Young Writers Society

Ruma Glider:

He was grateful that no one had noticed the tears streaming down his face. He had to be strong. That was a simple fact of life; Ruma Glider and the word strong went together like swimming and a hot summer day.
Ruma glanced around the area. The boy (Jayson, he reminded himself) was right. It would make more sense for them to be somewhere more civilized. But it wasn't exactly like Ruma could just waltz into some tavern (Did this place even have taverns?). He understood from the actions of everyone else that his attire didn't suit this world. "Unless someone could supply me with a change of clothes that suits this world more than my own, I cannot exactly go somewhere 'civilized' - though that certainly is a good idea. Also, what happened to Summer?"

Claudia

Too. Many. People... shouting --
I slunk towards the red postbox on the nearby street corner, and reached behind it for my black rucksack. I'd abandoned the badge-studded thing upon noticing Summer; none of anybody's business why I was packed in the middle of the night.

Sinking to a sitting stance, I closed my eyes and held my ears. Goodbye, rabble. Night-night, streetlights.
Yet something put tension in my static limbs, and prised my eyes open. The others had jumped all over Summer's vanishing act, which was the last thing I needed.
I held the rucksack by one strap as I walked back, dragging my feet. I heard a clink as one of the metal badges fell to the pavement. Picking it up - my favourite Guns 'N Roses one! - I pricked myself on the pin.
Man, how pathetic this looks! Sucking a stupid wound en route to a bunch of total strangers, who I seem to think care more about where I am than my actual birth parents.

***

"I've got it," I blurted, forgetting any tact in regards to rejoining the group quietly. Everyone jumped.
Ruma was first to ask. "What?"
"More like why," I replied. "The reason we're all here." Then I saw I was losing them. "First -- major thing -- the fire. Why do people usually light fires?"
"To kill," Ruma muttered.
"To give light and warmth," answered Wink, on a slightly more practical note.
"Well, I'm thinking like a beacon. For runaways," I elaborated.
Ruma was an assassin, probably wanted by somebody. Jayson and Wink could've been escaping in their machine. Summer bolting like that wasn't a good sign. And then there was, uh, me.

Summer

I limped over to Claudia,

"I need your help."

I fell down,

"And I have something to confess."

I tried to get up, but fell back down.

Ruma Glider:

"A beacon for runaways..." Ruma mused out loud, only to be cut off from his train of thought by Summer's return. She was limping for reasons unknown to him. Ruma awaited her confession, whatever it might be. It was during this time that his mind wandered back to Claudia's theory. He had been attacking the wizard. The wizard had cast a spell on him, and he had ended up here. Chances were the spell was the cause of his arrival. Yet Summer, Wink, Jayson, and Claudia's arrival seemed to fit Claudia's theory. Maybe he was the outlier, but he still found himself wondering why the house was set alight in the first place.

To kill. To destroy. To take away someone's hopes for the future. Those were the answers long ago. Years had passed, and once again Ruma was faced with a life changing fire. He stared back at it before his gaze returned to Summer.

Summer

I feel Ruma's stare, I shiver,

"I-I'm the one who started the fire, I-I'm the one who brought you all here, my father wanted some "Canidates" for his evil experiment, I agreed with him at first, but realized . . . I . . . I just can't you guys are innocent, and I see good inside of you all. But me . . . I tried. And my name isn't summer . . .

It's Jackie Napier."

Claudia

"That's fine, well no it really isn't but... but, how were we physically brought here? Candidates? What experiment? Your father?" I stammered.
Brain meltdown much! You practically already knew, remember?
"What happened to your leg?" someone asked. I was too distracted to notice who.

Ruma Glider:

A laugh left his lips. If they had known Ruma, they would have realized the true nature of it. What Jackie said pained him more than anyone would have guessed. "Good? Innocent?" he scoffed. "You must be thinking of another Ruma Glider, because I am neither of those."

He withdrew a knife that had been hidden underneath his cloak and began to twirl it in his fingers as he spoke, slowly circling Jackie Napier and the rest of the group. Though assassins were never supposed to be seen, acting had always been a large part of Ruma's career as an assassin. If everyone wants an assassin filled with bloodlust, give them an assassin filled with bloodlust.

"I committed my first murder when I was only fifteen. I strangled a lord of a large farm town with his own bedsheets. When I was sixteen, I seduced a lady in the court of King Drenar and stabbed her through the heart. When I was seventeen, I served King Drenar's most trusted advisor poisoned food. When I was eighteen, I pierced the skin of King Drenar's queen with my fatal needles. When I was nineteen, I befriended King Drenar's son and drowned him in his own bathtub. When I was twenty, I stole the heart of King Drenar's new mistress and stabbed her like I had done to the first. When I was twenty-one, I killed his beloved horse by feeding it poisoned mushrooms. When I was twenty-two, I killed his newest advisor with a sword. When I was twenty-three, I framed the castle's cook and had him hung on the gallows. When I was twenty-four, I decapitated another one of his advisors."

He slowed to a halt. The knife was returned to its hiding spot as Ruma smiled coldly at them underneath his mask. "At the age of twenty-five, I was supposed to kill King Drenar himself, but I had not expected his wizard to stop me. The wizard cast a spell on me, and that is why I am here. Not because your father made it so, but because of a variable I could not control."

"Summer"


I looked at Ruma, I slowly was going to draw my weapon, but then I held myself back, I turned away from him, a tear fell from my eye, wiping off the makeup, my true skin was pure white, and the rain was slowly washing out my blonde hair, instead, red color emerged. my makeup around my mouth faded, revealing

A bleached red lipped smile.

