DRAMA NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE – THE STOLEN PAINTING
Jasmine whirled around to see Diego standing in dramatic silhouette before the supply closet, jaw agape in abject horror.
“Sacre bleu!” he bellowed, both hands clutching dramatically at his gaudy beret. “It cannot bel Someone has committed the most unforgivable desecration!”
Exchanging bewildered looks with her equally baffled students, Jasmine took a tentative step forward.” Diego? What’s going on?”
“Going on?” His anguished tone was rife with melodramatic flourish as he flung one arm up, gesturing wildly at the open supply closet behind him. “Only the most heinous, unpardonable crime imaginable – my latest magnum opus has been stolen!”
With that proclamation, he crumpled to his knees before the doorway in a paroxysm of theatrical woe, flinging his head back and wailing to the heavens. Thoroughly nonplussed, the rest of them could only gape as he thrashed about.
“Oh, the betrayal! The profound agony of this loss!” Diego’s shrieks spiraled up to a fever pitch, ending on a piteous moan that seemed to last an eternity. “Which black–hearted fiend among us could commit such unforgivable sacrilege?”
By now, Jasmine’s initial surprise had segued into the distinct suspicion that yet another of Diego’s outrageous stunts was afoot. Before she could move to intervene, however, Marcus was already pushing to his feet with an aggrieved eyeroll.
“Ugh, what cringe–worthy meltdown is this dude pitching now?”
Completely ignoring Diego’s hysterics, the lanky teen nudged his combat boot disdainfully against the prostrate form, prompting a muffled grunt.
“You do know whining won’t magically summon your dumb canvas back, right?”
“What?!” Diego’s mane of wild silver curls whipped back as he jackknifed upright, rounding on Marcus with wounded indignation blazing in his bloodshot amber eyes.
“How dare you dismiss my devastation over this unforgivable affront to my artistic sanctity, you uncultured cretin?”
Before Marcus could volley back another scathing retort, Jasmine swiftly interjected in a voice of measured calm. “Let’s not let our emotions get the better of us here, shall we?”
She fixed Diego with a pointed look, keeping her tone diplomatic yet firm. “If one of your pieces is truly missing, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation. An inventory mishap, perhaps, or simply getting put back in the wrong place. Why don’t we all have a look around, nice and calmly, and see if it doesn’t turn up?”
The tension in the air ratcheted down a notch as her rationality undercut Diego’s melodrama. Even the normally unflappable Penelope seemed to regard Jasmine with a slight air of grateful respect.
“Yes, let’s employ a more pragmatic, collected approach here,” the poised blonde agreed in her crisp enunciation.
She leveled an arch look at Diego from behind her stylish frames. “Certainly more productive than wallowing in operatic hysterics over something easily resolved.”
Rising to her full statuesque height, Penelope raised her chin in a authoritative manner that oddly reminded Jasmine of a no–nonsense litigator addressing a courtroom.
“I propose we separate and search the nooks and crannies of this studio in a systematic fashion. If none of us is withholding something untoward, then we’ll swiftly get to the bottom of this mystery.”
Before Diego could voice any overwrought protests, the others were already nodding in pragmatic acquiescence, rising to make a purposeful sweep of the room.
Agnes hummed a jaunty operatic tune under her breath as she peeked under tables with endearing gusto. Jacob slouched along half–heartedly poking through bins, head bobbing to some inscrutable beat on his AirPods Even Penelope tackled her self–appointed role with her usual brisk efficiency.
Relinquishing a loud, aggrieved sigh of one profoundly put upon, Diego finally hauled himself up from his splayed position on the floor.
Just for a moment, it looked like he might launch into a fresh torrent of impassioned remonstrations that was, until Jasmine caught his gaze with one coolly arched brow, as if to say ‘I can wait this tantrum out too“.
The fight seemed to go out of him as swiftly as air from a deflating balloon.
Diego’s shoulders slouched peevishly before he too began milling about with purposely exaggerated disinterest, pawing through supplies with the petulance of someone who desperately wanted to maintain their carefully curated aura of tragic genius
It was Marcus, headbanging through a pile of discarded canvases, who abruptly straightened with a look of consternation writ across his angular features.
“Yo, I found something over here under this mess!”
The others hastened over as the lanky teen crouched down, tugging free what looked like a large canvas shrouded beneath a heavy tarpaulin cover. Wide–eyed, Diego let out a strangled gasp, both hands flying once more to his chest in an operatic gesture of shock,
“No! It cannot be…my long–lost masterpiece!”
Before anyone could stop him, he’d already flung off the concealing tarp with a theatrical flourish, jaw dropping in rapturous reverence at the uncovered artwork.
The rest of them peered closer – only to find themselves regarding what appeared to be an utterly bizarre and indecipherable mix of colors, shapes, and textures haphazardly flung upon the canvas’s broad expanse in a frenzied fury.
Frankly, it looked more like the result of an abstract expressionist’s mental breakdown than any coherent. attempt at crafting beauty.
Jasmine arched one slender brow higher as she observed Diego prostrate himself with due gravitas before the sprawling creation, lavishing a reverent series of kisses upon the lurid paint splatters.
“Ah, my pièce de Résistance!” he crooned between each fervent caress. “My precious Beauté Brutale! At long last you have been rescued from the ignominious clutches of your vile abductors!”
Agnes leaned over to murmur discreetly in Jasmine’s ear. “Is it just me, dear, or has Diego become even more untethered to reality since the last time he helicoptered through here?”
“I’m afraid untethered barely begins to cover it,” Jasmine muttered back with a wry quirk of her mouth.
Meanwhile, Diego had progressed from worshipful osculation to clutching the wildly streaked canvas up against his leotard–clad form like a cherished newbor
He rocked back and forth on his heels, visibly basking in whatever euphoria the creation seemed to be invoking as his eyes rolled back in his head, completely oblivious to his students‘ skeptical befuddlement.
“Such raw, unfiltered passion captured in unrefined pigment and texture!” The artistic rhapsody poured forth, thoroughly unrestrained. “Gaze upon this searing descent into harmonious chaos, my children, and be forever seared by its primal, visceral clarity!”
Penelope brought two fingers to her temple, clearly fighting off the first faint twinges of a tension headache induced by Diego’s florid excess. Even Jacob seemed to be openly gaping in dumbstruck incredulity these days.
“Are we, uh, still pretending this wackadoo was recently robbed of a genuine masterpiece? Or…?” Marcus trailed off leadingly, looking vaguely hopeful that some form of sanity might prevail.
Jasmine heaved an inward sigh, recognizing an unwinnable battle when she saw one. Still, the situation demanded some attempt to restore order and dignity to the proceedings.
Jasmine cleared her throat, retaining an air of patient diplomacy despite the situation. “Diego, while your… passion for this piece is evident, I think we’ve established the matter of its temporary misplacement has
been resolved.”