Chapter 7 - Secrets in the Dust
The black dust settled over the hospital bed like ash, turning the sterile white sheets into a graveyard of soot. Arthur dropped to his knees, his hands trembling as he reached out to touch his son's feverish face. Leo whispered weakly that Evelyn had given him a special syrup every night to make the 'monsters in his arm go to sleep'. Evelyn’s face drained of all color, her composure completely shattered as she backed against the locked door. She claimed they were just experimental vitamins meant to stabilize Leo’s rare neurological condition. Clara laughed bitterly, pulling back the final layer of soaked black bandage to reveal what was actually embedded inside the boy's arm. There was no bone or flesh beneath the wound, only a dense network of metallic black wires connected directly to Leo's pulse. Before Arthur could process the horrific truth, the hospital's main power grid flickered and completely died, plunging the entire floor into pitch darkness.
