Day 487

One road in and one out, that's how it had always been.
It, of course, being a small desert town somewhere in the Red Valley.
They got few visits from outside, mostly passing cars that were trying to find somewhere else.
It wasn't the kind of town you deliberately sought out.

The houses were all similar dusty shades of blue and brown.
Sand seeped into every corner of the buildings with little regard for the people there.
It coated every surface in a thin grainy layer that stubbornly refused to be washed away.
You grew used to it eventually, I did.

After moving from across the country I grew used to a lot of the town's quirks.
Like the fact that it had no name, only a zipcode and one road.
Another quirk was the absolute lack of any nightlife.
I mean I expected as much from a small town but not quite to this extent.

The second the sun had finished setting everything went black, utterly black.
Nowhere really mentions the strange noises that deserts make at night.
Those creaking whistling sounds, faint gurgling of (hopefully) pipes under the ground.
They certainly don't talk about the tracks left in the sand or the driftwood.

You'd expect driftwood along beaches certainly but in a desert-based settlement, not so much.
I mean sure they could have brought some in but nobody here seems to ever leave.
After doing some online research into the potential creatures around here, I set up cameras.
They were well hidden and all around my house so I could see what else lived here.

Innocent enough right?
The results were nothing like I expected, there's nothing quite like the creatures here for sure.
It starts when the piles of driftwood twitch and shift, gradually forming something like faces.
They peer all around, sometimes staring directly at my cameras all night, before moving.

They have stile like legs that end in elephantine feet, about the size of dinner plates.
They stumble gracefully around the streets and peer into every window they can - including mine.
It seems like they have favourites too, like Mr McKenzie's place.
About five of them crowd around his sitting room window all night.

A few of them have taken a liking to me too according to the footage.
I shouldn't have looked, I know I shouldn't but the temptation was too much.
Their faces are so much more human up close and their eyes, sunken and deep, are to expressive.
Last night I tried talking to them - I never expected a reply.