Paranormal Story – THE ORIGIN OF THE PORTRAIT
Photo credit: mxruben from morguefile.com
“It was a long time ago, when the art of witchcraft and magic was prevailing. In such a period lived one man in his late 60’s who remained healthy due to his black magic, people who knew about him came to him to ask his help usually to satisfy their greed. He made a living by taking money from people in exchange for getting someone removed from the face of the earth for them. It was all going on secretively with not many people knowing him, he preferred it that way to remain unknown.
He lived in a big mansion all alone with all of his creepy belongings, they say his friends were the bats and spiders who lived along with the spirits he talked to. Rumours were that the mansion was given to him for killing someone very high profile at his time such as a king. The mansion was a gloomy one with very few torches of fire to bring any light inside. The windows and the doors always remained shut as he didn’t prefer the smoke that came out of the fire to escape, which according to him were the spirits who took his messages to the demon whom he was serving.
There were many houses around his mansion but due to unknown reasons some accident or the other always happened, Lightning strikes down or there is a heavy rain destroying all the crops or mysterious deaths, people believed it was all a result of his evil doings. Which led the people to a fear and so they decided to kill him but when people tried to, he somehow got to know and killed them it was as if he always knew what was going outside even though he always stayed inside, never ever setting foot outside.
The things in that village got worsened day by day, crops withered, people died of mysterious consequences. Slowly people began to relocate themselves far away from the mansion, they wanted to get away as far as possible.
But they wanted the evil to end so they kept looking for ways to accomplish that but it was useless, until a man came along he seemed to be wise and very pious so they consulted him regarding this matter. He was keen in helping them and so gathered all the information regarding the man and soon was prepared to take care of the evil in the mansion. He had a few followers with him who prayed along with him as he barged into the mansion. It was a battle of spells that took place, people feared what might happen so they chose to stay outside. But the chanting of spells could be heard there was a constant clash of different colours of light as if they were fighting with fire and lightning.
It finally ended, the evil had lost but he didn’t die. As the evil man was about to die in his last spell he bound himself to the nearest thing he could have reached a portrait. The room was filled with portraits of people whom he needed to kill, people who consulted the evil man gave him the portraits, on these he would use his spells which would lead to the death of the person present in the portrait.
So they were sure he entered into some portrait, they started burning the portraits and were able to burn all of them except for one, the one the evil man had bound himself to. It was indestructible no matter what they tried the evil present in that was too much to be destroyed by them. As they were unable to destroy it they decided to conceal it and so they bound it with many spells and chained it. They also made sure that it was well hidden inside so that no one can find it.
But even then the evil never was truly stopped and that’s why we never lived in this mansion, it was passed from generation to generation and finally to me as I sell this mansion and rid my future generation from this it feels good. This is the last entry into my diary as I leave this place forever, I have written all of this so that anyone curious of this mansion can read it.”
“This is the story behind this mansion and why we got it so cheap?” asked Sandeep as he put down the diary he had found in the mansion that he along with his friends Srinath, Gopi and Karthik had recently bought. The mansion was going for a very cheap price, they knew something was wrong but figured that superstitions might be driving people away from this place. The diary belonged to the former owner who sold them this house.
The mansion was a bad luck as their family business started to face heavy losses, but that didn’t bother Sandeep and Karthik, they believed that luck has got nothing to do with any of it as business is such a profession where there can be heavy losses at any time. So along with Gopi and Srinath they bought the mansion. It was far away from the city but that’s what they wanted as their work place was situated on the outskirts of the city, the drive from the mansion to the office was a very close one. It was a modern age and they had less belief in the superstitions people held regarding ghosts and all.
After a few days they got settled and started to like the place as it was quiet and far away from the pollution but still very near to their workplace. The next day they left for home as usual but that day Srinath was supposed to stay back and finish some work his boss had given, so the others went home but stopped on the way to pick up some food. Sandeep called Srinath to find out whether he would have dinner with them, but surprisingly Srinath had reached home due a headache that he had. So all of them decided to have dinner together so they got the food packed and headed home. Srinath was there they had the food and as soon as they were done the doorbell rang. Gopi answered the door as soon as he opened he was shocked to see Srinath standing there.
All of them were shocked they just had dinner with him, they turned around to see whom they had dinner with but there was no one there. The food was gone and so was the person they had dinner with. Sandeep took his phone to check the call but there was no call made to Srinath. They didn’t understand what was going on but after hearing it all Srinath just laughed and said “we had dinner last night maybe you guys were imagining that. I told you I would be late anyhow I ate so let’s get some sleep”.
They all were confused but went ahead to believe that they had imagined all of that as that was the only rational explanation that they could think of. They went to bed and woke up the next day, went to office but it started to rain as they started back home. Seeing the rain Sandeep for some reason got all jumpy and said “I think we should wait for the rain to stop” to which the others went in unison that they were in a car and water can’t hurt them. Sandeep just replied “I just don’t want to get wet that’s all”.
Giving a strange look that they had never seen. Gopi suddenly remembered Sandeep saying he would be coming home late as he had a party to go to and so he asked Sandeep what happened about the party. To which he replied that he cancelled the plan as the place was far away and he had office to go to the next day which would be difficult if he came in late at night. When they reached home they parked the car but Sandeep didn’t get out of the car saying that he would come inside after the rain had stopped,
” The door is just a few steps away, why are you making such a big fuss about the rain?” asked Karthik.
