PART I – Resolution
Chapter IV – The distant past
"Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see, whether anyone is following them. "Leadership qualities" are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. They include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, stubbornness, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head, even when things are going badly. True leaders, in short, do not make people into followers, but into other leaders."
― John Holt, Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book Of Homeschooling
It was so cold... The grass was soaked by the heavily pouring rain and the little girl running bare feet could feel the small sharp stones dig into the soft, injured skin. She was crying and could barely breath while running as fast as her small legs allowed her to. Behind her, from the direction of the mansion, she could hear the sound of heavy military boots crushing tree branches and splashing in flasks of water. She could hear the screams too, and the barking of the dogs. She wouldn't survive this hunt, they had seen her. Lucy tripped on a large root obstructing the way and fell face first in the mud. Maybe she should stay down and wait for the water and earth to swallow her whole. This probably would be far less painful than what they did to her father and his household... The terrified little girl crawled out of the muddy water and hid under a large root. She stayed there for hours, feeling the cold bite of the wind all over her fragile body and letting the water pour down on her, drowning her with each drop. A loud crack, a heavy boot fell in front of the root and crushed it. The little girl screamed in pain and fear.
"Hey ya," the soldier sang. "I found ya."
His large hand was around her thin arm in the very next second and she screamed, kicked, tried to bite, tried to resist. She managed to tear off the emblem representing an eight-sided figure from the military jacket but couldn't inflict any more damage.
"It's not personal," he smiled, "I'm only doing my job."
The little girl roared like a furious cub as she desperately fought back and the soldier laughed. Another loud crack and his arm fell. Blood ran down on his face, his eyes turned blank. His body froze and fell to the ground, lifeless. The little girl watched as he fell and kept staring at him even when his face was buried in the mud. There was no way he could breathe like this...
"Lucy! Lucy, it's me! Come with me!"
The little girl cried when she recognized her savior's voice. Maybe she'd survive this hunt, after all.
She woke up with a start when she felt the pain on her forehead and groaned as the light blinded her. She heard snickers and her eyes adapted to the light. There was a chalk on her desk.
"If that's not asking for too much," Clive grumbled, "would our lady killer pay attention when I'm talking?"
Lucy groaned and sat straight up.
"I'm sorry," she assured, "I'll pay attention."
Clive nodded and stared at her for a few seconds before turning back to the blackboard and pointing at a point on the map.
"This is where the attack was launched," he explained, "and our teams had to go north from there to reach the..."
Lucy yawned and massaged her neck. She had fallen asleep again. It wasn't exactly her fault, she just couldn't seem to get a good night's rest lately. She would always have nightmares about that night, about what they had to do...
"Hey," Loke whispered, "are you okay? You look sick..."
She nodded and smiled lightly. She wasn't sick, she was tired. And there was another very small, little, tiny, minor problem. It was that time of the month. Yup. Of course, she had Erza and Mira to help her if needed, but it still was enough to make her anxious to the point of giving her a stomach ache. The previous night, her lower back started to hurt and she knew it was only the beginning... At the end of the lesson, Clive asked them to stay for a few minutes since he had some files and explanations to give them.
"This is your authorization for this afternoon," he said. "The bus leaves at 1 p.m., and it won't wait for you if you're late. Don't forget to put your ceremonial costume on. You can leave now."
Lucy sighed, she had forgotten. They were going to visit the Octagon, the headquarters of the country's Department of Defense. And Lucy didn't want to go. It was actually one of the worst things that could happen to her. It was fine to integrate the Academy since she was dressed as a man and the real leaders of the Army were in the headquarters. But directly entering the Octagon was like committing suicide for her. She was going to call in sick, there was no way in hell she was going there. It was far too soon to face them again. They would crush her before she even got a real chance to start her plan and get revenge. And, with her dead, they would have no reason to keep him alive. She needed Erza's help. As she was walking along the broad corridors, Lucy noticed that a rather large crowd had gathered near the open windows at the other end of the building. The recruits were laughing, whistling, waving at something outside. Lucy got curious and joined them, she pushed two guys aside to reach the window and peeked outside. She sighed when she understood. The girls were getting out of the lockers and walking toward the center of the sports field, wearing short sport shorts and tight black tank tops. Even the nurses had to undergo physical training, but they usually did it inside the gymnasium. Lucy rolled her eyes and smiled when one of the girls waved back and the guys got crazy. Children, all of them. The girl in question was pretty attractive, though. Her long, wavy, brown hair was tied up in a high ponytail and, from what she could see, despite the distance, Lucy could tell she had a really nice body, with graceful curves and fair skin. Not to mention the tattoo on her hip... She also recognized Lisanna and Dimaria's ex assistant, Juvia, among the other girls. The blue haired woman ignored the recruits, but her eyes got attracted by something at the other end of the corridor and Lucy turned her head to see what it was. There was nothing interesting there, just the janitor cleaning the floor and Gray walking toward them.
