Monolith World 5 The Painting

And it seemed like her personality changed at the drop of a hat. This was the unseen personality that unnerved Jon; the side she would never show him. And for good reason. If you were to see a completely different side of someone you thought you knew well, it would undoubtedly be jarring.

The smile from earlier faded completely. There were no traces of warmth left on her face. There was only a robotic indifference, and her eyes seemed nearly iced over. If someone asked if this were her true nature, the answer would be yes. In fact, both sides of her could be considered her "true" nature. Like a coin, both sides of her were needed in order to survive.

As the commotion subsided, she thought to herself about his rapid development in the recent times, and how *he* was able to unlock Jon's true learning potential. And for a rare moment, she cursed her inability.

"Honestly, I really can't believe *he* beat me to it..."

Jeanna had a good idea of who this "friend" character of Jon's was. She had known him for a long time, and she even considered forcibly terminating their relations.h.i.+p. But she couldn't, because of how Jon was improving recently. A double-edged sword.

"It's not too late... we can turn this into a new opportunity and still win."

To be fair, this turn of events was mostly a positive for her, and she had to wonder what *his* family was truly planning. It made less sense the more she tried to think about it. Perhaps, it was a clue her cold-hearted personality couldn't crack.

"Oh well..."

As she mulled over the topic a little while longer, she decided to take a quick stroll around the house. Or rather, she had a very specific destination in mind. The hallway leading to Jon's room. Each of her footsteps on the hardwood floor, though not loud, seemed to reverberate endlessly against the walls in the quiet and lonesome house. If someone were here to witness this, they would feel an unnecessary rising tension as she proceeded closer to the entrance of the hallway.

"That Jon... he's never usually clumsy at all. I guess I really must have freaked him out yesterday. And the majority of his life, apparently."

With a wistful sigh, she continued her march; the floor transitioned from hardwood to carpet, and the lighting dimmed slightly.

"It's been a while since I've been here, looks like Dad renovated it a little? Oh, these pictures..."

Jeanna noticed the three photographs and grew nostalgic thinking about all of them, especially the one with all of the siblings together. Of course, the first thing she noticed when she entered the hallway was indeed the empty slot to her right, and the last picture face down on the ground. She just payed more attention to the other three, since they were aligned like they were supposed to be.

"Now, I wonder what this last one is..."

She began to slowly lift the bulky frame from two of its corners. As soon as she was able to catch a glimpse of the painting, she immediately recognized it. She uncharacteristically paused for a long time, still holding the frame at an odd angle off the ground. Her previously indifferent expression warped into something impossibly cold. Jon would have undoubtedly opened wounds from his slowly healing trauma so they couldn't be healed again if he were to witness this sight. Her eyes went slightly wider and the narrowed again, and she gritted her teeth. The entire atmosphere around her seemed to drop a few degrees; no, it literally did drop a few degrees. The thermostat went into overdrive as the heating for the house kicked in.

"Jie... You think he's ready for this? Unforgivable."

She let go of the corners of the frame, allowing the painting fall back to the ground in the position it had been in earlier. Face down on the carpet. She proceeded to briskly walk out of the hallway, not looking back.

As Jon astutely knows, the subject of this painting was indeed a fictional work. Two oblong semi-ellipses of different heights crafted of an unknown material sat a few centimeters apart from each other. Right down the middle of the two, there was a circular carving, a semi-circle on each of the stones. A sphere of varying colors floated perfectly in the middle of the carving. A collimated beam of teal-colored light shot up into the sky from this sphere, electrifying the atmosphere around the whole structure.

The engraved plaque on the bottom of the frame which Jeanna had lifted read the name and artist of the work - "Monolith; Jeanne Xu".