There is More to the Story (Storyline Fairytales)

A Loss

I am at a friend's house, helping him with things around the house. It is not just me but a group of his other friends as well. I don't know them well, but when we hang out, I hang out with them too. I have not been ready to make new friends yet since him... I don't like to talk about it, and he doesn't know anything about my life and my problems, but that's ok because he has so many problems of his own, and now this is another one added to the list.  We are really, should I say, coworker friends as we mainly hang out at work, and he invites me places. 

We are at this moment mourning the loss of someone. A woman we all knew... We are packing up her things to move out of the house she lived in. I am helping the man who was supposed to be her husband. Supposed to have loved her the most...

He was picking up her things as tears came to his eyes, and he started to cry as more and more of her was taken away from him. I want to console him, but I don't know how... His other friends have left the room carrying the larger stuff out. This leaves me and him alone at the moment.

He didn't want this, I could tell, then why was he doing it?

I knew his wife fairly well as she was even more of a friend to me then he was. We became close quickly as I realized we both shared some past trauma. In a way she was cursed like me with her family as things didn't always work out for her either. She could never have kids and she was a struggling artist still after all this time even though her art should have sold art many galleries by now. She did say at least one thing worked out for her, being married to them man we are helping today.   

I grab some of the last of her things, some colored pencils left on the floor. This was a place in which she would work and create her art. The room is a fairly large with room for large canvases lining the walls and was filled with art and supplies. Their house it's fairly nice he has a great job in business that supports them both and and if they could have children he would be able to support them too. This gave her a chance to be at home and not have to work so she could focus on her art. The other thing that she believed still worked out for her even though she may not ever be able to share it the way she wanted.

Her death is a mystery as she was found dead in her studio lying on the floor. They ruled it as an accident. There were no visible signs of a struggle or any bruising on her body nor blood.  everything was still in place and her still she sat in was even still sitting upright. She was in the middle of painting something... It was a mural or portrait of someone or something. It was too incomplete to get a clear idea but it did seem a little creepy as the body was somewhat done. The person or being as I would call it had a large almost 7 foot body hunched over into an abnormal position. It looked like predator stalking its prey. There was another person in the background, a woman that resembled her that seemed in distress because of the being cowering in fear in a corner. The being had pale and dark leathery looking skin. It looked sinister and evil from what I can see even without completion. The face was outlined in pencil but I could not get a good enough look before he began to get rid of everything beginning with her art.  I wanted to ask him what he was doing with everything but he has not spoken to me much after what happened. He won't speak to anyone which is understandable but he has been very secretive lately it seems. 

She did seem skinnier than normal as she was a tiny woman. She seemed to have died from exhaustion or starvation. She also seemed to have heavy bags showing lack of sleep but why?... Was she going through something that even I didn't know... Not that it was any of my business all the time especially since she didn't know everything about me...  

He stops crying composing himself as I add the last of the pencils to a box full of her art supplies and he picks it up. I am about to object saying I can take it for him but suddenly I begin to hear a women yelling but I can't make out what she is saying. The voice not only startles me but shocks me as it sounds familiar.... It can't be though... he yells back:

 "I'm sorry!" 

I look over and see a women in a mirror that resides by a large window. It's his wife... but how?... She looks like she did when we found her same clothes and everything but she has a faint glow and she is somewhat translucent.

"Why?!" She yells. "You could have just signed the papers!"

He yells back.

"I couldn't and I won't!"

He drops the box in frustration as it toppled over and the supplies spill back into the floor.