CHAPTER 2:Painted Shadows
The painting should have been easy to forget.
Adrian locked it in his private study the moment he reached home. He placed it inside a drawer, closed it, and walked away without looking back.
He told himself he had work,Calls, People that needed his attention.
But the painting stayed in his mind,it sat there like a quiet shadow he couldn't shake off
That night, he tried to sleep. He lay in the dark room, eyes closed, breathing slow. Yet every time he drifted close to sleep, the image returned,
The two children under the soft light
The unfinished faces
The glow behind them
And that feeling…
He opened his eyes with a frustrated sigh,the ceiling felt too close and the air felt too warm.
He pushed the blanket aside and sat up on the edge of the bed
This was ridiculous,it was only a painting. A piece of canvas and old paint That's all!
But why did it feel alive?
Adrian ran a hand through his hair and stood,he walked across the quiet hallway and stopped in front of the study door
He didn't turn on the lights.he didn't need to because he knew his way in the dark.
He opened the door slowly,the room was dark, except for the faint glow from the city lights outside. Everything here was neat and nice,black shelves, glass desk, the faint scent of leather.
He crossed the room and opened the drawer,the painting lay inside, wrapped in its brown paper,still untouched,still waiting
He didn't want to unwrap it,he only wanted to see it… just once more
Just to be sure it was real.
He lifted the painting out and placed it on the desk. The paper slid away easily,he canvas lay bare in front of him, silent and strange.
The children sat exactly as before,close, glowing softly yet Adrian felt as if the painting looked different now.
His eyes was fixed on the boy first,the posture,the shoulders,the shape of the hair and body size.
A memory flickered,light and soft, a laugh,warm afternoon, small hand tugging at his sleeve
But when he tried to hold onto it, the memory slipped away
He frowned
Then his gaze shifted to the girl
She felt familiar in a distant, unsettling way. Like a dream he had once woken from too quickly. He didn't know her face but something about her pose, the gentle tilt of her head
It tugged at him
He didn't like the feeling,It made him feel unsteady, and Adrian was a man who lived on control. He built a life on structure and walls, everything placed in order.
But this painting broke through all of it
He picked up the note again
"Light survives in the one who remembers"
He hated riddles,his mother never wrote in riddles,she spoke plainly,she taught him plainly,So why this?
Why leave something he couldn't understand?
Adrian set the note down and stepped back from the desk, he didn't want this,he didn't want any of it
He had a company to run, a reputation to be kept,a life to maintain. He had no space for shadows of the past
But the painting stayed in his thoughts
Even now, as he tried to turn away, he could feel the weight of it behind him
He closed the drawer again, this time harder than before. Then he left the room and shut the door behind him
But shutting the door didn't help
In the hallway, he glanced at the empty frame on the wall where one of his mother's old works had once hung,he had removed it after her death, unable to look at it
Now that empty space felt louder,as if asking him why he was running
He walked faster
Down the stairs,Into the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water, but his hand shook slightly. He didn't understand why,he wasn't scared
He took a slow drink
His phone buzzed on the counter,company messages, meeting reminders, a reminder from his assistant about the quarterly report.
Normally, he would answer immediately,not tonight
He put the phone upside down and leaned on the counter
It was just a painting, just a note,just his mother's last message.
So why did it feel like the beginning of something he wasn't prepared to face?
He stayed like that for a long moment
Thinking,Trying to push away the heavy ache that crept into his chest
Eventually, he walked back upstairs. He didn't return to the study,he didn't look in that direction,he went straight to his room and lay down again.
But even with his eyes closed, he saw the painting
He saw the boy
He saw the girl.
He saw the warm light around them.
And he heard something faint,like a laugh buried deep in his memory
A child's laugh,soft,bright and familiar
His eyes snapped open,he sat up again, so disturbed.
He didn't know the girl and was completely certain he don't recall seeing her anywhere
So why did it feel like he had once known her better than anyone?
He raked his fingers through his hair and stared into the darkness
He had spent years building walls around his heart,around his past. Around the memory of the fire that had taken his mother from him.
He thought he had locked everything away for good
But now the painting had opened a door he never wanted to touch again
A small, unwanted truth slipped into his mind.
He would not be able to keep the painting aside because it was he mother's wish for the peice to get to him.
Adrian lay back down slowly, one arm over his eyes
The city kept glowing outside the window,but inside him, something old had begun to wake.
Something he thought he had forgotten