Tuesday, November 1st, 2016

Sid’s POV

I search for more information about Baywick and a possible bastard child for the duration of lunch. I’m still not hungry and I haven’t eaten much in days. Dad explained I might be feeding off of the entity, and vice versa, despite the seal to lock it away.

It would explain why I don’t feel the need to eat but have a more urgent need to sleep a lot.

All I find about Baywick, is that he had a wife and they were married for 4 years, until she died of what they now assume could have been a form of cancer.

They had one daughter, Elizabeth, who lived with Baywick until the age of eighteen, and then moved into the early parts of Miller Town, before it had a name. There she met Anthony and soon after, they got married and had kids of their own.

They had three; Thomas, Anton and Lisa.

There’s information about Baywick having an affaire, but I can’t find more about the woman in question. Al it says, is that Baywick and his wife had arguments and fights, and that she, Lucia, spoke about it with her friends.

They carried on the gossip that Lucia wanted to divorce Baywick because he got another woman pregnant.

I’m reading the story, but there’s no intel about the second wife, or about the child they had together, when the bell rings and I jump in my seat a bit, noticing I’ve spend more then an hour in here without being interrupted.

The one class that I went to school for is now starting in five minutes, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

I scramble all the information I got together, put it in a new folder, and head over to class, wondering why nobody bothered me for this long, while they are adamant about not leaving me alone.

I shrug the weird feeling of, since I didn’t realise I was in here for so long, and hurry towards class, taking my seat in between Davy and Annika without saying a word.

I notice the look the exchange but am thankful for them not to ask how I’m doing.

Because I haven’t been doing great in a while now, and I’m getting sick of having to pretend I’m fine.

“Welcome back Mr. Hayes.” Mr. Brightwaters greets me with a courtly nod and a small smile, before turning to the board to write something down. “We’ll have today’s class to discuss all topics that each group picked and see if there aren’t any overlapping files coming my way.” He turns to look at the first group, writing their subject – the hunters as the first habitants of this area – on the board. He writes down how we’re going to do research on the Mill, while the third group is planning on discussing the developments of traffic, including the old railroad.

The fourth group names a topic that wakes me up from a daze.

“Elizabeth Baywick-Miller and the school she started.”

I cock my head, knowing the first elementary school in Miller Town – closed years and years ago – was founded by Elizabeth, but surprised they consider it a good enough topic. But, I think this is where I should jump in.

“Mr. Brightwaters?” I ask, as he writes down the topic. “Do you know anything about Baywick’s second daughter?”

Davy smirks knowingly at me, before he looks over to Angie, who shrugs. Annika frowns, as do most others in our class.

“Baywick’s second daughter?” Amara sounds confused, looking at her notes. “Baywick only had one daughter, Elizabeth.”

“There’s tons of rumours that he had an affair, a bastard’s child. Do you think it’s true, Mr. Brightwaters?”

He smiles at me, though it seems forced. “I know there are tons of stories out there that claim Mr. Baywick wasn’t true to his wife after she got sick.” He nods in agreement. “It is never proven he had a child, but Lucia Baywick herself started up the stories about his affair, yes.” He nods again. “This is not important…”

“It is…” I perk up a bit. “If he had another daughter, I think it’s part of history, that we need to know as complete as possible during our tests, right?”

“I can assure you, Baywick’s affair isn’t going to show up in tests.”

“But isn’t it part of history?” I frown, cocking my head again, knowing I’m getting on his nerves. “Or are we going to sweep all bad things under the rug, as always?”

“As always?” Mr. Brightwaters stops moving towards his desk to continue class.

“The fact Baywick might have been innocent in those accidents, the fact twelve people decided on taking faith into their own hands and kill him in a horrible way. If you think about it, people of this town almost literally swept that one under the rug by placing Hunter’s Lodge on top of the remnants of his burned down house…”

That causes some people to chuckle, Davy to laugh out shortly, and Annika to grin. Because let’s face it, witty answers fit me.

