Killing beauty…
Oh, the burning bittersweet truth, how it pierces me- Julia Daniels
How could this be? Cossette, where is Cossette?
Truth struck, but didn't sink in. He wouldn't allow it to sink in, his heart wanting ignorant bliss instead. She paused, as if trying to think of some other story. Silence grew between them, the only sound was the heavy breathing created by the boy. The sky around them was peeling, falling and smashing into the ground. Suddenly she laughed, giving up any cunning attempt to tell another fib like before. She skipped across the rocky surrounding, her giggles turning from a sweet little girl's to a haunting fearful ghost. He ran to the spiraling steps until it peeled away too, the statue crumbling beneath both of them. A light flashed, a new world shown.
Cossette where are you? You never came back did you? How can I get out of this world to find you? Are you in this world, between the living and the dead, or have you crossed to where I can no longer see you, where I can no longer hear you?
"Can you not see, Eiri, Cossette is filthy," The girl laughs, mocking him. Her voice is hallow, lingering and echoes around them. A portrait of Cossette weighs across the room, drawing anyone who might have happened across it. Her eyes drew you, warping the world you knew. How much a simple painting can do. Chains drop around them, sepia surrounds with gangling black fence, the ground shaking, threatening to crumple and send him to the world of the dead. "She is not filthy!" He screams, clutching his chest as it begins to pain. The girl giggles, brings her hand to her lips but doesn't cover them.
Cossette is a fake, a dirty imitation. Since I have been born, my beauty surpassed Cossette, for she was not always beautiful. A grimy baby, a filthy toddler she was once. Without beauty, what is there? This may be our world, Eiri, but I control it.
He tries to take a step toward the body of the real little girl, but is stopped short, even before a full step. "Eiri, Cossette is not pure. She isn't like me. Eiri, I am purity, and I am beauty. I am God's gift to this world, a sparking ray of faith. Why want that girl, Cossette?" She asked as Eiri falls to the ground, blood pouring from a new open wound in his chest, the path before him forming cracks. He stood up and without thinking ran forward towards the other paintings, the earth falling from under his feet. "Stop" She said, this time her voice held more anger then it ever had.
He shook her off and walked toward the open canvas, blood pouring down him. The girl rested her elbow on her knee and stared at him, her eyes wandering aimlessly. For a second they looked at each other, locking eyes and sending bitter thoughts. What would happen if he picked up that brush? If he decided to paint? Her eyes narrowed before she was gone, out of sight but not out of mind. He took a deep breath and pick up the brush slowly, coughing as he felt extreme pain but not death, as if the blood would never stop flowing.
Cossette, I'll paint you. I won't paint what Marcello thought was beauty, he was wrong. Such an evil thing, a twisted reality with no meaning to good cannot be true beauty, it just can't. I'll make this fake evil version of you leave, mark my word. I won't let such a thing stain your name, your true inconceivable magnificence. I'll paint you and not just your allure.
--
"Mama, Papa, where is Marcello?" She asked, smiling as she dangled one of her favorite dolls before her face, the fake curly hair bouncing. "In the art studio" Mama replied, still she played one of her favorite songs on the piano. Music flowed in the house, following you as walked the hallways. Papa still had a pipe in his mouth, the blue smoke filling the room, the lungs. Quickly she rushed out of the room, closing in on the art studio. "Marcello!" She called and opened the door and stepping in the room.
I heard a crinkle of paper and I pulled my foot back and looked down. The floor was covered with crumpled paper, some half open to show picture of myself. Nervously I looked up, there were no lights in the room, and Marcello sat across the way, bent over some paper.
"Cossette, you're growing" He says quietly, creepiness growing in the room. She walked forward slowly, tilting her head to try and see his face but to no avail. "Yes, Mama said time was flowing for me now, isn't it wonderful Marcello? I'm to be a woman soon!" She said happily, hugging her doll and looking into the air while daydreaming. "Yes, a woman. Cossette, you're God's gift to the world, and yet you grow, ruining all he gave" He mutters, turning to Cossette, shadows washing over his face.
I gasp and look away, trying hard to not cry. Why?
--
Slowly he raised the paintbrush, storks of blood cover the canvas. "Live with me, not Cossette. Cossette who aged, Cossette who ruined her beauty, Cossette who betrayed Marcello's work" The bodiless voice spoke but still he painted on. "Admit it, Eiri, you love Cossette's beauty" The voice spoke and he stopped and looked around. Her stared at the many paintings, all behind that fence. "I love… I love Cossette and her beauty!" He screamed and painted still. "I'll burn all these impostors" He muttered and added the last stroke. He stood back, crumpling to the ground, the bush falling away from him.
Suddenly the paintings lit, fire slowly crawling from the bottom to the top. She screams her false betrayal as the fire grows. Her screams are ear pricing, and it was not uneasy to picture tears falling from her perfect cheeks, flowing down her soft skin and hitting her dress. He tried to keep a focus but it was as if he was burning away the world with the those pictures and the wound in his chest was just becoming a little bit more real.
So, to save me Cossette, you chose the hellish pain of solitude, of isolation. To allow me to live and hopefully find happiness, you left and alone you are now. And I, will never see you again, hear you again, and touch you yet once more. How can love be so cruel?
The pain, human words fail to describe it. How can I feel pain? The fire comes down in drops, like water drops. They run down me, burning me up and sending my legacy away.
How? How can you kill beauty?