Family that checked into a rural B&B left terrified after spotting a painting resembling their son

While no scientific evidence supports it, doppelgangers probably do exist, in some shape and form. More so, there’s a one in 135 chance that a person has an exact doppelganger somewhere in the world of 7 billion, per BBC. An unlikely occurrence only a few shall experience in reality. But this family of five who were returning from a skiing holiday in the mountains were left terrified of what they discovered during their pitstop at a countryside B&B. The Stevensons were driving back with hearty memories from their trip but the kids’ constant bickering in the backseat prompted the matriarch, Jenny to consider a break from the road. “Our children were starting to argue in the backseat, so I found a little cottage for us to stay overnight,” she told TODAY. 

The Swedish family was not ready for what was about to unravel. They stopped by the old cottage adorned with antique floral wallpaper and the kids– Dita, 14, Morty, 11, and Barney, 8, could not wait to explore the place. Looking around, Jenny suspected there was something sinister at play when she found the guest bedroom locked from outside. That was not it. Soon, her daughter stumbled on a painting over a century old that had a chilling resemblance to one of their kids. As the family gathered for dinner, Jenny and her husband, Jethro, were shocked to see a print of a vintage painting from at least a century ago that depicted their son Barney as a little girl. The work of art was accredited to Swedish artist Carl Larsson, who passed away in 1919.

The joyful memories from their skiing vacation were warped into a spooky one upon the discovery. “My daughter said, ‘Mum, they’ve got a picture of Barney on the wall!’” Jenny recalled. Indeed it was, the whole family agreed. Though dressed in an attire reminiscent of a different time, the girl in the painting could best be explained as a doppelganger of Barney. “That expression she’s making in the painting, Barney pulls that face all the time,” the mother said, adding that Barney never smiles for pictures instead, puts on a “very intense, serious look.” A rare coincidence of the past and the present, Jenny simply could not help talking about it on the internet. 

On her X handle, @JennieStevenson, she collated two photos of her young son and the painting and shared the post with her followers. In no time, the post went viral attracting over 1.1 million views and more than 7100 likes. “Just arrived at our secluded rural B&B to find a painting of our youngest child depicted as a small girl. There's absolutely no terrifying precedent for this, so it's probably fine,” Jenny wrote in the caption. 

An internet user (@localnotail) reacted to the post with a superimposition of the pictures to further establish the eerie similarly. “50% overlay. Is it too late to find another place to stay...?” they wrote."If there’s an evil lullaby soundtrack, it’s over” wrote someone else (@ProfoundYellow). “Do not go in the cellar,” quipped another X user (@sieco). 

However, Jenny clarified in a follow-up post about their safety and well-being, even though, the overnight stay was not ideal. She revealed that she heard a strange noise in the middle of the night and considered locking the children’s door. “Update: we all survived the night and are now safely 300 km south. Did wake at one point to hear an unusual papery sound, as though someone was flipping the pages of a book  Locked the door, obvs, and was tempted to lock the children in their own room, but, for, I did not,” she explained.