20140731

Day 88

It is said that words have great power.
They create, they destroy and they do so every day.
Those who know how to properly wield these words
are to be feared.

A man sits in a cluttered room, typing furiously.
Among the pages he has written are photos of a woman.
She does not know they are there.
She does not know they were ever taken.
The man knows.
The man knows.

She is dying you see.
Cancer.
The usual sob story with a twist.
The man is a writer and writers have power.
He will not, cannot let her die.
He will write her to live and she will live.

Her physical form grows weaker as his story draws to an end.
He is so close to saving her but her will to survive is too strong.
He won't let her die.
He will finish her story.

20140730

Day 87

The trouble with you is you think you have time.
Time to think, time to plan, time to hide.

You have no time.
You've used it all up.

And what are you left with?
A useless meat suit.
Regrets.
Me.

It's been a while, old friend but here we are.
You hiding in the bathtub and me standing at the bathroom window.

Tick tock friend.
Don't keep me waiting.

20140729

Day 86

Are the cracks in people's skin getting bigger
or is it just you?
The once miniscule lines across the back of
your hands now seem like great chasms.

You almost age by the hour as your skin
seemingly both splinters and grows.
Strangest of all is the lack of blood.
You would expect that this would make
you bleed even a little as your hands creak
and tear with the slightest of movements.

Your try to see your doctor but the receptionists
refuse to believe you are who you say, I mean
you look at least 60 by this point.
The hospital tells you the same thing and you
sink into futility.

You spend the next week in front of a mirror
watching in quiet despair as you lose yourself.

You're trying to not move now.
Each beat of your heart makes your chest bleed
a little.
Each blink of your eyes lets blood run down your
face like on of those sainted statues.

You wonder if you'll be found in a puddle of yourself.
You wonder what your cause of death will be.
You wonder how much blood you can lose before you faint.

20140728

Day 85

I've never been to my attic.
Not even when I was a kid.
It was just one of those places that was just there.

The thing I remember most about it was the smell.
It was like something sickly sweet but off.
I really don't have the words for it.

About a month ago I went up there for the first time.
It was after my sister passed away and I was left to
sort through the attic to add to our growing pile of
things we were selling.

I stepped up the ladder to a sea of rubbish bags.
I don't know what was worse - the smell or the flies.
Seriously, I'd never seen to many in my life!

Going to the closest bag (after a fair bit of
struggling with the knot) I found ears.
Not just human ears either.

My parents heard me scream and came rushing up.
They yelled at me for worrying them, they couldn't
see the ears.
They said it was just a bag of stuffed toys.

Every bag I opened had some mixture of body parts
and only I could see and smell them.

The absolute worst part?
I found my some of my sister and a note.
It had my name on it and a date.
29/07/14

20140727

Day 84

I heard some news from my home town the other day.
Apparently people have been vanishing at an alarming rate.
Whole families gone without a trace.
The police have no clue, they're just warning everyone to avoid
the area and stay inside.

I've tried to get in touch with my old friends there but they've already
been "taken" or whatever's happened to them.
I'm going over there to see if my own folks are still there.

::Update::
Have arrived at the train station.
So far, the town's pretty empty.
Going to catch the bus to town centre.

Roads very empty, saw maybe 5 cars the whole way there?
At least I'm not alone, there are other people on the bus.
They seem just as nervous as me.

::Update::
Freaking out big time!
The two guys sitting at the back of the bus are gone.
I turned around and they weren't there.
I'm not going crazy am I?
Old lady in front agrees they were there.
Not near the town yet.
What's going on here?!


::Update::
She's gone too!
What the hell I was just updating this and she vanished
or something!
No noise, just like the guys at the back.
Am trying to type this while keeping eyes on the driver in
case he goes too.

::Update:::
Am feeling very tired.
Should have been in town by now.
Road just keeps going.
Bus won't stop.
Driver isn't talking, is he even alive?
So tired
So very tired
Soverrtird

20140726

Day 83

Be silent, stay still.
Do not look them in their beady eyes.
They are carrying sharp tools.
They are moving towards your siblings.

They hack mercilessly at their limbs, carting them off.
All you can do is watch in horror as they silently scream.
Some are left alive and they cry for vengeance.
Others are not so lucky and their carcasses are carted away.

You can't fathom why they do this, why they hate your kind so much.
For as long as you can remember they have been coming here to kill.
They even bring their children here to tear off your smallest limbs.

It seems they aren't done today.
Some turn towards you, tools held high they begin.
You don't think you'll survive this.
You don't want to.