“Someone has done his homework while being at home…” Mr. Brightwaters seems pleased over the fact I know plenty on this topic and didn’t fall behind. But he doesn’t know why it’s important for me to now more about Baywick.

“Can you reward it by telling me what you know about his affair?” I smirk, and Mr. Brightwaters sighs. “There’s a group that wants to research Antony Miller, and we want the Mill. Maybe if we switch and do research on the effects of his affair on the developments of this town…” I shrug. “Maybe even find out if he indeed had a second daughter who might have done great things for this town…”

“Are we going to switch?” Cory leans in. “Because I already have a lot on the Mill…”

“We also have a lot on Baywick’s family.” Davy shrugs. “And I’m curious if Sid is right and he had a second daughter.”

“Right, okay,” Mr. Brightwaters answers, clapping his hands. “A short summary, if you want to know more, you can find out in research.” He looks at me with a weird look, as if he knowswhy I’m asking this. “Thomason Baywick supposedly had an affair during the last three years of Lucia Baywick’s life, when she was ill. When she told her friends that he got his girlfriend knocked up, the rumours started. In that time, three ladies had been pregnant, so the people in Miller Town suspected one of those three to be the woman he slept with. Let’s be clear that outsiders, due to long distances, didn’t pass by very often at that time.”

“Are there names of those woman?”

“Corina Middleton, Jessabelle Conrad and Morena Fernandes.”

I scribble down the names in haste.

“They all gave birth around the same time and they all had a daughter.”

“Were they married too, sir?” Annika asks curiously. “I mean, if one wasn’t married, then she would most likely be the one, right?”

“We can only guess, as all three hadn’t been married. They were considered unworthy, as pre-marriage sexual intercourse, at that time, was considered cheap and wrong. They all left Miller Town shortly after giving birth, not wanting to be confronted with their mistakes every day. Two gave up their babies for adoption, while the third, Corina Middleton, took her daughter with her.

“And one of those three daughters is supposed to be Baywick’s second daughter? Did they ever find out which of them? Or did any of the three claimed to be the daughter?” Eveline, a girl in our class, seems to be curious to the outcomes of this story too.

“Well, Baywick was eventually murdered since lots of people thought he was guilty of killing six hunters he previously threatened to kill if they would ever step foot in the woods again. I don’t think any of the three, even if they knew they were Baywick’s kid, would have proudly claimed.” Mr. Brightwaters shrugs for a bit.

“I think on the contrary,” Kim speaks up too. “If I would know I was the daughter of a killer, I wouldn’t come forward with that either.”

“He wasn’t the killer.” I snap at her, suddenly angry an annoyed. And the looks I get from classmates annoy me even more so. “They claimedhe was, but he wasn’t.”

“And how can you be so sure, if in 400 years, nobody was able to prove his innocence?” Kim sends me an angry look back. “Besides, why would you take his side? He killed six people…”

“I said he didn’t.” I cut her off with a snap. “Maybe nobody ever proved his innocence, but they never proved he was guilty either. They just assumed…”

“Because he said he would do so if they would step into the woods again.” Timothy takes her side, pissing me off to no end. Can they be any more ignorant?

“Baywick wasn’t even in town during one of the incidents…”

“So he says, but nobody confirmed...”

“…and he was seen in town during two other incidents!” I raise my voice a bit to overpower their counter-arguments, which are weak and useless.

“Who would provide a killer with an alibi?” Kim wonders aloud, sending me a daring look because I guess she notices I get angrier over the fact she calls Baywick a killer.

And I’m not even sure whyI’m getting this angry over this. Maybe because Baywick’s soul merged into something malicious that is now inside of me? Am I taking a stance for him, because he’s making me?

“If he was in town during two incidents, and someone saw him, doesn’t that prove he was innocent?” Cory, with a passive aggressive attitude stares at her as if she’s the most stupid girl he ever came across.

“Then why did half the town believe he was guilty?”

“Because Lucia was a well-seen guest all over town and he had an affair?” I form my answer into a question, but it’s merely to inform her that the town might have been after Baywick for hurting his wife.

