"Ruby" by Yuhang Z.

[ShortStoryContest]

The following story has been selected as a featured runner-up in our 2015 short story contest (Contest Theme - "The Self-Destructiveness of Vengeance and Hate")

"Ruby" by Yuhang Z.

She sharpened her dagger, grinding it against the hard stone. It sliced through the rough granite, crumbles of the dense rock falling down. The red crystal on the handle flashed violently in the mid-afternoon sun as the dagger came down again, whirring against the rock. Slash, slash. It went on and on.

Beside her lay a small brown satchel, inside of where lay her worldly possessions. A water flask, some dried fruits, and a tiny pouch of emergency coins filled the small space within. She had been on the road for weeks, striking out against the Empire, assassinating random guards who wandered too near to her ambush locations.

It was all for a good cause, though. Every gurgling throat, every man cut down was a step closer to the Empire. Three years ago, the Empire had killed her family. They stormed into her house, ripping apart the boards that held the flimsy shack together. Her brother’s screams as he was dragged to war, barely a man, only returning in a pile of ashes spread across the countryside. Mother, weak with fright, as she sat there praying to a merciless God. Her father, the humble and hard-working farmer who’s poor crops had accidentally missed a tax payment, polishing his rifle as he stared out the door. And Rain herself, peeking through a hole in the wall as the soldiers approached. Her parents died. She saw them die.

Peace was not an option. Peace was a gift, given only to those who earned it. She could feel each dying guard’s life rushing out of him, the crimson blood pouring out of the slash and into her heart. By now, her own blood was already tainted with madness and destruction, she saw, as a cut from earlier oozed out a drop of purple-tinted crimson. And yet, every death accumulated on her list, every new warlord assassinated, she got closer to the center of the Empire, the core of pain. Ever since the Rebels had recruited her, brought her in to shelter, she would not stop. She would finish what was started.

Bzz. She froze, not daring to move. Behind her, the sounds of a bowstring pulling taut encircled her with fear.

“Don’t move, rebel. Slowly turn around, with your hands in the air.”

Rain let her dagger clatter to the floor, and slowly and calmly placed her hands in the air.

The man staring back at her had piercing blue eyes. Beautiful eyes. His little tuft of hair on the top was sort of cute. He beckoned to her, and beside him two soldiers strode forward with a long chain of rope. They got closer and closer, as Rain kept her hands raised.

She looked into their eyes for a second, sensing the weariness and displeasure at having to capture and torture a young girl. And she struck.

Dropping to the floor instantly, she reached into her flowing hair and pulled out a concealed knife. Not as fierce as Ruby, but it would have to do for now. She sidestepped to the side of the plain as one of the soldiers struck down with his rusted sword. She laughed. The spirit of battle was getting to her now.

She lunged forward and stuck her dagger deep into the soldier’s chest. He sputtered for a second, and his eyes slowly faded out. Leaping backwards, she kicked out behind her, smashing the chin in of the other guard, who had been trying to sneak behind her.

In front, she could make out the face of the commander, aiming helplessly at her and firing a couple of wild shots, missing by hairs and miles. Rain giggled out of excitement as she watched the guard in front of her drop his sword and flee. Others can have their tobacco and wine. Death is a far better drug.

Whipping past the lumbering man, she quickly bound the man by the neck with her free hand, using him as cover. She saw the archer falter.

“Stop. If you shoot now, he’s dead.”

She could see the demons fighting inside the archer’s mind, weighing the survival of his man against this small insurgent. Finally, he sighed and lowered his bow.

“Let him go, and we can negotiate.” His clear, crisp voice cut across the field.

She laughed and let go, simultaneously releasing her grip on his iron necklace. He stumbled forward with momentum, so much that the chain of the necklace sliced straight through his neck. What fun.

The archer stared at the girl, stared as the ruby-hilted knife came hurtling out of nowhere and embedding itself within his heart, an instantaneous death. Better than Empire scum like him deserved.

Rain laughed, a high-pitched giggle. After cleaning off her blade and wiping it on the archer’s shirt, she turned to leave. She looked back, a brief instance, at the young and handsome archer’s corpse still bleeding out. She could hear the funeral marches, the bells tolling as the weeping commenced. But she felt no remorse, no pain, no tears. That all died with the girl behind the wall.

