The Unseen World
Chapter 3: Frenzy
Ruby looked over Weiss with new, appraising eyes. Her initial assessment of her as a girl used to wealth didn't seem off, and now that she knew what to look for, the telltale snowflake sigils of the Schnee seemed all too obvious, even under all the grime and dirt of her dress. Had she known that fact beforehand, she may have hesitated before going down such an unsafe road.
The Schnees were a wealthy, well-connected family, hailing from Atlas but having branches all across the world. The family held control over several important industries, like mining, farming, engineering, and computing, if it existed, the Schnees probably had their hands in it somehow. All connected through various subsidiaries and conglomerates that led back to the main family in Atlas.
Schnee Industries was also highly controversial for its hazardous work ethic, exploitation of economic and racial minorities, and all the other various scandals that had been covered up throughout the years. Of particular note was the Solasto mine incident, in which it was discovered that the titular cave, a mine famous for its abundance of precious metals and gemstones, was also home to a highly toxic gas that had been killing off the mining crew working there, all of whom were Faunus. When it was discovered that the company running that particular mine had been content to withhold this information from its workers out of fear that they would demand better pay or leave outright, the public was outraged.
Needless to say, the Schnees were not well-liked amongst the populace, especially by the Faunus.
And, there seemed to be at least two Faunus here holding them at gunpoint.
Things had just gone from bad, to really bad.
Slicks gave a feral grin, revealing his razor-sharp canine teeth, "A Schnee, eh?" He flashed his eyes at Ruby, "You didn't tell me she was a Schnee." He grinned again, stepping closer to the two of them.
Ruby braced herself and cast an eye toward Weiss."Run." She urged quietly, shooting her a look that gave off a no-nonsense feel to it. "You can't generate an Aura, but I can."
Weiss looked at Ruby uncomprehendingly, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Which couldn't be any more apt to the situation at hand. "What? I don't-"
Ruby charged the yellow-haired man before he could react. He was bigger and taller than her and had both her and Weiss outnumbered. Needless to say, with so much of an advantage, Ruby wasn't exactly fighting to win, but rather to allow them the space to flee and lose them on the way to her hideout.
Striking quickly, she rammed her elbow into the man's stomach. The relief soon flooded her system when she felt his body give to her attack instead of the telltale tingly feeling of Aura. She grinned a little at that, if he didn't have an Aura, the others likely didn't either. "Ok," She thought with a breath as the man knelt with one hand clutching his stomach. "This just became a little bit more manageable."
Her thoughts were cut short by the rat-tat-tat of gunfire. After the sound came, the stinging of pain came next which caused her to hiss in pain as what felt like a dozen bee stings dug into her back. Thankfully they bounced off her body, Aura deflecting the machine gun fire instead of penetrating her flesh.
She dodge and rolled to the side, moving out of the way of the two who trained their gunfire on her initially. She ran for her life, trying her hardest to keep ahead of the bullet spray until they ran out of bullets so she could then make her move. Her breaths came out in harsh pants and her muscles screamed from the exertion, the past two days of endlessly hunting and stalking finally catching up to her at this moment. "This is the last time I go this long without sleep!" She cried mentally.
The moment the bullets ran out in the mags, Ruby grinned viciously. Charging towards the first guy with an aggravated yell, the small redhead kicked the knee of the thug harshly inwards, hearing a bone-chilling snap and an agonized scream that came from practically breaking the man's legs. However, the scream didn't last too long as Ruby sent a high reverse roundhouse to his temple, making him crumble and drop his gun onto the floor.
Scooping it up quickly, Ruby threw it by the barrel making the handle hit the temple of the man that stood right beside the other man she had just downed. The attack hit him square in the head with a sickening crunch and he tumbled to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut off. Three down, two more to-
White flashed before her eyes and a cry of her name was all she heard for two seconds before her ears began to ring. There was a solid blow to her stomach that caused her to gag slightly, but she wasn't completely out of it and she rolled with the blow.
Standing back up on woozy feet, Ruby shook her head to clear the fuzziness and spots that danced before her eyes. Blinking rapidly, she saw the woman rear her arm back to try and smack her with the handle of the gun. Silver eyes widened in alarm as she swayed backwards, her upper body nearly perpendicular to the ground below as she watched, with crossed eyes, the gun sail and scrape the tip of her nose.
