The Pale Woman:

Nora Callahan rummaged through the dusty boxes stowed away for years in her attic. The house felt empty after her grandmother's death, but on the other hand, it felt full of this obligation to remove all the things that belonged in this museum they called home. That house had always belonged to her grandmother, as far back as Nora could remember; now it was hers—along with the burden.

It was a house full of memories, and some of the things didn’t seem like something Nora wanted to pull out from beneath her skin. However, the attic… the attic had never been like this. To the younger Nora, it had been a forbidden zone shrouded in mystery and filled with her grandmother's secrets. And now, as she waded through the boxes of yellowing letters, broken porcelain dolls, and dust-coated trinkets, she began to sense the weight of generations streaming into her.'

But it was when she stumbled upon an old photo album that things started to get uncomfortable.

An album clad in aged leather, its edges frayed with time. There was the musty aroma of ancient paper as she took it out and opened it, fingers brushing by pages, glancing at the black-and-white photos. Family get-togethers, weddings, birthdays – snapshots from the past. But then, she saw it.

An out-of-place photograph.

It was a photograph of a woman standing completely in the middle of a plain white dress, wearing a long, flowing white dress. Her skin was pale, almost ghostly, and her features were hauntingly beautiful. But there was something wrong with her eyes, dark and hollow as if she'd gazed inside an object far beyond this globe. Nora's breath was stuck in her throat. She's never seen a woman like that before with her vitamin D.

She flips through the pages, finding more photographs, all showing the same woman. She stood in a family setting, always wearing the same white dress, her eyes dark and void. She was completely, standing at a topographic point where no other individual seemed to exist. Cemetery. A fog-covered road. A deteriorating house.

The rush of love for Nora. Her grandmother had never seen anyone like that before. Who was she, and why was she haunting every photograph in the family album?

curiosity gnawed on Nora's back. She couldn't finish looking at the pale woman, the image of which was more disturbing than the final one. But when she flips over the back of the album, a single piece of paper vanishes. It was a letter written in a delicate, elegant script.

"To my dear Annabelle,

If you're studying the present, the curse has already taken over you. I'd love it if I could save you from this fate, but it's too late now. The Pale Woman is coming to see all women in our lineage, and she's coming to see us for a cause. She's not a ghost; she's an object worse than that, a curse that grants access from mother to daughter to coevals. It's been going on for a long time, along with my mother's death, and it won't end until she has a claim on our team completed. Please, don't give it any authorization; it'll keep you too much. There's no way she can get away with it.

Yours in sorrow,

Margaret."

Nora’s hands shook as she read the letter. A curse? She didn’t believe in curses—ghosts, curses, or anything supernatural. But what she saw in those pictures couldn’t be explained away. The pale woman was real. She was watching them through the ages. And now the letter said she was coming for Nora.

A shiver ran down her spine. She dropped the letter and as it fluttered to the floor her mind was racing. Who was Margaret? The name sounded familiar but where had she heard it before? She looked around the attic her eyes landing on the old trunks against the far wall. Her grandmother’s things—surely they had answers.

Nora rushed to the trunks and opened one with a creak. Inside she found old journals, dusty and crumbling with age. The first one she picked up was titled The Callahan Curse: A Family History. She hesitated then opened it.

The handwriting was familiar, her grandmother’s beautiful script. Nora began to read aloud, her voice trembling as the words on the page sent shivers down her spine.

“My mother warned me of the Pale Woman. She told me that her presence was always with us and that her shadow loomed over every woman in our family. My grandmother, Anna Callahan, was the first to see her. She was only five years old when the Pale Woman first appeared in her room. She would stand at the foot of Anna’s bed, watching her through the dark, her empty eyes boring into her soul. And then one by one the women of our family began to die.”

Nora stopped reading and closed the journal. Her grandmother had known. She had known the curse was real. And now Nora realized it had never left them.

The pale woman wasn’t just a ghost; she was something far more sinister. She was a curse, a force that attached itself to the Callahan women, tormenting them across generations. And with her grandmother’s death, it seemed the curse had found its new victim.

Nora sat on the floor, her heart racing. She couldn’t just ignore this, not anymore. She had to know everything. The letter, the journals—everything pointed to something awful she couldn’t ignore.

