A/N: Thanks for favouring and reviewing! You guys are amazing :D

So yeah, even though this chapter is essential for the plot I still kind of hate it (but hooray it's short). But I guess that's because there will be so much yummy and evil stuff coming up later and I truly love those parts *puts her black cloak on and laughs like a crazy villain*

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.

Chapter 3: Creeping Shadows

He kept running. Just running. Natsu knew he should stop at some point soon because his body was practically screaming for a break. The muscles in his legs was aching painfully and it was getting harder to get enough oxygen to sustain his burning lunges. But he didn't want to stop. He had to find Lucy. The adrenaline level in his body was at its maximum and because of that he could ignore the pain and keep running. Heck, he could even ignore the dizziness and his headache, that now felt like a mere memory from something that happened ages ago. But he also knew that there would be a price to pay once he stopped running and it would most likely hurt like hell leaving him breathless and weak. In spite of this he didn't stop. Natsu kept running through the cave searching high and low but all he had found so far was empty space and rocks. And this made him even more furious and frustrated because he desperately needed something, anything, that could prove that she was alive. Of course he had faith in her ability to fight and he knew that she could keep herself alive with her own powers. But what if...? If the opponent was stronger then there was a slight possibility that she was hurt. Or in the worst case scenario dead already. He couldn't know that for sure since he hadn't sensed her since he entered this damn cave. This could of course be a good thing as well because she might have left already or maybe... no, he couldn't risk thinking like that at the moment.

Natsu was so consumed in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the huge gap in the cave's floor until he felt his feet slip on the edge, making him curse furiously as he felt himself getting airborne for a few seconds. Fortunately for him he managed to turn around mid-air just in time to grab a piece of rock, he could use as a catalyst to throw himself back up and thereby avoid falling deeper down into the cave's maze.

"Ghh!" he exclaimed as his body collided with the cave floor. Normally he would have gotten back on his feet right away after pulling such a stunt. Hell, he might even have landed on his feet instead of using his back as a cushion.

"Damn it..." he said in a low voice barely above a whisper as he felt the backlash from running around recklessly, hit him with full force.

Panting he laid on his back while staring at his black surroundings. When he was running he had used his flames as torches but after nearly falling into the depths he had turned them off. There was no need in wasting too much of his magic when he wasn't searching. Besides there wasn't anything interesting to look at in the cave. In fact the only thing he saw in there was rocks, rocks and even more rocks. There was no hint of other animals, plants or even water. Now that he thought about it that was rather strange because even in the worst conditions nature always seemed to adapt somehow. Even if it was in a minor degree like bugs or something like that. But there was nothing. Just nothing... no life... just him... all alone... in this cold isolated cave... the thought made him think of Igneel and the time after he vanished. Leaving a small and crying dragon slayer alone to face the world.

Natsu felt his heart skip a beat as a rather unpleasant feeling rushed through his stomach, making it clench in pain for a few seconds. The pain from back then was still there just lurking under the surface waiting for someone to acknowledge it's existence. It was a part of him that he wanted to ignore because it was an unreasonable feeling he couldn't do anything about. But even if he told himself that and even if his own rationality could conquer it on a normal basis, it didn't help the fact that sometimes this feeling would consume him, like a bad dream waiting to assault his mind. He wasn't a melancholic person and it wasn't like the painful feeling haunted him every time he was alone. But sometimes... sometimes there was a small crack in his normally strong façade that showed the pain he felt deep in his soul. If the conditions were right it would surface... and unfortunately for Natsu the isolated feeling in the cave combined with exhaustion made this smaller part of his personality to reappear.

Gritting his teeth Natsu placed his hands above his eyes as if he wanted to shield the pain reflecting in them from the world to see. He felt something wet and sticky drip on his cheek before it slowly rolled down his face, landing on the floor with a thud. The smell of it was metallic and he knew without watching that the wounds on his wrists was bleeding again which was now causing small streaks of blood to appear on his cheeks.

Laying there he felt a sudden urge to laugh. He didn't know why because there wasn't anything to laugh about in his situation...

