a ward

She is a patient woman. She sits by the window, hands folded in her skirts. Her lips are pressed into a dark red line, but the rest of her is relaxed.

Her eyes flutter to the door, where two doctors cart away a screaming child. She stands, slowly, with ancient grace, and follows. They clean the little girl off, so that her smooth skin may feel the caress of a new world.

She ghosts a hand over the child's puckered red face, and the little being soothes. There is sickness and darkness on her soul, but she will live. 

The girl is brought back to her awaiting parents.

She sits in the chair tucked away in the corner, her hood gathered around her shoulders. There is happiness shimmering in the air. Vitality.

She sinks into her seat, smiling as the family curl into one another. Sweet and precious and whole.

She leaves.

She comes again when the baby is in hospital, held together by tubes and wires. Her finger's brush over them as she perches on the bed. Young and fragile, this girl named Aura lays on her bed of crisp blue, a pale china doll.

Sadness fills her bones. A young girl, clinging to life with desperate fingers. She is a tragedy.

"It is too soon," she murmurs to herself, drawing her knees to her chest. "Far too soon."

She reaches over, setting a cool hand on Aura's shin. A pulse, and the girl's cheeks flush pink.

Her mother's vitality.

She remembered that day. Smiles and brilliant life. 

She walks out of the room, tapping a nurse on the back as she passes him. He pauses, before waking into Aura's room. There's a shout, and more nurses congregate in the hallway.

The tragedy baby, Aura, has awoken from her two year coma. Healthy.

More importantly, alive.

Her red lips curve.

The girl sits next to her, red hair pooling on the grass. She does not acknowledge her, but the girl is unfazed.

"You have been around," the girl says, eyes like the oceans of the Atlantic. "Can I ask why?"

"I wait," she says slowly, lacing her fingers together, atop her white skirt. It is in modern fashion, shorter than she is used to, resting just above her knees. But Aura likes the style, and she wishes to not be imposing.

"For what?" Aura's face is sunrise on open waters.

She smiles, one stolen from a child younger than Aura. "We'll have to see. A secret, of sorts."

Aura pouts, kicking at the grass. "That's lame."

She laughs, coming to her feet to avoid further questioning. She tosses a glance over her shoulder, where a man retreats into the shadows. She sees the glitter in his pocket. "I hope to not see you so soon once more. Oh, and happy birthday," she says.

Aura's mouth opens, to speak, to question. But she is already gone.

She lingers in the library, spotting her hair before anything else. She sits beside Aura, a soft sigh alerting the girl to her presence. "You must rest."

"I have a test."

"You have to eat." She pulls the textbook away and replaces it with a bowl of fruit. She tilts her head as Aura complains. "I apologize that I could not provide more. This was all I could manage."

Aura slumps in her seat, grumbling into a strawberry. "You always show up at the oddest times."

"I show up at the right times." She set the textbook into Aura's bag. "You must sustain yourself. It saddens me to come more than once, child."

"Then why do you come?" Aura's eyes burn.

"A secret." She watches Aura eat another strawberry. "Please care for yourself."

"Sure." Aura finishes the bowl, handing it back. "Can I study now?"

"You must sleep now."

Aura, who is already with heavy lids and numbing limbs, acquiesces quickly. She guides the girl to her dorm. 

The dark stain on her soul lightens.

She picks the boy up, off the street, sending him on his way, toward the paramedics. She helps up a woman too old to do it herself. The last two, with smudged souls that slowly fade.

The others have died, already brought to the land of the dead, to spend eternity in paradise. She is angry at the man splayed over the hood of his truck, ethanol settled in his blood. This fool who could not wait for another method of transportation, having killed innocent lives.

A mortal having accelerated the domain of Death.

There's a tingle in the back of her mind, and her hands form fists. She inhales, and walks. 

In an instant, she is in a hospital. She strides into the room she knows is calling to her.

She exhales, dropping onto the armchair beside the bed. "What did you do?"

Aura's heart monitor beeps steadily. "I am a sickly child. Was. The past has come to haunt me."

"It wasn't supposed to." Her voice crackles. She steels it. "I'm sorry."

Aura waves a hand. She can see the veins through paper skin. "You did nothing. Death claims us all eventually."

She knows the answer, but she asks, "Are you dying?"

She can see the girl's frown past the foggy face mask. "I...I suppose I am."

She straightens her spine. Her skirt is still short. "Why do you trust me so? You don't even know my name."

Aura's eyes crinkle. "I don't know. Perhaps because you cared for me during my studies. The stress would have claimed my life. Or maybe because my mother said you there at my birth. She trusts you."

"Neither of you know me."

She shrugs. "Perhaps it is for the same reason she trusts God. Faith."

Her head hangs low. She feels the shimmer slowly dim. The dark soul spread. "You will be happy. In death."

Aura's eyes drift closed. "Oh?"

"It is bright. Warm. Gentle. You will learn my secret there."

"I've always...wanted to know." Aura's words, slurred and pushed through clumsy lips, convey happiness.

"And you will."

A single, long beep. A dark room.

"You will."

Aura stands over her body. 

"You were meant to die at three." The woman rises, her sweeping robes a soft white. "But I did not want you so soon."

Aura rubbed her face, shoulders shaking, feeling pain without the nerves under her skin. "I thought Death was a Reaper. Dark and cold. But you are so soft. You have prevented my death time and time again."

"I have time to wait for my wards." Her hair tumbles down her face. "It is like you said, Death claims us all."

The word wait sparks Aura's thoughts. "What's your secret? What are you waiting for?" she asks, voice breaking.

The woman's eyes become gentle. She extends a pale hand. "For you.

She takes it slowly. Together they leave.

Her heels click on the floor, as she makes her way to the door. It's pushed open as she approaches, and a baby, red and white, is brought to a different room. He cries as the cold air stings his skin.

She follows, standing at attention by his head. With Aura's brilliant eyes, she smiles her stolen smile, and hovers a hand over his forehead. 

His soul is unmarked.

She will have to wait to see him again, but she is a patient woman.