The oil painting shows a sailboat running aground on the coast. The moon in the sky is completely obscured by the dark clouds brought by the coming storm, but the soft moonlight still shines through the gaps in the clouds to the earth.
Lightning and thunder in the distance cut through the darkness of the sky, and the lightning gave the nearby clouds an orange-yellow color.
A group of sailors were pulling ropes to hold the ship together on the rough shore, and several people on the lookout were climbing up the ropes to the shore.
The bubbling waves in the sea hit the rocks on the shore, splashing water higher than a person.
Some people were busy pushing the ship's cargo away from the shore, some were busy taking care of the wounded, and some had their hands outstretched as if to scold the bad weather.
Although this painting by Freya Linmu is not very skillful, it captures the despair of the characters.
Freya described each painting in the exhibition hall to Eisen, and she seemed to enjoy the process.
Aisen listened quietly to Freya's account of her mental journey during the early stages of her creation.
"So, in addition to the works here, you have copied about two thousand paintings?"
Eisen asked.
"Well, this is just a small part. Most of the others have been destroyed by me. Many people call me a genius, but I just painted what I saw."
Freya said, pointing to a row of paintings behind her.
From those paintings, we can see that Freya has formed her own style, just like the one in the side hall, which makes people feel uneasy as soon as they see it.
Eisen looked at several paintings in the back row and even found that some of them were covered by a large piece of black cloth.
"What did you see? What does it mean exactly?"
Aisen pointed to a piece of work that Freya had created independently, not copied, and asked,
"Such a scene shouldn't exist in reality, right?"
It was the image of a white stork flying in the blue sky, but there were two sharp eyes on the stork's wings.
“I often have strange dreams and then I draw what I remember.”
Freya stammered.
"I am still copying after all. Well, if you don't believe me, just treat me as a lunatic."
But Aisen nodded, looked at Freya with affirmative eyes and said,
"I believe you. Because lately I've started having these weird, weird, disturbing dreams too."
Eisen looked at Freya's paintings. The terrifying and panic-inducing feeling was exactly the same as the oppressive feeling in his dream.
The paintings present all added some strange elements to ordinary scenes to create a horror atmosphere, but it was still within an acceptable range. However, the other three paintings covered with black cloth were enough to make one feel terrified just by taking a glance at them.
Freya walked to one of the easels and suddenly lifted the black cloth covering it, revealing the true appearance of one of the oil paintings.
That is the starry sky, a corner of the Milky Way.
The stars tried their best to shine with their own brilliance, but the surrounding light was absorbed by an ominous and huge star.
Although the picture is still, it gives the viewer the feeling that this huge star is moving aimlessly.
It is not an ordinary planet, but gives people the feeling of being alive; there are several eyeballs of different sizes without eyelids on the surface of the planet, and there is a huge crack under the largest eyeball. A long tongue stretches out from the crack, licking, and rolling up a star and sending it into the crack.
A lavender gas was rising from this strange-shaped planet, like the breath of a giant star, and one could tell at a glance that it was extremely poisonous.
The surrounding stars seem to be unable to avoid it, and their fear of this giant star is revealed in the dimming of its light. This fear of the unknown of the universe, the Milky Way, and the starry sky will be implanted in the minds of the viewers.
"I call this painting "Purgatory Star". Isn't it a very appropriate name?" Freya said faintly.
Aisen was so shocked by the content of the painting that he was speechless. If his dream was just about personal destruction, then the scene in Freya's dream was definitely the end of the world. If such a planet came here, human civilization would not be able to resist it at all, and could only watch in despair as the whole world was swallowed up.
Aisen understood why Freya had such severe dark circles under her eyes and looked so haggard.
"It must be very hard to keep having dreams like this, right? I've been having dreams like this for two days and I can't stand it anymore."
Driven by empathy, Eisen spoke these words with compassion.
Freya didn't say anything, just nodded and lifted another piece of black cloth.
The background of the picture is a dark space similar to the underground, and in the middle of the picture is a ray of light projected from the door and a back figure.
One could vaguely see that it was a human figure from behind, with slender limbs, but the body seemed to be covered with a thin layer of light gray gauze.
The back of this human figure is not sitting, but seems to be gliding or floating in the vague space.
It seems to be guarding something and hiding something, but no one knows or understands its secret.
"This is 'The Gray Recipient of Secrets', a painting completed last month," Freya explained.
Eisen found that this painting did not seem as dark and desperate as the previous ones. Instead, it presented a sense of mystery full of wisdom.
"The one you saw in the side hall is called 'Shadows in the Church.' These paintings are my own collection. They are the ones I am most satisfied with, so I have never sold them. Unfortunately, one of them was stolen some time ago. It was 'Hounds' that was originally on the last shelf."
After Freya finished speaking, she pointed to the last easel whose black cloth had not been lifted, and left the exhibition hall with Eisen.
Freya arranged for Eisen to wait in her room first. She was mentally prepared for what was going to happen next.
"I'm going to take a shower and change my clothes." Freya rarely showed a mischievous expression, then let Eisen sit in the room while she went to take a shower.
Aisen felt a little conflicted. Although his original intention of coming here today was to vent his stress and emotions, after everything that happened today, he felt conflicting emotions.
Eisen seemed to have lost the instinctive desire in his heart, which was an extremely abnormal thing; if it were normal, Eisen should have been taking off his clothes excitedly, revealing his well-developed chest muscles and lying on the bed waiting for the beauty to come, but he didn't.
He folded his hands, rested his elbows on the desk, placed the palm of his left hand on the back of his right hand, and supported his chin with the back of his left hand.
After a while, Freya came out of the bathroom wrapped in a thin bath towel, with crystal water droplets on her hair.
"What a beautiful sight it is, a beauty emerging from her bath." Eisen thought silently in his heart.