Nikola Burns and the missing vessel.

Patron of the arts

Nik was suddenly pushed aside.

A boy in black overalls and bright red hair had pushed him away and taken his spot in front of what used to be the Old woman.

She had turned into a Serpent monster, partly still a woman but younger now. Where her legs should have been, there was a tail the color of murky water ;massive enough to wrap around an adult man.

    The serpent woman was reeling in now,she was coiling her long tail and removing the excess skin( remnants of the old lady) from it's body. It kept it's eyes on the red  haired boy( maybe it's bronze? He really shouldn't be thinking about hair right now), like a snake would on it's prey,barely moving any muscle.  The boy had been muttering some language that sounded like latin to Nik. Maybe Snake monsters talk  in latin?

     It seems  they were the only ones who noticed that there was a one ton killing machine in the middle of Calgary. Maybe I'm going crazy ,he thinks. There were a lot of people here, and  most of them weren't looking at the Serpent lady. Some of them even look like they're trying to avoid looking at it. Like the Serpent lady was some kind of offensive thing . Like a couple eating their faces out.

    The serpent-woman's 8 foot tail flicks ,ever so slightly like a muscle twitch ; and hits  a man on the sidewalk. It send's  the guy hurtling towards the bus shed. Broken glass spreads everywhere, some hit Nik on the face.  Shocked gasps and muttered concerns break the crowd. Someone walks to help the guy. Everyone ,still ignoring the Serpent-Lady.

    Somehow the boy convinced the Serpent lady to stay put , and turns to Nik.

Nik glances at the Serpent Lady, nervously.  'Dazed?' .he thought, 'What did he do?'

"Come with me" the boy demanded.

"What?why?" Nik asks , more out of fear than defiance. Stranger danger.

"So you don't die and haunt me asking those same questions"  the boy already has nik by the wrist and is dragging him  through the street. He crosses a red light and cars stop, blasting horns.

" where the heck are you taking me?", Nik demands and glances to his back.  The Serpent lady was still frozen in the same spot. Then suddenly, in a burst of energy, Her whole body starts to convulse.  She looks around ,confused, and sticks her forked tongue out.Smelling the air ,Nik thought.  They were close to rounding the corner now, through a crowd of pedestrians , when the serpent sees them . Nik could feel her gaze , piercing and filled with malice. He could feel it in his bones ,his muscles tensing. It was like his body was being filled with cement. His feet were failing him and he was about to fall when a building blocks his line of sight and his body starts to relax.

He could sense the  serpent woman  creeping up on them ,with those eyes.Probably baring it's fangs, gums and all .

" oh god oh god " Nick says ," what is that even ?" 

"Damian"  the boy says

"Huh ? it doesn't look like a damian to me"  Nick says, stupidly. And out of breath . He should probably go to the gym more often.

Damian  replies cuttingly, " it's my name. Don't look at it's eyes. Now just run we're almost there" . That didn't answer my question,Nik thought,. They veer towards  the Suncore building. It was the building where Nik was waiting for Brianne and Harp to pick him up .

The serpent woman was crashing into cars and pedestrians were moving away  . But there was no panic; As if a rabid dog was was running amok and not an 8-foot serpent-monster.

They enter through the revolving doors and move through hallways and lobbies till they get to the exact lobby that Nik first saw the red haired boy.

"here!" Damian says, looking at a painting on the wall. It was the one Nik was staring at this morning. Damian started mumbling something under his breath. It was a painting of waterlilies on a pond.

Nick appreciated art ,but he didn't revel in the idea of being digested by a Serpent-monster-lady or whatever-the-heck it was ;because Damian(patron of the arts) wanted to gawk at a painting . He was about to protest ,when Damian stopped mumbling. As if a set of doors were opened ,Nik suddenly felt a warm breeze wash over him. the wind smelled of wet earth . He looked at the painting and it was definitely moving now.  A slow ebb of waves  shifting the waterlilies . 

Nik hears the slithering of the serpent on his back, stuff shattering  and the surprised gasps of people, but he can't take his eyes of the painting.

Damian  jumped at the painting,holding nik, by the hand.