Seeking Forgiveness (Jellal x Reader)

Chapter 18 - Part One

Two Weeks Later

You paced the living room, ignoring the way the shadows twisted and weaved throughout the house. Enveloping the house in a darkness that was unnatural midday. What was usually a light, spacious house, had become dark, the feeling of oil covering your skin as it's blanket over the room grew.

You may have shadow magic, but some things you couldn't control. Right now, the shadows were trying to whisper to you. They had been trying too for a week now. Theirs words a soft caress in the room, as the shadows tried to grasp your attention.

You breathed deeply, trying to remember how you used to get rid of it. But nothing came to mind. It grew stronger, as if it was feeding off your silence. Growing the strength each passing day to talk louder and louder.

It started out as a faint laugh, a whisper in the wind. Barely audible, so much so you thought you were hearing things. When you saw, the shadows start weaving and following you, you knew what was happening. Then you started to hear words. Whispered like a last breath in the night. Words started to form sentences. But one word constantly echoed through the many.

'Liars.'

You weren't sure what it meant, or what the shadows were trying to tell you but you wanted it to stop. You've had complete control of your magic and not using it for just over 8 years. So why was it pushing back now? What did it want? What was it trying to tell you?

You used to talk to the shadows a lot when you were younger. It was all you had. When they started to whisper back you didn't question it, or them. They helped you escape and find the old lady. They were your rock for many years and when you stopped talking to them they never pushed.

'They're all liars.'

You froze. Who were liars? Your attempts at ignoring them were a complete waste of time. They wound up and around your body. Repeating the sentence in your ears, over and over. An endless whisper. Time felt like it was frozen.

You never had a chance to ask who the liars were before the shadows quickly crept back into the darkness they came from as the door down stairs opened and many, many footsteps echoed upwards. The room was light and airy once again. No sign of the darkness that once lingered. Your heart felt heavy, your breaths and heartbeat erratic.

You quickly swallowed in the air and quickly composed yourself, the footsteps kept coming and you realised who it was. You had years of practice of doing it before. You would just have to hope the others wouldn't realise that something is wrong. Nothing has ever been wrong before, so they wouldn't know what to look for. You hoped.

Jellal and Meredy appeared at the doorway with five other people close behind, the tops of most of their heads just about visible and a large chest filling the rest of the frame.

"(Y/N)," Jellal greets, his eyes rimmed with a dark red, walking into the living room, and letting the others come into view. "These are our new members, the ones we told you about." You narrowed your eyes as your observed his, your medical training picking up on his injuries. His eyes were bloodshot, red rimmed, and looked slightly swollen.

He gestured with his hand as one by one, they slowly and cautiously walked through the door, "this is Macbeth," a man with spikey black hair, an unusual plaited white piece of hair draped over his shoulder, at the front that matched the white bottom layer of hair that circled his head. He wore dark makeup and gothic clothes as he wandered through the door, casually and without a care in the world, but the black bags under his eyes immediately alerted you to his obvious sleeping disorder.

Macbeth nodded his head as a way of greeting.

The next person followed more quickly as she floated into the room, her body swaying happily side to side, as her feathery clothes swirled around her gracefully. She gazed around the room nosily, a small knowing smile graced her features, "this is Sorano." She had long flowing white hair that matched her dress. An air of confidence flowed around her, as she seemed to float through the room to where Macbeth was standing.