Children of a new age

 The rain poured down hard, the kind of rain that makes you expect Noah was going to show any minute. The pounding sound of rain slamming on asphalt permeated the air. In the parking lot of St. Joseph hospital it was no less quiet than the onslaught of rain further down the road. The staff slipped into the building, dodging raindrops, or shielding their heads with whatever was available to them. A shadowy figure also lurked in the shadows this night, watching the staff and waiting for an opportune moment. After the shift change the parking lot emptied out, except for one doctor, a mister Larry Williams. Arriving late, he started to make his way towards the entrance.  He let out a soft wail as he dropped to the ground, the shadowy figure went to work. The good doctor was drug out of sight, taking his coat and credentials the shadowy figure assumed his identity and slipped inside the hospital.

    Once inside he produced a comb and determinedly tamed his blonde hair. He was a younger man, a little over six feet tall, with soft eyes and a dazzling smile. With a doctors confidence he strolled into the hospital, heading for the elevators.

  “Evening doctor.” he heard as he strolled by, all of which he answered with a smile and a nod. Calling for the elevator he stood staring at his reflection in the elevator doors, when a voice behind him shook him from his trance.

   “Hello there, I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before” the nurse questioned him

    “ Oh, hello there. I am the neurologist specialist that was called in, for the Susan Connors case” he slyly replied

 “Oh, I had no idea.” “ Do you really think you can help her. Even in her deep comatose state” the nurse replied.

  “ That’s what I’m here to find out, now if you’ll excuse me.” The elevator dinged as he was finishing his sentence and he unceremoniously stepped onto the elevator and pushed the button marked eight.  

    When the doors closed, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the crumpled article he had cut out of the newspaper days earlier. The article was about a 13 year old girl named Susan Conners, a special girl who lapsed into a deep coma and no matter what doctor or what treatment was tried, still she lay there lifeless. The family had given up on Susan Conners, but you can’t treat this with medicine. The young lad who was speeding upwards toward this girl was something different.

  The elevator dinged as it came to a rest on the eighth floor. The nurses station was just a few feet from the elevators, he stood up to the nurses station.

    “Hello I’m Doctor Larry Williams, and I’m here to see Susan Conners, could someone please point me in the right direction?” he smiled with a bemused look. The nurse on duty at the station reached into a stack of charts and quickly flipped through them. When she came across Susan she held it out and the young man took it, briefly scanned it, and headed down the hallway.

    “Your welcome”, the nurse scoffed under her breath.

    The chart laid out a very complex and puzzling story. Susan was a normal child, from a fairly normal background. Father was an alcoholic who was in and out of the hospital himself. There were no reports of abuse or neglect, in fact there were very few blemishes to speak of. The problems started when she turned ten, excruciating headaches, excessive dizziness, temporary blindness, things that should have been the symptoms of a much larger problem. So her family started with the family doctor, but to no avail. So specialists were called in, doctors with so many titles they were hard to comprehend, they were all stumped. The latest machines and tests were all used, still no diagnosis would come. The world’s best were called upon, the leading physicians in their fields were called, at exorbitant cost these men and women were brought from the corners of the globe. All for naught, in desperation the parents turned to new age healers; shamans, witches, druids, witch doctors, Native American holy men, occultists, herbalists, alchemists, all failed.

    When the seizures started the family didn’t know what else to do, they called upon a local church to pray for their daughter, figuring that only God could prevail where science had failed. The situation only grew worse from there, the seizures did stop, but they were followed by an ever increasing lethargic state. With her family at her bedside, Susan slipped into a coma. Doctors that were monitoring her progress noticed that her condition was declining, as if something were feeding upon her. Many more procedures were tried and failed, three years later here she sat in the hospital with little hope left the family called on doctor Williams, but like the rest, he would have just failed. None of them knew what they were dealing with.

    He hesitated when he arrived outside her door, the oak finish was the last barrier between what he sought, but his feet were glued in place. If he was indeed right, this would be a long search that finally had come to an end.

    “Come on Chase, you can do this.” he whispered to himself, trying to convince his feet to move forward. Chase slowly outstretched his right hand and with an otherworldly creak, the door swung open. In the middle of the room, on a hospital bed, rested the form of Susan Conners. She looked scarcely like the picture he had cut from the paper, she appeared almost skeletal, her life signs were weakened by something. Her blonde hair was starting to fall out in patches and even her skin was turning an unusual pallor.

    The room itself was crowded with machines used to monitor any bodily function one could imagine, the room was littered with pictures and flowers, anything to make it seem like less of a coffin and a happy place a little girl might enjoy. A small couch was against on wall, with a small sitting chair by the entrance, both were empty. The room looked as bleak as the girls prognosis, moving closer to the girl, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. At her bedside Chase reached up and wiped the hair out of her eyes, “I’m going to try my best to make you better, just hang on.” Chase quietly said to the girl, expecting no reply he undid her gown and exposed her midsection.

    Moving his face as close to her stomach as he could, he whispered, “If you can hear me, I finally found you, there’s no place to hide now.”

