Mariella of the Ghosts

A Warning

 

Correte. Run.

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It is etched into the damp wood of the dock on Poveglia. If the carver had time or poetic inclination, perhaps they would have written more to deter you. They meant to say:

 

There are many on the island, but only one of them can bleed. If you look up–this very breath–you will see a face in the belltower.

 

Do not walk away. Run, or you may be pressed and preserved like a desiccated flower into the crumbling cement of the ruins. The air is eyes on your neck, and each step through the tangling green is untrustworthy.

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Run.

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This is a work in progress about a child raised by ghosts on a haunted island off the coast of Venice, and her mutual obsession over the years with a living boy who stumbles upon the island.