An Art Gala To Rember(Isabelle)

Alex would watch as the art gala one of his charities helped fund came to a start. He was rather excited this was one of his first times seeing what they called artwork here. The Kitsune dimension ah but a dream now. One needed there first three tails mastered to even access the dimension. He sighed as he walked around. Today he wasn't in his usual attire. He still wore jeans but these were a dark black and were made from a softer blend of Cotten that made them look almost dressy. He wore a black dress shirt and his usual jacket. His katana with his fox ball left in the back room. He didn't need to cause a scene as he ran his hand through his hair. His hair was black with silver tips. It went down to his shoulder and if one was spiritually aware they could see a tail pokin out from under his jacket and a pair of fox ears poking out from his hair. He walked around the gala hoping to find someone able to satisfy his curiosity. Who knows he might learn something. 

It wasn’t often that the girl had a reason to dress up for an occasion. It wasn’t often that when an occasion arrived for her to dress nicely that she would actually comply. But tonight was different. Tonight would be one of the very few times the girl would be attending something to do with the town, and as the daughter of Eric and Lucinda Marchant, she had a name to uphold. When first glancing at her, one would see her Elie Tahari double-breasted coat, her dark blue skinny jeans, and her pair of Nine West boots. Her hair was French braided down the right side of her face, a black flower placed just below her ear. Several bangles hung from each wrist, and the ensemble was completed with a pair of studs in each ear. Her mother was responsible for this outfit and it was obvious the Marchant name wouldn’t be dishonored this evening.

As she entered the building, she could feel the warm coming from the vents hit her face. Pulling off her coat, the girl revealed a black baby-doll top that hung from her right shoulder. Draping the coat over her left arm, she proceeded to drift around the room. It had been awhile since the girl had been to a good art showcase, even longer since she had been to one that actually caught her attention. “We’re Not Monsters: Looking into the Mirror” was the theme of tonight’s artwork and looking at the pieces, she automatically felt as though she could relate to some of the pieces. She had heard about the gallery from one of the girl’s in her youth group and decided that she would take a look. Local artwork fascinated her… In her mind a person could see a lot about the town from the artwork it’s citizens did.

Looking around the room, she couldn’t believe what kind of depictions she was seeing…

One artist had done a self-portrait that he had titled “Seeing, but not Seen” in which he displayed himself as a modern-day Mona Lisa. Sitting upright, hands in his lap, his thin lips curved into a small smile. The background of the painting was a vision chaos… Slightly blurred, it displayed an array of burning buildings, crying children, drugs, an abandoned baby, and a family in poverty. If anyone knew anything about the original painting or art itself, their mind would almost automatically take them to the smile. A smile that didn’t touch the boy’s eyes and barely covered his lips. The scenario wasn’t a happy one, but he looked happy and in their current world looking happy was as good as actually feeling the emotion.

Further back, she found another interesting piece. It was in the form of a slide show and each painting in the show looked picture-like in quality. The first showed an extremely well off family standing outside a mansion of sorts. The second showed a family of average status standing outside a modest house. The third slide looked to be of a struggling family. They stood outside their apartment building, but otherwise they looked as though they were okay. The fourth one was a family sitting inside of a van, a person could easily see various belongings in the car behind them. Belongings that a person would only have in their van if they were living out of it. The fifth and final slide in the show was of one girl standing outside of a box with a backpack in her hands. As the slides restarted, the picture of the girl’s face was etched in her mind and as she watched them play through she noticed that the girl with the backpack was present in each one. Watching it a third time, she noticed that each family member was the same with one exception. After the third slide, the father was no longer present. The girl’s eyes flickered to the description… The girl had titled her piece “A Life in Shambles.”

Walking around the room, her eyes fell on one of the sculpted pieces, a bone mask cowering over a little girl. Averting her eyes for a moment, the girl took a breath to calm her nerve. Perhaps she had seen it wrong and the artist was just depicting your average monster. After a moment, she opened them again a she made her way across the room to examine it further. Once she was within a few feet of the object, she could do nothing but stare at it. Looking at the description in front of it, she saw that the artist was a 12-year-old girl and she had titled it “Hollow Inside.” Lifting her hand to cover her mouth, she stared at the thing. It couldn’t be one of her monsters… Her monsters weren’t real.

Staring at it, she noticed how similar the features were to what she had nightmares about every night. The bone mask, the jagged teeth, the claws. “It’s one of those things. That’s what that man had called it the other night.” Not realizing she had been speaking aloud, she stood and stared at the thing. The rest of the room removing itself from her mind. Even if it was just in the form of a sculpture, one of her monsters were here.

