Kiara's Painting.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”