The Oxford Set
It was a fairly busy day at the Antiques Centre in Jorvik, and Kaimana Hale was once again trying to flog off his collection of priceless antiques to passersby who were willing to fork out for them.
It wasn’t often that anything tempted him to buy something himself, but today was one of those days when he saw an intriguing painting across the room from him.
It was of a boy staring blankly at the viewer. Next to him, a girl doll about half his size, her eyes jet black. Behind them, a black void behind glass, and a few hands reaching out, their owners not visible.
When he had a brief break from selling, Kaimana walked over to the painting and viewed it.
“It’s a cool painting, sir,” Kaimana said. “Creepy, but cool.”
“Indeed,” the dealer said. “I’ve long thought it was a beautiful piece. Perhaps even… hauntingly so.”
”Yeah,” Kaimana said. “Haunting is certainly the word I’d use.”
”A lot of people have told me that there’s more to this painting than what you can physically see,” the dealer said. “I myself am not
sure, but perhaps you will.”
Kaimana examined the painting close. The boy’s dead eyes did not seem to disturb him. In fact, he smiled and turned to the dealer, chequebook in hand.
”How much does it cost?” Kaimana said.
“One and a half thousand pounds,” the dealer said. “But I could shave off the fifty pounds if you’d like.”
“Deal,” Kaimana said, writing out a cheque without a care in the world.
It was only Kaimana had handed over the cheque and confirmed the purchase when the dealer decided to say “oh, by the way, the previous owners of the painting have all died in mysterious circumstances. Of course, it may just be a coincidence but, I’d be careful if
I were you.”
Kaimana looked at the dealer for a moment, then burst out laughing.
The dealer grinned at him, but did not join in the laughter.
”Good one,” Kaimana said, before taking the painting and walking back to his stall with it.
”Enjoy the rest of your day, sir,” Kaimana said.
”And you, sir,” the dealer said, Kaimana not registering the maliciousness of his grin.
Kaimana placed the painting on the floor whilst he continued to sell his antiques.
Most of his customers ignored the painting, but others were very visibly disturbed by its presence. Kaimana, however, laughed it off
and continued to sell his own antiques.
Eventually, the day drew to a close and Kaimana could bring the painting back home.
“Absolutely not,” Kaimana’s wife, Catalina Hale, said as she observed the painting propped up against the sofa in their flat.
“Oh come, babe,” Kaimana said. “It will make a dynamic addition to our current decor, wouldn’t it?”
”It’s creepy,” Catalina said. “And depressing.”
”Art is supposed to provoke a visceral reaction in the viewer,” Kaimana said. “It’s not supposed to be easy to look at.”
”This is taking it a bit too far,” Catalina said. “I don’t want to look at this every day.”
”You’ll get used to it in time,” Kaimana said, before retreating to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea.
Whilst he was out of view, Catalina continued to look at the painting, although it made her nauseous doing so.
After a while, she thought she saw the hands move, reaching out towards the boy… and herself.
She screamed and backed away. Kaimana came rushing over to her, clutching his tea.
”What’s wrong, babe?” He asked.
”The hands moved,” Catalina said. “In the painting, the hands moved, like they were gonna pull the boy into the darkness. Like they… like they were gonna pull me into it, too.”
Kaimana looked at her for a moment, then laughed.
”You see, babe?” Kaimana said. “Now you’re getting the humour of it.”
“I’m serious, Kai,” Catalina said. “There’s something not right about the painting. It needs to go.”
Kaimana looked at the painting. The hands did not move. To him, it was just an ordinary painting.
“It was probably just your imagination, babe,” Kaimana said. “Now then, I think it would look great in our room.”
Kaimana walked over to the sofa, clutching his tea. Catalina watched him in horror.
“You seriously think we can still sleep with that thing on the wall?” Catalina said, as she climbed under the duvet whilst observing the painting which now hung on the wall to her right.
”Yeah, totally,” Kaimana said. “It’s adds character to the room.”
”It makes it uncomfortable to be in,” Catalina said. “It needs to be gone tomorrow.”
”Eventually, it will be like we’ve always had it,” Kaimana said. “Goodnight, babe.”
Kaimana went under the covers and was out like a light in seconds.
Catalina lay awake in the darkness for ages. She tried to fall asleep, but somehow couldn’t.
Usually she slept soundly, but tonight she was struggling.
Part of her knew it was because she couldn’t dare to sleep whilst that painting was in the room.
Catalina tried to close her eyes, but ended up just opening them again just moments later.
After a while, she was sure that two dark shapes climbed out of the painting and started walking around the room.
In the darkness, Catalina could just make out that the two people were the boy and the doll in the painting.
They had left their world and entered hers.
She saw the boy walk over to Kaimana’s sleeping body and stare down at him.
She slowly turned round to see the dark silhouette of the doll stare down at her.
Catalina breathed heavily, frozen still with her.
The doll placed a gun on Catalina’s head and cocked it.
Catalina shot out up, triumphantly shoving the doll away.
She shook her sleeping husband, trying to get him to wake up.
“Kai, Kai, Kai, get up,” Catalina said. “It’s the people. They’ve come out of the painting.”
Kaimana regained consciousness, noticing a sort of pressure on his neck. He was able to reach the light, only to turn it on and find the
boy from the painting trying to throttle him.
He shot up in bed, succeeding in throwing off the boy with his huge build.
“This is a nightmare, surely?” Kaimana said. “It’s gotta be, right?”
”Can two people have the exact same nightmare?” Catalina said.
”I don’t think so,” Kaimana said.
The two people from the painting tried once again to murder Kaimana and Catalina.
Fortunately, they could leap out of bed and scare them by clapping their hands and running after them.
“It’s working,” Catalina said. “Back them into a corner, make them enter the painting.”
”Sure thing,” Kaimana said.
After a while, they succeeded in backing the two children against the painting, given them no choice but to climb back into the frame.
Kaimana and Catalina looked at the painting for a while, shaking with fear.
”Ok,” Kaimana said. “Perhaps you’re right. We need to get rid of the painting.”
”Yeah,” Catalina said.
The crises averted, The Hale’s climbed back into bed, turned off the lights, and tried to sleep as best they could.
“It’s certainly an intriguing painting,” a customer said the next day, admiring the painting Kaimana was selling at the antiques centre.
”Yeah,” Kaimana said. “I’ve always thought it had a sort of haunting beauty to it.”
”Somehow I can see that,” the customer said. “The characters do seem to leap off the canvas.”
Kaimana laughed. “You can say that again.”
“Disturbing, yet beguiling,” the customer said. “I think I’ll buy it.”
The customer took their cheque book out of the wallet. “How does sixty thousand pounds sound?”
Kaimana smiled. “Very good, sir, thanks.”
The costumer gave the cheque to Kaimana and took hold of his new painting.
Kaimana decided not to tell him about the previous owners supposedly dying short after purchasing the painting, so as not to disrupt the transaction.
”Wait until the wife sees this,” the customer said before walking off.
”I’m sure she’ll love it, sir,” Kaimana said.
He sighed with relief as the customer, and the painting, left the building and his eyeline.
He knew what he’d just done was morally dubious, but in a way, he didn’t care.
The painting was someone else’s problem now, not his.
Feeling as though a tremendous weight had been lifted off his shoulders, Kaimana continued to sell antiques to his customers without a care in the world.
The Robinsonverse 