Half of Ruby

Chapter 49

Ruby took a deep breath and headed towards the curtain of shimmering light, frowning as she realized that it bore neither a knocker nor a knob.

It didn't, in fact, seem to bear any substance at all.

She glanced back at Time, whose cold, leering smile sent a jolt of fear through her.

He's trying to help, she calmed herself. He's trying to help.

She took a deep breath and walked straight through the curtain.

Immediately, pain seized her stomach, as though somebody had stabbed her with a million daggers. She screamed as she collapsed to the ground, almost expecting blood to pour from her hands, for her intestines to spill onto the floor.

Red burned into her vision, and she reached up towards it, foolishly trying to smear away the blood.

But it faded.

And so did the rest of the room.

She wasn't falling, but flying, soaring straight through what seemed like a narrow tunnel. Wind hissed in her ears, a single, unrelenting whisper, as she closed her eyes against the blistering force.

The tunnel never seemed to end, pressing into her body from all sides as she gritted her teeth. Panic began to seize her as claustrophobia stepped in.

And then, the tunnel vanished.

Ruby yelped, suspended for a single moment in the air, eyes wide as she turned in the darkness.

Disorientation dizzied her as she stared at the all-encompassing blackness. Was she turning? Was she holding still?

Or was she falling?

"You cannot be forgiven."

A girl's cold voice boomed through the darkness, and Ruby gasped as pain stabbed through her head, hot and needlelike.

"You took away my life. You used me as a tool. I'm not going into the third round without a bargain."

Red blurred through her vision, red and gray and black and blue. Ruby gritted her teeth, forcing herself not to scream, as the colors swirled around her, a whirlpool of different shades, before exploding into a new, hazy scene.

Two women stood in the center of a forest, tree trunks looming above them like gigantic fingers.

"You can't make a bargain—you're my clone."

Ruby blinked as she stared at the two figures. The image before her was hazy, slow, as though obscured by several gauzy curtains. It wavered before her, as though caught in water, as though she were watching a reflection and not the actual process.

Then again, this was the future. What did she expect from that?

"I may be your clone," said the woman to the left, "but you need to respect me. I am an individual. And it's only fair that you let me have my right of way."

"Right of way?" mocked the woman to the right. Ruby started as she realized that she spoke in her voice.

That's me. I'm the one talking in such an abrasive tone.

And the other figure...that's Ember.

Panic seized her as she realized what the future had in store for her.

A conversation with her clone.

"Yes," said Ember, voice calm and even, but barely holding back its fury, like the sky reigning in a thunderstorm. "I need to live my own life. That's the only thing I'm asking for in our third Regeneration. I can be your eyes and ears, but I need to retain my own consciousness. I need to remember that you're the one controlling me. And I need to receive my happy ending. I'm not going down with you."