Queen Ruby

Chapter 20

I must have started crying at some point while reading. I had to hold back the sobbing. It was her. I know it was her. I saw through her eyes, I saw her friends die I felt her pain I saw the man. I can't hold it anymore and run to the bathroom. I start sobbing and hyperventilating. I can't stop crying. It was her, it was me. I feel her inside of me. I feel all of them. They are all here. I feel their suffering and their sadness.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I try breathing but my lungs hurt too much. My heart feels like it's going to explode.

"It wasn't a dream. It was real. I saw you... me... us... why do we need to do this? Why does this happen to us? Why do I feel you? Why are you inside my head?"

I grab my hair and curl into a ball. It's still not ten o clock. Weiss and Yang are still sleeping and don't notice my panic attack. I keep whispering to myself and crying quietly until I hear Yang get up. I change as fast as possible and get into the shower. I turn on the water and pretend to shower.

"Ruby?"

"Yea?"

"I need to shower too so don't take long. K?"

"I'm almost done!" I calm down, put on my happiest smile and walk out. Yang jumps into the shower and I put on my battle skirt. Weiss looks at me with a worried look but I smile and jump around like a little girl. Soon we are all ready and head out to find Blake. She is already on her way to our Dorm when we bump into her.

"Blake!" I jump onto her.

"I missed you!"

"I was five minutes away Ruby. You could have visited me anytime you wanted to."

Yang lifts me by my hood and hands me to Weiss who just holds me not knowing what to do.

"Good to have you back." Yang helps Blake back up and hugs her.

"So what did I miss?" Blake asks us on the way to get breakfast.

"Not too much. We played games yesterday and Ruby was up really early this morning."

"Really? Weiss played games with you?"

"I was there too!"

"You weren't gone?"

"I came back early."

We laugh and talk all morning until I remember that I haven't done any himself yet.

"Guys! I forgot I have homework! I need to go sorry!"

They all just laugh as I storm of direction Dorm. I get out my homework and start studying. Hours pass before I finally finish them all. The rest of my team is already back and are relaxing in their beds.

"Finished! Finally, all done." I announce loudly. "Now what? You guys want to play a game?"

"Not now Ruby I'm still studying," Weiss responds.

"I'm actually kinda busy texting my friends from Patch." Yang apologizes.

"And I'm reading," Blake says.

"Aw... What am I supposed to do now?"

"You could study some more with me?" Weiss proses.

"I just finished studying. I want to do something fun!"

"You could read that book of yours?" Blake suggests.

"Book?"

"Oh, yea! That book you were reading this morning!" Yang remembers.

"I wasn't reading this morning." I lie.

"Sure you were." She stands up and gets the book from my bed. Her smile fades as she hands it to me.

"You were reading it and started crying."

"You saw that?" I turn red and wish myself away from all this. How do I explain the book and the crying? If she saw that then she must have heard the sobbing and all those crazy things I said. She's trying to get me to tell her, but I won't tell her.

"I saw you read a book and start tearing up. Then you ran to the bathroom and started sobbing hysterically. Either that is the saddest book in the world or something else is going on."

"It's a sad story." I press the book to my chest. "It's a story about heroes and monsters. And it's a true story." I whisper the last part but they all heard it. They give each other a confused look before Blake asks me.

"Ruby, who is the story about?"

I look away. They know I don't want to tell them. I take a last deep breath before answering.

"The story is about me."