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Chapter 1
Ruby, November 1st
She’s dead, gone. Just like that. She was here a month ago, making food in the kitchen, dancing to whatever song was playing on the radio. She was here, sitting on the couch in the living room, watching an old timey soap opera. Ruby and Tom always made fun of her for it, but always sat down right next to her to watch it with her. They always loved spending time with her, they just didn’t realize how little of that they had left with her.
So now here they are, walking through their home one last time. It was never a big home. They lived in a simple small apartment in Green River, Wyoming, big enough for a family of four. It looked even bigger now with all the rooms and hallways empty, only things still around were a few boxes they hadn’t yet put in the car. And once they were put away, there was no need to stay any longer.
“You ready to go Ruby?”, Tom was suddenly standing in the doorway. She wasn’t ready to leave, she never will be. She always wanted to live in a bigger house, but she wanted it to be all four of them. All four of them having family dinners and game nights. All four of them sitting on the couch watching a simple rom-com and eating popcorn. She wanted it all back.
But that’s not going to happen. Because mom is gone, and she’s never coming back.
“Yea, I'm ready,” she finally answered. Her older brother looked at her for a few seconds and then gestured with his hand towards the hallway in a manner that said ‘after you’. The girl finally left the apartment and Tom locked the door behind them. This is it. They were never going to come back here again.
“Okay, let’s get going,” their dad said. “I’m sure you two will love the new place.”
She took one last look at the building before getting in the car, suddenly glad at leaving because the memories this place holds are just too painful to keep thinking about. It will never be home again, not without her.
-
When you think of a haunted house, you would probably imagine an old torn up house with creaking floorboards and broken windows. Maybe even an old tree beside it. That’s what Ruby is expecting to see when they pull up in the driveway.
It’s not too far from what she imagined. The house isn’t that torn up and the windows aren’t broken. It actually looks like a normal house, but it has a certain haunted vibe to it. Or maybe that’s just what she wants to believe. Tom and her had been reading articles about the house being haunted for most of their ride there.
The house used to belong to their great aunt. Their mom Emily inherited the house after she passed, since she was the closest family member alive. At first, the house was just something they owned. Maybe they were going to make it their summer home. But after mom passed, things got tough and their dad Michael thought that it would be best to start over in a new town. So here they are. The house was in this small town called Ivory, where they knew no one. New town, new house, new school, new everything.
It was a Two-story house, a quite fancy one actually. They could barely afford the place with all the renovations this house needs, but somehow Michael made it work. They of course had to renovate the house on their own to save money.
The house had three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, dining room and a study which they were making into an office. From the front of the house, the first floor had a door in the middle and two windows at both sides, one from which you could see into the living room, and the other from which you could see the kitchen.
The front of the second floor had an interesting design. In the middle there was a long horizontal window which was squared from the bottom but rounded at the top. On both sides of the window were relief art works matching the shape of the window in the middle.
“This is a pretty expensive looking house,” Tom declared, “Are we sure we can afford to live in here?”
“We’ll find a way to manage! Don’t worry about it,” Dad replied. Tom didn’t seem too convinced by that but decided to leave it alone. “Alright then, let’s check out the place. Shall we?”
-
“Enough about me. How are you? What’s the new place like?” Somehow she had been on facetime with Rayna for an hour and a half without touching the subject of a new house.
“I don’t know,” she muttered. ”I guess it’s alright.” It was a nice and spacious house, but for some reason Ruby couldn’t bring herself to quite like it given the circumstances of why they even moved in here the first place, “Come on show me, I want to see!” Rayna exclaimed.
“I’ll show you around, when you come over during fall break.” Rayna and her have been best friends since they were four. They used to live in the same apartment complex, just on different floors. The girls met on the playground near their homes, and although Ruby was a bit shy back then, Rayna made it her goal to become friends with her. Safe to say she succeeded. They know each others most embarrassing secrets and she was the first person Ruby came out to as trans. Of course she was nothing but supportive.
“You better, I can’t wait for it. I mean you finally get to live in an actual house while I'm still stuck in this shitty little apartment.”
“Come on, I've lived there and it ain’t that bad.”
“Um yes it is, you just never realized that because unless you were spending time with me you were always in your room. Also you’re the one who gets to live in big fancy house now so technically you don’t get a say.”
“Whatever man, at least you’re familiar with the people there. I'm in this town I know nothing about, surrounded by people who I don’t know,” Ruby complained.
She was never good at socialising but she at least used to have her best friend there with her. Rayna of course would have no problem making new friends at school.