As soon as it passed her by, she righted herself quickly, resting her right arm back to send a devastating straight to the side of the woman's head. The woman stumbled back and Ruby capitalized on it with a follow-up left jab that hit the woman square in the nose. Blood gushing like a river out of her nostrils and a sharp crack were the only indicators that she had broken the older woman's nose. She writhed on the floor, clutching her nose with whimpers in the fetal position. She wasn't getting back up anytime soon.
Breathing sharply, Ruby heard rustling behind her and she quickly turned, only to see Slick holding onto his stomach with one arm.
Ruby grinned audaciously at Slicks."See?" She said, her arms up wide, "All those shots and I'm still standing."
"I got Aura, you don't." She drew her gun, "Want to keep playing this game?" She was bluffing, her Aura was dangerously low, near breaking point. Not to mention exhausted, a little dizzy, with a heavy headache, and extremely sore muscles screaming at her to rest. But she had to stand firm, if not for her sake, then for the ones she'd abandon if she were to die right now.
If he felt any fear, the gang leader hid it well, "I'll give you credit brat. You know how to fight." He grunted, crossing his arms but eyes never leaving the younger girl in case she tried to attack him. "And yeah. That Aura shit is definitely a prob…" just when Ruby thought that she was in the clear, the smirk came back and her stomach sank. ", But what about her?" He jabbed to his side and Ruby saw that one of the gangsters, the bear Faunus woman, had snuck Weiss to the other side next to Slick with a gun to her head.
Her lack of awareness made her surprised at her slip up and now cursing silently. "I'm more out of it than I thought. Dang, it. Ok…" She didn't like what she was about to do… but she had to. "I'm so sorry in advance." She tried to say with her eyes as she looked at the terrified white-haired girl.
The red-headed girl let out a small chuckle before she placed it over her mouth that futilely hid the resistance to laugh out loud. "Puh-lease," she waved impassively, her shoulders still bouncing with her short giggles."She's more dangerous than me."
Slicks looked at her like she was crazy, looking at the Faunus lady and then to Weiss before turning back to her."She is?"
Weiss also looked at her like she was crazy."I am?!"
Slicks rounded on her again, not bothering to hide his anger, "Look girly, I don't know what game you're playing, but you better put the gun down or your friend's brains are gonna be splattered across the floor."
"Hook, line, and sinker…" Ruby thought, sending one more meaningful look to the now bewildered Schnee. It was a plan that, if she had heard someone say it out loud, she would have called them mad. It was also, sadly, the only way she could see them getting out of this situation, and it may just kill two birds with one stone.
"Go ahead…" Ruby said, smiling. "Pull the trigger."
The silence that followed was deafening in and of itself. The look of surprise on the gangster's face and the hurt/betrayed one on Weiss's. But her heart had hardened and she was going to see it through.
"Ruby!" Weiss looked at her not only with terror and shock but also anger. Pure and utter fury. "I knew I shouldn't have-"
Slicks nodded at the girl holding the gun.
A loud bang erupted from the barrel of the gun, interrupting Weiss's declaration. Blood spilled from Weiss's crown as her head jerked harshly to the side. Her white hair mixed with the red of her blood shadowed over the top half of her face. Ruby knew what would happen next and she braced herself for it.
The soft click of a hammer was like a grenade going off. The Faunus woman put the gun back to the girl's head, firmly pressing the barrel to her head, smirking viciously at causing damage to a member of their most hated opposition. "That bullet scraped her scalp." She said, eyes glinting. "The next goes through her he-"
An unearthly scream came from Weiss, alarming the two. Before they could figure out just what the heck was going on, the blue-eyed vampire turned to the woman who had shot her. The woman flinched at what she saw before trying to let her go and push her away. Though she was far too late for that.
With inhumane force, Weiss picked the woman up by her throat and slammed the bear Faunus into a nearby wall. The sound of several bones cracking was heard and a wet gasp escaped from her lips. The most sickening was the wet squelch as the newly turned vampire, not understanding her strength, squeezed the woman's throat so hard that it crushed both her spine and her esophagus. Blood leaked out of the woman's nose and mouth. Her eyes popped out of the socket, leaving two empty holes in her head as her body went limp.
