Wohoo i'm on time for once! This chapter litterally wrote itself, and ended up much longer than part one. Loving you guy's reaction to Lucy owning Silver! We will find out what Jude wants in chapter 10. But for now, here is chapter 9...buckle up its a bumpy ride!
Dragon Soul – Chapter 9 – A Veil of Secrets – Part 2
She was supposed to be halfway across the continent by now, basking in the south coast Edolas sun; with a skinny margarita in hand and starting a new life.
Away from her shitty past, the city of sin and false dreams and most importantly of all; away from all memory of Lucy freaking Ashley.
Instead of tanning in a designer bikini and flirting with cute and loaded guys, she was sitting in a drab and dingy diner, just off the inter-continental expressway; thirty minutes south of the Royal City not far from Oracion National Park, oddly enough. Luckily the beater car she had bought had made it here; on the little jewel she had left to pay for gas.
Why was she sitting in this dreary place, with it's flimsy plastic furniture, paper napkins and dirty floor; you might ask?
Because Michelle Lobster was waiting on her contact to show up and hand her a fat holdall of cash, paying for her little part in the tragic and very odd disappearance of her silly little cousin; hush money for her cooperation and her silence.
She hadn't thought to ask what kind of trouble her dear cousin had gotten herself into, nor did she really care; Michelle was just in it for the money. Although being questioned in police custody hadn't been fun, it was easy to fool them; she knew how to pull off a good lie or two, she had years to practice her skills of deceit and manipulation.
With no evidence, two witness testimonies and a perfectly plausible explanation, Michelle had been released with no charges brought against her; the couple who had seen what had happened confirming her story. Lucy had wanted to look down at the water, gotten too close to the cliff edge and the rock had given way beneath her boots; Michelle had screamed for her dear cousin as she plummeted towards the water. Two hikers just behind them had seen everything, the middle aged woman had called the authorities on her cell phone, consoling a heartbroken brunette; while the husband has run back to the reception to get help.
A tragic accident, it was labelled.
More like a cover up, because the two witnesses had been on the payroll of exactly the same person that she was. Whoever it was who wanted Lucy gone had made damn good sure the cops wouldn't come sniffing, even though the beautiful, but strange young woman had made front page news for a few days.
The only thing that she didn't quite understand, was that after a forty eight hour search, they never found a body. According to reports there was a network of underground cave systems and caverns under the lake, no one had any idea where they led; divers had gotten so far in and had to turn back for safety concerns. Scientists had dyed the water, even tried a tracker to see where the system of caves led; but they never got an answer.
With no idea where she could be and no one able to search for her, Lucy was promptly forgotten about, her cousin became yesterdays news.
A very odd mystery indeed, but not that she cared; Michelle would probably have pushed the perfect little princess off a cliff for no money at all...
With the promise of ten million jewel on the way, cash in hand so as not to leave a trail; Michelle was looking forward to getting the hell away from the false world of money, parties and glamour. The Royal City had lost it's appeal, among many reasons.
To put a very long, long story short...she had owed some very bad people a lot of money. Luckily her skills in sweet talking had taken her off their hit list; eight hundred thousand jewel in cash and her promise to skip town and never show her pretty face in the city of sin again...it was a deal they couldn't refuse.
Michelle had quit her job, not that she really did much anyways; although the running joke about Lucy being picked up by little green men and taken home, had caused a few laughs around the office. With no real friends, except perhaps Lucy's annoying brat of a boss, Jason; no one really felt guilty making fun of her disappearance. Jason, the freak; had actually shed a few tears when news of La-La Lucy's disappearance had reached his ears, the one behind the appeal in the Bugle for information; but nothing came of it.
Reaching a perfectly manicured hand into her expensive designer purse, Michelle found her compact mirror. After checking her flawless makeup was still in place, she huffed an annoyed sigh and returned the mirror to her purse.
This mystery person had better show up soon with her damn money, as if the seedy place wasn't giving her enough of the creeps; a fat and balding truck driver sitting several tables down from her, had been leering at her from the second her expensive boots had stuck to the patchy lino floor of the diner.
Ick...
Staring passed her reflection in the window, she watched a tattily dressed woman exiting the passenger side of a run down estate car; slamming the door and immediately lighting a cigarette. Obviously a well seasoned smoker, the woman took barely five long inhales of grey smoke; before the butt was tossed aside into a rain puddle by the door of the diner. The generic sound of a bell rung above the door, the redhead shook droplets of rain from her belted paper thin trench coat as she approached the counter. Exchanging smiles with the old man serving the diner, it was obvious from their tone that this woman was a regular here.
It had become pretty obvious to the brunette that this place was a regular haunt of Red's type, from the scantily dressed females hanging about the place; picking up long haul truckers and clients, making a quick buck in exchange for a good time.
