November 2025
Ah…this disgusting smell, fish and rotten fruits, I wonder how I ended up, these notes I wrote along the way, if anything happens to me, please make sure my story reaches someone, Let me tell you from the beginning, my name is Sebastian Lreth, I am a writer in England, I am originally from America, the publishing house I am affiliated with does not like the stories I find or write, and the reason is that they are not worth publishing… What century are we living in, do people still read books? Anyway, while I was having another stressful day, I got tired of unsuccessful stories and got stubborn with my publishing house, they told me that if I could not come up with a good story, I would be fired, so I started researching urban legends on the internet. All these were known legends, things like Medusa, Mummy, come on Sebastian, you have to be more creative, I said to myself and started visiting illegal sites to research lesser-known legends, after a while, I came across a site with photos of old newspaper clippings, one of them had a very interesting title, "Asrankhar Killer", and I started reading the whole story. Asrankhar…A small republic located in the Caucasus, a region that makes a living from fishing, and its population is extremely poor, 4500 people. I couldn't believe it because why would such a community live in such a small place? As my curiosity deepened, I researched the old news of this region: "Asrankhar Murderer", "Denial? Suicide?", "Dead bodies found in sewer", "Police investigation continues", "Local police found dead in house" and the last article…"Prosecutor closed the case for no reason".
What I said to myself at that moment was "I think I found the story to tell" since they wanted a great story from me, this is a great story, I used my annual leave early and took a month of full leave, then I opened my secret safe that I had been saving for years, combined it with my company permit with the necessary state permits and documents, and finally I went from London to Russia, but Asrankhar does not have a separate republic airport or anything, you can only go by road, so I did the most logical thing, rented a car and set off for Asrankhar. Interesting, normally I expected these lands to be warm, but it was even colder than England! Snow and fog roam around these lands as if they were part of the city, I didn't have much difficulty entering the country, but they warned me a lot, "Stay away from the Ancient Ruins", that's what everyone I met told me wherever I went, When I finally arrived in Sylium, the capital of Asrankhar, I saw with my own eyes how harsh and extremely angry the people were because whoever I asked "What's in the Ancient Ruins?" tried to beat me and cursed at me, I don't understand! What's their problem, all they have is some debris from the past. Another thing that caught my attention in the city center was the Church and Mosque standing side by side, Apparently the people here are divided into Christians and Muslims, when I finally stopped at a gas station, I had the chance to have a short chat with the pump attendant who came to me, he was a strange man, his beard was almost down to his waist, he had an old trucker hat on his head, but he was quite friendly, perhaps the most docile person I've met so far. "Hello friend, are you from here?" The man came over to me cheerfully and smiled while attaching the gas hose in his hand to the car. "Yes, I'm from here actually, I'm surprised to see you because tourists don't come here." I stuck my head out the window. "Why? Excuse me, is it because of the Asrankhar Killer?" After these words, all the cheerful man's joy disappeared. "Look stranger, take your car and get out of here, are you thirsty for your life?" What kind of an obvious threat is this? "Calm down my friend, I'm just curious about what happened, and if I solve the situation, the whole world will read about this." The man quickly came over to me, opened the door harshly, took me out of the car like I was a kitten, and grabbed me by the collar. I didn't know what to do out of fear. All I could say was apologize, but he got really close to my face. "If I… describe that place to you… will you tell the whole world about it?" I was shocked, it was as if he was asking. "Yes, yes, I can..I just need to know what that thing is there, that's all."
The man slowly pulled his hands back, bowed his head and frowned in embarrassment, then looked around for a while and whispered, "Begmen…" After saying this, he started looking around more. What did that mean? Begmen? What is that? Who is Begmen? "Who is Begmen?" The man quickly jumped on me and pressed his palm to my mouth. "shhhh..don't say that name out loud! Don't even think about it!" I understood that this man was a local villager. When he took his hand off my mouth, I looked into his eyes. "Okay, first of all, calm down my friend, take a deep breath, okay?" The man closed and opened his eyes quickly a few times, then took a deep breath and came to. "Okay…okay, you're right, I overreacted…ha..he can't find us here anyway." I started to think that this man was crazy. "So, what exactly is this person whose name you're talking about?" The man gulped and whispered into my ear, his voice trembling. "A…..V..Vampire.." then he pulled back. Wait a minute, a vampire? Did I come all this way for a vampire legend, those unreal medieval nonsense mentioned in legends. "A vampire? So where does he live? Where is his castle?" was the most logical question I could ask, after all, every vampire lives in either a castle or a castle, after all, that's their story, we have read this in movies, TV series and books for years, it's even like this in anime and cartoons. While I was thinking about these, the man approached me, "In two kilometers from here, the road will fork, you will go left, there will be fields like this in front of you, after passing them, you will see the old abandoned junkyard, it will stay right across from the ancient ruins, that thing always hangs out there, that's how we learned it." Wow, it was the dumbest thing I have ever heard, but I learned my way and now I know the area I will be going to. "Thank you, my friend, you were very helpful." As I eagerly headed to my car, I looked at the man one last time before opening the door. "So why do you want this story to be known?" The man glanced at me as he removed the gas hose. "Because… I want the curse in this area to end, maybe someone will come to help us…be careful when you go there." We looked at each other for a long time. "So how do I find him?" The man looked at him with fear. "He will find you…" It was a rather calm tone of voice but I don't want to mess with this crazy man, on the contrary, I was full of hatred right now because I had come all this way for a ridiculous Vampire legend and besides, there is Dracula, how many movies and TV series have been shot, and even more books than I can count, and they are everywhere! I quickly drove away in my anger after a while, just like the man said, the road split into two, I continued on the left. Apparently, no crops have been grown in these fields, but even if they were, it wouldn't matter, most of the places were frozen.
21:34
It's dark now, my car's headlights are very dim, I can't see where I'm going anymore, I've moved away from the fields, I'm in a place surrounded by mountains on both sides, where am I going? My phone has no signal, I have no internet or anything else, I came to a small hilly area but I started to hear different sounds coming from the car, I saw the engine failure light, I just passed the hill when my car stopped, it just stopped and there was no sound or anything, it stopped where it was, I got out of the car and opened the hood but in vain I don't know much about cars, it is completely dark around, only the light of the full moon, it used to be like this when the electricity went out, only the moonlight... I turned on my phone light and took my bag out of the trunk, there is nothing to do now, I have to keep going, in the middle of nowhere and with the sound of the wind blowing hard between the mountains, I took a long walk I don't remember the last time I walked like this, the cold has penetrated to my bones, the coat I was wearing is now just an ornament, I am freezing... my fingers hurt and I can't breathe, I hate mountain air, my eyes started to water, I can't see anymore, there is a pain left by the cold in my knees, it's like the wind is forcing me to turn back, Oh my medications, of course I forgot them in the car. I am an epileptic, I know I should have written this before... I had no strength left, I fell to my knees, I don't remember what happened next... I just remember hearing the sound of someone walking.