Chapter 15: Improvements and then…

Knight’s P.O.V:
Four days later, I was back at Elena’s doorstep, carnations, this time in pink, and a box of dark chocolates in hand, hoping that this time, I’ll be able to make some progress with her.
“Knight. Come in.” Elena opened the door without hesitation. “You didn’t tell me you-“
“Shit!” I dropped the baggage I was holding and rushed to her side. “How did you get hurt? When was this? Why haven’t you called someone? The Doctor! We’re going there right n-“
“Goodness Knight! What’s wrong with you?” She pushed me back hard enough that I stumbled over the box I’d dropped and nearly landed on my ass. “What’s going on?”
But my heart was at the pit of my stomach and terror had taken me in a chokehold. The only thing I could do was point my fingers in the direction of her forehead and cheek that was covered in a dark red liquid. How could she not be feeling any pain? Her entire face was covered in blood!
Elena touched her forehead and cheeks with her fingers and brought them in front of her face, her brows frowning in confusion. Her eyes widened when she saw the blood, and then…she burst out laughing.
I stood there flabbergasted, staring at her like she’d gone completely nuts while she stood there laughing uncontrollably. Is this a pregnancy thing? Women usually get mood swings during their pregnancy, don’t they? Is she going to realize her pain and start crying soon?
But nothing of the sort happened and Elain kept on giggling while clutching her stomach and that’s when I noticed that she was wearing a worn out off-white t-shirt that was stained with several other colors including red and when I brought my own fingers closer to my face, which had a slight tint of red on in from when I’d toughed her face, and took a small sniff, I too began laughing.
Turns out, it wasn’t blood at all, it was paint.
“Oh my God!” Elain wiped away tears from the corner of her eyes. “If you’d only seen your face!”
“Well, what was I supposed to do? I saw half your face covered with some dark-red liquid stuff and any normal person would’ve assumed it was blood!” I defended.
“Fair enough, come in.” She moved out of the way as I picked up the flowers and the box of chocolates and entered the house.
“Wow, it smells like cinnamon in here.” I sniffed the air to get more of the delicious scent into my nostrils.
“I’m making Cinnamon rolls.” Elain walked over to her kitchen to check on the said rolls in the oven. “They’ll be another twenty minutes. Do you want some beer?”
“Sure, thanks.” I handed over the blowers and the box. “These are for you. Sorry about the box, it fell to the floor earlier.”
“Oh, that’s alright. With the way my chocolate cravings have been the past few days, I can eat them off the floor.” She said as she handed me a beer bottle from the fridge and went over to the sink to put the flowers in a glass jar.
“Why do you have so many beer bottles in your fridge? You aren’t drinking any, are you?” I asked suspiciously. I didn’t need a pregnancy handbook to tell me that alcohol is harmful for the baby.
“No, I don’t feel like it either. These are just for friends who keep dropping by unannounced. You can have more if you want.” Elain told me as I took a sip of the ice cold beer.
She then tied her hair up in a messy bun and began rinsing her face under the water. She turned towards me halfway through to show me now almost-clean face. “Did I get all of it?”
“Umm…no, just a tad bit near your hairline…yeah, right there.” I guided her as she wet her hands and wiped her face clean of the red stain.
“Thanks.” She used a spare kitchen towel to wipe her hands and face as I finished off the beer and disposed off the bottle. She then took off the white color stained shirt she had on to reveal a blue spaghetti strap tank top under it. She kept her black knee length skirt on and let her hair back down to fall gracefully around her shoulders. The entire time, I heard her humming a tune to herself. The song felt familiar but I couldn’t remember at the moment where I’d heard it before.
“You seem to be in good mood today,” I noted. I know she’d promised to give this a try, but she always had these stress lines on her forehead whenever I was near her. Today, however, she seemed more open, more relaxed. It was the first glimpse I had of the real Elena Thunder…well, if that is her real name.
“I’m usually in a good mood when I paint,” she said before giving me a pointed look. “Which I’m not sure is something you should be asking a pregnant lady.”
“Shit! Sorry…” I apologized both for the question and for cussing.
“It’s okay.” She said before moving away from the kitchen and towards a room. “You coming?”
“Where to?” I asked as I followed behind her.
“My studio.” She called out without turning and then opened a door right next to her open bedroom door and entered. “Come on in.”
I entered a little hesitantly, was she taking me to some secret room so she could murder me and bury me there for no one to ever find me again? Although I highly doubted that part, I was still a little weary to enter the room, but when I finally did, I was left transfixed to my spot, completely and utterly spellbound.
The room wasn’t very big, but the entire space was covered with dozens and dozens of paintings. The room had a high ceiling and each wall had at least fifteen to twenty paintings on it, except for one wall that had almost fifty small paintings that made up one large scenery. The small paintings all had some kind of unique detail and each one could be used separately, but together they were a masterpiece. It was scenery of heaven. The bottom half was made of clouds floating above the mountains while on top was a land filled with greenery and beautiful flowers with swans swimming gracefully on a lake a little child with tiny wings, most probably cupid from the looks of it, sitting on the grass and aiming at a pair of swans that were supposedly moving away from each other on the water.
“Wow…” I breathed. “This is…gorgeous!”
“Thanks,” Elain said as she covered a painting with an entire sheet of blotting paper.
I walked up to the nearest painting on the wall. It was of a ballerina mid jump and she was wearing a white dress. It was stunning how Elena had defined the dress from the background with tiny details and the posture of the woman itself looked like it was a still photograph rather than a painting.
“E.T? That’s your pseudo name?” I asked while tracing the words on the bottom of the painting with my fingers.
“Yeah. It had several meanings so no one can trace it back to me.” Elain came to stand beside me. “Besides, it’s a common knowledge amongst most people that models don’t know a lot beside sitting down and looking pretty.”
I couldn’t exactly disagree with her on that point since I know a lot of models who’s only concerns are make-up and clothes. But there’s also the fact that models make a living by the way they look and dress, so…
“Who inspired you to become a model?” I asked instead.
“No one. I just wanted extra cash so I could pay for college tuition.”