"That fake laugh you do when you don't know what someone just said."
-Teenager post # 7108
CHAPTER 4: RAINSTORM
8:02 PM
Lobby, Fairy Hills, Magnolia, Fiore
"Then I heard mom calling me into the kitchen," a girl with short, white hair was narrating over the candle's constant flickering while another thunder boomed outside.
Fairy Hills; the official female dormitory of Fairy Tail High, consisting of rooms large enough to keep a magical zoo, but has a rent price of a hundred thousand jewels per month.
It was a typical Monday night to say the least; save for the fact that there was a raging rainstorm and it was currently Fiore's Annual Magic Saving Hour, an event governed by the Magic Council, which means that using magic in all of Fiore is halted for an hour, starting from eight in the evening.
And so the girls of Fairy Hills had also made it an annual event to swap horror stories in the large and spacious dormitory lobby.
"So when I was heading down the stairs, I heard a whisper from the closet," Lisanna Strauss whispered. Seated in a full circle were ten girls, eight of them with frightened, focused expressions, save for two people; the storyteller and her older sister.
"It said, 'Don't go down there, honey, I heard it t-"
"STOP!" Laki Olietta, the lavender-haired wood-make mage suddenly interrupted the suspense-filled story, silencing everyone.
"Someone's at the door." She stated, seconds of noiselessness passed. Until the sound the doorknocker loudly banging against the wooden door caused disturbed, haunted expressions.
"Who's gonna go get it?" Cana Alberona nervously looked around her circle of friends, no one in particular eager to get up and open the door. Another thunder boomed in the distance.
"Come on; acting like this when we're all powerful soon-to-be-mages from Fairy Tail." Evergreen brought a shaking fist up in supposed encouragement.
"Yeah, so we should just let the 'Fairy' handle this, right?" Mirajane Strauss happily noted, to which Evergreen's face paled. The doorknocker banging once more had everyone literally sent goosebumps down the girls' spines.
"Speaking of Fairies, Titania should-" Sherry Blendy nervously twirled a strand of her hot pink hair and turned to her right, where the scarlet-haired girl's place was supposed to be, 'supposed' being the keyword.
Everyone blinked in confusion.
"Where's Erza?" Levy McGarden asked, the poor, innocent book in her hands about to be compressed into nothingness.
"Oh, right!" Wendy Marvell face-palmed, "She called awhile ago; she's stranded in the cake shop. But she said she'll definitely catch up later on the annual horror story telling." Everyone sighed; others in relief that the head girl was not associated with a ghostly happening and others in unease that their chances of someone volunteering to open the door flew out the window.
"And no one's noticed that 'till now?" Bisca Mulan joined the blue-haired girl in her face-palming.
Whoever was at the door was then getting impatient, as the heavy knocks, followed by what they thought were strong kicks were now continuously heard. Panic quickly arose. Some were covering their ears, others began arguing, some muttered their final goodbyes to Earthland, and some began writing their final will.
"Juvia thinks we should all go open the door." The water mage then suggested, as everyone suddenly looked at each other with their best 'you-should've-said-that-earlier' expression.
"Alright, then. Let's go open that door." Lisanna bravely declared, being the first to get up.
On the way to the door, a certain bookworm gasped in realization.
"Err, guys; it could be Erza on the other side, you know." The ten girls' faces were drained of color, now imagining what it would be like to face an angry, impatient, and soaking wet Erza. They were going to be buried alive at her mercy, after having their eyes poked with a fork and facing her ten swords attack; everyone thought in unison.
But not a second later, a familiar voice howled from outside, "Open the door or I'm burning this building to dust!"
'Natsu?' Lisanna recognized, 'He does realize that this is the female dormitory… right?' she ran forward and unlocked the several indestructible door locks.
"KARYUU NO-"
And the door opened with loud creak, saving the dorm from the oncoming fire wreckage, and furthermore, revealing a drenched Natsu Dragneel, looking like Earthland was at the edge of destruction, and carrying on his back an unconscious, blonde-haired girl.
"Do I still need to face Erza to enter the dorm?"
8:07 PM
Magnolia Cake Shop, Magnolia, Fiore
A certain red-haired girl was looking out the window in obvious unease, her slender fingers continuously click-clacking on the table with nervousness.
"I wonder if everyone's fine back at the dorm." She whispered out loud with a sigh, spoon digging onto her thirteenth strawberry cheesecake serving.
The door to the shop then suddenly opened with the sound of heavy rain, everyone's eyes moving from the weird couple to the source of disturbance.
The half-naked raven-haired student who entered the shop made Erza Scarlet frown in recognition. Pitch black eyes scanned the room until landing on a familiar scarlet-haired girl. He then made his way towards said girl.
"Never thought I'd run into the stunning Erza Scarlet here of all places." Gray Fullbuster cast her a certain smile rumored to make most of the girls turn to jelly and took a seat, proceeding to freeze the water on him.
"Ah, be still my heart." She dryly replied, earning a scowl from the raven-haired boy.
Silence then encompassed the three.
"Well, this is awkward." Gray Fullbuster stated, as uncaring as ever.
"You are awkward. And put some clothes on." The scarlet-haired girl snapped, as Gray proceeded to look at himself in shock of his clothing's absence.
He then proceeded to cast a disapproving look at her, "Hey, I'm the class mayor." He declared, as Erza felt her blood boiling at being reminded.
"So?" she crossed her arms, her chin up.
"So I think I deserve a little respect, don't I?" He mirrored her look by stubbornly crossing his arms too.
Gray's face lit up in realization, "Oh yeah, I forgot. You're still on your period." He so much as announced to all of Fiore.
Erza Scarlet grabbed the neighboring table's porcelain bowl filled with scalding soup and threw it straight at Gray Fullbuster's face.
'This is gonna be a long rainstorm,' the two thought in unison.