The Demon in the Portrait.

Denise Gray looked away from her reflection in the store window. The sight of that perfectly proportioned young body only served to remind her of the curse. As a young woman she’d posed for an enigmatic artist who had painted her picture while spinning words that were at once wonderful and frightening. It hadn’t been long after that, that she learned the reality of the painting and it’s associated curse.

One day she was accosted by a thief, and before she realized what was happening he had run a dagger through her heart. She cringed but when the thief pulled the knife out there was no blood where she had been stabbed. A swift kick to the groin sent him running, but when she opened her now ruined blouse, she realized that she was unharmed, not even a scratch.

Denise thought about it, and realized that her situation was like a story her mother had told her called The Painting of Dorian Gray. "Damn," she whispered as she scraped her knee on a large rock that she'd brushed against only to look down and realize that her forever young body was still unharmed.

She realized that she would have to return to the artist's studio, and If that painting was damaged she would have to force the artist to find a way to lift the curse without killing her before her time.

When she returned to confront the artist, she found him hanging in his studio, dead. Her search for the paining in his studio was in vain, and it was only after another attack that she realized the truth of the curse. The knife had pierced her heart, but again, she felt no pain after the knife had been pulled from her chest. She tracked the painting down to a gallery in a distant town only to watch the painting destroyed by fire as the gallery burned to the ground killing the hundreds of people inside. She’d spent many hours waiting for the death that never came. After that she tried every means of killing herself but to no avail.

Finally she felt a glimmer of hope as she learned of a book of paintings that had a copy of her painting in it. That book was rumored to be in this tiny library. She took a deep breath as she approached the tiny library. She knew she had to do something, or she would go insane from not being able to die.

Denise had arrived just as Jessie had left the library and moved toward the tavern. An hour while the poor pregnant librarian took lunch wouldn’t make a lot of difference, she thought as she sat down on a nearby bench.

She smiled as a group of children ran by. One little brown eyed girl stopped and smiled back then ran to join her friends.

"The book you want is here," Jessie said. "But you may be disappointed. The book is a manual for destroying demons."

"I don't feel like a demon," Denise said.

Jessie slid the leather hand bound book toward Denise.

"What happens if I open it?"

Jessie shrugged. "I haven't read that far."

Denise felt a tingling race up her arm as she pulled the book toward herself. What if she got sucked into the book when she opened it? She looked down at her ruined blouse. She'd neglected to change the blouse, even though she had another in her small travel bag.

Throwing caution to the wind she opened the book. Being stuck in the book would be no worse than not being able to kill herself.

The first thing she saw was a horrible version of herself. Her hair was singed, and every injury she'd sustained in getting there had scarred over. When she could finally pull her eyes away from the picture she began to read. The demon her painting had become had spoken from the painting and convinced the artist to hang himself. Then she had started the fire that destroyed the original painting, killing all the people there for the unveiling.

Denise slammed the book closed. The pull of the woman in the painting was more than she could stand. "Are you affected as well?" Denise asked, only to be met by a blank stare from Jessie.

A few moments later her unborn child kicking wildly stirred Jessie back to life.

"We have to destroy the book," Denise said.

Jessie shook her head. "She will take us all with her."

Denise slammed her hand down on the book before Jessie could open it. "That's exactly what she wants you to think."

"But..."

"Trust me."

Jessie's unborn baby kicked so hard that she gasped. "I can't help you."

"I'll take care of it," Denise said, taking the book and leaving the library.

Denise counted herself lucky that the tiny library was on a small tropical island with an active volcano. It would only take her half a day to get to the volcano cone, light the book on fire and drop it into the liquid lava below. She only hoped that would be enough.

As she moved toward the volcano, the book and the demon it contained recognized her intent.

"Hand over that book," the huge Polynesian man standing in her way said, his gun drawn.

On some level Denise knew that the man was under the influence of the demon. She ran around him and felt the bullet from his gun rip through the ruined blouse and on through her right shoulder.

By the time she reached the trail at the edge of the volcano, she could feel the demon trying to stop her. Branches and thorns reached out for her, only to rip more holes in her ruined blouse as she ran toward the summit. Finally she reached the edge of the cauldron, and the bubbling lava below.

"NO!" the sound of the wind and the rush of the heat shouted as the edges of the book began to smoke.

The book burst into flames as she tossed the book toward the lava.

It hung suspended above the lava flaming bigger and brighter but without being consumed. Suddenly she noticed that the young girl she'd seen before had caught up to her.

"It's drawing power from your blouse."

Denise shook her head. None of this made sense, the blouse had taken the brunt of the damage inflicted on her, and was ragged and full of holes.

"You have to destroy the blouse as well," the girl said before racing away from the lip. At the bottom of the trail she saw the other children blocking the way of the adults who were under the influence of the book.

Denise turned to see flame explode from the book and realized that she had no choice. If destroying the blouse didn't work, she would have to offer herself to the volcano, but this glimmer of hope had given her a reason to live. She pulled the remains of that ruined blouse off and threw it down at the boiling lava below.

The atmosphere around the book howled in rage as the blouse fluttered to the surface of the lava and then burst into flames. The book exploded scattering burning ash over everything. Before Denise could react the same young girl was pulling her away from the lip of the cauldron.

She stumbled into the group and children and then her world went black.

Denise remembered that blouse as the one that the artist had insisted she wear while he worked on the painting. What happened after that was a blur until that book exploded over the cauldron. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes to the soft light of the sun coming in through the curtains of a cottage near the ocean.

It was a dream, she thought, until she realized that she wasn't wearing the blouse anymore. The painting and the book had been destroyed but she didn't know about the curse. She inspected her body and then wrapped a sheet around her till she could find some clothes.

Denise opened the door and saw children playing in front of the cottage then stepped onto the porch and noticed a thorny bush near the steps into the yard. She idly pricked her finger and gave a sigh of relief as she realized that the curse was gone when a tiny drop of blood formed on her finger.

"The children told us how you saved us," Jessie said as she approached from the side yard.

Denise shrugged. "I needed to be free of the curse." 

Jess smiled. "The children like having you around, and we are in the market for school teacher."

Denise had never considered anything like this. She'd been so young when the nightmare started. She looked down. Her body was still young, and If the kids had trusted her maybe she could try. It beats modeling, she thought as she followed Jessie back toward the cottage.

qed.