Day 329

They rose up in the smoke and fire that engulfed your home.
Smoky limbs reaching for everyone and anyone, choking them slowly.
With skin like burning wood they began to walk around the blazing building.
It almost looked like they were searching for something or maybe someone.

The official report said chip pan fire gone out of control but you knew different.
You knew the smoke people had started this, dragging their smouldering fingers along the walls.
But what proof could you get when your home was just ashes and ruin?
It didn't seem like anyone else could even see them.

They drifted around pale skinned people on sunny days, burning their skin and laughing all the way.
You would sit in the shade and watch them run their hands lovingly across blistering flesh.
The stench of burning meat began to fill your nostrils as a smokey figure drifts over to you.
It peers at you, inching closer and closer before snapping its head towards an overheated child.

Right before your eyes you saw their skin redden and blister as the smoke figure embraced them.
Nobody was paying the figures any attention but you.
You hoped they wouldn't notice but something about your presence was drawing them in.
The people around you wondered where the cloudy skies had suddenly come from.

Looking up you saw only smoke as the figures began to swarm around you.
Breaking for a run you head to the nearest shop, locking yourself in the toilets to wait this out.
And so you sat gasping for breath on the bathroom floor, suddenly so tired.
It was agony to stay awake so you did the only thing you could - you slipped into darkness.

You woke up to a searing pain in your arm and lungs.
It felt like there were weights on your eyelids but you just about managed to pry them open.
A dark blurry figure is sitting on the floor in front of you though its hard to make out their shape
through the thick smog filling the room.

You drag your eyes down to the agony in your arm where you see the figure is stroking your skin.
Well, what used to be skin... you can see bone peering through the melting flesh.
Your lungs begin to fail and your vision starts to fade once more as smoke steals your air.
The figure smiles and moves to embrace you one last time.