Midnight and Terra: A Turned Story

289 Years: The Child

I barely needed to cheat anymore. Of course I did, if necessary, but I'd gotten so good at medicine that I could treat diseases with medicine and common sense. I was a nurse at the little hospital, but the doctors were idiots and drunkards and I carried much of their workload. Birch visited me from time to time but he was used to travelling, and I'd found a sort of peace here. They would store blood to give to wounded patients, that people would donate, and I would drink it from that stock, instead of straight from the person. It tasted terrible and didn't carry the same magic that live blood did, but unlike other Vampires, my body reacted to it just as well as it would to live blood. It wasn't the same though.

My main concern at the moment was a young boy. He and his family had been travelling overseas and returned with fever. They were quarantined and I couldn't get to them, because they were under constant observation. His parents were dead, and with no hope of treating him, they were simply waiting for him to die. I could break in, obviously, but I didn't want to perform too many miracles.

"Tara?" Called a familiar voice. I went by that name at the moment, because Terra wasn't a normal name anywhere. Birch reckoned it might become one, but for now it was easier not to stick out.

"Katie!" I smiled and turned to her, but her emotion were telling me something was wrong. I forced myself to wait until I'd seen her face before letting my concern show.

"What's wrong?" I asked, rushing towards her, keeping my steps slow and human-speed. She sat down on a bench and put her head in her hands.

"The boy, Nicholas, he's dead. He died a few minutes ago, while I brought the observing doctor tea." She babbled. I set off at a run - a human run - for the quarantine station, my thoughts racing. I can't heal him if he's dead. A Vampire could heal itself, but I can't turn him... can I? A dead human? It shouldn't be possible.

'Terra' The voice again, resonating through me and causing me to stumble. Birch had never said anything about hearing that voice again.

'You who have strange powers, you are not bound by what is possible' It whispered. I looked around suspiciously, but there was no one there. Increasing my speed to a blur, I zipped to the quarantine room and compelled the doctors.

"Sit still and do not speak. You will not remember any of this." I ordered, taking the key and entering the quarantine chamber. Echoes ran through my head as I approached the boy, who lay dead on his hospital bed. They got louder and louder, not words, whispers, things I couldn't understand, until:

'Remember his life'. His life? Bringing him his meals, reading him stories, finding toys for him, his laugh, his tears, his pitiful existence in that room, the stories his parents told of their adventures, the stories he told- The echoes stopped and my thoughts blanked, and the boy gasped, sitting up.

'You have seconds' Commented the voice in my mind, and I automatically leant down and bit his shoulder, performing the Kiss of Death.

"What?" He gasped, before the transformation rocked through him. I was half listening for more instructions, but that voice and the feeling that accompanied it were gone. I watched him with a small amount of shock. That's the first time I'd ever turned anyone. Remembering myself, I let my phase/disguise fall away. My hair got longer, my skin lighter and my figure...

"Tara?" Katie was standing in the observation room.

"Katie, come here." I compelled. Still a bit confused, she came in.

"Be calm and let the boy drink from you. You won't remember this." I continued. The boy, who'd barely aged, drink from her instinctively. I compelled Katie and the Doctors to forget, and the led the child from the hospital.

"What am I going to do with you?" I asked, sighing.

"Terra?" Who's this?" A familiar and infinitely welcome voice asked.

"Birch!" I squealed, and then I ran into his arms.