Ruby Rising (14 page)

Tears threatened to spill down my face, I was so confused at this whole situation. I had no idea what the hell was going on. I kept my eyes to the ground, I was not going to give Mikayla the sick satisfaction of watching my silent tears fall. I knew now she much she would enjoy them.

She didn’t just dislike me, she
hated
me. Loathing radiated off her in palpable waves. I shook my head wondering how I could have been so blind to it. Things started to add up in my head, so many coincidences and her just happening to show up at the right time and then seemingly disappear for days on end.

I wondered if she had managed to arrange my class timetable to keep an eye on me. If only I knew what she was looking for, what she wanted from me. I wished I’d listened to what Krystal had been trying to tell me when she had tried to talk to me at the lake. Although with the influence of Mikayla I probably wouldn’t have listened anyway. Now it looks like that was her plan the entire time, after all she had managed to keep me from finding out what Krystal had so desperately wanted to tell me.

CHAPTER 16

An hour later everyone was puffing and sweating, most of us had large sweat patches down our backs. We hadn’t stopped, not even for a breather, Mikayla was trying to push us all to our limits. I was grateful that I had kept up my running but I knew I would be still be sore tomorrow.

We reached the top of the hill and the ground levelled out. Mikayla stood at the edge of a massive boulder looking down into the valley below. The view was absolutely breathtaking and if I hadn’t of been so wound up I would have appreciated it so much more. Primfield was in the distance, surrounded by bushland and farming country. I wish I’d brought my camera with me.

Mikayla raised her hands dramatically and everyone knelt forming a circle around her. Everyone except for me. Mikayla came and stood in front of me, her green eyes glowing and her long black hair falling over her face in the gentle breeze. I stood eye to eye with her and again she slapped me across the face, this time I managed to stay on my feet.

“Are you sure you’re strong enough to take more?” she asked with a smarmy grin on her face.

I looked around, hoping that someone would help me. I was no longer here willingly and Mikayla knew it. Again I stared her down my whole body tensed for another slap. Instead she reached her hand behind my head and pulled me close to her by my hair, so that her mouth was next to my ear.

“He doesn’t love you, you know. No matter what he
said
to get you into bed. He can’t love anymore.” Then she punched me in the stomach doubling me over and making me retch. I was bent over and still struggling to catch my breath when she pulled me down to my knees by my hair. “You will watch.”

As much as I wanted to stand up to her and not kneel before her I didn’t try and get up again. I hated myself for it; for not having the power or the courage to stand up to her. But I also knew I was nowhere near a match for her or anything she could possibly do. Thinking of the saying that my mother had always told me, ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ I backed down and went into self-preservation mode.

Mikayla drew a circle in the dirt large enough for her to stand in, and then drew a star within it. Walking around the circle, she stopped in front of everyone except for me, looking into each of their eyes. After going around once, she held her hand out for a brown haired boy to take. He smiled at her and took her hand eagerly.

They entered the circle together, and Mikayla took off his top, and threw it into the spot where he had been kneeling. Mikayla snapped her fingers and the boy dropped to his knees, resting on his feet, placing his left arm palm up he looked directly at Mikayla. He gazed up at her with reverence and awe. I didn’t know what she had done to deserve such loyalty. 

For the first time since we left the camp ground Mikayla spoke.

“Aaron, are you here of your own free will?” she said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Aaron nodded, never taking his gaze off her.

“Do you willingly give this sacrifice to
Him
, regardless of consequence, to please
Him
, to invoke
Him
, so that you may be blessed by his powers?” She raised her arms above her head but kept her gaze on him. He nodded and raised his right arm to match the left.

Mikayla drew a knife from under her shirt. The sunlight glinting off it and I saw symbols and words etched into the metal, I just couldn’t read it from where I knelt.

Mikayla kissed the blade then bent down to his face and kissed him. His arms never wavered, but his arousal was clear to everyone within seconds. The kiss was ugly. Mikayla’s tongue darted in and out of his mouth. Finally she pulled away, kissed it and sliced across both arms in one swipe.

I gasped and fell backwards, trying to crawl backwards away from the bizarreness occurring in front of me. I was held in place securely by the two people that had been kneeling next to me, both year twelve boys who were deceptively strong for their smaller size. Whatever was happening Mikayla wanted to make sure I witnessed it. I stopped trying to move away and they immediately let me go.

