Chapter One – It Follows

Lucy was not happy. There were several reasons for this but, at the moment, she knew exactly which was at the top of her list. It wasn't that she had spent the night sleeping in a musty, scratchy, and spider-infested barn. It wasn't that she had missed the annual Crocus fireworks festival to be dragged out into the middle of nowhere, Fiore or even that Natsu had upended the contents of his stomach all over her during their journey. No, it was that of all fifty-seven requests on the job board, Natsu had chosen this one.

A floorboard creaked beneath her and Lucy winced at the sound. Her body tensed and she glanced nervously around the dirty hallway. Motes of dust fluttered languidly in the stale air and the dark walls surrounding Lucy seemed to grow more menacing. There was little light to see by and it filtered in through a small and grimy window at the end of the hall. There was a rundown table set below the window, with a tattered and stained lace cloth atop as its sole boast to beauty.

Steeling herself, Lucy grasped the edge of the door frame and, placing her weight into that grip, she hazarded another step. Much to her relief, this one fell silently. There were three rooms left for her to check. So far, she had been lucky enough not to find what they had come searching for. As Lucy crept towards the next open door, she once again found herself cursing Natsu. How had she let him drag her into this?

"But we've never taken on a ghost quest before! Come on, Lucy! It'll be fun."

Oh, right. That was how. Him and his stupid, stupid smile.

The next room proved to be as blessedly empty as the last and Lucy wondered how Natsu and Happy's search was faring. If only they hadn't decided to split up.

Just two more, Lucy encouraged herself. Two more and she could be rid of this dusty, decrepit, and above all, creepy farmhouse. Even the owner hadn't dared step foot it in for the last few months. Too afraid of the ghost, the man had explained by means of intermittent wailing and shivers.

Still, the three of them had spent the last day and a half searching the homestead and its fields and had yet to find a scrap of evidence to support his theories. Perhaps he had simply made the whole thing up.

With that bright thought in mind, Lucy pushed open the next door. This room was brighter than the last and Lucy found herself squinting against the light and, as her eyes adjusted, she frowned.

"Natsu?"

He was crouched down in the corner opposite her and seemed to be rummaging through an open chest. Lucy took a few more steps into the room and repressed several sneezes as the accumulated dust from months of neglect entered her nostrils.

"Did you and Happy already finish checking the outbuildings?" she managed, looking curiously around the room for the blue cat. There was no sign of him and, as the seconds continued to drag by in silence, Lucy felt a shock of annoyance flare up in her chest. "What are you looking for, anyway?"

Natsu simply grunted in response and Lucy stalked up to him. She grabbed at his bare shoulder and pulled, twisting him around to face her.

"Natsu, what are you –" the words died in her throat, mangling into a horrified shriek. She stumbled backward, desperate to get away from the creature. The thing. She felt her back press against the wall and her head slammed into it and there she froze, unable to look away from her horror.

It looked like Natsu, exactly like him. From his haphazard pink hair, one-sleeved jacket and white pants, down to his open-toed sandals. But his face. There simply wasn't one. No eyes, no nose, no mouth. Nothing but smooth, tanned skin.

The thing began to move. It pushed up from its crouch and turned its body to face her. And there it waited. If it had eyes, Lucy had no doubt they would be boring into her right now.

Her fingers were fumbling at her belt before she even had time to process the thought. She frantically felt at the familiar shapes of her keys, still unable to tear her gaze away from the faceless creature. Finally, after what seemed like hours, her fingers wrapped around Loki's key and she ripped it free.

"Open, gate of the –"

In the blink of an eye, the faceless Natsu had closed the distance between them. Its hand, cold and coarse, clamped over her mouth and in the next second it raised a finger from its free hand to where its mouth should have been.

Shhh, a cool voice rasped into her mind.

Panic flooded into Lucy as she squirmed against its hold, desperate to be free. The creature grabbed each of her wrists in its hands and pressed itself against her, pinning her to the wall. Its smooth and terrifying face was some mere inches from her own. The thing cocked its horrifying head sidewise, as if intrigued by her. Even as it did so, its hand squeezed her right wrist in a death grip, cutting off the flow of blood.

