tired." Juvia whispered to Erza. "You know how hard she pushes herself in school."
"Seems to me that the stress has finally made her snap."
"Let's just get her to bed and put a movie in, that should calm her down."
They left Lucy to change in her bedroom while they changed in the middle bathroom which didn't have any windows and the walk through closet.
"I've never seen so many shoes in my life." Erza said. "Geez, I'm lucky that I can afford one pair of shoes."
With their pajamas on, the girls went back to Lucy's room but her window was wide open.
"Oh my gosh she actually did it!" Erza said looking out the window.
"What in the world has gotten into her?" Juvia asked.
"We better find her before her dad notices she's gone."
"Hold on we're gonna need wheels." Juvia pulled out her cellphone and dialed a number. "Hello Gray, listen I need to come over here...No! We're not going to pin you down and give you a forced makeover like last time."
"You did what to him?" Erza said.
"We were eight." Juvia defended. "Gray it's an emergency, Lucy's run off...We don't know where, we're going to find her but we need a car right now... It's not a joke, why would I joke about something like this? Gray you need to come, something is very wrong with Lucy and we think that she might end up blowing our secret...Thank you, now hurry."
She hung up. Juvia and Erza quickly put on their shoes and jackets.
"Gray's on his way." Juvia said. "We better meet him outside."
"Hold it we can't go out through the door." Erza said. "Her dad will see us and he'll wanna know what we're doing."
"He might not notice us. He is in a meeting right now."
"We can't take that risk. We'll have to go out the same way Lucy did."
"You mean climb down from the roof?" Juvia said looking down.
"Sure."
"Isn't that a little dangerous?"
"There's nothing to it. I've done it plenty of times. It's how I escaped this one party I went to that got way out of control. By the way you definitely don't want to know about that fiasco."
"But I haven't done this before Erza. What if I slip? What if I fall? I could break my neck."
"Just watch me."
Erza climbed out the window and carefully went down to the edge of the roof. She then jumped from the roof, landing on the tree that was nearby, and climbed down from there.
"See? It's easy."
"I beg to differ."
"Come on Juvia we don't have time for this. We have to find Lucy before she gets into some trouble."
"Hey guys I'm here!" Gray said running toward Erza. "I parked my car a little ways back so that her dad wouldn't see me, what's going on?"
"We'll explain the details in the car that is if Juvia would just man up and come down." Erza said.
"I can't man up Erza! I'm a woman!" Juvia said.
"Then woman up!"
"Why are you climbing out the window?" Gray asked.
"So Mr. Heartfilia won't notice us." Erza said.
"Can't I just try to sneak downstairs?" Juvia asked.
"Juvia just climb down to the edge and jump, I'll catch you." Gray said.
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Okay."
She nervously went out the window and slowly went down to the roof's edge.
"Here I go."
She jumped and Gray caught her but he ended falling down to the ground in the process.
"Thanks Gray." She said.
"You're welcome." He groaned. "And ow!"
"Oh sorry Gray. I didn't break anything did I?"
"Oh no. No. You're much too light to break anything."
"Alright love birds break it up!" Erza said. "We got a very confused blonde to find."
They got into Gray's car and started to search for Lucy.
"Do you guys have any idea where she went?" Gray asked.
"No and it isn't like her to just up and run off." Juvia said.
"She said that she wanted to go swimming." Erza said. "Do you think that she might have gone to the beach or the pool?"
"We'll check both places." Gray said.
They searched the beach but they didn't see her anywhere however they did find her shoes by the shore.
"Well we know that she's in the ocean but where?" Erza said.
The full moon came out and when the girls saw it they became just as transfixed as Lucy was when she saw it earlier.
"Juvia?" Gray said when he saw their blank stares. "Erza? Hello? Earth to Juvia and Erza?"
He snapped his fingers, waved his hand in front of their faces, finally he moved his hand to snap Erza out of it but a cloud covered the moon which brought the girls back to their senses.
"That would be a mistake." Erza said grabbing Gray's arm.
"I'm sorry but you two just zoned out a minute ago. What's wrong with you?"
"This is what that woman was trying to warn us about." Juvia realized.
"What woman?"
"I met this woman who said that we shouldn't look at the full moon or touch water when it's out. I think that's what happened to Lucy and that's why she's acting so strange."
"So did this woman mention what would happen if you did any of this."
"No."
"Uh guys." Erza said. "I've got good news and I've got bad news. The good news is I found Lucy the bad news is I think I figured out the answer to Gray's question."
She pointed over to where Lucy had come up to the surface in her mermaid form. But she wasn't the same. Her orange scales had turned white and the scales had appeared on the skin, her hands became webbed, her nails had turned into black claws, her neck had sprouted a set of gills, her hair was now green, and her eyes were yellow.
"Lucy?" Juvia and Erza whispered in horror.