The feeling vanished all of a sudden replacing the weird feeling with another wave of sorrow that made his stomach twitch painfully again for a few seconds.

"Damn it..." he whispered in a broken voice before taking in a deep breath to settle his raging emotions. It took some time but eventually he calmed down. In a way it could be quite peaceful laying in silence just listening to the sound of himself exhaling and inhaling in a steady rhythm.

He wasn't sure how long he laid there. As a matter of fact he might even have dozed off at some point but he couldn't be sure.

"Ohh... are you a vampire?"

Natsu didn't sense anyone so he was startled by the voice suddenly appearing from out of nowhere. Not that he allowed that to have an impact on his judgement as he almost instantly got into a standing position with both hands ignited prepared to strike at any moment. His muscles were still tense from running, but his break had done a lot to ease the pain. Besides his body was filled with rage because he instantly recognised the voice belonging to the silhouette thingy he had encountered before. Unfortunately it was just like the last time where he couldn't pinpoint the thing's location due to lack of presence.

"Where the fuck are you?" he hissed between gritted teeth.

"Mmm... you have sharp canines... so you are a vampire, huh?" the voice teased.

"Stop messing with me! I'm not a fucking vampire!"

"Now, now there's no need to get angry... I just thought you might be a vampire seeing you crying blood and all..."

Growling Natsu turned around trying to pinpoint where the unknown person was, but because of the cave's echo and acoustics it sounded like the voice came from a lot of different directions. To make matters worse he still couldn't sense anything coming from the person, nor could he see anything that might be the person's aura. In a way it should creep him out because normal people would always give away some sort of presence besides their voice. But with this thing there wasn't anything.

For a second he saw something quickly flash in the corner of his eyes making him turn in it's

direction. But as quickly as the movement spawned it disappeared.

"Just show yourself already!"

Another movement caught his attention making him turn in a new direction. This time he definitely saw something. But what was it? It was... dark... as if the shadows was moving on their own account. But he couldn't be sure because the movement was gone a second after it appeared.

Suddenly a small childish laugh started echoing through the caves sending an involuntarily chill down his spine while he kept turning around frantically, determined to find the thing's location.

Igniting his hands with a wider flame, he noticed a movement behind him again but as soon as he turned around it was gone... again!

The situation made the dragon slayer furious, making him take a few deep breaths before yelling in a very menacing voice "Who ever you are show yourself! Only a coward hides in the shadows!"

The childish laughter stopped but other than that nothing seemed to happen, leaving a very angry dragon slayer surrounded by silence. Gritting his teeth he kept turning and looking for something that might reveal the thing's presence but nothing seemed to happen.

All of a sudden the childish laugh appeared again, this time it sounded like it was right behind him. Turning around he stared at the cave's wall. It was almost invisible to the naked eye but there was definitely something there in the shadows. But what? For some reason the shadows on the wall seemed to tremble. How could a shadow tremble?

"What the fuck are you..." he said while narrowing his eyes in the shadows direction, that started to tremble even more before taking the form of something that looked like a human silhouette. As it took form Natsu noticed it was the same height as he was and even though he couldn't be sure it looked like a man. Of course he couldn't be sure because it was still rather blurry.

Slowly the shadow seemed to take a more steady form and it almost surprised him when the thing grinned deviously towards him, revealing a shinning set of teeth with very sharp canines.

"Tsch! Finally you show yourself! Now you're gonna tell me what I need to know..."

The shadow creature started laughing hysterically in a high pitched voice before whispering "Do you want to play with me?"

"No I don't want to play with you! I..."

Still laughing the silhouette started reaching a hand towards Natsu. It was a weird sight especially because the black shadows the hand was made off, slowly started to vaporised from the tip of the fingers and further down the hand revealing a physical form underneath the shadows.

Shocked Natsu stared at the process while almost gagging from the stench that came from the now revealed hand. It was reeking of something rotten and looking at the hand it was hardly surprising because it looked as if the hand was decaying. Or at least the meat was. That is, where there was still meat on the hand. In some places some of the flesh had fallen off revealing glistening bones which were spattered with dried blood.

