Blake Heritage (English)

Chapter 17

Blake exhausted was not focussed enough during the first reading. He just notices now this little statement in the middle of such a big work. He reflected on it for a moment to try to understand its meaning. He did this in vain as no idea sprouted from his mind. He continued to leaf through the book for a second and third time. The warmth of the fireplace radiating on his face made him even more tired.

Suddenly something happened. Slowly, words began to appear on the page. He rubbed his eyes, convinced that the lack of sleep was playing tricks on him, but such was not the case. Sentences gradually revealed themselves as if by magic. He couldn't believe his eyes. This book was anything but normal. After a few moments, a few sheets were complete. The first titled, "History of the heirs" was filled with a multitude of names that spilled over multiple pages. The second part discovered was the plan of the estate. He decided to start with the historic, to respect the order of the book. For the historic, they were numerous and were accompanied by dates, presumably their date of birth and death. What immediately struck him was that for some people, these dates were stretched over a long period. If he relied on this history, he calculated that many people had lived for centuries, which was impossible for humans.

Blake had an idea and rushed to his computer. This magical discovery had zapped every ounce of fatigue out of him. Blake began to search for information about each appellation. After several tries and to his greatest surprise, the first twenty searched produced no result matches. He spent hours looking for any kind of clue or information surrounding the fifty-eight names to little success. There wasn't the slightest trace of existence of any of these people. He put down his device, closed his eyes to rest. A multitude of questions jostled in his mind. Who were they? Where did they come from? Can someone even live for more than one century? Are they human? Are they real?

He could no longer think but continued to peruse the pages. There was a first name that stood out to him - Karla. It did not appear to be accompanied by any death date. He read that this famous Karla was born in the 1970s. Is she still alive? Perhaps this lead could help him discover the origin of this book and who understand who these "heirs" were. But how to find her? Blake could think of no answers to these questions, and rested his heavy head in a feeble attempt to clear his head.

Blake came across both his and Maya's names. They were written next to each other with a date. They were inscribed in bright red whilst everything else was in black. The date marked the day they had met at the estate. He couldn't forget that date. Taken with excitement, he spotted a new page. This time, it was a plan, a diagram. It spoke of a domain. To the north were old ruins, to the south, a large library. At the centre was a palace and a lake. A lake? Blake wondered. This last element leapt out to him and confirmed his hypothesis.

He understood that Maya and himself must have inherited this book, and that these names belonged to previous owners. These were not dates of birth, but possibly the dates of inheritance. Why were they both marked? That evening, where they randomly awakened in the middle of the estate, was critical to making sense of this book, he was sure of it. It was that night that they had discovered the estate. This whole story was becoming stranger by the second, but exciting at the same time. Blake knew he hadn't been drawn to the estate for nothing. He had always felt that secrets were buried somewhere deep within the estate. He wanted to unearth the buried history of the estate, which according to this book, was now theirs.

Empty pages followed the map of the estate, that had helped Blake understand many things. The young man had not seen the time pass, it was almost 4 a.m but he was desperate to visit the places described the plan. He went to bed with his head full of postulations, hypotheses, and questions that for the moment remained unanswered.

Blake achieved little to no sleep that night. He kept thinking about what he had discovered: the book, and why both his and Maya's names were written in the manuscript. Surely this proved that their meeting had not been due to mere chance. As soon as morning hit, Blake went to the estate. He wondered if he could unearth something interesting now that he had discovered clues from the book. He took one of his father's cars not wanting to walk, and not caring about the car's flashiness. Maya's confident self-assurance had opened Blake's eyes. He had never dared to show off before, conditioned to be as discreet as possible and not to pose any problems in this small town, without really understanding why and not realising its emotional cost. Now the period of discretion was over. Blake just wanted to live life without worrying about what the people of Alvia thought or would say about him. He had finally realized that the Williams family would still remain highly criticized no matter what.

Blake's new ride more than halved the journey to the estate. Even though Maya was also marked as heiress in the book, he didn't want to put her in an unknown, dangerous situation. He wanted to do this first without Maya – to keep her safe. If the manuscript had been revealed to him, it must have also been revealed to her. If it hadn't then there must have been a reason behind it.

The gate opened when he arrived, and he entered. Blake rolled gently in and stood once again in admiration of the estate's exceptional beauty. How could he have not spotted it during all these years? It was so amazing and tall. Had this appeared like the scriptures yesterday evening? By magic? Blake was resolute on finding answers to the infinite amount of questions he had. He arrived in front of the palace and parked. He recalled the diagram to help him decide where to go. He had the choice between the library, the ruins and the famous building in front of him. They were the only buildings marked, but perhaps there were more places, but for now that was all the information he had to work with.

He chose to explore the library first. This seemed like the best strategic decision because libraries were always rich with information and was to contain all the secrets and smallest significant historical details. It was the way to understand the origin of others places and find out who all these registrants were. She was surrounded of a sumptuous and gigantic forest. He walked to the south of the estate and sank into it. He once again seemed to be amazed by the grandeur of this forest. The trees were so large and majestic. He felt like he was in one of the fairy tales he was reading when he was small. That was the word, this place just seemed magical. Blake knew that the magic did not exist even if for a few days, his convictions were somewhat disturbed by everything he found. He described it as magical, because he had never observed a place as beautiful and impressive as this, a way for the adolescent to present this place as unique.