[Chapter Two; No circumstances could excuse.]
Another love I would abuse,
No circumstances could excuse.
- Placebo; Every You Every Me
Ruby suddenly starts shivering. It feels like a hand, a hand made from ice, is gripping her neck. She knows that this means: Someone is calling for her. Then she hears it. Just a dark whisper. It's different from all the demonic whispers that reach her, different from all their 'hell-gossip'. It's an Echo. The echo of a scream. It should be loud, but it's just a tiny rest of that cry, so it's silent; sounds like a whisper. She should be terryfied, but she isn't, because the sound in her head is human. She tries to dissolve all the babbling evil demons she hears, so she can concentrate on that one call, so she can follow it.
The sight of the crowd around the cement building, a police station, doesn't make her happy. She knows exactly, who they are, what they are able to do. But they haven't noticed her. Some of them maybe never will. Carefully, dimming the sharp sound with her hand, she pulls out her knife. While she aims at a demon's back, one stupid phrase popps into her head: "The Lonely Asassin" Even though she finds it just stupid, it also perfectly fits her, in a way. Very fast, she pushes her weapon through the flesh, killing her first victim. When his body starts flashing, and he drops to the earth, making gurgling noises, his 'friends' start to turn around. They know who she is. They know, that even though she should be, she's not one of them. But, they don't know what she's here for.
"Ruby." One of the posessed growls. The next second, her fist hits Ruby's face, but the evil demon can't even blink before she feels a blade cutting through her guts. Then Ruby starts running, hitting on anything in her way, she's got no time for more 'personal' fights. Finally, she reaches a window, a window with a broken salt line. She smashes the window, climbs in. Even though there's a whole in the line, the salt burns her skin. She's injured, her head bleeds and all the hitting broke one or two of her ribs. She wants to step forward, but... she can't. She just can't. Damn. She should've known they would put a devil's trap there. Now, people are running into the room, some of them pointing at her with shotguns. One of them is Dean.
"How do we kill her?" One FBI-guy asks.
"We don't." A familiar voice replies. Sam.
"She's a demon!"
"She's here to help us!"
Ruby scoffs. "Are you gonna let me out?" She asks Sam. Slightly reluctantly, he scrapes of some of the trap's color. Angrily, she scratches the back of her aching head.
"Does anyone have a breath mint?" Harshly, she slips through the officers, a very unfriendly look at her face, that gets even more unfriendly, when she notices Dean, who obviously forgot every single word of their last conversation, follows her. "Some guts splattered in my mouth while I was killing my way in here."
"We'll need the colt." No response. Everyone avoids her gaze. "Where's the colt?" She repeats, this time louder. Seconds pass, no one speaks.
"It got stolen." Sam finally replies.
"I'm sorry. I must have blood in my ear. I thought I just heard you say that you were stupid enough to let the colt get grabbed out of your thick, clumsy, idiotic hands."
Ruby pushes herself away from the wooden table, which is covered in papers. "Fantastic!" She growls, walking up to the red brick wall. "This is just peachy."
"Ruby..." Dean says in his "calm down, already!"-voice.
"Shut up!" She yells, with her left hand popping up at the same time, stopping his excuse.
She sighs. She's so sick of this stupid life. Maybe it's good, if she's going now... she won't be able to safe the world, but screw the world, anyway.
Everyone keeps silent in expectation of another proof that Ruby knows how to swear.
She sets her jaw. "Fine." She turns around, her hands on her hips. "Since I don't see there's any other option, there's one other way I know how to get out of here alive."
Dean raises his eyebrows, stepping closer to her. "And that is?"
"I know a spell. It'll vaporize every demon in a one mile radius, myself included. So, you let the colt out of your sight, and now I have to die. So next time, be more careful. How's that for a dying wish?"
For just a second, Ruby can see sadness flash in Dean's green eyes. He sighs. "What do we need to do?"
She laughs, sarcastically. "Aw, you can't do anything. The spell needs a person of virtue." She raises on eyebrow.
"I got virtue."
Again, she laughs her crystally laugh. "Honey, you're not a virgin."
