"Why is there nothing?"
It was dark and what little light that escaped through the curtains of the windows revealed crumpled up paper scattered on the dark wood floor. Isaac held his brush to the blank canvas in the middle of the painting room. His eyes fixated directly on the canvas but his hand refused to move.
"What's going on? I have the image in my head, but…"
Isaac flinched and dropped his paintbrush. Every time he would picture the firework show with his friends he felt a chill throughout his body and his chest started to tighten.
"Explosions! In the sky, right over one of the outlets!"
He threw the paintbrush onto the floor.
"That's right. After all this time, I thought I learned to live with the fact that we lost you. And that Mom will…" Isaac trailed off.
"But after spending so much time painting, having fun with friends, taking care of Mom, and seeing Mei again, I… I don't want to lose what I have now."
A gentle smile found its way on his face as he bent over to pick up his paintbrush. He placed his paint tray on the table beside the canvas and began. Without a second later, he guided the paintbrush to different parts of the canvas with proper and concise strokes.
He used a dark coat for the background but combined it with a somewhat lighter shade of red to evoke the reflection of the explosion. Strokes that made the small waves of the sparkling river below seem to flow continuously under the bridge. Onlookers on the bridge and the fields next to the river were beside themselves as three sparks of light exploded in the sky. On the bridge, a couple leaned on each other were highlighted given how detailed they were drawn.
The sun was long gone when Isaac started to finalize his work. He added minuscule details to portions of the painting that would seem invisible to the untrained eye, ever the perfectionist that he was.
"Huh? What's this?"
Isaac looked down on his chair and saw that it had red stains. He looked back onto his tray and paintbrush.
"Must've gotten too excited." He shrugged and continued with the final touches.
Moments later he looked back down and saw that more red stains had accumulated. He looked at the tray and the paintbrush and was convinced that neither was the cause. Then he also noticed the collar portion of his shirt was stained with red. He touched his philtrum and felt a moist viscous substance that flowed all the way down to his chin.
"What?"
Isaac set the paintbrush beside the tray and tried to stand up only to feel sluggish and weak as every second passed by. He sluggishly walked to the door and placed his hand on the doorknob only for it to slip off and for him to lose his balance. A loud thud as Isaac fell on his bottom. He wiped his nose and looked at his hands to see how much blood he'd lost. He felt weaker and weaker as his vision started to grow darker. He tried to crawl back to his chair to reach his phone but only made it halfway before losing consciousness.
~~~
"Isaac! Isaac! Mei's waiting for you outside." Mrs. Aikawa said as she urged Isaac who had been upset all day.
"Tell her she can go home! We can play another time." Isaac pouted and stomped his way back up the staircase.
Just then, the front door swung open and Mei rushed inside the house.
"Hey! What's up with you? I thought you said we could play baseball outside today but you kept me waiting for so long!" Mei shouted from the bottom of the stairs.
"T-That was before you called one of my paintings weird!"
"Huh?! When did I ever say that?"
"Yesterday! I showed off my drawing of you and you said it was weird!"
"THAT WAS ME?!" Mei said, astonished that the unattractive drawing she remembered in her head was actually one of her.
Isaac turned his cheek to Mei then proceeded to cross his arms with a heavy pout on his face.
"Oh… Uhm well doesn't that come with being an artist! You have to be ready for scary people older than you to say mean things about your work!"
"..I know that, but…" Isaac mumbled.
"What was that?" Mei leaned in closer to hear.
"I SAID, I know that! But, it still hurts if you're the one saying it."
Isaac blushed, so did Mei who hid her face by turning his back to Isaac.
"Now, now. I think you two have a lot to talk about. So Isaac honey, why don't you take Mei over to the kitchen while I get you two up something to eat?" Mrs. Aikawa said, inserting herself between the two.
Neither responded to her offer.
"Oh! I just remembered I had some leftover blueberry cheesecake in the fridge. First to get to the kitchen table gets the bigger sliiiiice!"
Isaac and Mei stared at each other for a second before bolting towards the kitchen. Mei had the upper hand as she was already on the first floor.
"No fair! I was farther away than you were!" Isaac said.
"Ho ho, that's what you get for skipping out of baseball today!"
"Urghh, I'll definitely play tomorrow and get faster than you are!"
"Oh suuuuuuure! I bet you will!" Mei said in a smug tone.
Mrs. Aikawa looked on as the two children argued like this for an hour before exhausting themselves and started talking like friends again. They shared each slice of their cheesecake then proceeded to run around the house after collapsing from exhaustion on the living room couch.
Isaac sprawled onto the couch and faced the ceiling. Specks of dust fell on his nose. He scratched it and felt moisture as he did and thought of it as his snot coming out then looked at his hand to see,
"Blood?"
His vision grew shaky. Mei disappeared from the couch opposite him followed by a loud thud that resounded from the living room entrance.
"Mom?!"
Isaac saw his mother on the wooden floor, her skin turned pale and her breathing ceased.
"Mom! Please wake up!"
"Mom! Please, Mom!"
Isaac kept shouting and shaking his mom to wake up. There was no response. The area around him started to turn black, as the darkness started to consume everything except the two of them.
"Mom!"
In a flash, Isaac opened his eyes and leaned forward, pulling the tubes on his arm along with him. His vision was fuzzy but as he started to look around he noticed a dark figure sitting beside him and talking.
"Who… Who are… Professor Kira?"
"You're awake!? Just stay calm, I already called the doctor over."
"Doctor? What happened?"
"I… I saw you in your room. Face covered in blood and looking pale. I drove you to the hospital, we're in the ER now."
"How did… you know?" Isaac woozily asked.
"I followed Ozwell for a while after submitting my resignation and noticed he made a stop at your place. I thought I'd check up on your progress and good thing that I did."
Isaac crunched his fingers between his eyes to suppress a sharp pain in his head.
"Who else knows?"
"I was about to call your parents. Just give me a second and–"
"Don't tell them."
"What? It's my responsibility to tell the parents if their student is–"
"But you're not a professor anymore, right?"
Kira was left speechless. The silence from the two left only the sounds of footsteps outside the room.
"I'm sorry but please, don't tell my family or even Mei anything. They have enough things to deal with as is."
Before Kira could respond, a group of nurses and doctors rushed into the room. Kira took a step back as the doctors examined and questioned Isaac for a time. Assumptions raced through his mind.
"Why was he so hostile?"
But what he wondered most was how the boy seemed comfortable. Even had a smile on his face after what had happened.