"So you're saying that you're like me?" I asked, putting my car in park at the edge of the Laverne Drive-In Theater. We had bought tickets to the double feature to see Annabelle and Child's Play, but I suspected we weren't going to pay much attention to the movies.

"Did you think you were the only one?" Laura said, twirling her hair. "How many times have you Soul Jumped?"

"Done what?"

"Came back to life, stupid."

"I guess," I tried to remember, but my brain felt scrambled and I had a hard time recalling, "twice. No, three times now."

Laura reached over and opened one of my eyelids with her thumb and pointer finger. She flicked on the overhead light and stared into my eye.

"Jump sickness."

I took a deep breath through the nausea and said, "You say that like I'm supposed to know what it means."

"You're still new at this! Your soul is having a hard time adjusting to its new body. Don't worry, it'll get easier. In fact, the more times you come back the better. If I were you, I'd die at least one more time. That should alleviate the symptoms."

Maybe I was naive, but I was sort of hoping that I would never have to die again. Dying sucked. Dying sucked hard.

"Wait, how many times have you—"

"Jumped?"

"Died, I was gonna say died."

"So many times I've lost count," Laura smiled, and turned on the radio. She flicked the radio to the "drive-in station" so we could hear the movie over the speakers. Annabelle had just started.

"Forgive me," I said, "but this is a lot to take in." I leaned onto the steering wheel and took a deep breath. I don't know what was making me feel worse, the sickness stirring in my gut or the realization that I wasn't special. As much as dying sucked, it was cool to be able to come back from the dead. It was a power I thought was exclusive to me.

"That's why I'm here. I can answer any questions you might have. I've been doing this for a while." Laura put a hand on my shoulder and started gently rubbing back and forth. It felt nice and made me temporarily forget about feeling sick.

"How could you tell I was me? I mean, how could you tell that the bartender was gone and I was in his place?" I asked.

"I've been going to that bar for months and I have never seen that bartender pour a beer that shitty. I knew something was up, and when I whispered to you the look on your face told me all I needed to know."

I felt like Laura wasn't being completely honest with me. Seemed a little far fetched to just take a wild guess and correctly identify me. I didn't want to push the subject though. Afterall, I hadn't really given her a good reason to trust me either.

"Okay then, how come we have this power?"

"Beats me."

"Are you serious?"

"How should I know? We just can."

"How many of us are there?"

"More than you'd think."

For someone who seemed to have all the answers, none of them felt very helpful or enlightening. Maybe I was just asking the wrong questions.

"What's that place we go to when we die?"

"Most of us just call it 'The In Between.' I suppose it's kind of like Purgatory, though I'm not very religious myself."

"Me neither."

"I prefer not to spend very much time there. I much prefer to walk in the land of the living."

"It's not so bad, I spent a long time there once watching my little brother grow up. It was kind of peaceful."

Laura stared at me with wide eyes, her jaw hanging open like she couldn't believe what she just heard.

"How long were you there?"

"It's tough to say, but when I came back it had been a few years."

Laura slapped me on the cheek. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to get my attention, that's for sure.

"You fucking idiot! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"

"It didn't seem that bad compared to dying," I said, rubbing my cheek.

"Let me be very clear, the worst thing that can happen to a Soul Jumper is having all the flames go out. You think that place was peaceful? Wait until you're all alone in the dark, trapped for eternity, with nobody to jump into. Jesus, that was stupid!"

Laura seemed pissed, but also concerned at the same time. I didn't realize how seriously I had almost fucked up. After coming back from the dead I guess I thought I was invincible, I didn't realize that there were things much worse than death out there.

A collection of gasps and screams rolled over the Drive-In. Something scary must have happened in the movie, but I was too distracted to notice. The real horror was what I was learning in this car.

"Let's talk about something a little cheerier," Laura said, "how did you die for the first time?"

That was her definition of cheerier?

"I don't want to talk about that!"

"Come on! I've got a favorite death, a worst death, a most embarrassing death, but I'll never forget my first. Please? Tell me tell me tell me," Laura was gently punching me in the shoulder, and wouldn't let up.

"Fine! I beat my friend in a game of Super Smash Bros and he shoved me."

"That killed you?"

"My head smashed into his television, and, yeah I died."

Laura remained silent for a moment then burst out laughing.

"That's too funny! Oh lord! You poor thing! Killed over a video game!"

"It's not funny! I was murdered!"

"Oh baby no, murder is premeditated. At best it was manslaughter."

"It still sucked! What about you? How did you die for the first time?"

Laura took a deep breath and looked up at the roof of the car. There was gunk and grime everywhere. When Laura asked if we could take my car, I agreed not knowing how dirty it was. The bartender I had jumped into was a really messy guy.

"My first wasn't nearly as fun as yours. Regular old cancer for me. I was only sixteen, can you believe that? My parents wouldn't let me do chemo, they thought they could cure me with an organic diet and essential oils. You cannot believe how relieved I was when I got new parents for the first time."

"What about your worst time?" I asked.

"I don't really talk about that one. Some deaths are best left in the past."

"Mine was getting stabbed to death and dying in a sewer. Same kid who killed me the first time actually. And the third, but the second time was the worst. It was slow and nasty."

"Wait, the same guy has killed you every time?"

"Yeah, is that bad."

"Did you tell him you could jump?"

"No." Laura slapped me again, this time on the other cheek.