Hunched and breathing heavily, Weiss looked at the gangsters that were getting up and looking at their fellow members with wide horror-filled eyes. A few retched, the rest had gone pale or were hyperventilating. It was the best outcome Ruby could have hoped for in a morbid sense of the word. Her hand snaked slowly and stealthily to the gun at her hip as she inched closer to the wall and flattened herself against it to avoid eyes on her until the moment was right.
Weiss's face was covered in both her blood and the bear Faunus's. The sclera in her eyes had gone red and her teeth were fanged. Her fingers cracked with every curl, and the snarl marring her face was enough to make most of them back away.
With another bestial scream, Weiss lunged at the nearest person near her. The poor gangster that had been knocked out by the roundhouse kick tried to fend her away, slapping and punching and kicking with all his might, which seemed to do nothing but make her angrier. Weiss yanked the man's hand out of the way, before sinking her teeth into his neck.
Everyone watched with abject horror as the man went limp, his eyes wide as the life faded from him. The process was disturbingly quick, one moment there was a bloody and beaten, but still living human and the next a pale corpse. Weiss looked up, blood still dripping from her mouth. The now-dead body fell on the ground as she walked towards them, a barely-human snarl escaping her.
"What the hell…what the hell…" Slicks breathed, his easy demeanor having vanished. So distracted was he that he didn't notice Ruby aim the pistol at his head.
Blam
Wide-eyed, he fell to the floor, dead, blood dripping from his forehead. The remaining two gangsters watched with horror, eyes flickering between Ruby and the bloodied Weiss before taking the sensible option.
They ran for their lives.
Weiss's eyes narrowed, and she made to chase them, predatory instincts taking over. Though before she even had the chance to do so, Ruby was there to stand in her way with her arms wide open. "Weiss." She said firmly. "Calm down."
Weiss growled. The sight of her making her armbands clench in rage. The snarl was more pronounced and she looked like she was about to pounce when Ruby put the gun higher. Aimed straight at her forehead. "Calm down. Now. Silver bullets remember." The voice she spoke with was calm and cold, the hammer click showing just how serious she was.
For a moment, Weiss seemed to not have heard her and Ruby feared that she might have gone too far when suddenly, slowly she began to calm down. The red retreated from her eyes and her fangs shrank down to normalcy. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ruby holstered her gun.
"Whew, that's good," Ruby said, taking her eyes off Weiss briefly to check on their surroundings. "I'm glad you managed to keep yourself in ch-"
SLAP! KRRRK!
Red light shattered like glass as the last of Ruby's Aura faded away. Tears sprung up at the corner of her eyes and her cheek felt hot. But she stood still, facing the direction that she was slapped towards.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Weiss yelled, her teeth gnashing in her anger. "YOU TOLD HER TO SHOOT ME!"
Fixing her face slowly, robotically, Ruby worked her jaw before spitting out a loogie of blood onto the ground. Licking her lips over her teeth. She numbly noted she still had all of her teeth in her mouth.
"They were going to kill us, Weiss, you saw the way they were acting," Ruby tried to reason, but Weiss wasn't having it.
"I WAS HELD AT GUNPOINT!" She shrieked, tears flowing down her bloody face. "THEY WERE PLANNING TO KILL ME!" A wet, shaky gasp exhaled as realization took over. "THEY WOULD HAVE KILLED ME YOU DOLT!"
Ruby withstood the scathing remarks. "A measly little bullet like that wouldn't have killed you unless it was silver." Her voice was neutral, her eyes looking anywhere but at Weiss. Her black boots scraped the ground absentmindedly and her fingers twitched slightly. "And two things; one I needed a way out of this, and a rampaging vampire would do that. Two, you needed to drink."
With the last statement she made, Weiss's eyes looked at her in confusion before it hit what she meant. Her eyes trailed over to the two lifeless bodies laying not too far from them, one laying in a pool of blood and the other conspicuously not. A shudder went down her back as she licked her lips, tasting delicious, succinct blood on her tongue. Her heart beat a little bit faster and her pupils dilated just a little bit.
However, it was quickly overshadowed by how exactly the blood got on her. Everything that had happened within the past 2 minutes seemed to crash onto Weiss all at once. The images. The sounds. The taste.
