Beast

Chapter 2 - The Cure

"Hey Lindsey," I say, tying my apron around my waist and pulling out the wild licorice from the night before. She gives me a slight smile as she crushes up more powder, putting it into its designated jar. I'm tempted to slap that smile right off of her face, even if it was faint. She betrayed me like that. Instead I swallow my evil thoughts and continue to work in the pharmacist room with her. As I'm cutting the roots away from the rest of the plant and organizing all of it's pieces, somebody walks into the medicine room.

"Hi Cristine, 'you have any of that medicine ready yet?" Mrs. Jakes asks, tapping her fingers noisily on the counter.

"Uh, yeah. Why?" I answer back.

"There's a little girl needin' some. She's in the waiting room. It's not too serious but the kid who brought her in really insisted that she gets treated," Mrs. Jakes explained before strutting out of the room.

"You have any ready yet, Lindsey?" I ask, turning around to face her again. She walks around behind the wooden island counter and crouches down, grabbing a jar out.

"Mix a few of these with hot water, it's probably the best solution," Lindsey exclaims. Gingerly she hands me the jar, and avoids looking at me also. I leave the room and go down the hall a little ways to the exit of the building, where Aaron is yet again.

"Hey Cristine," Aaron waves at me as I pass, but doesn't follow me. I smile back, then make my way over to the water pool. I scoop some water up with a kettle I had grabbed on my way out of the hospital, then headed back inside to boil it.

Once I had put the water over the furnace to let it boil, I went over to the waiting room, where I found only two people waiting. Cam and his younger sister Sarah.

"How you doing today, Sarah?" I ask as I walk over to them. Sarah glares up at me, then coughs.

"Smarten up, Sarah. She's just trying to help," Cam says, narrowing his eyes at Sarah.

"Actually I was just making something that can deal just with that," I exclaimed. I talked for a while before leaving down the hall again to check on the water. Sure enough, once I reached it it was ready. Carefully I poured some of the contents into a mug and dropped a few leaves into it. I removed the kettle from the burner then returned the jar of leaves to Lindsey. The mug seemed a little cooler to the touch so I walked down the hallway back to the waiting room, where Sarah was waiting with Cam still.

"Um, it's kinda hot still, so blow or just leave it for a while," I said to Sarah while handing her the mug.

"Thanks Cris," Cam said as I awkwardly shuffled out of the room and returned back to Lindsey.

For the rest of the shift I ground up more powders and pastes, made some tea for another woman with the same cold as Sarah, and was finally free to go once I had cleaned up.

When I left the building Aaron was already gone.

Afterwards, Lindsey and I decided to go to the market to get some stuff, since neither of us were in the mood to get locked out again. Since I had turned fourteen, I was allowed to have my own currency, and could buy things in the market with my own money. Unfortunately this also meant I had to pay house taxes with my mother. I didn't mind too much since I was still living with her, and she had allowed me to stay. I couldn't waste money though. I barely got paid enough to buy food and pay taxes. Some kids have to get their own house once they turn fourteen, but Lindsey and I haven't. Lindsey stays with her parents, while I'm with my mother and brother Thomas. Cam has his sister and himself only, but he isn't considered orphaned since he is a legal age. Both of his parents passed away. His mother died when giving birth to Sarah, and his father after that when he was on guard patrol. He died for allowing people in countless times and not confessing. But somebody had betrayed him and told. He originally had lost his rations for their family only, but that led to him stealing in the market to feed them. That resulted in the death penalty. He had committed too much. I was there when he got thrown outside of the walls. At night. I wish Cam's mother hadn't died either. I hadn't been in the hospital at the time. I couldn't of helped. That was eight years ago. I would of been six at the time, Cam seven. His father had died only days after Cam had turned fourteen. My own father had died when I was ten. Thomas would of been only four, and he barely remembers him anyway. If anything, Lindsey's the lucky one of us.