Lily of the Shadows

Chapter 10

Location: Earth

"Grab something to stop the bleeding!" Vaskin yelled in alarm. Leif rushed into the kitchen and grabbed a clean hand towel and handed it to him, trying to keep her eyes closed.

"That's not big enough!" Vaskin said, taking the small cloth and pressing it firmly on Manx's arm to act as a temporary stop to the blood flow until Leif could get something bigger.

"Where is something big enough then?" Leif asked nervously, her jaw locking up and her muscles tightening in her legs.

"Upstairs in the bathroom! Hurry!" Vaskin shouted in a panic. Leif ran up the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her and ran back down with a large towel in her hand. Vaskin eagerly received the towel and pressed it onto the wound, wrapping it around to add more layers to soak up the bleeding.

"Why isn't she responding?" Leif asked nervously, her voice shaky.

"I think it's because when she does this she can't hear us. But I'm not sure." Vaskin replied anxiously.
"What about Khashmyr? Is she going to be alright?" Leif asked.

"She'll be fine, but Manx, well..." Vaskin said nervously.

"If she loses too much blood what are we gonna do, bring her to a hospital or something?" Leif asked with concern.

"I don't know how to get to a hospital here so we can't let that happen." Vaskin said, a tear running down his cheek.

"She can't live if she loses that much blood! We have to do something!" Leif replied.

"She's not from here, and neither am I, so how do we know a hospital is safe?" Vaskin asked.

"Of course! If anybody discovers you guys, then...then you'll be stuffed and put in a museum or something, or kept in a cage and poked at. Or worse! And most of the people who would do that have a connection to the hospital!" Leif replied in alarm.

"She won't make it." Vaskin said sadly, trying to stop the blood flow still.

"That's it! I'm calling a hospital!" Leif said

"WHAT?! But didn't you just say...?" Vaskin said angrily.

"You've hidden among humans for so long. Even had me fooled, yet somehow I knew. Isn't it those amulets that are hiding you?" Leif replied.

"It's dangerous! Khashmyr is out cold, and the amulets only work if we're wearing them. What if...?" Vaskin cried

"Trust me." Leif said, her eyes almost glowing a brighter shade of icy blue.

Vaskin nodded and watched as she dialed an ambulance. When the operator picked up, she said, "Hello? We need an ambulance. We have a girl with a severely injured arm. I don't know the address but it's off of 16th street. Red and yellow house. You can't miss it!"

She then hung up the phone and said, "Now all we have to do is wait. Hang in there, Manx."

Vaskin cried for a bit, wanting to stroke Manx's hair. Soon, he was startled by the loud high pitched chime of the doorbell. Leif ran to the door and answered it, saying, "Wow. You're fast. She's right this way."

Two humans dressed in uniforms rushed a stretcher in through the front door and effortlessly got Manx on it. Vaskin followed close behind with Leif, who had her eyes closed most of the way to the hospital. Before they left the house Leif had thrown a blanket over Khashmyr to keep her hidden from prying eyes in her vulnerable state.

A few minutes after the ambulance had left the house, Khashmyr opened her eyes, dizzy and disoriented from the loss of energy she had sustained. She had done her best to protect Manx from the wound getting worse, but even her efforts were in vain. At first she thought she had been taken somewhere else, but soon she broke free of the blanket. She looked around in alarm to find the house quiet and completely empty besides a bloody towel on the floor. Khashmyr sniffed the room and realized that it was Manx's blood, and she knew where she had to go. But she was too weak to change forms, and in her true form she could not drive her car. She could hardly even open the front door without jumping up and using her paws instead of using magic. She ran along the sidewalk, knowing she couldn't be seen. Her paws hurt after awhile, and she had to rest, but she also had to get to Vaskin, Leif and Manx. She stopped for a minute to lick her sore paws when the unthinkable happened. She felt sticky fingers digging into her fur, and heard an excited little voice shout "Kitty!"