Thread: A Vision In Blood (Miss Eleanora and Mr. Quixotic)

In a run down and dilapidated section of the vibrant City of New Orleans, in a neighborhood that had not yet recovered from being ravaged by the Hurricane Katrina twelve years before, an unmarked and unremarkable van was parked on the side of the street. There were few out and about at night in the neighborhood, and even fewer who would give a van a second glance, but there was a sinister cargo within. There was dignity in death just as there was in life. The quiet stillness that no living being could match, the unblinking unflinching stare, the pallor of bloodless skin, these all contrasted so wonderfully with the vibrancy of the living. The woman who was the van's sole living occupant was very familiar with that. Her long red hair was tied up in a bun keeping it out of the way while she engaged in her less than savory second job. Pale green eyes were slightly veiled by the glasses that she wore, and her delicate features spoke to a refined and graceful beauty. Elizabeth smiled down at the cadaver so carefully arranged on the floor of the van. In life the man before her had been nothing save a flash in the pan. His youth and vibrancy would have quickly faded, the warm smile and handsome features would have succumbed to the ravages of time, firm muscles would have wasted away. But, now he was immortalized, his beauty captured eternally by her work. Elizabeth ran a delicate finger down the contours of her victim's face, tracing the flesh that had mere hours ago been warm with life, down to the wound that had stolen away that life. The surprised look upon his face as she had begun to cut, then the horror, and finally the way the light had left his eyes, had all been delightful each image etched firmly within her mind. And of course the rapture of feeling the hot crimson spray of his blood against her pale skin as it gushed forth. She had bled her victims dry many ways, some fast, some slow, and it never failed to excite her, seeing the way they changed in their final moments. Still, for all that, he was now simply a sack of meat, and one that would soon begin to stink as decay set in. She had taken from him what she needed, and used it to create. It was such a thrill to create her special projects, nothing else could compare, capturing the true essence of life using the very liquid that sustained life as the paint. Her eyes drifted to the print she had prepared. It was rolled up for ease of transport but had it been unrolled it would have shown a painting of the very man whose cadaver now lay upon the floor of the van. A crimson masterpiece depicting him in a pose straight from classical accounts of heroes. The moment Elizabeth had first seen him, a chance encounter upon the street, she had known that she had to capture him within her work, it had just been a matter of when and how. That was enough reminiscing, Elizabeth knew she would replay the memories in her mind countless times in the future and that she would gaze upon her work in an effort to relive the sheer joy she could find only in creating, but there was no more time for it now. Her thought was reinforced by the fact that the first unpleasant scents from the body began to reach her nose. She had driven to this neighborhood on purpose, it was on the edge of the city and well outside of the range where she had dumped her previous victims. It was foolish to be predictable and she knew that even if the assorted cop dramas and FBI television shows were full of shit that there was a basis in fact to looking for patterns in where bodies were dumped, so she would be one step ahead of them. A casual motion led to one of the doors on the back of the van opening, and she pushed the corpse out firmly, letting the naked body of the man fall to the ground with a thud. With the utmost care she took up the rolled up print of her latest piece and set it down upon the body. Then it was time to go, the entire dumping had taken mere seconds and there had been no one around to see anything. But, she was sure by the next morning it would be discovered and she was quite looking forward to seeing how her latest work was received. A warm smile flickered onto her face as she drove away from the scene.