Good Meets Bad

Chapter 27

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"I'm so excited, Lucy. I can't wait for you to wake up that I can even take my life. Isn't that weird? What would happen if I killed myself? Will you die too and meet me in the afterlife?"

Lucy's forehead creased and she reached out to pat Jellal's hair but her hand went through him. She pulled her hand back like she was burned and stared at the man with a painful gaze. She stood next to her unmoving body, unable to force her soul back inside. She inhaled sharply and watched as Jellal cried, her own tears sliding down her cheeks. She hated this state of hers. She wanted to go back and kill whoever forced Gray to shoot Jellal.

She stood excruciatingly still as she watched Jellal leave the room, seemingly talking to someone who wasn't even there. She feared that he had already lost his mind and was seeing hallucinations of her. She didn't want him to kill himself out of insanity. What would happen to her once she wakes up?

Lucy was about to run after Jellal - though she couldn't even get out of the room - when the Student Council suddenly arrived, panting and sweaty. She narrowed her eyebrows in confusion, wondering why they were there. When Jellal popped in her mind, she finally understood. They were looking for him and found out by the nurses that he was visiting her. She sat down on the bed beside her still body and listened to her visitors arguing with each other.

"If you weren't so whiny about your stomach, we would have made it!" Laxus barked at Natsu who pouted stubbornly, folding his arms over his chest. Yes, he was hungry and needed to eat. Maybe if they arrived minutes earlier, they could've seen Jellal.

"I was hungry, I couldn't help it," The pinkette gritted out, assuring Levy that he was fine and that he wasn't going to create any ruckus inside Lucy's room. The blonde felt touched that he wouldn't do anything disastrous just for her but it wasn't enough to calm her poor heart down. With a nervous gulp that no one could hear but her, she leaned over to stroke her own cheek. She sighed when her fingers passed through.

Loke dragged a chair next to the bed and sat down, crossing his legs, "It's fine. We can catch Jellal some other time. Maybe it's just not meant for us to catch him today."

"I wonder what he said to Lucy-san," Levy said, brushing the woman's golden hair away from her pale face. Spiritual Lucy - she scoffed at what she called herself - felt awkward that they were treating her that way but shrugged it off.

Mira closed her eyes and lowered her head, "I don't know, Levy."

Lisanna, who was now sitting on the edge of the bed, bit her lip, "Mira-nee didn't even tell me anything about a gang war," She turned to stare at her sister, "Why is that?"

"It was a secret," Gajeel said, looking down at her with his piercing red eyes. The younger Strauss looked away and apologized immediately, guilty for butting in their business. The man groaned and dragged a weary hand down his face, "Lucy-sama is an idiot for risking her life."

"But she loved Jellal," Natsu countered, staring up at the man, "You can't stop her from loving him."

Lucy's frown deepened and she watched Gajeel look away and nod. Though it was faint, there was a sad gleam in his eyes that made her smile. She knew how much the man loved her. His love for her wasn't romantically shown but he loved her in a sisterly way. She knew that he saw her as his big sister who saved him from dying out of starvation and dehydration. When she saw him that day, despite being known as the infamous War Maiden who was claimed to be heartless, she immediately wanted to take him in just like the others.

She wanted to tell him that she was fine. She wanted to hug him and pat his head. She couldn't bear to see her family so sad and torn. She wanted to tell him that she could see and hear him but though she could speak, her words wouldn't be heard. No matter how loud she screamed for him to hear her, nothing would thunder in the room.

"Do you think that... Jellal's okay?" Levy whispered, eyes filled with grief staring at Lucy's body, tears slipping out from the corner of her eyes, "Do you think that he's s-safe?"

"Of course he's safe," Loke quickly said, a hand pushing up his glasses and wiping his weary eyes.

The blonde closed her eyes and droplets of water cascaded down her cheeks and vanished before it hit the floor. She knew he was safe. But what if he decided to do something absurd? What if he wasn't looking sideways when he crossed the street and got hit by a car? What if he fainted while walking on the road? What if he wasn't eating? What if he was sick? Lucy's eyes opened in horror.

What if he committed suicide?

Lucy opened her mouth and yelled, wanting to relay to the Student Council that Jellal wasn't safe. There were always risks wherever they went. There would always be hazards and he's in the risk of killing himself.

She didn't know how she did it. She didn't know how she was desperately trying to grab her empty body just to shake it even though her fingers never made contact with the skin. She couldn't fathom how her tears still fell though they just disappeared in an instant. She couldn't think of a way how she was going to get back in her body. She didn't know when she would wake up again. She wanted to hug Jellal. She wanted to kiss him, to feel him in her arms. She wanted him to know that she loved him, that she missed him. She wanted to tell him that she listened to everything he said.

She wanted to go back to her own body and wake up without any complications.

She opened her mouth in an attempt to scream, her transparent hands going past her body and landing on the bed. Why couldn't she touch her own body? Why could she touch things but not her own flesh? With a cry of devastation, she fell to her knees and buried her face in her arms on the bed, tears continuously dripping down and disappearing.

But, even if she cried a million tears and screamed until her heart stopped, everything was useless, only because she was translucent.