Aaron turned his arms over so that his blood fell to the ground beneath him, directly on to where all the lines of the star crossed. To me it seemed like minutes ticked by as we watched his blood collect on the ground, Mikayla stood over the pooling blood and drove the knife into it. The blood and dirt burst into blue flames, flared up and around Aaron before disappearing.

Mikayla picked up the knife that was now glowing, I wasn’t sure if it was from magic or heat. Then without even wincing she licked it from the hilt to the tip. Closing her eyes she moaned in ecstasy. I was surprised that I found it mildly erotic, despite my new found dislike for Mikayla and the circumstances of what was happening. After she had savoured the moment she turned the knife flat and glided it across Aarons bleeding arms. The wounds healed as I watched, leaving only smears of blood where it had dripped off his arms.

Aaron was dismissed from the circle with another kiss, this one a more g-rated version of the first. Something I often witnessed my parents do when my father left for work.

Moving her eyes over everyone in the circle Mikayla stopped at me her words chilled me to my core. I knelt shuddering, despite not wanting her to see how she was affecting me.

“You will be a sacrifice for
Him
Ruby, I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but you are destined for it. You cannot change your fate, you cannot fight
His
power.” I tried to get up and stand in front of her, but again I was pulled back down to my knees. “You can’t fight His power Ruby, He
will
be inside you.” She cradled her hands around my face and I fought for control to stay conscious as a dark fog ebbed its way through my body. I looked into her eyes defiantly, both were deep pools of pure black, empty of any humanity. All that was left was pain and hate. I tried to scream when my head began to feel as though it was going to implode, it was absolute agony. A second before I passed out I felt the energy in me pushing against the invasion of Mikayla into my body.

CHAPTER 17

“Ruby?” I could hear Scott’s voice, he sounded miles away. “Ruby, wake up.”

Opening my eyes, I blinked rapidly, and my head felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer as light streamed in.

“Scott?” I sat up and instantly regretted it. My head swam and my stomach contents wanted out. “Mikayla…she said I’m going to be a sacrifice…she cut him. Oh my God Scott, we have to get out of here! She
cut
him!”

He gently rubbed his hands over my head and shushed me, soothing me, calming me.

“Rubes, you fell over and took a nosedive down a hill, you’ve got some serious war wounds. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared! When I saw them carrying you out of the bush like that. I thought…just for a minute… I thought you were dead.”

“No…Scott that’s not what happened! That’s not it…” I trailed off for a second trying to gather my thoughts in the haze that filled my head. The memories of what had happened were foggy and seemed to fading. “I didn’t fall! “We were at the top of the hill, Mikayla she…”

I took a deep breath and sat upright. I tried to remember what I was going to say, I felt like it was on the tip of my tongue. “I fell?”

“Well I wasn’t there Ruby, but that’s what I was told. You’ve been out for a while now. I was contemplating calling an ambulance.” Scott held my elbow as he helped me stand up. I took in a few deep breaths to help clear my head and ease the nausea.

“I don’t think that’s what happened. It has something to do with Mikayla…” I was now struggling to recall
any
of the details of the hike past where the two girls had been fighting. My instincts told me that something serious had gone on. Looking at Scott’s bewildered expression I knew he didn’t believe me. “It doesn’t matter, I think I just need a shower.” I needed some time to myself to try and remember what had really happened. I grabbed some clean clothes, my current ones were covered in blood, dirt, leaves and other bush debris. I unzipped the tent and headed for the shower block, leaving Scott staring after me.

As I walked to the shower block I noticed Mikayla sitting in a small group having a drink and laughing. She waved at me, but I shook my head and continued on the shower block, making sure I locked my cubicle behind me.

As the hot water cascaded down my back the pain eased in my head and the nausea finally eased. My whole body screamed in pain as the hot water began to clean the various cuts, grazes and bruises from my fall.

I shook my head, I knew what Scott had told me hadn’t happened. I felt it in every cell of my body, my mind and my soul. The memories had faded now so that I couldn’t recall them at all. I remembered the two girls fighting and then…nothing. The memories were there somewhere trapped by the haze in my head.

I was growing more and more frustrated and angry and felt the steady stream of water ebb to a trickle. Looking up the water was steaming above me. I was radiating such intense heat that as each drop hit me it sizzled off before I felt them.

