…
“WARNING, THE LOCKDOWN HAS NOW TAKEN EFFECT.”
Natsu’s eyes bugged out wide. He could feel his tail retreat, as the lights turned off to cover the mall in darkness, before lighting up with thick, bloody-red lights.
“WARNING, THE LOCKDOWN HAS NOW TAKEN EFFECT,” the announcer spoke again above him. “FOR YOUR SAFETY, PLEASE FOLLOW THE PREVIOUSLY STATED PROCEDURE. YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT. SERIOUSLY.”
Immediately, an encompassing sound of alarm rang through the store. It was so deafeningly loud, that Natsu hasn’t noticed at first everyone shuffling and running around him. Doors were being shut tight, bars and barriers were being put up, and soon, the floor got cleared from everyone except for a singular young man. Realizing the terrifying circumstance he was in, Natsu dashed to the door to get outside. This led into a horrifying realization, as the door revealed itself to be completely locked. Despite the amount of pulling, banging or shouting for his life he made, it would not budge open at all. 
“WARNING, FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR SAFETY, PLEASE FIND ANY POSSIBLE PLACE TO HIDE. DO NOT STAND ANYWHERE ON THE MAIN FLOOR,” continued the announcer.
Unable to do anything beside pointlessly argue against the announcer, Natsu began searching for a hiding spot. 
Going overdrive, his first few choices were to pry open the doors of nearby stores. After the third failure, he changed course to getting behind a nearby garbage can. After checking out how poor these things were at hiding him, as many managed to be smaller than him, which was a feat, he spotted something that might help him. It was a giant plant, which ornated a corner of the store’s main floor, whose size could reasonably hide him and another person. It also happened to be pretty far from him, needing to go through several feet of wide, open areas. Looking down, the bloody-red lights against the white floor just invited him to think about his own demise.
That said, there was no time to wait and think. This was something Natsu realized, with the alarm bell and the fear it instilled him persuading his decision making to only choose one action, to sprint forward like his life depended on it. Which to be fair, it was. 
And so, he sprinted, with the highest speed. The highest that one could imagine possible. With his only goal was to get to the other side, so that he could safely tuck away, and to live to tell the tale another day. Of course, speed is a relative thing. You see, what one might think fast, another finds it akin to a leisurely stroll. Now, imagine a young wolf-man with rabbit ears barely reaching lowest end of high speeds, and you can see exactly how fast he was running. Also, not to forget, with bad form to boot. And already breathing hard from first ten steps. That said, he truly gave it his all, as his sweat, tears and uninterrupted screaming attested to. 
He crashed face first into the floor once he reached it and then crawled the rest of the way. His breathing was heavy, his heart was beating inside his ears, and that taste of blood he got from his chaffed lip was that extra kick to give him that adrenaline rush. On the other hand, that run felt like it was going to kill him, way before the killer would reach him. Imagine, trying to run away and then get a heart attack. It was so morbid, Natsu would’ve audibly cringed at himself, if he wasn’t trying calm his breath back down to stop sounding like a love-struck donkey.
But he was safe now, that was more important. And even more so, it looked like no one managed to find him. After powering through that pain in his stomach, he carefully got up and peeked over from his spot. Even with that alarm deafening the whole place up, he was sure there was no sign of anyone following him. There was a chance, no matter how slightly, that someone might have noticed him while he was running. But thankfully, that seemed to be not the case. Natsu felt himself finally calm down, ready to wait out the rest of the day in there if need be.
Then a growly voice whispered, “Hey there, fresh meat…”
Natsu’s previously beating heart froze solid. And with it, so was his neck, as if clump of ice covered it from his shoulder. A large hand had gripped him tight in place, taking control of his body like a puppet. A heavy metal object clanked as it dropped on the hard, ceramic floor near him. Natsu couldn’t see what it was, but the figure moved to pick it up, making it clear how exactly big this man was. As well as how fatally heavy the weapon he wielded in his hands was. The hand forced Natsu turn, leaving him facing his executioner’s large stature and brightly violet mane. 
“Don’t worry,” the figure spoke softly, despite the heavy growls. The object in his hand was hard to see under the red light, but Natsu already knew what it was. Which he did not want to believe at all. “No need to be afraid. Soon, it will all be over-“
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”
Natsu’s soul had already left his body into another place entirely, though it too would soon follow suit. The only commands his brain was giving was to his legs, and those were to get him out. They were swinging and flailing in just about every direction possible, making sure to cover all sides of escape. But, distressingly enough, all of that was in vain. The surroundings were not changing, as he was kept still by the power of that man’s powerful grip.
