The Story Of Us [CURRENTLY ON HOLD]

Chapter 7

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March 30th, X315

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He was done earlier than planned and took this free opportunity to go visit his family to see how they were holding up. Natsu is a very energetic kid and it usually takes both his mom and dad to calm him down enough to put him to bed. He smiled thinking about his younger brother. It has only been a week but he misses his little brother desperately. He misses him goofing around, his clumsiness, but most of all he misses his companionship. He was after all, the only teenager in the building as others were well above their twenties and thirties. He doesn't mind this however, as it helps him focus on the task at hand rather than slacking off, but sometimes he did wish he had someone to talk about his discoveries and theories.

He was almost home now, just forty-five minutes away. To pass time, he hums the song his brother usually sings, the one Igneel taught them. His little brother practically idolizes Igneel, he is basically like a second father to him. His father doesn't mind, he finds it cute that his youngest son looks up to his best friend, through he was not quiet sure what his son saw in him. (This comment earned him a hard slap to the head from Igneel, who smiled at him innocently when Nazar shot him a dirty look.)

He turned to the path towards his village where his home lay. After walking a dozen steps, Zeref stops abruptly. He stares in horror as he watched his village get ravaged by flames, parents screaming for their children and children screaming for their parents. He saw a little boy standing terrified in the middle of a ring of fire. The house that stood behind the boy collapsed, and he watched in terror as the roof of the house tumbled down on him, squishing him under a huge pile of rubble. He watched his little hand that somehow made its way out from under the rubble, shake violently before it dropped to the ground.

Regaining control of his body again, he ran towards the pile of rubble, hoping that against all odds that the little boy somehow managed to survive. He dug through the pile quickly, aware of the fact that every minute he wastes not getting those heavy stones off of him, the less chances of survival he has. With one last push, the last stone moved away revealing the broken and bleeding body of the young boy. His wooden sword he was holding to his chest was stained with dust and blood and lay a couple of feet away from the boy. He opened his eyes briefly, catching a glimpse of his savior before laying still, too still for his liking. He put his fingers to his nose to check if he was still breathing and to his relief he was, very faintly but still alive and breathing.

Carefully taking the boy in his arms, he ran around the village looking for victims and other survivors. He spotted a dark blue haired man making his way towards the woods for safety and ran towards him. He handed him the little boy and told him to give him immediate medical attention before running towards the burning village again to find his family. The dark blue haired man looked at the direction of the young teen before turning his attention to the little boy with dark purple hair that slept in his arms. Adjusting him in his arms so that he would not wake, the man ran away from the village to seek shelter.

Zeref stood in front of his house panting and coughing as he inhaled the smoke created by the fire. Mustering up his leaving strength, he ran towards his home, desperately trying to fine the sight of his father, mother and his little brother.

He found his mother first, lying face down towards the kitchen tiles on the floor. He ran to her, shook her and even went as far as throwing water on her but nothing seemed to work. He put his head on her chest, hoping to hear her heart beat. Tears leaked from his eyes when he found none and sobbed on his mother's shoulder and hugged her body tight, wanting to feel the comfort of her arms around him again, holding him tight against her. Wiping his eyes, he took off running to find his father and little brother, leaving the corpse of his mother to rot inside the kitchen.

He found his father next, his once handsome face scorned with burns and his eyes rolled to the back. His fingers were bleeding and filled with splinters. He stared in horror at the image of his father, letting out a piercing scream as he realized that his father had no legs. It seemed they were burned so severely, they were turn to nothing but ash on the floor. He cried harder, now him and Natsu are orphans. His eyes widened in realization of his younger brother that might need saving. Kissing his father's forehead, Zeref ran to his little brother's room and threw open the door, his eyes frantically searching for the body of his younger brother, however it was nowhere to be found. Panicking now, Zeref ran around the house again, double checking the front yard and the back yard before falling on his knees in front of his house and watched it collapse on itself.

Any chance of finding Natsu in there is gone and even if there was, Natsu could've never survived that, no matter how much he wants to believe that's a lie, he can't. He is all alone, an orphan with no home, no food, no chance of survival. Why must this happen to him just when things were finally looking good in his life, why? He hates it, he hates himself, he hates life, he hates humanity, but most of all he hates the world. For years it has rejected him and he tolerated the pain, thanks to his family. Now, he has no family, no home, no one and he is left all alone to wallow in his own misfortune. Something snapped inside of him, taking control of his body, changing him and he let it. He let it because now he has nothing to live for, nothing to hold onto, nothing to hold him back for what he is about to do. His eyes turned red as a sinister grin took over his face. Yes, the world shall suffer, like he did.

Word Count: 1082