The Painters Death Wish

Tony

There were antiques aligned on the display cases. Tea sets were in the cupboards with vintage wine glasses. Placed on top of a hand-knitted Dollie was a vase carrying white roses. Their thorns were sharp and with a microscopic gaze; there could be little specs of red seen on the ends.

A shallow moan echoes across the halls. Heaved grunts rasped at the wind. "What do you want from me?"

 The paintings watched the woman twist into a crazed panic. "Blood is not thicker than paint!." 

She held her face; her nails were digging into the contours of her cheeks. Her leathery skin began to stretch into a gruesome howl. Her actions stilled as a voice as innocent as the devil spoke up.

"Granny?"

The little boy appeared in the corner of her eye, and she noticed his pained expression. Her hands went away from her face and laid to her side. She huffed and puffed no venom at the sight of his wide eyes. The boy travelled his gaze from her yellow dress to her placid expression. He hesitated to step forward, and she noticed. She swallowed in her woe and feigned a smile. 

"Come paint with granny Tony." She held out her hand. 

His eyebrows deepened his expression. "I can't paint granny." 

Her smile slowly coaxed him into submission; he started to waddle towards her. "You're not going to paint my love." Her smile turned into a beastly smirk." You're going to become my medium."

0-0-0-0-0

"Excuse me, there was one artwork that looked like it was rejected, could you give me a bit more information about it? I'm Donatella Claire, an art blogger and historian. I've been here a couple of times to do interviews." She scrambled through her purse to retrieve her card.

"Here, I'm doing a project on modern and surreal art." Dona gave her card to the woman, who received it with a smile. 

"Oh, yes." Her accent was thick. "That artwork is not part of the gallery; it has been given to us by an unknown source. If my memory serves me right, it was left here."

"Left here?"

"Yes, presumably it was done by an anonymous. I'm shocked that the museum had taken pity of it and kept it here for a few days."

"What are they going to do with it?."

"It was left with only a place of origins; I guess they'll be sending it back to where it came from." She smiled politely and ushered Dona to the exit. They spoke while walking, the chatter from outside grew closer.

"I don't know if I'm allowed to ask but where does it come from?"

The woman smiled. "This artwork has nothing to do with the gallery I suppose, this information will not affect it in any way." She spoke as if in question.

"Of course no."

Her polite but fatigued expression appeared again." England, that's its next stop."