“It’s you, Lisa — it’s you. Mona Lisa… La Gioconda… the woman for whom millions cross oceans just to stand before this portrait.”
Lisa stared silently at the painting.
Behind the protective glass, the painted eyes carried the same quiet sadness she felt somewhere deep within herself.
Lisa:
“So many faces… all searching for meaning in mine.”
Yumi:
“They search because your smile survived five centuries — wars, empires, revolutions, machines… You will become immortal.”
Lisa slowly turned toward her.
Lisa:
“Immortal? I have never seen this painting before tonight.”
Lisa:
“In my time, Leonardo has not yet painted me.”
The realization spread between them like a crack through time itself.
Lisa:
“If I remain here… perhaps this portrait is never created. Perhaps the future forgets me entirely.”
She stepped closer to the glass, staring at the woman she had not yet become.
Lisa:
“And yet she already exists.”
The gallery lights hummed softly above them.
Lisa:
“I must return to my own epoch, or my portrait will never reach human eyes. Life will continue without it — unchanged, or so it seems… perhaps nothing will shift.”
She raised her hand toward the glass but stopped just short of touching it.
Lisa (whispering):
“And yet… perhaps… everything.”
A distant pulse echoed through the museum — the portal reopening.
Golden light began to surround her silhouette.
Lisa:
“Tell them… I was real.”
Within seconds, she dissolved into shimmering particles of light.
Silence returned to the gallery.
Only the portrait remained upon the wall, eternally smiling toward a future its subject had seen before its creation.
2087
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner