4: Zack

Leilyn wakes to the persistent voice of her A.I companion. She sits up with a groan, a hand rubbing down her face.

“Zoranne… what time is it?” She asks, still rubbing her face.

“It is currently 12am Ms. Leilyn”

That has Leilyn’s head snapping up at the ceiling, eyes going wide in shock.

“Wha-?” She murmurs. Her head whips to her bedside clock, and truly, it’s 12am.

“Zoranne…” Leilyn groans out. She had a long night last night, with inventions and such. And not only that, she had a drinking contest with her brother through a video call. Clearly, she won, but at what cost?

Why?

“Yes, Ms. Leilyn?”

“I better be under attack for you to wake me up at this Cosmos be damned bloody hour.” Leilyn growls out, eyes glaring at the ceiling.

“No, you are not under attack.” Zoranne impassively replies, getting an irritated grunt from Leilyn. “Although, the young Smith has standing outside the gate for five minutes now.”

“What?”

Suddenly, Leilyn is wide awake. She tosses aside her duvet and hurriedly gets up from her bed. She dashes over to the balcony, opening the curtains with unprecedented force and opens the doors with a bang. When she couldn’t see anything over the balcony, she immediately remembers that her balcony is facing the woods.

“Oh. Right.” Leilyn sighs, face palming. Looks like she isn’t fully awake then. With a groan, she dashes back into her room, picking up her silk sleeping coat from her desk chair. She stares at the window alcove a little ways away from her – which provides a clear view of the gate – with furrowed brows before sighing in defeat. “Zoranne, feed.”

A holographic screen pops up few feet away from her, its source from a distributor above. It shows Zack, who has his hoodie up, head down and hands in his hoodie pocket.

“Let him in.” Leilyn commands.

Zoranne did as command. Leilyn watches as the gate opens, allowing the teen to walk in, his head still bowed. His body is awfully tensed and Leilyn notices that he’s limping.

Leilyn’s brows furrow in worry and the woman proceeds in leaving her room. She hurries down the stairs, thin night coat billowing behind her in her speed. Once she reaches the foot of the stairs, she sees Zack through the one-way-see-through glass door.

“Zoranne, door.” Leilyn doesn’t pause in her steps as she commands. The door slides open and she steps out, meeting Zack. “Zack? What are you doing here?” She asks softly.

Zack has on his backpack and his new hover board is thrown to the side. It looks as if it has seen better days. That has alarm bells going off in her head.

Leilyn’s hand slowly reaches out, taking hold of his face. Zack flinches and moves his face away from her hand. Leilyn retracts her hand, fisting it. Then she fells it. It was as if her hand was wet and her head snaps down.

Leilyn’s eyes go wide when she sees that her hand is stained with blood. Her head snaps back up, looking at the teen in shock.

Leilyn narrows her eyes into slits, forehead folding into a frown.

“Zack, remove your hoodie.” Leilyn orders. The teen flinches at her tone, making her eyes to go soft. “Zack, let me see your face.”

The teen, after some seconds of hesitation, finally acquiesces to her request.

Leilyn’s breath hitches when she sees the state of his face. Zack’s face is seriously battered and swollen. He has a split lip and blood can be seen dripping from his head and trailing down his face.

“Jesus!” Leilyn hisses. “Zack. Wha-?” She stutters, gently placing her hands on his cheeks. She angles his face for her to look at him clearly. “What the hell happened to you?!”

Zack doesn’t reply. He just keeps his eyes down, unable to look at her. Leilyn becomes more worried at his timid nature. She doesn’t waste another second in gently leading him inside. She commands Zoranne to lock the gate and door as they step in.

Leilyn sits the teen on a couch, commanding him to remove his hoodie. Zack doesn’t argue and does as told. While he’s dropping his backpack on the floor, Leilyn runs back upstairs, dashing into her bathroom. She grabs the first aid kit and rushes back down to Zack. What she sees makes her to inhale sharply in disbelief.

Zack’s body is black and purple. The arm she bandage earlier looks as if it’s broken. Cuts decorated his body and his hands are bloody.

“Zack…” Leilyn croaks out. “Wha- who…”

The question is on the tip of her tongue but she swallows it back down. She has pressing matters to take care of. Leilyn shakes her head, breaking herself from her shock. Right now, she has to see to Zack; questions come later. She sets the kit down on the couch. She opens it and reaches for a syringe and vial.

