Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Long Life Span

I live. Even still. It was painless at first, but the years have piled on top of each other like a pile of moldering leaves, a cairn of stones that will not topple no matter how high it reaches. No matter how I try, this life will not end.

Year 1: Everything was beginning. I was new and polished like a spring bud. The world was fresh and I cannot recall feeling anything but the joy of living.

Year 10: I had settled into a comfortable routine, growing and changing each day and delving deeper into life as I did.

Year 25: I began to wonder why. Why was I here, why had I been created? And the state of not knowing began to tickle me. I felt disquiet for the first time.

Year 100: All was pale. Not only did I not know why I was here, I no longer wanted to be here, to exist. The years just stretched on like a kite string--pulled taut and whipped across the sky at the whim of the wind.

Year 500: I do not even know my name anymore. It does not matter. I was not meant to exist for so long a time. Why does it matter that this darkness be labeled?

Year 1,000: Make it stop. just...stop.

Year 2,000: I begin to wonder if there is anyone out there like me. Anyone else stuck in the fly tape of time.

Year 2,001: I begin to look.

Year 3,000: I find them. Finally. After all this time, I am not alone. They were cold and alone, just like me. But I found them and gathered them to me. Now, it is we. It is no longer me and me alone, them and them alone. It is we.

Year 4,000: If we end, it will be alright. But if we stay...we will not try to end our lives anymore. Time is given for a reason. And we have nothing but time to figure out why.

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