"Open," Lucy gasped out, "open, gate –" She shuddered as pain shot through her, the force of the sudden blow knocking the air from her lungs. It slammed its knee up violently into her again and, try as she might, the key slipped from her grasp. It fell to the floor with a single and deafening note of finality.

Leo, Lucy forced all of her will and desperation into the thought. Leo, Virgo…anyone…please…

Power was seeping out from her in waves. It flowed into the yōkai from the cold and definite grip it had on her wrists. And through that same contact, she felt a trickle of sharp and crackling ice beginning to cut its way down and into her veins.

Natsu…Natsu…where was Natsu?

Her vision was beginning to fade, as were her already weak attempts at escape. There was simply nothing left in her. No energy, no will…nothing. Everything she had had been stolen from her in seconds.

Numbly, Lucy felt her limp body slide down the wall. It seemed to last an eternity before, at last, she collapsed on the floor. Everything had become so cold, so gray, so muted. There was a rush of moving air as the spirit fell into a crouch. It leaned over her. Through unmoving eyes she watched, helpless, as its face drew closer, closer. Its smooth and terrible skin pressed against her own as their foreheads met.

Beyond her infinite terror, Lucy felt the familiar flash of stubborn annoyance spike through her. Really? Was this how she died? Survived countless doomsdays, Acnologia, Tartaros, Zeref, Acnologia again, and then died over a 50,000 jewel ghost? Typical.

But eventually, even the annoyance flickered out. The creeping and ripping ice had stopped some time ago. Now she felt only the enervating flow as the last of her magic trickled out of her.

"You get away from her." A cold growl cut through the torpid darkness that had become Lucy's world. A warmth began to bloom, however dimly, in her chest. She knew that voice and she knew, just as suddenly, that she was going to live.

"Yeah, you better back off, creepy!"

"I said, get away!" Fire blasted through the gloom and, dazedly, Lucy felt the grasping and hungry connection break. Vaguely, she could hear the roar of Natsu's rage as he fell upon the creature.

"Are you okay, Lucy?" There was a faint disturbance of sound followed by a slight and clawed prodding at her arm. "Lucy? Why won't you answer me?!" Happy wailed.

Strength was coming back to her. Slowly at first, and then in sudden bursts that seemed to align with Natsu's attacks. And then she was gasping and drinking in all of the air her lungs could take. Her head was spinning and her body tingled but she somehow managed to push up onto her forearms.

"Happy," she panted, more grateful than she had ever been to see him.

"Lucy!" The exceed's face welled up and his sorrowful tears were replaced by a joyful grin. "She's okay, Natsu!"

Lucy shuddered as she pulled herself up into a sitting position and slumped against the wall, still unable to support her own weight.

"I thought this might come in handy!" Happy was rummaging through his pack and, weakly, Lucy reached for the strange orb he offered. Beyond them, the room shook with a vehement blast.

"Carla thought it would be a good idea if Wendy imbued a lacrima with her healing magic!" Happy explained. "We all thought we'd be using it on Natsu first, but now you get to be the guinea pig!"

Lucy managed a smile as her trembling fingers wrapped around the thing. Warmth and power surged into her and it sent the tingling weakness that had become her entire sense of feeling scattering. Her eyes fluttered shut as the shock of healing magic swept through her. Minutes dragged by in wonderful, warm, and peaceful bliss.

When she opened her eyes it was not Happy's face peering down at her with concern, but Natsu's. She was distantly aware of the smoldering and utterly decimated structure around her but, above all, she was acutely aware of the fact that she had somehow ended up in his arms. The fear on Natsu's face was washed away in an instant and was instead replaced with his thousand-megawatt grin.

Relief and shame fluttered through Lucy in equal parts. After all these years, she still needed Natsu to rescue her. She was weak and pathetic, completely useless to even herself without her spirits. Her face flamed with what she would only categorize as humiliation as she squirmed away from his loose hold of her. It was only then, as she pulled away from him, that she realized how much her body was shaking.

