Ch 7 The Kids Are Getting Worse

As Leon’s watch struck 3 a.m., he noticed movement on the CCTV feed…

“Okey Emilie, like always go first yup… “ Leon can see Emilie's small figures sleepwalking with her hair falling over her face…

“Heh, let’s see if she falls onto the bean bag first…” Leon muttered, curious to see if his trap would work. Emilie shuffled forward barefoot, her steps unsteady, until she finally bumped into a bean bag.

Then… she kept moving straight, kicking the bean bag forward as if it wasn’t even there.

“Hey, hey, she didn’t fall… Nova, would it be better if I put something like a stone to keep it in place?”

“Please, sir, that’s dangerous… What if she falls and hits her head on the stone?” Nova quickly dismissed Leon’s reckless idea.

“Haa… looks like I’ll have to do the same thing again. How tiring…” Just as he was about to stand up, he saw another girl slowly moving behind Emilie.

“Great, so that’s how she gets to the bathroom, huh…” With that, Leon stood up. He clipped flashlights to his shoulder, belt loop, and held one in his hand. Then, he paused at his table, lost in thought.

“Uh, Nova, I’ll bring your core with me, so we can stay in contact if something goes wrong…”

Leon remembered how his signal had suddenly cut off before, so he wondered, what if he brought Nova’s core with him?

“Yes, sir. I can speak to you directly through your phone then.”

With that, Leon picked up a levitating blue crystal from his table and slipped it into his pocket.

Yes, this was Nova’s core. It might look like a toy, but it was something far more important.

As he walked, Leon’s flashlight lit the way, revealing Emilie wobbling along alone, pushing three bean bags forward with each step… while Jane was already nowhere to be seen.

“Good… good… kids, let me….” Before Leon could finish his joke, he noticed something different… Emilie’s eyes were open.

“...oh…. Hey, Emilie, you’re already awake…” Leon startled as Emilie kept moving… She looked less like someone awake and more like a zombie….

Her eyes.. It looks hollow.. Stare blankly at the front… and not even blink once!

“Oh sh*t… sh*t… Hey, Nova, can sleepwalkers open their eyes?.... Hello???” Leon’s cold sweat trickled down his neck. There was no response from Nova at all!

“F*ck! Can I touch her? Okay… okay… maybe if I just put a hand on her shoulder, then she’ll stop… yeah… Let’s touch her with my finger first….” Leon walks slowly… he can feel that something is wrong..

Especially the weather… it felt much colder than yesterday, and even made Leon shiver. As he drew closer and closer to Emilie, a sudden burst of static crackled from his phone, making Leon jolt.

“Sir.. “ Nova voice can be heard.

“I detect..….. electromagn… spik.. that shu… …down ….. …ur dron…. an.. signa…, …. yo… phon… …attery ..eing drain… … a.. …out wha… ….ask,.. is norm… f.. sle.. walk…. to …. hal…open th… eyes as…”

*tsssttttt* then a static voice can be heard from his phone and Nova voice can’t be heard anymore…..

“SH*T! WHAT!” Leon shouts but then calms down again.. He shivered… tried to decipher what Nova wanted to say.. Then… “oh.. It is normal for sleepwalker to open their eyes…”

“d*mn kids…. I almost wet my pants... Right, hey Emilie stop walking, come follow me..” Leon then touches Emilie's little hands, which feel so cold….

“...... hey you will got sick if it this cold…. Tsk… this is almost like a ghost story for real….” Leon drags Emilie toward the bathroom as he knows Jane sings over there… of course she is not starting now…

But what Leon doesn't know is that Emilie opens her eyes wide.. Unblinking and stare at him… her eyeball even shifts.. Focusing on his back…..

Not long after, Leon reached the bathroom. From inside, he could hear a voice singing….. though he couldn’t tell if it was really singing or just mumbling.

“dlog gnirb sdnah sih ,dnik retsaM

.dlot m'I os ,ykcul ma I

,yrc reven dna ,elims dna woB

...yrt ohw esoht rof llaf lliw sratS”

“Puffft…. d*mn! Did she learn some ancient verse or what ?? puahahaha!!” Leon can’t help but laugh out loud! “This sounds so funny!” Leon shook his head and continued to laugh..

As he laughed, Jane stopped singing briefly… then continued with hoarse voices….

“Uuoyyyyy likkkk! likkk!”

Leon shakes his head… “yes yes lick as much as you want, hahaha! uhum… I will buy some ice cream for you later okay.”

Without waiting or even turning on the light, Leon walked in and dragged the girl away from the bathroom.

But she felt unnaturally stiff, each movement awkward and wrong… and the room was icy cold. Still, Leon brushed it off and kept dragging her away.

As they reached the bedroom, Leon did what he usually did, he gently placed them on the bed

“Good enough… but.. uh… can’t you close your eyes or something?” Leon can see that the two girls kept their eyes open, which sends a chill down Leon’s spine.

“Alright, if you can’t close them, I’ll help.” Leon reached out and gently closed Emilie’s eyes with his hand. Luckily, she didn’t open them again.

“Now it’s your turn… Hey, stop staring at me…” Leon looked up and saw Jane, who had been gazing upward moments ago, now tilting her head and fixing her empty, hollow eyes on him.

