Night
A dark redness spread throughout the snow, accompanied by a loud incoherent scream ringing in everyone's ear close by it.
It was past midnight. The carnival was closing, and a certain two girls were just now leaving. Ruby ate a stick of cotton candy as she walked together with Weiss for the exit, still holding hands. This was not because they had yet to let go after the ferris wheel, but because even after each time they parted hands Ruby still grabbed a hold of Weiss's again.
Still unable to speak, Weiss stared at Ruby eating the cotton candy. She wanted some of it but was too embarrassed to ask, even though she was the one who bought it. Eventually Ruby noticed Weiss's stares. She made eye contact with Weiss, causing Weiss to blush. Ruby returned a smile and asked
"Do you want a bite?" somehow, lately it seemed that Ruby was able to tell what Weiss wanted even without words, or at least she was getting better at it.
Only a bite? Weiss thought to herself. She nodded, accepting the offer anyway, even though, she did want more than a bite. Ruby moved the Cotton candy toward Weiss and continued to hold it in front of her face. It seemed she really didn't want to share much, but that was not the true reason she did it because In truth, Ruby actually just wanted to feed it to Weiss.
Immediately after Weiss had bitten into the cotton candy, one of the academy teachers appeared in front of them. the unpleasant surprise had almost caused Weiss to choke on the colored sugar in her mouth. Weiss and Ruby didn't hate the teacher, but he was not their favorite by a long shot.
"Bit past your bedtime, girls?" the scowl on his face was one of the reasons why. Sure it wasn't exactly a teacher's job to be nice, but his personality was something beyond just a little rude.
"Oh, hey, Mr... uhhhh" Ruby struggled to remember the teacher's name. He was very imposing, always wearing a black suit, and his hair neatly combed. He was the kind of teacher that was always serious, no matter the situation. Even team CRDL didn't dare to screw around in his class. In fact, the only person who did was Yang.
"I don't see the other half of your team with you" he stated
"Uh...Yang and Blake are probably asleep right now."
"As they should be," he quickly interjected "after all, I do believe you have a mission this morning"
"Yeah, uhh, that's actually why we're here. You see, Weiss and I were actually scouting out the carnival before the mission. right, Weiss?" Weiss could only nod up and down, but It was not for that reason alone that he knew they were lying.
" I expect such a lie from your sister, not you." the disappointment was obvious.
"Sorry…" Ruby apologized. He shifted his eyes to Weiss expecting an apology from her also, but she didn't, and couldn't say a word. But the look on her face said enough. There was something about him she didn't like, something that he'd remind her of. She began to Squeeze Ruby's hand. The teacher continued to stare at them for a moment longer, before noticing that they were holding hands. He let out an agitated sigh just before speaking.
"I assume you're going home now" he was about to walk by them when he said one final thing.
Without any chatter, Ruby and Weiss reached the exit to the Carnival. Not that they could really chat. If they could, Weiss would have a lot to say about a certain douche. Though Weiss's inability to speak was not the reason Ruby hadn't
"He's pretty creepy, hey Weiss?" Ruby asked, soon after feeling a soft pressure on her hand. Ruby smiled back at Weiss. "I guess we're lucky we came across him though, otherwise we would have walked all the way to the train station and wasted our time there."
"Mm," it was the first sound Weiss had made since the ferris wheel.
"You can hum? it doesn't hurt?" Weiss shook her head left then right. "Yay" Ruby joyed, before squishing Weiss with a hug. "For a moment there, I thought you might never get your voice back"
Thanks for staying so optimistic, Weiss commented only to herself. Ruby's worry for Weiss had subsided, knowing that her voice was slowly returning.
The night was dark, only street lights still illuminated the sidewalks. Ruby and Weiss passed countless buildings as they talked and walked back to beacon academy. It would be quite the long walk, taking well over two hours, but at least they did have each other to talk and listen to.
"It has witches and magic and other cool stuff, also it just looks really cool" Weiss smiled happily in return. It was all she could really do to show that she enjoyed listening to Ruby talk so intensely about something she liked. Weiss continued to hold up the conversation as well as she could. If she was with anyone but Ruby, this would have been quite hard to do, but Ruby was so excited to talk to Weiss about the show that she had gotten very into.
"And then she turns into a fish and-" Upon realizing something, Ruby finally stopped herself from talking. "I...I probably shouldn't keep spoiling stuff" Weiss let out a small giggle, to which Ruby replied with a short smile. once again she wanted to say something, but still couldn't.
I want to watch it with her, Weiss just thought to herself.
While Ruby was trying to think of other things to talk about, Weiss spotted something ahead of them, growing out of a crack in the path. She tugged on Ruby's hand to get her attention and then pointed toward the object she saw. It was a white rose.
"Woww!" Ruby cheerfully awed at the rose. She speedily got closer to it, dragging Weiss along. Ruby crouched down and stared at it intensely. It was still only a rosebud, but it was an amazing sight nonetheless.
"It's just a single rose. How'd it even grow here?" Weiss too looked at it oddly.