I sighed and took a deep calming breath in and then blew it out slowly. The water slowly stopped steaming as I calmed and backed down to a dull roar in the bottom of my stomach. I needed to learn to control the energy that I had whenever I was angry, upset or emotionally out of control. I needed to find somewhere safe, where I couldn’t hurt anyone, including myself.

When the water ran cold I turned it off and willed the water off me until I was dry. I realised that I didn’t
make
the water move, I
asked
it to. Not having to have a towel was certainly handy. I pulled on some tracksuit pants and a loose t-shirt and headed back to the tent.

“How are you feeling?” Scott was lying on our bed with his eyes shut.

“I’m fine, I feel better after my shower though.” I shoved my dirty washing into a plastic bag and put it back into my backpack.

I sat cross-legged next to him on the bed and put my hand on his chest. I closed my eyes and concentrated on him, sending out little feelers of energy through my body to the edge of his skin.

“That seriously tickles, Rubes!” he said as he squirmed beneath my light touch. “I didn’t even know I was ticklish.”

I pushed harder and opened my eyes to see if he was being affected. He went still and closed his eyes again, his breathing slowed and then his whole body stilled. I held my concentration, keeping my own breathing even and continued to send my energy out in slightly bigger pulses to test it. I felt bad not telling him what I was doing, but at the same time, he was the only one I could trust enough to let me do this. Mikayla certainly wouldn’t be volunteering any time soon.

Taking a deep breath I pushed again until I felt my energy clinging to the surface of his skin, spreading out and covering his entire body like a second skin. I felt him sigh and take in a deep breath. I held my own, waiting for him to realise what I was doing. When he made no further movements I closed my eyes again. I let my senses drift through the energy that coursed through me into him.

After a few seconds I began to see a vision, but quickly realised it was actually a flashback of Scott’s memories. In my mind I was carrying a young girl down the mountain, it was the girl from the fight. She was staring up at me with beautiful hazel eyes, neither scared nor happy. The image flickered and I laid her down on a bed and give her a drink, then reached down to hold her hand. There was a small white mark on her head but it was too blurry to make out the exact shape. Flickering again the vision cleared slightly and I saw was my own body being carried by some of the year twelve boys with Mikayla following close behind. She nodded towards me and I felt myself nod back. Her face was devoid of her usual smugness. Instead her brow was creased and she had an air of fear around her.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing Ruby?” Scott jumped up and flicked my hand away like I was poison.

“I’m sorry! I wanted to see if I could…” My voice trailed off. I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell him what I was trying to do, especially since I hadn’t known what or how I was doing it.

“I
felt
you in my
head
, Ruby!” Running his hands through his hair he looked like a caged animal, his intense anger reflected in his eyes. “I felt you in my head! Fuck! What were you looking for? How did you even
do
that?” He leant over me and grabbed me by my shoulders and shook me.

The first shake was rough and I found myself too shocked by his sudden aggression to react. When I didn’t answer he shook me harder and repeated his question loudly yelling at me an inch from my face.

I was terrified and the fear had me frozen, unable to move or speak. My fear grew with his anger and his rough grasp of my shoulders grew painful as he continued to shake me. I felt an intense energy filling me, built almost instantly, and filling me completely in only a few seconds. I screamed at him to get back to let go but he never had a chance. I screamed and felt it release from me with such force it threw me backwards and I landed roughly on my back on the dirt. The tent disintegrated in front of me in slow motion Scott was then flying backwards away from me. Then the sound of thunder filled my ears, rumbling and vibrating through me to my core.

When the dust cleared I could hear Scott groaning somewhere. I started to cough with powerful heaves of air into my lungs which were full of dust. My eyes were stinging and scratchy and began to water restricting my vision further. I wasn’t hurt but I wasn’t so sure about Scott. I looked around stunned by what I saw. It was like a bomb had detonated around the tent, sending out a blast so great it had knocked down every single tree that had been close to the epicentre. In this case that epicentre was me. For twenty metres in a perfect circle, the trees lay flat and broken. The closest ones were blown to pieces, looking more like bark chips than remnants of trees.

I saw Scott sit up, his head was cut open and blood poured over his face. I scurried off the ground, grazing my already wounded knees and elbows in my panic to get up. When I slipped my hand landed on his mobile phone amongst the carnage. I put it in my pocket to give to him later. Looking down I realised that everything that had been within a metre of where I was hadn’t been caught up in the explosion.

