by Ginger Marin

(a continuation of BrainTrackers: The Beginning)

This day began like many others in the city that never sleeps.  People rushed about eager to get to their jobs.  The wind blustered down from between the skyscrapers and whipped around the shadowed alleys where the sun cannot reach.  The subways teamed with people and trains zipped by within minutes of each other.  Crowded streets, honking car horns and buses snaking along their routes like giant ants.  That's New York City 2010. 

But in the shadows of unused tunnels, where trains stopped running long ago, a presence lurked that was neither human nor animal as we know it.  It moved stealthily through the passages, scaling slimy watery walls as needed to reach its perch.  The rats scurried whenever it approached, the lucky ones at least.  And in other tunnels under the great city, more beings crept about.  They moved with great ease then stopped in unison.  

Far from town, on the far end of Long Island where a lighthouse stands, a creature swam up from the depths and slunk into a grouping of rocks.  From its darkened hiding place it rummaged through the bones of seabirds, rats and other small animals.  Skulls were displayed prominently around the cave with the smallest ones gracing the creature's neck.

Under the city's famous bridges, still others lurked, glued to the structures' underbellies by the sticky substance of their bodies while some hanged from trestles.  The rain began to fall, slow at first then ever more forceful.  A hunt was about to begin.  (more coming)