Numbered

Chapter 10: Ruby Lue-anne Hulman

They had made it into a city so they had to be careful. First thing they did was swap out their old clothes with white clothes so no one would be suspicious of them. The next thing they did was gather supplies. This turned out to be easier said than done.

Emel had to constantly make sure that everyone (besides Ruby who'd spent the first 11 years of her life in the Satrina district while with her mother so it wasn't that exciting) didn't run off or get lost.

Jay, Leanne and Oedipus were still gawking around at the place. While it was the second poorest district in the country it was still their first time outside of the Ilope and Tallia districts. So it was all new to them and even though the mentioned districts were better in appearance they were a prison, a sparkly prison, but a prison is still a prison nonetheless.

Ruby watched as Emel had to real in Leanne for the seventh time and couldn't help the laugh that escaped from her lips when, somewhere around the eighth time, Emel just gave up and rapped a rope around all of their wrists so no one would get lost.

After that little hiccup they finally managed to resupply themselves and Emel even managed to get some sunscreen for himself (due to his albinoism he didn't have the melanin most people have that protects their skin from too much exposure to the sun's rays and in extension, skin cancer so he had to use sunscreen often).

He also got some for the others but the majority of the sunscreen was reserved specifically for him. Eventually the group of 5 managed to find an abandoned house that wasn't too bad and started to set up for the night there.

"Alright," Emel stated, "we'll be staying here for the night so everyone find a comfortable place to rest, and if any one of you tries to sneak out and go exploring I swear I'll—" he cut himself off but everyone had already gotten the message.

They settled in for the night and despite not wanting to Ruby fell asleep. Ruby didn't like sleeping because she didn't like the dreams that came with it. And she could always tell when she was dreaming because she always dreamt about her past.

The dreams would always start out innocent and lighthearted but would always end up taking a dive for the worse. And this particular dream was no different.

Ruby was 11 in this dream. It was shortly after her mother's trial and execution. She had stayed glued to Emel's side due to how similar he looked to her mother and she had just wanted something that reminded her of her old life with her.

Ruby remembers how, one time, Emel was busy talking to Elani and Jay was out with his friends and she was waiting for Emel on the front lawn because back then she was too nervous to really enter other people's houses and she looked up to see the face of a girl who couldn't be more than a year older than herself.

Ruby immediately blushed. She was pretty. She had wavy golden blonde hair, mint green eyes and a small circular birthmark under each eye. The mystery girl introduced herself as Rachel Osgold and in turn Ruby told her her own name.

Rachel explained that she was an 8, Ruby didn't even know those existed, and she was in the Tallia District on orders of the Testers but she'd managed to sneak away from them for a short time.

Over time the two of them grew close with Rachel sneaking off whenever she was brought into the district of the 6s to meet with Ruby in secret and one day she showed up with a locket in her hand.

She opened it and inside was a perfectly polished red ruby, her namesake. Rachel blushed before handing the locket to Ruby.

"Ruby, I don't know if this is too sudden but, will you be my girlfriend?"

Ruby stood there in shock before taking the locket and squealing out in delight her answer "Yes!!!"

That's where the happiness of the dream ended because the next scene was when Ruby was 14 and the 6 of them had tried to escape. Originally it was just supposed to be the five of them, Ruby, Rachel, Jay, Leanne and Oedipus but Elani and Emel insisted that Emel go to watch over and protect Ruby and Jay (which over the year turned into also looking after the others as well).

As they tried making their escape they were caught and Rachel ended up staying behind so the rest could make it out. As evident by the dream, Ruby could still vividly recall Rachel's face scrunched up in pain as she had been shot in the leg and how much she had struggled in Emel's grasp and how she begged for them to turn around and at least try and save Rachel.

But most importantly what Ruby remembered was the totally helpless feeling that washed over her as they left Rachel behind. Why was she always on the sidelines as her loved ones suffered? Why couldn't she do anything? Why was she always so weak?

Ruby awoke with a jolt and grabbed the locket around her neck, the same one that Rachel had given to her and subconsciously rubbed it to make sure it was still there.

"Nightmare again?" Came Emel's gruff voice.

"Yeah." She replied.

He motioned for her to come over to him and she did so while making sure to not wake up the others.

"So, what was it about this time?" He questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Rachel." She said.

He nodded in understanding and in a rare moment of opening up he let his walls down enough to say "I once had a lover too you know."

"Really? What happened to them?" Ruby asked, her curiosity piqued by the revelation.

"Nothing. As far as I know she's still alive but I had a daughter with her."

"Did you two fall out and break up? And had?" Ruby questioned even further.

"No, I still love her, always will... it's complicated... you could say that we broke up but it's more complicated than that... you're too young to understand yet. But as for my daughter... she died." Emel answered his voice breaking, the obvious heartbreak of loosing a lover and a daughter showing through.

In that moment Ruby wished she never experienced the grief that came with loosing a child.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Ruby said trying to offer him her condolences.

"It's alright. I've still got things that remind me of them." He said his stoic expression returning to his face.

"Anyways, you should at least try to go back to sleep." Emel said taking the white 1 jacket he bought for himself and bunched it up into a pillow for Ruby to rest on.

Ruby was just about to lay her head down on it when the front door opened and in stepped a dark figure.

Emel was the first to react instantly teleporting over and pressing an impressively sharp knife that Ruby didn't even know he had to their throat and speaking in the downright most chilling voice she had ever heard not only from him but anyone ever.

"If you even think about moving so much as a single fucking muscle I'll slit your throat before you can even react."

1251 words.

*Author's Note* I'll probably do a oneshot about Rachel and Ruby but I still have to do the Oneshots about Reyna, Natalie and Ilope as well as chapters 11-14 of Numbered and 4-5 of Blood. Also I haven't updated Fireweed yet because I have no clue what to write about in the next chapter so you'll have to be patient about that.