created by and read by Julia D.
Louis followed behind his mother as she went down into the basement to investigate. The unfinished basement was full of boxes, all the hidden gems his mother had bought throughout the years. In the corner lay the painting. Louis could see the eyeless man’s face through the cellophane wrapping.
They checked each corner, even moving the boxes around.
They found nothing.
Just as they closed the door, they heard it again!
That’s when Louis got an idea.
He set up a couple of cameras to record any movements in the basement. That way, they could see where that strange noise was coming from.
Louis had a couple of extra webcams from playing Xbox Live, so he set them up in different corners of the basement so that he could see everything. He knew this would do the trick.
In the middle of the night, Louis was awakened from his sleep by that strange sound. It was faint but indistinguishable.
The sound was coming from his laptop where he was streaming the video. Louis rubbed his sleepy eyes and began checking the footage.
That’s when he saw it.
Orbs randomly lighting up in parts of the basement.
He had never seen anything like that before. He thought maybe something was wrong with the cameras, or maybe he had set them up incorrectly. To be certain, there was only one thing to do.
Louis went down into the basement with his phone’s flashlight on. Every creek in the stairs made his heart jump. His breath quickened. Cold sweat dripped down his face. His hands were shaking so badly the light seemed to shimmer against the wall. He wiped his eyes but kept going. He could see the cameras in each corner. He checked the first one. Everything looked OK.
As he checked the second one, he felt it.
Tap tap tap.
Stifling a scream, Louis jetted up the stairs, two at a time, and shut the basement door.
When he checked the footage of him going into the basement, he saw nothing special at first. Just a grainy video of him walking nervously into the basement.
Then he saw orbs again.
But orbs can’t tap you on the shoulder. Can they?
Louis watched himself check one camera and then fast-forwarded to when he was checking the second one.
That’s when a figure appeared behind Louis. Its face was hidden in the shadows.
It kind of look like a man but bathed in black. It lifted its dark hand and gave him a tap tap tap.
Louis watched himself bolt up the stairs.
With its back to the camera, the figure stood there for a long while.
Louis couldn’t look away. What was the figure going to do? What was it? And why was it here?
The figure turned around and looked directly into the camera.
Its face was contorted as if it were screaming.
And Louis was sure that it had no eyes.
Louis was able to convince his mom to get rid of the painting the next morning. He showed her the footage, but she just said it was probably an animal casting a large shadow. She didn’t sound convinced. Right after, she agree to get rid of it, just in case.
Louis breathed a sigh of relief.
This nightmare was almost over.
When his mother came back upstairs, she wasn’t holding the painting though.
“Where is it?” she asked him.
“What are you talking about?” he said.
They both looked around the basement, in every corner, in every box.
But they couldn’t find it.
The painting was gone.
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