20140725

Day 82

They had such a special face.
A truly memorable face.
I couldn't get them out of my mind.
I had to have their face.

They made it so easy for me.
Walking the same route to work every day, wearing that
recognisable scarf even in summer's heat.
I should have suspected something really but the need for
their face was far stronger than common sense.

I planned to attack them in the alley near their home.
They were working late so it was barely past midnight
when they got close to my hiding place.
They came closer and closer and I lept out

into their knife....

Never saw it coming.
Never thought they noticed.
Never got their face.

Ah well, there's always next time.

20140724

Day 81

There are more birds in my garden than usual.
I get maybe a handful of sparrows and a few starlings normally
but these past few days I've been getting crows.
Not just a handful of crows either.
On almost every corner of my garden a crow has made itself
at home.

I don't even have the right kind of food for crows, I looked into
it when they started building nests.
I put out my usual bowl of nuts but they don't touch them.
I've tried to ask my neighbours but none of them are in it seems.
Strange how they'd leave their windows open when they aren't in.





I looked in next door's window.
They're still there.
Well, what's left of them.
The crows have been well fed.

20140723

Day 80

The low tide can bring many things to the surface.
It brought me a deep blue seashell.

Remember the old saying that if you put your ear to
a shell you can always hear the sea?
That's only the start.
You can hear so much more if you listen, if you go
into the sea.
Under the sea.

My shell screams when I listen to it on dry land, away
from the water.
It shrieks and wails and sometimes it says names.
Sometimes I know the names, other times I find them
in the news.
Murdered.
Specifically drowned.

My shell says such nice things when I listen to it under
the sea.
It says things nobody else has ever said.
I can barely stay away from the sea now.
I just want to hear it speak to me.
I need to hear it speak to me.

I'm going diving tomorrow with my shell.
I don't know if I'll come back up.
I don't know if I can.

20140722

Day 79

You are thirsty.
You haven't been thirstier in your life.

Your throat is dry.
Your voice a painful croak.
Your location unknown.

Your arms feel weightless.
Your arms feel twisted.
Your arms are missing.

You don't remember how you got here or where here is.
You lie armless, voiceless and afraid.
You faintly hear running water.
You stumble towards the tantalising sound. 

After what feels like an eternity of tripping over the cold, hard ground you reach a stream in the corner of your new environment.
The water has a reddish tinge to it but you are too thirsty to care.

You've never tasted such sweet water before.
You must have more.
You can practically smell a lake of this divine liquid.
You can smell it.

You follow the almost sickly scent to a hole in the wall far further down from the delicious spring.

Carefully crawling through, you just about manage to stand up on the other side.

But where is that scent coming from?

You can't see a stream anywhere.
You start to pant as you move forward, desperate for more sweet water.

As the scent grows stronger you see another small stream running into a drain on the floor.
Moving faster you eagerly trace it back to the source.

The source you find is nothing like you expected.

The mouth watering smell is nearly overwhelming as you approach the pile of armless corpses.

Carved onto the floor beside the gruesome sight are the words "Welcome home"

20140721

Day 78

There's no place like home, we should know.
We've failed to replicate yours exactly seven times.
Each time we moved you in your sleep you noticed something off.
This table wasn't there before, these aren't my bedsheets.
We just can't win with you.

So we've chosen a more direct approach.

We're telling you this in advance -we are coming for you.

We are c̢̻̭͎̬̬̺ͅo̝̝̳̳̻̬̥m͏̳in͚̱͖g̤̖̣̱͇̖ ̮̟̳͔͞f̛̦̣̳o̢̪̼̜r̨̼͙̺͔̮ ̼͍͟y̸̳̦̥͉̖̤̝o͇̙̗̪̙̦͓͟ụ̭
͚̼͈͍͜
̷W̱͙̣̮̘e̶̦̫̹̜ͅͅ ͙̗̘̞̟̙͖a͎̮͎͘r̫e̦̲̩̟̯̕ ̭̗̫͘c̥̠̮̹o̶̙͔̬̩̱m̮̘͖i̗̫̻ņ͔g̴̞͍̮̤͎̦ ̴̼̰͖f̹̹͈̤̞o̥͙͍̱̰r͙̘̙͉͕͢ ͕̗͎Y̨O͡U̖̦.͞

20140720

Day 77

It's late, you should probably be in bed.
Too bad for you this nagging feeling that something's not
quite right has been keeping you up.
Quietly padding downstairs you hear a shuffle.
It seems to be coming from the kitchen.
Stepping silently forward something brushes past your feet
and giggles as it moves away from you.

