"See no evil. Speak no evil. Listen carefully."
A family akin to a modern Adams' Family moves into the derelict house across the street from Kota. Intrigued by the beautiful doll-like daughter, he and Nathan attempt to befriend her while trying to u...
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•Rue•
A cello moans into the dark. Trickling water over the river bed and crickets singing.
"Ruby," a woman's voice sings playfully.
I can't see. I reach out to her, but it's a blind action. I know this woman's voice. I know her from the recesses of my blackened heart, but I'm finding it difficult to remember. There's a blurriness to my thoughts and I can't pinpoint the reason. I'm simply drifting in time, drifting in the lonely dark.
"Ruby," she giggles out. "Ruby, come here! Come look!"
"I'm trying," I tell her. My melancholic ruse is forgotten and I submerge myself into the alien emotions. My steps trickle rapidly like the water, leaves crunching as I make haste through the dark.
To the right, deeper in the dark, footsteps flee away from me. A feminine laugh follows. "Ruby, can you see it?"
I turn and follow her deeper into the dark nothing. My mind is still fuzzy, still not quite right. I can't quite scratch the itch of familiarity her voice brings nor can I recall how I ended up here.
"Ru-by," she sings.
I pause. A mane of red hair whips in the breeze on the head of a woman turned away from me. I know that hair.
Creeping closer, I tiptoe on cautious feet and study her in small increments as more and more of her is revealed. Dainty features, pale as snow skin, wicked green eyes.
I stop where she can just make me out of the corner of her eyes. They're already looking my way, lips curling with secret mischief. Her hand extends in an awkward angle towards me. With unmoving lips, she whispers to me,"Do you see it, Ruby? Do you see the bloody blooms?"
I ignore her hand and look to where she's facing. A manor burns high above on a lone hill, fire bursting from windows that look like the manor's eyes. A maze of red roses leads up the hill with the blooms dripping blood onto the soil. Standing in the door is a wretched creature with spindly limbs and a head so massive it can't seem to lift it from its shoulders.
"The scarecrow," I answer her. "I see the scarecrow." She hums in thought and looks over at the manor with a serene smile, "Poor creature. You left them there all alone. Now they wander the lonely woods that surround the husk of a manor on a lonely hill."
I look to her, gatherimg myself and locking down my emotions, "I had to. If I hadn't none would've escaped and he would've kept tormenting them all."
