blemish - 1.2

Character List: 
The Artist | The Lady | The Commissioner | Henrietta | Louise 

"Louise." "Yes, my lord." The doors felt paper-thin in Louise' hands as she pushed, but they would not be moved. She blew softly onto the doorknob, uncovering the keyhole. "My lord, this is the last resting place of the Artist and your Likeness. Are you quite ready to enter?" Henrietta smiled. Was a crooked smile. "I think I am, quite." Louise inclined her head, kneeling down and placing the doorknob against the seal on her neck. Thhh.... Rustles down the hallway. The clicking began anew as the rats fled to their haven. This smile was not crooked. It was beautiful. Henrietta glided through the doors, breaking the second seal. Her maid followed, silently, almost.

The Artist lay under the fallen canvas, lay in a pool of nondescript red, lay next to her.

An upturned corner on the sheet shows her face, perfect, save a small drop of nondescript red on her cheeks, pale and ghastly in the moonlight. A blemish.

Henrietta's dress fluttered as she skipped lightly over the far corner, admiring the face that stared past her at the ceiling. "That... is my Likeness?" "Quite far in the future, my lord. It well becomes you." Louise crouched next to the Artist's shoulders, blew softly onto his face; then, released the fist she had been clenching since called by her lord. The clock began to chime. The stench of a newly rotting body immediately occupied the room. Only the rats did not move. One drop of blood fell from Louise' palm as she closed it. The scent became null, odourless, once again. Louise had moved the Time for one second; but the jarring sensation in her gut, the taste of nothing in her mouth, came from elsewhere. Time was an old experience. But Louise had seen Henrietta's face; in all her years of service, that one face, experiencing one Time for one second, was the only one that had smiled through it.