Fair Warning: Some of what you are about to read is not very pretty. Rated M for language, violence, and graphic scenes (maybe other stuff later).
It was near the end now. We were walking in the rippling heat of our barley field: wheat grains whirring to an empty sky. I'm holding a spray of seeds. One of the men in blue took my dad aside and told him something very secret-like. He grabs me, we go into the jeep, and without explanation, drive to another place not far from the barn. In the countryside, rural peasants like us would usually walk, measuring the distances not in kilometers, but in hours or days. "What are we looking for?" I asked, and as always, he never answers me. Instead, he kept his brown eyes trained intensely on the dusty path before us. He swore under his breath through a haze of smoke that hung in the air where the corn had been growing. We stopped near a cluster of camps; shacks made of mud and logs. One of them had collapsed and smoke arose from it. "Wait here," he told me, but I didn't wait. I couldn't wait. I had stopped waiting for him months before this, but he couldn't seem to break his habit of telling me to wait. Smoke rolled like a shore cloud along the fields, just above the blackened stubble. We walk, and when he stops, I stop; when he continues, I continue. He palmed the air to say "Slow down" or "Be quiet." I slowed down and I am quiet. When we reached the camps, no one is in them. No one is home. There is a child's T-shirt in the slop of a mixing bowl. Behind one of the camps it appears that several hens have been held by their feet and whacked against a stone. They were lying on the ground, one of them still opening and closing its beak.
I didn't know what I was expecting to see when we got to where he was taking me, but I certainly was not expecting the swollen torso of a man with one arm attached to him and a black pool of tar over his crotch. I didn't expect that his head would be by itself some distance away, without eyes or lips. The stench in the air is familiar to me now: a rotting, sweet, sickening smell. Human death. I bent down when I saw the head, but I remember father saying, "Don't touch it Lucy. Let the others do it."
At first, I thought they were going to find the rest of the man and place his remains in the truck, but instead they gathered the arms and hands, the legs with their feet still attached, and bring them to the torso where it lied on the ground. They set the head on the neck where it once belonged, and then, the three men took off their straw hats and stand in a circle around the man they reassembled. The parts were not quite touching, as there was soil between them, especially the head and the rest. No eyes, no lips, no tongue, and the birds cawing nearby were hoping we would go away and leave them to this meal.
"Wh-who could've done something like this?" My voice came out like a high-pitched whine due to all the tears. I hadn't even realized when I'd started crying until my vision became too blurry for me to see.
"The bad guys," dad says somberly. He doesn't break eye contact with the murder scene. His grip on my tiny palm tightens.
"Sheriff Heartfilia," one of the officers called out to father and we both turned around.
"We found this symbol spray painted near the victim's home," the officer reported showing my father a picture of something. I was too short to sneak a peak over their shoulders and see. Father's bushy, blonde unibrow creased the longer he looked at the image. His jaw drew slightly agape as he sucked a sharp breath of air in. "Is that the mark of...? But how?"
That day was my first real encounter with a human corpse. Every detail of that memory, etched itself hauntingly onto my seven-year-old brain. The flashing lights of police and ambulance cars, the heavy boots of the EMT's as they rushed to recover the remains.
On that day, I had learned that the human head weighed about two and a half kilos.
Flash-Forward: Present Day
I was super excited to move into our new house.
Mom and I had been eyeing the infrastructure of the foundation for weeks as it was being built, planning together. She got me excited about the little things, like going to the hardware store, or picking between different shades of orange for the walls and the carpet, just all the different things we were going to put in our living room to make it feel like home. Mom somehow made the whole process of interior designing seem fun to me.
I couldn't have been happier with the new place. It had tons of floor space in the living room, unlike our old house which confined me to about four steps of space total. Mom and dad decided they wanted to put a bunch of bedrooms in the new house so that when guests came over (unlike at our old barn), they wouldn't have to sleep on the couch or the floor, and would have a bed to rest their heads. (Part of me thinks this was just their subtle way of telling me they're trying for another member of our family, which the thought of my parents commemorating our new place with baby-making was absolutely disgusting.) Despite our humble residence, mom was always finnicky about things like that. Sweeping the dust off the floor for guests even though there was dust all around, offering pillows to hardened seats although she knew it wouldn't make a difference, sending me to walk to the well to fetch some stranger a glass of water. I hated how much of a monster hostess she was.
