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+
I’ve been following the PULSATE series and I was really disappointed to read this post. It’s already a good bet that Asa will survive the fight with the old man vampire because she’s the heroine and they do that, but by telling us there’s going to be a season two you just told us she DOES survive. I hope you have a really big cliffhanger up your sleeve, because if not, your “season finale” is going to be a disappointment now.
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