She didn’t sleep well that night. Beside her, Ruby lay, glittering softly by the embers of her fire. In her dreams, tossing and turning, the faces of the men revolved inside her head. The screams, pain, plagued her soul inside her dreams. Here, she dropped the iron curtain separating her emotions from the world. Here, she was human.

She cried out in her sleep as the archer’s ghastly arrows shot out from his bow, his chest still bursting out blood. She deserved it, she knew she did. But she knew that when she woke up, this moment of peace would be gone until the next atrocity, swept away in a hurricane of fiery anger.

A soft crunching sound near her alerted her. She quickly opened one eye. Beside her sat a pure, white rabbit. It gently nuzzled it with its nose. She smiled and reached out to pet it. As soon as her hand touched it, the rabbit convulsed. Its snowy pelt quickly stained with crimson, and its eyes blazed with a thousand furnaces.

And she woke up, shivering in her own sweat. Judging by the position of the rising sun on the horizon, it was nearly four in the morning. Rain smiled, despite her nightmare. It was the day she finally tracked down the regiment who killed her family, her final assignment from the Rebels.

Thomas turned around, hearing a small twing behind him. Frowning, he searched the undergrowth. Tensions were high today, and he was dying to return home. His mother had just received the plague, and she was shivering inside the farm right now. As soon as this shift ended, he would finally receive his package of coins and he was free to go. He paced through the outskirts of the wall again, his bow raised above his shoulder.

Twing. The sound, again. He looked out of the fort into the surrounding forest, looking for any sign of movement within the misty darkness. No leering face broke through the pools of black, no sudden dagger glinting in the moonlight. Shrugging, he turned around.

Rain quickly dashed past the man, the needles within her hand digging into his flesh. He instantly fell to the ground, convulsing in silence as the poison within the needles took effect.

And he died.

The torches glowed on the walls of the hallways here as Rain slipped within the door. The man she was hunting cherished elegance and luxury. The luxury of death was coming. Soon.

She nimbly dashed behind a pillar, its crumbling rocks crunching precariously beneath her feet. They would discover the dead guard soon, she was sure. Above her hung the banners of his House, an ancient and royal line.

Digging through her memory for the map, she quickly navigated the darkness within the palace, making sure to carefully avoid guards. She would love to slaughter them all, and she was sure Ruby would too, but that would make it too obvious.

She arrived at the door. It, ornate with gemstones, shone brightly through the palace. She paused for a second before channeling.

Rain didn’t Soulbend often. Soulbending, a gift bestowed upon the cursed for daring to provoke the lives of other men, was more often than not harmful. The more soulbending occurred, the more ghastly a person seemed, until their very essence was sucked in. But that didn’t matter now. She was far too in to stop.

The lives she had harvested came pouring out of Ruby, wailing ghosts crying a haunted songs to her ears only. The archer, the guard, the patrol. She stared at the ghosts with pitiless eyes. And she pointed her dagger at the door.

The souls were dragged, wailing, through the door, quickly dissolving its essence into the Nether. She walked in, recalling the dead men’s spirits to Ruby, who swallowed them up like offering sent to a burning god of vengeance.

The man, Doryn, lay sleeping within the master bedroom, snoring softly. He hadn’t heard the door gently dissolve. Beside him, a beautiful woman lay. His wife, Gelna. Infamous for her support of the Declaration of Ravage, an edict declaring the forced enslavement of those entrenched in the pit of poverty.

Between them, snuggled up tight, was a little boy, about 8 in age. He smiled in his sleep as he dug his face into his mother’s arms, hiding from monsters in the dark.

She almost stopped. Almost. The whip of vengeance couldn’t stop, however, and so she didn’t. She slit the throat of Doryn, immune to the gruesome blood pouring out. She moved on to Gelna, stabbing her through the curtain of blond hair. And then she saw the blue eyes peeking out at her.

“Miss, who are you?”

The little boy squeaked out, his voice barely a whisper. She immediately felt a pang of guilt, then stopped. She would leave this one alive. Not because of mercy, but so she could tell the Empire vengeance was here. Not because of mercy. No kindness.

