Through the canvas
Through the canvas
Embedded Files
Student R | 06/03/26
Fiction story about a young artist who is discovering horrifying facts about her best friend's murder. Meanwhile there's something moving in the shadows.
Staring up at the ceiling of my dark ceiling of my California home, while my mother’s voice filled the silence with her nonstop complaining. “If you have anything useful to say I would be hanging up now,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“I still don't get why you moved into your grandmother's house,” She sighed. “It’s huge,dark , and honestly kind of depressing.”
A laugh escaped me. “If you're calling just to complain, I’m hanging up.”
We sat in silence for a few more moments.
“He would've wanted you to be safe you know”
I froze, why would she even mention him? She was using him to get to me and that was messed up. My grandmother left me this house because I have always loved it and her. She was the mother I never had growing up.
“You are so unbelievable,” was the last thing I said before hanging up. It was all silent again which was the way i like it i guess. I walked into the kitchen. Living here meant the nearest store was almost twenty minutes away, but I didn't care. It was quiet and nice.
My painting room didn't really look like a painting room anymore.
Half the walls were covered with unfinished painting. The other half were covered in crime scene photos, newspaper cutouts, and sticky notes. I’d spent weeks trying to figure out what really happened to Lukas. The police called it a suicide which i knew was just all wrong considering i was very close to him, it just didnt feel right. When they told me I could look through the photos but not take any pictures I did anyway.
I opened the photos on my laptop and started painting again, hoping maybe I would notice something I didn't before.
Hours passed and still nothing, Sighing in disappointment I turned off the lights ready to leave the room. As I looked towards the window, something moved outside. Someone was standing near the trees.
Tall. Thin. Just… staring at me. My eyebrows furrowed. I couldn't make out how his face looked but I could immediately tell he was just staring at me. Then a small light appeared. He was smoking.
“The nerve of this guy,” I muttered in disbelief. Hurriedly I walked outside to tell him to leave, but the second I stepped outside it was like he vanished. I gasped and my eyes widened before quickly walking back inside. I picked up my phone as it buzzed with a message. Unknown number. I opened it either way.
Such a beautiful painting, too bad you're wasting it on him, Iris.
I stared at my phone screen in shock. How did he even know about the painting? And my name? The next second I blocked him. After that I couldn't fall asleep.
The next morning I was incredibly exhausted so when I got up I just changed, grabbed my keys and walked to the morgue.
That text was still in my head, chills ran down my spine. Whoever sent it knew about Lukas, and somehow me. But how did he get my number?
The drive felt long and I was tired from my no sleep fest the night before, but honestly I didn't care. I was finally getting somewhere on Lucas's case.
I walked inside and up to the front desk.
“Hi, I was wondering if I could speak to the coroner who worked on Lukas Bercci’s case.”
The receptionist looked at her computer before looking back up at me and smiled.
“His office is down the hall. Third door on your right.”
“Thank you”
I knocked twice before opening the door. The coroner, as grim as he looked, looked up.
“ Can I help you?”
“I have a few questions about Lukas Bercci.” His expression changed almost immediately, Something is definitely up.
“Im sorry, but I can’t discuss autopsy reports.”
Expecting that answer I took out a pretty thick envelope.
“I heard you liked money” I grinned as he eyed it heavily, I knew I won once he sighed.
“You didn't get this from me.”
He spoke before opening a drawer sliding over a folder. Opening it my heart fell. The original cause of death had been crossed out. Someone had changed it. I leaned in looking closer. Snake venom? Where does someone even get that? Someone covered it up. I looked up at the coroner.
“Who made you change it?”
“I don't know”
“I was paid to do it without questions asked.”
I sighed before grabbing the folder and I walked out. By the time I got home, it was already raining. Kind of perfect, it always soothed me. I laid everything I had across my kitchen island. I just knew I was missing an important detail. I jumped upon hearing a knock at the door. I walked up to my front door opening it
“Mia, I am so glad to see you”
She gave me a small smile.
“You look terrible.”
“Thanks.”
“I brought coffee”
I smiled “Thank you”
She walked inside while I cleared some of the papers so she placed down her coffee.
