The Shadow (A FairyTail Mystery )

Chapter 14

 As Aries cloud blew away in the cold hard wind I looked all around for Natsu.

Rouge was lying underneath the fallen rubble, motionless. Neighbors from the apartment building and the streets finally came outside to see what all of the commotion was. There were faint, distant screams that popped up as more and more people flooded the area.

"Lucy! Call out Sagittarius. I'll find Natsu." called Aries. I nodded, quickly fumbling through my keys until I found his golden key.

I called him out, and Aries quickly sat me on his back.

"Lady Lucy! Are you okay?" asked Sagittarius. I felt my face get hot as I tried to hold back my tears.

"What do you think?" I finally was able to choke out. Sagittarius turned to look at me on his back, but he couldn't see me from the way I was laying.

"Lets go and get out of this mess. Let Aries find him." said Sagittarius, but I yelled.

"No! We can't just leave him here! What if Aries never finds him! What if he's gone, and I never get to see him again! We can't just leave!" I cried as my face slowly got stained from my tears.

Sagittarius nodded, and started to walk through the rubble.

"Where are we going? I-I can't walk." I said. Sagittarius stopped.

"I thought you said you wanted to look for Natsu. I mustn't disobey you, Lucy." he

said quietly. I slowly realized that he wasn't going to change his mind, and this is what I wanted, so I decided to try and help as much as I could.

"Natsu!! Where are you?" I yelled. The only sound that followed were cries of children and sirens in the far distance.

"Natsu! Please answer!" yelled Aries. I looked around, but all I found was Aries gentle shadow a few feet away in the dust and the surrounding shadows of the people arriving to the scene.

More and more ruble fell as it finally couldn't keep up against its own weight.

As the rubble fell and crumbled more and more, I kept looking around at where the noises were coming from, hoping to see any sign of Natsu.

I want him to jump out of nowhere right now and yell 'Here I am!' with his big grin, but as we searched longer and longer under all of the fallen rubble, we did not see any sign of him. We were searching for at least fifteen minutes. Sagittarius was getting tired, Aries had fallen due to exhaustion, and I was about to stop because I have no hope now. I could tell that I was getting heavy on Sagittarius back.

"Lucy. It's no use. We can't find him." Sagittarius barely whispered. Tears still slowly ran down my cheeks. I didn't want to give up, but deep inside, I knew that Natsu wasn't going to be found any time soon, so we asked the police officers if they could keep searching for him, then left, grabbing my wheelchair that Natsu and the others gave me.

"Are you going to be okay alone?" asked Sagittarius as he sat me down onto the wheelchair.

I nodded. My voice was no longer loud enough to hear, so all I could do were simple gestures. He nodded back to me, then disappeared like he was never here. 

I looked around the dusty roads looking for any hope that may be within me, but all I found was despair in my broken soul.

"Lucy!" shouted a familiar voice. I turned to look around but there was no one around. My cheeks were burning more and more for every second that I sat there. My hands were dry, cracked, bruised, and torn from the cold, harsh wind. I slowly pushed the wheels of the chair so that I could lay down at the guild to try and get at least a wink of sleep.

I made it back to the road that my apartment was on. The police had cleared the area of people and taped off the connecting roads. They were clearing the extra rubble so that it would be easier to search.

I sighed, turning away from the sickening sight. I looked up to see Gajeel and Levy standing there. Levy ran over to me, while Gajeel walked over calmly.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" she yelled. I felt her crying, and I started to cry again. "Is Natsu okay? Where is he?" she asked. More and more tears fell as I thought about him.

"I don't know. He's gone. He was fighting and it all fell and he's gone." I cried.

Levy soothed me as Gajeel walked over to the police to help look for Natsu.

I went to Levy's apartment and had the worse night of sleep.

I woke up from a terrible nightmare, a bead of sweat slowly climbing down my back. I looked over at Levy, who was sleeping beside me, before I closed my eyes again, but I was unable to fall back asleep. I tried to sit up, but my legs could not support me. I uncovered my legs slowly, making sure not to wake Levy. My wheelchair was just beside the small, rickety bed that we were sleeping on.

I pushed my dead weight legs over the edge of the bed, trying to get down onto my wheelchair.

I kept trying to get down, but my arms were not strong enough to hold me.

I fell off the bed, but someone caught me.

I looked up, and found bright eyes in the darkness.

I saw a gentle face, spiky hair. This face was so familiar to me.

He smiled, putting his finger over his mouth, signaling me to stay quite, but I couldn't hold all of it in as I figured out who had caught me.

"Natsu!" I tried to say quietly, tears running down my face. I flung my arms around his neck, holding him tightly. He smiled, hugging me back.

He picked me up, walking out the door with me still in his arms so we wouldn't disturb Gajeel and Levy.

I cried and cried for what felt like an eternity, Natsu holding me.

Finally, as I was calming down, I was able to choke out "I-I thought you were gone, Natsu. W-where were you?"

He just smiled, shushing me, pulling me into a tighter hug.

We watched the bright sun slowly rise over the far horizon in front of us, showing us it's blinding color, jumping out at us. And over that horizon, I saw someone. They were walking, alone, their small silhouette of a head hanging low. They fell down onto the dark shadow of a mountain, disappearing out of sight. But slowly, they got back up, turning over to admire the bright future ahead of them.