ART | chris schistad

one

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her body ached, her mind hurt. tears rolled down her face as she painted the plain white canvas to a faded blue. she was only 17 and she had just experienced the biggest amount of pain she felt was possible. quiet yet loud sobs escaped belle's lips as she struggled to conceal them.

aiden sat on the other side of the door, tears rolling down his face as he held the picture of the two most important women in the world. his mother and belle.

memory's traveled through his veins as well as the pain like an animal starving to show itself. belle was 8 years old and aiden was 10 when their mother had their father take the picture of the two girls. aiden was behind the camera making funny faces causing belle to giggle loudly which resulted in the two's father then taking the picture of the mom and daughter. her father had left the family exactly 6 years after the photo was taken when belle was 14 and aiden was 16.

after he left the teens mother was never the same.

the house was completely quiet, the only sound was aiden and belle's sobs from the pain they felt from their mothers unexpected death. she passed from an overdose not even a full day ago.

to say the siblings were heartbroken was a understatement. no words could describe the pain they were going through. aiden finally got the strength to move to the couch where he laid, a beer bottle in his hand as he stared at the blank wall.

belle continued to paint the white rose, everything coming out uneven as her hands shook tremendously. she stoppped as her breaths were uneven and dropped the paint brush to the floor. the paintbrush hit the brown wood causing various blues and purples to splatter everywhere.

she rubbed her eyes, white paint smearing on her forehead as she moved towards her bedroom door.

she slowly and quietly opened the door, her vision blurry from tears as she held onto the wall for support. she walked down the hall passing the living room seeing a completely zoned out aiden and continued walking.

she stopped coming across a brown door darker than the rest of the doors in the house and with shaking hands pushed the door open.

it was exactly how it looked like when the paramedics came. clothes and various other items were scattered everywhere including multiple broken picture frames.

belle walked around the room looking but not touching anything as if it were expensive artwork because in belle's eyes everything in the room held a memory whether it be sentimental to her or not. everything in the room had mattered to her mother.

belle stopped walking, coming across the completely empty pill bottle labeled 'antipsychotic," laying on the floor. she felt her blood rush cold as she slowly picked it up from the ground, blowing off the dust. tears fell down her checks as she soon dropped the bottle, making her way towards her mother's unmade bed.

the time read 11:37 pm on the still hooked up alarm clock as she laid in the bed not bothering to even change or cover herself with a blanket. the only sound in the room was coming from the open window that was blowing cold air into the small bedroom.

belle's eyes closed, her body falling asleep but her mind was completely awake as her eyelids shut.

belle hardly slept that night. she constantly woke up not because she was cold or thirsty because everything felt strange. she would by now expect to hear her mother talking to herself or getting herself a glass of water but all was quiet in the household.

belle still laid in the bed as the clock now read 3:57 am. her arm dangled off the side of the bed when she smelled something familiar. she soon realized it was her mother's perfume on the pillow and struggled to hold back tears. eventually she started sobbing into the pillow.

she pulled the blanket up, covering herself until she would eventually fall asleep again to pure silence.

aiden on the other hand laid in his bed. there was about 4 beer bottles scattered on the floor as he looked up at the ceiling. the only other person who knew what aiden was feeling was belle but she was battling things with her own self. 

so then the siblings eventually fell asleep. one drunk while the other was completely sober to what was happening and what she was feeling. the picture of the two girls, belle and her mother, laid on the couch with fresh tears on the frame.

all was silent in the now completely dark house. only aiden and belle's breaths could be heard and the usual cars passing. aiden let out small snores, while belle was completely quiet under the starless sky.

the curtains moved back and forth calmly during such a gloomy time because the window was creaked open slightly.

the siblings were completely alone now and that terrified the hell out of them.

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