Fic: Bela/Ruby | "It's Gonna Be Okay" | PG13 | Supernatural
Title: It's Gonna Be Okay
Characters/Pairing: Bela/Ruby
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 917
Summary: Comfort comes at a cost
Disclaimer: Not true.
The hounds. They were coming.
She knew she could keep them away for only so long. gris gris at the doors and windows could keep them out but it also kept her in.
Trapped. Like a rat.
Their snarls echoed through the room and rattled her bones. Much like the howl of true wolves, the baying of the hellhounds drew forth a deep-seated terror that rose from the depths of her soul.
Fear... she had known true fear before. Long ago. Back in a time when children should have feared nothing more than the monsters in their closets and under their beds. When the true fears came from visits to the doctor and dentist and tests at school. Her fear was physical. Often so physical it left her wretching in the bathroom and crumpled on the floor in a corner of her bedroom.
Just like now.
The howls and snarls now came with the scraping of nails against the wood of the door. She knew that were it not for the gris gris just beyond the threshold, that door would be like wet paper, torn through easily by the creatures beyond it.
When she was younger she would find comfort in dreams. In far-away places of her mind. Books. It was in one of those books of fantasy and escape that she had found the cure for her fear. Unfortunately that cure planted the fear that now rattled at her doorway. Now there was nothing that could save her. Nowhere she could escape to. However, there could be peace found despite the fear.
"Ruby..."
The single word slipped from her lips without thought. Gripped by the most primal of fears, all the control and composure she had spent a lifetime building was gone. In fact, she had not even realized she whispered the word until a reply came.
"Bela."
From beyond the safety of the room it came, that quiet reply, mingling with the baying of hellhounds.
Quickly she rose from the corner of the hotel room that she had tucked herself into, daring to press a hand and her ear against the door. Straining to hear over the scratching and snarling, she frowned deeply and held her breath as if the very drawing of air and beating her her heart were too loud.
On the other side of the door, Ruby did the same. The line of gris gris kept her from entering but despite it, she could feel... sense the woman on the other side of the door. The hounds ignored her, paced behind her, scratched at the door and floor beside her. For a second she considered telling them to sit and heel but she knew well how futile the effort would be and how little time she had left.
"Bela. I... would tell you everything's going to be okay but... well... it's not." Ruby whispered with her cheek against the door, a slight shift of it as if nuzzling the wood.
Just beyond the slab of wood no more than two inches wide, Bela smiled faintly, her head bowing and pressed more firmly against the door as if she could absorb the warmth of the woman's cheek on the other side. "It turned out alright for you." she replied, words so soft that even she could barely hear them over the angered snarls of the relentless beasts.
"In the end. But between the beginning and the end was a whole hell of a lot of NOT alright." Ruby replied, shifting so her forehead pressed against the wood, her eyes fluttering closed as her fingers curled faintly against the wood. Just on the other side, Bela could hear the faint scraping far removed from the gouging of the dogs and to it she curled her own fingers. So close to touching and yet so far.
"I've lived with NOT alright before. I saw it to it's end. I'll do it again." Bela spoke firmly, her voice wavering, lacking conviction. Still, to hear the words gave her hope as did feeling the presence on the other side of the door. "I'm going to break the line." she added in a rush as if her breath had been stolen. Really it was more a rush of resolve.
"Okay." came the muffled reply, spoken just before a piercing howl rose, starting a chain of them that rang in Bela's ears to temporarily deafen her.
Only a second was needed to steel her resolve for Bela had spent her entire life dancing with danger and flirting with death. There was little reason to live on the side of caution when one knew exactly when they would die. She brought a foot forward and pressed a toe into the wide line of gris gris before dragging back and breaking the line.
The howling stopped. The clatter of claws at the floorboards rattled her teeth within her skull. One beat of her heart --a heart that had slowed to calm-- passed and the warmth surrounded her. Teeth snapped, claws extended and launched. Arms slid about her.. or so she thought. She was amazed she had time to think, really. But in that fraction of a second before her eternity of agony began, a surge of pleasure and warmth erupted in her and around her. A moment she knew she would cling to as hell exacted it's worst upon her. Within that moment those familiar arms held her tight again, those familiar lips brushed against her cheek. Familiar words flowed above the snarls that rent her flesh and bones: "It's gonna be okay."