Leanna-Chapter 254: [LEANNA] 2.2

Year 2070

I looked at the scenery outside of the window while I sat on my bed. My back was leaning against the headboard. My limp arms were crossing on my lap as I gasped for air from my forever parted lips. Each breath caused my lungs to pricked, my spine to tinged, and I wince in pain. My dull, lifeless eyes stared into the horizon, praying to put me out of my misery.

I was at a home care. I already forgot the name. It was not important anyway. What was important, they accepted people who were discarded by their family or people like me who were all alone with nowhere to call home. Dying and sickly people like me with no one to turn to except for the strangers at this home-care to tend to our daily needs until we breathed our last.

So pitiful.

I never expected this was my ending.

If I knew, I should have just jumped off a building.

It was better than this situation.

Couldn’t even move without any help. Couldn’t talk. Couldn’t breathe without pain. Couldn’t eat. The last remaining lifeline holding me from death’s grasp was the tube in my stomach, connecting to a bag filled with disgusting vomit, which seemed like food that kept me fed.

I didn’t know why they were trying to make me live when I clearly wanted to die.

My tears have long been dried out, but oddly, this day was different.

Tears after tears fell.

Is it because I’m nearing my end and about to meet my loved ones?

I wonder.

That will be beautiful.

Peaceful even.

I just want this all to end.

I was so tired.

So tired . . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

----

Under the bask of morning light, a lone, out of place Mercedes Benz was parked in front of a dilapidated building in the middle of the vast green lands. The building was like a house with its eye-catching yellow-colored walls in contrast with its blue galvanized iron roof.

A black suit man went out of the car and opened the back seat and came out was a man in a well-tailored suit complete with coat, vest, and tie. The heat and blinding rays of the sun were no match against his icy countenance, which made the air around him dropped a few degrees.

Cain Fay walked towards the dilapidated building, oozing with confidence. An old man draped in full white coat came out from the building and greeted him.

Cain didn’t spare a nod nor greeting as he continued walking inside in hurried steps with the old man panicking and stuttering behind him.

"Mr. Fay, welcome to our country. It must have been a long ride from New York. If you want, you can rest first, or I can tour you around the place." The old man tried not to bit his tongue as he spoke.

"NO need. Let’s get down to business." Cedrick, Cain’s secretary, was the one who answered.

They took a turn into the narrow hallway where countless doors on each side decorated the walls.

"Of course, of course. With Mr. Fay buying this place and develop it into a hospital, it will surely be loved by the people." The old man praised some more to get to Cain’s good side.

"How about those people?" Cedrick asked without any sympathy in his voice. He was the one who was getting impatient with all the walking and twisting and turning to get to the office located at the far end of the hallway.

The old man wiped away the beads of sweat on his forehead. "The people here are old and dying, and no one is claiming them. All the papers have been processed. They’re going to be relocated to another home care in months’ time."

Cedrick nodded and didn’t say anything more.

Cain didn’t mind the exchanged of words between the two as he was occupied with getting to his destination as fast as he could. Ignoring all the stares thrown at him, his steps widened and quickened.

He didn’t know why he wanted to come to this country personally. Personally, come to this place. Usually, he let his employees handle these trivial things of checking the land, contract signing, and the likes.

He was supposed to be retired for heaven’s sake!

But the moment he read the proposal of turning this place into a hospital, developing the surrounding grasslands into a bustling commercial and residential district, the irrefutable, overwhelming feeling of yearning and longing flooded him.

He couldn’t sleep since. He couldn’t concentrate. His mind, body, and soul wanted to go to this place so bad it was nagging him to no end.

Then finally, he gave in to his feelings for the first time.

Ever since he stepped foot inside this dilapidated building, which smelt like mixtures of ammonia and dying people, his eyes became restless –– searching.

Searching for something.

Anything!

He stopped. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

And the world stopped around him.

Everything was moving so slow as a group of people in white, carried a stretcher with a skinny old woman on top. Before he knew it, he was in front of them, on his knees. Ignoring the gasps and shocks plastered on the onlookers’ faces, he took in her details.

No one dared move. No one even dared breath when his hands caressed her wrinkled, pale cheeks.

His eyes were searching, moistening –– but he held so firmly to hope.

At this moment, he would give up everything for that tiny hope.

Her white thinned hair, almost bald, felt rigid beneath his fingertips, hoping to see it shine under his touch. Her closed sunken eyelids, hoping it would flutter. Her dried-chopped purple lips, hoping it would quiver. Her frigid body, hoping it would give out any signs of life.

Not noticing the pure water flooding his eyes, he searched for her pulse –– his tears flowed down one after the other and wouldn’t stop.

She’s dead.

He didn’t understand. It was the first time he saw her, but he felt he had known her all his life. A burst of unfamiliar emotions exploded at the sight of her lifeless body, and he was going crazy in grief.

A forced, so strong, urge him to scream. To kill. To die with her.

But he was so weak that his words were barely audible as he spoke.

"N-name . . . Her name . . ."

. . .

. . .

"L-Leanna . . . Leanna Lee . . ."

END 🐇