Chapter 2-
Natalie's Point of View
As her family sang 'Happy Birthday' she wondered how they would react if she told them this was actually her 347th birthday instead of her 15th, but she went along with a smile anyway. She was glad it wasn't a big party though, like last year. She was social, but didn't necessarily like all eyes to be on her. As they finished eating the cake, she thanked her foster parents for the gifts they had given her and went upstairs to get ready for bed.
After getting ready, Natalie grabbed her current journal off the shelf and snuggled under her cover as she began to write.
Dear Diary, she wrote. Today I turned 15, again. I really wish I knew exactly where my father was. I wish I could find him so I could have a family again. Though I love my foster parents and know that they are extremely good people, it won't be long until I move on to the next home. Sometimes I wish my mother hadn't made that deal with a witch. I'm sick of being the ages of 14-25. For one, as a 25 year old, every time I find a job I really like, I die. And then I'm stuck being 14 again and starting all over.
She stopped writing for a moment and thought of the deal her mother had made. If she gave up her life by the way of lightning, her daughter would remain young and healthy enough to walk the earth as long as it took to find her father and spend as long as she could with him. So every 25th birthday, Natalie died in her sleep, and the next morning woke up 14 in a different foster home. She didn't understand how she ended up in a different home or how no one ever noticed that the girl was all the sudden a teenager again. It must be a part of the deal that was made when she was only four. But this is the only information she ever had.
She didn't want to think about it anymore that night so she put the leather bound book on her nightstand and turned off the light. But this did not keep her from thinking about her father as she wished it would have. She wondered where he was and if he ever got remarried. But mostly, she wondered if he remembered her. She didn't remember him. All she had was a simple drawing of her family after she was born and a description in her mother's old diary. Seeing as how she couldn't get any sleep anyway, Natalie got up and went to the box that she kept on the floor of her closet and contained some of the most important things in her life.
She pulled out her mother's old diary and read the entry she had written on Natalie's first birthday. It talked about how, aside from the few freckles and the few deep red highlights in her hair, how she looked a lot like her father. She also wrote about how when she saw Natalie's father interacts with her, he looked so overjoyed. As if his precious daughter was the best thing he could ever ask for.
With that, tears came to Natalie's eyes as she wondered if that were true. Had her father really loved her like that? To the point where he thought she was the best, most precious gift the Lord had ever given him? If that's really true, she thought, then maybe he would be happy to see me after all these years, maybe he would actually love me enough to spend part of my life with me.
With this last thought, Natalie finally drifted off into a peaceful sleep.