By: Ariel Roberts
A few years ago during Art Fair, my friend was walking around and stopped at a booth with trippy paintings. Amongst the art was an older painting of Satan and my friend, who jokingly acts like a Satanist, decided to buy it. The artist offered to bag the painting, but my friend refused, saying it wasn’t going to rain, and it was fine in the plastic sleeve. Immediately afterwards it started to pour. He thought it was odd, but the rain had been building up that week anyways. He then ran to a school building in the pouring rain, using the Satan painting as a shield.
My friend decided to hang the painting in the main living area for all to see, but he hadn’t framed it yet. One night it fell off the wall, and he decided to leave it there, not having time to deal with it. That very night, my friend, who slept in the bedroom that shared the wall the painting was on, began to have night terrors. He continued to have night terrors, even after putting it back up. Eventually his first roommate moved out and he switched to the second bedroom. His night terrors stopped immediately afterwards. Although his first roommate never had night terrors in the apartment, he did say that when he was alone in the living room, the painting of Satan would watch him.
My friend got two new roommates, one of them being a girl who moved in the room with the shared wall. By this point my friend had finally framed the painting, and he hoped that this would make things better. The girl never had any problems, but my friend found that if you were to do anything against the painting, it would cause something bad to happen. He realized this after a few of his friends had shot Nerf darts at the painting and had bad luck for a few days afterwards.
One day my friend was coming home and he found a card with a saint on it. He contemplated bringing it in, seeing as it was something interesting, but he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea considering Satan was up in the apartment. He decided to prop the card up where it was and hope that the owner would find it and take it home instead. Interestingly, his female roommate came home later that night with the saint card in hand, happy she had found something cool. She decided to place the saint card in Satan’s frame, and they jokingly (or possibly seriously) believed that Satan possessed the saint, and that the offering had pleased him to some extent.
My friend’s lease on his apartment ended this summer, so his female roommate moved out a few months early for a job. He decided to move back into the other room in order to have his own space since he was originally sharing with his third roommate. The entire time he stayed in that room he had night terrors again. My friend is now my current roommate, and all of this happened before he moved into my apartment a month ago. I am highly superstitious and after hearing everything, I told him he was in no way allowed to bring the painting with him when he moved in and that was final. The painting of Satan now sits in his basement at home. He hasn’t had night terrors since moving into my apartment, but he’s not sure how things are going at home either since he hasn’t been back into the basement since. I’m convinced that the painting of Satan is highly upset and is waiting for him to come home.
The Course of Horror 
First off, why your friend thought hiding Satan in the depth of a basement unlovingly was a good idea I will never know. Although basements seem to be most similar to home for Satan this particular Satan seems to enjoy attention, which is weird because, ya know, its a painting. Did your friend ever go back to find the guy that sold it to him at the Art Fair? I would be interested in knowing if this was a common phenomenon for this guys’ paintings of demonic figures.
My friend says that the painting of Satan was the only painting like that. Everything else was abstract or landscapes. I actually wanted to attach a photo of the painting but my friend didn’t have it on him. I asked his sister if she could take a picture of it and she was alright with doing it until I told her that he had put it in the basement (which she didn’t know). She immediately freaked out and refused to go take a photo. Apparently the basement at their house is also evil to some extent and she is terrified of it, so maybe it’s a good home for Satan.
I would never buy a painting of Satan, I feel like that’s just asking for trouble. You did the right thing by not allowing your friend to bring it into your home. Are the people at his house, where the painting now resides, having problems now as well?
I don’t know if there are problems in the house. He hasn’t been home since then, but he also hasn’t said anything about it so I assume nothing as of now. That’s why I think it’s waiting for him.
You mentioned that your friend jokingly acts like a Satanist. Do you think this has any relation to the weird activities going on in the house once the painting was bought? Maybe because he acts like this he is susceptible to the supernatural. I’m just wondering if any person who bought the painting would have had the same experience. Also, do you know why your friend doesn’t try to get rid of the painting? I would be totally freaked out by it and don’t think I could actually sleep until I knew it was gone.
