Criminology student, Ruby, feels the justice system is failing, but she didn’t intend on getting all vigilante about it! Being transgender gives her enough issues already. When her body is taken over by a supernatural entity known as a Regulator, whose mission it is to stop a foreseen murder, her own issues not only become worse, but come into question with all she believes.
Claiming her true, non-biological self agrees to the mission, the Regulator persuades this sassy, outspoken vixen into becoming a host for him without protest, and promising her a magical, “biological” ability to transform her whole anatomy once the mission is over.
The problem? Well, apart from this entity that’s controlling her making her look deranged for the entire Manchester to Croydon journey, Ruby hadn’t contemplated what “stop” actually meant!
The Regulators have a job to do, Ruby almost gets that, especially after their agenda to help beings “pass the test” in the literal “game of life” we play for our true, eternal home, Omnipion, is explained. But killing a human, just because they may fail this spiritual test, really?
What happened to free will and all that malarky? Well, apparently one who’s heading to “the point of no return”, the lowest place in Omnipion one will drop if they commit enough evil acts during their collective lifetimes, can ask the Regulators to step in and help. Why? Because failing the test and becoming nothing more than energetic fuel wasn’t something otherwise eternal beings anticipated.
She didn’t believe in pandering to criminals, trying to help them solve their issues almost never worked. To kill someone rather than let them do what they will, however, was wrong, even if it was going to be in the same way her own mother was killed. I mean, this Regulator may have given her a new outlook on life, even answered the question to the meaning of it, but killing some deranged man before he commits the heinous rape and murder of an innocent young mother, was something she could never allow… or could it?
So what if her higher self was turning red, showing she had the heart and mind to become a Regulator when she died and passed her own spiritual test? She didn’t know how, mind you, when her human persona was a foul-mouthed rebel whose morals and ethics were always in question.
Could she see things Omnipion’s way, whose high-ranking beings deemed a human life as just one small test in the grand scheme of things, and end this potential murderer’s life? Or will her aversion to this cold, otherworldly view stop the Regulator from carrying out its mission?
Well, she was certainly loud enough, even if just in her mind, to drive him out. But how sure was she about her own thoughts, with his in her head as well?
What if this was the only way Omnipion kept the balance between good and evil going too far in the way no one approves was she really one to argue?
Only one thing was clear; the choice was down to her. She could either let the Regulator use her body to kill this murderer, who she knows nothing about, and hence live with the guilt of them taking the law into their own hands, but get everything she’s ever dreamt of, including the paranormal power to one day become pregnant and give birth. Or protest, evicting the Regulator from her body, and hence live with the guilt of setting the murderer free to kill some innocent young mother she could’ve helped save, and lose everything she’d dreamt of her whole life. Two choices she never thought she’d have to contemplate.
The first was logically more sensible, but was it morally right to take the free will of a person before they’ve even committed the crime?
Could trusting the murderers true self is the one who wants to end his life be enough to convince her? Would knowing how it saw what level of depravation his brain had dropped to and, therefore, what harm this sick, human self of his was about to cause to the innocent woman, and the devastation to her child, make all the difference?
Or, believing criminals think only for themselves, would Ruby see his higher self as doing a purely selfish thing? I mean, did his higher self only appeal to the Regulators, ordering them to step in and “stop” his human self for its own sake, so he wouldn’t fail the test and become fuel for the evil being he was? Was he doing a good thing for the woman in question, or just saving his own eternal being?
Was helping his non-physical being out the right thing to do? Or was she helping him to end this life so he can just choose another where he may end up doing the same, if not worse?
Did she like the idea of punishment in the afterlife for beings who commit evil acts? Or was killing him, and hence saving him from his divine retribution, the only way to get justice in this challenging physical world?
With the murderer ready to strike at any moment, and feeling the urgency of the Regulator whose dragging her body to him, there wasn’t much time to mull it over.
Will she allow the Regulator to kill him or won’t she?
She will just have to see how she feels when she gets there!
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Readers’ Favorite FIVE STAR review by Ray Hosler
Ruby’s Realm by Debbie Zain is one of those reads that warrants at least two passes before the story’s deep and introspective messages can be unwound and fully understood. This is a fantasy wrapped in a psychological thriller. The author’s character, Ruby Ray, takes us into the mind of a transgender who has emotional baggage that causes her to question her life and purpose in the world. She attends Manchester University to study criminology, “because I thought it would be a place where I could be myself.” The story begins with a disturbing scene not for the faint of heart. Ruby witnessed the murder of her mother by a man when she was 11.
The fantasy begins when an alien life from the realm of Omnipion, named Terrance, seeks Ruby’s help in stopping a man named Paul, from killing a young mother. Omnipion is a place where all sentient beings wind up, eventually. Their time on earth is a way to test their true nature. Ruby agrees to help the Regulator but is taken aback when she is informed Paul will be killed before he can commit murder. She must decide between two terrible choices: Cooperate and save the mother, or kill the murderer.
Author Debbie Zain’s novella is only slightly more than seventeen thousand words, but you will find yourself wanting to read it two or three times. The mental struggle Ruby suffers — her gender dysphoria — elevates the tension between Ruby and the Regulator, who has absolute power and control over her. Ruby’s intense desire to change her identity is promised by the Regulator, further heightening the difficult decision she must make regarding Paul’s fate. Zain, who calls her writing “urban fantasy,” has a knack for integrating current themes in her writing. Popular books/films that show through in Ruby’s Realm, like strands of DNA, include the classic British spy show, The Prisoner, Inception, The Matrix, and Minority Report.
Zain’s writing has a coarseness to it that might upset the sensitive reader, but there is depth in the writing that goes well beyond the simple storyline. By having the Regulator occupy Ruby’s body, the reader is constantly wondering who is doing what. Whose thoughts are controlling Ruby? Do we have free will? How far will we go to achieve a goal? In a roundabout way, the reader will come to understand that everyone deserves empathy, even killers. Ruby’s Realm deals with thorny topics like suicide, murder, free will, and destiny using at times brash, brusque language that will both disturb and engage, and leave you contemplating life’s meaning long after the last page is turned.
The Official website of Debbie Zain 