"Ruby."
"Yes barry?"
Ruby responds looking deeply into a mirror. She stared at her reflection, she looked older, too old. The makeup applied thickly over her face, it looked like a mask, hiding all that was underneath. Her hair dry as straw, the vivid purple now a sickly grey violet. She grips the vanity, her knuckles a pale white, the thin skin showing her veins in a grotesque display.
"I am not Barry ruby. You do not fully know me."
Her eyes sink and fall inwards, she is now watching from the back of her own head. Her hair smelt of the expensive hair care products she used, but they smelt old, wrong. The wood grains twist and warp. The new shape is indescribable, it looms over her. The creature, if she could call it that, speaks in an unholy voice. The sound grating against her skull, she felt red hot tears burn into her skin. Merely gazing upon this thing was slowly corroding her. its horrid form is a rape of her mind. Her very sanity wants to rebel against it. The repulsive look of it is enough to make her kneel in repulsion.
"Listen wisely ruby, follow it. Help her find her gift from us. Stick with them at all costs. Do not defy me."
Its rough decayed voice ringing through her very soul. This thing was not supposed to speak, was not supposed to be. It made her want to claw open her skull to get the memory of it out. The thought of it brings her unimaginable agony. Her body decays in front of her, already sunken eyes and cheeks being swallowed into her face. The gnawing sound of muscle pulling the living matter from her bones, the air was suffocatingly thick with the smell of iron and miasma. Her stomach turns with nausea. her skin turns pallid and then starts eating away at itself revealing a black writhing scene of death, the sound of decaying flesh ringing disgustingly in her soul. She is stripped of all flesh, the skeletal remains turning into nothing but dust.
"WHY?!"
Ruby screams, her voice hoarse and low, as if her vocal cords are being scraped along broken glass.
"That is a question many ponder, but none can find an answer. Goodbye ruby."
Her eyes snapped open, the dream quickly faded from her memory. The thought of it was painful, like it shouldn't be there. The sweat dripped down her forehead, burning into her skin. She stands, the sound of her stomach growling familiar and comforting, it was still her. The smell of the small living area was still as rancid as before. Her thin spindly legs carried her towards the ramshackle kitchen. It had barely anything in it save for old cabinets previously rummaged through by her. The small sink in the corner rusted and dry. The dishes piled up and left to ferment.
her ears raise, The floorboards creak, she freezes, the blood in her veins run cold. That girl was still asleep so what was inside with her? she whips her head around to see a boy, the skin of his cheeks scarred and mangled. The scars twisted and warped in swirls of past torture. His eyes were bloodshot.
"GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!"
She screams at him, his short stature shrinking downward. He looked too small to be a threat.
"It was the only place I could think to go."
His voice rasps as he speaks in a quiet somewhat pitiful whisper, the voice familiar to ruby, although it was significantly more clear. This man had tried to kill and rob her. But ,maybe because they were in this more calm setting, or maybe because it was early morning and she could see clearly. He no longer had a mask on, the distinct lack of needle-like spikes in his back. She couldn't help but notice how young he looked, his malnourished stature and sickly eyes putting him in his late preteens. His dark skin is dotted with the occasional pimple.
"How many years do you have?"
Ruby asks, keeping a sizable distance between herself and the boy.
"14 years."
Horace speaks matter of factly, his rough voice a higher pitch than before. She couldn't help but notice his chest puff up a little as he spoke. He was older than she would've thought. She walks towards him grabbing his wrist. He flinches away from her, his hand clasped against his chest. Ruby's sharp eyes soften for a moment. Just a moment of sympathy.
"What is your name child?"
"Horace."
"Well Horace there is a broom in that corner, please get started sweeping while I take care of the dust. I have a feeling we will be here a little longer and i will not live in squalor"
Ruby points to a far corner of the apartment. The old twisted wood with tall grass tied to it sloppily was a sad excuse for a broom, the cobwebs thick around it. but it should do the job well enough. Ruby picks up one of the torn sheets of fabric and starts viciously dusting any surface in her reach, she keeps going through the sweat and panting from the exertion. Her emaciated figure is no longer ;/p/oeable to do this kind of work.
Horace notices Salem unconscious on the floor. He picks the half nude girl in the middle of the room. He lifts her up, her short stature and starved body are relatively easy to lift. Horace smiles at how the morning light catches her curly black hair. It had a small hint of the same pink of the hexsugar. He walks towards the small bedroom connected to the main room. Placing her in one of the two small beds. The room smelt stale, forgotten. The corners seem to have a dense infestation of spiders. The sheets are thick with dust. He shakes one sheet violently, he puts it over salem. Her comatose state not noticing the extra warmth
Horace returns to start sweeping, noticing ruby's exhaustion.
"Where'd you learn how to clean?"
Horace asks continuing his sweeping, the dirt now in a neat pile in the center of the room. Ruby stops her fervent cleaning and sighs deeply. Her ribs caught the corset painfully.
"I will answer you when I am not in my modelling corset."
Ruby undoes the blouse, leaving her chemise and corset exposed to the warm summer air. Her thin delicate fingers undo the laces, she neatly steps out of the corset, the fabric of her chemise wrinkled from the pressure it had put on her abdomen. She places the silken corset on the countertop where she had dusted. The loose fabric of the underdress draped on her bony frame making her look even thinner and ghastly.
She takes a seat on a small stool and looks at Horace, his pale blue eyes contrasting his dark skin.
"I am going to take a short break. I will answer the next few questions you ask, in return you will tell me the real reason you chose to find us."
Ruby says, talking as straightforward as possible. She lifts her withered arms undoing the pins in her tightly wound bun, it unwinds into a long woven braid, it hits the floor with a soft thud it sits at her feet like a snake.
"Where'd you learn to clean?"
Horace asks with more emphasis.
"I have very little staff in my manor, if one of them did not do it right I would get rid of them and do it myself. I had to learn how so I was not acting on baseless hypocritical foundations."
Ruby speaks with the cold tone of a strict parent, her voice conveying no remorse for her cruel actions. Horace nods his head along with what ruby was saying, if they wanted a job they should've done it right he thought to himself.
"What's your name?"
"Ruby"
"Nice name"
Horace says on instinct, the quick response unusual from his past experience with talking.
"Why were you out alone?"
Ruby's face twists into an unfamiliar expression to Horace, was it disappointment? No that's not it, no it was something similar though.
"It was too much money for me to pass on, the sponsor had promised an unfathomable amount. Enough to pay off all of my debts."
Ruby says her voice is flat and monotone. Turning her face away from Horace. Shame clear on her face, he doesn't notice though.
"Enough about me, tell me the real reason you came looking for us?"
Ruby asks searching for the ulterior motive. Her glare piercing Horace made him squirm uncomfortably, her sharp eyes reminded him of the predators he'd seen a few years ago.
"I was sad I might've killed her. I wanted to help."
He takes a pause, then speaks in a voice so quiet ruby barely hears it.
"I'm happy you're both alive."
He says his voice conveying heavy remorse. It confused ruby, how could he be a violent criminal one day and a simple regretful teen the next?
"Oh."
Ruby speaks at a loss for words, the confusion flooding her mind. Horaces stomach grumbles, his arm wrapped around his abdomen. The woman stands up and makes her way to the cabinets looking for anything remotely edible. This boy looked hungry.
"There is nothing to eat. I am sorry, that girl did not seem too keen on preserving herself until the next rain season."
Ruby says with sympathy for the boy.
"I can go fetch?"
Horace offers finally setting the broom aside.
"Thank you Horace, please get some water while you are out. close the door on your way out"
Ruby says picking up the same rag as before and continuing to dust every surface in sight.