The Arcana: His Apprentice

If Only... - Y/N's POV

       ⚠️ Warning ⚠️
If you are sensitive about the topic of death, please do not read this chapter.

I've  only been here for a few days but I already feel my life draining away bit by bit. Immediately  when I got to The Lazaret I was surrounded by many plague doctors, most of them wearing white bird masks, black cloaks, black leather gloves and black hats. They took my suitcase and said they would store it away if I ever got released. They handed me a white night gown and head me change in case if contamination. They guided me to a room full of patients in the same stage I am in, at death's door.

       Hour after hour I was forced to take blood tests and physical examinations. Lights flashed into my crimson colors eyes. A needle stuck in my arm drawing my blood. Even if it only has been a few days, this feels like a constant cycle I've known my whole life.

       It has only been a few days but I can feel that I'm hanging into the last strand of my life. I can barely keep my eyes open and breathing is really hard to do when it was so simple a few days ago. I can't even move, my body has gone stiff. I know that today is my last day alive and I can't do anything it, no matter how hard I try. I can't even summon magic to help.

       If only Asra was here, he would try to comfort me and take my mind off of this. But now I'm here alone, on a rusting bed frame laying beside others who are in the same boat as me.

       If only I had chased after Asra that night and told him that I was sorry. If only I had chose my words more carefully during the argument. If only I had considered his offer of moving away instead of thinking selfishly of myself and wanting to stay.

       Asra, I know you can't hear me or know what is going on with me but I want you to know that I'm so sorry. I love you until my last breath and even until after the dark night of death takes me over and I am no longer here. I will always love you. Every moment I had with you whether it was large and monumental or small and insignificant, I cherished it all. Going to every festival in town with you, laying beside you in bed, tending to customers during rush hour with you, everything.

       What we had was so precious to me. I wish that all of this was a bad dream and I would wake up at any moment now. And when I woke up I would see you beside me sleeping peacefully. And that's not possible. The lain I feel inside is real. The pain of realization and coming to terms of what is left for me.

       Asra, you brought me so much warmth and happiness throughout my life. And I am so grateful that I had the chance to meet you and have you come into my life. You were so understanding, you've been so good and I put you through more than one ever should. And I hated myself because you never would.

       I feel tears roll down my face but I don't have the energy nor the strength to wipe them away. I'm sure I look ridiculous right now for crying out of nowhere but I don't care at this moment. I take up the rest of my strength left over and say what I have to say, whether anyone is listening or no I have to say what I have to to die in peace.

"I'm sorry Asra..." I whisper to myself, before fluttering my eyes shut and letting myself slip away from this world...

Doctor 074's POV:

       I stride over to Ward #237, the ward dedicated to testing patients with the most severe cases of the Red Plague. I push my cart filled with vials and resting needles into the ward and push it aside, picking up my clipboard and checking to see who is first on the list for blood tests. I see the first patients name, Y/N L/N. I push the cart while looking around, checking the bed plates for the name. I finally spot the name on a plate and stop before the bed, looking over at it. I see a young woman, very young. Her eyes closed and her body laying down, looking stiff. She is probably asleep.

"Hello Miss L/N, I am here to do some blood tests on you." I say, waiting for a response from her.

"Hello? Miss?" I question, glancing at the woman's features.

       I look over at the woman, realizing her chest want rising. I take a hold of her arm and put a finger to her wrist, checking for a pulse. Her arm felt cold and I didn't feel a heartbeat so I let go of her hand and walk over to the door. I open it and look around the barren hallway, seeing a doctor looking through some documents.

"Doctor." I call out, getting their attention.

       They walk over to me, folding the papers and tucking it away in their coat and stopping before me.

"What is it?" The doctor asks.

"We have another one dead in Ward #237." I state, surprising at how often I repeated the phrase.

"Alright, let's move them to the incinerating room." They say, walking over to the ward.

       I follow them inside and point out the woman lying in her bed. We walk over to the bed and grab a white sheet that was one it, draping it over her body. We start pushing the bed out of the ward and through the hallways. We push the bed towards a pair of double door, a sign beside it with the words "Incineration Room" on it. We enter the room with the bed, the smell of burning flesh very strong in the air.

       We push the bed over to one of the incinerators and open it, checking to see is any remains were left over inside. I take the sheet off of the body and fold it, setting it beside the bed. The doctor elevated the end to reach the entrance of the incinerator. We slowly  and carefully lift the body and insert it into the mouth of the machine, closing it and locking it shut.

"Grab some coal and put it in the fuel tank." The doctor instructs me to do and I nod.

       I walk over to the corner of the room, grabbing a bag of charcoal and walks back to the incinerator. I open the small compartment beside it and dumb the coal inside, tossing the empty bag aside and closing the compartment.

"Stand back a bit." The doctor tells me.

       I stand back a bit as the doctor pulls a large lever, turning the machine in as it lights up into large flames.

"She was so young." The doctor says, watching the fire burn.

"And she was only emitted here a few days ago." I say, remembering her name and the date she was registered here.

       We wait for a while until the flames had died down. The doctor switched the lever off and opened the hatch. I take a look inside to see a pile of ash and bones remaining, a horrible stench emitting from it.

"Grab that box over there." The doctor says, pointing to an open box on a table nearby.

       I grab it and walk over back to the incinerator. The doctor grabs a duster and scrapes the remains to the edge, I hold the box out as he rushes the remains into the box.

"Let's go bury the remains out back." The doctor says, walking over to the door and picking up a shovel beside the door.

       We leave the incineration room and walk through the empty hallway, turning at a corner to a hallway with a steel door. The doctor opens the door and we walk out as I hold the box carefully in my hands. I take a look around, the sand covered in ash and door from all of the bodies that have been burned after death. The sky painted red, reflecting the fire and the suffering of the patients.

       We walk around the beach, watching as the dark waves crashed against the black shore. We stop by the shore and look a certain spot, close to the shore but not close enough so the ashes and bones would be washed up and carried away by the tide. The doctor holds the shovel out and starts digging a whole into the black sand as I walk him carefully. The doctor finally finishes digging the whole and pints to the hole.

"Put the remains in there." The doctor says and I nod.

       I nod and dump the contents into the fro hole. The doctor covers the while back up with sand as we stare at it. This woman didn't deserve this fate at all. She had her whole life ahead of her just to be pulled away in such a short amount of time. I think about what could she have done with her life as we give a moment of silence for her.