Dean replies with laughing himself. "No one's a virgin, hot stuff."
Ruby cocks her head a little, looking at the police station girl.
"No, no way." Dean gasps.
"Save your stupidity for later." Scoffs Ruby.
"So, what can I do? For the spell?" Nancy, the police girl, interrupts their cat fight.
Ruby cocks her head even more. "You can hold still." Now compassion popps into her saphire eyes. "While I cut your heart out of your chest."
"Whoa, wait, are you crazy?!" Dean yells.
Sam, knowing the next step will be Ruby punching his brother if he doesn't act now, grabs Ruby's arm and draggs her into the hall, where no one can hear them. Ruby rolls her eyes when Dean follows them.
"Now listen, demon chick, this doesn't work like in your 'culture'!" Dean says, loud and angry.
"I'm offering a solution!" She yells.
"You're offering to kill somebody!"
"Oh, don't pretend the demons won't cut out her heart, her eyes and her lungs when they get in!"
Dean scoffs, again. "Right, you're the noble demon who kills her victims straightly!"
Even though Sam's there, Ruby's fist now hits Dean's nose, blood shoots out.
Then she stomps off, back to the paper-covered desk, on which she sits down, with crossed legs.
She moans when Dean appears in the corner of her eye. "Ruby. Look, I've got another plan."
Ruby looks up, her nose wrinkled. "You think I'm interested?"
"We'll open the doors, let them all in, and we fight." He continues.
"Dean, this is insane!" Sam tells his brother.
"You win the understatement of the year." Growls Ruby.
"Look." Dean starts. "I get it. You think-"
Ruby hops up again. "For god's sake, I don't think, I know. It's not gonna work. You're all dead already." She thinks through everything, tries to do the best thing, and in this case, she decides, leaving is. "Se you in hell, boys."
Dean throws back his head. "So you're just gonna leave."
Another load of rage hits him. "Hey! I was gonna kill myself to help you win, I'm not gonna stand here and watch you lose. And I'm disappointed, because I tried, I really did, but clearly I bet on the wrong horse. " She turns to Sam. "Do you mind letting me out?"
With a loud metal rumble, the door opens, Ruby steps out. First thing she does, is pull out her knife with a loud, sharp noise. "I'm leaving. Who wants to stop me?" As she steps closer, the demons all part, make a path for her.
Quickly, angrily Ruby knocks. She's surprised that she's got enough self-control to knock, and not just smash the door in. Dean opens the door a small chink whide, when he sees he face he opens it whider. She walks up to the middle of their room, with arms crossed.
"Turn on the news." She commands.
After watching the report, Dean and Sam exchange grave looks.
"Who...?" Sam asks.
"Smart money's on Lillith."
Dean gets ready for the next blast of Ruby's anger. "What happened?"
"Isn't it obvious?" She yells. "Lilith killed everyone. She slaughtered your precious little virgin plus a half a dozen other people. So after your big speech about humanity and war, turns out your plan was the one with the body count. Do you even know how to fight a battle? You strike fast and you don't leave any survivors, so no one can go running to tell the boss. So next time, we go with my plan."
"I'll be right back." Sam says, doubting this was a good idea, then leaves.
Ruby, clearly not in the mood for swearing, bitchy comments and bloody noses, leans on the wall.
"How long?" Dean asks.
"How long what?"
"How long did it take Lillith to kill them?"
A compassionate look on her face, Ruby sinks down onto the floor. "Hours. She was having fun."
"So Nancy...?"
Ruby's face turns angry, as she looks up to face Dean. "She tore off little pieces of her skin, until she finally had the mercy to cut out the poor girl's heart!"
"Ruby..." He uses this voice she finds especially annoying now.
She hopps up from the grey carpet so quickly he can barely make out her movement. "And that is your fault!" She yells.
He now turns angry, too, though he knows she's right. "Well, you'd be dead, then!"
"Oh, please! Like you care!"
He turns away, anything to not meet her gaze. "Yeah, well, maybe I do!"
She scoffs, before leaving.
But suddenly, an odd, nasty new thought shoots through her head. Maybe he does. Maybe he really does.