Yet another wonderful cover from one of our regular artists, whose name we really don't know. In fact, we don't know anything about him - where he's from, what he does, what he likes (other than Spectre: the Annihilation we guess).

We just know that every so often he sends us a great photo, named only with a location on the map and a little motto.

This one is marked as "Gainesville, Florida - Too Young to Drive, Never Too Old to Fly."

 The Ugly Truth

About a month back, young Donny Willsome made the mistake of accepting a ride home from a stranger. The guy seemed as nice as red apples and hay when he offered the ride, but once they started driving, he seemed to have a dark mirth about him. And he seemed to be rather intent on using that digital camera of his: taking pictures of his young passenger as they stopped for red lights, or slowed for turns.

Donny asked him what he did. "Oh, I'm an artist," the man explained: "I work in a number of mediums, but none of them are as satisfying as this. There's something so immediate about digital photography, wouldn't you say?"

He went on and on, and as he did, Donny lost all track of time, or distance. There was something entrancing about the man's voice - something that made Donny want to listen to every single word he said.

Before long, they were out of town, as the "shortcut" the man knew of had led them to nowhere at all. But Donny couldn't make himself be afraid, or try to get out of the car. And it was not much longer beyond that point that Donny was completely ensorcelled into doing the driver's bidding.

It took about three tries down that lonely road - with Donny holding onto the hood for dear life - before the young boy got the perfect expression, just as they got within range of the ill-placed speed warning sign.

And once the driver had what he'd come for, he stamped on the brakes, and sent poor, young Donny flying onto the pavement at about 105 MPH. Then the driver ran his subject over - twice - and drove away, smiling at how perfect a day it had been.

Fortunately, Donny was found less than a half an hour later by a Boy Scout Troop that had been hiking around those parts. Between their timely call for an ambulance and first aid on the scene, they saved his life. His legs are so badly broken that he may never run again, and he still needs skin grafts on 3/4 of his back due to his being nearly-skinned by the impact and the roll, but he's alive.

And the odd thing - something his doctors put down to shock and trauma - is that he can't remember how he got there at all.


 Contentz

 

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