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Raven's secret-keeper

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Misery's Company – a Ruby Gloom fanfic

Chapter 1: Misfit Meets Misfortune

"Ruby!"

Okay, so I admit it was more of a call than a scream, but it still startled the heck out of me. I jsumped up with a small gasp; that noise came out of nowhere!

"'Ruby'?" I asked myself aloud. I stood up and glanced around before I heard the voice again, only this tine it was more questioning than calling out.

And then my curiosity took over and I began following the calls.

After a few seconds, the voice resounded through the trees once more."Ruuuuu-uuuby!"

It sounds like I'm getting closer, I told myself. I crossed the bike path and took off running into the much more wild part of the forest, feeling my heartbeats coming faster and faster in excitement with every step. The trees kept thickening, but my steps kept quickening as I bolted on. I had never actually met someone so desperate they were calling out like this… It seemed like I was about to embark on some great adventure, like I was at the beginning of a movie. Little did I know, I was about to go on an adventure, just not in the way I had thought.

Then I heard a small yelp and the sounds of leaves shifting, a branch snapped… I shot towards the source of the noise as the first few crystalline drops of rain began to fall from the sky.

"Hello?" I called, gingerly pushing aside a thornbush and stepping over it slowly, suddenly realizing that I really should be more careful around this part of the forest…

"Ow," the voice I had been hearing muttered shortly.

With the clouds now pouring bucketfuls of water down at a time, I pushed aside a small tree and peered through the shrubbery.

My eyes widened with absolutely amazement as I saw her. Her hair, the veil, her dress… It was almost like she had been pulled from a storybook; she looked far too… elegant to be meandering a forest like this, especially one so close to the suburb…

"Are you okay?" I asked, stepping around the tree and jogging over to her. She was stuck in the same kind of brambly plant I had managed to avoid – only this bush was much bigger.

She turned her head to the draping sleeve she had been trying to pry from the nettles and looked up at me.

I couldn't help my concerned gasp at her expression. Tears were streaming down her face from wide, desolate eyes. "Are you okay?!" I yelped, kneeling next to her and trying to help free her arms.

"A little lost – " She grunted softly and lifted her arm, the cloth around it finally free.

"That looks painful," I told her, moving to her other arm.

"I've felt worse," she replied in a voice to match her expression.

A branch snapped just as we pulled her other arm loose, and she winced as she fell deeper into the bush.

"Oh wow," I muttered, reaching in cautiously for her hand. "Here."

She clutched my arm, and we began pulling her up. I felt a shock of tension jolt through her as she braced her legs against the ground; she had to step through the rest of the branches to reach the ground.

After a bit of effort, we managed to get her onto her feet, and she caught her balance before we began pulling her long, long dress out. I was holding the fabric with a delicate touch that was practically insane – I didn't want to rip it….

When we finally got that free, she stood up straight and I took a second to really look her over.

Her skin had a pale, almost blue color, and the frown on her face looked like it had been there her entire lifetime. The sheer blue veil on her head was held out of her face by two clasps in her hair – ironically, they were yellow circles with outward-pointing triangles surrounding them; they looked like two tiny suns. And her almost entirely blue dress looked so Victorian – the sleeves fell over her arms and hung down in three elegant sections, her top had three yellow buttons down the middle, and her neck had a brooch and lace framing the bottom of her head. The skirt was so long, it trailed it trailed behind her for about a foot, and the hair under the veil –

"You're hair's still stuck!" I gasped, and she watched as I struggled to untangle it for a few moments before joining in. It was a pretty hopeless attempt, and I ended up having to grab the plant and having to bend and twist it until the stem snapped. Though my solution tothat problem left the issue of her walking around with thorns adorning her hair…

"Well, at least your hair's free now," I muttered, glancing at one of the thorns still entangled and hoping it doesn't prick her when she walks. "Wow," I breathed. I was completely envious of how long and dark it was – I had always wanted my hair to grow really long;insanely long to most people…

"Thanks," she told me, and I shifted my gaze to her face.

"Oh, you're welcome. So, what exactly happened to you?"

"I'm not really sure," she replied in an almost monotone voice, wincing as she yanked a thorn from her hair.

"You said before that you were lost…"

"Yeah.. Something tells me I'm not in – ow – Gloomsville anymore."

"'Gloomsville'?" I replied, my head tilted as I reran the name in my head at least a dozen different ways. But one thing stayed the same: I loved the sound of it. "So, where's that?"