Dad and the movers traversed in and out the front door, hauling all of our furniture from the colossal U-Haul truck into our new home. I approached the mouth of the lion's den it seemed like, and found something I thought I could carry by myself.
"Let me help you with th-"
"No I got it," I say, as I'm hoisting the oak sofa chair, along with the three cardboard boxes of our belongings in the seat, into my arms. I could feel the moving men's eyes on me with disbelief as I exerted my strength to carrying everything inside. Dad beamed at me with pride. "Well look at you... show off."
"I'm not showing... ugh- off," I huff out a breath when I finally set the load down in our bare living room. Mom walked daintily by with a tiny box of our pots and pans. "I just want this whole thing to finally be finished. We've been unloading things all day."
When we finally got the last of our things from the moving-truck, the three of us were left with nothing but bland concrete slabs covering our heads, boxes of packed up furniture, three crates, and a box TV set on the ground. Dad was still outside paying the movers as I relished in the finality of it all. This was my new home.
When dad walked back inside the house, he surely wasn't expecting the next question mom would hurl at him, as he too, was happily relishing in our fresh new start.
"Jude..." mom started, with that purposeful, but almost manipulative tone. "Did you pack the bed?"
Mom and I both groaned as dad started apologizing profusely. I slept on the concrete floor the night before my first day of school.
Over the years, I often ask myself how differently would I have turned out, if I hadn't been to that crime scene that day. It's been ten years since then. Dad, Jude Heartfilia, was the local sheriff for the Acalephan countryside for over ten years, holding a perfect track record for hunting, and taking down criminals in his tenure. Naturally, people heard of him and sought him out, and he'd finally accepted a job offer to be the new chief of police for the Magnolia PD, forcing our family to move from our tiny farm community, to the bustling, big city. He'd been given funding for new housing, and although I got offered the chance to go to a private school, tuition-free, dad declined. He thought that going to a regular school would be good for me. Build character. Keep me humble even with all the big changes.
"Lucy, you ready to go?" Mom asked, standing by the door, holding my lunch. I finally emerged into our desolate living room along with my father, both of us sporting our new uniforms. Dad was amazed at how beautiful I looked, while I couldn't stop commenting on how sharp dad looked with his hat and all his badges. Mom cooed with pride at us both before sending us off to our days. Deciding to walk to school that first day, all I could think of was how much of a shit hole Magnolia really was. Between random shootouts happening in the parks at night, school girls getting molested by bus drivers to and from their destinations, drug dealers making a killing from selling to teenagers, and people being robbed in broad daylight, this city was total anarchy. Matter of fact, I think I saw a kid who looked like he went to my new school buying contraband from a homeless guy during my walk. No wonder they needed my dad here.
As I was walked from my new locker at recess, I noticed a group of guys gathered around someone by some lockers, trapping them between their bodies. I heard the sounds of somebody being shoved and the metal clanking of the locks. "Watch it pipsqueak!" The boys all started laughing rambunctiously as a girl's voice started to timidly apologize. My blood boiled. Why wasn't anyone doing anything? I looked around to see my fellow students watching with solemn expressions and hushed whispers. Why were they all just watching?
From the hoard of delinquents emerged a sun-kissed, salmon-haired boy with a twisted smirk on his face. His clothes were disheveled, his shirt being out of his pants, his tie hanging loosely around his neck and his first three buttons undone, revealing a bruise on his neck... or a... hickey? He had his tote bag in his fingers thrown over his shoulder and smiled with canines that looked like they were sharp enough to tear through skin. "Well if it isn't Little Levy."
I finally got a glimpse of the poor soul that was being bullied, and my heart skipped a beat when my eyes landed on a petite, blue-haired girl, who couldn't be any taller than my chest, cowering on the ground picking up her things. Her brown eyes trembled at the intimidation.
"MOVE!" I yelled, shoving one of the boys out of my way and flying into the locker. My body rushed into action before my mind knew what was happening. Another one of the guys tried to grab me, but I weaved out of the way before using that same arm to flip him over my shoulder, slamming him on his back. "Aye, you better watch it!" With all of the goons' attention now on me, I had to bulldoze my way through them to get where I needed to be. One of the boys held my arm from behind, so I mashed his toe with all my might and before he could react, uppercut him with my elbow. Another one lunged at me, but I weaved out of the way and used his momentum to fling him into the guy I just uppercut, causing them both to tumble down the hall and on the floor.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" I ran in between the girl, presumably named Levy, and her would-be tormentor. I didn't know who this girl was, or even what was going on, but all I knew was that whoever she was, she didn't deserve to be harassed like this. Someone had to do something, and if everyone else was just going to stand around, that someone would be me.
