A/N: I'm sorry it took so long for this. I had hoped to get this to you last month but… yeah.

Anyway… well, to be perfectly honest, we've reached a turning point in this story. The lighter and softer world from the show and… well, I'll explain at the bottom.

The Curse of Awareness

Misery held Iris down, ignoring the cyclops' complaints. Her mind was racing with emotions and questions. What's going on? Is anyone injured? Was this because of me? Or…? Misery forced back those thoughts. They weren't important right now. She took a few moments to scan her surroundings. Boo Boo had vanished. Part of her hoped he was warning the others, but she didn't expect it. Iris had stopped struggling, but her eye was darting everywhere.

For several moments, she stayed still, her grip on Iris loosening. Finally, she slowly rose, pulling Iris up with her.

"W-what's going on Misery?" Iris asked slowly. Misery didn't answer. Moving mostly on instinct, she began moving towards the door, Iris in tow. Despite her forced calmness, one question wormed its way into her mind. Did they find us already?

Back in their carriage, Ruby and her friends had yet to be warned about anything. The sudden stop had thrown them all off their seats. Ruby had fell head first, but she had only been lying like that for a few seconds before a concerned Doom Kitty tried her best to push her head up.

"I'm okay, Doom", Ruby assured her, and got up. Like her cat, Ruby's main concern in a situation like this was for her friends. Skull Boy had a few bones to pick, literally, Frank and Len were checking on their luggage, Poe muttered something about the need for safety belts, and Scardey just moaned.

"Guys, how are you?" she asked.

"Well I can't speak for everyone", Poe began "But I'm fine, if a little bit stirred"

Ruby's set herself up. Her mind suddenly felt much clearer now. A moment ago, she had been feeling woozy.

Scardey rubbed his forehead. "Probably not as bad as it feels, Ruby.", he admitted.

"Yeah, you look okay" she pointed out. "Skull Boy?"

"I'll be fine once I put myself together…sorry that sounded a bit silly." He reattached his head. "But…you know."

"Ah here it is!" Len exclaimed as Frank gave Ruby a small gesture to imply that they were ok as well.

The compartment door slammed open, and Ruby's attention was turned towards the two figures at the door.

"Misery…Iris…" she began "Did you see what happened?"

Misery didn't answer. She took a long glance across the room. "Good. You're all here." She stated, picking up her purse, then looked around again. Everyone stared at her in confusion or puzzlement, except for Iris, who looked just a tad bit annoyed.

"As you have no doubt noticed, the train has stopped.", she continued. "It appears to have gone off track, so they won't get it up and running again anytime soon. We should get moving. On foot, if necessary."

This caused a bit of unrest among her friends. Ruby suggested that they should wait until the conductor arrived, or until the driver made any announcements. Poe thought that perhaps there would be trolleys coming to pick them up as a fallback offer.

Misery then pointed out that there were no cables out here on the countryside for trolleys to run on. To her surprise (which she nevertheless managed to hide), everyone accepted this argument. Really, did none of them have any knowledge of buses that ran on gasoline? By telling her friends that they couldn't rely on the train crew for help, Misery knew that she was probably lying. At least she was guilty of a tacit lie, by not mentioning the possibility of buses. But she needed to get them out of here as soon as possible, and away from the other passengers. If they were here, on board this train, she could not take any chances. Even if it meant that Ruby…

Poor Ruby…

Misery was leading the way, looking remarkably determined. She was usually not a leader type, but on the rare occasion when she decided to take charge, Misery tended to radiate of so much confidence that everyone found it difficult to argue against her.

The sun baked. Not as hard as it had done on that fatal day back home in Gloomsville, but it was hot. Ruby tried to stay focused. While Misery had never seemed so confident since the last Friday the thirteenth, her friends always trusted in her- Ruby Gloom - to keep the gang together. But after walking for a little while, she realized that she probably wasn't making a good impression. For one thing, she had some difficulty thinking clearly. There were some clouds in the sky, and when on occasion the sun went behind a cloud, she felt better. Was it the heat in general that trouble her, or the sun itself? And was she effected in particular? She looked around.

Scardey was moaning again, but strictly speaking, it didn't take a lot. He stopped after a little while, and Ruby suddenly noticed that he was just lying there as Doom picked a water bottle out of a bag, and tried to get Scardey to drink. At least this caused him to regain consciousness, but to her shame, Ruby realized that the little bat had fainted without her noticing. Feeling guilty about this, she wiped her forehead and decided to try and act a little more responsible. For starters, she should take a look around to see if everyone was here, and if everyone was okay. That's when she noticed:

"Where's Boo Boo?"

"He's here." Misery said without turning around. Her eyes were still fixed on the road ahead.

Ruby looked around. "Are you sure? He's nowhere to be seen."

"Ever heard of a ghost that appears in broad daylight?"

"No, but – "

"He's here!" Misery repeated, sounding almost annoyed. "Now please leave me alone, I need to focus."

Iris put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "If Misery says he's here, then he is. She can tell. It's nothing to argue about, Ruby."

"Okay, but what did she mean by 'I need to focus'.?"

"Whatever she meant, asking her about it probably won't help her to focus." Iris retorted dryly.

