Today was a day like any other, the sun was shining bright, and fluffy white clouds were sprinkled about the baby blue sky. It was slightly warm, but there was also a cool wind blowing around. Plenty of people would describe today as a nice day, some might even take the family out for a picnic. Parents could relax, and children could run free for a while.

However for some people, the conditions outside didn't change a thing about how they felt or thought. Perhaps they were cooped up somewhere, places like a morgue where the atmosphere was infused with the foul odor of decomposing human corpses and the pungent reek of formaldehyde, or perhaps they were locked inside a cramped cage next to a water boiler in a dusty basement, or perhaps they were just having a bad day.

For Ruby Rose, her body wasn't in danger of being damaged, and she hadn't been physically harmed, but she was a little troubled mentally.

Ruby was just a completely ordinary fourteen year old girl, so she hadn't really experienced much in the way of mental trauma. She hadn't gotten addicted to any substances and couldn't live without them, she hadn't been bullied to the point where she would cut open her veins with a kitchen knife, or tie her bedsheets into a noose and leave her body hanging for her father to find. She hadn't been cornered in a dark alley and had her clothes ripped off and her body and mind defiled. Her father didn't drink too much, grab her by the hair and smash her face into a wall until her teeth fell out.

Nevertheless, Ruby's heart trembled in her rib cage as the shaking metal train she was riding got ever closer to her stop. Her father, Taiyang, had suddenly decided to send her back to her home town for reasons he wouldn't elaborate on. It confused her to no end, she had no ideas as to why her loving father would send her there alone, although it was the town she was born at and raised in, she had no memories of it.

At the tender age of five, Ruby Rose and her mother Summer were involved in a car accident, she ended up in a coma and her mother didn't survive. After one year, she remained unconscious and her father moved with her to a nearby city, after two years she finally woke up, but couldn't remember her life before waking up from her coma.

Then at fourteen, and in the middle of her first year in highschool, she was abruptly told to pack her bags. Now, a week later, she had just said good-bye to all her friends and everything she loved about the city and was riding a steel coffin speeding down rails. After three hours, she was almost there and in just a few short minutes she would be living in a new town, going to a new school, and inhabiting a new house, with her step-sister.

Her step-sister was named Yang Xiao-Long, and she was their father's first child. According to her father, they were best friends before her coma, which would have been nearly ten years ago, since Ruby hasn't even so much as gotten a Christmas card from her, she didn't expect a warm reception. And she could only hope that they would get along at the very least.

Ruby lightly slammed the back of her head against the cool glass of the window behind her and slouched down in her seat with a sigh, however when she noticed that her legs were spread apart, that she was wearing a skirt, and where the man that was seated across from her was staring, she quickly closed her legs and stood up. As she grabbed her backpack off the overhead luggage rack, she could feel a gaze focus on her back when she stretched up to reach her bag, she performed a quick hop and retrieved her bag before running off to another passenger car.

Although she felt disgusted and embarrassed, she didn't truly believe that a man like that could exist, she was likely just too self-conscious. Right before she passed through a door to another car, she glanced backwards, and met the leer of the man that was staring at her, his eyes bore into her own. "Thanks for the show." His eyes were saying.

'Die. Die. Die.' Ruby thought, and she pictured stabbing metal stakes into his eyes and slamming down on them with a mallet, she pictured slicing open his stomach and forcing his large intestines down his throat. She pictured clawing out his eyeballs whole before squishing them in her palm.

As her thoughts told her to grab a pencil out of her bag and insert it into his eyes, Ruby kept on walking away. When she tried to ignore her thoughts, she ended up bumping into an old lady. The lady chuckled and said something, but Ruby wasn't paying attention, she was too busy drowning out the thoughts about how she could kill this old lady.

'Her bones would probably snap and crack nicely.' Her thoughts tried to tempt her.

Ruby stumbled about until she found a vacant seat and sat down, she dug through her bag until she found her headphones and her MP3 player, but then she remembered that it had died a while ago. Her breathing was slowly becoming erratic, her heart rate was climbing, and her vision was getting cloudy.

"Ruby Rose is a completely normal girl. Ruby Rose is a completely normal girl. Ruby Rose is a completely normal girl. Ruby Rose is a completely normal girl. Ruby Rose is a completely normal girl." Since she couldn't play her recording, she had to manually repeat it.

Or perhaps they weren't mentally stable.

Today was such a nice day, the birds thought so as they soared through the open skies, or perched on branches and sang lively chirps. Normal people were having fun walking, running, biking, or swimming. Normal people gathered around a large grill and enjoyed the taste of meat. Normal people might fly a kite or kick a ball. Normal people were enjoying today.


