When the World Came Crumbling Down

Chapter 9: An unexpected change

Sarah was busy sewing a large cut in a man’s hand when she heard the commotion in the camp.

She quickly finished and was just leaving her cabin when a sobbing girl ran into her, her small face pale as a sheet.

She looked up at Sarah with fear and anger in her eyes.

A sinking feeling, something akin to panic, crept its way into Sarah’s stomach.

The girl’s frantic voice broke into her thoughts.

“S-s-Sarah! Please, you have to come! It’s – you have to come! I was fetching water when – when – when a man, a man on a horse, a big black horse! Aw, gawd, she’s hurt so bad! Blood, there’s blood all over! She wasn’t moving, Sarah, she wasn’t moving! Gawd, she must be dead! There was so much! And – and – and – oh Sarah, you have to go!”

At this point the child dropped to her knees and buried her face in her hands, sobbing hysterically.

Sarah knelt down and pulled the hysterical girl up, gripping the child by the shoulders to look into her eyes, as if the stuttered words would make sense there.

“Who? Who is it, Katie? Who?”

She forced the words out, hating the way they tasted on her lips.

Part of her already knew who it was, but the rest of her had to know for sure.

Katie looked at her, her eyes glassy and full of sorrow.

“Rin. Rin. It was Rin. Down by the stream – “

Sarah didn’t even let her finish – she leapt to her feet and disappeared back into the cabin, only to reappear a moment later carrying a bulky red cross bag, shouting instructions to the crowd of by standers as she ran to the path, leaving them scrambling to do her biding and follow after her.

The little girl had stopped sobbing and was running beside her, trying her best to keep up.

There was no need – Sarah saw her immediately, lying in the grass by the boulder, covered in large blackish-blue marks, covered in blood, and completely unconscious.

She stood, frozen in horror, until Katie, crying again, tugged her shirt, bringing her out of her daze.

She worked quickly, her nimble fingers flying, and soon Rin was ready to be loaded onto the stretcher and brought to her hospital.

Sarah watched as they loaded her onto the makeshift stretcher, numb.

There was a lot of damage done to her small body, so much that Sarah, the most experienced medical person in the village, was afraid to look.

Nobody said a word as they made the slow journey back to the village, carrying Rin’s frail body carefully, going as fast as they dared without jolting her.

Sarah left them, running as fast as she could back to the village.

She told herself it was because she needed to prepare a place for Rin and drag out her medicines and her medical guide, but as the tears slid down her scared face she knew it was because she couldn’t bare to let anyone see her cry.

Nobody had seen her cry since she was eleven.

It drew far too much pity to her, and she hated pity, hated it even more after she had gotten burned.

The cabin was small, really only big enough for one person, and Sarah would have to get rid of one of her tables and her arm chair to make room for Rin, but she didn’t mind.

Rin needed someone to look after her, it was in her eyes, written all over her face, a look of utter helplessness and something else, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on that just sucked her in but told her to keep her distance…

She shoved most of the things on a table into a plastic crate, keeping only the things she would need for Rin’s care.

By the time the stretcher (which was only a piece of plywood with a comforter stapled on it for a cushion and a few strips of cloth for securing straps) arrived, she and a few strong boys had removed the small table and the large comforter, placing them outside carelessly.

Rin was transferred off the stretcher and onto Sarah’s freshly made bed, where Sarah and her assistant, a twelve year old girl called Hailey, finished cleaning and dressing her cuts and bruises.

Sarah couldn’t believe it.

Rin had at least three broken ribs, a few broken fingers, probably a concussion, cracked skull, several close breaks, probably a few internal injuries, more than enough cuts and bruises, and countless other injuries.

Basically, she looked like she had been hit by a train.

Who, or what, would do such a thing?

Her brow furrowed and she shook her head.

She would know soon enough, when Rin woke up.

She had to keep telling herself that – she had to make herself believe Rin would make it.

She had to make Rin’s mother believe that she would wake up.

This would be so much easier if she believed it herself.