6 T H E T U S C A R O R A R E V I E W 2 0 2 2 less and jobless. Most never recovered. Now the abandoned factories produce nothing besides degenerate teens, loitering within them and painting graffiti on their walls. It seemed a new shop was boarded up every week— shopkeepers unable to market to the dwindling population. I laid in the cover of the shrubs for some time, exasperated, confused, and disturbed. Images of the ghoulish creature frolicked in my head with its wet scaly skin and dead black eyes. As gruesome as the creature was, its voice was what pricked the blonde hair on my arms to a point. I was snapped out of my nightmarish visions by the sound of weight crunching into earth. Urgency plummeted into my consciousness. If I was quick, I could slide down the west hill and plop myself alongside the river where there was a small dirt path that led back to Main Street. It was about a twenty-foot distance to cover and I would have to expose myself. Quickly and without thinking, I hurled myself out of the bushes and towards the plummeting hill. The slapping footsteps followed in pursuit. I flung my body down the incline. My feet thudded into the ground with a crunch followed by a surging pain that sprouted from my right ankle. I had almost certainly damaged it. I couldn’t see where I was but the sound of the gushing river told me I was where I needed to be. Before I could tend to my wound, I heard the scrape of scales against dirt. When I glanced back my eyes adjusted enough to see a large dark lump gliding down the hill behind me. I turned to run, but the pulsing pain in my ankle didn’t let me get far before I collapsed into the thick mud. The creature landed with a thud and stalked towards me. Standing at least seven feet tall, it towered over my crippled body, surveying my limitations. It was then that the creature spoke in its distorted, yet hauntingly familiar voice. “Geez, you almost outran me there, little brother! You sure you aren’t gonna sign up for track next year? Continue my legacy?” “You’re not my brother. You’re not James.” My voice shuddered with my body as I spoke. “Hey now, I’m still James! I’m just a little different now. Soon you will be too,” He said with a wink. The smell of sulfur began to invade my nose. “It’s better this way. I even got my mile time down to five minutes, six seconds. Pretty impressive, huh?” “What happened to you?” I tried to slide myself back, but pain shot up through my ankle again.
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