We're Broken People

immortals

400 years.
That was how much time had passed.

400 years ago, she was nothing but a tiny, fragile body, flailing her arms and screaming her lungs out as she entered this world.

Fast forward another 400 years, and her skin still glowed with the ethereality of youth and her dark hair still fell in silken tresses.

Impossible.

But it was true, she was ageless, timeless.

And it was a curse. Her curse.

Immortality wasn't what people thought it was, it wasn't living forever or eternal life, it was watching the people you loved disintegrate into dust. Watching everyone leave you - it was an eternal hell.

She could only watch as her siblings grew up and started their own families, and by the time they were supposed to be in their fifties, she was the only one with not a single grey streak in her hair, it was as if she had never left her twenties.

Then they began to suspect her, and the rumours started, spreading like wildfire, "She's a witch," they said, "Burn her at the stake," they whispered as she walked past, and she knew she wasn't safe.

So she ran that night, fleeing into the safety of the darkness, disappearing into the forest as the town slumbered.

She was never seen again.

But she was free now, free to do anything she wanted, free to love.

And love she did.

She fell head over heels for the boy with pretty eyes, had two children, and for a while, she was happy.

Until reality struck her when he never returned that night.

They would die.

Leave her, leave her one by one, as they aged and grew weary of life, while she stayed frozen at the same spot, the same time, as she watched them fade away, watched time wash them away.

The only one left.

And she watched as her children grew up, taller, as tall as her, then get married, have children of their own, look older than her.

They were all leaving her.

A parent should never outlive their child, but she did.

She would outlive every one of them.

Everytime she found someone who meant something to her, they left. No one would spend an eternity with her, no one could. It was her curse to live forever, always running, running from her own life, running from love, from people, because she knew, she knew letting them get close would only hurt, would only leave a throbbing emptiness in her heart when they left.

A 100 years passed.

200 years.

300 years.

400 years.

She sat in a cafe, staring out the window, sipping her coffee absentmindedly.

She had been through wars, watched as people fell, watched as people destroyed each other, watched as the world fell into chaos.

Watched.

And now, she still watched.

Hair as black as ever, skin as smooth as ever.

But her eyes, her eyes held a deep, deep pain, held the suffering of one who had grown weary of this world.

One so young shouldn't have those eyes. Those eyes were the eyes of a girl beyond her years, a girl who saw and understood too much, a girl who was young on the outside, but as old as time on the inside.

A girl who would live even if the sky fell.

She watched on.

Once upon a time, she had tried to reach out, save the ones she loved, keep them with her. But no matter how hard she held on, they always slipped through the cracks between her fingers, and into the soil, sinking down, down, down below six feet under, never to be seen again.

So she stopped hoping, stopped trying, and let fate guide her, embracing the cruel reality of this life.

No, this wasn't living, she was simply existing, breathing, but this wasn't life.

This was a never-ending hell.