Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, all rights are reserved by Rooster Teeth.
This work will contain moments of intense gore, violence, dark/dirty humor, and canonical divergences. Read at your own Discretion
A Feast For The Eyes
Ruby had no eyes.
That was the first thing Weiss was greeted with once she was roused from her sleep. Everything up until then had been perfectly routine. She'd been rudely woken from her most precious dreams by her partner, fallen out of her bed as a result, and was bombarded by apologies from said partner as she picked herself up off the floor.
She'd already had a thoroughly rehearsed scoff of indignation escaping from her lips when she looked up into two gruesome holes where her partner's eyes should've been. Weiss flung herself back against her bed in a panic, causing the already precarious construction of their bunk beds to shift dangerously as the heiress clung to them.
"Weiss?" Ruby asked with a confused tilt of the head, causing blood to leak from the horrid gashes surrounding the vacant holes in her face "Are you okay? I said I was sorry..."
She trailed off with a pout, which would normally wear away at her partner's icy defenses. But any and all cuteness the younger girl could muster was lost to the Schnee as her gaze stayed locked on those two vacant holes. Just having such wounds should render most to their knees, Weiss could almost feel the pain every gash and torn piece of flesh portrayed.
"W-What-!?"
"You have a bad dream or something, Weiss?" Ruby asked again, nonplussed by the trails of blood leaking down her face "No offense but ya look kinda... skittish?"
"Thought you would've gotten used to Ruby's wake-up tactics by now." Blake said from her bed.
Immediately the Heiress glanced over to their Faunus teammate for assistance, only for her to lower a book she was reading.
The same thing.
Blake was in even worst condition than Ruby, so much had been stripped from the torn up area around her sockets that Weiss could almost see bone.
"If it was a nightmare, it would have to have been especially terrible to affect you of all people like this." she too spoke without even acknowledging the blatant mutilation she'd undergone.
But before Weiss's panic could take hold of her again, a word jumped out of her from that statement: Nightmare.
That had to be it, there was no possible way that this was real...It had to be a nightmare. People don't just get their eyes torn out then go about their day as if nothing happened, the way their wounds leaked indicated they had to have been made recently. It was all just some kind of nightmare, a particularly gruesome one but a nightmare indeed.
"Yes... but I'm already forgetting it already," Weiss said as she stood slowly "I do hope you've good reason for waking me so early."
Weiss tried to play off the horrifying appearances of her eye-less teammates. She was used to lying with more conviction, but the confusion brought on by the state of her nightmare was seeping in. Why was it like this? The Heiress was no stranger to nightmares, from the tyrannical rule of her father to persecution by the White Fang, she'd dreamed up plenty of horrid scenarios before.
But this one... why was it so specific? It varied too much from what she was used to.
As Ruby jumped and clung to her with a smile, Weiss tracked a trail of blood as it passed by her leader's lips as she spoke "We've gotta hit up the cafeteria early today Weiss! They've got this brand of bread that can apparently change your entire world!"
The day went on like this, with Weiss seeing that pretty much everyone besides herself had had their eyes torn out in some inexplicably gruesome manner. Every class, every student, every member of staff. And not one of them seemed to even notice it. Nora was still bouncing all over the place, Yang and Ruby still goofed off in class, she even spotted Velvet and Coco joking around between classes while leaving trails of bloody droplets in their wake.
Weiss played it off at first, unwilling to let her teammates hear her screaming in her sleep. No nightmare, no matter how off-putting or downright horrifying, would lower Weiss Schnee to the point of panicking in her sleep. But as time went on, she began doubting her suspicion. This didn't feel like a nightmare, everything was coming in too clearly, and it was going on for hours. She never thought much about time differences during dreaming, but after going through her entire school day with nothing but gory eye holes in every direction she realized that this was unlike any dream she'd ever even heard of. And she'd been far too self-aware through it all! She never considered herself an active dreamer. And even if she did, it wouldn't explain why this specifically was what she would dream up!
Weiss liked to believe she was a logical person, and had test scores and the admiration of her peers to back up this belief. As such, she immediately tried thinking through this scenario as best as she could. If it wasn't some type of horrifying dream then what was it? A daunting idea formed in her head, that this was some type of hallucination. Everything besides those damned eyes was happening so normally, and nobody but her seemed to even notice them. But if she really had gone crazy, then what was the catalyst? And why had it taken this form specifically? Would she just see every pair of eyes as shredded holes from now on?
