House of Memories (Book 2)

Chapter 28- The offer of a lifetime

Ruby walked through the halls of Alfea, hand in hand with Ebony while Kaylus and the Ghouls trailed behind. The three creatures were discussing who had the prettiest collar while Kaylus flew around sticking 'kick me' notes in the back of some Fairies. 

They finally arrived at the appartment door, laughing at some girls actually getting kicked by others. However, their smiles fell when they heard wailing coming from the opposite side of the door, followed by four familiar wicked laughters.

Kaylus and the Ghouls ran away when Ruby opened the door, ready to face their enemies. She barely had any time to react before Ebony was struck by a lightning and sent flying far away from sight. Ruby tried to go after her, but the double doors shut in her face and when she tried to open them she realized they were locked.

The laughter and wailing behind her intensified, making her turn around to face Lord Darkaar and the Trix. The latter walked towards her like a lion hunting its prey, forcing her to back away, however, the door behind her didn't give her much space to run. Stormy and Darcy stood on each side of Ruby, leaning an arm on the door next to her head while Icy grabbed her waist and pinned her against it. Looking up at the Ice Witch a sense of familiarity hit her and, just for a second, the scenario around them changed into a dark alley, the alley where they had first met, before they came back to the appartment.

Darkaar walked towards them, his armor clanging with each step he took. Icy stepped away from Ruby  and moved aside so Lord Darkaar could look down at the redhead. She took notice of Icy's hand resting on her hip.

The wailing grew louder as Darkaar reached a clawed hand towards Ruby and when the Fairy tried to run, Darcy and Stormy pushed her against the door by her shoulders. When Darkaar's claw touched her chest, right above her heart, he lost his shape and turned into a weird black substance which began molding itself into something else. A sort of black bird with huge wings. It flew right at Ruby and entered her chest. The impact made her fall backwards, the door somehow disappearing, and she fell into an endless void of darkness.

She kept falling and falling until she landed on something soft. Her bed. 

Ruby quickly sat up and looked around her room breathing and sweating like she had just ran a marathon. Her sister, Flora, the Ghouls, Kiko and the Pixies were fortunately sound asleep and weren't bothered by her probably trashing in bed. She could swear she was still hearing wailing, but it faded so quickly that she wasn't sure it was real or just her imagination. 

Ruby sighed and fell tiredly back onto the bed. It wasn't her first dream like this. Every night she dreamed of a dark phoenix entering her chest. She thought her dreams of phoenixes were long gone since she found out the true nature of her power, but apparently they were back to haunt her at night. 

She shivered and pulled the sheets higher for some warmth before closing her eyes and going back to sleep, hoping that no dream would come back to haunt her.

Much to her delight, she woke up the next day after a very peaceful sleep, but had to be forced out of bed by her sister anyway, which left her in a grumpy mood the whole time she was getting ready for the day.

"You know, you could try to find a nicer way to wake me up." Ruby said to her sister, rubbing her sore forehead from hitting her head on the floor after Bloom pulled her out of bed by her ankles. "I swear one day you'll break my neck."

"Then wake up early and don't make us all late for breakfast." Bloom told her with an innocent smile, sitting down at a table on the cafeteria.

"We are not that late." Ruby grumbled, next to her.

"Ruby, there's literally almost no one here." Flora told her, gesturing to the basically empty cafeteria.

"The others were just early." Ruby defended herself, feeding Kaylus a cookie. "And honestly will it really be that bad if we arrive late to a class? A few minutes less of an headache."