Beyond the Boundaries
"Guys, I think she's coming through!"
That was Skull Boy's voice. Ruby could make out that much.
The first thing Ruby noticed as she opened her eyes was Skull Boy and Misery standing a few meters away from her. Skull Boy seemed concerned, and acted as if he wanted to move in closer, but Misery stopped him. The rest of the gang slowly gathered around her, but Misery kept making gestures, like she didn't want the rest of them to get too close, either.
"Ruby! Are you all right?" Iris cried, her hand waving above Misery's head.
Ruby looked around. She was feeling woozy, but noticed she was sitting in an old, worn-out armchair in a badly lit room.
"I think so" she replied, trying to sound reassuring. Slowly, she began rising from the chair.
"Careful, Ruby!" Skull Boy cried. "Are you sure you're ready to stand up yet?"
Ruby chuckled. "Skull Boy, relax. I'm not that…bad…off…" The red-haired girl hesitated as she noticed a full-sized mirror in front of her. She moved closer. "What the…?"
"Oh good, she noticed. Now we can get down to business." Misery told Skull Boy cooly.
"Let's wake up Scardey first." Skull Boy insisted. "I want everyone to be present for this."
"That shouldn't be a problem." she commented, roaming through the bat's suitcases. "Knowing Scardey, he probably remembered to pack some smelling salts. Ah yes, here it is." The grey-faced girl went over to Scardey and held something to his face.
"Wait, if you knew that Scardey was packing smelling salts, why didn't you use it on Ruby?"
"I didn't know, I just assumed", Misery specified. "In any case, I would've advised against using it on Ruby. In her condition, it might be dangerous."
Slowly, the little rain forest bat moaned and opened his eyes. For a moment, Ruby forgot to worry about her own condition – whatever it was – and the somewhat disturbing things she had just seen in her own reflection, and went to check on her friend. "Scardey" she said in a mellow voice. "Are you ok?"
The winged mammal got in a sitting position. "Uh, yes, I think so…but I just had the strangest dream. I think it was perhaps the result of sunstroke or something…" As he stared Ruby in the face, he jumped into the air with a scream. This came is no surprise to anybody. "AAAHH! It was true! Ruby is a bhuta!" [1]
"Not a bhuta, Scardey. A vampire." Skull Boy corrected him with a calm matter-of-factly voice which sounded bizarre under the circumstances. "There's a difference."
"Yes, a bhuta will devour your flesh. A vampire merely drinks blood" Misery added.
"Thank you very much for those reassuring words, Misery." Scardey said with the most sarcastic voice he could muster. "The knowledge that Ruby will settle for drinking my blood and not bother with feasting on my limbs makes me SO MUCH MORE RELAXED!"
"Guys, guys, I'm not going to drink anyone's blood!" Ruby said firmly. "And I am not a vampire!"
"Ah, but I'm afraid you are." Misery replied bluntly.
"Misery, snap out of it!" Iris added. "Of course Ruby is right! She can't be a vampire! For one thing, she's been out in the sun all day. Okay, so she had a seizure, but that could've happened to anyone of us…"
"And don't forget, she just saw herself in the mirror." Frank pointed out. "Everyone knows vampires don't have a reflection."
"AGH! Tá mé ag timpeallaithe ag leathcheann!" Misery shouted. [2]
For a moment, the rest of the gang just stood there staring at her, bewildered.
"It's not polite to insult someone in a language you know they don't understand." Skull Boy whispered to her.
"I know, but it helps", Misery groaned. She rubbed her forehead. "Sorry, it won't happen again."
Skull Boy turned to the others. "What Misery is trying to say is that you shouldn't believe everything you've seen in movies." he explained calmly. "For one thing, sunlight isn't deadly to vampires. It just weakens them."
"That makes sense." Poe added. "Even Bram Stoker mentions that vampires may walk in the sun if necessary. I just knew a distinguished man of the theatre like Mr. Stoker wouldn't make such a mistake in his research." the crow concluded with satisfaction.
"What about Ruby's reflection, then?" Scardey asked.
"That's based on the assumption that you can't be seen in a mirror if you don't have a soul." Skull Boy explained.
"Which is rubbish, of course." Misery added, "And it doesn't matter anyway, because vampires have souls, even though they're often tainted."
"People, people, aren't we forgetting something here?" Iris called. "Something very important?"
"What did you have in mind?" Poe asked.
"Blood!If Ruby is a vampire, how come she never drinks blood?"
Everyone looked at Misery and Skull Boy.
"Well, that..." Skull Boy hesitated. "I've heard some theories, but I haven't quite figured out...Misery?"
She nodded.