“Are you okay?” I grabbed the bottom of his shirt and ripped off a section that was already torn and held it to his bleeding head. He looked at me, blue eyes unsure and confused. “Scott?”

“Ruby? What happened? Did you, what…” His voice trailed off, but I couldn’t take my eyes off his. They had always been green, always. I blinked and they remained blue.

“Scott! What the
fuck
?” Mikayla pushed me out of the way and leaned over her brother. “What did you do, Ruby? What the fuck happened?” She screamed at me.

“Mikayla, I’m fine." He called after her. "She didn’t do anything, there was a gas bottle behind our tent…it must have exploded or something.” He turned to look at me and I watched as his blue eyes fill with green-like mist. “I’d better take her home though.”

“There is no way in hell you are driving with a head wound like that. I’ll drive
both
of you.” Mikayla looked at me then back to her brother. “Why don’t you see if there is anything you can salvage and I’ll get him into the car?”

I nodded as she had him carted to the car. I was absolutely positive now that there was more to the hike than I remembered. I just had to figure out another way to find out. I was pretty sure Scott wouldn’t let me into his head anytime soon, not that he’d really let me the first time.

I sifted through the fragments of our tent and miraculously found my bag and hoisted it onto my shoulder. As I was looking for Scott’s things when I found a small black crystal. Picking it up its coldness surprised me. My hand felt like it was holding a block of ice fresh from the freezer. It was beautifully carved with intricate symbols etched into its shiny surface. I felt a strange attraction to it and put it in my pocket to look at later. After a few more minutes of searching I still couldn’t find Scott’s bag so I decided to head over to the car. Throwing my bag in the boot I took a deep breath before I got in the front passenger side.

Scott was in the back of his own car which I could tell he hated from the scowl that was on his blood stained face. Despite his obvious pain I was still angry at him for shaking me and scaring the shit out of me. He had never shown me any signs that he might be violent. I’d seen nothing but tenderness. But that look in his eye had been unmistakeable. He would have hurt me if my body hadn’t of reacted like it did.

The trip home was silent other than Mikayla who called a doctor to meet them at home to check out Scott’s head. It was a strange call, more like a summons then a request, but her attitude shouldn’t really surprise me anymore.

When we pulled up at my house and I got out without saying anything to either of them and went straight around to the boot of the car. When she didn’t open it immediately I wrapped my knuckles on it. I was disappointed, but not surprised, when she got out of the car and to come and open it.

“You could have just popped it,” I told her.

She held up the keys, “need a key.”

I grabbed my bag and thought about giving her Scott’s phone, I didn’t know why but I decided to hold onto it. As I went to walk off she grabbed my wrist and pulled me close enough to feel her breath on my face. “Think about your next move wisely, Ruby. I’ll
know
what you choose to do. You need to start thinking about the consequences of your actions. You wouldn’t want anyone you love to get hurt would you?” She flicked her eyes towards my house and back to me to solidify her point.

“I know you’ve got some kind of hold on him,” I pulled my wrist out of her painful grip. “I won’t let you hurt him.” I turned and stormed off to my house, I could hear Phoenix barking wildly, he must have known that Mikayla was there.

“Like you did today, you mean?” She called to my retreating back.

Before going inside I turned back as she pulled away with Scott still sitting in the back seat, his face pale and blood still oozed from his wound. Part of me was devastated that he never said a word when I had gotten out of the car and he had left with Mikayla. The other part of me was relieved to be away from him and his unpredictable anger. I knew that I had invaded his privacy, his body
and
his mind. I knew I was mostly to blame for his anger but I hadn't thought that he would have hurt me until today. Until
I
had pushed him to the edge.

My mother was in the kitchen when I walked in, sitting at the table with a steaming cup of coffee and a magazine.

“Ruby?” She stood up taking in my filthy, dishevelled appearance and walked over to me. “What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be back until Monday. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“A gas bottle exploded near our tent, I got a bit banged up and decided to come home. A few trees came down as well.” I had decided to go with the story that I was sure Mikayla would be using and it also provided a reason for my grazes and bruises. Then I burst into tears and fell into my mother’s open arms.

After I’d calmed down enough to talk she sat me at the table and made me a strong cup of coffee and handed it to me with a couple of my favourite sweet biscuits before she went to find a box of tissues.