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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2898282" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 135, “Meeting with the Goddess”, Wednesday, March 22nd , 1882, 12:00 P.M. Still sweaty from the passion they shared, Jake closes his eyes and wraps his arms around Ruby, and passes out. She should be passing out too, but instead her mind is reeling. She is not sure if it’s the euphoria she is experiencing from the pleasure of having Jake and the pleasure of him having her, the overwhelming emotions she has been feeling lately or the liquor. Ruby considers the past two days, full of fun and happiness, minus a few snags. I feel so much better, she thinks, Spending this time with Jake has brought me back to myself, made me feel alive again. I do love him. Sure, I was wrong last time I thought I loved someone, but this time is different, this time I know it and feel it with everything I am. It just feels right, like it was always meant to be. She smiles to herself, And doesn't it sound funny that you, Ruby West, would ever believe in fate or destiny? She tosses in the bed, kicking the blankets off. I should be so happy I’ve finally found someone who cares enough about me to not abuse me, to look after me, take care of me. He knows who I am and wants to be around me anyway. I’ve lived my whole life with no love, why should now be any different? I love him, why isn’t that enough? Ruby sighs out loud, but Jake doesn’t move. She squiggles and faces him in the bed, moving a strand of damp hair off his face. “You need a haircut,” she whispers quietly and smiles. Staring at him for an unknown period of time, she finally asks the question, “Why can’t you love me, Jake? Why won’t you love me?” Just admitting that out loud hurt Ruby and made her heart ache. A couple of tears flow down her smooth rosy cheeks. I have loved him and given him everything I could, I just don’t have anything more to give. I don’t think he believes me when I say I love him, he never believed me about George. We’ve been together three whole months already, a lifetime, practically an eternity! I told him how I felt, laid my heart on the line, made myself vulnerable and he said nothing in return, just a kiss to get what he wanted. Not that I should be complaining, I wanted it too, it's just... Face it girl, if he was ever going to love you, he would have known it by now. Perhaps he needs more than what you have to offer. Or perhaps, she thinks darkly, he really is like all the others who only want one thing from you. Hollow and empty with no feeling for you, just lustful desire. No, she reprimands herself, Jake is different, he does care about me and she refuses to entertain the thought further. You know the truth, that you are destined to never be loved, as your life has been before, it always will be the same. And as lonely as you’ve been, you’ve survived. Just accept your fate and be done with it. Ruby finally closes her eyes, the remaining tears squeezing out as she does. I thought I already had… With that thought she falls asleep. Jake sleeps soundly oblivious to the rising of Ruby’s spirit as she is summoned through the Veil of Dreams. Ruby awakens abruptly to find herself standing in the desert under a hard white moon as fog slithers gray shapes along the ground. The eerie chill of the cold barren landscape creeps deep into her bones causing a sad and haunted look to cloud her eyes as she is overcome by a feeling of profound loneliness. A desperate cry escapes into the night but she does not recognize the sound of her own grief as she keens, like a wounded animal, to the comfortless sky. “ SO ALONE ! W H Y AM I ALWAYS SO ALONE?!" Crumbling to her knees, Ruby sinks to the lifeless desert floor and watches in despair as the greedy sand steals her tears away. “No one will ever know that I have wept here. No one will care.” She whispers forlornly. She picks up the salty sand and lets it fall through her fingers. “The love that pours from my heart is no different than these desert tears. It nourishes nothing. Nothing! It is wasted!” She weeps bitterly “Nothing ever grows of it. Nothing ever will.” Time is lost and her sobs slowly subside to ragged breathing. She lays in the cool sand her mind as empty as the sky. The faint tinkling of music reaches her ears, it is a sound so soft that she has to still her breathing and strain to listen. She can barely hear it. Just a wisp floating over the hill. It seems to be calling to her. “Is this the life you choose for yourself?” it whispers. Her eyes dart around in a panic and stumbling on the soft sand in her haste she scurries over the next rise. As she tops the crest of a dune she is met with the most astonishing sight. It is not the miles of sand that amaze her, but the startling and unexpected sight of the woman. A stunning contrast to the bleak scenery, she lies draped over an ornate chaise lounge. Ruby continues approaching slowly. Mesmerized by the woman’s unearthly beauty, Ruby marvels at the golden hair, yellow as daffodils and how it appears to cascade over the woman's delicate, alabaster shoulders and small firm breasts. “Her naked form is so smooth and flawless it must surely have been sculpted by Michael Angelo… or perhaps by one of the gods themselves,” Ruby whispers in awe “for look, even the moon cannot resist such loveliness as it reaches down from the heavens and gently caresses the exquisite body with its soft luminescent light.” “There is something so familiar about her, I can feel it like an ache in my heart and yet I KNOW that I have never encountered anything as beautiful before.” As she nears, she is surprised to see a rosy-cheeked toddler sitting at the woman’s feet. He plays contentedly tracing hearts with arrows through them in the sand. The cherub is scantily clad, revealing rolls of soft, chubby flesh. An archer’s bow rests in his lap and a golden quiver of blood red arrows is tossed carelessly on the ground at his side. Ruby’s lips begin to part in that special, gentle smile that females reserve for babies and puppies, but it quickly vanishes to be replaced by cold suspicion when her gaze is met with ancient, knowing