chapter fifteen
ruby's world
🖤
RUBY BRENNER IS MANY THINGS. SUPER hot (... duh), a feisty journalist (how else did she get head of the school newspaper?), and, above all else (because, deep down, this is the most important part of her being) a defender against the Upside Down. Specifically, the creatures that reside there. So, when she watches Dustin load one demodog carcass into the Byers' refrigerator, she raises an eyebrow.
"Why... would you do that?" she says.
"It's not to eat," says Dustin, just as Steve helps him shove the demodog into place. "It's for science."
Ruby's apprehensive.
It's been a couple hours now, and they've set up an interrogation room for Will, in some shed outside the Byers' house. Now, they're waiting for him to reveal something (anything) to them. Ruby keeps on thinking if she should try and do something herself, but she worries that if that kid is connected to the mind flayer, and it senses Ruby, something worse will happen. Is it bad, that she's scared, when her helping could improve things? ... She isn't sure.
"You know, Henderson, I think Sinclair just said he needed you," says Steve, glancing at Dustin. He gives him a look, and Ruby frowns, because clearly Lucas said shit.
But, something dawns on Dustin, who goes, "Ohhhh. Yes! I will go now." He winks at Ruby, which she finds weird, and walks past her, leaving herself and Steve in the kitchen.
The last time they were alone, they said they liked each other. Well, OK, they said they would go into a burning building for each other, which translates to wanting to die for one another, an intense declaration even for them. But they've always been like that. Aggressively best friends, so over the top with their affections and protectiveness. Ruby used to use her powers so he could win fights, Steve got mad when any guy was an ass to her. She remembers last year, when Jonathan took that photo of her half-naked, and Steve wanted to kill him. So... They've always been intense. Ruby wonders if that was this supposed attraction between the two. Aggressively friends because they felt something stronger.
"They're not so bad, you know," he says to her, referring to the kids. Ruby nods, somehow agreeing with him. "So."
"So," she says.
They're silent for a moment. Ruby leans against the kitchen table, and watches him slowly move closer.
"Do you feel that?" says Ruby, and she starts to smirk. "The electricity."
Steve rolls his eyes. "You're such an ass."
"Yeah, best ass in class," she says.
"So what does that make me? If I'm so hot—"
Ruby starts laughing. They're meant to be keeping their voices down, though, in case Will the Spy hears them, so she quickly covers her mouth with her hand.
"God," she mumbles.
"This is all crazy," he says, quietly.
Ruby nods, awkwardly crossing her arms. "Welcome to my world," she says.
The two exchange a glance, looking across at the other. He reaches up, and softly tucks her hair behind her ear. Ruby's still, his fingers brushing over her face, his hand cupping her face. She wants him to close the gap between them, she looks up at him and wonders why he hasn't done the same. He's looking at her face, like he's never seen it before, like he's analysing each square inch. She watches as his eyes trail down to her lips, and Ruby smiles, before remembering the high chance of her father (a man that owns many guns and could, if desired, get away with murder) walking in. Steve must've thought the same because he moved away from her, scratching the back of his neck.
"I was thinking," he says. "If we survive all of this, it might be, you know, fun to do something together. Like... Enzo's, next weekend?"
"Are you asking me on a date?" says Ruby, a smile creeping across her face. Her heart feels as though it's warming up.
Steve starts to smile, but tries to contain it, to retain his nonchalance. "I might be," he says. "And maybe if things go well... The Winter Formal's coming up, and if you're not going with Billy and I'm not going with Nancy... We could maybe, like, go together. I feel like I'd really improve your chances of Snowflake Queen."
"Uh..."
Ruby jumps backwards, and Nancy stands there, awkwardly.
"Do either of you know Morse code?" she says.
"What's that?" says Ruby.
"I mean, I know what it is but not what it means," says Steve, and he looks at Ruby. If they weren't friends she'd be annoyed. Like, Ruby's smart, but she doesn't know nerdy shit like this. She knows who Gianni Versace is, not some nerd code. Ruby thinks she's too hot to know something like that.
Hopper walks in after that, and Nancy says, "They don't know," before he can even ask. Ruby frowns, and wonders if Nancy came in, in case Hopper found Ruby and Steve in a compromised position. God bless her.
"We found this!" says Dustin, and he's holding a piece of paper with dots and lines on it, underneath letters in the alphabet.
Ruby tilts her head. "Is that... Norse code?"
"Morse, yeah," says Dustin.
"But it's dots..." she says.