If it wasn't for the fact that it tasted so good, she might have thrown it all back up.
"Oh god…" She started, falling onto her knees, "I killed him…I killed them all!" She wiped her mouth and stared at the blood on her hands in horror, "Oh god…I killed them!." And her shoulders bobbed up and down as the sobs wracked her body. Not in mourning for the ones she had killed. But at the fact that she, Weiss Schnee, was a killer. A murderer. And she had stolen a life.
As the girl cried, Ruby fell back on her butt and watched her with an unreadable expression on her face. She sighed softly and moved closer to Weiss, putting a hesitant hand on her shoulder at first only to be dragged into a tight hug.
Snoot, drool, and tears mixed onto her red cloak. Her screams of anguish were muffled by the clothes. Her fingers grasped tightly to her back, causing her top to press against her skin uncomfortably.
But through it all, Ruby allowed her this. This moment to let it all out, her frustrations. Her anger. Her sadness. All of it. Thanks to this cruel world they live in.
It took several minutes of staying in that position that Weiss finally began to calm down. Her shudders became nothing more than a few jerks here and there while her sobs were reduced to sniffles. It took her a few moments, but eventually, she pulled away, her face an unstable brew of different emotions. "so… What…what now?" Her chin was up despite the red of her eyes from crying and the pink flush on her cheeks. Ruby would giggle at the sight of it wasn't for what had transpired these past 24 hours.
Ruby hummed, looking out into the distance. "No cops?" She thought idly. "Weird. But understandable I guess." "We should go to the safe house like we originally had planned. We can lay low for a bit until we figure out what to do."
Weiss nodded. "Fine." She replied, for a lack of a better choice. She stood up and dusted herself off as Ruby rose to meet her. "But if you try anything Funny I'll-".
"Let's just go already." Ruby walked away already, too tired to deal with this.
"Wha- excuse me!" Weiss squawked indignantly before rushing off after her. "Don't you dare just walk away from me when I'm addressing matters of my own safety Rose!" Silence was her answer and she fumed. "Rose!" She called after her, catching up with stomping feet and crossed arms. "I know you can hear me!" There was a moment of silence but Weiss's eyes widened. "What did you just call me!?"
The two of them kept walking, further and further into the concrete jungle. Weiss's constant nagging and Ruby's keening wail bursting through the night air.
Ten minutes of walking later, they arrived at a beatdown, nondescript trailer. It was old and worn, made primarily of aluminum and the few windows it had were all shut, the closed blinds making it impossible to see into the building. A small, half-rotted staircase led to a wooden door that had seen better days. Glacial eyes wandering, Weiss spotted pieces of wood and concrete under the trailer, supports that had sunk into the ground a small bit.
Weiss looked back at Ruby with leery eyes "Tell me this isn't what you were talking about."
Ruby turned her head towards the white-haired girl and managed a grin, "What were you expecting, a mansion? Sorry, not all of us have rich daddies." She turned away from her, ignoring the annoyed huff from Weiss at her comment in the process, and searched for a key.
Once she did, she unlocked and opened the door before stepping aside and making a faux bow. "Welcome to Chateau de Ruby."
The old wooden door swung lazily aside, revealing a sparsely decorated interior. Directly behind the door lay what could be charitably called a living room. A single couch was situated near the back wall, a bare table near it. A few magazines and books littered the table and floor, along with a few pieces of paper and other clutter.
Weiss looked inside, then back at Ruby, then back indoors, and then finally at Ruby again, blinking blankly as she struggled to put her thoughts into words.
"How do you live here?" Weiss asked. The thought of living in such…destitute circumstances made her head spin. She knew that most people didn't grow up in wealth and opulence as she had, but the idea of spending every day, every night, in a cramped, dirty, house like this was unthinkable.
Ruby shrugged, turning away from Weiss as she did so that the blue-eyed girl couldn't see her face, "Didn't have a choice." Stepping inside, she kneeled down and began undoing the laces on her boots. "And besides, this isn't really my house, per se. I have a few places around Vale that I can lay low and rest up if I need to, but I wouldn't say any of them are my home."
Following the red-robed girl inside, Weiss took a moment to observe her surroundings, now that she had a better view of the place.
