Chapter Text
I checked my watch again and realized that the time was officially not on my side anymore. The driver said that there was a traffic block due to an accident and Qin kicked himself for not using his motorcycle the way he was planning to, but his father organised the driver before Qin could say no and now, he was stuck in traffic.
I had an appointment arranged by my father to transfer life force to his colleague’s daughter. She had to go for a surgery and she’s not strong enough for that, so they asked my father if he could do it initially, but my father saw it as the perfect opportunity to get Qin to use his gifts. Coming from a long line of Angels and being the only one who actively refuses to use the gift was strange to everyone.
My friends tell me that I am insane, I could be saving lives, but I don’t see it as that. It’s dangerous and tiring and very rarely do you have the person in need ask you to extent their life, it is usually the families begging and pleading and crying. I refuse to do anything unless it was the actual patient asking.
I looked at the time again and weighed my options. If I got out of this car right now, I would surely make it to the hospital, it’s a 10-minute jog if I get out now. I told the driver that I was going to get out of the car now. The door unlocked and I was out of there in no time. I couldn’t explain the feeling coursing through my veins; I was restless and anxious to just run and move forward. Nothing about this arrangement was this exciting that I had to feel this urge to hurry, in fact this was entirely against my own personal rules because this arrangement was made by the patient’s father, granted they said that it was the patient who requested my father’s help through his father I didn’t really believe that.
I was zooming through the cars and on to the sidewalk. It was getting more crowded the more I moved and I saw Danny on the middle of it all performing a life force transfer, so that is what’s keeping the traffic from moving. I didn’t give myself any time to wonder about anything and just kept running.
Suddenly, I crashed into someone, the person fell on the floor and I almost fell along with him. My feet felt like led and for a second, I wanted to stop and see who I bulldozed to the ground, but I decided against it immediately. I still had to get to the appointment. So, without paying any mind to the man on the floor or the heaviness in my feet I kept myself moving. My body was screaming to stay, but I fought against all my instincts.
When I got to the hospital my father was waiting for me in the lobby. Relief washed over his face when he saw me coming, he probably thought I was going to bail, smart man. He led me to the elevator where he pressed the button that took us to the luxury floor. The woman he was supposed to be helping was laying on a bed with multiple tubes coming out of her chest.
“Thank you for coming, I really need this,” she said and I felt a little bit better because it seems like this was truly her own choice.
“Let’s get started,” I said and her father quickly left the room and came back with multiple boxes. I opted out of asking what was in the boxes because I didn’t want to know, it makes things much harder.
“Let’s start with the blue box,” her father said and I went to pick up the box.
Everyone looked at me funny when I sat the box down next to her bed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked confused.
“Uh, Qin, that’s the red box…” my father said and I looked down at the box. I could have sworn I saw blue, but now it was bright right. How did I make a mistake like that?
“Qin.”
The sound of my father’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. The bright red box started to move in his hands and the patient’s father let out a quiet ‘shit it woke up’. So, they sedated whatever was in these boxes.
I placed the red box down carefully and picked up the blue one still wondering how I could have made such a mistake in the first place. After a couple of moments, I decided to stop letting this bother me and go on with the ritual. Usually when they had to do multiple rituals at once weaker angels have to take things step by step, if you are no in 100% control of what is going on in the ritual you might slip in some of your own life force thus rendering you weaker at the end of the process.
I was strong, I knew that everyone who have seen me work knew that and that’s why it pissed my parents off so much that I didn’t want to practice this magic. I have achieved a level that people train for years struggle to master. Usually, people my age can transfer life from small items no problem or small animals, older Angels can transfer from larger beings with little issues and so can I. I have never transferred life and accidentally touched my own life force.
I closed my eyes and cleared my mind, I could see the life forces swirl in front of my face, three glowing lights representing the three animals in the three boxes. They were beautiful, the lights gave off this warmth and tranquillity as if they have already made peace with the fact that they were going to die. This was unfair, this was cruel, what made this patient better than these three beautiful balls of light?
I reached out my hands to them, and they floated straight to me, I could feel they completely trusted me to take them to the patiently safely. My heart clenched, maybe all my rules are in place because this is what I truly hate the most, this feeling.
