[Greqoh]

The next night I arrived at the agreed upon time at her hotel. I sat in the lounge and waited for Emily. Instead of her, I saw an older man descend the marble stairs which I recognized to be Dr. Farthington.
I said nothing to him, but this time he had much he wanted to say to me. He sank down into the cushioned chair next to mine, and crossed his legs. His arrogance seemed to have subsided, replaced by a dire look of one bearing horrible news to a family member.
“Mr. Blackwood, Ms. Lawson will not be seeing you tonight.”
“Is she all right?”
“She is as she has always been.”
“I shall return tomorrow, then.”
“No, you will not.”
I paused, studying his stone like face. “Inform me when she is well enough, here is my address....”
“You will not be seeing Emily tomorrow, or any other night. For the sake of you both it is best that you never see her again.”
“I don’t understand....”
He put his cold hand on my shoulder. “And it is best that you never shall young man.”
“I do not know the nature of her condition, but whatever it is, I love Emily. I intend to ask for her hand in marriage. Now, Dr. Farthington, if you have something that you wish to say to dissuade me, then might I suggest that you do so now, sir?”
The doctor’s lip stiffened, and he shook his head in frustration.
“Then I believe we are finished here. Good night.”
And I left him without another word.

*

Emily never came down from her room the next night. My messages to her went unanswered. I learned that she made plans to return to Indiana. What misfortune could have befallen her to turn her aside from me so quickly?
It was through a bribe to a worker at the hotel I managed to send her a letter, slipped under her plate of dinner. I wrote it in a way that I thought she might best understand:

______________________

Emily,

Rolling waves dash sand castles
Built on love’s shore
By shadowed hearts
And faithless hands
They crumble, rise no more.

Naught remains of lover’s dreams
But gray sorrow
That dulls the risen
Noontide star,
and blackens the coming ‘morrow

But ‘midst the blasted ruins laying
Abandoned there
What we have built
Endures the tide’s
coming without despair.

To face another bright new morn
Under a new sun
Washing shadows
From two hearts
That through trial, are one.
____________________


My letter was soon answered by her. She told me that she loved me with all her heart, and would do whatever necessary to be with me. I was to meet her in two days, and nothing would keep us apart again.

And it was thus, that my world shattered....


*

The following day I left the gallery, and while traveling past the hotel, I saw Dr. Farthington leap from his carriage and bolt inside. I immediately told the driver to stop, and followed him.
As I ran up the stairs to her room, I could hear the wild screaming of two people.
Emily braced the door from inside with a chair. A group of workers battered it with their shoulders and kicks trying to get inside. The heavy door gave way, tearing loose from its hinges, splintering the door frame with a loud cracking. I pushed passed the startled men, who stood back aghast with mouths barely wider than their eyes.
No sooner had I caught sight of her, than I froze as if running into a wall. She stood naked, her sculptured marble body leaning against the corner of her dimly lit room. Blood ran down her ivory legs, and just over the position of her womb, something was moving.... I began screaming “No! God in heaven, no!”
Emily had a long kitchen knife. Its mirror like blade caught the nearby candlelight as she held it in her trembling tiny hands. She stuck it again and again, into the twisted shape that stretched across her lower abdomen.
From this grotesque mass came horrible shrieks, like those of a tortured animal. They mixed with her own cries of insane laughter as the vermillion stained blade gouged the screaming face. It contorted in pain on her fair body.
Its hideous mouth stretched wide displaying malformed rows of tiny white teeth as it shrieked. Around its upper lip light fuzzy facial hair had sprouted. Sickly oversized blue eyes rolled around in agony. I screamed. Then.... those horrible eyes met my own. We stared at one another in mutual horror.
Dr. Farthington exclaimed, “Dear Lord, stop child!” He pushed past me, grabbing her small forearm and wrestling her to the ground.
She began to laugh wildly again, as the face continued screaming. The deep bloody gouges marring its already nightmarish appearance, as they began draining.
She looked up at me, her voice was that of a frightened child. “I did it for you, Victor! For you! Now we can be together!”
I shrank back, falling against the wall as tremors overcame my body.
Madness, deep, dark madness overcame me, it poured over me like a cold thick oil, anointing me with its merciful release.
As something in my mind gave way, I laughed at the comical face and the screaming girl. I laughed until I could no longer breath. I was still laughing when they drug me outside of the room where I lost consciousness.


*

The Lawson family had kept Emily a prisoner in her home, hiding their embarrassment away from the world. Dr. Farthington and his colleagues believed that she may be able to undergo surgery to remove her unwanted sibling. The doctors had never seen such a case. After examinations and much debate, they concluded that any surgery performed on Emily would probably end her life. She would live out the rest of her days a mockery of beauty, a freak, her hellish curse hidden below her dress, its mouth sealed shut to stifle its tortured animal like cries.
I understand that Emily bled to death from her wounds. Maybe they let the two tormented souls slip away into death were alone they could be free from one another?
My experience changed me inside. My hands now shook horribly. I found them unable to hold a brush steady. I no longer saw anything beautiful in the world, only perverse forms that beckoned and allured, only to rot or fade away to nothing. I realized that no one could ever really know beauty in such a world.
I have been making plans for my upcoming show at the gallery, very special plans. Secretly... I will alter all of my paintings to reflect my new understanding of aesthetics. A razor will bare true testimony to the merits of my previous work. All of them will be unveiled before the crowd, slashed to ribbons like my dreams....all but one....my newest work.
Emily’s body disappeared before it could be shipped back to the Lawsons. It was found in an alley. Both her angelic face, and her poor brother’s had been neatly cut and peeled off.
It was necessary, of course. My newest vision demanded them both. I have stitched them both to the blank canvass where they shall be in the center of my gallery, my newest vision of beauty. I have a small pistol which I will pull from my pocket as the crowd admires my masterpiece. No doubt it will make quite an impression on them as I unveil it. And then....I shall complete the new work by putting the pistol to my head and adding my brains to the canvass.