Never be alone with paintings.

--mentions of murder and suicide --nothing too gory !

It was on the morning of her 21^rd birthday that Samantha found out she had inherited a great fortune. Her father, whom she never met, bequeathed her a large sum of money, a few properties, and his painting collection.

Samantha still lived with her family, including her mom, stepdad, and three half-siblings. They weren’t rich, but well-off enough. In fact, Samantha grew up to be a bit spoiled. However, she was a dutiful kid. That morning there was a ring at the door, one of the twins, Albert, rushed to welcome a strange figure: Mr. Bates. The strange man demanded to see Samatha, “It’s urgent, it concerns the dead of her father”. The news came as a shock to her parents and herself since they didn’t expect that man to ever reappear in their lives, on the other hand, Samantha’s siblings had no idea she had a different biological father.  Before Samantha’s family had the time to recover from the shock, and before her mom had the time to stop her, Samantha decided to hop in her car and follow the man to his office.  

Mr Bates was her father’s executor, he was also his lawyer and one of his closest friends, but Samantha didn’t know that. She sat down in front of the strange man, expecting nothing really, maybe a few words, maybe an explanation for a lifetime of absence. Instead, she found out she was now a rich woman. She even had a manor that had been in his dad’s family for years., Mr Mason Crawley had left no personal words to his daughter, except “You are my only biological child, and solely because of that, you are entitled to part of my fortune. However, I chose you as my heir. I chose you as the responsible for the family Estate. I trust that you will executive my last wishes and, most importantly, fulfill all your responsibilities.”

These words were not particularly touching, but they meant the man had some hopes regarding his daughter.  Many other documents were presented to her, a pile of instructions and explanations about the accounts and properties. Everything seemed well organized and proper, except when it came to the collection of paintings. Everything seemed already so odd and grand to Samantha that she didn’t realize how bizarre the request regarding the collection was. It seemed that her dad wrote the wishes regarding the collection in a rush. The instructions were written on a random sheet of paper and were almost intelligible, Mr Bates was able to “translate” to her. A few arrangements had to be made regarding the paintings, but the end goal was this: the paintings had to be burned – all of them.

The only reason given for the burning of the paintings was that “I had no time to burn them myself.”

When Samantha saw the collection, she was completely puzzled. The paintings seemed to be from different artists, among them, her father. The paintings were hauntingly beautiful. They were the type of art produced by masters during the Renaissance, but they had been painted in this era. The technique of each artist was flawless, and each artist had artistic particularities that shone through the paintings.

“He must have gone insane, who would want these masterpieces to be destroyed?” Samantha thought to herself.  She also recalled that he had written that “never let anyone alone with the paintings, including yourself.” Whatever that meant, seemed a tad crazy to say the least. When she questioned Mr. Bates about the paintings, he told her only that he knew her dad was part of a group of artists – a society of artists. The paintings that weren’t painted by him were most probably gifts from other members. Mr. Bates didn’t seem particularly interested in the subject, in fact, it appeared to Samantha that he seemed troubled by it. Samantha, being so young, didn’t know what to think. She did not share this information with anyone and decided to leave the matter alone for the moment.

That moment lasted nearly two years. That’s the time it took her to learn everything she needed to learn about the management of the Estate. She remembered the beautiful paintings and decided, almost on impulse, to open an art gallery. Mr. Bates never asked her anything about the paintings, which confirmed to her that her father must have lost his mind by the end of his life and that she was probably not bound to burn them after all.

Samantha, to the demise of her mother, had been living at the manor. She wanted her whole family to move in with her, but her parents refused. Her mom was disgusted by the idea of her running her father’s Estate and wanted no part in it. However, they would visit as much as they could to keep an eye on her.

Samantha had been a business major, back when she attended university, she therefore enlisted the help of her former classmates to set up the gallery. Everything was done in a couple of months. The inauguration was a success. She never told her family anything about the paintings except that the collection was part of the inheritance.

Three days after the inauguration, when everything was quiet, and Samantha was alone, a stranger came to see her at the gallery. He claimed to be one of the painters but refused to give his identity. He wore a hat and a scarf, to conceal his face. Samantha was troubled by the visit, it happened just when none of the staff was around. The man asked her strange questions “Have you seen things…hum move around when no one is there,” “Do you feel a presence when you are alone in the gallery?”, etc. Samantha was patient with the man, but he left her shaken. When he left, she decided to equip the gallery with an additional security guard so the two of them could take turns.

The truth was that she did feel unsafe when alone in the gallery, but she blamed that fear on the location of the gallery. It was a trendy location, but not the safest. Once, when she was supposed to be alone, she swore that someone else was there. She wanted to call out and walk around the gallery, but her instinct screamed at her to wait, so she did. A few minutes later she was joined by her staff. She told them about the situation, so they called the police, but nobody was found.

A week after the inauguration, she or her staff members started noticing that things were moved during the night. At first, Samantha didn’t pay it any attention since nothing had been stolen. However, this occurred every night it seemed. They checked the cameras, only to be faced with another strange event. The cameras were either frozen for several hours – or they would malfunction. Samantha's rational mind couldn’t understand what was happening. This Gallery was supposed to be a fun project, a temporary break from the Estate’s administration. But now it was turning into a headache.

Samantha stubbornly decided to stay a whole night in the gallery to see what was happening. She informed the police and employed a security guard. Two of her friends volunteered to stay with her. Of course, she didn’t tell her parents.

When everybody fell asleep, she couldn’t. And swore she saw someone move a chair. That person looked at her straight in the eyes and then faded away. That person was somewhat familiar to her. She didn’t tell anyone, she made herself believe it was a dream.

The next day, they found the body of the janitor in one of the closets. According to the investigators, he hung himself in the closet. There was a trail of blood from the corridor to that closet, and yet it was ruled as a suicide.

A very close friend of Samantha asked to “borrow” the gallery for the evening, so she could surprise her boyfriend who was coming back from the military. She wanted to dine in one of the rooms and then visit the gallery with him. Samantha agreed, even though her instinct told her not to.

The romantic soiree ended up being at night, the couple came later than expected. The police were called after screams were heard around 2 am. Samantha’s friend seemed to have been murdered, the boyfriend was badly injured. The cameras were, as usual, malfunctioning during the event.

The police ruled it to be murder and the boyfriend was the main suspect.

Samantha could not help becoming increasingly paranoid – someone she knew was messing with her she thought. Maybe one of the staff members was a killer? She suspected that the janitor did not kill himself and that the friend’s boyfriend was not the one who killed her.

Samantha fired the staff members she didn’t trust and moved the gallery to a safer location. She moved near her manor, in the nearby village.

She also decided to allocate less time to the gallery and focus once again on her Estate. The gallery was now opened only three times a week for a few hours.

She was rarely there and avoided interacting with the staff. Since the death of her dear friend, she forbade any loved one to be around the gallery without her. She couldn’t explain why, it wasn’t a rational decision.

Her twin brothers would joke around, saying the gallery was haunted or cursed and that’s why Samantha was so weird about it. They were insensitive teenagers who didn’t understand how all the events affected their sister.

Her siblings would often spend a great amount of time at her place during the summer. This gave her parents to her parents and kept her company.

The twins were now nearly fifteen years old and had managed to befriend some kids from the village. One of the kids, after hearing that the gallery might be cursed, urged the twins to find a way to break into the gallery at night, which they did.

-----story not finished.