Chapter 23: The Mystery of Dragon Blood – The Portrait of the Past

Elina’s POV

It was said that if you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.

On this day, I realized how terrifyingly accurate that statement was. It was as if I were bewitched, my gaze so transfixed that I forgot to blink.

My eyes grew teary, and a cold wind brushed past my neck, yet I still couldn’t tear myself away from the painting.

It felt all too alive.

In each of the paintings, there was a girl, her face eerily similar to mine. From her eyes down to her body proportions, it was as if I were seeing myself, in a different dimension. It was as bewitching as it was suffocating.

In the first, she was a baby, tiny and wrapped in rags, claw marks scratched into her palms.

Then a kid, laughing with mud on her cheeks.

A teenager, holding a sword dripping with blood.

My stomach twisted as I moved down the line—she grew up, step by step, ‘til the last one.

That one stopped me cold.

She was on her knees, older now, maybe twenty, wearing a torn black dress.