By AlHazred (original post; more here and here)
In the lobby hangs a painting. It's part of the decor of the hotel - the Management went to a company for their “flair,” so it all matches. Well, everything except the painting in the lobby.
For one thing, it's enormous - the lobby is the one room that's big enough to hold it, where it can hang without getting in the way like it would in the convention halls. It's ornately-carved gold-colored frame is strange, anyway. Most guests who take a close look swear they see faces carved in there, screaming or calling out for something. It's all a trick of the eye, though, like finding images in the clouds.
Besides, the subject matter, while odd, isn't outright weird or grotesque. It merely depicts a scene of a murder, with twelve oddly-costumed people standing around a man in a black robe, who clutches his chest as he falls to the floor in a pool of blood. The clerk says its supposed to be some sort of classical scene, but that doesn't explain all the minor oddities in it: through a window in the background is what appears to be a pyramid with a glowing eye atop it; various people have pieces of paper sticking out of their pockets, but they all have strange-looking writing on them - or maybe a code; the knives are all oddly-curved, and some of the look like they are not knives at all but claws that spring from the assailants' hands; and the pool of blood on the floor seems to reflect something just above the painting's point of view, too vague to make out but somehow disturbing in outline or form.
But the most disturbing thing about the painting is the murdered man's face. It glares out at the viewer with an expression of betrayal, anger - and terror. People claim the eyes seem to follow them as they move about the lobby. Even the All-Seeing Blind Guy (especially the All-Seeing Blind Guy) claims to feel some weird chill down his spine when he sits or stands nearby.
Look, look now! I swear, I just saw his eyes swivel in your direction…
Plot Hooks:
Further Ideas: Actually, a more “mundane” twist on this would be that everyone, no matter who they are, see this painting with their own face as the face of the murdered man. Or, perhaps, the painting always shows the face of a current guest, and the guest who shows up is the one who is the next one to die. Could be later that day, could be years from now; it's just a strange sort of oracle. The face changes as people check in/out (or die).
Or maybe everyone thinks the murdered man looks very much (but not exactly) like someone they knew who has died (such as an old friend, a grandparent, etc.). The sort of thing that not everyone would comment on right away to their companions. But if they do start comparing notes, they find that everyone thinks the painting looks like a different deceased person they knew, but those deceased people don't necessarily look anything like each other…
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