Beatrice

Short #2: Where is he now?

"Ma, can me and Beatrice play in the yard. We finished eatin'." Kennan lies, throwing some food to the dog. He looks at Beatrice to see her reading with her plate clean.

"Yes, baby. Don't go too far now." Kennan's mother said, sitting at the table with your parents. And they gossiped

"Man, I don't know why y'all adopted that lil white kid when he was a baby." Beatrice's dad chuckled, taking a sip of beer.

"Tanya saw the glow in his eyes and immediately became attached to him. Happy wife, happy life. I do love him, though." Kennan's dad said.

"Come on and let's play, Bea. Why you always readin'?" Kennan says, she shuts her book and rolls her eyes playfully.

"Because I value my education. Also why do you talk like that? I hope you won't have to do those job interviews on the phone, because they won't hire you, they'll think you're black." Beatrice says, giggling, Kennan rolls his eyes.

"Well why do you sound so grown? You're only ten. Eighth grade is when you should start carin' 'bout how you speak." Kennan replies. Beatrice looked him up and down and scoffed.

"You're in Eighth grade, look at how you speak." Beatrice sasses. Kennan looks around knowing how stupid he looks.

"Do as I say, not as I do?" Kennan shrugs his shoulders, Beatrice giggles more. She shakes her head and puts her book down. She then stands up and reachers her arms out to Kennan.

He grabs them and stands up. "Well it don't matter, or it shouldn't matter. Maybe someday in the future, the way you talk won't matter. And don't get me started on segregation. We would finally be together in school!" Beatrice said.

Kennan smiled. "You really think that could happen?" He asks, they both walk to the yard and pick up a ball and start to play catch.

"Oh, most definitely!" Beatrice says, throwing the ball.

"That's probably a thousand years away. I's sad we might not live to see that day." Kenny says, throwing the ball back. He gets a bit sad.

"That's not true. We'll live for thousands of years, billions of years. I'd fight with death to see that day. To see hatred just disappear." Beatrice catches the ball and chuckles trying to lighten Kennan's spirits. He sees faint bruising on her arms, but doesn't bring attention to it.

Kennan giggles, "You just talkin' dumb at this point."

"Even if I was talking dumb, it would still be smarter than any sentence that comes out of your mouth." Beatrice teases Kennan. His face drops and looks at her and Beatrice moves her neck at him, then laughs.

He starts to chase her around the yard as she laughs and screams, getting scolded by her parents when she does, but continues being the kid she was.

—

23 and an entrepreneur with businesses all around the world. A senior in college. He decided to go to a frat party for the first time. He prioritized his education and took Beatrice's advice from 10 years ago. Now that he was almost done and already successful, he could whatever he wanted.

He went back to this guys dorm with a few other people.

They snorted cocaine and did all sorts of other drugs. They had fun.

Girls that were there tried to rub up on Kennan, but he turned them down every time. "Dude, what's up? You a homosexual? Why are you turning these fine ladies away?" A random guy asks, wrapping his arm around Kennan.

"No, I just...I got my eye for someone else. I want to be loyal." Kennan replied, slurring his words a bit. Everyone laughs. And Kennan looks around confused.

"Oh, you got a little girlfriend?" The same guys asks.

"I've been saving myself for her." Kennan adds, guzzling down a beer and opening another one.

"Wait, wait. Saving? You a virgin dude at...23?" That guys ask and laughs, making everyone laughs at Kennan again. Kennan rolls his eyes and shakes his head, not caring about getting teased. "Whats her name?" The guy follows up.

"Beatrice." Kennan answers. The guy laughs and falls to the floor. Everyone in the room doesn't laugh this time though.

"You haven't seen her in ten years." The guy starts. Kennan turns to him in confusion. "How you gonna be loyal to a person you're not even in a relationship with?" The guy asks again, and Kennan gets out of his seat.

"How did you-" Kennan gets interrupted.

"How would you feel if you were able to live forever." The guy said. Like zombies everyone stood up and left the dorm room. Kennan thought he was too high and drunk and put his beer down.

"What about being immortal?"

"What?"

"Except for when you're in contact with the sun."

"Fire"

"Arsenic" His fangs come out.

"Consuming blood from the dead."

Fin.