The ruby pendant haunted me day and night. I could not escape the whispering voices that seemed to come from the deep red gem itself. No matter what I tried, I could not break the cursed thing.
During the day, I had my regular chores to do at the orphanage where I lived and worked. Sweeping floors, making beds, serving meals—the simple tasks were difficult to focus on. My mind raced with ideas for shattering the ruby. I tried smashing it with a hammer against the stone courtyard, but the gem would not crack. I tried using metal tools to chip away at it but made no progress. The voices continued whispering, driving me to keep trying to destroy the damned thing.
At night, I lay awake listening to the whispers it makes. With each night, the voices grew louder. I tossed and turned, getting little to no sleep. My exhaustion grew worse with each passing night of torment from the voices.
I cradled the ruby pendant, transfixed by its multifaceted depths that seemed to swirl with fiery secrets. In a hushed voice, I lamented, "How can I break the unbreakable?"
A weary sigh escaped my lips as I studied the trinket in my hand. The looming full moon will be cast soon, a mere three days before then.
The heavy silence shattered with Ellie's sultry voice purring, "What do you have there?"
I instinctively slipped the ruby pendant into my pocket, trying to conceal it from Ellie's prying eyes. But it was too late—her gaze had already locked onto the gemstone, drinking in its smoldering crimson depths with ravenous hunger.
As the pendant disappeared beneath the folds of fabric, Ellie's full lips curved into a slow, sinister smile. She knew I was hiding something, and that furtive gesture only piqued her insatiable curiosity further. At that moment, I could see the cogs turning behind her brown eyes, already concocting some devious scheme to wrest the treasure from my grasp.
Ellie's eyes narrowed, "Now, now, Ruby," she purred, her honeyed tone belying the steel beneath. "It's not nice to keep treasures from me."
Before I could react, her slender fingers clamped around my wrist in a vise-like grip. A startled gasp escaped my lips as she wrenched my arm forward, that wicked smirk widening in sadistic glee at my wince of pain.
This was her game, her addiction—subjugating me through fear and brute force to sate her ravenous hunger for power. And like a broken marionette, my strings severed by years of torment, I could only obey her whims.
However, this time was different. My fingers curled protectively around the ruby pendant, its facets biting into my palm—a silent vow. The spirits had entrusted this trinket to me, believing that I could break it. Ellie would not claim this prize. Not this time. It's mine.
"I have the right to keep this to myself, Ellie." The words tasted foreign on my tongue, yet empowering. "This is mine. I will not show it to you or even give it to you."
My stern voice reverberated with an unfamiliar strength, each syllable a rallying cry against her oppression. She blinked, stunned by my unprecedented defiance.
Fury flashed in her eyes, those brown eyes igniting with unholy rage at my defiance. I steeled myself, knowing full well the agonizing reprisal to come.
Her hand snacked from my wrist to my crimson hair, nails raking my scalp as she seized a fistful of hair. A guttural whimper escaped my lips when she wrenched my head back with a savage force.
"Ruby, you know better than to disobey me," she hissed, venom dripping from every venomous syllable.
With each agonizing second, she wrenched my hair tighter, the searing pain whiting out my vision. Tears streaked down my cheeks as I fought the urge to scream.
"Better give me that pendant now, or you'll get something far worse than me pulling you hair." Her saccharine tone belied the sadistic promise lurking beneath.
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the onslaught. Yet still the pendant remained clutched in my trembling fist—my solitary act of rebellion, my one defiant spark of hope amidst her suffocating darkness.
"No," I breathed.
I thrashed, desperate to escape her iron grip, but my frail body proved no match for her strength. A sickening crack echoed through the chamber as she wrenched my arm, sending me crumpling to the unforgiving stone floor.
Agony blossomed across my ribs as her boot connected with my side in a savage kick. Not once, not twice, but three times she did that. I curled inward, a pitiful ball of anguish, as she seized the moment to plunge her hand into my pocket.
Ruby…Ruby…Ruby…
The pendant's ethereal whispers caressed my mind, a siren's call beckoning me toward its eldritch power. I strained against the agony shackling me to the cold stone, desperate to reclaim the pendant from Ellie's grasp. But my battered body refused to obey. White-hot lances of pain lanced through my very marrow with every feeble twitch, the cruel aftermath of her sadistic onslaught.