“They call me Rain, young one. When you wake up in the morning, remember me. When they ask you, remember me.”

The little boy nodded, still oblivious to the two corpses lying beside him. He smiled. “Goodnight, miss.”

Rain jumped out of the window.

She could feel tears streaming down her face. She didn’t know there would be a child. They didn’t tell her. Could sentiment be taking… No, it must be the cold. She wiped away the tears as she rolled onto the ground, cushioning the impact. It was done.

Rain splattered down, lightly drizzling upon the stones beneath her. And then it happened.

Her head spun, she shook, as she flew into a frenzy. Colors, everywhere. Yet nowhere. Where was she now? She blinked and her eyes shot open. She was in a dark room, light barely filtering through a window. The rain poured.

She raised her hands to feel, and stopped. They were small. They didn’t move correctly, too clumsy, chubby. And then she took a step.

The pain hit her like a dam breaking, a tsunami of emotions smashing into the untouched ground beyond. Her parents were dead. She looked ahead at the bed, at the two bodies drowning in the sheets. What had that lady told her? Told him? Who was he?

And then he knew. They were dead, killed by her. Killed by himself. Rain felt it throughout her body, throughout his body that she was somehow in and not in simultaneously. What had she done?

It ended. She dropped down on her knees again, overwhelmed and not hiding anymore. The light had avoided her for so long. She would not dodge it longer, and justice would come. For her or against, she couldn’t know.

Rain stood up, head shaking from the experience. It had been the little boy’s mind, she was sure. His little chubby hands, wrapping around his mother’s head as he lost her forever. She briefly considered turning back, handing herself in. Then it would all be over. It would finally finish.

But she kept walking. Kept walking through the drizzling rain, dripping through her clothing.

…

The Chancellor sat inside of the dark, dank room, surrounded by dark, dank people. His council gathered to discuss the recent rise of rebellion within the districts, but it sure was boring. Something about a rogue agent, sneaking past guards, slaughtering innocents. Just yesterday, apparently some high-level duke was slaughtered brutally within his own bed, creating and begging the question of an individual assassin. He had harbored thoughts of the Revolutionaries starting up again, but this…. A single attack, in the middle of the night, geared straight at a married couple within a tower. And the boy was left unharmed. Definitely not the Revolutionaries.

“South Quad, reporting in null.” The commander at the right stood, his arm unwavering as it held above his head.

“North Quad, null.” The cold, harsh voice of a woman cut through the incoming silence.

“East Quad, null.”

The eerie silence filled the room. If the strange intruder hadn’t been swept by any of the patrolling sweeps, it meant that one of two things was happening. Either the assassin, the strange man, was probably hiding out in the West Quad, where Doryn was the captain, or he was off, out of the land. He desperately hoped for the latter.

He was worried. He couldn’t risk any more death within the government, or it would break down. It sure was fragile, a sheet of interlocking glass fragments, each one essential to the body of the frame. One small push, and it would all come toppling down.

He hid all this behind the façade, the golden mask. “We’re fine, we’ll pull through. What’s most important is preventing any more hits to our sustainability. I want double the guard duty, a full review of the bodies, and a fortified set of reform sweeping through the land. Maybe, just maybe, he could stop this monster before it tore through the land.

..

And thus the Nether was repulsed, and peace and stability swept through the land. Now, children, bow your heads and pray.

“I will not lie, steal or cheat. I will stay loyal to my Empire, to my leader, to my home. I pray for the stability of the land, and the prosperity throughout the Empire. Long live!”

The childhood prayers haunted her dreams. They were getting worse and worse, the nightmares. She remembered her mother holding her as a child, soothing her throughout the – blank. What, what, who was that? What was her mother but a specter of pain, a spectacle to horrify and martyr. Better to leave such pains engraved within the solid obsidian.

Rain stood with her back framed against the starry night, looking out across the plateau. She had quickly established herself as a premier assassin, four months after Doryn’s death. Throughout the increased guard duty, throughout the incessant hunters tracking her, she was still hidden. A woman within a misogynist world, hiding in plain sight. Who would suspect the little girl, barely into her teens, walking along the forest road with clean brushed hair and wide eyes? Any credibility they might once have had would evaporate upon arresting such an obviously innocent. Innocent until proven guilty, another terribly flawed policy of the Empire.

