Antique shops must get all manner of fascinating objects coming through, many of which might have a less-than-pleasant history.
Whether it's a very old bed frame which someone has at some point probably died in, or war memorabilia with bullet holes in it, there's some creepy stuff out there. A personal favourite was spotting an old dentist's chair from the mid-20th century at a reclamation yard. The stuff of nightmares.
But sometimes it's the more subtle things which can take the level of creepiness off the scale.
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One such object is a simple painting. It's not a particularly extraordinary-looking painting, in fact, it's just a standard portrait of a child.
Just a picture of a child, staring directly back with an iron gaze that follows you around. Nothing to worry about.
Admittedly, right off the bat, it's fair to say the picture looks more than a bit creepy. The soft tone might be a way to create warmth in the picture, but in this case it just adds to the general oddness of the painting.
The painting had been on sale in a charity shop and was purchased, only to be returned. Once is okay, maybe they just couldn't find the right place to put it.
But then the painting was sold a second time, and returned again, with a post about the unsettling object doing the rounds on X.
It's impossible to prove any supernatural presence or curse, but if you wanted evidence that something is not quite right with a creepy-looking object, you could definitely do worse than that!
The picture is once again up for sale, but now it has an extra note attached to the front informing shoppers of the painting's odd past.
It reads: "She's back!!! Sold twice and returned twice. Are you brave enough?"
The phrase 'she's back' doesn't do a great deal to calm the nerves.
But the main question of course is what on Earth happened at her previous two homes? And who is the girl in the picture?
Perhaps the painting is possessed by a demon who takes the form of a child before dispatching her victims and dragging them off to hell. Or maybe it's the spirit of a child who died in horrible circumstances who is now wreaking vengeance on those her spirit deems responsible, which just happens to be basically everyone.
Maybe the new owners woke up the next day to find that the painting had moved. Subtly, almost imperceptibly at first, but growing more obvious as the weeks go by.
Kit Roberts