May 15, 2022:
First report from the night guard at the Museum of Fine Arts. He reports "subtle changes" in certain works between his rounds. Surveillance cameras show nothing abnormal, but the recordings present unexplained distortions between 2:17 and 4:42 AM.
The curators, after verification, notice no modification of the works. The guard is maintained at his post despite his insistence about "eyes that follow differently" and "poses that are no longer quite the same."
May 21, 2022:
Investigation authorized following the guard's disappearance. Last surveillance footage: the man staring for 47 minutes at the painting "The Lady in Black" (unknown artist, circa 1876), before the camera experiences a technical failure.
Team of 120 explorers assigned. Initial measurements:
· Varnish reflectance: 89% (normal: 60-65%)
=> Surfaces abnormally reflect light, creating "points of gaze" even in darkness
· Pigment migration: detected at 0.03mm/hour
=> Pigments move imperceptibly on the canvas, independent of cracking
· Canvas acidity: pH 4.2 (normal: 6.5-7)
=> Canvas weave shows unexplained acidification, as if they were "digesting" something
· Spectral signature of varnishes: presence of organic compounds typical of skin decomposition
=> Varnishes present inexplicable biological characteristics
· Frame dating: Carbon-14 analyses show contradictory results, some parts of the frames appearing "younger" than others by several centuries
· Crack pattern analysis: Patterns don't match any known aging model and form patterns similar to fingerprints on a large scale
First report from the chief curator:
"Restorers report an unexplained increase in varnish brightness on certain canvases. The pigments seem more... alive. The night team now refuses to work alone, citing 'movements' in their peripheral vision."
May 23, 2022:
Losses: 3
Notes:
The first exploration team discovers major anomalies in the portrait gallery. The painted faces show "different expressions" depending on the viewing angle. More disturbing: photographic analyses show impossible anatomical variations - some portrayed subjects appear to have unidentifiable bone structures under their skin.
Dr. Laurent, art historian, spends 6 hours studying "The Lady in Black." His report mentions a "changing facial architecture" and notes that the dress folds seem to "fold back on themselves like origami made of flesh, creating patterns that the mind instinctively refuses to complete." He also describes how certain folds seem to "continue beyond the canvas limits" when followed with the eye, and how others "create depths that violate the most elementary rules of 18th-century perspective." In his final notes, he mentions "volumes that shouldn't be able to exist in our dimension" and "folds that seem to digest the gaze." He is found the next day in his office, repeating in a loop "she has so many faces, so many faces under her face."
2 explorers disappear after reporting a "contamination" of other paintings by the style of "The Lady in Black." Cameras show their last position: motionless in front of a still life whose fruits seemed to "pulse like organs." Another explorer is found that morning fused with the canvas he was examining, his body half-absorbed into the still-wet paint of a 17th-century landscape.
May 25, 2022:
Losses: 8
Notes:
The restoration team discovers that the chemical composition of the paintings has changed. The pigments now contain unidentifiable organic compounds. Under microscope, they seem to constantly reorganize, forming patterns that cause instant migraines in observers.
Dr. Martinez, analyzing a varnish sample, notes that it "reacts to the proximity of living bodies." Three explorers are found dead in the laboratory after the sample began "crawling toward their eyes." The bodies present eye cavities filled with solidified varnish, forming small pictorial surfaces where perfect miniatures of "The Lady in Black" are drawn.
Two other explorers are discovered in the main gallery, their bodies twisted into positions reminiscent of Renaissance anatomical studies, skin cracked like old varnish, organs transformed into still lifes.
Three additional losses during examination of an ancient frame. Witnesses report that the carved wood "animated like vegetable tendrils," penetrating their flesh and gradually transforming them into bas-reliefs. Their bodies are now an integral part of the frame, their faces frozen in expressions of horrified ecstasy.
The portraits in the west gallery now all show disturbing similarities to "The Lady in Black" - even male subjects. The faces seem to turn toward visitors when their backs are turned.
May 27, 2022:
Losses: 2
Progress: Horror Localization
X-ray analysis of "The Lady in Black" reveals older layers of the painting. Each layer shows a different version of the subject, with increasingly aberrant anatomies. The last layer, the oldest, does not represent a woman, but a form that seems to be composed entirely of screaming faces swallowing each other, some appearing to emerge from the mouths of other faces which themselves emerge from eyes that weep mouths. Observers who attempt to follow its logic suffer severe ocular hemorrhages, their eyes beginning to fold inward into their orbits as if trying to flee what they have glimpsed. During the last authorized observation, an explorer spent 47 seconds staring at this layer before his eyes began to present multiple pupils, subdividing like uncontrolled cellular mitosis until his orbits were nothing but writhing masses of ocular tissue.
Other works in the museum now show signs of "contamination." Landscapes develop non-Euclidean perspectives. Still lifes present fruits and flowers that "breathe." Sculptures seem to have moved a few millimeters during the night.
An explorer reports having seen his reflection in a varnished painting "blink its eyes asynchronously." He is found the next day, transformed into a kind of living art installation: his body frozen in a grotesque pose, his skin showing the same cracks as an old painting.
May 28, 2022:
Losses: 23
Notes:
The team discovers that "The Lady in Black" is not an ordinary painting, but a kind of "breaking point" where art becomes reality and reality becomes art. The horror it contains is an entity that feeds on others' perception, gradually transforming observers into elements of its composition.
Observed effects on victims include:
- Skin developing a texture similar to oil paint
- Bones rearranging according to artistic composition principles
- Eyes multiplying to offer "better perspectives"
- Bodies twisting to create "more aesthetic poses"
- Consciousness fragmenting into "preparatory studies"
May 29, 2022:
Chosen: 27
Notes:
To contain the horror, we understood that we had to offer it a "masterpiece" it couldn't refuse. Analysts determined that the entity seeks the "aesthetic perfection of suffering."
Sacrificial process:
The 27 chosen are arranged according to the composition of "The Raft of the Medusa." Each receives an injection of historic toxic pigments:
- Paris Green (arsenic)
- Lead White
- True Vermilion (mercury)
- Naples Yellow (antimony)
As the toxins begin their work, the chosen are positioned to recreate scenes from famous paintings:
- 7 for Munch's "The Scream"
- 5 for Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Children"
- 9 for Bruegel's "The Triumph of Death"
- 6 for Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
The suffering of the chosen "paints" a new work in the very air of the museum. Their bodies twist and transform, their fluids become pigments, their screams create invisible brushstrokes.
The horror of "The Lady in Black" is attracted by this new creation. It begins to leave its painting, drawn by the promise of a more perfect work. At the critical moment, the chosen, in their agony, form a living "frame" that imprisons the entity.
The bodies of the chosen instantly fossilize, transformed into a new artwork that keeps the horror prisoner within its very composition.
May 30, 2022:
The exhibition is officially closed for "renovation." The new work, catalogued simply as "Untitled Installation," is sealed in a vault. Other paintings gradually return to their normal state, although some visitors still occasionally report "movements" in their peripheral vision.
Financial costs:
- Equipment: $3,725,000
- Salaries: $890,000
- Death insurance: $1,350,000
Final note: The families of the chosen receive "sanitized" copies of portraits of their loved ones. These portraits are strictly static and show no signs of consciousness. The originals, which continue to silently beg observers to free them, remain in the museum's secure archives.
WARNING: Any attempt to document the Untitled Installation through drawing, painting, or photography is strictly forbidden. Previous attempts have resulted in the transformation of artists into still lifes.
