Abyssal Red (and other short stories)

The Portrait Of Elise

In the Arlcliff Castle, a famous historical building now turned into a museum, there is a very peculiar room. It is a small art gallery with around a little less than thirty paintings. What makes it unique was the fact that all of them seemed to depict the same young girl. Although all of them are in different styles, clearly done by different painters, all of them depicted the girl in a shadowy dark room. All that is expect one that stood at the centre of the exhibition.

That painting showed the girl in daylight but also had a far more sinister tone - the girl painted on the canvas was dead. Blood was spilled from her eye onto her tiny figure - a sight of which the painter did not spare adding the most detail.

The story of this hellish painting dates back some hundred years ago, when a young artist accepted a challenging task on one autumn day.

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The name of Lord Edgar of the Dorstons had gained an almost legendary popularity among artists in his tenures. The lord was obsessed with getting the perfect portrait of his daughter but somehow was never satisfied with anything even the most skilled painters could produce.

One artist who had yet to try fulfilling the lord's wish was Henry. Far from an expert in his field, in fact there were thousands of artists way better than him, he wondered how could so many masters fail at such an easy task. How hard could it be to paint a simple portrait of a little girl, even if the client was very demanding? He made up his mind and decided to travel to the Arlcliff Castle and face the challenge himself.

Once there he received the lord's approval and settled into the castle until his work was complete. He was to meet the model of his painting the next day after his arrival. Led by a maid to a room at the end of a long hallway, he watched as she opened the door to a darkened by heavy curtains bedroom. In there, on the ground surrounded by toys stood a girl, around ten years of age with a doll in her hands.

She turned to face the people who just entered. Even in the darkness, her beautiful blue eyes shined bright. The maid introduced the two before sitting out of the way in the corner. The name of the person whose portrait was to be painted was Elise.

Henry began to set up his workspace. The kid looked at him with such curiosity one would tell it was her first time getting a portrait done. She asked a ton of questions one would expect from an energetic child of her age. It began to get on Henry's nerves, yet he still always tried to answer to the best of his ability (he was warned by fellow painters who attempted to get the job done before that the girl was a whimsical one).

With everything set up, Henry made his way to the large window hidden behind the curtain but as he was about to slide it aside a yell from behind stopped him. He turned around.

"No! You can't do this! The curtain must remain closed." Elise was throwing a tantrum. "The sunlight might damage my eyes or burn my pale skin."

Annoyed, Henry rolled his eyes and stepped away from the window. It wasn't impossible to paint in the current lighting, but it would definitely be difficult. Later, however, he'd find out this was only the most minor inconvenience he had to face.

The girl kept moving around in her seat and each time she did so, Henry would have to alter his sketch. Barely half an hour had passed since he had started drawing and Elise begun to complain about how bored she was. Soon enough, she would get off her seat and leave the room with the frustrated painter and his barely begun artwork.

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It was as if Elise herself did not want the portrait to be finished. After a whole week of the same thing - Henry would go to Elise in order to try doing his job but she would do anything in her power to prevent that, it was obvious he had not done much progress. Henry had been sketches and a whole year worth of frustration. Despite the hardships of the seemingly simple task which turned into a nightmare, Henry was stubbornly determined to create the perfect portrait that would amaze lord Edgar. He was not to give up on the challenge.