Final Performance

Rating: T

Summary: Ruby the Great, Mistress of the Magic Arts and her Devilishly handsome assistant Roman Torchwick's final act...

Notes: The Creepypasta/horror story. This was inspired by the game 'Don't Starve' where Maxwell and Charlie had their final performance. This is also the last story I did for Rosewick Month.

The Grand Sterling Moon Theater...Atlas, 1906

Ruby Rose held her breath as she peeked behind the white curtains. Her silver eyes widen even more when she saw the grand theater was packed to the brim with viewers. And she was about to preform in front of all of them. Ducking behind the curtains, the young magician tried to calm her breathing and lower her heart rate. Sure, she had preformed in front of people before: on the streets in front of a small crowed of twenty some, and in night clubs with numbers varying from a hundred to two hundred. This was the first time she was doing her magic show in a grand theater...in front of thousands upon thousands of people.

"Hey Red, you ready to shine?" Ruby jumped at the sudden voice behind her and turned to face her assistant Roman Torchwick. When she had moved from the streets to night clubs, she figured it'd be a good idea to do bigger illusions. Of course she found it harder to perform alone when she did this. It was at her third club gig that she met Roman, who worked part time as a waiter. He had been outside smoking on his break when he noticed her struggling with bringing props in and offered to help. He had been so helpful setting up that she asked if he could assist her with her act, which was an even greater success. Afterwards, she asked if he would be interested in being her assistant, admitting she wouldn't be able to pay much at first. Roman had smiled and agreed.

So here they were now, almost a year later about to perform in one of the greatest theaters ever. With Ruby having a minor panic attack.

"Y-y-yeah, Roman," she stuttered as she played with the helm of her red dress, "I'm ready." Their outfits were in matching colors black and red. She wore an elegant knee length red dress with puffy sleeves and black ribbon of around the waist and neckline. Her legs were covered in black tights and her feet in high heeled pumps that were covered with red studs. Her hair was up in a bun and pinned with a rose hair pin. Roman wore black dress pants and shoes, with a dress shirt the same shade of red as Ruby's dress. He also wore a black tie and suspenders but no over coat. A bowler hat and black gloves were his accessories. Roman turned from straightening out his tie to taking her hands into his.

"You're going to be wonderful, Ruby," he said softly with a smile. "You're an amazing magician and one hell of an illusionist. They'd be insane not to love you." Ruby smiled at his encouraging words and nodded, making Roman smile and lean forward to plant a soft kiss upon her forehead. She was unable to stop a disappointed whine from escaping at this. Ever since they had first met, Ruby had began falling in love with her orange haired assistant, but due to them working together and him being a good number of years older than her, she never admitted it to him. It was only after Roman looked at her with confusion that she realized what she had done and covered her mouth, eyes widen.

Roman looked at his young boss confused. Upon seeing her reaction did he understand why she had whined; he kissed her in the wrong spot. He smiled lovingly and removed her hands from her lips only to replace them with his own. His arms went around her small figure, pulling her close. Ruby couldn't believe it. He was finally kissing her. She wrapped her own arms around him and hugged him tightly. A warm feeling over came both of them as they remained locked within the kiss and each other's embrace. Before long, Roman pulled away, but still held her.

"We'll talk about this after the show," he whispered softly, holding her close and kissing her hair. "We're on in five minutes and have yet to figure out what tricks we're going to do." Ruby nodded slowly, silver eyes going from sparkling and dazed to wide and surprised.

"Right, let's do that right now," she said, pulling away from Roman and straightening out her dress. "I think we should start with the shadow illusions, then work our way to the mirror trick and finally the rose blossoming. Sound good?"

"Sounds great."

"Ok, can you set up all the props?"

"Yes ma'am," Roman said as he walked towards their table of props and grabbed everything they would need: three mirrors of different sizes, a fake rose in a crystal vase, and a rather large black unlabeled book. As they set up the stage with the props, Roman looked over the book. "You know, you've never told me how this trick works. We've been doing this for over a year now and you've shown me all your tricks but this one. Why is that?"

Ruby look upon the old tome in question and suppressed a shiver, but before she could answer a loud voice came over head.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WELCOME TO THE GRAND STERLING MOON THEATER. PLEASE GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR RUBY THE GREAT, MISTRESS OF THE MAGIC ARTS!"

The curtain began pulling away from the stage revealing Ruby and Roman to the audience. Quickly getting into position, the magic due began their performance.

"Hello Atlas!" Ruby greeted, "I am Ruby the Great, and this is my devilishly handsome assistant Roman." She bowed then motioned her arms towards Roman in introduction, who took off his hat and bowed as well. The audience clapped and cheered before going silent at Ruby's raised hands. "Tonight, we shall take you on a tour through darkness itself, before bringing you back to the light. Roman?"

Taking the hint, Roman grabbed the black book and opened it to a random page with shadow like drawings on the thick yellowish pages. He first showed them to the audience who gasped and whispered at the somewhat unsettling pictures then turned it to Ruby. She then reached towards the pages with her fingers, making a pinch motion just touching the pages. After a second, Ruby pulled back her hand and held it out in showing. A large shadow came with her hand, morphing from a snake shape to a rose one in the palm of her hand. The audience oohed and aahed before clapping. Smiling, Ruby turned back to the book and prepared to do the same thing again.

But as her hand touched the pages, she felt something grab it. She turned took the book and saw her hand then half her arm disappear into it. Ruby looked at Roman fearfully, who only looked confused as he had never seen this happen during the trick before. Desperate, Ruby tried pulling her hand out, but to little avail. She managed a little ways before being sucked even further in. Finally seeing this was no long an act, Roman tried to pull the book away from Ruby. This worked much better and they were able to free Ruby from whatever it was that had a hold of her.

Ruby yanked back her arm and hand, fear clear in her eyes while Roman dropped the book and ran towards her wrapping his arms protectively around her. She sighed and leaned into him, thinking the worst was over, until the book began moving of its own accord. The magic duo looked down at it in confusion, not being able to get a single thought in until larger shadows emerge suddenly from the pages. Taking the form of claw liked hands, they grabbed both Ruby and Roman, then submerged back into the book, taking the magical duo with them.

The entire theater was extremely quite before a loud wave of clapping and cheering began. That had clearly been the best magic show any of them had ever seen. Never had any of them seen anything that looked so real. It wasn't till minutes ticked by, when Ruby the Great and her assistant didn't make any appearance did the audience begin to worry. Several more minutes went by before the stage hands and security rand towards the stage to check for them. The stage was completely torn apart in front of the audience trying to find the magic duo. But it was an unsuccessful task. They had completely vanished...

...And nobody ever saw them again...