She pressed back up against the wall, desperate for some form of non-Natsu supplied stability.

"That is the last time," she whispered, "that we ever go on a ghost mission."

All in all, a final reward of 32,500 jewel wasn't all that terrible, considering what Natsu had done to the place. The farmer's jaw had practically hit the floor when he caught sight of what had become of his home, but the ecstatic joy on hearing the ghost had been banished far outweighed his momentary anger.

"Oh, we've gotta go in here! Look at all the weapons!"

Lucy rolled her eyes as a bout of flame spurted from Natsu's excited mouth. After they had updated the farmer on his haunting situation, the three of them had taken a brief carriage ride to the nearest town of Marigold. There they'd decided to explore the shops while waiting for the train back to Magnolia. And, after checking her watch, Lucy decided she had at least another hour of torture to dole out.

"I don't think so." Lucy shook her head, and turned to the shop across from All You Can Throw. "We should check out this one!"

"Historia's histoire?" Natsu grimaced. "Come on, even the name's pathetic."

"Oh, I've always wanted to go antiquing!" Lucy squealed, grabbing Natsu by the arm and carelessly dragging him after her. "And you guys owe me, remember?"

A bell jingled above them as Lucy led the reluctant pair into the old shop.

"Wow," she breathed, pausing at the entrance. It was not a particularly large shop, or even a magnificent one. But it was full of character.

Every last nook and cranny was filled to the brim with strange and exciting objects. Mostly, there were old and eccentric decorations, but there was also a fair variety of tarnished weaponry and armor, half moth-eaten books, an entire shelf dedicated to the waxwork artistry of abstract candles, yellowed and weathered paintings, dusty and ornate alchemical bottles, and so, so much more.

"This is amazing!" Lucy grinned, drinking in the wonder of her surroundings. Wendy's healing lacrima had really worked a miracle on her. Aside from a slight and persistent tremor in her right hand, she felt as good as new.

"And each and every one of them has a tale of its own." Lucy blinked and her gaze settled on an old and bowed figure that had somehow sidled in front of her.

"Oh yeah?" Natsu challenged, glaring down at the old man. He flicked his hand against the object hanging a half foot above his head. "What's the story behind this one, eh?"

"Ah." The man squirmed uncomfortably beneath Natsu's fiery gaze. He glanced from the risqué and still-swinging calendar to Lucy and offered an apologetic smile. Lucy favored Natsu with a withering glare.

"Never mind him," she snapped. "I want to know more about all these wonderful clothes!"

They couldn't have been more than twenty minutes in the shop, but with the way Natsu and Happy were grumbling, you'd think Lucy had forced them to spend hours in it.

"Come on, guys," she complained, "it wasn't that bad!"

"Aye!" Happy sang, shamelessly changing his tune. "Look at this awesome old rod I got! I just know I'll catch a bunch of fishies with it!"

"Yeah," Natsu agreed with a grin. "That is pretty sweet! What'd you get, Lucy?"

"For the last time," Lucy growled, "it's none of your business!" She instinctively held the brown bag in question closer to her side. Its thin paper did not feel nearly strong enough to withstand the heated curiosity Natsu was sending its way.

There were two things hidden inside. The first was a gift and one that Lucy would never have even dreamed of buying had Erza not specifically requested it. That was definitely embarrassing, though there was some safety in knowing that Natsu probably had no idea what dirty and nefarious things could be done with it.

The second wasn't nearly as mortifying but if Natsu knew she had gotten herself some old and frilly corset then she would never hear the end of it. And what did it matter what he thought, anyway? It was pretty, and sometimes she just wanted to feel pretty. It was just for her, anyway. It really wasn't any of his business.

"Probably just some more naaaaughty panties," Happy intoned, shoving a fish in his mouth as he bobbed happily above them. Lucy glowered up at him.

"What about you, Natsu? What did you get?"

"You know, I think I was wrong about that place," Natsu managed, munching around a particularly large mouthful of who knew what. "It's got some pretty tasty snacks."