"Look at this one," one of the recruits half laughed, half groaned. "I think I'll be visiting the girls' quarters pretty soon..."
From what Lucy could see, he was talking about a rather small girl with short blue hair that looked far too nice and innocent to work among starving soldiers. Lucy frowned when the recruit that had talked about her went on, cracking his fingers.
"I'm the dominative type, you see. I bet she'd be glad to let me get rough with her..."
Lucy couldn't help herself, she snickered and glared at him.
"Dominative?" she repeated. "Rough? How many times do you need your ass to be handed over to you in combat before you finally understand where your place is?"
Everyone laughed, teased and pushed the idiot around at this. The blonde jerk glared at her, but couldn't find the words to talk back so he just pretended that he went easy on them when they were in combat class. Typical.
"Joke aside, though," Loke laughed. When had he even arrived? "You better not lay a finger on the small one. You'd have to face the punk's wrath."
What?
Lucy turned to her roommate and frowned.
"What do you mean?" she asked. "Gajeel's onto her?"
"Funny how you immediately recognized Gajeel even when I only said "punk"," her friend laughed.
"Loke, shut up," she ordered. "No, actually, don't shut up. Explain. Now."
"No, can't do. I've just been ordered to shut up. And we have to go eat, we're leaving soon."
He dodged her hand when she tried to grab his collar and ran away, Lucy running after him, screaming at him to "get back here this instant, you moron !"
"Food poisoning?" Clive repeated. "Are you kidding me?"
Lucy shook her head. She was so nervous that she was pale and sweating, holding onto her stomach as if she was ready to throw up at any moment. Clive glared at her.
"You do realize that this visit of the Octagon is of the utmost importance," he said. "You will be presented to the higher officers, you will learn very important things about the High Quarters' organisation..."
Lucy nodded weakly.
"I know," she – deceitfully – deplored. "But I really can't. I'd throw up on the generalissimo's shoes..."
Clive coughed and gulped, and Lucy had to bite her cheek to keep herself from laughing at his reaction.
"That..." he admitted, "would be a problem."
Lucy internally cheered. She was allowed to stay in the academy for the rest of the day and, since all her classes had been canceled because of the visit, she'd have a lot of free time!
"Does that mean that this young man will be free this afternoon," a voice cheered from behind her.
Lucy turned and froze.
"That's right..." Clive trailed off. "Why?"
Ivan smiled so sweetly it was obvious he wasn't even trying to be convincing.
"I happen to have a lot of paperwork," he explained, "and I would appreciate it if our Don Juan could give me a hand."
Lucy thought as quickly as possible, but couldn't find any good excuse to get away from him. Maybe she should go to the Octagon after all... Clive didn't look too happy about it either, but, just like Lucy, he couldn't seem to find a good excuse. How worrisome was this? Even his own colleagues didn't trust him... And they didn't even know about what happened with Dimaria, when the three of them were alone in the corridors.
"Sorry, but that won't be possible," someone retorted.
Lucy didn't even need to search for the person to know who it was. She still turned her head to the side to see the commander walking toward them, looking perfectly calm with his hands in his pockets. He was wearing his costume and looked even more impressive in it and all the medals on his chest showed just how brave and powerful he was. Lucy barely listened as he told Ivan that someone else needed her help and that it might take the whole day. Ivan's smile stayed where it was the whole time.
"No problem," he said, "I'll wait for him to be done with this other "work". Maybe I could go talk to the person that needs him and convince them to let me have him for the afternoon. Even an hour or two would be enough."
His smile got sinister and Lucy understood what he was implying when he said he'd convince that person. Natsu smirked.
"Sure, go ahead and try," he snickered. "It's Erza Scarlet."
And, finally, Ivan's smile dropped. Natsu's smirk, on the contrary, widened and he patted the older man's shoulder.
