Love Me Not (Gale) {Fairy Tail FF}

Chapter Ten

~Levy~

“Get some rest,” Nathaniel commanded, fastening my chains to their previous hooks in my prison room. I had been secretly hoping that he would make me work all night—I didn't want to return to the dark, cold room in which I was being kept.

“Is there any way I can get a candle or something?” I asked, looking at him with a hopeful expression.

“No,” he answered, coldly.

“But--” Before I could finish, he had left the room. I heard the slam of the metal door, and the clicking of several locks as he trapped me inside. Not even the light source from before remained, so I was left in complete darkness. I couldn't even see my shaking hands when I lifted them mere inches in front of my face.

Calm down Levy. Ever since I was small, I had been afraid of the dark. After the incident with Gajeel during the war with Phantom Lord, those fears had increased. I didn't like to think about that night, and being alone in such a dark place brought back those awful memories—despite my trying to ignore them.

~Gajeel~

“We should head back now,” Makoto sighed. We had been searching for nearly thirty minutes, and still hadn't been able to find anything. If those two told us the wrong town, I'll kill them when I get back to Magnolia! The sun overhead had begun to set, turning the sky a brilliant pinkish orange color. We're running out of daylight. It's going to be hard to search in the dark. Although I knew that, I wasn't going to give up. The longer Levy was with those bastards, the more danger she was in.

“Erza and the others are probably waiting,” Lily said. His tug on my pants brought me out of my thoughts, and I nodded before following him. As we walked towards the train station, I caught a glimpse of green out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see what it was, and immediately took off in that direction when I spotted the fish. An old woman was hanging the sign back up—it looked as though someone had kicked it in half. My stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought.

“Hey!” I called, approaching the woman. Her expression was hard as she frowned at me, never backing down as I came closer. “Have you seen a girl who looks like this?” I held up the drawing of Levy that Reedus had made, hoping I would get the answer I wanted to hear.

“No,” she snapped, turning her back to me and going into the shop.

“Listen,” I snapped, following her, “I know she was here. She used your lacrima to contact our guild.”

“You listen,” she said, gruffly, before turning and pointing a finger in my face, “I ain't seen no girl like that, so beat it! And even if I had, why should I tell a trouble-maker like you? How do I know you aren't trying to hurt her or somethin'?”

“You--” I was interrupted by Makoto and Lily barging into the shop.

“Has she seen her?” Makoto asked.

I turned back to the old woman, “tell us who took her from here.”

“I told you that I ain't seen nothin'!” She snapped. “If you don't get out of my shop, I'll--”

“I'm sorry,” Makoto said, interrupting her, “but what happened to your shelves?” He pointed to several broken pieces of wood, and broken merchandise laying scattered across the floor of the shop. I also noticed a shattered lacrima among the rubble, and my blood ran cold.

“None of your business. Leave, or I'll--”

“You aren't going to call the authorities on us,” Makoto said, shaking his head. “However, I'm sure they would be very interested to come here and take a look around—seeing as how you have a lot of black market merchandise. I believe we will be the least of their worries if you were to call them. Or, were you talking about the dark guild you're in league with?” He stepped closer to her. “I'm sure the magic council would love to hear all about that.”