Taking a deep breath and gritting your teeth you move
into the kitchen.
The floor is wet beneath your feet and the faint glow of streetlights
through your window outline large lumps on the counters.
You try to turn on the light but it refuses to work.
You reach out towards the nearest lump, hoping that you are
asleep and that this is all a nightmare.

The lump is wet and warm.
It has a slow, steady pulse that gently thumps under your hand.
You feel the lump quiver and its flesh parts to reveal the largest eye
you've ever seen.
As it meets your gaze you feel the edges of your vision fade to black.

Faint laughter meets your ears and something catches you as you fall.

20140719

Day 76

When I tell my friends I work with homeless youth they all assume I'm in a shelter or something.
While it's technically true none of the kids can talk.
Or move.
I mean, clinically they're all comatose, we only need their bodies.

Now before you say how sick this is, I know.
But people do it all the time here.
You grow old, botox can't sustain you, you get terminally ill - whatever.
We've got a new body for you, all under 30 and over 18.

See how it works is that we pay people for their babies, keep them stable in a tub of nutrients, feed them oxygen and all that other technical stuff and wait til someone needs a new meat suit.

How I fit into all of this is kinda nasty.
Not all of the meat suits survive and when they don't, I get called in to scrape them out and dispose of them.

Nobody's cottoned on that a sister company of ours deals in fertiliser.

20140718

Day 75

Some people are gifted.
Some people are cursed.
Me, I'm a bit of both... or so I thought.

I have precognition.
I don't see the past or the future.
I see things that didn't happen.

It gave me a living, telling people their spouses didn't cheat on them,
their children didn't do that drug or didn't tell that life-ruining secret.
But the downside is that I see what everyone hasn't done.

Even the nicest, kindest person could have killed in cold blood.
I should know, I see them every day, I live with them.
You can't even begin to imagine how horrifying it is to look at
your loved one's face and see that they could have slit your throat
while you slept.

Its been getting worse recently.
The world is full of potential killers, torturers and maniacs.
Everyone has this potential.
Even when I look in the mirror I see that I could have killed someone.
Should have killed someone.

20140717

Day 74

Ever have an itch you can't scratch?
Like at the back of your throat or your eye.
Ever hear a crackling in your ears as you go to sleep?
Has something crawled into your ears while you slept?
Would you have noticed?

REM sleep lasts from 5-15 minutes.
It is when your sleep is deepest and when you are most vulnerable.
Anything could happen in 15 minutes.
Who's to say it hasn't already?

Listen carefully.
Take note of how you physically feel.
Is anything unusual?
Is something crawling on your skin?
Is something crawling under your skin?

Maybe its nothing major.
Maybe its an egg.
Maybe it will hatch tonight and secretly feast on your unsuspecting flesh.

Its probably nothing... probably...

20140716

Day 73

I thought bringing an ouija board to the docks would be fun.
My friends thought it would be a laugh.
We broke into one of the old warehouses (in our defence the
door was falling off its hinges) and made it as "spooky" as
we could.
We even lit candles and drew a chalk circle around us.

We took turns asking ridiculous questions to the "ghosts"
all around us.
We moved the planchette jokingly from one letter to another
jokingly spelling out whatever we wanted.
Growing more daring we stopped touching the board altogether
and left the planchette to see if it could move on its own.
It did.

It started slowly, spelling out each of our names.
It used everyone's first name, but it somehow knew one of our
names in full.
My friend Elliott.
It knew her parent's full names too.
And her address.

She began screaming at us, saying we were freaking her out.
Nobody was touching the board though, we all had our hands in
plain sight.
She stepped outside of the circle and began ranting about how
immature we were for doing this and how unfair it was to pick
on her..

Then she froze.
Then she began to float.
Her neck snapped at an unnatural angle and she laughed.
It wasn't her normal laughter.
It wasn't her voice.
She looked at us.
All of her facial features were gone except a mouth.
A mouth full of teeth far too large for her head.
She headed towards us.
We sprinted out of there as fast as we could and called the police.

The found the ouija board covered in her blood but she was gone.
Every night since we've heard that laughter.
We've heard that voice asking us to come outside.
Its been getting closer.
I haven't heard from the others in months.

I'm going to open the door.

20140715

Day 72

In old times infants were disguised to stop demons
from possessing their tiny, vulnerable shells.
We were safe then.
We were human then.

Now its a different story.
We were never protected.
Generation upon generation unprotected, unguarded
against the horrors that lurk in the shadows.

