A Great Big Pile of ̶T̶̶r̶̶a̶̶s̶̶h̶ Art! [FINISHED]

Ruby's Story

Ruby's parents died long before she got a chance to know them. In movies, when the parents of the main character die when they're a baby, the protagonist can usually remember something about them. Maybe their voice singing a song, or a little flash of an image of them, or the way they used to rock their child to sleep. This is not the case with Ruby. She cannot state a single fact about her parents.

She grew up in an orphanage under the.. care of a woman named Melody Alabaster. Melody Alabaster comes from a long line of very important and powerful people, each controlling some domain of power. Melody, being entirely made of a smooth, dark grey marble, can control stone with ease and built her manor, the orphanage, off of that. This orphanage is no run of the mill, Annie-type, hard-knock-life orphanage.
Melody's Manor was a place filled with screams, filled with horror and bloodbaths. She would treat each kid like a slave, inhuman and insignificant. She did this all for a reason, of course, though the reason was selfish and cold.
Melody took an immediate liking to her, which was, of course, a very bad thing. She was especially harsh on Ruby.

Ruby met a boy while she was there, a boy named Zane, who cared for her before she could even walk. He wasn't much older than her, maybe a few years, but did all he could for her. Zane was the only person Ruby could ever trust at the orphanage, the only person she sought refuge in. They were inseparable, joined at the hip.
They were family then, brother and sister, as they knew they could rely on one another.

Once the children were old enough to be taught, they each either learned a type of dance, a foreign language, or both. A few unlucky kids took neither. Ruby, because of this, is fluent in Old Norse. She thought she'd only have to take a language, but Melody made her take ballet. Melody made her do a lot of things.
Back when Ruby was in the orphanage, several different groups of kids lived in the west wing of the manor, each group born within five years of each other.
Ruby and Zane we're constantly near each other, for emotional support, and, as soon as they were all a certain age, Melody took all of the kids in Ruby and Zane's age group out to the courtyard, in the middle of the four wings, and left them will a faceless gargoyle to explain to them why they were there.
The gargoyle told them that they'd be pitted against each other. One on one. And they'd fight, fight with everything they had. The winners would go back to their rooms, and they'd be able to walk around at night for the next few days, and they'd be able to come out to the courtyard and play games. Things like that.
If they lost, well- they were fighting until one of them wasn't breathing anymore. If you catch my drift.

So that's what the drain system around the courtyard square were for.

After a few years, everyone had fought and killed and so, so many of the only children Ruby ever knew had died.

And finally, the only kids left were her, and Zane.
They knew the day was coming and coming fast, but they couldn't think about it. They couldn't lose each other. Zane was all Ruby had, and vise versa.
Ruby, overwhelmed, cried herself to sleep on Zane's arms every night, hoping, by some miracle, Melody let them out together. Melody has previously told a few remaining children that if they were the last ones left standing, she'd let them go. And, like idiots— idiots filled with hope— they believed her.
However, Ruby and Zane were by far the strongest, so they outlived everyone else.

They day came quick. Zane pulled ruby aside before they exited the building, and, with teary eyes, told her to hit as hard as she could.
Zane loved Ruby so much he couldn't bear to see her die, and tried to convince Ruby to kill him so she could make it out alive. Ruby didn't accept the idea at first, but being young and naïve, she tearfully agreed.

After it was all over, and Zane lay bleeding to death in her arms, three long slashes across either side of his face and three more on his chest, he told her in a whisper to stay strong. Ruby could barely hear him over the sound of her tears.

Melody yanked her away from Zane's body and back into the manor.
She didn't let Ruby go.

End of Part 1
HAHA psyche I'm splitting it in half