Bleeding Hearts

Chapter 28

*Aaliyah's P.O.V*

I glare at Zero as she takes me to the healers, refusing to let me get down since she said I would probably just run off. She didn't know that! I would never just run off like that. I was more likely to teleport and leave her alone that way. Teleporting was much easier than running.

"Aaliyah, come on. It's not like you're getting a shot or anything," Zero says, rolling her eyes as I glare at her. I cross my arms over my chest, huffing and puffing about how mean and unfair she was to me. My head wasn't even bleeding that much, she was just dramatic about me needing a healer.

"Who do we have here?" I hear a familiar voice, making me jerk in Zero's arms and I try to turn and see. Zero huffs, turning me so that I can see who is talking.

"Dr. Witt," I say, reaching for the older man. Zero hands me over when he holds his arms out and he hums slightly.

"I haven't seen you since you were a teenager, I didn't know that you were going to shrink," Dr. Witt says as he sets me down on one of the infirmary beds after a moment, sitting down on a stool that he moves closer.

"Magic is stupid and works against me," I inform him, earning a small chuckle from him as he nods. He checks my hands which were bloody, checking for any injury to see where the blood was coming from.

"You have always said that, that doesn't make it true," Dr. Witt says as he shakes his head slightly. "I think magic is just a scapegoat for the trouble you get into," he says as I point to the back of my head. He turns me slightly so he can inspect the wound on the back of my head.

"I don't get into that much trouble," I argue as he parts my hair so that he can see how big the gash is.

"Says the girl who was constantly brought to me because she got burned by dragons," Dr. Witt says slowly with a small sigh escaping him as I feel his magic scan over me. Diagnostic scans always made me shiver, magic could find so many problems with a simple spell. Although sometimes magic could make more problems than they solve, depending on how it was used.

My magic coils around me, forming barriers around where my scars would be. I could feel the magic humming on my skin, trying to hide and conceal the scars as best as it can. Something I regret when an alarm trips.

Dr. Witt raises an eyebrow, the alarm stopping when he mutters a spell. I shift uncomfortably under his gaze, suddenly wishing that I had remembered the alarms that happened when one tried to use concealment charms in a doctor's office. It was mostly to prevent people from hiding their injuries or from someone else trying to hide their injuries.

"What was that about?" Zero asks, making me turn my head away since I don't want to explain it to her.

"Someone has cast a concealment charm. Something that triggers alarms when they're cast or when they're active in a doctors office as to not allow people to hide injuries or abuse that they've faced," Dr. Witt says. I fidget as I avoid eye contact, not wanting to talk about it.

"Oh...the scars?" Zero asks me, making me nod my head as I avoid eye contact with Dr. Witt. He had been a healer for my family for hundreds of years. He had been a personal healer for my grandparents, and then my parents, and then just the general family healer for any children in the family.

"What scars?" Dr. Witt asks. I hum as I look at the ceiling, my eyes following a line of the stone rather than focusing on his question. Not answering his question seemed like a great idea to me, it meant that I could keep my secrets for a while longer.

"Aaliyah," Zero says as she gently rubs the back of my hand, her thumb pressing into my hand slightly to ground me. I glance at her, sighing slightly as I pull my hand away and reluctantly pull my sleeves up, letting him see the long scars that run up my arms. The scars are sort of like lightning, branching out and running up and down my arms.

Dr. Witt carefully takes one of my arms, inspecting it as his thumb brushes across one of my scars. I flinch, not used to people touching them or even handling me in any way. Zero moves to sit behind me, wrapping an arm around me as she holds me close. I close my eyes, taking small breaths as I try to not lash out at the feeling of the unfamiliar touch.

"How did these happen?" Dr. Witt asks slowly, turning my arm over to inspect it closer. I shake my head, knowing that anything that I say will probably just get told to my family. I didn't want to deal with their disgust.

"Patient confidentiality is still a thing right? No one outside this room will know anything?" Zero asks as she rubs my arm gently, trying to offer me comfort while talking.

"No one will know, not unless I need to bring someone in for treatment options," Dr. Witt says as he continues to inspect my scars, seeing how they run up my arm and are hidden by my sleeves. I hesitantly open my mouth to speak, finding the words hard to form.

"When I was banished, I ran into a group of hunters. They...had a witch working for them that could use her powers to create electricity. She used them to torture me," I say, zoning out as I speak so that I don't have to remember what happened. My body shivers slightly, focusing on the touch of Zero as she pats me slightly.

"Aaliyah," Dr. Witt says, sounding...pitying. I don't know if that is better or worse than being treated with disgust. I turn to hide my face in Zero's chest, shutting down completely as she holds me close.

"Can you just use your magic and heal her head? I think this is too much," Zero says, holding me close. I cling to her the entire time that Dr. Witt fixes my head, using his magic to heal the cut on the back of my head. Once we are done, Zero carries me out of the doctor's office, holding me tightly as I try to ignore the tightness in my chest.