"Does he know you can jump?"

"I mean, I guess he kind of figured it out on his own."

Laura closed her eyes and put her head in her hands.

"Why would you go and do something so stupid?"

"Is it supposed to be some secret? Nobody would believe him if he told them. It's not like I revealed us to the world or anything."

"You don't know about Hunters?"

"I feel like you're honestly just making a lot of this up."

"Do you think maybe it's strange that he was the one to kill you all three times? I mean, I've died way more times than that and never the same way twice. Definitely never by the same person twice. You've been Fractured."

"Again, just making up words here."

"It's never happened to me, but I've heard about Jumpers who were Hunted. Supposedly when we die it's possible a little bit of our soul can get left behind, and if somebody kills you enough times then a piece of you can get stuck in them like a splinter. I'd venture to say it won't be the last time he kills you, in fact, I'd say he's probably out there looking for you right now."

"Shut up," I laughed, "that's not funny."

Laura didn't respond, she just stared at me blankly.

"Wait, are you being serious?" I asked.

"He probably knows where you are right now. Hell, he could be at this Drive-In right now looking for you."

"What the hell? What am I supposed to do?"

"You've got two options. Kill him and then yourself, which I don't recommend, or jump into a new body and try to outrun him."

"I'm not a killer, but out of curiosity, why wouldn't that work?"

"A piece of you, in him, a splinter, remember?"

"So?"

"He's not a Soul Jumper. If he dies, the piece of your soul in him dies forever. If that happens, the rest of your soul will slowly die too. I don't know why, it just kind of works out that way. Better to run, yeah, we should definitely pick your next jump."

"What do you mean 'pick?'"

"You don't know how to pick who you want to be? Oh my god you are so adorable, you really are an amateur aren't you? Did you think you just jumped into random bodies?"

"I mean, yeah, that's what it felt like."

"Oh baby, wait until you learn this." Laura unbuckled my seat belt and pulled the lever to lower the driver's side seat back. "Okay, I want you to take three deep breaths and relax your whole body. Go ahead."

What other choice did I have? I leaned back and tried my best to relax.

"Now," Laura said, "imagine all the people around you, think about the cars they're driving, the clothes they're wearing, and try to see past all that. Try to see under their skin, right into their souls."

I thought she was pulling my leg here like she had been all night, but then the sound of the movie faded away, and I could feel something, a small pull, right into the lives of the people around me.

"Think about the color of their souls, try to visualize how bright their flames burn, now sit up and look."

I looked out the windshield, at all the cars around me, and I could see it, or see something, I guess. In the cars and reflected through the glass of their windows, I could see glowing. Slight, radiating colors of all the people around me.

"What's your color?" Laura asked.

"Blue."

"Really? I had you pegged for red."

"What am I looking at?"

"You might not have known this, but you can only jump into people who are compatible with you. You have to be on the same wavelength or something, and all the blue people around you are compatible. Do you see any?"

I looked around and saw only two blue lights faintly glowing. One was a fat middle-aged man with a bald head. His wife and kids were in the car, and as the children were horsing around in the back. His wife was telling him about how worthless he was. I know I felt a lot older than I was, but I was definitely not ready to have kids yet.

The second man was sitting in the front of a BMW alone. He had a nice haircut and a heavy coat. As best I could tell he didn't have a wedding ring on, and he seemed on the younger end as well.

"I see one guy who looks compatible."

"Okay, perfect, now here's how this works. When you go to the In Between, you're gonna see his blue flame. Jump into it immediately, do not waste any time. If you do it correctly you should be able to make it before the movies are over. It's not supposed to take years between jumps, you're supposed to be able to do it quickly."

"How am I supposed to get to the In Between?"

Laura was way ahead of me, she had grabbed my seatbelt, pulled out the slack, and wrapped it tightly around my neck.

"Don't worry, this is my go-to," Laura said, unbuckling my pants and pulling down my zipper, "I'll stick your hand down your pants once you die. I promise this'll be your funniest death."

My eyes were turning red and felt like they were going to pop out of my head. I wanted to fight back, but she had swung her knee up over my lap and had straddled me. It was the closest I had ever been to a woman before, and if I was going to die then I was going to die happy. She said it was going to be my funniest, but as of right now it was also my favorite.

"I'm happy I met you," Laura said, "I hope we meet again."

Before I knew it I was in The Dark Place, and I jumped into action. Just like Laura said there was a blue flame right near me, and I flung myself at it and let it burn me up.

When I opened my eyes, I was still at the Drive-In, and Child's Play was just ending. I didn't feel any sickness at all. My head was still a little scrambled, but I was sure that would pass. I looked over to the bartender's car, but I didn't see Laura anywhere. She must have bailed before somebody found my dead body. As I drove past, I saw his body lying there in the car, the seat belt wrapped around his neck and his hands down his pants.

I felt bad for the poor theater worker who would find him.

I drove home to my small house content to live out my life in my new body. I would stay away from Carl and try to embrace the future. Any ideas I had about revenge had vanished. I was tired of dying and adjusting to new bodies, I was sure this new life was going to be the one to stick. Maybe I'd even find a girlfriend, one who was nice and looked out for me like Laura did.

As I got home and took off my coat, and saw the outfit I was wearing underneath.

I was wearing black button up shirt with a white, cleric collar across my neck.

"Oh shit," I said, "I'm a fucking priest."