**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. It all belongs to Mashima.
So here's chapter 3 of 24 hours. I followed the most popular vote with Gray, and then kind of went my own way with the other two. I planned on writing out a little more of the individual deaths, but at this point I kind of want to wrap up this story and move on to the sequel.
Yes, there will be a sequel. The sequel won't be a horror story, but it will still be M rated as it will deal a lot with people's coping, or failure to cope, with the events that happen in this story.
Not saying who will be in the sequel either. You'll have to wait and see who survives... muahahahahaha!**
"Guess who gets her turn now…" The man before Lucy spoke in a sing-song, a high lilt to his voice as he went to a table nearby to make his selection.
"Ahhh… this should do nicely," with a flourish he brought forth a knife that looked like a hunting knife, except that it was serrated on both sides. The serration was crude at best, the jagged edges looking as though they would make cutting anything hard work. Lucy tried to move her head as the knife came closer to her eye, allowing her to see the slightly blunted tip as well as the blood that coated the blade, showing a sickly crimson-green in the ethereal lighting.
She heard the pathetic whimpers escaping her mouth as the blade touched just above her eye, the blood, dried from hours of disuse, flaked off a bit with the motion, falling onto her face and forehead. Then the knife began to descend, and suddenly the whimpers turned to an ear-shattering scream as pain shot through her eye and head. Her vision on that side went white from the shock, and before she could recover there was more. The dull serration bludgeoned and cut into the flesh around her eye, sending electric jolts of pain all through her head. The sound of her own voice was foreign, so terrified and loud as it pierced the sickly atmosphere, filling the room with its painful volume.
Finally the stabbing pain of the semi-sharp knife cutting new flesh subsided, and she was left with the duller, aching pain of a newly opened wound. The pain caused her to squint her left eye shut even as she forced her right eye open, tears of pain and fear streaming down her face. Through her open eye, she saw the man who was terrorizing their guild placing a gory eyeball with chunks of flesh still attached onto a platter. And that was when it hit her. That was her eye. She wasn't closing her left eye right now, because she didn't have a left eye to close. The too-real pain flooding her senses where her left eye should be affirmed it.
Another desperate scream tore from her throat. Where was Natsu? Whenever she was in trouble in the past the pink-haired dragon slayer would show up just at the right moment. She could even live with the loss of one of her beautiful eyes if someone, anyone, would show up and save her.
"We've got an hour before I start to work on the other one. Let's have some fun, shall we?" the sing-song felt like somebody taking a hammer to the back of her mind. The pulsing pain from her left eye was becoming unbearable, so she could barely even think. She hardly recognized the terrified whimper that escaped her throat.
~~~~~~Fairy Tail~~~~~~
Natsu cursed as the platter was opened, revealing another eye. Another victim, and they were no closer to finding the perpetrator than the first time he struck. "There's no way he's getting away with this shit!" He yelled, his fist raised in the air. "This is Fairy Tail he's messing with, and we will find him!"
Gray couldn't stand watching the dragon slayer, spouting off more nonsense about what he would do when they finally caught the guy. For the first few days the dragon slayer's frequent reminders of who Fairy Tail was gave him hope. But now they were little more than an annoyance. Gray was smart enough to know when they lost. They needed to stop focusing on finding this creep and figure out how they were going to stay alive and keep him from taking any more of them.
Lucy realized it, and now she was gone. A vivid memory came to his mind of her face in those final hours before her disappearance. Her eyes, devoid of that sparkle they used to light up his world with, darting back and forth wildly. Her lips trembling, curved neither downward to a frown, nor up into a smile. Cringing back into herself as though she could escape the world…
She'd tried to make a run for it. He had no doubt about it now. Natsu protested, saying Lucy would never run. But Natsu always was naïve. Gray chuckled bitterly as he looked at the dragon slayer, knowing it was that same naivety that gave him hope, that made him believe they could still catch this criminal and bring him to justice.
A few still seemed infected with his spirit. Gajeel, Levy, Mirajane, Erza. Of course Erza would be. Like Natsu, she never knew when to give up. She didn't know when it was time to admit defeat. So, like Natsu, she would never change her focus to just surviving this ordeal.
Gajeel was understandable too. His iron brain was too stubborn to know when it was outmatched. And Levy naturally had faith in her boyfriend.
But Gray couldn't understand Mira. The good natured barmaid proved on many occasions that she was more intelligent and pragmatic than that bunch, but she, like them, held on to the hope that the creep would be brought to justice.
Blind fools, all of them.
Gray didn't bother going out with the search teams. They'd all put their heads together and decided to use some kind of amplification magic to increase the dragon slayers' sensitive hearing and smell, but he knew it was useless. The guy they were dealing with obviously knew that they couldn't find him, or he never would have issued this challenge. He wanted them to feel like they had a chance. To pretend that they could outwit him till the very moment that he captured them and tore them apart piece by piece in his lair.
