by Stefania Gil
The inquisitor trembled to think what was coming. A man who could not die was free, having killed three guards and the Inquisitor General.
It was better that derelict hid well, he thought as he wrote the letter to His Majesty the King of Spain. As soon as they found him, he would make sure he didn’t see the light of day again. He smiled with clear vengeance in his eyes, thinking of all the suffering he was going to inflict on the unfortunate man.
He detailed everything that had happened on the parchment, rolled it up and, after sealing it with wax, placed it in the messenger’s hand who was to deliver it to the king.
Several days later, the boy returned with a parchment for the Ordinary Inquisitor. Remaining completely alone, he proceeded to open it and read the contents:
“Hunt the bastard. I will notify the Pope of the action taken. Began the search for the man and his demonic soul immediately. He shall be punished severely. Apply all the punishment artillery you have available when you encounter him. Please, handle this discreetly. Put your best guards on this special assignment. Only dedicate them to look for the miscreant. If they die in this attempt, then replace them since this is only the beginning of the search that may last years, as a result of the cursed one’s condition. Please let me know when you have him. You are a faithful servant and God will reward you for it. As soon as there is a new Inquisitor General I will inform you. Understand this matter will only be known by the guards, you, the Holy Pontiff and me. Remember: your utmost discretion in this matter.”
Threaten the guards with death if their tongues go awry; form a secret society if necessary but never mention the words eternal life outside this circle”.
He recognized the King's signature immediately and threw the parchment into the burning fireplace.
He already knew which guards he would assign to this important mission. He knelt before the crucifix hanging from the wall, made the sign of the cross and after reciting his prayers in a perfect Latin, asked the son of the 'Lord' to grant him the necessary life to catch Lucifer’s servant.
2
Francisco got out of the pool with all the calm he symbolized.
Time and his special condition made him understand he should not be in a hurry at all. With the passage of time, he learned everything came at the right moment although sometimes, despair took over the human state of mind.
Due to his immortal status, and after having committed a few atrocities against the Catholic Church, he had to live in isolation, staying off of the radar of those men who persecuted him over the centuries.
They were dwindling, yes. Francisco became a good warrior. He was gradually exterminating those in his way. Also in his favor, over time, the church was losing more and more strength, more credibility and more followers.
He smiled mockingly.
He grabbed a towel and dried himself off.
Things were going well on his farm. He couldn’t complain. He had responsible people who took care of the harvest while he was only in charge of the accounts and the reports from his foreman Rodrigo who was in charge of all the estate’s social and economic affairs along with his wife Pilar. She took care of the servitude, also Francisco’s legal affairs. They were the only two with whom Francisco saw frequently. Apart from some other employees with whom he met on the property.
The truth was he didn’t let himself be seen much. As the years went by, he let himself be seen even less. He was tired of having to flee from everywhere every five or ten years, inventing the eternal story he wanted to explore the world and then sending letters explaining he would not return as a result of having found love in other lands. Later he would send a notification that the property in question would pass into the hands of his first-born when he was of suitable age. He always left everything ready and arranged for when he had to leave.
Thanks to this 'style' of life, he was able to amass a good fortune allowing him to live carefree. He concentrated on keeping a single property. When he could no longer stay, because time passed and he didn’t grow old, he left for a couple of decades to tentatively live elsewhere. Then he returned disguised as a senior citizen coming to arrange everything for his offspring to take over.
At the beginning of the 1900s, when special effects began in the cinema, Francisco formed the idea of learning special makeup techniques used in films. Especially those in which aged actors. That would come in handy, he thought. He was not mistaken. When he took the necessary steps to spend a good season in California to learn from the best filmmakers all they knew is what allowed him to disguise himself on special occasions.
The truth was since then; Francisco lived with much more tranquility. Once he had resorted to the old man's disguise to travel back to the estate, he would give instructions to the old foreman that he would be leaving the estate to his son. Also he would take care of everything until the boy decided take the reins. And so, new staff was being hired at the estate, making things easier for Francisco to return.
If he ever met the old overseer, he would not understand the alleged son was the same son he knew when he was young. He was careful not to be photographed. And sometimes, he used makeup to give his face some feature that would differentiate him from his theoretical parent.
It was a tool he continued using to live a little more serene and less paranoid of an unpleasant encounter with those characters who wanted to hunt him at whatever cost.
He had just arrived home. He was happy to be able to live where he grew up. Nobody knew it but that estate was his property. The best kept secret of his life. The one in which his parents and brother lived in and were happy in the humble house they owned. Which by chance, was located north of his land. It was a sacred space for him even if he only had memories left because there was no trace of the house. Sometimes he went there to think, to ask his mother or father for advice with whom he felt infinitely connected since he stepped on the site.
