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…

_____________________________

©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+

PULSATE: Episode 10

Asa’s dreams were nightmares. Nightmares of blood, fangs, the ripping sound of flesh, the crunching sound of bone, and the hollowed echoing sound of blood dripping to a floor.

The dreams were all dark, she never saw a thing, only heard the nightmare.

When the coming dawn ran across her face and her eyes opened, she welcomed it, felt thankful. Something told her the nightmares weren’t normal nightmares, but sounds sent from far away.

A warning perhaps.

Or maybe teasing – a game of cat and mouse although Asa wasn’t sure who fit what role. After all she was the greatest vampire killer to exist. The creatures she took down were larger then her. Stronger than her. Ruthless. And all Asa had was instinct and the old world wood.

She pushed the covers off her body and sat up. The pouring memories of what she did played again. The worry in Mr. Rogers voice was like a virus trapped in her mind. The cracks showing weakness in the man that had guided her through killing all her life made her question just how foolish she was for trying to help that woman.

Asa walked to her door and the moment she touched the knob she knew something was wrong. Very wrong. It wasn’t a smell but more of a feeling. When Asa closed her eyes and moved her head as if she was looking at the door knob she saw a faint pulse.

A creature had been there. In her house. In her room. If the pulse were deeper and felt more powerful Asa would have thought the creature to still be in her house. But it wasn’t. This pulse was almost like a residue.

Asa proceeded with caution out of her room. After a quick inspection of her rented two bedroom ranch style home Asa opened the front door and found something from her nightmares.

The woman’s body, lying face up with her arms crossed on her chest. Although resting, dead, she did not look at peace.

At all.

Asa could only stare…

***

Sometimes things happened. That’s what Mr. Rogers was often told. Somehow in the rare second that he wasn’t watching Asa, the Old Man had shown up to Asa’s house with a gift.

This bothered Mr. Rogers but it was something he’d learned to get over. Creatures and vampires moved in what they felt were hours, but for humans were split seconds. In the blink of an eye a vampire could wipe out a town if it wanted to.

There were negotiations in place to prevent this style of ambush, but it had been done in the past. These split second moments were not used as scare tactics, but instead a gentle reminder of just how powerful the creatures are.

The thing that bothered Mr. Rogers was that the body left on Asa’s stoop was one that should have been where Mr. Rogers was. The black shadows had taken the woman. That meant there was inside activity going on.

“Nothing is ever what it seems.”

Mr. Rogers didn’t turn around to acknowledge the voice.

“What’s happening?” Mr. Rogers asked.

“What’s happening? Heh. We’re trying to do some damage control on your girl.”

“My girl? She’s not my girl.”

Mr. Rogers felt his face blush. Sure, Asa was a tall, slim, beautiful woman with black, curly hair that bounced as she ran and clung to her face as she fought… but dammit, he’d known her since she was a girl. He felt more of a father…

“We need to show on our own end this wasn’t a setup of ours.”

“I thought they set up Asa…”

“Setups could be setups. Plus, what’s a dead body between two negotiating parties?”
The voice laughed and faded away.

Mr. Rogers felt his chest tighten. All these years of knowing what he thought he knew… it was all crumbling…

…Asa had seen dozens of corpses in her life – the first being her best friend, Abby. Although that only lasted a few seconds before she turned to ash.

This was horrible.

****

The woman’s face was dry and wrinkled. It had a purple tint to it with a blush color that accented how dead she was. Her eyes and mouth were sewn shut with what Asa hoped wasn’t true but it probably was.

Hair. Human hair. Asa’s hair. Sure there were probably millions of women with black hair like Asa’s, but the ends of the hair stitches in the woman’s face curled just like the ends of Asa’s hair. And then Asa remembered the door knob, with the faint pulse.

Asa connected all the dots, so to say.

The Old Man.

That’s who visited overnight.

For a moment Asa wanted to contact Mr. Rogers and ask him ‘why’, but she stopped herself. He knew. He’d seen. And if he had nothing to say, then it was probably nothing good.

Asa took a breath and grabbed the woman by her stiffened, almost crusty arms and dragged her inside. She noticed a couple holes and realized the old man vampire fed on the woman before leaving her. However, not completely as she didn’t turn to ash.

With the woman inside, Asa decided to give the woman a proper burial. It just seemed right.

Asa walked away to change from her sweat pants and tank top to some dirty, old clothes.

When she returned the body was gone. Her instinct kicked in and she turned to dart back into her bedroom for a piece of old world wood.

“Stop.”

Mr. Rogers.

“I did it. Sent shadows. She can’t be buried.”

Asa stood in her doorway. She thought about what to say and decided to with her gut. “What’s happening?”

After a way-too-long of a pause, Mr. Rogers spoke. “Honestly? I don’t know.”

________________________________

©2011 Jim Bronyaur

Jim’s site:  www.jimbronyaur.com
 
Follow Jim:  www.twitter.com/jimbronyaur