Heal
She could hear them. The children and adults all heading towards the church to be healed from their geostigma. She could hear their laughter and happiness as the hope they had been holding onto proved to be worth it.
She leant her head back against the wall. No one would find her here. No one would come and bring her to the church to be healed. She had chosen this place specifically so no one could find her and now it was the one thing that made the tears slip down her cheeks.
She had watched her brother die and had believed the same would happen to her. She wanted peace for her final moments, but what did she get?
The knowledge that she was going to die alone in here while listening to the happiness of everyone else being healed.
Her eyes drifted down along her arms which were black with the stigma, and then down to her legs. Her trousers were drenched in the stigma that had come from her own body, and she knew because she had tried before that she could not walk.
She was going to die knowing that there was a cure.
Closing her eyes, she wished for death to take her now so that she wouldn't have to wait around knowing that if only she could walk she would be healed.
The creaking of floorboards made her eyes flutter open in an instant and turn her head to the side to see what was happening. Her eyes widened and she stared.
"Are you coming? You'll be healed!" the boy said, giving her a smile.
"I can't." she croaked, her voice sore from lack of use. The boy frowned and looked down at her legs for a moment before leaving. She felt more tears prick her eyes and tried to ignore the pain of rejection she felt. Please death... come quickly...
"Come on! With two of us we can do it!"
A new voice. She looked over with shocked eyes to see the boy returning with someone else. They stood on either side of her and began lifting her up.
"What are you doing?" she asked, almost horrified that she was being helped.
"You'll be healed! You don't have to worry, we'll look after you!" the boy said enthusiastically, walking back towards the door and bringing her out into the light. She was crying steadily now, not believing that these children were delaying their own healing just to help her.
But they were. They brought her with the large group of other people who had the stigma and reached the church, taking her down to the waters were already so many other people were. She felt like she couldn't breathe. She was going to be healed!
The two children carrying her gently laid her down in a shallow part of water and then began splashing each other, screaming and laughing happily.
She looked down at her legs, gasping when she saw the slight green glow that surrounded them and then faded away. She braced herself on one arm and moved her legs, grinning and pushing herself onto her knees. Reaching into the water, she splashed it over herself and laughed aloud when her arms healed before her eyes too.
She had never thought this would happen. She was alive. She could walk.
She was healed.
Letting out a squeal, she got up and ran from the church, searching desperately for more people who had been just like her, unable to walk and hiding somewhere they wouldn't be found by people who didn't have the stigma.
She searched and searched, dripping water everywhere she went and calling out for people to answer her. The city was almost empty now, with so many people in or around the church.
When she returned there once more, she had found someone else who couldn't walk. She carried them in, place them in the water, and shared in their joy as the stigma faded away.
Life was good again. Everyone was happy, talking to people they never would have spoken to before. The healing had brought everyone together, and without the stigma there in the first place it never would have happened.
The girl splashed a new found friend and let out a laugh, loving this feeling of renewal.
Of healing.