    He put both hands on her stomach, closed his eyes, and started his search. The energies that make up humans can act like a super highway in the body, if you know how to access them. The electrical impulses can be ridden like a train carrying someone all over the body in a matter of seconds. All of her energy was bright, healthy, and vibrant, until he got towards the heart, then he noticed it, the blackness he knew all too well. Like a fungus it had grow to cover most of the lungs, and superstructures, a sickening pulsating dark blot across all it had infected. The veins once vital had been turned a dreadful dark color, they started to slacken, as if straining against the disease they had been afflicted with.

    Chase looked around disgusted at the ruin he was perceiving, a cold chill ran up his spine, it had been quite a while since he had seen a condition this severe. He traveled onward into the darkness and surveyed the devastation. Doctors couldn’t heal this, because they had no idea what they were dealing with. Medicine was no match for this age old foe, and Chase was ready to end it tonight. From the look of the decay, Susan wouldn’t last long, more than likely she was already experiencing organ failure. He traveled onward following the destruction this poor girl was going through, as he came within view of the heart he found what he had been looking for, the cause of the degeneration. It looked like a jet black Chinese dragon, with long whiskers, brilliant yellow eyes, this entity was starting to feed upon the heart. Chase could already see where the sickening darkness was beginning to overtake the heart, soon he would damage her heart beyond repair, then he would have another victim to feast upon. As he rode the electrical wave towards his quarry, he suddenly shouted, “I have returned, this time I will finish you!”

 The beast reared back, taken by surprise, he whirled around as Chase approached. Flashing a smile he’d seen before, the beast spoke to him, “ What makes you think you can beat me now, you were no match then, and I doubt you are now. But if you must, you can try to best me again.” The dragon huffed, “This won’t be the first of your line I have destroyed”. A sly smile crept onto the face of the age old fiend, Chase’s muscles tightened and his hand curled tightly into a fist, the air around them started to crackle as the combatants coalesced their energies to fight. With wild cries both combatants unleashed a barrage of energy, that crashed together with an uproarious clap and illuminated the cavern greatly. When the flashes died down, the two combatants stood there, eyes locked on hate,every muscle tensed. Both of them had gone for the home run, trying to end the fight in one blow.

    “It is pointless to resist, your deficiencies are as obvious as your fathers, weak and useless, just like all who share your affliction.”

    His face contorted into a twisted rage, as he clenched his fists until they were ghostly white.

    “My father is none of your concern, only the son stands before you now and I will not fail!”

Chase launched himself at the beast and they crashed together, the collision caught the beast off guard, and they both bashed into the girls ribcage. The beast raised his paws and hissed as claws of red energy sprouted forth. Chase reached behind him and slowly pulled a sword of green energy out from behind him. With a loud roar the beast launched himself toward the young man, using a quick sidestep, Chase dodged the claw and cut into the beasts mid section. With a roll the beast was back on its feet, yellow eyes burning into Chase’s soul. “I must have underestimated you, your father didn’t put up near as good of a fight as you have, most of my prey doesn’t.”

    “Don’t worry, we are far from done abomination.”   Chase slashed at the beast, with a leap the beast evaded the flurry of blows, and landed behind Chase, before he could reorient himself, the beast sunk his claws deep into Chase’s back, blood slowly seeping into his clothes. With pained looks the two combatants faced off anew, the toll showed on their faces, as yellow and red blood stained them both.

  From beyond Chase started hearing what sounded like voices, but he couldn’t be for sure. Straining to hear, the beast just smiled at him, “What’s got you so preoccupied?”  “I thought you were devoted to destroying the abomination and all that.”

  Chase just stared back and with a weary arm he raised his weapon to strike again, when he felt a pull from beyond. With a grimace he pulled back to the girl’s bedside to see what was going on, the hospital security had spotted him and were investigating what was going on.

    “Sir what are you doing here?”  One of the officers asked, but Chase couldn’t answer yet, if he came back out too far he could lose his quarry and the years he had spent on the trail would be for naught. “Sir take your hands off of the girl and come with us!” The second officer sternly commanded.

    “I can’t I’m trying to save this girl, I need you to leave!” Chase Shouted, “You have no idea how much I have wrapped up in this!”

    The officers pulled their weapons and pointed them at Chase, “I’m sorry sir, but we can’t do that, please take your hands off of her and lay on the ground!” The officer blared at Chase.

 “Look I….”, is all he got off as the officers fired two rounds both finding their marks, the impact ripped Chase back to this world and he lost his connection to the girl. Chase stumbled over the bed toward the other side of the room, raising his hands he mouthed wait, as another bullet was fired, this one striking him in the chest and propelling him through the window in the room.

  The world tumbled as he fell towards the ground,  as he fell the stars in the sky never shone so bright. With a hard crash he landed on the bushes below the window, the world erupted into a bright flash, as Chase tried to blink his sight straight. With a determined winch, he pulled himself out of the bushes, stifling a yell as he gripped his left side, at least three broken ribs he guessed. With one final look above, he skulked off into the warm, city night.