It was around this point as she made her way back from a long day of ignoring what could very well be just a series of delusions that the heiress realized she'd been avoiding her reflection. She'd been so caught up in trying to figure out just what the hell was happening that she hadn't even noticed. But if it was just some oddly specific delusion, then would she see herself in the same way as the others. Once she got back to the dorm, would she be able to charge into the bathroom and see two horrifying bloody holes stare back at her in the mirror?
The thought plagued her up until she entered the dorm to find Ruby trying to set up her game console and scroll. Looking away, her partner seemed perfectly normal until Weiss noticed the tiny droplets of blood leaking from her face. She turned back to the Heiress with a smile that contrasted greatly with her butchered eye sockets, "Weiss! Yang took Blake out for a night on the town, so I was hoping some good ol' violent video games would help ya get out of this funk you're having!"
Weiss watched Ruby raise her scroll to display one of the many games she'd been forced to play recently "I'll let you have first dibs on a character~!"
"Ruby" Weiss stated, causing her partner to pause and tilt her head to the side "Remember the last time you woke me up for special breakfast and I ended up hitting my head rather painfully against our bookcase?"
The muscles around those holes tightened several times, as if Ruby was trying to blink "Is that what this is all about?" she murmured before raising her fists in what Weiss assumed to be a determined pose "I told you I'd take responsibility! So you finally came up for a way to pay you back for that, eh?"
"Yes, but I need you to trust me on this." Weiss emphasized before swallowing nervously "I'm going to touch your eye."
"Eh?" the reaction was immediate, as without her eyes Ruby was still clearly capable of portraying surprise on her features "I thought you'd want me to pay for something o-or do something-"
"Will you let me?"
Her leader paused again and awkwardly held her arm with her free hand as she turned her head to look away "I mean, its a really strange demand but... I mean, Blake said you could've really gotten hurt. Okay, just be careful."
Ruby took a seat on Weiss's bed as the Heiress approached, leaning back with a bloody pout as she turned to her Partner's hand "Are your nails sharp?"
In response the Heiress raised a hand to show it, watching as Ruby leaned in a bit to look her nails over with a worried frown. Weiss stared down at her, stilling her breath as Ruby examined her nails. Even without her eyes, Ruby gave them a good looking over before sitting back again and nodding to her.
This would be it... right? If it was all just a hallucination, she would feel something there no matter what she saw... right? Or had the delusion gotten to the point where she'd feel every horrid gash and bleeding tear with vivid detail?
The way Ruby's lips tightened as she approached spoke volumes to the discomfort of the entire scenario, but those bloodied holes seemed to taunt the Heiress. Mocking her with how they took away the sincerity behind Ruby's uncomfortable stature. She needed to do this, needed to know if this was just some skewed illusion she'd created for herself.
But the moment that her finger passed into one of those gaping holes, she found it far too real to be false.
It was warm, the moment the tip of her finger entered that gruesome socket, it was assaulted by this feeling of moist warmth. Weiss's resolve was tested immediately, as the horrifying realization that she was sticking a finger in the ruined eye socket of her partner struck her all at once. She froze as the feeling washed over her, flinching as a single drop of blood landed atop her digit, only adding to the rising panic building in her chest.
"A-are you gonna do it?" Ruby asked, snapping Weiss into another fit of confusion.
"You mean you... you don't feel this?" Weiss asked as she slowly pushed forward a bit more.
"I mean, you're kinda just waving it around in front of me Weiss." Ruby snickered "I mean, we don't have to do this if you don't want to."
"Can't... you can't feel any of this..." Weiss said slowly as her finger moved forward into the ruined remains of Ruby's eye.
Only then did she freeze, as her finger finally pressed against something. A fleshy something that could only be the end of Ruby's oculars. Was... was she poking Ruby's brain right now?
"You're the one who wanted to do this." Ruby pointed out with an awkward chuckle "Not that I want you too, but we already came this far so... I mean its not like I want you to do it, but-"
The rest of Ruby's words were lost to Weiss, for as she began to pull her finger out of that gruesome socket the torn flesh surrounding it suddenly surged together and locked her finger in place.
Weiss didn't have a moment to force a scream out as her finger was sucked right into the writhing, fleshy orifice all the way to the knuckle.
"-just really want you to forgive me," Ruby continued talking, seemingly unaware of the hand of her teammate currently being drawn into one of her ruined eyes "I know I can be a bit too forward at times but-"
Weiss grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled back, her terrified gasps rising as she watched the fleshy hole distort as it began drawing the rest of her hand in as well. Blood stained the sleeve of her bolero, accompanied by a grotesque squelching sound as she felt her hand being shoved against what could only be Ruby's brain. Despite her struggle, the suction of that socket was strong enough to force her hand right through that fleshy mass and further into Ruby's head.