And now the Revolutionaries had contacted her again. She pounced on the opportunity, a cougar finally locating its prey. She would join them, she would avenge her family. “By the tides of the third moon, be here.” And here she was.

Not a second too late, a small pebble flew its way towards Rain. She snatched it out of the air. And in front of her they materialized.

Fresh from a journey from the Nether, they pulsed with alien energy. The leader, a tall, imposing man with silvery long hair, stepped forward.

“Rain, it is a pleasure to finally meet you.” His hand felt stiff as ice.

“It is mine, as well.” Flanked by two bodyguards.

“The offer is going through. Are you ready for the terms?” His chest throbbed in the right.

She nodded, imperceptibly. “As ready as I ever will.”

The man grinned. “So let’s star-“ He was cut off by the appearance of a dagger splitting through his chest and landing on top of Rain’s hand.

She quickly leapt into action, dodging the first wave of thrusts by his guards. A blow to the right. Kaed. Left jab. Spin, then whip backwards. The movements came to her fluid, a stream of data in a machine. The first guard spluttered, blood pulsing out of him.

The second turned to flee, but her vengeful dagger spliced through him as well.

And then he finally appeared, the actual Revolutionary leader. Had he assumed her a fool, and sought to rid of her? She checked her Soulbending, making sure it still enhanced her masculine appearance. Good.

“Rain, you have finally found me. I must apologize for the test. Had to make sure there wasn’t an imposter.”

Rain nodded. It made sense, although his double would’ve been easily spotted. Too cocky, no attention to details. Any decently well-versed negotiator would catch up on her word usage and stopped her.

He stood, hair flowing down. “Here’s the deal. You receive twenty-five thousand gold pieces, and you are to use this money to plan a mission. If you succeed, you join the team.”

Rain held out her hand. “I agree.”

He smiled, too innocent for such a guilty man. “Your mission is to purchase supplies for us. You must journey into the center of the Empire, go to these three weapon dealers in turn, and smuggle them out of the borders of the Inner City.”

A supply run. Easy.

“Good. I’ll contact you once you finish, using this Netherstone.” He held out a small purple rock, which Rain accepted and placed within her chest-pocket. “Good luck, soldier.”

She smiled.

At the door to the marketplace, activity bustled. People ran from stall to stall, hurrying around the colorful objects.

“Ma’am, is this you?” He pointed to her forged passport, where an unsmiling portrait of her face was.

“Yes, of course.” She did her best exasperated expression. “Sir, we’ve been here for almost ten minutes now. Can I finally pass?”

He shook his head, continuing to check the passport. “Security’s increased, due to the Assassin. I don’t think there’s even the slightest chance that you are the Assassin or one of his comrades, but protocol.”

She smiled inwards. The more of this guard’s time that she wasted, the less details he would notice about her on the way out.

Finally, the guard let her go. “Welcome to the Inner City, ma’am.”

She waved flirtatiously back. “You too, good sir.”

Quickly ducking behind the nearest stall, she stripped off her long, flourished dress and fake wig, and donned the clothing of a servant of the lowest class, barely worth anyone’s time. She stuffed the clothing behind the fake panel in the wall, used to keep messages during the last great war.

Striding through the marketplace, she found herself quickly inside the first alley. It was dank and dark, with a rotting wooden door at the end. Rap, rap.

The shutter flew open. A grim eye poked out, followed by an equally repulsive eyebrow. “Name?”

Recited, memorized. “Shadeslaw Dawn”.

The door opened. She went in, eyes quickly darting and adjusting to the bright light. Inside, rows of weapons covered the racks, thousands of dollars of precious merchandise covering the sunny pavilion. Quickly, she located the items upon her list.

“I would like that Heatstone over there please.“ She pointed to a brilliantly glowing ember in the corner, a dust of light within a cloud of dust.

As the man counted her coins and exchange to make sure that it was the correct amount, Rain let her eyes wander. Military grade steel swords, arrows, even a beautifully ornamented dagger, much like Ruby.

She left the shop in a hurry, eager to finish her task quickly and join into the ranks of the Revolutionaries. A boy came running up to her, rags covering his body.