He stayed away from people for safety reasons and because he did not want to get attached to anyone considering he was not sure he could bear the loss of loved ones over and over and over again. There was no wife to remember. No love to be missed and there was no child to put flowers on their grave. No.
Francisco, despite being the most sentimental of the Requena brothers, managed to keep his 'antisocial' shield intact so his plan to hide from the secret society that persecuted him, came out perfectly. Only what was necessary was related.
In ancient times, rumors commented he was a lonely grumpy old man. Some even claimed he was even dangerous. At this, he became a businessman who stayed away from the warmth, love and security only a wife and children could provide. The new rumors ranged from many things, from he had not defined which sex he was attracted to he had lost his whole family in a tragic accident.
He appreciated his new foreman and his wife’s discretion. It was one of the things he liked most about the couple. The questions they asked were related to the estate and they consulted him only for important things.
He hated nosy people.
Over the years, over the centuries, he learned to love the silence around him and in a way, he had a dark soul loaded with much bitterness.
More than once he was tempted to hold on to another human being but then he thought not only of his pain at losing them but of the suffering he could cause that person if they were used as bait to capture him. With what had already happened, was more than sufficient. He didn’t wish that type of suffering on anyone; much less to someone he loved.
In addition, the memory of the terrible things he had to do to those women in order to save his skin still haunted him. Sometimes he wanted to release his sexual tension with prostitutes however, the memories were so intense they ended up making him seem impotent to women.
How could he coexist and love a person with all those dark thoughts haunting him for eternity? Such as the accursed society pursuing him and could terminate his family again?
Just like they did his brother. It seemed like the earth had swal
lowed Juan Carlos. He had been looking for him for years without success. He didn’t want to give up but life took him to a place where he had to let things go because he couldn’t continue living with the hope of Juan Carlos returning. Although perhaps it was what kept him sane and attached to his plan to stay away from people. Not to let anyone into his life, and to be very careful not to fall into the hands of the secret society and in turn, find the perfect moment to end them.
He grimaced in disgust as he got off his horse in his sacred spot. He sat on a rock having survived centuries. Thanks to this rock he remembered where his old house was. He used to sit on it too in the past. From there he watched his mother work; his father cut wood in winter and his brother walk hand in hand with his beloved wife Cecilia. He never loved anyone as deeply as Juan Carlos loved Cecilia.
Nor did he meet any woman like her. Furthermore, he didn’t want to. It would entangle his eternity in a bad way.
A shot in the distance drew him out of his thoughts. A flock of birds flew in terror from a tree top and Scout whinnied rising on his hind legs.
Francisco went on high alert.
This was not normal, in an agile maneuver he crept to his horse.
“Whoa! Scout! Easy, boy!” He caressed his neck gently trying to soothe the horse.
The animal was already accustomed to its owner. Francisco raised him in the United States, where he lived before returning to Spain. On that estate there were other horses of pure Spanish race. Black Andalusians with coats to envy. However, Scout had been his faithful friend for some years, and it was consensual.
Another shot rang out and Scout went off in a north-westerly direction, from where the shot originated.
Francisco began to worry. He was not carrying his gun and didn’t know what he was going to find. He was going to Old Manuel’s ruined house, which also belonged to him considering the land was part of his estate.
When he was a newcomer to the estate, Rodrigo informed him of a man who refused to leave the property, justifying he had nowhere to go and the place was about to collapse. He said he was doing them a favor by keeping it clean. Rodrigo didn’t want to inform the authorities Manuel was illegally invading the property and waited until Francisco arrived. Rodrigo then asked him what they should do.
“How old is he?” Asked Francisco.
“No one knows, we think he's losing his memory.”
“I'll take care of it,” Francisco said. Later when he showed up on the property, he almost came off with a bullet in his head. The way in which Manuel protected his illegal home, reminded Francisco he had lived like this for some time after ending the despicable inquisitor’s life.
He occupied a space not belonging to him and was willing to take out the eyes of anyone who tried to remove him from the residence. He couldn’t force Manuel onto the street.
So he didn’t. He sent him a note requesting a meeting to which the old man agreed.
They agreed he could stay on the property if he defended it as his own. Francisco gave descriptions of the people non grata on the estate. Above all, he emphasized the secret society’s suspicious temperament that victimized him. He could speak of them with total clarity although it came in handy having someone guarding the desolate side of the estate.
The horse turned left among the trees. Francisco guided him with the ropes while he soothed him with his voice. The animal was frantic.
The wind whipped Francisco across the face and although he wanted to push Scout harder because there was nothing he liked more than galloping with his horse, he was aware he had to find out what was happening with Manuel.
At the moment Scout was crossing the path leading to the ruined house, a car appeared out of nowhere, causing the frightened animal to raise on two legs.
The car slammed on brakes immediately. Francisco fastened to Scout’s mane began to speak to him serenely to calm him quickly.
When the animal rested on its four legs, Francisco's gaze fell upon an intense pair of blue eyes, widen by terror.
