Cursed

Family to the Rescue

Micha

Everyone gathered around the table backs away from Will's body. It's unacceptable, his death. He was so young. From behind us a girl walks in with flaming red hair. She pushes everyone out of the way with ease.

Her clothing consists of tight leather shorts with two daggers sheathed at her hips. Her shirt is also a tight leather, cut down the middle to her lower chest. She stops next to me and looks down at Will with pearly white eyes.

She has no modesty, I think.

Softly, she says in a voice as smooth as honey, "He always goes overboard."

She places a hand on Will's wound. Blood pours out as she applies pressure. I grab for her shoulder, but she lifts her hand up from him. Her eyes are closed, her face a mask of concentration. She starts to mutter some quick words.

There's a glowing from the blood on her hand and Will's wound. No one says anything, we all just watch. Will's wound starts to stitch itself back together. Fresh pink blood smooths over the deadly gash. Color returns to his face, and, ever so slowly, his chest starts to rise and fall again.

Gasps go all around the room.

The girl snaps her eyes open, and smiles. Will starts to cough and turns onto his side. The girl bends down and grasps his hand, laughing. I fall to my knees, unable to believe what just happened.

"What?" I plead with the girl.

"It's something you could never understand," the girl responds.

I don't care for her answer, though. She brought Will back from the dead. I crawl over to Will and hug him. His face is grimy, and he smells of blood, but he's alive. I keep repeating it to myself again and again, but the truth doesn't seem to set in.

The girl stands, and I stand with her. Will looks from me to the girl.

There's an expression of confusion in his green eyes.

"Lila...," Will breaths, "It's really you."

I whirl. This woman standing next to me couldn't be Lila.

"Yes, Will. It's me." A faint smile touched her lips.

There's something I'm not understanding.

"I didn't think you would come back for me. I thought you were going to leave me there to die,"

I'm thinking back to everything I know and this moment doesn't add up.

"I would never leave you to those fools. They're ignorant, all of them. I left you once, Will, and I won't do it again,"

I hold my hand up in between them. "What's going on here?" I ask.

The girl turns to face me, a look of annoyance on her face. There's something old in her eyes. Something I have only ever seen in the elders. A wisdom and an experience that can never be matched with young talent.

"Micha, this is my mother," Will tells me.

She doesn't bow like anyone else would. She just keeps looking at me with that same expression on her face.

Will's mother' is alive?

My mind was trying to make all the connections. I slowly go over a mental list. I found Will dead. I brought him over to the Lab to be healed. He died. Lila came in and healed him. Lila is Will's mother. I got this...

Taking a deep breath, I close my look at Will's mother, "This is going to take some getting used to."

****