That’s really interesting and definitely creepy. I’m very superstitious when it comes to things like that, so just the idea of buying a paining of satan is unfathomable to me. I actually won’t even keep any horror books or stories that I read in my room once I’ve finished them. After I read The Shining a few summers ago, I had to hide it on the bookshelf in my downstairs living room because I was too scared to have the object representing that terrifying story anywhere near my bedroom. I’m sure the same thing is going to happen with The Fifth Child as soon as we’re done with that in class!
There are so many deal breakers in this story! I highly doubt satan likes for people to toy around with their devotion to him. I am now convinced that the night terrors were satan’s attempts to snatch your friend’s soul. Salt and burn the painting (Sam and Dean Winchester Style) and be done with it. I feel sorry for your friend’s poor family, not knowing the satan is lurking in their basement, just waiting for a willing soul. Spooky.
That is such a creepy story! I have a hard time believing that the devil actually caused the nigh terrors. Maybe it was just a coincidence? If not, if I were him, I would’ve definitely gotten rid of the painting as soon as weird things started happening. Does he really like the painting or does it mean something to him? I’m curious why he kept it. The devil scares me a lot so I agree that I would never buy a painting of him. I would’ve chosen one of the landscape paintings for sure.
Hi, I’m the owner of said painting. Some of this was embellished, but I do own said painting, I did suffer from panic attacks and night terrors two years ago and it does currently reside in my parents dungeon-esque basement. I’m secular and don’t believe in the existence of deities good or evil, so I don’t believe the painting to actually be demonic. I keep it around ’cause I think it looks cool and it gets a rise out of people. If anything, this mythos of sorts is just giving the object power since there seems to be a collective fear surrounding it. The painting was done by Laura Junge in 2003 and I can’t find anything about it on her online gallery.
You mentioned above that the basement of his house is creepy and that your roommate’s sister would not go down there. I find that a bit suspicious. Do you know if the basement started being a source of evil after the satan painting went down there? I think it’s crazy that the sister would just refuse to go down there. I also think it’s somewhat terrifying that among paintings of nice landscapes there was just this satan picture. Perhaps meant to be picked up by someone on the cusp of worshiping satan. Everything about this is creepy!
I am not superstitious, but I would never buy a painting of Satan and hang it in my apartment. I would be so creeped out by the paintings. I wonder if there is another explanation for your friend’s night terrors. When your friend moved back into his original room after the girl left and he had night terrors, was the picture still framed? If so, that is interesting because when the girl occupied the room sharing the wall with the picture, and it was framed, she had no night terrors. Maybe the night terrors are just related to your friend and that’s it. Regardless, I’m really curious as to what will happen when your friend returns to the painting in his basement.
One question: WHY?! Although I am fascinated by the evil/dark side, hell, satan, whatever you wanna call it, I would never buy a painting of Satan! Good job on not letting him bring the painting with him, but have you asked him how his sister is doing or anyone else living in the house with Satan? I’m really curious to see if anyone else is experiencing what he did. Also, if he ever goes back to visit, could you please update us with anything freaky that could happen? Like, do the night terrors come back, or has the facial expression of Satan changed? Just anything, because although it was a horrible idea to buy it in the first place, I REALLY need to know what happens. Maybe you or him could create a live journal?
This is quite the particular story. I don’t know anyone who personally would buy a picture of satan, but to each their own. I definitely think the idea of having a satan painting in your basement is scary and would give me nightmares. The subtlest of ideas that this devil is hiding in my basement would keep me up at night, and never allow me to be in the basement past night time.
Lol first, I’d never buy a painting of Satan, simply because I would be a little creeped out coming home at night to the painting supposedly “watching me”. I do somewhat think that the painting contributed to the nightmares your friend had, since they stopped as soon as he moved out. He is definitely brave in the first place for keeping the painting for so long, even after having the night terrors.