"It's been a while since I've been in an art studio..."
Alice trailed off as she stared at the mural in awe. "This hidden yet fancy studio reminds me of that time when Shun took me to Venice with the rest of the art department for an 'art field trip'. He said he'd take me to Venice again, but I don't want to go anywhere anymore..."
Interrupted Alice from her thinking and talking was a soft, vague cry of a girl. The voice gradually became louder, which began to scare Alice. The cries came from an old-fashioned, wooden door hidden under the stairs. Alice went over to open the door, but the voice became louder and made Alice step back.
Sounds like another ghost calling for help. She took a deep breath, pulled the door open, and prepared to see something scary, only to realize that a set of stairs was on the other side. How many stairs are in here?
Alice descended the stairs to find another wooden door in her path. This time, the door was held slightly open by a doorstop. She peeked inside the opening to vaguely see a table with flowers and a bowl of fruit. Flowers and fruit? Seems strange to be having a fancy dinner in a basement of a basement. There wasn't anything else that Alice could see, so she removed the doorstop and opened the door.
Inside was a musty art studio that didn't look quite professional to be one. Around the table of flowers and fruit were art supplies, easels, flasks of liquids, props, and a lot of chairs and stools.
"So this is what an art studio looked like back then. I wonder if Da Vinci and Picasso started their career in art by first working in a room with materials like these." On the easel was a painting covered by a cloth, and Alice took it off to see the painting. "This is similar to the one in Shona's studio, only the girl is crying, not smiling. And something about the two paintings doesn't seem right..."
She gently touched the painting and suddenly heard the cries again. Something tells me that the crying girl and this painting are connected somehow. As she followed the sounds to see where they came from, Alice discovered another room in the far back of the studio. Inside this mini room were, not surprisingly, more art supplies and props. Laid down on one of the chairs was a notebook.
"Another notebook? This is starting to sound like what happened to Ace and Mira, but this feels a lot more dreadful than digging up a skull." She picked up the notebook and read from the first entry to the last.
May 11th: It is official. We are BROKE. Food and supplies have inflated, and the rest of the money I have won't be enough to keep both Fabia and I alive for long. My salary is getting lower and lower, and I really don't know what to do.
"Sounds like a financial crisis. First a Mira appears and now a Fabia, but how this Fabia is related to the writer of this notebook is currently unknown."
May 16th: A mysterious man came to me today and asked me to paint a picture of a crying girl. He said that the amount he would pay me depends on how I paint the picture. I accepted his offer, despite the situations.
"Paint a picture of a crying girl?" Alice looked around to see if the crying ghost was there but didn't hear anything. "And pay this person after it's done? That makes the situation even sadder in the time of an economic crisis!"
May 22nd: Fabia just won't cry! Usually, I tell her to not cry in times like this, but now I'm telling her to not smile. The mysterious man asked me on how the painting was going, but there wasn't much I could say to stall time.
"Poor Fabia. She must have been a very cheerful person, and making her cry on purpose definitely isn't something to be messing around with. I'm more interested on who this 'mysterious man' is..."
May 31st: I'm hopeless. Even though I finished the painting to the best of my ability, the mysterious man refused to pay me and wanted me to pay him a sum of money to him for wasting his time. After a few arguments, he literally put a curse on me! The basement is burning as I speak!
"That's it. I'm not reading this anymore! There's probably nothing else left since the house was burning." Alice laughed a little on her joke but suddenly felt a presence behind her and turned around. "Who's there?" She looked at the ground in front of her to see a puddle of water. "How did that...?"
Appearing around the puddle of water was a ghost of a girl about Alice's age. "This is how much one can cry over a person close to them who is now gone."
That navy hair...she's the smiling girl from the painting in Shona's studio...and the crying girl in this painter's painting? That's impossible! "What happened? Who died?"
"Ren. I've been living with him and he's taken care of me since my sister Serena died. He said that painting a picture of me crying would get him money to save us, but I absolutely refused to. I refused to degrade myself or have Ren degrade himself just for a sum of money that we don't even know if we'll get!"
"But there was an economic crisis back then! What other choice did you have? The two of you were going to starve to death!"
"I don't care!" Fabia burst into more tears while kneeling down. "Ren worked hard to take care of me after my entire family died, and he vowed to never raise money in any wrong way. Ren painted pictures to make people happy, not sad. Yet, he accepted the offer of someone who asked him to paint a picture of a crying person. At first I thought he was just doing it for public purposes, but Ren was doing it for money!"
Looks like I mistook the reason why Fabia refused to cry. Even I would refuse to do so if Aunt Clara made me do something like this. Alice felt guilty for blaming Fabia for refusing to pose for the painting before she found out what really happened. Wait...Ren wrote about the studio 'burning as he writes'. Could that fire and painting of Fabia be related to Shona's studio?
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
"Slow down!" yelled Alice as she was catching up to her dog while holding the leash. "You're really hyperactive today!" She took out a dog treat and waved it. Her dog caught the scent and immediately ran back. "Good boy! Now we-"
"Alice? What a coincidence." Alice stood up to see Shun standing next to her with paintbrushes in his hands. "I didn't know you had a dog. What's its name?"
"Oh, hi Shun." Alice let the dog run up to and brush against Shun. "Sunny isn't really my dog, but my parents gave him to me before they died. The house that Aunt Clara and I live in don't allow pets, so he stays at my cousin's place. Every day after school, I go visit Sunny for an hour or so. On the weekends, like today, I get to have him for the whole day and take him to the park. What are you doing here with paintbrushes?"
"Just working on a painting of my mom as present for her anniversary. Despite having to work, she loved to paint and take pictures during her free time, so I thought of painting something she really liked."
"Painting something memorable, I see?" Alice followed Shun to see what he painting. "Such a beautiful field of flowers! How did you learn to do that? You know, you should try 3D art. This is just too realistic to be flat."
"Just a little trick that learned in my electives. My mother's favorite flower was the Japanese bellflower, so I decided to paint her in a field of them. Usually, I leave the painting out for a week and then take it back to be hung up in a room in place dedicated to her."
Alice pulled up a seat next to Shun and watched him finish painting. "You're really devoted. I know you're not a professional artist, but you put a lot of effort in his paintings." She looked down to see Sunny cuddled up by her feet and wagging his tail. "Too bad I don't have the time for this. I really want to do something for my parents, too."
"Alice, there's nothing that we can't do for our parents. As long as you put in the efforts, they'll know, and you'll feel better about it, too."