Random stories

The knife missed my head by less than an inch. Though even a direct hit wouldn’t have mattered all that much. The young woman standing in my sparse living room, decked out in combat gear with her arm still extended from the throw she’d just made, shared many traits with her predecessors. Same golden brown eyes and midnight coloured hair, the two golden swords embroidered on her jacket just above her heart marking her as a Karson. It had been centuries, maybe even millennia at this point, since this had all started and they had been trying to end my existence. Not that their attempts were all that successful, immortality is called that for a reason.

I sighed and closed the book I had been reading as she righted herself and extracted another blade from her belt. Not even a second later I felt the blade penetrating my heart. So the first blade was a warning then, not a lack of skill. Not that the Karson’s would accept anything less than the best in their chosen warrior of each generation.

I pulled the knife out with ease, the wound already healed by the time it was fully removed. The pain was irrelevant, I had suffered far worse for this to even register at this point. It was then that our true battle began. Punches, kicks and stabs exchanged in a dance I had been doing for longer than even I could remember. The routine of it gave me time to think. I don’t remember when it started, this family’s determination to end my existence. In fact I can’t even remember why they are so dedicated to my death. I don’t know if I ever asked. Maybe I did in the beginning but they didn’t say? Maybe I did something terrible to an ancestor of their that they have never forgiven me for? In all my memory I’ve never been a confrontational or hurtful person, but maybe I was once before deciding to change. Truely that was all so long ago now that I just don’t recall.

Overall my life is a quiet one. I spend most of my time either working menial jobs just to take up some time in the day and meet new people. Money is never an obstacle as a few millennia of even the lowest paying jobs means considerable, nearing immeasurable, wealth. However friends and family are out of the question as immortality means they would just die eventually and my capacity for mourning is not infinite. I spend my time outside of work reading, watching tv or scrolling through the internet - which is truely one of the best inventions to come along for a immortal starved for entertainment. These assassination attempts may actually be the highlights of my continued existence.

I dodged a blow to face as I continued my musing. I wonder what it is that has caused one families singular purpose to be my demise. What could possibly cause multiple generations to focus the entirety of their short existence on the end of my infinite one? Suddenly the thought consumed my mind and I had to know the answer.

I froze. Something the young lady obviously wasn’t expecting as she continued to stab me in the abdomen twice before twirling away in a defensive manoeuvre and taking a ready stance waiting for me to attack back. It took her a moment or two before she started to look confused at my lack of movement. My mind was racing trying to find any hint of memory as to her family’s motives but coming up empty.

“Um Kushim, what’s happening?” She nervously asked keeping her ready stance. The name she called me is one I only hear during her families attempts to end me. I honestly don’t know if it was just the name I was using when their family started their pursuit or a title they bestowed upon me. I paused for a moment longer, scanning her appearance intently trying to find anything that may hold a clue to my query or trigger a long distant memory. The unease on her face grew considerably before I finally spoke up.

“Why does your family want me dead?” Her unease immediately turned a look I didn’t expect. Pity. Her fighting stance slowly dropped and I could almost hear the gears turning in her head as she considered her next words carefully.

“My father said it’s been a long time since you asked that. He said it was likely you had forgotten why. You have before.” Her answer confounded me, this isn’t the first time her family and I have had this conversation it seems. “We’ve kept journals and records from the beginning so that each generation that comes next will know what our mission is and why it is so important. It also help us understand what those who have come before us have done already and what each new generation can do differently.” While informative, her speech was becoming somewhat rambling. There is something she seems to be leading to but a barely detectable nervousness is creeping into her voice. What could possibly be so important to this family that could cause this reaction.

Obviously their mission isn’t based on the death of a distant relative or a shouted ‘You killed so and so now we want you dead’ would have sufficed. Anger or resentment also can’t be their motive, as pity and nervousness at the revelation wouldn’t make sense. What could it possibly be?

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Submitted by Remarkable_Car1373 on Wed, Mar 01, 2023 to /r/WritingPrompts/

The prompt

a family has been trying and failing to kill you, an immortal, for many generations. In fact, it’s been going on for so long you forgot why they started hunting you in the first place.