The pink haired boy, who hadn't moved a muscle while I beat up all his friends, glared at me with loaded and pissed off hesitation.
"And just who the hell are you?"
His minions were groaning on the ground all around us as they tried to get up.
"Why are you harassing this girl?" I don't answer his question.
"Oh no," his voice was tainted in fake ignorance. His raised his arms half-mast as if to say he came in peace. "Harassing her? Why, we would never harass our old grade school friend. We're just kidding around." He looked over my shoulder at the blunette behind me. "Isn't that right, Lev?"
I peer over my shoulder to see Levy looking into his devious onyx eyes with uncertainty. His smile, clearly a thinly veiled threat.
"You don't have to answer that," I say to her before turning back to him. "And as for you, I'll ask you one more time: why are you harassing this girl?"
A hushed silence fell over the hall. The way everyone was reacting, including this guy's own lackeys - staring at the me with fearful, horrified eyes and watching the boy before me with baited breath - started to make me nervous. My legs quivered slightly, but my pride refused to let him have the satisfaction of seeing me sweat. Why were they all so afraid of this guy? He took a step closer to me and reached out his hand. I prepared myself for the worst, slamming my eyes shut and turning away to brace for the pain of the inevitable blow.
"You're really pretty..." he says distractedly, grabbing a lock of my blonde hair in his palm and threading it towards him as he let it touch his cheek. A serene expression takes over him as he took a light sniff of my locks. My heart started to race. I had never in my life been more confused.
But also, I've never in my life been more disgusted.
"Don't you touch me!" I back up, to get his grubby little paws away from my hair, and in a fit of righteous fury, I grab him by the back of his neck and knee him straight in the crotch. Not in the lower stomach, but I aimed and hit him square in no-man's land. I was quite proud of myself, actually.
The hallway chorused in a collective gasp as he doubled over, groaning loudly in pain. "Sonofa-!"
"I can't believe she just did that!"
"Did you see what just happened?"
"That girl just hit Salamander in the balls...?"
"Oh he's gonna fuck her up."
Everyone in the hallway started freaking out, as the hushed murmurs of before rose up to general discord of a million commentative and shocked voices. Just to add to the brewing chaos, a teacher had finally appeared at the end of the hallway, angrily racing towards the three of us. I felt myself starting to panic. Getting into a fight, and then getting expelled on the first day of school was not on my list of things to do today.
"Hey! You two!" the teacher called to the two of us.
It was a good thing Levy was there and sprung to action, because my feet were glued to the floor and I was a deer stuck in headlights. She grabbed my hand and started sprinting in the other direction, dragging me along with her. "Let's go new girl!"
I was still new here and hardly familiar with the place, so all the twists and turns that Levy took to avoid us getting caught were dizzying. At some point, we had run into another teacher at the end of another hallway. Levy turned around to take us back down the way we came, but we came face to face with another teacher. We were trapped. Thankfully, it was still recess and students were casually sprawling about the halls, giving Levy and I, a small cloud of cover in order to make our escape.
But to where?
Levy looked around for some place to hide as the two teachers from either ends of the hallway started advancing towards us. "Shit," she let the expletive leave her mouth clearly starting to panic too. Then out of nowhere seemingly, one of the walls pushed and slid open, and a caramel colored arm beckoned the two of us over. "Come on, hurry!" the disembodied voice cried. Without a second to lose, Levy and I scampered over to the secret hole in the wall, our tracks being covered by innocent students passing by.
Levy and I both panted quietly inside the dark hole in the wall for a few minutes. "Why is-"
"Shh!" the unfamiliar voice hushed me and the three of us listened to the teachers on the other side of the wall.
"Where'd they go? They were just here?"
"They couldn't have gotten far, check the classrooms!"
Once we were sure the teachers were gone, the previously disembodied voice flipped a light switch, revealing myself, Levy, and a beautiful caramel-skinned, brunette, with dashing almond eyes and the top buttons of her uniform shirt undone, revealing a hint of generous cleavage. She smiled flirtatiously at me. "Hey cutie."
I was flattered by the compliment, especially coming from an exotically beautiful woman such as herself. I didn't know what to say though, so I just blinked in rapid succession as an unfamiliar heat spooled in my cheeks.