Ruby got off the train after it had completely stopped and the doors opened with a hiss. There was a small pep in her step and a wide smile was plastered across her face. And why shouldn't she be happy? She wasn't violently violated on the train by a gang of strangers, she wasn't passed around as a teen toy for middle aged men to enjoy. She was a normal girl, and she was happy like normal.

The amount of people that got off the train could be counted on one hand, and the amount that were waiting at the station would max out that hand.

Ruby lost the pep in her step as she walked to the person who was waiting there for her, the reason was because every step she took echoed noisily throughout the station. If she was a lesser person, she might've held a grudge at the person who was waiting so far away. Even though she didn't have a pep in her step anymore, people should be able to tell that she was happy and excited by the smile on her face that didn't slip in the slightest.

When Ruby was a few feet away from the person waiting for her, she was able to fully take in their form. It was a woman with long and messy black hair, and there were a few gray strands swimming about, she wasn't dressed too spectacularly, just a drab business suit. Her right eye was dull red and her left was a milky white, a faint scar sat beneath her hairline and traveled down the majority of the left side of her face, it even went down the side of her neck and was cut off by the collar of the suit she was wearing.

Ruby could picture the scar traveling down the center of her chest, curving at her stomach and ending at her right thigh.

The woman walked towards Ruby and away from the bench that was behind her, her left foot met the ground and her cane came next, and then finally her right foot was slowly dragged forward, it had barely left the ground.

"How was your trip, Ruby?" The woman asked, her voice worn and nearly monotone.

Ruby stared at the woman, her right eye was nearly as dull as her left one, and bags were underneath them both, her mouth was locked in a frown.

Ruby was too nervous to respond, but her smile was still there and that meant she was happy. She was transfixed by this woman's gaze, it was silent, and she couldn't think of anything.

"F-fine." Ruby said with a shaky smile.

The woman tilted her head to the right. "Sorry, could you repeat that? I had trouble hearing."

Ruby could see that the scar had reached her left ear, it didn't help that Ruby was speaking softly. "I said that it was a nice trip." This time her voice was a little louder, and she had to hold back a sob that threatened to escape her throat.

"Oh, that's nice." The woman blinked and stared into Ruby's eyes.

'I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' Ruby thought, even though she didn't know exactly what she was apologizing for.

"Follow me." The woman said and started to slowly walk away, but then she stopped suddenly. "Oh wait, my bad, it had slipped from my mind, sorry." The woman turned around to face Ruby and held out her left hand. "Nice to see you again, Ruby. I'm your aunt, Raven Branwen, I hope we can get along."

'It's all my fault. It's all my fault. It's all my fault. It's all my fault.' Ruby thought and pictured stabbing herself in the throat, severing her spinal cord, cutting out her tongue and ripping out her beating heart from her neck.

"M-me too!" Ruby responded and shook her hand, it was cold and stiff, the skin and muscles were too thin, allowing her to feel the outline of bone. When Raven turned back and continued to slowly walk, she wiped away her budding tears.


The car ride was spent in silence, Ruby didn't know what to say, and Raven hadn't even turned to look at Ruby since she entered the car. Ruby had occasionally glanced about, taking in the sights and staring at Raven's right leg as she drove her car.

Through the entire car ride, Ruby held her smile and Raven's face remained blank.

When Raven pulled into the driveway of a modest two story house, she finally said something. "Your room is up the stairs and to the left." Although she had spoken to Ruby, she didn't turn to face her.

After a beat went by, Ruby unclipped her seatbelt, opened the car door, and hopped out the car. She filled her lungs with the air of this town and felt like throwing up, her knees were shaking as she closed the car door. She had forgotten to give her thanks to Raven, but it seemed like she didn't mind since she immediately pulled out the driveway and drove off.

Ruby felt her teeth chatter and her throat burn with stomach acid. "Ah, fresh air. I can't wait to start my new life in this wonderful town." She said with a smile that stretched the limits of her face, her lips were on the verge of tearing apart from the strain.

The door opened with a click, Raven had probably left it open for her.

Ruby entered the house.

She walked up the stairs.

She entered the room on the left.

She walked over boxes.

She pulled out a charger and plugged her MP3 player in.

She couldn't see anymore, so she crawled along the floor until she got to her new bed.

Ruby placed her head on a pillow and cried herself to sleep.