Red slipped the man a folded jewel note and went off towards a far table on the other end of the floor, unbelting her coat and sitting down on the chair facing her direction. It wasn't this woman who she was supposed to be meeting...then again, Michelle had no idea if it was a man or a woman turning up.
She raised an eyebrow as she got a good look at the redheads outfit. Thin and frail looking, she could have been anywhere from thirty to fifty; it was hard to tell at this distance. Red was wearing a hand customised band t shirt, bearing the name of a punk band that had been the height of popularity around thirty years ago; a leopard print mini skirt, ripped fishnets and lace up boots completed the look. Hair the colour of artificially dyed rust was styled into a frizzy mess, pencil thin black eyebrows, shocking green eyeshadow and bright pink lips certainly made for an...interesting combination.
Red looked like a band groupie who hadn't grown out of her youth, that band had stopped touring when their hair turned grey a decade or so ago!
She was sitting with her assets on show, staking out her next 'client' or maybe she was done offering her services for the day. Oh...Michelle knew her type well, because her cold and calculating birth mother had been in the same business...the oldest job in the world.
Those memories came back to haunt her the longer she stared at the woman, a lonely childhood of having to find her own dinner cause mom was out earning jewel by any means she could; just to put a basic roof over their heads. The roughest neighbourhood in town wasn't the most ideal place to raise a daughter, but it was cheap. Michelle didn't hate her mother for what she did, but her mother had not been a kind woman; almost seeing her young girl as a burden, an extra mouth to feed in a hard way of life.
And damn it, her mother reminded her every single day...
At nine years old, Michelle had grown used to her mothers routine; Martina went to work during the day, it wasn't as good pay as working the 'night shift'; but it worked for their situation. Michelle would go to school, come home and then try and make something edible with the scraps or leftovers in the fridge; mom would get home around six that evening, and either drink herself to sleep or collapse on the threadbare sofa from exhaustion.
Until one day...Martina didn't come home.
She hadn't known what to do, sitting on the sofa for hours; until a friend of her mothers had come knocking the next day, found a tearful little girl huddled on the sofa, and called the police. At least someone had cared enough to check on them, was worried enough to visit; because Michelle didn't want to think what would have happened to her if she had been alone for a long period of time.
Scared, confused and wanting her mommy, she remembered being taken to the police station; being given a juice box and a chocolate bar, where a female officer had smiled at her sadly. No child deserved to know their only known relative had been found lifeless behind a dumpster...a mugging gone bad, they had said.
Mommy wouldn't be coming home...but in some way she felt relieved.
Michelle had been placed into the care of a friend of the kind female officer, who had held her as she cried over her lost mother. Auntie Layla, as the young orphan had come to call her, had a daughter two years younger than Michelle; her name was Lucy.
They weren't blood related, but as a kids they didn't care. Lucy was her first real friend, even if Michelle was insanely jealous of the younger girl.
While no better off really than before, Layla and Lucy gave the sad young girl something she had never experienced before...compassion, care and love. Layla could barely afford to feed one child, let alone two; but she tried as hard as she could.
But that wasn't enough for Michelle.
Call her greedy and selfish, but she wanted to live the high life; to be rich and never have to worry about where the next meal was coming from. So she became a problem child, petty theft, stealing small items to trade for chump change, she didn't care when Layla got into trouble for her crimes; she soon honed the ability to manipulate those around her to her advantage. Michelle wasn't smart, but she was cunning; a few crocodile tears and a sad sob story and she was always let off.
On the flip side of the coin, Lucy Ashley was the perfect well behaved princess. A dreamer with her head in the clouds, but smart and cute as a button; Lucy never did a single thing wrong, no matter how many times Michelle tried to involve her in her schemes.
Michelle hated her for that, Lucy was too pure; she was too young to know her mom Layla couldn't handle her new friend.
Eventually, Layla had had enough; couldn't cope with her foster daughter any longer. Tossed aside like a tarnished penny, Michelle was moved from home to home; unwanted for her deviance. One day, however, a rich family from the Royal City had come along and taken ten year old Michelle, and whisked her away from a life of poverty. The fifty something couple had always longed for a daughter, but after years of trying; had looked to adoption. Buying Michelle's affection with everything she could ever want, she didn't even look back as she was walked to the handsome town car and into a new life.
All she had to do was call these rich suckers 'Mama' and 'Dada' and they melted in warmth.
She fitted into the life of the pampered only daughter of a wealthy couple, rich from their insurance empire; selling policies for everything from holiday to life insurance. They lived in an affluent mansion high on the hills of the Royal City, surrounded by millionaires, movie stars and even a foreign and wealthy Prince. Michelle went to the most prestigious school in the city, fitting right in with the pampered and entitled rich kids who were also due to inherit their parent's fortunes. She was popular, bitchy and had a string of boys wanting to date her; she never gave her old life another thought.