"Okay then."

Iris shook her head. "I'm sorry if I'm a bit moody right now, Iris. It's this whole mess we're in…"

Ruby nodded. When it came to Iris, he suspected there was another factor to be considered as well. They were wandering across a great Midwestern plain with no trees, no boulders, no buildings – basically nothing she could climb in, or jump onto, or jump off. Perhaps she was just bored

Ruby decided to turn her attention to the others. Frank and Len still seemed to be fine. Currently they were looking around in all directions. They also asked Ruby if she'd seen the waka-waka bird, but didn't hear her answer because it was drowned out by bird cries.

It had been cloudy for a good half hour, but now the sun was coming back. Ruby felt weaker almost in the same instant. She was wondering if it showed…

In front of her, Skull Boy was muttering something to Poe. She could only make out a few words:

"See, I told you so…"

"Ruby…" Skull Boy said, turning his head. "Are you not feeling well?"

So it did show. There was real concern in his voice, and on the spot, Ruby decided to give into an impulse: She acted even weaker than she really felt. Skull Boy reacted just as she expected him to: By running to her and catching her before she could fall. As he hugged her tightly and tried to comfort her, Ruby felt her heart beating faster. She wondered, in her dazed mind, if that was noticeable. The boy skeleton found a blanket in the luggage and wrapped it around her head. Maybe he could tell that it was the sun that bothered her so.

Of course, by now everyone else had also stopped to see how Ruby was doing. Misery's expression was a mix of guilt and frustration. The rest of the gang simply looked concerned.

"Be brave, Misery" Skull Boy urged her. "We only have a few hours left of walking before we reach Medioca."

"Skull Boy is right" Poe seconded. "Our first destination, which is indeed the city of Medioca, is only an hour an a half's walk away from here."

"Actually, it's nearly two and a half hours," Skull Boy objected "According to this map, and the calculations I made based on it." Not expecting any discussion about this, he wrapped the blanket even more tightly around Ruby and walked on.

"He must be really worried about Ruby", Iris confided in Misery. "He didn't even say that he must be related to famous cartographers or any kind of bull like that."

And so the gang kept walking. Occasionally, they would throw glaces at Skull Boy helping Ruby to move forward. If the circumstances had been different, the sight of those two probably would have caused a few giggles. But such as it was, everyone was just too concerned about their friend and guiding star.

After two hours of walking, a Medioca suburb was in sight, but Ruby wasn't getting any better. For the last fifty minutes, there hadn't been a cloud in the sky. Now she was staggering, looking visibly ill.

However, no-one could have predicted what happened next. Just as the gang was about to reach the first buildings they had seen for hours, Ruby suddenly started to growl. Then, she raised her arms, and without warning…

…She ran towards Frank and Len with a roar, as if she intended to attack them. Skull Boy managed to stop her by grabbing her shoulders, as gently as he could muster, and pulled her back.

"Ruby, what's gotten into you?" Skull Boy asked, a note of fear in his voice.

Struggling weakly, the red-haired girl only grunted something intelligible in response. Then she fainted in his arms.

The gang gathered around their unconscious friend, but none of them could get a look at her face, because Skull Boy was blocking the view. He let out a gasp.

"Misery?" he said without turning his head. "Have a look at this."

"Misery, who had been standing in the back this whole time, broke through the group and went down on her knees to have a closer look.

"Oh dear", she muttered. "I was afraid this might happen."

"What might happen?" Poe asked nervously "What's wrong with her? Other than that she pased out, I mean."

"And that she attacked Frank and Len!" Iris added significantly. "What's going on here?"

Neither Misery nor Skull Boy said anything, but they both moved aside in order to let their friends have a look at Ruby's face.

The gang gasped in surprise. Or actually, about half of the gang gasped in surprise. An invisble voice that probably belonged to Boo Boo exclaimed "I knew it!". Doom Kitty nodded calmly, as if to suggest that she had known this all along.

Mr. Buns wasn't surprised, either.

Misery and Skull Boy looked at each other, ignoring the rest of the gang for a moment. "I... I have noticed her teeth before" Skull Boy began, "But they were so small. I didn't think…."

"She must have been resisting her natural instinct – her thirst - for quite some time" Miserry suggested. "Her fangs were not allowed to grow properly. Until now, anyway. I was hoping I could be wrong, but this proves it…"

She turned and nodded at the rest of the gang. Then she finally said what everybody (except for Frank and Len) was thinking, but nobody else dared to say:

"…Ruby is a vampire."

Scardey passed out again.

A/N So, now you know what we've been hinting at for Ruby. I had planned to drag this out one more chapter, but I thought I'd leave you all a gift.

Continuing what I said at the top though, now that we're out of the lighter and softer territory, I don't know where to go. Naturally, things will get darker but there's so many plans and ideas. So, I'll ask you guys. Where would you like to see this story go? A fantasy direction? A more urbane approach? Something else?

Oh, the last thing I thought I'd mention is my dream for this fic. My hope is that Tall T and I can make this story worthy of a TVTropes page. This isn't so much a hint to you guy's, just the level of quality I'm hoping we can provide. I guess it's up to you guys to decide if it's worthy of that honor.