If his ancestors really were watching over their successors, they'd probably have found something by now, and his grandfather wouldn't have gone insane. He'd stopped believing in those tales ages ago.
And yet, as he closed his eyes and waited for his inevitable death to overtake him... nothing did. There was no pain, no flash of blinding lights, no sensation of his soul being ripped out of his body, not even the hot breath of a monster panting down the back of his neck. If this was death, then it was awfully subtle. He cracked open one eye, half fearing that he would find his doom waiting right in front of him after all, but there was nothing.
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