As Gustav Von Valentijn sat in front of The Starry Night, he couldn't help but feel a sense of awe wash over him. He had spent a small fortune to acquire the painting from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and now it was the centerpiece of his sanctuary - a room designed to mimic the style of van Gogh's masterpiece. Every evening, Gustav would sit for hours, lost in the beauty of the painting.
But one day, something strange happened. As he sat in front of The Starry Night, Gustav began to see eyes forming in the stars of the painting. At first, there were only a few - maybe ten or twenty. But as the minutes ticked by, the number of eyes seemed to grow and grow. They glittered with a dark, jewel-like glint that seemed to come from an abyss.
Gustav was terrified. He ran out of his sanctuary and locked himself in his bedroom, shaking with fear. The next morning, he mustered up the courage to return to his sanctuary, but the moment he stepped through the door, he was met with a sight that nearly drove him mad. The room was filled with thousands of eyes, all watching him with an intensity that felt like an all-devouring abyss.
Gustav knew he needed help, but no one believed him. His friends and doctors all thought he was suffering from anxiety or the beginning stages of schizophrenia. But Gustav was certain of what he had seen - he just couldn't convince anyone else.
Desperate, Gustav retreated to a hotel. But he eventually had to return home when he ran out of money. As he approached his mansion, he was filled with a sense of dread. When he opened the door, his worst fears were realized. The entire interior of the house was filled with millions of glowing, abyssal eyes. They seemed to judge him, and Gustav didn't know why.
He screamed and begged for mercy, but no one answered. The days turned into weeks, then months, and then it felt like millennia. Gustav lost all sense of time as he was trapped with the eyes that seemed to be judging him. He begged for forgiveness and tried to atone for whatever he had done, but nothing seemed to work.
Finally, Gustav couldn't take it any longer. He grabbed a knife and began to cut off his own ear, hoping that it would be enough to appease the eyes. But even as he bled out on the floor, the eyes continued to watch him with an even greater intensity. In a fit of despair, Gustav began to mutilate his own body, hoping that it would bring an end to the torment.
When his friends came to check on him a week later, they found Gustav kneeling in a pool of his own blood, surrounded by a scene of unimaginable gore. The painting was returned to the museum, where it was once again on display for all to see. But no one who looked at it could shake the feeling that they were being watched by those same jewel-like, abyssal eyes.
For these eyes like to be viewed not by one, but by all other eyes in maddening bliss.