The town is strewn with dust.
Bones litter streets and stalls.
There is nothing but decay.
The wake of our last fall.

– Adriana Calloway

"Hey man, where ya goin'?" Jason asked, stopping Kyle with an outstretched arm.

Kyle bellowed a heavy sigh. "Home, ya blind idjit."

Manny looked hurt. Not for the mediocre insult, but for not being invited to come along. He gazed at his shoes and shrugged. "Ok, kid. I get it. Gotta get ready for your funeral, doncha?"

Kyle massaged his temples and groaned. Should he invite Jason on his trek to Old Town? Dr. Z didn't explicitly say he shouldn't bring company, or did the old dodger's secrecy imply such? He knew listening to Jason's endless stream of bawdy and inspired banter might drive him insane, but watching the infamous Sultan of Sarcasm pout so piteously was infinitely worse.

"God! You whine like my dog. Look, c'mere..." he said, swinging his eyes around, scanning for Sam, or Lorelei, or Karen, or anyone else who might interrupt or overhear. Kyle's abrupt suspicion piqued Manny's interest.

"What's the scam, man? You want me to help ya with Adriana? 'Cause I ain't gonna. Sorry, no offense 'r anythin', but I don't want any part in your death," Jason said, stern.

"Augh! Shut. Up!" Kyle hissed. "Forget about her for a second, will ya? You'll be eating those words later, but that's not what I wanna tell ya." Kyle again swung his head in a long arc, and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Ever hear of Old Town?" There. Jason had, whether he liked it or not, joined the conspiracy.

Or maybe not. Jason wasn't exactly a model student, and if Old Town was ever covered in History, well, that was news to him. He blinked. "Old what?" he asked, incredulous.

"Town. You might be familiar with it. Keeps ya up to your neck in supple moms. I think ya might even live in one. Hmmm," Kyle held his chin and hummed in mock consternation.

"Yeah? Stuff it. I know what a fuckin' town is, asshole. What the hell is Old Town? Some kinda bad joke? What, our town just a Spring Chicken?" Old Town, what a riot.

"That's what I said! Dr. Z says that's what this place was called like 100 yeas ago, or somethin'. You think I believe that? Even Ye Olde Towne with th extra e's 'n everything woulda seemed more likely. He wants me to check it out." There it was, in its naked swinging glory. Kyle wished for some convenient sand so he could perfect his ostrich imitation. Embarrassing? Yeah, just a little.

Jason chuckled. "Man, that Coot's pullin' your leg. Ain't no city or town or village named that."

"Good!" Kyle yelled with a grin. "But I still wanna check it out, ya know? It's way too weird to all be a lie. Adriana said he tricks students into extra work and walking into the middle of nowhere won't teach me nuthin' except not to trust him."

"Makes sense to me, kid. Gotta be sumthin' out there! Let's go!"

That was, perhaps, a bit too easy. Kyle gawked at Jason, sure the boy had somehow perfected annoying people by changing his mind at the crack of a whip. Every time a butterfly in a remote corner of Sri Lanka flapped its wings, Jason Manny formed a new opinion.

"Well?" Jason prompted.

"Uhh... Ok. You know that field right next to Craig's Hill at the edge of town? He says out there, after half a mile or so, is the old Tamond Dale. 'Cept he called it Old Town. Said he had maps with that name, but I dunno."

"Sounds good to me, kid. You like to walk? That's a long way out. Sumthin' tells me it's more than half a mile, or even two." Jason looked serious, staring directly at him, wearing his previous question with an aura of doubt.

Kyle laughed. "I don't know what you think of the city, but I'd ask you the same question. 'Cept I wonder if you can keep up." Jason had a point, though. The idea an entire town, even lowly scorched rubble, existed a mere half-mile beyond the outskirts of Tammond Dale was patently ridiculous. Either Dr. Z found an old map where distances were measured in subjective lengths of time in lieu of miles, or since he never went himself, he misjudged the span. The man was an English teacher after all, not an automatic authority of geography.

Jason wasn't impressed. "Sounds like a challenge to me."

At that, Kyle openly scoffed. "Not so fast, man. I still gotta go home for supplies. He wanted me to look around, and if it's really there, I wanna do it right. Promised to send me back with a camera if I found anything interesting, so that's exactly what i'm gonna do!"

Jason's eyes bulged; a camera?! Those were expensive! Dr. Z would trust Kyle with a camera? Maybe there was something out there after all. Not a lost civilization or Atlantis, but something. Kyle hadn't been in town long, and he was already deeply embroiled in its affairs. A quest, a girl, infamous in less than a week... Jason wondered if Kyle didn't possess some power that incited intrigue, or yanked him into existing broiling miasmas. If anything were possible, Kyle was a walking example of the Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." Jason decided—if that were the case—to never leave Kyle's side. Manny craved adventure, and he'd just found a compass.

"Let's go!" he shouted behind himself, already booking hard for Kyle's house. "I'd hate to keep your mom waiting!"

Kyle rolled his eyes; Jason's vow of safety was too good to be true. At least he wouldn't be exploring possibly dangerous ruins alone. Things could certainly be worse.

Unfortunately, the clouds had gathered, and darkened, and wept an inky death on the valley of his future. For he'd hit a grimy slide, dropping and crashing into a steep chasm, and this calm would be his last. Worse things than company? Yeah, a lot worse.