Ruby Rising (18 page)

CHAPTER 22

When I woke in the morning, my mother was already up. I looked at the clock and was surprised to find it was ten in the morning. I went upstairs to my bathroom and had a long, hot shower. I dressed in fresh jeans and a long sleeve deep blue cotton shirt that flowed off me. I remembered the crystal before I left my room and fished through my dirty jeans to pull it out, as I freed it from the pocket I cut my finger and dropped it. It wasn’t a deep cut but the end of the dagger was red with my blood. I watched as the blood slowly disappeared, but quickly realised it hadn’t disappeared at all. The black dagger now had a deep glow inside it. Turning it over in my hands I realised that my blood had been absorbed into the dagger. I held the tip of the dagger to my still bleeding finger and watched as it drew more into it. Once the crystal was glowing a deep red and was pulsing like a strong and regular heartbeat, it stopped drawing blood into itself and the cut on my finger healed.

I felt the strength and power of the dagger manifest; its powers magnified by the hundreds. Without hesitating I slipped it into my pocket and went downstairs.

I knew something was wrong when I smelt something burning. I took the last of the stairs two at a time and hit the kitchen at a run. There was a frypan on the stove with what had once been pancakes in it. They were now burnt to a crisp, dark smoke billowed around the kitchen as they caught fire. I turned the gas off, threw the pan in the sink and turned the tap on, filling the kitchen with steam as the smoke alarms started blaring.

“Mum?” I called out to her as I opened the back door to let some of the smoke out. “Mum?”

“Ruby, please, get back inside! I don’t want you to see this.” I heard the distress in her voice before I walked out ignoring her pleas for me to stay inside.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” I screamed and ran to where my mother was desperately trying to untie Phoenix from off the front of the garage door. As I took in the scene before me, bile filled my mouth and I vomited on the concrete. The garage door was covered in symbols that I had seen twice before, it looked like they were painted in blood. Someone had also put up a crudely made crucifix and Phoenix had been nailed to it, a large stake-like nail embedded into each of his paws. His stomach was exposed to us and his head hung at an odd angle. He wasn’t moving. “Phoenix!”

“Ruby, he’s alive! Try and stay calm! We need to get these nails out. I can’t get them out!” Apparently I was the only one who needed to stay calm. I wiped my mouth and tried to focus on helping the defenceless puppy from his brutal confines.

Looking at his bloody paws I could see that if we pulled on his feet the nails would just pull through his feet causing more damage. I needed to get them out the same way they had gone in. We couldn’t get the cross off the garage; it was bolted on some way I couldn’t see. I started to panic, fear for Phoenix’s life and the utter depth of his pain gripping me tightly. My heart squeezed in my chest as if it was being crushed.

“Mum!” I shouted, “The nails, they’re made from iron…they’re earth! If we focus on the element we should be able to pull them out together, I don’t think I can do it on my own. I’m not strong enough.” I pointed to one of his feet, “This one first.” The first few attempts wielded nothing but a slight turn. I reached for my mother’s shaky and bloody hand squeezing it to reassure us both. I felt her energy run into me and mine into her, and we focused everything we had on the nail. It finally turned and worked its way out, soon releasing his little paw, blood began to pour out the wound and I quickly wrapped in in a scrap of material my mother ripped from her shirt sleeve. We worked the same way until each of the nails were out, wrapping each wound tightly as we released the nails. Once he was free of the last one we carefully lowered him down into my arms.

“Get him in the car Ruby,” she said as she guided me to the back seat of her car. I grabbed the jacket that was in the foot well and wrapped him, holding his wounds as best as I could to try and slow the bleeding. I felt a small glimmer of hope when he licked my hand and whimpered before going quiet again. My jeans and shirt were soaked from his blood and my mother’s shirt was the same although now lacked its sleeves and part of the bottom of it.

“Hang in their Phoenix! Hang in there, please!” I kissed him and held him as my mother sped through town to the vet as I gave her directions, somehow remembering where it was.

Once we entered the surgery Phoenix was hurried out the back by a nurse and the vet and I stood staring at the door, covered in blood.

Guiding me over to a basin in the corner, my mother washed my hands for me, the water soothed me, flowing over my hands. I felt it on the ends of my fingers as it moved around me.

“Ruby, stop,” my mother whispered in my ear. “You can’t do that here, Ruby. Please, stop.”

