The City by the Sea

Three

Levy left the mayor behind as her feet threw her into running. The scream had been so brief, but she could still hear it, surrounding her. She held map in her hands and quickly navigated the streets, ending finally at the goldenrod door of a blazing red two-story house.

She tried the knob, but it didn't open. Locked. She pounded on the wood, but there was no response.

"Ram!" the word emerged from her lips, and she threw it beside the doorknob, splitting the wood. A second attack and the lock pushed through the frame. Levy kicked at the obstruction and leaped over splinters before stopping at the stairs.

Up?

There was no depth in her map, and the light was gone.

"No choice."

She had gone through the first level of the house by the time the mayor caught up with her. "Try the cellar," the old woman said as Levy's feet hit the stairs.

"I checked the cellar; there was nothing there." Levy took another three, four, five steps upward.

"There won't be a body," the woman made a sound like a laugh made of ice. "Only blood. And not much of that. The girls were hiding in the cellars. The hope was that it would be too small a place... But apparently not."

It was slow, turning around and returning to the kitchen. Unlatching that door, again. Opening that door, again. Taking each of the three steps down with deliberate time, watching those smooth stones. She could feel the cold penetrating the soles of her shoes. The taste of frost passed her lips and she smelled winter. Winter and blood.

"Light."

The muscles in Levy's shoulders tightened, and she bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to bleed. This was a job, her job, and she couldn't give way to fear. Or give the client reason to doubt her.

I can do this, she stepped onto the stone-tiled floor and spun around to take in the full view.

Spots she had seen as shadow without the light, shone with life's truest red. The edges of each stain had darkened, drying, but for the most part the splatter was fresh. The mayor had not lied, there was no body. Only a thin, stained nightdress.

But Levy had to wonder what the old woman considered "much" blood, if this was "not much".

A burlap sack, filled with large potatoes was liberally coated in the stuff, as was the wall behind and the floor beneath.

"Throat," Levy whispered, trying to sink into the logical side of her thoughts and leave behind her emotional reaction. "Only way to have that much blood," I think. "So she was facing away from the door." She stepped into the place where the woman would have stood. Distantly she heard the mayor make an affirmative noise.

"Creature was behind her, had to be or there would be an outline of where the attacker was..."

"No. There is nothing to block the blood. You don't understand," the mayor moved to her side, "this has no body."

Levy shook her head, "Maybe that's the way it's been reported, but look," she pointed down at the crescent spread of blood at her heels. Points reaching for the door. "Something was behind her. The blood spread around that something. As if there were feet behind her own, blocking it."

The mayor said nothing else. Levy continued, "Throat went first, when there was still enough blood and pressure to create that," she waved a hand. "There was no struggle. The blood is in front of her and below her." She walked to look at each of the walls, the shelves, the bags of apples, the barrels of grain, the wheels of cheese, and the thick slices of meat. That one made her swallow back burning bile.

She looked back at the corner with the bloody potatoes.

"She was either paralyzed, or she died quickly. What of the others? Were they killed immediately," she swallowed again, "before being consumed?"

"No. No, they were … consumed while they lived. Or, for awhile, at least."

She nodded in understanding. "The thing has obviously left. And as it only attacks once a night, the others are safe," again hopefully. "I need to speak to the witnesses immediately. And I need you to begin the process of evacuating the remaining women and young boys from the town."

"Where?" the mayor's voice was little more than a sigh. Levy couldn't imagine dealing with such horror for as many days as this woman had. But then Levy would not have left things for as long. "Where are they supposed to go? These are their homes..."

"So you said, but we don't know what this thing is after, Mayor. From what I know of death magic," which was more than she liked, but not enough to call herself an expert, "the consumption and murder of people goes hand and hand with stealing and hording power. I believe this is being done to create, that explains the need for flesh and blood. And on top of that, with the deaths of the guild mages, the creature has also taken magic.

"You say it has no physical body, nothing to stop the blood. The man before told me that one of the boys … his mother tried to block its way, but she didn't feel it because she could not stop it. But this," she gestured at her feet once more, "implies that it has developed some level of form. By killing it is creating a form, Mayor. We cannot let this go on, and the quickest way to stop it is to remove its intended victims."

Voices came from the door, neighbors and other City people. The mayor left the cellar to attend to them. Levy wondered at the pressure on these people that they no longer came to investigate the cause of screams. No one came to try and save the woman who lived here.

Footsteps brought someone into the kitchen and closer. Only one pair of feet. Levy looked at the doorway to see a large man filling the space.

"My sister-in-law," he told her. Voice quiet and empty of feeling.

"Ah, I'm sorry," she bowed her head and lifted her hands to press to her heart, expressing her remorse for the man's loss. "Um, your brother..."

"Died three months ago in a storm. Boat flipped. Shouldn'ta been out so late with the weather like that, but … they hadn't been married long. He wanted to..."

