The Haunted Portrait • A Kim Seokjin Story

Chapter 2

The first soul of Devlin.

Later that night after the crowd died down and heart began to settle, Claude had closed another day. Apia and Jimin returned home and promised to see each other tomorrow for a day at the park.

Security had left end Claude Eloise was empty again. The streets had cleared and the busy minds of the town of Devlin had drifted to sleep. Or it appeared to be after a figure was seen roaming around the street.

It was Jimin.

He was in pursuit of going back to the museum and wanting to catch the first glimpse of the painting. Imagining him knowing something before someone else, it fueled his pursuit.

Before Jimin had made it to the museum earlier, he made sure to leave a wedge with a piece of a wooden stick in the middle of the door to make sure it would be open in his return tonight. Just like he thought, the door was still open. So much for the security.

Jimin wedged his way inside of the door and just like that the door closed behind him. He took a breath of release and began walking to the painting. On upon getting closer, he began hearing the shrills of souls but didn't know where it was coming from. Who else was in here. He looked around and around and saw nothing.

The shrills began to fill his head making it harder to hear his thoughts. They pierced his eardrum louder and louder as he grew closer to the paining.

As he approached the painting, the shrills all of a sudden came to a stop. And there he was standing right in from of the blue tarp. His hands were anxious, his head began to sweat with excitement, his heart was pounding. This was it.

His arms began to stretch out toward the tarp and his hand felt the suede in his grasp. In a swoop, the blue tarp fell down poetically and there revealed the painting in front of him.  Jimin stood marveled at the beauty in front of him.

The painting was articulate and well designed. It indicated everything and nothing and the beauty of one man in black and white. The man wore a dashing black suit and his eyes were dark and serious. Not so much as a smirk on the face but a devilish stare. His lips were plump and his hair was styled back. He was handsome, even more so then the men of Devlin. He could understand why people didn't want to bestow their eyes upon this painting. He was beautiful in the worst way.

Jimin stared at him for what seemed to be hours taking in everything. The golden frame that surrounded the painting at ancient etchings on it. He couldn't make out the text but it seemed to be communicating with him. Jimin looked around to survey the museum. No one was there, not a soul.

He turned to look again at the painting and for a moment it looked as if the man was smirking at him. Jimin jumped back and wiped his eyes. His appearance didn't change and in fact he was smirking at him now, looking him dead in the eyes.

"Wow", was small Jimin could write from his lips. His disposition now aligned with the man in the portrait. He couldn't look away.

"What brings you hear, lonely one?", the man rang in the ears of Jimin without moving his lips.  This was how he could communicate without giving away himself too much, capturing the souls of his victims and now Jimin.

"I am marveled at your beauty. I had to see you first", he was in a trance. Between his eyes on the portrait he was captivated. His eyes began to turn white as the iris in his eye lost their color. He moved his hand closer to the end of the mans suit jacket on the painting.

The man was beautiful, and his suit made him even more dapper. He was devastating.

"And are you alone?", he was ready to take his soul.

"I am, master", he was getting overtaken and quick. Run, Jimin. Leave your glance away from him and depart before it is too late. A thought like this came quickly into his mind but it didn't budge. The longer he looked the more he was being invited in.

"Master", he chuckled. The name of that would make it easier to take his soul. He was sunken, it was too late.

The shrills began to pick up again, snapping Jimin quick out of the trance. His iris began to gain color and he had forgotten what he had came for. He looked up at the painting and the man once sitting there was gone. He shed a tear and began to run away when all of a sudden a dark, shadowy figure tripped him. The figure laughed as Jimin began to plea for his life.

"Help me! Someone help me! Please!", he yelled and shouted at the top of his lungs. The man began to drag his body toward the painting. Jimin struggled under his grasp and found it harder and harder to breathe as he got closer. The man laughed at his plea as Jimin began to cry and scream louder.

Everyone in the town was asleep. Not a soul in sight except for the one that was dated for the portrait. It was too late.

A gust of wind began to pour into the museum as the souls got louder and shrilled higher and higher. Another soul was joining them.

The man and a fated Jimin had reached the painting. He kicked Jimin around on his back and stared into his eyes. Jimin began to cover them but the man ripped his arms apart and forced his gaze once more into his.

The man suddenly took the place of the man from the portrait but his eyes were black and leaking black blood from them. He then yelled out a shrilled roar in Jimin's face. He held out his hand and placed his hand in his heart and took his soul.

There then laid a soulless and void Jimin. His body was cold and stiff. Just as the man wanted. He smiled at his last victim and returned to the portrait with the body inside of his hand. He dragged him up into the portrait, soul in tact and sat back into his original posture. The man smirked one last time before his face returned to his original stare.

Another soul was his. Jimin Park. Gone without a trace.

The blue tarp suddenly began to move and recovered itself over the painting as was before. It was if nothing happened. The museum went back to its sudden stillness. Quiet and empty with the lingering shrills of the souls inside, now including Jimin.

How many more souls would be taken next inside the town of Devlin.