The Hands Resist Him

by 5F Liu Chin Wai

 



The Hands Resist Him
Bill Stoneham 1972
 

‘It must be that haunted painting, it always brings misfortune!’ the curator screamed.

The previous night, serious vandalism had occurred in the Hong Kong Museum of Art and several masterpieces had been damaged, so Patrick Ip, a criminal investigator,  and his assistant David were on their way to there to investigate further.  It was a cloudy morning; as they arrived, a gust of chilly wind blew the huge banner hanging high at the top of the entrance.  It swung as if it were welcoming them.

 

‘Let’s go in and make a start’, said Patrick to his sidekick.

 

As they moved towards the entrance, the glass sliding door opened automatically. It was even cooler inside, and Patrick trembled even though he was wearing a pretty thick jacket. He showed his warrant card to the approaching guard and they were led to the Special Exhibition Gallery where two more guards flanked the entrance. The poster next to it bore the words‘Exhibition of the World’s Scariest Masterpieces’.

 

In the center of the hall, five paintings, each the size of a coffee table were on display, and burn marks could be seen on all of them - except the middle one.

 

‘Wow, that’s pretty horrible, I mean the painting in the middle,’ commented David.

 

This was indeed true: in the picture, two children were standing in front of an opaque door.  Behind the door, numerous tiny hands were pushing against it. No facial expression could be seen on the children.  The most horrible thing was that when studied closely, it became apparent that they had been painted with no eyes!

 

 

‘That’s “The Hands Resist Him” by Bill Stoneham, a painting rumoured to be haunted,’ a middle-aged woman murmured as she approached the two detectives, a distracted smile on her face.  Nonetheless, in her eyes, there was a sense of sadness and worry…

 

‘I am Susan Wong, the curator of this museum,’ she explained.

 

Patrick introduced David and himself, and asked Susan if they could view the CCTV footage from the previous night.

 

Everyone was shocked when the video was played - nobody made a sound.  Everything was alright for the first five hours after the museum had closed, but then something astonishing happened, just when the digital clock struck midnight. The brightly shining spotlights dimmed, and the “Hands Resist Him” painting suddenly vibrated, electricity arcing like live snakes through the other paintings, leaving scorch marks on each of them. One, two, three… four.  In an instant the four valuable pictures burst into flames, a billion dollars had gone up in smoke!  The eyes of the two children in the painting remained hollow and murky, as if silently observing the destruction around them.

 

David held his breath with his mouth open; Susan’s eyes widened as she covered her mouth with her hands, trying to conceal her terror.  Patrick managed to keep calm, but he felt his skin crawl, especially when a blast of chill wind blown out by the air conditioner went down his back, raising goosebumps on his flesh.  They all fell into silence, none of them daring to be the first to comment on what they had just witnessed.

 

‘It must be that haunted painting.  It always brings misfortune!’ screamed Susan again, ‘In the rumour I told you about, those two children will come out from the picture at night and play tricks!  They must have burnt the pictures and caused all those things to happen!’ she continued.

 

They fell into silence again, Patrick tried to break the panic; he didn’t believe in anything supernatural, at least he didn’t want to, and certainly not before his investigative instincts as a detective had been tested.  He turned around and walked towards the now dead canvases.  David followed.  Patrick studied the paintings in great detail, almost as if he were an art restorer.  As he reached out to touch one of the paintings, Susan stopped him.

 

‘The frames of all these pictures are electrically connected as part of the security system’, she warned.  ‘They could still be live.’

 

Patrick’s heart almost stopped beating when he heard this, and he breathed a sigh of relief for having been warned and escaping almost certain electrocution, the same fate as the very things he was examining.   He welcomed the thought of being warm again – but not that warm!

 

‘Wait, what did you say?  The frames are connected to the mains?’ David asked.

 

‘Ha! Great minds think alike,’ replied Patrick, again taking pains to avoid touching the picture frames.

 

‘I want to know more about this frame - please disconnect the electricity and find person who designed it. I would like to have a talk with him,’ ordered Patrick.

 

They were finally able to take the paintings down for a closer study after the security system had been turned off.  However, to their disappointment, nothing untoward was found except a network of electrical wires.  While they were still checking the connections, the designer arrived.

 

To their astonishment, the designer was a man from the Middle East named Adam Hussein.

 

‘So you are the designer as well as the new security manager here at the Museum?’ asked Patrick in a firm voice.

 

‘Yes, that’s right. I made the frame, but I didn’t do that, I haven’t committed any crime!’ replied Hussein immediately.

 

‘I never said you had.  Why did you say that?’  Patrick’s iron-like tone hardened.

 

Hussein’s face went pale and his hands started shaking,  confirming Patrick’s suspicions.  He walked over to David winking at him unobtrusively.  He leant close to his head and whispered to him to leave and run a check on Hussein.  He kept talking to Hussein, whose replies got more and more confused and contradictory; the hunter had nearly caught his quarry.

 

As their conversation became heated, Patrick received a message from David on his mobile.

 

‘Hussein is a fanatical Christian. Could be important!

 

Receiving the message, Patrick realised the truth of what had happened in a flash.  So strong was the realisation that it was like an electric shock.  He asked Susan for more details of the damaged artworks.

 

‘Here you are,’ she said, flicking through the Museum’s catalogue of the exhibition.  ‘As our theme is horror in this exhibition, we have paintings related to horrible topics, so they are “Sin”, “Death” and “The Devil”, “St Michael Defeats the Devils”, “Building the Devil’s Bridge”, and finally, “Satan Before the Lord,” said Susan, enumerating all the pictures in the exhibition.

 

‘Bingo! All the damaged artworks are related to the devils; a Christian fanatic will neither approve of nor allow the existence of the devil, even in art.  Am I correct, Mr. Hussein?’ asked Patrick, his voice now like steel.

 

Adam’s eyes became hollow, like the children in “Hands Resist Him”.  He stuttered, ‘Brilliant, really clever deduction.  Devils cannot be allowed to exist, so I deliberately connected the wires to those pictures in order to cause a short circuit.  They burnt when the security system was turned on at night, when I was out of sight, out of mind. The lord will bless me for my deed,’ he choked, a crazy smile on his face.

 

‘Yes, true, so may God forgive you, in jail. Take him away!’  Patrick ordered and Adam was handcuffed by David and the security guards and led away.

 

‘There is no supernatural,’ sighed Patrick. ‘Let’s call it a day. File closed.’ Patrick grinned at David as he spoke, watching the delusional criminal being manhandled out to the waiting police car.