For Centuries - Season 1 [Completed]

Episode 12

"13 Beaches", Lana Del Rey

The day after, I still had no message from Aidan. A friend of mine, Joseph, called me from the airport in Sidney. He was going to fly to Philadelphia to see his ex-lover Tadatsune, who had become an elder a few years ago. He seemed to have passed this step quite well, but his state had degraded very quickly and Joseph was panicking. He could hurt someone or even himself.

After a thousand years of life, immortals pass a period of time where the weight of their memories is too heavy to deal with, where everything blurs into a frightening chaos in their mind and it can lead to psychotic episodes, sometimes violent. In the past, old immortals were left to their fate, but Tadatsune was not to be let alone. Joseph had asked for my help because he knew I had had to deal with this situation myself many centuries ago and with others after that.

I told Anna that I had to leave for the United States because of an emergency. Then I texted Aidan to tell him the same thing but I did not write a word about my encounter with James. I took the first flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Philadelphia and I met Joseph there. The tall black man who always had an incredible light of joy in his eyes looked very worried. I hugged him.

"Joe, honey, how are you holding on?"

"I'm so glad you're here. I don't know what to do. Tad called me and he was delusional. It scared the hell out of me. He was aggressive, he had no idea where he was."

I put my hand on his arm. "You know that this can happen. We are going to take care of him. He is going to need you to anchor him, but I am sure we will find a way to bring him back."

We rented a car and while driving to the city, I asked Joe for more details. "Do you have any idea of what could have triggered him?" I said.

"He had been very sad for a while now, but I don't know. On the phone, he talked about his sister. It was really incoherent so I didn't understand."

"Does the Council know?"

"I don't know. I hope not."

Tadatsune had apparently locked himself up in his house near Penn, where he was a professor in East Asian Studies. When we arrived, the shutters were down and the door was indeed locked. We knocked.

"Tad? It is me, Elise. I am here with Joe. Please let us in," I said.

We heard him saying some words in what seemed to be classical Japanese. I could not understand everything.

"Tad, please! We are here to help. Don't be afraid. It's okay," Joe said.

It did not work either. I tried to say a few words in Japanese, and after a moment of silence, we heard him unlock the door.

As soon as he had opened the door, Tadatsune walked back to his office. There were broken objects on the floor and papers everywhere, as if the house had been burgled. But it was the immortal who was compulsively looking for something that he could not find and was putting his home upside down.

He was talking to himself in an old form of Japanese, probably from the time when he was young. He was lost in his memories. I walked towards him slowly to avoid frightening him and spoke to him in Japanese. "Tad? What are you doing? Can I help you?"

"I can't find it," he said. "I don't remember. I need to find it."

"Maybe I can try to find it for you. What are you looking for?"

"I don't remember. I don't remember her anymore. Everything is fading away. I need to find this drawing."

"Is it your sister? You do not remember her?"

"I need to find this drawing."

"Honey, calm down. I can help you remember. Would you let me?"

He was still searching his library, throwing away books and papers, as I put my hand on his head and opened my mind to him. I took us to the garden of a house near Kyoto which we both loved. He stood still and looked more relaxed.

In our shared mental space, he was also calmer. "Tad," I said, "I know what is happening is terrifying. I have lived it too. But you are not alone. Joe is here with me and we are going to help you. You have to focus on the present. You are losing yourself in your memories. Focus on now."

"I woke up one morning and I couldn't remember her face," Tadatsune said in English.

"Your mind is cluttered with too many memories, but you can find a way to function. You have not forgotten her, you just cannot find where the memory is. The memories fade but they do not vanish, believe me."

"I don't know what to do. I feel that I am disappearing into nothingness."

"Joe can anchor you. He is here to help. Can I let him enter your mind?"

"Yes."

I explained to Joseph what I was doing and I took his hand, creating a connection between him and Tad. I let them talk and I could see that the old immortal was more and more present. They hugged. We left the Japanese garden, went back to Tad's house in Philadelphia, and sat in the living room.