Sandeep got up and set foot out of the car but as soon as the rain drops touched him he started to melt as if it was not water but acid that fell on him. As the water slid through his body it dragged along with it some of his skin, blood began to flow down his body along with the rain drops on him. Steam rose from his body as if the rain started to boil instantly upon touching him and his skin at the same time leaving him. He was slowly melting as if he were drenched in acid but he was not in pain, he was rather smiling as they watched in shock he slowly started to dissolve into the water and wash away along with it. They couldn’t believe their eyes, that’s when a cab came to the gate and Sandeep got out of it running towards the door trying not to get himself wet.
As he got to the door he didn’t understand why everyone was looking at him in astonishment, “I told you that I would be going to a party it was one hell of a party, but I had to leave as tomorrow my boss wants me to be there for sure, so what’s up with you guys?” saying so he looked at them as they stared at him with astonishment.
They went in and Gopi narrated the whole incident that happened, it was strange first with Srinath now Sandeep, they were shocked. Maybe it’s because they read the diary they are imagining all the horror stories coming to life. They all agreed to that, they had to other than that anything else would have been an insane logic. The next few days were uneventful so they agreed that maybe it was all just their imagination, just their minds playing tricks on them. Then came the weekend which they were all looking forward to, they decided to do something fun so they went out for a movie and came back home in the evening. They got out of the car but Karthik didn’t get out he was inside the car a minute ago but now he was not there. Srinath called him on his cell while others looked for him hoping that Karthik was just playing a prank on them. The phone rang but Karthik didn’t pick it up, then came the automated voice saying “The person you are trying to call is not answering your call but I know where he is”.
It was creepy Srinath didn’t believe what he just heard, it can’t be he told to himself, scared as hell he looked at the phone. The others had no luck finding him so he called again only this time he put it on speakers so that others can hear it too. The automated voice didn’t come this time so he thought it was his imagination. He tried again this time he didn’t use the speaker and that’s when the voice said” I would have told you but you put me on speakers well for that I won’t” and the call ended.
They went in only to find Karthik sitting on the couch, unconscious “Stop it Karthik, you are not fooling anyone with your prank” said Gopi.
To which came a reply from behind “Stop what? I’m not doing anything”, it was Karthik he was standing behind them.
They turned back to the Karthik on the couch, he was still there. They could not believe their eyes, Gopi went towards Karthik on the couch to wake him up, “What are you doing, there is no one on the couch. Whom are you asking to wake up?” asked Karthik as he stood there as if there had been no one on the couch.
Srinath went towards him and asked “how can you be over there and here at the same time”, still pretty much shaken due to the voice he heard on the phone, to which he just laughed saying that he is only here and no one is on the couch. Gopi got the Karthik on the couch to wake up, both of them acted as there was only one Karthik, each denying the existence of the other, as if they couldn’t see each other.
Then came in another Karthik through the door “I thought you guys would find me, but you never did”.
They were all scared and unable to process what was going on, suddenly the phone rang all the three Karthik’s started to laugh and in unison they asked “Won’t you answer the phone?”.
As soon as Srinath lifted the call and put it on speaker mode, a voice on the other end said “Look in the Trunk of your car”. At this point all the three karthik’s vanished into thin air as if they were just made of smoke. The others rushed outside to see what was in there, Karthik was there unconscious. They carried him inside and woke him up, Karthik didn’t seem to remember anything that happened to him.
Not sure about what was going on they seemed to be gripped with fear, that’s when the other series of events started to follow. The lights went on and off, wind was howling, all doors and windows started moving as if they were being pulled by someone and then slammed shut. Things were being flung at random, some hit the wall and some hit the window but none of them hit them. The whole situation scared them so much that they grouped together, Gopi ran towards the diary left behind by the previous owner to find an answer to what was going on. There seemed to be another page written in the diary which they had not seen previously in which it had been written,
“In case the demonic spirits act up use the portrait to bind them again”.
They started searching for the portrait despite all the commotion that was going around them. Sandeep finally found the portrait hidden under an old bookshelf. It was tightly bound using spiritual binds and chains, in a hurry they opened it and removed the chains, as it was being done Srinath looked at the diary which gopi had left to go look for the portrait, the words regarding use of the portrait to bind demonic spirits started to disappear. It vanished as if those words were never written on the diary.
The portrait started to emit a bright light which was too bright for them to look because of which Sandeep dropped the portrait. As the light began to fade they saw that the portrait, it looked like a mirror and in one second they felt as if the whole world turned upside down, as if air was rushing from beneath them and they were being pulled down simultaneously.
Everything was upside down all the logos printed on their T-shirts were in reverse, they were sucked into the mirror, Srinath in panic took out his phone as he was the only one who had his phone in his pocket he was shocked to find everything in his phone to be in reverse as well, everything which was at the top was now at the bottom. His phone started to act on its own, Karthik looked through the portrait which was now a mirror, their reflection on the other side started to act on their own as if they were not mere images but different people. The phone in Srinath’s hand was operated by Srinath’s image in the portrait as everything was upside down, the first contact on the phone was Vincent which would have been the last contact due to alphabetical order.
Srinath on the other side spoke “Hey Vincent, just do me a favour please take care of my mansion, the tenant had left without saying anything and I have to leave for US tonight. The keys would be near the window beside the front door. Thanks for the help feel free to use the mansion until I find someone to rent it to”. Saying so he looked inside at the real Srinath and said “there is no escape for you people now. The only option for you people is to be killed by someone who would then replace you in a continuous on going cycle.”
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