Ruby Redfort Fanfiction: Look Into His Eyes And Take Your Last Breath

FINALE (PART FOUR)

Clancy took one last, desperate look at Ruby and set off in between the pine trees. Ruby strained in her chair, all of her cool gone. There was no plan, no hope and Clancy was going to die. She slumped back into her chair and stared into space, waiting for the inevitable. The wait wasn't long. After about four or five minutes, there was one, horrible scream of surprise, a wolf howled, then there was silence. A peaceful smile came over the Count's face, LB winced, Dan turned pale. Ruby didn't do anything. She just stared at her lap. 

"Moving swiftly on." grinned the Count, and he motioned LB to grab Ruby. Ruby barely noticed as LB took her to the car, barely noticed when Dan was shoved into the car beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder, barely noticed as the Count drove them up the mountain, barely noticed as the Count set up a contraption that would shine the enhanced jade light into Ruby's eyes when the moon was full. But what Ruby did notice, was the gun in LB's pocket as she sat behind it. Ruby felt slightly more at peace. She could avenge Clancy. So she took the gun. It was ridiculously easy, a jerk forward when the car lurched, a slight of hand, and the gun was tucked behind Ruby's back in her pajama bottoms. So before she was tied to the chair, Ruby directed a blow into LB's stomach, winding her. She pulled the gun from pajamas and pointed the barrel at the Count and backed away, so she could see LB as well. The Count looked mildly surprised,

"Where did you get that...oh." 

"Oh." repeated Ruby firmly as the Count realized what had happened. But instead of looking worried or scared, he just looked even more pleased. Rubbing his hands together, he began to advance. Ruby cocked the gun, but the Count kept going, inch by inch. Suddenly Ruby could see inside the Count's head. He didn't care of the consequences, he didn't care if he died, in fact, it would probably be a relief. And if Ruby killed the Count, there was still LB to face, who was a terrifying adversary, even by herself. And Ruby had a stroke of genius. The gun swung away from the Count, past Dan...past LB and Ruby pointed it at her own head. The Count froze.

"You wouldn't" Ruby looked the Count dead in the eye.

"Oh, I would. You've taken everything from me, so I will take everything from you. An eye for an eye." The Count backed off, and for one moment, Ruby considered pulling the trigger. What was so wrong with death? After all the suffering, she thought she deserved a bit of peace. Besides, if there was a heaven, there was little doubt that she would find Clancy Crew up there. Her finger was wrapped against the trigger, ready to pull if necessary. Then there was a shout. 

"Ruby!" She spun around, but there was no one. But it had been Clancy, his voice...The Count brought Ruby to the ground with a crash. He had leaped to the chance when Ruby had spun around to look for the owner of the voice. The Count was not unduly worried that the voice was Clancy's. Voice carried a long way in the mountains, and the voices could be distorted so much they sounded completely different. The Count was not one to miss chances just because of a voice. 

Ruby was tied up properly in her chair, and waited for her fate. The Count was pacing, LB as stony faced as ever and Dan as pale as a ghost. The jade piece was hanging from a claw, and the moon, as soon as it came out from behind its cloud, would burn the conveniently placed Ruby's eyeballs off her face. It sounded a lot less horrible than it was, and it already sounded horrible. Ruby had it up to here with trying to escape. She seemed to have the completely wrong side of luck today. Ironically, her seemingly endless luck had run out at her most vulnerable hour. Ruby was now sucked into a torturous blitz or her memories of Clancy.

As soon as Ruby could walk (which wasn't much time at all), she had been taken to functions to meet a lot of doting, eager and hopelessly boring adults who could simply not get over the fact this two year old could already talk like a five year old. Ruby resented the attention, mainly because in her opinion, anyone could talk well by the time they were her age, they just chose not to. This was a smart move, but Ruby had no time for dillydallying and no time for to be doted over by parents. No, Ruby Redfort was going to see the world as soon as she could. Ruby's third function was at Ambassador Crew's house for his thirty-seventh birthday. Ruby, upon arriving at the house, was bombarded by adults and parents, each wanting to catch a glimpse of such an intelligent child. Five minutes in, Ruby was bored stiff. But a small body pushed through the large and tall crowd surrounding Ruby and hid behind his father's leg. He had curious, bright eyes and a messy crop of hair, and Ruby stared at him intently. She had never seen another child at a function before, and this one certainly looked a lot more interesting than all these boring people who's sentences mainly included the words 'frankly' and 'I say!'. So when Clancy toddled away, Ruby followed. Clancy looked surprised to be followed and frowned at her. Ruby shook her long hair out of her ponytail and asked politely if there were any interesting hiding places around. Clancy understood and led her into a near airing cupboard. It was there that they huddled up together and Ruby told Clancy her name and how old she was (she knew such things were important to toddlers, even though she didn't really care about her age), and Clancy stared at her in wonder and whispered her name to himself over and over again for the next hour. 

"Ruby, Ruby, Ruby..." 

"Ruby! Ruby!" came a yell in the present, a lot deeper and more urgent than the whispers all those years ago, but still incredibly familiar. Ruby's head shot up faster than a bullet, and there, inside a chopper hovering over the cliff face, was Hitch and Clancy. 

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6 DAYS