Divine Right

[Gifted]

Abigail looked more confused than anything. On one hand she wanted to dismiss him as crazy, talking the way he did. Follow him? Who did he think he was, even? But what stopped her was when you stripped away all the holy kind of crazy talk, he was in fact right. Her memory flashed back to her days of hearing gunfire outside her house late at night. Her hiding under the counter with her textbooks to avoid any stray bullets and praying nobody called the cops, or the gunfire would be going on all night. To the time she came home and found the laptop she'd saved her own hard earned money to buy stolen, and having to redo her final essay for English from scratch. She'd been lucky to escape that town, lucky to get here, and she'd worked hard just to get out of a place that had danger lurking around every corner. But even though she was out, she still didn't quite feel safe. Still paranoid her wallet would be stolen. Still afraid when a boy knocked on her dormroom door at night he was going to pull a gun or a knife. Still locked her door three times and all the windows twice to ensure everything she left in her dorm when she left would still be there when she got back that night. How could he possibly know any of that when he'd just met her?

[Raven]

"This is it," Kenny said, motioning ahead. "I would like to talk to you again, though, if that's alright with you." He handed her a simple business card, with his name and phone number, along with a short slogan in italics along the bottom.

[Gifted]

Abigail's eyes widened. "Okay." He wasn't a student here? But then why had he been nice enough to help her? She'd assumed he was going this way anyway...

[Raven]

"It was nice talking to you, Abigail. You can call whenever you like." Kenny smiled and headed back the way he'd come. He should probably work on large group lectures, that would be a good idea.

[Gifted]

Abigail called two hours later, barely ten minutes after her class was over. "Hello? This is Abigail Winters."

[Raven]

Kenny smiled. "I'm glad you called, Abigail. How was your class?"

[Gifted]

"Interesting." Abigail answered. "I'm definitely glad I made it in time."

[Raven]

"That's good. Was there anything in particular you wanted to talk about?"

[Gifted]

"What do you mean by heaven on earth...?"

[Raven]

Kenny smiled. "I mean an isolated Eden, inhabited only by those who have divine potential."

[Gifted]

She was going to mention that that didn't explain anything, but Kenny had successfully distracted her with the last two words. "Divine potential?"

[Raven]

"Those who would likely ascend to heaven upon death," Kenny explained, gently. "People who have kind hearts have this potential."

[Gifted]

Abigail smiled at the compliment and when she spoke, her voice was a little softer, less guarded. "And you think... I have this sort of potential?"

[Raven]

"I do, Ms. Winters."

[Gifted]

"How did you know about the sort of life I've lived?" She sounded less suspicious now, more open to believe what he had to say.