"It's – " A clap of thunder broke her off, and she glanced towards the sky uneasily as lightning illuminated the world.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She turned to me and replied, "Being outside probably isn't a good idea…"

Suddenly I felt my mod skyrocket as an idea sparked in my mind. "Hey, we can stay dry at my house if you want!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, sure! Come on, we've gotta get back to the road…" I took her hand and led her away from the thorns and onto the bicycle path.

"You don't mind walking a little bit, do you?"

She shook her head.

"It's not that far, just a few blocks… It's really weird how close the forest is to the main road… This way." We turned left when the road forked. "I hope my parents won't mind letting you stay for awhile," I muttered, suddenly almost dreading their reaction. I got over that one quickly as I slowed down a bit, remembering that her dress was pretty long, and I didn't want her to trip – not everyone was as agile on these rocky paths as I was… "They shouldn't have a problem with it… as long as… well, you're lost, right?"

I turned as the path took another turn and we were now almost out of the trees. "Yes."

"Then there's no reason you can't stay. Alright, we're almost there," I said as the sound of cars passing by slowly met our ears and the wet pavement met our eyes. "Just a few more steps, and we'll be – "

I was forced to a halt. Just as we emerged from the trees, thunder cracked again, but this time the streak of lightning didn't stay in the sky, it streaked straight to my companion.

"Whoa!" I yelped, jumping back with wide eyes and a tense tone. "What just - ? Oh my – Are you okay?!"

"Ow," she said, blinking a few times.

"Are you okay?!" I asked again, resuming my spot at her side, only this time I was almost too stunned to think.

"It's happened before," she replied, and I blinked in confused amazement at her; her entire body had been darkened by the bolt, her hair was completely singed, and there was a tiny flame at the end of her dress.

"What - ? Before - ? How did you - ?!"

"It's genetic," she told me, pinching out the small flame with her fingers.

"How is getting struck by lightning genetic?!"

"The electricity's drawn to the high lead content in our blood," she replied simply.

I was completely appalled by her calm reaction. "Are you sure you're okay?" I asked, a little weirded out by how little the electricity seemed to affect her. "Doesn't it at least hurt?"

"Yes, it's not very pleasant… but I'll be fine…"

"Are you sure you're not just… numb or something? Cuz… being struck by lightning kills people sometimes…"

"I'm sure."

"You're amazing," I told her with a flat tone. "Good thing nobody pays attention when they're driving, because you'd be all over the news media… Wow… I guess today just isn't your lucky day…"

"It's never my lucky day," she told me, her tone as neutral as ever. "Things like this happen all the time…"

"Why? Are you a bad-luck magnet or something?"

"Pretty much," she said with a shrug. "It's another family quality. At least, that's what my great, great, great, great grandmother's cousin on my father's side used to say. "

"Oh…" I shifted, suddenly feeling sheepish. "Uh, sorry… "

"It's okay… You kind of get used to it after awhile…"

"I guess so… Maybe we'd better get back to the house…" And we started off again. Once we had turned off the parkway path and we walking along the sidewalk that ran parallel to the road, I couldn't help saying, "Your family's luck can't be that bad… I mean, there's still family members left… right…?"

"A few…"

"Hey, your luck can't be too bad; I'd say you're a miracle worker!"

"Miracle? How…?"

"You just survived being struck by lightning! That's amazing!"

"Huh… I've never though of it that way…"

"Wow… I don't know if I'll ever get over that… How many other times in your life has that happened?"

"At least twice," she replied.

"You're so… I don't know, casual about it…"

"Like I said, you get used to it."

"So, what other kinds of things happen?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but she didn't even get a single word out. A minivan went by going at least twenty miles over the speed limit, and it sped right through a puddle forming on the side of the road; the result was a six-feet high splash that threw rainwater over both of us.

"Maybe that wasn't you," I said, shaking my arms and picking a leaf out of my hair.

"It probably was," she responded bluntly.

"Well, that water probably took some of the sting out of the electrocution, huh?"

"Not much…"

"Welll… Come on, we have some ice packs at home, and plenty of things you can rub on to help stop the pain…"

She sighed, her hair falling in front of her face, before we went on, silent until we turned up my home's driveway.

"Alright, here we are," I told her, hesitating for a second to brace myself against whatever came before I actually turned the doorknob.

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-Raven's secret-keeper