Thanks for reading so far, guys! :D I can't believe how many reviews this story has gotten. And here's me thinking that no one would ever read it. Just wanted to let you guys know that I need your help in the end for the next chapter, k? Enjoy :3
.-+*+-.
Ruby heard voices. Quiet, whispering voices. Someone was in her bedroom. Well, whoever it was, they could go away.
Her throat felt so dry. The muscles in her body felt too stiff to move. Her stomach growled for food. Her breath came in parched and raspy. But she lay there, her head laying back on her pillow, covers tucked under her chin, and eyes closed.
One voice became more clear than the rest. Someone sat at the edge of her bed. She felt boned fingers brush across her forehead and grasp her hand.
"Oh Ruby, how could I have let this happen?
Her heart leapt out of her chest. Skull Boy was back! He was back, he was back, and he was just inches from her.
But her mind made her see reason. Skull Boy hadn't come back. This was just her imagination playing tricks on her. Goof job, imagination. It made his voice pitch perfect and his fingers feel so solid and real.
Skull Boy was never coming back.
.-+*+-.
"Come on, Ruby, just eat please," Skull Boy begged, holding a spoon to her mouth. She still lay in bed, unmoving, worse than when Misery and Iris had found her. He could clearly see the outline of her bones within her arms and shoulders, the shade of her skin looked deathly, and her breath came in short and shallow.
Skull Boy had moved back into his old room, thankful that his friends had left his belongings where they were. It had been a week since he returned to the mansion. And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get Ruby to wake up or eat.
"You'll feel better if you eat something," he pleased. When she failed to acknowledge him, he sighed and wedged the small spoon between her chapped lips. Skull Boy tilted her chin upward and in a few seconds she swallowed. He set the bowl of broth on her bedside table and sat at her side. Doom Kitty lay on the pillow next to her head, pawing at her cheek. His thumb gently lifted her eyelid, finding that her amber eye was glazed over.
"Please wake up, Ruby. I need you to wake up," he whispered.
Finally she stirred. The sick girl licked her severely chafed lips and started on another coughing fit. Skull Boy helped her sit up and patted her back until the coughing subsided. Ruby rubbed her eyes and they fluttered open weakly. Skull Boy nearly died as he saw the emotion that filled them when she saw him: sadness, betrayal, depression.
Suddenly she groaned and sunk back onto the bed, curling into a ball, her muted eyes locked on him, "Why do you keep doing this to me?"
"What's wrong, Ruby?" he asked, "Aren't you happy to see me? I'm here to stay,"
"No you aren't,"
"What do you mean?" he was so confused. Was she delusional as well? This was much worse than he thought. Should he take her to the hospital?
Ruby sighed, "You're just a projection of Skull Boy that my imagination intends to satisfy me with," she explained hoarsely, "And sadly it's not working,"
"But I am real, Ruby," he insisted, taking her thin hands in his.
Ruby looked down at his skeletal hands holding hers, and then back into his eyes. His gorgeous, luminescent emerald eyes. Oh how she missed those eyes, "That's something that imaginary Skull Boy would say,"
"I'm so sorry this happened to you, Ruby," he apologized, his face falling, "I never should have left. This wouldn't have happened if I didn't leave with Skele-T and the Skele-Tunes. You wouldn't be sick and you'd see that I'm real and here to stay,"
"He'd say that too," she groaned, tears coming to her eyes.
After that the most he got her to do was finish the broth. He departed her room with a tray and an empty bowl, contemplating on how to make Ruby see that he wasn't something of her mind's eye.
.-+*+-.
And this is where you guys come in! How could Skull Boy make Ruby see that he's not imaginary? If you have an idea, leave a review! Thanks! :D :D