Oil on cardboard – 8,66 x 6,30 inch – Unique work

Ellen Ripley had a tough night. She heard strange noises coming from the attic, again. She’s out of option now. It has been a month since, every night, she detects like a piece of scrap dragged on the floor on purpose. It is metallic, she is pretty sure of it. Probably dormice playing with scraps of sculptures stolen from her workshop. She has already mentioned it with her friend Kane, on the phone. But he hardly paid attention to the conversation of a crazy person lost in a small village of the center of France, more interested by the Super Bowl.She’s made up her mind, today, she will borrow a huge scale from her neighbour and friend Patrice and climb up to this unknown room most likely full of cobwebs. A hostile world? No chance.

Ripley is on her own, on the highest ladder rung, a powerful lamp in one of her pockets. She tries to open the window which gives up with pain thanks to her right shoulder. At her own risk, she runs up the attic floor and prays it won’t break. There is Glass wool all over the place. Her feet sink gently on the soft and disintegrated carpet of the insulating coating. A fleeting noise on her left hand side catches her attention. She lights the spot where the slight noise seemed to come from. She, unwillingly, heads up towards that thing sending Ellen’s back a flash of light. The closer she gets, more … A breeze, a contact followed up by a burn on her left forearm, the window slamming. She rushes to the only way out but stumbles on something on the floor. She looses her lamp, she falls down flat on her stomach while trying to catch herself up with the palm of her hands. In the fall, she hurts her head on a sharp object. The smell of blood pricks her nostrils and the taste of blood, like steel, freezes her. She tries to get up but in vain, a pressure keeps her down. Then, a warm breath on her neck and liquid running down her back. She looses control. No sound is coming out of her mouth wide open. She suffocates. That noise of scrap, it’s coming back again, closer, closer, it’s here. A scream, and then …

(Freely inspired by the film directed by Ridley Scott – Alien)