Bea's Tapes

Tape 1: A small fighting start

Set 1: Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit- Man proposes, but God disposes

Beatrix Hark, June 14th, 2025

Roll tape. "Hello, my name is Beatrix Hark. You may also know me as Bea. I live in a world where everything is the same as yours, but just a bit to the left. Here, two races exist, Humans and Searchers. We both live in the same places, we look and act the same, except for one small detail; Searchers can see the souls of the people around them, and maybe even discover something about them with that knowledge.

"Of course, we can also see our own souls as well, although that's a bit boring, isn't it? Me and a few others will be telling the story of what happened to us, and thanks to a few influences, whether they are living or dead they are able to give us the complete tale.

"Thank you for giving us your time."

Bea, August 13th, 2020

"Everyone has a soul. Whether it is big or small, translucent or opaque, everyone has a soul. A soul can only be seen by a select few people (about 4 out of 10 people from the general population) and the recessive trait is usually passed down from family member to family member.

These few people who can see souls are called 'Searchers', and will often take notes of their soul sightings. Souls represent the personality of the person, which can be seen by the many colors and designs of them. They change as their person's personality and liking changes. The soul can be located anywhere on the body, but is usually found on the chest or as jewelry.

Searchers are said to have been born to-"

Mr. Sherman sighed and stopped reading from his textbook as the bell rang, indicating that the first day of school was over.

He hurried to tell the class to take their textbooks home and read the rest of that passage as all the students began putting their things away and walking –or running- out of the classroom.

I walked out of the class last, since it's just not worth the time and effort to be the first one out of there. Mr. Sherman -the teacher of the history of souls- made everything sound scientific, as if he had researched it himself.

As I walked out of the hallway, my friend Sam walked up to me and playfully punched my shoulder.

"Hey Bea," She giggled as I punched her back. Sam's that totally-popular-but-won't-admit-it type of girl. She keeps her hair dyed a bubblegum pink, which ironically, matches her eyes. Sam's one of the very few people who I let know that I'm a Searcher.

Humans call people like me 'Searchers' because according to myth, we're meant to be searching for some evil that will only come from a person with a pure white soul or something like that.

I think that it's just some bullshit they made up to make us feel special. I mean, I'm sure there are plenty fine people with white souls . . . right? I've never seen some myself but people say they have so, y'know,

Yeah. Anyway, Sam has been my friend since my family moved here when I was a kid. We went on little adventures -pretty much just explored the forest behind my house- and we hung out a lot.

Nowadays though, we just go to my house on weekends and play video games 'till my mom yells at us to go to sleep or camp out in the forest.

Sam talked for a bit about her first day as we walked out of that hallway, and like usual Sam had managed to make about three new friends in all of her classes, excluding the ones who were in more than one of her classes.

I, on the other hand, had made absolutely no friends in the past two years at this god forsaken nightmare of a school and have no intention to. It's just not my thing, really.

Sam and I walked out of school and towards our neighborhood, her waving at people as they saw her. Some of them gave me a halfhearted smile, but that's about it. I shrugged and kept walking, practically pulling Sam with me since she wanted to stand around and talk to her friends.

"We have homework to do, Sam." I reminded her as she struggled to free herself from my grasp.

"But Bea, I don't need to do my homework right now!" she whined as I pulled her towards her house and reminded her that if she didn't do it now, she never would since she got distracted easily.

"But I just wanted to talk to my friends!" Sam argued, now getting annoyed at me.

"I know that Sam but you're kinda proving my point, and you need to get your butt home before your dad worries you idiot." I knew I was kind of pushing a line there, but Sam's dad would worry if she wasn't home before dark and the sun was already setting.

"You're just jealous that I have friends and you don't! At least I can make friends with people without being forced to!" She screamed at me.

"Whoa, where the hell did that come from? I'm just trying to help your sorry ass since I was the only thing keeping you from failing last year. So sorry if I'm being a dick and making you go home." I retorted, turning on my heel and walking home.

I heard her yelling at me to come back, but she never actually ran to try and get me so I kept walking until I was home.

When I stepped into my house, my mom asked why I was home later than usual.

"Oh, Sam and I just got into an argument on our way home. She's going to fail again unless I drag her home every day and she knows it, so I took a walk to cool down before talking to you," I responded.

Mom gave me a halfhearted shrug and a smile saying, "Well, you've known her for years, and you know how much she likes to talk. It's the beginning of the year; just let her be for now. If she starts to fail, she'll notice and hopefully take care of it."

I shrugged back as a response and asked her what was for dinner. After we ate, I went upstairs to do my homework.

Three pages of reading for Science, five for Human History, an entire chapter for The History of Souls, and a page of math work?

I knew that was going to take me longer than a walk to school and 45 minutes of free time before school starts, so I took everything out of my backpack, sat down at my desk, and got started on it.