SURRENDERED (continued):

I think that there has to be a dark side to everybody, it's just that artists have the god given opportunity to express it more often. My weapon is just this paintbrush right here and I can use it just like a magic wand to cast all the demons away, pure and simple.

I've been battling a silent enemy for years and it ain't exactly the White Rabbit or all the other voices in my head. No matter how badly I wanted to literally brush it off from my life it always came back to haunt me. And I promised Edith I'd make a huge example of it displaying it on a painting...but she ignores I already did it some time ago. An innocent game that turned into a goddamn nightmare...for now I'll skip that subject.

Saturday was it, I believe, I keep losing track of time. At long last I began to receive e-mail from Caroline, the real one and tried my best to pretend this wasn't another hallucination.

She said Freddie Cohen had been contacting his father for months to work on a side project of his. Great! Now it all starts to make sense since they have been doing their very worst to get to me in a very unorthodox way. To this point I actually didn't care if whether some eccentric millionaires who had nothing better to do were trying to use me, just buy me. Whatever they did with my work afterwards was none of my goddamn business.

"Hey there! You're alive!" cried Damien as he entered my office.

"Dude, I'm a cat and have nine lives, how awesome can that get," I said sarcastically. At that very same moment it occurred to me that I could pull the same kind of tricks I tried with Edith a few hours ago.

"Tell me something my friend and be completely honest..." I said as I put my hands together. " Do I seem like a tool for everyone else's pleasure?"

"W-what?!" he said freaked out. "Oh, I GET IT now, it´s about that whole thing yesterday, huh? I knew something didn´t go your way. But don´t worry, I´m practically invisible, especially around you know who..."

"Wait, what do you think I´m actually talking about?" I asked nervous.

"Some girl who happens to be the new "it" girl..."

"No,no,no, I wasn´t referring to her, I was telling you that lately I feel like my art is being used for sinister purposes. Some even believe they´re haunted, for crying out loud."

"Well, be careful what you wish for you know, oh, by the way, here´s the material you sent me out for the Cohen thing, and the supplies."

"Excellent, now we´ll see if this is actually the piece of the puzzle I was looking for." He gave a handsome hardback book with an abstract illustration adorned with primary colors.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Concerning The Spiritual In Art; my new magic book by the "sorcerer" Kandinsky. This will help me find out why all the lines are beginning to blur in my life lately."

(continued)...