Love in hell

The turning point

Blood. Blood everywhere. The only thing that remained of this once beautiful town was nothing but rubble. Dead bodies dotted the previously peaceful street and that just made the task of looking for clues harder than it already was for Erza. The only thing that the blood helped with was resurfacing unwanted memories.

"You guys find anything yet?" A voice called out from behind her. Jake.

"No. At least nothing that could be of any help." Laxus called out from somewhere amidst the ruins. "What about you Erza?"

"No." She replied, running her hands through her hair in frustration. It had been a week since she and Laxus began their quest, and still they were not able to find anything that would be of any use. And the fact that they had a council man constantly following them around as an "escort" wasn't really improving her mood.

Within the course of the past week they had already investigated all the towns and villages that had been previously attacked and were now in a town that was targeted just 3 days ago. Even after spending almost every night reviewing reports about the attacks, Erza was not able to find any connections whatsoever between the villages, much to her dismay.

After another 2 hours of thorough searching, the trio decided to head back to their hotel. Partly because they wanted to see if the council had sent in any more reports and partly because Jake was hungry. By the time they were able to find a carriage that wasn't ridiculously expensive, these drivers must be crazy if they believe that 500 Jewels was a reasonable price for a 15 minutes ride, it was already sun down.

"I'm so hungry I could eat a Wyvern." Jake complained. "Can we please stop at a fast food restaurant before we get to the hotel? It's past dinner time too."

"Alright" Erza replied "but didn't you guys have burgers last night? You boys keep up this kind of diet and you'll die of heart diseases in no time." She said sternly.

Jake goofily smiled at her before replying. "We are all wizards here which basically means we have to have a lot of energy to fight. And besides, like they say 'People who love to eat are the best.'"

But before she could say anything they heard an ear piercing scream. The carriage came into an abrupt stop and the horses began whinnying. The driver.

Instinctively all three of them jumped out and got into battle stances only to find the driver kneeling on the road next to a body of a young woman wearing tattered clothes covered in blood. Erza kneeled down near the body and checked for a pulse while laxus asked the driver what happened.

"I didn't run her over! I swear! I thought I saw something on the road so switch on my flash light only to see that body lying on the ground! I've never seen a dead body in my life so that's why I screamed! Please believe me!" he pleaded to the two boys.

"We believe you. Ok? So just calm down. We will take it from here." Jake told the man.

Erza didn't pay much attention to the conversation after that. When she was looking for a pulse she didn't find anything at first but then she left a weak throb against her fingers. Breathing a sigh of relief she then checked the woman body for any wounds. Mostly, all she could find were a few bruises and scratches but then she noticed a large stab wound on the girls side. Erza looked up and motioned to the boys to carry her to the carriage.

"I can feel a faint pulse but her wound seems really bad. She has already lost a lot of blood so we need to hurry and take her to the hospital in the town." She explained while Laxus laid the girl down on the seats. The girl winced and muttered something incoherently.

Jake quickly took off his jackets and tore a large strip from it and handed it to Erza who promptly bound the girls' wounds. Once she was done all of them crowded on the opposite seat. Waiting patiently.

While they were waiting Erza stole a glance at Jake, remembering how annoying she thought he was in the past week. He always made sarcastic comments and played pranks on them. Once he even switched the shaving cream with whipped cream (god knows how he managed to pull that off) and when Laxus tried to use it he nicked his cheek (as he always does) and cursed violently at the stinging pain it causes him. Well, that one she found kind of funny and laughed along with Jake till her sides hurt but it wasn't even half as funny when he switched her shampoo with mayonnaise (seriously, how does he do that?). Yet he was always helpful and kind, well not so much the latter, and was very good at his job. He was also very much secretive, not that she wanted to pry. She understood more than anyone that there were some things that couldn't be told out loud to just every random person you meet. But there wasn't much that she knew about Jake, except for his full name, age and occupation.

Her train of thoughts were interrupted as the girl lying in front of her began to stir. Her eyebrows furrowed in pain as she once mumbled in her sleep. Erza was able to catch only one word. And that one word was enough to send shivers down her spine.

"Zeref."