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The day had long since begun for the outside world. Conversations swirled around, and there was the clicking of cameras from very excited tourists rushing to take a bit of the town with them before they had to leave. The paddling of feet of locals going about their business and that soothing background music that slipped through every speaker hung around the town.

Little tidbits of each beautiful moment rocked their way ever so gently into the apartment, circulating through the room. Causing an ease that made the brush feel so much lighter than it was as it swept over the canvas with a mind of its own. Just as people went about their business indirectly documenting a tale, the brush moved around, telling a tale of its own before my brain could even catch up.

My eyes glazed over with each stroke, the detail of the story finding its way to the light. The stench of paint consumed my senses as I moved forward on my stool, accenting another minor feature. And with each moment that led up to the resolution of the painting came a lightness that just devoured every bit of tension in the body.

The brush fell from my hands and I released a sharp breath, taking a step back from the canvas. The stool stumbled to the floor but my eyes were stuck on the picture before me. I blinked away the trance of movement, hoping to see the finished product a lot better.

I reached out for my mug filled with my latest drink combination and took a sip out of it. I'd long since forgotten which mixture I was on now, but I didn't care for it much as long as it eased up the moment after.

The picture came in clearer, and my eyes narrowed instantly at the scene before me. I cocked my head to the side, my brows creasing.

What?

I dropped the mug back to the table, not fully checking if I placed it properly as I rushed inside the storage room where the dry canvas of pictures I'd painted was. Spotting the drawing I'd painted the day before, I plucked it from its position on the floor and rushed back out to the living room, my body heat suddenly increasing with each passing second.

Trickles of sweat rose at the base of my neck just as I placed the old one on an empty easel beside the new one. I sucked in a sharp breath, looking at both of them side by side.

What in the world?

My eyes flickered between the two of them as fast as they could with my brain trying to comprehend what exactly I was seeing.

In both paintings, I'd painted her. She had inky black curls that gave a pleasing contrast to her amber skin. Then there were her eyes, chestnut. In the first painting, it stared off into the distance. Lost in the world around her. The narrow eyes squeezed together in a way that hinted at a whiff of sadness. And then in the second one, she'd lost all shields, keeping the pain at bay. The tears spilt from her eyes without restraint, pain carved all over her oblong face in ways that just tore at your heart.

But painting the reality of her beauty and pain wasn't the problem. No. It was the strangeness of how despite not having any image of anything both times before setting to work, I'd painted someone I was certain I'd never met all 26 years of my life.

I jerked out of the moment as my ringtone blasted through the room. Turning to the sound's direction, my eyes darted around, searching for the small but loud phone. The mess was definitely not making any of that easy.

"Ah! There you are," I muttered, spotting it just beside my mug, which was just about ready to fall to its death. I wiped my paint infested hands against my jeans before picking up the phone and pushing the mug further inside on the table. Couldn't be replacing yet another mug.

I sighed at the name that flashed on the screen. She always found just the right times to call, didn't she? I picked up my stool from its position on the floor before picking up the call and taking a seat.

"Avondré, it rang three times!" my mom's shrill voice rang through the phone without wasting a breath. There was no hiding the panic that swayed in her voice.

I released a long breath, and I stared back at the paintings in front of me, narrowing my eyes again at them. There was no way it was a coincidence.

"Avondré."

"Mother."

"I've told you countless times to pick up the phone at the..."

"I was busy, ma. Besides, I also forgot where I'd placed the phone."

There was a pause, and I knew for a fact that she was contemplating what exactly she considered the appropriate response to give me. Not that she always did that. She'd only started picking her words around me about a year ago when it all went to shit.

I took in a deep breath and then switched the call to video mode.

Her face popped right into the screen, oval like mine but with defined cheekbones that she loved making emphasize when she wanted to make points. She'd straightened her blue-black hair again, letting it fall smoothly down her back. She blinked, pouting her small lips at the sudden change, allowing me to take in her surroundings instead.

She was in her room at home it seemed, sitting on her bed with her bible right next to her, never straying far away. Though it was obvious from her stiff shoulders that she was feeling anything but comfort.

"Ma, I'm fine. I just got distracted with painting."

Her dark brown eyes got darker as she narrowed them at me. Using that opportunity to give the parts of my body she could see a once over, checking for any sort of lie to latch onto.

"Fine," she breathed out. Relaxing against her headrest. "What did you paint today?"

I switched the screen to the back camera and showed her the new painting.

"Oh. Isn't that...?"

"The same woman I drew yesterday? Yes, she is."

I tilted the camera to show both pictures beside each other. My focus switched to the questions that I had swirling in my head before the call and I realized my mom might have actually called at the perfect time.

"Are you certain you don't know her?"

"That's actually a question I was going to ask you, ma."

"Me?! Why would you wanna ask me? I ain't the one painting a random woman, am I?"

I switch the camera back to see the glint that danced rhythmically in her eyes. "Really, ma?"

"Well, am I?"

"Fine. So maybe you're not. But that's not why I wanted to ask you. I don't believe in coincidences, ma. You know that. And I only started drawing this random woman yesterday after I got to this town."

Her shoulders sagged. "Oh, Dré."

"There's absolutely no way they're not tied somehow."

She opened her mouth and closed it again, sighing. "I don't know, Dré. Never been there before, you know. But maybe..." she paused.

I gulped hard knowing just where the conversation was heading, but even though we'd been dancing around the topic for a couple of days, I knew it was inevitable. My eyes flickered to the bracelet on my hand and the pendant that dangled from it. The one thing that brought me to this town and that also connected me to him. "You think he knows her?"