He wasn't at all surprised when Lucy's second eye arrived on a platter, like the first.
~~~~~~Lucy~~~~~~
"Now this is what I love," the sing-song voice echoed in her ears, feeding the madness that was beginning to take her mind. The ache where her left eye used to be was nothing compared to the stabbing pain that was now all that remained of her right eye.
Her voice, already hoarse from 2 hours of non-stop screaming and whimpering, stabbed her vocal cords as it proceeded in raspy, terrified cries. She didn't want to know what came next. She wanted to believe that Natsu was coming to save her. That Fairy Tail was coming to save her, but her mind could only comprehend one thing. Pain. It was her new world, and she wished now for the only way of escape.
Suddenly something pressed against the pit where her left eye used to be. It almost felt like an extremely thick, long finger, poking her in the eye. No, definitely too large to be a finger. The side of it was rubbed alongside her face, and went almost the entire length. She also felt a soft, wrinkled sack against her chin.
Another scream tore the inside of her throat as the realization hit her. The large, hard object that she now knew was a penis began moving along her face, the tip of it ramming into the hole that used to be her left eye. She knew the tears would be cascading in waterfalls if her tear glands hadn't been cut out of her head with the rest of her eyes, but he had denied her even that.
Then, blessedly, the sexual organ was pulled away from her mutilated face. Her relief was short lived, though, as she suddenly felt a pressure against her cavity. Then there was a forceful push, and she felt him break through her barrier in a single thrust. She screamed in pain, her inner walls dry as sandpaper against him, but her unwillingness seemed only to increase his arousal. She felt him begin thrusting, and whimpered and screamed with each movement.
This went on for a few minutes before he pulled out again, and she heard him move to his table. Was it already time for the next piece of her to be cut and sent off? No. It couldn't be. Her sense of time wasn't that far gone yet.
Suddenly her mouth was forced open, and something cold and hard was pushed into the side, keeping her jaw open wide. What was this sick creep up to now? She had only a moment to wonder, as suddenly he thrust himself into her open mouth.
"Can't have you biting now," he said in a sing song as she felt his tip hit the back of her throat. His dick was coated in her blood, and there was nothing she could do to escape the sickening metallic taste. She tried to shut her mouth against him, but her jaw couldn't close against whatever he'd wedged into her teeth. She could close her lips, but she knew that would only make it better for him.
She couldn't even scream as she gagged on his dick, which was hitting the back of her throat hard now with each thrust. Then he stopped, again, and she prepared herself, wondering what was to be next.
The answer came in the form of a sudden pressure against her asshole. Then pain again as he pushed himself quickly all the way in. She screamed again as his dick tore her rectum, as he pumped it in and out she felt nothing but pain. She only wanted it to end. This whole, miserable existence that was called life right now. She just wanted out. If only she could free a hand, she wouldn't even try to get loose now. She wouldn't try to exact revenge. She would find one of his knives and use it to slit her own throat.
After several moments, he pulled back out again, and then to her horror she felt his dick against her face. A moment later he thrust back into her mouth, his dick still coated with her blood, and now with her feces from being inside her ass. She gagged and coughed, trying again to struggle against the chains that bound her.
Then he withdrew again. She wondered why for a moment, but quickly got her answer as a warm, gooey liquid splashed out over her face, some landing in her eye sockets and some in her mouth.
~~~~~~Fairy Tail, Some Time Later~~~~~~
Natsu, Wendy, and Erza came back exhausted from their latest search. Once again they checked everything in Magnolia, leaving no cellar unsearched. No sound uninvestigated. But in the end it was fruitless. They were unable to find Lucy, and now the final hour was drawing near.
They were almost back to the guild when the rain started, cold and wet it cascaded over them, unrelenting in its quest to make their night even more dreary. Natsu sighed, using his fire to evaporate the water as it got near him, and to help keep the others warm. Maybe Mira's team had more luck than they did.
Somehow mustering his optimism, he kicked the doors open in his signature entrance. A quick scan of the room revealed the same atmosphere they were used to coming back to now. Everyone was looking down, away, or in some other way acting as though hope was completely gone. And in a table near the bar sat the guild's resident water mage, and, Natsu quickly realized, the reason for the sudden change in the weather.
The blue haired water mage sat there bawling, her head in her arms which were sprawled out on the table in front of her. Another scan of the room made it easy for Natsu to discern the cause of her distress. The ice stripper, who stayed behind to help protect the guild on their last outing, wasn't among those gathered in the room.
