Waking Dreams (A Gruvia fanfiction)

Chapter 15: Still There

The labyrinth was crumbling around them.
With no warning at all, the ground had begun to shake as the walls tumbled down.
"Nozomi, what's going on?" Wendy yelped nervously, clutching onto the nearest person to her. Lisanna happened to be that person, and she put her arms protectively around Wendy. "We'll be fine. We just need to find a place to take cover from the rubble and falling rocks."
Nozomi stood still, gazing into the distance. "He's...falling apart," she whispered. Wendy couldn't be sure, but she thought that she saw a stray tear glide down Nozomi's face.
Cana, Gray, and Natsu all rushed to get closer to the three girls, struggling to stay on their feet. "Gajeel! Levy! Get over here!" Cana yelled to the two that were farther away. Gajeel only nodded in reply, helping Levy up from where she had fallen and trying to lead her to the group.

However, it seemed fate had other ideas.

The ground between the two groups began to split apart once again.
As Levy began to slip and fall again, Gajeel reached to grab on to her, yelling, "Shrimp!". But he was too late. Levy had been flung over the newly formed cliff. The momentum from her fall pulled Gajeel along with her, and the two were plunged into oblivion.
Natsu's eyes widened in terror. He couldn't lose another guild mate, not again. "No!" He yelled. This couldn't happen, not so soon after Lucy....
He collapsed to his knees, head in his hands. "No! Please, not again! Please..."
The others were in the same state as well. Wendy was crying her eyes out, Cana was standing there, too shocked to move, Lisanna seemed to be in shock, flashing back to her own near-death experience, and Gray was obviously holding back some tears. Nozomi, however, stood as melancholy as ever, gazing mysteriously into the dark chasm the two Fairy Tail members had been plunged into.
"It's.....still there," she muttered.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Soon after Juvia had stabbed the crazed man before her, the castle began to shake and crumble. In her haze-filled mind, it somehow occurred to her that she had to find a way to escape. She had to get away from Nightmare, find a way out. This would be her best chance of finding an escape.
Juvia started to stumble down the dark and distorted hallway, batting away shadowy spiderwebs that sprang from nowhere. However, her attempt was short-lived. Juvia was unexpectedly pulled down by a hand latching onto her ankle, hitting the ground hard and letting out a small yelp.
"I'm not done with you yet, Rain Woman."
The voice that laughed as it spoke struck a chord of fear in Juvia. She struggled against Nightmare's grip, desperate. She tried to scream but found that her voice had escaped her. She kicked and thrashed, her tangled hair falling in front of her eyes, blocking her already distorted vision.
Somewhere in her mind, there was a clear spot. A place of sanity, a beam of light. Desperately, Juvia reached out for it.
Gray!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The familiar voice echoed in Gray's ears. Frantically, he turned on the still-shaking ground. "Juvia?" He called, sure that it had been her voice. However, there was not even time for a reply to be heard as the ground beneath the five of them disappeared beneath them, taking the remaining members of Fairy Tail with it.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Juvia slid across the floor, the hard stone scraping roughly against her legs and hands. With the unexpected crumbling of the castle and a particularly vicious tremor, her captor had released her, sending her into an unknown direction. Shakily, she propped herself up against a mostly intact wall, looking out into what was beyond the castle walls. Now that they were mostly destroyed, she could see where they were-which was practically nowhere. They were surrounded by an endless void, with no ground in sight, the only background being a black-purple color. It seemed as though the castle was floating. "What.....Where...." Juvia nearly formed a sentence, then realized that there was nobody there to hear it.
She was alone.
Nightmare had vanished, and she was left in the collapsing castle.
Juvia tried to stand, but found that her legs were unsteady and the floor was still shaking. Could she find a way out? There was nothing beyond the castle. Nobody would hear her if she could scream. Nobody would know what had become of Juvia Lockser.
All around her, the shadows seemed to grow and become menacing. They took on unnatural shapes, showing their pointed fangs and hissing. Whimpering from irrational fear, Juvia shrunk back to the corner.
And then the whispers began.
The wavering and distorted voices floated to her ears, echoing in an ethereal manner.
"I always hated the rain."
"Ugh, it's so gloomy."
"Can't you stop it?"
"He doesn't care about you."
"You should just give up."
With eyes widened from fear, brimming with tears, Juvia covered her ears with shaking hands, trying to block them out. However, she could not block out what was in her mind.
And then the wall behind her began to crumble.
First it was just a few pebbles, but then bigger chunks of it began to fall, and Juvia knew she had to get away. She jumped up on her unsteady legs and made it a few steps back, but soon fell back down, eyeing the menacing shadows that waited in the ruins of what had once been a grand room. She crawled away from the collapsing wall, but overestimated how much space she had. Juvia realized too late that much more of the floor had crumbled away than she thought as she silently, fearfully, tumbled in to oblivion-and whatever was waiting beyond.

A/N:
Hello! I am back again with a new chapter, as promised! Sorry for the lateness, but if you read the part before then you'll hopefully understand.
I'm marching in two parades tomorrow in the band, and I should be practicing, but what am I doing? Fangirling over fictional characters.
Byeeeeeee!
~Kinichi