Leah Carstairs (Book #2)

The Patient Transporter At Beth Israel

A/N: (above) *singing* This boy is on FIRE!! Wanna know how and why? Keep reading. :)

2008

Catarina was largely persuasive, for she turned up, some days later, to congratulate 'Jack' upon his new job at Beth Israel. It wasn't the greatest job in the world, considering Oskino's downfall from a Greater Demon of Edom to a patient transporter. But at least now he didn't have to sit on the streets everyday, begging for alms.

Oskino was nearly in tears when Catarina showed him his new uniform. "I won't have to dress like a beggar anymore! I can't believe it. My world has really changed!" He exclaimed in childlike delight.

A day before his first day at work, Oskino was given a magical makeover at Catarina's place - after which, he naturally looked and smelled more respectable.

Unfortunately, being a patient transporter wasn't as easy as it sounded. Oskino had a hard time on his very first few days at work getting accustomed to the sudden shift in sitting aimlessly for hours to running from one wing of the hospital to another all day, pushing a stretcher or a wheelchair.

The emergency patients were especially crucial; a tiny delay on the transporters' part could result in a major drawback during the surgery.

Some people wished to be comforted by patient transporters, just before an operation. Oskino's heart warmed up when he came across such people, because he knew just what it was like feeling so powerless and scared of what the future held. Often the families of these people affected him even more - for he also knew what it felt like losing someone dear to him.

There were some rather unpleasant patients who wailed monstrously, threw up and bloodied their surroundings. Then there were a handful of elderly, lost in their own world of numb depression or oblivion.

There were those sad cases, like a young academic scholar suffering from blood cancer, a woman suffering from Alzheimer's who didn't even recognise her own children, a paralysed former footballer and a beautiful amputee lady.

After a long day of transporting withered, sick, dying people from one place to another, watching more patients scream and throw up and witnessing their families' silent tears, Oskino got rather tired.

But, like Catarina had said, working in a hospital was like having a glimpse of a world so different and poignant and beautiful - a world where everyone was going through a tough time. Some people overcome their hardships, some don't, and some just give up. Watching all these people reminded Oskino about his own status. Working amidst them made him question himself: Will he be one of those who succeeded, failed or simply gave up?  

***
2009

Oskino obviously didn't get rich immediately after a few months of being employed at Beth Israel. He collected his money effortfully, counted them precisely and spent them carefully.

He spent most of his time hopping from one homeless shelter to another. Sometimes, when they were all full, he crashed at Catarina's place - where the warlock would pamper him with nice food, a nice bed and a nice bath. At any case, Oskino didn't find an excuse to go back to the pavements ever again.

After a few months of struggling with sore heels and an aching back from running around the hospital everyday, Oskino finally got accustomed to his work and could do his full day's duty tirelessly.

It was so, on a seemingly ordinary day, several months after Oskino had been employed, that he came across a little mundane boy around 9 or 10 years of age, silently rocking himself on a chair in the waiting room of Beth Israel. He was obviously injured; his left forearm bore a large, jagged injury.

"Where are your parents?" Oskino asked, while folding a set of wheelchairs. It wasn't really his personal concern; as an employ of the hospital, he was expected to make sure children and old people reached their respective rooms and doctors.

The boy stopped rocking for a moment, stared at Oskino, and then replied "At the cafeteria downstairs. They didn't want me to come, because I might be summoned by the doctor at any moment."

Oskino nodded in satisfaction, but his eyes didn't leave the boy's wound. He could almost feel as if he had seen something similar before - a long time ago, but he couldn't place where or under what circumstances.

"What happened to your hand?" He asked.

"I got bit by a mad dog." He answered grumpily.

"May I," Oskino approached him. "Have a look?" The boy reluctantly extended his arm towards Oskino, for his inspection. There were long jagged marks of teeth being driven down his arm. The wound was quite deep, and strangely blackish-crimson in colour. Around the teeth marks, an odd variety of blisters, tinted in black, were being formed.

"Excuse me." Oskino muttered, and took a long sniff of the wound. Ah! That explained why he must've thought the wound looked oddly familiar. It had been inflicted by a demon; there was no doubt from the rotten-meat smell.

And the innocent mundane would've naturally presumed the demon to be a mad dog.

Oskino leaned in for a closer inspection of the wound and mentally tried to decipher which demon might have done it - from the shape of the teeth and the nature of the demon poison. He stroked a blister gently, sighed and then closed his eyes in thought.

If only Oskino had paid more attention to the little boy than his theories about which demon, he would not have been so confused and frightened later - because when he opened his eyes, the boy was screaming with a vivid, frightened expression on his face.

And what was even more, his left forearm was burning. Actually burning! As if somebody had thrown a lit match into the wound.

The sight of this tiny boy with an arm ablaze, was enough to attract the attention of nearly everyone from a radius of 50 yards. Nurses and staff ran from different corners to aid the boy. Other patients rose from their seats to have a glimpse of the spectacle. A fire hose reel was detached from the wall and used as an attempt to extinguish the fire - but strangely, the arm remained aflame.

The little boy was scared off his wits, the staff and fellow patients largely distressed; there was chaos and bewilderment everywhere.

Yet amidst the confusion and fright, it was clear to all witnesses that 'Jack' had been the last person around the boy, before his arm had suddenly been set ablaze.

A/N: Oooooh... What do you think happened? How did the boy just set himself on fire? Was it Oskino? Do you feel it's kinda similar to what happened in the Church of Talto? DAMN! So many questions! I promise they'll be answered .... later. Like, really later. For now, I'm just glad Oskino has a fricken JOB! And, also I really wanna take this time to thank all those people - you know who you are! - who have given me as much (or even more) support on Book #2 as they have given in Book #1. You guys are AMAZING! If you haven't been told that before, I'm telling it NOW!
And....last but not the least, 4 damn days left for Uncle Will - I mean, Will's death day! I promise to cry all day, wear white (coz white for mourning, am I right?), tattoo an Ave Atque Vale on my wrist and a star-shaped mark on my neck, coz if I want to be a Herondale, I WILL!
But like, that's 4 days away. Right now, I'm kinda sleepy (#relatable), so uhh... Bye!