Hey. Whilst this is only my second fictional work published online and my first attempt at a epistolary structure of a short story, please be totally honest with your comments. Much appreciated. Thanks.
- Laurence Branson
He ran with a pace that was justified by his fear. The Thing that he believed to be a monster was on his tail and was very close now. It was following his every move, the way a positive magnet relentlessly aims to find its negative counterpart. Except this Thing – whatever it was – didn't just want to attach itself to him. Oh, no. It wanted much more.
As if to prove what the Thing really wanted to do, Drew Johnson began to lose speed – at a horrifying rate. At first, Drew thought the Thing had thrown a tight lasso around his body. He lost his pace in jolts, one after the other as if the lasso was being tugged.
And tugged.
And tugged.
That was the feeling. Drew felt hopeless because there was nothing he could do. No matter how hard he tried to push on, his body reacted pessimistically, as if it wanted to be consumed by the Thing, the Thing that was now closer than ever.
--
From The Body in Motion (p. 41), by Dr. Laurence Branson:
When your scared, your mind focuses on the one task at hand and performance rises dramatically as stress increases. Our ability to perform increases up to a certain level of stress arousal. This is the healthy tension or eustress. But if this stress continues uncontrolled and a fatigue point is reached, any further stress arousal will take the performance level down, ultimately leading to exhaustion, ill-health and, finally breakdown.
--
As Drew took in his final breaths, an observer would have noted that Drew hadn't recalled The Body in Motion to mind because (a) he had never read it, (b) he had completely forgot about reading it or (c) he didn't think it was useful. Whatever the cause, the effect was clear because, following those last breaths, the Thing had done what it was always planning on doing.
Perhaps no one would have known what the Thing really had done. Perhaps... perhaps if it was not for the lacerated intestines, squashed liver, barely discernible kidney and the scratched and broken teeth (that put a nice touch to the three-course meal) that was carelessly left behind.
