Summoning Solo
Kalia a usually cheery half elf, sat in the children’s wing of the Barton hospital. Her hand held a smaller and shaking hand tightly. A little girl with faded blue eyes stared up at the tan elf, trying to appear strong even though it was getting hard to breath. She was a cute little girl with a smile that made her seem like she should be outside playing with other eight year old. Playing dolls or dress up and pulling pranks on boys as the little girl professed to enjoy. Sadly, the girl had been in the hospital, fighting a brain tumor that the doctor said was too close to a critical part of the brain to be removed in surgery. Chemo hadn’t helped this little girl like it had helped the other children.
It had been only a few weeks ago that the doctors gave up on saving this little girl. They said they couldn’t help her. That it would be best that they overdose her to make her death merciful. Kalia disagreed and it was against ethics to kill a patient even if it was merciful.
A groan of pain made Kalia struggle to hold her smile. Being an elf, she could sense the death in the girl. Could feel it draining the life from this little girl. The little girl coughed and smiled at her. Kalia was her favorite nurse because she would sit and read with her or play dolls with her. Not like the others who merely looked sadly at her with pity in their eyes.
“Kalia?” The child whispered hoarsely. “Promise me something.”
Kalia could only nod. She couldn’t promise the girl she’d live to age eighteen since she had been deemed terminal
The child’s words made her eyes widen though.
“Remember me please.”
Kalia stared at her and saw the child had known very well that she would die. That the doctors couldn’t do anything for her. Her parents had stopped coming to see her and she knew it was so that her death would be less painful for them. Only Kalia stayed with her and held her hand.
Kalia had told herself to stay distant when it came to the patients, especially the terminal children. But she didn’t have the mental strength to cast out her emotions and feel nothing as she saw a child dying in front. She couldn’t sit by and watch the child die.
Kalia smiled slightly and nodded, “I will, Tessa.”
She held the child’s hand throughout that night and prayed that her soul found peace and that she wouldn’t have to suffer again.
She held it still when the child closed her eyes to sleep.
And held it when the child’s heart stopped, setting off the heart monitor. Her skin went cold and Kalia blinked back tears. One tear fell on the child’s still hand. She got up and walked out of the bleak room with its attempt at seeming bright and feeling with cartoon characters on the walls.
She left the hospital, clocking out and dressing for home before the doctors determined the child’s time of the death. They knew the cause already.
Kalia let herself cry silently once her front door was shut and locked. It was always hard to see someone so young die so slowly. She made herself a cup of tea and curled on the couch, trying to calm down.
She watched romance movies till her eyes got heavy and she went to sleep. She slept till midnight when something strange happened. The desert elf awoke at the sound of movement, something brushing against the wood of the floor. She got up, scared and walked towards the kitchen, where the sound was coming from. She looked into the small kitchen and blinked at the black thing trying to climb the fridge. A sealed bag of cheesy puffs sat on the top. Something that she had brought for Eve in case she ever babysat the little girl.
“He-ello?” She stuttered as she walked in slowly.
The black thing turned and Kalia realized it was shaped like a child.
Then she cried out when the child thing ran at her or moved towards her at least
Kalia was frozen in place when the shadow hugged her legs, tentacles wiggling.
“Al tres, tressa, tessa!”
Kalia blinked and frowned as she thought of the little girl, whose hand she held in her dying moments. Altressa had been her name.
So what was the shadow?
Could it be that same little girl brought back to life as something other than human?
Kalia really didn’t know what to make of the shadow.
But when it looked at her, no, when she looked up at her. She was trying to remind herself that the shadow appeared to be a girl shadow. Kalia smiled at the little shadow.
Perhaps her wish did come tree after all for the little girl. Though being reborn wasn’t what the desert elf had in mind. At least Altressa wasn’t sick anymore and Kalia would take good care of the shadow.
“You hungry, little one?”
“Alt tres essa!”
She took that as a yes and grinned, grabbing the cheesy puffs for her new daughter of sorts.
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