THE LOST

Chapter 1

Whit

THERE'S BLOOD EVERWHERE. Bright red pools of it on the gurney,and still there's more gushing out, running in rivulets to the floor. It seems impossible that there could be a single drop left inside the little girl. Her face is obscured by a tangle of dark hair, but the skin I can see has gone gray and her breath comes in harsh , wet gasps. I rushed to her side as the rookie attendant who brought her in retches in the corner "stabbed" he heaved barley getting out the words. "Multiple times"
"Who-" I begin
"The Family," he spits.
I rip away the girls shirt to reveal the worst damage as Janine , a newly trained trauma nurse at city hospital , pressed her fingers to the thin little wrist
" there's no peripheral pulse," Janine barks "we've got to hurry."
"Tell me something I don't know," I growl. I put my hand on the girls punctured abdomen and begin to recite a healing spell.
Unfortunately I'm getting used to this kind of work, and I owe it to the Family, a secretive, savage cult that's been terryfiying the city for weeks.
Everyday there's a new robbery or assault, a new reason to fear. I'm no stranger to the criminal elements- hell I was a wanted criminal under the new order-but members of the family make the average robber look like a puppy swiping a treat. They live to steel, and they don't care who they hurt. even if its a little kid.
The girl gives me a week cough. My fingers tingle as I feel my powers begin to build. I picture being inside her body, following the paths of here blood, searching out the wounds and binding them back together with magic.
Janine brushes the girls black hair away from her face, and that's when I nearly fall backwards in shock. This isnt some random street kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Its Pearl Marie Neederman.
Lying near death on a cold metal table is the girl who once snatched my sister and me away from the ones zombie wolves. The kid who helped nurse wisty back from the brink of death from the blood plague. The fierce little survivor who looks more dead than alive. I let out a strangled cry "Pearl!" Janine gasps "oh,whit" she cries. "Can we save her" its not looking good "I don't know,"I say.
My finger flex as they aim there healing magic, and pearls breath steadies. But then suddenly the electricity of the M starts to feel weird. Unbalanced. Instead of a tingle its a prickle then a sting. An intense ache begins spreading from my fingertips, radiating up my arm and into my head.
"Something wrong " Janine yells.
I don't understand what's happening but its bad . I close my eyes and try to beat down the surging pain.
A nurse appears at my elbow, screaming "what do you think your doing?" She yells . she tries to push me aside so she could pack pearls wound with gauze. "Voodoo," snarls another . " the girl needs a diner blood, not spells."
She's wrong. Even through my rising panic, I'm sure of it. I've been working at the hospital ever since we formed a new council, and I've seen enough to know that magic is pearls only hope.
But Janine is the only one on my side. The only person in the entire room who believes in me, that what I'm doing is right.
The door burst open and the neederman family rushes in.
Hewitt's shirt is on inside out and the look on his wife's face almost tears my heart out.
"Oh, my baby," Mama may cries. "My little baby-"
"Those barbarians!" Hewitt spits out vehemently.
I'm giving it every ounce of strength I've got, but I'm feeling exactly what Pearl's feeling: my heart spasming, my lungs filling with blood , choking off my oxygen. My brain shooting off electric charges of terror. I'm capable of thinking twob things. the first: I faced down the evil mountain king to rescue this kid and I'm not gonna give up now.
And second: how awful it is to die
"Her bloods getting acidic-" Janine calls
My eyes fly open and I see wisty blaze in and skid to a stop, her eyes working in fear.
"Whit," she cries "your bleeding!", she stumbles towards me and a nurse grabs her, holding her back. Wisty pushed her off, but another nurse snatches her other arm, and now they have got her pinned.
"Let her go," I gasp through intense throbbing, trying to keep focus on Pearl. I can't let this girl die. She's like another sister to me.
The staff is no match for a determined Wisty , who shakes the off like gnats. Then she's at my side, yelling "whit, you have to stop. its killing you-" her voice sounds like its a million miles away. When she hits me hard on my arm I can barley feel it. "Blood!" Wisty screams. "Blood is pouring out of your ears!"