The Sea Noose

The Sea Noose


Cian was running his fingers through my hair gently as I sat on the floor, my head resting on his thigh. I yawned softly and rubbed my eyes open. I looked up at him, his hand cupping my cheek.

“How long do you think we were asleep?” he shrugged.

“Long enough for the glue to dry, most likely.” I nodded and pushed myself up, stretching and popping my back as I did so.

“Do you want to start taping the shells on one end and we'll try to meet in the middle?” he nodded and stood next to me, kissing my cheek softly.

“Yeah, we can do that, Kassy. Hopefully, we've had enough sleep to be able to put the tape on good enough for when you paint.” I smiled.

“Jeez, I hope we've had enough sleep.” he handed me a roll of blue painters tape and we set to work on taping the edges of the shells with it. After a while, Vitas came into the room, whining.

“I'll take care of him.” Cian set his tape down, close to a third way done with his side and went out side with Vitas, closing the door behind him. I smiled softly and managed to get half-way to the center while Cian was outside with Vitas. When they came back in, Cian gave Vitas some food and water, coming back into the living room afterwards.

“Want me to put another log on the fire?” I looked at the hearth and saw that the current log was almost all the way burnt to death. I nodded to Cian.

“Yeah, might as well. Don't want to get too clod when I have to paint the walls when the taping is done.” he smiled and put another log into the fire, taking one from the pile now sitting next to the couch from the moving of the whole room. I continued taping as did Cian after he made sure the log had started burning.


I threw the last bit of tap onto the ground and smiled proudly at Cian.

“I'm done!” he looked at me and glared playfully.

“I think you cheated.” I laughed.

“No, I just kept taping the shells when you took care of Vitas.”

“Yeah, I told you. You cheated.” I stuck out my tongue and quickly left the room, ran down the hallway and opened the hidden door. I ran up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time and knelt next to the desk when I reached the top. I pulled out all of my paints and brushes, along with a sketch pad and pencils, piling them into my arms and running back down stairs, closing the door behind me with my foot. I slowly walked back into the living room, Cian pausing with the last of his taping to help me put down all of my supplies.

I smiled and sat on the floor, pulling the sketch pad onto my lap with my pencil poised over the fresh sheet of paper as I looked at the wall with the shells. Cian continued taping off the last of his shells as I started drawing where the shells were on the wall onto my paper. He sat next to me, watching as my pencil moved with certainty, drawing each arch of each shell perfectly, each detail seen by it and given life on the paper.

When each shell was draw on the paper, each one drawn perfectly in pencil as they were in real life, I turned and smiled at Cian.

“So. I was thinking that you could start mixing the blues together, you know, get some variety of hues. I think I'm going to need... an extremely dark blue, a normal blue, a semi-light blue and a ridiculously light blue to paint what I need to.” he nodded.

“I can do that.” he started opening the small cans of paint and mixing them in some of the small bowls I had grabbed from the desk drawer. I smiled and started drawing the lines of what I wanted the background to be on the paper, the lines flowing smoothly and continuously. When I had all of the lines drawn on the paper how I wanted them I slowly stood and walked to the far corner where Cian had started taping his shells. I studied the shells and my paper, the pencil poised above the white wall, waiting to make it's first mark.

I nodded to myself and set the pencil's tip onto the wall, drawing the curve of the line that I had drawn on the paper. I took slow steps backwards, careful of where I stepped, as I counted the shells, the pencil following the line drawn on the paper and putting it on the wall. Cian was slowly mixing the paints as I had asked him when I started on another line, walking forward this time as the pencil drew the line on the wall, arching over and under some of the shells.

I stepped back from the wall, standing behind Cian, and compared the wall to my paper, making sure things looked right. I cocked my head to the side and and marked a place on the paper. I walked up to the wall, counted the shells and fixed the small mistake and smiled at Cian, who had finished mixing the paints by this time.

“Ok, what do you think?” he looked over the lines, some of them crossing over and under each other. He nodded.

“It looks good. I can't wait to see it when it's completely painted.” I smiled.

“Me neither. You have the paints fully mixed together?” he nodded and pointed to the bowls sitting in front of him.

“Yep, all of the blues you asked for.” I nodded and crouched down, setting the sketch pad on the floor in front of me and quickly shaded in the lines, some darker than others and wrote my self a little key, telling me which darkness meant what color of blue. I showed it to Cian.

“Ok, now, as long as you make sure where you're painting, count the shells if you have to, you get to help me color in the spaces. I can do all the shading with the paint once we have everything painted, ok?” he nodded and looked at the paper, grabbing the lightest blue paint he had mixed and a paint brush. We started on the same side, I was painting the normal blue color, the two of us glancing at the sketch pad every now and then to make sure we had it right.

When we finished with those two colors, we changed, Cian taking the semi-light blue and myself taking the extremely dark blue. We finished painting the wall in two hours. I smiled at Cian, greatfully putting my brush down. He smiled back at me and sat on the floor tiredly.

“I believe that I very hungry.” I joined him on the floor and nodded.

“Yeah, me too.”

“I'll go make us something to eat, ok?” I nodded.

“Ok, you can do that. I'm going to start mixing the borders of the colors so they're not so... starkingly different.”

“Ok, I'll be done with food... maybe... thirty minutes?”

“That's fine. I'll probably be done with mixing the borders by then.” he nodded and stood, going into the kitchen to start making our food as I crawled up onto my knees, grabbed a clean blush, and started mixing the colors on the wall slightly.


The intoxicating aroma of Fettucini Alfredo was thick within the house. I smiled to myself as I sat on the couch, looking at my finished work. Thirty minutes was more than enough time for me to go back through and blend in the borders. Because I had finished that so quickly, I sponged the wall above the blue and shells and warm sandy color, adding in a distant black dot here and there. When Cian came into the room, holding a big bowl of the source of the aroma and paused in the door way staring at the wall.

The shells were in a wavy line, some of them going off and dipping low to the floor. The blues were mixed together, created the sea and it's depths. The shells were the basis of the sea line, the dark blue serving as the never changing horizon. The shells themselves were many different colors, the blue painters tape having been removed, gave them a small white outline, making them look like small beacons floating on the ocean. The sky was a musky looking brown, hints of white throughout it with far-off seagulls flying in the distance.

“Wow...” Cian breathed in awe. I smiled and took a deep breath, my eyes closing as the Fettucini Alfredo assaulted my senses. He walked over, setting the bowl next to me on the couch and sat down on the other side of the bowl. He smiled at me.

“You are amazing.”my cheeks flushed at the compliment.

“I am not.” he chuckled lightly, spooning some of the noodles into two separate bowls and handing me one along with a fork.

“Yes, you are. You're the only person I know who can take a bleak and dreary wall and turn it into something so... beautiful. Something to simple yet intricate.” I smiled.

“Ok, so I know how to paint a wall and make it look good, no big deal.” he sighed softly and took a bite of his noodles.

“One of these days, Miss Kassandra Marie, I'm going to get you to admit that you're extraordinary at painting and drawing.” I stuck out my tongue at him and took a bite of my noodles and smiled.

“You're a wonderful cook, Cian. I didn't even know I had the things to make Fettucini Alfredo in my kitchen.” he smiled.

“At first I thought you didn't, but I found everything I needed.” I took another bite.

“Well, I'm glad that one of us knows how to cook.” he chuckled softly and we continued to eat our noodles in silence, the soft crackling of the maple wood in the fireplace being the only sound. As we ate, our eyes were continuously traveling over the newly painted wall, taking in each detail that was presented to us.