By the time the rain dried, the college had already replaced tragedy with gossip.
The girl's death became another secret whispered between classes — a stain on the morning air no one wanted to touch.
Ruby walked into class and the room fell silent. Her impromptu performance had earned her the spotlight, and the attention annoyed her more than anything. She didn't show it.
Her eyes scanned the room with surgical calm — the rich, the average, the bottom feeders — all clustered together, indistinguishable. In Ruby's view, they were the same: tainted, hollow, soulless.
She settled in an isolated corner, away from the rot. From here she could see everything. She dissected them without moving a muscle.
"So—did you hear?" a girl whispered across the table. "That girl that—what did they say—committed suicide earlier…"
Ruby's composure flickered, just for a breath, at the mention.
"You mean the dead girl we watched?" another voice offered, flat, as if naming facts in a ledger.
"Shouldn't we feel sad?" a third asked, but the mockery in her tone made the sentiment hollow. Laughter bubbled like cheap champagne.
"A mistress who got caught doing a blowjob in the toilet," someone snickered, and the table erupted in cruel laughter.
Ruby's voice dropped two degrees colder. "A mistress?" The single whisper cut through them like a scalpel. Heads snapped up, but no one knew who'd spoken.
"Shh!" Serena clutched her pearls theatrically. "You can't say that here. The guards were told to keep quiet. I heard her family hasn't even been contacted—too messy."
"Messy how?" someone else leaned forward, curiosity bright in her eyes.
Serena's breath was a whisper. "They heard she was seeing someone she shouldn't. Someone powerful. Probably crossed the wrong people."
"That's what I heard too—" another began and silenced herself at the warning glare from her friend.
"Don't," she hissed. "Remember the last person who snitched? Exactly. No one does."
The chatter died. But Ruby had already noticed where the eyes kept flicking — across the courtyard.
There, a tall boy lounged with a smug posture and knife-sharp features: Tony. Beside him, heels clicking like a metronome, Jessica scrolled through her phone as if she owned the world.
Ruby smiled slowly, the kind of smile that flattened people. Wolves in silk, she thought.
Sage, a few tables away, watched Ruby with a tightening unease. Something about this new girl didn't add up — the way she'd smiled that morning, the way her gaze picked people apart rather than admire them. No freshman should be that calm after cradling a corpse.
Ruby didn't know the dead girl, but a pull inside her chest was real and raw. The girl's whispered words—"I didn't want him. He forced me."—kept looping in Ruby's head. Her fingers grazed the wooden desk; a small, involuntary shiver passed across her knuckles. Her smile stiffened.
"That's terrible," she murmured, voice soft.
"Yeah," Serena said with a shrug. "But you know this place—money erases everything."
Ruby's glasses caught a strip of sunlight. For a moment — a flash — something electric glinted inside her eyes.
"We'll see about that," she said, so low only she and the dark could hear it.
Then Alexander entered.
Even before he removed his sunglasses, the room shifted. The air felt thinner, sharper, like someone had pulled a knife across it. Ruby's hand froze mid-motion, phone half-raised; his aura hit her like a memory.
He looked older — a sharper jawline, colder eyes — but the current beneath him was the same magnetic pull she'd known before masks and miles. He scanned the room with lazy precision. For a heartbeat his gaze brushed hers and his chest tightened.
That cursed feeling — the same energy that had haunted him since that distant, masked night. The same one that made his pulse stutter. He muttered under his breath, more to himself than anyone else, "Get it together, Alex."
Ruby stood as he passed. She pretended to adjust her bag so she could hide her face, her eyes planning an escape without having any contact with him, but their shoulders brushed.
Electric, familiar — like two notes played in unison and suddenly wrong. Both of them froze.
Ruby's heart struck once, defiant. Alex's jaw clenched. Neither spoke.
"Sorry," Ruby breathed, pulling away an arm's length as if his presence burned. She had to be careful. He was too dangerous. If he guessed she was the girl from the club, everything would unravel. She stepped back like a frightened thing, eyes wide, harmless. "Didn't—s—see you there."
Alex frowned. Every other girl in the room would have leapt at him, but this one avoided him like bad luck. It irked him — the aloofness, the strange fear.
Jessica, who'd never tolerate competition, pushed Ruby forward with a sneer. "Stay away from Alex, bitch. Who do you think you are?"
Ruby fell hard to the floor from the impact as Alex's heart clenched at the sight of her being mistreated. She looked up at Jessica with a promise of revenge in her gaze but all too soon was replaced with innocence before Jessica could blink
Was that in my mind? She thought as she had never been looked at like that before. Not even by Alex yet her gaze made her entire being shook in fear.
Jessica immediately switched to play the innocent
"Darling, did you see the gaze she gave me? She's such a bitch causing trouble on her very first day..." Jessica said before Ruby got up dusting her skirt like nothing happened.
She turned to leave before Alex grabbed her hand making her pause and everyone freeze
Alexander had never taken the initiative to touch any girl apart from Jessica, not even his own sister, that was a fact!
