Chapter 36 - I Believe You

He was dumbstruck by the change that he fell backwards, and the three other men tried to catch him.

"Did.... Did you see that!!!?" He pointed to them.

"My painting?" Henry asked, confused.

"Yes!!! It's not like that before!!!" Ashton said. "Look!"

Even the policemen are familiar with this painting. They have seen this in logos and billboards everywhere, it's always associated with the famous actor. But they can't see any change, it was just like how they saw it before.

"Wait..... Where did it go?" Ashton was frightened with his eyes as big as deer in the headlights. "It's there! I saw it!"

"Maybe..... Maybe Mr. Florice needs some rest after some major news. If things went to worse..... Don't hesitate to contact some help from professionals." The fat policeman reminded.

"No need, I'll take care of him." Henry said. "He's just overcoming his shock, that's all."

"We'll be taking our leave." They said and left.

"It's really there, Henry, believe me! The smile is different!" Ashton pleaded. "It's smiling so smugly like the devil!"

Once he closed the door, Henry turned to him with a serious expression. "I believe you. I also saw it."

Ashton's heart rate skyrocketed, and he could only hold on to Henry with shaky hands. "Y-You also saw it?"

"Yes." He placed a hand on Ashton's cheek. "I think... Only the two of us can."

"Why....." Ashton's eyes were flitting back and forth. "Why only us? Could it be..... Hah..."

Ashton suddenly had a flash of an idea.

"What if it..... represents my true self? What if it's warning me for what I've done to Sidney?"

Henry shook his head. "What made you think that? Sidney's death is not your fault---"

"But it is my fault!!! Henry, I pushed her and left her behind! Said those scathing words to her instead of trying to understand where she's coming from!!!" Ashton choked on his own sobs and coughed tremendously. "I killed her..... Henry, it's me who killed her....."

"No." Henry hugged him. "Ashton, no. Don't say that....."

"That painting is showing the truth already. It knows me. It is me." Ashton held his head, gripping at the ends of his hair.

Henry nodded. "I'll destroy it. I should have all this time---"

"No, Henry! I told you, you can't kill it. It would kill me as well!" Ashton said, with so much fear and sincerity.

Henry was dumbfounded for the first time, the usual calm and assured nature of his eyes under his glasses filled with an overwhelming sense of being lost, and not knowing what to do.

"Then, I would hide it for now. Or you must hide from it, stop looking at it as if it's a mirror." He proposed. "Ashton, you need to calm down in your room. You're already at this state of grief, looking at the painting would just make it worse."

He led the shaking Ashton back to bed, who continuously muttered. "I'm a killer..... I'm a killer..."

Once he closed the door, Henry pinched the bridge of his nose.....

And covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing!

He succeeded! After all these years of careful planning and preparation, placing every piece in place, he finally toppled the first domino. Like a Rube Goldberg Machine, it would never work if one of the pieces were placed in a slightly wrong direction, and he wasn't patient enough. But all the efforts were bearing their fruit in front of him, and he couldn't stop the twisted joy from watching it all unfold.

He had gotten rid of Sidney Lane without any trace of him being Harry Wotsil. That's good.

The police believe that Ashton is experiencing some psychosis from grief, and would not question him any further, letting him stay to recuperate with his kind painter friend. That's even better!

And finally....

Henry pulled out the very, very small switch he was hiding on his back.....

The east wall flipped.

There it was again, the copy of 'The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name', but with the bloodcurdling evil grin.

He had made that copy four years ago. Along with all the other modified copies he'll be saving for later.

They are his Painted Lies.

In 1944, a movie called 'Gaslight' was produced, which already had a predecessor 1940 version, and both were based on a play of the same name. It's a simple thriller noir story. The main part of the story is that it was a husband manipulating his wife into thinking she is losing her sanity slowly through tricks inside their very own home. That is where the psychological manipulative tactic 'gaslighting' came from.

He would cause the lights to flicker, and turn them back to normal when his wife would come up to him, claiming that it was all in her head.

Henry loved this movie.

Because this proves that such a simple action, and such simple words, can make people think and behave the way you want them to. The purpose of the man in the movie was a petty crime to get all the woman's riches, but this kind of simple manipulation can be used for greater purposes. Taken to the maximum, he could even make someone.....

Return the love he had been waiting for all these years.

The love he dare not speak of, but had already acted upon. He clicked the button again, and the painting flipped back to the original copy, and he kept a satisfied smile. This painting is Ashton. The one of the other side..... the one where he turned Ashton into an evil man...

It's a presentation of his love.

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Zhe Chouhen woke up in cold sweat.

He picked up his phone in reflex, wanting to talk to Daoist Panda----

But remembered what he had done to protect his thoughts from being invaded by the third party. The app with the animal mask and hollow eyes stared coldly at him.

He felt like he made the wrong choice by deleting the original Daoist Panda app. That mask looks just as treacherous and scheming as Henry from the original book, Henry from the dream. It felt like....

It was keeping Daoist Panda captive. And the thought made his chest hurt.

But again, he was left with no choice.

He sat up to look for Ashton. He went down to the living room....

And was horrified to see the ugly painting.

"No....." He mumbled. "No... How..... It's this ugly already...!!!!!!????"

He remembered the cold words of the system:

[Satisfaction Meter going negative. The system has to reboot. Because of this, your actions would not be registered and will be replaced by the original's events. Please act with caution next time to stay in character.]

But it replaced so much! What's the point of the wager now, when already two-thirds of the plot just continued exactly how the original Henry did so!?

How will he be able to turn it around into something not toxic!?

