My name is Ahruanna Rubin. At least, that's what I go by in this lifetime. I am a professor of World History at Harkin College, a small private school located in the city of Weymouth, Massachusetts. I got hired by the school last year and it's been a blast, really. I love my job and I am thankful for every day that I have in this place. Most of all, I am thankful for the hunky young man who makes it all worthwhile.
Anyone looking at me would see a six-foot-tall, busty, voluptuous and bootylicious, long-haired and dark-skinned black woman in her early thirties. And in most respects, they would be right. And that's exactly what my lover, Brian Packer, sees when he looks at me. He's lying right next to me right now. A six-foot-two, big and bulky, caramel-skinned and curly-haired African-American male. Twenty years old. A linebacker on the Harkin College varsity football team. Our relationship would be frowned upon by the other faculty members if they knew but we've taken great care to prevent that from happening. Up until recently, Brian thought I was just a sexy teacher with an urgent interest in him.
However, as is the case with most women and men for that matter, there is more to me than meets the eye. You see, I am a lot older than I appear to be. In fact, you wouldn't believe me if I told you how old I am. I was once a servant in the Palace of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. One of the most powerful women the world had ever seen. Thousands of years before that, I was a medicine woman among the Lukasu Tribe of Central Africa. Yeah, I've been around for a while.
Thousands of years later, I am a professor at a small New England school. How could this be? Simply because I am an Everlasting One. And there are quite a few like me out there. Men and women chosen by fate to live until the end of time. My life has taken me many places. I was once the leader of a group of wandering female warriors along the shores of the Black Sea and our predations inspired the many myths of the Amazon Women. Which aren't myth at all. My followers and I traveled all over the world, fighting for justice. And the world remembers us for it.
I don't know what possessed me to go into teaching. Maybe because I've seen a lot of the world and know a thing or two about human history. I've met Julius Caesar, Achilles the Greek, Hector the Trojan, Helen of Sparta ( later of Troy) Gilgamesh the Fierce, the mighty Hercules and many others. Yes, many of history and mythology's great men and women have been friends, rivals, lovers and enemies of mine. That's what happens when you're an Everlasting One. You get to live long and meet a lot of interesting people. That's the fun part. The hard part is that many people will betray you and try their hardest to kill you. For this reason, I don't let people know I'm Everlasting One unless I trust them with my life.
Recently, I ran across a treasured friend and former lover of mine. A tall, good-looking, black-haired and bronze-skinned, emerald-eyed young man named Kardos. We've known each other for thousands of years. Once, Kardos was known as Achilles. He was that famous warrior who championed the cause of the Greeks when they went to fight against the Trojan Army to rescue Queen Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta from Paris, the Trojan Prince who kidnapped her. According to Greek mythology, Achilles died at Troy. In many ways, he did. Kardos hasn't been called by that name in twenty eight centuries.
He came to warn me that someone or something out there was hunting the Everlasting Ones. This gave me pause. I've been hunted, captured, enslaved and mistreated in every way possible by men as well as women over the course of my long life. However, as an Everlasting One, there are very few times when I've felt genuine fear. My kind don't grow old like humans do. We don't get sick either. The undying essence which keeps us alive also shields our bodies from harm. We cannot be stabbed, cut, poisoned, crushed, asphyxiated, shot or blown away. We simply cannot die. We're invulnerable. We don't age. We don't get sick. That's what it means to be an Everlasting One.
Throughout time, we've been in conflict with humans and with each other. Some Everlasting Ones have buried their undying enemies deep below the earth. Others have imprisoned their foes inside metal coffins sunken at the bottom of the sea. There are ways to dispose of a troublesome Everlasting One. We can't die but we sure as hell can get fucked up. I don't know of any means through which an Everlasting One can die. So Kardos's news had some alarming implications. He told me that left and right, throughout the world, our kind was being picked out and destroyed. I blanched at that word. Destroyed? Nothing can destroy us. Should an asteroid hit the planet Earth and reduced it to chunks, our still living bodies would be floating in space.
I didn't believe Kardos, at first. Then I encountered the Hunter. I saw it with my own eyes. Throughout my existence, I've seen many things. Genetically enhanced superhumans. Monsters. Demons. Fallen Angels. Satyrs. Shape-shifters. Mermen and mermaids. Werewolves. Vampires. All kinds of human-looking intelligent beings with great powers. This is a world humans see every day yet don't know exists. However, I had never seen anything quite like the Hunter. It came after my friend Rachel Maddock and I while we were dining inside Copley Mall in Boston.
Rachel Maddock was an old friend. I first met her in 1861. She was disguised as a young man, fighting against slavery in the Northern Army during the Civil War. This five-foot-ten, red-haired and blue-eyed, slightly plump Irish gal is one plucky dame. She first realized she was Everlasting in 1799, back when she was twenty four years old in Dublin, Ireland. The Everlasting are born just like ordinary humans. At some point, we realize that we're Everlasting, usually after a close encounter with death, and from that moment on, we live forever.
