A noise woke Damien. He pushed aside gross images of crawling maggots that wouldn’t let go; from blowfly lava Alice squashed into his eyes earlier. He rubbed them, gritty and sore, and listened, wondering what woke him.
 
Small legs scurried across his face. He sat upright, swiping it away, worry about spiders foremost, and threw the side lamp on. Alice lay on her back, mouth wide open, sleeping. Concern knotted in his stomach as he searched under bed covers, and blankets. Maggots had been bad enough, but a pregnant spider, eager to lay her eggs somewhere safe? He shuddered at the thought of hundreds of spiders hatching while they slept, each giving a poisoned bite.
 
Whatever woke him might be hiding in Alice’s long blonde hair, a mass over the pillow, or under the purple satin nightie that failed to cover her modesty? Should he wake her, tired as she was from shift work? The gentle rise and fall of her chest, said no, so he continued the search, lifting the sheet from her. Since the cooler weather, spiders inundated their house, large brown wolf spiders, red-backs, and the aggressive flesh-eating spiders, small, black and hard to hard to catch. He hoped for a harmless bug.
 
A dark shape peeked out from the sheets, it scuttled across the linen alongside Alice, shiny and brown, and he shuddered when the large cockroach, flicked its long antennae with military precision. This was the biggest mother of a roach he’d seen, and it glowed bright and luminescent.
 
It clambered onto Alice’s arm, up along to her neck, and paused in the shallow depression at the base of her throat. Its antennae rose as it turned a circle, uncaring, and it considered its options: journey down into the valley between Alice’s breasts and forage on dead skin, or climb up over her face, amongst the long strands of hair and gorge on tiny flakes of dandruff. Either way, Damien needed it gone. Another shudder took him; as he remembered roaches fed off the scum around toilet seats.
 
It moved; down towards Alice’s breasts. Damien leaned forward, hand outstretched to scoop it away, but it turned from him, scurried up her neck with increased pace, just ahead of his outstretched hand. Damien lunged, tried to swipe it away, but again it found a spot between her face and pillow. He moved closer, leaning over Alice and wondered how to remove it without waking her. The roach ran up onto her chin and stopped in a perfect position to flick it away. He locked his finger in the crook of his thumb and advanced on the filthy roach. It ran, and disappeared into Alice’s open mouth. His throat tightened in disgust.
 
Alice coughed and woke with a start. Eyes wide, she sat up and gagged.

“Bad dream?” He brushed away his revulsion.

She coughed again, and pulled a face. “I’ll say.”

He saw her glance over his shoulder and frown.

“Why’s the light on?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” he lied.

“Coming back to bed?”

“Yes,” he said, unable to find courage to mention her midnight snack. He lay back down, away from her.

“What about a goodnight kiss?”

He froze. The image of the cockroach foraging on her stomach contents was foremost in his mind. “It’s late.”

“Don’t you love me any more?”

He sighed and turned back to face her. “Of course I do.” He sat and leaned forward to kiss her lips, but the thought of her coughing up the roach, or it crawling into his mouth was too much. At the last moment he turned and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

He rubbed his eyes and groaned. “Night.”

“You’re still angry … about the maggots?”

He shook his head in response and squeezed her hand. It was better she didn’t know.
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©2011  David Kernot

David Kernot is an Australian writer. He has work published with MicroHorror, AlienSkin Magazine, AntipodeanSF, The Specusphere, and Positive Words Magazine. He can be found behind a large Mountain Ash desk, surrounded by pictures of the Flinders Ranges, editing his unpublished books, Seventeen Souls, and books one and two of  The Kingdom of Isalde.  More information can be found at www.davidkernot.com

This is a special episode of Pulsate. As we wait for the finale to come (next week!) I wanted to take the time to give everyone a recap of what’s happened this first season of Pulsate. Web serialized fiction is sometimes tough to keep up with and I understand that. I also understand that this last episode is mind blowing, emotionally explosive, and so crazy that I don’t want ANYONE to miss it. Why? Because it leads into the next season of Pulsate and into the full length novel (more on that later…).

I want to make sure that when next Thursday hits, we’re all ready for Asa to meet what may be the toughest match of her life.

The season opened with Dusk. Run. Kill., where we meet Asa. She’s running and we find her to be a woman of routine. A man named Mr. Rogers calls her, from inside her mind (who always speaks through her headphones) and warns her of a killer waiting. A sunwalker. A creature. A vampire. After a few swift moves, Asa uses a piece of old world wood to kill the vampire. This is Asa’s life – to protect you and me.