“Missus, a man told me to give this to you,” He said, a gap missing a tooth grinning at her as he pulled out a tiny box.

She smiled, all fake of course. “Thank you so much!” She patted the boy on the head and sent him away.

Quickly, she looked at her surroundings to make sure no one was looking, and ducked into another of the dank alleys. Gosh, the inner City had a lot of these.

“Hi Darlin, I miss you.” The familiar greeting upon the letter stopped Rain in her tracks. “I’ve been out in the Military for months now, and I’ve discovered something that you need to know. There’s something big stirring within the world, and I can’t tell you what it is, but just remember, not everything is clear.”

Her brother. Dalton, who had gone off to the warfront and returned a grave marker. And yet, she could recognize the familiar handwriting, the familiar greeting, that familiar aroma.

“Sunny, I’ve attached something in here. I don’t know when this package will reach you, but it should arrive within a few weeks. In here will be a small rock to store it. I got it from a small cave off the side of the coast of Klarqe.” A tear dripped. “Make sure you don’t let your demons overtake you. They should be fine controlled within this devil stone. Remember not to act too rashly. I love you,

Dalton.”

They poured. She quickly Soulbent a cover of darkness in front of her so that she couldn’t be seen. But if someone looked a little closer, they would’ve heard a small weeping noise coming from the shadows. Sunny, how long had she been called that. After the rain came the sunshine, but there was no after the Rain. There was always Rain.

Dalton.

Her brother she hadn’t heard from years, the little marker inside the grave, he had sent her this little stone. She opened it up and saw a little rock in it, glowing blue. This was it. She could finally give up the terrors inside of her, give up Ruby and her Soulbending. She wouldn’t have to nourish herself upon lives anymore.

Shaking, she closed her fist around the rock. Maybe after this whole fiasco was over, after the Empire had fallen, she would get rid of her demons. But not now. Now was not the time for sentiment. She had a job to do, crinkling the worn map beneath her arms.

And it happened again. Her mind blanked out, body shifting from place to place. Where was she? She was… in a flaming field, people screaming all along her as the firestone splurted out wave after wave of flame, burning souls, crying voices, screaming deaths. Beside her, waves of people attempted to flee the burning castle, with the Revolutionaries slowly shooting down.

“You can prevent it, you know.” The voice whispered eerily close to her back, causing her to leap forward a few feet.

It was an angel, covered in glowing red armor. Ruby, in his Origin form.

“I see what you need, and I know what you want. Do you want to see this burn, see society crumble down into the flames?”

Rain nodded, though the screams caused her to halter a bit. “I need it.”

Ruby smiled, though it wasn’t of happiness. More of… sadness.

And the vision vanished. Rain stumbled to her feet, shooing away the concerned onlookers seeing the young woman topple to the ground. She was fine, she was fine. Into the next shop she went. Some weapons created of SoulStone, an element that would bind itself to the steel within the sword and way harder and more durable. As she finished bartering with the weapons merchant, she paused for a second. She felt the sword’s grip again.

It was cold, the metal roughly fitting against her hand. And yet the alien presence within her mind urged her on. She cautiously walked out of the shop and took a few cautious swings. Swish. The sword cut through the air like a paddle through a lake. She felt freedom, just lingering outside of her grasp, and she almost lunged for it. Give up Ruby. Give up on your dreams of revenge and blood, and it’ll all be fine. And the messenger of emotions fled from her, and she stubbornly refused. She couldn’t let her emotions dictate her now, could she?

The rock in her pocket lost some of its blue glow. And Ruby just glowed brighter.

She ran, feeling an invisible force moving behind her. The clouds turned blacker, dark arrows flying across the sky. Third store, weapons, in out, finish. She was done.

She quickly smashed the Netherstone on the ground, and the portal activated. The ground slowly started churning as one by one, the Nether Revolutionaries stepped out. The leader, white haired, held his hand out.

“Good job Rain. Can I have the weapons now?”

She stared at him, then at her hand. Blood was pouring out of the stone as the screams of burnt bodies flooded her mind. The SoulStone sword stayed there in her hand, it’s last moments of freedom doomed to a lifetime of death. And as she stared, her eyes got bigger and bigger.

