Digital Crusade

Fifteen

When he got home from school with his report card in his backpack Ruby knew he was fucked. Well, actually he wasn't. Him knowing he was fucked was back for when his mom was still around to lecture to him how important education was. How she didn't want her son to be a drop out like herself.

Now with her gone it was just his dad, who saved his lectures for those times he caught Ruby sneaking through his pantry-full of beer, and that was only because it was his beer. Not that his teenage son had a habit for getting drunk and high behind his back.

Other than that, Ruby's dad could care less.

So when Ruby handed his dad the paper he barely even acknowledged it, instead he threw it on the ground next to the couch he had been camping on for the past couple of weeks. The awful smells that came off of him made it obvious that he hadn't showered or bothered to move ever since.

"Just forge my signature, since you know how to do that now." His dad snapped at him, not even bothering to even so much as glance at his son, yet still saying. "I know the look you're giving me, so stop giving me it." Before changing the sports channel to yet another sports channel.

"It's just that you know I could go to jail for that, right?" Ruby asked, instantly cringing at the sound of him asking that question. He cringed more as he saw how much tighter his dad gripped his can of beer. It got to the point where there was now a dent in the metal.

"Since when have you cared about staying out of jail?" His dad questioned back. Tears filled Ruby's eyes as all the memories of his dad hitting him back when he was a little kid. He feared it would start again, now that he had worked up the nerve to start sassing the man. "Didn't you one time say that living in prison would be better than living with me?"

Ruby had now started curling up into a tiny ball against the back wall, because in what felt like the longest time he had finally seen his father get off of the couch. All he could do was watch as his father unbuckled his belt and wrapped it around his clenched fists.

Maybe if I close my eyes it will hurt less. Ruby thought to himself as he surrendered, turning to face and lean against the wall.

Maybe if I start counting the cracks in the wall it will distract me from the pain. And at this Ruby decided to indeed count the amount of cracks in the wall, which he had all from his father's outbursts.

He wondered how many more cracks there would be after this one.

——

"Fuck~" Ragatha moaned out, making it last longer than any single word ever should on her lips. Those lips that Pomni so desperately wanted to bite into until they bled. "That's so-" The doll was cut out by the sound of hissing coming out of her own mouth. The jester had thrust into her a little too hard, causing pain that shouldn't be real, because with it came so much pleasure.

This caused Pomni to thrust into her even harder, making Ragatha moan even harder. "Shouldn't we be-" She was cut off yet again by the jester violently covering her mouth to suppress any sort of noise. "You wanted this, so don't complain about me making you loud."

Ragatha pulled on Pomni's hair, causing her to gasp. "You wanted this, too." She grunted out. "Or else we wouldn't be here."

Pomni hated how the ragdoll was correct.

——

Now that Ruby was all alone he allowed himself to cry. The door to his bedroom was locked, so he didn't have to worry about his dad barging in. Then again, after his dad had finished whipping him he had instantly returned to the couch, so the chances of that happening were extremely slim.

Still, Ruby wanted to be prepared.

"I miss you, Mommy." Ruby whimpered like a pathetic baby as he curled up on his bed. His eyes were starting to become blurry from all the tears he was crying, also staining his pillow. 

"I wish I was with you." Ruby continued, and with that he felt like a vulnerable little kid again. The little boy who his mom had to comfort after his dad punched yet another hole in the wall and furiously waved around his unregistered gun. Yet in the place of that little boy was now an older boy who was broken.

"You probably don't miss me, but I miss you." He kept on talking. At this point it was the only thing that made him feel better. "I miss you a lot, even though I treated you like shit, you meant the world to me." Now Ruby had stopped crying, for he was too enraptured in this imaginary conversation to focus on that.

"And I want to hate you-" The tears were returning with what Ruby was trying to say, but he still went on. "I want to hate you, for everything that you've done, but I honestly can't. If anything, I love you more, because I know that wherever you are you're happy, and that makes me happy. The-the thought of you being happy wherever you are is one of the only things that keeps me going, because it reminds me that it's possible that you can survive my dad and-" Ruby choked on tears caught up in his throat and allowed his head to be buried in the pillows as he began to uncontrollably sob.

"She's happy now, she's happy now, she's happy now." He kept on repeating to himself to make himself feel better, yet it wouldn't work. If anything, it made him feel worse.

——

Little did Ruby know that he was being watched by two mysterious creatures hanging around a dark corner of his room.

"Little crybaby." One of them scoffed. "The Circus will destroy him."

"Hush, Adam." The other whispered sharply. "Someone as experienced as you should know we could draw unnecessary attention to ourselves if we keep on talking like this."

The creature scoffed again. "Whatever, Eve. I'm heading back to report back to the Boss so I don't have to listen to you." Adam said too loudly for Eve's liking, since she smacked him right in his lion-like face with her tail.

Adam jumped back when he heard the sound of Eve's tail hissing, since her tail was really an aggressive snake.

Noticing this Eve laughed. "Moral of the story, never fuck with a chimera."

Adam rolled his eyes at Eve's corny remark. "Well, you're forgetting that I'm not the only one with a poisonous tail." He argued, flashing his sharp scorpion tail. "Because I'm a manticore."

Adam didn't expect Eve to start wheezing. "I'm sorry, it's just that that was the stupidest thing you've ever said, which is really saying something." She explained after she was finished.

Adam was about to snap back at Eve, but he was soon taken aback when he heard the sound of the boy standing up and nervously approaching that dark corner of the room.

"I think it's time to get out of here." Adam told Eve.

"Yeah." Eve agreed. "It's time."