Glancing past the room she was already in, Weiss spotted two hallways, one to her right and another to her left. The right hallway led to a small area that seemed to pass for whatever Ruby considered a kitchen. It contained a small sink, a one-burner stove, and a fridge. Hanging above the stove were a few wooden cabinets, no doubt stocked with various foodstuffs. All in all, it contained the bare necessities to make and store food, and even then she felt like she was stretching the meaning of "bare necessity". Going past the 'kitchen' lay a closed door that Weiss didn't have the time nor inclination to investigate.
Swiveling her head left, Weiss saw a partially opened door at the end of the second hallway. With the room itself mostly obscured, Weiss was only able to make out the end of a bed frame and some wooden structure, perhaps a chair or desk.
Content with having that basic knowledge of her surroundings, she turned herself back to the room she found herself in.
As she had observed before, the area in front of her was a living room, if just barely. Now that she was properly inside, she could see various dirty clothes strung around, piled into corners. Eyes idly passing over them, a blush crept up her face and an odd choking noise came out her mouth as she recognized a very particular article of clothing just sitting out in the open in the corner of the room, and her head snapped in Ruby's direction.
"You just leave your underwear out in the open like that?!" She all but screeched, glaring at the girl who had finished taking off her boots.
Ruby's head snapped up in shock, and her eyes darted to the offending piece of cloth before turning to Weiss, a blush of her own having formed. "Well, I wasn't exactly expecting to have visitors over! And why are you looking at that anyway?!"
"How was I supposed to not when you just have them laying completely out in the open?! Do you not have even a basic sense of hygiene?!" Weiss snapped back, trying her best to save face.
Ruby gritted her teeth and made to retort, but instead of words, only a tired yawn came out of her mouth. Ruby wobbled a bit on her feet as the exhaustion from the day's activities caught up with her all at once.
Her eyes set into a half-lid, she stretched as another yawn escaped her. "I am too tired for this…" She mumbled as she made her way to the couch before falling onto it. Her forearm fell onto her head as she closed her eyes, letting out another yawn. "God, I just want to sleep forever…"
What little motivation she had to continue arguing vanished from Weiss as a wave of exhaustion hit her. She had already been tired, but the adrenaline from the fight and the blood-she shuddered almost involuntarily-she had consumed had done much to blunt it, now that those two factors were gone and/or muted, the exhaustion came back all at once.
Staggering over to the couch Ruby was on, Weiss more or less fell to the ground beside it, leaning her back to it as she closed her eyes.
"Why am I so tired…" Weiss moaned, frustration and tiredness seeping into her voice.
Ruby cocked an eye open as she observed the snowy-haired girl, "My best guess is that you're exhausted from, well, everything that happened. I don't know when the last time you had a good sleep was, but it was probably at least a day ago. You've been running on fumes this entire time" She stretched a bit, a small popping noise coming from her back. "Vampire's have a lot of stamina, most supernatural creatures do, but they can't run forever, even ones that just got a blood boost."
Weiss frowned a bit, especially at the question of when she had last slept, "Ruby," She started, "What day is it"
Ruby lazily snatched her Scroll out of her pocket and took a glance at it, "The 27th, October. Why?" She cast a curious eye at Weiss.
Weiss stared at her hands, a feeling of immense shock and denial washing over her, "The 27th?! That…that can't be right. My last memory is of the 25th!"
Ruby's eyes jumped open, "The 25th? Then…two days…" The red-haired girl furrowed her brow as questions swarmed her mind. Two days, two whole days. Had she been in the sewer that entire time? Had the transformation process lasted that long? Was that normal?
"Ruby." Weiss started, catching the half-asleep girl's attention, "What do I do? Can…can I just go home? They…they have to be worried about me if I've been gone for two days." There was a pleading edge to it that Weiss didn't bother to iron out, she was too tired, too angry, too terrified to bother with the stoic, emotionless mask that the rich and powerful wore.
There was a pause that seemed to stretch for eternity, then, with a grunt of effort, Ruby swung herself over so that she was sitting upright, a frown and contemplative expression on her face.
