RUBY FARADAY
task: a meeting with the ringleader
two days. it’d been two days since she’s gone to see HIM. the mysterious ringleader. the invite alone was odd enough in itself, not that she remembered much past receiving it. what remained in her mind of the incident was shrouded —— as if something’s had been tampered with. the funny thing about memory is it can prove fickle, further when it’s been altered, further when details have been e r a s e d.
it wouldn’t be nearly as troubling as it were, had she not woken up for the past two nights someplace strange. sprawled upon the floor in a grogged state of black out with no memory of how she wound up there. it was a loss of control, a mystery that she didn’t need in her life. then again, who needed any of the things that were happening in aglæca? the city that was supposed to be a safe haven for people like her. not only was it troubling, but it wasn’t safe either. ruby had seen the shadows that stalked in the night with her very own eyes. whether they were playing tricks on her or not, whether it was a symptom of paranoia that night with spencer, to ruby, they seemed REAL as ever. how long would it be before this sleep walking pit her in the w r o n g place at the w r o n g time?
the SHADOWS: what they were, or what they were there for —— that was another ordeal entirely. what did you see? what were they doing? night had fallen as the redhead paced the length of her bedroom, thumb nail nibbled upon as concern furrowed her brow. she remembered him asking THAT, asking what she’d seen. it appeared to her in a flash, but what he’d said in return isn’t there. just as the other recollection is incomplete. what was he DOING with them? don’t lie to me, ruby. how the tears had pooled then, for those questions she knew not the answer to. the mystery she’d spent her time with before finding herself in aglæca.
was her life just one big MYSTERY. countless things she’d never have the answers to. afraid to sleep for where she’d end up the next morning, though exhaustion was catching. confined to her room for the evening, thumbing over the marking that’d appeared in her palm, between her thumb and index after the meeting, merely to watch the hours pass by . . . 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock . . . doze. eyes drew heavy, maybe she’d waited it out long enough —— one could h o p e. she’d need to find a better strategy for the next night, a better way to keep up, but the weariness consumed her in no time at all, as if acting under a spell. those heavy eyes fluttered shut as her breathing slowed, sinking into the sheets as but a moment later those eyes would be wide, ALERT as the time turned to precisely 3:20AM.
but something wasn’t quite right about her gaze. vacant, void of the mind that lay behind. a voice that filled the mind, luring the siren from the comfort of her bed. following a dim green light that seemed only to exist in her mind
‘. . . find it.’ the voice whispered, as that’d become ruby’s only objective. to find it. whatever it was. barefoot and drawn out into the night, no concern for the cold in her TRANCE where the thin lining of her nighty might have otherwise caused a shiver, to rummage through whoever’s belongings the light brought her to that night. to the room she’d wake up in without answers next.