"Vampires crave blood." Misery began. "In the same way that others may crave drugs. But they can live without it. It's just that most of them don't want to. In most vampire communities, it's not even considered socially acceptable to do without it." She looked at Ruby. "But you...You've never even had black pudding or steak rare done, have you?"
Ruby shook her head. "Not as I can remember."
Misery began walking in circles around her friend. "Then again, you've never been in the company of other vampires, either. Of course! It all makes sense now!"
"How do you guys know so much about vampires?" Iris asked. The question was clearly aimed at both Misery and Skull Boy.
"I've read a lot about them." Skull Boy answered.
"My maternal grandfather was a vampire." Misery said.
This was met with a collective gasp.
"Why haven't you told us before" Skull Boy asked.
"You never asked." She responded dryly. "Although even if you did, I probably wouldn't have told you. It's not something you'd bring up in polite company, unless it's a polite company of vampires. But these are extraordinary circumstances."
"But if your granddad was a vampire, doesn't that make you part –"
"Genetics doesn't work that way in our family", Misery cut him off. "Can we focus on Ruby, please?"
"Fair enough", Iris responded. "I have another question about Ruby".
"Yes?"
"Why did she attack Frank and Len?"
Misery sighed. She looked even more unhappy than usual.
"Vampires can do fine without blood if they stay at places that aren't too bright, hot or sunny. So naturally, Gloomsville was a perfect place for Ruby to grow up. But after being exposed to so much sun for several hours...let's just say that her deeper, primal instincts kicked in and she was overwhelmed by the blood thirst. As for why she attacked Frank and Len specifically…" She looked at the two-headed teen. "Traditionally, vampires go for the neck…And droll though this may sound, it's possible that she instinctively attacked the one with two necks to get twice the amount of…"
"ENOUGH! ENOUGH!"
Rather confusingly, given his physique, Skull Boy had eyeballs, and they currently were fiery red with anger. Ruby had never heard Skull Boy breathe this heavily before. In fact, she wasn't sure if she'd ever heard him breathe at all. And she had certainly never seen him grab Misery by her collar and yell at her.
"Are you telling me that Ruby – our Ruby – let herself be reduced to some wild animal who would suddenly attack her friends openly just to succumb to some sick, unnatural instinct? YOU 'RE LYING! Ruby would rather die! "
Skull Boy's tantrum made everyone except for Ruby and Misery cower – Probably, Ruby mused, not because of the tantrum itself, but rather because of whom it came from.
"Skull Boy" Misery began slowly while he was still holding her by the collar, "This has been a very long and trying day for all of us, and I do believe we're all entitled to one emotional outburst. I just had one myself, after all." She pushed him away. "However, for both our sakes, I have to insist that you try to calm down. I need to concentrate to avoid a disaster. An abandoned building isn't the safest place to be for someone of my accident-prone nature."
"Wait, we're in an abandoned building?" Ruby asked. In all the hubbub going on, it had never occurred to her to ask where they were.
"It seemed like the most sensible option." Poe explained. "Medioca isn't like Gloomsville."
Misery nodded. "Yes, if a cyclops, a two-headed guitarist, a skeleton carrying an unconscious vampire, and a...me tried to check into a hotel in this town, it might cause some...tension."
"It's purely a tempoarary solution", Skull Boy assured her, as he noticed the sceptical look in her eyes. "We justy needed to get you under a roof as soon as possible. Are you sure you feel okay?"
Ruby rubbed her chin. "I think so." She paced around in what probably used to be the living room. "But I have this weird feeling. Sort of like being thirsty, but not quite..."
"That would be the craving, then." Misery stated. "But there's still time to stop it." She turned around and faced the rest of the gang. "Remember what we agreed on?"
Poe suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "This is going to be so embarrassing..." he groaned.
"I do not see what the big deal is, Poe." Scardey commented. "I get embarrassed almost as easily as I get scared, but I never had any problem with not wearing clothes. Besides, you do not wear trousers, so you are always half-naked anyway."
Poe slapped his forehead and groaned even louder. "Oh, did you have to remind me?"
"Too much civilization will ruin you, my mum always says."
"Now whatcha talking about?" Ruby asked.
"We need to go out and get some supplies" Skull Boy explained, "And since people in Medioca aren't used to anthropomorphic beasts, it means Poe has to get undressed and pretend to be a non-talking bird."
"I bet it's the "non-talking" part that really bugs him!" chuckled Boo Boo, who had suddenly decided to materialize.
"Just remember, people in Medioca probably aren't used to seeing ghosts, either." Misery pointed out.
"That's the best part! I can take'em completely by surprise!"
"You will do no such thing!" Misery hissed. "We'll draw enough attention without you stirring up trouble. Stay invisible, or I'll tell your mentors you're trying to haunt outside of your territory!"