For a moment, he wandered to himself if he had fallen prey to those wonderful eyes that belonged to this woman who looked so terrified.
The moment was interrupted by Manuel’s appearance with his shotgun in hand. The sound of the weapon being loaded put Francisco on full alert.
“Manuel! What the fuck is wrong with you, man?”
“This house is mine!”
Francisco didn’t know whether to laugh or to be furious with Manuel’s behavior towards the lady that surely, had no intention of staying in his house.
“Maybe the woman is lost and you're shooting at her?”
“She’s not lost, trust me, chief. This and another woman have been snooping around the house. Last night I threatened the other one and thought that would be more than enough.”
Francisco studied the car again. The engine was still running.
He didn’t like what Manuel had just said at all. What if they were from the secret society? It was not the first time they hired women to attract or investigate him easier.
He frowned at the back of the car. The woman was still clutching the wheel in a death grip and her gaze was fixed on the car’s rear-view mirror watching the men's movements.
She couldn’t be trusted. If she was in the secret society they could come for him any minute.
He snatched the shotgun from Manuel's hands and walked to the car without dropping eye contact with her. He realized her beautiful eyes were red and shiny.
The lady was crying in terror. Francisco was able to figure it out immediately, and it was then she started the car violently causing the rear wheels to slip on the dirt leaving a cloud of dust in its path.
Scout whinnied again and Francisco thought of following her but the lady was too scared to belong to a society of murderers.
He dismissed the theory immediately of her being part of that organization. However, something inside him registered this woman was going to be a danger to his life.
3
In four centuries, the secret society could not find the whereabouts of Francisco Requena.
For the society, the search for this man was of great importance, in fact, it had no other purpose. At first, it was intended to avenge the death of the Holy Inquisitor which Francisco tortured and murdered. In addition to the guards he killed the same way. The orders from the king were to hunt down and kill him.
The inquisitor in charge at that historical moment knew death could not take Francisco, so on the orders of the new Inquisitor General, the Crown and the Supreme Pontiff, Francisco was to be assigned to a dungeon in deplorable conditions and tortured in ways much more sinister than those which he had already suffered. All this was to ensure he disclosed the true ingredients of the eternal life potion because the three men were very interested in trying it. The idea came directly from the Supreme Pontiff. It would give him the power no one could bestow upon him and he would serve to cleanse the whole world from Lucifer’s vile clutches.
Of course, it was what was intended since the seventeenth century. It seemed like a perfect plan. They had the resources to search the world for as long as it took.
For more than two centuries they had many people in many parts of the world as watchmen. Their mission consisted in warning them Francisco was nearby and those on the hunting team would come to take him.
Unfortunately for the society, the warnings always arrived late. Either by the time they reached the place of interest, Francisco had already left without a trace or to find all those who belonged to society dead because they dropped their guard or were betrayed.
So with the passing of the years the rules changed. The society began to be formed by two groups only: the elite and the commanders.
The elite were in charge of going out in search and if necessary hunting Francisco. They trained them very well so they were good warriors. They knew who they were going up against.
The majority of commanders still belonged to the church. Some in power sponsored the socie
ty in exchange for receiving a little of the formula when it was finally fabricated.
Both groups were diminishing. Partly, because Francisco always found a way to finish them without being seen and partly because they lost hope of finding the powerful immortality formula.
However, with the bad streak passing through society, they glimpsed a ray of sunshine after learning the immortal who was buried had been resurrected.
Thanks to a fact recorded in the society’s old archives. Many years ago, in a Valencian community estate in Spain, a strange sarcophagus was discovered in an earth moat in which three small children died.
The society’s records indicated communication between Juan Carlos and Francisco’s jailers occurred once the rumor had spread that a man had murdered the Inquisitor General. As much as they tried to keep the matter a secret, it was impossible. It seemed everyone was seeking to benefit from eternal life in complete silence.
By the time Francisco fled, his brother Juan Carlos lay buried. In his last torture they drained his blood as they had many times but this time, no one knew why, the man with eternal life did not rise two days later as usual. No. Even after a week, Juan Carlos still had not risen and this was when he was ordered to be locked in the sarcophagus made especially for him so that his soul, or his body in case of waking, could not escape.
The area was always kept under surveillance. First with observers and now with drones. That's how they gained the knowledge that Juan Carlos Requena, the assassin's brother, managed to escape from his grave. They constructed a plan to kidnap him and force him to give them the formula.
The plan failed in every way and the secret society decided to forget the man who had survived centuries as they believed, but for some strange reason, a shot to the abdomen began to snatch his life from him.
Again they decided to abandon the mission in general because what was the point of looking for something that didn’t seem to work completely? Half of the assembly voted in favor of continuing to meet Francisco, either to get the formula or to punish him for all the crimes he had committed.