"What?" Lucy paled, momentarily stopping dead in her tracks. An image surged up into the forefront of her mind. It was of Natsu, grinning like a demon, and sweeping an entire counter's worth of sale items into a large brown bag. "Don't tell me you're eating…the lighters from the register?"

Natsu burped in answer, a bout of flame escaping as he did so.

"What's the big deal, Luce? He got his money, and I got a tasty snack! That's a win-win in my book."

It was a pleasantly uneventful train ride back to Magnolia primarily because, this time, Natsu hadn't puked all over her. As the train began to unload, and Lucy was gathering up their bags, a horrible sense of vertigo overcame her. She grabbed at a nearby railing to steady herself and nearly wretched all over the floor as the final stragglers departed.

Is this how Natsu feels? she wondered, clamping a hand to her mouth. It was with that last thought, and the vision of Happy struggling vainly to waken an overly sick Natsu, that Lucy collapsed. Darkness swept up to meet her as all sense and memory fled.

When Lucy finally regained consciousness, she did not know where she was. Everything was gray all around her and the world was quiet, empty. With some confusion, and an even greater amount of effort, Lucy pushed herself up onto her feet. Where was she?

Ruins of once mighty granite buildings filled her vision. They stretched up scores of feet above her, crumbling and disintegrating before her very eyes as they dared to touch the blackened sky above. They formed winding and uneven walls all about her, snaking about the ashy plains they were set upon, as if caught in the throws of a wild, drunken, and reptilian dance.

"Hello?" Lucy stumbled on her feet and gray dust flew up to coat her skin as she moved. The air wasn't exactly cold, but there was a certain unearthly chill about it. She sent an arm out to the wall at her right to steady herself as she moved.

"Is anyone here?" There was no reply. Lucy was not sure if she should feel relieved or worried by the silence. Still, something within her told her that she had to move. And so, she did.

Sand scraped and shot up as she made her jostling and uneven way through the maddening labyrinth. The midnight sky above her was black, black as death, and there were no stars to guide her step. Hours seemed to pass, aimless and without end. And all the while, Lucy felt the unnerving prickling on her skin; it warned that she was not alone.

"Natsu? If that's you, this isn't funny!" Lucy heard her voice echo about for perhaps a second or so, before it was quashed with a definite and disturbing hush.

What a strange dream. Everything around her seemed intangible and unreal. The ground, the walls, all that was within sight, was blurred by a rushing and black fog. It smeared their shapes and forms up towards the sky and painted the sense of her reality as anything but.

"Natsu," she murmured, staring up at the sky in apprehension.

No. You don't need him. For once, you're going to do this on your own.

Lucy gritted her teeth and glared at the world at large. Natsu would simply have blasted his way through the maze and decimated anything that dared stand in his way. That would make it easier to figure out where she was. With a glare, Lucy suffocated the treacherous thought.

Sure, this place was confusing. And sure, she didn't even have the stars to navigate by. And yeah, she couldn't summon her spirits, but this was all just a dream, wasn't it? Maybe it was just her subconscious's way of telling her to grow a pair.

Yeah. She could do this. If worse came to worst, she could always just climb her way out, couldn't she?

So inspired, Lucy stumbled her way further into the maze with a renewed sense of purpose. She took one left after another as each turn presented itself. Eventually, she would find herself on the outer ring of the maze. And then she would just scale the wall and be free. And she would not need Natsu, she would not need anyone, to save her.

She would save herself.

It was as Lucy paused to take a breath, leaning against one of the tilted and crumbling walls, that she heard it. A scraping sound, barely distinguishable above her own exhausted breaths.

What? Lucy frowned and pushed up from the wall to look down the corridor she had come from. There was nothing there and yet the sound was unmistakable. Lucy clamped a hand over her nose, willing her breaths to quiet. Her ears strained.

And still, it came.

A persistent and ever nearing scraping sound, as if metal were dragging against stone. Lucy took a few stumbling steps backward as a chill stole through her. Panic was spiking and ripping at her chest. Whatever happened, she knew she could not let the source of the noise reach her.

