The Halloween Family Portrait
While decorating her old family home for Halloween, Maya stumbled upon a dusty, ornate frame hidden behind an old armoire. It held a large, sepia-toned family portrait from decades ago, showing her great-grandparents alongside children Maya didn’t recognize. The children’s faces were solemn, and there was something oddly familiar yet unsettling about them. Strangely, Maya couldn’t recall ever seeing this portrait before, even though she had lived in the house for years.
Curious, she took the portrait downstairs to show her mother. The moment her mother saw it, her face went pale, and she whispered, “I thought we got rid of that picture years ago.” But when Maya pressed her for details, her mother avoided the topic, saying only that some things were better left undisturbed.
Ignoring the warning, Maya hung the portrait in the main hall as part of the Halloween decorations. But as the days passed, she started noticing strange things. The faces in the portrait seemed to change slightly every time she looked at it, and occasionally, she thought she saw a figure from the portrait watching her from the corner of her eye. On Halloween night, Maya could swear she saw one of the children in the portrait smiling at her—an eerie, knowing smile.
Later that night, as she prepared to go to bed, she heard soft footsteps outside her door. When she opened it, she found the portrait lying face-down on the floor, and a faint, childlike whisper filled the hallway: “Now that you’ve brought us back, we’re here to stay.”
Heart pounding, Maya picked up the portrait, only to notice that one of the children in the picture was missing. She frantically searched the house, hoping it was some kind of trick of the light, but every time she looked at the portrait, another figure seemed to disappear.
Realizing the danger, Maya tried to take the portrait outside to discard it, but the moment she reached the door, it felt as if something was holding her back, whispering from the shadows. Just then, she caught a glimpse of movement in the hallway mirror—a child’s face, grinning, watching her every move. She could hear faint whispers: “You invited us back. And now, you can’t leave.”