(Editing) Hide and Seek: Taken Series Book 1

Chapter Three

Finished - Mar 30, 2021 

Word Count - 1256 

Music - Epic Score - Iron Army

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Stirring, Lucy turned over in her sleep, frankly, quite annoyed she was awake. Looking at her clock, the time showed 2:30 am. Lucy groaned and pulled the covers closer to herself and tried to go back to sleep.

But she heard a strange noise, stopping he trained her ear, waiting to hear it again. Just as before the sound of light clanking and clicking sounded again. Sitting up she looked around her apartment, but it was too dark to see clearly. For a third time; rattling of metal echoed through the room.

Instinctively, Lucy took hold of her Keys from her bedside table. Holding them at the ready she stood from her bed cautiously. She was about to summon Virgo when something from the shadows charged towards her.

The figure was fast, but Lucy thankfully ducked in time to avoid its attack. Dropping to the floor, Lucy crouched and hit her opponents legs, sending them off balance and falling. She stood above them menacingly.

It was then that she was able to get a good look at who had invaded her home in the middle of the night. The person was wearing all white, white cloak, white pants and white boots. Not an outfit one would see everyday. But even more worrisome was the white gas mask covering their face. Two black eyed glass circles stared at her, sending a shiver down her spine.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Lucy demanded down to the person on her floor.

Instead of answering, they took a large metal can out of their coat and whacked it against Lucy's head. Lucy wasn't expecting the attack and stumbled backwards, her head fuzzy and aching.

While she was still recovering, the white clothed person sprayed something into her face from the metal can. The nozzle long and shot a powerful steam of gas directly into Lucy's face.

The smell of the gas was awful, making her cough and catch her breath. But her attacker was persistent and did not move the nozzle away from her nose. No matter how she tried to wave away the gas, more entered her lungs. From the new injury on her head and the toxic gas, Lucy was losing consciousness. She didn't have the strength to summon her spirits and her brain wasn't thinking clearly through the foggy room.

In a last effort to fight back she grabbed the nearest item to her smote the person, hoping that this made a difference. Yet, much to her dismay, this only made them angrier and she was once again hit with the large gas can.

Falling still, Lucy watched her last moments of consciousness. The stranger's white mask came closer to her face and sprayed another throat choking spew of gas onto her.

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The sun was just rising as Mira walked to the Fairytail Guild Hall. Her days started earlier than most, because she liked to be the first person in the Guild. Over the years it had become her and the Master's routine, to unlock the doors and ready the Guild Hall for all their members.

As usual Mira opened the mailbox just outside the main doors, gathering all the letters inside. She opened the large Guild doors and set her belongings down on the counter. Turning the lights on, she took off her jacket and hung it up on the wall. Moving her things from the bar counter she picked the mail back up and set them aside to open later.

She knew the letters all contained job requests, everyday Fairytail was flooded with missions or calls for help or assistance. It was impossible to answer them all, but they did their best to help the people truly in need.

A creaking noise slid through the once silent room, Mira looked up to see Wendy and Charlie opening the front door.

"Good morning Wendy!" Mira greeted brightly.

"Morning!" The girls chimed and joined her at the bar.

Mira took a towel and ran it under the sink, whipping off the counter she realised something.

"Hey Wendy." She asked. "Since you are here early, could you do something for me?"

"Of course, what do you need?" Wendy swiveled her chair back and forth slightly.

"Can you open those letters for me? They should be request's for the Job Board and I just got my hands all wet."

"Sure thing!" The small girl smiled and scooped up the jumble of letters. She opened each one carefully and tacked the papers up on the board. Several promotional flyers and event posters were mixed in with the quests and requests. Wendy took note of several interesting functions, which included a meteor shower, dance festival and even a volcano eruption! This was extremely interesting, because volcanos only erupt once every fifty years.

However, a certain letter caught her attention. It was a plain envelope with no return address, instead it only held the word Farytail on its front. The letters were plain and small, almost as if they were magically printed out.

Wendy examined the strange envelope and flipped it over several times, looking for other markings. When she came up short she decided to give it back to Mira.

"Hey Mira." Wendy walked slowly back to the bar, still observing the letter. Upon hearing her name, Mira dried her hands off and met her halfway.

"What wrong?" She asked.

"Does Fairytail usually get letters like this?" Wendy handed her the plain envelope.

MIra took it and repeated the same examination process Wendy had just done. Searching both sides for a name, but once again came up empty.

"No, this is strange. Thank you for not opening it. I'll give this to the Master."

"No problem." Wendy walked back to the request board to finish putting up the rest of the letters.

Meanwhile, Mira walked up the stairs to the Masters office to see if he could find any new information on the letter. She knocked lightly on his office door, making sure she wasn't barging in on any important business. Luckily he granted her passage and she opened the door.

"Good morning Master." Mira greeted the small man.

"Good morning Mira. How are you?" The Master's big grin always brightened her mood.

"I'm doing well, but Wendy and I found something strange in the mail this morning." Mira handed him the letter.

Just as the two female mages had done before, the Master inspected both sides of the plain, white envelope.

"This is odd, thank you for showing me this." The master opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a letter opener. In one quick movement he sliced through the top of the envelope and slid out the paper inside. Once the paper ripped, a shadowed essence flew from it, sending an eerie feeling down Mira's spine.

Makarov's eyes scanned the paper, with every word his eyes moved faster and with more fear. The sight worried Mira and she leaned over to try to read the letter as well. But before she could see anything, he moved back and removed the letter from her sight.

"Quickly Mira. Summon all the Guild Members to the Guild Hall immediately!" The elderly man demanded with worry and anxiety in his voice. But yet he still held his commanding presence.

Suddenly very concerned she quickly left the room with a new state of confusion and urgency. Rushing down the stairs she grabbed the nearest lacrima and left a message calling everyone to the Guild Hall immediately.

Once her message was sent she sunk to the floor, her heart pounding rapidly. Her head was full of questions and panic, but all she could do now was wait.