I finally came out of my haze and looked down at the little fountain of water I was controlling willing. I turned the tap off, shook them dry and started pacing. For the next two hours, I continued to pace, despite my mother’s continual attempts to get me to sit down. As I paced the vision of the garage with Phoenix’s limp body obscenely nailed to the crucifix assaulted my thoughts.

“Mum, the symbols on the garage…” I stood in front of her gauging her reaction, she confirmed my suspicions when she paled. “Krystal had the same one on her arm, remember when she…when she died? I said she had scars up her arms, but they were more like she’d been branded. Are they the same ones they painted on you?”

She nodded and swallowed audibly before she replied, lowering her gaze. “Yes, they were the same.”

“Ruby,” the vet came out from the back of the surgery. “Janet, I’m sorry for keeping you so long. He’s alive…barely. He’s lost a lot of blood and he has nasty cuts all over him. He, um…” he diverted his gaze to the floor, hoping that we wouldn’t ask him for more information.

“Please we need to know!” I implored him but he looked away. “Please!”

“Okay, but this is pretty graphic. Phoenix has been branded, but because of the swelling and the blood I can’t be sure what the image is yet. It’s on his stomach between his front legs, over his heart.” The vet was pale and his hands were visibly shaking as he told us the extent of Phoenix’s injuries. Just by looking at his face I knew that he would remember this day forever. The utter horror at what he was witnessing would haunt his nightmares for many years to come. “This is by far the worst case of animal cruelty I have ever seen. I hope you understand that I need to report it to the RSPCA and the police.”

“The police?” My mother and I said in unison.

“There is a concern, I haven’t run the tests yet because he is still critical, that well…there may be reason to suspect…um…bestiality.”

I watched as my mother ran for the doors her hand covering her mouth. When she reached the footpath she vomited violently.

“Is there a back way out of here?” I put my hand on the vet’s shoulder, “I need to do something.”

The physical contact seemed to calm him straight away, he looked at me and nodded. “Follow me, but I can’t let you see Phoenix yet, I haven’t even had a chance to clean him up and the nurses are still working on him.”

I fought the tears and held onto the anger that was making my stomach twist and turn. “Just tell my mother I’ve gone to the toilet. She’ll work the rest out herself.”

He simply nodded as we weaved through a couple of corridors before he unlocked the fire door and let me out.

“Is he…will he be alright?” I didn’t look at him, I already knew the answer.

“If he survives this love, he’ll never be the same as he was. It’s a miracle that he has gone through this much and survived. I think he is holding on for you.” His voice was quiet and sad.

“If you think he’s had enough…” I said before I started to walk away. “I want you to help him go. Don’t wait for me, you don’t need my permission. I trust your judgement. You let him go if it’s the best thing for him.”

I took off at a run, knowing that Mikayla’s and Scott’s was only a few streets away. On the way I rang Krystal’s parents and told them to go and pick my mother up and take her somewhere safe. As I expected she didn’t ask me any questions, a simple yes and she hung up.

I hit my top speed, and kept running. I knew there wouldn’t be much time left, I was terrified I would be too late. When I saw their house I ran at their front door. It splintered and snapped around my body. Candles were lit just as they had been the last time I was here. I went into the lounge room pausing only for a second before unleashing the anger that had built up inside me and I screamed out Mikayla’s name. Energy poured out of me as I continued to scream; screaming for my mother, my grandmother and my beautiful Phoenix. Screaming for allowing Scott to get so far into my head and my body that I knew he would never truly be gone. Screaming for not being able to stand up to Mikayla to prevent her destructive personality and her darkness within from destroying any more lives.

I felt the heat from the flames as they tried to engulf me but I forced them away. The entire house was on fire, everything in it destroyed. I thought of the camp and the pain that Mikayla had inflicted on me, on Skye, on people I didn’t even know the name of. It fed my power, feeding it into something I was on the edge of losing control of.

“You think you can hurt me?” I heard her voice boom though flames but I couldn’t figure out where she was over the deafening crackling of the fire.

I screamed harder, focusing my energy on where I had heard her voice. I felt for the air around me, twisting, churning and pushed it towards the sound. Then I saw her covered in water; it pulsed around her, protecting her, my flames couldn’t reach her.

“You think you’re ready for me?” She laughed and moved her arms towards me. I felt a small push against me but nothing as strong as her previous attacks had been.

The fire raged around us, as we circled each other. I lunged at her trying to wrap my hands around her around her throat, her water dousing the flames that engulfed them. I smelt burning skin and realised it was my own hands burning and I quickly pulled them back to myself to protect them.