"I…I'll be honest, Weiss, I don't know." Her voice quivered for an instant before Ruby regained control over it, "I've never dealt with a situation like this before, everything I've hunted has been beyond the point of redemption, and there have never been survivors before. Well, there have been, but they were all human, not…" Her voice trailed off as she gestured in Weiss's direction.
A pensive look took over her face as she clasped her hands together, deep in thought.
"I guess you could? I mean, I don't think I could stop you…Well, I might, but I can't really think of a reason to…" She mumbled out the last part and Weiss could all but hear the gears in Ruby's head turning. Silver eyes glanced back and forth, not looking at anything in particular, as thoughts and calculations ran through the rose-haired girl's head.
"You absolutely could go home." She started again, this time more confident in her answer, "But I wouldn't recommend it."
Had she the energy to, Weiss would have jumped up and throttled the red-haired girl until she coughed up an explanation, as it was she merely sent a withering glare her way, "Explain."
Ruby coughed a bit, rubbing the back of her neck nervously, "W-well, first of all, there's the fact that explaining your 'condition' to your family might be a bit difficult. There's no guarantee they'd believe you, short of, say, punching a hole into a wall or ripping someone's head off." She laughed a bit as she stretched out her arms.
"They could think you're crazy and ship you off to some mental institute somewhere. In that case, spending the rest of your life with people thinking you snapped is probably the best-case scenario."
Weiss looked at her again, a dubious look on her face, "That's the best case? What could be the worst?"
"You get assassinated because vampires don't like people to know about their existence," Ruby said, matter-of-factly.
Weiss looked back down, "Oh…"
Ruby sighed and swung her legs up so that they were resting on the table in front of them, "Now let's assume they do believe you. Even then there are problems. As I said, vampires like keeping their existence hidden, so the fact that someone as famous and public as a Schnee is one of them runs counter to that. I'd say it would be only a matter of time before someone puts a hit on you and anyone in the way."
She didn't say it outright, but the message was clear: If Weiss went back to her home, there was a decent chance that anyone connected to her, anyone associated with her, would be caught in the crossfire of an attempted assassination of her. Because of what she might say. Because of who might believe her.
Weiss didn't have the best relationship with her family. Her father was distant and cold at best, her mother had stopped being a mother roughly 10 years ago, her brother actively hated her and her sister was almost always gone, but they were still her family. She cared about them, and the thought of them dying made her sick. Not to mention that there were people back home that she could tentatively say she considered friends.
Weiss gritted her teeth as her fists clenched into balls, a wave of anger seeping into her. "Great, this is just perfect" She spat out, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "So now I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, with a girl I barely know-" She jabbed a finger in Ruby's direction, who responded with an affronted "Hey!", "And to top it all off, I'm some creature that's killed at least two people!" By the end of her rant, her anger had transformed into a sort of tired frustration.
A hand pressed onto her shoulder, and Weiss instinctively froze up.
"Feel better?" Ruby asked, voice soft.
Weiss shuffled, knocking Ruby's hand off her in the process "Don't touch me…" she mumbled. All at once, the reality of the situation hit her. She was alone, in a place she didn't know, with a person she neither knew nor trusted, she was something that a scant few hours ago she would have dismissed as childish fairytales. Everything she knew about the world was suddenly in question.
She felt very small.
As if sensing the inner turmoil within her, Ruby started talking, seemingly to distract the young Schnee more than anything else.
"So…What was someone like you doing in a sewer? I mean, aren't Schnee's all rich and powerful." There was a tilt of the young redhead's head as her silver eyes shone with genuine curiosity. "Why'd someone like that be in a dirty, dingy sewer?"
Weiss rubbed her eyes, a yawn escaping her, "I'll be honest, I don't remember much of what happened before…" She gestured vaguely to herself.
"My father had brought me along with him to Vale, he was meeting with potential investors as well as doing a general review of the Vale branch of the company. One evening I was eating dinner while waiting for him to finish up a meeting." She frowned a bit as the details became fuzzier. "I was…talking to someone…I don't really remember who, but he was nice company" She smiled a bit at the memory, only to frown again at the rest of the memory, "I remember feeling tired, and then everything's blank up until the sewer."
An angry grumbling noise came from Ruby as she digested that info, "For what it's worth, Weiss, I'm sorry." Weiss looked at the red-haired girl in surprise, who had a pensive look in her eyes, "I'm sorry I wasn't there fast enough, I'm sorry I didn't find him quickly enough."