How did it grow here? She repeated the question to herself. Surely someone would've stepped on it while it was still sprouting. all of a sudden, snow began to fall. Both Ruby and Weiss looked all around them. They were not only amazed that snow was falling, but confused as to why. It was spring, the weather shouldn't have been cold enough for snow. Hell, even in winter it wasn't common. just then the weather seemed to change, it suddenly felt cold enough for snow to fall. The girls began to shiver, all they were wearing, after all, was their normal beacon uniform.
I hope we don't catch a cold.
They stayed crouched, still staring at the rose, and the snow falling around them. It didn't take very long at all, but eventually, Weiss shifted her gaze to Ruby. No matter the situation, or how spectacular something was, it seemed that's what Weiss had always done. It was like this since even before she had feelings for Ruby, or perhaps it was because she was always watching Ruby, that led to the emotions that she holds today. Ruby turned to Weiss, about to speak, she saw Weiss's gaze. Neither said a word, they just continued to stare at each other as the snow fell around them. Slowly, they began to move closer. until it happened.
The white rose, In an instant before the two who were drifting closer together, suddenly had shot up out of the crack in the path, destroying the concrete around it as it grew. The girls jumped back away from it, cautious of what was happening. Not only its height grew, but so did everything else. It stopped growing when it was around 4 meters high and half of that wide. Next, its appearance started to change into something else entirely, something….horrifying. What seemed like vines, but in actuality were long thorns, ripped through the sides of the now giant rosebud. Something else started to come through in between the thorns. It's color, bone white, and its material the same as the noun, Bone. its stem split in two and long thorns began to also rip through the lower sides of the rose. Soon they began to cover both halves of the stem, creating what could only be known as the creature's lower limbs. it was around now that muffled screams sounded from within the rose itself, and blood began to stain the white rose, red. At the same time, the very same blood leaked from the rose into the snow.
Luckily as soon as the thorns appeared, the two huntresses called for their weapons. At Any moment they'd be crashing down into the pavement, a separate problem that Glynda would have to deal with later. However, moments passed, and there was no sign of their weapons. The only thing that changed was the monster itself. A bloodied skull arose from inside, held up by the stem of the plant, that had somehow started growing upwards. Connected to the stem and skull, was actually a spine, it too was bloodied. What connected these bones and rose parts together was, in fact, the rose itself, more specifically, the stringy filaments arising from the stem, they too had grown in size and strength. The filaments were wrapped and intertwined all over and through the bones. What seemed to be some kind of bone armor plating began to cover the petals. Finally, using the filaments almost covering the skull, inside and out, the creature opened its mouth jaw and let out a terrifying scream. During its scream, a redness appeared in the beast's eyes, and by the end of it, they had changed into a glowing blood red. It was all too obvious as to what this creature was. All questions as to how it got here and why would have to wait.
Weiss and Ruby jumped high into the air, dodging the Grimm's thorn covered bone arm that was lashing toward them. The arm did more than just crash into the building that the girls were by, it demolished them. Its arm had smashed through multiple buildings with ease. As it removed its arm from the rubble, the remaining parts of the buildings collapsed onto itself, Again The beast, no, Grimm let out a ferocious scream. It was annoying that it had missed. The girls had no other option, but to hold out until either help arrived, or their weapons did. Leaving the Grimm here to go on a murderous rampage was unthinkable.
Both girls were separated in mid-air, on opposite sides of the Grimm, they would come down in less than a second. Ruby was unsure of how long she could fight for. Her and Weiss had never fought against a Grimm with power like this before. The slightest slip-up and either one of them would be dead; they both knew this, and yet they still had to fight.
What neither of the girls had noticed was the Grimm's other bone arm preparing for an attack, right after the first one missed. This time the Grimm went only for Ruby. If only I could use that ability, Weiss wished, thinking of a power that seemed impossible for her to obtain.
Almost reaching the ground, a bit before Weiss could; as she used a glyph to launch herself up, Ruby thought that she had successfully avoided the Grimm's attack, but it was nothing more than a deception. Ruby Rose had jumped right toward her death. Another sharp bone covered in long thorns stretched around to Ruby's side at a high speed. By the time Ruby would be able to notice, it would already be too late. unluckily, she was not alone.
Weiss couldn't shout out to Ruby, her voice would not sound no matter how hard she tried.
I don't care how painful it will be, just let me save her! Weiss screamed in her mind. But even a warning could not save Ruby now. the only option Weiss had was to-. Without another thought, she placed a glyph under her and launched herself, like a bullet, toward Ruby. Weiss bursted forward. Flying toward Ruby, Weiss's thought played out in her head again. no matter how painful. Her trademarked determination appeared on her face once more, but this time something about it was different, it seemed more intense, more real than ever before.
Weiss continued to shoot forward at an incredibly high speed, it was almost like she had stolen Ruby's semblance trying to save her. Seeming like she was gonna knock the thorns and bones away, but what she had actually crashed into was Ruby. knocking her away, she had saved her; the person who was most important to her, but at a cost, no one would want.