"It means, like, a quick sound, and the lines mean a longer one. And when you put it all together, it makes codes for different letters, which become words," says Steve. Ruby raises an eyebrow. She's known Steve for years, and, in the nicest way possible, he isn't book-smart. He's a good leader, he's good at sports, he's got the charisma most book-smart people lack, but sometimes, people think he's stupid when he's not. He's just, like, smart in his own way. But sometimes he comes out with stuff like this, and it surprises her. "They used it against the Nazis."
"Ah," says Ruby. Steve sometimes listened in history class and Ruby would copy his notes, as occasional they were. He liked the military stuff. Ruby however would get flashbacks of the lab and feel uncomfortable.
Those understanding of... Torse code (did she hear that right?) spread the information all across the table, and Nancy gets to work writing down the letters. They've got a walkie-talkie relaying the messages from the shed, to the house, which Dustin translates and Nancy transcribes. Ruby sits down, feeling particularly useless.
She needs to do something for all of this. She is the best fighter against the Upside Down, if Eleven isn't here. Ruby can fight those creatures, and she wants to. She knows there's a smaller chance of her getting hurt in that case, compared to anyone else in this room. Her body was designed for this eventuality. The world revolves around Ruby Brenner — more importantly, the Upside Down does, and that's how she can stop this from getting worse. Her sixth sense, her telekinesis, even that thing she can do where she can alter people's vision and memory — it's all to protect her and to fight against the Upside Down.
So. She starts to brainstorm. She thinks about those tunnels, how they'll slowly inch towards town. She thinks about the lab, how that's the epicentre of all of this. She thinks about everything wrong with the current situation, everything about the Upside Down. She thinks about it's monsters, it's air, it's awful tentacles that consume everything, one entire entity. She thinks about those demodogs, and the memory of the one hovering over her, about to kill her when it was called away by a larger force — drawn away, she should say, because it sensed something else was more important, something was so bad that it needed to tend to that, not her. Everything in the Upside Down is connected—
That's it.
If everything is connected, then if Ruby were to target part of it, she could destroy the rest—
Destroy the rest?
Another voice inside her head, a voice she's never heard before, questions her judgement. Ruby feels the pull to the Upside Down, but refuses to let it take her this time. She keeps her eyes open, walking away from the others, focusing on everything around her to keep her in this dimension. The floorboards that creak. The lingering smell of cigarettes. The sound of Steve's voice. She has often accidentally transported herself to the Upside Down, but she doesn't trust this. She's staying in her dimension.
Do you think you can stop us?
Ruby has no idea how to respond. Is she supposed to? She asks herself who this voice even is, and why she vaguely remembers it, but she's got no clue.
Do you think you, the stupid little girl that stumbled into our world, can kill us?
Anxiety creeps onto her, almost as if it's slowly placing its claws on her shoulders, ready to push her down. Ruby's scratches begin to twinge under the bandages.
How, little Ruby, are you supposed to kill us, when we've already killed you?
Her scratches feel as though they're ripped open. Ruby gasps, and wants to rip the bandages off. She stumbles, her ears ringing, as the voice continues:
You belong to us now, Ruby! And you're going to help us kill all of your friends, one by one by one...
Ruby has visions of her friends, dead on the floor in front of her. She knows she isn't in her dimension anymore, but cannot tell if this is some part of the Upside Down. She hears Billy's voice crying out to her, "Why are you doing this?" before his own screams ring around her. She has a vision of Nancy stumbling backwards, terrified, trying to protect herself from the monster. She sees Steve in front of her, pleading with her. "This isn't you. Ruby, please, listen to me—"
But this is you. Do you think you're above us? When we have the same powers? We're one in the same, Ruby, Ruby... I cannot wait to watch you crumble—
The telephone rings, and snaps Ruby out of it. The voice has disappeared completely, and the dark cloud she felt looming over her has gone, too. Her scratches throb a little, which makes her realise that must've been real. But, as she looks at the phone, she remembers the boy outside; if the creature possessing him hears the phone, it'll figure out where they are. Her mind snaps the entire telephone off of the wall, cutting the phone cord into two, the now-exposed wires sizzling.
"Do you think he heard that?" says Max.
Ruby feels as if the air has changed, the room freezing cold. She can almost hear the air, whistling as though it's wind. She anxiously waits for the voice to return, but her mind is deafeningly quiet.
"It's just a phone, it could be anywhere..."
Ruby shakes her head slowly. "No, it knows..."
A collective of screeches echoes around them. Ruby and Steve look straight at each other, as Hopper runs back inside, holding an unconscious Will over his shoulders. Joyce, Mike, and Jonathan follow suit, as Ruby's dad shouts for everyone to stay away from the windows.
