The Bird and the Garden 2: Restart!

Chapter 10: Revelation

Vao and Verde crowded around Y/N. The femboy was squinting for a minute before realizing something.

"Wait a minute, I can't read."

Verde snatched the book out of Y/B's hands, rereading it a couple times before saying the words aloud. "Dear diary... Last night, I saw something in the attic... It will not let me put it's name on paper. I couldn't sleep last night; it was telling me horrible things, showing me nightmares from a different life. It wants to kill Y/N and Vao because they hurt it."

"... Wot."

Y/N shushed Vao before gesturing for Verde to continue. The artist cleared her throat before resuming. "This next entry is from... Oh, Dust..."

"What is it?" Y/N whispered worriedly. Verde looked like she really didn't want to say it. Vao leaned forward.

"Wot does it say?"

Verde, for the first time, was completely silent. But after a long minute of gathering her bearings, she continued. "I-It's from when Vao fell..." She whispered. "Dear diary... I don't know how much more I can take... I almost killed Vao. The thing made me push him. I pushed him out the window, and now he's in the hospital. Mom says he's going to make a full recovery, but... It wants me to go after Y/N now."

"... What should we do with this?" Y/N whispered. He was at a loss for words. He never expected Ruby to attempt murder, and to find out the rumor had been true was a bit heartbreaking. Vao gently pulled the book from Verde's hands.

"Shouldn't we maybe... Take this to Ozpin or someone like that?"

"No, Vao. We'll talk to Ruby ourselves," Y/N answered.

"Of course, the one time I've ever had a good idea it gets turned down. You're an arse."

"Whatever. Just teleport us back to Beacon."

Vao suddenly went silent. When Y/N and Verde looked at him, the femboy was playing with his hair. Y/N leaned forward a bit. "... Vao, take us back to Beacon..."

"... I... I don't know why, but I just got a very bad feeling just now... Like something really bad is about to happen."

Before Y/N could say anything, he felt it too. That feeling one gets when they're nervous. Like being in a large, dark room where they can't see the tip of their nose. When closing and opening their eyes makes no difference. A feeling of utter helplessness, as if being hunted. And when all three turned to the window, they saw it - a face peering at them from the treeline. A figure shrouded in black, with a strange crimson symbol painted on his front. None of them could see their face, but they'd never forget those eyes. Those amber eyes that blazed with hatred, with dark intentions. Wordlessly, the stranger turned and disappeared into the trees, vanishing from sight.

"What... The hell...?"

Vao shivered. "Hell's bells, I really don't want to be here anymore..."

Verde stared at where the stranger was, thinking about that symbol. Subconsciously, she flipped through the pages of the diary, stopping on a certain page. "Both of you... Look at this..."

Y/N and Vao leaned over together, all three of them staring at the page in silence. On the otherwise blank paper was the same symbol, hastily drawn in pen. There were no words. A sense of impending doom dawned on Y/N; he had seen this symbol somewhere before. But he couldn't recall one time in his life he had actually encountered it.

"... Hey, Y/N...?"

"What is it, Vao?"

"Can we just go? I really don't like this..."