“You’re—You’re not going to help people with these, are you?”

The man grinned, but his eyes betrayed his coldness. “Of course, dear, we need to cut off the infections within the body before the rest of it can heal. You’ve been doing that too, am I right?”

She scooted backwards, but behind her, the Revolutionaries caged her in. Where was she? Trapped within her own ideals, stuck within her own passion, finished in her revenge. And it was working.

She saw the street urchin hiding behind the wall in the alleyway, the fear within his eyes. She saw the buildings burning as the heatstone pulsed out fire. She saw the sword cutting down the people, bashing through castles and blood pouring out. And finally…

“No. This isn’t right. Killing all these people within the Inner city isn’t correct. They don’t deserve to die. They..’ She cut herself off.

They didn’t deserve to die. The archer she had murdered in cold blood, the guard just trying to make ends meet, the collapse of the social hierarchy.

They didn’t deserve to die. The mother, father, little boy standing there in tears. They didn’t deserve it. She did.

The man pointed at her, nodding to his men. “Take that Ancient from her. It’s in her bag.”

She froze as the men came for her. For Ruby, her last friend, her last company. The dagger burst out of her backpack, lunging towards the closest man and slicing his throat open. The blood splurged out of it, feeding the Ruby. The gem. It slowly morphed back into the angel, the guardian of the gates of life and death.

And then he appeared. The blue stone within her pocket shimmered, and a blue-clad angel appeared, identical armor as Ruby.

Dalton. The angel bowed, and Ruby did the same.

“It’s been a long time, Chancellor.”

Chancellor. Dalton. Her brother.

Rain found her senses again and quickly dashed forward between the two angels, glaring out at the ring of Revolutionaries. It was never about overthrowing the government, but personal gain. All they wanted was that. Gold, Money, wealth. The drive of humanity, the destruction of life and value. All for it. And she was their secret weapon.

The Revolutionary leader stepped forward, grinning. “How nice of you to finally reveal yourself, Chancellor. Here to visit the crumbling ruins of your nation, it seems?”

The Empire. A ruse, all a structure of society.

The Chancellor stared back, unflinching, as he held Ruby back from lunging at the man. “Let the girl go. She’s of no interest to you. Why do you have to do this, Hadrian?”

The leader, Hadrian, held out the stone and Rain came. She couldn’t resist it, the violence corrupting through her veins. It pulled her in, Hadrian commanding the reins of her pain. Her leash to the real world. Revenge. Without a purpose, there wouldn’t be an existence.

And she didn’t anymore. The civilians inside this city needed a hero, and that sure wasn’t going to fall from the sky. She lunged forward, Ruby instantly morphing into a dagger within her hand. She was the Herald of Justice, ending the terror, the greed. A reformer through death.

She laughed out loud as she fought her last fight. The SoulBending around her slowly ebbed out her life-existence as she channeled all her power. She was a demon fighting on wings, mankind’s last guardian.

Ruby slashed beside her, quickly decimating man after man, slowly pushing the Nether back. And the portal slowly shut.

Hadrian stared at her in fury. “This isn’t possible. They said you would be the warrior, destroying the Empire.”

And she screamed as he sucked the life out of her. Her soul screamed as she flew through the air into the void. The people outside stared at her in horror, Ruby disappearing with her into the abyss.

Silence.

It was dark.

She looked but couldn’t see anymore. She heard the loudest silence she had ever heard. And then the Chancellor spoke up.

“Rain, was this what you wanted? Was your whole mission, overcoming the Empire, worth this? Was Your personal revenge worth it?” He was practically screaming at the end.

Rain silently sat there as the portal slowly opened again. The scenes from before, the burning of bodies, society’s collapse, it all happened. The real enemy was never the Empire. It was her. She was the enemy.

“Was this what you wanted? The burning of society? Answer me, goddamnit!” The Chancellor was practically shaking with fury now as they slowly sank deeper into the darkness.

Silence again. She couldn’t show emotion. Couldn’t.. Couldn’t… No.

“Was it?”

[HoneyB]

This is very creative, such details! In my imagination, I'm picturing an Anime battle.

[ebeth]

Very creative. I couldn't help but read it because of the title. There is a book called Ruby by Lauraine Snelling