Who: Ruby Daly and Cole Stewart What: Ruby Arrives When: February 1 Where: On the Streets of Madison Valley Rating: Low
As she ran towards the boardroom, the image of Cole flashed through her head again. The burnt, mutilated corpse that the Reds had tortured and taken photos of.
“It’s Cole.”
It still felt like there were thousands little needles were flowing through her veins as she turned the corner, trying to get to the boardroom quickly.Ruby needed to get there and take everything about Thurmond down before they came. She shut here eyes as she tried not to hear Liam’s broken words.
“It’s not okay!” he shouted. “Stop saying that! It’s not! I’m not coming back. I have to tell Harry and—and Mom, oh, God, Mom—”
It had been all her fault. Clancy had used her and now everyone was in danger because she couldn’t see it coming.
Ruby was so caught up in what was happening that as she turned the last corner, she didn’t notice right away the hallway turned into a street. She did, however, feel herself run right into someone at top speed.
--
Cole, on the other hand, wasn’t panicking at all. In fact, he was rather enjoying walking around the streets of Madison Valley. He’d gotten a latte at Starbucks, popped into a couple of stores without buying anything, and was just kind of walking around in a bit of a haze. It reminded him of when he’d been just a kid. It was the life that had been destroyed when everything had gone to shit. If he didn’t feel that there was so much left back home that he needed to help out with, then he’d actually be pretty happy to stay here. Well, with Lee and Ruby and his parents and the people he actually liked.
When he came around a corner, he was suddenly knocked to his feet by an unknown force, and found himself on the ground on his butt with his half-full latte making a light muddy stain on the concrete.
“Ooof,” was all he could say at first, as he got himself to his feet, glad at last that the coffee hadn’t ended up on him. Then he looked at what had hit him.
“...Ruby?”
***
She fell on the ground from the force, too, and for a moment she was in a daze. She realized she had to be hearing things since she was pretty sure she heard Cole, but then she felt snow under the palms of her hands. She looked down at the ground and then up to where Cole was standing. Cole.
Ruby felt panic well up inside her and she climbed her feet quickly. “Cole?” She looked at him with wide, wild eyes and then her eyes shut as she tried to focus. Was this Clancy? It had to be a trick. This couldn’t be real. Ruby couldn’t feel Clancy in her head, though, and when she re-opened her eyes, Cole remained in front of her and they were not at the safe house. Confusion riddled her face. “...Cole?”
--
Cole bent down and offered her a hand to help her up. “You could have just waved, you know, darlin’. No need to run into me to get my attention.” His smile faded a little, though, as he saw the expression on her face. “Are you okay?” She didn’t look okay. “I mean, other than the fact we’re somehow in another dimension or something?”
That was the only way he could explain it to himself, anyway.
“Did you just get here?” That would explain everything.
***
That stupid accent. She had never thought she’d hear that accent coming out of Cole Stewart’s mouth again. For a moment she didn’t care about anything, but his question if she was okay and then if she just get here pulled her out of herself again. Had he said ‘another dimension’?
“What?”
It was then that a car drove by and Ruby finally registered they were out on a street in public during the day. She glanced across the street to a couple walking by. They were probably glancing over here because Ruby and Cole had a collision, but Ruby’s thoughts naturally went to something worse. She tensed. Cole could pull off being in public, but she definitely couldn’t. Instinctively she took a step closer to the side of the building.
“Cole, what’s going on here?”
***
Once he was sure she was standing and steady, Cole put his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looked around as if he was seeing the place for the first time. “I only know what they told me,” he said. “That we’re in...another place. In Indiana, apparently, but not our Indiana. Indiana before...well, everything. It’s...normal here. Like things used to be when we were kids.”
He looked over to her.
“You don’t have to be afraid. I’ve been here for a week now. Nobody has even really been curious where I came from. Or...what I am.” Not that they could tell - he’d gotten really good at hiding it. “There are other people here from horrible worlds too.”
He offered her a small smile.
“I bet they wouldn’t even know what a psi is.”
***
It was a lot to take in. If it had been someone she didn’t trust, she wouldn’t have believed him. The fact that he was even standing in front of her, though, was hard to understand and for a moment as she looked at his face, all she could see what the charred flesh. She glanced away again and back to the streets. The couple had moved on and no one else was looking at them. She even spotted a little child walking with her father and that was an image Ruby had never seen before, or at least in a very long time.
“I need to get back.” She looked back to him. She wanted to ask him how are you even here? but the question seemed too dangerous. “Clancy - everyone’s in danger. I need to get back and help them.” The idea of being somewhere where being psi wasn’t a worry and where people apparently didn’t ask you questions was tempting, but considering what she had just caused back home, she didn’t exactly deserve this place.
--
“Well, you can’t,” he said with a casual shrug of his shoulders. “Turns out there are people who have been here for almost seven years and there’s no going back. Scientists a lot smarter than me have been working on it all that time, and nothing’s happened. Nothing. The town brings in who it wants when it wants and sends it home when it wants to. That’s it.” He couldn’t say he was totally okay with being under the control of a sentient town, but hey, it wasn’t as shitty as back home was. Nobody was trying to kill him. That was definitely an improvement on before. Had he told anyone what he could do? No. He didn’t see that happening any time soon. But nobody had asked, which was nice.
