Erza POV
I run as fast as I possibly can through the apothic basement, searching for a way out while dodging falling rubble and stumbling slightly whenever I wasn't able to notice something in time.
There has to be a way out of here. This place can't go on forever.
The basement is like a giant maze with there being multiple pathways that I can run down, but all of them just seem to whisk me further and further into the labyrinth. Left, right, forward, right, and so forth. The light has dwindled to a barely perceptible lightening of the gloom. Each wall of stone is identical to the next without an identifying marker of any kind, making it impossible to tell if I am making progress.
Who designs a basement like this, anyways? The only usefulness a place like this could have is to trap people.
I continue running for my life, until a falling chunk of stone obstructs the path ahead, causing me to skid to a stop.
"Agh!"
Whipping around to go the other way, I only get about twenty feet before falling rubble blocks that path as well, sealing me in the basement. I'm trapped here like a fox in a snare, no hope of escape and doom quickly approaching.
I attempt to break through both walls to continue looking for a way out, but no matter how hard I try, I can't make a dent in them as they are far too thick.
"Oh my..."
My eyes widen as I back away until my back hits the wall of rubble behind me, which is when I slide down to sit on the aligid floor.
I'm...I'm going to...I'm going to die down here...
The shaking of the building gets worse with every passing second, but it refuses to fully collapse. It's like the building itself is fighting against its own demise.
I'm going to be crushed to death underneath this rubble. It is a slow thought that creeps like a cold worm through all my brain.
I'm...I'm...
The thought of dying in a place like this causes me to hyperventilate out of fear. I can feel it, building like an unstoppable snowball in the pit of my stomach. I cannot concentrate on anything else that I was doing. The next step is my heart starting to beat harder and faster, adrenaline levels rising, my heart trying to crawl up inside my body and my brain starts to fire out negative thoughts like a machine gun.
As sweat starts to happen all over my body, it feels like my skin has a hot suit on the outside. Like a bin bag, it moves over my body and never releases. The negative thoughts keep coming like waves on rocks. The thoughts in my head get so fast and so disturbing that my brain shuts down my body. The sweat has completely covered my body and my heart feels like it's going to explode.
I am so disoriented that I'm unable to notice when a hole opens up in the ceiling and someone drops down.
"Hey! Are you alright?"
I glance up to see that it's a man with silky white hair dressed in his pajamas, standing there looking at me with neon yellow eyes. I swiftly jump to my feet and prepare for a fight by unsheathing my sword.
"Stay back!" I command between shallow breaths.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he puts his hands up in surrender. "Now just calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you."
He inches towards me cautiously, but I don't attack him. He grabs the blade of my sword and gently slips it out of my hands to hold it in his own.
"Listen, I need you to do something for me. Do what I do, okay? This will make you feel a lot better."
I don't respond, but he seems to take my silence as a yes as he takes a deep and steady breath.
"Breathe in...breathe out...you got that? Breathe in...breathe out..."
I copy him, until I manage to calm down to an extent.
"There we go...everything is going to be alright," he reassures me.
"Who are you and why are you helping me? Shouldn't you be trying to kill me?"
"My name is Primrose, and I'm helping you because I have no reason to hurt you," he answers. "You're in the dream world, so naturally I should consider you a dreamer instead of some kind of enemy."
"So you're like the Laxus in the throne room?"
"Who?" his face twists to an expression of confusion. "Are you talking about Goldenrod?"
"Maybe. Did this Goldenrod person take the form of a man with a lightning-shaped scar over his right eye?"
"Yeah, that's him," he confirms. "But I am like him, I don't agree with what Master is doing...it's why I'm in my true form instead of in a disguise. Dreamers should love us for who we are, not who we pretend to be."
"I see."
"Anyways, come on," he hands me back my sword. "Let's get you out of this place."
"How are we going to get out though?" I ask, sheathing my weapon. "The path is-"
While I'm talking, Primrose walks towards the wall. He pulls his fist back and delivers a powerful punch to the stone, which immediately shatters it and clears the way.
