Chapter 3

I burst from the cave's gaping maw into the inky night. Rain lashed my face as I sprinted blindly, fear driving my weary legs. The orphanage was my only sanctuary from the terrors lurking in that cursed forest. Yet when I dared a glance back, the woods stood silent and still—no slavering beasts, no blood-curdling howls. I came back in one piece.

Had those spirits watched over me, ensuring my safe return?

Shaking off such fanciful notions, I clutched the pendant in my pocket—that accursed gem the spirits demanded I break. Why had those ethereal beings chosen me, a mere orphan, for this peculiar task? Their motives remained shrouded in mystery, vanishing as swiftly as they'd appeared.

 Frustration welled within me as I pondered the pendant's gem. Why burden me with this? The questions gnawed incessantly, their motives remaining infuriatingly opaque.

I snapped back to reality as Sister Anna's irritated voice cut through. "Ruby! You're dripping all over. Didn't anyone teach you manners?" looking down, I saw the puddle forming from my rain-drenched clothes. 

Mumbling 'sorry', I trudged away, basket in hand full of herbs, leaving a trail of drips from my soaked clothes. Heading for the storage room to dry off after that mad dash through the deluge.

Ellie trailing behind, I sighed inwardly. After today's exhausting events, my head swirling with thoughts, I craved a moment's respite. But apparently, Ellie had other plans, hounding my heels relentlessly.

Ignoring her, I pressed on through the storage, dripping path in my wake. "Where have you been? You had one job—gather herbs! Why did that take you forever?" Ellie nagged from behind.

Her annoyed tone gave it away—with me gone, Sister Anna had dumped my 'duties' onto poor Ellie. Despite being the favored one, even Ellie was not exempt from Sister Anna's bossiness.

"Got lost," I muttered curtly, turning my attention back to carefully stowing the precious herbs. The sooner this was done, the sooner I could peel off these sodden rags and collapse onto my cot. But with Ellie's persistent pestering, any hope of respite seemed a distant dream.

I rolled my eyes at Ellie's accusations. "Lost? Don't play dumb, Ruby. You know every nook of those woods." Her shrill voice grated as she berated me for her troubles. Exhaustion weighed heavy—did I really need this nonsense after today's ordeal?

"If you had been here then I—"

My patience finally snapped under the weight of Ellie's relentless complaints. "Ellie!" I screamed, my voice echoing sharply off the stone walls and causing her to flinch in surprise. I had never raised my voice to her before, and the shock was evident on her face as her eyes went wide.

"I don't care what menial chores Sister Anna piled onto your place today! You think scrubbing pots and sweeping floors is difficult?" I scoffed, feeling no sympathy for her trivial troubles. "While you were safe within these walls, I was trapped alone in those treacherous woods—facing true danger with every step."

I stepped close, nostrils flaring as I met her gaze with steely determination. "The forest is far more perilous than this cloister could ever be. Every shadow could conceal a threat—be it a wild animal, bandit, or foul creature of the night." My voice took on a hard edge as I recalled the possible dangers I could have faced earlier.

"So forgive me if your whining about extra chores holds absolutely no weight after the harrowing ordeal I endured simply trying to return here." I held her wide-eyed state, chest heaving with the force of my outburst.

I turned my heel slamming the lid on the herb chest with finality. Ellie remained rooted in stunned silence as I stormed past her without a backward glance.

My outburst had shattered the usual scenario between us, but exhaustion smothered any lingering feeling within me. Ellie would inevitably seek retribution for my raised voice come the morning light. But in this moment, such concerns held no sway.

All that mattered was reaching the solitude of my cot, peeling off my sweat-soaked garments, and surrendering to the blissful escape of sleep. The forest was behind me, the spirits were behind me, at least for tonight. I could finally rest, free from Ellie's grating voice.

I peeled off my sweat-stained clothes, relishing the feeling of warm water sluicing over my aching muscles as I scrubbed away the grime of the forest. Finally clear, I collapsed onto my narrow cot, staring up at the familiar cracks in the ceiling as exhaustion seeped into my bones.

That's when the realization struck me—today was my birthday. I have always believed that the day of my birth was the day I arrived at this orphanage, cold and alone. Throughout the years, birthdays held no meaning beyond marking another year I'd survived.

