Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Ruby... Happy birthday to YOU!
Hee. She hates me. In case you can't tell, Obsidian here. It's Ruby's birthday!
Anyway, Ru-ba-lee, I know this isn't exactly cheerful. But you don't exactly like cheerful things. Instead, I combined two of your favorite things: Paramore, and Cats!
For those of you who DON'T know: RedRubyStorm (Or, the other half of this account) is a Paramore addict (Or so me and Hornet say). And, one look at her account tells you she's in love with Cats the musical.
ANYWAY, here you go, Ruby! Don't kill me on Monday when you see me again! (She doesn't like people making a huge deal of her birthday. This is why I always try and make a big deal of it.)
~Bombi's POV~
Demeter looked at me seriously in the face. She did look better than she had when she'd gotten here. We'd never actually gotten her whole story. I don't think anyone ever has.
Demeter was a wanderer. Munkustrap had found her the one night on the streets. He thought she'd been hurt and passed out on the streets. But I'd been the first one to understand. She wasn't hurt physically - there was no cut gushing blood anywhere on her- she was hurt emotionally. We'd never really understood much about it, but she'd screamed Macavity a couple times in her sleep. Around the Junkyard, she'd become my shadow, jumping when anyone came too close, not really speaking around anyone but me. She'd also taken up residence in my den.
From what I could tell, she'd been just about everywhere. She also seemed that she'd never really stayed in one place before. But Jenny had insisted. She'd been convinced that Demeter was hurt somewhere on the outside, that she just wouldn't tell Jenny where it was that hurt.
But I could see it in her eyes. It had been getting stronger each day. Demeter had to leave. She touched her paw to mine. "I'm leaving, Bombs. I have to go."
Her voice was quiet. It always was. It was actually a wonder that she spoke to me without having me having to say anything to her first. "Why, Deme? You're getting better here, Jenny'll-"
The longing in her eyes shut me up. It was kind of like the way little kids look at a piece of candy - but for her it wasn't for something she took pleasure in, she just always seemed to feel the need to escape. Alonzo told me she was like an empty shell of a person - whatever Demeter had been there before, that Demeter was gone now. Whatever had happened to her had left these remains.
She was gazing off into the distance. I remembered she had a thing about roads. She'd never gone towards the front of the 'Yard, because it had a road leading up to it.
Her quiet voice startled me again,
"I'm going away for a while.
But I'll be back - don't try and follow me.
'Cause I'll return as soon as possible." I looked into her eyes and knew. 'As soon as possible' would probably be never. Demeter didn't return to where she'd been before. She'd told me this.
However, it also surprised me that she was singing. I mean, actually singing. It was as quiet as when she was speaking, but it was there. She'd never actually sang in my presence before.
"See I'm tryin' to find my place,
but it might not be here where I feel safe.
We all learn to make mistakes." Ah. There it was. I don't think she feels safe anywhere.
"And run from them.
From them." She echoed herself quietly. She had a tendency to do this. Echo herself. Not every single time she was talking, but enough that I'd caught it. The other Jellicles were lucky if they heard her talk at all. I doubt any of the toms except for Munkustrap and Old Deuteronomy have heard her talk at all.
"With no direction.
We'll run from them.
From them.
With no conviction." I don't know what mistakes Demeter had made. Probably something that lead to her being like this. During this whole thing, she was expressionless - just looking like she always did. The thing was, she always looked sad, lonely, and lost. This was why I wasn't sure if her going away was a good idea.
"Cause I'm just one of those ghosts.
Travelin' endlessly.
Don't need no roads.
In fact, they follow me." I admit it, I'm not entirely sure what she was getting at with the road. She used double negatives a lot, too. I'm not sure if she was ever actually taught reading and writing. I'd seen her struggle to read a note Rumpleteazer wrote for her once.
"And we just go in circles," she spun a little bit. Or, maybe swayed is the better term.
Then her eyes got a hard look to them - as if she'd experienced too much sorrow already. I believe she's younger than me.
"But now I'm told that this is life, and pain is just a simple compromise.
So we can get what we want out of it.
Would someone care to classify?
A broken heart and twisted mind.
So I can find someone to rely on." Her eyes were shut, probably not wanting to look at me. Her voice wasn't angry, wasn't loud, wasn't on the verge of breaking from sadness or anything. It just stayed at it's same quiet, lost tone. I could tell she knew she could trust me. But she wouldn't ever be comfortable around all these other cats. I realized this. But she also knew she couldn't ask me to leave my home and my family, either. So I was someone she could rely on, it's just there were so many other she believed she couldn't.
"And run to them,
To them.
Full speed ahead." Her eyes opened. The hardness was gone. Just sorrow remained.
Her eyes met mine.
"Oh you, are not, useless.
We are just,
Misguided ghosts." She took a step back.
"Travelling endlessly.
The ones we trusted the most.
Pushed us far away." She wasn't talking about me. Probably about Macavity and whatever he'd done to her. In a way, this was her explanation.
She took another step back.
"And there's no one road.
We should not be the same.
But I'm just a ghost.
And still they echo me.
They echo me in circles."
Her eyes met mine. "You've got something in you, Bombalurina. Don't lose it. Don't become one of us."
She took another step. I watched her go from my spot under the tree. Black and gold fur retreating, she stepped onto the road, and away, out of my sight.
~Author's Note~ Yeah. Twisted present to you, Ruby.