Lovely (Ruby x Dyrroth)

eighteen

Once Dyrroth and Selena left the room, Ruby curled herself into a tight ball, wishing she didn't exist.

She had no idea how long she'd lay in that position, crying silently, unable to control herself. Neither did she know how long she'd been there or when the tears would stop flowing. Time had become elastic, stretching and changing incomprehensibly, regardless of whether she could keep up with it. Not that she even bothered trying anymore. It had become all but impossible to keep track of the days that passed.

In other words, Ruby's life was now a mess.

Dyrroth had lied to her. All along, she'd been manipulated into thinking he was interested in her. Maybe he really was - honestly, she would rather not know. Because even if he did, the secret he'd been keeping from her all along, which had come to light only recently, confirmed that Dyrroth and Ruby had no future together. He was betrothed to Selena. In other words, engaged. 

Perhaps it wasn't his fault. He seemed to genuinely dislike the girl, so it had probably been Alice's decision instead of his, but that didn't make the fact that he'd kept it from Ruby okay. Not at all.

Whenever the thought of Dyrroth flashed into her mind, Ruby's veins would fill with a mixture of fury and hurt, the latter overpowering the former most of the time. Her hatred for Selena had become almost immeasurable as well, bitterness at the idea of her practically engraved into her bones. But that wasn't the main thing on her mind.

Dyrroth was.

Ruby spent countless hours convincing herself, over and over, that she didn't care. She'd sort of succeeded. Well, she hoped so. Or else it meant she'd said the same words to herself in her head repeated and almost driven herself to the point of madness for nothing.

All of a sudden, being locked in a grimy, rusty black cage twenty-four hours a day was so horribly depressing that she could hardly believe at one point, she'd accepted this, told herself it was okay. Ruby knew the drastic change in atmosphere had to be caused by Dyrroth's absence, but she forced herself not to admit it. 

The prince hadn't visited her for what felt like several decades.

But, as Ruby had said to herself countless times, she didn't care.

Gradually, as the days drifted past, all her thoughts of Dyrroth and the mess he'd created began to fade, replaced by endless plans to escape from this dark hellhole. She wanted to get out of here, as far away as possible from this place, so badly that she probably hadn't had an urge so strong and unbearable in her entire life.

The experience of being betrayed had started a spark of determination inside Ruby which she found vaguely familiar. It was the same thing she'd felt when she'd first found out Alucard had a girlfriend. Oh well, this meant she'd been let down twice already in her sixteen years of life. Pretty miserable.

As the days passed, Ruby decided to spend her time figuring out how to unlock her cage from the inside and break open the padlock somehow. She didn't get anywhere, but she really wasn't all that disappointed. She hadn't been expecting anything successful. Her luck seemed to have run out long ago.

She killed time by trying her best to sleep, staring at a random smudge on the wall, or cleaning her fingernails, for God knew how long. It felt like an eternity to Ruby. Life had become colourless, the same lonely cycle repeating every day. 

So when the door suddenly swung open one day, Ruby was so startled she nearly passed out from shock. 

Moskov stepped into the room, completely oblivious to her exaggerated reaction. He seemed to be in a ragged state, tired and unkempt. 'What?' Ruby asked, frowning at him. 'What do you want?'