For the Wicked

Blank Canvas

I

          Courtney purchased the Victorian aged painting from the yard sale right down the street. It was a steal, said the frantic old man who promised her that the authentic masterpiece was legit. Even if it wasn't, forty dollars for a adequate quality painting was worth it. Courtney's girlfriend, Sailor, was not on board with hanging the painting in their quant townhouse.

          "It gives me bad vibes," she insisted, like the professional mystic she was.

          Courtney made an obscure noise in the back of her throat, "Listen Sail, the guy insisted I buy it and who was I to pass up a creepy painting from a garage sale?"

          The painting was indeed creepy, although in a beautiful type of way. The sky was a slick black with purple tones, there was no sun in sight. In front of the dark sky, sitting on wilted pale grass, was an old house. The house really reminded Courtney of an old Victorian style house. The roofs were prominently pointed and the house was a washed grey wood. The detail was so crisp that if she looked close enough she could see some points in which the grey paint had peeled off the planks. But yet, the sky, the forest in the background, the grass, and even the house were not what made her shiver with discomfort. It was the red eyes.

          The front of the house had a round room on the second floor. On the anterior aspect of that room there was a window. The window, almost as large as the wall, was dirty on the rims, but clear on all other parts of its surface. Directly in the middle of the window was a single pair of eyes. A child or adult she did not know, but the black rimmed red-eyed picture creeped her out. Something about it was wrong, but she reminded herself that it was only a painting.

          Courtney gestured to their cream colored wall right above the hallway desk, "I'm telling you this is the perfect spot to hang it. There's literally nothing here right now."

          Sailor squinted at the painting Courtney was holding so delicately, "fine, fine, but i'm telling you that thing has a weird aura around it."

          It wasn't that Courtney didn't believe in her girlfriend's mystic abilities, they just proved to be wrong sometimes.

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II

          The first time the red eyes moved was a fews days after they stuck it on the wall, using a few sharp flimsy nails. Courtney was walking down the hallway, dressed in her blood-red blazer, blouse, and dress pants, when she dropped her apple on the floor and it rolled under the desk pushed up against the wall. Frowning she dropped down and stuck her hand under the desk, feeling for her run-away breakfast item. When she finally grasped it she stood up, knees cracking in the process. Courtney squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her sore neck. When she opened her eyes she was staring at the familiar painting on the cream wall, but something was different.

          Courtney remembered that when she brought the painting home the lone set of red eyes had been painted behind the window on the second level of the house. Now, as she stared in confusion, the red eyes had shifted to the kitchen window on the first floor. The eyes were the same, but now there was a dark, almost black, blurry silhouette behind the window connected to those awful looking eyes.

          "Why are you just staring at the painting, Courtney?"

          Courtney jumped, startled by the sudden sound of her girlfriend, then frowned. She cleared her throat.

          "Does the painting look any different to you?"

          "Nah, looks the same, but I gotta say it's kinda grown on me," Sailor grinned at the perplexing look Courtney gave her.