"….Woah."

Woah didn't even begin to describe it.

The house of the twins was huge! It wasn't the size of my 'father's' mansion from my dream, but still! Enormous! The lawn was covered with teenagers dancing and having fun. Everyone was in costume, most had a red solo cup in their hands, and a few had already passed out. The music was so loud that I could feel every beat making vibrations in the air. Lights pulsed and strobed from the inside and all around. Beside me, Erza simply nodded in agreement.

"I think you're right. Woah." She said thoughtfully, her attack on titan outfit was amazing. Straps hugged her legs to attach to 3D maneuvering gear, and the wings of freedom stood out proudly on her cloak. It was an awesome and very high quality replica that made her look as though she'd crawled out of the T.V show. I was impressed! My costume was of a much different nature. I wore a ragged dress, spindly legs attached to the sides along with a thin wispy train. My face had been paled and given tiny black marks to look like cracked porcelain, and my hands had tiny sewing needles attached to them. In my hands was a small doll with blue hair, a raincoat, and button eyes. Covering my own eyes were round glasses with buttons painted onto them, and I wore a short black wig to cover my blonde hair. I was the Beldam. The monster from Coraline.

Frankly I was proud of the costume. It was very elaborate for the price that I got it at. When I walked inside next to my redheaded friend, people cleared a path for my ghoulish appearance.

"Lucy! What's up?" Loke grinned, walking up to me dressed as Gandalf. "Nice costume!"

"Thanks!" I grinned back, looking around at the chaos in the crowded room. I had to yell just to be heard over the music. "And your parents just let you guys do this?!"

"No! Are you kidding?! My parents have no idea!" He laughed loudly. "They're in France!" I stared at him. He just had a party while his parents were... why doesn't this shock me?

"Well in any case, this is awesome!" Erza smiled brightly, looking out over the crowd to look for our friends. Or should I say HER friend. Her very good friend. Her very good blue-haired possibly a wanted criminal good friend. "Have you seen Lauren and Gray yet?" She asked absently.

"No. Either they're not here yet, they're making out somewhere, or I just haven't seen 'em." He said, shaking his head, fake beard swishing with him. "Want me to go look for them?"

"Don't bother." Erza replied, shaking her head. "I'll find them eventually, I just want to know what they dressed up as." Finally there was a flash of blue hair in the crowd and Erza's face lit up. "I'll see you both later, I see someone I know!" She called, already slipping through the crowd towards her boyfriend.

"And then there were two." I laughed softly, giving Loke a nudge.

"Then there were two." He agreed with a soft laugh. "Wanna dance?" He asked me, holding out his hand. I was about to take it when a flash of pink caught my eye. Pink spikey hair that is. Natsu. I shook my head quickly, preparing to put my plan into action.

"Actually, I see someone too if you'll excuse me." I said, not waiting for his reply before vanishing into the sea of people towards where I had seen him. Not surprisingly, he already seemed rather drunk. "Natsu." I said sweetly, hoping that he wouldn't recognize me. When he turned to look at me, he seemed mildly confused but not totally out of it... yet.

"What?" He muttered, taking a sip from his cup as he eyed me up, calculating whether or not I was any trouble or not. "Who are you?"

"Not important." I said airily, hoping that he wouldn't press the matter. He didn't.

"What do you want?" He asked grouchily.

"Oh just to talk. I'm new to the school and don't really know anyone yet..." I lied smoothly, tucking a strand of my face hair behind my ear. He seemed unamused, but relaxed a little.

"So you're new huh? Don't know who I am?" He asked softly, looking down into the brown liquid in his cup.

"Yeah. I only know that your name is Natsu. One of my friends told me." I nodded, watching his expression carefully. He nodded and we began making idle conversation. Nothing overly interesting until I began to press for the more personal stuff.

"So what's got you drinking? You don't look like the type to me." I said, looking at him. He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"What kind of a question is that? I drink because I enjoy it." His eyes began flicking around the room absently and he began scratching the back of his neck.

"You're lying." I concluded. You're not meeting my eyes. That's a tell."

"Is it?"

"Yes. The truth please." I said gently, resting a hand on his arm. He seemed to relax into the touch. I couldn't help but wonder to myself just how long he had been without affection. With a soft sigh, he began to speak.

