Solflare: The Painter's Secret

Two days flew by. Leon remained glued to the Bastion Hospital like a dead soul refusing to cross over.

His eyes turned red every night and pale when the sun stretched over the Thule skies. The antiseptic air clung to his grayed war suit whenever Room 514's door pushed open.

His shadow stretched on the floor. The large curtains covering the windows were slid to the side by one of the new nurses.

Kay, the brown-haired junior nurse appointed to care for Room 514's patient, felt her chest rise and fall. She lowered her arm from the curtains and inhaled.

Strands of her brown hair wobbled at her face. She unlocked the window. Her eyebrows fluttered as a haze of warm air drifted into the room, carrying with it tiny green leaves.

A smile flashed on her face. She spotted the flying chickadees that always migrated toward the windows of the room whenever she pushed them open. 'This kid has a good heart.'

Her heart thrummed softly against her ribcage. She refocused her attention from the birds and peered at the pale face of the little comatose girl. 'But life has other plans.'

The warmth on her face vanished. The heart monitoring device beeped once.

She strode from the window toward the sitting, jet-black-haired young man.

Strands of Leon's hair flapped on his forehead when the footsteps stopped at his side.

A long shadow stretched beneath him. He cracked his eyes open and focused on the silhouette of the shadow.

Heat radiated through his chest. He blinked and saw the straight shadow taking on a different form, transforming into that of Jade's last shadow he witnessed.

The pale rose outline on his right wrist glowed faintly. Black flames dashed out of his eyes. 'No… no!'

Kay retreated a step. Bone-clicking rattled from the young man. 'Is he okay?'

Saliva snaked down her throat. She gulped and stepped backward with caution. 'Is that why no other nurse accepted to be appointed to this room and the next?'

She stopped by the right side of the bed. She kept a steady watch on the guy's lowered head and the faint glows seeping out of his wrist.

She quickly adjusted the systems keeping Lily in a stable state. She hurried to the far end of the room where the bathroom door was. "Sir."

She crossed her left arm behind her and kept the right at her front. "Are you okay?"

Sweat beaded her forehead and began dripping down her face. Leon lifted a black-gold blazing eye to her.

The air grew frigid along Kay's spine. She saw the face and froze. Just as Leon lowered his eyes from her, she scrambled toward the room's exit and swung it open.

The door groaned and latched shut. Bright light stabbed into Kay's eyes. She leaned her back against the door and exhaled sharply. "Whew… that was close."

A faint, joyous laugh broke from her. She brushed her palms against her face. She blinked at the opposite walls, then closed her eyes.

She peeled her lids open and pushed herself off the door. Soft footsteps resonated sharply in the VIP hallway.

Cloth rustled to Kay's left. It drew her attention in a second. All the sudden fear and confusion vanished from her mind when she saw Dr. Mike and Zoe Qing walking out of Room 515's door.

Strands of Zoe's silver hair tapped at her shoulders. She shifted her attention from Dr. Mike and looked at the fair nurse's face.

She exhaled once and directed her notice back to Dr. Mike. "Dr. Mike, thank you for always doing what you can to support both the mother and daughter."

"Oh, it's nothing." Dr. Mike placed a hand on Zoe's right shoulder and smiled. "That's my job."

He tapped on Zoe's shoulder bone, then peered back through the middle section of the door where the transparent glass was. 'How do we even get a new heart for her?'

Hot air gushed out of Dr. Mike's lungs. He inhaled and exhaled sharply.

He forced a cheering smile on his face, but the corners of his eyes remained locked with sorrow and doubt. "Did you check on Lily?"

The neck sleeves of the green nurse's gown Kay wore trembled slightly against her body. She lowered her head and shook it quickly. "Yes."

She closed her eyes for half a second and cracked them open with an exhale. "I just finished adjusting her tubes."

"That's nice." Dr. Mike moved a step forward and placed a hand on Kay's left shoulder. "I trusted you to be different. And you have proven yourself right."

Kay's eyes dulled slightly. She lifted a warm look to the doctor. "But…"

"But what…" Dr. Mike's eyes faded in a flash. "Has her condition risen again?"

Kay shook her head slowly while squeezing her own fingers together. "Her…"

She paused when she saw the sharp stare from Zoe's eyes. She clenched her jaw and focused solely on Dr. Mike. "It's been two days that her brother hasn't left the room. And today when I went there, his eyes didn't look the same."

Just as Kay's last word left her mouth, hasty air drifted by her right side. Zoe's chest heaved sharply with a mixture of anger and compassion. She rushed past the nurse and stopped in front of the door.

Chills raced down her spine. She placed her right palm on the middle glass sill of the wooden door. 'Leon…'

The hair on Zoe's arms rose on end. She blinked, staring at Leon through the door's transparent glass. 'What are you doing to yourself?'

Dr. Mike nodded at Kay and walked toward Zoe. He placed a heavy hand on Zoe's back, then shifted his focus toward Leon and sighed.

"You're the only one who can calm him and also take him home for proper rest." Dr. Mike blinked at Zoe's left cheek and glanced back at her palm on the glass sill.

The edges of the door thrummed. Zoe's fingers trembled against the wood. "What if…"

"There is no what if. There is only one person who is in his heart apart from his mother and little sister." Dr. Mike pulled his hand back from Zoe's back slowly.

He moved a step back and stopped closer to Kay, then smiled. "And the person is you, Zoe."

He blinked once at Zoe's face, then directed a warm look toward the door's handle. "Go. Go give him the life he deserves."