"Cana! What the hell is this?" Levy cried, waving her arms around the tiny, musty space we were all enclosed in. According to the girl named Cana, apparently, we were cooped up in some abandoned storage closet that was croaked underneath the second floor stairs.
"Is this where you end up disappearing to, when we can't find you during school?"
"This is where I hide out to go drink," Cana jiggled a silver canteen full of, I'm assuming, some sort of alcohol. "The better question right now is, why are you two here?"
Levy finally started explaining to her curious friend why we were on the run from faculty. Cana burst out laughing hardily, before taking another swig from her canteen. Okay... she was definitely not old enough to be drinking that. Dad once told me that the legal drinking age in the city was 21. Was she even 18?
"You do know that's illegal right...?" I asked her.
"I'm pretty sure so is kicking someone in the balls, but you don't see me judging all your life choices, do you?" And with that, she took another indulgent sip from her canteen. The next thing the three of us knew, the wall/door quickly slid open as a vest wearing, redhead quickly slipped inside before closing the door behind her. Cana jumped, causing some of her drink to spill on her chest and nearly choking in the process. "Holy crap Erza, you scared us!"
"Does anybody know you're here?" Levy asked. Erza put her finger on her lips to hush everyone's protests.
This Erza girl had the looks of an ancient goddess in human form. Even with her headband and glasses that gave off the vibe of a studious student, with her fiery red mane, piercing violet eyes veiled under delicate fluttering lashes, and lips that looked soft to the touch, it wouldn't surprise me if she were the most sought after girl in this place.
I'd never had a girl crush before in my life, but if I did, she would be the first.
"Nobody saw me coming in," Erza quietly assured us.
"How'd you find this place?" Cana questioned.
"Oh please," the redhead rolled her violet eyes. "I've known that this was your hiding spot to get drunk in for the past two years."
"Damnit," Cana snapped her fingers. "Now I need another spot."
The beautiful woman stretched out her hand towards me. "Erza Scarlet," she introduced herself. "Student Council President."
"Lucy He... Lucy," I quickly caught myself before I went about revealing my last name.
"Thank you for sticking up for my friend," she continued with a gentle smile. Her voice, although it exuded authority, had an air of maturity about it, and as she addressed me, held a maternal warmth that reminded me of mom. "You have no idea how long Dragneel's had that coming to him."
"You mean that spiky haired boy?" I asked.
"He's the worst," Levy huffed folding her arms.
"In the ninth grade, he once tried to finger me on the dancefloor of the Spring Formal," Cana added (to no one's inquiry).
"He and his goons like to mess with girls specifically," Erza contributed. "Reducing them to either toys or whores."
"It's been that way since as long I've known him," Levy said with a frown.
Hearing Levy's voice again, reminded me of something I forgot to ask earlier. "I forgot to check before- but are you okay?"
She sighed, making an attempt to smooth her perfectly, imperfect, wild blue mane. "I'm fine," she said exasperatedly. "A little shaken up, but that's all. They didn't really touch me. Trust me, I've seen them do way worse to other people."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear."
"I should've said this sooner too Lucy," Levy said to me, "but thank you for defending me by the way."
She smiled shyly at me, a light pink dusted her pump cheeks and small, button-like nose, making her already cute face seem all the more adorable. I could feel my own face warm a little as I smiled back. "Well thanks for getting me out of there."
"Don't mention it."
"What's that guy's problem anyway?"
"Natsu Dragneel..." Cana said ominously before taking another sip from her canteen. "He and his friends are literal human garbage." She took another swig from her canteen. "I don't care how hot he is..." she mumbled, seemingly to herself more than anyone else.
"People have just been afraid to stand up to them because of their association to Fairy Tail," Erza finished Cana's thought. "It's not official, but a lot of them have family members and loved ones affiliated. The kids here are afraid of standing up to them and having them, or worse, their families, targeted by Fairy Tail members."
"Yeah, that's why I wouldn't exactly call what you did smart..." Levy trailed off.
"It was pretty badass though," Cana offered with a grin.
"Yeah well, I'm not going to be pushed around by a bunch of bullies," I say defiantly. Dad always used to tell me that people who attack others senselessly oftentimes have a major weakness within themselves that they're trying to hide. I'm sure it isn't any different for these fools. "Umm... what exactly is Fairy Tail, by the way?" I ask uncertainly.
