00:00This story was written by a writer and posted on a subreddit where people post their original scary stories.
00:06Welcome to my channel. I'm your host.
00:08In 1999, a woman named Helen Morris bought a painting at a flea market in rural Indiana.
00:14It was cheap, just $25, and oddly beautiful.
00:19It showed a child sitting in front of a window, head slightly tilted, eyes wide and glassy.
00:24There was something unsettling about it, but Helen couldn't explain why.
00:28She felt drawn to it, though, so she hung it in her living room that night.
00:32By the next morning, things had already started.
00:35She woke up to find the painting on the floor, face down.
00:38The nail was still in the wall.
00:40The hook hadn't broken.
00:42It was as if someone had removed it on purpose.
00:45At first, Helen thought she must have done it in her sleep, but she never had and she didn't do it on purpose.
00:51Over the next few nights, Helen started having strange dreams.
00:54In every one, the child in the painting was moving.
00:58Not fast, but subtly.
01:00First its eyes would shift, then its hand would raise.
01:03One night, she dreamt the child got up and walked to the window and just stared at her.
01:08After that, she stopped sleeping.
01:10Well, something always felt off at night, like she wasn't alone in her own house.
01:15Then came the sounds.
01:16Scratching from inside the walls.
01:18The soft creaking of floorboards.
01:20Not in random spots, but directly under the painting.
01:23And then one morning, she noticed something terrifying.
01:26There were tear streaks running down the child's S face in the painting.
01:30Paint that hadn't been there before.
01:32She tried to rub them off, but they wouldn't budge.
01:35Not paint, not water damage.
01:37Just perfectly thin, dark streaks coming down from the eyes.
01:41Panicked, she took the painting to an appraiser.
01:44He told her something strange.
01:45The canvas had multiple layers, older paintings beneath the current one, that wasn't unusual for reused canvas.
01:52But what was strange is that all three layers were portraits of the same child, painted in slightly different poses.
01:59And in every one of them, the eyes were staring directly forward.
02:02Not to the side, not at the viewer, straight through.
02:05That night, Helen locked the painting in her attic.
02:09And for a few months, nothing happened.
02:11Until she started hearing crying.
02:13Very soft.
02:14Always coming from the ceiling.
02:16Eventually, she couldn't take it.
02:18She tried to destroy the painting.
02:19But when she pulled it out, the tear streaks were still wet.
02:23She gave it away to a local collector, who hung it in his gallery.
02:26Three weeks later, his entire office burned down.
02:29The cause was never determined.
02:32Everything was destroyed.
02:33Except the painting.
02:34It was found intact, barely even singed, lying face up in the middle of the ashes.
02:39Now, I have a question for you.
02:41Would you hang this painting in your house, or would you destroy it?
02:44Let me know in the comments down below.
02:46And while you're down there, make sure to leave a like on this video and subscribe to the channel.
02:51If you liked this story, you might also enjoy another story about a haunted painting.
Comments