Ruby sighed contentedly, feeling the fingers gently pull through her hair. A small handful of hair was drawn to the side of her head, and she felt the gentle tug of the brush, straightening each strand. She turned her eyes upward as high as she could, trying to see the person brushing her hair without moving her head at all. She caught a glimpse of white-blond hair, but that was it.
The woman above her began to sing softly, and Ruby hummed along with the tune. The words were strangely muted, and she strained her ears to hear them. It didn't really matter, she supposed, since she already knew the song by heart, but she wanted to hear anyway. Suddenly, as Ruby tried to make sense of the words, the voice changed. The once gentle singing morphed into a scream and Ruby heard the roar of some monster in the background.
Ruby looked up again. The blond hair was gone, replaced with red. As she stared, the hue began to drip from the hair, falling on Ruby's cheek. She raised a hand to feel the drops of moisture. It was strangely warm, and a metallic smell met her nose. Ruby was filled with fear as she realized what it was.
Blood.
She spun around frantically. Rather than seeing a tall woman cloaked in white, she saw the same woman lying on the ground, her cloak stained red.
Ruby screamed and shut her eyes, trying to hide from what she saw. She turned and tried to run, but her legs wouldn't move properly. Her body wouldn't cooperate as she tried to escape. She began to panic, just wanting to get away from this place; to not have to see what was behind her; to not have to smell the blood in her hair. Sobs began to wrack her body, causing her to shake uncontrollably.
Suddenly, Ruby's eyes snapped open. She looked up into magenta eyes surrounded by a main of gold-blond hair. "Ruby" Yang whispered urgently. "Are you okay?"
Ruby sat up, Yang backing away to give her space. She ran a hand through her hair, sighing with relief when it came away clean. "It was only a dream" she whispered, more to herself than to her sister. "I'm fine" she added, looking back at Yang.
"Are you sure?" the older girl asked, voice edged with concern.
"Yes" Ruby said, pushing Yang back toward her own bed.
Ruby waited until she thought Yang was asleep, then silently stood up and snuck out of the room. She grabbed her favorite red cloak off a hook on the wall, slipped on a pair of boots, and made her way out of the house. There was a patch of woods to the left of the door, and Ruby walked into it, choosing a path she knew well.
After a few minutes of walking, she came to a cliff. A few feet from the edge lay a stone slab, a name and symbol carved into the surface. Ruby stared down at the headstone. As usual, she had nothing to say. She had planned to do something, she knew she had, but once she saw the cliff all words left her mind. She simply stared at the stone, praying wordlessly that things would have happened differently that somehow they would have been wrong when they told her, that she wouldn't have left, and that, more than anything else, she wouldn't be stuck inside this nightmare.