Playing with Forever

Chapter 16: Sam's Truth, Part II

The fountain of youth.

It took me a second, but I dimly recalled what I knew about it. A mythical spring or river or whatever that granted someone immortality if they drank the water? If movies were to be trusted, that is. But that's just what it was, fiction from a movie.

Sam didn't give me time to absorb, though, just soldiered straight on with his story. 

"It all began when the number of villagers slowly started to grow," he said. "They were not having more children than normal, yet the population grew and grew. Fewer and fewer people were dying each year, they eventually realized. The Bubonic Plague was having a second deadly wave throughout France, but only a few sickened and even fewer died in the village compared to the decimation other towns were experiencing.

"Moreover, the people were not just alive, but healthier than the average peasant at that time period. Stronger. More energy and stamina. Small illnesses and injuries that would normally kill someone in an era with very little medical knowledge were no longer an issue. It was not everyone in the village, but quite a few.

"Then came the day two villagers turned on each other, a disagreement over a woman coming to a drunken head. The first man stabbed the other, but the other man remained undamaged. Though the knife went in, he hardly bled, and remained standing. 

"The attacker stabbed again. And again. And again. 

"The attacked man hardly experienced any pain, and he did not die. He took advantage of his attacker's astonishment and in turn stabbed him back. That man was nearly unaffected as well.

"They forgot their disagreement and simply marveled at their ability to survive such violence. They agreed to keep it a secret, but someone had witnessed the event and cried the tale to the whole village.

"The village decided that the men must be demons. A panicked witch hunt for them began, and resulted in drowning the undying men.

"They survived the drowning. Surely it was more evidence of demons. The men were burned at the stake. Still, they survived. Eventually, thankfully, it was suggested that the men were not demons at all, but were blessed, and that was why they did not die.

"Once the men were regarded as blessed instead of cursed, more people came forward. Others had also survived death. Others should have been dead but were not. These people, these simple villagers, had become immortal.

"Years of experimenting and investigating went by, and it still proved true—these people were truly immortal. As time went on, they did not age. A decade had gone by at that point, and the immortals had not aged a day. However, there were those who remained mortal among them. Somehow, some people had been passed over by the gift of immortality.

"There were those, however, who believed something else was the cause of immortality rather than blessings from heaven. It took a focused investigation to overcome the superstitions but they managed, after time, to find to source of immortality. 

"A stream, they found, was the source of this astonishing power, a simple stream deep in the forest, even more remote than the village. Anyone who drank the water overcame death. Infinitely, or so it had gone so far. They became immortal, and there was no going back."

My jaw was hanging open at that point, but I closed it to feel the word in my mouth. "Immortal?" It tasted foreign and strange.

"With the years passing," Sam continued, "some people wanted to leave the village and explore the world. What reason was there to stay? Another panic began among those who wanted to stay and hide. How were they going to explain the lack of death to others?