"We're leaving now," he said. "You should try to look for someone else. Luc, Erza's waiting for you in the medical wing."
It was a lie. Erza never asked for her help and she was pretty surprised to see her enter her office. Natsu had lied to protect her from Ivan. She smiled to herself like an idiot and Erza smirked.
"Since when do you get this happy when talking about your commander?"
The blonde immediately wiped her stupid smile off her face and tried to look unaffected by her friend's words.
"I'm just glad I won't have to stick around this creepy old bastard."
The red haired doctor nodded and sat back down at her desk.
"You're right," she agreed. "It's strange how persistent he is when it comes to you. Did anything strange happen with him?"
Lucy wasn't ashamed to admit that she was an experimented liar. She had lied to everyone for almost all her life. She was still lying about almost everything to everyone. And so, she didn't even hesitate. She put her neutral mask on, shrugged and answered with a calm voice.
"No, nothing. Why?"
Erza observed her face and shrugged as well.
"Just making sure."
She looked like she wanted to add something, but she hesitated and her phone rang so she didn't get to say whatever it was she wanted to say.
"Yes?" she answered. "Yes, he's here. Are you there, yet? It's your job as an instructor, stop complaining. I'm working too, you know... Why? No, he didn't come, don't worry. Of course, I'll keep an eye on him. Gosh! Natsu! You're not his mother! I'm hanging up now so get back to work! Yes, yes, I'll call you later."
She sighed as she put her phone back on her desk and smirked when her eyes found Lucy's.
"You're doing it again," she laughed cheekily, "smiling like an idiot."
"I'm not."
The redhead laughed lightly and leaned against the back of her chair.
"On a serious note, though. How are you feeling? You've been here for almost six weeks and your period was late this month. Are you stressed out?"
Lucy had expected that Erza would want to talk to her about those things so she wasn't surprised and had actually thought about what she wanted to say.
"Well, I'm a bit tired, but I guess it's normal with all this training. And I'm a bit stressed out too, but that can't be helped with my situation being what it is..."
Erza didn't say a thing, but nodded to encourage to keep talking. She wasn't really good at communicating with people, but she was good at listening to her friends worries.
"But I'm good," Lucy assured. "I even got accepted in the commander's team for the game of Capture the Flag. And I have friends, and you're here too, I have Mira as well. So... I'm good, it's actually easier than I expected..."
While she was talking, the young woman was trying so hard to force a smile that she didn't notice she couldn't feel her jaw anymore. She didn't even notice that she was forcing her smile. They talked for a few hours and the redhead looked at her in the eye, unflinching, not showing any emotion. She kept silent for a few seconds after Lucy had stopped talking and sighed.
"Lucy," she said, "I'm taking you out this week-end."
More silence. What had she just said?
"Say what?"
"I know you don't like nightclubs and such," Erza went on, "so we'll go somewhere else. We'll think about it when the time comes. But I'm having you dress like a girl, put some makeup on, flirt with boys and have fun."
"I don't flirt with boys to have fun..."
Erza waved her off.
"Yes, yes," she said. "The point is: you need to live normally sometimes. I know your life has been anything but normal until then and I know you're not used to this. But, as your friend, I have to make sure that you won't implode from all the stress and pressure you've been feeling."
Lucy understood her friend's point of view. She probably would have said the same things had she been in her shoes. But there was still something troubling her.
"Erza," she sighed. "Look at me. I have square shoulders, defined muscles, short hair, scars on my hands and bruises from my combat training with the commander..."
The redhead didn't give up.
"So what?" she countered. "A little makeup and we won't see the scars and the bruises anymore, your muscles are defined, not huge, and I'll do your hair so nicely it won't change a thing that they're short. Or you can wear a wig if you want. I have a blue wig at home."
A blue wig...
The blonde recruit sighed.
"I won't feel at ease," she insisted, "you know me."
"Absolutely," the doctor agreed. "I know you. I know you'll be stunning when I'm done with you, just you wait."
The phone rang again and Erza sighed as she looked at the name on the screen
"Yes?" she said. "No, Ivan didn't come at all. How was the visit? Don't say that about our higher officers... I know they are but you'll get another blame if you call them old bastards again... Oh? You guys are on the way back already? I see, well, it makes sense. Sure, sure. I told you, nothing happened, she was with me all afternoon long..."
