Ruby slowly felt herself being dragged back into consciousness, and with a groan, she sat up and opened her eyes. She expected to see the ceiling of her room at Beacon, or at least the school's infirmary, but this was neither. She was in a dark, brick room that looked very similar to a cellar or dungeon of sorts. There were old, wooden doors on either side of her, and a shelf with some candles on it behind her.
She stood up carefully, having an uneasy feeling about this place, and stared toward the far wall that she couldn't see. She really, really hoped there wasn't anything there. Shaking her head slightly, which immediately earned her a splitting headache, she grabbed and lit a candle.
The far side of the room was luckily empty, though she wasn't sure what she expected to see instead. Making her way toward one of the doors, the one on her right, she wondered how she'd gotten here. The last thing she remembered was getting hit by Yang and then the Death Stalker, so she should be in Beacon's infirmary, right?
With a gasp, she momentarily forgot about the door and placed her free hand over her stomach instead, searching for that wound, the one that should be there. She remembered being impaled, remembered feeling the blood drip from it, but there was nothing there now. As far as she could feel, her torso was injury free, and her clothes were also in perfect condition, as well as clean.
Am I dreaming?
There was no way she wasn't injured, she remembered it happening. This had to be a dream, there was no way she'd be in some random dungeon without injuries that she knew she had, if this were reality. But this apparent dream seemed far too real, from the dusty, underground smell, to the eerie feeling that there was something else in here with her. The same feeling when there were Grimm nearby, the feeling that you weren't alone and there was danger. She'd had nightmares before, true, but she'd never had one in which she sat and debated whether or not said nightmare was real or not. The burning candle in her hand also disagreed with the thought of this being just a dream, since it chose that moment to burn her hand with melted wax.
She hissed in pain at the burn, but managed to not drop the candle. Something told her that dropping the candle would be a very, very bad idea. Wait, isn't pain supposed to wake you up? That's why people do the 'pinch me in case I'm dreaming' thing, right?
Finally, she shoved the old door open, with obvious effort. Which said a lot for how heavy the door was, considering the weapon she carried every minute of every day. Oh god, I don't have Crescent Rose with me. That thought alone made this entire situation that much scarier, and she shivered as she stared down the hall, which was obscured by both darkness and a heavy layer of fog or dust that was in the air.
I really hope this is just a dream.