Rise of the Exile: a Shadow of the Tyrant King novel by JD Matter

Author:JD Matter [Matter, JD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-27T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29: Seeing Double

Painted Lucas did not look happy – the faceless front of his head was a jumble of contorted shadows. If Lucas had to continue the painting at that moment, he would have no choice but to paint an angry expression on that face.

“Uh…Hi there,” said Lucas, which woke Justim.

“Wow! Lucas, that’s your painting?”

“Yeah, but calm down. I don’t think he likes a lot of moving about.” Lucas turned back to his painted self. “How did you know I was here?”

Painted Lucas tapped where his temple would be and then pointed at Lucas.

“Do you know everything I know?”

Painted Lucas nodded. Lucas had a sudden realization that made him gasp. He knew everything his painted self knew as well. Those were not dreams in the night; they were reality. He and his painted self had a precarious connection of sorts, but it was a blurry connection that was subtle and difficult to comprehend.

“Did you do what I asked?” asked Lucas, already knowing the answer.

Painted Lucas nodded.

“And I suppose you want me to finish you now?”

He nodded more vigorously and moaned again, which woke up almost everyone else. Blake looked up, shouted, rolled while scooping up a fallen branch, and shot to his feet, wielding the branch like a club. Mr. Leatherhide remained asleep. Darlene’s head poked out of the tent flap, screamed, and then retracted back into the tent. Gretchen came thundering out. Painted Lucas, hunched and arms spread wide, threateningly approached her, growling. The leaves stuck to his painted feet like shoes, covering them, as he crunched forward. Gretchen recoiled.

“Stop,” commanded Lucas. “I said don’t harm anyone else, or I won’t finish you.”

Painted Lucas obediently halted, and his shoulders slouched like that of a scolded child.

“I can’t go on like this,” Lucas said to the others. “I can’t keep trying to control this thing. These visions…I can’t stand it anymore. I’m going to finish him like I promised…Right now.”

Painted Lucas followed the real Lucas back to Yellowleaf High School, and back to the canvas from whence he came. The school had been abandoned ever since Lucas’s painted self emerged and ran amok, which was not long after Lucas was apprehended and thrown in jail. Lucas remembered his dream in which he was in a classroom and the students were screaming at him; that was real – and it made him shudder. The school looked like a place frozen in time, like everyone had suddenly disappeared and left behind all their possessions. The two Lucases (Lucai?) headed for the art studio.

Lucas picked up his fallen easel and the blank canvas from which Painted Lucas was born. He retrieved some supplies: paint, thinner, and a palette.

“Okay,” said Lucas. “In you go.”

Painted Lucas hoisted himself up and into the painting as if he were climbing through an open window. Once inside, he was inanimate again; and in the exact same position Lucas remembered painting him. He even noticed that there were still little dried blood splatters from the Zeke explosion that had sliced Lucas’s ear.

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