A big thanks to Writers Anonymous for hosting the One Word Prompt challenge. Each person got to pick a number between 1 and 100. Then we got a prompt for our number. This is my story for my prompt word, seeking.
Seeking Her Purpose.
She grew up to be bad. Her parents taught her poisons and weapons when she was little. She was told to be ruthless, having no limits. It's better to kill on the way to victory, than to help others, losing the chance to win.
This was the way her older brother acted. She decided she needed to act just like him. She trained liked him, ate like him, did everything with and like him.
Her training was finally put to the test when Grace Cahill's will sent her and others on a hunt around the world.
Five minutes before she died, Grace Cahill brought out her alternative will. Instead of leaving different items to relatives like most people did, she gave select people the first clue to a hunt leading all over the world.
Natalie Kabra, with her older brother, Ian, were two of several sent on this hunt. Anything and everything they were ever taught was put to the test in the hunt for 39 clues.
Out of all the competition, the young Cahill orphans, Amy and Dan, were the easiest to take out. They had no training what so ever. No training, no chance, at least in the Kabra's book.
The hunt lasted all summer into the school year. Many times, the Kabras tricked and outsmarted the Cahills.
Natalie watched Ian make allies with them, then ditched them when the time came. Every time, Natalie wondered if she was supposed to do this. Was it her purpose? Her true calling? If not, what was her true purpose?
Natalie wonder these as Ian left Amy and Dan in a cave. He had become allies, then ditched them. Why? Was Natalie was supposed to do the same?
She thought so, and started following Ian's footsteps. Instead of being nice, she was ruthless and cruel. She strived to be like Ian. Not her own person, the person that acted like Ian. Natalie could tell Ian knew what he was doing. If he knew, she could follow his ways.
Alas, the clue hunt ended. When all the teams won, Ian was furious. Natalie, following Ian, was just as furious. Until she realized everyone got a prize.
Quickly, Natalie realized her mistake. Ian wasn't his own person. He was acting like their parents.
During the clue hunt, they learned that their parents killed Amy and Dan's. If Ian was acting like them, or at least how hey wanted him to act, he was a killer.
Natalie couldn't believe she thought that Ian acted that way. She quickly decided to be her own person. A loving, but fierce person. Maybe that was her true calling.
Two years after the end of the clue hunt, seven, close relatives of the clue hunters, were taken hostage. Natalie was one of them.
As she waited the days until rescued, she wondered if she deserved rescue. Did her finally changing her ways make a difference? Or was she known as Ian's little follower? Not known as herself. Did she actually find her calling, and would it make a difference?
She pondered these questions through the days and nights. It seemed like forever until they showed up. Amy, Dan, Hamilton, Jonah, Sinead, Ian, Amy's boyfriend, Evan Tolliver, and two new kids, Jake and Atticus Rosenbloom, all came to save them.
Quickly, they all rushed to fight off the capturers, a group known as the Vespers. Each using their own strengths, it was an intense fight.
Natalie remember her vow to herself. She needed to help others. It was her purpose.
Natalie snatched a metal pipe. Ready to destroy the device the Vespers made to destroy the world, she hit the pipe against it. The electricity from the device shoot through the pipe, electrifying Natalie, bringing her to death.
Ian froze once he noticed her. He realized he should've spent more time with her. Now she was dead...Ian was never to talk to her again. Ian wondered if Natalie ever got to do what she was meant to do? Did she fulfill her purpose?
"I didn't know Natalie as much as Ian," Amy began, at Natalie's funeral. "If you ask him, she was a good child. Yet, she followed his ways so much. Ian was disappointed in that. When I talked to him, he told me he followed his parents ways.
"His parents killed mine in a fire. I felt betrayed by him. Now, I realize, he lost his sister due to us. We somehow brought the Vespers out of hiding, causing her to be captured. Her captivity lead to us saving her, leading to her death. I feel we are both at the same point, having lost someone special, by another one's actions.
"Ian had told me Natalie wanted to be different after the clue hunt. She wanted to seek her own purpose. Did she go seeking for it? If so, did she manage to seek enough to find it? If I had to answer, I would say, she did. Instead of her clue hunt-self, she managed to become caring, kind, and more friendly. Natalie, we'll miss you!"
Amy walked back to her seat next to Ian. She could tell he was holding back tears.
"It's okay to cry," she whispered. "All of us are sad."
Ian nodded, letting a single tear fall.
Natalie Kabra lived to be thirteen. Her death was sad and sudden, with no time to mourn right away. Others died for the same cause as Natalie. A cause for the family.
Natalie, before she died, was on a journey. A journey of seeking her true purpose. Along the way she changed from a stuck up snob, to a kind and caring friend.
If anyone could've their purpose best, it would be Natalie. She was diligent and hardworking on her quest. No one could've done better. Not only did Natalie changed the way she acted, she changed her beauty within.
Natalie, rest in peace, you will always be remembered.
She went seeking for it, and she sought her purpose!
Whew! Talk about cutting it close...I'm finally done. Hopefully, this long project that took me forever, is semi good.
Good luck to anyone still finishing!