“How did you know Scott wasn’t here? How do you know you haven’t killed him?” Her eyes were black and her lips were twisted into something between a snarl and a callous smile.

“I didn’t and I don’t! But I do know that in some twisted part of that sick head of yours it really would hurt you to lose him! He’s part of you after all.” I willed fire at her from everywhere I could but nothing touched her. Using the air I ripped burning debris from the roof and threw it, bombarding her with chunk after chunk of burning wood.

“Now isn’t the time for anger Ruby, you need to harness your energy if you want to survive this.” She laughed for a few seconds, and I felt my energy waver. “Oh that’s right, you’re not meant to.”

In one move, I pulled out the dagger in my pocket and flicked it as hard as I could towards her. She managed to stop it in her hands before it hit her where I had purposely aimed; her heart. I felt the single blood drop hit the fire that surrounded us and I knew the little dagger had pierced her hand. I could feel its strength feeding the fire around her. The dagger fell to the floor as it slipped from her hands, the red glow from its centre was gone.

Mikayla looked at me shocked. I watched as the water that surrounded her, protecting her, wavered. At the same time I felt my own power grow. I smiled and harnessed all the hatred, loathing and revulsion I felt for her. And I sent it in one massive blast towards her. She faded from my view as the house collapsed around us. I was still standing in the middle of it all when the fire crews turned their hoses in their attempts to get it under control, oblivious to the battle that had raged within its walls.

I saw the dagger on the floor amongst the fire and debris, I snatched it up and walked out of the flames into the surprised faces of emergency crews who flew into the practiced skill of emergency care. I was covered in a blanket and rushed towards a waiting ambulance. I yelled at the paramedics as they looked me over, trying to ascertain my injuries. I was neither burnt nor wet from the hoses. But my shirt was still covered in Phoenix’s blood.

“I’m fine, really.” I sat up and forced my way out of the vehicle, grateful that at least it wasn’t moving. I was learning to be thankful for the little things. I think they were simply too shocked to try and stop me from getting up again.

I knew Mikayla had gotten away, but I also knew there was one place she couldn’t go that I could.

CHAPTER 23

I stood on the doorstep not knowing if I should knock when my phone beeped in my pocket, fishing it out as I sat on the front step.

If you want to know the truth, seek answers in the right places. Not everything or everyone is who they seem. A friend.

I gripped the phone tightly fighting the urge to smash it into a thousand pieces. Why couldn’t people just come out and tell me what they wanted to say? Why make it so damn hard?

My answer was short and to the point,
a ‘friend’ would stop hiding behind an anonymous name. If you’ve got something that could help me, then HELP ME!

I didn’t realise I had started crying until I felt strong arms wrap around me, familiar and warm. I leant back and leaned into the hard chest I had so desperately needed and didn’t think I would ever see again.

“Shhh… you’ll be okay Ruby. You are stronger than I could ever imagine, pure at heart…I know why they want you now.”

I had no words left and after holding me for a little while, I felt him pick me up and carry me inside, laying me on a couch and covering me with a blanket. I was exhausted both physically and mentally, I had nothing left to give. At that moment, I would have let Mikayla come and get me. I was done. I drifted into sleep almost immediately, before I even managed to ask Scott why he was there.

When I woke, the house was dark and quiet, a single dull lamp lit the room. Scott was asleep on the floor next to me and my mother was asleep in a chair opposite. I sat up, my bladder so full I wasn’t sure if I would make it to the bathroom. I quietly stood up and went into the kitchen opposite, where I noticed Julie sitting staring out the window.

“Hi honey, how are you feeling?” She got up and busied herself with the kettle and then went and shut the double doors to the lounge.

“Tired I guess. I’m not really sure to be honest…there’s just so much to think about.” I paused for a moment, slightly embarrassed as the water filling the kettle had me hopping from foot to foot in urgency. “Um, where’s the toilet, Julie?”

“Down the end of the hall to your right. Why don’t you have a shower while you’re there? I’ll bring you in some clothes.” Julie got up and went to Krystal’s bedroom door one had resting flat on the plane of the door and the other stalled on the knob for a few seconds before she opened it.

I emerged from the shower half an hour later with clean hair, the scent of fire washed off and feeling slightly more alive than I had than when I had first woken up. Julie had left clothes for me on the bathroom counter; jeans, t-shirt, socks and underwear. Everything fit well, if a little loose, but I didn’t mind loose. I emptied my pockets and transferred the few items into my clean clothes. Phone, wallet, black dagger…you know, the
usual
things.

