Off Limits
It was a literal, physical manifestation of the psychological haunting I had been enduring for the last three hundred days.
I dipped a fine-tipped badger brush into a well of deep crimson alcohol-activated paint, my hand steadying only when the bristles touched the cool, synthetic flesh. Splat. Splat. I stippled the artificial blood, building the layers of depth, trying to lose myself in the math of shadows and highlight variables.
Then, the heavy metal security door clicked.
It wasn't a loud sound, but in the dead silence of the studio, it hit my eardrums like a mortar shell.