Another week and Misery was told she could go home. So they left the hospital and got on the train back to Gloomsville. Misery tried to put her gratitude into words, to thank them somehow, but the words didn't exist. Nothing could possibly express her feelings- they were much too great.
"Hey!" Iris said. "It's been over a week since we passed through Joyville! We didn't die!"
"But now we must pass through again," Scaredy Bat whimpered. "Perhaps the curse will work this time…"
"Wait, are you talking about the Curse of Joyville?" Misery asked.
"Yes," Skull Boy replied.
"We had to take you to Joyville, and we were all freaked out," Iris said.
"...You didn't have to be so worried. That story was never true," Misery informed them. "She wasn't killed by a traveler. She was killed by a train. It was dark. She couldn't see the tracks. And she picked the wrong place to have a picnic. No murder was involved. Simply a tragic mistake. There's no curse, either."
"How do you know that?" Iris asked.
"Because she was my great-grandmother."
"Well, where did the curse story come from?"
"Someone once overheard her screaming something about a curse... But she was really just shouting to her neighbor across the street about a book she read. And someone got their timelines mixed up- that was before she died."
"Well, you could have told us that sooner!" Len cried.
"Len, she was unconscious," Ruby said.
"Well, that doesn't excuse not telling us."
"I survived my fourteenth birthday," Misery said, leaning on her crutches as she stared, a little distant, out the window. "I never thought that would happen."
"Well, it did," Ruby said. "We're all glad you're going to be okay."
"I wouldn't be without you, you know. I wouldn't even be here at all. You saved my life. I'm… I'm so thankful. I just have one question, though: Why?"
"We couldn't let you die."
"I always knew you were the best friends in the world."
A/N: So that's my story! I hope you liked it! Also, I have two things related to this story (other than my other Ruby Gloom stories, which often reference each other)- a song that goes at the end of this, and a story explaining how the legend of the Curse of Joyville came about in more detail. Would you like me to post them? Please tell me!