[Disturbing Descriptions]

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?̳̙͙͕̜̑̈́́̎̍?̛̛̞̫͚̜̤͂̍̔?͎̮̥͚̦̐̾̈́̕͞

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I awoke in the day, once again. Not in control of myself, as I was yesterday.

I got up and went down the hallway once again, walking out the front door of the house and waiting outside.

Soon, Gradient's white form appeared, a few feet in front of me.

He smiled. "I assume they're all sleeping?"

I nodded yes in response.

"Good," Gradient said, "I'd hate to disturb them. Where is she?"

I motioned for him to follow me, and I lead him up to where Aiko was resting. Her faint yellow form glowed slightly brighter as Gradient came closer - I assumed it was because he still held part of Aiko's spirit.

Gradient looked down at the ghost child and smiled.

"Goodbye, little one."

He shot a clawed, black hand through Aiko's chest, and Aiko's screeches of pain filled the room as Gradient pulled her spirit from her chest. The black on her hands crawled up her arms and from her eyes, which were now black and empty as well.

Gradient lifted his hand from her chest, and held a glowing yellow orb. Aiko's screams faded as she fell limp and slowly faded into nothing, her dark eyes seeming to stare through me as they disappeared.

———

AKHET

———

Aiko was gone when I woke up.

I still slept in my own room, I just slept on the small sofa that was also in the room. But when I awoke, she was no longer laying in the bed.

Dread washed over me as I immediately stood up, looking around the room, holding on to the final hope that she could have woken up early somehow.

But the foreboding silence of the room seemed to confirm my worst fears.

I knew I should have kept watch overnight (or day. Whatever).

Gradient must have found his way in as we slept, and consumed her before we could wake up.

Xyan poked his head through the door, probably about to ask about Aiko, but saw the empty bed and my fearful expression before he could ask.

"How..." he started to say, but the rest of his sentence dissipated.

Aiko was gone.

———

XYAN

———

I had attempted at comforting Akhet, but she was quite upset about the loss of Aiko. After a while I decided it was best to give her some space. I walked out of her room and found Praxus outside. I had informed him of the situation when he had come with me to Akhet's room earlier.

"How's Akhet?" Praxus asked.

"She blames herself for Aiko," I sighed, "We should leave her alone for a bit."

"Agreed," Praxus replied.

As we sat in silence for a moment, I ran over what we knew in my head.

And it all pointed to one solution. A solution that I only wanted to use as a last resort.

But I don't think we have another choice.

"Praxus... remember that last resort I was talking to you about?"

"Yes... you're not saying..."

"I am," I said, "Gradient's killed Aiko, Akhet's tearing herself up about it, and Gradient may come back for all of us. If we don't do it, no one will be able to."

"I know that Gradient is definitely an immediate threat at the moment," Praxus said, "But he's a friend."

"He was a friend. Now, he's the enemy. And I won't stand to see him hurt anyone else."

Praxus thought about this for a moment before sighing, and nodding.

"Alright."

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Shorter than I had planned, gosh dang it

AND NOOOO AIKOOOOOO

590 words