Page 47 of The Pale Rider
“Ariel, do you promise not to beat me with Smurfette if I come in your bedroom?”
“Explain from the door, and I’ll decide.”
“Your father wasn’t president when you painted that. The men in that painting are my team, and we weren’t fully formed yet. The man kissing you is Dice, and the man kissing your shoulder is Asher. You knew Leif and I. You had photos of us, but you didn’t know Dice and Asher because they hadn’t joined us yet.
“We knew your father was planning something big, but we didn’t know what.Youwere the one that told us his plans eventually involved inserting himself as president. When you saw that, you called Leif and me on three-way and said you would come to help us stop him.”
“It’s true, Ariel. You came barging into my apartment right in the middle ofThe Bachelorette,and you knew not to bother me during my show. You were ranting about how your father would become president and how you had to go to Mexico so you could stop him. We talked every night about your chat friends. You were trying to figure out if you could trust them or if they were really working for your father. When you painted yourself with them like this, you knew you could. Your visionsalwayscome true, Ariel.”
I pointed Smurfette at Aeron, who was still hiding behind the door frame.
“I’mnothaving an orgy with you and your friends in the Oval Office.”
Aeron held up his hands in surrender.
“No one is forcing you. Are we past this nonsense that I’m working for your father now?”
“That depends. Are you past your nonsense where you keep secrets from me, and you decide when you think I’m ready to hear something?”
Aeron sighed.
“Fine! But if I tell you something and you flip your shit, keep your bat to yourself.”
“Are you going to explain the horses now?”
“This is very biblical, Ariel. Pestilence, War, Conquest, and Death. We’ve had all of those. You saw that and painted it. Your paintings weren’t always as realistic as what’s above your bed. Some were just symbolism, and you didn’t know what it meant until something happened.”
“He’s right, Ariel. Sometimes, we’d sit and try to figure out what your paintings meant, and it never made sense until something hit the news.”
“But that’syourhorse, Aeron!”
“Sit down, Ariel,” Miss Mabel said. “You’re focusing on one small thing instead of the big picture. The horse is just a symbol. You need to be worrying about why you saw something out of the Book of Revelations when you painted this series, and it’s all come to pass. I know more about the bible than you do. You always thought it was a fairy tale. If this is biblical, it only gets worse from here. All of this is just the start.”
“She’s right, Ariel. It’s about to get much worse, and we need you. You saw this, and you painted it. This ends in the Oval Office.”
“With an orgy, apparently. I don’t even know you assholes.”
Aeron just smirked at me.
“Dice and Asher don’t know you either. They might have opinions about this painting too. Leif liked you in chat, but he might change his mind if you threaten him with Smurfette like you do me. We might not want to have an orgy with you either.”
Well, that was just offensive.
“So, I guess we are going to Mexico, then going to D.C. to kill the President where wewill notbe having an orgy in the Oval Office later.”
Aeron visibly relaxed.
“We can’t stay here long, Ariel. Catch up with Mabel and try to remember as much as you can, but then we have to leave.”
What I wouldn’t give to just hang out with Miss Mabel and pretend like none of this was going on. But apparently, I could draw the future, and my father managed to put something biblical in motion. I had no idea how the fuck we were supposed to stop that, but killing him would undoubtedly make me feel better.
Chapter 28
I
spent a lot of time in my bedroom studying the paintings I chose to keep. I was hoping it would give me some sort of clue to the things I painted before I went missing. Some of them had symbols I couldn’t even begin to guess what they were, and some were so abstract, I was letting my eyes blur and looking for a sailboat. They weren’t nearly as apparent as the painting I hung above my bed. What the fuck was I doing that I even painted that?
Miss Mabel and Aeron were in my room, trying to help me put together the mystery of my art. Miss Mabel was here when I painted them and chose to keep them. Aeron had only been in my apartment a few times as far as I knew, but he seemed to know what all of those strange symbols meant, and I didn’t take him for being into art or different languages.
