Ruby Rising (4 page)

I felt like she was talking around in circles a little, almost for my benefit. She wasn’t saying outright what events she was talking about nor was she dodging them completely. Scott grabbed hold of my hand and I looked up into his smiling face, the candlelight bouncing of his eyes, mesmerising me. I didn’t hear a word of what Mikayla said for the next ten minutes.

I snapped out of my daze when someone turned some music on and a few people started to dance. Looking around I realised that all the candles had been blown out and most of the mats had been removed. A few of the scatter cushions remained around the edge of the room giving people a place to sit, or in some cases, kiss. I blushed as a couple were making out quite intensely nearby and I secretly wished it was Scott and I on that cushion.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?” Scott was impeccable at reading my flushed skin. I was more embarrassed that the thoughts were also
about
him as well.

“Um, nothing?” It came out as a question rather than an answer but Scott ignored it, a small smile playing at the edge of his mouth.

“I’m going to talk to a few people, I’ll see you kids later.” Mikayla walked off into the small crowd and was soon lost in a sea of black bodies dancing.

I immediately felt like I wanted to run, there was so much tension flying between Scott and I that I literally wanted to run it off. But there was something else too, something inside me just wanted me to move and now! I stood up abruptly, startling Scott and headed through the sea of people towards the exit. People I didn’t know called out to me, wanting my attention, wanting me to dance with them and some even reached out for my arm. I pulled away from all of them, ignoring their questions, focused solely on the door. I couldn’t breathe, I needed air. The door flew open before I even put my hand on it and I ran into Mikayla having a heated discussion with a young girl who looked terrified. I didn’t stop, I simply headed around the corner of the hall and fell at the foot of a tree. Panting, I burst into tears, not sure why I was feeling this way or how to stop it. I heaved in air, trying to calm myself down. A few seconds later I felt Scott’s hand on my back, gently rubbing.  He spoke quietly, soothingly and repeatedly told me to calm down and breathe.

After a few minutes my breathing returned to normal and my tears subsided.

I was confused and shaking mildly, my hands felt like they were going to explode and my chest felt heavy. I had never experienced anything as strong as the urge to run from the room at that moment. I heard a commotion coming from in the hall, the music stopped and people started yelling.

“Are you okay to stand?” Scott held out his hand, I took it gratefully. “Have you ever had a panic attack before tonight?”

“Panic attack?” My voice sounded distant. “I’ve never had one. I just needed to get out for some air.”

“It’s sure looked like…” he started to say.

“Scott, you need to come with me for a moment.” Mikayla interrupted him and led us both inside, as Scott refused to let go of my hand.

Walking into the hall, I felt clearer in the head again, regaining my voice and my balance.

“Holy shit!” Scott exclaimed. “Ruby…if you didn’t run out when you did tonight may have ended very differently for you.”

Looking over to where Scott was looking, I realised that where we had been sitting was now covered with a very large speaker and a heap of debris. Looking up, the support beam that the speaker had been on was snapped in two.

“Take her home Scott now, I’ll sort this out and find out what happened.” Mikayla went to a group of older students, who were from our year and began doling out instructions.

“Come on Ruby, I’ll take you home. You’re probably coming down with something.” Scott guided me back to the door and to the passenger side of his car.

“Yeah, maybe it’s a good idea.” I agreed as Scott climbed in his side.

“You really aren’t feeling well are you?” He rested his hand over mine and I instantly relaxed, the instrumental music again helping me to calm.

We drove in silence to my house, Scott pulled up opposite the driveway and turned the car off. Turning to me he looked right into my eyes. Even in the darkness I could see the shine of his beautiful green eyes. I felt like they were boring into the part of my soul that no one had ever reached before. A second later he kissed me.

A fire tore through me from my toes, inching its way up my entire body as his gentle kiss lingered on my lips. As the fire reached my mouth I groaned quietly, unable to stop the soft noise from escaping.

“You feel it too, don’t you?” he asked, almost whispering when he finally pulled away leaning his forehead against my own.

“I feel…like when we touch you awaken my skin,” I replied.

He held my face in his hands and smiled. “It’s not your skin that’s awakening Ruby”.

He got out of the car and opened my door like he had done for Mikayla, again offering his hand for me to take. I stood before him, unsure of what to say next.