Natsu had to take a step back because of the foul stench "Ugh, who and what are you?"

The shadow started laughing again while opening and closing the rotten hand.

"Come on Naaaatsu... play with me..."

All of a sudden two eyes became visible in the shadows shining red and menacingly towards the dragon slayer.

Annoyed with the whole situation Natsu growled before clenching his fists "I don't have time for this"

"Ohh, yes you do..."

"No! I have to find Lucy then I'm getting the hell out of this damn cave! But before that I will get some answers even if I have to kick your rotten ass!"

The shadow chuckled as it pointed a finger towards Natsu. It then started humming making Natsu growl with fury.

"Mmm, I would growl too if I had pink hair..."

"You son of a..." Natsu sweared before raising his arm getting ready to attack.

"The bitch is dead"

Stopping in his tracks he glared at the shadow defiantly before yelling "You're lying!"

"Am I? Hmm... I could show you... would you like to see it?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Natsu glared intently into the shadow's red eyes determined to find any lead that could send him in Lucy's direction. Normally he could determine his counterpart's feelings and intentions if he exchanged fists with them but that wasn't necessary with the shadow thing. It was clear as day from the way the eyes shone that the person or thing in front of him was utterly insane.

"Answer me, or I..." for some reason Natsu froze. He tried continuing his sentence but his tongue wouldn't move. Neither would the rest of his body. All of his body felt numb as if it was sedated with something.

Slowly something cold and unpleasant started crawling up his leg inch by inch. He wanted to look down to see what it was but he couldn't. Instead he kept staring into the shadow's glistening eyes.

Natsu could feel his pulse starting to race faster while a weird panicking feeling started consuming him. He wasn't the sort of person that would usually panic but there was something about the thing that slowly consumed him that felt horribly wrong. It almost felt like death clawing it's long, sickly nails inside of his soul one tiny piece at a time. He wanted to roar in frustration and anger but for some reason he couldn't.

The unpleasant thing that was consuming him was slowly reaching his face and as it did the panicking feeling started to escalate making him hive for air. His pulse was thundering through his body making a drumming sound to thunder in an even, but uncomfortable way inside of his skull. As if the thing consuming him could feel his panic, it seemed to lower it's pace as it slowly inched as some sort of liquid across his cheek until it reached his eyes.

Suddenly everything surrounding Natsu vanished. Everything was covered in black but fortunately the creepy feeling vanished, and suddenly he found himself able to move again. Not that there was anything he could do because everything surrounding him was black emptiness. Furious he tried igniting his hands to get a good look at his surroundings but nothing happened. For some reason he couldn't use his magic.

All of a sudden he felt a cold breath against his neck followed by a hissing voice whispering

"I'll show you and then you'll play with me... forever!"

Growling he turned around to stare at the shadow but it wasn't there. Instead an overwhelming wind suddenly spawned hitting him head-on making him stumble for a second. The wind started to escalate in power making Natsu raise his arms in front of him, trying to protect himself from the wind.

What was that?

Narrowing his eyes he looked between his arms. There was a tiny light in the distance. It was small but for some reason it felt. Warm? Actually for a second he thought he recognised the light as something good and pleasant but he didn't have a rational explanation for that.

The light seemed to intensify in strength until it reached Natsu's body, bathing him in a warm engulfing light. Even if the light was a pleasant thing to replace the suffocating darkness it was so intense and bright that he had to close his eyes. Almost immediately after closing them the light vanished. As it did he heard footsteps followed by a familiar voice calling for him.

Startled he lowered his arms and stared in front of him with eyes wide open.

"Lucy?"

A/N: Dun-dun-duuuu! Anyone else thought about zombies when reading about the hand? I hate zombies... zombies are scary...

So... If you felt the urge to hug Natsu so far, let me just tell you "you ain't seen nothing yet". Especially when you read the next chapter... I'm so evil but I love it... but you'll see why when I publish it.

Anyhow, this is Hejmdal sneaking away while chuckling underneath her black cloak...