*CLANG* They'd arrived just in time for the delivery of another body part. One of the last they would see of Lucy before the final delivery of her dead body, or some mutated form of it.
As Mira lifted the platter to confirm, they suddenly heard sound from the platter near the finger. A sickening, sing-song voice spoke.
"Hello Fairies. You should all be back from your searching by now. I know it's a long wait before I start on your next guild member, so I sent you this to entertain you. Enjoy!"
As Natsu listened, he heard slow, steady breathing coming from the lacrima that he now saw in the middle of the platter. This was obviously a sound lacrima, but what was the purpose? What did he want them to hear?
Suddenly the breathing paused, and there was a gasp. Then a small, scared voice broke out into the guild.
"Mommy? Daddy? Uncle Natsu?"
Natsu felt his heart sink as his stomach churned within him. That fucking bastard dared send a sound recording?
The voice started again, this time in more of a panic. "Who are you? What are you doing?! Uncle Natsu! Mommy! Daddy!" Sobbing, uncontrollable sobbing. Then a long, heart-wrenching scream.
"TURN IT OFF!" Bisca screamed, and Natsu could see the tears spilling from her face. He could feel stray tears leaking from his own eyes. He felt his fingernails digging into his palms as his fists clenched at his sides. His breath was caught in his throat, and pure red flashed through his mind, obstructing all thoughts or emotions besides pure rage.
"I can't…" Lisanna's small voice cut into his world of anger, anchoring him to the reality that they were still in the guild. "There's no off button!"
The screaming continued, with sobs and pleas for mommy, daddy, or uncle Natsu to save her. Natsu saw Bisca fall to the floor, her body shaking with sobs, while Alzack glared at the lacrima, his eyes and lips set in a hard line. Natsu could tell that the man was using pure rage to hold grief back.
Suddenly there was an explosion, and the screaming and wailing stopped. Everyone looked to see Mirajane in her Halphas form and the area where the lacrima had been totally destroyed.
"I know Fairies don't kill," she said, her voice quiet and menacing as she looked at the empty space where the platter, Lucy's ear, and the lacrima had been a moment ago. "But when we find this guy I'll tear him limb from limb and make sure there's nothing left of him for them to find."
Natsu agreed with her whole heartedly.
~~~~~~2 Days, 6 Hours Later~~~~~~
Natsu and Erza were back again, after another long and fruitless effort to find the killer that was taking the guild one by one. After Gray, Romeo had been taken. Then the latest to go was Lisanna.
Erza frowned, hoping it didn't take them too much longer to find this creep. Whoever he was, he knew how to hide really well. She could recall all too clearly Mira's face when Lisanna was discovered to be missing. Mirajane, one of the last remaining members who would still go out with her and Natsu. Her beautiful hair ragged and wet from the non-stop rain. Her eyes hollow and broken. Her cheeks stained with tears.
Erza shook her head. She didn't want to remember the demon of Fairy Tail that way. But she'd already lost her sister once. To lose her again, and in such a horrible way… Erza couldn't even imagine.
"I couldn't protect any of them…"
Natsu's words cut into her thoughts like a knife, and she looked up at the dragon slayer. "You can't give up hope Natsu! We'll find this guy soon!"
"Yeah, maybe," Natsu said, flashing her a sad mockery of his old toothy grin. "But I won't. I know I'm not smart like everyone else… I'm just gonna' hold you all back. Which is why…" He smiled softly at her. "The only thing I can do is buy you more time."
"Natsu, what are you?—"
Before she could finish her question, the dragon slayer lit his hands and feet on fire. "HEY YOU SON OF A BITCH!" He yelled. "I HOPE YOU'RE FUCKING WATCHING, CAUSE I'M ABOUT TO GET AWAY FROM YOU! I'M BREAKING YOUR RULES AND LEAVING THIS FUCKING LOUSY TOWN BEHIND!"
With those words he started running full sprint toward the train station, as Erza felt her heart almost stop within her. "Natsu you idiot!" She yelled, moving to run after him. But she was too late. He was suddenly enveloped in a shroud of darkness, and when it receded, the pink-haired dragon slayer was gone.
Erza fell to the streets of Magnolia tears filling her eyes. She couldn't believe he was gone! And she didn't even have time to tell him about her developing feelings. Her heart left with him, leaving a gaping hole where he should be. And all she could do was cry. Cry and wish that somehow, someway, she could save him.
It's not over yet… That voice – that infuriating, endearing, optimistic voice whispered in the back of her mind, as though the dragon slayer was still right there with her. Right. It wasn't over yet. She still had 18 hours before the fiend started work on Natsu, and she would figure out exactly how to catch him in that time.
Getting up, she went quickly to find the guild's resident bookworm. Between the two of them they could figure something out.
So there's chapter 3. Drop a review plz
