Chapter 14.5

Lucas Avery had not originally been apart of the Exposition. He hadn't auditioned. Therefore was not going to be in it.

After Lucas kissed me on the head I had closed my eyes. Just a moment. But when I opened my eyes he was gone. I went inside and found my seat next to Anthony right before Emmet Morgan's performance, the second last one for the evening.

As I sat down the light grew even dimmer than before. The room was pretty much pitch black. The silence was almost loud as a circular spot light hit the stage. An empty canvas and buckets of paint sitting on top a large tarp on full display.

The haunting sound of Chopin's Nocturne op. 9 No. 2 started to fill the heavy defining silence.

I found it ironic actually. Because this classic song was often featured in horror movies. I was living in one. So the song only felt fitting.

I watch as Emmet's lean silhouette came into view, moving inside the spot light.  

As the music played Emmet started to move. I hadn't realized I had stopped breathing until Anthony whispered to me "Did you know Emmet apparently recorded this verse?" He asked me, referring to the somehow more eerie verse of Chopin's Nocturne.

I let out a small breathe "No. I wasn't on the committee the day Emmet auditioned. I just knew he passed."

After that Anthony stopped talking. And honestly I don't think a single person in the room could.

We were all hypnotized by the scene in front of us. I had seen live painting before online. But in real life? No.

It was completely sensual the way Emmet moved his body. You could see his muscles constrict and contract with every movement he made. I could almost feel his heat from all the way in the back of the auditorium. His arms, wrapped in thick bands of muscle, his hands large and nimble. The way the paint caressed his skin. Wow, was all I could process. His back was to the audience so you couldn't see his face. But I could almost picture those emerald green eyes alight with a burning fire.

I could feel my stomach heat up a little at the thought. Wendy was one lucky girl.

I realize I had been so enamored at his body I didn't notice the painting. But when I did I gasped.

The song was pattering out and the painting was almost complete. Somehow in a mere five minutes or so the backdrop of the canvas was pitch black. And in the center were two figures. A faceless man with a body of a god and a beautiful blonde goddess were on full display. The realistic painting and the lighting almost made the two figures look like real people on the stage. The man, well he was holding the woman, his body language was obviously posed as a man in a drowning in his own sorrow. Grief and a sense of a crushing loss was portrayed despite the lack of facial features.  The girls face was painted. But she held no emotion. No life. It was as if you were looking at the body of a dead girl, completely lifeless.  The girls blonde hair cascading as waves falling in the pitch blackness of his background. Her body almost completely enveloped in his. As though he were still trying to protect her despite being gone.

The music tinkered it's last few notes. Emmett slowly stopped moving. He turned to face the audience, a surprise since the performance started all we could see was his back. His face became illuminated by the spot light. His gem like eyes looking exactly as I had imagined them. He looked like a man who was burning. His face was only in view for a moment and despite knowing the impossibility of this, I felt as though he was staring directly at me. Something that couldn't have been possible since lights were currently blinding him. The air felt suffocating. Everyone could probably feel it. The electricity, the magnetism, and the danger coming off this other wise almost invisible man didn't felt pragmatic.

The music had finally ended and the stage went black. The air's heavy atmosphere disappearing as the light went out. A thunderous clapping filled the room.

I wasn't able to clap very loudly. I was still processing what was going on. Though the painting was out of sight now the girls lifeless face haunted me.

Because that girls face looked a lot like mine.

Emmett's Expo performance was originally cut despite being one of the first scenes I wrote back in 2016. But I felt it needed to be read.

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Also do you guys love Emmett? Hate him? Feel like he's dangerous? Or maybe one of the few people Candice can trust?