The three of them froze cold in their movements and it seemed as if the air in the janitor's closet dropped a couple of degrees as the three girls slowly turned to face me with varied expressions of disbelief.
"How do you not know what Fairy Tail is?!"
"Girl do you live under a rock?"
"You're kidding... right?"
They all started circling closer to me, like a pack of wild wolves about to attack their dinner. For some reason I started to fear for my life. "I ugh... I think I might've] heard my father say the name in passing over phone calls but he really hasn't told me much..."
"Lucy, Fairy Tail is literally thee most famous gang in the Western Hemisphere," Erza informed me. "The number of turf wars that they've raged and won are more than the ages of all of us in this room combined."
"Yeah, they aren't famous for no reason," Levy added. "Their reach all over Fiore is crazy, which is partly the reason why they mostly go unopposed."
"Yep," Cana jumped in. "Plus they're slimy as hell. Even though everybody knows about them, the actual number of Fairy Tail members is much smaller than people think, and that's how members are able to hide in plain sight. They don't have a uniform, or color, or anything they wear. Just the one insignia that they spray paint everywhere. Even then, since everybody knows the symbol, police can't exactly say someone wearing or painting it is a gang member, can they? It's almost a novelty thing."
The girls continued to inform me about Fairy Tail, crucial details about city life, and the social hierarchy of our high school before the conversation eventually devolved into random topics of interest.
I didn't know it at the time, but the girls who ended up cramped in that dank, dark, supply cabinet under the stairs with me, would eventually become my three best friends. We spent the rest of the school day hiding underneath the stairs, which wasn't hard since there were only two class periods left and I was having so much fun watching the three of them interact with each other. Levy, Cana and Erza were such down to Earth girls, and I liked how they were with each other. Erza had accidentally elbowed Levy in the nose at one point, and in trying to find the right words to apologize, we could all basically see her brain working overtime to spit out a response.
"Fuck-! Levy, I am so- Are you- ARE YOU FUCKING SORRY?!" She settled on those words in her panic. Cana and I burst out laughing as the older woman turned red in the face and Levy started ranting about Erza's slip of the tongue.
Cana randomly starting going on a tangent about this threesome that she had with one of the school teachers and a racoon.
"Cana, are you mixing drinks again?" Levy questioned, quirking a brow.
"Maybe...?"
And finally, when I told the girls about myself, naturally, they bombarded me with questions.
"You grew up on a farm?"
"Your dad's the new commissioner of police?"
"Wait, are you telling me you seriously don't drink?"
That last question of course, coming from Cana.
Before I knew it, the final bell for the day rang, signifying it was time for us to go. I've never felt so sad in all my life at the thought of the school day ending. It was just, talking to the girls was so fun that the time whizzed on by.
"It was really nice getting to meet all of you," I started as we all began stretching our cramped bodies and getting up. "Even if it wasn't under the best of circumstances... But I hope we can all hang out again." I was happy to hear the girls' favorable response.
"I'd like that very much Lucy."
"Sounds like fun!"
"I'm down for whatever."
Even though it didn't seem like it for a bit there, this day had turned out far better than I could've even hoped.
Natsu Dragneel had been an absolute terror since that day. Not that I was expecting much different after I had publicly humiliated him. He took every opportunity he could to try and humiliate and harass me and my friends. Seemingly a lot more than before. While she was riding her bike home alone from school, he and his friend pulled over in their Chevy truck and teased Levy about riding a man in bed like she did the bicycle seat. One of his goonies drugged one of Cana's drinks at a party (thank God Erza was there), and as for me, he kept making these flippant remarks about taking me out to dinner and me giving him a chance - which was obviously just a power play to show off to his friends that he could "pull any girl" or whatever.
Surprisingly, he and his friends never really messed with Erza. I guess even without gang affiliation, she somehow garnered enough street credit not to be messed with.
My junior year of high school came and went, and so did me and my family's first year here in Magnolia. Dad immediately went to work with Magnolia PD right after his installation service and took charge of the almost 500 police officers employed there at the time. With dad's instruction and new methodologies, police officers were a lot more brutal and proactive towards criminals and crime scenes, rather than reactive in order to prevent felonies. He'd also got a state signed federal order that allowed the entire police force to be outfitted with more military-grade equipment and weapons, and hosted a mandatory, month's long intensive on apprehending opponents lifted from army protocol.
And with this, dad was ready to crack down on all the crime.
