Blood Shadow: Book of Manuel

the big ape was a vampire!”

  “He wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box,” Billingsley said as Manuel snatched a beer off the bar and said, “Oh boy, here we go again.”

  “You’re trying to get me to fight with him, aren’t you?” Hartwell asked and then hauled off and struck Gabriel on the side of the head, Billingsley flashing his ape and vampire facades as he flew through the air and disappeared behind the bar.

  Manuel took a swig of beer and then replied, “I’m just trying to show you that your judgment hasn’t always been so stellar, and it’s probably going to get worse!”

  “Are you saying that I’m trusting people that I shouldn’t be trusting?” Hartwell asked and then grabbed Gabriel as he came over the bar, and he threw him down the length of the bar, effectively using him as a human towel.

  Manuel moved his head to the side as a bottle of beer came whizzing past him. He didn’t want to give away the real purpose of his interaction with Hartwell, so he sat in quiet while Hartwell continued to physically work through his issues.

  Hartwell walked to the end of the bar and grabbed Gabriel by his shirt.

  “You know that I will never let you anywhere near Maggie again!” he yelled and then punched Gabriel repeatedly until he forced a change.

  “Be who you really are!”

  Gabriel turned into a full-fledged ape and then got back on his feet as Hartwell transitioned into his vampire persona with sharp teeth, long nails and extensive wings.

  “Wow, I didn’t see that coming!” Manuel commented to himself while sitting on a bar stool and watching the action. And just as the ape and the vampire were about to crash together in full-contact bliss, Manuel switched it up and brought Hartwell back to his earliest remembrance of being a vampire.

  Instead of having Hartwell watch the scene unfold with him on the sidelines, he placed him in-body so he could experience everything first hand.

  Hartwell’s pulse quickened as he started to breathe heavier like he was running away from someone or something. This fear of a foe was also interspersed with scenes of unsuspecting men and women shockingly looking into the eyes of a creature while it devoured them from the neck. He was also treated to reels of the evolutionary tract of both the protectors and hunters. And then he anticipated a view of the beach and the word ‘SAFETY’ just as he experienced when he first transitioned into becoming a vampire.

  The image of the beach was then replaced by an image of a vampire that was killed with a long, sharp spear, and then he arose as a mortal man with the word ‘SAFETY.’ Hartwell gasped and then awoke with a huge pain in his chest, as if he himself had been the target of the action.

  Manuel transported the confused vampire to a somewhat familiar bar in Pennsylvania.

  Hartwell regained his bearings by saying, “This is the night I met Garrison and then Thaddeus.”

  But what Hartwell didn’t know was that the people he was using in his sequences were not replications, or holograms, they were now the actual people being taken from their modern-day surroundings and being taught a lesson of their own.

  Garrison was so dead asleep that he thought he was dreaming when he first saw Hartwell in the bar.

  “Hey, Thomas! Are you sleeping, too?”

  Hartwell pondered the question because his journey definitely felt that way at times, although the intense physical and emotion pain told him otherwise.

  “I really hope so, but I don’t think so Gary.”

  Thaddeus, Hartwell's natural adversary and his hunter, jumped into the scene and did the first thing that instinctively came to mine. While Hartwell's focus was on Garrison, he also used whatever instincts he could draw upon and lifted his left hand up and caught a long, sharp knife that was headed for his neck. The blade stopped only a fraction of an inch from its intended target, leading Hartwell to question the known aggressor.

  "Thad, what in all things that are good and decent are you doing?"

  Thaddeus Brewster rubbed his eyes to make sure he was not dreaming.

  "What do you mean, Thomas?"

  "Why would you throw this knife at me?" Hartwell yelled and then gently tossed the blade back to the hunter.

  Thad caught the blade, handle first, and then placed the object back in his belt holder.

  He thought logically, "Because that's what I have always done!"

  "But we don't do that anymore!" Garrison interjected.

  "I was just sleeping a minute ago!" a confused Thaddeus exclaimed.

  "Yes, what's going on here, Thomas?" Gary asked.

  "I don't know, but this guy named Manuel is taking me on some sort of life lesson," Hartwell replied.

  Manuel stepped back into the picture and restricted Hartwell's access to his colleagues.

