What happened? Where am I? I'm cold... i'm in some type of shelter, there is groaning at the door, is somebody hurt? i opened the door, the person, whatever it was, looked at me, flesh rolling off their face "oh my god!" i exclaimed, i thought he was just very badly hurt "lets get you some medical attention!" i stepped forward to pick him up, and the unimaginable happened, he tried to bite me! i reacted and hit him with a brick nearby me, he was unconscious, but his face was misshapen from the brick, it folded inside "ew" was all i could say, i walked down the corridors of this weird building, i found myself encountering another one of those... things. But it was stuck, i decided it wasn't friendly, it was literally ripped in half, i could see the brain, and it was bloody, it stayed fixated on me, i call them "biters" now, they want to eat me... i turn away, and i see sunlight, but it was just a corridor, a walkway to another building...
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]]