"Sorry...what was that you were saying? I had to focus so I blocked out my surroundings."
"Never mind."
"If you say so," he shrugs. "Now come on already, this place won't stay standing forever."
I begin to follow Primrose through the basement. He looks like he knows exactly where he's going as he leads me through the twists and turns of the paths.
"How are you so calm at a time like this?" I ask him after a few moments of running. "Shouldn't you be at least be a little concerned? This place is collapsing around us as we speak."
"I know it is, but compared to all the stuff that I've gone through in the past, this is nothing. Now can you be quiet? I need to concentrate on the path."
I go silent, staring at the back of Primrose's head as I follow him through the seemingly never-ending halls. However, our journey comes to an abrupt halt when Primrose stops in his tracks, causing me to almost walk into him.
"What's the matter, why did you stop?"
"See for yourself."
Moving to stand beside him, I spot a gigantic gap in the path that is far too wide to jump over. Looking down the hole, I can see nothing but utter darkness.
"That's a long way down..." I comment, eying the pit with unease. It is darker than a funeral scarf, and seems to have no bottom.
"More like a never-ending way down."
"What do you mean by that? What's down there?"
"What we're seeing is a void hole, aka a glimpse into what the world used to look like," he explains to me. "Whenever things like this happen, it's not uncommon for at least one of these to open up."
"So if we fall in, then we'll be falling forever?"
"Pretty much," he replies, not seeming phased by this in the slightest.
"Then how are we going to get across?"
He is silent for a few moments before looking at me with those bright colored eyes of his.
"Do you trust me?"
I frown, unsure how to answer that.
"I need an answer," he tells me. "Do you trust me?"
"...Sure," I delay my response. "Why?"
"Because of this," he quickly sweeps me off my feet and holds me in his arms. "Now hold on tight! We're gonna jump!"
Primrose turns around and starts backing up to get a running start.
"Wh-what?! Are you crazy?!"
He doesn't respond, just holds me tighter so he won't drop me as he turns around and starts rushing towards the hole as fast as he possibly can.
"That's too big of aaaAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
He jumps at the edge of the chasm, as agile as a leopard. It feels like we're moving for years before Primrose lands on the other side with a grunt, his bare feet sluing along the stone floor.
We...we actually made it?
He gazes down at me with a smirk on his face.
"You were saying?"
"Okay, I admit," I relent. "You were right. But you could've at least told me you were going to do that."
"I could have, but I didn't see any reason to."
Primrose keeps going after that, but he doesn't put me down, instead continuing to hold me.
"Uh...Primrose?"
"What is it?"
"You can put me down now. I'm more than capable of walking on my own."
"Oh," he seems to realize that he's still carrying me, and stops to let me down. "Sorry about that, Zephyr."
"It's fi..." It takes me a second to realize what he has said. "Did you just call me 'Zephyr'?"
His face turns grim as he avoids eye contact with me.
"Why did you call me that?"
"It's nothing..." he brushes my question off. "Let's keep moving..."
He turns away from me and keeps running, with me following closely behind him. I decide not to question him any further on the topic, as it appears to make him uncomfortable.
"Hey...listen, I..."
Primrose cuts himself off with a sigh, sounding like he doesn't know how to talk to me.
"What is it?"
"I know what happened to Zephyr...I know what you did to her."
"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything."
"You probably don't know her by her real name, but she was the wielder of a plush sword," he tells me. "I know you came across someone like that."
"I did. She said that her name was Knight."
"Well, her real name is Zephyranthes. I called her Zephyr, though. And...I know that you killed her."
"What? How do yo-"
"I can sense her presence within you," he says softly. "She died in your arms, didn't she?"
The memory of what I had done drifts back into my head, and I bite my lip to prevent the flow of tears.
"Mmhm..."
"Listen, I know that it was some kind of accident...if you intended to kill her, then you wouldn't have held her in your arms like you did. But can you at least tell me what caused you to fight her?"