That night, Nora hardly slept. Each time she shut her eyes, she sensed a presence in the room, watching her. The pale woman, with her hollow eyes, seemed to linger in the shadows, patient like a predator stalking its prey over the years. Nora had no idea what would unfold when the curse finally reached its end, but she was certain it wouldn’t be a peaceful death.

By morning, Nora realized what she needed to do. She had to uncover the origins of the curse and find a way to break it. Her family’s history, long overlooked, was now her only hope.

She spent the next few days delving into research, combing through old records and libraries, tracing the Callahan family lineage. The further back she went, the darker the tales became. The Pale Woman’s origin was steeped in mystery, seemingly dating back to a time long before her great-grandmother was born.

One name kept surfacing in her research: Annabelle Callahan. She was the first woman in their family to encounter the Pale Woman. According to the records, Annabelle had been a young bride when the woman first appeared to her. But Annabelle’s story was unlike any other—it was said that she had made a pact with the Pale Woman, a deal that had cursed her bloodline forever.

The deeper Nora explored, the more she uncovered hints of an ancient ritual, one that required the sacrifice of a loved one in exchange for protection from the Pale Woman. But Annabelle had never completed the ritual. Instead, she cursed her family by rejecting the pact, condemning every woman born of her bloodline to be haunted by the Pale Woman for eternity.

The curse was now clear. The Pale Woman wasn’t just a ghost. She was a force of nature, a manifestation of a broken promise, of a pact left unfulfilled. And she had come for Nora.

It was late one night when Nora first caught sight of her.

She stood in the corner of her bedroom, just beyond the reach of the moonlight. Her pale skin shimmered in the shadows, her dark eyes fixed on Nora’s with an intensity that made her heart race.

That night, Nora hardly slept. Each time she shut her eyes, she sensed a presence in the room, watching her. The pale woman, with her hollow eyes, seemed to linger in the shadows, patient like a predator stalking its prey over the years. Nora had no idea what would unfold when the curse finally reached its end, but she was certain it wouldn’t be a peaceful death.

By morning, Nora realized what she needed to do. She had to uncover the origins of the curse and find a way to break it. Her family’s history, long overlooked, was now her only hope.

She spent the next few days delving into research, combing through old records and libraries, tracing the Callahan family lineage. The further back she went, the darker the tales became. The Pale Woman’s origin was steeped in mystery, seemingly dating back to a time long before her great-grandmother was born.

One name kept surfacing in her research: Annabelle Callahan. She was the first woman in their family to encounter the Pale Woman. According to the records, Annabelle had been a young bride when the woman first appeared to her. But Annabelle’s story was unlike any other—it was said that she had made a pact with the Pale Woman, a deal that had cursed her bloodline forever.

The deeper Nora explored, the more she uncovered hints of an ancient ritual, one that required the sacrifice of a loved one in exchange for protection from the Pale Woman. But Annabelle had never completed the ritual. Instead, she cursed her family by rejecting the pact, condemning every woman born of her bloodline to be haunted by the Pale Woman for eternity.

The curse was now clear. The Pale Woman wasn’t just a ghost. She was a force of nature, a manifestation of a broken promise, of a pact left unfulfilled. And she had come for Nora.

The Pale Woman remained silent. She didn’t need to say a word; her message was unmistakable: It was time.

Nora realized she had only one option. To lift the curse, she had to complete the ritual that Annabelle had begun, the one her family had forsaken. She would have to face the Pale Woman and make the ultimate sacrifice.

With shaking hands, Nora reached for the ancient book she had discovered in the attic—the one that contained the secret to breaking the curse. She opened it to the page detailing the ritual, her heart racing. The text was obscure, but she grasped enough of it.

As she murmured the incantation, the Pale Woman’s figure seemed to waver, her empty eyes shining with an eerie light. The temperature in the room dropped, and Nora’s breath became visible in the chilly air.

Yet, the Pale Woman did not advance. Instead, she melted into the shadows, as if biding her time.

In that moment, Nora realized the truth.

The curse could only be lifted by embracing it—by becoming one with it.

With a final, resolute breath, Nora moved forward. She would put an end to it, for herself and for all the women who had come before her. The Pale Woman had come to claim her, but this time, Nora would ensure she was the last.

The following morning, the house was serene. The attic was still, the photographs untouched. But the curse had been lifted. For Nora Callahan, the Pale Woman would no longer haunt her family.