Saturday, August 21, 2010

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Cursed Blood

My name is Anastasia. If you saw me in the marketplace, you wouldn’t notice me. There is nothing special about me, at least not that you’d notice. Everything about me screams normal. But that’s how I want to be seen, it’s not how I really am.

This is my seventh life, for some strange reason, I keep coming back. I have died six times, each time I was murdered. It’s not a nice thing to live through. Each time, it was the same man, I don’t know why he wants me dead, but clearly he won’t rest until it has been accomplished. It’s only been fifteen years since my last death, which is very few to me. In total I have lived almost two hundred years. I don’t know how many more times this will happen but I hope this time, I can live a full life. I want to fall in love, have children, just live. I keep getting murdered before I find out why he is after me or why I am able to be reborn from my ashes. Yes, when I’m killed I burst into flame and am reborn from the flames, like a phoenix. I am fully aware of whom I am and what’s just happened to me, but I am again a child. I would estimate I am no more than three years physically. So, to anyone who sees me now, I look about eighteen. It’s always puzzled me as to why the man would let me live when I revert back to a child, wouldn’t it be easier to kill me in my vulnerable state? I would love to ask him.

Honestly this could have been going on for many millennia. The first life I remember, my parents told me they found me on their doorstep when I was just a child. I didn’t know who I was, or where I came from, or even how I got there, but I knew my name. Anastasia, it means resurrected. Maybe my name is why I am the way I am, some weird twist from the fates. Was I cursed in my past life to relive and be murdered until I paid for something I did?

Maybe I'm the mysterious Anastasia Romanov? So then would the man chasing me be Rasputin? Historically, Rasputin died before the Romanov family, and he was employed to help Alexei Romanov, who was a hemophiliac and heir to the throne. It wouldn’t make sense for him to be the man who constantly murders me. But how should I know?

What could I have done to deserve to be hunted and murdered over and over again? And is this man like me? He hasn’t seemed to age in the many lifetimes we have met.

I have had these questions for so long. And now I face my death again, this time however, I am prepared.

“Are you going to murder me then? I thought it was I who came for you?” I held the gun pointed straight at him. I knew he would come for me eventually, this is the first time he has spoken to me. Time for answers.

“Things change, why are you after me?”

“It’s a game we have played since time began.” He replied cryptically.

“What does that mean, do I know you? Who are you to me? Why do you keep hunting me?”

“Of course you know me, can’t you feel it in your soul? We are each a part of each other; two parts of one whole. You may have forgotten me but I still remember you. My heart still aches from your betrayal.”

“Betrayal? Are you going to tell me anything? Or just keep confusing me? Why do you keep murdering me, what have I done to you?!?”

“I cannot tell you, you must remember. It is part of our curse. Murdering you is also part of it. How long must this go on before you remember?”

“Our curse? It’s my fault this is still going on? That you keep hunting me, I can stop it? How can I remember?”

“Look at me, you know me. We are one; we have a history that can never truly be forgotten. I am bound to you until you repair what you have done. I cannot remember for you.” As he spoke I could see the sadness clouding his bright green eyes. There was so much pain, what have I done to cause this?

I did what he said I looked at him, focused on him. He was a handsome man, I would guess about twenty-five years old, no more. Every life I have lived I died before I reached thirty years of age, he was always a few years older. His green eyes were expressive and beautiful. Soft lips, pale red were fixed in a frown. His jaw line is strong and muscled, sprinkled with a shadow of dark brown hairs. His nose was long and crooked. It looked like it had been broken at least once. His hair was long and the same color dark brown as his scruff. It was pulled back into a low ponytail. His skin reminded me of caramel, it was a beautiful color. Maybe he was Grecian?

When I examined him, he was right, he seemed so familiar. Did I really know him outside of him being my murderer? I hadn’t thought about it until now. I always knew who he was, even in the first life I remember. I figured it was because maybe it wasn’t my first life he was just all I remembered of the previous ones. But that first time I met him, or so I thought it was the first, I did not fear him. I thought he was beautiful, handsome, and wonderful. I didn’t know why, but I trusted him. I came right to him and hugged him, when I pulled away there was a knife in my gut. From then on I resisted the urge to go to him, and I ran when I saw him. Tried to get away with my life, I always failed. If I wanted to live, I’d have to break this curse he spoke of, remember who he is to me.

Minutes passed as I stared at him, turning into hours. It felt like I would be there just looking at him forever. When would it come back to me? I told myself over and over, ‘I know him, figure it out.’

I knew I had loved him, trusted him. How else could I explain my desire to run into the arms of the man who murders me?