Leon gently pushed Jane’s head back and closed her eyes… but this time, they snapped open again, as if she had never intended to close them at all.

“...For real?” And then it began…. the battle of closing and opening eyes. Leon kept forcing Jane’s eyes shut, and she kept prying them open again, staring straight at him each time.

“Uh… hey, don’t tilt your head like that.” Leon adjusted Jane’s head so she was looking at the ceiling, but she tilted it again. He sighed and straightened it once more.

“You little…” Leon was starting to get annoyed and a bit tired, so he stopped and opened his crafting menu. He remembered he could make some mild sleeping gel…

“F*ck ethics! I don’t care anymore!”

Without hesitation or any thought about how illegal it was to use a sleeping substance on a young girl, Leon wiped just a tiny bit of the gel onto his finger and smeared it over Jane cracked, blue lips…

Then.. nothing.. Jane still stared at him like before…

Seeing no effect, Leon blinked, then glanced at the item’s description. “Oh… right. It needs to go deeper… she has to swallow it, or at least get it on her tongue.”

Just like that, Leon pried open Jane’s small mouth with his large hand, smearing the sleeping gel from his right finger onto her tongue.

And then, the very thing we feared happened! Jane, supposedly sleepwalking, suddenly bit down on his finger!

It felt like Jane was dreaming of eating something delicious, as she bit down with all her strength!

“!!!” “You… lil **” closing his mouth, Leon can feel the pain in his fingers! Jane really bite him hard and he can feel it.. He is bleeding!

This made him panic, and he tried to yank his fingers out, but to his surprise he couldn’t! Leon had to use his other hand to pry open Jane’s small mouth.

As an adult, Leon’s strength easily overpowered a child’s, and even with all her might, Jane couldn’t keep her bite locked. In the end, Leon managed to free his finger… but it was bleeding nonstop.

“You!! Ugh…!” Leon huffed and puffed, then took a deep breath. This kid is sleepwalking… F*ck!

Then Leon looked at his bleeding fingers…. without examining his wound further, Leon grabbed a mediject and injected it into his bloodstream. The sharp sting of the needle was nothing compared to the throbbing pain in his finger.

This was the first time Leon truly felt the miracle of futuristic medicine. The pain faded almost instantly, and the bite wound quickly scabbed over and closed.

When he glanced at Jane, she had already fallen asleep, looking peaceful… except for the blood still smeared across her lips.

Sighing, Leon used his shirt to wipe away the blood. It was just a small wound. “Okay, just a little sting… nothing serious. Let’s forget it and move on… yeah,” he muttered, though he still gritted his teeth, remembering how painful it had been.

Then he glanced down to check on Emilie… and, sure enough, her eyes were open, staring blankly at Leon.

“... d*mn another one… let’s use my other finger then… wait..” Leon stop then looked around.. He can see a pencil on one of the girl's personal belongings…

Without hesitation, he grabbed a pencil, dipped its blunt end in a bit of the sleeping gel, and carefully used it to put Emilie to sleep.

“Good girl… I probably look like a criminal here… Next, the boys, haaa…”

Slowly leaving the dorm, Leon tried to contact Nova. “Hey, Nova, respond, please… d*mn…”

Without waiting for a reply, he walked toward the dim corridors, well they weren’t so dim now, as Leon himself became a moving search light.

Yes, he hadn’t even turned it off while carrying the girls and laying them on their beds. He didn’t know why, but he felt that every child here slept so deeply that it was fine.

Next, Leon carefully and slowly made his way toward the boys’ dorm. Suddenly, he froze at the scene in front of him.

Even with the bright light from his multiple flashlights, something about it didn’t look right.

Roy, who had only been staring at the wall before, was now banging his face against it! The thuds echoed harshly, making Leon’s skin crawl… it even sounded like something cracking….

And it wasn’t just Roy, James, the boy who had been walking backward, kept moving even after hitting a wall. Somehow, he didn’t stop and continued shuffling backward, oblivious to the obstacle.

It's like he wants to breach the wall and continue to walk away…..

“!@$@!%@#” Leon cursed at the scene. Reacting quickly, he grabbed Roy by the hair and yanked his head back just as the boy was about to smash it against the wall again.

Just as he feared, Roy’s nose was broken, bleeding, and visibly misaligned. Wasting no time, Leon used the same pencil trick he had with Emilie, dipping the unsharpened end in sleeping gel and putting it into Roy’s mouth.

The gel worked wonders. Roy’s stiff body went limp, collapsing like jelly into a deep sleep. Leon sighed in relief and turned his attention to James.

James continued to shuffle backward along the wall. Leon used the same method as with Roy, but more gently, as James’s sleepwalking wasn’t that dangerous, it was much easier to put him to sleep.

Leon then lifted them like sacks, carrying each to their own beds. As he moved Roy, his eyes fell on Roy’s nose…

“Would a Mediject work? No, it only heals wounds, not a broken nose…. I’ll have to adjust it manually.” Leon hesitated, as he had never set someone’s nose before.

As Leon froze, unsure of what to do, faint but heavy footsteps reached his ears, definitely not a kid.

To make matters worse, a flash of lightning split the sky with a sharp crack, followed by a booming clap of thunder, and a sudden downpour battered the orphanage.