Picking Up The Pieces

82. Aftermath

I can hear the sound of a heartbeat before it goes out

Won't ever leave my memory of bloodshed all around

And I can see a tear on my father's face before it falls out

Oh, my enemy, how could I have ever let you down?

Goodbye (Epic Version) by Samuel Kim (atlantis ❀ playlist on Spotify)

"Isabel!" My eyes widened when I felt a pair of arms wrap around me from behind the moment Kyla and I had reached the makeshift medical site. A small gasp escaped my lips at the sound of the girl's voice, relief flooding through me at the fact she was still alive. The Dragons leader excused herself to leave me alone with Stacy, who held on to me tightly for a few extra moments before moving into my line of vision. "You're alive! There was talk about one of the Elementals..." Her eyes flooded with tears and I felt her embrace me a second time. "I don't know what I would've done."

"I've been better, I can't lie to you- oh..." My voice trailed off as my eyes scanned over her face. Stacy had always been on the paler side, especially after her powers had taken hold, but the girl looked like a ghost. Her white hair, visibly brittle, had turned grey from the surrounding smoke and dust. The uniform that previously sat nice and fitted on her body was baggy. Stacy's cheeks looked sunken, but worst of all was the makeshift eyepatch that went over the right side of her face. I reached my hand up to touch the long cut that extended beyond the torn fabric, but she flinched away before I made contact. "Stace..."

"I don't think it'll heal," she stopped me, and I immediately felt sick. "I mean, it was for a moment... I stopped paying attention during the final part of the fight. Once everything ended... Skyla said I passed out. She's one of the Dragons, I think you'd like- I'm rambling, sorry, my powers aren't working. It has to be because I'm tired, right? They'll come back in maybe a few hours?"

"Help!" There was no time for me to explain to the girl what had happened before the cry. A boy around twenty ran up to me, his face flushed. His hands were covered in fresh blood. "You have to heal him; I didn't know it was this bad!"

"I..." I stammered, frazzled, but the soldier wasted no time. My hand was pulled, and I couldn't even say goodbye to Stacy before I was raced off to one of the medical tents. A twelve-year-old boy was convulsing in several of the Dragons' hands, blood lacing the edges of his mouth as he struggled to breathe. "Where is it coming from?"

"He broke a rib during the battle, we think it might have pierced a lung," one of the soldiers told me desperately. "He doesn't have much time." I knelt down beside the younger boy, whose eyes latched on to me for help. I felt frozen in place. Healing others had been Thomas's thing. He would've known what to do. What had I been thinking when I said yes? What if I had doomed this boy to die?