TRAUMA III

Emilia smiled while Neon was writhing on the floor from the pain. She stuffed a dirty hand towel in his mouth to stop his loud scream from being heard by their neighbors. His tears and snots were messing up his cute face but Emilia didn't even show the slightest look of guilt. She only watched him suffer on his own.

Belle felt uneasy during work and she wanted to go home. She felt extremely nervous when she thought of her brother but Eli, who was a perfectionist didn't allow her to leave the hospital during working hours. She chose to work there so she must be responsible for the choices she made.

"You are a nurse and your patients should be your priority over a personal matter," Eli said emotionlessly when he heard Belle plead with the head nurse, Marga. She wasn't even talking to him.

Belle felt ashamed of his words and decided to forget the anxiety she felt. She pushed her worry to the back of her mind and worked like usual.

If she went home that day, if Eli didn't stop her, if she neglected her work to find her brother, she would have been able to save him earlier from the twisted personality of her godmother.

It was the thing that Belle regretted the most. It was the time of her life that she prayed she could go back to just to save her brother from suffering so much.

That day, Neon wasn't even brought to the hospital for treatment. Emilia left him alone in the house and visited one of her friends as if nothing happened.

Thanks to his jacket, Neon only suffered a second-degree burn. If he wasn't wearing a jacket, he would have suffered more than that.

A huge part of his upper back has blisters and the lower part was red-swollen. It was painful to the point that he needed to sleep while sitting on his bed. He can't lie down because the blisters would pop and the skin would stick to his skin. He can't even sit on wooden or plastic chairs because a part of his butt was also swollen and had blotches. There should be a cushion on his chair to sit on.

Without any treatment, Neon suffered from it every day. He pretended to be fine when Belle was around and even continued going to school. Unknown to her, Neon started skipping his class because he couldn't sit on his chair. He was also in constant pain when his classmates poke him on the back or bump onto him accidentally.

In the middle of her work, Belle's phone kept ringing and since she was working, it took her a long time to answer it, and when she answered it, her world felt like it stopped turning and started to crumble instead. She didn't even know her knees were shaking until she ended the call and held onto her desk for support.

"Belle, are you alright?" Nurse Marga asked her in worry. At this moment, she has no idea that Belle would become her rival so she treated her amiably like she does with everybody else.

"Head nurse, can I go home during lunch break? I just need to check on my brother. I will be back as soon as I could."

Marga nodded her head in agreement as long as she returns to the hospital.

Lunch break finally came and Belle rushed out of the hospital without even changing her uniform. She only had one thing in mind and that was to see her brother soon.

"Nurse Ignacio, where are you going at this time of the day?" Eli questioned when he saw her run out of the hospital on his way to bring some documents to another department. "There's three minutes before lunch. Anything could happen to the patients within three minutes."

Belle stopped in her track and faced Eli angrily. She couldn't believe that she fell in love with this man who lacks empathy for other people. "If you don't have anyone to worry about, don't lump me in with you. I have a brother that I care about so much. The hell do I care about other people when I couldn't even be there for him! Stop preaching to me about work ethics now. I-don't-care!" She said and poked her index finger at his chest. She felt so angry that she didn't think of her actions anymore. "I had a wrong impression of you," she added before boarding a taxi that stopped in front of her.

That day, Belle found out that her brother had been skipping his classes for quite some time already. She even found him sitting on the bench at the nearby park while watching the other kids play. When she asked what was wrong, he didn't say anything.

Belle wasn't convinced that nothing was wrong. She believed in her gut feeling and she knew that her brother was hiding something. She pulled Neon slowly and hugged him tightly. She felt him flinch in her arms and when she patted her back, she heard the faint hissing sound coming from him.

"Neon?" Neon only cried with his mouth sealed from uttering a single word. "Love, what's wrong? Tell me what happened," he shook his head in response and Belle felt ashamed that her brother refused to tell her the truth. It felt like she failed as his guardian. "Neon, love, I won't be able to help you if you keep things to yourself. You have to trust me."

Neon was still shaking his head and, in her anger, because he was still keeping quiet, she gripped him a little tighter and Neon screamed in pain. She thought she hurt him. She immediately pulled up his jacket to see if she bruised him but Neon was holding the hem of his jacket tightly. The siblings were fighting over pulling the jacket off and keeping the jacket in place.

Of course, Neon paled in comparison to his sister's strength. After a few minutes of holding back, he just cried in front of her and allowed her to pull up his shirt.

Belle was horrified by her brother's physical state. He wasn't really scrawny but he wasn't considered healthy either. Not just that, he got bruises all over his body and some wounds have scarred him over time already. What was nightmarish to her was the blisters on his back and the red-swollen part which was obviously from being burnt. She couldn't imagine the pain that her brother had been going through.

"L-love, Neon..." her voice trembled and she didn't know where to hold her brother without hurting him. She wanted to say something but her broken heart was blocking her throat and her chest hurt so much. "I...I'm sorry...I'm sorry. I didn't know...who hurt you? Neon, I'm sorry. I am really sorry."

Belle held her brother's hands and apologized again and again. She didn't know what else she could do at the moment. She didn't want to get up yet because she was afraid that she would fall on the ground with her weak knees. She felt so weak. She couldn't believe how ignorant she was. She was saving people every day of her life but she wasn't even able to save her brother before things would go out of hand.

"Let's go to the hospital first and treat your wounds. You can tell me everything later."