The Vampire Hartwell

by Phil Wohl

  He climbed up a few branches and pushed me from the back, freeing me like a piece of meat from a skewer. I landed solidly on the ground and Gary said to himself, “We have to work on that landing.”

  He walked quickly over to my body and helped me up, although I had still not come back to life. Gary swung his fist and pounded my chest a few times until I gasped as if he was being held under water and was close to running out of oxygen. I then doubled over and coughed violently as I sought to regain his equilibrium.

  Gary patted me on the back and I bristled, “I’m okay! Just give me a “minute! It’s been a while since I’ve died. Well, at least, technically.”

  I slowly straightened my body and scanned 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,” I interjected as I took off my long trench coat and handed it to Gary.

  “For god’s sake, man! Cover yourself up! Sorry, but I don’t make it a habit of talking to naked men in the middle of the woods.”

  Gary couldn’t answer right away, and then replied with a blush on his cheeks, “This is my first.”

  “Oh great! A forest virgin! Why do I always get stuck with the forest virgins?” I exclaimed as we started walking together.

  “We have to get to the ocean,” Gary stated. “And my name is

  Garrison, but my friends call me Gary.”

  My memory of the early training was sparse, but I did remember the picture of the beach and the word SAFETY.

  “Let’s get airborne to safety then,” I replied.

  Gary moved behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. “Just make sure you keep your boys behind the material. I’m going

  to have to get a new coat,” I stated.

  Gary shrugged off the seemingly endless stream of insults and said, “I hear Maine is nice this time of year.”

  My resolve and frustration softened as my wings unfurled, and then we took to the air. “Maine it is,” I said, “But I’m going to need a refresher course."

  LEARN

  It took me and Gary a few long years to figure out how to stop being killed by Thad. It would have appeared by the numbers being on our side that we had a distinct advantage, but the opposite was true. While Gary and Thad were fairly sharp after just finishing their prep/downloads, my ineptitude and blatant lack of care proved to be an insurmountable disadvantage, at least at first.

  “You do realize that you’re only allowed a certain allotment of these,” Gary said to me as he waited for me to become reenergized and reborn from the sun’s healing rays one morning after another loss only hours before. This was one of the few occasions when he didn’t perish along with me—it seemed that Thaddeus was gaining strength with each battle and now was starting to toy with us.

  “You have to start taking this seriously!” he yelled in a rare display of emotion and, at least I thought, disrespect.

  These were the early days when he hadn’t realized that I could hear what he was saying when I was between worlds. He must have felt an air of superiority being that I was a little less than all that I could be after the adjustment in my lifestyle. Eighteen years is a long time to do anything, let alone be the big beast without rival. I was definitely drinking a cocktail of shock and denial in the first six months, but my allotment of 100 deaths until mortality was about a quarter of the way used and I had to wake up and get back on track.

  The sun rose in the east and we were right there on the coast to absorb its first rays. There was a certain sense of peace that went along with not being with the living or dead. It felt like taking the most deep and restful slumber, only to be wrestled out of it and awakened to pain akin to being hit by a locomotive… a speeding iron horse!

  This was about the time that I started to practice meditation without even knowing it. Even thought I could hear Gary, my mind was at ease and all thoughts had been emptied. And then sun opened the sky for the train to steam through a stop signal and run right over me on the tracks. My eyes opened and I gasped like I hadn’t taken a breath in hours, which was actually the case.

  The early deaths were so much more painful and traumatic than the later instances. While I thought I was getting stronger and more invincible when I was alone and drinking everyone, the reverse was actually the case. I wasn’t really using all of my skills to full advantage and had suffered a sort of vampire atrophy if you will. I had virtually no muscle memory and my senses had to be reinvigorated and retrained.

  All of that relaxation and nirvana was obliterated by the pain of rebirth and also realizing that Thad had defeated us again. While I was simply too scared to defend myself in the beginning it was starting to sink in that I had to put my big boy pants on and start being the being at the top of the food chain again.

  I was instantly enraged as I replayed Gary’s pointed words in my head. My body leaned to the upright position as he shoved Gary, sending him hurtling through the air from the shore and into the surf, where he splashed down and then changed into a bottlenose dolphin and playfully flipped into the air and then back under the water.

  Perhaps I was a bit too sensitive, but I followed him into the water and then chased him up and down the East Coast for the better part of the day until I caught him in the Carolinas. Man he was fast! He toyed with me until I realized that anger was not the way. Losing my family was a shock that I hadn’t dealt with in almost a few decades, preferring to throw myself into the pursuit of blood and all of its subtle and not-to-subtle intricacies.

  Needless to say, I was angry, frustrated and thoroughly confused. One hundred years didn’t seem like such a long time especially when the alternative was never seeing them again. At first, I thought that my time would have gone quicker if I remained free and easy, but then I realized in a flash that is was a blessing that Gary was by my side and that was pursuing me.

