Crossfire.11

Anna
I wasn't strong, and I couldn't fool myself into believing that I was. I felt sick, and yet I felt fine at the same time. I knew it wasn't a real sickness - it was a sickness of the mind, of feeling bad but not genuinely being ill.
How do I know this?
I sat in Ryan's mothers car. She kept telling me to call her Harriet, but it seemed odd. Anyway, I would respect her wishes.
"Why did you want to leave?" She asked cautiously, not looking at me but focusing her eyes on the road. "They told me you'd been in a fight, and said they couldn't reach your 'parents'" The word made her smile slightly, because she knew I didn't know my parents and was staying at her house "but that I was assigned as the person to call. So what happened?"
I paused, wondering what to tell her. I decided to be blunt. "A kid I knew laughed at me about my dead brother."
The car was silent for a moment, and I could read the expression on Harriets face - a strange cross between empathy and sadness.
"Don't worry, I'm certain the school will deal with him." She told me in a clear voice, but I just smiled. Demons don't answer to anyone but themselves.
And occasionally the devil.
We arrived at a house, sat on the outskirts of the town. It was surrounded by fields, and the house looked as though it could start tumbling down fairly soon, with pieces missing from the roof and the wooden structure leaning in the breeze.
An old woman, who must've heard the car, opened the front door and raced out to greet us. Her wrinkles told me her age was about seventy, with her snow white hair seeming odd in such a dark and murky looking place. She wore a dress that I automatically associated with old women, flowered and long. It wasn't overly flattering to her. I pushed the mean thought away.
She waved us in, and Harriet quickly received the information from the woman. I learned that her name was Maria and that her husband, David, had fallen ill. They had no car, and so were unable to drive to find a doctor.
Well, that explained why we were here.
Harriet and I walked into the lounge from the porch where we had talked with Maria, and I spotted David immediately. I took in the small, cramped, damp, dank, dreary and down right depressing house in with one sweep of my eyes. Dust lay everywhere, and the whole place seemed musty, with the air being stale and scented with vomit, alcohol and urine. It was revolting.
I turned to the man, who lay curled up in a blanket. The blanket practically ate him, leaving him look as though he was the blanket. He was so wrinkled and creased he could have been.
He seemed about eighty or something, and Harriet kneeled down beside him to talk to him. I hung in the doorway, and Maria stood beside me.
Something didn't add up. The smell, the place. David's symptoms. They seemed to bring knowledge from me, and yet I had no idea what it meant, so I tucked it away. For future references.
Maria looked over at me. "Are you a student?" She asked me nervously.
I nodded, hoping to appease and calm her. If my newfound knowledge was correct, she'd need it. She'd need strength. But I didn't have much for myself, let alone enough to share. Not that this reason would stop me from trying.
After a while, the feeling of mind sickness returned, becoming increasingly bad. I had watched Harriet talk to him for too long, going over the symptoms and the problems. I didn't need to even ask myself how I knew. I just said it.
"He has oesophageal cancer." I announced, walking over to stand beside Harriet. She stood up straight, giving me a funny look. "The squamous cells." I said simply, referring to one subtype of this particular cancer. "He has the symptoms; struggling to swallow; vomiting up blood; difficulty to breath, which is made difficult by eating; hoarse cough; nausea. All symptoms."
Harriet stared at me for a few seconds. "How on earth would you know that?" She asked. She sounded slightly fearful.
I shrugged, feeling embarrassed. I could also feel the eyes of the room were all directed at me. "I just do. I don't know how, but I know. Take him back and have him tested for it, if you don't believe me." I told her in a hushed tone, so that the others would not hear me.
Begrudgingly, she nodded. The evidence I had given her was correct, and if it wasn't that then it was something similar - she would have to diagnose what it was one way or the other.
So that was how we ended up driving down to where Harriet worked, with two people I had only just met sat in the back.
We pulled up at her work, which was basically a clinic. It had numerous rooms and pieces of equipment that would be required, though all I really saw of the place was the waiting room. There were chairs for the patients to sit on, and a receptionist - who Harriet told me was named Tina - sat behind a wood and glass panel, speaking to the patients and giving them appointments.
Harriet and David walked off to one of the rooms, and I directed a bewildered Maria to one of the seats as I sat next to her. We sat in an uncomfortable silence for a while, before she spoke.
"How did you know what was wrong with him?" She asked quietly.
I shrugged. "My father has it. He had the same symptoms as your husband when he was diagnosed." I said simply. It wasn't strictly lying, because it could have been true. I didn't know. And it might make her feel better, if she thought someone else had it and was perfectly okay. She nodded at me, before shutting her eyes. I touched her hand, and felt warmth flow through me and into her hand. I wondered how she would experience the warmth - would it turn into happiness, or acceptance? Something like that? I didn't really know.
After a while Harriet came back. She stood by the doorway from the corridor she had just entered, and pointed at the floor. I walked towards her.
"How did you know that?" She asked.
I shrugged.
"Who are you?" She whispered, taking a half step back.
I smiled. "That's it, ask the amnesiac winged girl." She smiled back, with a laugh that sounded suspiciously like a sigh, and waved me away.