If only she had been faster, if only she had found him a day or two sooner, if only she hadn't wasted so much time confirming her suspicions.
If only, if only, if only….
Ruby sighed, thinking about what ifs and if onlys wasn't going to help or change anything. "I don't like your father's company, no one really does, but what happened to you…that wasn't fair, nobody deserves something like this." She mumbled out the last part, and Weiss could make out the sense of guilt in her voice.
Weiss looked away, a strange feeling in her chest, and racked her brain for what to say in a situation like this. She wasn't used to this. Normally whenever she talked to someone they wanted something from her. Recognition, influence in the company, a link to her father, something. It was always an act, whenever they acted nice, whenever they pretended to care. It was always for the benefit of the camera, or her father, or whoever they were looking to impress.
She understood that, she understood playing the social game, she understood building alliances and making connections. She knew how to maneuver around that, she knew how to hide veiled threats and hidden meanings in her words, she knew how to get what she wanted out of people, and she understood when they did the same.
She didn't understand whatever the hell this was.
Instead of thinking anymore about that terrifying unknown, she switched tracks to something that was a bit more familiar.
"What am I going to do?" Weiss asked, she genuinely had no idea. Her first option of simply returning home seemed a terrible prospect and she had no clue what else she could do.
Ruby coughed a bit and rubbed the back of her head, looking sheepish, which elicited a look from Weiss. "Well…I'm thinking your best bet would be to stay with me." Weiss raised an eyebrow, which prompted the red-haired girl to hold her arms up in front of her, flustered.
"Wait, wait, wait, let me explain." She started, her face a bit red, "I have my reasons! I know that you don't really trust me, and I get that. But right now I'm your best bet to stay alive."
She unfurled a single finger, "One: You don't know the kind of world you've just been tossed into, I do, and I'm more than willing to help you learn it. Two: You're a vampire. Hunters…well most of us have a sort of 'shoot first, ask questions never' kind of philosophy. If someone like me got wind of you, well…they might come after you just for that."
Weiss looked down, frustration creasing her brow, "Great…so now there are two groups of people out for my blood because of what I am…"
Ruby didn't comment on that, merely giving her a curious look before continuing, "If you stay with me, the chance of a random hunter gunning for you goes down significantly. And three: Well, no way to sugarcoat it, I'm the only ally you have in this world."
That last point was like a wave of cold water hitting Weiss in the face. As much as she hated it, Ruby was right. The only ally she had in this bizarre situation she found herself in was the red-cloaked girl. She couldn't count on her family anymore and as Ruby had outlined for her, she now had whole new enemies to worry about.
Gritting her teeth as she tried and failed to dispute the information, Weiss snapped her eyes up toward Ruby with an ice-cold glare.
"What do you want?" She grounded out, her voice heavy and solid.
Ruby blinked, confusion washing across her face.
"What do I…wha?" Ruby asked, her voice pitching a bit higher as she tilted her head a bit, confused.
"What. Do. You. Want?" Weiss reiterated, "In return for…helping me." The last two words felt like acid in her throat.
Ruby's face softened, "Oh." A smile formed on her face as she closed her eyes and slowly shook her head.
"I don't want anything, Weiss. Helping people is what I do. Sometimes that means tracking down and killing monsters…and sometimes it means, well, actually helping them." She laughed a bit before sobering up at the confused and lost look Weiss was giving her. "Seriously Weiss, I don't want anything. I just want to help you. I can't give you back a normal life, but I can keep you safe."
Weiss looked down again, the strange feeling from earlier having returned with a vengeance.
A moment passed that may have been a minute or an hour before Weiss spoke up.
"...Fine…but only until I figure out what I want to do, ok?!" She snapped at Ruby, but at this point any bite her words may have had faded.
Ruby smiled brightly, "Of course! In fact, I know that there's a village in Mistral where a bunch of supernatural monsters live more or less in peace. It's a melting pot of weirdness and craziness and a rich girl-turned vampire like you would fit right in!" She stretched her arms out in exuberant energy, still smiling stupidly.
