The Eye of the Beholder

Part 1

How do you take your eyes off of it? It was beautifully done. Every detail, every color, every stroke, all done with purpose. Words couldn't describe its perfection. The painting was vulnerable, revealing a sense of foreboding dread. Looking at it, I felt so cold. But along with its artistry was a disgusting touch of irony.

The killer had strung a victim's body up in the closet. Three stab wounds to the heart and hanging from a noose. We found the painting in the living room, held by the cold hands of yet another victim. Similar story. Three stab wounds to the heart. No noose, though. No, this poor bastard was propped up on the couch gripping the painting like an easel stand.

I couldn't help but wonder if he made the guy hold the canvas up for him while he was painting. How agonizing that must've been to know your time is coming any moment. A lot of artists are perfectionists. I wonder if he asked him to refine it more? Maybe he did.

Regardless, it's an ugly scene. Two more dead bodies and another fucking painting. I guess that's his trademark. Serial killers like doing these kinds of things. I don't mind it. It makes them arrogant, which makes my job easier. People make mistakes when they're more self-assured.

The question now is simple: where's the mistake? Well let's start with the painting. Art is self expression, after all. You look at it first glance and all you see is some abstract hodge podge of black, some blues, some greys and the occasional brown. But when you look closer at it, you can start to see what it's trying to say. He feels nothing and everything all at once, which overwhelms him. The reason the colors are so dark and neutral is because he can't get a grasp on what exactly he's feeling, much like his own reality. Indeed, he's an artist in the purest sense. The world's his canvas.

This would also explain the arrangement of the bodies. One is hung by a noose in their closet, and the other is sitting on the couch holding up the painting. I believe the dead men both represent something. This crime scene isn't a crime scene, at least not to the killer. The dead fella on the couch is holding the painting so it covers his chest and torso. Where do people tend to feel emotions? Generally, it's in that region.

The hanging man is obviously supposed to represent a suicide. His feelings are a burden, so much so that he's considered this himself. So, you got a man who's sitting complacently, bearing the burden of these complex emotions he doesn't understand. Then, you have the man who couldn't take it anymore. Finally, you have the killer. The man who "transcended" either experience to where he can express his new perspective from a bird's eye view. He is no longer part of that cycle, and has now reached a level of consciousness that is far above what he'd experienced before, assuming nobody else is as conscious as he is. Nobody else is as human as he is.

It's so pretentious. The guy could've just painted a better picture and called it a day, but instead I have to work on a fucking Saturday.