Throughout the year, swarms of police officers were permitted to raid houses of suspected gang members and felons, they were sanctioned to peruse the homes of people who were even seen as suspected accessories to said criminals, and most importantly, they were free to use as much force as they saw fit. Crime rates drastically slowed down. Many Magnolians were happy mostly, with the crack down on Fairy Tail activity. The gang symbol stopped popping up on buildings everywhere. Drug dealers all but disappeared from street corners (which sadly birthed a new problem of hallucinogenic drug addicts going through withdrawal, terrorizing citizens but that was taken care of too). For the most part, it seemed that Fairy Tail members were either leaving en masse, or being incarcerated. And it all started with the fatal police shootout of the main Fairy Tail hideout that claimed the lives of a few of Fairy Tail's bigwigs, like the infamous "Back Wizard" Zeref, and led to many more being arrested, such as "Fire Dragon King" Igneel.
Even Natsu had mysteriously transferred to another school out of town in the middle of the term. And good riddance to him.
I was able to enjoy my senior year in peace. Erza and Cana, who were already seniors when I came to town, finally graduated, with Erza whizzing off to a law school somewhere far off, and Cana deciding to take a gap year from school to go traveling the world with her mother. This left only Levy and I together to brave the horrors of our high school senior year, although, without the biggest troublemaker at our school anymore, senior year was actually quite normal.
I'll never forget Levy and I's graduation.
Levy graduated as valedictorian of course, but not just from our school but apparently she was the top ranking student from all valedictorians graduating in Magnolia that year. I couldn't have been happier for my bestie, and what made her victory even more sweet was that as salutatorian, I got to introduce Levy making the commemoration speech for our class. My parents and the McGardens sat side by side, with Levy's parents and my mom screaming like banshees and waving their pom-poms. My dad sat quietly beside them. His commissioner's hat off his head and covering his face. His shoulders shook gently as he quietly sobbed, overcome.
Time Skip - A year later
On the long, gray, desk space laid a plastic tea kettle rattling furiously as filtered water slowly came to a boil. Lined across the windowsill were the roots and young buds of various tiny, potted plants. On the television was a cop show. It was soon interrupted by a commercial in Spanish advertising some state-of-the-art dicing machine. My fingers typed purposefully on the laptop keyboard. Inspiration had struck randomly; I was staring out the window at a ladybug flying across the terrace, when I saw two young kids holding a baby carrier with an infant inside across campus. An idea for a new character in the story I've been working on was somehow birthed looking at the mangy girl in tattered clothes and I wanted to strike while the iron was hot.
The tea kettle began whistling furiously, before the device made a 'clicking' sound, signifying that the water was done.
"Lu-cy, could you get your tea kettle please?" complained Brandish, my roommate. Doing as she asked, I got up and went to go prepare my tea.
A year had passed now since graduation day. Levy now goes to an Ivy league school and she's majoring in both study forensics and technology (on a full scholarship might I add). But I expected nothing less from her. She's brilliant. Meanwhile, while not as prestigious as an Ivy league school, I got accepted with a full scholarship to Magnolia University where I'm majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. My plan? Well, to graduate here with my degree and a final draft of my first book ready to bid off to publishers and earn my first stipend as a published writer. From there, I'm sure the worldwide fame, book signings and Netflix deals will all start rolling in, and I'll be able to go to fancy lunches every week with Levy, Erza and Cana while we gossip about our lives.
"I don't understand people who like to drink tea," Brandish stated, turning up her nose at the hot drink I made for myself. I sighed. Here we go again...
Thankfully my phone rang just in time to save me from another round of 'Brandish offering her unsolicited opinions on every aspect of Lucy's life'. I couldn't answer the phone fast enough.
"Hello my darling daughter~" mom's voice rolled off the receiver. Clearly, she was in a good mood. Something must've happened. "What's up mom?"
"So do you remember that floral arrangements idea that I was telling you about? Before you left for school?"
"Do you mean how you said you wanted your own building to open up a shop?"
Let me explain. My mom currently works as a real estate agent, and she sells floral arrangements as a vendor as a side gig. Even though back in Acaphlya my mom was technically a 'stay at home mom' she quickly became unsatisfied with the role of trophy wife to the Chief of Police, and decided to find a job of her own (even though she really didn't need to). Although she works as a real estate agent and is pretty good at it, her passion has always lied with beautifying things. Particularly living spaces. That's why she loved floral arrangements so much.
