2023 Story Collection

Painter of Worlds VI

Aurora closes the door behind her. Her studio was lit with the afternoon sun, it set a warm glow over her art. She'd been painting so much lately that she'd began to hang some on the walls, now they were almost filled. She'd had no choice, it was the only free space left to dry them.

She sighed. She didn't feel ready. But she also couldn't imagine waiting another day to see him.

It had been messing with her, the nightmares. Painting them seamed to help but not enough, at moments it was hard to tell dream from reality. So, she forced herself to stay awake. It wasn't hard.

As the nightmares had gotten worse and more frequent, she'd had a harder time falling asleep. Her body's coping mechanism. So, she'd simply leaned into the insomnia. But it showed, she was thinner, paler and the circles below her eyes were intense. She didn't recognize her own reflection anymore. I don't want him to see me like this.

The full moon would rise soon and she felt her anxiety rise with it. She sighs again louder. Just trust in fate. It was what her mother had always told her. Trust.

She'd decided to try painting him again to see if that would help, at the least it'll help her pass the time.

She'd tried asking her grandmother more about what she could do tonight but only got a "I've told you all I can tell you. Now, shut up! Don't mess with fate, it rules this world and the next."

Her grandmother had been extra feisty after talking with Fran. She'd be lying if she said it didn't bother her that the crone had talked more with Fran than her own granddaughter. That's just how she is, she'd thought.

But as she'd headed back down the trail her grandmother had called out to her.

"Don't forget to bring that painting man with you to meet me, or else I'll have to come visit you and I know how you hate that."

She'd rolled her eyes at the time, but couldn't help but smile. She loves her. No matter how strange, she adored her. "Of course," she'd replied back, "the only thing I want to stay on the good side of more than fate, is you."

She'd gone back and forth with her a few more times before there was enough distance that they couldn't hear each other anymore. After that, Fran and Aurora had discussed all that her grandmother had said to them and joked around. It was a long hike but the two made it pass quickly with conversation.

Aurora picked up a clean canvas and placed it on the isle. She began sketching out a painting as she always did. She wasn't quite sure what she would paint. Fran had suggested she should try one of him falling into her studio or something like that but Aurora decided against it.

Aurora may not be as well acquainted with fate as her grandmother but she knew the old hag was right, forcing things would only push what she wanted farther from her. She has to go with her intuition and look into her deepest desires.

Which is how she ended up with a sketch of Samuel leaning up on one arm in his bed, naked, his sheets precariously draped over him.

She laughs, deepest desires? Accurate.

She cackles so much like her grandmother it sends a chill her spine. Focus.

She picks up her large wooded pallet and begins to lay out her paint. She was a purest and only used the primary colors with white and black. She enjoyed the mixing of paints to get the perfect color. She didn't like settling for close enough. That was one of the reasons she always ended up running out of room on her pallet and becoming a pallette herself.

From the moment she touches the brush to the canvas she feels it. An electric current running through her into the canvas and back. It felt exhilarating and addicting. The moon is up.