Where the Curse Never Was

Previously

…I wouldn't hide. I couldn't. The fear, the whispers, the disappearances – they had gone on for too long. "I will not hide tonight," I whispered to the vast, indifferent sky, my voice barely audible, yet filled with a newfound strength. "I will find out whether this curse is real... or whether someone has been fooling us all." As the golden light of the Harvest Moon spilled across the empty village, painting long, spectral shadows, I felt a prickle on the back of my neck, a sensation of being watched. From the deep shadows that gathered at the edge of the village gate, a pair of eyes, unseen by anyone else, glowed with an unnerving intensity, silently observing my solitary defiance.