  I grabbed Gary by the tail and then flew him to shore. Well, actually I tossed him to shore where he transformed into a hippo before he thudded on the beach. Once he safely used the extra blubber to cushion the fall, Gary changed back into his human form.

  The intense look on my face indicated that he was in a great deal more danger than what was actually the case. I sped to the beach and then landed smoothly on the beach as my vast wings collapsed and then disappeared into the back of my body. I reached my hand out and Gary grabbed it even though he wasn’t sure what would happen next. I easily lifted him to his feet and then we started walking on the beach.

  “I guess I should be thanking you for…” I started but wasn’t sure how to finish at the risk of sounding soft.

  And then I remembered how he had talked to me when I was still down and yelled, “But if you ever talk to me that way again I’ll break you in half before you can utter another word!”

  Garrison was feeling good for a second, like he had done something right, but then realized that I wasn’t kidding.

  “Seriously? You heard that?!”

  I smirked, “I also heard all of those times that Thaddeus hovered over my body and taunted me with the count of how many times he had killed me!”

  Gary thought, “I was wondering when you would finally get angry and grow a spine!”

  I stopped walking and turned to him, “My good man, I can also hear what you’re thinking.”

  “You can?” he questioned. “That wasn’t in the training manual!”

  I laughed, “I’m starting to discover that all of this stuff we’re experiencing is things we have to learn on the fly. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired of losing!”

  “Definitely, boss!” Gary replied.

  “Then we have to start working together instead of you just trying to stop Thad from killing me.”

  “So we use our numbers to our advantage instead of creating a series of one-on-one match-ups,” Gary stated.

  “Exactly!” I exclaimed. “We were p
ut together for a reason. He’s not supposed to kill me that easy, or the life of a typical vampire would be less than 19 years.”

  We looked over at each other and confusion set in.

  “What is the average age of a vampire?” he asked.

  “Let’s hope it’s more than 100 years,” I replied and then we kept walking on the beach.

  THADDEUS

  We trained on that beach for the better part of a week before Thaddeus found us. He had been the big beast since coming on line as a hunter and was now steeped in overconfidence. It was like one of those tired games of hide-and-seek where the person is conducting a half-hearted search.

  Thaddeus wasn’t stupid. He realized that the quicker he attained the hunter’s goal of 100 kills, the more expediently he would have to return to his ho-hum life as a mortal. In only a few months as a hunter he had hopped from state to state and seen things he had never known existing or had only heard musings about. He was born Thaddeus Montague Brewster more than 18 year earlier to a mother who was a school teacher and a father who was a shoemaker. In fact, his mother was his teacher from the time he crawled into his first classroom until he finished up his education only a few months before changing.

  While it appeared that most of the hunters and protectors came on line in a random fashion, the opposite was actually the truth. They usually came from a long lineage, which served to fortify the line and strengthen the bond between the generations.

  Thad had never been out of his small town of Ogunquit, Maine, or so he thought. In actuality, the family had moved a handful of times before he was four and then settled into the lobster haven. He worked in his father’s shop full time now that school was over and expected to be making and fixing shoes until the day he died.

  Thad’s father, Virgil Brewster, was a man of few words, but when he did talk it was a really good time to listen.

  He was hammering in the sole of a shoe and had a few nails in his mouth, “There is something we need to discuss.”

  Thad was used to his father’s grumbling with various pieces of metal, lace and leather in his mouth, so he heard his father loud and clear. Thad’s initial reaction was that his father was going to school him on something he was doing wrong, but he was surprised by what he heard next.

  He hammered the last two nails from his mouth into the sole of the shoe and then put his hammer down for one of the rare times in his life. This wasn’t a shop where employees got an hour for lunch and were afforded a few breaks during the day. Work was steady and persistent and endured from sunrise to sunset, because the family had little money to subsidize natural light.

  Thad kept hammering because he wasn’t going to be the one to call a halt to the workday.

  “Put your hammer down, Thaddeus,” Virgil said in perhaps his most human and vulnerable tone to date. “We have to discuss some family business.”

  Thad was in mid strike, so he recoiled his mighty right arm and then set the crude hammer down on his work table.

  “You’re going to turn 18 during the next moon and…”

  Thad grew embarrassed and interjected, “I know all about the birds and the bees, dad!”

  Virgil rolled his eyes and stared down his son with a “If you don’t let me talk, the next thing you hear will be dull thud of my hammer upside your soft head!”

  Embarrassment aside, Thad quickly entered listen-only mode.

  “You will be off leaving town and eventually start your own family,” Virgil said, as his momentary bout of anger turned to genuine care for his son and sadness that his apprentice would be gone within days.

  Thad was not prepared for the words, which he had neither the capacity nor the nerve to consider. While he had wondered many times what the world had to offer, he never really considered leaving his parents and this life.

  Virgil could see that his son was confused, so he decided to show him a thing or two after he took a few steps back from the open door and the watchful eyes of a tight community.

  “When I do something, I want you to think really hard and do the same thing,” Virgil stated.