"Okay... So a long time ago some shit happened. I won't go into detail. But long story short, it's happening again. There's a girl who came back here and I never wanted to see her again. Now it's back to that hell. I guess you could say that I'm drinking with hopes of drowning in it..." He said softly. My eyes widened slightly. He was drinking because of me?! I swallowed thickly.

"Uh... What did the girl do?" I asked quietly.

"She let some really personal stuff about me slip. She's a bitch and I hate her. It's as simple as that." He growled under his breath, looking pointedly at me with a small spark of recognition in his eyes. It was clear that he had begun to get angry. Right... Time to go. I spun on my heel and began to walk away before he grabbed my arm and dragged me back into him. FUCK.

"Nice costume blondie." He hissed, yanking me back into him and tossing the wig I had been wearing to the floor, allowing my golden hair to fall down around my shoulders. "Do you really think I'm THAT gullible?!"

"I-I-I..." I stammered, trying to push him away, but the costume was much more restrictive of movement than I'd have liked. I couldn't twist or even really run as I was now.

"So what? You corner me while I'm drunk and try to get me to talk to you? Try to get me to give you some form of ammunition?!" He seemed to swell as his shouting gradually got louder, gnashing his teeth. Soon a group of his friends had gathered around him, making me feel even smaller as the back of his hand connected with my cheek and sent me seeing stars as I reeled from the impact. "You really are a bitch!" Natsu snarled, raising arm to hit me again before a pale hand caught his wrist. I glanced towards whomever was trying to help me and my jaw dropped.

"That's enough." Lauren said, dressed as Toothless with a cold look in her eye. Approaching through the crowd, Gray also seemed shellshocked. He was dressed as Hiccup. No more than 5'2, the black haired girl was giving Natsu a stare down to remember.

The pinkette seemed shocked that the shy girl even dared to approach him, releasing me in his shock and allowing me to stumble back. Into the arms of Gray who pulled me aside before moving towards his girlfriend urgently.

"You've got a lot of nerve to touch me!" Natsu snarled. "Do you need another branding to teach you that lesson?!" She held his gaze and shook her head silently. The Lauren that I knew would have burst into tears from words like that. But for some reason she showed no fear.

"You're a cruel bastard Natsu. Wow, never thought I'd use those words in a sentence. " She smirked slightly. There was something about that smirk that unnerved me. It was uncharacteristically... Cold. Frigid. As though the air temperature had actually dropped. Natsu seemed not to notice this as her grin widened and-…! And short fangs glinted where her canine teeth should have been.

"If you want to take her place again then be my guest!" He laughed cruelly, raising his fist. "Let's give that pale skin some colour!"

He realized his mistake when she blinked, her eyes changing from icy blue to bloody crimson, the pupil contracting into a slit. "Agreed. Let's stain it red." She purred in an almost seductive manner. In a flash, Natsu was no longer holding her as she twisted away, driving her knee up into his gut and giving a shove to launch him away from her. Coughing, he stumbled backwards but remained on his feet. All around him, his clique was edging him on, calling it a lucky shot and that he shouldn't be scared of the passive little bitch that he'd abused so many times before.

"Stand and fight. Hornless coward." she snarled viciously in response, adopting a battle stance that felt vaguely familiar to me as though I'd seen it before. But hornless coward? What kind of an insult was that? Again, it felt familiar, but why? The only answer that I could come up with didn't make sense! Unless...

"You'll pay for that." Natsu roared, charging at her and swinging his fist at her head. She ducked out of the way before leaping up off the ground and giving him a roundhouse kick to the back of the skull that sent him down to the ground, out like a light.

"Now see, this is why I don't drink. For one, you're off balance, for two you don't think before you swing. Jeez, you can't fight worth shit. I thought better of this Natsu." Lauren snorted, nudging him distastefully with the tip of her boot. At least our Natsu can give me a bruise or two at the end of the day. This is just... pathetic." She said, holding her head high and regal. Everyone was silent as she turned her gaze onto me, her eyes returning to normal. "Are you ready to talk to you hallucination now?" She asked, amusement in her tone as she gave a slight smirk.

She gestured for me to follow her as she began to head up to one of the spare rooms, giving a shocked Gray a peck on the cheek as she passed. There was no possible explanation for this! The eyes! her fighting! The insults! The fangs! Unless...

Unless she was a dragonslayer.

If the chapter sucks it's because I rushed writing it before a Halloween party and didn't get around to posting it until today! I'm sorry! Leave your reviews in the comments, new chapter soon. Peace out