“Fair enough. I’m sure it’ll be fine though.”
“Yea, well I'm not so sure about that,”
Before Rayna gets to reply, they hear a knock at the door and Ruby can hear Rayna’s mom Mrs. Monroe saying something through the door.
“Sorry, I gotta go. Hope your first day goes well and if not, don’t hesitate to call me, okay?” Ruby could hear the shuffle of her getting out of bed over the phone.
“Yea of course. Good night!”
“Night!” A few clicks and the line went quiet. A knock now sounded on her door as well and Tom walked in without waiting for a response.
“Dude, why do you always have to barge into my room?”
Tom frowned looking slightly taken aback by the rude greeting. “Hey, I knocked alright so calm down,”
Ruby dramatically rolled her eyes, “What do you want?”
“So aggressive, I just want to talk.” Before Ruby gets the chance to argue, Tom throws himself to lay down on the bed with his feet near the side the pillows are. He makes himself comfortable clearly not going anywhere.
“Sorry just-” She takes a second before continuing, “I don’t know, I'm just tired I guess,” She confesses.
“I know, me too,” Tom looks up at the ceiling seemingly lost in thought a bit. “It’s a shit situation we are in right now,”
“Wow really? I didn’t notice,” She adds sarcastically.
He replies with also a slight sarcastic tone,“Hey, I'm trying to be a supportive and loving brother over here so maybe quit being a prick. Thank you very much!”
After nothing but silence from Ruby, the brother decides to continue.
“I overheard you talking to Rayna about being nervous for school.”
“I’m not nervous-” She’s cut of before she gets to finish.
“Yes you are, so cut the BS and tell me what’s up”
“Oh I'm sorry, I didn’t realize you were my therapist as well,”
“Well our ‘actual’ therapist said to communicate with each other which is what I'm trying to do incase you didn’t notice,” Tom adjust himself to sit up. “Seriously Ruby, why are you so damn tense today?”
Ruby crosses her arms. She doesn’t appreciate the ambush to talk about her feelings.
Tom sighs, “Look I'm sorry, didn’t mean to be harsh but in my defense you were rude to me first,”
She still doesn’t answer. I mean what the hell is she supposed to say? Probably apologize but she is bit too stuborn for that.
“Okay, you’re clearly in a bad mood right now, so how about I come back to annoy you some other time. Sound good?” No response still.
He got out of bed and started heading towards the door, but before leaving turned around one last time.
“Look, I know I tend to annoy you, but in all seriousness, you can talk to me about stuff, you know?” She knows she can. Tom is the second person she’s closest too after Rayna. And they do usually talk about things, they really do. Why she can’t talk about it right now, she can’t explain.
“And I got your back, you won’t be alone at school.” He looks sincere and he is.
“Promise?” Ruby finally responds.
Tom walks next to her bed, crouches down and holds up his pinky.
“I pinky promise,”
“Seriously, what are we 12?”
“You’re 15, Ruby. You’re only 3 years from that age.”
“You’re 17. What’s your excuse?”
“Whatever dude, you promise or what? Does the magic of a pinky promise mean nothing to you?”
This makes her laugh a bit. But she gives in and intertwines her pinky with his.
“I pinky promise, you dork,”
-
Quiet. Not a sound to be heard. Not a soul to be seen. Nothing but road and quiet. Not even her foots steps are heard. She’s been walking for while but nothing new has shown up. She just keeps walking. A few rain drops fall on her face. Another few drops and another. The raindrops echo as they hit the pavement of the road. Still on the road. It’s pouring now, rain drops bouncing from the ground. It just keeps raining and she just keeps walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking.
A white flash suddenly blinds her and the thoughts are disturbed by a loud screeching noise which is then followed by a crash. When she gains her vision again, there is a woman on the road. And blood, so much blood. The woman is reaching out her hand and whispering. “Help me please,” Over and over again. Slowly getting more and more louder after each one until she is shouting at her. “HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME”
The woman gets closer and her face becomes more clear. The first thing she notices is the long black hair floating in the wind. Her face is covered in bruises and blood but still she recognizes her face. Recognizes the piercing blue eyes staring at her because how could she not. How could she ever forget. Mom.
Heavy breathing fills the quiet dark room as Ruby sits up. She grabs onto her shirt to try and calm herself down. She’s awake, it wasn’t real. You’re okay.
