#1 in Horror - 11/17/15 "Shhh, don't make a sound." I feel a grip around my neck feeling his hot breath on my ear. "Or I'll kill you here and now." He whispers as I felt something sharp on the side of my waist that was piercing the surface of my skin. My heart pounds heavily my breathing became strained causing me to exhale faster and heavier. We stood inside my bedroom feet away from my sleeping husband he pulls me closer to his body moving backwards to the hallway. I could only follow hoping that my life would be spared. Suddenly, we stopped by the edge of the staircase. "You're mine." He whispers in a hoarse tone placing a kiss on my cheek hitting me on the head with the back of the knife. I was seeing double. I was feeling dizzy, everything was spinning. I felt like I was in slow motion groaning at the pain looking down the stairs. That's the last thing I see before I black out. A/N: WARNING, there is profanity, gory scenes and mild sexual content throughout the book. For all you grammar nazi's. This is by no means a final draft. There are many errors and I'll get to them. Don't read if you find my grammar shitty. Lmao.

Antique store owner Liz brings home a Victorian taxidermy hound from auction, unwittingly unleashing dark forces on her wife and son. ***** Nat Loman has finally married the love of her life, Liz, and is getting used to her role as stepmother to Liz's 5-year-old son, Liam. The Loman family runs a bustling antique business so they attend a sale where a striking, black taxidermied hound is up for auction. Liz picks it up for the business, but it ends up being stored in their home, where Nat notices strange things occurring. She quickly discovers the past residents had died violently. Then she hears from a friend about the myth of "the devil's dog", a hound that perches in the shadows, tearing families apart from the inside. Soon, people around the Lomans are dying, and Liz is changing, darkening. It's up to Nat to save the woman she loves from the darkness closing in, and to save Liam from danger no matter what she has to sacrifice. [[Winner of the 2018 Wattys "Hidden Gems" category]] [[word count: 60,000-70,000 words]]