Anyway, Tommy, he's a tough guy now.  You know, I wish it were true.  What gets me every time is this look he's got, the same one he had as a kid.  It's that blank stare, the empty fear, conceived in the hollowness within his gaze, like it's sucking air from his partially open mouth.   This look is the same one Tommy had when Alex and I told him about the werewolves, or the Sharp-toothed Under-Toad that would suck him beneath the waves at the beach.   But now, now instead of that emptiness, hollow stares fueled by a boy's naive, these looks seem fueled by a man's desperate knowing, knowing the truth. 

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