Hallway Madness

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"I'm pretty sure I've seen this painting before," a young man wearing beaten-up blue tennis shoes, dark wash jeans, and a blue and gray graphic shirt say to himself. He feels like he's been walking down the same hallway for more than an hour. The hallway itself is unremarkable. Two alternating shades of striped blue decorated the walls and a single portrait. The floor is a light wood color that looks like it needs to be mopped. Looking at the portrait, Andy sees a woman in a vivid red dress with a sea of pale pink flowers surrounding her. Her smile is charming and her eyes trap all that look into them. Noticing that he has been looking at the painting for too long he begins to turn away from it.

Shaking his head Andy drags his eyes away from the painting and continues down the hall. Step after step he continues but it seems like he doesn't move forward. Andy can't tell how long he has been trapped in this hallway since there are no windows in this hall. But again he comes across the same portrait. This time, however, the woman isn't smiling. Her face is twisted into a sneer. It's as if she became angry at the fact that he stopped looking at her.

"What's with that face? I don't have time to be looking at you," he pauses, "Great, now I'm talking to the painting."

Rolling his eyes, Andy moves on again. Starting his walk again, he hears a whisper. Thinking it's all in his head, he continues.

"Look at me! Talking to a portrait and hearing voices that aren't there. I must have been trapped in this hallway longer than I thought," he said to himself.

"How dare that bastard not love me," the echoing voice hisses.

At that moment Andy stopped walking. Now he was sure that wasn't from his head. He slowly pivots his body to look behind him. There she stood. The woman who was just an image stands behind him. Her bright hair looks picture perfect and the beautiful red dress stands out from the stripped blue walls. The hallway isn't silent. There is a sound of liquid hitting the floor. Looking closer at the dress it seems that the red color is sliding off it. The red's movement reminds Andy of water sliding down a window. The difference is the strong smell of something metallic.

"Now you can't take your eyes off me!" her face flushes with rage.

Not bothering with answering the now alive painting, Andy twists around and starts a mad dash from her.

"Get back! Don't leave me! I need you, come back!" in her hysterics the woman in the red dress follows.

The metallic smell gets stronger and the clicking of heels on the wood floor motivates Andy to move faster. Seeing a window that wasn't there before Andy throws himself out of it since it was open.  He thanks, God that the hallway was on the first floor of the building. Hearing her footsteps still coming,  Andy quickly pushes the window so it shuts and hides behind a bush five feet away. Keeping quiet, he sees the woman approach the window. Something strange happens, she makes a distressed face and backs away from the window. She then goes back to what Andy guess is her portrait.

Breathing a sigh, Andy gets up and looks around. It seems to be late noon. He hears a clock chime three times.

"I guess that means it's three in the afternoon. That means I've been stuck in that hallway for about an hour and a half," he quietly discusses to himself.

"Andy where have you been! I've been looking all over for you in the art museum," Sam said.

"Trust me, if I told you, you'd think I'm crazy," says Andy.

"Well, whatever let's just go." Sam said, "Can you believe they're closing this place down forever since those weird murders keep happening around here?"

"I can definitely believe it Sam, but let's just get out," Andy says.

Walking away from the art museum in silence the two don't turn back. Andy, however, does think he now knows what caused those weird murders. Hopefully, now that this place will be closed that painting won't be going anywhere. The two make it out of the museum and get on the bus to go home.

Back inside the museum in the same hallway that Andy was trapped in, the woman in red makes her way back to her frame. She walks across the red that fell off her dress after chasing that boy who she was going to use. Stopping right in front of her frame she presses herself into the portrait.

"Damn, I was so close. Now I need even more red for my dress than before," Letting go of her frustration, she puts on a smile. "I guess I just have to seduce someone else to provide me with more red paint. After all, I'm going to be part of the auction this place is having on October thirty-first."

Her composure is restored, the woman in red waits for her next lover to get her so that her beautiful red dress can never fade. In the dark hallway, the woman in the portrait waits for her time to come. After all, just because one paint bucket manages to run away doesn't mean the next one will manage to do the same.