"Right. I'm sorry," she repeated. Cleared her throat, "Is there anyone else..."

The man shook his head and took a step back, away from her, away from the room. Nearer to safety. "No. Clarey wasn't from the City. She was a traveler who came here one day. Looking for something, she said. Said she found it in Mitt, my brother. Wish she'd found it some place else. Better for both of them," and he left.

Levy let him go. Alone, she dropped to her knees to study the crescent pattern of blood on the floor. It was smooth, as if it flowed around a solid shape, like a large cylinder. Nothing at all like a pair of feet. Not exactly surprising as it was more than obvious that she wasn't dealing with a human creature, but humanoid would limit her options.

Of course so might a cylindrical base. How many supernatural creatures had that?

"It's probably not fully formed, either," Levy reminded herself, "so what it is now is not necessarily what it will be..."

Which also made the shape next-to useless as evidence. She would keep the information, of course, but it couldn't be her starting point. She needed her books. One more look around the room to lock the image in her memory, and she left the death and voices for the comfort of her books.

"Reading?" the mayor didn't sound angry, but surprised would cover the tone well enough.

"Research," Levy explained. "From what I can tell, your creature is unique, at least in the realm of traditional hauntings and supernatural hunters."

"Is that good or bad?"

Levy shut the book, holding her place with a finger. "It means I have to start from scratch. But it also means I don't have to wade through centuries of legends trying to pick out what is truth and what is fantasy." She took a bookmark from her bag so that she could free her hands. With the book safe on the mayor's desk, Levy gave her full attention to the old woman. "I need to see witnesses now, please. I know that it is late, but we only have a day before the next attack. I do not want another woman to die while I am here."

The mayor frowned and shifted her weight from left to right. Uncomfortable. "The port watcher," she said, "predicts fog for the morning."

Levy's eyes snapped to the windows, through which she could see the vast sea, sparkling with reflected stars.

Fog.

"Okay." There was nothing else she could say. The closest ally guild was Blue Pegasus. They could make it in a day with their sky ship... the Capitol was closer... But no one would arrive before morning. The cart-driver's home was the last stop for all modes of regular transportation, and it wasn't profitable enough to have much in the way of modern magical technology. The Christina would be her best bet.

"I need to use your communication lacrima. I'll contact a few of my friends for support..." the mayor was shaking her head.

"We don't have any communication lacrima's here. To my knowledge no one in The City by the Sea has a lacrima at all."

"But that... that doesn't make any sense. The man I met, he had a cooling lacrima for the fish. Wouldn't all of your transportation people have that?"

"You saw the cellar. We here in the City prefer to use older methods."

Great. Perfect.

Half a day to get to the closest town, get on their lacrima... Well, at least I'd be away when the morning came... miss the fog... could be back by midday, here in time for the night again. Of course, then I wouldn't have any time to prepare...

Wait. What am I thinking?

"Then I need you to send one of your people. Deliveries are taken out of the City, make sure they get out and contact the guilds. Fairy Tail can call in backup. I'll stay here, speak to the witnesses, and set up a trap for the … the monster. And you will send out all of the people at risk. In fact, send everyone out. There's nothing that says it will stop killing when its preferred … when its," she shrugged, swallowed, and started again. "If only the women leave, it's likely that it will attack whoever is left. Let's make sure that there's no one left here but me."

"If you're alone, then you're the target." The mayor sat behind her desk and pressed her fingers into her forehead.

"I'm sure you've already requested the assistance of another guild. Just one more dead," she said, words touched with something similar to disdain. Why this woman, why this whole town hadn't done more to protect their people was beyond her. Negligence of the worst kind. Almost twenty people dead...

The mayor was shaking her head, but her eyes were too tired to make the disagreement appear to be anything other than simple exhaustion. Two weeks of deaths...

"I can't leave my City... I can't leave The City by the Sea empty. I can't do it."

"The tomorrow another woman will die. And another, the night after that. And the night after that. One of the mornings, maybe I will die. Because this is my job, and I am a mage of Fairy Tail. I can't and I won't leave. But you can. And you will."

"No," she said, "no," but her hands were shaking and her lips trembling.

"I don't understand why, money or no money, you didn't ask for better help. But until better help arrives, I'm what you have. I am not infallible," Levy told her, trying to get through the pride and the fear. "Start evacuating the town tonight. And send me the witnesses before they leave."

"I'll get you your witnesses," the mayor eventually said, "but I can't force people to leave."

"Still, you should try."

The mayor said nothing more as she left the room, and then the building. Levy returned her attention to her book, a birthday gift from Freed that she needed to become an expert on before the sun rose and the fog rolled in.

Author's Note: So, these are all short chapters (did I mention that before?). Means I can get the chapters out faster, so I hope y'all'll be okay with the trend continuing.

Thank you for your continued support! Please review!