Dark Muse

Dark Muse will be an upcoming story concerning The Presence and shall be set in 1932 in America (mid-March): due to the time-period this story will have Toons involved and is an attempt to rekindle an old concept I had.

Antagonists

 * The Presence
 * Artist

Heroes

 * Suzie
 * Baby

Introduction
It was 1932 and a great drought had already began to spread across the Great Plains, signalling the start of a troubled era which would become known later as the Dust Bowl.

Arthur was the son of a farmer and as such was one of the many locals hit by the drought as he and his family struggled to win what was an increasingly losing battle to save their farm - if the drought didn't fade soon Arthur knew they would have no choice but to pack their things and move in order to survive.

Many long days trying to scrape a living out of the barren land had left Arthur and his family exhausted and as the sun set one fateful night Arthur found himself drifting into a troubled sleep in the barn, having moved into the barn sometime ago due to the already crowded farm house.

As Arthur slept in the barn his mother sat up in the kitchen and stared at a painting hung on the wall, depicting an old couple - oddly the couple were always a mystery but the painting had been in the house as long as the family could remember and they never questioned it.

Arthur's mother stared at the painting and rocked back and forth on a rocking-chair she had taken from the porch, the room dark save for moonlight - whispering to herself as the other family members slept in the rooms nearby, scribbling strange markings on a torn piece of paper which she held in her shaking hands:

"..One, Two.. Buckle My Shoe.." she said, drawing a sketch of a pair of old shoes.

"..Three, Four.. Knock At The Door.." she continued, drawing a sketch of a large door.

Then without warning the kitchen door burst open as a terrifying scream echoed across the farmhouse, awakening Arthur from his resting place in the barn and he ran inside..

Only as soon as he entered the house Arthur's eyes grew wide and he too let out a terrible cry of horror at the sight before him..

Chapter 1
Three months past by and Arthur had managed to find his way to a town, having escaped the farmhouse yet forever haunted by what occured there - having entered his home to find his mother and siblings dead, his father having taken an axe to them all before impaling himself with the dreaded weapon.

Arthur had fled the scene and guilt still raced through his mind, along with recurring nightmares - sitting at a street corner with nothing but a box of old art supplies and a blank canvass, gifts from a kindly gentleman he had befriended on the rod - having always been an artist at heart even though work at the farm meant he had little time to practice.. now in the town this box and canvas was all he had, his one slim chance to try and get by.