The most terrifying thing my parents could tell me during my childhood was, “We’re going to grandma’s house!”
I always felt uneasy, and for a while, I had no idea why this was happening. I always had a good relationship with my grandparents and liked spending time with them, but their house creeped me out even if I thought about it. I always felt like somebody was watching me while I was clearly alone.
Their rooms were full of paintings, mostly of beautiful fields and catholic arts, as they were religious. I had never spent much time looking at these paintings, as they never interested me enough. I remembered a painting of an angel and a terrifying dark demon hanging above the refrigerator. I always found it strange, it looked too creepy to be in my grandparent’s room.
The strange things started when I was nine and visited them during summer with my parents. My grandpa was in the neighborhood, but my grandma immediately welcomed us with a great smile. While we were eating our lunch in the kitchen, I looked at the picture above the refrigerator. It was different. There was no demon on it, only the angel.
“I see you replaced that painting with that ugly monster on it,” I said to my grandmother, who looked at me surprised, just like my parents.
“No, dear, the paintings are the same as before. I haven’t moved them since I moved here,” she responded, then forced a smile.
I looked back at the painting. I knew there was a dark figure on it before, just behind the angel, but it was just gone.
“Okay…” I said finally as I started to eat. I was too hungry to think about it.
After a few hours, I went inside the bedroom to watch TV while the adults were talking in the living room. I was watching some old cartoons when I looked up above the TV and saw a painting of a large forest. Between two trees stood the same dark demonic figure that was missing from the painting in the kitchen. I jumped up from the bed from the shock. I never saw this demon in that painting. I quickly ran out of the room, straight to my parents.
“Is everything alright?” my father asked.
Before I could answer, I looked at the painting above the refrigerator again. There was the demonic figure again, standing behind the angel.
“I just… had a bad dream,” I said. Luckily, we went home a few minutes after that happened. I didn’t tell anyone about this. In the next few years, I somehow managed to avoid visiting my grandparents. I didn’t want to go back to that house. Luckily, they visited us a lot, so we could still meet each other.
I was 17 when I had to go back to that house again with my parents. I still hadn’t forgotten about the paintings. My legs were shaking as I opened the front door. They were both already inside. They greeted us with a great smile. We went inside and ate something in the kitchen. I kept my eyes on my food, trying to avoid looking at the picture of the angel.
After a while, I just couldn’t resist the urge to look at it. I shouldn’t have done it. The demon was there with the angel. I thought the house was cursed, there was no logical explanation for this.
“Grandma, there’s that figure on the painting again,” I told them.
“Yeah, it wasn’t there last time,” my father agreed. “Did you replace it, mom?”
Both of my grandparents’ expressions turned into something sad, serious, and scared at the same time. They slowly looked at each other. There was an awkward silence for a moment.
“Look,” my grandfather broke the silence. My parents were worried, just like me. We had no idea why my grandparents were so scared. “I’ll tell you something, but you can’t talk about it to anyone, understand?”
“Is everything alright?” my father asked him.
“As you already know, I was a soldier during the Cold War. We had a joint exercise with the soviets in East Germany. We had found a cave and decided to explore it. It was some kind of occult place a few centuries ago. There were multiple books about an entity that possesses people, and if they tell someone, the entity will kill them, and possesses the person that knows about it. We didn’t want to tell you until now because we wanted to protect you from this thing we unleashed on the world. Now it’s going to kill the two of us, and you’ll have to carry this curse.”
My grandparents were both crying at this point. My parents were shocked, not knowing what to say. I was thinking about what they said. To be honest, I felt a bit angry. They should’ve kept this secret from themselves, so the entity could’ve been destroyed, but instead, they told us about it, and now we were possessed too.
“Are you joking, right?” my father asked them. He couldn’t believe it until he looked back at the painting, and the dark figure was gone again. My grandmother shook her head.
“Come on honey, we’re going to the priest,” my father jumped up from his chair. “Maybe he can do something.”
“You shouldn’t tell this to anyone,” my grandma argued. “You will curse the poor priest too!”
“Bullshit,” he responded and told my mother and me to follow him. The three of us jumped in our car, and my father drove to the church as fast as he could. When we arrived, we ran inside. Luckily, the priest was there, praying at the altar. My father told him about what happened.
“Ah, the Father of All Shadows,” the priest responded. “Those soldiers disrespected him, and now he’s haunting your family. How unfortunate…”
“Do you know this entity?” my mother asked with a surprised face.
“Yes, yes,” the priest smiled. “Unfortunately, I can’t help you. God save you all!”
He led us out of the church, then went back inside without a word.
“Wha… what is he thinking?” my father said. “Is he crazy or…”
He couldn’t finish his sentence because his phone rang. He picked it up. It was the police.
“Is it Mr. Damford?” the voice from the phone asked.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“I’m sorry to inform you that your father and mother were brutally murdered in their homes. We still don’t know what happened. The investigation is underway. Sorry for your loss. Please visit the crime scene as soon as possible, to file a report.”
We were speechless. Luckily, I didn’t come back to the house. My mother told me that the grandparents were torn into parts by possibly some kind of animal. I was traumatized after this. I thought we’ll be going to get through this after a while, but… we see the demonic figure in our own paintings too.