An artist who is out of ideas, lying on his work desk with a lot of mess around his room. He has long dark hair, brown eyes with dark circles, a pokey outgrowth of beard, overall a shaggy man. His name is Carlson Christopher. He was out of art supplies as he had no profit from all the paintings that he created after weeks and months of sleepless working hours. He had many half-done paintings all around his room scattered here and there. He was economically and mentally down. His mental state was so worse that he even started to question his own existence. "why should I live this pathetic life. I don't want to live like this, i hate this world.". Burdening himself with disgust and hate over himself, he decides to paint his last painting. He cut himself up with a knife, took his brush and took a clean canvas, he dipped his brush in his wounds and
started painting ,a menacingly gore painting, but in plain sight, it was only a girl looking passionately at red moon on a dark night sky.
Seemed simple enough, but this bloody beautiful piece of art was made intendedly to mean his end, and also as a proof of his life, as the proof that a person named Carlson Christopher once lived. But this wasn't the case with just himself and his death, this painting meant something to the supernatural, especially the demonic spirit 'Aletina'.
(Aletina is a demonological spirit, which is attracted to the blood of humans who died a desperate and suicidal death while leaving something behind in the actual world, in this case, the painting. Aletina will possess this painting and protect it from others as she has devoured his soul and as a reward, will protect the painting that he kept back in the real world by herself with her demonic powers. )
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]]