"Ugh... Yang? Are you still awake?" Ruby Rose awoke with a raging headache. One that felt as though her skull would split open, and her brain would splatter against the wall. It remaineded her of the nights where she would suffer from dreadful nightmares that would send the purist of fears straight into the core of her very soul. She would thrash, scream, cry and shake during those oddly dark and cold nights. She would find herself waking with tears in her eyes, mouth agape and unleashing a banshee-like scream, and her family surrounding her. Her mother would hold her close and hug her tight, her father would say nice things and try to comfort her, and Yang... Well Yang was just there. But that counted! Or at least that's what her parents would say.
But that all changed when Ruby's mother vanished one night. Her uncle Qrow came by, said something that made her father really, really angry, and now Ruby's home seemed darker and too quiet. Like it lost something integral to it. It was like... If Ruby had to describe it, she'd compare it to the eyes of a 'sleeping' animal. Ruby always knew something was wrong with those animals, and her sister or father or mother or, if he wasn't passed out on the couch, her uncle would rush her away from them. Ruby knew there were things they didn't want her to know quite yet. And those things infuriated her tiny heart. She had found herself developing bad habits recently because of that fury. It wasn't uncommon for the child to disobey her father or uncle, or to sneak out in the dead of night, or to break something out of frustration. All this mounting anger and annoyance sprinkled in with anxiety had surrounded young Ruby with a metaphorical storm cloud. Her days and nights slowly but surely started to feel the same. Bland and boring. So day after day, night after night, she began trying new and dangerous things. These varied from stealing little snacks or treats from stores to helping 'those' kids in the neighborhood vandalize cars or throw rocks through the houses of those that lived in town a few miles away. Of course her father, and her uncle were against it and were quite harsh with their punishments, but they rarely ever figured it out. Ruby could be quite crafty and tricky when she put her thinker to it. She could never remember its proper name. Another thing that caused constant annoyance and, especially when in school, embarrassment.
Yet even those things became a wasteland of colorless, emotionless, boring scenery. Everything felt the same. Everyone talked the same. Everyone acted the same way. Everything tasted the same. All she wanted was her mother, yet it had been a few years since she vanished, and Ruby was slowly starting to lose hope that her mother would return. But not everything was dark and gloomy. She met a strange person a week ago. They were really, really tall! Wore a long, black robe and spoke in strange rhymes. They told Ruby they could give her something entirely new. Something no one had ever, EVER experienced before. So, Ruby being a smart kid, went home and informed her family of the freakishly tall hobo outside that suspiciously sounded like a crack dealer... Of course not. She accepted almost instantly with minimal thought. And that was when the dreams started. The strange dreams that felt so real, that would actually leave lingering smells, that would scare her, that would excite her, that would capture her curiosity and make her heart beat so fast it felt as though it would explode.
The dreams always took place in a humongous - she learned that word a week ago - castle! Like some kind of fairytale her mother would often tell her about before bed. It even had dragons! Ok, statues of dragons, but it counted! She saw other things, too. Like really beautiful statues that looked like something out of an ancient, long forgotten civilization. And she saw a lot of glowing symbols and it was always stormy, always cold, always windy. She also saw abnormally large animals and... Things. Some were real ugly. Others were kinda cute, like those giant wolfish men, or the giant wolves with red eyes, or the occasional strange little man with grey skin and black eyes who'd would often make her laugh. She even saw a few giant bats and a few horse sized rats. Other things were too scary for her young eyes to look upon, and others were just too complicated for her to understand. Some of the things there hurt her head when she looked at them. And than there was that old man. A really, really, really, really, really, really old man. He looked like a million years old! He was missing... Pieces. Pieces Ruby thought were neccessary for people to, well, people.
He had no throat. Just a neck and a few strips of leathery skin. His eyes were sunken and filled with a red liquid, his irises glowing a dim orange. His entire body looked incredibly frail and aged. His hair was long enough to dangle all the way down to his back, and was a dark gray intermixed with specs of black and white. He wore a lot of rings around his fingers made of various metals and a few even housed the gem Ruby was named after. Speaking of fingers, his were WAY too long to b normal, thin as pencils, and his fingernails looked more like claws, though a dull gray in color and heavily chipped. It honestly reminded Ruby of a old dog's claws. Or a cat's. Ruby at first sight thought the old man had to be sick with something. It made her feel all twisted in her stomach, like when Zewi fell sick after eating ice cream that one time.
Yet the part of him that never left her mind was his eyes. They were just... So sad. Their was no light in them, no joy, no warmth. Just this cold sadness like he couldn't stop remembering something from a long, long time ago. He always looked distracted, lost in thought, and so full of regret.
Ruby didn't like those eyes. She'd never seen such sad eyes before. Not from anyone she'd ever seen. Just looking into them made her feel so very alone. Abandoned, forgotten, like some old and dusty book never to be opened again. And his voice... A shiver ran up her spine. His voice had to be the worst part of him. Growl-like, pained, jagged. It was as though every word was spoken by a long dead corpse, inhuman sounds forced into vaguely word sounding, well, sounds. It was unnatural. Even she knew that.
But she couldn't help but feel sad for him. He looked like he needed a true friend. Maybe next time she saw him she'd-
"Ruby, you up?" Yang's head poked in through the door, her hand flicking on the light. Ruby's instinctively shut, a groan escaping her throat.
"Oh, sorry!" Yang turned off the light. She entered the room slowly, almost comically, and crept over to her younger half-sister. Ruby sighed, it was time to begin the day...
Sorry about my absence, some... Personal things came up. But I'm back! And I have no intentions of leaving again. As always, please leave a review, and until next time.