Billy's gone.
Ruby Buckley's world ended with him.
But Hawkins isn't done with her yet.
When strange deaths begin again, Ruby is pulled into the heart of the storm. Between shadowy nightmares, the town's newest outcast, and someone she was never s...
( songs for the chapter ) moonlight sonata (1st movement) // bethoven nothing else matters // metallica
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It's astounding how everything can remind you of someone you've lost.
It's been eight months since Billy died. Eight whole months. And wherever she looked, Ruby saw him.
When the sky was blue, when the moon shined, when a Metallica song played on the radio, when a car sped past her and it's engine roared loud enough to rattle the street, he was there. Everywhere.
It's supposed to be comforting, isn't it?
To love someone so deeply that even when they're gone you feel their presence everywhere. In the little things.
Little things you missed before. The things you once overlooked now weigh the most, mean the most.
Now, she looks up to the sky and feels eyes on her, eyes of pure beauty, eyes as blue as the world itself. She feels the warmth of sunlight like his golden curls brushing her face.
Ruby can feel him. Watching. Whispering. Existing in the night sky, in the quiet hum of the stars. Reminding her to stay safe. To keep Max safe.
But seeing him everywhere, it's the opposite of comforting. It's suffocating. A constant reminder that he's gone. That she'll never see him again. A reminder that some part of her will always be missing. That she will never be complete.
She finds comfort in the night sky, though. Pitch black. Some will say the epitome of darkness, gloom, bitterness. The night is a time where most of the bad things in the world happen. The darkness shields from getting caught or from feeling any guilt.
But not to her.
To Ruby, the night is serenity itself. The moon is perfect, whole no matter how much of it she can see. Its light feels alive. The stars, tiny from down here, small enough to blot out with a thumb, are in truth enormous. Ancient. Their light travels billions of miles just to reach her.
It humbles her.
They're beautiful, and their glow eases her in a way nothing else can. For a few moments, their light swallows her worry whole.
The moon, so gentle, so tender, it's light just bright enough to make your way home in the darkness.
It's magical.
Something humans can't quite comprehend, don't understand. And it's something Ruby will never understand as well. How a phenomenon of pure light and beauty could also be so powerful, so compelling.
It holds the earth together, in it's place, stabilizes it.
Without the moon, earth is pretty much doomed, left to the unforgiving mercy of the ruthless universe.
