Undead And Black In Texas

A lot of people wake up and curse their lot in life, thinking it's not easy to be in their shoes. Man, they should get over themselves already. If they're alive to complain, then things can't be that bad. If things were that bad, they wouldn't be around to complain. They'd be dead. Just take it from me, a dead guy. Well, technically I think I am undead. In mortal life I was known as Jonathan Travis Coleman, J.T. to my friends. Pleased to meet you, sir or ma'am.

I once had an amazing life, now that I think about it. I was nineteen years old, a six-foot-tall and burly student-athlete at a world-class school, and I was on top of the world. My father, Joseph Coleman is an immigrant from the beautiful island of Jamaica and he's the first person of color to become Chief of Police in Austin. My mother, Christina Suarez is the President of the Hispanic Women Professionals Association. My younger brother Jonas is at West Point and my sister Hannah is at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Just an immigrant family living the American Dream, that's us. I played football for the University of Texas in the beautiful City of Austin. I had life on a string, and then the unthinkable happened. I died, but I wasn't allowed to stay that way.

Now I'm stuck somewhere between life and death. I don't breathe, or sleep, and I don't eat, drink, shit or piss anymore. I still walk around, though. I am not a vampire because I don't drink blood and sunlight doesn't do shit to me. I'm not a zombie because I don't get the urge to attack people to feast on their flesh and I don't moan all damn day. I'm just me, only kind of dead. The hardest thing about being a dead guy? Being stuck in the world of the living. To my parents, my best friend Cory Winston and my girlfriend Stephanie Albright, I'm dead. Worm food. Except I'm not, and I am restless.

Why am I sticking around? I don't have a clue. There are these other dead people out there, walking around. I see them from time to time. They don't talk to me. They're stuck in their own worlds. They're ghosts, the spiritual remnants of the living who are trapped on the earthly plane. For the most part, they're harmless. Sometimes the vengeful ghosts evolve into something dangerous, the wraiths. They're the evil spirits who go around possessing people and wreaking havoc. And then there are those things that truly scare the shit out of me. The demons. Why? Simply because demons are out of this world and they're major bad news. Ghosts and wraiths stay away from them.

Me? I'm a dead man walking, so I guess you could say I'm the guy stuck in the middle. I was content to wander around the City of Austin, skulking around and trying not to think about my old life, until something happened. Recently, I was walking around my old stomping grounds when I came across something truly disturbing. My neighbor Ernesto Sanchez, an old Hispanic dude who lived near the local church with his daughter Maria, rushed into the police station, begging for help. He claimed that his daughter was possessed by a demon.

Well, as you can imagine, the cops laughed at him. I followed Ernesto home and the dude was serious. Something evil had taken hold of his daughter and refused to let go. I intervened, and although the demon put up one hell of a fight, I was able to extricate it from the young woman's body, by offering it my own to possess. Demons cannot possess dead bodies, only living ones. Once the demon exited Maria's body, it tried to enter me and failed. Swearing vengeance it fled. The demon, who called itself Magnus, promised me a fate worse than death for interfering with its plans. Since I'm still undead and kicking, the foul bozo can go stuff itself.

Ernesto and Maria are the only living souls who know that I'm still around. I swore them both to secrecy. Can't have them going around telling people about my little secret. Also, the demon Magnus isn't the only one of its kind out there. I know there are many others. All kinds of monsters walk around in this seemingly mundane world of ours. Normal people can't see them for what they are but I can. I stopped being normal the day I died and rose as one of the undead. I can see the inhuman creeps because I am no longer human. I know what I am not but for the life of me ( pun intended ) I couldn't tell you what I am.

I am what I am, I guess. Now, in a place like the City of Austin, even if you're undead, you've got to find an occupation. I became a security guard, working as a rent-a-cop at various locations throughout the metropolis. You wouldn't believe some of the things I've seen. There is a war going on between good and evil. Angels and demons are real, and so are just about every type of monster you can think of, from various mythologies. All of these unearthly entities exist in our world and many of them have a die-hard hatred for all things human. What's standing in the way of these things? Yours truly, not that I am one to brag.

I'm not alone in this fight. Recently, I met some really cool people. You see, the day after I defeated the demon Magnus, a guy showed up at Ernesto and Maria's place, looking for me. A tall fortysomething white dude in a suit. I'm Michael, he said with a smile. I didn't know it at the time but I was speaking to the Archangel Michael himself. The Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Heaven. He came to recruit me as part of God's Army. If I hadn't recruited the Legion of Darkness would have, Michael told me. It's nice to be wanted, I told him. The Archangel smiled, and then he introduced me to his people.

A tall, fine-looking Hispanic woman in a red tank top and blue jeans. This raven-haired, bronze-skinned and dark-eyed beauty goes by the name Lily, which is short for Lilith and she's supposedly the Biblical Lilith. As in the first wife of Adam, before God made Eve. Lilith is immortal and was once Lucifer's girlfriend but they had a falling out and she joined God's Army. I think she did that just to piss off her ex but hey, don't quote me on that. This broad isn't just easy on the eyes, man. First of all, since she never ate the Apple that caused Adam and Eve's downfall, she's eternally young and immune to disease. Lilith also has superhuman strength, super speed and check this out, she is also invulnerable. How cool is that?

There's also Asher, a stocky Eurasian dude with tattoos. Asher is actually the mythical Ashkenazer, progenitor of the Ashkenazi Jewish clans. The dude has been around for thousands of years. The guy has a healing factor that would make the X-Men's Wolverine jealous. He doesn't age, doesn't get sick and he recovers quickly from injuries that would kill anyone else. If Lilith is all icy femme fatale, Asher is the opposite. The guy's a regular chatterbox and he cracks me up. Don't be fooled, though. Asher has been around for a long time and he's also got magical abilities. Asher can sense supernatural entities across great distances and track anyone virtually anywhere. He's the reason Michael and Lilith found me in the first place.

Yeah, the forces of evil are gathered here on Earth and it's gotten so bad that angels are coming down from heaven to do battle with them. Growing up in the Catholic faith, I thought angels were sweet little cherubs with harps floating in the sky. The reality is far different. The angels I've been meeting are warriors first and foremost. Michael looks like a middle-aged lawyer or something when you first meet him. The same affable, decent-looking guy with the easy smile can transform into a being of pure light, capable of leaping into the heavens and hurtling fireballs at you.

While Michael is a likeable guy capable of becoming a fearsome warrior at the drop of a hat, the one other angel I've met is somewhat different. The Archangel Gabriel is, at first glance, harmless enough. A tall, thirty-something black woman who looks like a former supermodel. Dressed like the world's most stylish businesswoman. You'd never guess that underneath it all, she's the Messenger of God. I've seen Gabriel become a hundred-foot-tall, human-shaped pillar of flames before ascending into the heavens and vanishing in a ball of light. Pretty awesome, eh? Yeah, right. What I wouldn't give to have my old life back.

I am in a new world nowadays, battling demons, monsters and sometimes fallen angels. Yes, there are fallen angels out there. According to Michael, God made hundreds of thousands of angels in the Beginning and almost half of them left Heaven to serve the Devil's cause. An Angel of the Lord told me I've got a great destiny and he's here to help me fulfill it. I am not one hundred percent sure that this is what I want but I might not have a choice. I desperately miss my family. I have seen them, my parents, my old friends and my former girlfriend. They're moving on with their lives. I guess I should too, but I can't. Why is that? Oh, yeah. I'm undead! And how was YOUR day?