A new kid moves to the small town of Georgetown, CO. As he, his Mom, and his sister begin to settle in, he begins to feel like something is watching him. Weird things begin to happen at school and people think he is the one, that is causing these things to happen. Not only is he having trouble at school, but he is now beginning to have requiring nightmares, (not your normal oh a monster is in my closet scary) they are vivid, gory dreams with the same face. A man as big as a MANATOR, with teeth the size of butcher knife's and eyes as red as blood. Every time he has these dreams he wakes up in a dripping sweat and he thinks he sees a girl in his room, but once he closes his eyes she vanishes into thin air. Beginning to think he is going crazy and he thinks there is nothing, not even a therapist, that can help him. He comes to the conclusion, that if he was dead he can't suffer the horrid nightmares that he keeps having. So he tries to kill himself, your usual razor blade bleeds to deaths kind, but then the girl, the one he sees every night, stops him. Who is she and what will happen next?
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]]