Natsu was pushed back down, locking him into place. The lion’s face then lowered itself closer to his, until he could smell the awful breath that he had. A smell mixed with egg, asparagus and onion.
“Shh…Don’t go…it’ll all be okay…” the man whispered.
His second arm grabbed the youth’s other shoulder, completely dooming him to his fate. Whatever that monster have said would not reach Natsu, for he knew exactly what was being said anyway. Probably about how much he’ll enjoy bashing his head and skinning him alive to make furnishing. This was too cruel even for him. 
And then, the awfulness of the situation, the sheer pressure from having to accept his untimely doom, cause Natsu’s body to perform something he did note expect. It was unexpected, and in some ways, extremely fortunate for him. His legs gave out, and he fell to the floor, slumping right into his knees. Now, to someone, that would simply mean the end, but as he came to realize, that while this man was talking, a new form of hope had miraculously appeared in front of him to save him from this tragic predicament. For he now, you see, was staring directly at the man’s crotch. As he gazed at it, he could feel something he never thought he would feel before. And that was his sense of self-preservation finally returning to him. It was a light at the end of the tunnel, a ray of hope which he knew he should grab in order to pull himself away from the oblivion.
And grab he did.
“Hey…did you-“ 
And so, within that millisecond, came one of the poorest jab forms imaginable. An act done with carefully calculated act and carried out by pure instinct. And yet, the quick, high-pitch shriek of his would-be murderer was all he needed to hear to show that the attempt had been successful. Suddenly, an unbelievable amount of energy returned to him in a way he never thought would happen in his. It was as if the spirit of life came to him and gave him all the energy needed to fight, to conquer, to run like a madman. In fact, he wanted to scream in because of it. Which he did of course, very loudly.
And so, he dashed through the red tinted mall, screaming his head off all the while. He ran without knowing the destination. He ran, never looking behind to see if anyone was following his. 
He ran, even as the light slowly flickered, before turning from red into white.
He ran, even after another announcement was made, for his screams has deafened him.
He ran, even as he saw more and more people emerging from the stores, idly passing him by. 
He ran, even as the mall cop asked him to stop. When that failed, the cop returned to munching his donut, while reading another chapter of his favorite book, by Agatha Poirot.
He ran, even as he reached the farthest end from the adjacent corner of the mall, which he did in around ten minutes. That was the usual length it took to get there on foot, without using the shortcuts. 
“Hey bro!” a noise suddenly pierced through the deafening sensation brought by adrenaline.
Natsu opened his eyes, finally, reacting to a familiar voice of his brother. There stood Noëll, in a brightly lit area, right next to a huge entrance to the gym. Noëll kept on waving to his little brother, with another man, a panther, standing next to him. 
It was then, like with a switch, that Natsu’s body suddenly got hit with just about everything his body has held back on him. His chest started to hurt, each joint and muscle turned sore, his steps turned wobbly, and his stomach wanted to jump out of his mouth. Also, his voice was hoarse and breathy, unable to even inhale correctly. And so, as a culmination of every feeling returning to him, he unequivocally crashed into the ground, few feet from where his brother stood. Natsu was panting like a clogged vacuum cleaner, whose limps were mangled by a horrific accident with an inattentive maid.
“I did say he’s a bit unathletic,” Noëll chuckled to his friend, as they walked over to the young puddle of a boy. They both helped Natsu by grabbing under each of his arms. Natsu wanted to complain how much it hurt even getting carried, but again, was too busy breathing to say anything. They dragged him all the way to the nearest bench on the wall, and let him slump, with Noëll making sure he kept still.
Natsu looked up to his nonchalant elder sibling. So many thoughts were still running in his mind, few of them having to do with that serial killer back there. But he started with a rather simple phrase, “What are you…doing…” before giving up on it. His lungs were begging him to kill himself, and at this point, he’d agree.
“Here, let me get you something,” said Noëll, revealing a bag he carried over his shoulder. He pulled a single bottle of water, which he handed to ever shaking hands of his younger sibling. Natsu tried to open it, but after one time, just let Noëll do it.
After taking good, long sip, Natsu’s eyes drifted around. He finally noticed the surroundings, lacking in red lights, alarms, or just, overall feeling of panic. Everything looked fine, like nothing even happened. One dude even passed by them talking on the phone, loudly proclaiming to his friend how boring his whole day was. He also mentioned about needing to borrow some scuba gear from his grandmother, but Natsu missed that detail.