“Sorry, Ruby,” he said, with a little more compassion. “I’m just trying to figure the place out myself, and it’s...it’s a lot to take. But as weird as it is? I really think we’re safe here. From what I can tell. I’ve even seen people discussing their abilities on the network. Not like us - not from our world. But people with powers from different worlds. And they aren’t scared at all.”
***
Ruby’s brow furrowed a little as she tried to understand everything. Being here and not being back home should have felt nice. She had dreamed of literally finding herself anywhere else for years while in Thurmond. Somehow, now, it seemed like the wrong time. She needed to be home to evacuate people, but also to go find Liam. She needed to deal with Clancy and his mother. She closed her eyes again and rubbed her forehead. Nothing was ever easy.
“People with powers from different worlds.” She needed to say it out loud for it to even be considered a possibility. Like Cole, Ruby didn’t think she was about to advertise what she was to anyone. Apart from the fact it still felt too dangerous, she didn’t exactly think people would warm up to the idea that she could mess with their minds.
She nodded to him, shelving the idea of going home for now. Instead, she settled on a form of her most-pressing question. “What’s the last thing you remember?” She had been so certain who she had seen was Cole, but now, maybe, there was a chance she was wrong.
--
“Um, Lee and I had gone to...observe at the Red camp.” Observe. That was what he’d promised. No more than observe. Although he knew that he could never do that, even when he’d promised it. He had to know more. He had to see if there was anything he could do for all those kids like...like...like him.
He ran a hand through his hair, clearly upset at the thought, and as he did, his hand started to twitch a little. He frowned and shoved it back into his pocket, hoping that Ruby hadn’t noticed.
“Look. I know we can’t get back, but I also know exactly why that sucks. But there’s nothing we can do about it now. You’re also going to need a Guardian. Why don’t you stay with me? Then if you end up doing some weird Orange thing, I won’t tell.” He grinned a little. “What do you say?”
***
She couldn’t believe it, but if Cole was telling the truth, he was from just before he would die. She didn’t call him out on his ‘observation’ mission of his, nor did she call him out on him shoving his hand in his pocket. Instead, she rolled her eyes because of course he’d be like this. He even produced a small smile on her lips from the playful jab he gave her. “You’re so annoying.” But that was definitely an affirmative to his question. Despite herself, she found herself reaching out and hugging him for a moment. “I’m glad you’re here.”
***
Cole returned her hug quickly and one-handed, grinning at having been called annoying. He was. It was the truth. What could he say? When he replied, he was a little more serious, though.
“I’m glad you’re here,too. Now we just need Lee and a few more people, and we can all be happy here, huh?”
He picked up the now empty latte cup and threw it in a nearby trash can.
“I’ll send a message to the people in charge of housing tonight. I’ll crash on the couch and you can have my bed tonight. Sound like a plan?”
--
She could agree with him on that part. If they were going to be stuck here, then she hoped the others would find their way here too. Minus Clancy.
“Yeah.” She nodded. It also felt safer to stay with someone she knew and trusted. It’d be a lie to say she wasn’t also agreeing in order to try and keep Cole safe, but she knew he’d be annoyed if she said that out loud or he’d counter her with something that would make her frustrated with him so she bit her lip for now.
“You mind if you can show me your apartment now? I know I should probably look around and get my bearings, but right now I keep wanting to look over my shoulder because I’m so exposed. I think I just need to take some time to really wrap my head around everything.” She had gone from the walls of the camp to being on the run to the ‘walls’ of the Children’s League. She had yet to feel safe for over six years of her life. It would take some time before she let herself relax.
--
“Sure. I was headed there anyway. Only when I started out, I had a latte.” He gave her a pointed look, his eyes twinkling in amusement. “Come on, this way.” He started off in the direction of the apartments, which were really basic, and he hadn’t been here long enough to really have given it any personality. There was a couch, a chair, and other basic furniture. He closed the door behind them and locked it, knowing that would probably make her feel more secure.
He walked her into the bedroom, which was just as plain as the living room except for the copy of Stephen King’s Carrie on his nightstand. Sue him, he wanted to know everything he could about what he was and books weren’t as frequent back home.
“Will this work? I’ve got clean sheets in the drier. You’re lucky I decided to do my laundry today.”
***
She definitely felt better when he locked the door. On some level she knew she was being ridiculous, but she had the League to thank for all her added paranoia. Her eyes roamed over his place. “You really need to decorate more.” It seemed way more like a barracks than an apartment, but Ruby wasn’t exactly one to talk.
“Definitely lucky.” She stopped herself before she thought about what exactly Cole Stewarts sheets had been put through before the need for laundry and focused instead on the book. She picked it up. “Carrie? Really?” She turned it over to look at the back of it for a moment.
