Ivy stepped back, her heart beating rapidly, her eyes staring at him as if searching for a shred of humanity in the darkness.
"Answer me! Are you alone?" he said, smiling... but it was the worst smile Ivy had ever seen in her life.
"I... I'm not..." she whispered in a trembling voice, trying to sound confident despite the fear that began to ravage her body mercilessly.
Martin narrowed his eyes, as if trying to penetrate her depths.
"Your eyes don't lie… but the tear on your cheek, it's not a tear of fear, is it?"
She was confused… She unconsciously held her cheek with her hand, but found nothing
"What tear?"
she whispered, her voice barely escaping.
Martin smiled... no, it wasn't a smile... it was the ghost of a smile, like a broken wooden mask.
"She's not yours... but she showed up... and the curse is back again."
Then he turned suddenly, vanishing into the shadows... as if he'd never been there. Silence fell...
but Ivy's heart didn't. It kept beating... beating madly, as if warning her that something had begun...
something unlike anything she'd ever known before.
She stared at the spot where Martin had disappeared, then at the hand that had touched her cheek just a moment ago…
And there, on the tip of her finger,
she saw it.
A small drop…
white.
Not a tear…
not blood…
but it was the beginning of the end.