In a street not far from anywhere,

an empty man sat watching the world blur by his window.

He sat all day, every day at his draped panes and emptily stared out on a wandering world.

His eyes ignored those of the people that blurred and weaved by in the streets on their business. He paid no attention to the birds that fussed in the trees or the prowling cats that stalked them. Nor did he heed the hounds that squatted and cocked their legs in his street.

Whether it were gray or glowing wet or snowing,

bleakly his eyes looked out on nothing and nowhere.

One day like any other something different happened out beyond the netted glass.

A passing blur stopped right outside the mans window.The blur turned to the man and stared directly at him and into his empty eyes.

What the blur saw or felt could not be speculated, only to say that the blur stared through a window into a window.

The whole exchange was the briefest of moments. The blur broke gaze and followed to where the empty eyes seemed to be looking. The blur then bent down and picked something up out of a crack in the pave.

What it was the staring man behind his glass could not see, but it shined brightly and was noticed in his empty gaze.

The blur smiled and placed the object into his pocket and bade the staring man good day with a silent nod and a smile. off he blurred on his business.

What was the shining thing that lived in the crack of the pave?

What ever it was it had sparked something in the minds eye of the staring man.

The empty eyes were empty no more.

A beating heart was felt pounding away in a chest behind a net glassed blur. Clammy palms where felt, rigid around the arms of an old oak chair that smelled of age and oil. Empty eyes even were wide and rolling as never before searching the outside street and the crack. The crack where the shining thing had come from. Blurred watery eyes twitched and actually sparkled with curiosity.

What the man in the chair felt or thought cannot be said, however He did feel. He was only unable to tell anyone, as he died the next moment and it is possible that he regretted this.

The image is a little hard to see, but this is meant to be Lu's 'Beast' form. In my series Sins of the Father, my version of Lucifer (the current ruler of the Inferno) has the ability to transform into this monstrous dragon-like creature meant to ravage everything in his path. There's not much to see in the image so allow me to describe my sketch. Picture a large bipedal creature that has the characteristics of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Godzilla, complete with long bone spikes along his body, two giant horns above his brow, a mouth full of dagger-like teeth, a long spiked tail, and the number 666 etched into his hide. And yes, if you're seeing it correctly, there is a second mouth on his cheek. The Beast does have a pair of secondary mouths, one on each side of his skull. This is in reference to how Dante described Lucifer in Dante's Inferno, stating that he had three faces with three mouths, each one devouring three of the history's greatest traitors. Inside one of his clawed hands are his human stepdaughters Rosemary and Regan Gravely, thus giving you an idea of how large he's meant to be.

My inspiration behind the Beast came from when I went to Sunday School when I was younger, back when I used to believe in all that Bible stuff. I think I asked somebody, either another kid or the pastor, what the devil looked like, and they described looking like some sort of dragon. Now being a young kind obsessed with dinosaurs and dragons, I thought that sounded really badass. It honestly made me less afraid of the devil and more afraid.

The backstory behind 'The Beast' is that after Lu was sent to Hell, he lost his angelic powers and soul, soon to be dying. The demons took him in under orders of their king Baracrus, Lu's mentor and predecessor. Lu was then converted into a pureblood demon with new abilities, but also a big side effect, The Beast. Lu can transform into this hulking monster through will and can wreck havoc as such. But the problem is that the Beast is driven by blind rage, so he has trouble controlling his other half. When he was sent by his dark master Baracrus to eliminate an enemy fortress, Lu would take the form of his other form and kill everyone on site, leaving no survivors. When the angels came across the aftermath, they said that destruction was so macabre that only a beast could have committed this. And thus 'The Beast' was named.

He was first referenced in the story 'Bully of the Beast', but did not make his first appearance until the story 'Keep to the Road', which also features the first appearance of my series' recurring antagonists the Scavengers.

Stories featuring 'The Beast':

https://theprose.com/post/82315/bully-of-the-beast

https://theprose.com/post/115675/keep-to-the-road-complete

https://theprose.com/post/144269/god-s-little-princess-complete

https://theprose.com/post/189027/the-greatest-trick-or-treat-the-devil-ever-pulled

https://theprose.com/post/214368/beauty-and-the-beast-complete

#sinsofthefather #devil #artwork #lore

The pictured character is named Scarlet, and she is from a story called Red Unknown. She's a 10 year old girl who lives in a remote cabin with her alcoholic parents. Scarlet has grown tired of living with her neglectful, verbally abusive parents, and is looking for an escape.

I started this story for a Prose challenge a few months ago. So far, I only have one chapter of this done, but I'm considering continuing it. My direction for this story is dark and almost fairy tale like. I wanted the character design to reflect that, so I kept it mostly humanoid with a few strange characteristics. Some of the ones I tried out were a large head, an unnaturally long neck, etc. Honestly, I think one of the designs ended up looking more like an Animal Crossing character, haha.

Here's a link to Red Unknown if you want to check it out: https://theprose.com/post/242975/red-unknown

And here's a link to the Twitter post containing my art for it: https://twitter.com/Bamboopanda27/status/1083074504744673281?s=19