Light in the Dark (Natsu x Reader) [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 21

We arrived at Aelburn at least half an hour late, which was about an an hour and a half away from Magnolia by train.
When Natsu woke up and found out about the whole incident, he whined about missing out on the action and pouted. When I talked to him, I was able to laugh like normal, and something as small as that made everything about my eyes and that letter melt away. I was just grateful that he didn't get hurt when he was knocked out.
As we walked out of the station, which had strangely barely any people, snow started to fall to the ground, even though it should normally be too warm for that. Aelburn was known for its rather random weather. Maybe that was the reason I had such an easy time adapting to my environment.
But my attention was drawn right past the little flurries of white slowly drifting to the ground. There weren't any people walking around, no laughter, not even any birds could be seen. It was like all the life was sucked out of the once lively Aelburn. The sign that welcomed people was faded, some letters gone. It was crooked, too.
Since we didn't know when we would find the girl, we had already decided that we would make reservations at a hotel. So, I decided to take them to one not too far from my house.
"You really seem to know your way around here," Gray remarked, kicking a pebble with his foot as he stayed at the back of the group.
"Yeah, I've been here once before," I replied vaguely.
"Gray, your clothes," Lucy interrupted.
Once again, Gray had stripped. Fortunately, it was only down to his underwear this time.
"Huh?!" He exclaimed, looking down. "When did that happen?"
I face palmed, holding in a laugh. But I didn't have to hold it in for too long; what I saw made me forget anything about strippers.
Aelburn was in worse shape than I thought.
As I walked by, I thought about the old flower shop that I used to always go to as a child. It would be there like always right when I turned the corner--
But it wasn't.
A horrified gasp escaped my lips as I took in the broken windows. Most of the dusty glass had shattered. The sign that hung above the door had been burnt, and I could no longer even remember the name. The inside appeared to have been all burnt up, and weeds were growing on the outside, almost hiding the spots where bricks were missing in the side of the building. I fought back tears as I realized how stupid I had been for thinking nothing had changed, for desperately tricking myself. Of course it had. But who had done this?! Even if a lot of things remained unharmed, there was an echo of silence that resonated, making the town feel hollow and deserted.
It was like someone had just barged in and terrorized the people, driving them out. 'Is the whole town like this?' I wondered, drowning out the others.
"...(Y/N)!"
"Huh?" I asked, snapping out of it and tearing my eyes away from what used to be that flower shop. It was frustrating that my memories were so...fuzzy.
"What's wrong?" Lucy asked.
I looked down and noticed that my hands had curled into fists. I unclenched them, my hands falling limp back at my sides. "It's nothing," I lied, turning back around, and we resumed walking.

A while later, we had dropped our stuff off at the hotel and visited the client's house. Or at least, we had tried to, to see if there was anything that could help us find the girl, besides the picture that had been attached to the job request. But no one was home. So, we decided to just split up and start looking anyway.
I walked slowly, my feet feeling a bit tired. I checked a dark alleyway. I whipped my head back out when I heard a little squeak and saw a rat running out of a garbage can, which had fallen over onto its side, the contents spilled everywhere. They were wet from the snow.
As I checked other places, I remembered what I'd heard before at the hotel.

When we walked in the place, Erza went to the counter. I plopped down in a chair, swinging one leg over the other and pulling out a pocket mirror. I lifted my sunglasses a bit to inspect my eyes. They looked the same as always. I took the shades off, feeling a bit foolish for ever believing that man.
I tugged at my hair tie, flipping my hair a bit and letting it spill over my shoulders. I shoved them back in my tote bag, then looked up for the first time. My eyes met those of some guy, and I'll admit it, he was cute. When we made eye contact, he smiled a cute half smile. I smiled weakly back, feeling awkward. Cute or not, I didn't really care about boys and all of that. I looked away, and I couldn't help but feel self conscious under his gaze, as I could tell he was still watching me. Why? Eh, weird or not, he seemed friendly. I could ask him about what happened here. So I did. That caught him off guard, and his response was that people could only make out the "silhouette of a monster". I was going to question him further when Natsu came up from behind me and put an arm around my shoulder, and I was surprised to see him send a glare at the guy, pulling me away.
"What was that for?" I asked, confused.
Natsu looked back over his shoulder and, I noticed that he had waited until we were out of the guy's sight before he dropped his arm. He avoided my eyes. "You shouldn't talk to strangers," he replied lamely.

'A monster, huh?' I thought. And then my gaze was suddenly caught by something.
Normal P.O.V.
Natsu couldn't shake the dread pitting in his stomach, and he had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. He just didn't know what. The stormy gray sky seemed like a bad omen. Not to mention that passing a graveyard in the distance wasn't exactly the most cheerful thing.
'No, no, I gotta find that girl!' Natsu snapped himself from his thoughts, only to hear what sounded like sobbing. Thinking that maybe it was the girl, he decided to follow the noise. It led him to somewhere in the graveyard, and he shivered as he looked around at the stone tombs. His eyes widened.
It was (Y/N), hunched over, kneeling on the ground in front of a grave. Her shoulders were shaking, and it was pretty clear that she was the one he had heard.
Natsu opened his mouth to speak, but he didn't know what to say. His eyes wandered over to the name on the grave, which he could make out even from his distance: Kouki (L/N).

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A/N: Ha, I actually updated on time for the first time in ages! I'm not really sure when the next chapter will come out, but I pretty much have a basic idea of what will happen next. It's a good thing I've started writing down ideas I get in a notebook, I've probably forgotten a lot of ideas already. Sooo...
Please vote, comment, and/or add this story to your library if you like it. You can follow me, I follow back. And uh, I guess that's it for now. Like I said, this is a short chapter, but I generally try to make them longer now, unless there's a fitting place to end a chapter early on. Again, I'll eventually edit this story, so until then, please don't mind any mistakes. And since this is my first story/fanfiction on Wattpad, I'm sorry if it's not quite so detailed. I try my best to improve my writing skills.
Until next time. Bye~ xP