Chapter 136 – Side Story: Lucia (4)
(4)
Taking care of patients is not easy.
Caring for patients with limited mobility is difficult, but it is even more so for patients who are unconscious or not fully conscious.
The first thing Lucia checked when she woke up in the morning was Mason’s bedsheets.
“…”
A lukewarm wetness felt at the fingertips.
Unlike the previous day, when she touched damp sheets in the morning, not only did she have to wash them, but bathing was also her responsibility.
After comforting Mason, who did not want to leave her room, and giving her a difficult bath while pleading with her, Lucia naturally began to bathe her as well. The only difference was that Mason had to wash her body with warm water, and she had to bathe in soapy water and sweat.
It was late in the morning after drying Mason’s body and dressing her in her new clothes. Feeding Mason, who was sitting blankly staring into space, was another difficult task.
When the food prepared in the kitchen was put to the mouth with a spoon, the food was taken reflexively, but most of it was spit out or flowed out of the mouth without swallowing, and eating about seven spoons at a time was a lot.
After a long, slow meal, the rest was entirely up to Mason. When she dozed off and closed her eyes, Lucia put her to sleep, or when she started babbling, Lucia had to do his best to guess what she was saying.
But of course, it was not easy to extract nutritious content from Mason’s inexplicable rambling.
Sianna said that she sometimes came back to her senses, but Lucia could not help but suspect that those words were lies thrown at her to cause her pain.
… Of course, it doesn’t matter if it’s a lie.
Lucia thought about this and looked at her older sister. Mason was dozing off on her mattress, his back against the wall. With her saliva running down her chin from one corner of her mouth.
She could not read anything in her brown eyes, which she had once called warm and affectionate, but also mixed with fear and obsession.
As she fed her, changed her, put her to sleep, and observed her every move up close, Lucia’s breasts continued to grow heavier, as if weights had been added to her.
Her own sin.
Punishment for that.
It’s been a week since Lucia started taking care of Mason, and she couldn’t help but think of an old story in her daily routine.
A story about a person who deceived the gods and must pay for his arrogance by rolling a stone up a slope in hell for eternity.
She recalled her arrogant past. She believed that if Isabella did not go against her will, her life would be happy in the future.
That’s why she couldn’t repay the unconditional love her older sister gave her, and because of her opposition, she only took advantage of him and tormented her.
Her foolish confidence that she understood Isabella better than others, the conceit that mistook her interest in her entertainments for her love.
This was the result of her own choices and actions.
It seemed like she was about to cry, but she forced herself to raise her head, and with a smile on her face, walked over to Mason, laid her down and covered her with a blanket.
I patted her on the shoulder and sang a vaguely imitated lullaby that her parents had sung in her childhood, and by Mason, whom she could no longer hear.
Her voice cracked, but she never cried.
Lucia knew very well that she had no right to cry.
Tak-
The moment Lucia puts Mason to bed and leaves her room and closes the door.
“Oh my, this is a coincidence.”
The owner of the soft voice heard from behind was Siana. Lucia’s body trembled at the thought that her disgusting act of pretending to be surprised and covering her mouth while speaking resembled Isabella’s.
“How about taking care of Mason?”
Sianna said and looked Lucia up and down her mess.
Her matted hair stuck to her face with sweat, and her clothes, soaked with sweat and water from washing Mason, stuck to her body like wet leather.
“…”
Lucia looked at Sianna without saying anything, she smiled and nodded her head. As if she knew how she felt.
“Well, yes. It’s not easy, is it? Nevertheless…”
Sianna smiled sadly and spoke quietly.
“Mason took care of me while I was unconscious.”
Lucia didn’t respond at all. She also knew about it because she heard it from Grace.
What she went through and what dedication Mason showed.
Si Na lifted her right hand and brought it near her slender neck, lifting her gray hair. There were numerous dot marks there.
No, it wasn’t a dot mark. That…
“See? “This needle mark.”
Sianna took a step closer to Lucia, so she could see better. Lucia saw a wound in both her eyes after the needle had penetrated her flesh.
“Yeah, that’s not a nice thing to hear. When she was administered the drug, she continued to hallucinate in the beginning and then remained unconscious. When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a cave. The embarrassment at that time was truly…”
However, contrary to her words, Sianna smiled and continued speaking.
“Still, Mason didn’t leave me sick. “She volunteered to take care of me, so she stayed here and endured Isabella’s harsh abuse, but she still cared about me.”
Sianna pulled out her hand to show her injection marks and gave her a cold look, instantly erasing her sad expression.
“If anything big happens to Mason.”
Sia had a cold expression that did not show even a trace of warmth on her beautiful face, to the point that I felt that her smile just now was a ghost of hers.
“Because I will never forgive you.”
She lifted her finger and brought it close, as if lightly pushing Lucia’s forehead. She felt an unpleasant tickling sensation between her eyebrows, but Lucia remained still.
“This is your chance to repent.”
She finally nudged Lucia with her index finger.
“I look after Mason and hope you truly regret your actions.”
She turned her body around with those words. The cloth that imitated her sacred clothes fluttered awkwardly as she suddenly moved away.
Lucia watched her walking away for a moment, then turned around and headed back to the room where Mason was.