But where did I get that piece of information? Did I read about it?

Or is Baywick now feeding me with information?

Crucial information, that is.

* * * * *

Davy has been researching spells and ways to extract the entity, while Annika is mainly staring at me in wonder and worry.

We’re at my home, and they’re having dinner with us. In the mean time, I’m researching the three names given to me by our history teacher.

He closed the discussion shortly after I gave a motive for half the town to hate Baywick’s guts, and ever since I did so, I feel as if I’m on the right side of things; Baywick was innocent.

He was a victim himself.

I’m currently searching for information about Jessabelle Conrad’s daughter; Natasha Conrad-Yates. She was put u for adoption and grew up one town over, Greenville. She married young, had four kids of her own, and helped Elizabeth Baywick-Miller by founding the school of Miller Town.

And while Elizabeth got wrapped up in scandals all over town since her husband appeared to be in some shady business, Natasha did everything to turn the school into a success. She later started an orphanage in Greenville to create a safe-heaven for kids like her; abandoned by their parents.

The orphanage is still in operation today but isn’t as needed anymore as it was back in the days. There’s not that much kids staying in there, but with the funding’s of Natasha’s rich husband they managed to secure the future for years to come, causing the building to still be in place, while the orphanage moved to a newer building. The old building is now a museum about Greenville. It’s still protected by the offspring of Natasha and her husband Gregory.

One of the offspring’s names catches my eyes; Lucas Hayes and his wife Lorette Lexington-Hayes.

Does that mean my family is related to Natasha Conrad? Or is it purely coincidental that they’re called Hayes too?

I pounder over it a few seconds, deciding on looking further into it, wondering if I might be a possible relative of mister Baywick himself.

I use national and local databases to track down distant family members, connecting my father’s great grandfather, to Lucas Hayes’ great grandfather as a brother.

“I think I’m… on to something.” I mutter, needing some opinions about the coincidental information I just found.

“What did you find?” Davy leans forwards, while Annika leans her head onto my shoulder to look what I’m doing.

“I’m related to Jessabelle Conrad.”

“What, isn’t that one of those three…” Davy stops talking as he realises that’s exactly who I’m talking about.

“Are you sure?”

“I tracked it, I checked it…” I mutter, shoving my papers towards her. “Jessabelle gave birth to Natasha Conrad, she founded the orphanage in Greenville, and the old building is still taken care of by her offspring, her relatives. Lucas Hayes is one of them and his great-grandfather is my great, great granduncle. Or whatever that’s called.”

“So…” Davy stares at the notes with shock in his eyes.

“You’re possibly related to Baywick? IfJessabelle was the woman that he was having an affair with.”

“Wouldn’t it explain why his malicious remnants are affecting me this much?” I mutter, fiddling with the hem of my shirt. “If I’m in a direct bloodline with Baywick…”

They fall silent, both staring at me with expressions on their faces I cannot describe.

“But wouldn’t that mean he was an Angel of some sorts too?” Davy wonders aloud.

“Every now and again, someone who only has one parent with Angelic blood, will be a full Angel too, despite the lack of genes from one of the parents. So, it doesn’t mean all of our ancestors were Angels, and neither are Sid’s.” Annika shortly looks at me. “They think you’re one of those exceptions.”

“What, a full Angel?”

“Yes, since your healing powers are extraordinary at your age.”

“Does that mean they will be even stronger once I’m an adult?”

“Possibly, yes.” She smiles and pecks my cheek with her lips. “And thanks, for still thinking about a future, not giving up.”

“Thanks, for reminding me I might not have a future,” I deadpan, slumping down in my seat.

“Okay, different topic. Hannah Hayes, where does she meet your family?”

“She’s was dad’s cousin.”

“Right.” Davy nods, taking in all my ancestors. “I can’t believe you managed to find all of this.”

“I can’t believe I’m possibly related to Baywick, founder of this area.”

“You know?” Annika taps the screen of my laptop, where the museum website is still open. “We should visit this place and see if we can find out if Natasha ever gave away who here father was.”