"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" Zinnia Salt told the pale woman laying flat and still in bed, before turning around with a full vial of clear liquid held in a gentle grasp in her hand, disgust on her face, disgust in herself and what she had just done, what she needed to do. She would shed a tear or more if she could, but she had never been able to, no brinies could.
Sometimes Zinnia liked to stay a while longer, wait until the clients she had performed the procedure on started feeling normal or at least until they started blinking again, but it was against protocol and she had already been caught twice before and both times, her boss barely let her get away with it, she couldn't risk it again, no matter how much she wanted to. So instead, she finished up her business, pulling out a pen from inside the briefcase she had settled down on the edge of the bed upon entering the room and scribbled a word on the blank, white label stuck to the side, the word 'sadness' before she popped it in the empty space inside, beside the other vials she had collected from the all her other clients that day, all with different emotions scribbled on the side, then made her way out of the woman's room at the hospital. Although Zinnia wasn't at all happy with what she had done, she knew her boss would be, so she left the room to make her way back to Briny-falls where she worked to hand in the samples in right away.
However, as Zinnia walked down the hospital corridor, she heard the sound of sobs coming from another room that she couldn't ignore.
"Hello?" She called out after a deep sigh, knocking on the already open door and peeking into the lamp lit room. "Are you alright? Can I come in?"
"I'm scared" the young boy told her from inside through quick, heavy breaths, his voice shaking and his body visibly trembling.
"Why? What are you scared of?" Zinnia asked softly as she slowly made her way into the room, towards the boy.
"The monster" he told her, holding his shaky hand out, pointing one single finger to the darkest corner of the room.
"What's your name?"
"P-P- Peter" he stuttered.
"I'm Zinnia. Peter, there's no such thing as monsters" she told him as she reached around the wall and flicked on the main light to prove to him that that the only breathing things in the room were him and her. "See"
It seemed by the look on his face that even that wasn't enough to prove it to him as his hands were still tightly grasping the top of his blanket, holding it up to his mouth as his unconvinced eyes refused to look away from that one corner.
"You can only see it in the dark" he then cried out. "And you're an grown up, that's why you can't see it, that's why you don't believe me, grown ups never do" he snivelled as his tears fell heavier down his pale, sickly face.
"I do believe you, Peter"
"No you don't"
Zinnia just smiled sweetly down at him.
"Can I tell you a secret?" She then asked.
He nodded.
"I have a superpower" She whispered, raising her eyebrows.
Just for a second, Peter smiled through his tears and just for a second, he looked away from the corner and directly at her.
"No you don't" he then laughed, wiping his wet eyes on the edge of his blanket.
"I do, I promise you, I do" Zinnia told him with just a little hesitance in what she was trying to portray as a comforting smile, as she stepped even closer to him, her toes at the foot of the bed.
"What is it then?"
"I can take away your fear and your pain"
"That's impossible" Peter snivelled.
"I can, look I can prove it to you" Zinnia told him as she placed her briefcase on the bed beside him, undoing the latches and opening it up.
Peters eyes flickered back stung forth between the empty corner of the room and the briefcase, his curiosity taking over.
Then, once Zinnia had fully opened the case and turned it around to show him, he forgot about the monster all together and his attention had been captured.
Peters eyes took in all the vials neatly strapped inside along the top and bottom of the case, all similar, full of clear, sparkling liquid, apart for two at the very right which were still empty.
"What are they? he asked as he tried his best to sound out the words written on the labels.
"They're tears" Zinnia whispered with wide eyes.
"Tears?" Peter calmly repeated, not at all afraid or in disbelief.
"Because it's my superpower! I make people feel better, less afraid, less sad, I make people feel less pain. All I have to do is fill these vials with their tears and they feel better" Zinnia explained, smiley down sweetly at the child. "I can take your fear away if you want, Peter, if you'll let me? Do you want to stop feeling afraid?"
Her breath was heavy and her voice slightly strained.
"Yes" Peter said almost immediately with very little thought.
"Are you sure?"
He nodded, a grateful smile on his lips.
"Okay then, all I have to do is hold this to your cheek while you think of how afraid you are, until the tears start falling from your eyes" Zinnia told him, reaching for one of the empty vials in the briefcase.
"Will it hurt?" Peter asked quickly, flinching a little as her hand moved closer to his face.
"Not at all, just hold really still, okay?" She told him, her smile becoming less and less sincere each second she held the glass to his face.
Slowly but surely, his salty tears started falling from his eyes like rain from a cloud and slowly but surely, Peter started to lose consciousness, until he was just like that woman from the other room, still and pale, like he was asleep, but his eyes were wide open.
Zinnia then gently pulled the blanket over him and lovingly tucked him him.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" she then told him, brushing the hair from his face, before once again she pulled out her pen and went to scribble on the vial, only that time she wrote the word 'fear' before popping it back inside the briefcase with the others.