Weiss did nothing to hold back her screams as she felt more and more of her arm be pulled right into Ruby's skull. It was only once the socket swallowed her elbow did she consider just where her hand was. Ruby's head was nowhere near big enough to accommodate her entire hand and forearm, so exactly where was her hand going? Was this really the inside of her friend's head!?
"Weiss, I don't wanna sound inconsiderate or anything but are you okay? You're looking pretty silly right now."
And still she noticed nothing, and Weiss realized that at this rate, her entire body would be packed into whatever hell was waiting inside Ruby's torn eyes.
Her screams turned into a violent screech as Weiss stopped trying to pull her rapidly disappearing arm out and reared back with her fist before slamming it into the side of Ruby's head.
Ruby was unprepared, crying out in a mixture of surprise and pain as she lurched away from Weiss. The Schnee found the socket's grip severely loosened, and managed to yank everything up to her wrist free. She paused for a moment as she took in the gore-covered look of her arm, caked in blood and what could only be bits of Ruby's insides. That moment of hesitation seemed more than enough though, as suddenly the ruined eye-socket began drawing her back in with twice the speed. Weiss clenched her jaws together and raised a leg just as Ruby began sputtering.
"Why-!?" Her partner didn't even manage to get the rest of her question out before Weiss's high heel surged forward and slammed into her gut and flung her back against the wall on the other side of their bed. Weiss finally managed to pull her arm free in a spray of Ruby's blood and bits, stumbling back and falling to the floor as she shielded her eyes from the rain of gore. Shakily, she raised her arm in disgust as more pieces of Ruby slowly dripped down her forearm.
She stayed like that, her terror fading slowly into dumbfounded shock as slowly she began to make out the sound of whimpers. The Heiress turned to see Ruby lying on the bed while clutching her face, looking as if she were trying to bury herself in the sheets.
"I'm sorry..." Ruby said as she slowly turned to look at Weiss "I didn't...I-I won't wake you up early ever again...O-okay?"
But Weiss couldn't focus on the words, for as Ruby turned to look at her Weiss once more felt her very soul gripped in the cold vice of fear.
Dangling from the same gruesome socket she'd just escaped from was a large tongue. Weiss couldn't even move, watching as that drooling muscle began licking around Ruby's eye socket before slowly slithering back inside.
"I didn't know you felt so strongly about it," Ruby murmured before giving Weiss a weak smile "But I'll stop... so let's just forget about it... okay?"
Weiss's eyes refused to close as she felt the contents of her stomach struggle for freedom. Only when another horrifying thought reached her did she frantically turn and lunge for the bathroom. Her High-Heels slipped on the contents of Ruby's skull as the frenzied Heiress shoved her way into the bathroom.
"Weiss!?" she heard Ruby call for her as she once more had to struggle not to collapse.
It didn't matter what she was saying anyway, Weiss needed to know... needed to see herself.
After one more near-fall she took hold of the sink and pulled herself face to face with the mirror.
And there she was... perfectly normal.
Weiss froze upon seeing her own gaze in the mirror, having been unprepared for just how excessively normal she looked. Despite her hair seeming a bit frazzled, nothing jumped at her that seemed too odd. And that's when she realized why she felt so off-put by finding a normal looking reflection of herself. There was no blood... anywhere.
Weiss looked down to find her arm completely unmarred, her clothes spotless and her appearance all together clear of any sign of the previous horror she'd just underwent.
"Weiss..." she heard Ruby say as footsteps approached "I mean... if you're willing."
Weiss turned to meet the saddened eyes of her partner as the scythe-wielder reached up to massage the side of her face.
"I don't... want this to ruin our friendship... okay, Weiss?"
AN: Came up with this while writing another piece that may or may not come to fruition. This one at least I knew I could do. Maybe took a few notes from several horror stories I've gotten back into lately, but mainly just wanted to get this out there. Usually I'm not prolific enough to get a work out so quickly after coming up with it. But just know that this isn't the ending, I've had several more Ideas and had nowhere else to put them. So I suppose you all can consider this to be some kind of loosely related series of stories, like an anthology of sorts.
There'll be overlap here and there but I'm fairly certain each one could be read individually. For those of you who've taken interest in terrible tales like this, I'll probably get another chapter out within a week or two, just based on how quickly I was able to get this one out.
Anyway, hope you enjoy, any and all criticisms positive or negative are welcomed in full so leave a review or comment if you are so inclined to do. Things you enjoyed about it? Things you hated about it? Any ways you feel I could improve? Expectations for the next chapter? Follow or Favorite at your leisure and I will see you all in the next installment of Terrible Tales.