Theo's words were caught in his throat as he stared dumbfoundedly at his bed. Lying sprawled there with a bloody, charred, and battered body was Maria.
He took a step forward, his legs nearly giving out beneath him. Barely catching himself on the door frame, he rushed into the room. Falling to his knees by the bed, his trembling eyes fell on Maria as she lay motionless, her small frame twisted unnaturally against the scorched sheets.
Patches of her clothes were practically fused to her skin by a mix of blood and burnt fabric. Her flesh, blackened and brittle, looked like a mess. His vision blurred as he reached out, breaths coming in short, uneven gasps.
'No… no, no, no—this isn't real.'
Then he hesitated, his hand hovering inches above her face. Feeling her breath as she struggled to breathe, his heart nearly sank. The dread he had been feeling up till this point quickly turned into despair. And that was because, after looking closer, he found that the burns weren't the end of her injuries. Her arms are broken and bent out of place. Her chest had caved in on the left, likely puncturing her lung. And all that was in spite of the smaller cuts and gashes all over her body.
For a split second, Theo's mind went blank. He couldn't form any thoughts or words. Time seemed to slow and become muddled, and nothing felt real to him. A moment later, his vision cleared, and his eyes welled with tears. Then, as if trying to escape what they were seeing, his eyes darted from injury to injury.
"Maria!" he called out. His voice was barely audible. "Maria, what the hell happened?"
Her breathing was shallow. And with every desperate gasp for air, her struggle only seemed to get harder. Watching her lie there, barely clinging onto life, Theo's heart sank even deeper.
"Maria, please... Please..."
Holding back the urge to cradle her in his arms, his thoughts raced.
'What reason would anyone have to even think of doing this? No, first, who could have done this?'
He had too many questions. Too many gruesome scenarios are playing in his mind that could have led to this. Far too many to choose from. Despite that, there was one thing he was sure of. The people outside, the bodies littered in the hallway. The deep darkness dwells in the building.
"Everything that had happened was the work of a herald!"
A herald is an existence akin to a superhuman. Their bodies, unlike those of mundane humans, are empowered greatly by a force too great for humans to comprehend. They are the people who are designated as the protectors of humans in these tumultuous times. That power, though great and filled with immense potential, in human hands can be a tool to enact unethical desires. Corrupting those granted their grace and turning them into nothing but machines of death and destruction.
That was likely what had happened here, and was the same train of thought Theo was inclined to follow. His blood boiled at the very thought of such individuals every time. Right now, though, he had no time to linger on that. He needed to report this to the authorities. He needed to get Maria to the hospital.
While lost in thought on what to do, the device on his wrist rang out numerous times. Engrossed in trying to get help for Maria, though, he was oblivious to it. Unable to lay a finger on Maria for fear of making her condition worse, he looked to the phone in his hand and dialled the emergency line.
The line rang, and rang to no avail. Trying again and again, and again, Theo desperately hoped for at least one of those slacking officers to be in their post. Minutes later, though, he was reminded of why this place was called the forgotten sector.
Barely holding back a curse, he threw the old phone aside and turned back to Maria.
"Maria, it's alright! Don't worry, everything's going to be fine."
She was alive and breathing, though just barely. Honestly, the fact that she was even alive as a mundane human was baffling. Just one of the injuries she had sustained was enough to felled the most fit and brimming person.
Maria's breathing suddenly grew shallower, each inhale a shallow rasp that took longer than the last. Her chest barely moved now.
"No… no, no, no—" He shook his head, denial sharp and frantic. "Just—just hold on. I'll figure something out. I always do, right?"
She groaned in pain as, slowly, her eyelids began fluttering open.
"Maria!... Maria, can you hear me?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but the effort expended to perform that simple task was too much for her battered body, and she began coughing violently.
"No! Stop! Don't talk! Save your strength!"
Theo was desperate. Frantically looking around for something, anything at all he could use to help her. But alas, in his run-down orphanage he called home, where even daily necessities were scarce, there couldn't possibly be anything he could find to help her. Least not in his room of all places.
'How do I get her to the hospital then? Wait, how do we afford the hospital? No, I'll bother about affording it later.'
"Come on, Maria, stay with me! We're going to get you some help real soon."
Searching around him, he quickly found where he had tossed his phone and rushed to it. Theo's hand trembled as he dialled emergency services. The phone rang and rang for what felt like ages.
"Come on! Pick up, damn it!" he yelled desperately.
But to his surprise, the ringing suddenly cut off with a hollow click. A thick, suffocating moment of silence followed, and Theo froze with the phone pressed hard against his ear. No voice on the other end. No operator. Just the low, static hum of a dead line.
"What the… no, no, no!" His chest tightened as he pulled the phone away, staring at the screen.
Hands shaking, he tried again, and again the phone rang and rang, yet nobody answered. His heart nearly bursting from his chest in panic, he tried again. The phone rang and rang and...
"Hello!!!"
Finally, someone answered. His racing heart calmed a bit as he began.
"Oh, thank god! I've been calling for ages. My name is Theo. I live in the outskirts at Violet orphanage, and someone was att..."
Interjecting was a programmed voice.
"Hello, you have reached emergency services. At this time, there is no available unit to respond to your call. We apologize for the inconvenience."