Last breath
The last breath is always the hardest. I would know. I’ve died over 900 times. The people who grew to love you, standing around crying, silently staring, or worse, outside the room because they can’t bear to see the light leave your eyes. Obviously, I’m used to it by now.
I’m laying in a hospital bed this time. A pensive expression on my face. What will this next life be like I contemplate. You see I’m one of the special ones. The main character of the stories. The hero or the villain. I have special things about me. Always one of the chosen ones. I am an endless soul. This means that as soon as my body dies, my soul gets passed onto a new one. Ready for me to start again. I remember many of my past live’s, but after so many and such a long time, memories distort and slip from my grasp. Being like this you might think I could tell you everyone’s soul is passed on like this, but being honest, I just don’t know. I don’t know everyone else’s life, death, afterlife. Just mine.
After being a prince in an Arabic country, his life was one of my favourites - this life was cozy. I was rich in love, not possessions. I was a little lady. Petite. Pretty. I decided to just be happy in this life. I’ve always thought I should use my gift to solve world problems, but that’s not as easy as it sounds, and it definitely doesn’t sound easy. But no. this life was for me. I married a nice man. Had four kids, two boys and two girls. They are the sweetest children that someone could ever receive. They crowd around me now, crying softly. I want to comfort them. Tell them this isn’t the end of me. Tell them everything. But I know I cant. I have to let them mourn properly. Not look for me in a different body. I learnt my lesson on that one, but that’s another story. Besides, I don’t have the energy left at this point.
Iris, the oldest of my children, grasps my cold aged hand. Her vitality warms my skin. Warms my heart. “I love you so much mum” she says in an unsteady voice. I try to smile and nod. I wasn’t lying when I said I had no energy. I wish I could say more, say I love you one last time in this body…
As the mortal life seeps out of my body, immortal memories fill my mind. I’ve only met one other person like me. At the time they were a tall, handsome man. The kind of man that would make all the girls drool. I wouldn’t have minded having a go with him, but I was a lanky teenage boy, and it wasn’t exactly the most accepting time for homosexuals in seventeenth century England. We only got to talking as we were both stable hands at a huge manor in the deep countryside of Scotland. I will always search for him.
I close my eyes and feel my life slipping away like soft sand through parted fingers. I ready myself for what is to come. What life will I wake up to? But then something strange happens. It all goes black. I don’t wake up…