It began when Lucas Digby, age three and three-quarters, drew his four-legged kitten with only three legs. No sooner had he set down his crayons than the kitten began to vanish. Lucas yelled for his mommy. Mrs. Digby presumed he was calling her to praise his scribbles. She cocked her head to look at it. Was it a dog? A horse? No, it was the kitten. She praised him for his handiwork and was all set to stick it to the fridge with magnets when Lucas tugged on her sleeve. He pointed at the lone kitten leg lying beneath the kitchen table.
Art studios all around the world called emergency services when figure models (and parts of figure models) vanished during life drawing sessions. And if the artists had drawn the chairs that the models sat upon, those disappeared, too.
Strange reports soon came in from all around the world: disappearances of bowls of fruit, sections of landscape, and huge swathes of the sea. As soon as someone figured out what was going on, drawing materials the world over were confiscated. Art departments shut down overnight. Galleries shuttered. Art supply stores burned down. Police and military were out in force everywhere. Anyone caught with drawing materials in their possession was shot on sight.
One day, despite all of the precautions, someone drew the sun.
Shantell Powell is a two-spirit author and swamp hag raised in an apocalyptic cult on the land and off the grid. She’s a graduate of the Writers’ Studio at Simon Fraser University, the LGBTQ+ novel immersive at GrubStreet, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Her writing is in Augur, The Deadlands, Ex-Puritan, and more. When she’s not writing or making things, she wrangles chinchillas and gets filthy in the woods.
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