•| The Band Of Seven |•

Without A Goodbye

Gray's POV:

For the first time in my life, my body froze in its place...

The sight in front of me was shocking enough to make my whole body feel numb...as I saw my mother being killed right in front of me...

"Oops~" I heard Elijah say with a smug smirk on his face as he began to laugh hysterically, "I wonder what would Rei feel about killing his own mother~heheHAHAHAHAHAA!" then he sprinted outside, leaving my mother fall roughly on the floor.

"M-Mum..." I could barely move as I went and crouched beside her on the floor with great difficulty.

"Mum....mum....m-mum....MUM!" that's when I started breaking down into tears.

I kept bawling my eyes out while still calling her as if she's going to answer me...at least that was what I hoped...

"PLEASE ANSWER ME MOTHER! *crying intensifies*"

But she never did...her body remained still as her eyes slowly turned hollow, and her hand which I was clutching tightly, started to feel colder than even mine...

"N-No..."

"No...no....NOO!! MUM WAKE UP PLEASE! YOU CAN'T LEAVE US LIKE THIS!!" tears kept falling out of my eyes like endless waterfalls, I cried loudly...as loud as I ever did...it hurts so much...

"You didn't even give me a chance to say goodbye..." I cried out, "What about Rei! What about his feelings?! What would he feel?! Do you think he'll be okay with this?! NO! So please..." new tears kept falling each minute, "...wake up and tell me that it's okay...that it's all fine....as you have always told me MUM PLEASE!! IT HURTS SO MUCH SEEING YOU LIKE THIS PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US!"

But mum never responded that night...that night was so quiet...silence filled the area...and the only sound audible was me crying alone the whole night long...

[The next morning...no school today...]

Hira's POV:

I kept calling Gray last night but he didn't pick up not even once, which is weird especially for someone like Gray. He always picks up our calls and if he didn't then he'd call again after a few minutes.

So what happened? Could it be Elijah showed up and hurt him in any way?!

I grew worried the more I thought about it so I woke up very early...

6:12 AM

I thought nothing about it as I finished my morning routine, changed then headed quickly towards Gray and Rei's house.

I hope Mrs. Salvatore wouldn't think I'm being rude coming this early in the morning...

Minutes later, I arrived at their front door and I kept ringing the door bell but no one answered.

"Weird, did they go out at this hour or are they asleep?" I asked myself.

But even if they're asleep, Mrs. Salvatore sleeps lightly so she would've already heard the door bell.

A few seconds later I remembered that Gray always leaves the spare key under the door mat in case of emergencies. So I grabbed the key from under the mat and unlocked the door...

"Um, hello? Pardon my intrusion..." I said as I stepped in.

Why is the house so dark?

"Is someone here?" I shouted, "Graaaaay?"

No response...

I decided to make sure by going upstairs to Gray and Rei's room and check if Gray's still asleep or something.

I walked down the small hall that leads to their room but as I approached it, I could clearly see that the door is wide open which is unusual because Gray never sleeps with the door open...

I'm started to have a bad feeling by each step I took towards the room.

"Gray? Are you in he-" I said while turning right towards the room's entrance when I saw the sight in front of me...

My eyes couldn't widen more than that as I placed my hand over my mouth while tears started to form in the corners of my eyes...

I saw Gray's mother laying on the floor, motionless with a huge deep cut on her neck, Gray sitting there beside her with his back resting against the side of the bed, dark circles under his puffy red eyes which told me everything...

I.....I couldn't believe it....

The first thing I thought of was my healing magic so I immediately rushed to his mother's body and started placing my hands on top of her, trying to chant my strongest healing spells.

"C'mon please work!" I was desperately trying hard while tears started crawling out of my eyes, seeing my magic was useless...

"Hira..." Gray breathed out, not looking at me, still having that shallow look on his face. But I was still trying hard to help her in any way I can...

"Hira..."

"HIRA!" He snapped and grabbed my hands, making me look at him with my teary eyes, "It's over...there's nothing you can do." He calmly said causing more tears to fall out.

"Why...WHY HAVEN'T YOU CALLED ME GRAY?!" I yelled, "I COULD'VE CAME AS FAST AS I COULD TO SAVE YOUR MOTHER! WHY?!"

I started crying loudly, while Gray hugged me silently. My sadness wasn't only mine...I could feel Gray's sadness and even Rei's sadness from all this distance. I soaked his shirt with my tears but I couldn't feel more hurt than to imagine how Gray felt last night...dealing with this all by himself...

He broke the hug and smiled weakly, "It's okay Hira, stop crying now, what happened has happened."

"DON'T YOU DARE GIVE ME THAT SMILE GRAY SALVATORE!" I shouted at him, "You....don't always have to appear strong in front of us Gray...it's okay to cry and break down when you need it. Don't force yourself to smile that painful smile I don't like seeing you like this Gray!"

Gray looked down for a bit and hugged me again while patting my head, "It's okay Hira...I've cried enough for one night."

No one's POV:

[But at the same time, the rest of the band of 7 along with Mika and Meredy were facing a certain someone...unaware of what happened last night at Gray's house...]

"ELIJAH! GIVE REI HIS BODY BACK!" yelled Atsui at the villain standing in front of him with a grin

"*Evil laugh* You're quite amusing little dragon boy~" he said mockingly.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A LITTLE DRAGON BOY?!" Atsui snapped at him but Rufus held him from burning him down, in case he hurts Rei too by mistake.

"There's something you said yesterday that I've been wondering about..." Manaka said slowly, "You said that one of us have seen your true form. What did you mean by that?"

"Oh well...you see-ARGH!!" He started but his smirk faded away as he appeared to be in some sort of pain...

"What's with him?" asked Mika.

"DAMN YOU REI SALVATORE!" He cursed as his screams started to intensify.

"What the? I think Rei's tryna break free from Elijah's control!" Yelled Rufus.

"C'MON REI! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT, YOU'RE STRONGER THAN THIS!" Yelled Atsui to encourage him as Elijah kept squirming, trying hard to stay in Rei's body but Rei was finally on the verge of pushing him out...

"H-HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! NEVER DID I POSSESS SOMEONE'S BODY AND THEY PUSHED ME OUT BY THEIR OWN WILL AND POWER?" He yelled as they saw a dark shadow fade away from Rei's body as Rei closed his eyes and fell to the ground.

The rest of the band of 7 ran to him but were startled to see that the shadow that emerged from Rei's body, and what they assumed to be Elijah, started to regain his true form right in front of them.

Seconds later, Elijah was now standing in front of them with his true form that no one has ever seen before...

No one but one...

"F-Father?!"

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