Time Stops For No One

Gazing into the mirror, tears streaming down my cheeks. Not understanding what's happening. A child of eight, maybe ten staring back. Why me? I had chosen to live isolated from humanity, deep in the Appalachian mountains. Society had become too corrupt. I trusted no one. My friends, all gone. My family disowned me - a freak, a loser they called me. I was content to live out the remainder of my life alone, with only the birds and the squirrels to keep me company. Every night I prayed for death to visit early so this useless life would end. But death has escaped me. Relief may never come. Trapped in an endless loop ever since that day, that cursed day when I was struck by lightning while fetching wood for the fire. There was no storm, no clouds. Something strange and surreal happened to me in that moment. I didn't die. Now I live in misery, my body setting and resetting, aging then reversing, then aging again. O how I long for it to end, to sleep the eternal sleep, to simply cease to exist. For you see, I am 195 years old. Time stops for no one in this place, this hellish hole I've fallen into. At least not for me. Please God, help me. Please, LET IT END!