This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Mint_Blue_Jay on 2024-11-27 17:45:19+00:00.

I first learned about the curse when I was 12. While I was at my uncle’s funeral, I heard the adults talking in hushed tones, whispering about who they thought the “next one” would be. Every time I asked them, they got quiet or made up excuses that they were talking about something else.

When we got home, I asked my mom about what I’d heard. Her face went pale, but then she sighed.

“I suppose you’re old enough to know,” she said. “Our family is cursed. No one knows exactly how or why it started, but whenever someone dies, two more will follow in the same calendar year. This includes people who married into the family. Do you remember when your grandpa died last month?”

I nodded. My grandpa hadn’t been terribly old, but he had died at the age of 67 due to heart failure. He refused to go to the hospital or visit any doctors, although we suspected he’d had several heart attacks throughout the years.

“Your grandpa was the first. And now your Uncle, although it wasn’t his time, was the second.”

My uncle married into my dad’s side of the family. He never drank or did drugs, but he was always the life of any family gathering or party we had. One day, he was driving home in the evening when there was a freak accident. A traffic light had malfunctioned and showed green on all sides. He’d been t-boned by another driver, and although the other driver walked away without a scratch, my Uncle had died on the spot.

“Who’s going to be the third?” I asked.

“We don’t know. If the curse is merciful this time, it will take someone who’s ready to go. There’s no guarantee.” I searched my mom’s face for any sign she was joking, but she seemed completely serious.

“Could I be the next one?” Her face softened.

“Of course not, you’re still a child. I’ve never seen the curse go after any children before. You’ll be fine.”

I thought my mom was being dramatic and overthinking things. There was no such thing as a curse, and this one sounded ridiculous. As the year wore on, no one else died. Then, we got to December. My elderly Aunt died at the ripe old age of 93 due to natural causes. There were more whispers and relief about her being “the third,” but I paid no mind to it. It was just a coincidence.

Several years later, one of my older cousins died from complications of a chronic disease they’d had their entire life. The family started up their rumors again about “who would be next.” I paid it no mind, because I still believed it was ridiculous. A few months later, an uncle I’d never met died from old age. The whispers of the curse continued to swirl. Then, my life turned upside down a few months later when my dad had a heart attack. He was only 43.

He was rushed to the hospital, and the doctors managed to save him, but said he would never be the same. He likely wouldn’t live more than a few more years at best. They wanted to get him a heart transplant, but he refused. The couple in the room next to his were watching their loved one die because his body rejected the transplanted heart, and it was horrific. They told us if only they’d known this would happen, they gladly would have taken the few years he had left instead of watching him die like this. My dad said he would never take that chance, and would rather enjoy the life his body had left to give him.

Relatives filtered in and out, whispering about how he had cheated the curse and what would happen now. Would it find another victim? Would my dad still die that year somehow? Would it take two more victims as punishment? Nobody knew. Anytime they talked about the curse around me, I tried my best to shut it down. They were all acting like children with this “curse” nonsense.

We almost got to the end of the year with nothing else happening. Then, towards the end of December, my great Aunt slipped on a patch of black ice while coming out of church. She broke her neck and died instantly. The other relatives seemed relieved that there was a third and my dad hadn’t somehow cheated the curse and made it worse. My brother was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that same year, and some whispered how that must been my dad’s punishment for surviving. I didn’t understand how the adults could be so cruel to say things like that; especially to my brother.

My dad made it ten more years before he couldn’t hold on anymore and his body gave out. A month later, his mother, my grandmother, had a stroke and died as well. It wasn’t entirely unexpected; she’d had several strokes over the years, and the pain of losing my dad, her youngest child, must have been bad. I graduated college and moved across the country a few months after, along with my brother and my mom.

I was fed up with the relatives and all their nonsense; beyond just the “curse” business, they liked to stir up drama. We decided we would leave my dad’s side of the family and their “curse” behind and cut contact with most of them. My brother and I didn’t want any of our potential future kids to experience any of what we had to go through. Although, I had to admit, I was starting to wonder about the curse. Was it really just a coincidence that people in our family kept dying in threes?

Later that year, I heard from one of my cousins I kept in touch with that her dad was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of cancer. They treated it as aggressively as possible since he was so young, but he died only a month after they got the news. Like me, she was also ticked off about the relatives saying it was because of the curse, and she also cut contact with them.

About ten years passed with no drama. I really thought we’d left all that behind. My brother got married and had two kids, and I’m still looking for the right person. I got a job as a nurse, and I live across town from my brother and help him manage his autoimmune condition and sometimes watch the kids. I love being an aunt and can’t wait to start my own family someday.

A few months ago we had a bit of a tragedy on my mom’s side of the family. Her mom, my grandma, had been declining in health over the last 8 years and was in a nursing home for the last year before she finally passed away. My mom’s younger brother took this really hard. He had a ton of health conditions he was born with, and he had already outlived the life expectancy given to him by the doctors. It wasn’t a shock when he passed a few months after, but it was very sad.

“I’m going to move in with my Dad for a while,” my mom had told me. “I don’t want the shock of losing his wife and only son to kill him. I don’t want him to be the third.”

“Are you really still on about that curse?” I asked. “It wasn’t even from your side of the family. It was from Dad’s.”

“No, you’re right, there’s no curse,” she acquiesced. “But that doesn’t mean the shock couldn’t still kill your Grandpa. I don’t want to lose both my parents and my brother in the same year.”

My mom went back to live with him. This left me, my brother, and his family alone over here. A few months later, in November, his kids both got sick with something nasty and passed it to my brother and his wife. I’ll admit, although I didn’t believe in the curse, I was a little on edge because of it.

Since he had an autoimmune disorder, he had to be on medications to stop his immune system from working properly so it didn’t continue to attack his body. This meant that his weakened immune system wasn’t strong enough to fight off a lot of common illnesses, so he needed a lot of rest and medications to help fight even a simple cold. I know my body is strong enough to fight off whatever germs his kids have, so I’ve been going over there every day after work to help so he can rest. Since I’m a nurse, I’ve been exposed to enough illnesses that I’m immune to most germs anyway.

It’s been a week and they’re all recovering well, even my brother. I think I’m starting to get sick, though. It came on pretty fast. I was fine this morning, but now that I’m going to bed, I spiked a fever of 103°F. I’ve also got terrible muscle aches and chills, my throat is killing me, and my face and chest turned bright red. I was totally fine a few hours ago. I probably just need to sleep it off. I’ll take some Tylenol to help with the fever and pain, and I’m sure I’ll feel much better when I wake up. I’m only 29 so I’m strong enough to fight this off.

I’ll post an update once we all recover from this illness so you’ll know we’re fine and there is no curse.

Last online: 12 days ago