I've always loved creepy stuff.

He started off with horror books, reading goosebumps in elementary school, made it graduating

under Stephen King, Shirley Jackson and a myriad of others.

Eventually, I started writing my own scary stuff, mostly because I wanted to create stories

that I would want to read myself as a horror fan.

After about a decade, I got to be marginally successful, and now it's how I pay the bills.

I never thought my life would turn into a horror story, though.

How ironic is that?

Some people decorate their houses with colorful vases, stuffed with flowers, normal rock

or paintings, knickknacks, and crystal sculptures of dolphins and fairy princesses.

I prefer to cover my walls with freaky drawings, paintings, and prints of artworks by Francesco

Goya, Anthony Christopher and Salvador Dali, the waiter and darker, the better.

Unlike my art, the same as I like my novels, horrifying and unsettling.

So when my friend Marcus sent me a text with a title, check out this painting of a creepy

old lady.

I laughed and clicked the link without too much thought.

I was redirected to an obscure foreign site where old and new paintings were being sold

and in never ending online auction.

I hadn't heard of the auction company before, but that didn't stop me from pulling up

my credit card as soon as I saw the image that had been shared with me.

A woman's hypnotic bizarre face stared back at me, looking lifelike and yet utterly surrealistic,

not to mention terrifying.

...