The Birthmark Countdown

You’ve always been told your family has a "distinctive" look—high cheekbones, pale eyes,

and a specific, jagged birthmark behind the left ear. After your grandmother

passes away, you find her private journals. They aren't filled with recipes or

memories; they are filled with sketches of you from decades before you were born.

In the final entry, dated forty years ago, she wrote: "It isn't a family resemblance.

It’s a countdown. The skin is just a container, and mine is finally starting to crack.

I can hear the original occupant waking up." That night, you look in the

mirror and notice the birthmark behind your ear has begun to pulse like a heartbeat.