The Lifeless Beauty of Gracefield [ray x f! reader]

Without Her

3rd pov

Ray opened his eyes slowly to see [y/n] not sitting there beside him.

He needed to get used to it, needed to get used to it.
He told himself that he had to just get used to it.

But he couldn't. He couldn't get used to this emptiness. His hands crunched into tight balls, knowing that he couldn't get used to her gone.

"Ray?" Mama called out from the entrance of the library, snapping him out of his thoughts, "Come on, you'll be late for breakfast, dear."

'This house is fake. Mama's smiles are fake. Our lives- they're all fake. Or maybe.. it's because i'm without her that everything seems fake.'

~~~

Emma, Ray, Gilda, and Don hung their heads low; chewing on their food as the distant chatter all seamed to separate them.

"This is that best thing i've ever had!" Thoma laughed loudly, making sure everyone heard him.

'The best thing i've ever had was a girls potatoes she gave to me off of her plate.'

"You guys wanna play tag? I bet i can beat all you losers!" Nat yelled pridefully.

'you know who else beat all of them in tag? [y/n].'

It's a lot easier. Being able to tell yourself everything's ok. To tell yourself that you have to move on.

But words didn't help. They never helped. They wouldn't help.

Because no matter how many times Ray told himself these things, he didn't feel anything new. He didn't feel a wave of determination. Or a strand of hope.

Nothing could stop this overwhelming grief crashing upon him.

Nothing. 

~~~
Don pov :0

As much as I'd want to close [y/n]'s case, I can't. Why? Why am I looking into this so much?

But I can't get over it.

Why did she say, 'book' like that? Was she trying to lead me with that?

I stood up from my bed, it's really late I should not be up. Tip-toeing as silently and quietly as possible, I headed towards the library.

That place is full of books, I'm sure I can find it there.

While entering I noticed, Ray. Why is Ray here? Shouldn't he been in bed?

He was sitting on one of the upper parts of the library, all on his lonesome.

But whatever, I have to find whatever it is [y/n] was trying to lead us.

[an: i really don't like writing in first person, i don't know if you guys noticed. i just... really dislike it with a passion. but i will do it in the sake of my readers]

"never, never judge a book by it's cover."

I repeated the words in my head millions of times as I scanned through books.

Come to think of it... that's what she said the day we were playing tag. I remember now, she told me that just not as straight forward.

"don't judge people because of how they look. i could be a psychopath who kills people for a living and you would never know. and besides, i think gilda would be the cute one for you."

So... has she been trying to lead me here ever since that game of tag? No, she probably was trying to lead me here for a while.

But it's only now that she's gone I use my stupid, useless brain.

What was it in that sentence... other than book.

"never, never judge a book by it's cover."

Wait. Is there an actual book in here named 'Cover'?

And she said 'never' twice. Does that mean... the book will be on the second shelf?

That's it! Did I crack the code?!

I sped over to the 'C' section and looked up to the second shelf. After skimming through the names of every book, I found it.

'Cover. By [some fake name idk]'

However, once I opened it, there was just pages. Like any other book, there were pages.

I tried to read it, but it had nothing to do with the house, mama, or even the secret!

But as I kept on reading I noticed.

Why was to two main characters named Don and Ray?

Later on in the book there comes Emma, Norman, Gilda.

For some reason, she wrote herself as the main antagonist in this book.

Did she type this and put it in a book? How the hell did she do that?

Then, less than halfway through the book, I finally see something that indicates this was in fact meant to be.

The page was mostly empty, well except those two sentences in the smack middle.

'Then, after finding all the clues, secrets and lies [y/n] spewed out, Don found her book. I hope you have fun, Don.'

~~~
hope that is enough to focus back on school for a week. But school is gonna end in four weeks, so just you wait!

Once I finish school, and i'm on summer break, I'm gonna write as often as I can!

bai