Thaddeus made up the stagger,grabbed me from behind and wasted no time ending the first of ourmany battles. He picked me over his head and then impaled methrough a long, sharp branch of an adjacent tree. My back was tothe tree, I had a four-inch-wide tree trunk running through my backand most importantly, my heart, as I dangled five feet off theground.
But before I died, Thaddeus turnedback into his human form and walked up to me and said, “That’sone,” as he waved the index finger of his right hand.
It took an hour for life to reset,with Gary coming to first as a wolf and then morphing back to hishuman form. He slowly rose to his feet and then followed the tracksand scents that led him to his greatest nightmare: his vampireimpaled on the massive tree branch.
He climbed up a few branches andpushed me from the back, freeing me like a piece of meat from askewer. I landed solidly on the ground and Gary said to himself,“We have to work on that landing.”
He walked quickly over to my bodyand helped me up, although I had still not come back to life. Garyswung his fist and pounded my chest a few times until I gasped asif he was being held under water and was close to running out ofoxygen. I then doubled over and coughed violently as I sought toregain his equilibrium.
Gary patted me on the back and Ibristled, “I’m okay! Just give me a “minute! It’s been a whilesince I’ve died. Well, at least, technically.”
I slowly straightened my body andscanned Gary from toe to head on the way up.
He looked confused, “Who are you,and why are you naked?” I asked.
Gary started to explain,“Because…"
“Hold that thought big guy,” Iinterjected as I took off my long trench coat and handed it toGary.
“For god’s sake, man! Coveryourself up! Sorry, but I don’t make it a habit of talking to nakedmen in the middle of the woods.”
Gary couldn’t answer right away,and then replied with a blush on his cheeks, “This is myfirst.”
“Oh great! A forest virgin! Why doI always get stuck with the forest virgins?” I exclaimed as westarted walking together.
“We have to get to the ocean,”Gary stated. “And my name is
Garrison, but my friends call meGary.”
My memory of theearly training was sparse, but I did remember the picture of thebeach and the word SAFETY.
“Let’s get airborne to safetythen,” I replied.
Gary movedbehind me and put his hands on my shoulders. “Just make sure youkeep your boys behind the material. I’m going
to have to get a new coat,” Istated.
Gary shrugged off the seeminglyendless stream of insults and said, “I hear Maine is nice this timeof year.”
My resolve and frustrationsoftened as my wings unfurled, and then we took to the air. “Maineit is,” I said, “But I’m going to need a refreshercourse."
LEARN
It took me and Gary a few longyears to figure out how to stop being killed by Thad. It would haveappeared by the numbers being on our side that we had a distinctadvantage, but the opposite was true. While Gary and Thad werefairly sharp after just finishing their prep/downloads, myineptitude and blatant lack of care proved to be an insurmountabledisadvantage, at least at first.
“You do realize thatyou’re only allowed a certain allotment of these,” Gary said tome as he waited for me to become reenergized and reborn from thesun’s healing rays one morning after another loss only hoursbefore. This was one of the few occasions when hedidn’t perish along with me—it seemed that Thaddeus was gainingstrength with each battle and now was starting to toy withus.
“You have to start taking thisseriously!” he yelled in a rare display of emotion and, at least Ithought, disrespect.
These were the early days when hehadn’t realized that I could hear what he was saying when I wasbetween worlds. He must have felt an air of superiority being thatI was a little less than all that I could be after theadjustment in mylifestyle. Eighteen years is a long time to do anything, let alonebe the big beast without rival. I was definitely drinking acocktail of shock and denial in the first six months, but myallotment of 100 deaths until mortality was about a quarter of theway used and I had to wake up and get back on track.
The sun rose in the east and wewere right there on the coast to absorb its first rays. There was acertain sense of peace that went along with not being with theliving or dead. It felt like taking the most deep and restfulslumber, only to be wrestled out of it and awakened to pain akin tobeing hit by a locomotive… aspeeding iron horse!
This was about the time that Istarted to practice meditation without even knowing it. Eventhought I could hear Gary, my mind was at ease and all thoughts hadbeen emptied. And then sun opened the sky for the train to steamthrough a stop signal and run right over me on the tracks. My eyesopened and I gasped like I hadn’t taken a breath in hours, whichwas actually the case.
The early deaths were so much morepainful and traumatic than the later instances. While I thought Iwas getting stronger and more invincible when I was alone anddrinking everyone, the reverse was actually the case. Iwasn’t really using all of my skills to full advantage and hadsuffered a sort of vampire atrophy if you will. I had virtually nomuscle memory and my senses had to be reinvigorated andretrained.
All of that relaxation and nirvanawas obliterated by the pain of rebirth and also realizing that Thadhad defeated us again. While I was simply too scared to defendmyself in the beginning it was starting to sink in that I had toput my big boy pants on and start being the being at the top of thefood chain again.
I was instantly enraged as Ireplayed Gary’s pointed words in my head. Mybody leaned to the upright position as he shoved Gary, sending himhurtling through the air from the shore and into the surf, where hesplashed down and then changed into