Erza froze and stared at Lucy. The young woman, wide-eyed, had her mouth half opened in a silent, horrified scream.
"Wh... what?" Erza stuttered. "What do you mean? You're just hearing things, of course I didn't say "she"... Laxus hit your head too hard again... Yeah, see you."
She hanged up and kept her eyes on her desk, not daring to look at Lucy.
"You..." the blonde trailed off. "Do you want me to leave the Academy so much that you won't mind if I leave it dead?"
"I'm sorry..."
Lucy left Erza's office since it was already late and her instructors and comrades would be back soon. She decided to go wait for Loke in their room and walked across the field to get there faster. Something made a cracking sound somewhere on the side of the field, but she couldn't see what it was and didn't care enough to look for it. She got out of the field and turned behind the gymnasium. She was walking toward the dorms when she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. Ivan was right behind her. How long had he been there?
"I see that you're finally free," he smiled.
She gritted her teeth, but refused to show any emotion.
"Not really," she countered, "my commander is coming back in just a few minutes. I'm going to get changed and I'll go wait for my comrades."
The old man laughed lightly and rolled his eyes. He took three or four steps forward and Lucy didn't move even when he came to stand an mere inch away from her.
"You've been awfully busy lately," he noted. "And I noticed that your relationship with your commander is getting better, too."
Lucy looked at him in the eye.
"It is," she answered. "Are you done? Then, I'll take my leave, now."
Ivan snickered, but let her get away nonetheless.
"Of course," he drawled. "I'll see you again, very soon. And when I see you, I'll tell you a thing or two about this commander you admire so much."
Lucy didn't even turn back to answer. She didn't slow down either as she walked away.
"I don't need to learn anything about him from you."
The older man stared at her back as she got farther and farther away from him.
"As you wish," Ivan growled, "mister distant relative."
Lucy was in front of the gates when the bus arrived and she saw her friends waving at her through the windows so she smiled and waved back. They looked so happy to be back, the visit must have been boring as hell. The commander disappeared as soon as he got out of the bus and didn't come to the refectory for dinner either. Lucy listened to her friends as they told her about the things they had seen and learnt, and Lucy had to admit that she would have liked to go with them because, even though it was full of "old annoying geezers", as Gajeel said, everything they told her kind of spiked her interest. It would have been a very enriching experience.
"The commander got scolded by a colonel there," Loke laughed, "cause he was always on his phone. Gray heard him talk to Gramps about a special night event and I heard him talk to the doctor..."
Lucy averted her eyes and focused on her fish.
"He sounded worried," Loke smirked while staring at her. "You were with the doctor this afternoon, right? Do you happen to know what it was that worried him so much?"
She shrugged and did her best not to look interested or affected by the topic.
"Beats me," she said.
They went to bed early and, just as Loke never said anything really important to her, Lucy never told him about her meeting with Ivan. She fell asleep pretty quickly and had a good night's rest. Or not. At half past two in the morning, the door of their room was kicked open and four men pounced on them to tie them up with ropes and blindfolded them. In their state of deep sleep, they couldn't resist with enough strength and were forcibly dragged outside the room by their attackers. Lucy mentally took notes as they were walking. She could hear the other recruits fight back. They climbed down the stairs, took a few turns, walked toward the forest and entered it. They walked for a few more minutes and were forced down on their knees. Finally, their blindfolds were taken off. Kneeling beside her were Loke, Gray, Gajeel and a few other recruits of her brigade.
"This was way too easy..."
Funny how this voice had this strange power on Lucy's emotions. Like at this moment, it instantly reassured and pissed her off to no end.
"You guys think you can allow yourselves to take all the time in the world to wake up? If this had been a real attack, you'd be hanging by your neck by now."
The commander finally appeared from behind large trees that were cloaked in darkness and went to stand before them, under the moonlight. And Lucy froze. Her mind went blank as she stared at his combat uniform, the heavy black boots, the emblem on the sleeve, the camouflage face paint. This felt awfully familiar, in a so very bad way. He caught her eyes and stared at her, his eyes emotionless, before coming to crouch in front of her.
"Are you still in shock?" he asked. "If so, you can go back to your room. I need soldiers here, not scared little girls."
