The Vault of Terror (Haunted)

Figure in the Painting

Dedicated to CrystalL4k3, one of my more dedicated readers and another friend from narr8. Here's your incredibly late birthday present!

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Brian Wayne had a taste for art.

The rich banker had simply arrived at the thrift store to blow some time off between his meetings, his next wasn't for two hours. When he stepped through the door, the Indian man behind the counter stood up rigid, as if he had never seen a wealthy man before.

"Can I help you with anything sir?" the shopkeeper asked in a fading accent.

"No thank you," Wayne said with a perfect smile. "I'm just browsing, really."

And browse he did. Wayne skimmed over most of the shop, looking at curtains, broken children's toys, and clothing that hadn't been worn in forty years. A lot of it was junk, and he was ready to leave when the painting caught his eye.

It was a simple landscape, but one of beauty. It was a view of farm, with a large cornfield hogging a lot of space with a barn visible next to it. Behind those were green hills, which were backdropped by a hot summer day.

Wayne had seven paintings in his house, and visited art museums all the time. As a result, he could name the artist behind most sketches and paintings, but for some reason he couldn't place this one. It was not a style he recognized.

The shopkeeper materialized next to him. "Are you interested?" he asked perkily. "I'd be willing to sell it to you for only twenty dollars!"

Brian stared at the drawing. He may not have known it's creator, but it was still a good painting. And twenty dollars? Only in a thrift store, he thought. Besides, he felt obligated to save the piece. If he didn't buy it, who else might pick it up? Some forty year old soccer mom so it could be taken to a cramped house and get barraged with Nerf footballs?

"Of course," he said confidently. "It'll look beautiful on my white bedroom hall, next to my vase of tulips and the window overlooking the meadow."

The shopkeeper couldn't care less what he did with the painting, but he smiled and nodded. Showing interest in a customer's personal life was considered "good service."

He of course, never mentioned the fact that the painting occasionally moved. It would make it much harder to sell.

~~~~~~~

Brian had been right about one thing, it certainly fit into the professional atmosphere of his home. It was a perfect addition to his art collection.

But alas, while fantastically drawn, it did not compare with the works of Dadd and Van Gogh, and being a simple few of a cornfield it was not very significant. It was a nice accessory for his hallway, but he payed little attention to it.

Well, he did start paying attention to it...when he noticed the movement.

One day, getting out of bed, he strolled past the painting with a mug of coffee and a robe and spared it a quick glance. His eyes that had been trained over the years to delicately analyze art spotted something that was awry.

It was a very slight change, almost unnoticeable, but Brian could have sworn that the cloud over the farmhouse had shifted a little to the left.

The next day, it appeared to have moved again.

Brian thought that perhaps he was going crazy, so he decided to issue a test. Every day, at noon, he would snap a photo of the painting, specifically the cloud. He would do this for two weeks and compare the first snapshot with the second.