Humans haven't existed for thousands of years.
We are all demon born and bred.
You know you are, the voice in your head tells you so,
the same voice that tells you to hurt, maim and kill.

You are not human.
I am not human.
Humans are a myth.
Embrace what you are.

20140714

Day 71

In all my dreams I die.
Each night something new.
July 11th - I was slowly dipped into acid until only my screaming head remained
July 12th - I was eaten from the inside out by some kind of parasitic embryo
July 13th - I was hung from a willow tree, the rope snapped and I drowned

I'm growing used to seeing these.
They hardly phase me but last night...last night felt so real
It started with me waking up on my bedroom floor.
This isn't unusual, I fall out of bed a lot but what was unusual was the walls.
They seemed... alive.
They seemed to watch me as I moved about my house.
I went about my normal routine and went to work.
That's when things went very, very wrong.

It was so mind-numbingly hot outside, I could barely breathe.
I stumbled to my usual bus stop.
The bus shelter had melted in the heat, the road was a thick, black stew.
When the bus pulled up it was driven by a skeleton whose flesh was dripping
off them like water from a spilt cup.
I looked down and saw my own flesh melting and began to feel the pain of it.
Great bolts of agony shot through me.
Usually I wake up when the pain gets this bad but this time I didn't.
Couldn't.
Not until I was surrounded by my own self.


I woke up, skin sunburnt and the smell of burning flesh filling the room.

20140713

Day 70

It really hasn't been the same since I
shot you, not that I had a choice then.
I still can't believe you fell for that stupid
double suicide pact but it got you out of
the way... or so I thought.

Everything was fine, the police thought it
was a suicide and I was the victim.
Then you came back a week later, smiling
that same wretched smile and laughing at me.
I could see the bullet wound, it still bled.

At least nobody else can see you.
Still makes me seem crazy, staring at you
in the corner of the room or when you float
through someone and get right in my face.

You kept telling me to follow you to
the place where I killed you but I'll be
damned if you trick me like I tricked you;
and I'll be damned if I let you stick around.

20140712

Day 69

The screaming always the
screaming always so loud oh god
why doesn't it stop just die already
just fade like the last one did just gooo

I'll fix this fix you fix the mess you've made
play it perfect nobody'll ever know it was
me so be quiet for now save your breath
you're too young to plead and I'd never
listen anyway

Tonight you go to sleep tonight we go to
the woods we like the woods don't we?

I tried to dress you nicely but you wouldn't
stop screaming and now you've gone and 
made a mess with your blood I tried I just



We're here now
It'll all stop
I'll light a fire
Make sure you're warm
Forever
In your little chair
With your little dress so dirty
I'll be over soon
Don't cry
Don't cry
Don't

Photo by Christopher Mckenney

20140711

Day 68

Your house is lovely, not perfect but just the right combination of messy and neat.
You've lived here for a fair while, long enough to notice small differences.
The differences were small at first.
Small, dark stains appeared in the hallway
You tried mould remover, bleach, a new coat of paint and they were still there.
You gave up, you can always claim its a pattern.

The stains began to grow.
You couldn't stop them from growing.
You couldn't scrape them off.
You didn't know who to call.
You decided to wait it out, if all else fails your walls will be dark blue.
That's not so bad, right?

The stains are almost as tall as you.
If you squint they look like a person's outline.
You count them, they don't seem to be multiplying.


They look very much like an outline now.
They have grown arms and defined legs.
When you stare at them you get the feeling they are staring back.



They are moving now, slowly swaying from side to side.
They make a faint whooshing noise.
It grows louder by the day.





They are walking around the house now, bending down to look at things.
You saw one snatch your keys and lock your door.
It still has your keys, you can see their dark outline.





They are beckoning you now,they have you surrounded.
You stand in the middle of your living room, they point upwards.
Your lights are flickering, you dread to think what will happen when they go out.

20140710

Day 67

The building wasn't staying up, so much as it was too stubborn to fall down.
That's what drew you to it at least.
Searching local records gave you its name and former use: Temperance Hospital.
Adjectives such as "decaying" and "atmospheric" floated through your mind but
never did the place justice.
You decided to drag a friend along and sneak into the place.

That's how we ended up here.
It seemed perfectly fine, dingy yes, dilapidated yes, but ordinary.
That was, until we found bodies decomposing in every bed on the uppermost floor.
There were no signs of injuries, they seemed asleep and peaceful.
They all looked so fresh, so warm, so new.

The empty beds beckoned us in.

20140709

Day 66

Today is a day like any other.
You are eating your usual mid-day meal.
Your first bite is a teeth achingly hard crunch.
You spit out bones.