--
Actually, they’d been through little more than his sleeping on them and having nightmares. He hadn’t brought anyone home in the last week; he didn’t know anyone well enough and while he could be flirtatious and easy going on the surface, letting anyone in was not something he did on purpose. He’d only let Ruby in by accident, and while he hadn’t regretted it, telling Lee was the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life.
“I’ve only been here a week,” he said, raising an eyebrow at her. “And I’ve been reading everything I can on psi. Real or fiction. I mean, If our world doesn’t exist here, maybe there’s something about it in books. Then I can go home knowing more than I do now.”
*** Ruby was well aware of nightmares. She wanted to pretend she had her shit together, but out of everyone, Cole knew she didn’t. That was one of the nice things about Cole, though. She knew he got some of the stuff she couldn’t explain to the others, especially Liam. For a moment she remembered how angry he had been to learn the two of them had been sparing so intensely, but she shook it off.
She flipped through the book quickly, mostly because she always liked the feeling of how the pages fluttered when she did before putting it down. Ruby got it more than she thought she would. If she remembered correctly, Carrie wasn’t very popular, but her powers manifested because of it, rather than created the divide. Other than that, she didn’t know much about it.
“Maybe one of them will have a cure.” While some kids had embraced what they were, Ruby definitely hadn’t. What happened before she got here was just a reminder of why people like her were dangerous. Clancy had told her that she could rule the country based on hierarchy alone, but Ruby didn’t want kids to listen to her just because she was an Orange. If she had to be a leader - and she’d much rather someone else did that if she were honest - she wanted people to follow her because she earned and deserved it.
She sat down on the end of the bed and bounced a little. It felt comfortable. “I can’t believe this is actually happening.” And that you’re here of all people. “...I don’t even know if I can be normal anymore.”
--
“That’s my hope,” he said softly. Ruby understood in ways that others couldn’t. Greens, blues, even yellows weren’t dangerous like he and Ruby were. They couldn’t steal people’s will, or burn down a building. There was a reason that Oranges and Reds were considered the most dangerous. He’d give anything not to have his power. Every time he used it, he felt like more of a monster than he did before.
“I know,” he said. “I don’t know how to be normal either, not really. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Get a job? I don’t even know if I could. I don’t know what this...thing has done to me. What if I lost it at work?”
He sighed and sat on the mattress, tiredly.
“But we’ll do what we have to do, right? That’s what we always do. Because we don’t have another choice.”
***
Ruby was thankful that she had a lot more control over her power than she had previously. It was very rare for her now to lose control by a simple touch of a person, though the dark voice that sometimes told her things would be easier if she just made people agree with her never truly seemed to go away.
She thought about a job. Normal jobs weren’t ones you had in the League, though she wasn’t exactly going to be upset she didn’t have to interrogate anyone again. The realized of her age and normalcy hit her suddenly and she turned her head to look at Cole. “You’re not going to make me go to school, are you?” It was both an earnest question and also a challenge. Could he make her? Technically no. The truth was she wasn’t even sure what school was like anymore. She was six years behind, for one, and learning about presidents didn’t seem all that important to her anymore.
--
Control wasn’t much of a problem for Cole, either. Well, it wasn’t as long as he didn’t use his abilities. Every time he used it he wanted to use it more. He couldn’t deny that he loved the feeling of the power, but he didn’t like what the power made him into. He felt like a monster, and every time he used it the twitching got worse. He didn’t understand any of that at all; he just knew that it happened. And he couldn’t make it stop.
“Well,” he said slowly, “I think I kind of have to. And don’t you want to go back? I mean, it’s kind of normal. Something that might be nice. Maybe you could even make friends.” He was obviously teasing by the end. “Honestly, I don’t know. We’ll have to look into it.”
***
Ruby was pretty sure she was a monster. She thought back to Mason and how she had driven him to kill himself. She hadn’t told Cole about Mason from the factory and what had happened to him. It seemed too cruel a fate and part of her, too, didn’t want him to know it had been her fault. Just like it had been her fault that Cole was dead.
“Okay.” She nodded.
She searched for something to think on that wasn’t dwelling on her terrible decision. Her expression turned a little excited. “Hey. If this place really is normal, does that mean there’s pizza? Like, real pizza? And Chinese food? And fresh fruit?”
--
Cole smiled, his whole face lighting up at that. “Yeah, you bet there is. Any type of food you can imagine. And at the store, the produce is just…” he trailed off and shook his head, not having the words for it. “We can order a pizza or whatever tonight and then go to the store in the morning. It’s...really something you’ve got to see.”
He smiled at her, but there was a bit of sadness in it. This was what their lives should have been. This is what it had been before everything went wrong and kids had started dying.
“We can even watch real TV while we eat, if you want.”
***
“That actually sounds… kind of amazing.” She smiled to him. Ruby wondered if the guilt she felt by being excited about something like that would go away after a while or if it would be forever lingering. She also wonder if she even remembered what it was like to be a kid. At East River she had a glimpse of that, but East River had been completely fabricated. “Do you… think we could order it now?” She didn’t have to tell him that she was hungry because she purposefully took less of the rations so that the other kids could have more. She also, maybe, was a little excited to actually see a pizza for herself.