"That's the one," she responded. "So I just came out of a meeting with a bunch of investment sharks-"
"Oh my goodness, REALLY?" I jumped up from my chair, crouching down on it instead. I could feel Brandish's annoyance from here but I didn't care. "How'd it go?!"
"I feel really good about it," I smiled hearing her smile too. "I had presentation boards up and everything. They were eating out of the palm of my hands."
"That's amazing mom! I'm so proud of you."
"Yep. And even though they haven't given me the papers to sign yet, they all but assured me I got the loan."
I squealed right then and there in my dorm room as mom giggled at my reaction. "I'm so happy for you mom."
She laughed lightly again. "Thank you Lucy."
One thing I hadn't realized when I answered the phone that day, was that this phone call would end up changing my life forever. I listened intently to sound of clicking heels on tile as mom seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere. I heard another 'swoosh' from her end of the call, and the sound of indiscriminate voices and distant cars honking, which clearly meant she was outside.
"Anyway Luce, I gotta go," I heard the sound of keys jingling before the mechanical 'click' of her blue Prius no doubt unlocking. "I did this on my lunch break so I ha-"
Bang!
I blinked and I swore I saw my life flash before my eyes. "Mom?"
A loud 'clomp' startled me from the other end of the phone and suddenly there were sounds of screaming and mass hysteria.
"Mom? MOM?!"
Feelings of anxiety, fear, anger, repulsion and an overwhelming sense of nausea overcame me, and those feelings only worsened when she didn't answer. I got up and somehow stumbled my way over to the sink, holding my phone close to my ear the entire time. Brandish looked at me, alarmed.
"Somebody get that lady some help! Someone call 911!"
The only sound that wasn't a background noise, was the sound of choked gurgling and strangled noises flowing directly from her receiver into my earpiece. Those were the sounds of my mother.
Choking on her own blood.
On that day, April 28th, my mother, Layla Heartfilia was shot and killed, (sniped through the heart) right before she got in her car at 12:46pm, outside of Lacrima1 Ltd., an investment bank.
Even though a good Samaritan rushed to aid her and had a stranger call the authorities, she died, right there on the pavement, before any help could arrive. The police came and scoured every high room, of every building for the next 20 blocks and beyond, but whoever the sniper was, covered their tracks thoroughly, coming and going. They did manage to find one thing that day however.
In pink graffiti, tagged on the side of the investors' bank was the silhouette of a phoenix-like creature that hadn't been there before.
It was the Fairy Tail symbol.
A/N: Alright so let me organize my thoughts...
First of all, I told y'all this was gonna get dark xD. Hopefully it didn't traumatize anybody too much though. Secondly...
So this was an idea that came to me on a whim in the middle of the night as I was listening to "nate growing up" by Labrinth. If you're reading this, it's probably because you have me on your author alerts list (thank you for that by the way!) as there is no real title or description here. This is just an idea that I had swarming around in my head that I really wanted to get out. This chapter is kind of the start of the prologue, if you will.
I know/feel like the mob boss Dragneel subgenre might've been done to death in this fandom, but in my mind, I see this story with Lucy as this bad ass, police detective, and Natsu as this insufferable, sexist, but fearsome mob member. (Working summary incoming) Detective Lucy has devoted her entire career to chasing down Natsu and the other members of Fairy Tail due to her mother's killing. Years later, after an unsuccessful attempt to take him down she's forced to work with her nemesis, the whole time however, Lucy is deep undercover, waiting on the perfect moment to double cross him and finally take Fairy Tail down. Her time spent helping them makes her start to question her own moral code. The world held only two kinds of people: the good guys and the bad guys. No in between. But what if... she was wrong? What if all 'bad guys' weren't bad people? What if all 'good guys' weren't good people? And what if a certain pink-haired gang member wasn't the complete monster she had made him out to be this entire time?
Here's the thing, I worry about starting another multi-chapter story with two other stories (shameless self-plug for my stories "Roommates" and "My Guardian Angel" by the way, check them out!) currently in the works. So if I ever decide to build upon this story, that's when the official summary, title, genre etc., will go up. In its current form, this will remain a one-shot, and a passing, harmless ghost. No harm. No foul. Regardless, if you happened across this little chapter and found some immersion and entertainment for a while, I'm glad!
Oh! And if you do decide to follow this story, the two ideas I have for the title are "Detective Heartfilia and MB Dragneel" or "Undercover". Okay, now that's all.
