Jack Mallory has been working the beat for a while now, but his mundane duties of shaking down prostitutes and contending with teenage thugs are no comparison to the horrors he is about to face. When he is called to break up a party at an abandoned house, Jack walks into a nightmare. Two of the kids are missing, one is dead, and the other is too terrified to move. Jack follows a trail of blood to a painting, but something isn't right with the picture--it's alive. He feels heat from oil-brushed candles and hears the murmured conversations of people in the painting. Something wants him. Jack is snatched from the world, leaving behind his job, a pregnant wife, and his sanity. Staring out of the painting, Jack confronts the surreal imaginings of a madman captured in gilded frames. The only way out is through another canvas. * * * * * "Painted" is a novella of 119 pages in print form. Warning: This work contains content suitable only for adults.