“I’ll see you on Monday.” He said simply, kissing my cheek, before getting back into the driver’s seat. He drove away before I realised I’d even been standing in the street for ten full minutes.

Blinking, I shook myself before I went in to the house. I didn’t want either of my parents to think that I’d being doing anything but chatting at a youth group. As it was earlier then I had told my mother I’d be back, the lights were still on in the lounge.

“Hi Honey, did you have a good study session with Mikayla?” My mother greeted me with a warm smile as she sipped a glass of wine. My father was pretending to be watching the television.

“Yeah, she needed some help with an English assignment that I’ve already done before. We thought we’d get on top of it before classes start to get more hectic with exams. I’m beat now though, it’s been a long week. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Night honey.” She called as I took off up the stairs. My father still hadn’t acknowledged me or even looked my way. I wondered if he’d had a few more wines than mum.

I went to the bathroom to wash my makeup off and brush my teeth. Looking in the mirror I expected there to be mascara lines down my face from crying. Instead there was nothing. No sign of
any
makeup. I looked like I had just got out of the shower.

Looking down I stared at my shirt and jeans. Hadn’t I worn a skirt and boots? Going back into my room my skirt was laying on the bed, beside it sat my tall boots. Obviously I’d changed my mind. So why didn’t I remember it then?

I climbed into bed still dressed and Phoenix crawled up into my arms, we snuggled under the doona and he cried a little. Eventually I fell asleep, confused at the depth of the feelings I had felt for Scott, both physically and emotionally.

CHAPTER 6

The next week at school went by quickly. Things with Scott were weird and he spent the week either avoiding me or trying to avoid being caught looking at me. By Wednesday I figured he thought the kiss was a mistake and didn’t know how to tell me. I busied myself with school, organising my diary and study time. I spent time training Phoenix and got a good start on my assignments. My father was home three nights in a row for dinner which made for a weird feeling at the table. By the end of it, it felt nice. He asked about school, and my friends, which he’d never taken an interest in before. On Thursday night he told us he needed to go away for four days for business, but he would be back on Monday night at some point. I smiled at him when he told us and he had even apologised for having to go so soon after the move. I knew then that things were going to change, he really was different here. He had never apologised for having to go away for work, it was always just a matter of telling us. Most of the time he would simply ring from the car or a plane and let mum know. She’d then pass it on to me, that’s if I even realised that he was gone.

On the walk home from school on Friday I finally saw a chance to finally catch up with Krystal at the lake. She had been successfully avoiding me all week. I noticed her sitting at the edge of the lake staring out into the water.

“Hi Krystal,” I sat down next to her before she had a chance to realise who it was. When she looked at me her eyes were red from crying. “Hey I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude. I’ll go.”  I stood up and grabbed my bag.

“No, don’t, you might as well stay now,” Krystal didn’t even look at me, her gaze locked on the water. Her shoulders were slumped, her fingers playing nervously with the long sleeves of her top.

“Aren’t you hot? It’s like thirty degrees today!” I asked

“A little, but I have to cover my arms since they…” She trailed off as she spoke, her voice barely a whisper.

A little alarmed but curious as well, I leaned over and took her hand, she didn’t pull away just kept staring out at the water.

“Krystal…what the hell are they?” Her arms were covered in scars, the higher I lifted her sleeve the more scars I found. But they were more than that too, they looked like symbols of some kind. “Krystal?” Finally she gently pulled her arm away and I saw the tears falling down her face as she raised her shirt and showed the scar of a hand print. Not a human hand, more claw like, and it had been branded into the pale flesh of her stomach.

“I literally can’t tell you anything Ruby,” she said as she lowered her shirt and stood up. “I just wish you’d listened to me, that first time I’d tried to talk to you. Everything might have been different. Now it’s all up to you.”

“What are you talking about? Why can’t you talk to me?” I stood up next to her and grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at me. I stepped back in shock, falling backwards over my bag. “Krystal?”

“You can’t stop it,
He
will come for you and you won’t even know it.” Her eyes had turned a bright emerald green, a perfect match for both Mikayla and Scott’s.

