Chapter 66 The spark
The spark
Milo’s POV
I stepped out awkwardly, the scrubbing clothes feeling foreign in my skin. It felt strange standing in them instead of my normal pet clothes I have always worn since I came to the pack.
But even as I stood in the lobby dressed like a healer, I felt that I didn't belong. I could feel it in the way the other healers looked at me when I stepped back into the hall.
The malice was sharp, biting at my skin like sharp pins.
I tried to ignore it and went to where a middle-aged nurse had pointed at the extreme end of the lobby where rows of cots were lined with groaning patients. They were the band of soldiers that were newly admitted, and their pained groans intensified in my head as I came closer. I couldn’t believe they were once strong and fearless soldiers that were being reduced to this state.
l I dipped a rag into a bowl of cold water and pressed it against a man’s burning forehead.
He recoiled like my hands were poisoned to him.
“Don’t touch me,” he hissed, his voice filled with pain, mixed with deep loathing and disgust. His eyes, yellowed with fever, glared at me with enough hatred, I stumbled back.
The man's voice managed to echo through all the noise in the room. For a moment, every movement and activity seemed to have paused, as every head turned towards me.
Their eyes were filled with disgust, hatred, and scorn.
You little whore,” a man propped up in a crutches spat on the floor. “You are the one who brought this calamity to us.”
His words filled with venom hit me harder than I expected, but that was not what made my heart bleed like a knife was plunged deep inside, not like I had not heard worse from people, noo, but because of how quickly the whole room seemed to agree with him.
Some spat at me. Others muttered a string of curses under their breath. while few averted their faces, but no one in the room stood up for me.
No one defended me.
No one told him to shut up.
My face burned like fire. I shrunk inside, wishing for the ground to open and swallow me.
The rag slipped from my hand, water splattering across the floor.
My throat tightened, but I forced myself to pick the rag up. I couldn’t…wouldn’t…let them see me break. They are not worth my tears.
The words rang in my head, as I wrung out the water from the rag, my hands trembling in the process.
Daphne that was at the other end of the hospital, signalled to me with a thump up,
Work,” she mouthed softly in encouragement.
And so I did.
I fetched water. Changed the rags, and went to attend to another patient. All the time my back prickled with the venomous gaze from the crowd. I clutched the bowl tightly against my body, going up to a soldier that was unusually quiet.
I made sure to act gently, applying little pressure to the affected area. But as I inched towards his upper body, a trembling hand reached out and grabbed my wrist…
Specifically clamping on the collar.
His grip was like iron and unyielding, before I could react, hot pain scorched through my skin where his fingers held my wrist. My throat burned, my wolf Lior, howled in pain, tearing to break free suddenly.
“Let go” he growled, as the fire spread from my wrist down to my whole body.
“D-Daphne…” I choked, my black dots creeping in my vision, as my whole body felt like it was being scorched from the inside.
The warrior sneered, his closed eyes now wide open like a crazed maniac. “You… you are filth and deserve to rot in hell. You should have died in the arena.” His nails dug deeper. The burn worsened, like his touch was poison meant for me alone.
“Let him go!” Daphne’s voice thundered from across the ward. I saw her storm towards me in fury From the corner of my eyes. She yanked me back so violently the man’s grip tore loose forcefully from me. “If you ever touch him again, you will regret that you never died.”
I stared at the collar that had suddenly turned into my worst nightmare. My chest heaved up and down from shock and the aftermath of almost having myself burned alive. My heart pounded hard in my chest.
Daphne finally turned to me, her angry eyes softening. “are you okay…”
“I…i am fine, i think i need to take a break” i started, scrambling from the ground, as i dashed towards the nearest exit.
“Milo stop!” Her voice came from behind but I was already out of the God forsaken hospital before anybody could see the sharp claws that had replaced my fingers.
The air outside the hospital was fresher and less depressing than the lobby. After I burst out of the hospital, I stumbled blindly until I reached this small garden. For the first time since I came to the hospital, I could breathe properly.
The hospital’s garden was quiet, and from the overgrown vegetation, looked untouched for weeks, but it brought with it the natural air i didn't know i have been craving since. I sank onto a stone bench, gripping the collar that i have been trying to remove. I finally yanked the damned thing out of my wrist, throwing it far away.
“Fuck” I cursed at no one in particular, hot tears finally pouring out of my eyes as I cried all my fustratons and sorrows away. Everything that happened replayed in my head like a repeat.
Finally I could have all the quietness to myself, I thought, but I didn't know how wrong I was…
I heard a rustle of leaves,
My body jerked up, quickly drying my tears, I stood up, my body on high alert as I continued to look for the person.
“Who is that!” I asked, backing up, slowly, but who came out of the leaves came as a shock to me.
A little girl, of about 7 to 10 years, limped out of the bushes. Her eyes were tired but filled with burning determination. My heart warmed.
Clearly she was infected, and knowing the severity of the disease, she only has one week to live if nothing is done. She held up her hands, giving me a flower she had probably plucked.
I stared, momentarily shocked at how the girl had gotten herself here. But she took it as I rejected her gift, her eyes reddening.
“No…nooo. It's not my intention. I really like your gift” I quickly apologized, patting her head, before she would think of crying.
“I know that you are lying. You just want me to feel happy.” The girl pouted, looking adorable.
“What, i…no I like…” My mother hung open in shock, I stared at the girl whose eyes twinkled with curiosity and intelligence.
“It's fine my name is Rachael” She sat beside me without asking “You helped me earlier and I came to say thank you.”
I blinked at her. “I… I helped?”
She smiled faintly, her smile lifting up my sour mood. “When you brought me water, you didn’t flinch at all. You look at me, like really look at me, unlike the other nurses that hardly look at us like we are already gone.”
Fresh tears choked my eyes, But this time, it was because of the little girl beside me, that was just unlucky to be caught in this mess.
I didn’t know what to say. I stared at the little girl with no words forming, and like that we sat in silence looking at the moon that shone in the night.
“You are a nice person,” she said suddenly, “Gentle and kind. Y…you don’t seem cursed to me.”
My throat tightened. And for the first time in my life, someone didn’t see me as a curse, even though it was from a little girl who had one leg to her early grave.
And while I looked at the little girl, who had a smile while looking at the moon, I suddenly had the strong unexplained urge to try as much as possible to protect this pure soul from this wicked world.
Something stirred inside me, like a ripple in an ocean.
But it was there, small and fragile...
A spark of hope.