“This will take away the pain.” Leilyn says before carefully inserting the syringe into a vein and pumps the liquid into his body. Once done, Leilyn gets to work in cleaning him up.

Leilyn goes to the kitchen and fetches a bowl of water warm. She sits the bowl down on the floor before running back upstairs to grab an unused towel. She comes back down with two white towels on her shoulders. She soaks one in the bowl of warm water and starts carefully cleaning the teen up. She doesn’t even flinch or pay any attention when she, her couch and floor are being stained by water or blood.

Once Zack is thoroughly washed clean of blood, Leilyn dries him off with the other towel. Due to him being clean, Leilyn could see that some of the cuts on him require some stitches.

Leilyn examines his head to see how bad the injury on it is. She heaves a sigh of relief when she sees that it isn’t that bad. She cuts a small ball of cotton wool and soaks it in with medicated alcohol – the one made for delicate injuries – and uses it to clean the wound, which is still oozing out little blood. Zack hisses out in pain and she apologizes, blowing on the wound. Once done, she cuts another ball of cotton wool, this time bigger than the last, and places it on the wound before gently bandaging his head.

Leilyn cleans up the other wounds. The ones that needed stitching, she stitches and cleans them up, before she bandages his body. Due to the body numbing drug kicking it, Zack doesn’t feel the needle going in and out his skin. She even sets his arm back into its rightful position and bandages it up without him screaming out in pain.

All in all, it takes about an hour for Leilyn to clean and dress Zack’s wounds. Specks of blood are on her here and there, but she isn’t moved. She has had worse. Way worse.

“There, you are all better now. I just need to give you the Nano-Healer serum. By tomorrow, you will be as good as new.” Leilyn gives the boy a soft smile.

Zack stares at her in shock. The next thing she knows, tears are streaming from his eyes.

“Zack.” Leilyn gently raises his head, hands on his cheeks. Her eyes are filled with worry, her facial expression morphed into that of a worried parent.

“Why?”

“Zack?”

“Why do you care so much?” The teen whispers. “Why do you, who isn’t even related to us, care so much about us? You don’t even know us that well!”

Leilyn blinks owlishly at first at his question, before a soft smile takes over her lips.

“Because everyone deserves a shoulder to lean on.” Leilyn replies, getting a look of surprise from Zack. “I care, Zack, because I hate seeing people go through what I went through. I hate seeing innocent people, kids especially, suffer at the hands of the pathetic pigs on this half destroyed rock. It’s hard staying on the sidelines while I see people like you suffer.” She cleans his tears, but more keep flowing down. “It’s hard to ignore the cries for help. It’s very hard for me to see you three suffer and not intervene. I might not be related to you, but I vow to see you three happy. No matter what it takes.”

Zack breaks down into hysterical tears and Leilyn gently holds him. She rests his head on her bosom, not caring if he made a mess of her gown. She sits down, making him to lie on the couch, his head on her laps and face against her stomach.

To calm him down, Leilyn begins to hum a song. It seems to have an effect, seeing as he calms down five minutes later. Leilyn peeps down and smiles when she sees that he’s knocked out. The drug has fully kicked in, along with exhaustion.

With the gentle nature she uses only with her family, she gently picks up Zack, grunting a little at his weight. She commands Zoranne to switch the stairs to escalator mode.

The door to the guest room silently slides open and she walks in with her bundle. She uses a leg to push the duvet away – almost falling as a result – before she lies Zack down on the bed. Once she sees that the teen is in a comfortable position, she walks out. She heads to her room, walking into her closet and opens a secret compartment drawer, cold air blowing at her face.

Leilyn grabs one of the syringe containing the newer version of Nano-Healers. She hurries back downstairs to grab a ball of cotton wool and a band-aid, before going back up.

Once again, Leilyn inserts the syringe into a vein in Zack’s arm and pumps the serum filled with Nano-Bots into him. Once done, she presses the ball cotton wool on the syringe mark, stopping the blood flow before removing the back of the band-aid and places it on the cotton ball. She places the syringe between her lips and covers the teen up with the duvet.

With a soft smile, Leilyn lays a warm hand on Zack’s bandaged forehead for a second or two, before walking out of the room with the empty syringe in hand, the door silently sliding shut behind her.