Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 35: What Do I Do to Control This Unrelenting Power?

Chapter 35: What Do I Do to Control This Unrelenting Power?

The water sprinkler paused, letting a flash sound echo.

Leon stood up from the side of the bed, where the doctor had neared, helping the nurse from vomiting the entire blood flowing in her.

"Come with me."

A soft voice echoed from behind Leon’s ears, followed by a warm touch at his shoulder.

As soon as Leon turned, he saw Mr. Lee standing sideways, his right fist clenched tightly, almost as if promising to attack.

With quiet precision, Leon followed Mr. Lee toward the door.

He lowered his head the moment they stepped into the crowd of nurses and patients standing by the door.

Though no one touched him, he felt as if his skin was being dragged by the stares.

Sweat beaded his forehead, tilted to his cheeks, and fell from his chin.

Leon exhaled sharply as they moved past the last two nurses, making fifty-two of the toes he counted.

Cool air flew across him, raising the strand of hair slightly covering his face as he sat closer to the long, fifteen-foot chair.

"Hhaah."

A breeze exited from Mr. Lee’s mouth as he sat closer to the boy and covered his face with his palms.

"Leon," Mr. Lee’s eyes turned slightly red as he turned toward the boy.

Silence ruled in Leon’s ears even when his name got mentioned twice; his mind repeated the words the doctor said.

Not only was he disturbed by the doctor’s voice or words, but the face of the skeletal nurses haunted him like a two-edged sword.

The face he saw, the voice he heard when he woke up on the couch, and the face he saw all reeled side by side in his mind, almost as if his mind had been struck into two.

...

When the 6:00 pm alarm rang, footsteps echoed from behind the chair, drifting Leon’s attention from the transparent window he’d stared at for eight hours.

"Uncle," Feng’s voice echoed, followed by a loud gasp for air.

When he turned and saw Feng’s face, Leon quickly shifted his eyes back to the transparent window, tears filling his eyes.

"We need to take him back." Feng moved closer to Mr. Lee and placed a hand on Mr. Lee’s shoulder.

Shifting gazes from Mr. Lee, Feng, and the window, Leon knew what had happened wouldn’t be forgotten even when he left the hospital’s premises.

Although the blast had saved a life, the death it brought wasn’t something to be easily erased from existence.

"What about his sister?" Mr. Lee stood up and walked toward the transparent window.

"I sent her back to their place," Feng replied and moved closer to Mr. Lee.

Staring at their backs, Leon relaxed fully in the chair, letting a groaning sound erupt as the metal hinges of the chair ground on each other.

Every footstep that echoed from behind the chair drew Leon’s attention. Even the sighing sound lingered in the rooms that seemed to be far from where he sat.

A loud sound echoed from the rubber-like window as he noticed Feng slamming his hand hard on its surface, while he and Mr. Lee exchanged silent words.

’Was that me?!’ Leon closed his eyes and screamed in his thoughts. The moment he cracked his eyes open, he saw the doctor rushing out of the same door leading to where his room was.

He lowered his head, trying to hide himself from the doctor, yet a loud chuckle slammed his ear like a slap.

A few minutes after the doctor vanished, Leon saw a similar crystal that he and Zoe risked their lives for, holding the doctor.

He rose from the chair and watched the doctor enter through the door and finally vanish from his sight.

...

When Leon tilted his gaze back, he saw Mr. Lee and Feng standing just an inch away from him.

On Mr. Lee’s face, Leon saw a genuine smile, but on Feng’s face, Leon saw a grin. It did not promise a second chance or anything proper; it promised chaos.

"We are taking you back to the academy."

Mr. Lee’s and Feng’s voices echoed in unison and in the same tone, almost as if they were now using the same body and brain.

Leon just nodded, accepting their offer without negotiating with them.

... 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

As they moved through the hallways, Leon’s breath turned icy, while his skin vibrated like an engine.

His heart hammered against his chest like a machine gun the moment his eyes flew across a list of nurses who had been promoted that sixth month of the year.

Surprisingly, Leon’s face slammed into the back of Feng as he and Mr. Lee paused without notice.

"Sor...ry, sir," a soft, guilty voice echoed as Leon pulled himself back and clapped his arms together, pleading.

Feng turned, said no word, then turned back and placed his clenched fist on the receptionist’s table.

While Leon scanned through the pictures pasted on the wall, his eyes caught two faces, which made his heart fall silent.

On the wall was a group photo of the same three nurses, the older one standing at the center of the two younger ones; Emily and the one who was vomiting blood.

Leon’s eyes closed on their own as the smiles and voices of the nurses struck him like lightning.

...

"Let’s go."

Mr. Lee’s voice drove Leon out of his sudden blackness, enabling him to move properly.

Even with that, the stare he saw on the face of the nurse at the receptionist desk haunted him more than that of the dead nurses when he turned for a last glance at the door they exited.

"What are you waiting for?" Feng’s voice echoed in a loud tone that made the receptionist’s eyes flicker past the boy she was staring at.

Leon saw the main entrance of the hospital open when he turned back to Mr. Lee’s and Feng’s direction.

...

Stepping outside was like stepping into a living graveyard. The early evening sky, the cricket cries, and the tyres echoed like a woeful hymn for the dead.

Long shadows stretched, tilting from the three light poles at the front of the parking lot when they moved closer to it.

Soft wind slammed on Leon’s skin, cooling the rising temperature on his skin. Yet his lungs and mind never let go of the heat.

The moment the engine of the black Mercedes Leon hopped into its backseat started, he placed his head at the window at his side at the back and exhaled deeply.

"What do I do to control this unrelenting power?" Leon said softly and closed his eyes.

There, collapsed buildings and countless trees streaked by the window like a shooting star.

...

Dust and torn newspapers swirled up in the air when the Mercedes halted at the front of a large entrance that had the name written boldly at its top: WELCOME TO ALCHEMANIA.