City Lights

Clashing Colors

Hector and Elen were friends. Both of them were classmates and close ones at that. Hector was an artist. Elen was a talented student. They had known each other since junior high school and often walked together. Hector was introverted and lonesome. Elen was sunny and cheerful. The opposites used to struggle with one another until they became friends.

As a painter Hector was unrivaled. The other students would gawk at his paintings and admire them and Hector who made them. His skill grew over the years and some even said he had a shot at the big leagues.

But ever since they graduated Senior high school something changed. Elen was getting closer; Hector didn't know how to feel, feeling used to how things were.

Something else had happened. Hector found his brushstrokes grow clumsy, his perspective slip out of whack, his colors clash. When before his work inspired pride and admiration, now it exposed his flaws. The others couldn't notice. Of course, they couldn't. It was just a few mistakes; we all make them. But over the semester it got worse.

Hector could feel his talent going. He couldn't deny it anymore. He was losing it. He tried to ignore it. He wore a mask of good cheer and a peaceful mind. No one could see the cracks form, though Hector wouldn't know it. Every smile seemed hollow and fake. Even Elen's. To Hector, even she could see plainly that nothing was the same.

Then one night a devil in a yellow suit came into his bedroom and explained everything. He explained that hector's parents. He told him that before his birth he listened to his parents' wish that he become a talented child and granted it so that the child would grow in his debt and now that his childhood is at an end he lost his talent.

Hector made a deal. The devil stated that there was one thing in the way, something in his life that holds him back. Something that needs to be corrected. What that fueled his talent was his angst, his unhappiness. The devil told him that there is a distraction in his life that turns him from art, distracts him, and makes him forget, something that makes him happy.

Hector knew that even if it meant unhappiness it was worth it. He can more than make up for it with his talent. The devil left, having promised his end of the deal. After waking up the next day he went about his life normally. He tried to paint something. It was just like the old days. He was good again.

He looked for Elen to share his new work with her. She was nowhere around.

No... It can't be

Hector tried to put it out of his mind. She was coming 'round at any time. As the day wore on though, it was clear that something was wrong. He tried to talk to her friends and ask them what happened to her. They told him that she was sick and in the hospital.

No

There was no disputing it in his mind. He knew it when he first couldn't find her. She was his star, who made him happy when she was around. What else could it have been?

The devil from the night before was standing there in front of him now. Hector rejected him and everything he had said to him. Everything. It wasn't worth it. Hector didn't care if he never saw Elen again just as long as she was safe and sound.

In a blink, the devil was gone. After a few weeks, Elen was back, happy, smiling, but without the same spirit, she used to have. Hector felt awful about it. The devil was gone and that was the end of it. Hector's works went back to being average, his mask shattered and the face he wore every day was sullen and withdrawn.

Elen could see this and approached him, seeking answers. He told her that a devil came to him and that he was the cause of her illness and that she should leave him alone, the one who hurt her.

Elen had something to confess. She told him that she cared deeply about him and that she was the one who sent the devil in yellow to him. He appeared to her one day to grant her her wish. She saw how sad hector was and told the devil to come to him and mend what ailed him, what made him unhappy. When the devil in yellow came back to her, he told her that to solve Hector's problem he would have to take part of her life from her.

She told the devil to lie to Hector and tell him that the loss of his talents was his fault and that it could be fixed with a simple wish.

Elen almost said no. But then she remembered Hector's cracked mask of a face, the clown's smile he would make to her. The deal was set. She had to help him. That was her story.

Elen told Hector that nothing was his fault and that she would help him. Hector said it was alright and was just happy she was here and still here with him. He took him in his arms and embraced her.

He was just happy she was here.