The Lady of Light and her Coven

The dreaded darkness has fallen. The least favourite time for anyone who isn't one of them. They fear what comes for them when they shall sleep, awoken by noises they do not wish existed. There is nothing left for them except to survive. And with the passing of each night, this proves more difficult. "Ada!" a woman yelled. "Matron Ada, where is she?", the woman continued screaming. She is running around the decrepit building known as the hospital. The walls, made of concrete, turned brown due to age and falling apart. Roofs have cracks, and the sound of water dripping is ever so prominent. The halls are long, eight patients in every room, sometimes more. Each with only a small white futon to sleep on. The woman is running down every long hall and turning every corner. Each hall way looking the exact same. "Ada! We need you!" she yelled at the top of her voice again. She runs like her life depends on it. She's running, about to turn a corner, when she almost slams into a person, stopping before impact. She stops suddenly and looks up quickly, "Ada!", the woman exclaimed, catching her breath. A woman wearing a small white bonnet on her head, dressed in a black gown came from behind the wall. She is of average stature and plump. "Why have you been yelling in the patients' quarters? They are resting! You should know this, Tilda," Ada said calmly. Tilda looked at the ground, waiting for Ada to finish. She looked at Tilda with a frown and mouth slightly open, as if she knew what she was going to say. "I beg your pardon, Matron, but we need you. Now. We found another one," Tilda said in one breath as she looked up at Ada. Ada took a deep breath and closed her eyes."Take me there. Now. Tell me the details on the way," Ada said. "Let's go," Ada gestured for Tilda to lead the way. They begin quickly making their way to the entrance of the hospital. "One of the night guards found him when he was on patrol last night. He found him about two hours ago. He doesn't know how long he was there but, but he was breathing when he got to him," Tilda explained to Ada as they were walking at an extreme speed. Turning down every corner, they hear the horrid screams of patients in pain. "He brought him here as fast as he could. We are almost there," Tilda says. "Poppy and Victoria are also there trying to attend to him, but we can't get him to respond. That's why I came to get you," Tilda huffed, looking back at Ada. "Based on your initial assessment, do you think he will make it?" Ada asked, almost out of breath. "We are not so hopeful, but we are trying," Tilda explained. "It's just around this corner- ah!" Tilda screamed as she fell turning the corner. She fell completely on her side, her left arm catching her. Everybody looked up at Tilda. "Are you okay, Tilda?" Ada asked, quickly helping Tilda off the ground. "I'm fine," she said and straightened her light blue gown as she stood. Tilda's light brown hair, no longer in a neat bun, was now on her face; bonnet on the ground. She walks and stands next to Poppy, another trainee nurse. Poppy also bears a light blue gown. Her pitch-black hair remains in a bun. Poppy looks at Tilda as she reaches her and smiles, almost laughing. "We did everything we could to stop the bleeding, Matron," a panicked Victoria started, her blonde hair a mess, her white bonnet missing from her head. She walked over to be next to Ada with her arms moving crazily as she continued, "But, it's as if the blood had already stopped coming by the time we got to him. The wounds have not started healing yet, we need to get them cleaned before infection starts." Poppy pulled Victoria back from where she stood next to Ada so she could work. "She needs her space, don't get so close," Poppy whispered to Victoria. Ada looked at Vicoria and smiled. Ada walked over to the patient. She looked at him intently before doing an examination. His neck had two puncture holes, and was covered in blood. His mouth, nose and ears all had blood oozing from them. His body was limp as if he was already dead, yet he was still breathing. Ada knelt down to get a better look. She put her ear close to his mouth to hear how he was breathing. Once she confirmed he was still alive, Ada looked at the wounds on his neck. She examined the punctures, which had stopped bleeding due to the work of Poppy and Victoria.. "Poppy, can you please pass me my healing paste? It's in my bag." Poppy looked around for Ada's bag. She finds it next to Tilda. A small white bag with a button at the top to hold it shut. She unbuttoned it to get the paste. It is full of medical supplies needed to help the patients. Bandaids, wraps, syringes, tourniquets to stop bleeding. "Poppy, what is taking so long?," Ada says quickly. "I can't find your healing paste, Matron," Poppy said in a shy voice. "It's the small clear bottle with green paste. Bring my bag to me, please," Ada tells Poppy. Poppy rushes over with the white bag and puts it next to Ada. "Thank you," Ada says. She immediately finds the small bottle with the paste. She shows it to Poppy so she'll know for the next time. Poppy nods slightly and takes a step back. Ada grabbed a small amount of the green paste and began placing it over the puncture wounds of the patient. Tilda, Poppy and Victoria look on as Ada is treating the patient. "You found him, guard?" Ada asked him, as he was still there. "Yes ma'am," the man said. His leather garments, which act as makeshift armor, are covered in the boy's blood. His black boots are soaked through from the mud in the forest he was running in. "I was doing my nightly patrol in the forest to see if there were any creatures about. I heard a noise to my right. When I flashed my lantern around to go after the noise, I saw him lying there. I didn't know what to do or how long he was there, so I brought him here as fast as I could," the night guard explained to Ada. He is almost in tears reliving the situation. Ada notices this and proceeds to say, "You did the right thing, guard. You need to go wash up before you get a cold and you become a patient." The guard looked from the patient to Ada and