I Am Stanley

They say that even the most far-fetched fiction is based on at least a little bit of reality. ‘They’ weren’t lying. I don’t know why I feel the need to write this down, but it’s a story that needs to be told. Right now, I’m sitting on a bench at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, the funnel cake stand to my right and the shaved ice stand to my left. The pungent salt breeze moving lazily over the Pacific tickles my nose, and the sun shines down bright upon the page. It’s been a year since that fateful night when my crazy new life began.

I speak of fiction versus reality because I’m no longer sure what reality is anymore. Do you remember the movie “The Lost Boys”? It’s not anything to do with the boys in Neverland, but the vampire film from the 1980s. And yes, you guessed it… Vampires are real. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Similar to the film, my parents and I moved to Santa Cruz not too long ago. We lived in Fresno, but my dad found another job and we had to move. It just so happened that dad had found a job in the same city that my grandfather called home. Mom and dad never listened to him, though, they thought he was on the verge of dementia because he kept talking about vampires. But he wasn’t the only one.

Up on Laurel Street, there was a comic book store. It was run by two brothers, just like the movie. But that’s about where the close similarities ended. Mitch and Kyle were fraternal twins, and they had about forty years on me. They told me that their parents had been murdered when they were sixteen. Somehow, the state of California allowed them to continue operating the store, even though they were underage. They, too, were aware of the vampires, as the creatures were responsible for the death of their parents. They spent a lot of time with me, teaching me about how to kill a vampire. And we spent weeks searching for what they called the “head vampire” that had eluded them for the last four decades.

From their teachings, if one were to kill the head vampire, then all of its ‘children’ would revert back to being human. That wasn’t true. But the stake through the heart, the cutting off of the head, and sunlight were, indeed, true.

The brothers turned me into a proficient vampire killer, and our hunts would sometimes last for days. No, I didn’t go to school… I hunted. School didn’t mean much to me after the vampires killed my family. The only thing I had to live for was revenge. Not exactly the way a twelve year old should live, but what else is there, really.

Mitch and Kyle let me stay at their place, which definitely could’ve used a mother’s touch. I was thankful, though. The brothers were really great guys, and they made sure that I always had what I needed.

Over the weeks that we hunted together, the three of us killed off dozens of vampires. None seemed to be the head vampire. It wasn’t until the brothers were taken from me that I caught the trail of this elusive creature. It was a stroke of luck, though, that let me be able to fight against it.

The tears were streaming down my face the evening after the brothers were killed. I sat at my small table in the apartment above the comic book store. The window was open next to me, allowing the ocean breeze to blow into the small room. Above the television, a plethora of glass wind chimes swung back and forth with the breeze. At one point, the sunlight reflected off of one and directly into my eye. I raised my tear-stained face and gazed at them. Then, incredibly, I watched as the random shapes of the wind chimes appeared to line up and form an arrow.

My eyes went to the wall opposite the arrow, and there hung the framed copy of the brothers’ most prized possession, The Death of Superman, First Edition comic book. I rose from my mourning and walked to the frame. Mitch and Kyle had quite the sense of self-worth. So, it was no surprise that they’d set up this arrow stunt to point at the comic book. But it took a few moments for me to realize that only I would see the arrow, because I was the only one who sat at that spot.

In that moment, I realized that they knew they were going to die, and that I wouldn’t. This was for me! I removed the frame from the wall and let it fall to the floor, the breaking glass a shocking sound in the quiet apartment. On the exposed wall was written in Sharpie, Break Me.

Gladly! I thought to myself, a moment of releasing my anger and pain was much needed. And I put my fist through the wall, removing the drywall as I pulled out my hand. In the exposed hole, I found what appeared to be an amulet. It was made of some type of brownstone, shiny on the outside, with a dark black rune etched into it. I had no idea what language it was, nor what it could even mean, but, when I held the amulet, something changed inside me. I felt raw, I felt primal. I felt that there was more to reality than met the eye.

I also felt that there was more to me than I ever imagined. It filled me with a fire that I couldn’t quench. And I became like a person posessed. No vampire stood a chance against me, and it must’ve been quite a sight to watch a twelve year old kid take down a vampire. I followed the trail no matter where it led. I found myself just south of Paradise Park at a dilapidated house on the banks of the San Lorenzo River.

I fought my way through the house, leaving vampire corpses in every room. Finally, I came face-to-face with the head vampire. I knew immediately that it wasn’t human, it wasn’t even formerly human. This creature was something much different. But I feared it no more than any of the vampires that it had created. I froze it in its charge towards me, holding the amulet before me and speaking in Latin: “Humiliare sub potenti manu Dei, contremisce et effuge!”

Be humble under the powerful hand of God, tremble and flee!

I repeated the exorcism chant and pressed the amulet to the creature’s forehead. I watched as it turned to ash and collapsed to the floor. The world stood silent around me.

I had no idea that I could speak Latin, nor that I had the power to exorcise a demon(?). For two weeks following the death of Mitch and Kyle, I went on a killing rampage that ended in the defeating the head vampire. I spent the next two weeks trying to settle myself down. I lost my home as the police closed off the brothers’ apartment after their bodies were found over on Aloha Lane. So, I spent most of my time at the Boardwalk, living off of carnival food purchased with pick-pocketed cash and sleeping under the roller coaster. I would still kill vampires when I came upon them, but I was not actively hunting them. Then came the day in which this day is the one year anniversary.

I said above that this day was when my new life began. I know what you’re thinking, my new life began when vampires killed my family. But, like I said, that was just the tip of the iceberg. In the year since this life began, I have travelled far and wide. I had to come back to Santa Cruz, though. At least, a Santa Cruz. You see, even though I’m in the same spot that I was a year ago, I’m not in the same Santa Cruz.

When I killed my last vampire, I was standing next to the bench where I’m sitting now. I felt the creature sneaking up behind me. But I never turned around. I didn’t need to… I had strapped a stake to my elbow and wore a jacket with a velcro breakaway patch. Once I felt it close enough, I brought my arm up, elbow bent, and jammed the stake into its heart. What I didn’t know is that the vampire had lured police with him. As soon as it fell to the boardwalk, the flashlights came on and I heard three officers scream “Freeze!”.

My left hand was already grasping the amulet, and I said, “Via arcus.” There was a moment of blinding white light and then silence. I looked around to see nobody. I had no idea what had happened. Something was… off. I shook my head and decided to go get some sleep and figure things out in the morning.

The next day, I walked up to Laurel Street and the comic book store. It was open! I walked in and saw Mitch standing behind the counter and Kyle stacking plastic covered books in the far corner. As if nothing was out of kilter, I strolled up to the rack nearest Mitch so that he could get clear sight of me. Nothing… Not a bit of recognition.

Long story short, I have spent the last year traveling from reality to reality. The multiverse is a real thing. I haven’t been able to get back to my own reality, but I find that it is no longer a goal for me. I want to find my parents. In every world I’ve been to, though, I have found nothing. I have found, however, strange and dangerous creatures from every tale of horror that humans have ever written about. And at the source of each of them resides a ‘shard’.

I have studied as much weird lore as I could find. It all led me to the Shards. Basically, pieces of God Himself. I have yet to come across a ‘nice’ one, and I have destroyed more than a handful of bad ones. This is now my purpose… to hunt the Shards.

Should you find this letter, hold on to it and make the truth known. Things are not what we were taught. Who am I? I am a twelve year old reality jumper. I am Stanley…