WARNING: This fan fiction may contain content that is triggering to some. You have been warned.
| Fan Fiction: | |
|---|---|
| Prologue: Red | |
| Author | Lizzie |
| Genre | Angst/Drama |
| Perspective | First Person - Omniscient |
| Narrator | Ruby Rose |
| Official Characters | Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long |
Description: You were the one I needed and you left me as I always feared you would. The petals scatter now. Every nightmare just discloses. It's your blood that's red like roses and no matter what I do, nothing ever takes the place of you.
“Red Like Roses Fills My Dreams And Brings Me To The Place You Rest...”
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SCREECH! CRASH! BOOM! BEE-EE-EE...
“Mommy...?” I called out, shaken and curled up in my seat. I was hiding my face in my knees whilst covering my head with my hands. I was covered by a liquid that I didn’t dare open my eyes to identify. “Mommy...?” I tried again, hearing nothing, but the car horn, “Mommy, I’m scared...” Still getting no answer, I finally gathered the strength to pick up my head and look to the seat next to me. There was no seat, only a mangled mess of the seat and side of the car. I finally figured out what the liquid was.
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I woke up, screaming bloody murder and clutching my head. It hurt; it hurt so much from this constant nightmare. My whole body shook and I didn’t even realize I was running out of air until arms wrapped around me.
“Shhh.” a soft voice cooed, “Ruby, it’s okay. Yang’s got you.”
I finally took a breath as I embraced my older sister and began sobbing. “Why, Yang...? Why after five years is this still happening...?” I cried into her shoulder, “Why can’t it stop...?”
“I don’t know, Ruru.” she replied, stroking my short, red-black hair, “I know you loved her very much and she loved you, but I don’t think she’d want you to go through this.”
“Then, why did she leave me here!?” I cried, pulling away from the blonde, “Why did she die?”
My sister sighed and said, “She had no choice in it. She can’t really choose how stupid other drivers on the road are going to be. At least, somehow, you were able to survive whether it was her driving or something else.”
“Maybe I didn’t want to survive!” I yelled, glaring into Yang’s lavender eyes.
We sat there for a moment in dead silence before the blonde stood and faced away from me. She replied, “Maybe you didn’t, but Dad and I would have been worse off if you both died that night.” Then, she left the room without another word to me.
I laid back down in my bed and stared at the ceiling silently, beginning to connect the bumps in the Stucco ceiling. ‘She doesn’t get it... She doesn’t get the pain I feel...’ I thought, ‘I mean sure she gets the feeling of losing Mom, but was she there when she died? Was she...’ I swallowed before the next thought, ‘Was she covered in her blood...?’
The scene flashed through my head again as my mind emphasized the bloody mess unnecessarily. I couldn’t take it any longer as I got up from my bed quickly and stumbled out into the hall. I crashed my way into the bathroom just a couple doors down from my room and hutched over the toilet, losing what little lunch I had eaten. I sat there for a few moments, staring away from the contents in the water and leaning my chin on the seat. ‘I can’t live like this...’ I thought, ‘I know everyone has told me to get over it. Even I’ve told myself to get over it, but... I just can’t...’
I stood, shutting the lid of the toilet and flushing my vomit down. After a quick brush of my teeth and wash of my hands, I exited the bathroom and stalked over to the railings of the second floor. I stared down into the first floor, listening to Yang played a brawler type of video game down stairs. I blinked with a blank look on my face as I continued to stand there and listen.
Suddenly, the lock on the front door made a noise and my eyes flicked towards it. By the time the door opened, I disappeared from my spot on the railing and retreated back to my room while hearing Yang greet our father.
Leaving the door cracked open, I flopped onto my bed and stared off into the distance, listening to the commotion in my house.
“How was work, Dad?” Yang chirped as if she hadn’t just had to come up and take care of her baby sister a few moment ago, “Did that idiot come back?”
“Yes, he did actually, Sunshine,” a gruff voice responded, “But I made sure the truth of the story was heard loud and clear.”
“I would’ve just given him the ol’ one-two!”
Our dad chuckled and replied, “You’ve been playing that street fighting game again, haven’t you?” A pause, probably Yang just nodding to him in reply, occurred before he spoke again. “Where’s Ruby? Is she okay?”
“She’s in her room as usual. Probably taking a nap.” Yang replied, knowing it was best to not tell him about another nightmare.
Another pause before I heard heavy footsteps on the staircase. I sighed and rolled over, facing the wall and curling up. Hearing my door be pushed open, I shut my eyes and breathed slow and calm. It felt like forever until I heard my door being shut and the footsteps return to the first floor.
‘They’ll never understand...’ I thought with another sigh before rolling over and looking at my alarm clock. 6:36pm it read. I frowned and shut my eyes, thinking, ‘I’ll go out tonight...’
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The next time I opened my eyes my clock read 11:34pm. I sat up and curled, staring at my bed sheets. Once my eyes got use to seeing darkness, I stood and went over to my closet, pulling out a red pullover hoodie and black jeans. I put them on over my red tank top and black boy shorts and pulled on black-and-red snow boots before going into my underwear drawer in my dresser and pulling out a little black velvet pouch. I shoved it in the pocket of my hoodie and sneaked out my bedroom, down the stairs, and into the night.
I walked quickly and quietly through the few inches of snow toward the town cemetery. In a few minutes, I stood in front of a gravestone with a rose design on it. The inscription on the stone said, “Summer Rose/Thus Kindly I Scatter”. I smiled reading over it.
“'Tis the last rose of summer left blooming alone.” I begun to recite, “All her lovely companions are faded and gone. No flower of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh to reflect back her blushes or give sigh for sigh.” I continued as I sat down in front of the grave, “I'll not leave thee, thou lone one, to pine on the stem. Since the lovely are sleeping, go, sleep thou with them. Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves o'er the bed where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead. So soon may I follow when friendships decay and from Love's shining circle, the gems drop away. When true hearts lie withered and fond ones are flown, oh, who would inhabit this bleak world alone?”
My smiled turned to a frown at the last line and I repeated it, “Who would inhabit this bleak world alone, Mother? Who...?” There was silence for a few moments as the wind blew my red-black hair. I stared hard at the gravestone. My voice turned harsh as I spoke again, “Who would, Mother? Why did you leave me? I needed you... I still need you!” I begun to laugh as I pulled the pouch out. “I need you right now, but you’re gone. Now, I’ve turned to this...” I said, pulling out a razor blade, “I’ve turned to a cold, steel blade, Mother...” I yelled my next question to the stone as I pulled up my sleeve and made a cut onto my already cut-up and scarred wrist, “Are you proud of me, Mother!?”
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Word Count: 1,294