Lucy gulped and kept staring at him in the eyes. Her brain was overheating, she was feeling too many emotions and her body wasn't responding to the signals. She gritted her teeth. Why did she want to run away from him? She was scared of him... And she loathed him all the same. Natsu stood back up and looked at the other recruits.
"The men that attacked you and brought you here are my men," he explained. "They will help me train you tonight. I know this is our first intensive night training, but you better wake up quickly if you want to stay in the team."
"Yes!" the recruits all answered.
Now that he was standing back up, Lucy wasn't that affected by Natsu's appearance anymore. In fact, she couldn't really understand why she had reacted that way to begin with. It was probably because of the memories of that night, but it was stupid to be wary of the commander, there was no way he could have been there... He wasn't old enough to be a soldier at the time. The commander's men untied them and they stood up, quietly waiting for the instructions.
"There will be two teams," Natsu explained, "the soldiers' team and yours. Each team will nominate a captain and a joker. The objective is to capture the enemies and bring them to the base's jail."
Loke smiled and cheered.
"Sounds funny!"
"You're allowed to knock them out if they resist," the commander retorted.
"Oh..."
"At the end of the game, the team that has the most prisoners wins. If you capture the enemy captain and put him in your base's jail, your team wins right away. An arbitrator will stay at each team's base. The joker can take a prisoner's place if the prisoner hasn't been put in jail yet. If you capture the enemy joker, they're forced to change teams. The joker is also the only player that can set the other players free, even if they're inside the enemy base, as long as he manages to touch them. Any question?"
Gray lifted a hand, which surprised his comrades since he usually wasn't the type to get that interested in a game.
"Can the captain and the joker be the same person?"
The commander shook his head.
"No. Anything else?"
This time, it was Lucy's turn to ask a question.
"Do we get to use weapons?"
"We won't give you any," he replied, "but if you find something that could serve as a weapon, you're free to use it."
Lucy frowned and so did most of her comrades.
"Does that mean you hid things that could serve as weapons in the forest?" Gajeel asked.
Natsu shrugged and turned to go fetch something in a large sport bag. He came back with a small box in his left hand.
"I don't know," he obviously lied, "you'll have to see for yourselves. Now, come here. I'm going to apply this on your face. It's just black paint, don't look at me like that."
Lucy fell down and rolled on the muddy ground to hide behind a huge tree root. She heard Alzack curse and fight back before the soldier that had caught him knocked him down. Damn... this was not going well... Natsu's soldiers ran in her direction and continued without stopping thanks to the root hiding her. This too felt awfully familiar... She knew that the enemy base was only a few meters ahead, she had seen it. But Gajeel was nowhere to be found, the same could be said of Loke and Gray. Natsu had successfully separated them all and rendered their little strategy useless. She got on her knees and looked around her to make sure there was no enemy and got up to go back to her base, but a large hand fell on her shoulder and pushed her to the ground before a second hand came to cover her mouth. It was Gajeel and he looked exhausted.
"Where is Alzack?" he whispered.
Lucy shook her head and he sighed.
"Elfman? Loke? Gray?"
"I don't know..."
Another deep sigh.
"That pink-haired bastard saw right through our plan and crushed it before we could even properly get started..."
Lucy hesitated. She was aware that they were loosing this game in a very pathetic manner, and so was Gajeel. Should she tell him what she thought? He probably knew it too, but what if he was trying to cast the thought aside? Did she have to be the one to face the harsh reality again?
"The guys are probably prisoners," she whispered, "we needed them..."
Gajeel kept silent for a few seconds, checking their surroundings, trying to think. He finally looked at her and lifted an eyebrow.
"I know that," he retorted in a very matter-of-factly way, "that's why I'm trying to think of another plan. Don't worry, I'll figure something out."
Lucy stared at his contracted jaw, his dark, focused eyes, his tense muscles. No doubt, Gajeel was a born soldier and a natural leader. They made the right decision when they decided to make him the captain. Wait... the captain? Of course! Both their captain and joker were still free!
"Gajeel!" she furiously whispered. "I have an idea!"
Lucy almost burst into laughter when Gajeel glared at her. He didn't like her plan. But it was worth a shot, really! She was certain even Natsu wasn't expecting such a stupid move from them! The black haired scapegoat helped Lucy with the preparations. They had found a lot of weird things in the forest, including very thin pieces of paper that would tear very easily, a whistle, safety glasses, and more common things like little rocks, a lot of earth dust, wooden sticks and so on.