"Apologize" Came his voice ruthless, cold and devoid of life
Ruby lifted her lips in sadness as she had never expected that from him. Her jellyfish was always cold to others, his poison always keeping people away but when it came to her he soften up and even glowed. But now he was nothing like the jelly fish that glowed just for her.
Ruby came out of her thoughts quickly shivering the performance perfect: innocent, startled, meek. Inside, her thoughts hissed: Alex, I'll make you pay for this
She vowed as her body shook in anger that people mistook for fear. She bowed down to Jessica
"I'm sorry" She said loudly for everyone to hear then forcefully pulled off her hand from his' with a hurt expression deep in her eyes that seem to deeply affect Alex in one glance
From her shadowed pillar, Sage's gaze narrowed. She'd felt the spark too — that faint ozone crackle like static before lightning. Her suspicion hardened into intent. Who are you, really, Ruby Rose? she whispered.
Ruby walked off, steps light but eyes sharpened to knives. How had Alex become this cold-hearted man? Why did that woman cling to his arm like a claim? Why did Jackie tolerate it? Questions fed the small, hot ember of anger in her chest.
She smiled, slow and calculating. "Alright then," she murmured. "Two birds, one stone."
The wind tugged at her damp hair as the sun tilted toward evening. She would stay. She would observe. She would play the cheerful new girl and map every shadow, every lie.
She wasn't rushing the truth. Patience would widen the trap. She'd make them think she was harmless — the meek corner seat, the soft voice, the forgotten laugh — then tear the rotten throat of this college from the inside out.
And Alex? He'd get what he deserved. She'd punish him — hard, slow, and with a smile.
For now, Ruby's smile was warm, innocent, utterly disarming. She melted back into the crowd, a shadow slipping between lit faces, already hunting.
Ruby decided to take a stroll around the college to clear her mind—to forget Alex's strange behavior and the dead girl's lifeless face… or at least try to.
But she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd seen that face before.
Also she had to fake being hurt to everyone just now and that alone turned her stomach inside out in disgust. She was never one to play the weak for favour she snatched it instead that was her style.
Lost in thought, she barely noticed the trail of guys watching her. Or maybe she did—and simply didn't care. To her, they were insects.
The whole campus had their eyes on her now—the freshman who had found a corpse and cried for her. The story spread like wildfire, but Ruby didn't flinch. What bothered her wasn't the rumors. It was the strange ache in her chest—the raw pain that burned when she'd held the girl.
Pain.
It was foreign to Ruby. No one had ever made her feel it before.
So why now? Who was that girl?
She wanted answers. Badly. But digging into it would only attract attention—especially with Alex around and for now she wanted to have nothing to do with the jerk. She'd had enough attention for one day.
With a sigh, Ruby sank onto an empty bench. Her eyes glared unconsciously toward someone she didn't even know—disgust laced with something darker. Catching herself, she tugged at her hair and bowed her head, suppressing the flicker of bloodlust.
All these sides of me… and it's only day one...it's really dangerous being with that jerk.
This college, she realized, might actually be interesting. Finally, something that could break the dullness of her perfect, untouchable life. A small, dark chuckle escaped her lips—excitement barely chained beneath her calm smile.
She sensed Harley before the girl even approached, so she erased every trace of killing intent.
"Are you okay?" Harley asked softly.
Ruby forced a sad expression. "Honestly, I don't know the girl… but I can't get her face out of my head. I don't know why I reacted like that. It's like… I was possessed. And that guy I don't like what he did to me"
Half the truth. Convincing enough. She could feel Sage's presence nearby—eavesdropping since the moment Harley appeared.
"Alex is always like that but the girl...what happened back there?" Harley pressed.
"I guess… she reminded me of my little sister," Ruby murmured.
"You have a sister?"
Ruby nodded, frowning. "Maybe not. The dead girl was too calm. Even in death, she was composed. My sister could never…" She trailed off, uneasy. "It was like it wasn't her first time being dead."
Her stomach twisted.
Ruby was a soul reader—she could glimpse a person's essence in a glance. Since arriving, she had sensed only two pure souls on campus: the dead girl's and Harley's.
That shouldn't have been possible.
Especially not for someone like Ruby—whose heart was a dark crystal.
Her mind flashed back to that moment—the faint glow when she'd placed a crystal seal on the girl before handing her to the guards.
I'm losing it, she thought bitterly. A faint smirk curved her lips—just enough for Sage to see before Ruby's expression softened again.
"People die," Ruby said lightly. "It's inevitable. But a proper death… that's beautiful. Makes life worth clinging to, don't you think?"
Harley frowned, confused.
Sage, still hiding nearby, smirked unconsciously—until Ruby and Harley turned to leave.
"Heading back to the dorm?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, orientation's over anyway," Harley replied.
Their laughter echoed softly as they walked off together.
Sage waited until they were gone, her eyes narrowing.
"Ruby Rose…" she whispered. "Who exactly are you?"
Because she'd heard that name before, but it wasn't Rose that was her last name it was Raven. And the real Ruby Raven was a monster—ruthless, merciless, untouchable.
And she bore a mark…
a crimson crescent on her forehead.
Sage's pulse quickened.
If it was her—then hell had just enrolled in their college.