Suddenly the colour faded, like a light had been turned off within her, and she collapsed on the ground. I screamed for her to wake up. Turning her over so I could look at her face, her eyes were open staring at nothing, and they had returned to her normal blue colour. I felt for her pulse in her wrists and her neck, not knowing if I was even doing it properly, but I felt nothing. I kept calling to her, rubbing her face and her arms. After a minute or so, I felt a gentle breeze and knew that she was gone. That small gust of wind had
felt
like her. I grabbed my phone and called the emergency number then sat back and waited for help to arrive. I didn’t stop crying until my mother arrived and piled me into the car. She spent some time talking to a police officer and after shaking his hand, got in the car and drove me the short distance home.

I sat on the couch with a mug hot chocolate in my hands, my mother had added extra sugar to try and help with the shock of the day’s events. I was covered in a blanket to help with the uncontrollable shaking I’d had since I saw Krystal’s body being loaded into the back of the coroners van. I’d told the police what had happened through free flowing tears. I told them she’d wanted to tell me something but no longer felt she could. I told them about the weird scars on her arms.

“Ruby?  I need to talk to you, Ruby?” I could hear her voice but she seemed so far away. I focused on her and eventually the fog cleared and I could concern etched into her face.

“I’m okay, I just don’t understand what happened.” I looked at her. “She had these scars up her arms…she wouldn’t tell me what happened…” The tears began to fall again. “She just…she just stood up and died right in front of me. I…I didn’t know what to do.”

My mother wrapped her arms around me while I cried, gently rocking me, soothing me. It reminded me of when I was ten and I’d been bullied by some kids at school and had come home crying every day. She held me the same way, gently rocking until the tears my tears finally stopped.

Eventually they did. I just didn’t have anything more to cry.

“Ruby, Detective Malone checked Krystal for scars, he said her arms had nothing on them. Nothing at all. He wanted to know if you’d taken any drugs. That’s why they did the swab test.”

I pulled my hands away from her instantly angry. “I have
never
taken drugs, I know what I saw!” I wanted to scream and make her believe me, that I wasn’t going insane, but part of me didn’t know if I was slowly losing my mind. “Her arms were completely covered in scars! The one on her stomach… it looked like…”

The doorbell interrupted my yelling, sighing my mother gave me the ‘we’re not done here look’ and went to the door. I heard her speaking quietly and then the door closing again. When she walked back into the room she was smiling and Scott was with her.

“Hey Rubes, I just heard what happened. Are you okay?” He reached for my hand and I let him take it. I looked at my mother who had an odd little smile on her face. Her eyes were slightly glazed and I put it down to the stress of the day.

“I’m going upstairs I’ll leave the door open.” I pulled Scott upstairs with me, expecting to hear my mother’s objections, but there was nothing.

When we got to my room I left the door ajar but nearly closed, I’d hear her coming up the stairs anyway. Scott went over to my desk and looked at my calendar and my white board which was covered in due dates for homework and assignments.

“Wow, aren’t you organised. I don’t even own a calendar or a diary.”

“I like to be organised.” I snapped.

“Hey I wasn’t criticising you, just making an observation.” He put his hands up in defence.

“Look Scott, last Friday we kissed, and I thought we had something…I don’t know, something different. Then something changed in you. You went all cold at school and now you just show up and expect what… exactly?” I took a deep breath, trying to stop myself from yelling at him. “Look, I’m sorry if I’m not in the mood for you to mess with my head, but I just watched Krystal die right in front of me!” I fell onto the end of my bed, my head in my hands, utterly defeated.

“I’m….I’m sorry. I didn’t know if you wanted to see me. I wasn’t sure how you felt after we…kissed. I…” He paced for a minute before falling to the floor in front of me. “Ruby, look at me…
please
?”

I looked at him, his beautiful eyes pleading with me and I felt my anger melt away. “I thought you felt it too? You said you did.” My voice was quiet, almost a whisper, “and then Monday you just seemed so distant and Mikayla didn’t say anything either. You didn’t even try to make me blush.”

“I asked her not to, she said I should tell you something…I just didn’t listen to her. I’m an idiot. But when I heard what happened at the lake I just had to come. Mikayla was coming to get you for youth group but I said I would come and see if you wanted to go. It’s okay you don’t have to.” He held my hand and rubbed his thumb back and forth over the skin on the back of my hand. I felt the tingle right up to my elbow. “I felt every bit as much of that kiss as you did. It was the most intense kiss I’ve ever had.”

He blushed as he said the last part and so did I. He was being a lot more honest than I had expected him to be. Looking into his eyes I almost forgot about Krystal. He must have noticed something change in my face because his thumb stopped moving and his eyes took on a harder tone.

