Hints of More

The newest dairy was in the similar style to the old ones, but based on the smell of the leather it was definitely not more than a few months old. I flipped it open to the first page.

'Dear diary,

My oldest confidant. I will be leaving you soon. I hope that someone worthy will find you. I've lived for so long now and I wish to leave words of advice for those who follow. My first piece of advice is that immortality is not a curse or a gift, it is the removal of purpose in life. I have spent my life seeking and learning all manor of skills and passions, but at the end of it all, with enough time you will become the greatest no matter what.

Your teacher will die of old age, the skills will be lost to time or you will just be the best because you've had the most practice. This is something I realized. My longevity makes learning and doing pointless.

To explain my first point as best I can, what is the point of being the best when there is none who could even stand up to you in the first place. Sure I have been surpassed temporarily in the past by geniuses in their field, but I would learn their tricks and their ages would catch up to them and soon enough I would be the best once more.

This cycle repeats itself over and over and it makes doing anything or accumulating anything pointless. Competition is the striving factor and purpose behind most anything. Without it, humans lose their reason to push forward, to fight to be the best, to do better, or simply to live.

It took me a long time to understand this. I've realized that being immortal requires a different mindset entirely. One must become a different being as a whole.'

I shut the cover of the book. And I sat there remembering the words. Immortality? Was the master of Bayleth manor a person who lived forever? If so who was she? How did she remain hidden for all these years?

I looked to the stack of diaries. The gossip inside of them became all the more juicy, but I suppressed my urges and walked over to my laptop. As it booted up I looked out of my window at the parking lot. The sun had set and pretty soon I would need to sleep if I had any hope of being functional at work tomorrow.

My laptop finished booting up and I pulled up the internet and began my search.

Bayleth manor master?

Who owns Bayleth?

What does Bayleth mean?

My searches were leading no where. I couldn't find any information. The only thing I did find was the crag hill was acquired in 1816 by an unnamed individual. Clearly the records where not digitized. I sighed looking out at the night.

If I wanted to find out more on this mysterious woman I would need to go to the records office of my town, which was also the library. I stood. Stretching and looked out my window. I stopped mid stretch. I felt terrified.

Parked in the parking lot was the black SUV. I knew no one in the complex drove one. I calmly closed the blinds. He was here. He was close. How did he track me? I breathed shallow and quick. Suddenly my paradise of safety was closer to the threat than I realized.

I called my friend, Jared. The line run a few times before he picked up.

"Alex, what's up man. You never call this late." Jared's words were slurred. He was drunk for certain. I didn't care though. I need to talk to someone.

"Jared, I'm freaking out right now. I went to Bayleth manor and I…" I was cut off abruptly.

"You went to Bayleth manor!?!? Your crazy man. Everyone in town knows that place is cursed or something." Jared chuckled on the end of the line and I could hear faint clapping through the receiver.

"Jared, focus. I saw something there and it's tracking me down now. What do I do?" I stammered trying to not let my obvious fear sound in my voice.

"Just call the cops. Tell them what they look like and just chill out." Jared oozed sarcasm.

I nearly thumped myself in the head. Just call the cops. Why didn't I just think of that. It's so obvious. "Thank Jared." I hung up. Peeking through the window I could still see the black SUV. I dialed the police and gave the best description of the vehicle.

I omitted I went to Bayleth manor when discussing with the police for fear of being charged with trespassing. Soon enough though a squad car showed up in the parking lot. As soon as it made the turn the black car jetted off, exiting out the other entrance.

The police car attempted to give chase, but gave up seconds after the sirens went off. Two officers exited their car and walked up to my apartment. They knocked. I quickly stashed the books and let them in.

What followed was a bunch of standard questions as well providing the best description I could. I refused to call the man ten foot tall to avoid seeming looney, but I did describe him as 'unusually tall'. Afterwards the office gave me a number to send any pictures I might be able ton snap up of the man. They then promptly left.

The response of the SUV gave me some comfort. Clearly the police were still a huge deterrent to whatever that man was. I sat down on my sofa and cracked open a beer, trying to wash away the anxiety from the day. Tomorrow I said to myself. Tomorrow I had the day off and I would head to the library to look into this Bayleth manor master.

I headed off to bed and took a well deserved rest. I awoke before the sun this morning. Not too crazy for me, but still way to god damn early for my liking. I tried to go back to sleep but something nagged me awake. It sounded like a scuffling of paper on the floor.

I got up fully expecting a cracked open window and entered the living room. There I saw something that will forever haunt me. I saw for the briefest moment a shadow of a man peeking into my third floor with long spindly fingers trying to pry the window open.m.

I rushed to the window, scared but also seething in rage. The man, spotted me and I saw a devilish grin emerge from under that cloak. Not one possible with human anatomy either. I heard a shrill cackle as words that almost imitated human speech spoke. Almost. "I found you little morsel."

The sun ever so slowly peeked out of the tree and the man quickly scuttled off to the SUV and disappeared.

I collapsed on the floor. Fuck, shit. Wait. The way the man ran back to the car and drove away, it instilled confidence in me. That bastard better not show up again I thought as I slipped a pocket knife into my belt. I've been scared straight of that damn thing every time because it got the jump on me. Well next time I'll get it.

I could feel my testosterone rise as I planned that things demise. I wanted to cause it pain. I wanted it to fear me. So far, besides climbing up to my windows and acting creepy as hell, it was just a perfectly stab-able thing.

Once I confirmed the car was gone I turned to leave. I left my apartment, got in my car and drove to the library. All the while I murdered to myself in the car, fed up with that cloaked bastard.

I got to the library without incident and went inside. I was one of two cars in the parking lot. Not may came to the library anymore. The internet took over and made it difficult to rationalize going to the library for a book when I could download literally any book whenever I wanted on my phone.

Still the library had its purpose. Record keeping. The library kept all the paper copies of old documents from the towns creation. I walked in and stepped up to the front desk. An older woman was busy reading a book and didn't notice my presence until a I made a soft cough.

She looked up, surprised by the visitor. "Oh, dear me, so sorry." She hastily closed the book with a place holder and stood to her feet. "How may I help you young man?" She spoke.

"I'm looking for old records and photos of the town for a historical research paper." I lied about my purpose. I was certain 'I think Bayleth's manor's master is an immortal woman who has been reclusive in her house on purpose and I want to know who she is' didn't get me what I wanted.

The old woman nodded and led me to a back room of the library. "On your right you have everything from 1650 to 1790. Everything from then on to the left of the room is from 1790 onwards. The farther left you go the more recent it gets." The old woman spoke then shuffled out of the room. Clearly that book she was reading was drawing her back.