Blood is Ruby Red Chapter 5

The bell rang for lunch. I shoved my books carelessly into my bag before dumping it in the corner and dashing over to Ruby.

“Hey Ruby, you going to lunch?” I asked.

Ruby seemed preoccupied. She rudely ignored me and walked purposefully out of the classroom. Okay... I thought to myself before running after and catching up to her.

“Ruby?” I jogged at her side.

Ruby turned to me angrily. “Stop following me, will ya?”

“Um... sorry...” I muttered, but stayed by her side.

Ruby was walking furiously towards where a bunch of boys, including Jude, had just started playing a game of football, with few, if any, rules involved.

“Ruby, what are you doing?” My inquisitive tone turned serious.

A knife fell out of Ruby’s pocket. I gasped.

Oh... my... g... g...

“Whoa... Ruby... where did that come from?” I stuttered nervously.

“My pocket,” Ruby retorted dryly, not even looking at me whilst picking it up off the grass.

“Well... and... why are you holding it?” I already knew the answer, but I wanted Ruby to tell me herself. I guess I figured that maybe if she heard what she was about to do she’d think twice about it.

Ruby ignored me and stormed over to Jude, pushing the weapon back inside her pocket. She grabbed him roughly by the arm and dragged him over to the opposite corner of the field, away from everyone else and behind a few trees. I rushed after them, petrified.

When I got there Ruby was holding the knife up again. She had managed to corner Jude, who almost had his back against the fence.

Jude’s eyes were wider than mine. His face had faded to a dramatically, worryingly pale colour. He shuffled backwards, away from Ruby. For once in his life, Jude was actually concerned about something.

“Ruby, please don’t do this,” his voice was a faint, scared whisper.

The mass of eyeliner seemed to darken around her narrowing eyes. “Yeah, I won’t do this if you don’t stand me up and cheat on me. Oh wait, you already did that.”

“I... I didn’t mean it... Alesia was coming onto me so strongly and I... I’m really sorry Ruby...” Jude stuttered fearfully.

“Shut up.”

Ruby took a dangerous step towards him, holding the blade up to Jude’s face. Nothing seemed to be able to penetrate her inhuman defensive wall. She no longer had emotions.

“Ruby, you don’t have to do this!” My voice too had crumbled to a mere murmur, but my tone was desperate.

“Please Ruby,” Jude was almost crying in fear. “Elina, help! Please! I’ll make it up to ya Ruby, I swear! I’ll never ever do anything-”

“I said Shut Up.”

After that, everything appeared to happen in heartbeats. I could feel mine strongly vibrating my whole ribcage. Or maybe I was trembling with fear as to what Ruby was about to do.

I screamed as her hand grasping the knife suddenly swung towards Jude. My hands flew protectively to my eyes, shielding them from witnessing the murder. I could hear Jude letting out a short, ear-piercing scream, and him falling to the floor, writhing in pain. I could no longer ignore what was happening. The disturbing image was growing in my haunting mind. I screamed again in terror as I prised my hands away from my eyes. Jude was lying twisted on the ground, unmoving. Ruby-red blood started seeping rapidly out of his wounds, leaving his school shirt sticking to his skin. He was lying still, silent, dead.

I was still whimpering, horrified. I knew I would be scarred for life. Ruby spun round quickly and her cold hand swung to my mouth, the other still clutching the knife.

I tried to wriggle out of her grasp, petrified as to what she would do next. Ruby’s hard, unfeeling eyes stared terrifyingly into mine. I almost noticed a tiny bit of panic in them as well, but it did not escape into her voice. She held up the blood-dripping knife towards me.

“Don’t say a single word to anyone.”

Managing to squeeze free of Ruby’s unyielding grasp, I turned and ran as fast as I could.

As soon as Hans caught sight of me he knew something wasn’t right. Well, anyone could probably tell that something wasn’t right. I guarantee that some of my make-up had been smudged by tears and my white face was so pale a stranger might have thought that I’d been living in Norway or someplace up north all my life.

“El what’s wrong?”

My bottom lip started trembling before I could reply. I buried my face in his shoulder and wrapped my arms around him tightly. Hans hugged me back, stroking his hand gently up and down my back.

“Are you ok?” Hans was still really concerned.

Over Hans’ shoulder I saw Ruby give a long, warning glare in my direction from across the playground. She still looked scarily dangerous. I shuddered, horrifying thoughts re-entering my mind.

“I... I can’t talk about it,” I sobbed, “but I’m so disturbed. It was horrible.”

“What was?”

Hans’ curiosity was persistent, but I couldn’t put my life at risk. No way could I put my life at risk.

“I can’t talk about it,” I repeated, my voice still shaking with distress. “I’m sorry but I really can’t.”