Natsu had many things to ask, but finally came up with, “How…how did…you get here before me?” 
“Oh, jeez, I forgot to tell you, didn’t I?” Noëll scratched his head sheepishly. “I took the third entrance. That skull kid is always at the front entrance at noon, Mondays only. He kinda follows his own set time and place, which is actually pretty easy to avoid. Kids these days though, am I right?”
Natsu could not stop staring blankly, even with his brother laughing at his own jokes. The younger wolf still felt like the whole thing was just a daydream. Maybe he wasn’t even awake yet, and instead, inside a police station as a victim of the previous attack, having liver weight in the morgue. Suddenly, Natsu felt nausea coming up to him, but also hunger.
“So, um…” Natsu took a moment to construct a sentence again, “What about that…hiding thing…that happened before? Did you guys see that?”
“A false alarm,” a man right next to his brother spoke.
Natsu finally moved his attention to the latter, who had been standing there patiently for a while now. He was black-furred, with long tail and round ears, akin to a big cat. He looked only slightly older than his own brother, and based off of his sportswear and clipboard, probably worked at that gym. Speaking of clipboard, Natsu finally noticed how he held it at perfect forty-five degrees. He had no idea how he noticed that detail. He wasn’t even good at math.
“We occasionally have them,” the man explained. His tone was matter-of-fact, clear and concise. “They are done completely unprompted, with little in the way of warning in advance. This is done to make sure people are ready for them. Unfortunately, this caused people to simply ignore most of them, even when actual emergencies occur.”
Natsu raised his brows in surprise, and then looked at his brother. The latter shrugged his shoulders and nodded to confirm this.
“To list some of these occurrences: we had a fire within a clothing store, causing the end of one of the most popular clothing brands of this country, due to them managing to buy them in bulk. We had a serial killer get chased within this mall, although thankfully, there were no casualties of that. We also had a run-in with a group of foreign terrorists, but thankfully, they all ended up getting apprehended by a sixty-year-old war veteran, who happened to walk in on them in that telephone store over there,” he said, pointing to a store on the second floor.
Natsu’s eyes glazed over the mall, as he began to move his head backwards. Moving aside from all of the weird stories he was just told, this mall was undeniably huge. One could almost say they can house thousands in here with ease.
“Well, this is just another good ole Monday morning, eh?” Noëll chuckled at his own joke.
Natsu stared at him, dumbfounded as ever by his brother’s sense of humour. The other man had no reaction at all, except to extend his hand to Natsu.
“My name is Richard. Please, call me Rick. Your brother told me that you are looking for work, correct?”
Natsu looked at the hand, and then put all his energy to grab it. “Uh-huh,” he nodded, allowing the other man to shake it.
“I see. Any experience, knowledge, and/or talents you can present to us? Perhaps you came in with a resume?”
Natsu stupidly stared at the panther-man. Resume? That was never in his mind to begin with. He was just told to come over here, and now he has to apply for a job? After running for his life?
“Hey, hey, now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Noëll butted in. Natsu watched him try to explain what was happening, and all the former said was, “I’m gonna need to talk to Rio. If we can. But before that,” he turned to Natsu, “how’s your first day in here?” 
“I kicked a guy in the nuts.”
Noëll had lost his already prepared reply and went quiet. Natsu thought he probably stumped him badly, only for his brother to bounce back immediately with, “Guess he’s gonna need some ice-cream sundae with that, huh?”
He laughed while looking at the others. To be perfectly fair, he was amazing at speaking, and his smile on its own was contagious enough to get just about anyone to like him. The big problem here was neither of the two were exactly within “anyone” list.
“So…um, when’s the boss coming over?” asked Noëll, already recovering.
“Boss?” Natsu asked. 
And thus, the very same grip of the cold chill returned to travel along his spine again. His brother was in fact getting him a job, and at a place he never been to before. Or even for a position he didn’t even a clue for. What was he about to get a position for, maybe a janitor? Will he have to clean toilettes now? Natsu gulped the piece of paper that formed in his throat. So long that fresh fragrance of freedom brough in by life-and-death situation, hello the mind-breaking hammer of the real world.
“Yeah, the boss. Of this place,” said Noëll and pointed to the gym behind him.
