The left-eyed lineage Thanos Kalamidas t a l e s o f d a r k m y s t e r y & s u p e r n a t u r a l Thanos Kalamidas Ovi ebooks are available in Ovi/Ovi eBookshelves pages and they are for free. If somebody tries to sell you an Ovi book please contact us immediately. For details, contact: ovimagazine@yahoo.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the writer or the above publisher of this book An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C The left-eyed lineage The left-eyed lineage Thanos Kalamidas Thanos Kalamidas An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C The left-eyed lineage i t began on a dull Wednesday when the wind smelled faintly of wet metal and wildflowers. old mrs. Hensley, a spry eighty-three with knees that creaked like haunted floorboards, was out in her backyard with a rusted trowel and a determined squint. “I swear, the damn mole’s back,” she muttered, stab- bing the earth. “Burrow through my zinnias again, will you? not on my watch.” But the trowel didn’t hit dirt. It clinked, hard, against something solid. Thanos Kalamidas mrs. Hensley leaned closer, her sunhat slipping down her forehead. With a few more scrapes and grunts, she uncovered a square of corroded iron. a chest, no bigger than a breadbox, nestled in the earth like a sleeping animal. “mercy,” she whispered, brushing away dirt. The lock was snapped. no key needed. The lid groaned open. Inside, under a brittle lace handkerchief, sat a stack of black-and-white photographs. dozens of them. They smelled of old rain and something deeper, something sour and metallic. she picked up the top photo. a man in suspenders. unsmiling. His left eye miss- ing. a dark smudge where it should be. The next—an unsmiling woman in a Victorian dress, her left eye a vacant blur. she flipped through them. every single one. “no... That’s margaret,” she said. “my great-grand- mother. That’s her parlor.” she paused. Her hand trembled. The left-eyed lineage “and that’s uncle eustace.” more photos. more missing left eyes. as if some- thing had clawed them out of the negatives. or worse—had never let them be captured in the first place. The wind kicked up, scattering dried leaves. The sun dimmed behind a sudden cloud. mrs. Hensley stood slowly, the chest in her arms. * * * * * * Inside her old Victorian house, the kettle screeched on the stove while she spread the photos across her dining table. she dialed her niece, emma. “sweetheart, you ever seen these?” she asked, phone nestled against her shoulder. “your great-granddad? all these old family pictures?” emma groaned on the other end. “auntie dee, it’s like, eleven a.m. I’m on my third espresso. What do you mean old pictures?” “They’re all missing an eye,” she said. “all of them. The left one. It ain’t photoshop, I tell you that.” Thanos Kalamidas “That’s creepy. maybe it’s just exposure damage?” mrs. Hensley paused. Her voice was lower now. “Then why do I feel watched?” That night, the air in the house was too still. The tick of the grandfather clock echoed like footsteps. she dreamt of her ancestors. not how they were in life, kind smiles, pipe smoke, whiskey breath. no. They stood in rows in a grey fog, still as stone, their empty left sockets weeping tar. When she tried to speak, they raised their fingers to their mouths. Shhh. a noise stirred her awake. a tap-tap-tap from the kitchen. she shuffled in, her nightgown brushing the floor. on the table, every photo had been rearranged into a perfect circle. and in the center was a new one, se- pia-toned, freshly developed. The left-eyed lineage Her. staring. mouth open in silent scream. left eye missing. * * * * * * “I’m burning them,” she said to herself. “damn the family tree.” she dumped the photos into the fireplace, struck a match, and tossed it in. The flames danced, but the photos didn’t burn. Instead, the fire went out. a black smudge grew across the brick, in the shape of an eye. she heard footsteps upstairs. she lived alone. * * * * * * emma showed up the next day, after a dozen un- answered calls. Thanos Kalamidas “aunt dee?” The house was quiet. too quiet. Then she heard the faint humming, coming from the attic. emma climbed the narrow stairs, calling again. she found her aunt standing by the window. still. Humming a lullaby emma had never heard before. “aunt dee, you scared the crap out of me. Why are you up here?” mrs. Hensley turned. Her right eye, clear and blue. Her left? Gone. a gaping hole, ringed with red, oozing something dark and slow like oil. “I see them now,” she whispered. “see who?” The left-eyed lineage “our blood. They’ve always been watching. Wait- ing. The left eye is the door.” emma backed away. “auntie dee, we need to go to a hospital, okay? you’re not...” But her aunt reached out and touched her face, ice- cold fingers grazing her cheek. “you have the gift too, emmy. It’s your turn now. The line can’t be broken.” from the floorboards, the chest creaked open again. photos spilled out like a black tide. one landed at emma’s feet. Her own face stared back. left eye gone. she opened her mouth to scream, but her vision darkened. not all of it. Thanos Kalamidas Just the left side. * * * * * * That night, the old house on marrow lane went dark. and in the attic window, two silhouettes stood side by side. Both with only their right eyes watching. and in the basement, behind the furnace, the iron chest waited once more. for the next one in line. The door never closes. The left-eyed lineage The left-eyed lineage Supernatural Tales Thanos Kalamidas Ovi eBook Publishing 2025 Ovi magazine Design: Thanos Ovi ebooks are available in Ovi/Ovi eBookshelves pages and they are for free. If somebody tries to sell you an Ovi book please contact us immediately. For details, contact: ovimagazine@yahoo.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the writer or the above publisher of this book An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C Thanos Kalamidas Thanos Kalamidas t a l e s o f d a r k m y s t e r y & s u p e r n a t u r a l Thanos Kalamidas , a multipublished writer, cartoonist and illustrator; born and grew up in a picturesque neighbourhood on the moun- tainside of Hymettus in Athens, Greece. Then his life took him to Berlin, Germany and to London, UK for studies. After a brief stay in Yorkshire he moved his life to Paris, France while working in Tokyo, Japan and in Cape Town, South Africa. In the last 25 years he became a permanent Scandinavian resident and recently, in his glorious sixth de- cade, he moved to a scenic village in the Växjö area.