It was several years later that she learned of aunt Layla's untimely death, overworked and tired to the bone; the letter from her cousin had said. Michelle had shed a tear for her foster mother, even offered her condolences; but then had forgotten it from her mind.
Sometimes she and Lucy exchanged the odd email, even if Michelle only used it to brag about her new life; to remind her cousin what she didn't have.
Sadly her life of luxury had come to a rather swift and unexpected end, when at eighteen; her parents were arrested for fraud and sent down for years. Something about swindling investors out of millions via an insurance scam, their money and all assets had been frozen; all evidence of proceeds of crime. Michelle had been thankful not to be associated with their crimes, but she had lost the life she had come to love and the extravagant lifestyle she desperately longed for; resenting her parents for being stupid enough to leave her helpless and with almost nothing. Michelle had helped herself to any items of value she could get her hands on, before the police could seize anything from her useless parents house; hiding small items like jewellery and cash in hard to think of places, to sell on later if she was short on jewel. Michelle disowned them, for abandoning her.
She had been also been forced to get a job, but no one wanted to hire her at first.
Flirting her way into it by batting her eyelashes at the sleaze ball editor of the Royal Bugle had been easy enough, no matter that she had no idea how to be a receptionist; but she soon learned on the job.
By day she answered the busy phone lines, arranged meetings and gossiped with her work mates, by night it was all glamour, expensive champagne and glittering parties; she dated the wealthiest men she could find, fluttering her eyelashes in exchange for expensive gifts and trinkets and tokens of their affection. She didn't care who or how old they were, so long as they bought her things; if they refused she would dump them instantly, moving on to the next.
One day she had been at work, thumbing lazily through a stack of resumes for the Journalist position that had opened at the Bugle recently; when a familiar blast from the past had greeted her eyes.
There sat a resume belonging to non other than Lucy Ashley...talk about an odd coincidence!
Michelle had been genuinely curious to contact her cousin, they hadn't spoke in several years but they had chatted like old friends over the phone; the blond hadn't gotten much luck in her ambition to be a Reporter. It also helped that Michelle heard her mention coming into a tidy sum of money while the blond rambled on about her silly dreams.
So Michelle hatched a plan.
Sure, coercing her into flying across the continent had been easy as pie; even offering her a reprieve from the over-inflated rental prices to live in the big city, letting Lucy stay with her.
The younger blond was still the same weirdo she remembered, if much, much prettier than Lucy had been as a gangly seven year old. Michelle had been embarrassed to be seen picking her up from the airport, with her trashy second hand clothes, old sneakers and an oversized t-shirt; Lucy looked like a vagrant! But no matter, her cousin was sitting on a small fortune; something Michelle had confirmed after snooping through her documents one day.
She just had to figure out how to get a hold of it, which was much harder than she had anticipated it being...Lucy was extremely stingy with her money.
The beautiful blond lived as though she had nothing, her bills were paid on time, but she wore thrift store clothing, bought cheap food and hell if she ever socialised. Her time was spent outside of work with her mangy cat and her nose in a book, dreaming of worlds of magic, adventure and fantasy.
Michelle had asked for a loan here or there, but soon grew bored of being refused. Lucy wasn't just a bumbling, naive and awkward weirdo, she was an extremely smart one.
How was she supposed to outsmart someone with the brains to see right through her?
The answer had come one day when she received a call from an unknown number, offering her a ridiculous sum of money to lure her pretty little cousin to Oracion National Park; push her off a cliff, and most importantly...not to ask any questions.
At first Michelle had thought it a hoax, until she was told to check her bank account.
Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped to find five million jewel sitting there. The voice on the phone told her the rest would be given to her when the deed had been done. If she refused, she would be killed.
Simple as that. Not like she had any choice in the matter, while she hated her cousin; Michelle wasn't sure she could actually kill a person?
A brief flash of a guilty conscience had vanished when she realised she could start over, a new place where no one knew her past, where people didn't laugh about her behind her back, calling her a gold-digger; and she didn't have a band of criminals breathing down her neck. This would make that all go away...
The day had come, Lucy and herself had eventually gotten to the cliff top; she had pushed her stupidly trusting cousin with satisfying vigour from the ledge; screaming in anguish, just like she was told to. Michelle vaguely remembered saying something to Lucy as she pushed her, almost like someone was speaking through her; but the memory was so hazy that the brunette had just shook it off.
The feeling of power, the feeling of adrenaline as she watched the silly blond disappear underneath the calm waters of the lake; had made her feel amazing...she should have done this years ago!