Slowly as the breathing gets more even and quiet, she starts paying attention to her surroundings. The light from the yard lamps under her window peeks through the curtains, illuminating the whole room. At least just enough to make out that the dark shapes in her room are furniture and unopened boxes.
She’s now fully awake and aware of the scratchy feeling in her throat. The stairs leading down are in the hallway between Tom and Ruby’s bedrooms. If there’s one thing she does enjoy about the new house it’s the separate bed rooms. She used to share with her older brother and although she was used to it, some privacy can’t hurt.
They should definitely renovate the stairs based on how loudly they creak when she goes down them. Luckily, the kitchen ware is unpacked so Ruby won’t have to make even more noise searching through boxes for a glass. But still it takes her a good minute to find a glass.
Water fills the cup and Ruby chugs the water down, already feeling the scratchiness going away.
Leaning against the kitchen counter while collecting her thoughts, weirdly she’s feeling more peaceful then she has in the past two weeks. Paranoia has currently left her alone, as she takes little sips of her glass and thinks about everything that’s happened recently. I mean there’s of course mom’s death and moving towns but what else really. Everything else just went by as a bliss. One thing she does remember is a walk in a forest she took a few weeks back. It is or was her moms favorite trail to take when she went on one of her daily walks. Ruby had never really taken that trail before but decided to check it out in respect of her mom. And it was understandable why her mom loved it so much, it was a truly beautiful trail during sunset. Especially during early fall when the cloudy weather had not yet arrived and the warm temperature hadn’t left. Yellow hued sunlight bounced off the leaves as it shimmered alongst the road. A few leaves had already turned yellow and hovered towards the ground, light breeze twirling them around. It was a breath taking view and reminded her of mom, but not in a way that made her sad. Maybe she should visit the place again during early spring or mid winter. Bet it would look pretty then too. Maybe this time she could-
Her train of thought is interrupted by the sudden sound of glass breaking. She comes back to awareness and looks down at her feet where the glass shards are. It was her glass that had slipped from her hands at a sudden scare. As she’s picking them up to clean them up, she tries to understand what had just startled her. That’s right, she saw something, someone standing.
There’s a loud creak coming from the stairs and Ruby stands up fast enough to see Tom hurrying up the stairs. What the hell is he up to?
She quickly follows him upstairs, her feet aching for some reason. The girl is about to go to his room but notices her room door wide open and Tom sitting on her bed.
“Tom, what the hell are you doing?” Ruby whispers.
Tom doesn’t react.
“If you are trying to scare me it isn’t working so can you stop please.”
He is still just sitting there and is she tired or does his hair seem longer?
She is getting impatient now, “Tom, seriously get out of my room or I'll-”
“Who the hell are you talking to?” A voice sounds behind her and she quickly turns around to see- Tom? That can’t be right.
Turning back towards the bed, there is no one there anymore.
“Have you been sleep walking again?” Tom walks towards the switch and turns the lights on. The sudden brightness blinds her and it takes her a few seconds to open her eyes again. When she does, her older brother is looking at her with shock that probably matches her face right now. Tracking his eyes, he seems to be looking at her feet. Ruby looks down and is now even more confused than before as she notices the velvet liquid on her feet and palms.
“Ruby, what happened?” Tom asks cautiously. “Why are you bleeding?”
It hits her all at once as she becomes aware of the pain. A few of the shards must have cut her feet when she dropped the glass. She also probably cut her palm when picking up the pieces of glass and must not have noticed in the moment of confusion and shock.
There’s a thud when Ruby suddenly falls on the floor, her legs giving in to the pain. That and her heart rapidly beating from the fear of what she just saw. A bunch of questions going around in her head: What did she just saw? Who was that? What did they want? Are they still here?
Panic arises as she realizes the seriousness of the situation.
Tom had rushed over and lifted her into a sitting position.
“Ruby, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” She finds herself unable to respond or even move in that matter of fact. Head filled with panic and questions, as Tom seems to try and shake her back to awareness somehow. Little does he know, she is aware. That’s kind of the problem right now.
“What’s going on here. God, what the hell happened to her, Tom?” Dad quickly guides Tom away so he can examine Ruby better.
“I- I don’t know, I just heard her talking in the hallway and assumed she was sleep walking and just found her like this,” He is rambling, he does that when he panics.
Everything else from then goes by in a bliss and soon enough she finds herself in the back of an ambulance, being asked a bunch of questions by some paramedics, which she is still unable to answer.
She thought the panic had gone away but for some reason she was still unable to talk. That made her panic again.
“It’s okay Ruby. You’re going to be okay,”