The longer he stared at the painting, the more his grip on reality began to fragment. His work had begun so innocently but, now that he had become so captivated by this painting, he knew his collection was far from complete.
He finished his lunch and made his way out of the museum. Every day he spent 45 minutes, vaguely noticing that he was eating because he was so moved by Botticelli’s depiction of these women. He was hypnotized by the way they seemed to be suspended in time. He wanted that for his masterpiece. He wanted to capture the very essence of life standing still as the famous painter had been able to achieve on his canvas.
The day dragged on and his thoughts turned to his work in progress. If he put his artwork into perspective, it was a little over half-finished. He knew he had a great deal of work to do before he could compare himself to the master.
As the office day came to a close, he gathered his artist tools and ventured out into the waning daylight to get inspired. His black van wound through the streets and he steered towards the park. He saw her from a distance. Her blonde hair danced in the breeze and he was mesmerized. Her had found her. He had found his Flora.
He pulled up under an overhang of tree branches and, after a great deal of effort on his part, coaxed her over to the van. He could see she was nervous and he enjoyed the ruse more than the actual abduction. He had told her how much he wanted to capture her vitality on his canvas and she was duly flattered. She didn’t see the syringe until it had been plunged into her upper arm.
When he arrived home, he flung her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and took her to the basement to meet the others. The three Graces huddled in the corner, chained together, while the man who would portray Zephyrus lay unmoving in the corner. Flora had not yet regained consciousness and he placed her gently on the mattress in the far corner, making sure to bind her wrists and ankles and chain her to the wall.
He was so close. He only needed Spring and Venus to complete the picture. He, of course, would play Mercury and, when all of the pieces were found, he would recreate Botticelli’s masterpiece in a living, human tableau. He was convinced he would be able to display his masterpiece beside the original painting in the museum.
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Written for the Grammar Ghoul Challenge to use this visual prompt by Botticelli and the verb form of the word “fragment”.
polysyllabic profundities 
Pageant of the Masters only way more creepy! Well done.
Thank you very much. 🙂
Definitely some ‘madness’ here….yikes!!
He’s a bit “off”….lol
Whoa. This one will stick with me for a long, long time. I wonder how this will turn out…
Nicely done!
Thank you very much.
eeeeeeek….. totally creepy! Nicely done!
Thank you very much.
Oh, please don’t tell me he’s into taxidermy.
No…he’s more of a “live theatre” guy.
Well, that’s, I guess, kind of a relief.
I’m not sure what he does for the encore, mind you.
Turns himself into the police, maybe?
I don’t have much a stomach for horror fiction, you see.
Then the last paragraph would have him serving them a full Prime Rib dinner before the show and allowing them to hand him over to the police. It’s all very uneventful. 😉
Oh, I know it’s a terrible, terrible ending. That’s why I steer clear of horror.
Unfortunately, it’s what I write best. I’m not sure why. I’ll make sure to write a story just for you about puppies and rainbows. 😀
No! I like your horror stories.
Phew….as much as I love them, I don’t know if I could write about rainbows and puppies.
Yipes, that guy’s a creeper.
Yikes. Fantastic take on the prompts, Susan! I love the way you used fragment. And I always enjoy how dark and twisted stories your stories can be. 🙂
I wanted to at least research the painting to do Botticelli some justice – haha. I’m glad you liked it!
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