Maybe that made her unhinged, but Michelle was a survivor; she had spent years using others to get what she wanted and would continue to do so.
She had tried to also get a hold of Lucy's small fortune, sitting in her bank account unused; but with Lucy being unable to be declared dead after only five days, her efforts were in vain.
The bank refused her request...it's not like her stupid cousin would be coming back to claim it.
Once again her attention was diverted from her thoughts by the annoying trill of the diner door bell, and hoo boy...was the man making his way to the counter a fine specimen to feast her eyes on!
Tall, handsome with short dark hair and the most gorgeous blue eyes she had ever set eyes on; he looked just as out of place as she did. In her designer silk blouse, tailored black trousers and black boots; a warm grey coat on top to keep her warm.
She hoped this hunk was the person she was waiting for!
The newcomer looked to be around the same age, he was toned but not muscular and had the most perfectly peachy ass she had ever seen.
"Hello, my car has broken down just down the road and my phone is dead...might you have a phone I could –"
"I've got a cell phone you can use, sugar."
Michelle glared as Red winked at the man and held out a cheap looking cell phone to Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome, watching as he swanned off to the other side of the diner, she had been looking forward to a little flirting; rather than having to gag at the old creep who was still salivating over her.
Sadly it looked like her luck wasn't with her this day, because the trucker soon got out of his seat and made his way towards her table. She shuddered in disgust as porky used his sweaty hand to wipe away some red sauce from his three day old stubble, teeth yellowed and food stuck in them as he smirked at her.
"You waiting on someone, darlin'?" the man asked, leaning across her table, his rotund belly smacking the table with a jolt. "How much?"
"Yup." She replied in a clipped and firm tone, hoping he would get bored and go away; her head turning to look away from him, but the creep was persistent. "I'm not for sale, if you want favours, go ask that diseased old red –"
"So, what's a pretty little –"
"Get lost, Porky."
Suddenly she spied a hand come down to sit on the nosy assholes shoulder, cheering internally as the handsome stranger came to her aid and gave the older man a withering glare; that made him look extremely dangerous. She watched as the older man simply walked away, no words spoken between them; her rescuer then smiled down at her.
"Sorry to disturb you, I just couldn't help overhearing." The stranger had a smooth and kind voice that left her feeling extremely calm.
"Oh, it's no trouble, thanks for the rescue!" Michelle smiled flirtily, twirling a lock of dark hair between her fingertips. "Did you manage to get hold of a breakdown service?"
"Yes, I did. The old woman back there charged me five bucks to use her damn phone...but they will be here in the hour." Smiled the man, making her swoon.
"Well, maybe you should sit and enjoy a hot chocolate with me...as a thank you for rescuing me from the vile ogre." Michelle winked.
"If you don't mind...that old witch over there seems to want to drain my soul!"
Mike, his name was; Mike Farley. A handsome twenty nine year old on the way back from visiting family for the weekend, returning to his job as an accountant in the big city; where his newly pregnant wife of two years, Mandy was waiting for him.
Shame, but she still gave him her undivided attention as they chatted; Michelle told him she was meeting an old friend here, before making her way south. A lie, sort of; but Mike didn't seem to be the sort of guy to ask too many questions.
His car had made an awful judder on the highway a quarter of a mile down the road; fluid leaking from the engine.
She had been so busy staring into those dreamy blue eyes that she didn't notice when a third person walked to their table, tapped Mike on the shoulder and announced the breakdown service had arrived.
It was a complete shame when the sound of her ringtone sounded from inside her bag, a message; telling her to go to her car, the person she was meeting had arrived.
"Finally!" Michelle breathed, deleting the message and lifting her head to smile at her companion for the last hour or so. "My friend has just arrived, it's been really nice to talk to you, Mike."
"Thank you for the company, I'll walk you to the parking lot."
"Thanks." Michelle smiled gratefully.
The two of them left their half finished drinks, bid the old man a good evening and walked out into the crisp air. It was dark out now, hardly anyone about; Michelle saw a bright red breakdown van with orange lights flashing obnoxiously near a shiny blue station wagon, just a few meters away from her own brown rust bucket. Geesh...did the breakdown guy own his licence? There were wobbly tyre tracks across the parking lot!
"That's the old girl..." Mike called to the balding and red faced mechanic who had opened his van door and stepped out, looking worse for the wear, giving Mike and Michelle a wave and a friendly smile.
"I'm Chuck, what's the problem?" asked the mechanic, wiping his chubby hands on his brown and grease covered overalls; Chuck was about forty, smelled like gasoline and had a belly so big he hadn't seen his feet in ten years.
