Divinations

Light Discovering Darkness

(Now we're getting into the thick of it. Things are gonna start heating up, in more ways than one)

A pounding rush coursing through her ears left Evie in a daze as she was dragged by the wrist to the car. Sarah's nerves shot through the roof; she was lucky Ms. Laurent took such a lenient stance on Evie. More so than she could have imagined, in fact. Neither gem within the mixed hues Evie harbored could draw their gaze from the gallery. Something felt like it was calling to her, beckoning her back.

"God, Evie...sometimes I'm not so sure what goes on up there. You're lucky she likes your art..." Sarah rambled, spilling forth her already known worries to Evie the moment she sat in the drivers seat of her car. Evie's normal retort didn't come to her, though. She couldn't free her mind of the newly placed shackles upon them. If she was being honest, though, she wasn't trying to.

Ms. Laurent was...powerful. Her every word left Evie hanging off a cliff, each word another notch for her to pull herself back to safety again. Thinking about the piercing blue eyes and her dark locks threaded behind her, the air about her voice; elegant, playful, yet strong, impactful. And the sound...drizzled honey upon a hive of hopeless bees, none the wiser to the true reason for its existence. Her blood was rushing in her ears, even her heart was racing, still. Who was she...how had Evie never heard of her work? Of what she'd seen, her work was incredible. The detail, the life, the soul within was so present.

Sarah's voice fell on deaf ears already, as her focus was nowhere near where they were now. She slowed to a stop at the next red light, their journey halted long enough for her to turn her head and nudge her back to reality. "H-hmm? Wha...?" A distracted Evie stuttered her response out as Sarah repeated herself with more volume and enunciation this time.

"What. Goes. On. In. Your. Head...?" She slowly asked again, this time as jokingly deliberate as she could be. Evie laughed and shook her head, not having a good answer. "I-I...I don't know, Sarah. Her work was just...I mean, didn't you see it?" Evie posited, turning an eager gaze to her friend again. Sarah couldn't maintain a look as the light turned for them, and she continued their journey home. She sighed aloud, not on the same wavelength.

"Hahhhh...never mind. We got the space...we'll start bringing in some pieces in the morning," she explained, to which Evie did manage to listen long enough to that. Her fluttering heart sparked a laugh in her at her inner excitement to that fact. She finally had a place for her art to belong. So then, why did her thoughts linger not on the display, but the one who gave it to her...

"Alright, sounds good," she said, her tone mostly at an even keel. It was subtle, something Sarah picked up on after years of friendship with her. Her brow raised to her friends empty comment. "That's it? Sounds good? After you got your display, and that's it?" She asked in astonishment. Evie shook her head, waving her hand back and forth in rebuttal. "N-no, no, that's not what I meant...Sarah, I'm elated to have this space. And I'm so grateful, you don't even know. I think I'm just a little overwhelmed," she explained, disguising her feelings for nerves. Though Sarah knew her well, not well enough it seemed to sniff out that trickery. She nodded in understanding to her.

"I get it, it was a big deal. But hey, it's all over now. What do you say we get home and celebrate?" She asked, to which Evie smiled wide. "I'd like that," the remainder of the ride home was filled with idle chatter, mostly vacant stares from Evie as Sarah commented on the lack of driving skills of others. She chuckled to Sarah's frustration, and before she knew it, their apartment complex came into view again. Both women exited the vehicle, headed inside with much different intent.

"Here is what our archives say, Milady," a familiar, stiff voice followed by a knock to her office door lifted the chilling gaze of Ms. Laurent's sapphire eyes from her computer. Mr' Renault's lanky, tall frame slithered almost eerily from the door to her desk, laying a thin Manila folder in front of her. Her hand swiftly lifted the folder and opened it, combing over what she'd found. The girl seemed rather...uninteresting, on paper. Her brow rose and her eyes darted around the page, soaking up the details of the mortal woman's history.