eyes. The beautiful apparition watches Ruby's reaction, amusement dancing in her eyes and in a voice musical and strong, faintly exotic, she repeats; Is THIS the life you choose for yourself?" “Who are you?” Ruby wonders aloud, her voice echoing off of the shimmering sand. The woman responds with a cocky half-smile and twirls her golden tresses in a perfect parody of Ruby’s own familiar flirtatious pose. “You do not recognize me?" She smirks and waves her hand in a dismissive gesture. “It does not matter. It is sufficient that I recognize you, Ruby West.” “Where am I?” Ruby demands as she shivers and holds herself against the coldness of the place. “Has not the Priestess Minerva told you of her own recent journey to this realm?” “I do not believe in such things.” Ruby says, eyeing the woman defiantly. “Your belief is not required for the life YOU have chosen, Ruby West.” “Why have you brought me here?” Ruby persists, as she angrily wipes tears of confusion from her eyes. “Do not despair, I offer you only what you desire, my favored one. But first you must answer the question.” She points around to the harsh desolate landscape. “Is THIS the life you choose for yourself?” "What I desire?" Ruby repeats softly, "Your favored one? I don't understand." She shakes her head, sending her flaming red hair dancing about her. "The life I live is NOT of MY choosing if that is what you are asking," Ruby stubbornly clenching her fists as she spits the words, "It's what was given to me, left to me by those that would be unkind." Filled with the bitterness of her own cold response, she shivers silently as the night swallows her anger. Empty and defeated she lowers her eyes and hangs her head low. Her voice becomes quiet as a butterfly's flapping wings. "This is not what I would choose. I don’t want to be alone anymore." “And yet you have not chosen otherwise.” the woman calmly replies and sweeps her hand to encompass the empty desert. A waterfall appears. It sparkles in the moonlight as it falls upon the desert floor creating a crystal blue pool that quickly overflows it’s banks. As the newly formed stream runs merrily on its way it nourishes all that it touches, replacing the thirsty sand with an oasis of lush green foliage. The earth around them awakens and begins to bloom with new life as a variety of flowers and exotic plants spring up from the rich soil transforming the lifeless landscape with their bold, vivid colors. As Ruby drinks in the wondrous sights she hears familiar laughter and turns to discover her twin perched on a rock enjoying a warm spring day. All of her friends are present gathered around her laughing and teasing in easy camaraderie. Jake, her handsome lover, sits at her feet, relaxed and content. He is laughing in appreciation of some witty remark she has just made and his eyes are bright with admiration and love for her. It is easy to see that all the love she has yearned for over the years is returned tenfold and that she is cherished by her companions. Tears shimmer in her eyes as she beholds the mirage of her deepest desires. She turns to the goddess with an expression of desperate longing. The woman smiles tenderly. “You have but to honor me to have it my child. It is already yours. You need only accept it as the gift that it is--Yet you continue to disappoint me” She chides. “I have always favored you, bestowed my most precious gifts upon you and YET you choose to waste them as tears upon the sand. You are an ungrateful child to think that you can steal love from the gods. It cannot be stolen. Love is a gift. You can choose to accept it or deny it. But tribute must be paid to US for such a precious boon,” she says motioning to the child playing in the sand. “Love is OUR domain and WE bestow our gifts upon those whom we choose to show favor. Yet despite our intentions you stubbornly choose to remain blind to our very existence. “Mark my words,” she admonishes. “For so long as you do not recognize us, so shall you remain blind to the love you receive from others.” The woman gracefully rises from her rest and unconcerned by her lack of clothing lightly takes Ruby by the hand and leads her through the lush paradise to a garden of roses. She reaches out and plucks a single perfect red rose releasing its intoxicating perfume to the air. “They are beautiful are they not?” She says brushing its soft petals across Ruby’s cheek. “Do you know why I christened roses “the flower of love”?” and not waiting for a response she places the blossom in the palm of Ruby’s hand and cruelly squeezes it shut around the stem. Ruby cries out and pulls away as the razor sharp thorns cut deep into her palm. “ Love is painful, Ruby West. You cannot hold it in your hand and remain unscathed by it. Love demands the greatest price of all for its acceptance is the fastest way to the soul. Open your heart and soul to me, Ruby West, and I will grant you what you desire most. Your time is running out. Honor us for the gifts of love that we have bestowed upon you before they are, forever, lost to you.” It is the time that you mortals mark as Spring. A time of renewal. The time to give honor to the gods for life and love. The choice is yours to make, Ruby West. The Priestess will know what to do." Ruby awakens and bolts straight up in her bed, shaking and soaked in a cold sweat. She blinks her eyes a few times until she recognizes the hotel room. She could see a tiny bit of light peeking through the open window. Ruby sighs in relief, “Only a dream, it was only a dream.” She blinks again and lets out a long slow breath, “Only a dream.” Suddenly a loud gasp escapes her lips as she looks down at her clenched fist. She realizes she is still clutching the rose from her dream in her bloodied palm. Trembling, the rose falls from her hand onto the bed, drops of blood and a couple of tears following it. She holds her bloodied hand away from her staring at it, as she clutches at the blankets around her with the other, holding them to her still cold and shivering body. Shocked, awed and scared, she doesn't move, she just stares at the perfect red rose lying in her lap.</blockquote>

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