Michelle felt a zip of alarm and sudden Deja vu pass through her when Mike pulled an old smart phone from his jean pocket. The memory of him asking the owner of the diner to use a phone made her frown, when the handsome male tapped on the screen to see it with an almost full charge.
"Y-You said your phone was dead..." Michelle spoke nervously, taking a step back from Mike.
The black haired male suddenly turned to face her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. His eyebrows rose at her as Mike gave her a wry look, Chuck snorted with laughter and folded his arms.
"If you wanna be handed a bag of cash in a crowded diner then be my guest..."
Eventually things began to click into place and Michelle suddenly remembered why she had come to this shitty diner in the first place. Mike, if that was even his real name; was the contact she was supposed to be meeting to get her final payment.
"Geesh, like you could have said something before now!" Michelle hissed, raising a perfectly groomed eyebrow at the grinning male. Mike didn't have the look of a criminal, but then people wouldn't necessarily say that about her; unless they knew her mind.
But one thing didn't add up...
"So who?" Michelle pointed a polished finger at the breakdown mechanic.
"Oh, I'm your delivery man."
Michelle had two seconds to react to what was about to happen, but she wasn't at all prepared for it.
With a quick movement, Chuck the mechanic went to open the sliding door of the van, with a shout; Michelle was grabbed from behind by Mike; who was much stronger than he appeared to be, holding a hand firmly over her mouth to stop her scream. Struggling in his arms, she felt tears pooling in her eyes as the van door was opened; but her eyes refused to believe what it was she was looking at.
Instead of an arsenal of tools, car parts and the like, what greeted her wide and teary eyes was a shimmering mass of blue and white light, swirling in a slow circle; a portal to absolute darkness. Chuck's face suddenly morphed from an easy smile to a look of unbridled fury, he waddled towards her with a terrifying menace that made her whimper.
"You see, bitch...you've pissed off some pretty important people. Throwing Lucy off a cliff in exchange for hush money? Well...we got a few questions for ya." Chuck's hot breath scorched her ear.
Confusion and fear crippled her for a moment, before she felt her world going dim; air was scarce as Mike held his hands over her nose and mouth, tears rushing down her cheeks and his painful hand as she lost consciousness.
Michelle wondered what in the hell was going on as her entire world faded to blackness.
She was in an extremely foul mood when she was woken the next morning...or what she thought was morning.
For some odd reason she felt extremely jet lagged, as though her body clock was all over the place from a change in time zone. Her sleep had been plagued with a horrific nightmare of being kidnapped, tied up and tossed painfully into the back of a van.
How odd...
Memory more than a little foggy, her senses alerted her to the consistent drop of water; leaking in from somewhere nearby. With a gasp, Michelle shot upwards into a sitting position; head pounding. Similar to the effects of a hangover, her mouth felt extremely dry, her ears were ringing and she felt extremely sick to her stomach.
"Urgh...I need to stop shooting straight Vodka." She groaned, her fingertips massaging her temple; wondering who the one to host last nights party had been.
Coco was probably the one, her friend did happen to have a filthy rich father who owned several distilleries country wide; and an eighty proof Vodka was their speciality, and boy did it pack quite the punch. Michelle opened her eyes, expecting to find herself sleeping off her hangover in one of Coco's thirteen spare bedrooms; on her family's estate just outside the city, instead she found herself under a dirty and musty grey coat.
Hers!
The confused brunette was sitting on a thin and lumpy roll out mattress, a sad and well used pillow with stuffing coming out of a hole; sat limply where her head had been resting. Her mouth dropped open comically as she found herself in a damp and cold cell, a thick iron door locking her in; nothing to keep her company except a rusty old bucket in the far corner.
There was a barred window above her head, showing a sky ablaze with fire; if her bleary eyes weren't playing tricks on her.
Panic began to mount as her mind was suddenly flooded with images of the dingy diner, meeting a mystery man called Mike, who had lured her in with his smooth voice and pretty eyes; before he and the mechanic had grabbed her in the parking lot and knocked her out.
Wherever they had brought her, it had to have been quite some time later; her clothes were ripped and dirty, purse nowhere to be found. She didn't have a mirror to check her face, but she could feel a sting in her right cheek; either a scratch or bruise was sat there. Swinging her legs over to her right, Michelle got shakily to her feet; stumbling over to look out of the window, to try and work out where the hell she was.
A rocky and mountainous brown landscape was laid out before her, no plants, no landmarks and no form of life at all. The sky above looked to be made of flame, rolling red and orange bands shifting and changing like an aurora. It was hot, really hot; far more than Edolas was supposed to be this time of year.
Michelle might have thought all of this was some elaborate hoax, or that she had been tricked and taken into police custody; but just as she was about to scream out for help at the top of her lungs, the door to her cell squeaked open.