I stop biting my lip and take a deep breath before speaking.
"Of course...my friend got too close to her and she attacked him, but luckily she missed. She tried to attack again, but I got in between them. The others went on ahead and we fought, but I accidentally put too much force behind one of my attacks. It made a deep wound across her chest, and she fell to the ground..."
"Did she turn into a plush version of herself?"
"Yes, she did."
"Then that's it..." I can hear the grief in his voice. "She's really gone this time..."
I frown and place a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, but he just shrugs it off.
"You don't have to do that...I'm fine..."
I don't do anything before we come across an ending to the hallway, with a ladder leading up.
"Ladies first," he steps aside with his eyes being shadowed by his hair.
I climb up the ladder, going through a trapdoor in the floor of the room where Mirajane had been.
This was certainly well hidden. I think as Primrose comes up the ladder. I didn't even notice it before.
When Primrose is standing in the room with me, he does not say anything to me as he leads me into the throne room. Walking forwards, we are halfway across the room when Primrose stops.
"I don't blame you for this, you know..."
"What?"
"Zephyr's death, I don't blame you."
"You don't?" I wasn't sure with how he had shrugged off my hand like that.
"Yeah...I can't be mad at you when it was an accident," he continues to face away from me. "Besides, I'm not even mad. I'm just...sad."
"Were you two close?"
"Very...but I never even got to say goodbye..."
"I...I'm so sorry."
Before Primrose can respond, the building around us starts to concuss heavily as much larger pieces of rubble fall around us.
"Shit! This place is finally coming down!" Primrose hisses.
"We need to go then!" I try to run past him, only for him to grab my arm. "Huh? What are you-"
"Paw's coming, I can sense her," he tells me. "If we go that way then she's going to capture us."
"Then you have to teleport us out of here."
"I can't."
"What? Why not?"
"I had my powers taken away a long time ago. And besides, even if I did still have them, I'm not strong enough to teleport two people," he explains to me. "I focused on strength and sensory training instead of getting my powers stronger."
"Then how are we supposed to get out? There are no windows in here and the only way out is to go through Paw or back into the basement."
"There is one way. You have to teleport," he answers seriously.
"What?! I can't teleport! I'm not one of you, remember?!"
"You might not be, but Zephyr is."
"Huh?"
"Her soul is inside of you, so you could tap into her abilities if you concentrate," he says to me. "You have to trust me on this, or you'll be doomed."
"But what about you?"
"If I'm lucky then I'll be teleported alongside you, but you can't think about that right now."
He lets go of my arm and moveS to stand in front of me. Gripping my shoulders, he stares directly into my eyes.
"Concentrate as hard as you possibly can, alright?" he instructs. "Center in on the place where you want to be right now."
I start concentrating just as Primrose tells me to do. I'm thinking about the outside where everyone is waiting for me, but it is after a few moments of thinking when I can feel my head start to hurt just like back in the book town.
Teleport! Transport! Travel! Uhhh...
It is while I was trying to think of words is when two shadowy arms around Primrose from behind, ripping him away from me.
"I found you~!"
"Primrose!" I exclaim, about to summon my sword.
"No! Don't let anything break your concentration!" he struggles against Paw's hold, but he can't get free. "Close your eyes and go already!"
"But-"
"GO, NOW!"
I shut my eyes tightly and when I reopen them, I find myself falling from a height similar to the one I fell from when first appearing here.
I can see the building collapsing and I can see my friends digging through the collapsed rubble of the building as well, but they don't notice me. I stare at the ground for a few seconds, before shutting my eyes.
"Primrose will be alright, I'll be alright, my friends will be alright, the victims will be alright..." I try to reassure myself as I get closer and closer to the ground with every passing second. "Everything will be alright..."
PawPrint-Writer(author): I know that was a bad place to end it and this chapter was probably pretty crappy with how long it took for the building to finally collapse and probably other things but I'm sorry, ok? Anyways...
Review plz?
RevlisCharm(beta): Guess who's back, back~ Back again~