“How long have I been out?” I sipped on the warm tea and sighed. I felt more relaxed here than I expected to.

“A few hours I guess. I’m not really sure what time you got here though. It was still light but it’s four am now.” Julie looked older than when I had visited last time. I couldn’t even remember how many days had passed. Was it yesterday?

“If Mikayla can’t come inside, how is Scott here?” I asked, my voice small.

“He needs to tell you his story himself, Ruby. I can’t tell you that.” She fiddled with her cup. “Did you…I mean, did you read the letter I gave you?”

I sighed, remembering the letter that I had propped up against my laptop on my desk. I had let her down by not knowing the answers she needed right now. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t ready, and now I’m not sure I’ll get to read it.”

“It’s okay, I thought I’d ask,” she said as she sipped her tea.

The room filled with silence for a few minutes before I looked at Julie and said “Thank you” quietly across the table. The words just didn’t seem enough, I was putting their entire family, what was left of it, on the line for my own.

“Ruby, you fill this house with life again. I can barely breathe most days, trying to get through life without my daughter. I can’t sleep, and then when I do, I can’t get up. I don’t eat. My husband…well I think he’s gone and just hasn’t told me yet. So I have God and I have you. If He sent you to me to help, then I will help, in any and all the ways I can.” She held my hands across the table and felt her love like a hot water bottle enveloping my entire body.

“I don’t have anyone else to call. I thought I had killed Scott in the fire! I thought…I thought he was evil.” I let my eyes fall to the table but I didn’t let myself cry.

“I was Ruby.” He stood in the opening of the double doors, his eyes amazing and blue, hair messed up from sleep. “You saved me, and you didn’t even know it.”

He came and sat at the table and looked between Julie and I without hesitating he began to talk. “What do you want to know?”

“How are you here in this house?” It was the one thing that I couldn’t work out.

“The fire at the house, what else did you do? What did you do to Mikayla?”

“I used this,” I said and pulled the dagger out of my pocket and laid it quietly on the table. “I cut myself with it the other day and it absorbed my blood into it and it started glowing.” I paused gauging his reaction and then continued. “I tried to kill her, but she managed to stop before it hit her heart. It did cut her a little though. I’m not sure what happened but she dropped it and disappeared as the house collapsed. The blood that was inside it is gone too.”

Scott’s mouth turned up on one side and his dimples showed, he actually looked amused. “You did it Ruby, you’re the reason I’m here with you now. You broke her hold over me because of our bond; your blood, your
purity
is in her now. The only reason it worked, is because you are honest in your love for me.”

“Were you under a spell?” I asked.

“Not a spell, but something like it. It’s not mind control, it’s something far greater, older than magic itself.” he answered.

“Who is the Great Star?”

Before Scott could answer Julie shot up from her seat. “What did you just say?”

“The youth group, they pray to someone called the Great Star, do you know who it is?” I was surprised at her reaction.

“Yes, we all do. Scott don’t you know, you’re her brother? How can you not know?” Julie asked incredulously.

“I have patches of memory. I’ve lost so much time over the last couple of years. I can’t remember a lot of the more ritually stuff. I know we did rituals. I know we offered
him
things. I don’t know who was there. I can’t remember what we did. I can’t remember if I hurt anyone! I know I was there, I know I was part of it, but I just don’t know everything anymore!” Scott stood and started pacing, running his fingers through his hair, he looked ashamed and angry. “I need to know if I hurt anyone.”

Julie turned to the window as the sun peeked over the back fence, bathing her face in a soft glow as she recited perfect scripture. “Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. Revelation 9:1”. She turned to Scott before asking “You made a deal with the Devil, Scott. What was it that you wanted in return?”

Pain etched his face, making him look so much older. “My mother.” he replied. “I remember the night Mikayla came to me and asked what the one thing I would give anything to have, no questions asked. I was still shattered at their death.” She paused and knelt next to me, forcing me to look in his eyes. “She’s not my sister, Ruby. We’re not even related. She moved in with us and we lived as a family, we lived as siblings. Nobody questioned it, not even my parents. But now I know they were probably already on her hit list.”

None of us said anything for a few moments as the raw grief from Scott and Julie filled the room.

“Did you sleep with her? With Mikayla?” Julie asked avoiding my eyes. “Unprotected?”

Scott closed his eyes. “Yes,” was his small reply.

“Did she ever conceive with you?” Julie was trying to maintain control of her voice, but it wavered despite them.

