Soul Mark

Chapter 6

**Flashback Lucy's Story**

She remembered the smiles on her parents face when they looked at her, and the loving look they gave each other. Lucy knew that her parents, Jude and Layla Heartfilia, were true soulmates. She always loved to sit on her parent's bed when she was a little girl and listen to her mother tell her the story of how they met in Acalypha, a small town with a tiny bank named Love and Lucky.

Her mother, Layla worked in the bank and had sat down with a man, a little older than herself, when suddenly, she felt her mark begin to tingle. He had come in wanting to start up his own business and had needed a loan from the bank. Getting Layla as a soulmate would have been just fine but to top it off he got the loan as well and the two of them left the bank and Acalypha behind a few short days later to begin their next adventure.

As they left the bank, the pair had noticed a part of the sign had fallen down and the bank had been turned into 'Love and Lucy' and the soulmates vowed that if they were ever to have a daughter, her name would be Lucy. And on they went to fulfill Jude's dream of owning his own large business, and Layla's dream of raising a child on a rather large farm property on the outskirts of Magnolia. It was there that Lucy was born, and the family lived their happy and in love for many years. So much in love that Lucy loved to imagine herself finding her very own soulmate and growing up just as her parents did. It excited her, and she loved to play with the little servants children, one as her soul mate and the others as her children and close friends. Lucy couldn't wait to grow up and find her real soulmate and be just like her parents.

!

It wasn't until later, when Lucy was 14 that things had begun to take a turn for the worst. Her father had managed to lose a very important business meeting and they small family of three had been forced to move out of their home into a very small and cramped apartment that the family had used as a storage shed on the edge of their property while the rest of the land was sold off to wealthy businessmen.

It made her father very angry to see what he had created turn into merely a waste and he blamed Layla for not creating a male heir to help Jude run the business. In fact, he had begun to blame Layla for everything that was going wrong in his life. Until one day he came home very drunk and out of control. As Layla began trying to reason with him he shouted, and screamed as he had never done before and struck the woman, not knowing that Lucy stood in hallway watching with large, grief filled eyes. At the sound of the slap a new look began to form in the large man's eyes. One that seemed to have disappeared when he lost his business, it was the look of ultimate power, and it terrified Lucy. With a satisfied smirk the man had lumbered down the hallway, patting his daughter on the head and retreating to the parent's small room as Layla laid on the floor sobbing and holding her cheek. "Mommy, are you ok?" Lucy had asked, getting down and sitting next to the sobbing woman. Her mother had turned, and Lucy and her mother reached for each other at the same time as they cried together that night.

!

Jude Heartfilia had come home every night for months after that first time, drunk. On some nights he was kind and spoke only of love to his wife and daughter, but on other nights he screamed and threw things at Layla while Lucy could only watch. It frightened the young girl when he came home and when before she used to look forward to seeing her father, she now dreaded the moment the door opened.

Layla had devised a plan to leave her husband, soulmate, and best friend and take her daughter somewhere safe. She knew in her heart it was the right thing to do even though it hurt her to leave the man she loved behind. The day the two women were destined to leave, Jude came home early drunk but in a rather good mood, to find suitcases by the front door and her wife and daughter in one of the rooms whisper about when their train would be there and the time they would leave. Jude was pissed, and he quietly walked through the house knowing what he had to do.

Lucy and Layla had planned to stay in Lucy's room discussing what would happen after they left when Jude came barging into the room. The wife rose quickly from the bed as Lucy screamed pointing to the sharp object glinting in Jude's hand. As Layla began to reason with her beloved soulmate she signaled for her daughter to leave the room. With only slight hesitation, Lucy did as she was told and skirted around the edge of the room until she got to the hallway. She watched, horrified as her mother pleaded with her father not to do anything rash but the man only chuckled and advanced on the woman.

"Lucy! Go! Remember the plan and know that I love you!" Layla cried out as Jude took he final step towards his wife. He plunged the knife down directly over her heart where her Soul Mark lay and Layla fell, followed by a crying Jude who knelt in front of his dead wife holding her head and stroking her hair.

With that Lucy turned and ran, crashing into walls as tears blurred her vision. She could still hear her father's cries from the bedroom when she grabbed the large amount of money and all the paperwork her mother had had ready to go for when they left. With the papers and money in hand, she grabbed a picture of her mother and her smiling at the camera as they sat on a park bench and ran out the door, not once looking back, even when she heard her father call out her name as she ran away from her whole life.

As soon as Lucy got to the hotel her and her mother were supposed to stay at she crawled into the shower and cried for hours. She knew she'd have to face reality sooner or later but for those few hours she mourned the loss of her mother and the loss of her old life. And she knew, with all her heart that no one, not one single person in the world, could ever be her soulmate and there was no one in the world she would ever fully trust the way she had with her parents.

!X!

Ok so I did this to you guys! Yep! Sorry! You'll just have to wait another chapter to find out what happens to Lucy and Natsu now that Natsu knows. What did ya'll think of Lucy's backstory though? I tried to keep just a bit like the actual show cuz I absolutely love that part where she finds out how she got the name Lucy. But anyway let me know what you think! and trust me it hurt writing this chapter so much!