My life hasn’t turned out how I wanted it to.

I had dreams.  I was going to be someone.  I studied hard, worked long hours training to be the best.  I was the youngest of my family to ever attend the University.  I was the only of my line to complete the long coursework.  But I wanted more than that.

I wanted love.

I wanted love in the cliche way that young girls dream about.  I wanted to come home to my dinners made fresh, with a handsome face smiling at me as if I was the only person in the world.  I wanted his strong arms to wrap around me, holding me every time like it was the first and last time he would hold me.  I wanted that spark, that romance to last deep into the years we would spend together.  I wanted a sweet proposal, a full-tilt wedding, a house on a hill and bundles of joy.

But it wasn’t to be.  That’s ok, I told myself.  One can still live a full life, while dreams live on in the places where we hide them.  So, I continued my training far past the time where I had mastered it, striving to make some other meaning out of my life.  Perhaps it just wasn’t the right time, I said.  It will happen.  But days turned into years, and in one swift sword strike my life changed.

I’d become one of the Hunted.