“I’m not sure I’m up for going out, everyone is going to know by now that I was with her when she…died. The cops even did a drug test on me.” I pulled my hands away from him.

“Why were you with her?” He stood up and went over to my window staring into the fading light over the lake.

“I saw her on my way home, I was just seeing if she was okay because she was crying. I’m not the type of person who just walks away when I see someone upset Scott. No matter
who
I might piss off in the process.”

“There are reasons for Mikayla being so protective that you can’t even begin to comprehend. Krystal was bad news for you, you didn’t know her well enough to see it for yourself. We just saved you the trouble.” His voice was neither angry nor upset, simply matter of fact.

“I’ve known you a whole two weeks!” I stood up angry and annoyed at his protective attitude. A girl had died right in front of me. “Who are you and Mikayla to tell me who I can and can’t talk to? You are aware that I already have a control freak for a father?”

“Just trying to look out for you. I know you don’t understand, but you will. Just don’t let this get in the way of what we might have here. There is something special between us, it’s different than anything else I’ve ever felt before.”

“Did you ever see her scars? Krystal’s?” I asked.

“No, I didn’t know she had any.” Again the flat tone of voice, I wasn’t entirely convinced but I was still drawn to him and when he reached for my hands I let him hold them.

“Look, a few of us from the group are meeting up for a bonfire. Nothing strenuous, I promise no speakers will try and fall on you tonight.” He scooped me up for an embrace that felt so normal, like we’d done it a thousand times. “It might do you some good to get out, feel normal.”

“Since moving here, nothing has been normal.” I cuddled into his warmth, feeling gentle pulls towards him with every part of my body that touched his. “I feel like I’m missing something important. Today I see Krystal with scars up her arms and then the police told my mother she didn’t have any. I know I’m not crazy, but I just…I just don’t know!”

“Is that all you saw? Just the scars on her arms? Did she have them anywhere else?” I shook my head, suddenly not wanting to tell him about the claw like brand that had been on her stomach. I’d already made myself look completely crazy.

I started to cry into his shoulder. Scott didn’t moved or say a single word until I finished sobbing, finally empty of tears. For now at least. He cupped his large hands around my face and gently kissed me. I moaned instantly, electricity pulsing around me, I felt his body radiating out just like mine. It was like there was a liquid around us that joined together when we touched. I was already starting to fall for him, I just wasn’t sure how hard the fall was going to be.

“Let’s go to the bonfire. You’re right, I think it will do me some good to get out.” He went downstairs while I changed into new clothes. I pulled on a flowing maxi dress and some slip on shoes and went downstairs pulling my hair up into a neat pony tail as I went.

“Mum…” I started saying.

“Not a problem Ruby. Go and unwind, just be home by eleven.” My mother was sitting in a recliner with a glass of wine. Scott sat on the chair next to her seemingly unfazed by the state my mother seemed to be in. “You’ve had a rough day, even your father would understand.” 

“Mum, how much have you had to drink? You never let me out until eleven.”

“Its fine honey. I trust you. You’re old enough to start making some of these decisions for yourself. Just make good ones or your father will kill you.” She smiled at me her eyes glazed, I wasn’t sure if it was stress of the day or the alcohol, we hadn’t been upstairs long enough for her to drink that much.

I gave her a gentle kiss and walked outside with Scott, the fresh air filling my lungs and clearing my head a little.

“She’s just tired from worrying about you Ruby.” Scott said as he gently put a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “It’s been a long week, for both of you.”

“You could say that. With Krystal today it was…I think it might have been too much for her you know. In the city they were constantly worried about me, what
might
happen, despite the fact that nothing ever did actually happen. Primfield was supposed to be a safer place for us. This might make her start worrying again just like my father does.”

“Ruby, Krystal died today, she wasn’t killed, I’m sure we’ll find out the reason eventually. It wasn’t your fault.” Scott guided me to his car gently by my elbow.

We drove out of town for a while, turning down a small dirt road that you wouldn’t notice unless you knew exactly where it was, especially at night.

We drove into the bush, bouncing in and out of potholes. Scott drove the road well, he obviously knew where the major problem spots were. I couldn’t stop thinking about Krystal. Her scars. Her eyes. Nobody was going to believe me, I had to find the answers for myself.