How to cut a Ruby -- Chapter 2

Ruby sat up in bed and lit a smoke. She watched this evening's date pull his clothes on and turn to look at her one last time. She furrowed her brow at him. He knew the deal. He'd have a hell of a time explaining the shiner she gave him to his girlfriend when he got home.

"Get th' fuck out, arready."

The man smirked at her, and she smirked in return before he left her apartment, her door clicking locked behind him.

Ruby swung her legs out of bed and slipped back into her bra and underwear. She took a deep drag from her cig and held it in for several seconds before slowly exhaling a thin tendrily line of smoke. She walked out of her bedroom and into her moonlit living room. She never kept drapes in this room. She couldn't care less if her neighbours saw her in her skivvies. Surely, they've seen far worse things happening in THIS apartment.

She crossed her dingy living room and gazed at the table. It was still covered with takeout chinese containers, playing cards, beer bottles, and cigar butts from the other night. Reinhold had been over to play cards and drink beer. She could never tell whether or not he was bluffing, so as always, she cheated.

She was almost certain he knew she was cheating, but still, he always came by with some sort of takeout and some sort of cheap domestic beer - her favourite - and the two would just hang out and play cards. Reinhold would let her "win" all of his money and they would drink all the beer and smoke all the cigarettes - or cigars - until the morning sun shyly peeked over the horizon. Then, Reinhold would give her his signature grin and slip out the window. They wouldn't say goodbye. Just nod to each other, and then he'd go.

But this evening, Reinhold was busy with some sort of digging. Seeking the Truth... or whatever the hell it was when he wasn't around. Maybe he had found a date for that night, too. It didn't matter. What mattered was that she didn't want to be alone, so she found someone at the D, brought him home, got what she wanted, and sent him packing. Now that he was gone, she was alone again. She wondered what the point was.

She stepped into her kitchen and opened the fridge to find something to eat. She finally decided on some leftover soup from work and reached into the fridge for the sealed tupperware. Three minutes in the microwave should be enough.

She pulled anoher drag from her smoke as she walked back into her living room. She paused in the middle of the room, cigarette smoke leaking from her nostrils, and looked down at her feet. Her smoke dropped off of her lip, bounced off of her foot, and rolled away from her toes.

She cursed softly to herself and bent over to pick up her smoke. As soon as she ducked, she heard a loud gunshot, followed by the sound of her living room window exploding. She threw herself onto the floor and covered her head as her entire body was blasted with broken glass. The window next to the first shattered with another gunshot. She scrambled into her bedroom and hastily pulled on the jeans and tanktop she had thrown on the floor earlier that evening, then pulled on her combat boots without lacing them up. She lay low and listened for footsteps, voices, anything, but the gunman was waiting.

She shook some glass out of her hair and tied her it back with a piece of leather rope. She concentrated her rage to ignite her body with flame, and ran back into her living room. Her reappearance was rewarded with a barrage of bullets which were thankfully repelled by her protective aura. She dove through her window onto her fire escape and rolled. The bullets continued pinging off of her, each one stinging and pricking her cauterized skin. She looked around wildly, unable to pinpoint their origin, and galloped down the fire escape ladder to the ground below.

She started to sprint. Her combat boots loosely hung onto her feet and she almost kicked them off several times as she turned corners, jumped over fences, and eventually made her way to the safest place she could think of. The D. The only place too busy to open fire in. She was only a block away from her house, running in the well-lit streets, when the gunfire ceased. She was either too far, or too visible.

Ruby jumped into the portal to send her to the D, and knelt to tie her boots. She wasn't sure who she had pissed off this time. Ruby pissed off a lot of people. She'd have to give Reinhold a call to see if he could dig up some information.

She opened her cell phone and dialed his number.

"Rein?" she said. "Sorry t'call so late, but shit jus' hit th' fan."