There were no new supplies. Ruby hadn’t really expected there to be. She still hadn’t used half of the supplies that she had already been given. They arrived back at Ivy’s apartment, just as the other dolls were waking up. Soon Ivy was running all over the place, doing this and that. A few minutes later, Mia came skipping down the stairs. Without any hesitation she rushed over to greet Ruby and demand that they play more hide and seek together.
Ruby happily agreed. In all honesty, she was grateful for the distraction. That old familiar dread was creeping over her. Questions were spinning around in her thoughts once again. It had been a peaceful night that Ruby had needed. But the next round was about to begin. There was no telling what games they would be playing today. She just didn’t want to have to kill anyone. That was Ruby’s one wish. The idea of shattering one of her fellow dolls made shivers race through her. Violence didn’t come naturally to Ruby.
After a few rounds of hide and seek, Ivy summoned all the dolls to the main hall so that they could look over the rankings. As Ruby had expected, she was very, very low in the ranks. But she was okay with that. She was alive, what more could she possibly want? Her stats also appeared once more to show Ruby that she had leveled up. Ruby spent a while simply happily staring at that little number 1. She was moving up. This was her first step towards becoming truly powerful. But she might not live long enough to see herself properly grow. Ruby felt Mia take hold of her hand. She smiled down at the child.
“We did it!” Mia cheered. “I’m so happy! Can I play with you this time?”
“No way! You’ll stick with Ivy,” Ruby said without hesitation. Mia’s shoulders slumped and she yanked her hand away from Ruby. Perhaps that had been a little too harsh. Truth be told, Ruby didn’t trust herself to properly protect Mia. It was probably better for Mia to stay with Ivy.
“Ivy! Ruby is being mean to me!” Mia hollered up the stairs. A rather flustered-looking Ivy appeared a moment later.
“Just ignore her. Remember what I told you. A lot of bullies will leave you alone if you just don’t react to their teasing,” said Ivy.
“But what if I ignore them and they still don’t leave me alone?”
“Then I’ll shatter them into a hundred pieces for you.” Ivy shot Ruby a death glare. Ruby raised her hands in surrender, but she couldn’t help but laugh just a little bit. By the time the dolls had everything packed up and were heading out to the square, Ruby had worked herself into a panic. Each round was meant to be harder, right? Luck had been one of the main things that had gotten Ruby through round one. She had barely managed to survive it. Her hands were shaking so violently that she feared they might crack. How was she going to do this? Thinking like this was useless, but Ruby couldn’t stop the fear. It attacked her ruthlessly, leaving her mind a twisted and confused mess, filled with nothing but terror.
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“Hello, hello, and welcome, everyone!” The sound of Mary’s bright voice was like a death sentence at this point. “We are so excited to have everyone back here for round two!” Mary was cheering. Ruby’s eyes searched the faces around her, looking for Blossom. Both Ivy and Mia were standing much closer to her this time. That brought a little bit of comfort and peace to Ruby’s imaginary heart. But Blossom was nowhere to be seen. She had to be somewhere in this crowd. Something about the sea of faces that surrounded Ruby made her feel dizzy.
It was as if she were drowning in hundreds and hundreds of people. They all looked like one united mass. Ruby found that it was almost impossible to make out any of the individual faces and their unique features. Her head spun and she found herself edging closer to Mia and Ivy for a tiny bit of comfort. Well, things weren’t all bad. At least her health and her stamina were at 100 again. That was good. She would just have to try her best and pray that she and everyone she cared about made it through the second round.
“We will be doing something a little bit different today,” Mary said. Her voice seemed to be becoming shriller and shriller with each word. “For this game, you will need your mirrors. We will also be splitting up everyone into groups of four!” Ruby felt Ivy take hold of her arm. Ivy’s eyes were glowing with that fearful determination again.
“I-I think we might have played this game before. You stick with Mia. I want you two to hide. Just keep Mia safe. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you two,” said Ivy.
“Huh? What are we-“
“Each group will work together to take down as many dolls as they possibly can! A timer will be set. During this time, you may all spread out and prepare for the fight!”
Take down the other dolls? Did Mary mean kill? The screams of yesterday’s fights echoed in Ruby’s mind. She could still remember the pain and terror on the dolls’ faces as they had been ruthlessly trampled. How could she destroy them? These were her very own people. Most of them had never done anything to hurt her. Suddenly, Ruby felt a hand on her shoulder. Blossom was smiling gently at her.
“It’ll be okay,” said Blossom softly. “Just stick with Mia. Ivy and I will take care of the rest.”
“Now, this all may sound very generic and boring!” Mary trilled. “But trust me, you are mistaken, because this year we decided to add in a special challenge!” There was a loud snapping sound and everything around Ruby faded into darkness. Shouts filled the air around her. Ruby found herself staring into a void of nothingness. Slowly, Ruby sank to her knees, clutching at her own face to make sure it was still there. What in the world was happening?
“Hm? I don’t remember this part.” Blossom’s voice sounded unnaturally calm.
“I-I can’t see anything!” Ruby cried out. The darkness seemed to be growing more and more intense with each moment. It was a vicious, hungry darkness that wanted to swallow Ruby whole. This was so unlike the gentle, natural darkness of the night. The void seemed to be alive. A presence surrounded Ruby. A cruel, cold presence.
“I know! It’s really funny, isn’t it?” Mia didn’t sound the least bit afraid either. What was wrong with these people?
“Now that you’re all blind, the game can really begin. Everyone, please lift your mirrors,” Mary commanded. After a few minutes of fumbling around, Ruby found her mirror and pulled it out of her sack. Just like that, the light returned, and she could see once again. But she wasn’t looking at the world through her own eyes. With a gasp, Ruby realized that she was seeing the world through her mirror.