Flawed and Tainted

CHAPTER 10. Contradicting

Sam

I pulled away from Violet once my pulse had calmed down a little.

"Are you alright?" I asked, glancing over her body hoping not to spot any wounds.

She looked at me for a few seconds, her eyes locked in mine before opening her mouth and emitting an answer.

"Yes. Thanks." She then hesitated, this time avoiding eye contact before continuing "Are you okay?"

I smiled at her.

"Sam! What happened? Are you okay?" a familiar voice spoke from behind the black-haired girl. I tilted my head slightly, recognizing my father walking towards my direction. I nodded, not sure how to react rather than trying to make his worries flee.

"I'm fine dad. Don't worry." He kept on getting closer, reaching out to my right arm and pulling me into a hug. His breath was quicker than mine was by now, letting me deduce he had come running, probably alerted by the bells and the screaming. I tried to organize a settling explanation, if that was even possible. "Myrkers appeared while we were out. I believe there were a few. But dad, why are they here already? The last sighting was far from here, it should have taken them days to get here, weeks even, if only we were lucky enough.

My father listened carefully as I talked. Once I finished, he thought silently for a moment before speaking.

"The last sighting was far from here so it's definitely not normal for them to get here so quickly." He stopped. "There is only one reason I can think of that would make them haste to Verlian". He stared at me as if trying to express the silent words he wasn't quite able to articulate. He then glanced at Violet. And shortly after at the guards and watchmen that were around us. He then closed his eyes and frowned, as if his next sentence was too painful to pronounce. "For better or for worse, I think the White One we are so eagerly searching for is among us. He is near. And the Myrkers know."

***

During the last few days we had tried our best to locate some places around town where we thought the White One might be hiding. All of this while not being able to actually search outside Verlian because of the threat of the Myrkers.

The whole town was on a ruckus. The news about the dark creatures and the White One had spread speedingly from mouth to mouth and now nearly every local knew about it. It didn't actually matter much really. After all, the White One had no way of knowing we were a step closer to finding him.

In the meantime, I had continued with my daily routine, which consisted of walking around town attending some meetings as my father's accompanist and future successor. On my free time, I would either worry about the creatures outside the walls or paint, which was much more soothing.

I now found myself doing the latter, which I considered was less of a waste of time. Ever since the Lily of the Valley, I had drawn countless flowers I bought at Elga's shop, where Violet always gave me the flower I wanted without exception.

Today however, I didn't feel like painting flowers and began looking for something else to illustrate.

My first idea was to draw somebody, settling almost immediately for someone in my family. Truly, that's what my head wanted, but my hand was not quite as able to visualize it and move accordingly. I had been sitting in front of the canvas for quite a while and the only thing I had done was move the brush vertically. Strokes up and down, not actually letting it touch the canvas yet.

Golden hour. The sun rays at this point of the day were haunting. I leaned towards the window, head over shoulder, glimpsing at the sky behind the tree branches. At some point, I went back to my artistic block, trying to break it. Nevertheless, it was no use. I sighed before standing up and drinking some water, in hopes of relaxing myself and finding some inspiration. Anything. As I sat down once more, I looked at all the paintings of flowers I had done up until now. I then held the brush in my hand firmly, lifting it in the air and closing my eyes. "This is the last time I'm trying today. The last time". I though to myself. If the art didn't flow, I would let it rest for the day and continue another time. I opened my eyes, landing once again over the flower drawings on the wall. And then, the blank canvas. I drew the brush closer to it, abolishing the space between them.

I started painting. A person. I didn't know who, but I was determined to continue until I found out.

As the brush created different curved and straight lines, a face started taking shape, my unconsciousness materializing. And then the hair, and the eyes, and the nose and lips. A girl. Strokes up. Down. Sideways. I slanted back, and smiled as my brain made the necessary connections to recognize the familiar figure.

Melody.

I kept my smile as the brush continued its way, separating the strands of hair into different shades of light brown, depending on the hypothetic illumination. Some more brushwork here and there, making the eyes bigger and sharper, the lips into a shy smile.

I suddenly stopped drawing as I took in the picture in front of me, a bit confused. Melody's hair was curlier than that which I had drawn. Wavier as well. Melody's eyes were big but they had an innocence to them that I hadn't quite captured, making them seem much rounder than the sharp ones I had drawn, meeting my eyes with a deepness that was somewhat beginning to be familiar. Melody's lips normally carried a bright smile. The smile in the drawing was milder. It was quite difficult to perceive actually. It was shy but warm, scared but safe. Contradicting. So many mistakes in trying to replicate Melody. And right then and there, it dawned on me. The girl I had been trying to illustrate, the first person that came to mind as I "mindlessly" tried to paint something, whatever, was indeed not Melody. Not my father or mother, not Elga. It was Violet. The girl I almost got killed with a couple of days before.

I kept staring at the drawing. Thoughtful. I'm not sure how much time went by. The only thing I know is when I looked outside my window once more, night had come.