Lucy turned about and tore down the length of the hallway, barely taking a second to think as she twisted one way and then another. It was as she took another sharp turn, and slammed bodily against the cold wall, that sanity began to trickle its way back into her.

She was being paranoid. There wasn't anyone following her. She was alone; there wasn't some sick and twisted creature in the labyrinth with her. Her ears strained, but the sound she had been waiting for, the sound she dreaded, did not come. Lucy let out a captured breath and sagged in relief. If Happy had been there, he would never have let her hear the end of it.

Her relief withered hardly before it had taken root. Not a minute later, the ringing returned. Fear immediately seized her. Her stomach twisted and her mouth dried. But above even the pounding of her heart in her ears, was the sound.

No. We've been over this, Lucy. Nothing's there. It's just your imagination. Still, she cast a wary glance over her shoulder. Abruptly, the noise she thought she had been hearing vanished. That might have scared her even more, except that Lucy knew there was nothing there. The corridor behind her was empty. Empty and full of nothing.

Nothing.

But the edge did not go away. The feeling that someone, something, was there, only grew. And Lucy's body was starting to react to it. She had thought her mouth was dry before but it was now parchment. Her stomach was twisting within her and threatening sick. Her body was starting to tremble and adrenaline had begun to shoot through her veins.

So she did the only thing she could; she ran faster and, to her mounting horror, the noise behind her quickened to match her own. Instinctively, her fingers twitched to her keys. But they were not there. And that would not have helped her, anyway; the heavens were empty.

Lucy swallowed tightly, her throat scraping against itself as she did. Against her better judgement, she found herself looking down the path behind. But, as ever, there was only gray shadow and cold stone. And again, the noise stilled as she looked behind. Its absence left a strange and tense silence in the air. It was there somewhere, she knew, waiting in the darkness for her.

She stared into the shifting gloom for a moment longer, her eyes frantically scanning the blurring shadows. The pale corridor of stone stretched scores of feet behind her where it curved in over itself and was swallowed up by the night.

And still, it came. Ever so quietly, at first. But it was growing now, that high-pitched ring of grating metal rose up into a shriek from the emptiness behind her. And Lucy ran.

She tore desperately through the scattering sands, sending up clouds of dust gasping into the stale and wretched air. And through her abject terror, she could feel it; the acute pressure building and prickling on the back of her neck. It was a sense of deep and endless hatred. An invisible and following malevolence.

It was coming after her now, no longer hiding. It was coming for her now. Coming, with a scream of scraping metal. Coming, with the terrible and unmistakable sound of pounding footfalls.

They were growing louder, louder and the air was growing thicker. It was gaining on her, even as she found herself slowing down. Her limbs were burning from the effort and she was shaking in fear.

The darkness was all around her, the sickly light growing blacker still with every step. There was no end, no light, in sight. Deep down, she knew she could not keep running, just as she knew that there was nowhere she could run to. Nowhere, but away. And always, it would follow her.

Tears streamed down Lucy's face as she ran, desperate and without hope, from her pursuer.

Mine. The voice cut at her ears and she stumbled, tripping over herself as she came crashing down into the sands.

Lucy struggled to regain her breath and, as her shattered sight began to piece itself back together, so too came the horrible realization. It was quiet. Terror froze her, paralyzing her with its sick and twisting arms.

Move! You have to move. Now!

But it was too late. Lucy could feel a shift in the air and a weighted pressure as something climbed over her. It settled against her torso and shoved her face down forcefully into the ground. Sand poured into her mouth and eyes and, even as she twisted and flailed against her attacker, she felt a sharp stab pierce through her skin. The blade withdrew from her back and stabbed down again.

Again. Again. Again.

Lucy lost count as the mind-shattering pain took over. She could feel her blood streaming down from her flesh and sinking into the dry and thirsty sands.

And suddenly she was gasping and shaking and the world came back to her in a burst of color and warmth. Her mind was swimming and pain seared through every nerve in her body, but through her blurred and half-blinded vision, her mind began to come into focus.

Natsu.