My name is Michael Weston. I'm a six-foot-one, lean and wiry young man of African-American and Mexican descent living in the city of Brockton, Massachusetts. I'm currently a sophomore at Barrack College in downtown Boston and I major in Criminal Justice. Someday I'm going to be a police officer, like my father Leonard Winston before me. In the meantime, I've got to endure the fun and heartache of my college days. It has to be done. No other way. And when you're like me, it's not easy.
My school, Barrack College is considered the most diverse private school in the state of Massachusetts. Thirty one percent of the students are of African-American descent. Hispanics make up nineteen percent, Native Americans make up three percent and Asians comprise nine percent. Caucasians make up the remaining forty three percent. The eight-thousand-person student body is truly representative of the changing face of America as a whole. I just wish there were more people like me out there, and I don't mean because of my skin color, which happens to be light brown.
I'm referring of course to my unique genetic heritage. You see, there are people born with extraordinary abilities out there. And I'm one of them. I'm half human and half Immortal. And I'm far from the only one. We're not the stuff of comic books and science fiction movies. We're real. Where do we come from? There are many explanations. In ancient times, beings of great power roamed this world and other worlds. They looked like ordinary men and women, but they were definitely not human. We've called them by many names. Vampires. Werewolves. Demons. Angels. Mermen. Mermaids. Shape-shifters. Pagan deities. Monsters. Yeah, they're all real. And if you met one of them, you'd never know it.
Take my father for example. In the eyes of the world, he's a tall, burly Black man in his late forties. A high-ranking member of the Massachusetts State Police force. Recently, Dad got promoted to the rank of Sergeant. I wonder what his colleagues would think if they knew that he was a 2800-year-old Immortal from the ancient African civilization known as the Nubian Empire. In his day, my father was a Prince of Imperial Nubia. His people were allied to the Carthaginian Empire, who were once ancient Rome's most fearsome rivals for domination of the ancient world. Yes, my father has seen a lot. And he's had many names. For example, in the Republic of Haiti, he was known as Jean-Jacques Dessalines. The strong Black man who led his fellow Black men and Black women to rise against the tyrannical French colonists who subjugated them. He ended slavery on the island of Haiti in 1804 and founded the first independent Black republic in the New World.
The history books record Dessalines to have been slain by some of his political rivals, fellow Black men in power, after he brought freedom and justice to the newly founded Republic of Haiti. He was assassinated by men who feared his greatness. Well, the history books got it wrong. Dad didn't die that day. He can't die. One of the benefits of being Immortal. My father is a body-switcher. Once the body he inhabits dies, he simply enters that of a new person. Throughout time, he's lived inside the bodies of men and women of varying races. He's been kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers. He's also been a sailor, a merchant, a pirate, a warlord, a scientist, an explorer, a priest and a professional athlete. Presently, he still resides inside the body with which he sired me.