I saw the patient’s dying light float above her head and I took the glowing ball to it. This part of the ritual is usually where people fuck up the most because the merging can be so intense, the dying light wants so much that if you don’t have control over it, it will start feeding off your life force.
In no time I was done with the merging, my life force still intact as always and the patient looked like she had a little more fight in her. The warmth was gone; I looked at everyone’s confused faces. Why were they looking at me like that?
“What?” I asked.
“When are you going to start?” my father asked, I could hear in his voice that he was becoming somewhat annoyed.
“I’m done,” I said adjusting the strap on shoulder, I even forgot I was still carrying my tote. It was crazy that I did that with a bag on my shoulder I didn’t even notice.
“What!?” Everyone stared at me wide eyed. I simmered in their silence for a little bit then started moving toward the door. The little sign read to press the black button to exit the room and the white button to lock the door. I kept pressing the black button over and over again, but the door didn’t open.
“Come on!?” I kept pressing the black button until my father’s voice broke the silence.
“Qin you’re supposed to press the black button…”
“I am pressing the black button-” I looked down at the buttons and realized that I was pressing the white button and not the black one. How could that be possible? I could’ve sworn that I was pressing the black button?
When I walked out of the room, I started feeling a headache approaching, it was right behind my eyes, and it was this piercing pain I could not understand. I rarely got any headaches, I rarely got sick, so when I got struck with this pain it was a shock to my system.
What do I do with this feeling? How do normal people deal with this feeling and how do they sometimes go about their days just feeling like shit?
I looked at the walls of the hospital; it was this disgusting grey colour which made no sense because I could have sworn they were blue when I came in. They reminded me of the blue my ex-girlfriend used to dress in constantly because she was obsessed with everything boring. Now I had a new girlfriend, and she likes the colour pink, another girl who ticks all my parent’s boxes. Another piercing pain shot through my head, and I couldn’t see straight anymore.
My hands felt for the walls, and I decided to stand still for a moment. I could vaguely recall someone calling out to me and the person asked if he was okay. My voice came out as a small whisper; I looked down at a spot on the floor trying not to think about the lights and the ugly grey wall. The person gripped my arm trying their best to keep me upright, my knees started feeling like jelly. Whoever was helping me called others and the next thing I knew I was being wheeled away on a wheelchair to some room for some testing. My head hurt, the white-ish grey uniform of the nurses looked odd. Were they always this colour? I could’ve sworn they wore maroon scrubs.
At some point I passed out from the pain in my head and when I came to, I was lying in a hospital bed with no one around me, but a nurse asking me if I felt better. I did feel better, my headache was gone, but so was all the colour all around me. Everything was replaced by some variation of white, black or grey. I didn’t feel panicked even though I probably should feel unbelievably stressed.
“I am so glad you feel better. You seemed to have collapsed from exhaustion, so please take it easy, okay?” the nurse said with a friendly smile. I nodded slowly, maybe I should mention that I lost my ability to see colour, but that would mean that I would have to stay longer than I want to, so I just kept quiet.
I started thinking about everything I have done up until this point. What did I do different that could have resulted in this? Nothing was out of the ordinary that was until I remembered the incident where I crashed into a boy before getting to the hospital. I recalled the feeling of anxiety coursing through my body, the urge to run and get somewhere like I was being… pulled.
The pull. I was pulled.
That was probably also why my feet felt heavy when we crashed into each other, that was why I did not want to leave. That boy was my true connection, of course I would run away from my literal soulmate. They always said that there were weird side effects once the pull got you, usually you are required to acknowledge the pull by having a bunch of sex that could last for two or three days. But because I ran myself and whoever that boy is will suffer the consequences until they meet again and acknowledge the pull.
“You are free to go sweetheart,” the kind nurse said and I nodded getting up from the hospital bed. My shoes were on my feet in no time, and I was out of the door walking towards the elevator. I guessed which buttons were the right ones and eventually made my way out of the hospital.
The warm air hit me like a ton of bricks, but I didn’t notice it at all. My mind was still on the boy on the floor. Why didn’t I just turn around?