Lacuna(1)

September 4th, 2019

18 years old 09/04/19

"Boys!" I heard the old man boom down the hallway, "I have something you will, hopefully, like." Me, Jamie, Xander, and Nash all arrived on our own times me first, then Nash, then Xander and, as expected, Jamie last.

"So what even is it?" Xander furrowed his brows. Our grandfather had called us to the hall, a long lit hall with paintings lining both walls top to bottom. But, there had always been one empty spot, it also annoyed me. So much could go in that one spot yet nothing was there.

"We will finally be completing this... area." He gestured around the open space on the wall. A door opened at the end of the hall as four men hauled in a painting. "Just on time!" He clapped his hands. The four men carefully lifted the painting to its respective spot on the wall. "Perfect." Our grandfather whispered.

I studied the painting for a while. It was all of us. In order from left to right it was Nash, Me, Jamie, and then Xander. This painting had immense detail, down to the very strand of hair or glint in an eye. Everyone's height lined up exactly like how it did now. The only way I could describe it was —as my grandfather had said before— perfect.

Nash was in his usual casual stance. Thumbs in his belt loops, hat slightly tilted to the side, it felt like his hazel eyes were staring directly at me. He was wearing a dress shirt and suit pants. Who ever had made this painting had at least a dozen years of experience. There's no way they couldn't have. To achieve this amount of detail, you'd have to go to some Ivy league college.

Next in line was me. In this painting I was cuffing a left cuff, something I did when I didn't have anything to do with my hands, the silvery-blue eyes completely match mine. The exact hair and skin color. My posture was completely straight, like usual, compared to the rest of my brothers. I was wearing my usual gray suit, completely clean and straight. Not a wrinkle in sight. I had had a little scar on my pinky from when I was younger. I hadn't ever told anyone the story unless they were immediate family. That scar was there. In the painting. I was also closer to Jamie than I was to Nash.

After me was Jamie. Jamie was closer to me than he was to Xander. He was also standing similar to Nash, except he had his hands in his pockets. Also like Nash, he was wearing a dress shirt but he had two buttons undone at the top and part of his shirt untucked from his pants. Quite accurate. Jamie's dark hair laid messily across his forehead, his green eyes had a certain mischievous glint in them. For how many formal events we went to, I was always surprised how Jamie either ended up without a tie and coat or without a shirt altogether.

Finally, Xander. He had on his suit similar to mine but the suit jacket wasn't buttoned. Other than that, he also looked like he had been in a car wreck. His was messy, his eyes were wild in a way. Not the aggressive type of wild you read about in books, but the untamed kind of wild. Exactly like how he was. Untamable.

"Who painted it? They must have many years of experience. At least a dozen." I quoted my thought from before.

"Actually," He turned to me, "the girl who painted this is Jameson's age. I'm also pretty sure Jameson has met her before. She immediately took up the offer without even hearing about the pay," He let out a huffed laugh. "Very enthusiastic girl."

"Really.." I was genuinely surprised.

"So who is it?" Jamie asked impatiently.

"Does the name Evelyn Hastings ring a bell?" That got a reply out of Jamie.

"It indeed does." It took me a second to figure out where I recognized the name from and then I realized. I froze. Everything around me was gone. Everyone. Every sound. Everything.

Evelyn Hastings..

I thought back to my photos.

A blonde, blue eyed girl at a ski resort with her family. Her parents, and her older brother, who I learned's name is Max, and finally her younger brother, James. The photo of the smiling blonde girl drinking hot chocolate after getting back for hours of skiing. Evelyn.
Evelyn Hastings(13) 12/28/15 Hawthorne Ski Resort.

"Ea..h t... Grayson.." I snapped out of my thoughts, Xander aggressively waving a hand in my face. "You good?" I nodded in response.

"Fine and dandy." Everyone was looking at me weird now.

"But yeah I know her. I saw her in Santa Barbara and also at a fair in Massachusetts." Jamie finished.

"Excellent! It's nice to have a familiar face around here." He winked before walking away. Familiar face? What does he mean by that?
*****
Search: Evelyn Hastings
results for: Evelyn Hastings.
Does she know the truth? Singh vs Connecticut
Https://www.Forbes.com
After interviews with the sister of Max Hastings, Salil's 'best friend', investigators have been ....

A not so usual summer camp. Summer camp leads to 3 injured teens, 1 dead adult.
https://www.nytimes.com
3 teenagers Evelyn Hastings, Stephanie Bell, and Nathaniel Fisher are all left injured after a failed investigation of this summer camp's dark past.
—-———————-———————-——————
Evelyn had looked prettier than ever. I had been stalking her Instagram and other social medias for the past three hours. It was already 10 o'clock P.M. but I wasn't going to stop anytime soon. I was too captured by Evelyn's stories. She was in the hospital for a month because at a summer camp she went to she got shot in her right calf which also broke the bone. She's also back in the hospital sick. This was the eighth time with this sickness. It gets closer and closer to killing her. Every. Time.

It was scary. Knowing someone so close yet so far could just die. You might know, you might not.

For some strange reason, I feel like she never leaves me. We saw each other once and it feels like she's never gone. Jamie had talked to her. Personally. But he doesn't think about her constantly. (I don't think at least) And all I have done is look at her and take a picture, yet she never goes away. And I need to figure out now or I might just go insane.

She doesn't know me. Evelyn doesn't know me. Well, maybe not for long. But I know her.