“Yes, she lost them. Three of them, all before she hit twelve weeks. The doctor couldn’t seem to tell her why though.” His answers were honest, but hearing it hurt.

“Did you ever question her on why she didn’t want to use protection?” I asked.

“No, it never occurred to me, not with her, even after I found out each time she was pregnant. I had no control over it. I couldn’t have used one even if I had wanted to, even if I’d actually
thought
to use one.”

“What do I have to do with the Devil? Why does Mikayla need me?” I asked, desperate to get the image of Scott and Mikayla having sex out of my head.

“I don’t know. I wish I had all those answers but I don’t.”

“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?” I felt so much for him but I still wasn’t sure he could be trusted.

“I guess you don’t, not completely anyway.” He reached for me and held my hand, the familiar vibe passed between us, it felt lighter now than it previously had, like it contained more air. “The camp…you remember what we…what we did?”

I nodded, blushing, not able to help myself. I knew Julie knew what we were talking about as she re-joined us at the table. I was grateful my own mother wasn’t sitting across from me at this point. “I was supposed to get you pregnant. I wasn’t supposed to use protection.”

The colour drained from Krystal’s mother’s face and her kindness for Scott turned to anger. “Was it you? Was it?” She was yelling at him now, screaming as she slapped him across the face.

I flew up out of my chair before Scott had even reacted and pulled her into a tight embrace, holding her back from lashing out again. “Was it you?” She was screaming at him.

“No, I promise. I wasn’t the baby’s father. I don’t know who was.” Scott had tears running down his face, not from shame but because of the raw emotion in the room. “When she had the third miscarriage, Mikayla told me I wasn’t so special after all, that there must be another reason He had sent me to her. We never slept together again after that.”

When my mother came in, her face etched with worry from the screaming, Julie excused herself and rushed from the room.

“I shouldn’t be here, I’m causing her more pain than good.” Scott stood to leave.

“To get to Mikayla I’m going to need you. You need to make up for some of the pain you’ve caused, even if you don’t remember what some of that was. Scott, if you were working for the Devil, you definitely hurt people.”

“I’m afraid of that. I’m afraid of the things I did. But I need to know what they were.” His voice was so quiet, he sounded like he was five years old again. I knew I loved him, but I also knew we were done.

I went to my mother and held her, hugging her and letting her be held. She put her hand on my head and held me to her. “Are you okay?”

“Yes mum, I’m okay.” I pulled away to look in her eyes. “And we know who we’re dealing with.”

“So do I, and you’re not going to believe it. I’m not sure I believe it myself.” She went into the kitchen and turned the kettle on. “But first I need coffee, who’s in?”

She made us all a coffee and sat down at the table, I filled her in on the important parts of our conversation and left out the more embarrassing bits.

“Do you know what was on for the youth group this week?” Julie asked Scott.

“No, I was supposed to find out this week. Mikayla said there is something special on Friday night. She did mention that there was only going to be six of us there.”

My eyes locked with my mothers. He had said there would be six of them.

“Only six, no others? Are you sure?” She asked him.

“Yes, she said we were going to have two special guests, one was part of the six and one was someone else. I am guessing now it was meant to be you, Ruby. Do you know what was meant to happen then?”

“Yes.” My mother answered, closing her eyes briefly and taking a deep breath before continuing. “You were all going to rape her and she would have fallen pregnant. She would have been raped by Lucifer himself, if she survived the assault in the first place that is. It would be a test of the strength of her body, her mind and her soul.” My mother was speaking the words, but wasn’t allowing herself to feel them. I watched as she separated herself from the future and the past.

“I would never ever do that! Not rape! Not Ruby!” Scott stood up from the table and started pacing. “I love her, how could I do that?”

“Because you would have been ordered to, you made a deal with the Devil, Scott! Lucifer himself, the fallen angel, cast out from heaven, with the keys to the bottom-less pit. What do you think that ‘pit’ is? You think its earth? Or even purgatory? Oh no Scott, that would be hell.” She paused coming around to my side of the table.

“Who is it? You know who it is don’t you?” The torment in her eyes gave me my answer. “I’m not sure I’m ready to hear this.”

“You have to be, you need to be prepared, he will come for you and he’s been waiting for you since the day you were conceived.” She knelt in front of me, and held my hands in hers, her hands shaking. “Ruby…”

“No,” I whispered, “No, you’re not serious. It can’t be!”

“It’s your father.” She whispered back.