by Emmy Oakes
*
Alexia followed closely behind Karla as they walked through the bustling hospital corridor. Ronda and Ava had decided to stay at Alexia’s house and wait for her there. Every few minutes, stressed looking staff members would rush past them, busily talking amongst themselves.
“I haven’t been in a hospital for a long time, but they aren’t usually this busy are they?” Alexia said, dodging a nurse who quickly brushed past her.
“No, when I left this morning it was very quiet.”
“Huh, maybe there was a big car crash or something.”
“Here’s the burn unit,” Karla said, pointing toward an empty corridor. She quickly turned and rushed down the hall as if she was very excited to have brought Alexia back with her.
Karla disappeared into a room on the left side of the corridor. Alexia saw Price’s name on a sign outside the door and hesitated before entering the room. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had a deep feeling of guilt for burning Price.
“Come in, Alexia!” Karla called out from inside the room. Alexia gathered enough courage to enter the room.
Price Delany lay stretched out on the hospital bed. A white sheet was pulled up to this arm pits and his arms were covered in bandages. Alexia’s eyes drifted to his face, which was covered in bandages, Alexia immediately associated Price with the Mommies she had seen on television.
“Alexia,” Price’s mouth barely moved as he talked. He winced in pain.
“Please, don’t talk if it hurts.” Alexia stood awkwardly in the room wishing that she wasn’t there. Her guilt was one hundred times worse after seeing that she had basically maimed Price.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Karla said as she left the room. Alexia tried to protest but she had already left.
“Does it hurt?” Alexia said, not knowing what else to say.
Price nodded. He hadn’t stopped staring at Alexia since she arrived. “Sorry,” he said.
The stretched skin around his lips tightened as he talked making Alexia wince. He reminded her of a pale tomato that had suddenly grown lips.
As she looked at Price suffering on the bed, an idea popped into her head. Could she use her magic to heal him? Were Sians powerful enough to perform that sort of magic? She had no idea. But she was going to try.
Alexia slowly stepped toward Price. He stared at her warily as she approached him and placed her shaking hands onto his bandaged torso. He opened his lips to talk but felt an immediate sense of calm when Alexia touched him.
Alexia thought about Price before the incident in the library. She saw his clear skin, free of scars and the scaliness that the fire had left him with. A tingling sensation tickled her hands. Strong orange light spilled out from under Alexia’s hands and quickly engulfed Price’s body.
His eyes were fixed on Alexia who was concentrating hard.
A breath of relief escaped from Price’s lips as the tight bandages began to loosen. For the first time he could feel the soft texture of the bandages instead of either pain or numbness when he was loaded on medicine. The bright orange light whizzed in and out of Price’s scarred body. At first he felt extremely itchy. This feeling was quickly replaced by bliss as his blisters vanished and his raw skin softened up. His scaly head smoothed over and dark brown follicles of hair sprung up and grew to their former length.
In less than a minute, Price had gone from being a scarred shadow of his former self, to looking like he did before he was burnt.
Price sat up straight and looked down at the loose bandages hanging off his body. Excitedly, he ripped the bandages away from his head and flung them to the floor. “Am I dreaming?” His voice was elated and high pitched. He sounded like a child on Christmas morning trying to decide what present to open first.
“No, you aren’t,” Alexia said happily. She felt an incredible rush of power surging through her. This feeling was replaced by dizziness. “I think I need to sit down,” Alexia said as she reached out for a nearby chair and pulled it over to her.
Price was frantically pulling bandages off and rubbing his soft skin. “How is this possible, Alexia?”
“I think it’s best that you don’t know too much. You should just be happy that it’s done and that you are healed. I’d appreciate if you didn’t tell anybody that I was involved.” Alexia knew she was silly to use her magic in public in case it was against the rules, but she couldn’t sit there and do nothing.
“What am I supposed to say?” Price was still speaking loudly and excitedly.
“I don’t know. As long as you promise you don’t mention my name. Just say you woke up and the scars were gone.”
“Okay, you better get out of here then.”
“All right.”
“Thank you, Alexia.” Price sounded genuinely grateful. Alexia saw a friendly side of Price that she hadn’t seen for a long time. Alexia smiled at him and walked toward the door.
*
Joey Myers listened tentatively from the door. He had watched the miracle curing of Price’s scars. He heard Alexia say goodbye so he ducked away from the door and hid in a nearby bathroom.