“What’d you find?”
I handed her the report. She read it twice before looking up at me.
“They changed the cause of death.”
“I knew something wasn’t right”
She nodded in agreement yet stayed quiet. Before finally speaking up.
“How long have you been at this?”
“What?”
“This”
She pointed all across the room.
“The pictures. The notes. The paintings, You've spent everyday trying to solve this.”
I looked around
“I never realized how bad it got. All the paintings of Lukas, crime scene sketches. The room didn't feel mine anymore.
“If I stopped looking” I paused whispering, “ It will feel like i was giving up on him”
She walked over to hug me.
“I don't think he would want you to lose yourself trying to find answers.”
Before I could speak up another buzz came from my phone. I picked it up. I thought I blocked him. I opened the message and my heart fell to my stomach.
You're getting too close. Stop asking questions.
Below it was a picture of my house taken from outside.I stood up so fast the stool tipped over.
“What happened?”
I showed her the phone.
“Call the police”
As I spoke her face went white. As she took out her phone I looked out the front window. There he was just standing between trees. Tall with dark clothing, it was definitely the same guy. He wasn't even moving. I looked back as Mia called out to ask something but as soon as i looked back he was gone i gasped softly.
After giving my statement to the police Mia had insisted upon staying but i didn't want to put her in harm's way so I told her to go home. That night I couldn't sleep. I can't believe I was losing sleep over this guy, yet it really scared me.
By the next morning I had made up my mind. Whoever was sending those messages wanted me scared. I was not going to let them win.
I continued looking through everything I knew I was missing. Then I saw it and I gasped at a name I hadn't seen before. It wasn't on the news or anything. I tried searching it up but it was erased from history or something. Then why would Lukas write it down in one of his old journals?
My phone buzzed. I groaned , picking it up, clicking on another text from whoever this person was.
Leave your house. Now.
I frowned, terrified, before another message came through.
They're coming.
I stood quickly before hearing glass shattering from the downstairs floor. I gasped softly before I turned a corner.
Something grabbed me harshly. I gasped and I was about to scream before a large hand covered my mouth.
“Don't” He spoke in a low gruff voice.
“I am not here to hurt you.”
He slowly let go. It was him. The man I had seen outside my house.
“You” I whispered
He looked at the broken window before looking back at me.
“We have to go” He spoke sternly
“First who are you?” I asked
“My name is Isaac now let's go” He spoke stern yet calm.
He took me outside and into the thick wooded area. Maybe it wasn't the smartest idea but there was definitely someone after me. He stopped turning to me.
“So you've been stalking me?”
A small smile crossed his face.
“I know how that looks.”
“Looks?”
“I’ve been keeping people away from you”
I laughed because I didn't know what else I was supposed to do.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I don't expect you to believe anything”
“They know you found out who killed Lukas”
He stepped closer, handing me a flash drive.
“That has everything Lukas found before he died.”
I looked down at it.
“He wasn't the person you thought he was.”
“He was trying to expose people. That’s why they killed him.”
Everything I had believed. Everything I had spent months trying to prove. It was all finally in my hands.
I wasn't relieved. Just empty. I spent months crying. And trying to chase answers
But none of it brought Lukas back.
Isaac noticed and spoke again.
“I know what it's like. I've lost people too”
It looked like he was carrying things he didn't need. I looked at my house from the wooded area. Mia was right. I had been stuck living in the moment Lukas died instead of remembering who he was. The memories flooded as a tear rolled down my cheek.
“Healing doesn't mean forgetting, Just meant letting yourself remember the good, too”
Isaac looked down at me. A small yet confronting smile on his face.
“Thank you” I spoke
Maybe I had found a new friend to get me through it.
Annotated Bibliography
Annotated Bibliography
Thesis
Even though people have shared different opinions about how grief could create mental problems that stop you from your everyday life, there are ways to help. There are support systems and you can get outside help so that you can get through the grieving process and move on to the mourning phase instead of being stuck on the grieving process.