He reminded me of my father, not the one I knew in these lives but of one I had long forgotten. My real father. He had been my father’s advisor, I remembered…

He was my lover, my friend, my husband. I betrayed him to my father. My father did not approve of our love and we wed in secret. But I adored my father, I could not keep it from him, I thought he would understand when he knew how much I loved him, Xavior that was his name. The man I loved and lost. My father did not understand, he had him put to death. Before he died though, I drew his blood and united it with my own, our destinies joined forever. I had a witch put a spell on it, a curse. It cost me my memories and my life. If we were to be together again I would have to pay for my betrayal with my life, until I remembered. When he died, so did I. And now, we will be together again, forever in love.

Beauty's Spell- conclusion

The city was basically like any city, buildings and lights and people, well Sirens I guess. And there were male Sirens, though they don’t look human like the females. Their skin had a slight green hint to it and their hair was not hair but scales. Their hands and feet were webbed, like frogs and their lips were exactly the same, the upper lip didn’t indent like humans do. They seemed very foreign to me, though apparently these were my people. As we passed most of them bowed to my mother, some even bowed to me. Weird. I guess I was something here, a princess. It was so strange to think I was anything more than a normal teenage girl. My mother led us to the largest building; it was her housing in this city. She had a building of her own in every siren city, and apparently there were a lot. She said there was a city in just about every body of water. Again I say, weird!

“So, we are here and safe, explain. Everything. Now.” It was time she gave me answers. We had followed her here, with very little information and even less trust. According to her, we were safe.

“I guess I should start at the beginning. I was sent above to talk peace with the creatures there, I met your father and I actually liked him. Most sirens use humans for their entertainment and get rid of them when they are finished. I know, it’s cruel, but this is what we are. It is also how the creatures above are as well. Which is why peace was not accomplished. They felt it was offensive for me to take a mere human as my mate, so in order to gain their approval and therefore peace, I left after you were born. I couldn’t take you with me because you had your fathers eyes.” This all seemed like a load of crap, stories made up to excuse her absence from our lives. And she was cruel, and so were my people, was I cruel like her, inside? And why did it matter if my eyes were like my fathers? I gave her a look of shear disbelief. “Sirens don’t have green eyes. It would be obvious you were part human.” She replied to my look, exaggerating her response with a sigh.

“So, if you left for my good, why’d you bother coming back?”

“My people have known of your existence since you were born, as queen it is my right to choose whom I desire as my mate, but many did not approve. One of my subjects betrayed me and went to the creatures above, the Faeries.” She said their name like a curse. She clearly didn’t care for them. “They accepted him into their courts in trade for the information. Our peace treaty is null and void. Humans are not part of our society and therefore your existence is inexcusable to them.”

“Why? What did humans do that is so horrible?” Why should they care if I was part human, I’m a Siren not a Faerie.

“Sirens as well as the creatures above, all believe humans are below us. Humans are play things we sometimes take for our enjoyment. I’m sure you have heard stories of the Sirens of old causing humans ships to crash into rocks, of them calling men to them just to drown them. We are not all so cruel but it is the normal thing to see humans as nothing more than a toy. Faeries, believe this even more so than we do. Many sirens have adapted to the cultures of the humans, living with them, even loving them” She gave a sweet smile to my father when she said this.

It was all so terrible. How could she expect me to live with them? They were evil, I may be part Siren, but I certainly don’t share their disdain for humans. I love my father, and my friends. This is not a people I want to be a part of. Of course I had heard of stories that told of sirens drowning men, but I never thought they were true. Most creatures of myth were seen as evil, I guess they pretty much were. How could she let her people act so horribly? Especially if she loved my father, a mere human?

“How can you condone that? If you love my father you must know humans are good people and worthy of more than being play things. It’s so evil. If this is what your people are I don’t want anything to do with them or you. You’re queen; you should have done something about it.” I was so angry if she had told me this before I followed her here, I would not have come. I certainly wouldn’t have brought my father back to her. For all I know this was an act and she really was just like them and she just wanted to bring us here for her amusement.

“It doesn’t work like that. I can suggest the change, but I cannot make everyone see things as I do. I am queen but I do not have complete control of the lives of my subjects. And as I said before many sirens have changed, but we live very long lives and the older generations still believe as they always have. Humans were not always as they are either, they used to hunt and kill us for sport. We became what we are in response to their actions. Which is also why most of them don’t believe we exist anymore. Humans have such short lives and their memories die when they do. To many of us humans are like an ant is to you, they live short insignificant lives.”


“Humans aren’t perfect, I know that. What I’m saying is I will not live here with you if people are being abused. I’ll take my chances above.” And I left, I knew it was dangerous and I would probably never see my father or her again, but I couldn’t live in a place like that. I love my father, but he chose her and that life, I would not.

There were a lot of things I never knew, and many more I wish I were still ignorant of.