This is a 4 page short story I wrote for a competition last year. It was only allowed to be four pages. I would really apreciate any feedback on the piece 😄

The fifth life

The roar of the crowd was overwhelming. It sounded as if I was standing just by the ocean but that was the least of my concerns, before me stood my opponent. I breathed in and raised my sword ready to fight. The battle began, before I could react, I felt the wound, warm blood poured from it. I fell to my knees the world was becoming blurry. I turned to the crowd and saw the concerned face of my brother before everything went black.

I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a room, the realization hit me like a dagger. I was on my last life…

My name is Ranni, and I am a half elf, but I am part of a cursed family. Everyone in my family has five lives and as the generations continue our life spans become shorter. Even though I am a half elf, I have the life span of a normal human. I am different from the rest of my family, in each of my lives I die before the age of eighteen. The curse of our family came in to being because of a wizard:

Melenia ago the head of our family’s wife grew deathly ill. The healing of the elves did nothing to cure her or even ease the pain. He went to a wizard to request his aid. Whilst on the road he got news that his wife took a turn for the worst. He rushed into the wizard’s tower and caused an accident. The potion on which the wizard had spent months working on was now ruined. As a punishment for his action the wizard cursed our family to have five lives and each generations life span would become shorter till eventually our entire bloodline was wiped out.

The name of our ancestor has long since been forgotten. As I sat on my bed, I could not help but feel sad. This was my last chance to live a full life, I was determined to break my curse and live past the age of eighteen and experience wat adulthood felt like, but I can’t do this alone. I will need the help of my twin brother.

As I walked to my brother’s room, I recalled my deaths of my previous lives. During my first life, my pet hippogriff flew into a violent rage and accidentally killed me. During my second life I died because of poison in my food. During my third life I fell into a dragon’s pit and I was accused of stealing a priceless family heirloom in my fourth life and that was why I was challenged to a duel. All the deaths just seem like bad luck, or I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I had to be extra careful in this life.

I walked into his room and was greeted with a bright smile. Rykard is my twin brother and has been in every single life. We looked slightly different in each life, but two things always stayed the same. We both have heterochromia; our left eye is violet, and our right eye is blue. We also always have raven black hair. We are twins in each life but both of us have to die before we can start our next life. Rykard has been with me through thick and thin and I loved him more than anything else in the world.

“Why the long face, we are on our final adventure after all.” He said flashing his white smile. His smile always comforted me.

“I don’t want to die before eighteen again. I just want to live a normal life and know what it feels like to die of old age and not die by some accident again.” He took my hand and squeezed it.

“I will help you live past eighteen and you can do the rest from there. I will always be with you.” Even though we are only five years old in this life all our memories and knowledge from previous lives are carried over. It is always strange to me how even though we appear to be kids our resolves and motives are not childlike at all. Rykard was also on his last life, we are in this together. I stood up, took his hand and we marched out onto our last life.

Years passed by and we were turning eighteen in a few hours.

I was pacing up and down in our living room when Rykard entered. He wore a black trench coat over his black waist coat and a gold chain from his pocket watch hung on his left side.

“You need to calm down, I don’t think anything bad will happen today. You will be able to break your curse.” he said as he sat down in an armchair and picked up the newspaper.

“How can you be so certain Rykard, this is my last chance, is it not a given that I would be worried? I might turn eighteen but die on our birthday.” I went and sat next to him. I really did not want to die this time because I would be gone forever. I stared out the window and watched as people passed in the streets below our house.

“I will not be here tonight or tomorrow; I have some business to attend to at the guild. Don’t worry there will be guards posted around the house, even though we are a cursed family, that does not make us less noble.” I was shocked to hear that he was leaving at a critical time like this. He stood up and took my hand and gave me his typical smile.

Rykard and I are part of a trading guild and Rykard had gained a high position due to his knowledge from previous lives. I knew he had to go but it still hurt that he was leaving.

“I will see you after our birthday.” He let go of my hand and left. I sat in that chair for the rest of the day reflecting on this life, I stayed out of trouble, and it looked like I would be able to break my curse. The night passed and it was our birthday. I stayed inside all day, and I did not dare go near the windows of the house. The day passed and nothing bad happened.

I was alive, I had broken my curse! I fell into the armchair and started crying. I was overwhelmed with emotions, and I could not wait to tell Rykard. I asked the guards where Rykard was, and they told me he would be returning soon. I sat and waited in the living room for him. The living room door opened, and he stepped in with a bouquet of white flowers. I ran towards him and hugged him tightly. As I pulled out of the hug, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. I looked down and saw my brother’s dagger embedded in my abdomen. He pulled out the dagger and I fell to the ground.

“You, Rykard, you promised that you would protect me.” He flashed his iconic smile, but it did not seem so friendly anymore.

“My dear Ranni, I said I would protect you till you were eighteen and I did, I helped you break your supposed ‘curse’.” Nothing made sense anymore why would Rykard try to hurt me?

“Why, why would you do this, I had just broken my curse why would you take that away from me?” He let out a bone chilling laugh and for the first time I saw the real Rykard.

“That curse never existed, I was the reason you kept dying before eighteen, all those ‘accidents’ were caused by me. I was also the reason you had to fight in that duel. The reason was I needed some leverage on you, I knew you would be desperate to try and survive past eighteen and who would be better to confide in, than your twin brother who has been with you for five lifetimes. Your guard would be lowered around me, and you would never have suspected me of being the one who was responsible for all your deaths.”

“But why, what do you gain from killing me?” I felt that my limbs started to feel like lead and I knew I did not have much longer.

“What do I gain? That is an interesting question. Longevity. When I heard that we had the life spans of normal humans I was furious, we are half elves of a prestigious family, yet we are now equal to humans. I could not stand it, so I started looking for a way out and that is when I found it, the notes of one of our predecessors. If you manage to get rid of all the lives of one of your family members your curse would be broken, and you would gain back the full lifespan of a half elf. He failed because a wildfire killed his brother in their first life, but he was the reason his brother died in all his other lives. His life was prolonged, but his curse was not broken. He concluded that the only way to break the curse was to be the reason your family member lost all their lives, that could mean laying the stage for how they die or being the one that killed them directly. But why you? You were the only one who still had all their lives, so you were the only one I could use to carry out my plan. You could say you were my pawn in all your lives. I did not like the idea of killing my twin sister at first, but the realization sunk in that this was the only way I would be able to survive and regain my full lifespan.” He crouched down to be at eye level with me, I expected to see a form of sadness in his eyes but there was none. His blue and violet eyes shone like cold hard diamonds.

“Rykard, you are my twin and I love you, but how do you expect me to ever forgive you for deceiving me and using me, did you even care about me?” He picked up the flowers and placed them next to me and then he stood up.

“Ranni I don’t expect you to ever forgive me, you don’t need to since you will be dead soon, but I do love you, I always have, and I would not have done this if it was not necessary. But my goals and my life must come before you, this is how important this is to me. I will visit your grave every once ln a while.” He started walking away but before he left, he turned to me.

“I am sorry Ranni and I hope you will rest in peace.” He flashed his smile once more and left. Even though he said sorry I did not detect any feelings of sadness in his voice. I tried to stand up but failed. I went and lay down on the carpet holding the flowers he gave me. I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. I took one final breath and closed my eyes.

I guess I will never know what it feels like to be an adult. With that last thought my five lives had come to an end.

Suné Burger

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