The Alchemist

When you turn 32, you die. That's the fate of the male descendants of the Chabrillane family who have all perished on their 32nd birthday. The curse began over 600 years ago, the night Henri Chabrillane killed the alchemist Michel Mauvis. Michel's son, Charles, swore revenge on Henri and his descendants and from that day forth, no male Chabrillane has ever lived to thirty-three years of age. Now, Antoine, the Count de Chabrillane and the last of his line, is approaching his 32nd birthday. Alone in the family's crumbling castle, he must face the Chabrillane curse.'The Alchemist' is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1908, when he was still a teenager and first published in 1916. -