Author's Note: This is based on the film version of Girl With a Pearl Earring. I may end up basing it on a few bits from the book too, but this chapter is just looking at the end of the movie. Feedback would be very much appreciated! I hope you enjoy it!
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I heard her crying on the other side of the door. I wanted to hold her, tell her everything was all right, but I knew that I couldn't. Whatever we had between us was over, and now she was leaving. There was no point in stirring up the emotions by seeing her one last time. Griet must have felt the same way. I heard her cries getting softer and the sound of her footsteps heading away from the door. Suddenly my eyes started to sting from the tears that were forming. I took a deep breath, wiped the tears away viciously, and looked out the window. I waited, hoping to catch a glimpse of her as she left my life forever.
Finally my eyes caught sight of her walking quickly away from the house. She was shaking a bit, but she never faltered in her steps. Not once did she look back over her shoulder. She never knew that I was watching. I felt a pain in my chest and an emptiness in my stomach as I finally admitted to myself that I wouldn't get to see her every day, that I wouldn't get to share my art with her every day, that I wouldn't feel her warmth next to me as I mix colors every day, that I wouldn't get to talk with her every day. She was my salvation in this house, the one person who understood the world that I live in. And now she was gone.
I closed the shutters and put my paints away. I opened the door to leave the studio, but something made me stop for a moment. I looked at the chair where Griet had sat when she posed for the painting and I could see her looking back at me with those innocent, engaging eyes. I closed my eyes and breathed in, then I turned and walked out of the room, feeling the air leaving my lungs as I locked the door behind me. I realized then that a part of her would always be with me, just as she had taken a part of me with her when she left.