She whipped round to find a man dressed in medieval garb, a suit of armour decked out with a hand hammered crest of two dragons facing back to back; a shield in between them.
"I didn't know there was a Resonance Festival in town...are you here to take me to be be-headed?" Michelle quipped, giggling behind her manicured nails. The guard-knight looked less than amused, but grasped onto her arm tightly; dragging her harshly from her cell.
"That depends, human."
"O-On what?" Michelle laughed nervously, too scared to try and wriggle out of his grip.
"The outcome of the next few moments." Spoke the man harshly. 'You're to be questioned for attempted murder."
"W-What?! I-I haven't done anything!" Michelle denied, horror and worry filling her insides with dread as she was escorted up a tightly spiralled stone staircase; feeling as though she had took a wrong turning somewhere in the dark ages...this place, wherever it was; reeked of the ages.
Her legs began to hurt from their climb, before she and her guard arrived at a ornate metal door; carved with the same dual dragon and shield emblem as the guards chest piece.
"Look...I'm sure there has been a horrible misunderstanding –" Michelle tried to bat her eyelashes at the man, but he ignored her as the metal door was opened and she was frog marched into a circular room.
Her eyes widened as she took in the room, set with pews, mostly empty except for some shadowed silhouettes to her right; five people, but she couldn't see who. There were no windows or doors, except the one she had been brought through.
A tiny old man sat in the middle of the room, at a table with two chairs; he in one, and she gathered the other was hers. Michelle glared at the guard as she was shoved down into the chair.
"Geesh, could you be a little more gentle?" she snapped, before she turned to look at the tiny old man.
He was pint sized, yes; but he was terrifying. His wrinkled face and grey hair made it difficult to figure out exactly how old he was, but his eyes held a wisdom that made him seem as though he were hundreds of years old; Michelle scoffed at the impossibility. He was dressed in a fur collared white jacket, golden chains handing from the shoulders; head balding at the crown with a thick beard and hair by his ears. On the table sat a cell phone and a very familiar backpack...one she hadn't seen in five days.
Not since her cousin fell to her death.
"What the hell is going on?" Michelle demanded, noticing the cell phone was blinking a red light at a two second interval; indicating their conversation was being recorded.
"Michelle Lobster, you are here to be questioned on suspicion of your involvement in the disappearance of your cousin, Lucy Ashley."
Michelle sighed and rolled her eyes, tapping her nails against the wooden table top. Not this shit again...
"Look...I've already been questioned by the police about this...I told them what happened and so did the two witnesses. Lucy walked too far towards the cliff, looked over the edge to view the water; the rock beneath her feet gave way and she fell to her death."
Makarov levelled a smile at the girl as she looked down at her hands sadly, tears in her eyes.
"I still feel guilty that –"
"I'm not asking for the fabrication you fed the police...I want the real account of events." Makarov steepled his fingers together, leaning forwards in his chair. "You are misunderstood, aren't you? Such a sad past and yet you were just trying to make a better life for yourself."
Michelle felt real tears welling in her eyes, this man had an air of calm that made her feel secure; he seemed to understand her!
"Y-Yeah...my birth mom was desperate...couldn't get a job so she had to resort to selling herself to put food on the table. She reminded me everyday that I was a burden, a mistake. I was relieved when the old crow passed away." Michelle sighed, wringing her hands together, gaze distant as she relived her memories.
"You were an orphan, no where to go; that must have been terrifying for a little girl." Makarov murmured.
"Yeah...till I got taken in by a friend of the cop who found me, aunt Layla and...L-Lucy." Michelle sniffled.
"How was that?" Makarov asked, nodding in understanding.
"Scary...but Layla was a kind woman, I never hated her."
"Lucy was different though."
Michelle looked up at Makarov, he seemed to be a friend; genuinely worried about her, she didn't want to disappoint this man...not at all.
"Lucy was the perfect angel, pretty, smart, kind and helpful. I was jealous of her, I'd never had a mother who loved me so unconditionally. Layla was too trusting, so I used to steal things, it made me feel powerful; important. Worth more than some whores daughter, who didn't have a father. Layla was so proud of her little princess, but she didn't really like me much, I could see it in her eyes...the disappointment...pity."
"Layla tried her best...but she couldn't cope with you." Makarov frowned.
"She tossed me aside, like a unwanted toy; my social worker tried me with different families. Every single one didn't want me, until a rich couple from the Royal City came who wanted a daughter so badly they didn't care I was difficult." Michelle laughed humourlessly. "So I went with them, they were naive and stupid; I called them mom and pop and I got anything I wanted. I started to become somebody, I got good at manipulating them; I didn't have good grades, but I was cunning. I used people."
