Fire is catching
Chapter 31
Authors Note: Hey guys, sorry for the late update but due to me being sick I missed a lot of exams at school and I had to make up for it by taking them all within a few days so yeah…had to study a lot. But now, it's finally over and I have some time to continue this story, hope you still enjoy reading it!
Some of you already guessed who this mysterious person is, some of you can find out now…have fun!
"I finally found you" says a deep rumbling voice that I would recognize anywhere.
Turning around in terror I cling to the hope that I just imagined his voice, that it's not really him,that everything is fine, but I already know it's not.
And then I see him, Gajeel Redfox, standing just a few steps away from me, the evil grin that has haunted me at night on his lips.
"This is the murderer of Wendy" is the only thing going through my mind. I can practically see her blood on his hands. He stabbed her without hesitation and just like that, she died. And now he has come for me.
One part of me is panicking, hysterically screaming around, urging me to run away like I always do whereas this other part of me keeps me in place and forces me to hold my ground and be strong. For the sake of Wendy, I will not bow.
I notice that he looks a little wounded, one part of his face slightly swollen and blueish, as if somebody had beaten him up. So he was involved in a fight on the clearing after all? Somebody stopped him from running after me, somebody saved my skin, again. I just hope that this person is doing all right, that Gajeel just left her or him alone, that not another person lay down their life for me.
"Well district 8, there's nobody to save you now. That stupid little girl is out of the way and that asshole that attacked me just as I wanted to follow you won't make the same mistake twice. You've been extremely lucky until now 8, but there's nobody left to hide behind now" he growls as he takes slow but heavy steps closer to me. I back off, try to increase the distance between us until I'm standing with my back against the cold stone wall, no escape route left. I'm trapped.
"I told you, you can't run you stupid girl." He's now standing directly in front of me, looking a lot taller and intimidating now. I can feel his breath on my skin, it smells like iron, like blood and his ruby red eyes sparkle dangerously.
I gulp as the strong part of me shrinks whereas the panic part is taking over. Every inch of my body is tense and it takes all my willpower to not start screaming like a maniac.
I take deep breathes, trying to calm myself down as pictures of him stabbing Wendy race through my mind.
Dead Wendy. His dangerous face close to mine, looking forward to torturing me. Dead Wendy. His face. Wendy. Gajeel. Wendy. Gajeel. Wendy. Gajeel.
The switch between reality and painful memories gets faster until the pictures change at an incredible pace, making my head spin. The two horrible images merge into one, press me down to the ground as my breathing gets faster, hysterical.
Two pairs of eyes pinning me down, one empty and dead, one full of bloodlust. It's too much to handle, I can't, I can't, I can't.
"NO!" I scream as I slash out at Gajeel's face, leaving a scratch on his face. A really small one.
He only grunts, a little disappointed. "Giving up already, huh blondie? We haven't even started yet" he says, his voice getting dangerously low. He punches me in the stomach without changing his facial expression at all, just like he did before at the training center and his fist feels hard as iron. The impact throws me against the stone wall, makes my back arch and my stomach feel as if my intestines have been squeezed together. I cough up blood which only makes my stomach hurt even more.
I can feel my legs getting weak, shaking uncontrollably as they're about to give in. I can hear the quick beating of my heart in my head while the mental images keep flashing up. I try to find a grip on the stone wall and push myself up only using my arm strength in order to stand up again. I won't give up that easily.
"Live, win the games for both of us" she says, her voice soft as the wind.
"I will" I whisper, hot tears of frustration rising up in my eyes as I finally stand on my shaky legs and look up to see him glaring at me with a smirk.
"Well blondie, I've got to say I'm a little disappointed. Even your tiny friend could take more and she was already nothing more than a fly. I thought that you wouldn't break that easily but it seems like I was wrong" he lets out a melancholic sigh as if he's genuinely sad.
I try not to let his words get to me, to ignore them but they keep repeating themselves in my head: "Even your tiny friend could take more and she was already nothing more than a fly."
My fingers curl around my whip and I pull it out and bring it down with all my strength. It leaves an ugly, deep slash on his forearm, but instead of showing any sign of pain his smile just widens and turns into a twisted grin. This attack cost me so much strength that I crumple against the stone wall breathing heavily. Although I didn't notice it, the last days have been not only heavy on my mind but also on my body. I didn't drink or eat and was under constant stress, I'm in no condition to fight, especially not against a career.
"Seems as if my judgment was a little too harsh, you have some fighting spirit although that won't help you at all. If you can fight back, then you can handle this though, right?" and with those words he throws me against the wall, my head snapping back and hitting the hard rock. I slide down the wall and crumple to the floor, laying there, unable to move. Every part of my body hurts like hell, paralyzed while painfully prickling. Although I try to, I can't move as his gigantic figure towers above me, pins me down to the floor and starts punching me in the face in a constant rhythm. My head is thrown from side to side, digs itself into the ground as I taste the mixture of blood and dirt in my mouth. Everything is turning while small dots of black start to flash up.
The metal studs on the gloves he's wearing dig into my skin, tear it open. All I hear is his satisfied laughter and the ringing of my ears. Then he stops punching my head and I watch in horror as he gets out a flashing blade.
He starts at my shoulder and scratches my skin just enough to make it bleed. He brings the knife down my arm, increasing the pressure and deepening the cut.
I scream, my voice sounding rusty and far away, almost muffled.
It stings so much…my head is getting all clouded up as the world around me is shifting around and I see one, two, three Gajeel's grinning at me with that cold gaze.
