Hiding In Plain Sight

Chapter Three

Picture of Malika in the media. Art belongs to me. Also, please make sure to comment/vote if you're enjoying this!

Lucy shot up at the strange voice. Looking around her room, her eyes caught a man standing a few feet away from her, a friendly smile pasted on his face.

Her reflexes acted before she realized what was going on. She pulled out one of her keys from the pouch at her hip and aimed it at him, ready to summon Loke if necessary. She swung her Fleuve d'étoiles at the man, wrapping the magic around his body and effectively trapping him. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

The man chuckled, seemingly unsurprised at Lucy's actions. "Neither of those things is relevant right now. However, I will let you have the pleasure of knowing that I've been here for almost forty-five minutes."

Lucy tried not to let her shock show on her face. Forty-five minutes? A quick glance at the clock behind the man told her that that's how long she had been at home. Lucy knew that her magic-sensing abilities weren't the best in the world, but she was sure that his presence should've at least made her feel uneasy.

Lucy tightened her whip. "Doesn't matter. You're the one that's trapped; you're the one that's going to answer my questions."

The man's smile grew. "Am I really the one that's trapped?"

Before she could question him, Lucy's grip on her whip loosened and she fell to the floor.

She groaned. "What did you do to me?"

"Nothing, really," the man chuckled. "You just fell asleep for a second, nothing to worry about. People really are useless when they're sleeping."

Lucy scowled at him. "So that's your magic? Making people fall asleep?"

"Yes and no. It has its clauses, but we don't need to get into that right now. More importantly," the man walked toward her, green eyes shining with disguised emotion, "What did you see in your dream?"

The dream.

Lucy's memories came rushing back to her in full force, so vivid and agonizing that she didn't even question how the man knew about it.

"They, they hated me," Lucy said in a broken voice. "All of them, they all betrayed me."

"Exactly. No one cared about you. They all turned their backs on you the moment you needed them most.

With those words, Lucy snapped back to her senses and stood up to face him head-on. "You're lying. That was just a dream, wasn't it? You made me dream that for your own fucked-up reasons."

"Eh, not exactly. It's true that I did make you fall asleep and enter one of my dreams, but your individual mind constructed it based on your individual thoughts and experiences. I'll admit it's my fault for sending you to your own personal hell, but you were the one who chose your torture devices."

Lucy was about to shout a retort when she realized he was right. She was weak, and it was becoming painfully obvious to her. Just last week, Natsu had to save her yet again from some stronger enemies during a job. It didn't matter that she learned Star Dress or that she could summon three spirits at the same time for a short while. She just wasn't good enough, not even good enough to defeat her enemies without sacrificing her closest spirit.

"What do you want from me?" Lucy questioned, close to her breaking point.

"It's actually very simple, Lucy." The man stepped closer to Lucy, bringing his mouth to her ear.

"I'll give you two choices. One, leave the family you've known for only three years but would risk your own life to save. Two," he paused, bringing a finger to her stomach and giving it a gentle poke, "leave the family that you've known for less than an hour but love more than the world itself."