NOTE: This Story will be written in first person, and is not for the faint of heart, The events in this story are fictional, but are meant to inform of this serious illness. The events in this are from dreams that I have had while living with this phobia. And for those who suffer from the same. This is your last warning.
This is a more personal story. While it is still my Fursona, Atherius, as the main character, This is basically a story about the hardships of living with phobias. My Phobia, Pediophobia, or the fear of humanoid objects like Mannequins, Dolls, Animatronic characters, and things of the sort.
So I hope you enjoy...
A little background of the phobia: It is a more specific version of Autamatonophobia. Or the fear of Human-like shapes, which could be anything other than a human, that looks like a human, examples being those shadowy figures we "Think" we see in the corner of our eyes, when we were kids and we thought that pile of clothes in our room was a monster. Even most monsters in pop-culture today, like the Rake, and the Slenderman, both feed partially off of this fear.
Antique store owner Liz brings home a Victorian taxidermy hound from auction, unwittingly unleashing dark forces on her wife and son.
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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]]