  "Did he say Manuel?" Thaddeus asked Garrison.

  "Yes, I think that's what he said," Gary replied.

  And then Manuel muted out the remaining words as Thad explained Gary that the originator of the Hartwell vampirical line was probably holding school for either a lesson or some sort of maniacal plot that they would have to put their bodies on the line for again.

  We are definitely getting too old for this stuff," Garrison stated.

  Then they started walking out of the bar and Thad replied, "No doubt. We should get a place together and do some traveling once this is all over."

  "I'm in," Gary said.

  EIGHT

  "Why wouldn't you let me here what they were saying about you?" Hartwell asked in frustration.

  Manuel remained indignant, "What makes you so sure they were talking about me? It might have started out that way, but it definitely didn't end that way! Vampires are the vainest and self-centered creatures I have ever been around!"

  Hartwell took it all in and replied, "Even more self-centered than humans?"

  "As much as I want to answer that question right now, we'll get into that later. But the short answer is that I think you're diluting yourself if you think your journey as a vampire has been anything but a series of selfish, self-centered acts."

  Hartwell thought to himself, "That's the short answer?"

  And then Manuel thought, "Yes, my friend, when I'm done with you it will be painfully obvious that was the short answer. The reason we have to go through all of this is because you won't disengage without a fight."

  So Manuel was inspired to show Hartwell how selfish he actually had been during his recent tenure as a vampire. There was no better place to start than with Cal Brewster.

  Since both Cal and his wife Sharon were involved in the first example, they were extracted from their bed and were made to feel the pain of being separated all over again.

  Sharon the protector was Garrison Phillips' daughter and Nicole's mother. She had been with Hartwell on a few occasions because of their close working relationship. Hartwell was a quite possessive vampire and thought that no one else was worthy of someone he paid attention to.

  Cal Brewster was a real thorn in the Hartwell's side and became his greatest lifelong adversary. So it enraged Hartwell even more when he discovered that 'his' Sharon was fraternizing with the enemy, Cal Brewster.

  It was always a struggle to get the hunters to 'play' near the water because it was the one place they knew they weren't safe.

  Every fight started with more of a scramble but usually ended up with age, gender and strength-specific pairings. Hartwell was busy battling with Emily Brewster on this particular night in the past, as Emily was taken from her bed as she was sleeping with her husband Aaron. Emily was Cal's fraternal twin but she was definitely on the short end of the fight while old-timers, Garrison and Thaddeus were awoken and engaging is some old-fashioned fisticuffs.

  Sharon and Cal had met the previous week in the woods and went at it like wild animals after Hartwell had been killed by Cal, who had extra incentive to end the fight expediently. Modern-day Hartwell internally mumbled to himself as the action unfolded, "The smell of 'together' was all over them!"

  He thought ba
ck to the night and ho Sharon was all-too agreeable to tangle with Cal, even though he was at the top of his game and was pretty much unbeatable in those days. He finally got Sharon in a strangle-hold, but he really wasn't cutting off her air supply.

  He whispered, "Meet me in the woods tonight. I've been thinking about you all week!"

  Hartwell was tuned into the frequency of the conversation, both as he stood with Manuel and as he out the finishing touches on Emily during the fight.

  "You look particularly delicious tonight my dear, " Hartwell said to Emily, the two haven taken a few previous 'rolls in the hay' - as he drained all of the remaining blood in her body before he dropped her useless body on the ground.

  "Bastard!" Emily said as she played dead for the scene.

  Cal was so focused on Sharon that he didn't notice Hartwell drinking the last drops of his sister's blood. Manuel's purpose of starting to bring the real people into the journey was important for all of their purposes going forward.

  Emily sat up and then yelled at her brother, "You see, you didn't even notice that I was dead!"

  She had experienced years of guilt for her brother's subsequent plight, but never realized that her focus was less on the battle and more on his budding social life.

  Cal was just as in love as he was enamored with her back then. Before he could look up and see what was going on around him, he was hit across the face by a close-line delivered by a rapidly-charging Hartwell. The hunter went down in a huge heap, but then sat up and talked to his sister even though he was out cold in the original iteration.

  "It was my