The Girl Behind The Mask | Chaelisa

Chapter 34 - FINAL CHAPTER

“Now where are you taking me?” Roseanne questioned once they were back inside the car, noticing how Darwin drove in the opposite direction of home. “I swear to all that is holy and mighty, I will mutilate you if you make me ugly cry one more time today, Lisa. I love you, but my makeup is ruined.”

Lisa grinned, pulling Roseanne closer. “I think you look absolutely gorgeous, even with all the snot you got going on right now.”

“Ah, humor. That won’t get you very far tonight,” Roseanne stated, reclaiming the control. “I asked you a question. Where are you taking me now? Are there any more stories about my and/or your past that I should know about?”

“Just one. But I left it for Axel to tell it.”

Roseanne narrowed her eyes but didn’t push. She figured if Lisa wasn’t spilling the beans about whatever else she knew, it was because Axel had asked her not to. And she would rather face Roseanne’s wrath than betray the little man any day.

Darwin finally pulled to a stop in front of single-story, medium sized studio with a traditional white-paint brick façade as exterior décor, with wide windows traversing from one end of the front wall to the other. The outline of a former name remained imprinted just above the door, Roseanne noted, squinting to make out its previous identity but unable to do so.

“Where are we, Lisa?” She asked, following Lisa out of the car. She put forth a valiant effort to peer into the structure, but the lack of light emanating from inside made the task impossible. Its interior seemed to be consumed by an abysmal, unperforated darkness.

“I showed you the past,” Lisa explained, grabbing a firm hold of her hand and tugging her towards the modern, all glass double doors. “Now I’d like to show you the future.”

The doors swung outwardly with unexpected ease once jerked into action by Lisa, and almost immediately, Roseanne felt the dynamic of the building, both in appearance and attitude, shift.

She entered first, so there would be nothing or no one to obstruct her view as she inhaled it all in, standing mere inches past the threshold for the best vantage point. The first thing she noted was that the darkness, or the blackness she had previously expected, had been manufactured. The windows and doors were covered in black tarp from the inside, making the filtering of light whether from the inside or outside, impossible. Now, that obscurity had been absolutely obliterated by the glow of thousands of miniscule lightbulbs that lined the length of the ceiling.

Walking a few feet into the spacious room, she studied the walls on either side of her, and counted a total of ten blank canvases, five per wall, all hung in equal distance from one another. Each frame was accented with its own lamp poised just above the canvas, which appeared to yearn for underserved attention.

“What happened here?” She asked, moving down the wall toward the small wooded stage at the far end of the room. Her eyes roamed far ahead of her, already inspecting the easel poised at its center from a distance, disappointment creeping when she realized the canvas that leaned against it was also void of color. “This used to be an art gallery, right? By the looks of things…”

Lisa followed a few feet behind, maintaining a safe distance between her and the blonde. “The previous owner unfortunately passed away a week ago. No, not here!” she added quickly following the pointed look she got thrown her way, “at home. From old age. The new owner is, from what I gathered, a love-stricken idiot who bought the place as a gift for the fiancé.”

She maintained calm when Roseanne turned her head slightly, shooting her a quizzical look but not a questioning one. She was still safe, for the moment.