Natsu peeked at the gym’s front entrance. At the top, it said, “Heracles Gym,” with a lion-like man posing next to it, perhaps to invoke the mythological figure himself. Below were the pictures of men, and only men, posing and exercising for all to see. Natsu could already feel the stink of the sweat and dirty socks fill up his nose. This could technically be the first, and only time, he would ever willingly gone to a gym himself.
“By the way, don’t get nervous when you see him,” Noëll said, holding his brother’s shoulder in reassuringly. “He’s kinda big, sort loud, but nowhere near intimidating, and is actually very friendly! Seriously, this guy is the best. I’ve known him since first few years at my college! Helped out a lot when I studied, while keeping me fit.”
“And he enjoyed having you around too,” the panther mentioned, offhandedly. 
Natsu glanced at both his brother, then Rick, and then at the gym again. All the possibilities in his mind listed themselves, from his job to his relationship with the boss. He thought of being a trainer, which seemed straightforward. But, he never even had a cursory knowledge of physical health and frequently pulls his muscles by stretching in bed. Probably something simple like a cashier could work though. Except, he never worked as one either and didn’t like talking to people much. They did say, however, that you usually talk via pre-made responses, which sounded easy enough. He could easily just say same thing day in and out, and if some roided-out juggernaut came over, he could always refer to his manager. That does mean he should get friendly with the boss, which he was still hesitant about. He hasn’t even met him yet, and he had to get much closer.
At the end of the day, though, this did seem like a sweet gig. Work for a short while at some gym, while sorting out problems with university. Of course, as long as he would not need to deal with another day of weird alarms, strange kids guarding the front doors and pompous cyclist on the road, he could lived through this period of his life with a breeze. Maybe they were not that frequent, who knows?
It looked like a very good plan.
“He said he was going to take a walk at the hardware store,” Rick said to his brother. They were talking about his boss, which Natsu finally paid attention to. Noëll seemed surprised, to which the panther assured that, “The boss is coming back. A high probability is that he is taking his ninth quick trip to that new sportswear store, which opened two weeks ago. The highest likelihood of a chance, I’d say around ninety percent, is that he found another…eye candy.” Rick elbowed Noëll, whom the latter made an “ooh!” noise.
“That so, huh? Is she pretty?”
Rick stared at him for a short minute, with that hint of disappointment. Like seeing your slippers inside the toilet bowl, again.
“No,” Rick replied flatly. “You keep forgetting important details about our boss, which we have many times talked about. You should maybe write it down as a note, it helps-“
“Hey, you came from this direction, right?” Noëll suddenly cut him off, turning to Natsu. The kid got confused, then looked to where his brother pointed at. “From there, right? That’s where that new store is. Maybe you’ve seen him, then, your future boss? He’s tall, burly, lionish, his mane is blue, and very big, blue eyes. Ring any bells?”
Natsu bobbed his head. He noticed Rick leaving away resentfully.  
Blue.
That description did not align with anyone Natsu saw before. Of course, maybe there was someone like that, but he was too busy running away. Everything was a blur after he ran, though beforehand, he barely had time to actually meet someone. The only person he met was the maniac… or maybe that was a maniac…and he did look lionish, but his mane was purple, not blue.
Under the red light.
Red.
Blue.
“Nats..? You are looking kinda pale there, are you remembering something?” Noëll asked. 
Natsu really was sweating again, though he felt a cold grip, now situated at the pit of his stomach. This was probably a coincidence, he thought, there was no way it was him. He should forget that it ever happened, this was all just a stupid accident.
“Oh hey, look over there!” Noëll waved his hands. “That’s the main man himself! Hey Rio!”
Natsu took too late to stop himself. Once he finally lowered his head to stare at the floor, the image from the corner of his eye had etched into his mind as if with superglue. 
“You’re back boss,” added Rick. 
There was no answer, just uneven heavy steps. 
Natsu tried to deny what he saw. It was probably someone else that they meant. Even though a pair of sneakers had come into his view. Along with it, a blueish-white fur from his open calves and bright blue hair tuft on his lion-like tail. Next to his leg was hanging a two-by-four, which heavily swayed with his half-steps.
“You okay? You don’t look good,” his brother asked his “boss.”
Natsu moved his gaze up once more, ever so slowly. He gazed at the crotch of that man. The reality has proven to be cruel, for he recognized them immediately. 
“Some prick just destroyed my nuts!” said the lion, in a growly voice.
Natsu closed his eyes and finally gave in. Like letting the water swallow you up.
“Natsu?” his brother called for him.
Natsu sighed, then stood up. Guess clown school it is.
…