The Healer’s Curse

Metal screamed. The ambulance fishtailed across the wet asphalt, tires shrieking, red lights blurring through the downpour. Spike Miller’s hands clenched around the stretcher rails as the vehicle lurched sideways.

“Driver! You’re too fast!” he shouted.

“Brakes are gone!” the paramedic yelled back.

The siren wailed once, then silence, impact. The world turned upside down. The roof crumpled inward. Shattered glass flew like rain.

Spike slammed into the side wall, ribs cracking. Something hot and sharp drove through his shoulder. The stretcher flipped, pinning him to the floor.

For a heartbeat, everything was still, except the faint sound of rain hissing on metal. He blinked, dazed. The paramedic lay slumped over the steering wheel, motionless.

“No… no, no.” Spike groaned, dragging himself toward the man. His leg didn’t move. Pain shot up his spine.

He pressed trembling fingers against the paramedic’s neck. No pulse. “God…” Spike’s breath came out shaky. “I can’t die here. Not like this.”

He glanced down, the gash on his thigh was deep enough to show bone. Blood pooled fast, too fast. He ripped his belt free and tied it around his leg, gasping.

A flash of blue glimmered under the collapsed floor panel. He frowned. “What…?”

The light pulsed once, faint, rhythmic, like a heartbeat. Despite the pain, curiosity clawed at him. He pushed debris aside, every movement agony. Beneath a warped metal beam, something smooth and stone-like shone in the darkness. A relic.

It shouldn’t have been there, half-buried, circular, etched with strange symbols that looked almost alive. Lightning flashed outside, bathing it in silver light.

Spike reached out. “It’s just debris,” he muttered to himself. “Just, just a reflection…”

The relic pulsed again, stronger. The light grew until it filled the crushed ambulance. His heart raced in sync with it.

He should’ve stopped. But his fingers brushed the surface and the relic moved. A surge of heat shot through his veins, electric and violent.

He screamed, convulsing as the object melted into his skin, disappearing completely. Blue light exploded from his chest.

“Wha—what’s happening !?” He clawed at his shirt, eyes wide in horror. Veins beneath his skin glowed faintly, pulsing like living circuits.

The pain vanished. The bleeding stopped. His leg, he could move it again. He looked around in disbelief. The paramedic’s body lay twisted nearby. “No,” he whispered. “Come on, come on…”

Spike crawled toward him, pressing both hands to the man’s chest. “Please, wake up.”

Instinct took over. The same blue glow that healed him spread from his palms, sinking into the body beneath. The air grew heavy. The relic’s hum deepened inside his bones. “Breathe,” he begged. “Please breathe.”

For a moment, there was nothing. Then the paramedic gasped. Once. Twice.

Spike’s heart soared. “You’re, alive?”

The man’s eyes opened… glowing the same blue. “Wait” Spike froze.

The man sat up with unnatural stiffness. His head turned toward Spike slowly, jerkily, as if moved by invisible strings. “Help me,” the voice came out wrong, layered, echoing.

Spike stumbled backward. “What the hell?”

The paramedic rose fully, eyes blazing. His veins pulsed bright blue, spreading cracks of light beneath the skin.

Spike’s hands shook. “I didn’t mean”

The body lunged. He rolled aside, crashing into broken glass. “Stop! You’re not!”

The creature roared, voice splitting between man and monster. The relic’s hum reached a fever pitch in Spike’s chest. His hands burned again, light streaming from his fingers.

“Get back!” he shouted, thrusting his hands forward.

A blast of blue energy hurled the creature against the wrecked ambulance wall. It hit hard, then slumped, silent. Smoke drifted through the shattered windows. Rain hissed on cooling metal.

Spike stared at his trembling hands. The glow slowly dimmed. “What did I just do…?”

No answer. Just the crackle of distant thunder. He forced himself up, limping toward the exit. The relic’s energy still pulsed faintly inside him, like a second heartbeat.

Outside, the highway stretched empty, except for the sound of approaching footsteps. “Hello?” Spike called out, voice trembling.

A silhouette appeared in the rain, tall, cloaked, and carrying something that gleamed faintly under the stormlight.

The figure stopped at the edge of the wreckage. A woman’s voice, calm and sharp, cut through the rain. “You touched it, didn’t you?”

Spike froze. “What are you talking about?”

She tilted her head. “The relic. I can feel it breathing through you.”

He took a step back. “Who are you?”

The woman smiled faintly. “Someone who’s been looking for you.”

Lightning flared again. For a fraction of a second, Spike saw the insignia on her cloak, three interlocking rings glowing the same blue as his veins. Then she raised her hand, and the world exploded into light.