The Firefly Effect | jerza

23:00

The song above is my inspiration for this chapter! ^^

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In an alternate universe, he was a happy boy.

"Mr. Fullbuster, is there a reason you're sitting on the filthy floor?" Professor Ivan Dreyar asks, his lips curling with disgust.

Gray's eyes fly open and he realizes, guiltily, that he had briefly dozed off.

"Oh!" exclaims the raven-haired boy. He leaps to his feet and for a brief moment the world blurs; he manages to remain steady despite his grogginess. "I was waiting for the principal."

"She's in a meeting," the man says tartly.

Gray mumbles a curse under his breath. "I've got to call the FBI then," he whispers, fishing his cellphone out of his pocket. 

He didn't conquer life, he let life conquer him.

"We're almost at the end!" I whisper, my voice trembling with excitement. For the first time in hours, I notice a change in the metallic walls of the labyrinth- rust is beginning to make an appearance, and where rust is present, water exists, and where water exists, life-

"You mean the middle. This is a maze," Jellal replies. The boy's pace has slowed down considerably, and his crisp voice is tinged with fatigue. 

"The middle is the end." I rush ahead because we're so close to finding what lies at the end of this metallic monster, so incredibly close to finding Lisanna's murderer...

But what if this has nothing to do with the case?

"Maybe," I agree quietly, "but even so, Jellal and I have discovered another mystery." To Jellal I say, "This is going to look great on our resumes!"

Jellal's laughter echoes throughout the enclosure. "On your resume, maybe."

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't it look good on yours?" I slow down to allow him to catch up.

His smile fades. "Being on this Lisanna case makes you want to be a detective more than ever, right?" I nod vigorously. "For me, being on this case does the opposite."

I find myself at a loss for words. "You...don't want to major in criminal justice?"

"Not anymore. I can't stand it." He heaves a sigh. "I don't want to figure out why a person died. I want to prevent a person from dying in the first place."

"You can't always do that. Like with Lisanna, a doctor would've been useless because she was already...dead."

"True." He doesn't say anything after that. 

I'm not going to lie; I'm disappointed. But...

"A doctor and a detective. I think that makes a good duo, don't you think?" 

And when he made up his mind to remove himself from this world forever, he found he could not do it alone.

"Ul, where are you going?" Meredy shouts breathlessly. She has to sprint to keep up with her dark-haired friend. "Class starts in seven minutes!"

"Not now, Meredy," Ultear says, "something terrible is going to happen, I can sense it."

"What? I swear to god, Ul, that Lisanna case, or whatever you call it, is messing with your head! You haven't been the same!"