Here, no one cared about my birthday, it was simply ignored—just another day of chores and drudgery with no sweet cakes or well-wishes to mark the occasion. Not that I expected any different. In this place, I was one of the forgotten ones that the world had discarded and left to fend for myself.

A bitter smile tugged at my lips as I turned over, pulling the thin blanket around my shoulders. Another year older, but did it really matter? There would be no joyful celebrations or gifts come the morning. Just the same endless cycle of trying to merely exist. Perhaps that was gift enough.

Yet as the realization settled in my mind, an unexpected swell of emotion rose unbidden in my chest. A strange amalgam of happiness intertwined with sorrow that left me reeling.

I drew in a shuddering breath, torn between warring impulses as unbidden tears pricked the corners of my eyes. To feel anything at all about this day was a novelty unto itself. An acknowledgement, however small, that I mattered. At least to the spirits, that despite everything, some tiny flicker of hope yet burned within my calloused heart.

The pendant's cool metal bit into my palm as my fingers clenched around it, knuckles whitening with the force of my grip. This simple trinket was now my sole tether to the past—to the family that had abandoned me to this half-life.

Fenix's parting words echoed in my mind, each one a dagger twisting deeper. Their child. Those two words carried more weight than all the years I'd spend wondering, dreaming of the parents who had callously cast me aside like unwanted refuse.

They knew. Fenix and the others had the answers to the questions that had haunted every waking moment, every sleepless night spent agonizing over what terrible sin I must have committed to warrant such cruelty. To be rejected and discarded by the very ones who should have cherished me most.

My throat constricted as I fought against the storm of emotions battering my heart. Anger, sorrow, a desperate yearning for the love I'd been so cruelly denied—they raged through my veins like wildfire.

Why? The single, searing questions scorched my very soul as I stared down at the pendant's innocuous shape. Why had they forsaken me to the cold embrace of the uncaring walls? What unforgivable flaw did I possess that made me so utterly unworthy of their love?

The revelation hit me like a physical blow, knocking the wind from my lungs as a maelstrom of long-suppressed emotions detonated within my chest. For so many agonizing years, I had forced myself to abandon any hope of understanding why they had so cruelly forsaken me. It was the only way to endure the endless nights spent screaming their names into the uncaring darkness, begging for answers that never came.

Yet now, with Fenix's words still ringing in my ears, that tightly sealed Pandora's box had been flung wide once more. All the hurt, the anger, the soul-scouring anguish I thought I had buried came roaring back with a vengeance, clawing at my throat until I thought I might choke on the bitterness of it all.

But intermingled with that raging torrent was a fragile flicker of something else. A faint, tremulous hope that perhaps, just perhaps—I might finally unravel the tangled skein of my past. To learn the unbearable truth of what unforgivable sin had marked me so unworthy in their eyes that they could simply discard their flesh and blood.

Hurry…Hurry…Hurry and break the gem.

Another realization hit me—the mysterious voices I had been hearing from the forest were actually coming from this pendant. Ever since the day I first heard its eerie whispers, the pendant had been calling out to me, beckoning me towards it. Af first, it just wanted me to find it, to locate where it was hidden away. But now that I had the pendant in my possession, its demands had changed. The voice from within was now insisting that I break open the pendant itself—more specifically, that I shatter the gemstone encased inside.

I studied the pendant closely, turning it over in my hands. It was a simple metal oval shape, tarnished from age but still retaining a bit of luster. In the center was a smooth red gemstone, about the size of a large marble. It looked relatively unremarkable, just a piece of old jewelry, yet it seemingly held great power based on the voice's urgings. As I ran my fingers along its surface, I could almost feel the thrum of energy pulsing from the gem, as if it was a living thing taking shallow breaths.

My gaze locked onto the glimmering crimson gemstone nestled within the tarnished metal casing. A ruby—its name a twisted mirror of my own. How cruelly ironic that this malevolent relic would harbor a gem sharing the same moniker bestowed upon me at birth.

The pulsating whispers intensified, an insistent susurrus of desperation clawing at the edges of my consciousness.

Hurry…hurry…hurry and break it open, Ruby

The pendant's disembodied rasp slithered through my mind like a serpent's forked tongue.

I recoiled, my fingers instinctively loosening their grip as if the vile thing had scorched my flesh. This…abomination dared address me so intimately, as though we were kin instead of an unwitting victim ensnared by its diabolical thrall. 

Hurry…Ruby…break it…