The bone thorn, instead of stabbing Ruby, impaled Weiss. A splatter of blood shot out over the snow, as Weiss hanged on the bloodied bone in mid-air. The blood had even gone far enough as to reach Ruby's face, who was now staring in horror at Weiss from the snowy ground. Using the thorn vines to push the body away, The Grimm removed it's arm, revealing the gaping wound in Weiss' lower chest area. She fell onto the snow. To Ruby, the process of Weiss falling felt like it had lasted for an impossible amount of time. In reality, it was as quick as the blood beforehand. The hole was over 10 centimeters wide and around the same high. Blood spilled from the wound and Weiss continued to lay in the cold snow. She opened her eyes and saw Ruby shouting in front of her, tears pouring, voice more broken than her own would be. The only, and final thing Weiss gave Ruby in that moment was a smile, as she saw her for the last time.
The tears in Ruby's eyes seemed to vanish once she realized Weiss… was gone, instead a glowing unexplainable light shined from within her eyes. Soon, it began to envelop her whole body, as her anger and sadness grew to uncontrollable levels.
"I'll...I'LL KILL YOU!" her roar seemed to pierce the very being of the Grimm. In the next instant, she entered a full sprint, faster than any she had done before. In what was barely a millisecond, Ruby stood directly in front of her best friend's murderer. Its death would not solve the problem, it would not bring Weiss back, and neither would anything else. She drove her fist toward the Grimm, smashing it into its bone covered petals. No matter their harness, nothing would stand in her way. Soon they began to crack. Ruby pushed her fist beyond the petals, and into the Grimm itself.
mare
Ruby fell out of her bed. She landed face up on the carpet floor. All she could see was the dark ceiling of her dorm room. soon her vision blurred, tears streamed down the sides of her face. She almost let out a cry, but for whatever reason, be it politeness or embarrassment, she didn't want to wake anyone up. Ruby covered her mouth with her hand. She tried not to make a sound as she silently cried, but once Ruby saw a certain person's face, heard the same certain person's croaky voice, she couldn't help it.
Weiss heard a loud bang, it had woken her from her sleep. It was a familiar sound that she had heard a few time before; the sound of Ruby falling from her bed. Weiss sat up and looked over to Ruby, just lying on the floor. She was about to ask if she was okay, just from her bed, but then she spotted the tears, along with Ruby's own hand covering her mouth. She was just laying there, crying in silence. Weiss quickly hopped off the bed and knelt beside Ruby, finally asking,
"Ruby, what's wrong?" a croaky voice was all she could manage to let out, and even that was accompanied by small amounts of pain. Weiss was almost tearing up herself, upon seeing the tears of her best friend.
"Weiss…" was all Ruby could say in a broken, teary voice, before grabbing the concerned ice queen and pulling her closer. Ruby held Weiss tightly, more so than she had ever done before. Finally, Ruby let out a cry. It would have been loud enough to wake even team JNPR if she had not muffled it by crying into Weiss.
"Ruby…" Weiss could only say her partner's name in a soft, but croaky tone.
Eventually, Ruby stopped crying. Surely she had woken the other two who were asleep, but they didn't get involved. To them, it seemed like Weiss had things covered, even though it was Ruby who covered Weiss, so to speak.
"Are you okay?" Weiss asked. Ruby shook her head left, then right. It was almost like their roles were now reversed.
"Did you have a-"
"Mm"
"Oh…" Ruby confirmed Weiss's suspicion, but in the time that Weiss knew her, nothing had made Ruby like this before.
"Weiss?" Ruby called, voice still teary.
"Yeah?"
"In the dream….. You died."
"Oh.."
"I …. I don't want to ever lose you, Weiss," Ruby exclaimed, tightening her grasp again. Weiss would be lying if she said that Ruby's words, didn't make her happy, but she shuddered at the thought of having to lose Ruby, even in a dream.
"I don't want to lose you either" Weiss stated. She too wanted to hold Ruby tightly, but she couldn't exactly reach her arms around her.
They stayed still in silence for a few more minutes, until Weiss spoke up.
"We should probably get to bed" Weiss suggested. Ruby just tightened her grasp on Weiss again, in return.
"We have to be up early for-" her sentence was interrupted by Ruby squeezing even tighter. It was beginning to hurt her, but she couldn't help to think Ruby was cute for it.
"Well then….. D-do you want to sleep in my bed tonight?" Weiss stated something quite bold, especially for her. Ruby loosened her grasp on Weiss upon finally reply.
"m-Mm"
Ruby rubbed her eyes with her right hand, having taken a hold of Weiss's own right, with her left. She didn't want to let go of Weiss for even a single moment, even though, they'd be sleeping in the same bed. They laid down in the blanket, facing each other. Ruby, still holding Weiss's hand, spoke.
"I remember what actually happened tonight" she giggled
"Shush you" Weiss gave a warm smile. Without another word, the two fell asleep. each with a smile on their face
Just to reassure everyone in case they're somewhat confused by the "mare" in the middle. The true title of this is Nightmare, but I didn't want to give that away, and well... spoil things. So I put the other half of the title where it is because that's where the nightmare ends. also, I'm drunk while finishing this last edit, so if anything is horribly wrong, you know why( in that case, please let me know about it)
