We have twenty-four seven staff in our medical bay because we never know when we may need it, so I am relieved to see the Doctor and a nurse coming to Meadow’s aid. Since moving here to damper air, the children have been getting sick sometimes, and with playful fearless wolf cubs, they injure themselves frequently.
Carmen has stopped fighting at all, in any kind of way and seems to have ceased responding emotionally. Silent, numb, and staring at nothing as she’s manhandled like a wet rag and does nothing to stop us. It’s like her mind has left the building and all that’s left is a broken empty shell of shock and I wonder if life finally played that last hand at her that snapped what was left of her mental strength.
I walk behind Meadow; Carmen’s body is limp, her face partially concealed by her masses of blonde hair but there’s a heavy ambience of surreal calm because she is so motionless. Her sobbing has stopped and it’s like all her energy is gone. She’s defeated and broken and despite our past I have never felt so much sorrow and pain for anyone as I do in this moment. Maybe it’s because I know what it’s like to lose your parents in one fell swoop, your whole family, when they were all you have. Maybe it’s because I too witnessed the horrifying death by vampire of my home family of rejects and still live with the memory of their blood and bodies scattered across the ground, much like we found Tawna. Either way, my heart pangs for the girl before me and I internally cry for her pain.
Vampires are ruthless and brutal killers. They leave mess and chaos and rip their victims to shreds when the frenzy to feed takes them. In the case of wolves, they can’t drink too much of our blood or it kills them, and it somehow makes the murder more violent. They tend to leave nothing but remains spread across the countryside when they battle our kind. An act of violence purely because they hate our kind.
“Luna Alora, it’s my pleasure. How may I assist.” The doctor gracefully moves towards Meadow who is rolling Carmen from her shoulder onto the bed and flops her back against cushions. Carmen has no fight in her, her skin ashen and her eyes are red rimmed yet lifeless as she continues to silently gaze into the air. Her mind somewhere far away. Tears roll down her pale cheeks sorrowfully as the warm voice smooths over her, showing a hint of acknowledgement she hears her, but she stares at the ceiling regardless. I gesture the doctor aside and pull her close with a hushed tone.
“Her mother was killed in the forest by vampires tonight…. she saw the remains….. it was traumatizing. Both her parents are now dead. She needs emotional help to get through the shock and despair tonight until this sinks in and she’s more able to process what’s happened.” My voice trembles as I push the memory aside and focus on the task at hand.
“I’ll sedate her for now. Let her sleep, as it might be the last she gets for some time when she wakes up. I’m so sorry.” The doctor is one of our gentler femmes, with compassion and a big heart. She trained with humans in a medical university and learned a lot about mental health and ways to deal with human reactions to certain things. Death to wolves is not as normal as humans, so our grieving can be completely horrific when we do lose someone we love. I guess that’s the downside to being almost unkillable and having long life spans.
The doctor moves aside as Meadow comes to my side and they switch places. The doctor checking over Carmen and wiping her tears away as she checks her pulse, and temperature and generally looks her over. Meadow sighs heavily and casts me an intense look that translates to ‘I feel helpless, I wish I could do something’. Despite her history with Carmen, Meadow is still a caring wolf and wouldn’t wish this on anyone, even her. I nod knowing this is exactly how I feel, and I gesture her further from the bed in a bid to give them space to let the Doctor do what she needs to do.
“Doc is going to let her sleep; we should take it in turns to sit by her until she’s more with it. I’ll ask Sierra too, maybe for a few days we can rotate and switch out femmes to comfort and support her. So she’s not alone.” I don’t know what else to do as I was so young and surrounded by grief when I lost my own family that it was completely different. We have been at peace for years so the horror of losing our people isn’t as numbed out as it was a decade ago. I have no experience of how to comfort someone else in this way when I was never comforted in any kind of way at all.
“Luna Alora, Luna Alora!” A wolf bursts into the med bay startling us out of our huddled somber and makes me jump with the speed and urgency in which he shot in. We spin on him, glaring to pipe down seeing as he startled the crap out of everyone.
“What is it?” I ask in a harsh tone, hating how panicked he looks and the raised high pitch of a distressed tone coming through his words. My stomach churning in unease at this interruption and my gut instantly tells me something is off.
“Come quickly, there’s something … in the air.” He throws his hands up, looking somewhat confused and beckons us.
“What?” Meadow and I exchange glances and follow him at speed, leaving Carmen with the doctor and her capable care and speed outside to the main entranceway of the drive to see what he’s talking about.
Sure enough, just like he said there’s some sort of green smog in the air in the far distance of the mountain, which seems to be rolling down and into the forest at great speed like a heavy blanket sliding over the landscape. It’s like smoke, or a dense cloud, and the rate it’s moving is alarmingly fast and swallowing all things in sight wherever it slides.
Colton something is coming towards the pack…. a fog. Get back here NOW!!
I link rapidly, in panic and fear, reaching out to my mate in case he hasn’t looked up and seen it heading his way. I don’t know what it is, but all my senses are telling me they should get the hell away from it and get back here to safety behind the rune border.
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