It is a picture. As THX said earlier it’s not one I would put up in my living room though. Had to read the line about flakes of colour a couple of time before it made sense. And for some reason it wasn’t quite as suspenseful as I hoped it would be. Maybe it’s because the word crimson already invokes images of blood for me.

Good points Pyro. I wanted to somehow convey that he had been doing this for weeks, and had a hard time fitting it into the allocated space.
Not sure what I can do about the crimson though. I think it kind of needs that image, but it does give it away early.

Crimson is such a pretty word, and I’m inclined to love this piece just because red is my favorite color. (Last disturbing line notwithstanding!)