The Playboy of Fairy Tail High

The Halloween Dance - Part 2

I struggle to slowly blink open my eyes in the blackness of the smoke. Every part of my body feels hot and sore, and when I try to stand up I find that I can't move my legs. Around me, it looks like everything fell apart- curtains and designs fell down, table cloths and furniture went up in flames. I didn't black out before, but everything was so overwhelming, and I reach around myself. I'm still stuck behind the DJ booth, near where the fire started, and it looks like a giant black speaker fell on me, the stand crushing my legs. Slowly, my senses return to me.

"-ry! Get everyone out of here!" I hear an unidentifiable voice call. I peer through the wall of flames at the shadows of people running for their lives. Boys and girls calling for their friends or dates, helping one another out.

"Juvia, Gray!" A familiar voice calls out, giving me hope. For what exactly, I don't know, but I try to call out to her.

"Ca-na...!" My voice croaks and the sound comes out broken and quiet. I would be surprised if someone next to me could have heard that.

Her voice reaches me through the flames again, "Natsu, get it together!" Oh my god, Natsu! I sit up, trying to free myself to reach him. He must be going crazy right now! And I'm the only one who can help him! I have to reach him, I have to...

"-have to go! I... Luce... the," Natsu seems to be babbling nonsensical words to Cana. Again, I try to move the speaker, or look for something that could help me, when my hand lands on something familiar and unburnt. I pick it up and bring it in front of me.

"Ah!" I exclaim out loud, this time a little more audibly. It's the jewelry box Lisanna threw over the edge! But this is no time to open it, I've got to get to Natsu!

"Luce?! Lucy, is that you?" His frantic voice is the only thing I hear. The pain and fear interlaced in his words stab me in the heart, and I wish with every fiber of my being that I could just appear next to him and give him a hug. "Luce, if you can hear me... say something! Call out! Anything!" He sounds so desperate... so upset.

"I... I'm here, Nat-su! *cough* Over... here," I tuck the box into the corset top of my dress and again work on freeing my legs from the speaker.

"Lucy!!!" Natsu's voice grows a little stronger, and I see a figure come closer to me.

"The fire department's here, Natsu! Come back," Cana calls.

"No!" He grunts through clenched teeth. "I'm... getting... Luce... out of here!" I smile at his words, but quickly scream at the sound of a wooden beam falling somewhere around me. "LUCY!" Natsu must have spotted something, because his voice grows stronger as he approaches where I'm trapped.

Fire surrounds me on all sides, and I'm crying tears from the gas and from relief as I look up at him. "Nat...su..."

"I'm here Lucy, I'm here..." He crawls under a beam on fire to reach me, and wraps me in a huge embrace. I feel his own wet tears on my shoulder and neck as he holds me tight. "I'm here, Luce."

"We- we have to get out of here," I croak. "The... speaker," I motion to my legs. Natsu stands up, and with his added strength we get the speaker and the stand off of me, just for it to spark as it lands in flames. I struggle to stand up, just to fall onto Natsu.

"Here- I got you." He gives me support, and I lean on his shoulder. "I've just... got to make a path for us to get out of here." Since the DJ booth was in the back of the room, we're pretty much cornered against a burning wall. I can't even begin to imagine how the rest of the room looks right now.

I point over to a piece of wood that's slowly burning, "Natsu, if you *cough* move that, it should... open a space..."

"Oh... Oh! Got it, don't worry Luce." Natsu makes sure I'm able to stand before moving to break the wood. He kicks it over and over again, trying to clear a path. Finally, the wood breaks and falls to one side, freeing the smallest of crawl spaces. "You first, Luce," Natsu coughs. The smoke must finally be getting to him.

"Fire Department! Is everyone ok?" We hear a man call out. The sirens from outside make their way into our raw ears.

"Luce, now!" Natsu helps push me through the hole, and into the arms of an unsuspecting firefighter. He looks down at me in surprise, and calls over the others.

"Back... there!" I call out as they try to put me on a gurney. "Nat... su... Help Natsu!" They strap me down to the gurney and put an oxygen mask over my face, all the while I struggle to get back to my savior. Natsu, the boy with the fear of fire, who overcame it just to save me. Natsu, the boy still trapped in that cage of fire...

"There's... there's one more! Over here!" The man calls out. I sigh in relief as he walks over carrying Natsu's limp body. His spiky pink hair is singed at the ends, but his chest still moves up and down as they also give him a mask. My body rocks and my vision sways as they carry us out to the ambulances, but the only thing I can focus on is trying to reach Natsu so I can hold his hand with my own.