It's far too late to stop this

As we journey into darkness

Where Gods fear to tread

The time has come to be renewed

And now before the night is through

We'll wake the dead

- Wake the Dead - Creature Feature

The wind howled eerily as Ruby trudged through the graveyard, the darkness surrounding her seeming as empty as the feeling in her chest. There was so much that she had never gotten to say, so much that she would soon get a second chance at doing.

The lamp in her hand glowed faintly, almost dying out as the flame flickered from the force of the breeze. The stench of wet stone and dirt filled the air, making it almost hard to breathe.

She moved some hair out of her eyes as she clutched the heavy shovel in her arms tightly, praying to the heavens that she not drop it lest she make such a racket against the limestone path she'd be found out instantly.

This was so risky, reckless, stupid; but damn it all she had to do it. She had made her choice, and backing out now would mean she had given away something so important for no reason whatsoever.

She looked carefully as she counted her steps. If she remembered correctly it should be close by. She read the names on all the graves in a rush, yet carefully enough so as not to make a mistake. The shovel had been doused in ritualistic water, it must not be touched or dirtied by the soil above any grave but hers.

She nearly slipped as the light sprinkling of the rain began to increase, soon there would be a downpour. She hurried along, her heart hammering with each step.

She had been preparing for so many nights, so when she finally came upon her grave, the right grave, she only paused for a second. There could be no second thoughts.

She read the inscription on the gravestone with a grief-stricken expression; 'Here lies Weiss Schnee,' followed by a line from her favorite poem. Ruby had surprisingly been given the choice of what to put on there. Maybe that was her father's way of asking for forgiveness.

Without even thinking, as thunder boomed and lightning struck a nearby lightning rod, she jammed the shovel into the earth of the grave.

That was that. There was never any going back from the start, but now any second thoughts she had been having could not be acted upon. It was time to put her plan into motion, whether she liked it or not.

For what seemed like hours she dug into the soft ground, moving pounds of dirt and mud. She dug until her arms ached and she finally saw it. Six feet down, and she had hit the oblong box.

Almost as if in mockery of her death, her father had chosen a simple wooden casket. Nothing fancy, as so befit her lovely soul. Ruby almost wanted to cry, she had deserved so much better.

It took just a short while for her to break open the casket lid after climbing into the pit she dug, and when she did she couldn't hold back the disgust. The smell was simply awful, as Weiss had decayed a lot faster than she had anticipated. She dared not look inside, no, if she did she might decide to do something reckless, she thought.

She climbed back out and began to set everything up.

Candles surrounding the grave, runes carved into the gravestone; wormwood scattered around a pentagram, each and every point of the diabolical star having something previously belonging to Weiss sitting on it. Strands of hair, fingernail clippings, among other grotesque things that Ruby had managed to scrounge from her room.

Several flowers and body parts from animals that had taken a long time to gather scattered at very specific parts of the space the ritual was to take place in made the scene even more disturbing; yet not as disturbing as what Ruby had to do last to complete the ritual.

The very middle of the pentagram held a picture of the two of them together, it was the last component needed. Something of great importance to the both of them, something that held immense emotional value.

She had to defile it.

But first she took off her backpack and set it aside as she dug inside for the book that had taught her such things as what she was about to do. Upon opening it, she suddenly grew very nervous and the rain stopped. All went silent. She felt a chill - a queer chill - blow across her skin. The bellowing of distant thunder just seemed to add to it, and she felt that the odd stillness that had seemingly taken over the world around her spoke of very bad things indeed.

Ruby gazed down at the pages she had marked so many times with her own notes and translations, and she began to speak the words she had memorized.

As she did so she extended her arm outward, and reaching into her pocket, pulled out a knife engraved with the same runes she carved on the tombstone. In one swift motion, she cut her wrist slightly, cringing in pain and watching the blood drip down into the middle of the pentagram; right onto the picture.

"Securum somnos sub terra mortuis. Excitaretur e somno consopiri sempiterno, quaeso. Restituet mihi quondam in gremium caritatem… Surgam, o carissimi surgens venit ad vivos..."

Just like that, Ruby had gotten what she wanted, and the rain started again.

The second that air reached her lungs, Weiss knew that it was wrong. It felt so utterly strange, like it wasn't meant to happen. She opened her eyes, but even the moon above seemed too bright for her and she started to panic, bringing her hand up over her eyes.

She tried in vain to scramble up and out of her coffin, but found that her muscles were too weak. She couldn't lift herself up. She resigned herself to just lying down and listening as the faint sound of footsteps up above met her ears.

