10
Connor
A ll I can see when I close my eyes is my sweet girl rushing to me, saying my name as loud as she can and grabbing my hand. Then crumpling to the ground as Agnes rushes over to catch her before she can hit the ground. They rushed her into a separate room. I swear I felt my heart stop when I heard them call a code blue to her room. My lungs and heart feel like they are struggling to work. I can hear them in the other room performing CPR on her and using a defibrillator on her.
Please, Gods, don’t take her from me yet, I just found her, and we haven’t even had a chance yet.
“We have a normal sinus rhythm!” One of the ER doctors shouts. I feel like I can finally breathe. One doctor that was in here with me comes back in. I swear I need to come down here more to volunteer. I don’t know enough of these guys.
“Alright, Connor, now that your match is stable, I’m going to fix your fibula. Then we are going to get a healer in here to seal the break.”
I wasn’t expecting the pain from him putting the bone back where it was supposed to be. As I am swearing up a storm, a knock comes on the door. The doctor walks over to it and is talking to someone but not opening the door all the way. He nods and looks back at me.
“Connor, the police are here and would like to talk to you. If you’re feeling up to it, that is?”
“Might as well get this done and over with.”
He nods. “I will go get the healer and have him come in and fuse the bone as soon as they leave.”
He leaves out the door and two police officers come in.
“Connor Fitzgerald? I am Sargent Miller, and this here is Officer Jones. We understand you are the first match to the Jane Doe we found?”
I nod to them. They are the ones who found her? Are they here about the accident? It is so tempting to give a little listen to their thoughts, but I hate doing that to people unless I need to. My sweet girl is a unique thing. She doesn’t seem to know how to get out what she wants to say.
“Well, after we found your match, we went digging into why she was there, and it is a grim picture we are going to paint for you. Do you mind if we sit? Thanks. I want to just ask you a few questions first, if you don’t mind. Has she said anything about her captor, why he held her? If he was the one to leave the marks all over her?”
“She hasn’t said much, no names, just things about knives in her skin and she’s pretty skittish around the light. She didn’t understand how to use a toilet or a shower. Also, she doesn’t even know her own name.”
“Alright, not the best news there, but we will tell you what we have managed to gather up. About eighteen years ago, someone reported a girl was missing at the residence. She was six years old. Described as having pure white hair and pure white eyes. Officers arrived at the home and searched the home and the premises, and found no signs of her. Her foster father was pretty distraught about it. Officers didn’t think anything strange about it, someone worried about a young girl in their care, an obviously magical girl in a human house. The department, neighbors and staff from the orphanage she was from all searched for her. No one found her. Turns out the sick bastard locked her up in a hidden room he had built under his house. We don’t know when the abuse started, but she’s been a ‘missing person’ for at least eighteen years. What we do know is her name is Farlen, no last name. She first came to the orphanage at age two. It was just with a note that her name was Farlen. We know she is twenty-four years old. Her birthday is the 46th day of midsummer. She bounced around from foster home to foster home until she was six, which is where she’s been all this time.”
Oh, my Gods. Eighteen years. How has she survived that? No wonder she’s so afraid all the time. Almost all her life, all she has known, is whatever that man did to her.
“Sarge.” Office Jones says.
“Ah yeah, if you hear anything from her, please let us know, anything that can be helpful. We have had a few supernatural foster girls go missing over the years and we aren’t sure if it is a part of something larger or not. Even if it doesn’t seem like anything important, if it sounds like there is a correlation, give us a call.”
He hands me a card with his name on it, as does Officer Jones. They stand to leave.
“Uhm, not to tell you guys how to do your job, but are you forgetting something?”
They both exchange a look and Sargent Miller turns back to me, “What do you mean?”
“My car crash?”
Sargent Miller laughs, “Ah, yeah, we heard about that, we reviewed the security footage that was still going before the power went out and saw the tree fall on your car, you were doing under the speed limit and had your seatbelt on, nothing you could have done about it, we have your insurance on file from your last registration so we will send a report to your insurance company.”
Well, that was easy. Thank the Gods for magic. The officers leave the room and all I can think about is my sweet girl, Farlen, and all that she must have gone through. A few minutes later, the healer comes in.
“Connor Fitzgerald? I am Healer Thomas, I am here to heal your leg.”
He comes over and places his hand on my leg. I try not to flinch from the pressure his hand puts on the damn thing, and stop. I can endure this pain. If Farlen can endure all the pain, I can endure this. His hand heats up as his power works on my leg. A few seconds later, he stands back and nods.
“Almost as good as new. Try to take it easy on it for a few days while the bones finish mending themselves toget..”
“Code Blue, ER room 2, Code Blue, ER room 2!”
“FUCK! Thank you healer, but that is my match’s room!”
Ignoring all his advice, I stand up and run from the room.