Ellie's gaze raked over the pendant clenched in her fist, lips curling in a disdainful sneer at the trinket. Yet the ruby adorning its center glistened with unholy allure, twin points of greed kindling in her eyes.
With a savage yank, she sought to pry free the priceless gem. But the instant her fingers closed around its faceted surface, an unearthly howl tore from her throat. The pendant clattered to the stones as she recoiled, clutching her scorched palms to her chest.
The pendant had rejected her.
Ellie's piercing scream echoed through the chamber, filled with unimaginable agony. I didn't understand what had happened, but her fingers were burned, the flesh seared and blistered. And the burn was rapidly spreading, the sickening tendrils of flame slithering up her hand with alarming speed.
Her eyes widened in terror as she realized the fire was consuming her, devouring her flesh with ravenous hunger. Ellie's scream grew more frantic, more desperate, as the cursed flames raced up her arm, burning everything in its path.
"What's happening?! Make it stop! For mercy's sake, make it stop!"
Heads whipped around, a ripple of bewildered gasps and murmurs spreading through the gathering crowd. Faces etched with shock and morbid fascination turned our way as onlookers rushed in, drawn like vultures to the scent of unfolding tragedy.
A churning sea of bodies pressed over tighter, gawking eyes drinking in Ellie's torment with a perverse, rubbernecking hunger. The sickly sweet reek of charred flesh hug thick in the air, mingling with the acrid tang of terror as the cursed pyre consumes her inch by inexorable inch.
I could only stand impotent amidst that ghoulish throng, watching in numb horror as Ellie's words collapsed into an endless spiral of shrieking, blazing torment. Her wild, pleading gaze found mine, silently begging for deliverance, for mercy, I have no power to grant.
"Ellie!" Sister Anna's cry rang out, shrill with panic as she rushed to the stricken girl's side. But the grotesque sight that met her gaze stopped the nun in her tracks, a bloodcurdling scream ripping from her throat.
Recoiling in horror, she backpedaled, hands clasped over her mouth as if the stifled scream still echoing in her mind. Her eyes, wide with primal terror, remained transfixed on the nightmarish scene unfolding before her—Ellie's once flawless skin now a scorched, blistering ruin.
Frozen in place, Sister Anna could only gape in mute revulsion, her every instinct screaming at her to flee this unholy conflagration. Afraid that it will affect her too.
"Sister! Please, help me!" Ellie cried out, her voice strained with immense pain. The terrible burning had finally stopped spreading to her arm, but the agonizing pain still tortured every inch of her skin.
Angry red burns covered her left arm, the flesh raw and blistered. In some areas, the fire had burned so intensely that it had charred some of Ellie's skin black. Wisps of smoke still rose from the worst of the burns, carrying a sickening burnt smell.
Ellie's face was contorted, her eyes squeezed tightly shut against the torment. Tears leaked from the corners as she sobbed. "It hurts so much! I can't…I can't…" She could barely form the words as she gasped for air, her breaths coming in ragged pants.
Sister Anna stood frozen, unable to tear her eyes away from the horrific sight of her favorite orphan, burned and ruined arm. The nun's face was ashen, her mouth hanging open in a soundless scream of horror.
When Ellie pleaded again, desperation cracking her voice, Sister Anna flinched. Squeezing her eyes shut, she turned away, unable to look straight into Ellie's eyes.
"What…what happened, child? Who did this to you?" Sister Felice's words emerged tremulous yet laced with a simmering fury as she beheld Ellie's ravaged form.
Though horror blanched her features, the nun did not flinch or turn away. Instead, she moved closer, each step a defiance against the malevolent force that had so grievously wondered the innocent girl before her.
Ellie's gaze found mine once again, eyes blazing with accusation and anguish. "Her!" she rasped, voice little more than a tortured rasped. A trembling finger inched upwards, condemning me with its point. "Ruby…did this…"
The words hung in the air, a damning pall. As if released form some dreadful spell, all eyes turned towards me in unison. Realization cracked across their faces like a wave upon the rocks—I had been here, from the beginning.