Then something seems to catch his attention and I see with horror that he has found my keys. He detaches them from my belt and lets them dangle from his hand,
I get the tunnel vision, all I can see are my beloved keys, taken away from me.
"NO!" I scream summoning every bit of strength that's left inside of me "No please don't take them. Do anything, torture me, kill me, I don't care, but please, please don't take them, You can't use them anyway…" my voice cracks as my eyes slowly shut, exhaustion overwhelming me.
My spirits are all I have left…
I force my eyes open only to see a creepy, satisfied smile spreading over Gajeel's face.
"Those keys mean a lot to you, right?"
I nod weakly, my head thrumming.
And with a glint of joy in his eyes, he tosses them away, in the unknown, out of my reach as I scream in horror. I couldn't really track where he threw them, all I could see was them flying through the air in a high arc. He must've thrown them far, far away, somewhere into the woods so I could never ever find them again.
He's taken away everything I care about. Wendy and now all my keys, those spirits that were so precious to me, that always stood by my side…
The sobs escape my mouth uncontrollably, sending an aching pain through my body every time it contracts.
I try to bring up my knee to kick Gajeel, to make him pay for what he did, but I'm too weak to move an inch, I've lost control over my body, I'm fully exposed to him.
Next he gets out an even bigger blade and settles it over my stomach that is still feeling numb from the punch.
So what does he want to do next? Hurt me again? Torture me even more? And for what, he's already taken away everything.
The bad thing about pain is that I don't get used to it. Even after all those cuts and bruises it still hurts just as much as he cuts through my skin with the large knife making my stomach feel like it's on fire.
If I would still be able to, I'd scream on top of my lungs, but I've lost my voice. The heavy pain on my chest has gotten stronger and it feels like it's going to soak up my entire body, simply swallow me whole.
My eyes roll around, not seeing anything except the terrifying darkness, which only increases the sensation of pain.
Why isn't it going away, why can't I black out?
As he continues to cut my flesh open I think about everything that has happened to me.
My mother's death, the reaping, the labyrinth, Lisanna's death, Milliana, the acid rain, Wendy dying in front of my eyes, the madness overwhelming me…all those horrible events I went through and survived because I'm clinging to my life like a sailor to a floating piece of wood in the wide open sea. And all of those things result in this? Me dying from the same hands that took away my friend's life?
All my bullshit talk about living on for Wendy, it was all for nothing, to be realistic I never had the slightest chance of winning those games. I knew, deep down, that I'd never make it and now the time has come. Too bad that it has to be Gajeel killing me though, he's not a tribute, he's a psychopath. He doesn't kill to survive but because he thinks it's entertaining. I inwardly snort. I'd rather die and be a weakling like me than live and be like him, a sick and twisted soul.
A hard slap on my cheek snaps me back to reality.
"Hey blondie, don't you go drifting off on me, it isn't fun if you do that"
I concentrate all the strength that's left to my mouth. I can't punch, stab, kick or bite him, but there's still one last thing I can do.
I spit him right in the face which leaves a satisfied smile on my face, jackpot!
This is for my spirits you jerk!
The satisfaction doesn't last very long though. Gajeel's face turns cold as ice as he wipes the big amount of spit off his face.
"So you think you're funny, huh? Well then I think you'll like this too, it's my kind of humor"
He holds my hand up so that I can clearly see it and then starts crunching my fingers, making them crack, breaking my bones, every single finger separately. The feeling is indescribable.
I want to scream, but I can't.
"What's the matter? Why aren't you laughing anymore?"
My blurry vision is getting darker again and I can't decide whether to embrace or try to fight it. The blackness whispers to me suggestively, calling my name softly and I know that I need to make a decision. Leave, allow myself to be unconscious knowing that I'll probably never wake up again or try to fight, experience the pain of being awake knowing that my certain death is close anyway.
And even though I know that life has nothing left to offer me, that being alive only brings more suffering and pain, I still can't let go. I tell myself that it's okay, that death will be like falling asleep peacefully, way better than the tortures of the arena, but I don't want to die, I'm too scared, clinging to my life like the idiot I am.
My body is starting to shut down though, my breathing got shallow and slow without me being able to control it and my vision turned completely black now, I can't see anything which only intensifies the sensation of pain. It's slowly starting to ease, as I said, my body is starting to shut down.
Authors Note: Is this Lucy's end? Will she die at the hands of Gajeel, the same career that brutally killed her friend? Find out in chapter 32! Until then, feel free to leave me a comment with your thoughts about this chapter, I'd appreciate it a lot. :)
Author: *sits in corner crying*
Natsu: What the hell are you doing Author?
Author: I'm drowning in my own misery…
Natsu: Ah, sounds fun. Why are you doing this?
Author: Because I just read Fairy Tail chapter 416 and it made me really sad and confused and…gah, too many emotions! I mean he can't just *censored because of spoiler* the entire guild and he was actually *spoooooiler* all the time and then that stupid guy just *spoilerler* and she's left and totally *well you get the system now, right?* and then they had *spoiler but everybody knows it anway* and then at the end he says that Natsu is actually *a fish, he's actually a fish jk*. And the worst thing is that I knew it all along! But I just didn't want it to be true! *cries*
Natsu: Gee calm down…I don't get how you can get worked up about fictional characters that much anyway…it's kind of stupid…
Author: *death glare*
Lucy: *death glare*
Levy: *death glare
All the fangirls across the world: *death glare* How dare you insult our fandoms….
Natsu: *cowering in fear* They're totally crazy….help….