Violet Mortis's Arc

Chapter 6 of 6

Violet drew three lines before the blonde man flinched. His eyes had moved past her shoulder to the wall behind the cabinet of crossed-out portraits. She turned. The wall was not a wall. A seam ran along the plaster, tall and curved, shaped like a giant keyhole pressed into the room. She set the journal down and stood. She pushed the safe of old portraits aside. Photographs spilled from its open door, faces sliding across the floor. Behind the safe, the seam was clear now — an arched doorway carved into the brick, sealed with a thin board painted to match the room. "You knew this was here," she said. The man shook his head. His hands stayed open. "I knew the building. I did not know it went further." Violet pried the board loose. It came away in one piece. Cold air pushed past her face, dusty and old. Beyond the opening stood a closet taller than the room itself, dark wood, gold trim, a small door set into its huge front. The abandoned building had been hiding a second building inside its walls. She stepped through. The man did not follow. Inside the closet, the air smelled of paint and paper. Shelves climbed past her sight. Hundreds of canvases leaned against each rung. Every one of them showed her own face. Violet stood still. She had come here to learn one stranger by looking. She had found a room full of someone learning her. The arc goal had not changed. The room had. She picked up the nearest canvas, turned it toward the doorway light, and began to study the face that was hers.