As she walked around her room, putting her stuff away, Ruby was humming a song that she heard from the internet. When her stomach growling ruined her tempo, she stopped, her nerves taking hold of her body.

When she had woken up from her few hour long power nap, she had set about unpacking her belongings, they were shipped here ahead of her, so she hadn't seen them for a while, which gave her a new perspective on some of her stuff. Midway through her work, she had heard the sound of someone moving about the house, but from her window she could see that there was no car parked in the driveway, so it wasn't Raven, and that left one other person, her half-sister.

After everything that happened with Raven, she wasn't sure if she could handle anything else, but now she was hungry, and more importantly, calm. And she didn't have anything to worry about, they were sisters, even if Ruby couldn't remember it, there had to have been some kind of bond between them.

Ruby hesitantly left her room, the house was surprisingly silent, the only sounds she heard was coming from downstairs. After creeping down the steps, she followed the origin of the sound, which was coming from what Ruby assumed was the kitchen. Just around the corner of the kitchen, she breathed in and relaxed. Sisters loved each other, sisters were great, normal sisters could be friends.

Slowly, she entered the kitchen.

Immediately, her image of who her sister was had been destroyed.

She had pictured a girl who looked like a miniature female Taiyang, but then after meeting Raven, she had pictured a miniature version of her.

Instead, she was met with a blond boy.

As Ruby stared at the boy, she noticed that he had short bangs and that the rest of his hair was weaved into a thick braid. He was wearing some sort of school uniform, and was making a sandwich.

As she came to a stop, he seemed to have noticed her. As he looked up, their gazes met, and she felt an immediate sense of drowning. Her mouth was clogged shut, her lungs stopped functioning and her heart raced. If she wasn't so used to not following through on what her thoughts told her to do, she would've clawed open her throat to let air in.

Then the feeling receded, the way it flowed away from her reminded her of a wave.

"You're Ruby, aren't you?" The boy put down what was in his hands and stared at her. "Yang's sister, right?" His eyes were a calm blue.

Ruby felt something warm slither through her veins and nest in her cheeks, her palms were nearly oozing slime, and she was developing a sudden fever as she stared into his eyes. Ruby nearly choked as she swallowed the sudden influx of saliva that her dry mouth had produced. "Y-yes." Her voice didn't squeak or crack. Her voice didn't squeak or crack.

"Cool, I'm Jaune Arc." He smiled.

Ruby pictured throwing herself on a bed of needles or into a raging fire, she wouldn't mind drowning either. Before he could speak some more, the sudden sound of someone jumping down a staircase filled the house. Within a second, a girl with a wild mane of blonde hair appeared. Her eyes glowered into Ruby's.

For a moment, she pictured her sister's eyes flashing a luminous red, then she pictured her sister's body being engulfed in a blazing yellow inferno and bone white spikes exploding out of her flesh.

Jaune had walked past Ruby and stopped near Yang, he grasped her hand and brought it up to meet his lips. "Take your time." He said after kissing Yang's hand, then he walked away.

Yang stopped glowering at Ruby, and she walked past her with a huff.

Ruby looked at Yang, her sister was dressed casually, wearing just a skirt and tee shirt, she was also wearing two bracelets.

Yang picked up a sandwich from the counter, and then looked at Ruby. "My Mom works during lunch and dinner, and she sleeps during breakfast. She restocks the fridge at the beginning of every week. You'll also get an allowance every week, so with all this you should be able to provide yourself with your own meals. There's a washer and dryer in the basement. Your school uniform is in the bag on the couch. No one has our home number except for your Dad. If there's something you need for school, tell me. Don't bother my Mom with anything, got it?"

Again Yang glowered at Ruby, who had just nodded in response.

"Good." Then Yang left.

Ruby was left standing in the kitchen all alone.

What a normal sister interaction.

She walked around the kitchen, checking the contents of every cupboard and drawer.

She made herself a sandwich.

She grabbed a bag from the living room.

She took a shower.

She curled up into a ball as freezing water rained down on her. Her expression blank, every now and then a sudden smile would form but it always quickly melted away.

As Ruby scrubbed herself dry, she made the mistake of looking into the mirror. If she was in her old bathroom, this wouldn't have happened, but she wasn't used to this new layout yet.

An endless black expanse, another Ruby looking back at her, another Ruby looking back at her, another Ruby looking back at her, another Ruby—


Thanks for reading! I'm always open to feedback, so please leave a review, or reply in my forum, about what you liked or hated about this chapter or the whole story. If anyone wants to be a Beta Reader, then PM me and we'll talk details.