The Vibrant Hall

§0 §0 §0 §0 §0 The Vibrant Hall§0 §0 By: JZygon§0 §0 §0===================A story about a man searching for himself in an art gallery§0 §0===================

His eyes drifted back and forth across the now empty hall. The walls, still littered with various paintings and other decor, seemed to almost shriek out in an attempt to grab his attention. Scanning the various paintings, he noticed one that looked fairly

peculiar. He started analyzing it stroke by stroke, line by line until he soaked the whole image in. The canvas drawn upon displayed a man wearing a teal blue mask sitting with very poor posture upon a golden throne and red carpet leading to it being

visible. There was a caption below the painting that read "To Have Everything and Nothing" as the title of the piece. He started to move away from the painting and felt a suddent urge to turn around to inspect it once again. To his shock, the masked man

had vanished from the painting and left behind his golden throne. He attempted to convince himself that the man had simply never existed and moved onto the next painting he could find.

He walked the hall for a good hour before another painting had caught control of his eyes. Unlike most of the other paintings he visited prior, there was more than one person drawn upon it. The portrait contained thin, gentle, green strokes of grass and

a sky painted a serene blue. There were many trees in the surrounding area and the focus of the painting was in one of the shaded areas. The caption below the painting, denoting the title, read "A Spring to Remember." There was a picnic blanket set

out upon the grass that had fruits and various green vegetables laid upon it. Children were crowded around the blanket reaching for all the they could grab. Off in the distance, there was what looked like a single child alone. He§0 §0approached the

painting, examining closer the isolated child and jumped back after he saw that the child was wearing a yellow mask. He wiped his eyes to affirm that the child had been but his imagination, and to his relief the child was no longer there. He

decided that he had seen enough for one day and went home for the night.§0 §0 §0Upon his visit the next day, the once empty hall had been filled up to a fairly generous amount. It was the most people he had ever seen in the hall in

quite a long time. He wandered to the section of paintings he had left off at and continued his adventure. The first painting he came across that day was one that warmed his heart. The caption below read the painting "Within the

Love of a Mother." Upon the canvas was a woman hold a newborn child in her arms sitting upon a wooden rocking chair. She had her eyes closed and was hugging the child firmly. The child was wearing a bright, vivid, pink dress. Aside from the rocking chair,

there was a bed, a bookshelf, and a closet. He noticed that there was a door that was slightly ajar and he decided to examine it closer. He could only make out an almost slight green coming from the top of the nearly open doorway and the rest

below was just a blur. He wished that he could stare at that painting and soak in the warmth he felt from it for the rest of his life, however reality eventually set in and he decided it would be best to move on.

He continued to walk the hall aimlessly as if something intangible was guiding him to another destination. He stopped and turned upon a painting that shocked him to no end. The same masked man he had seen on the first day of his exploration was there

with a woman at a park sitting upon a bench. He examined the painting and nothing looked odd aside from the strange man sitting there with the woman. Neither seemed completely aware of the other, however the masked man was wearing a different

colored mask than he had been upon his first appearance. It was now orange and his posture had improved to one of both confidence and authority. The sun shined bright upon the two and the park contained various cobble structures

ranging from small statues to fountains as well as the walkways. The visible grass, while there was not much, was a lush green and the water spewing from the fountain directly behind them was the most crystal clear he had ever seen before.

The captain below the painting read "To Love is to be Forever Together." Some foreign force pushed against him as to direct him away from the painting. §0 §0 §0The transparent force guided him for what seemed like hours

upon end until he finally reached an extremely powerful painting. The canvas was completely white, the only distinguishable figures upon it were small flocks of birds flying towards a sky that simply did not exist. The title of the

painting was "To Be Reborn Purer Than White." He stared endlessly into that painting trying to make our any small detail he could. It was no use, the painting was simply blank and he could not be bothered with trying to figure out what the painting was

trying to communicate to him.§0 §0 §0It was months before he came back to that hall again to try to solve his problem. The hall had become very famous over the time he had been gone and it was packed quite tightly. He decided to

go visit all of the paintings that he felt were peculiar in a certain way, as well as the ones where he identified the masked man, and hoped he could figure our what the last painting meant. He saw each painting one by one and arrived finally at the

last one he had seen on his previous visitation. Intently he stared at it for hours upon end, and finally lost focus and broke down in a fit of depression. He wanted to know what the painting was trying to tell him and it seemed impossible for him to

ever grasp it. All of a sudden he felt a slight touch upon his shoulder and he flung himself around to confront the probing hand. Behind him stood a man, not much taller than him, with brown hair and green eyes. The main was dressed in a black polyester

suit and wore glasses with sensible rims. He noticed tha man was holding something in his other hand: a gentle white cloth. He stared curiously at the man as he took the cloth object and presented it to him. He opened it and inside was a glowing, white

mask. He looked up for the man, but he was gone. He tried to pursue the man, but he lost him in the vast ocean of people in the hall. He stared down upon the mask he received and engraved inside of it was a message for him.

It read "To live as a being purer than white is impossible as long as one is closed minded." He decided he might meet the man again if he returned to the painting he was arduously studying for meaning. To his amazement, the once white canvas had

transformed into something more beautiful than he had ever seen before. The cascade of colors now revealed upon the canvas stole his breathe away. It took only that one painting to change his life forever.

Author's Notes:§0 §0===================Hello there dear reader! This piece was written when I was age 17. Everyone around that age usually stresses out about life after High School. Where am I going to college? Will I have to work a job to be able

to support myself? A lot of difficult questions to be prompted towards answering at such a young, immature age. Throughout all of this, we tend to lose sight of the simple things in life and let stress overcome us. Even at age 20, I am not fully

able to completely understand what it takes to lead a successful life, but I feel a very strong tie to the man trying to search for himself through the many paintings spread out across the gallery. Our mischevious masked man wants

the protagonist to learn that the most important thing in life is to be open minded and accepting of others and new possibilities. Even in the darkest of times we can find a way to cope by attacking the situation at a different angle. It has been

many years since I had last read this short story and it definitely helped me out in remembering that a situation is only hopless if you give up. So, my dear reader, it is upon you to never give up in the face of adversity and live your life in your own

perogative! Do not let the world limit you, be the one that limits the world!§0 §0 §0I sincerely hope you enjoyed the story,§0 §0 §0JZygon (Brent)