Wink

Claudia was right on one account. I was running away...
The hallway flashed with red and silver lights, raging like a storm. Thunder in the distance, lighting-like glimpses of forms still on the steel ground. I stopped and gasped for breath, leaning against the wall. How long ago had I left Rena? How long had I been searching for anyone; my brother, my mother, my friends...
Bright light burst in front of me, silver eyes, the hum of machinery-

I growled, softly, so that only Jayson heard. That's where Claudia was wrong: Jayson was not running away. He had a perfect life to go back to; perfect family, perfect world, perfect friends. It was only because of me that he had been sucked along into this dimension.

"What are you doing out here, kid?!?

I stopped thinking, turning my attention back to the maelstrom in front of me. The crazy assassin guy; Ruma, who had been ranting about all the guys he had killed. Man, he had a thing for this king. The calm, yet turbulent Claudia, sucking her finger and looking aghast at Jackie. Jacki herself, a puzzle and problem all at once, the rain washing away he makeup to show a stone-white face and blood-red hair. And Jayson, fiddling with the machine in his hands, listening in rapt attention. And me, the slightly hysteric, unbalanced Starbeast teen.

What a crazy bunch.

Jackie looked at us guiltily, as if the proclamation that she had helped bring us here was world-ending sort of stuff. Her grin was a little weird, but I had no clue why we were supposed to be going crazy over mention of her father.
Who was this guy, anyways?

"Who is your father, anyways, Jackie? Remember, we did not all come from the same dimension here." I asked it with my normal indifferent voice, crossing my arms. "And, seriously, he can't be that bad."

Jackie

I am hit with something in my back, I groan, and fall to the hard concrete, I guess he beat Ruma to hurting me.


?????

I shoot her silently in the back with a tranquilizer,

Got her!

I had to finish unfinished business with her. I activate the gas protector in my mask. And swing down from the rooftop. and is about to grab her.

Ruma Glider:

He can barely take in Jackie's sudden collapse. Once it registered, he withdrew his knife once more.

Fire danced in the midst of snowflakes, the snow died red from the blood pooling around their bodies. "Mom! Dad!" And in the house, with no chance of being alive, were the people Ruma pretended to get annoyed, but secretly loved. "Rilox! Zexan!"

He wasn't going to let Jackie die.

A gravestone, engraved with the name of the one person who Ruma cared about. The prince buried deep under the Earth, no doubt killed by his jealous uncle. "Nendros..."

Even though he barely knew her, he had to prevent any possible harm.

Was this his chance to make things right? To save, rather than destroy?

??????


I slowly look up to see a man drawing his weapon, I drop her roughly and advance towards him,

"Ahhh, she's got a new boyfriend?"

He twisted his katana in the air, I saw Jackie wake up out of the corner of my eye.

She's immune to toxins, damn it!

She picked up her pocket knife and walked calmly to me,

"I'm not his girlfriend, and I will never be yours . . . Nygma.

Ruma Glider:

The sound of metal hitting metal filled the smoky air as Nygma defended himself with a hidden dagger. Ruma jumped back. He hadn't someone with only knives in a long time - it brought back childhood memories that were now painful - and he knew he was a little rusty. But it would be impossible to get his poison needles out in time. Nygma would be able to defend himself, or stab Ruma.

He went in for the attack once again. He narrowly dodged a sudden thrust, and in the process, managed to graze Nygma's cheek with his knife. This fatal dance, its only music being the sounds of their weapons clashing, continued for several more minutes.

But then Ruma lost his footing. He fell backwards into the street. Nygma, seizing his chance, rushed towards Ruma and tried to stab him in the heart. Ruma rolled away from the attack.

And the sword pierced the side of his stomach. Ruma grit his teeth in pain as the blood began to escape his wound. The injured assassin attempted to stand again, but his vision grew blurry and he kept swaying.

The pain was too much for him. His limp body hit the asphalt as Nygma approached.

Jackie

"NO!"

And with that, her pocket knife went straight through Nygma's back. He screamed out in pain, and fell to the asphalt not moving. I rushed to Ruma,

"Oh my gosh, are you alright??"

I grabbed a large bandage out of my sleeve. And removed Ruma's shirt, I wrapped it around him hoping it wouldn't hurt.

Wink
When the fight started, Jayson grabbed my arm."This isn't your fight."

I growled, but resented. I was still ready though, tensed to pounce on the shadowy guy. Nygma. Huh, seems like a lot of people here have weird names.

Steel hisses like a cobra, and the others are too entranced in the fight to see that the house has stopped burning and has fallen into a steamy pile. Why has nobody called the fire department? Sure, none of us would, but we're in a city. There's other people around.

Ruma slipped on the slick pavement, and shadow guy didn't even flinch as he slipped his shard of a dagger through Ruma's side.

"NO!" Jackie cried, stepping forward. Apparently she held no love for the shadow guy, because she jammed her pocket knife into his back. He stiffened and fell. Jackie quickly ran to Ruma, pulling a bandage out of her oversized coat. "Oh my gosh, are you alright??" Claire stared to walk towards them, then hesitated, worry splashed across her face like raindrops.

My focus flicked back to Ruma and Jackie. Good grief, I was making myself dizzy. Jackie was winding the bandage around Ruma's waist, staunching the blood. Jayson's hand flickers on my arm, and I know he's noticed it too. Ruma has more than one bandage wrapped around his waist and chest. A pounding headache develops behind my eyes. Silver eyes, bandages around waist... he seemed familiar, but I knew I had never seen him before. I shook off the deja-vu; no time to get stuck in memories. I glanced around and breathed deep. Then I did a classic double-take.

"Was that shadow guy important?" I ask, "Because he's gone."