"We need to find someone for the whistle," Lucy said, "anyone."
"I think Sting is still protecting the base," her comrade replied.
"Perfect. We're ready to go."
"Speak for yourself..."
The young woman couldn't keep herself from smiling as her captain ran for the enemy base, yelling like a mad man and punching every enemy soldier coming his way. Of course, he got caught and dragged toward the jail... It was Lucy's turn to have fun. She ran out of her hiding spot and toward the crowd that had formed around Gajeel. Natsu was back as well, which wasn't part of their suicide plan, but didn't change anything either.
"I'm trading places with him," she declared. "He's not in jail yet and I'm the joker so I can take his place."
Natsu frowned.
"Are you an idiot?" he asked. "Even if you do take his place, some other soldiers will capture him right away. You're finished."
Lucy smiled and shrugged while coming to stand beside her captain and patting the latter on the shoulder en passant.
"So what?" she countered. "I still have the right to take his place."
Natsu sighed and shook his head.
"Right... guys, let the captain go and give him ten seconds."
Natsu's soldiers did as they were told and Gajeel smirked before crossing his arms on his chest and leaning on Lucy's shoulder. The commander was very obviously confused, but refused to be destabilized.
"One," he started.
Gajeel laughed and leaned in to talk in Lucy's ear.
"Two."
"You know," he whispered. "I don't really mind if your plan fails anymore. His face just now was worth it."
Lucy's smirk widened.
"Three."
Behind them, their comrades were yelling at them to get moving. They still had a chance, they didn't have the right to give up. Only Loke and Gray, who really were prisoners, kept silent and observed the scene.
"Four."
She yawned.
"Five. Six."
Gajeel stopped leaning on Lucy and even stretched his back and arms. He really was having fun.
"Seven. Eight."
Natsu's men started to approach them, waiting for the right time to catch Gajeel again.
"Nine."
Lucy's eyes slid to the side and she caught a glimpse of golden hair hiding among the trees.
"Ten."
Sting blew with so much strength the whistle almost deafened them all. In the single second of confusion that ensued, Gajeel took the little paper bags from under her jacket and threw them in the air while Lucy's hands were suddenly full of little sharp rocks that came to meet the thin paper of the bags and tore it apart. As if God himself was having fun watching the scene, a strong wind suddenly arose and dispersed the earth dust that was inside the bags, blinding everyone but Lucy and Gajeel, who had put their safety glasses on. Lucy managed to touch each and every one of her captured comrades and they ran out of the enemy base. Violent fights ensued and Lucy's team lost, but not because of the number of prisoners. They had lost as free men while fighting.
"I'm not satisfied at all," Natsu declared at the end of the game. "You were weak, undisciplined, unorganized, just like kids playing around. You only had one plan and I crushed it as soon as the game started. Almost all of you got captured in the first hour and the captain allowed the joker to take the most important decision. Your final plan was crazy and had no chance of working if this had been war. We still have a long way to go... Okay, get lost. Go to sleep. Let's hope you'll do a better job next time. I'll just go harder on you in class."
Lucy's stomach hurt. A lot. It was far worse than she had expected and she didn't have any pain killers that would work for this kind of pain since Erza was keeping them for her. And it was way too late to go ask for them now. So she lied down on her bed and curled up under the covers, desperately trying to fall asleep.
oOo
"It's not personal," he smiled, "I'm only doing my job."
The little girl roared like a furious cub as she desperately fought back and the soldier laughed. Another loud crack and his arm fell. Blood ran down on his face, his eyes turned blank. His body froze and fell to the ground, lifeless. The little girl watched as he fell and kept staring at him even when his face was buried in the mud. There was no way he could breathe like this...
"Lucy! Lucy, it's me! Come with me!"
The little girl cried when she recognized her savior's voice. Maybe she'd survive this hunt, after all.
"Michelle!"
oOo
Lucy woke up with a start, panting and sweating and probably crying. The light got turned on and her eyes found Loke's. He looked terrified. Her eyes fell down to the mattress and she understood why her friend looked like he'd just seen a ghost. There was a pool of blood on her sheets...
End of chapter 4
I created a Tumblr account. I don't know how to use it...
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, I'm pretty satisfied with it myself as we're finally starting to get serious with the plot.
Someone asked me about Lucy's period catching up to her. I think your question's been answered.