Anyway, since I had just met Sianna, the morning report was almost over.
Now she’ll spend her days by Mason’s side again, checking to see if she shows signs of discomfort or any other symptoms.
Lucia let out a small sigh and opened her door.
“… !”
Mason hurriedly woke up at the sound of the door opening, looked around her awake eyes, and pulled something out from under her pillow.
And after checking the doorway, which was the epicenter of her sound, to be exact, Shiana entered, she hurriedly hid the things in her hands behind her and turned her head to the floor.
Lucia approached Mason cautiously, her anxiety rising over her. Since I wasn’t sure what was in that hand, I had to be even more careful with my actions.
“Sister.”
I flinch.
Mason is visibly agitated by her call. Rather than just knowing that she was being called, her behavior was similar to what an animal does when it notices what it is doing.
Lucia carefully stretched out one of her hands.
Mason’s eyes fluttered and looked at Lucia, but then she ran away. Her arms were clearly visible, and the tremors of her hands, which were hidden behind her body, were clearly visible up to her shoulders.
Lucia felt cold sweat running down her face as she watched her actions. Instead of looking like the usual mesmerized person she was, she seemed to be acting with a clear will.
In that case, whatever it is that she is holding in her hand, it is something important enough to influence her behavior now that she has become an idiot.
She couldn’t quite guess what it was, but her thoughts of the worst were all too clear in her mind.
In the worst case, blades.
If you swing it at me, or harm yourself.
I was even more scared. Of course, as she remembered, this room had been removed as much as possible from anything that could pose a danger to Mason, or rather, clutter in the room in the first place. Nevertheless, Lucia could not escape the assumption of what if.
What if she was acting all this time?
What if you got a blade or a weapon from somewhere and hid it without us knowing?
Or any longer, because I hate everyone so much that I don’t care, so I-
“… “Sister.”
Lucia called out to Mason again in a calm voice and extended her hand further.
Mason pushed off the floor with her feet, getting closer and closer to her wall. The blanket was wrapped around her feet, and Mason pushed his hand further into the gap created by the mattress being pushed vaguely.
To be honest, it was quite ugly.
That fact made her heart break even more.
“Sister, please…”
No, sister.
Please, let this ominous thought that I have in mind become nothing more than a delusion.
“Can’t you give me what you have in your hand?”
She spoke in a forced bright voice and forcibly raised the corners of her mouth. However, the corners of her eyes could not mimic half of her mouth.
Please give it to me.
If what you’re holding in your hand is something sharp, and if it’s aimed at you and not me.
I couldn’t properly apologize to my sister.
Please, I still have my sister-
“Sister… “I’m not ready to let you go.”
The last words were the words she said out of her mouth without realizing it.
And when Lucia heard those words with her own ears, she could no longer bear it.
She was trembling with fear.
The sins she has committed so far are the weight of them.
About the hurt caused to Sianna and the hatred she must have harbored.
The price of betraying her sister’s unconditional love was the bitter pain she felt for herself.
I’m afraid that those feelings, along with my now unsound mind, will sprout into the worst possible outcome.
Now that I realize how wrong I was, I don’t know what form that karma will come back in.
Tears began to flow from her eyes.
She sat down in front of Mason and began to sob softly without even thinking about wiping away her tears.
I hated Isabella. I was afraid of Siana.
I hated the situation her sister was in.
But she was deeply involved in all of this, and she hated herself so much for providing the spark.
All the pain she brought upon herself was justified. But still.
She still felt pain, and the fact consumed her with disgust.
Her thoughts of how difficult it was to wash her sister, change her clothes, put away her dirty clothes, and feed her, and her feelings of regret and fear towards Sianna.
She couldn’t shake off her hatred of herself for not even being worthy of feeling such selfish feelings.
Especially because she had her older sister who did the same for Sianna, all of which she found difficult.
Tears flowed through the gaps between my tightly closed eyes.
If I give up my own life, will I be able to escape this hell?
Suddenly, an unfamiliar sensation surrounding her body stopped her thoughts.
Soft, warm sensation.
That was enough to open her tightly closed eyes.
When she opened her eyes, she realized that her head was in someone’s arms.
“… Cry, cry… E.”
What passed by my ear was a slurred pronunciation, and it cracked and stammered as if I hadn’t spoken for a long time.
The content of those words was something she could never forget.
There was no way she could forget this embrace and those words.
Lucia forced her quivering mouth to move.
“… Sister?”
In a voice that could not hide a ray of hope amidst the sadness.
The answer to the muttered question stuck in Mason’s arms was a trembling, clumsy hand smoothing his hair.
“Don’t cry, cry… “Don’t do it.”
Like a broken gramophone, muttering one word over and over again.
It took a while before Mason removed her hand from her head and made eye contact with her.
Her eyes, which had not even been able to focus normally, were now struggling to focus, and she was smiling proudly.
Lucia wiped her eyes, which were filling up again as she looked at that scene, and carefully released the awkward foreign body feeling on her head.
Headdress.
As much as she searched in her room, it was there in the palm of her hand that she could never find it.
After Lucia confirmed this, she once again poured out all her tears.
But this time, she had her idiot by her side, not holding her in his arms or whispering comfort to her.