Annotated Bibliography
Booth, Heidi. “Stabbing victim’s widow channels grief into action.” BBC, 18 May 2026
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgz7gg8y7go
In May 2025 a father of three, James Cook was stabbed to death one night out in Newark. This left his wife a widow who was feeling the immense pain of grief. Early this month his attacker got a sentence of 23 years and was charged with guilty of murder. Although feeling hatred Adele powers through telling her kids that violence is not the answer. Instead since his death she has been raising money through charities and giving back to the community. Adele taught kids the importance of how dangerous knives are saying it is important to educate kids and adults. This article was meant for people who don’t know how to channel their grief. They could channel it into something good like finding a new hobby or in this case giving back to the community. This will be useful towards my paper because it would shed light on how to deal with the grief you are feeling no matter how hard the situation. It's reliable because the widow has experienced first hand how grief works.
Glynn, Paul. “James Van Der Beek’s widow posts emotional tribute:’ words just don’t capture what grief is’” BBC, 13 May 2026.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceqpyxrxp7jo
In this Article a widow grieves over her dead husband while giving signs she is alright and appreciates the support. This article was meant to show that grief is hard to explain because of the many stages that people go through. Also it is meant to show that others also understand how it feels. At first the article mentions how her husband died, which was that he had been diagnosed with bowel cancer at the early age of 48. Upon leaving his wife they were financially going down because of how expensive the hospital was. Kimberly- (his wife) was receiving many donations and had thanked the public and shown that she is acknowledging the support. At some point during this difficult time she was showing old family photos which showed a milestone in her grieving journey. This would be a good milestone since it shows she is still in mourning but now she is able to look back at the photos without bursting into any tears. I will incorporate this into my paper because this helps to show that the grieving process has stepping stones that you can get through it.
McGee, Elaine. “Higgins a ‘better manager’ after working through grief.” BBC, 1 May 2026.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/czr2m078vz3o
In this article Elaine Mcgee talks about a soccer coach named Ruaidhri Higgins who had made a comeback after going through the stages of grief. This article was meant for audiences who have been struggling with the same thing as this soccer coach. Elaine gives information on why he was going through this grief which was that his brother, Kenny, had passed suddenly in 2023 and not too long after that his mother Mary had also passed in 2025. McGee had given us statements that Higgins had given himself about how he was feeling and even little things that had helped him through it. Such as little voices in his head giving him an extra push in the day or even how it feels to finally get through it. This is very useful for my overall paper because it shows how grief can be put down and gives an example of Higgins getting through it.
Schoo, Caroline and Azhar, Yusra and Saba, Mughal and Rout, Preeti “Grief and prolonged grief disorder.” 12 April 2025.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507832/
In this paper these authors explain the importance of the grieving process. They explain that one’s grieving sometimes one cannot move on from grieving to mourning. This results in a longer grieving process while causing mental disorders. These mental disorders sometimes get so bad to the point that some people just cannot get past their daily activities. Lots of people have shared their opinions that grief should not be openly shared and should be kept private instead of using the public’s help. The overall message of this article is that if you stay too focused on grief then you can actually create mental problems that make it harder for you to heal. This could really be useful towards my paper because this counter argument could also help me search for an answer on how to help with these kinds of problems. Because though grief can be a terribly painful and long process you can pick up healthy coping mechanisms and methods and also support systems that can help you recover in the long run.
Lacey, Catherine.”Biography of X. Missing Publisher,” 21 March 2023.
Catherine Lacey wrote Biography of X to show her ideas about identity, grief, truth, and how famous people can hide parts of themselves from the public. The book is mainly for people who enjoy fiction and stories that make readers see different perspectives about how they handled grief. The story follows a woman trying to learn the truth about her wife, X, after she dies. While looking into her wife’s past, she discovers secrets that change the way she viewed her marriage and X’s life. The book also talks about how history can be changed depending on who tells the story. Catherine Lacey is a well-known author, so the source is believable and useful for the theme I will be using grief. This source will help my paper because it gives examples of hidden identity and how truth can warp grief. Compared to other sources, this book gives the main evidence and examples I will use to explain the themes and characters in my short story.
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