Hey guys, it's Kay! Sorry for the wait! I've just got a lot on my plate recently, so finding time to write is a bit difficult. Hope you enjoy today's chapter!

It had been weeks. Weeks and weeks and weeks since Lucy had disappeared. Search parties were sent out, posters were put up, and ideas were proposed, but slowly the guild was losing hope. They had nothing to guide them, absolutely nothing, and they were just blindly looking for any trail of their favorite blonde. Everybody was torn up about the celestial mage's disappearance, but nobody was more torn up than Natsu.

Natsu, when not out searching for his missing partner, sat in the guild hall planning his NEXT search. He refused to accept that Lucy was gone for good, and was adamant that everyone keep looking. He didn't know exactly what had happened, but he was sure that it was nothing good. He thought back to the night he had discovered Lucy was gone.

"Mira?" Natsu asked, approaching the bubbly barmaid. "Where's Lucy? She was here a while ago."

"She left. She went home for some well-deserved rest. You've got her exhausted, the poor thing," Mirajane chastised.

"What? I'm sure she's overreacting. She's probably just so tired because she needs to lose some weight," Natsu snickered.

"Natsu, that isn't nice. You shouldn't say things like that," Mira said with a frown.

"I was just kiddin'..." he muttered. He really wasn't being honest when he made the comment about Lucy's weight. He didn't believe it. Quite the contrary. Natsu had carried Lucy on multiple occasions, and in his opinion, Lucy was actually pretty light. He didn't know why Happy always had such a difficult time carrying her.

"Still, don't make comments like that. Besides, you've been dragging her on so many missions that she can barely stand. You should really give her a break from all the work, Natsu," said Mira

"Are the missions really takin' that big of a toll on her? I didn't think... I feel really bad," Natsu admitted, rubbing a hand through his spiky pink hair. "Maybe I should apologize or somethin'."

"Good idea, Natsu. I'm sure Lucy will really appreciate that," Mira said, smiling brightly.

So Natsu turned and made his way to the front doors of the guild. Happy was busy with Charle and Lily, so he decided not to interrupt. Throwing open the doors, Natsu stepped out into the pelting rain and made his way to Lucy's apartment.

Natsu leapt nimbly onto the windowsill of Lucy's home and slid the already slightly ajar window the rest of the way open. He gracefully slipped into Lucy's bedroom, and instantly became rigid. He smelled...blood. And was that the scent of another person? The smell wasn't familiar to him.

"Lucy?" he called. He followed the scents to Lucy's bedside. He knelt and saw a small pool of blood. Lucy's blood, he realized upon closer inspection. "Lucy?!" he shouted. He quickly searched the rest of the apartment, concluding that Lucy, and the stranger for that matter, were absent.

No. No! How could this happen?! Where the hell was she?! Natsu ran back out into the rain and tried in vain to catch a scent trail, but alas, the water had washed away whatever tracks there may have been. He fell to his knees as the drops of rain slammed against the ground. He didn't have a trail to follow, and he had no idea where Lucy could've possibly been. He felt lost and helpless, which were two things the dragon slayer was not used to feeling.

"LUCY!"he bellowed at the sky. The only answer he received was the howling of the storm.

Oh no, what's going to happen to our beloved Lucy? Guess you'll just have to wait and see *evil grin*. Sorry this chapter was so short. I just felt that this was a good place to end the chapter, as it fits in better with the content I have planned for the next one. I'll try to get the next chappy out a lot sooner that this one, and I'll definitely make it longer than this one, too. Comments are always appreciated, as they motivate me to get these chapters written :). See you soon, my loves!