This is for SciKick's 1000 contest. 

The nine hundred ninety ninth year was the worst.

I groaned as I dragged my wrinkled feet along the worn hardwood floor, gently seating myself in the most heavily cushioned chair I could find to avoid breaking my aged, brittle bones.

Today was a special day, the three hundred sixty fifth day of the nine hundred ninety ninth year. Tomorrow, the thousandth year would come. Tomorrow, I would be relieved of this ancient, shriveled body. Tomorrow, I would be born again. Yet, I felt no excitement, only anger and remorse. 

When Yvonne Wells had first approached me a thousand years ago, I had been young and innocent, only eleven years old. She fascinated me with the prospect of becoming immortal, telling me that I would be the first human in history to live forever, and that I would be able to watch civilizations rise and fall, see war and good times and bad times alike. 

However, she didn't bother to include the details of the very flawed existence of an immortal being. I had to learn those through experience. 

The first couple of hundred years were wonderful, knowing I couldn't die made me much more daring, and I did things I never would've done before. I climbed Mount Everest, went skydiving, and explored the depths of the oceans. But then, I started to age. 

After year four hundred, I realized I could no longer do the things I had been able to do before. I preferred a quiet existence inside my small home over vigorous outdoor activity. After six hundred came the disease, and the pain. I was almost always sick with something or the other, and my joints ached after every small movement. 

I yelled at Yvonne's great granddaughter, Naomi, almost every day, asking how she and her ancestors could be cruel enough to subject an innocent woman to such a deplorable fate, but each time, she smiled patiently and told me to wait until the thousandth year. On the first day of the thousandth year, I would become young again. 

But I did not want to become young again. I had already lived life to the fullest, and it was time for me to go. Living for so long had made me realize that people die for a reason. Life was meant to be valued, and how can one value something if it is provided to them in an infinite supply? 

And what would be the use of regaining my youth, knowing the miserable life that awaited me? I wanted to be natural again, I wanted to die! I needed to die!

"Phoenix!" I slowly turned my head at the sound of a singsong voice behind me. Naomi Wells glided effortlessly down the stairs, her pink sundress ruffling slightly from the bounce in her step. 

"What do you want?" I croaked, venom in my words. 

"Cheer up, Phoenix, only one more day left! Tomorrow I will give my life to you with the LifeTrans, and my son will take over my responsibility." 

"Where is the LifeTrans?" I asked. 

"It's here, all ready for us to use it!" Naomi joyously skipped over to a wall and pressed her hand against it. A long beep sounded, and the wall began to open, revealing a secret compartment behind it. Inside was a tall, metal box with two long antennae, each attached to a helmet. 

So that's where they've been hiding it. 

Before Naomi could close the compartment, I gathered every ounce of strength I could into my withered body and ran forward, plowing into the accursed machine. 

"Phoenix! What are you doing!?" Naomi gasped, trying to pull me off her family's creation in vain. 

"I want to die," I growled, wrapping my arms and legs around the LifeTrans. "I'm supposed to die!"

"Get off! Do you have any idea how valuable that thing is!?" Naomi snapped, instantly losing her cheery demeanor. 

Ignoring her, I lifted the LifeTrans into the air, trying to keep my mind off the screaming pain in my arms as I threw it into the nearest window. Cracks spiderwebbed across the glass, and I grinned victoriously as the flashing lights on the machine began to go out one by one. 

"No!" Naomi rushed past me, grabbing her great grandmother's creation, but it was too late. The LifeTrans had already fallen silent. 

At last, my pain is over. 

I sat down on the floor and relaxed as the strength began to leave me. Finally, it was time to go. Finally, I was free.