Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 34: The Skeletal Nurse

Torn pieces of bandages and human flesh burst out and scattered in the room like sand.

As the flash of light dimmed, their eyes remained fixed on the window, neither blinking nor shaking.

From the front of the blasted orb, a great surge of pain thrummed through Mr. Lee’s skin the moment he drew his palms off his face.

Although his skin had reddened, his eyes glowed with shock, forgetting his own pain when his eyes fell on the face of the nurse who had the top of her shirt unbuttoned.

Saliva snaked down his throat as sweat dripped from his face, and his eyes remained locked on the nurse’s blood that kept dripping on the ground like a pipe.

In an instant, water from the fire sprinklers fell on him and wet him.

After two minutes of staring at the drops of water splashing and letting the evaporated air smoke the room, Mr. Lee moved, paddling his arm.

He didn’t stop until he stood by the nurse, grabbed her waist mid-fall, and calmly placed her on the bed.

Behind Leon, Feng blinked and shook his head immediately after his vision cleared. He dashed forward, leaving Leon by the window.

He glanced at the chocolate nurse, whose face looked normal, untamed, or pierced by any metal like the nurse Mr. Lee was by her side was.

"Call the doctors!" Feng’s voice echoed loudly immediately after he stopped by the bed Mr. Lee was standing beside.

Feng clung his palm to the neck of the nurse while Mr. Lee searched the drawers searching for an extra cloth.

Feng’s fingers pressed harder against her neck, counting under his breath as the ceiling continued spraying the water.

The floor darkened as the water flooded the room slightly.

"She’s breathing," relief flickered briefly across his face when a breeze erupted from the nurse’s closed lips.

"Hurry, her breath is not that stable," he loosened his left arm and gestured it at Mr. Lee.

Finding no cloth, Mr. Lee tore part of the curtain in which Leon stood at its side, and dashed back to the dying nurse.

He folded it without minding about proper measures and pressed it firmly against the wound on Feng’s palm.

After a few seconds, the white curtain pressed at the nurse’s neck reddened as blood kept forcing its way out in thick pulses.

"Don’t lift it! Increase pressure on her neck."

Feng gasped, walked back to where the two younger nurses were, and scanned them before jolting to the exit of the room.

Mr. Lee shifted a still face at Feng and nodded. Feeling the warmth that soaked through the fabric, staining his palms red, he gasped and then shook his head.

The nurse’s lashes fluttered as her body twitched beneath the man’s grip, followed by a faint groan that echoed from her.

"Stay with me," Mr. Lee said, lowering his face closer to the nurse’s. "Don’t close your eyes, the doctors will be here soon."

Nearby, Leon stirred as the shock finally loosened its grip on him.

"Where are the noises coming from?" Leon’s voice echoed loudly as he shook his head, letting the flesh and torn pieces of bandages leap from his skin and face.

Tiny sparks of light flickered in his vision, jolting from where his hand was to the boy who had curled into a pillow, sobbing.

’Isn’t that the boy who had bandages all over?’ he whispered in his thoughts as he scanned the boy’s skin that seemed to shimmer.

Water pooled around his shoes as he took two steps forward, sending thudding sounds around him.

"What do I do?" Leon asked the moment he reached the bed.

"Help the other nurse," Mr. Lee replied without turning his head. "Let her rest in the other bed."

With careful alignment, Leon guided the chocolate-colored nurse and helped her to lie on the bed opposite the one Mr. Lee leaned against.

The sprinklers continued their merciless downpour, steam rising as the heat faded, giving the sterilized room the sharp scent of iron and smoke.

A figure moved from behind the transparent door, jolting Leon’s attention from the nurse he stood beside.

Doctors and nurses rushed to the door with unmeasured curiosity, but no one dared enter the room.

The human flesh dashed upward when the door slammed open.

"WHAT HAPPENED HERE!" a loud voice boomed in the room, jolting both Mr. Lee, the injured nurse, the boy who had his face curled in the pillow, Leon, and the nurse who kept on vomiting blood.

Feng entered from behind the man wearing a long white robe and placed a hand on the man’s back.

"Let’s check the one who is bleeding from the neck," Feng respectfully pushed the man toward the bed Mr. Lee leaned beside.

But upon reaching the bed, the dying nurse raised her trembling right arm.

"Pr..in..ce," she paused mid-sentence and coughed while more blood gushed out from the soaked cloth tied firmly at her neck.

Though she couldn’t finish her statement, the doctor who had entered turned toward the direction the nurse pointed.

His eyes opened wide, wider than the way he behaved when he first entered the room. His heart hummed heavily in his chest immediately as he spotted a fully skinless figure standing there.

"EMILY!" The doctor’s body shook heavily as he moved hastily from the bed and stopped by the side of the fair nurse who had now turned into a complete skeletal figure, with her mouth stretched wide.

At that instant, all attention fell from the two nurses and fell on the skeletal figure.

A crunching sound echoed when the doctor stretched his arm and softly touched the shoulder of the bonified figure.

The doctor turned a sharp gaze at the boy leaning beside the chocolate-colored nurse and grinned.

The silence was shattered.

"WHO DID THIS?!" The doctor’s scream filled the room.

In an instant, a chill shuddered through Leon’s spine, letting sweat bead on his skin.

Cough. Cough.

After two minutes of silence, the dying nurse’s voice echoed, drawing the attention of the doctor again.

The doctor held the dying nurse’s arm, but loosenedit after the last breath of the nurse gushed out.

"Do something," Mr. Lee wrapped his left arm around the cloth he’d tied to the nurse’s neck and waved his right arm at her face.

Tilting his gaze from the still and pale-faced nurse, Mr. Lee turned a sharp gaze at the doctor. "Why are you standing there without helping?"

The only expression Mr. Lee saw on the doctor’s face made him loosen his arm from the nurse and stumble two steps back.

The doctor’s face remained stiff as if he’d seen the face of the devil immediately as he turned his gaze toward the boy at the side of the nurse vomiting blood.

"Get him out!" he pointed at the boy and swiped his arm to the exit of the room.

Slowly, Feng closed in with the doctor, placed his arm on his shoulder, and tapped his skin twice.

"You shouldn’t have brought him here in the first place!" sharp air slammed at the face of Feng as the doctor tilted his gaze to him.

The doctor’s temper remained on the hinge as he closed in on the boy he pointed at, and the nurse was vomiting blood.

"Why is he blaming me for their death?!" Leon loosened his arms from the nurse’s face, seeing the angry expression on the doctor’s face.