  He figured he would start small and turn into a pit bull terrier, which startled Thaddeus at first until he felt his form adjusted to the stimuli. Virgil then transformed into a powerful ram, followed by a massive grizzly bear with sharp claws and then a large hawk capable of picking up swopping up both animals and foes alike with its hand-like talons. Thaddeus kept up the pace and changed into everything that he saw and felt, flying behind his father as he exited the small barn.

  The two men soared for the better part of the next half-hour in what would easily be considered their best moment as father and son. They returned to the workshop and then transformed back into their human form. Thaddeus was so excited that he forgot about what his father had said before their short journey. And then it hit him like a ton of bricks and his eyes welled up with tears.

  “I don’t want to go!” Thad cried as he had finally hit an apex with his father and would do anything to stay home.

  Virgil put his arm around his son and said, “I didn’t want to go either, Thad, but look what life has brought me.”

  They sat down on stools facing each other and Virgil continued, “I was able to meet your mother and watch you grow from a young man into a man ready for the hunt!”

  Thad obviously had a few questions, “We are hunters?”

  Virgil nodded and said “Yes.”

  And then Thad realized that if he was a hunter, then he would have to be hunting something or someone.

  “What do we hunt?”

  Virgil could have tried to explain what vampires were to Thaddeus, but he thought it would be more effective to just show him. The obvious choice would be to bring him out later that night and be properly introduced to his fanged friend. But, that event would be too risky because Thad was still a mortal and could be killed without recourse before his 18th birthday. So he just touched the temple of his head to his son’s and started the projector in his head for a short film.

  The old school film of a vampire transforming into its various forms or terror certainly had its impact on Thad, who had a fascination for monsters but had no idea that they really existed.

  The film ended and Virgil stayed close to reassure his spooked son.

  “Everything I’ve done since you’ve been born has been training for this day.” He held his hands and turned them over, palms up. “Your hands are weathered and strong, perfect to wield a sword to separate the creature’s head from his body.”

  He reached behind him and picked up a sword and then flipped another one to his son, who caught the weapon and then knew what to do with it instinctively. Virgil approached Thad and swung his sword at him as Thad deflected the blow and then went on the attack. They went back and forth for a few minutes until Virgil called a stop to the byplay so no suspicion would be aroused.

  Thad didn’t realize what he had done until the action stopped and then said, “How?”

  “Because you are my son and you have a higher purpose in this world other than clothing people’s feet.”

  Thad realized his true destiny in that moment and replied, “I will make you proud, father.”

  Virgil replied, “You already have, Thaddeus.”

  GARRISON

  On the surface, Gary was Thad’s polar opposite in every way. His family structure was shattered at the tender age of two when his dad was no longer present. He had heard stories of valiant death fighting in some war that he later discovered existed, but was fought on a foreign soil the likes of which his father never occupied.

  Since his father was not present, Thad and his mother June settled in rural Virginia and lived and worked the same farm his entire life. His life was grounded in hard work from sunup to sunset and he had no time or inclination for trivial pursuits. June marveled at how her son was always on task from the time he could walk.

  “You always had a real sense of purpose that most boys your age didn’t have.”

&n
bsp; Gary’s laser-like focus was a function of his steadfast insistence to resist mental contact with anything of real emotional significance. He sensed that something big was hovering over his being, but his lack of maturity and emotional insecurity prohibited him from asking questions and digging deeper.

  “What would you like for your 18th birthday?” his mother asked him only days before he was scheduled to officially enter manhood.

  His first thought was this response, “I want you to tell me what really happened to my father, because I’m going to scream if you recite that tired and sad story that you have been telling me for years!” But, once he calmed his thoughts he said, “I have everything I need right here.”

  June Phillips knew of the possibility that Garrison’s 18th birthday could turn into much more than just a sedated landmark event. She knew what her husband was and also what he wasn’t. George Phillips was an undyingly loyal person and it crushed him to have to leave his family. And since he was so loyal, George was not allowed to be a family man because his wife did not want to move from place to place in order for her husband to complete a ridiculous rite of passage that she did not believe in.

  Gary was in the field at the end of the day before his birthday when he was approached by a man that he felt he knew, but was not aware he had met previously.

  “Excuse me,” the gentleman said. “I wonder if I could have a moment of your time?”

  Gary looked him over and then returned to tended to his crops. “We don’t talk to solicitors.”

  George knew that if he talked to his wife first, she would do everything in her power to keep him from Garrison. “Just a moment of your time,” George repeated, knowing his bull-headed son wouldn’t appreciate his persistence.

  Gary turned around and grabbed his wood-handled hoe in his strong right hand. “Now, I asked you nice the first time, so this time isn’t going to be so nice.” While he wasn’t prone to violence, there were a handful of times when Garrison had to defend his mom and their land over the years and this left little doubt that trespassers would be properly thrashed. He walked toward George, who was so proud of his son that he smiled broadly. Gary took this as a measure of either overconfidence or some form of insanity, but that did little to deter his advance.