Dancing On The Razor's Edge, Together

X. When It Rains, Time Washes the Slate

(A/N: Some heavy themes are covered in this chapter. Trigger warning for injury detail and cutting. As with the last chapter of this nature, if you're sensitive to these things, maybe give this a miss. Or, read when you're ready. The appropriate resources are in the author's note of chapter six. Approach this with the right mental wellbeing.) ~Shay

When Shay did come to, she blinked her eyes open, adjusting to the darkness of the new area she was in. She wanted to tell herself that she recognised where she was, but in truth, she didn't. Had she died? No, she couldn't have. Her wounds looked to still be present, and surely enough, her left hand was still scarred across her palm. So she was alive, that much was certain. Was she dreaming? Looking to her right, she found only a small lantern next to her, akin to the ones used for the early examples of street lighting. She held it in her hand, looking around as she did so.

After having stood up, she found herself in what looked like a network of tunnels. Dark, forboding tunnels that offered her little to no solace from the omnipresent darkness around her. Walking onward, she proceeded through tight and narrow gaps, opting to try and use her dominant right arm as much as she could, whenever she could. Hearing the buzzing of flies, she tried to look at the floor, to see if she could actually make out what she was stepping on. The heels on her sneakers made solid contact with the rock below, but she wasn't even certain anymore.

She eventually came to a system of incredibly narrow tunnels; she felt as though her own body was going to collapse inward on itself. At each corner, she saw images blitz through her mind, for only a single second, if a couple at a time. But it was all she needed to deduct what they were. After the third flash through her mind, she figured out that what she was seeing was the killers of Shadyside's past killing their victims. She saw multiple images from different time periods; the Grifter drowning someone in a lake, Billy Barker bashing in someone's skull, the Milkman stabbing a woman on what appeared to be her own porch, before the final image etched itself into her mind for much longer; her girlfriend, Ruby, slitting the throat of another girl from behind, tossing her body to the floor.

Falling forward, she fell into a circular chamber, a single but massive flame illuminating the entirety of the room. Walking in, she saw a figure, hunched over before the wall on the right side. Not wanting to make herself known, she kept her steps quiet, leaving the lantern at the entrance to the room. It wasn't until she was perhaps three to four feet away, that she realised just who it was. All she needed to confirm it, was the familiar green skirt, flower printed shirt, and messy black hair. It was her.

Knelt before the wall of names, Ruby cried, sniffling in between muffled sobs. It was though she didn't want anyone to notice her, like a widow quietly mourning the grave of their lover. Her hands were placed on the wall, and as she carefully dragged them down, her blood stained the stone, moving slowly down with the motion of her hands. As she pulled away her hands, one went to pick up her razor, which dripped fresh blood. As she brought it up to her forearm, an audible gasp from Shay stopped her dead in her tracks. Or so it appeared. Moving very slowly now toward Ruby, she couldn't hear any breathing, apart from her own. Placing a hand on the shoulder of her partner, she tried to turn her head to get her attention. What she saw next, would etch itself onto her memory for the rest of her life.

Ruby fell backward, hitting the floor motionlessly. Her eyes were open in fear, almost as though she was paralysed. Her face and cheeks were a ghastly pale white; her wrists were slashed open crudely, mangled even more so than what Shay was used to seeing, as she noticed cuts in new places that had certainly not been there before. Her cheek scar was bleeding, or what she supposed were some of the last droplets of blood left in the girl's body. Her razor blade had just dropped to the stone floor as it lay by her side, blood dried on its blunt edge. Shay's breath hitched, and she had to turn her head away to the side, retching and throwing up a little as she did so. Turning back, she cradled her girlfriend's body, wiping away the single tuft of hair that covered her face. Tears fell from Shay's face, staining the bloodied cheeks of her lover, until her breath hitched again.