"Quite the impressive achievement." Makarov smiled, drawing her in with words she wanted to hear.
"Yeah...then the idiots got themselves arrested, scamming people out of millions. So I took what I could and stashed it away before I lost everything again, I wasn't arrested for being involved in their scam, I honestly had no idea they were criminals; my good luck improved when I flirted myself into a job as a receptionist, but after a few months money ran out."
"But you found a solution."
"Yeah...I found Lucy had applied for a job at the paper. I knew from our phone conversation where she went on like a broken record about her dreams of being a journalist or reporter; Layla had been saving money for years for Lucy. So I hatched a plan to convince her to move to the Royal City, the stupid girl jumped at the chance...but a lifetime of living in squalor and she was a stingy bitch. I met her at the airport, she looked like a homeless person; and the real kick in my teeth? She was so much prettier than I could ever hope to be. I hated her even more." Michelle hissed, eyes sliding back into focus for a moment to grin proudly at the old man in front of her.
"Clever...but it didn't work." Makarov was brilliant, luring her in with pretty words to stoke her ego, Michelle completely forgot that everything was being recorded.
"Nope...she was smart. Lucy wouldn't lend me money after the first few loans, nor did she spend anything beyond normal bills and her mangy cat. So I tried to think of another way to get her money. One day I got a message from an unknown number, saying if I lured my cousin to Oracion National Park and pushed her off the cliff there, they would make me rich. It seemed too good to be true. Then I was told to check my bank...five million jewel sat in there!"
"That is a lot of money for a simple job." Makarov stroked his beard, impressed.
"Yeah...so I lured her there, told her I wanted the exercise. The stupid girl was naive enough to turn her back on me, so I stepped up to her."
"What did you say?"
"I dunno, felt as though something possessed me for a second. But I was completely myself when I..."
"Go on."
"When I pushed Lucy Ashley off that cliff." Michelle grinned proudly, too involved in her brilliance she didn't hear the growl of another man in the room, nor see the hand cover the mouth in shock of another. "I was told to scream for her...y'know to make it believable. The couple who found me were on the same hush money I was, so I got away with it. I felt invincible, the rush was amazing! I'd have gladly pushed that perfect little bitch off for free, had I known what it would feel like. I just had to get the rest of my reward, I owed a lot of money to the gang presiding over the Royal City; so I sweet talked them into forgetting I existed for eight hundred thousand jewel and the agreement I'd skip town."
"Why did you owe them money?"
"Gambling debt...the Parnell's own the fanciest casino in the Royal City. I lost a lot of money there, was having trouble paying back the five hundred thousand. I paid them in cash with my deposit for killing Lucy, I got took off their hit list. Heck, then even offered me a stake in the casino, when I told them where I got the cash! I just laughed and said they were supposed to be pretending I didn't exist." Michelle rolled her eyes haughtily. "I'd grown to hate the city, you're only someone if you have money; and so I made a plan to travel south, after meeting at a local diner to meet someone to get the last of my payment."
"What happened after that?"
"I got tricked...and brough –" Michelle suddenly stopped talking, the far away look in her eyes turning lucid as they widened in horror. Her hand clamped down on her mouth and she gripped at the table with a white knuckle grip.
"Y-You...who are you people?" Michelle muffled, watching as Makarov waved a hand, the guard holding tightly onto her arms and secured her to her seat; Michelle watched as Makarov smiled benignly at her and picked up the phone from the table.
"Who we are is none of your concern, my dear. Our only concern is Lucy, and how she died."
"Are you the cops?" Michelle hissed, her breath ragged as her face contorted in fury at being tricked into confessing.
"No, but this device I am told has recorded our conversation. It shall be handed to the authorities." Makarov smiled jovially. "Sadly I do no have the power to have you arrested, in this place."
"Then why the hell am I here?" Michelle shouted, trying to wriggle free.
Suddenly a pair of very familiar figures walked into the light behind the old man, a tall and handsome black haired male with pretty blue eyes; the other the portly mechanic who had helped Mike kidnap her.
"Y-You! You bastards tricked me!"
"Call it vigilante justice...if you will." Mike grinned, his eyes narrowing at her.
"You're gonna pay for what you did to Luce." Chuck growled, eyes narrowed in absolute blind hatred. "If it we're up to me, I'd have you pushed into the nearby volcano; or ripped to shreds by wild dogs."
"It is not your choice, brother." Mike replied to Chuck. Brothers? Michelle would have laughed if she wasn't shaking with anger, the two looked nothing alike.
"You're related?" Michelle hissed.
"We don't normally look this way." Chuckled Mike.
