Feeling something touching his cheeks and pressing deep, Leon's eyes flickered. White light stabbed him in the eyes as his vision slowly cleared. Five long limbs waved at his face as he began to see clearly.
"Is he awake?" a female voice echoed from a distance. The sound jolted his vision back.
The moment he jolted upward slightly all he could see were shapes without a face. But when he brushed his palms over his eyes and blinked, his eyes bulged as he froze. Before him were beautiful faces that moved across him like angels without wings.
Leon shook his head when his gaze landed on a nurse who stood beside the bed he'd rejected that evening with her ams planted at her waist. She looked back at Leon with a face of a lady who had lost her goldfish to a cat.
Leon swallowed hard and lowered his head. He noticed all the nurses were either his age or a little bit older than him. The beauty of their eyes lingered in Leon's mind even after he had been staring at the floor for several seconds.
Voices rose from above him as two nurses began speaking. Leon just listened and kept on smiling at the floor. All he could differentiate was the rise and fall in their tones, but he could not tell which specific person was speaking.
"What on earth could make someone soil themselves this much?"
"Are you sure that's urine? I smelled my palms after lifting the first cloth, and there's no bad smell."
"Did you really put your arms near your nose? Never do that again, or you'll catch an infection you'll regret for life."
"It wasn't on purpose."
"Am I the one who made you do it, or did you do it yourself?"
"Have I blamed anyone? My nose was itching, but I didn't touch it."
The moment he lifted his gaze from the floor, Leon's eyes glowed. He saw a fair lady with big brown eyes that seemed to be swallowing him.
'Oh, God! I can say she's insulting me in her head,' he thought to himself. He rose from the foamy chair and walked toward the bathroom. The nurse standing at the left side of Leon's bed gave him a devilish look as he walked past her. It felt as if Leon's head was now on a bid where everyone was competing.
When the bathroom door closed, Leon walked to the sink and placed his palms on its edge. He lowered his head. His chest rose and fell as hitched air flew into his lungs while he inhaled deeply.
"Shit!" Leon screamed when he shifted his gaze to his reflection in the mirror. It stretched from the ceiling and ended on top of the sink.
He stumbled five steps back and leaned against the wall. He tilted his gaze at his arms and opened his mouth wide. His previously skeletal, vein-filled arms were now thick with flesh.
"What happened to my bones and veins?" He felt his own voice vibrating through the wall he leaned against.
Forgetting how to close his mouth, Leon moved forward. He neared the mirror he had just run away from. He licked his lips and turned his head, raising it slightly to check the cheekbone and jawline that now gave him a prince-like look. Whiffs of giggles erupted from his lips as he finished scanning his face.
"Is that why the fair nurse couldn't stop looking at me?" A crazy thought slammed into his mind, but he shook it off and smiled. He raised his arms to check his muscles and gave a chilling smirk as he flaunted like a bodybuilder.
Though ashes lay on his skin and gave his chocolate-colored complexion an ashy tint, he didn't bother to wash them off yet. Standing in front of the mirror for ten minutes straight, Leon finally moved to the shower and stood naked under the spray.
A smile tore across his face as drops of water fell on his jet-black hair. The water streaked over his entire body and cleared the ashes from him. Stepping out of the bath after only two minutes, Leon walked to where he had hung his boxers and the long white patient robe.
He walked to the mirror and stared at himself for five seconds. Then he walked out of the washroom, smelling of vanilla and rose flowers.
Footsteps, conversations, and arguments fell silent as he walked back to where the nurses stood. No one talked, but he could imagine their expressions by looking at the faces of the fair nurse, the chocolate nurse, and the nurse in her late twenties who had her upper button open.
Leon paused as he saw the nurse with her shirt unbuttoned clearing her throat.
"Mmm, Leon, right?" she asked. She scrubbed a one-inch blue nail through her long brown hair. Leon's attention fell from the nurse's question and landed on her hair as he saw a long strand fall onto her shoulder.
"Hello," the nurse tapped her finger to draw the boy's attention back to her.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm Leon," Leon shook his head and nodded.
"How come your bed is so… wet?" the nurse asked, folding her arms and frowning.
Before Leon could answer, he saw two people through the transparent glass. They were walking toward the door of the room where he and the other patients were.
"I don't know," Leon's shoulders raised as he answered with honesty.
"How can you say you don't know? Weren't you the one sleeping there before relocating to the couch?" The nurse's voice intensified.
"Mm, yeah. But I woke up to find myself sleeping in a drenched bed. So I have no idea." Leon sighed heavily and lowered his head.
Not convinced, the nurse tried to question the boy again, but she stopped when she saw the reaction of the two younger nurses.
…
Leon walked away from the nurse's sight. Embarrassment filled him like the air flowing in and out of his lungs. Slowly, he walked beside the beds and stepped on the green leaves that were scattered on the ground.
Stopping by the window, fresh air moved across his face. It raised the strands of hair that were covering his forehead.
"Did I have this change overnight, or has it been happening since I got admitted here?" he thought quietly as he stared at the buzzing road just a few meters away.
…
"What happened here? Where is he?" a familiar voice boomed behind his back.
"The boy is there. You can ask him. He didn't give us any tangible reason."
Hearing the unbuttoned-shirt nurse's voice, Leon swallowed hard and sighed. Slowly, he tilted his gaze from the buzzing street. He froze when he saw Mr. Lee standing at the front of the bed where the fair and chocolate nurses stood.
Leon's mind reeled with answers to give. He saw Mr. Lee nodding as he slowly walked beside the nurses, his eyes locked tightly on the bed without a bedsheet.