He didn't seem to show any signs of recovery. Louis called up Zayn's mom. She was there in about half an hour. She started panicking. She was just confused and worried.
"How did you come?" I asked her.
"Taxi." She said. "Louis, can you come with me? I can't take him on my own."
"Alright." He said, and they both walked him out slowly, and left.
"How did he drive this morning?" Liam asked.
"God knows." Harry said. "What time is the funeral? Will Zayn be able to come?"
"Four. But, I don't know if he'll be able to make it." I said. "Liam and Lisa, you both are coming with me right?"
"Yea." Lisa said.
"What for?" Niall asked.
"To track HER down." I said. "But, where will you stay Niall?"
"I think I can manage on my own." He said.
"Oh no, don't do that." Liam said. "Audrey, you stay at home with him. We both will go looking for HER."
"But guys-..."
"You have to stay away from HER, because SHE will only try to run away from you if you go looking for HER. Chances of that to happen if we go looking for HER are less." Lisa said.
"She has a point." Harry said.
"Alright. Just be careful." I said.
*
Harry also came along with us, because the vamps who guarded his house are also on the hunt for HER.
"I never knew vampires could walk out in the daylight like that." Harry said.
"There is something called as the day ring, worn by vampires who chose to stay out in the day. See, I too wear it." Mom said, tying her hair into a pony tail for the fourth time.
"How does this vervain thing look?" Niall asked.
"It's a small herb, which has purple flowers, I don't know if they're really flowers or not. They kinda have the structure of wheat, you know, that long small twigs." She tried to explain.
"Oh...okay." He said.
"I never tried getting close to it." I said. "How come you saw it?"
"SHE tried to use it on me once. That's when I saw it for the first and last time, hopefully." She said. "Any news about HER? Where did SHE go after doing that?"
"No clue." I said. "But I hope we're getting close. The forest and the valleys behind our house is the only place we haven't searched."
"You better stay with the boys at home. Don't leave them alone." She said.
"Of course I won't." I said.
"Take care. I'll come there directly. Four right?" She asked.
"Yes." I said.
"Bye then." She said, and left.
"Why was Denver absent today?" Niall asked.
"I guess he falls ill every now and then." Harry said. "Or must be busy at Audrey's mom's office."
*
"When will they come? It's already half past three." Niall said, putting on his black suit. He was wearing a white formal shirt and pants. So was Harry.
"Audrey, when will you get ready?" Harry asked.
"We're going for a funeral, not something else." I said.
"I know, but-..."
"And it's not any ordinary person's funeral." I said, ignoring him.
"Audrey listen." Niall said, sitting beside me on my bed. "Elsa's gone. I know how hard it is for you. But you need to get on with it."
"This wasn't supposed to happen. And I can't simply just get on with this." I said, turning to him and brushed his messy hair.
"We'll wait outside. Get ready." Harry said, and walked out of the room. Niall followed him. I put on a black dress, black shoes, and a black shrug, and tied my hair into a messy bun as usual. I walked out of my room after a few minutes to find Harry sitting alone on the dining table, face covered in his palms and Niall on the couch, doing nothing.
"Oh, are you ready? How will we tell them?" Niall asked, getting up.
"They know when to come." I said. "Let's go."
"Taxi?" Harry asked.
"Yea." I said.
The three of us walked out reluctantly. I locked the front door, and gave the keys to Niall. He kept them in his suit's inner pocket.
It was a really gloomy day. The skies looked dull, like as if an artist dropped his glass of colored water onto his paper, except that the colors in the water were only black and other dark colors.
Niall's POV:
It was pretty cold outside. The skies looked grey and dull. Looks like it's gonna rain.
"Should we get an umbrella?" I asked.
"No need." She said, grabbing onto my left hand and walked with me.
"I hope they get there on time." I said walking down a street. She seemed to ignore that. So did Harry. He looked really upset.
"Didn't the authorities of the orphanage she stayed at come looking for her?" She asked.
"They did." I said. "We had to say that she died in a freak accident."
"Did they believe it?" She asked.
"Apparently, yea. They did." I said. "Zayn and his mom seemed to have finished off some formalities yesterday evening. Some documentation issues."
"Here comes a taxi." Harry said immediately.
We got in and zoomed away. There wasn't much traffic. We reached the church in about ten minutes or so. Louis was already there, waiting for us outside the church.
"Where's Zayn? How is he now?" Harry asked as soon as we got out of the taxi.
"Better. They put him on glucose for about two hours, and he ate something after that. He was okay after that." He said in a low voice. "This way."
He directed us to the graveyard behind the church. I really didn't want to see this. It seemed to be frightening. I grabbed onto Niall's hand a little more harder this time, and walked half-heartedly.
Everyone I knew was there. Sheldon, Lisa's dad, our principal, my mom, Zayn's mom, and four other ladies who I guess are the boys' moms, professors Joanne, Gibbs, Denver, and some others I've seen a couple of times. It was father Francis who was there to perform the final rites.
Professor Denver had a bandage on the left side of his forehead. Liam and Lisa were still not here. What happened after that, I don't want to explain. Everything happened so fast. It started drizzling a little now. So the five of us went and stood under a tree outside the graveyard.
"You shouldn't have ignored my message." Father said, walking towards us after the funeral. "I sensed something wrong. I'd warned you about this months ago, remember?"
"But father, you said 'Why do you look for the living among the dead?' What does that mean? How does it mean that someone is about to die?" Louis asked.
"This death was one message I wanted to reveal through that. The other, you have to find it for yourselves. I expected you to figure out the plot for this death since the day I first warned you." He said. "I better make a move now. May god bless your souls."
"That clearly made no sense." Niall said. "He should've given us some proper information."
"It's our fault too. We should've known about this since he first warned us." I said. Just then, Liam and Lisa jumped down from the tree above us.
"Where you both sitting on top of this tree the whole time?" Harry asked.
"Shh. Keep your voice down." Lisa said. "We've got good news and bad news."
"What's the good news?" I asked.
"The good news is, we actually found HER, somewhere near the abandoned hills where we found the vervain, Audrey."
"And what's the bad news? Niall asked.
"We lost HER. We tracked HER till here. SHE was actually here a few minutes before you guys came. We followed HER here." Lisa said.
"It's alright." I said.
"There's more." Liam said. "SHE's been trying to rejuvenate HER powers."
"Did SHE fix HER wand?" Harry asked.
"SHE didn't fix it. SHE gonna get another one. A more powerful one." He said. "SHE will be here for just one more day, tomorrow. After that, SHE will go somewhere far away, for one whole year."
"How is that gonna help HER regain HER powers?" Zayn asked.
"I don't know how exactly, but according to that witch, we won't be able to go after HER after tomorrow." Liam said.
"Which witch?" I asked.
"Audrey, we stole some vervain from some old witch's house, remember? It was that witch who told us all this." Lisa said.
"How did she know?" Louis asked.
"She's also a witch. Maybe that's how she knew." I said.
"We better not waste any more time. Let's go kill HER." Zayn said.