I dealt with about five patients throughout the day, calming or soothing whenever it was required - all I had to do was trust them to do the right thing, change peoples emotion in a good way. Or so I hoped.
Either way, after I talked to all the patients the waiting room was oddly empty. Harriet had told me to wait for her while she closed up, as the other doctors who worked there had left early. I had talked briefly with Tina, the receptionist, but she had work to do and I had, inevitebly, been left alone with my thoughts. I was cautious and tense, though I had no idea why.
Then my answer walked through the door, with an almost human expression as he shut the door behind him. I smelt rot hit my nose, and the atrocious scent scraped my throat as though it wanted to strangle me.
Then the demon turned to face me.
His eyes widened slightly, but then returned to normal as his mouth took on a smirk. I was trapped, practically weaponless - as apparently daggers aren't allowed in schools, and my fists don't technically count as a weapon and wouldn't be that effective on demons anyway - and impeded by this stupid school uniform. I had, with obvious disgust, discarded the blazer and tie, and undoing the top button so that I was able to breath. The trousers were light and airy, so wouldn't impede my movement too badly. Maybe that wouldn't make me too easily taken. I doubted I could escape. Optimistic till the end.
In all honesty, I feel rather pessimistic at the moment. And quite self-deprecating.
He moved towards me as I stood, and I noticed the glint of malice in his eye. He swung a fist for my right ribs, but I dodged left, kicking into his thigh as hard as I could. He grunted, turning around to face me again. He was strong but slow. Could I use that to my advantage in any way?
He lurched towards me, but I darted backwards. We continued in the matter, he chasing me around the suddenly small waiting room that was crowded with chairs, until I ended up pinned against the wall. I tried to turn the handle, but sighed when I noticed that the demon had somehow managed to lock the door. I tapped it lightly with my foot, testing if I could kick it down quickly. Probably not. Not barefooted, anyway.
He stood directly in front of me, leering at me in both a malicious and lascivious manner. He took a slight step toward me, leaning his head towards my face. The smell of rot increased, until I wanted to through up on him. This close, it was like rotting meat. Even that evil HellHound - who I could know remember was called Uro - hadn't stunk as badly when I had stood this close to him.
I flicked my gaze to the left, and saw Tina. She seemed shocked, and quickly darted out of her little protected area. No! I wanted to scream at her. She was safe behind there, protected by almost wall like structures made of wood, and glass that enabled her to see the people she would talk to.
She left the safety of the reception area, and came to stand in front of me.
"Who are you?" She snapped, her voice sounded demanding. The demon chuckled.
"Stand aside human, or expect pain." His voice was deep and gravelly, and matched his figure. He was muscled, but that was almost as much as I could tell. He wore long dark clothing, and a cloak with a hood - standard demon issue, hiding in plain sight much? All I could see of his face underneath it was a pair of lapis lazuli coloured eyes, which seemed odd considering his...ruthlessness.
Tina took on an expression of slight confusion at his words, but stood her ground. Not wanting her to get hurt, I half-pushed-half-nudged her towards her safe reception area. She moved back into her position directly in front of me. Shielding me from the demon.
With a harsh laugh, he knocked her into the reception with ease, in the same way that an angry toddler might discard a toy. She smashed the glass, and I realised how breakable the wood was. Maybe it wouldn't have been good defence. She lay among the piles of glass and wood, covered in blood and unconscious.
"Now, angel. Are you finished hiding behind humans?" His tone had become mocking. I bristled.
"At least the humans are willing to hide us. They would, with barely a thought, forget about you completely. Yet humans are aware of our presence."
He shook his head, smiling. "It matters not to me." He grasped my wrist.
So I raised my leg and kicked him where it would really hurt any male creature, regardless of species. Human or demon, they both react in similar ways.
The demon doubled over, arms resting on his thighs as he sucked in a hissing breath. "Stop." He commanded, the anger evident in his voice.
He would catch me soon. It would be easier to be caught now. And yet....
"Allow me to heal her." I told him, motioning towards Tina. In his current position he was no way able to refuse me. I didn't even know how I could help her, and yet I knew I could. How odd.
He nodded, clearly not amused at me and yet still not fully having regained his breath. I knew most demons wouldn't normally have allowed me to do this, but he was...incapacitated. Maybe that was why he allowed me to.
I kneeled in front of her crumpled form, swiftly examining her injuries. The glass had cut into her in various places, and her leg seemed twisted at an odd angle. I pulled the glass out - with one piece being as high and long as my outstretched hand - and then stared.
For some reason, I knew what to do. I placed my hands on her head, sending the warmth, similar to that I had sent into Maria earlier, but into Tina. I knew what form the warmth would take. It would become healing.
As the warmth passing through me faded away, it would help her. I noticed now the full extent of her injuries, felt the blood dripping from my now glass cut skin.
I had taken Tina's pain, but she was now unconscious. I had removed the pain from her, and taken it into me. I could feel the sharpness of the glass on my skin, the pain of the cuts and wounds. But I might not survive anyway; at least this way I could help someone before I died.
The demon stood, his expression almost normal, twisting my right wrist behind my back. This left me with my back facing him, and me unable to move my right hand. He kicked the door down, and pushed me out ahead of him. I stumbled, but he pushed me forward.
He shoved me into a car, slamming the door shut. I looked to the right, saw another door, but upon trying it learnt he had locked it. Damn.
He opened up the door, holding rope. I saw the rope glitter, saw pieces of - unpure, by the looks of it - silver within it. This would burn.
He tied it around my wrists, trapping them behind my back and making it so that I was unable to spread my wings from their trapped position at my back. He then tied my ankles together, and I instantly felt the pain from the silver.
I contorted, trying to stop the silver from touching me, but I only succeded in making it worse. It dug into my skin, making me want to scream. But I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
From the drivers seat, he smiled nastily at me in the rearview mirror.
"Don't you want to wave?" He asked me, as we drove away.

Sorry it took me a while to post this, I wrote the whole thing out on note and then accidentally deleted it! Had to re-write the whole thing, and I think I managed to get everything back in to it.