Today's #flashfiction #CursedThroughFiction

“Seek and ye shall find.”

Waldo* #quote

Today CJ was still over and we went to a card game tournament. It went on late so I didn't have time to write a new story for y'all. But I did dive into the archives and edit an old one and changed the title to make it more catchy! I hope you still enjoy this rerun and don't remember so its like reading something anew. Anyway onto the flash fiction!

Cursed Through Fiction

        There are more curses in the world than someone could possibly count. More ways a wizard or witch could make someone suffer for the pleasure or revenge. They can turn someone into a toad or petrify them so they can sit as a statue in a garden. I was cursed by an incredibly powerful wizard, with an incredibly powerful curse. It's been so long I don't even remember what I did to him, I just remember it was something insignificant. The curse was not.

         The curse gave me immortality. But not immortality in the real world. It gave me immortality by making me reincarnate through the lives of heroes in fictional stories. If that sounds appealing to you, if you think “But being the hero of a story would be incredible!” then you don't remember what defines a story: conflict. Heroes fight villains and survive disasters. Heroes suffer while fighting and surviving. And many heroes are defined by their individual tragedies.

         I've experienced all the different kinds of pains the heroes have. And I'm aware of all the past lives and I follow the script of the story as a compulsion even if I know the ending. When I was living through Hamlet I knew the ending. I also feel the feelings of the hero no matter how hard I try so even though I knew the ending and could brace myself, I still felt the suffering and shocks of Hamlet at all the twists and turns just the same.

        If you're thinking that it might be worth it for the happy endings it's not. In how many stories does the happy ending come from the hero killing an evil villain? The evil villain that killed his parents? Do you know how many parents I've lost to give me a reason to go after that “happy ending”? Ones I loved just as much you love your own? Now think back, there are also stories in which the happy ending comes from people sacrificing themselves to help me. “Go on without me!” it goes. I've gotten that phrase said to me over and over to me in so many forms. And I have to go because that's what the story demands. And I feel like I'm making the decision because I'm the hero, even though I am actually not because of the curse, but I feel the guilt all the same. All for a “happy ending” that at least pleases the audience. How many people must I, the hero, kill before I reach the ending of the story? It's not entertainment or adventure to me.

       The wizard gave me an option when he cursed me. He told me I could be either the hero or the villain.   Maybe I should have chose being the villain. Maybe thinking as and living as the villains would make me suffer less.