The Twilight War: Leigh - Healer in Hell.

The days blur into each other, one very much like the previous. My arms are wet past the elbow with blood, encrusted with gore, bits of flesh and the endless stream of broken bodies continues to pass beneath my hands.

There are other things I should be concerned about....

There is a little boy in my arms now. His scalp shows radiation burns and his eyes are like pits into some world I never want to see....

His face fades into the next - a young yuppie type, in a tattered mess that was once a Brooks Brothers suit. The type of person I would probably not even have spoken to in the old days, let alone touched with my hands and my gift. His eyes reflect shock and indignation that his world has crumpled around him.

Niccolo is falling apart. He does not come out of the basement at all anymore... I have seen him once this week. He muttered about a map and retreated when I asked him if he was remembering to eat.

Now there is an old woman below my hands.... and I watch as the final spark fades from her eyes and she is gone into whatever hell awaits her. I wish I believed she escaped this world for a better place, but from what Ryan has told me, that is not the case.

Berko is actually being helpful and concerned... perhaps recent events have finally reached him. Or perhaps he is putting on a good act as usual.

Ryan cried on me last night. He wept like a child in my arms, for so long that I became afraid he might never stop. Carol climbed into bed on the other side and we held him between us, murmuring soothingly until his sobs finally tapered off and he fell into a restless sleep. None of us are sleeping well for the few hours we allow ourselves. My dreams are filled with images from long ago... fighting, dying, always trying to make a difference.

And my parents. Their tortured souls no longer cry to me, now that their murderer has paid the price for his choice. But I still see them ... sometimes in the eyes of the victims whose wounds I bathe with my potions and my tears.

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Last update 2-November-99