Bray Wyatt. He was the boy that did not exist. Or perhaps it was better to say should not exist. The fire had not touched him, but had scarred his very soul. He could see his parents, from where he had stood, it looked like they had been dancing in those flames, not flailing, as they died. The fire. Then, the woods. Those strange eyes. The Man In the Woods. Fear, such fear in his soul. He must have been a very bad boy. This is all he knew. He was a demon in a human skin, and no one should come close to him. No one should dance in his flames. No one should meet with the darkness within. Ruby saw it. She saw it in him, the same Sister Abigail did, and he was sore afraid of her. Better to stay in the dark, than to be drawn out by the light. He could clearly see her hand print glowing on his wall, as she tried to draw him out. No, no. He sent his thoughts that way: stay out. Stay away. He would rock back and forth, back and forth, until that handprint finally disappeared.
Time flew quickly. Ruby had been at the compound for months. She had learned to collect eggs in the small barn. She had helped clean the massive home they all shared. She had learned to help Sister Abigail in the kitchen. Ruby always wondered two things: when Sister Abigail would finally tell her to leave, and what Bray's story was. Neither had been brought up. Ruby just decided that she belonged there now. She started leading grace at certain meals now, too. They would ask the good Lord to bless them all, and for Jesus to take good care of his sheep. That's what most people were, Sister Abigail would tell them. Sheep that had to be led.
"Only when we lose everything do we understand how much of a sheep we are. There must be a shepherd, lest we get eaten by the wolves of the world."
Ruby would wonder why Sister Abigail would pray to a God she left behind, but felt it was not her place. Perhaps in time, she would tell her. As the only other female there, Ruby and Abigail had bonded. Ruby had gone to Abigail when she realized she had started her first period.
"You just start here, child? Oh, but you're now a woman. The problem with taking care of only boys; you miss these things only women can experience, and share." Sister Abigail had happily spent the day with Ruby, talking to her now as a friend, and equal, not just one of her charges. "It all changes now for you," she had said, "This day we are the same." The next week, Sister Abigail had handed her a paper bag full of more feminine products, and also, on the bottom, a pack of pills. Ruby had lifted them out quizzically. "You are now an adult, as young as you are, but not forever. As much as I'd love to trust my boys, well, it's better to be safe than sorry. Take these. Daily. Never miss one. If one of my boys does try anything, you tell me immediately." Birth control, Ruby realized.
Ruby never missed a day, as she was told. She felt crazy. She would be so angry one day, then she would cry the next. Abigail had tried to console her. "It's your hormones, and it's the pills. That's what they do, hun. I am so sorry." Ruby felt insane. It didn't help that all of the boys would pick on her. They would tease her about her breasts getting bigger, even as some of them still had voices breaking. None of them tried anything, though. They were just juvenile. It aggravated her to no end, though. One day, she was in the chicken coop, ready to grab the eggs recently laid.
"Well, well. If it's not Big Tits McGee!" one of the older boys had called out to her, then laughed. Ruby flushed in both shame, and fury.
"Do not talk to me like that!" she hissed back, scowling.
"Or what? You gonna stop me? I should slap the sass out of your mouth!" He walked up to her, pinning her against the barn wall. Suddenly, he was violently pulled off of her, and thrown onto the hard ground. He was being pummelled, and his nose exploded in blood.
"Fuck off!" cried his assailant. Ruby only then realized that it was Bray, his hands bloody from his victim. He stood tall above the boy, now rolling on the ground, clutching his nose. Bray's eyes met Ruby's, but he didn't say another word. He simply walked away, into the woods.
Sister Abigail helped patch up the rude boy's nose, then told him if he ever pulled anything like that again, he'd be out. He apologized, broken nose clearly still clogged with blood, over dinner, the rest of his swollen face looking contrite. Bray did not come back home until the next day. Ruby so wished to talk to him, to thank him, but he remained his usual aloof self. He seemed to recede inside himself even more. She was drawn to him even more, too. She went to pressing both hands against the wall, and she would pray. Pray to a God only Sister Abigail seemed to know. Ruby felt more like praying to Bray. Maybe God lived in him, somehow?
"Talk to me. Just talk to me." she would whisper at that wall. Bray would be kneeling before his side of the wall, watching her glowing handprints burn marks into it, and into his soul.
"Stay away."
