Chapter 4

Elsewhere, a man can be heard humming in the dark as a lamp and candle give him light as he holds a newspaper from the netherworld. He had dark skin, wild long blue hair, wore heavy leather boots with chains hanging on each side, torn up baggy blank pants and white button shirt that he left unbuttoned, revealing his muscular body.

The man began reading the headlines and read, "Damn sandworms! 13% incidents. Well, who cares about them. I better find a job that will help me get out of here." The man flips the page that shows the obituaries.

A family picture of Gray and Juvia appears and despite a few couples he saw in the obituaries, this family who call themselves the Fullbuster's is what caught his eyes.

The man made a grin, revealing his razor dragon-like teeth as he made an evil chuckle. "Well, what do we have here? Looks like the Fullbusters have gone six feet under. A nice couple. Looks like this could be a good opportunity for me." He laughed once more as he began scheming something he had in mind.

3 weeks had already passed since their death and there was not much Gray and Juvia could do, except doing the same boring routine, cleaning up around their house and watching TV. However, the more time Juvia spent inside this house, the more stir crazy she was becoming.

On a typical morning, Gray was in the bedroom, with his shirt off and was barefoot as he began flipping through the TV channels. Juvia was dusting the room. Ever since those 3 weeks, not much has happened, not since the funeral.

The funeral happened about a week ago and Gray and Juvia couldn't exactly see what was going on, except from a distance.

As Juvia kept dusting and dusting out of frustration, some dust got in her face as she grunted and sat on the floor as she put her hands on her face. Juvia felt like she couldn't take this anymore.

"Getting cabin fever, Juvia?" Gray asked her.

Sitting down on the floor with her legs and hands crossed, Juvia replied, "There isn't anything to do around here. I can't clean anything I can't reach. The vacuum is out in the garage and we can't get it without leaving the house, which we can't do." She grabbed the handbook on the drawer looking through it for answers. "Why doesn't this book tell us anything we need to know? Why are we the only dead people in this world?"

"Hey, I'm not too concerned about it," Gray said, continuing to flip through channels. "We should think of this as heaven."

Juvia sighed. "Well, in my heaven I wouldn't have to worry about dusting."

Gray went to sit next to Juvia on the floor. "Look, Juvia, we can't change what happened. I wasn't expecting to die. But on the bright side, we don't have to worry about anything. No paying bills, no worrying about what to wear at a party, or being concerned about what we're going have to eat."

"Dear, I'm not like you," Juvia told him. "I really need to be around people. I need to be in church and go grocery shopping. I just need something to happen where I'm not confined."

Then they heard a small noise that sounded like a car honking. Opening the window to see who it was, Gray and Juvia recognized the car belonging to their dear friend, Meredy.

"It's Meredy," Gray realized.

"What is she doing here?" Juvia wondered.

"I'm not sure," Gray said, a bit puzzled himself. He started waving at the window and shouted, "Hey, Meredy, up here! Meredy! Hey!" But no matter how many times Gray try to get her attention, she can't see him as she walks back to the car.

Looking through the handbook, Juvia said, "She can't see you, can't she?"

Gray shakes his head, replying, "No."

As Juvia flips through the pages as she lays on the boot, taking her shoes off, Juvia says, "According to rule number two in the book, the living usually won't see the dead."

Gray scratched his head, even more confused what that sentence meant. "That doesn't make any sense. Which is it? Won't or can't?"

Continuing to flip through the pages, Juvia said, "It just says won't… wait a minute." One sentence in the book caught her attention as she read it out loud to Gray. "It says right here that the living are arrogant and think they'll never die, so they refuse to see the dead."

"Arrogant," Gray repeated and realized that sums up who Meredy was. "Yep. That's Meredy alright."

Juvia sighs and nods. "Either way, I'll miss having her around." The two of them sat in bed together, watching TV.

Meredy drove away from the Fullbuster's house, passing a sign that held a small banner across it that read: SOLD! Despite the objection of her now deceased friends, Meredy had in fact sold the house.