In A Memory of Ash, Asa walks to the gravesite of her childhood best friend, Abby, and reflects on the day she was murdered. A vampire killed Abby and Asa defended herself against the beast and thus set the path of her new life…

The third episode, At Sunlight, We Burn, we meet another creature, this one called a nightseeker. Unlike the sunwalker, the nightseeker cannot go out in the sun. Asa gets the call in the middle of a nightmare and find herself in a dark battle with the vampire. She outwits the creature and kills it just before sunrise. Then she sits, reflects on life, and watches the nightseeker catch fire in the dawn’s rays.

What should have been a simple kill in episode four, Peace and Suffering, turns out to be a major turning point in the season. Asa kills a sunwalker, but a woman witnesses the kill. This is unacceptable in the background world of Asa, so Mr. Rogers has no choice but to “destroy” the witness. And while Asa tries to argue the fact, it’s too late, the decision has been made.

The sting of guilt hits Asa in Guilt and Coverups, episode five, and she goes back to the woman’s house from the previous episode. To her surprise, someone answers the door. The woman’s daughter. Asa learns that the daughter believes her mother has had a heart attack and passed away. Asa leaves a little bit confused, a little bit angry, and with a little bit more understanding of just how powerful Mr. Rogers really is.

Asa gets a chance to let out that anger in episode six, I’m Sorry, when she has to kill not one, but two nightseekers. Her attack mode doesn’t please Mr. Rogers, but Asa doesn’t care, she’s beginning to question her entire life and existence.

HELP is the title of the seventh episode and by its end, Asa needs a lot of it. She decides to take a night stroll to clear her mind when she sees a vampire attacking a woman. Her instinct kicks in to help and she hopes that by saving this woman she will justify the death of the innocent woman from before. The vampire leaves but before any celebration could occur, Mr. Rogers sends for that woman to be killed too. Remember, there can never be any witnesses. Worse than that, Asa has now angered the most vile and strongest vampire of all – an old man.

For the first time in the series, we get to see life through Mr. Rogers eyes. He’s in a dark room and isn’t really sure where. His job is to monitor Asa, the woman once proclaimed to be the greatest creature killer of all time who was now a growing liability. He is desperate to understand Asa’s pain, but for now all he can do it wait to see what the old man vampire decides to bring upon Asa in retaliation.

A Conversation, episode nine, is just what Asa has. With Mr. Rogers. She learns that the world isn’t so simple. Vampires are everywhere and have negotiated their places to hunt and kill and are actually being used to help the world move forward. Asa has always lived with a higher sense of thinking so to try and understand that some people have to die for other people’s freedom just doesn’t make sense to her. After the conversation, she sleeps. And the old man vampire shows up…

The old man vampire leaves Asa a present in episode ten, A Proper Burial. He brings her the dead body of the woman she saved in the parking lot. Even scarier than the body itself is that her eyes are sewn shut with Asa’s own hair. The old man is sneaky, moving within the seconds of time. Mr. Rogers is also puzzled by this because that body should have been with him, where he was. The fact that the old man had the body meant something was happening behind Mr. Rogers back within his organization. He learns that his organization gave the body to the old man to ensure peace and stability within the worlds, something that concerns Mr. Rogers.

The eleventh episode is titled An Attack. Asa is trying to clear her mind and prepare for when the old man shows up. The streets are quiet, no vampires. She then is lured into a back alley and attacked by two of the biggest creatures she’s ever seen. They were fast and strong, and for the first time in her life, she’s pinned to the ground, finished. One of the vampires puts its fangs to her neck and just before killing Asa, they flee. They warn her that the old man comes in six days…

In The Last Run, Asa prepares. She runs, she thinks, and she counts down the days. She has a creepy encounter with a homeless man. On Mr. Rogers screen, however, as he monitors this encounter, once it’s over, that homeless man shows a pair of fangs. This could only mean one thing… it was time…

So how’s that for a quick recap? Now, please, I beg you, don’t rely on this recap completely. If you have the time, read the series! There’s so much action, you don’t want to miss it. Now, for those who don’t like to read online, fine, I understand. Well, guess what’s next for Asa? Once the season is done, I’m going to make it available as an ebook (and possibly a paperback book)! I’m going to expand some episodes, add some bonus content, and toss in a bonus novella that will get you ready and excited for season two of Pulsate. I want everyone to have a chance to enjoy this story… and the ever so kind and great Lori, the amazing editor of Flashes in the Dark, has told me that she would love to publish season two of Pulsate right here on FiTD. So, hopefully by autumn, we will be back every Thursday with more blood and more action. But first… can Asa survive the fight with the old man vampire? Tune in next Thursday to find out…

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©2011 Jim Bronyaur

Jim’s site:  www.jimbronyaur.com

Follow Jim:  www.twitter.com/jimbronyaur

In the Corner, Jim Bronyaur’s novel, is available here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_box_/177-9177525-5616338?k=Jim+Bronyaur+