Michelle gasped as blue and white flames, red and orange flames engulfed around the two men, before their appearances changed as the flames died down; her eyes refused to believe she had just seen two men on fire, looking over the two drop dead gorgeous males who she could now see were obviously brothers. One with pink hair, one with black, the raven slightly taller and leaner; the pinkette shorter but more muscled.
"Not that I can see you, but you smell infinitely better in your normal form, Natsu." Zeref mused, giving his younger brother a smirk.
"At least you got to look normal, 'Ref...I looked like a fat and pungent ogre." The pinkette grumbled, making the raven laugh.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE?" Michelle screamed dramatically, her face turning red with anger, her wild eyes darting back and forth between the three men, before Makarov hopped down from his seat and walked away from the table; in the shadows Michelle watched as he handed the cell phone to another person, who saved the file and turned off the phone.
"They are the people who found me, confused...scared and alone in a desolate wilderness...my real family." Came a bitter and disappointed female voice, a voice that sent chills down Michelle's spine, because she knew that voice anywhere.
It was the voice of the person that she had convinced herself was dead.
"L-Lucy?" Michelle whispered into the room, eyes wide and fearful as though she had seen a ghost as a familiar woman walked into the light.
Lucy Ashley stood before her, as beautiful and as infuriatingly kind looking as ever; dressed in a strange outfit, that seemed to even strangely suit her. The top was a deep red, off the shoulder with long billowy sleeves, black woollen leggings and a pair of knee high brown leather boots; there was a ornately woven whip or lasso clipped to her left hip, and her butt length hair was braided into a side plait. Lucy looked alive, and not just alive; but glowing.
Literally. Glowing. Like a star!
"W-What the –" Michelle frowned, she shut her eyes tightly and reopened them; Lucy was back to normal, as normal as a person she had seen fall to her death just days ago could be... "How?"
"I was in denial when I heard from Makarov that he and Igneel had spoken about my reason for being here, Makarov had been watching you from this world; so we hatched a plan to get you here for questioning. He can be very persuasive...so he stoked your ego. Got you to confess, he said it's my decision what we will do with you. As you're a human, the only option for you here is death; but I don't want that." Lucy explained, her voice calm and her emotions guarded.
Michelle sneered at her cousin...she was still as soft and pathetic as always.
"So I used my phone to record your confession, we're going to tie you up...send you back home with my backpack. The one missing as well as my body, Makarov has already contacted the police; telling them a murderer is in Oracion National Park." Lucy smiled slightly. "Fitting, isn't it? You're going to be taken back to the scene of the crime."
Michelle snickered, as her hands and feet were bound.
"I'll tell them you aren't dead! I can't be arrested for a murder that never happened."
Lucy held up a hand, silencing her cousin.
"But you did try to kill me, and I have no intention of going back...my home is here. The Lucy Ashley you knew and hate is dead...I won't let you use or hurt anyone anymore."
Michelle opened her mouth to hurl abuse as the woman, but before she could get the words out, Lucy walked towards her; deceptively delicate fist clenched, she had little time to react as pain exploded across her right cheek. Michelle hissed as Lucy punched her, her eyes watering and her head snapping to the side; a single tear fell from her eyes as she looked up at her cousin.
"I-I hate you." Michelle seethed, saying no more as she was pulled to her feet by the two brothers; their grip on her bound arms tight and bruising as she was pulled away from the table she had been sat at. Lucy simply walked away, however, just before Michelle was dragged through the same black portal she had seen back in the van at the diner; Lucy turned to her cousin.
"I won't give you the satisfaction of hating you."
Darkness engulfed Michelle as she was pulled into the swirling mass of colours, her eyes blinking several times until she found herself standing on her own in an eerily familiar place.
The moon high in the night sky illuminated the crystal smooth lake of the Oracion National Park, the breeze was light and cooling and Michelle found herself smiling manically; marvelling in the stupidity of being left to walk free. Lucy's bag was sitting innocently off to the side, within it; the damn phone with the recorded confession.
"Sorry, but I'm not going to prison for you." Michelle hissed into the air, she turned to reach over and grab the handle of the backpack; her fingers inches away from grasping the pale blue strap in her hand.
With a sudden ominous creak of stone, Michelle yelled out, startled to find her world falling out from underneath her as the rock beneath her feet gave way. Wind rushed passed her ears as she fell, the wail of sirens in the not far off distance; dread settled into her stomach as the water rushed to meet her from the long drop. Her body suddenly turned in the fall, and tears fell from her eyes as she found herself looking up at the clear sky. She accepted defeat, memories flooding her mind and regret aching in her chest.
Her back hit the water and her world exploded in pain, right before everything went black.
For Michelle Lobster, it would be the last thing she would ever feel.
Well after that rolletcoaster, see you soon for the next chapter!