Part 2

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“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

That’s how the quote goes, but for me, my greed led to my destruction. In 1748, I along with my family and other members of my village fell ill to a plague. I knew I was bound to die like the others in my town. It was then that a strange man visited me, and he offered me a gift.

A gift no one in my predicament could refuse; immortality. I was delirious from the plague and agreed to his terms without even listening to him. I didn’t want to die and the thought of immortality sparked a feeling of greed within me. As soon as I agreed to his terms, he vanished into thin air. I had almost thought I hallucinated the whole incident, but my rapidly improving condition proved it actually happened.

Needless to say, I was gleeful of it and went to see my family. My joy lasted for a short while until I realized this gift was in fact a curse. I watched my family die one by one; each suffering in their last moments. I watched as they each suffered, not being able to do a thing. No matter how much I prayed, that strange man did not return.

The last of my family to go was my baby sister, who I held in my arms as she breathed her last breath. I wept for days and wandered around the village not bothering to eat or drink. What was the use? I couldn’t die, so what was the point? I would call out to the strange man to come and retract his ‘gift’ but nothing worked.

It wasn’t long before the survivors of the plague grew suspicious of me. They wanted to burn me at the stake even though the witch hunts from years prior had calmed down. This prompted me to leave the village and travel. I traveled to multiple places until I settled down in a small town. I tried to enjoy my life there as much as I could, and I did find some peace of mind.

It wasn’t long before I met the person who soon became the love of my life. She was as beautiful as a flower and as gentle as the sunlight. Despite the curse of immortality, I found myself falling for her charm. After weeks of getting to know each other, we were together. Like a fool, I placed my immortality to the back of my mind.

Months after we were together, we were engaged and planning to be married. Twas the night before our wedding day that I was jolted from the paradise I foolishly placed myself in. I received word from my lover’s brother that she had suddenly come down sick. I rushed to their home and to her bedside. I held her hand as the village physician checked her worsening condition. His face was grim as he told us the dreadful news.

Her family and I wept at her bedside. I held her hand tightly as I constantly told her how much I loved her and what she meant to me. With a hoarse voice, she whispered words of endearment to me before she passed. The cause of her illness was unknown but I just knew it was because of me. That suspicion was confirmed when I looked up and spotted that same strange man standing on the other side of her bed.

I fell back in shock; startling her family. My shock soon turned to rage as I belittled him and asked what he wanted from me. Her family looked at me as if I was crazy, but I didn’t care.

The man stared at me before responding, “You should have listened to my terms.”

This put the fire in my heart out as I was dragged out of the room. I was thrown out and told to get my head together. Apparently, they couldn’t see the strange man. Once again, I wandered around the town and into the woods, wishing more than ever to die. I barely had the energy to lift my feet from the ground and tripped on a tree root.

I fell and laid there for what seemed like hours. I heard a sinister laughter and looked up to see that man again. I didn’t even have the energy to yell and curse him, I just felt hollow.

“Can you take your ‘gift’ back?” I asked instead.

He laughed, “Once the gift has been given, it can’t be returned. You should have listened to my conditions before agreeing.”

I cursed myself, “Can you at least tell me what the conditions were?”

“I don’t see the harm in that, so I might as well. There were three conditions. The first of the three provided you with a perfect memory, making you unable to forget a single thing. The second of the three; if you are to receive a fatal injury to mortals you will die momentarily and experience that pain ten-fold. And finally the third condition, anyone you love will die.” he responded after much contemplation.

I pulled myself up to my knees as my stomach twisted. I felt sick just listening to the conditions. I couldn’t even get mad at him because it was my own fault this has happened. He vanished into thin air once more leaving me to my own devices. I curled up as small as I could as sobs racked my body.

After this, I moved from place to place, never staying for long. I kept my distance from people as much as I could, fearing that I might bring about their death as well. I continued like this until 1823. In 1823, I experienced the second of the three conditions. I was roaming the woods somewhat close to a town, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. I had just passed behind a large tree when I was struck in the neck by a bullet.

It shattered my esophagus and blood gushed from my neck. I grabbed at my neck to stop the bleeding, but it was too late. I went unconscious and continuously experienced that pain ten-fold. It was like my very own personal hell. It was then that I developed a fear of death even though I couldn’t die.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when I regained consciousness, but the sun was rising once more. The last I remember before I fell unconscious is that it was midday. My neck ached as I remembered the pain and I immediately grabbed it. Thankfully, everything was healed up as if nothing happened, but I couldn’t forget it. Even to this day, I can vividly remember that pain, but it was not the worst I experienced.

In 1940, I was in England when the bombing, The Blitz, occurred. I was close to where a Fire Bomb hit. Not only was I burned alive but I was hit by debris and broke many of my bones. I was out more than a week and experienced that pain ten-fold continuously with no break. After that, I experienced night terrors, reliving that pain all over again.

The night terrors continued on for months after the bombing. It was so bad that I opted to not sleep. Due to this, I decided to go into hiding from the world. I didn’t mind traveling around previously, but technology was quickly advancing. The possibility of me being suspected weighed on me.

After that, I watched as the world around me advanced to where it is now. I still traveled from location to location, but I tried to make it as discreetly as possible. This didn’t work out in my favor as an unnamed organization caught a whiff of my existence. It was mainly my fault, I stayed in a city longer than I should have and I got unwanted attention.

I won’t go into all of the details of how I was kidnapped by the organization as it really isn’t necessary. Anyways, fifteen years ago I was kidnapped and tortured by that organization. Naturally, when I was kidnapped, I put up a pretty good fight and one of their agents ended up ‘killing’ me. Even though I was ‘dead’ they took me with them to discard my body only for me to wake up a few hours later.

This prompted them to run various experiments on me to uncover the secret of my immortality. From electrocuting me, to poisoning me, to decapitating me; they tortured me in the name of science. They claimed they were doing this for the betterment of humans, but I highly doubted it.

Each time I was ‘killed’ I relived that torture for countless years. I was their test subject for a good four years. I only escaped because my body finally gave out from all of the various torture. They killed me via lethal injection and because of the constant torture I experienced, it took longer than they expected for me to heal and wake up. I guess they decided to discard me since none of their research proved fruitful.

So they disposed of my body and I woke up about a month later. Through out that month, I relived all the torture I experienced. Upon waking up, I refused to sleep for months and I avoided people all together. I lived in the woods as I thought of ways to destroy the organization. Thankfully, the organization was shut down by the government after it was discovered they experimented on humans.

While I felt at ease not having to worry about that organization, it still took me years to be able to go out in public. Even now, I still tremble in fear from the thought of being discovered again, but that is why I move so frequently. A new city, new job, and new name. While I try to go on about my life, I still catch glimpses of that man out of the corner of my eye and hear his sinister laugh echo in my head. I’m not sure of who or what he is, but I do know he isn’t some nice, helpful person.

I’m sure many of you reading this will feel pity more than being scared of my story, but I didn’t come here for pity. I’ve made my peace with the decisions that I made that led me to this point and regret them. I was foolish and now I’m suffering the consequences. You don’t have to believe me, I don’t care, I’m merely writing this to be a warning to others. If you are ever in a dire situation and you meet a strange man offering you a gift, refuse it.