"I mean, I can't say for sure, but it's possible. If she is actually linked to the town, that is."

I turned back to the picture I just painted. My eyes narrowed and my eyebrows squashed together trying to devour every single detail that I possibly could about it. Because she'd been the primary focus of both paintings, I hadn't paid all that much attention to her surroundings before, but...

I bolted from the stool to get a closer look at the painting, eyes wide as I recognized the lantern hangings by the side.

"What is it?" my mom asked.

"I know this place."

"It's in that town?"

"Yes! I was standing right there yesterday. I..."

"You don't think you might have painted a scene that you saw in passing and somehow your brain..."

"You really think I'd have seen a woman crying in the middle of the streets and just walked by?"

"I didn't raise no son like that."

"Exactly, and besides, I'd painted the first one before going out yesterday, and I was back before daybreak. And this second one looks like it happened late in the night."

She sagged with an inaudible sigh. "Alright fine. If the place looks familiar, even better. Go check it out. I mean, there's no harm there, right? And if she's related to him, all the better, no?"

I hesitated at that thought. Did I want to find out why I was suddenly drawing a random woman? Maybe. But at the same time, I could taste it at the tip of my tongue. The various ways it could all go wrong.

"Avondré?"

"Yeah! Yeah, sure. No problem. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Avondré! You can't be saying that! It jinxes the whole situation."

I scoffed, cocking my head slightly to the side. "You don't believe in that."

"No, I don't," she said as a matter of fact, a smile playing on her lips.

"Well, let me set out then."

"You might want to take a bath and change first, love."

I looked down at myself. My messy painted clothes were definitely not going to be an appealing sight to go mystery woman hunting.

"Alright, ma. Gotta go then. The shower calleth."

"Love you, Dré." Her voice cracked and my chest squeezed as I pushed all the thought I knew was swirling in her head down into the pits of hell where it belonged to. For now, at least.

"Love you, ma."

I let her cut the call first as had recently become a tradition before letting my eyes fall back to the painting, wondering just how the woman there fit into the messed up narrative that was my life.

»»——♥——««

I'd long since located the scene of the painting, checking every other minute with the picture I'd captured of it in my camera just to be very sure. But even as the chilly air swept through, I hadn't seen even a trace of those inky black curls.

Was I really just grasping at straws?

I tightened my scarf around my neck. Reaching for what wasn't there or not, I wasn't about to risk it all and let air get into me.

Since one reason I had set out wasn't forthcoming, I fished out the physical picture that's been an unbearable weight in the pocket of my pants all day and sighed, looking at it.

I really looked nothing like him and yet I was meant to travel across the world to talk just so I wouldn't regret it. Life had some absurd beliefs sometimes.

Pushing off the wall I had been resting on, I turned around to face the house I'd been evading walking into. Though calling it a house was using a loose term. It was a Beijing Siheyuan that was built more like a temple than a common home.

I took in a deep breath before I pushed forward into the courtyard that buzzed with life. Different locals stood at their respective corners, calling out to tourists, advertising whatever business they sold there. I glanced around, eyes narrowing, searching for the spot in which the very picture in my hand had been taken. It really didn't take that long to find it. Sucking a sharp breath, I walked towards the woman who stood by the side with a grin on her face despite the lack of attention she got.

The woman looked up, the only eye she had glowed so much at the sight of me that I almost felt bad for actually approaching her with an ulterior motive. Her chirped lips pulled back into a grin, showing off what was left of her teeth.

"H'llo mister! Do ya wanna have ya fate read to ya?"

I looked down at her with the softest smile I could summon. If I was interested in that, she seemed cute enough that I'd have let her do it, but I already knew what fate laid ahead of me. I didn't need to be reminded about it.

"Oh no, ma'am. I'm actually looking for someone," I said, already showing her the picture.

"Looky for someone? But there are too many. I don recog..."

She clamped her mouth shut as soon as her eyes settled on the picture. Her close set of eyes that had previously softly gazed upon me turned hard, staring intently at the picture.

My heart skipped a beat as I waited in anticipation. Just as she turned those cautious eyes to me, I froze. And I knew somehow I knew without a doubt that it had absolutely nothing to do with her or whatever she had to say. There was just a sudden choking pull buzzing from my wrist and moving fast to the rest of my body.

It was like a nagging feeling, one I couldn't push aside. Like something was pulling me in a direction opposite from where I wanted to be at that moment. The longer I stood still trying to take the rein of whatever was going on, the more intense each pull I got. My chest rose and fell in a rapid state until my surroundings blurred and people scurried about me with a speed that shouldn't have been humane.

It was when a grunt escaped my lips as I collided with another individual that I realized I had been the one walking fast. The entire feeling zapped away just as a female grunt echoed through my head.

Oh, shoot!

I stumbled backward, apologies spewing from my mouth as it was from hers. She stared up at me, her eyes looking like she'd also been in a daze like I was.

Chestnut narrow eyes? Inky black hair?

I scoffed, lifting a brow. She was actually real?

But at the moment, it wasn't just the realization that I was meeting her in person that made my eyes widen. It was the way her mouth slackened as she looked up at me. Those chestnut eyes glowing like just setting their sights on me had zapped all the pain I'd painted.

"You!" She breathed.

"You?"

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𓆩♡𓆪 𝕎𝕆ℝ𝔻 ℂ𝕆𝕌ℕ𝕋: 2373

𓆩♡𓆪 𝕋𝕆𝕋𝔸𝕃 𝕎𝕆ℝ𝔻 ℂ𝕆𝕌ℕ𝕋: 5878

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