Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 112: Last Goodbye

Mr. Lee and Feng shared a laughter that only lasted for a few seconds. Then another knock echoed in an authoritative tone.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

’I’m sure this is Lily,’ Leon thought. "Please, I’m sure my sister needs me," he said, bowing again and turning toward the door’s direction.

"Don’t worry," Mr. Lee’s voice stopped Leon’s raised right leg.

He stood up abruptly, walked toward Leon, then tapped on his left shoulder. "That’s just the Special Force officials," he said, and walked past Leon to the door.

’Special Force officials? Why are they here? Or is it... time already?’ The thoughts slammed into Leon’s mind one after another, causing his earlier calm to shatter.

His heart began to hammer against his chest as he stared at the door opened wide by Mr. Lee.

"Come in," Mr. Lee said, swiping his right arm as if giving way for a king.

The same three men in black entered. Hei Luo, Lu Wang, and Hei Yung. Although Leon had seen them before, their presence seemed to suck the warmth from his very soul.

His mouth went completely dry, his skin crawling at his bones as the strange internal panel flickered to life in his vision without a prompt or a chime.

It reiterated their names and the relentless Rank: B, and noted, with a detached part of his mind, that Feng shared the same classification as the men.

The men stopped a few feet from Leon, clasped their hands behind their backs in unison, and smiled an eerie smile.

Feng stood up abruptly from the bed, gave them a respectful bow, and remained standing at attention.

Hei Luo detached himself from the trio by one step and fixed his gaze on Mr. Lee. "Is he ready?"

"Yes, sir," Feng answered immediately, without glancing at Mr. Lee or Leon’s suddenly pale and sweaty face.

Leon’s mind flashed with images of his mother’s trembling hands feeling his face, Lily’s crushed expression if he left again so soon.

"Mr—" he tried to speak, but his voice cracked.

"He will join the team by nightfall," Mr. Lee stated in a voice that left no room for argument after glancing at his wristwatch.

’Nightfall?! That’s just a few hours from now.’ Leon screamed heavily in his head, clenching his teeth as he tilted his gaze from Mr. Lee, to Feng, and to the three men in black.

In the following thirty minutes, Leon’s mind hazed, making him not actually hear what was going on in his own room. He stood as if he was rooted to the spot.

Then, with a collected nod, Hei Luo and the other two turned and exited the room as silently as they had entered.

Leon’s mind jolted back to the reality before him when the door clicked shut. He turned a confused and almost pleading expression to Mr. Lee at first, then to Feng.

Before he could speak, Feng walked toward him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You need to say your goodbyes to them before it’s too late."

He tapped on the shoulder, then moved past Leon and out of the door without looking back, not even at Mr. Lee.

Leon stood there, his mouth opened, almost as if he had forgotten how to close it.

Mr. Lee approached him more slowly and placed both hands on Leon’s shoulders, then forced the poor, saddened boy to look at him.

"Leon, look at me," he instructed, his eyes looking like a grave. "You are reaching a stage in your life where you won’t need to think twice about leaving those you love behind to become strong."

Mr. Lee paused, closed his eyes, breathed, then cracked them open. "It’s not a choice, but a necessity you must allow."

He tapped on Leon’s shoulder twice, then turned and left, closing the door softly behind him.

"A stage I have to leave those I love behind?" Leon whispered, taking slow steps toward the bed. His heartbeat began to slow when he sat on the bed.

"How will they take the message?" He stared at the door, then tilted his gaze to the open window and stared at the birds in the sky.

His gaze remained locked on the groups of birds that flapped their wings and moved in groups, then he spotted one black bird.

This one had no group. All the other birds it tried to join moved away from it as if it was a plague. It moved from tree to tree, group to group, but didn’t land on any branch.

As if feeling the same pain as Leon, it dashed upward into the dark, forming clouds, and vanished from Leon’s sight.

Leon tilted his gaze from the outside world, lay on his back, and stared at the ceiling. His eyebrows played tricks on him, threatening to put him into instant sleep.

The springs sighed under his weight when he forced his eyes to open. He moved his arms upward, stared at it, the very right arm he had used to hold onto his mother’s.

He fell asleep within a few seconds while staring at the skin on his arm. Suddenly, he jolted up, gasping heavily as the memory of his mother and sister’s death dream reeled in his vision.

Five minutes after he managed to wipe the dream off his mind, the door swung open with a loud bang. Leon’s head snapped up, a desperate hope flaring within him.

In the doorway, Lily stood there, her small body leaning against the doorpost. Her innocent face held a smile Leon saw whenever she was extremely happy.

"Leon? Can you see my picture?" she asked in a joy-filled voice.

Leon looked at her and felt the goodbye he now had to deliver lodging in his throat like a stone. "Come, what picture are you talking about?" he asked, drawing her near him.

"I’ve got you..." he said, wrapping his arms around her and hefting her.

"Stop... stop... Leon..." Lily screamed in joy, feeling jolts trickling through her skin as Leon’s fingers tickled her more than she imagined.

She laughed wholeheartedly when she got raised by Leon and got slammed onto the bed, lying beside each other, laughing.

Suddenly, Leon’s laughter got cut short when the clock on the wall ticked loudly. Two tiny drops of tears exited from his eyes, his face saddening more.

"What’s wrong?" Lily asked, her face still carrying the joy as she playfully wiped the tears from Leon’s face.