Chapter 1: Stigmata
Mina looked frightened. More at being terrified in fact.
The gathered from the order they looked upon her wounds for signs of self affliction.
She is a victim doctor, not of psychosis; but of the evils of man.
The aging man in flowing red and black robes, claiming to be as an expert in unexplained supernatural religious manifestations refused to release the girl to the medical professionals, called to the day's service.
"We can get a court order if we must."
Boasted the psychological professional called to the case.
"You officers in your civil authority, you have no faith....
Just last week, you gunned down a child all on claims of being armed; when the slain boy had nothing on him but a phone in which he was using to call for a ride home....."
Sheriff Anthony "Red" Maxim glared on the ordained holy man in silence for many minutes.
".... The boy, he was a known gang affiliate... He had a gun on him priest..... I saw what I saw."
The priest lowered his head, the aging man disappointed on the others' deaf ears.
"No Maxim, regrettably; you saw only that which you wanted to see..... As it was then, so it is today....."
"..... She has continually mutilated herself, and has given folks around here a fright that is beyond reproach.....
You are defending- a known psychopath, and she needs to be- taken into custody for mental health evaluation......"
"No! Here, she has the full protection of the church.....
She has come to this place, God's house, for right to sanctuary, and I will give her sanctuary, until I have been ordered by the only one person that commands me.....
You ,must all now leave this house. For this place is not for the superstitious- minded weak. It is God's house, and a place for- practicing of faith, and hers is the greatest of devotions I have yet laid eyes on."
"..... Okay preacher....
Her life is now in your hands..... You may find that this faith is not quite what it seems....."
"..... Be gone with you! All of you..... My ears grow weary with your disrespect in God's house."
One young man of an emergency medical technician looked on- the girl bleeding from wounds upon her hands and her legs and forehead, with serious concerns over her health and safety, and offered to remain as a medical aid to address her wounds.
The girl nodded in approval.
The older of the two medical technicians, grabbed the other by the arm and yanked him back.
"You are breaching protocol son.....
She cannot receive medical attention unless she is hospitalized and looked over by a registered primary care physician to get an assessment of her wounds.....
Are you really going to allow some junky street trash of a girl, that habitually mutilates herself to get attention, to ruin your- career?"
The young medical technician immediately jerked his right arm free of the others' grip, a first aid kit in his right hand.
"I am not your son.....
I start college in another two weeks......
I quit, and you cannot keep me from, the administering of first aid to ensure the medical safety of the girl."
The older of the two M.T's, shook his head, and let the boy join- the priest and the girl. The Sheriff called his men back.
"Okay boys, that's a wrap.....
It is out of our hands..... I will now have to place a call into the regional office of your superiors preacher..... But for now, see- what you can do to help the girl."
The girl now looked hard upon the Sheriff in a controlled form- silence, her quickly eyes rolled back unto the inside of her head to reveal pupils of blinded white.
The Sheriff was instinctively mumbling something in a series of multiple low spoken words, on the girl being a demented manic psychopath under his breath and took leave of God's house. At least of the property on which it sits.
"What is this father? Her eyes, I have not seen anything, quite like it."
The priest looked back on the girl unsurprised by the effects, of her personal stigmata.
By his personal visualizing of the girl's being, she was now seen as being surrounded by an aura of brilliant light, that he alone- could behold. The girl's wounds were slowly healing.
"Some people would say otherwise my boy, but this is a form- of rapture..... She is suffered from the stigmata, and now I am trying to find out why....."