nodded in agreement. He went to leave, but before he did he asked, "is he going to live?" Ada stopped applying the paste and looked at him in the eye. "We will try as much as we can to keep him alive. Don't you worry, we will fix this." Ada made a small but fast nod. The guard smiled before he could let his tears leave his eyes. "Thank you," he said, and walked outside back to the guards' cabins. Ada went back to checking on the patients' wounds. "He has lost a lot of blood, we will do everything we can to keep him alive," Ada said to know one in particular. Tilda, Poppy and Victoria are still watching intently. Poppy asked, "Matron Ada, what is this paste made of, may I ask?" Ada, now applying bandages around the neck of the patient, explained to Poppy, Tilda and Victoria. "This paste is made of two plants known for their healing properties - Aloe Vera and Dill. Both of these plants make wound healing faster. It has worked on a number of these patients. It's almost like it's magic. I am not quite sure how yet, though," Ada explained while bandaging the patient's neck carefully. "He has been bitten quite badly and most of his blood is gone. We will do what we can," Ada murmured as she finished and stood up. She is quite melancholy about this situation. Her black gown was dusty from the ground she was kneeling on. "Poppy, Tilda and Victoria, please tend to him. Get a futon and transport him to one of the intensive care rooms so we can keep a close eye on him," Ada told the three trainee nurses. They all nodded as she gave the orders. Ada continues, "he needs the blood cleaned off his face and his clothes changed. Please do it carefully and get some water into him, if you can." All three of the nurses stared intently and nodded and said "yes, Matron" together. "If you need help, ask one of the senior nurses, please. I will be attending to other patients as I can and making more pastes." Ada grabbed her bag off the floor and walked past them, thanking them for their hard work. She can hear them scrambling to do what she asked and Ada smiles as she turns right down the corridor leading to her study. Ada reaches the door to her study. A large door made of carved wood, unlike any other in the hospital where it stands. It has intricate designs of flowers which has made many question where it came from. A dark gorey color makes it stand out as people pass by it. This is her quiet place, where she makes her pastes of various plants found in the forest. She uses these to heal her patients and studies all that she can to protect more from dying. She sees a passing nurse, Anna, who is carrying bed sheets for cleaning. Ada asks for her to send for her right-hand nurse. The nurse passing by nods and says she will. Ada smiles and turns back to the large dark grey door. Ada enters her study and walks over to her desk. She grabs a book lying on her desk to read while she waits. Her study, passed down by her previous matron, has plenty of books strewn about on multiple bookshelves on each of the four walls. The shelves are not well-made, only kept together with nails and the wood rotting. This does not mean the books are not well-loved. While waiting for her right-hand nurse, Ada couldn't focus on the book in front of her. She stood from her small desk chair with a cushion for comfort. She walked around the room looking for a book she hadn't read, a hard feat. She walked around with her hands behind her back , walking up and down the room. Her eyes were looking up and down and gazing over every book. The books look the same with their brown casings, some without. But Ada knows them all. Until she noticed a small book she realized she had not seen before. It is on the book shelf right in the corner which she has walked past many times. This bookshelf, though, is much smaller than the rest. She wonders why she has never seen the book before. She takes it from between the books it sits and studies the front. Ada realises it has no title. Even the cheapest books have titles. "What is this? I've never seen it before," she said to herself. She begins to flip to the first page, but nothing. She turns to the second page and finds the title - 'A Book About Creatures: How to Stop Them'. She read the title out loud to make it fit. "What is this?" she asked herself. "I've never seen it before." She began flipping one page to the next, each a handwritten mess, some with unfinished diagrams. She continues until- "Ada!" a blonde-haired lady yelled as she ran through the door, almost breaking it. "You called for me?" Ada's right-hand nurse asked as her blue eyes danced around the room for a second in a panic to find the Matron. She found her looking at a book. "Ada?" Mary said. "How can I help?" Ada turned around to look at Mary closing the book she held at the same time and said: "We need to put a stop to those Vampires. Can you get in touch with the Wolves please? I do not care how. We need their help as soon as possible," Ada exclaimed in a low, but frightening tone. Mary looks at her surprised, but Ada's bright blue eyes tell her she is serious. "We need to stop Loukas Hatt and his ring of Vampires before humans go extinct. We do not even know how many there are, but the Wolves do. We have to get the Wolves to work with us and then we make a plan to stop them. I know it may be arbitrary, but please write them a letter," Ada said to Mary again, who finally understood. She affirms that she will get a hold of the Wolves for their help. The humans also know that the Wolves want the Vampires gone. The only time humans are safe to do what they please is during the daytime. They get to meet and do what they want as the Vampires cannot walk during the day, after all. At night, they are at the mercy of the Vampires and the screams of those they get. A letter written to the Wolves pleading for their help reads: Dear Wolves, We are in need of your service. More and more humans are dying each day and we cannot live like this. Please let us use your services for protection from the creatures of the night. We want the same thing. Rid of these Vampires. Let's work together. Sincerely, Ada King.