Painting was like her life’s job. She
could never get enough of painting. Her name was Kiara and she was a famous
painter.
She had started painting when she was
only 13 years old. She won many awards and had travelled around the world and
painted many beautiful landscapes.
One day, Kiara travelled to China.
She had booked a five day stay at one of the hotels there. Her aim of going
there was to paint the West Lake, the freshwater lake in Hangzhou.
Kiara took out her painting materials
and decided to paint in front of the lake where she got the best view. As Kiara
was painting, she didn’t notice that an old Chinese lady had come up to her.
“What are you painting there, child?”
Asked the old lady. Kiara turned around and said, “This magnificent lake. It’s
beautiful, really.”
“God, won’t it be wonderful if I
could see the bottom of this lake and live in it? That would be magical.” Kiara
mentioned. She admired the lake so much that she said that.
“So be it.” Said the old lady. She
begin to chant something in Chinese. Kiara turned back to see the old lady to
see that she had vanished in thin air.
Kiara turned back to her painting and
continued her artwork. She finished it in an hour and, after she was satisfied,
she packed her stuff and left the lake. She took a cab back to her hotel.
🎨
Kiara got at her hotel in the
evening. She freshened up and stayed in her hotel room. She read a book and
surfed the internet using her phone.
As Kiara was hanging out in her room,
she suddenly heard the running water coming from the bathroom. She put down her
phone and went into the bathroom and saw that the tap water was running.
Kiara looked at the tap quizzically
that was still running with water. She closed the tap and got out of the
bathroom. What she saw made her feel even more quizzical.
The painting of the West Lake that
she had leaned on the wall near her bedside was there but there was another
painting next to it. Only the bottom part of the canvas was painted skilfully.
Kiara begin to feel rather scared at
the sight of the other painting. Kiara took the canvas and put it under her
bed. That night, she slept with the covers covering her head.
🎨
The next day, Kiara woke up and sat
on her bed for a while, thinking about what had happened the night before.
The mysterious running water and the
mysterious painting that came out of nowhere. She looked to where she had leaned
the painting she had painted and, yet again, the mysterious painting was there,
next to hers.
She jumped out of bed and saw that
the painting had changed. The painting had been painted a little bit more on
the top and Kiara could see that it was an under-the-water painting as she saw
the figure of a Koi fish swimming in the water.
Kiara felt freaked out and yet again,
put the canvas under her bed. After a quick bath, Kiara left her hotel room for
breakfast and to visit the outskirts of China.
🎨
Kiara visited many of China’s
tourists’ attractions such as Huanglong where there was a variety of colourful
ponds, Jiuzhaigo where there was the Nuorilang Waterfall and the Five Flower
Lake and many more places. Kiara took an interest into China’s lakes and waterfalls
as they all looked mesmerizing.
But, something kept on bugging her.
Wherever she went, she wasn’t sure if
she was just imagining it or if it was really there but, she saw that
mysterious painting that she didn’t paint pop up multiple times wherever she
went.
She saw it on the back seat of the
bus she went on, she saw it in front of the shops she passed by, she saw it
everywhere! Kiara thought she was going mad. She couldn’t take it anymore.
Kiara went back to her hotel around
6pm that day. She burst her door open and saw that the mysterious painting was next
to the painting that she had painted 2 days ago. And, yet again, another layer
of the painting had been painted. The whole canvas had been painted this time.
She saw a face at the bottom of the
lake. There were Koi fish swimming on top. Kiara squinted her eyes and looked
closer at the painting. She was shocked when she found out that it was her.
She saw herself at the bottom of the
lake, screaming with her eyes open wide and her mouth even wider.
Kiara packed her stuff and checked
out of the hotel that very day. She got in a bus that was going to take her to
the airport.
In the bus, Kiara’s heart was
thumping like a drum. She was feeling freaked out and all she wanted was to go
back to her home in UK.
Kiara suddenly noticed that there was
no one else in the bus other than her and the bus driver. She begin to feel
even more freaked out.
“Sir, how long until we reach the
airport?” Kiara asked anxiously. From the rear mirror, Kiara could see that the
bus driver was grinning.
“We aren’t going to the airport,
Kiara.” The driver answered. “We’re going to the West Lake.”
The bus driver stepped on the gas and
the bus went faster. Kiara was screaming. She looked around her and saw the
mysterious painting on every bus seat. She was going mad.
“LET ME GET OFF!” Kiara shouted at
the top of her lungs. The bus driver obviously didn’t heed her words and drove
even faster, sending Kiara falling on the bus’s floor.
Kiara got on her feet and looked out
the window. They were nearing the West Lake. She tried her best to run to her
driver and, once she did, she choked the driver.
The driver didn’t seem to care. He
laughed loud and it scared Kiara out of her wits. The bus driver drove through
the trees and eventually,
Drove the bus into the West Lake with
Kiara in it.
🎨
An ambulance showed up in front of
the West Lake together with a police car. People begin to look over the fence
that guarded the West Lake. The bus that Kiara was in had fallen into the lake
together with the bus. The bus driver was nowhere to be seen. Kiara’s handbag
was floating and a painting was floating with it.
One of the police kneeled down to
reach out to the painting. The painting was magically safe and the water had
not wiped off any of the paint.
The police man looked at the painting
quizzically. “Hey, Aiguo Bai,” the policeman called out to one of his partners.
Aiguo Bai turned to Ai Chen.
“Get me a plastic for this item. It
might come in handy.” Ai Chen said. Aiguo Bai nodded and went to get a plastic
bag.
Ai Chen flipped the painting around
and saw writings.
“She said she wanted to live in the
West Lake. So she did.”
