The Ring Master | Jellal Fernandes [1] ON HOLD

14 | Not Your Fault

Halay was thrown into a panic when she first woke up. Her arms were held in a tight wooden box and she was in a cage. She hated cages with a burning passion. It took her back to a time that she wanted to forget but she was flooded with bad memories. Her breathing became uneven as she thrashed around in the restraints, causing loud sounds to echo around the stone room.

This woke Lucy up who was chained up next to her. It took her a while to figure out her situation but when she did, she was talking right away. "Hey when did this happen? Is this a joke or something? Someone's head is going to roll if I'm not out of this thing soon." It soon hit Lucy about what happened. "I remember now, we were all captured in the mine. We got so close and then it was over. They took us all away. You jerks hurt my friends then I'm going to rip you a new one. Do you hear me?"

"Yeah, they hear you Lucy just be quiet." Halay muttered as she looked at the stone floor, tracing the outlines of rocks with her eyes as she tried to think of something else. Anything else.

"Halay." Lucy breathed in relief but she grew concerned when she saw the brunette's face holding a somber face. Her eyes were dark and dismal, it was obvious she had no hope. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She lied easily but Lucy somehow saw right through it.

"Look, I didn't get to say this earlier but I'm sorry about Rose." Lucy stated as she tried to relax in her restraints but there was a burning sensation around her wrists. "She was like that with me too." The blonde revealed softly as she thought back to the first couple of weeks where Rose was cold towards her.

Halay's head snapped towards the blonde in disbelief. "Really?"

"Yeah, it took her a while to warm up to me but she did eventually. She doesn't like change, she never has." Lucy explained briefly as she smiled at the thought of her red headed, dragon slayer friend.

"It doesn't give her an excuse to be rude to people." The ring master responded as she looked back in front of her, her head aching from trying to look at her guild mate.

"You literally threaten people." Lucy stared emotionlessly as she remembered the first time she met Halay Winters and how vulnerable she had become. An idea popped into the blonde's head at the thought. "I've been meaning to ask, why did you come to Fairy Tail?"

Halay sighed, knowing it was only a matter of time before that dreaded question was asked. "I died, got a new outlook on life and I'm trying to figure out what I value the most in life. I know Blue Pegasus is on that list so staying there wouldn't help me grow as a person." Halay explained but something else plagued her mind. "I guess you could say I followed Erza but I've been avoiding her since ..."

"Jellal got arrested?" Lucy finished for the girl before the silence started to eat away at her. There was that name, Jellal, it seemed to plague her wherever she went. Yet, it always lit a fire in her heart, a sad and emotional fire but a fire nonetheless.

"Yeah."

"Do you want to know what I think about you?" Lucy questioned the girl, changing the sensitive subject quickly.

"Not really." Halay responded monotony but her honesty shined through.

"I'm going to tell you anyway." Lucy told her, fat too happily then she should be in their situation. "You are a fighter, you would literally fight to the death to save the people you care about. If someone on the list of people you love betrays you then you will either hurt them or hurt yourself like what happened with Christina."

Halay's head snapped to the girl once again in disbelief, her eyes widened in shock, unable to register the information just relayed out to her. "How did you know about that?" She questioned her quietly, not wanting to admit anything out loud.