She thought back to the day she was last able to paint, “It’s been way too long. I feel messed up inside. I feel nothing like myself. I need to create.”
The day was fast-paced and physically demanding. She got home and stared at her unfinished painting, envisioning what else she would add to it, but she couldn’t muster up the energy.
A week went by, and she felt full of darkness, but she couldn’t figure out why. Something kept growing inside her, and she felt “off.” She went to bed that night and dreamt nothing but disturbing dreams about eating a tar-like substance from the ocean. It was almost choking her as she swallowed it, but she couldn’t stop. She kept shoving it down her throat. She woke up in a pool of sweat. When she lifted the blanket, there was a claw with a thick clump of coarse black hair attached. “Where in the hell did you come from?” she questioned.
She got up out of bed and walked towards the kitchen past her painting. It's like it calls to her, but there is no time for it. She went about her day, but that night the dreams became worse. There was a dark, tar-like, hairy creature that followed her all through the dreams. It didn’t have a face, but its presence alone was terrifying.
The next night, the dreams started, but this time a child was with the creature, and she was sick. They were in a broken-down hospital. People were sick everywhere, and beds and medical supplies were scattered about. Wires were falling from the ceiling, and nurses had distorted faces. There were no doctors. Outside, volcanoes erupted, and the ground split in two. Nothing but chaos from all sides.
The next day, she decided to paint. "Maybe I'll feel better. Maybe I won't, but I need to set aside time even if I'm too tired. I need to feel again, and I need my soul to speak now."
She grabbed the paintbrush and spent hours finishing the painting. It was calming, the stroke of the brush. It seemed to soothe her tired energy. When she finished, she received this boost much like she had just won the lottery. It felt so good to finally finish it. “I felt so stuck for so long without touching this painting.”
That night, she dreamt of a lighthouse by the ocean and the water clear as day. The little girl was sitting on the ledge of a big rock overlooking the sea.
"Thank you for saving me."
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