I checked my phone and noticed that I have yet to go through every comment from the video I posted 2 weeks ago. I scroll through the comments of some of the people sharing their disbelief on the supernatural history of the case I talked about. I don’t blame them, If I was told a man from 58 years ago was rumored to have haunted his wife for a year; explaining why the wife died in a way so mysterious that no one could explain it, I’d just assume it was lack of investigation. Even so, I don’t really care what happened 58 or even a hundred years ago, that’s all in the past. I just need to share what I read and probably throw in some skeptic jokes about waiting for any supernatural entity to just hit me in the face and tell me they’re real.

As I read through the comments complimenting the video with the usual “I love the video, especially the part where you guys sleep in the house, I couldn’t do that!”As I kept scrolling through the comments, I saw a specific pattern of requests. The weird thing is they call keep saying the same thing.

“You should check out the old woman!”

“Thousand-year-old woman, Ram! Please cover something about that! Plzzzzz.”

“Oh my gosh! I love the new video. Have you heard of the old woman who lived for a thousand years?”

Thousand-year woman? Is that a new creepy story going around? I bet that woman from the cafe wouldn’t like this kind of thing, was the first thing I thought. I paused as I realize of what I just thought of. How would I know she wouldn’t? I shook my head and brushed past it. Went back to my PC then opened my browser to look up this “thousand-year woman” hype that people so excitingly requested. I bet Alice would know this though, she seemed like someone who would know these kind of things.

I got similar comments about how skeptics felt about the case, how they enjoyed watching things that send shivers down their spines, and strangely enough, even more comments about this thousand-year woman keep popping up. Nothing new though, I get requests about random topics all the time, but this one seemed too far-fetched of a conspiracy to be true. A rumor will always be a rumor, I guess.

I decided to look it up for myself to see what all the hype is about.

A woman who lived a thousand years

I pressed enter and dozens of links and headlines that said Thousand-year woman most creepy folk lore, Thousand-year woman: history of the conspiracy or True to life: Woman condemned with thousand year curse showed up.

Superstitious or not, several people have encountered the thousand-year woman and they all gave similar descriptions of what this woman looks like. Long white hair, beautifully frightening, far from what one would expect from a woman who has claimed to lived a thousand years, much less a woman in her 30's. Her stories range from taking stubborn children, haunting people near bays and ghostly apparitions. Over the years it’s gotten quite the load of stories of its own.

The face of the woman flashed in my mind the split second I read the lines much less a woman in her 30s. I got surprised at myself to suddenly have this stranger keep popping up in my thoughts. I admit she really was something else, she had a different feel to her. She was beautiful but also when I sat beside her in the cafe I felt so relaxed, so calm and satisfied with everything, as if I had no worries. If this is what they meant with Hakuna Matata, I’d live in a jungle any time. Thinking about being in euphoria just because I sat beside a beautiful woman, as strange as that may sound, it really did feel like that for the whole time I was in the cafe. I scratched the back of my head, trying to get any screws my mind had loosened up straightened as much as I can. Maybe I’m just really sleepy. I’m tired. That’s all there is to it.

I peaked at the screen hoping the rendering time is half of what I saw earlier.

Rendering 40% estimated time 3 hours 05 minutes 23 second

I blinked a few times in disbelief. I expected the rendering time to be long, but I didn’t think it’d take so long. I stretched my arms and legs and went off to the bed I didn’t fix since this morning so the blanket is all folded in a messy lump and the pillows are all over the bed. I grabbed the pillows snuggled myself in the blanket and just like that, I’m out cold.

The next morning the sun in my eyes woke me up, giving me a temporary disdain of the sun itself. I lifelessly got up from the bed and check my video.

Rendering complete.

If I was wide awake, I’d be sighing with relief, I’d surely feel happy that I’d finally finished a video for next week, but I’d rather not express so much emotions so early in the morning. I removed the blanket over me and got off the bed, not bothering to fix it like yesterday. I went to the bathroom to clean up because I feel sticky, the oily dried sweat I had from walking last night stuck to my clothes.

I grabbed the towel on my way there and slowly getting my sense back. I had time to think about things and it really irritated me that the first thought I have today is feeling compelled to go back to Arcanus Abyan, still seemed like a weird name, in hopes to see the woman again but I rather not go back for the sake of seeing a stranger. Just to see that woman one more time isn’t really a reason I’d like to have for going to that cafe.

I tried to distract myself by watching TV or eating breakfast. Big surprise: it didn’t work. I click on each channel with so many things reminding me of that place, a burger commercial, a runaway show, news about business tips. All of those just remind me of last night and it’s baffling how preoccupied my mind is with this new place and new faces I just met in a short time.

I tried to convince myself not to back to the cafe for a stupid reason as to see the woman again, but I’m a weak man and I had money to buy some coffee so nothing’s stopping this guy.

As I entered the place, the dog was there ready to greet me as he did last night. I slowly reached down to pat the dog but was stopped as the waitress from last night approached me.

“You’re back so soon? You must’ve really liked those sweet potatoes, huh?”

“Oh.” I chuckled, nervously avoiding eye contact. I couldn’t admit to myself that I ended up here because all I could think about was either their food or that woman. I don’t know if I’m an eternally hungry human being or undeniably thirsty. “Yeah, I’d like to try something different today though.”