"I do believe…" Weiss drawled, "That you just called me a monster, weird, and crazy, all in one sentence" Something resembling a snicker came out of her as Ruby frantically started making hasty denials. For some reason, she felt strangely relaxed, even though she was in a rundown trailer with a girl that she trusted as far as she could throw her.
Weiss frowned a bit, actually, she could throw Ruby pretty far, if her earlier feats of strength were anything to say.
Shaking off that train of thought, she turned to the silver-eyed girl who had resumed lazing around on the couch. "What do we do now?" She asked.
Ruby hmm'd for a bit, "Sleep. We're both exhausted. We'll sleep now and then whenever we wake up I'll give you a crash course on the supernatural."
Weiss frowned a bit, "And then?"
Ruby smiled at her, "I never really have much of a plan, but I guess whenever you're ready we'll make the trip to Mistral"
Weiss smiled a bit, "Yes, I suppose that will suffice for now." A village full of other creatures like her was not something that sounded truly appealing, but if Ruby was correct it might be the only way for her to live a semblance of a normal life.
Ruby yawned and stretched, "Ah…but before all that, we really need sleep. There's a bed to the left, you can have it." And with that, she propped her head up on the arm of the couch and rested one arm on her chest, the other dangling off the couch. "I'll sleep here."
Weiss dusted herself off as she stood up, "I suppose I'll see you in the morning then."
Ruby yawned, "It'll probably be afternoon, eh, but who cares we don't have a schedule."
Weiss shook her head as she stretched, "Well I suppose I'll just have to get used to that. It's not something I'm used to."
Ruby grinned at her, "Well that's one thing nice about my job, I get to make my own hours!" She laughed a bit before settling on the couch.
Weiss frowned a bit as a thought occurred to her "Does this…place-," she still hesitated to call it a house, "Have a coffee machine? I'll have you know that I require at least one cup of coffee in the morning"
Ruby smiled nervously, "Well…it does…"
Weiss smiled, this being the first piece of good news she had in a while, "Oh good, for a moment I was worried I would somehow be forced to survive without it." She turned to leave, feeling just a bit better about this whole situation-
"But, um, the thing is, coffee isn't gonna do anything for you."
And immediately stopped. Wheeling on the balls of her feet, Weiss fixed Ruby with a glacial stare, "Explain. Now."
Ruby looked away as if struck, "You can still eat and drink normal food and drinks, you can even taste it just fine but…well." She fidgeted a bit, "You can't get nutrients from them anymore, and things like caffeine don't really work for you anymore." The last words came out of her in a squeaky, soft voice, as if afraid that Weiss might snap and tear the room apart in a rage
To be fair, Weiss was holding herself back from doing exactly that.
"This. Is. The worst." She forced out, one eye twitching from barely contained rage. Coffee had been one of the things she enjoyed most in the world, and now it had been taken away from her. "I'm going to bed now, and I don't want to hear any more bad news from you until I've had my 12 hours!" She turned and stormed out of the living room.
Her fury-laden stride was interrupted by the sound of Ruby's voice, and her knee-jerk reaction of turning and snapping at the girl was forestalled by the softness in her voice.
"Hey, Weiss? Thank you."
Weiss turned and looked at her, "For what?"
Dead silence hung over the room, and Weiss felt a pang of irritation at being ignored.
"Ruby?"
Instead of an answer, an abrupt snore came from the red-haired girl who had succumbed to exhaustion in the mere seconds it took for Weiss to turn to her.
"Ugh, whatever." Weiss grumbled before turning back, but a small smile played on her face as she did so. "...Thank you too…I guess."
Arriving at the bedroom, Weiss noted that it was just as sparse as everything else in the house. The bed itself was small, fit for only one person. It held a decent enough pillow and a blanket that was thinner than she was used to, but was probably what most people were used to.
She idly noted with some disappointment that she didn't have her nightgown to change into and resigned herself to sleeping in the clothes she spent the day in. If she was lucky Ruby would have some decent clothes for her to wear tomorrow. She made a mental note to drag the red-haired girl to a clothing store sometime soon. Being a Schnee had its own share of problems, but money wasn't one of them.
It was a testament to how tired she was that even in the squalid conditions she found herself in, Weiss fell asleep almost immediately after laying down.
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this and I appreciate any sort of feedback. A big thanks to PhonyManagka for being my beta reader on this.