That was another thing that felt off, hearing. Breathing, and hearing, and even, indeed, seeing.

She felt her whole entire body tingle with an energy not altogether holy, and she felt a hollowness in her chest from deep within. Something that was once there was missing.

She tried to remember how she got here but no thoughts came; she was missing a very big portion of her memories. She started to cry, her eyes wide open as she found she couldn't sob. Something was stopping her from making a sound. The only thing she managed was a croak.

"Weiss? A-are you awake?" She heard above her, and she slowly turned her head to see the silhouette of a girl against the moon directly overhead. The voice sounded familiar and she was sure something should have been happening when she heard it. A certain rhythm that always happened in the past, a feeling inside of her.

The old thump-thump, it was gone. She couldn't remember, what was that called? A heart… beat… yes, that was it, a heartbeat.

Why was it gone?

The girl above her seemed excited as she let out another sound that Weiss was sure should have made her heart beat frantically. And yet, again, nothing.

She was suddenly being pulled out of her grave, and as soon as the skin on skin contact had been made the girl gasped. This girl was so warm. It made Weiss realize how cold she was.

When she was finally pulled up out of the hole, she was hugged close to the girl; something in her made her hug back with all the strength she could muster. The warmth was almost too much.

Finally, it seemed like Weiss managed to squeak out a word. One word and one word only, and only after trying several times.

"C-c…c-c-col…cold…"

The girl's eyes widened at the sound of her voice, and she was thrown out of the embrace with a cry of surprise. But surprise soon turned into determination to get Weiss out of the rain and into warmth.

Weiss was picked up and cradled in the girl's arms, her head burying itself in the girl's shoulder as if the crook of her neck was familiar, comforting. She watched the gravestones as they passed by them, nearly running through the rain.

Though her brain was working hard to function at even twenty-five percent, she could still feel the fear. This place, why was she here? Why was she so cold? And why was this girl so damned familiar? She listened to the sound of the girl's feet hitting the ground, her boots sloshing in puddles.

She was sat down on something soft, and a soft thud broke her slightly out of her trance. She started feeling sick, as the feeling of moving without moving made itself known to her. She was in… a car? She tried to take in yet another deep breath, but all she managed to do was gasp out.

Weiss looked down at her hands, her pale white skin seeming foreign and oddly smooth. As if it were new. It was strange, how everything felt so out of synch. "Cold," she said, aware that she was not getting any warmer. The pervasive chill was still there, and she felt as if it would never go away.

She shifted her focus to the girl beside her, the girl in the driver's seat who kept invading her mind, preventing her from thinking. The red highlights in her hair, the smell of her perfume, the tone of her voice as she shouted her excitement earlier, it was so-

Ruby. Ruby Rose, that's her name. And she was her…

Something.

"I can't turn the heater up any further I'm-" Ruby started, but froze, her face seemingly going white as she looked over at Weiss. "I'm sorry."

Weiss began to shake her head, her strength slowly coming back to her each and every second. She wanted to tell her that there was nothing to apologize for, but the only thing that came out was a raspy cough.

Weiss sat back in her seat, trying to get comfortable as she held her hands up to the vents, trying in vain to warm up. Somehow she knew that it was going to be a long ride.

As soon as they pulled into the driveway, Weiss felt as if she had seen the welcoming sight of the house a million times.

The rising sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, and Weiss cast her eyes at the beautiful sight feeling nothing but emptiness.

She was taken by the hand suddenly, and lead around the house to a cellar door that was swiftly thrown open by Ruby. She was lead down the creaky staircase to see a cellar that looked nothing like she was sure it should have.

The dark, hard floor was covered in a whole lot of carpets and rugs of the same, soft material to provide at least a little bit of comfort. Paper lanterns hung from the ceiling, and various colored rope lights strung about the place. It was well lit and beautiful in a way that seemed to convey a soft aesthetic.

The corner, near the window, was decorated in things that made Weiss feel a twinge of happiness. There was also what seemed to be a heap of pillows and blankets in that same corner, and a large bed big enough for two or three people tucked away into an alcove near it.

A bit away from the bed there was a shelf that was lined with a lot of different and colorful looking books. Weiss immediately made her way over, and upon reading the titles of the books felt another twinge of happiness. These were books that she loved, books that had made her happy at some point or another, books she couldn't stop talking about.

"I know it's not really the most luxurious of places to stay, but it's… It's all I can do. You know how Yang and dad don't really come down here, so I felt like it was perfect," Ruby said quietly, only loud enough for Weiss to hear.