You keep spitting out bones.
Tiny, tiny bones.
Some are getting stuck in your throat.
In your airway.
Breathing becomes harder and harder as the bones build up.

They are moving further down now.
They are in your lungs.
You hack up bloody tissue and bones and bones and bones
and you can't cry for help.
All you can do is choke and despair as your vision fades to black

20140708

Day 65

Some people never realise the impact their words have on others.
Some people believe they are always correct.
This is about one of those people.

He thought himself to be the smartest in his family,
the most successful and most important.
He was unaware that his family loathed him for this.

Their hatred for him grew and grew until it gained sentience.
Its skin the texture of congealed meat, its hunger insatiable.
It waited in the darkest corners of the home, the occupants
all unaware of its existence, and waited.

It waited for years, feeding from the families' hatred til it grew
too big to remain unseen.
Then it struck.

It tore the family limb from limb and bathed in their blood and 
tears.
It painted the walls with their visceral remains, writing their
deepest, darkest thoughts for all to see.
Then it found him.

The house was described as one of the most brutal homicides
in the history of their country.
And it was just the beginning of something far worse.

20140707

Day 64

Somewhere a woman sits in a hotel room with one light on.
Somewhere this woman is transfixed by the light.
She reaches towards it, unsure why.
Her hand touches the warm fabric.

She stays like this for some time.
She feels like the warmth is holding her hand.
Something is holding her hand.
Something wet and grasping is holding her hand.

She tries not to look but the thing begins to squeeze.
Frantically trying to pull her hand away she sees exactly what is holding her.
It is a white hand covered in blood, she doesn't see the rest of the figure.
She does see a trail of viscera leading to the front door.

The hand pulls her to her feet, seemingly leading her somewhere.
Along the trail of blood and organs, out of the front door and to the stairs.
She is practically being lifted by the dripping hand.
It takes her to the top floor.

The door of the roof is open.
The blood trail has grown much thicker than it was in her room.
There are whole body parts littered about now, ranging in size and colour.
It takes her to the water tank, dragging her up the ladder.

There is a hatch leading inside of the water tank.
The hand now lets go, motioning at the woman to open the hatch.
Fearing for her life the woman obeys.
The hatch shrieks open on rusted hinges.

The last thing she sees is a grinning white face.
It is whole now.

20140705

Day 62

You don't notice much.
For instance you didn't notice when the pavement beneath you
stopped being concrete and started being children's bones.
You didn't notice their tiny arms reaching towards you.

You noticed when they began to drag you down.
You noticed you weren't on a street any more.
You noticed you were very, very alone.

Their small hands are so sharp, you feel them digging into
your flesh and tearing at your legs.
You wonder how long it will take you to die from this.
You don't have to wonder for long.

20140704

Day 61

Why won't they talk to me?
I'm right here now.
They've been looking for me for so long and I finally found them.
But they haven't found me, I'm still buried.
Well, partially buried... They dug the grave too shallow.
Most of me is still there, not my heart though.
They carved that out and took it with them.
That much I remember.

I think about my death a lot; still can't figure out why They chose me.
There's not much else to do now but wait for my family to finally find me.
Sometimes someone will look right at me you know.
Sometimes I follow my friends for days.
I never really knew them, did I?

20140703

Day 60

Listen to the rain.
Hear it speak slowly.
What does it say?
It says your name.

With each drop your name tumbles out.
Like laughter from dying lips, it murmurs.
You feel drawn to it somehow.
Walking towards the calling, your pace quickens.

You end up at a large puddle in an unfamiliar street.
The water is crystal clear.
You see a reflection.
It isn't yours.

The face grins too widely and moves towards you.

20140702

Day 59

What a wonderful smile you have.
And my, what nice teeth you have.
So many teeth, and so large too.
So well organised, first by species and then by size.
Your cabinets are simply brimming with glistening little treasures.
Well not glistening so much as oozing, maybe dripping it a better word?
They certainly are blood soaked!

May I see the rest of them?

20140701

Day 58

Look for people with lifeless eyes.
Look for people with hopeless faces.
Look for people who smell like ozone and ocean.

Then kill them.
They are soulless beings whose only purpose is to ruin.
You may have heard of more famous people who lacked
a soul - we know them as histories' greatest murderers.

Even though no-one can agree on what a soul does, we
all know what happens without it.

So when you see someone with lifeless eyes, a hopeless
face becoming for aid with the scent of ozone and ocean
permeating the air - kill.

Kill without mercy, before they do.