The bathroom mirror warps in steam as Alison touches the birthmark on her neck with trembling fingers. The faint cyan vine pattern now glows an eerie purplish-red, as if living veins squirm beneath her skin. Her grandmother's silver locket clings to her chest, black blood seeping from the cracks of the holy cross pendant, dripping onto the marble counter to corrode tiny holes.
"This can't be..." She bites her lower lip, forcing down the metallic tang in her throat. The mirror suddenly ripples, and Sebastian's face emerges in the distorted reflection, his gemstone left eye flashing an ominous red.
"Do you feel the curse awakening?" His voice carries the metallic timbre of alchemy. "Every generation of Lancaster blood is eroded by black blood on the full moon. Unless..." The mirror image shatters, and Alison spins, finding nothing behind her—only a sinister rune pattern formed by the black blood dripping from her necklace.
Her phone screen flares to life, a text from an unknown number stinging her pupils: "Winston Manor basement, midnight. Unravel the true mystery of your father's death." Clutching the phone, Alison knows this may be Sebastian's trap, but the necklace's bleeding quickens with her racing heartbeat...
When midnight chimes strike, Alison has infiltrated Winston Manor's basement. In air thick with mold and rust, she activates her watch's faint light, illuminating glass cabinets lined neatly—each displays a Lancaster family member's death mask, and the central case shockingly holds her father's remains, a bizarre smile frozen on his lips.
"You came, after all." Sebastian emerges from the shadows, metallic joints grinding under his black robe. He holds a scalpel set with a black gemstone, its tip pointing to the dark pattern between her father's mask's eyebrows. "Winston family secrets lie in every heir's skull. Your father didn't die in an accident—he had his temporal core removed by the previous family head."
Alison's temporal watch trembles violently, the same dark pattern as her father's mask materializing on its dial. Sebastian advances, the scalpel reflecting cold light in the moonlight. "Hand over the temporal core in the iron box, or let me assist with this 'family purification.' After all... we share the same curse in our blood."
She swings her watch at him, but invisible force repels her the moment it touches his robe. Sebastian easily seizes her wrist, pressing the scalpel to her temple. "Stop struggling, Alison. Every time jump accelerates the curse. Only fusing our cores breaks the loop."
Agony explodes in her chest—the black blood from the necklace pierces her clothes, etching alchemical runes identical to those on Sebastian's robe onto her skin. Alison snarls, triggering a random jump, but in the temporal vortex, she sees a horrifying truth: Sebastians from countless parallel universes close in from all dimensions, each holding a temporal core identical to hers...
She lands in a Victorian-era anatomy lab, marble tables strewn with torn pages of her grandmother's diary. Scribbles on yellowed paper read: "1532: Lancaster and Winston signed the Black Blood Pact, sacrificing temporal cores to sustain bloodlines... Curse breaking method): Fuse dual cores, or..." The rest is soaked in blood, writing) blurred.
Alison grabs the diary, finding a yellowed photo in the last page: In a medieval alchemical lab, Sebastian's ancestor and her great-grandmother perform a uncanny blood pact ritual, their wrists bound by the same rune chains as hers now.
A phone vibration shatters her thoughts, another text from Sebastian: "You can't escape, Alison. Next full moon, surrender the core to be my vessel or watch your body consumed by the curse..." Black blood oozes from the phone screen, corroding tiny cracks.
Clutching her temporal watch, its gears spin backward with emotion—she must find a way to break the curse, or revenge and love will both become Lancaster's puppets...