I took one last look at the red-brick orphanage I had spent my last 20 years in, then ran into the darkness, away into the night.

As my footsteps rang against the concrete, I couldn't help but feel exhilarated. For 50 whole lifetimes, I could suddenly remember... Everything. Jumping over low fences and discarded rubbish cans, the freedom to be young again had never felt so... addictive.

Stumbling over an abandoned mattress, it felt like heaven to have my joints no longer creak or croak with every step I took. My last life was so drab, being queen of an empire was so much more alluring than it actually was, and living to 98 years of age was only needlessly painful. Having lived almost 5000 years worth of lives, you could only imagine how nice it felt to finally remember everything I had experienced. In hindsight, 20 years zipped by rather quickly, even more so as a child.

Why would I wait 20 years? Wasn't it obvious? The whole legality of it would be much more dangerous if I left while a minor. Furthermore, as a '20' year old in a run-down orphanage barely scraping by with government handouts, they wouldn't be bothered to find the kid who had no living relatives anyway. I...

Heh. Time does weird things to your mind. Look at me, speaking to myself now.

I still... No, I now remember the day that old crone had cursed me to live a thousand lives. Foolish me had even thought it to be a blessing at first. Maybe breaking into the 'haunted house' on a full moon was a bad idea.

My footsteps pounded against the asphalt road, the sidewalk now but a distant memory. As the faint light of dim street lamps faded away, the darkness overwhelmed me. A fear of the darkness, one which I had thought forgotten a long, long time ago. Who would have thought getting betrayed by a man you thought was your best friend, then left to starve to death in a dark cellar as he bricked up the entrance would have been traumatising? Certainly not me.

I traced out the familiar oval shape of the "cats' eye", the glowing glyph radiating in the blanketing darkness. Pointing the very pupil of the eye at my own, I watched as the darkness slowly receded as the glyph dissolved in the air, a skill learned from a magic school so long ago.

I kept on running.

As the soles of my feet burned, the golden locket hanging from my neck only felt more and more heavy. Finally, as I approached a particularly patchy stretch of road, I felt my legs give out from under me.

Laying by the side of the road, head facing the great sandy plains of Arizona, the stars never looked brighter. I flipped over onto my back, so my head could get a better look at the celestial constellations above.

A few lives ago, this wouldn't have been surprising. A few more lives ago, they would have been praised as scions of astral gods beyond us. I know what they are. Burning conglomerations of gases so hot they would burn a man's face off. I would know.

But that life was many years ago now, or maybe so many years ahead of this life that this earth... It wouldn't matter anymore. I clutched the golden locket in my hand, lifting it up infront of my face, the faint reflection staring back at me. It smirked, in the sadistic glee of knowing that it was but a youthful mask on an ancient soul.

I opened the locket, staring into the photograph that sat within. A handsome face sat within, a depiction of a great man who once existed, so long ago. My heartbeat began to calm, no longer beating at my seated ribs. The hum of a distant car's engine reminded me of the present reality, snapping me out of a much too distant memory. Shutting the locket, I ran a finger across the ancient emerald adorning its centre, whilst muttering an ancient elven power word.

My fingers and clothes slowly became invisible, just in time for the car's bright headlights to shine right through me. The car trundled on, its presence diminishing as the engine hum slowly faded away. Now, I realise that looking upon the past would not serve me much longer.

What would I even do here? It's been several thousand years since I've been here, with nothing much changing at all, as if a rock in a rushing river, unchanging and unmoving while life past me by.

Perhaps... Yes... Heh, lets see if that old crone still lives there. With that, I disapperated.

Out of all these lives, I will finally understand revenge.

Maybe it was a blessing after all.

Edit: I need to run some errands so TBC

Edit 2: It's finished, for now :)