But Ruby can't concentrate, in a daze still from whatever just happened. She tries to pinpoint where she heard that voice before, or why it made her scratches hurt so much... Is that what Will was feeling, before he was possessed? Ruby looks down at the boy, now lying on the sofa.
Her sixth sense is whispering to her, knowing the danger that's about to arrive, but she can't think straight. Steve picks up his bat, his gaze — as it always did in times of danger — falling on Ruby. He must've noticed she looked off, because he places his free hand on her arm. "Stay behind me, OK?"
This does calm her down, she will admit. She allows him to stand in front of her, the voice from before beginning to slip away from her mind. She can hear the monsters outside, quickly moving closer and closer to the house. Ruby looks around, at her dad, at Steve, at Nancy, at Jonathan, at Max, and imagines the carnage those demodogs will cause if they get into this house. She has a vision of the dogs attacking Steve before he can even try to fight back — because he can't fight them off, not the amount there were in the lab — and her heart pangs.
She thinks of the voice, too, and suddenly feels overcome with anger. Maybe it was a demogorgon, maybe it was the Mind Flayer, Ruby doesn't care. How dare it speak to her like that? She's Ruby fucking Brenner. She is above whatever that voice was. Have you seen her? She's the hottest girl in Hawkins, she's got super powers — Nancy said it herself, Ruby Brenner is a superstar! The world revolves around her! And the world revolves around Ruby, because Ruby can save it from the Upside Down.
So that's what she's going to do.
Her gaze trails to the door, figuring out her escape plan, as she says, "Hey, Steve?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't kill me."
"Wha—?"
Ruby dips under his arm, and darts towards the front door. She hears her dad shout after her, and she knows Steve chased after her, but she's already gone. Her mind quickly fastens the front door shut, pushing the nearest piece of furniture against it, keeping them all in.
She can hear them shouting from inside the Byers' house, but as she stands outside, the creatures' screeches getting closer and closer, the entire world falls still. Her body focuses on the monsters, and she manages to block out everything else. She images a thick line of fire burning all of those creatures, killing them before they can get anywhere near her loved ones.
Her mind starts to count down. Her fingertips feel hot. Five, four, three, two —
One.
Ruby extends her hands, just as the demodogs appear. Her nose is already bloody as fire engulfs the monsters, their running skidding to a halt. Ruby feels the scratches on her arms burn, but she powers through, each and every monster dying in front of her. Stay away from my best friend.
The monsters keep on appearing, though. Ruby's struggling to think straight, every atom in her body fighting against these things.
But then, a figure appears next to her.
Ruby expects it to be Steve, but her peripheral vision recognises the figure is far too short to be him. She struggles to make it out, not wanting to lose concentration in case the demodogs overpower her — but just as she thinks that, she watches a line of demodogs get their heads sliced off, all at once, and Ruby knows she didn't do that.
Finally, Ruby realises.
And her heart stops.
Eleven looks at Ruby, a small smile on her face. The little girl that Ruby adopted as her chosen sister last year, who she was heartbroken over when she died. Ruby feels her heart warm with joy.
There's no more monsters coming their way. Ruby pulls Eleven into a hug, and grins. "You're alive!" Ruby says, over the moon. "Where have you been?"
"Long story," says Eleven. "I missed you."
Ruby hugs the girl even tighter. She lets herself have this moment, before the others find out. Ruby hugs Eleven, relief washing over her.
"You know, there's a lot of people in there that have missed you," says Ruby, finally breaking away.
"Mike?" says Eleven.
Thank God Ruby remembered his name. "Mike."
Ruby takes Eleven's hand, and walks her back up the porch, to the front door. She closes her eyes, imagining the sofa moving away from it again. There's a loud scraping noise from inside, so she unlocks the door. Ruby stands in front of Eleven, to make it more of a surprise. She steps through the door.
Her dad begins, "Ruby Hopper!" just as Steve walks towards her, saying, "Are you crazy?"
But Ruby doesn't care. She starts to smile again, and steps to the side, revealing Eleven behind her.
"Surprise," says Ruby, softly.
Eleven steps into the room, her eyes fixed on Mike, Steve's brows are furrowed, as he looks across at Ruby. "I don't understand, who is that?" he says.
"That's my little sister," Ruby says, and for a brief moment, everything in an otherwise shitty week feels perfect.
it's all kicking off now
(lmk what you thought! you're gonna love the next chapter eeeeeeee!!!!!)