Boo Boo frowned "You're bluffing. You have no way of contacting them!"
"Try me!"
Boo Boo looked uncertain.
"But you are coming with us anyway, right?" Iris asked him. She was about to put on a biker's jacket to go with the helmet she needed to hide her eye.
The kid ghost sighed. "Yeah, I'm gonna be more bored if I stay here."
"By the way, where's Mr. Buns?" Iris asked as she zipped up her jacket.
"Oh he's busy." Frank replied, as if that explained everything. Misery threw Frank and Len a glance, and decided to pretend that it made sense to her. Then she went for an unopened suitcase.
"Ruby," she said, turning towards her friend. "Do you mind if I borrow one of your spare sets of clothes?"
"Not at all, Misery. But what do you need them for?"
"I'm going to take my mother's advice for once, and change my style of clothes. My usual outfit might be too…remarkable for people in this city. But I figure that if I go goth, people will think my look is a fashion statement, and they'll ignore my complexion."
"Complexion…? Oh…right…" It had never occurred to Ruby that Misery's grey skin might seem unnatural to some. After all, most people in Gloomsville were rather pale. But they were not in Gloomsville anymore…
"These sunglasses might help, too." Misery added, putting on the emergency glasses she had not used since the last Friday the thirteenth.
"Someone needs to stay here and look after Ruby while you guys are out", Skull Boy mentioned to Misery as soon as they got a moment alone, and Misery had finished attiring her goth disguise. "I volunteer."
"I agree", Misery responded, "In fact it has to be you. Ruby enjoys your company."
"She enjoys everyone's company." Skull Boy pointed out.
Misery muttered something about "not getting it" under her breath. Then she said to him: "Then there's the fact that with the exception of Boo Boo, you're the only of us without any blood. So you won't be in danger of tempting her."
Skull Boy looked down. "Oh yeah, there's that…", he said glumly.
She smiled faintly, and put a hand on his shoulder. "You have to keep our spirits up. You and Ruby! Please don't make me try to be the heart of the group. It doesn't suit me."
A violin chord interrupted the conversation. Misery and Skull Boy looked down.
"I'm sorry, Doom Kitty, but there's blood in you as well." Skull Boy said calmly.
"Misery, we're ready to go!" Iris announced from the outside.
Misery put her staff aside, and prepared to leave. "Nobody's going to force you, Doom." She told the black cat. "But the craving is not something to be taken lightly."
"Use your instincts, girl." Skull Boy suggested.
Doom Kitty looked at Ruby, and for a moment, she shuddered. Then she made a tiny chord as if to say "I'm sorry", and reluctantly followed Misery to the corridor.
After this, everything happened fast. Ruby didn't even get a chance to see everyone as they left the building. From the corridors she heard Len commenting that the place didn't seem too dusty for an old, abandoned building. Then she winced as she heard part of the ceiling fall, accompanied by a dull "Ow.", from Misery.
And then she was alone. With Skull Boy. She started to feel her cheeks warm up despite herself. Skull Boy, However, looked signifcantly less cheerful.
"So..." Ruby murmured, trying to break Skull Boy out of his silence. "Um... how long have you known? About my... condition." Ruby winced. She didn't really mean it to sound so... negative.
Skull Boy turned to look at her, attempting a smile. "Well... to be honest, I never really suspected it till the train. Misery's the one who figured it out."
"Well, either way, thanks for standing up for me Skull Boy." Ruby said glowingly. "I don't think she meant anything by it though."
"I know, but..." Skull boy fell silent. After a few long moments, Ruby heard him mutter something incoherent.
"What 's wrong?" Ruby asked.
Skull Boy spun around, his usual goofy smile back on his face. "Ah, it's nothing. Just wondering about the building's structure. Maybe I'm from a line of architechts!" He beamed.
Ruby smiled warmly. Skull Boy was back to normal, for now, at least.
"I'm going to try to get some sleep, Skull Boy." She said calmly. Skull Boy turned from his study of the building and nodded in acknowledgement. Ruby couldn't help but notice his smile seemed less... enthused then it should be.
As she drifted back to sleep, she unwillingly wondered if she did the right thing.
A/N I apologize for the utter suck that is the ending dialogue. That was all me.
The next chapter should be out a lot faster. After that, enough preparations should be made to get back to the plot. Oh, and in terms of the last chapter's question, I decided to go with a mish mash of genres and settings. It is a world tour, after all.
Footnotes:
[1] Bhuta: Indian ghoul.
[2] Irish-Gaelic for "I'm surrounded by idiots!" Gaelic is not Misery's first language, but after staying in Ireland for so long, she picked up some phrases.