Apollo & Luna

Anathema

Ping!

Alicia sat up from her bed, her eyes wide, and her breathing fast. Sweat covered her body and she trembled so badly.

The sound of the gun still echoed in her head, and she could still hear herself screaming for the victim to duck. “Get down!”

In her vision, Alicia had been there in the field near her house. She had been standing near where the car had stopped – where the men brought the man in the suit out. She had seen how the man had struggled. When the man ran, Alicia ran away with him, screaming to make him run faster, praying anxiously that he’d escape.

But he did not. The man had been shot and he fell on the ground.

Alicia, who'd been frantic, touched him and she saw his thoughts. “Hana…” Alicia whispered the name the man had uttered and she bit her lip. The image of a fragile, pale girl with dark golden locks appeared in the man’s eyes as he called out the name. The girl herself looked like she would be at death’s door any moment, and she recalled the man’s fear that she’d be left alone in this world if he died.

Alicia couldn’t take this. She knew the man was still alive and she knew she couldn’t just turn her back on him. She should save him!

With this thought in her mind, Alicia got out of bed and began to dress at record speed. Going through her drawer, she took her flashlight, wore her shoes, grabbed her cloak, and went out of her room. Careful not to make a noise, she opened the door to her mother’s room and peeked inside. The old lady was sleeping peacefully in her bed and Alicia bit her lip once more before she closed it and turned.

“Sorry mother…” she whispered as she ran into the night.

Growing up in this part of the country, Alicia was unmindful of the darkness. Her eyes were so sharp that she could see through it. She didn’t dally on her way. The field where the man fell was just several meters away from her house. Hitching their old horse with a cart, she urged the animal to hurry.

Soon Alicia reached the familiar field. Tying the horse to a nearby branch, she ran towards the spot where knew the man lay bleeding.

He was still alive!

Alicia could hear his heartbeat even at a distance. “Please hang on, hang on,” she prayed as she went on her way until she reached him.

The man on the suit lay unmoving on the ground, and Alicia hurried to his side. She held her hand on the man’s nose and frowned. The man was barely breathing.

Her brow knitting into a worried frown, Alicia turned the man over and placed him on her lap. With shaking hands, she opened the man’s shirt to expose the damage and she gasped.

Oh God…

There was a gaping hole in the man’s chest. The wound from the gunshot was spewing blood. Hurriedly, Alicia removed her cloak, and pressed it down on the injury to stop its bleeding, but it was to no avail. The bleeding just wouldn’t stop. The bullet must have nicked an important artery.

“No…” Alicia cried in frustration. If she didn’t stop it soon, the man would die from hemorrhagic shock.

He would die, and the sick girl in the man’s thoughts earlier would be left alone.

“Ha…na…”

Alicia looked down when the man spoke as he coughed more blood. Once again, the image of a frail looking young woman came to her vision and she clenched her fist.

No, she wouldn’t let this man die. She just couldn’t. Alicia knew she had promised her mother not to use her power, but she just couldn’t let this man lose his life when she could do something about it. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry…” she whispered as she removed her bloody cloak, and placed her hand over the gaping wound.

With a determined expression, Alicia mustered all her concentration and felt her hand go warm. Leaves rustled just as the breeze surrounded her like a small tornado. Her shirt and hair lifted by the wind upwards just as light appeared in her hands. Warmth enveloped them as her hands glowed over the injury.

“Come on,”Alicia prayed, and the wound started to react.

The bleeding instantly stopped. Like ants marching towards their hill, the blood spilled earlier flowed back to its source. Like a puzzle being pieced together, the skin surrounding the gaping wound reconstructed and the wound closed in no time.

It was as if they’re in a movie, and someone had pushed the rewind button. Time went back for the man’s injuries. It vanished like it never happened.

The wind and light disappeared just as Alicia removed her hand over the man’s chest. It was over. She had saved his life.

Relief slowly washed over her, she looked down at the man in her lap and studied his face. Under the moonlight, she could see his small, handsome visage, and noted the man’s long, long lashes. He was as fair as her – a foreign looking man in this rural countryside.

Alicia could tell from the man’s stubborn chin and powerful body that he was not a normal person. He was totally misplaced, and she frowned. His captors took the effort to bring him in the middle of nowhere. She wondered who in the world would want to kill him.  

“Hmmmmph…” the man whimpered and Alicia held her breath as the man’s lids fluttered open albeit weakly. She watched as the man’s lips puckered as he struggled to form words as he looked at Alicia’s face. “Wh-who are you…?” the man croaked and his savior’s frown deepened.

Remembering her reputation as the town’s anathema, the social pariah, Alicia’s hands curled into fists. “I’m… no one… I’m nobody.”