Weiss turned quickly, excitement building in her chest. "It's wonderful!" she exclaimed loud and clear, making Ruby's heart jump to her throat. Weiss held a hand up to her throat, shock showing across her features. She hadn't been able to speak at all, but now it just came so naturally.

The emotion on Ruby's face at the sound of her voice brought tears to Weiss' eyes, and yet, still, she didn't even know why. Why should something like that make her cry?

"This is… It's really wonderful. I mean it, thank you," Weiss continued. "But I have so many questions."

At this, Ruby gave her a look that was hard for her to place. It was a cross between worried and sad, but there was also a look of shock thrown into the mix.

"What all do you remember?" Ruby asked her, moving from the entrance to the bed. She laid down on it apprehensively, as if just the act of laying on the bed brought back memories she was, at a point in time, hesitant to remember.

"Not much. I'm just… I'm missing a lot. I remember a lot, but there's so much darkness along with it. It's all really foggy and I feel like I've been sleeping for a long time."

At Weiss' words, Ruby sat back up slowly, her eyes devoid of any light that seemed to be there only moments ago. She didn't think she'd have to explain this. But the fact that she would have to brought with it a terrifying reality.

She had done the unthinkable, she had done something no one should do. Weiss wasn't even aware that she was dead; she might suspect what happened but she wasn't sure, and no sane person would just jump to that explanation.

Even if they had just woken up inside a coffin in a cemetery.

No, a sane person would rationalize it in any way until it was confirmed to them. And Ruby was about to confirm it to Weiss. She had brought her back from the dead, and it was terrifying thinking about how she might react to the news.

She might be upset, angry, furious. Worried.

"Well," Ruby said, "that's not exactly far from the truth. Does January seventeenth ring any bells to you?"

Upon saying the date, Weiss visibly shrunk. Clearly, she was made uncomfortable by it, but she didn't really know why.

"I don't know," Weiss said, "maybe. I'll have to think about it. Why?"

Ruby swallowed hard, balling her hands into fists as she looked to the floor.

"Because that's the day that you died," she said darkly.

Weiss didn't really react. She looked down at her hands for the umpteenth time that day, and she licked her lips.

"You mean… I was really dead? And you… you…" The words seemed to get stuck in her throat. She gulped hard to try and get it all out but all she managed to do was make it harder for herself.

"I brought you back," Ruby said slowly.

Weiss blinked, turning to look out the small window in the corner. The morning light was starting to stream in through it, illuminating a small bit of the floor.

Weiss moved to sit down next to Ruby on the bed. "How did… how did it happen?" Weiss asked, keeping her eyes locked on the light on the floor. "I remember a loud noise, screaming. You were crying out my name and I wanted so desperately to say something back but then.. it was just black."

She turned to face Ruby, her eyes going wide at the sight of her sullen expression. "I'm sorry," Weiss continued, "I shouldn't have-" she was cut off as Ruby threw her arms around her, squeezing tightly and burying her face in her neck.

"You're still so damn cold, why won't you just warm up…?" Ruby said, her voice being muffled as she pressed into Weiss harder, kissing her neck. "You were shot. We were robbed and you tried to protect me, and he shot you. He panicked and then ran and there was nothing I c-could do and I thought I would never be able to hold you, or touch you, or see you ever again…" Ruby sniffled, hugging her even tighter and kissing her more. "I'm sorry, I messed up. I didn't know what to do, I was so lost without you, and it was all so hard to even face, let alone by myself; knowing that you basically didn't exist anymore, how was I supposed to take that without a fight? But now look at what I've done. I've just… played god. I'm so sorry!"

Ruby was pulled in closer as Weiss leaned back, falling onto the mattress and curling up, shifting to a familiar position she took whenever she would comfort Ruby in the past. Ruby shivered.

"Hush, don't be so silly," Weiss stated firmly. "Do you honestly think I wouldn't have done the same if I was in your shoes and I found a way? I won't ask what you've paid, and I won't ask what you had to do. I won't judge you for it. It's alright." She ran her fingers through Ruby's hair, pressing a kiss on her forehead, and in no time Ruby had cried out all of her tears.

They both lied there, listening to the birds awaken outside the window. The loud, echoing sound of a lone woodpecker pecking away at a tree just a few hundred yards away from the house was the only sound. But even that felt quiet in the moment.

"You're not breathing," Ruby said with a dark laugh.

"Don't think I ever will again," Weiss replied with a kiss. "But you're better than breathing ever was."