Alex continued to walk as he past by many of upper class civilians. Security was running a tight shift and he commended them on that in his head. He hated to se3e events he was interested in die out quickly. He watched the people walk around as oblivious to the subtle hints in certain pieces that he saw. A select few of the artists were at least spiritually aware. Whether they had powers would be interesting to see. All in all he approached the first art work he had noticed it was called “Death’s Reaper”. The blade was different from what most knew to be the reaper of souls weapon of choice. This wasn’t a scythe it was a Halberd. And this halberd it seemed to be flowing electricity from a ball at the bottom of the staff protrusion. This sculpture was magnificent. The details made Alex believe had he touched it the halberd would shock him into a coma if not death itself and then came the other half of the piece. The mans expression as he held the blade to the mirror. Wow it was as one saw this that they truly began to understand the message. While we are our own worst enemy only when we see ourselves for what we are can we slay our own inner demons and move on with our lives. The man was holding the halberd to a downed carbon copy of himself. And the sculpture was painted and it revealed a that the one on the floor about to die was white in appearance. And not white like caucasian he was white like snow or paper his eyes a piercing red compared to the blue the man standing had. They wore robes of a sort one black one white. He smiled this eas gonna be a good day for art.
He moved on to the next piece it was a war scene from what appeared to be feudal japan. A group of what they would mark up to be samurai were up and facing a group of humanoid fox like creatures. The fox like creatures had the advantage as they had a force coming in from the right flank. But the samurai failed to see it as they saw the bait force if you will. This painting called “Fox’s Deception" was new to him as it revealed a whole new side to the samurai. Attacking what they thought was weak and defenseless. The meaning was slightly hidden to this piece.
He then approached the girl standing at the sculpture of a mask. It seemed to have an effect on her. He now wanted to speak with her. He heard through the mourners that she had said something rather odd. He approached her and said "You okay Miss?"

She didn’t understand why she couldn’t get the bone mask or the little girl out of her mind. Was it possible that she didn’t want to get better? Was it possible that she didn’t want to get better? That these things kept popping up because she subconsciously wanted them to exist in her world? Was it possible that her mind had grown comfortable in it’s own skin and didn’t want the monsters from her childhood, the monsters that followed her all the way into high school to just simply go away? ‘But they are real. He had told me that they were real. He had given me a choice.’ She thought, the strange spherical object that the man had given her that she had tucked away in her room. On a normal day she would’ve taken it with her, but how was she supposed to explain a baseball to these people? How was she supposed to explain that she took it everywhere she went out of fear, to people who would probably mark her as crazy?

Hearing the words spoken to her, her mind tried to snap itself from the daze the mask had put her in but was only half successful. The mask was implanted in the back of her mind as she looked down to find the name of the Artist. Leillian Reyes, Age 12. Perhaps it was time to start looking for some answers in the real world… This little girl had obviously seen the same monsters that she had so it would be natural for her to want to see her. To meet her.

“I’m fine… Absolutely fine.” The words were spoken with a very secure pitch. How many times had she said this word to her parents? How many times had she said these words to Dr. Trammell? How many times had she said these words to the many therapists in her past towns? “This piece is exquisite. I can almost feel the fear inside of the little girl.” She said as the façade of being the daughter of her parents returned to her face. Turning her head, she looked at the man who had approached her, but almost instantly regretted it. Her previous façade dropping as her eyes widened a bit at his appearance. Taking a quick breath, it took a lot for her to not freak out.

It was obvious that no one else saw that he had two ears atop his head and she could only imagine that he had a tail to match it. Was this man… Just another of her hallucinations? “I’m sorry… I have to go.” The words were spoken under her breath in an uneasy tone. Taking a few steps away from the man, she turned to look for another piece of work. Why was she giving them faces? Why was she making them seem more real than just the monsters that would plague her as a child? Did she want them to be real? Stopping in front of a random painting, her hazel eyes stared at the description rather than looking at the painting itself. She didn’t understand why she was trying so hard to hold onto reality when she had personally made the choice to fight that night. Looking up at the painting, her eyes weren’t seeing what was on the canvas, but simply staring in order to appear as though she was.

Alex looked at her sorta confused at what she said. He ran his hand through his hair brushing past his ears and scowled. Her words they seemed like an act almost as if this was something she said everyday to escape what these people saw as reality. He wanted to know what it was about her that made him want to help her. He didn't want anything else but to find out what she was hiding from him her family and possibly herself. He shook his head he didn't even know her. As she left obviously bothered by something. He then remembered how she scanned over his appearance. And soon enough he put two and two together. He walked over to her and tapped a rather portly gentleman who was trying to get her to respond. He then stood next to her and whispered just loud enough for her to hear "Hey can I talk to you outside for a moment. I won't hurt you like those with the masks usually do. I just want to answer some questions for you and ask you some of my own. Can you allow me that much. Just allow me to explain." he awaited a response as he appeared to admire the picture.