He angrily clicked the app to check the meters:

[Love Meter: 67%]

[Satisfaction Meter: 99%]

[Scum Meter: 99%]

(Fuck, 99% Satisfaction!? All your readers are sick fucks!) He cursed, almost breaking the phone with his bare hands from so much rage he had inside him.

The portrait of the once beautiful Ashton.... full of youth and innocence, his perseverance to pursue the things he loves apparent on those shining eyes.... It was changed into something completely unrecognizable.

It was a man in his 40s, still wearing that simple tank top, but drenched in sweat and soot. You can smell the rancid stench of sex and debauchery on him. There was smoke all around his house, some green, some purple, all looking toxic. His lips had become thinner, his skin paler but with darker shadows, rendering it ashen, and a big disgusting grin on his face. His eyes have two round glints, glowing like a phantom's, full of emptiness.

Zhe Chouhen had read about this already, but again, seeing it for yourself is different.

He heard a long dragging knock on the door.

He prepared himself, swearing he would not be shocked.

But he still was.

This was Ashton, age 32 already, yet looking not a day older than 21.

"Hellooooo, Hennnrrryyyy..."

He looked at him with lazy eyes, giggling for absolutely no reason. He was still so beautiful, yet you can notice a major change in him. He burped, and hang his head low, positively drunk or high.

It's been so many years. Zhe Chouhen had been replaced by Henry for so many years.

"Ashton, where have you been?" He knitted his eyebrows, and felt there were more creases than usual. Henry had gone old.

"Oh, you knowwwwww..... Here and there..... Partying....." Ashton collapsed on his chest. "Had a tour nearby... Thought I'd come over to an old friend... Can I?"

Zhe Chouhen bit his lip. Even if he wants to save him from this degradation, that fucking system will punish him for acting OOC. So all he could do is act like Henry for now. "Come in."

"Thanksss..... Hic....."

He helped Ashton to the sofa. The boy... well, the man who looks like a boy, saw the horrible painting and pointed. "Oh, there's some changes todayyyyy.... Wow...."

"Will this be what I look like if it weren't for the painting's powers?" He went over to caress the canvas kept behind glass. "I forgot to thank you... Thank you... Henry, for making this portrait..... and giving me immortality....."

"What do you mean?" Zhe Chouhen felt uneasy around him.

"I understand it now.... My wish..... Back then, didn't I say I want us to switch places? This painted Ashton and I." He hang an arm lazily around 'Henry'. "I said, I want to be beautiful like a painting forever. I want to be young and beloved by all. And it came true..... I don't know what magic has done it, but it's all thanks to you."

"To me?" He frowned. "Ashton, I would never forgive myself for making you this way. You think this portrait is portraying the real you!!!? Then that's horrible, so horrible, Ashton!"

"I think the ugliness is beautiful too..... Don't you think?" Ashton went even an inch closer towards him, noses almost touching. "I feel great whenever I see this painting, Henry. I feel..... rejuvenated."

"Look at you..... Is that a grey hair I see?" He went to pluck it, showing it to Henry triumphantly. "Everyone's telling me I never aged a day. Everyone's asking me what's my secret, why I still look exactly like that Most Beautiful Man you've spread on the internet. It's all thanks to you, Henry... Everything, I owe it to you..."

'Henry' broke away from him, sitting with a scowl. "Ashton, this could have been your imagination. Maybe----"

A pain in his heart again. Zhe Chouhen shut his mouth.

"Oh, oh? A cardiac arrest? I had a friend die in front of me from that." Ashton sat on his lap, placing a hand on his chest. "But that's because he's high off his rockers ahahahahaha! Bunch of party pills and Ecstacy can do that. There's also stories about people dying from so much stress, so much excitement even without taking drugs..... So take care of yourself."

"You're not immortal like me. So take care of your health, dear friendddddd~~~ Hehe!" He chuckled, playing with 'Henry's' face like clay and giggling incessantly.

(You're not immortal, Ashton!) Zhe Chouhen wanted to say. (It's all placebo effect! The only reason you look like you haven't grown older is that you believed so, and everyone believed so! Henry hypnotized you so much to even affect your physical attributes! But that doesn't mean you wouldn't die, you would definitely die from all these destructive things you are doing....)

He found himself grabbing Ashton's wrist. Unable to come up with anything to convince Ashton out of the dark path, he could only say. "Stop all this, Ashton."

"Stop what? Teasing you?" The man in his lap giggled again.

"You don't know...." He tried to think of how he can present himself in-character as 'Henry'. "You don't know how much it hurts me wondering where you will wake up next day, reading about the rumors spreading online, about the people you've possibly dated or slept with. You don't know how worried I am about waking up one day and seeing you on the news with the headline 'Famous actor dies of drug overdose'. I feel suffocated by your smell... I'm finding it hard to breathe....."

Ashton's lazy eyes widened for a while, listening to all of this.

Then, these eyes narrowed again, sultrily, like a siren's.

"Are you confessing to me?"

He positioned himself fully on top of 'Henry' now, his hips kneading his thighs a little.

"No! I was warning you as a friend who cares for all these years!" Zhe Chouhen panicked about how things are going. This isn't what his reaction is supposed to be, he should wake up and find the wrongness of how he led his life so far! Isn't he scared of how uglier the painting could be!?

"Henry... you think I didn't know?" His breathy lips trailed all over his reddened face. The scent of the weed and alcohol intermingled into a special kind of aphrodisiac, making Zhe Chouhen's heart go wild in its cage, his lungs filled with just the scent of this person.

His mind wants to resist, but a part of him doesn't want to. An internal tug of war, where he's trying not to be pulled by the string, but at the same time, he was also betraying his own resistance.

"I've always known you love me."

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