Thick smoke rises turning the bright blue sky into a gloomy gray. The air around her felt hot to the point its almost burning, and she hears nothing but screams of anguish and pain from every direction
Wherever she turns she sees nothing but piles of debris of once beautiful architecture, bloodied and broken bodies are scattered like the wreckage around her, including those that she's all too familiar with...
Kajika...Jaune...Kyouya...
Beady silver eyes snapped open and Ruby suddenly finds herself back at the evacuation center. Laying down on her sleeping bag beside her sister and the rest of her family whom are all sleeping soundly.
She was breathing heavily, her heart felt like it's been trying to break through her chest, and she's drenched in cold sweat like she had just ran a marathon.
Great. Now she's wide awake...Stupid nightmares...
She tries to push herself up, careful not to move her injured arm on a sling that she got while evacuating her collapsing school. Well at least it wasn't her dominant arm...
She needed to get some air, she's beginning to feel the suffocation in being in a crowded room. Ruby crawls over to her bag of clothes and rummages to find her hood, only to find that it wasn't there. She sighs, guess she's gonna have to wear something else to protect her from the chilly night breeze.
As she continues to search inside her bag, a certain article of clothing catches her attention. She pulls out what appears to be a jacket that she doesn't remember owning. First off, it was too big to appear to be her size. Second, she doesn't remember anyone from her family who wears it, and lastly, the design isn't really her style.
She then began to remember that time she spent a lazy day at a certain model's dormitory room. When she was about head back home (or more like got threatened to get kicked out) she whines that the weather is too cold for her to commute all the way back home, and the fabric of her red hood was way too thin. His jacket just happened to be hanging on his bedpost. Cheekily she snatches it and immediately puts in on. Izumi's mouth already running as she does so. She caught a glimpse of her reflection on his stand mirror, laughing at how the oversized jacket makes her appear so childish, and it's brighter color seem to clash with her gothic black dress, but it's quite cozy~
She folds the sleeves up enough to expose her pale and dainty hands, ingnoring Izumi who's now nagging about her wrinkling it.
Ruby tells the older male that she'll be borrowing it, no even bothering to listen to his protests, Ruby dashes out of the room with a mischievous grin, with Izumi yelling at her that she'd better have it washed before returning it.
Ruby faintly smiles at reminiscing that day. With the thought of Izumi, Ruby's mind suddenly flashes an image from her nightmare, where his flawless appearance that he usually brags nonstop about has been defiled with dirt and his own blood, all thanks to the fatal damage that he had sustained...
NO No no no no!!! Ruby, he may be a jerk, but killing him off in your sleep like that makes you an arsehole!
Her uninjured hand involuntarily clutches the jacket, as if she was trying to keep herself from shaking. Abruptly she drapes the jacket over her shoulders, and silently exits the room.
Out in the hall she grabs a plastic chair and places it infront of a nearby window. She opens it up and breaths deeply, leaning over on the windowsill, a fresh taste of oxygen along with the nice view of the star-filled sky is just what she needed to calm her nerves. Well, it would have been nicer if it wasn't for that black smog that still polluting the sky. She could also still hear sirens from a distance as well...
The young rose sighs as she tries to wrap Izumi's jacket tighter around her, it made her thoughts drift to the model once more. She wonders how he's doing right now...Was he able to evacuate safely? Did he follow the tips and advice she shared him? Was he able to salvage all the necessities he needs?
She tries to imagine him in such a situation. She bets that he must be ranting and being irritable to those around him as always, worrying about the most annoying thing like his clothes and hair and teasing everybody...
Ruby knocks her fist against her head. It's not like her to be thinking so negatively like this. If only she didn't lost her phone...
She tries to dispels those thoughts by recalling memories, and once again she remembers her model friend.
One of the most fondest memories that she had with that guy was when he first sang to her. His voice was pretty soothing for someone so...unpleasant, as expected from someone who's trainning to become an idol.
Ruby never really considered herself as someone with a voice fit for singing, but she has actually been practicing in secret for a while now, in hopes that one day, she'll be good enough to sing together with the soon-to-be idol, just for fun. He'd surely make fun of her about it, but it'd an experience that Ruby can fondly look back on.
Could she...still be able to do that?
Sitting up from her chair she raised her head up to look at the smoke-covered night sky and breaths, softly singing out a song as if she was trying to get it to reach her brother that she had left behind.
"Now it's cold without you here
It's like winter lasts all year
But your star's still in the sky
So I won't say goodbye..."
"...I don't have to say goodbye"
Before she knew it. Her tears started falling.
