I was fourteen. We were at play outside, my mother holding my baby sister in her arms on the picnic blanket, while Nurse followed my sister Maria and me around a grassy hill nearby.

"(Y/N)! Vieni qui, bambino!" my mother called to me.

"Coming, Mama!"

As Maria, Nurse, and I made our way over to the picnic blanket, I looked at my mother's face. It was serious, grim, worn, and tired. I knew that whatever she wished to tell me wasn't good news.

"Come sit by me, my fiore," she said to me, patting the blanket beside her after handing my baby sister Rosa to Nurse's outstretched arms.

Nurse took my sisters to the other side of the hill, laughing at their playfulness, while I was left with my mother under the giant tree which shaded us, an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Mama, is everything alright?" I asked nervously, playing with the tassels on my dress.

My mother smiled down at me sadly. "I wish, bambino. I wish."

I looked down at my hands, even more uneasy than before.

"Mama, what's wrong with me?"

My mother was taken aback by my question. "Whatever do you mean, child?"

My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion and deep thought. "I've seen the way you and Papa look at me. Like I have some sort of disease."

That's when I knew I hated that look.

I hated it with a passion.

Pity.

My mother looked embarrassed, and wrung her hands nervously. I noticed she had tears in the corner of her eyes, threatening to fall.

"There's nothing wrong with you, bambino-"

That's when I snapped.

"Mama! I'm not a baby anymore! Please just tell me!" I shouted, tears now in my own eyes.

My mother looked shocked, her eyes wide. After a few moments of silence, she finally sighed and looked down.

"I know, (Y/N). I will tell you everything.

"Long ago, your father and I were arranged to be married, and were wed not long thereafter. We lived happily together. A bit later, we decided we wanted to start a family.

"When the time came for me to give birth to you, bambi-" She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, and forced herself to call me something different. "...(Y/N), the doctors found you to be extremely sickly. They told your Papa and I that you wouldn't live long; a couple of days, if we were lucky.

"Your father was distraught, but not hopeless. You know we are a superstitious family, so your Papa found a mage, and brought him back to you.

"This mage said he could heal you, but that it would come at a terrible cost. Your father and I... we didn't listen." She swallowed with difficulty, blinking back tears.

"(Y/N), my beautiful daughter... you are cursed to... to live forever."

She finally broke down into silent sobs. I was left to sit there, stunned at all she had told me.

I was not stunned because of what had happened to me, but because my mother believed in this voodoo: that I would supposedly live forever.

I said nothing to my crying mother, but simply got up and followed the sound of Nurse and my sisters, shutting out the story my mother had told me. It was ridiculous. I knew that.

So why was I so scared?