Day 505

When word got out that some hikers had found an abandoned monastery, we feared the worst.
It was deep within the highlands, build underneath a waterfall so only the steps showed.
Slowly photos came out detailing its' ancient facade and crumbling passageways.
And then as suddenly as they came, they stopped.
None of the hikers were heard from again and the monastery was forgotten again.

Some months later local sheep-herders reported strange noises and missing flocks.
People assumed wild dogs, floods or storms and thought nothing more of it.
They began to remember the missing hikers when mutilated human remains were found.
At least eight bodies in varying states of decomposition, strung up like bunting all around a village
not forty miles from the geotags of the newly discovered monastery.

Forensics dated the varying times of death between five months and two hundred years.
Though they looked fresh they were somehow older than most of the nearby settlements.
They'd been roped together by their intestines (later found to be reinforced with parchment that
dated back to the same date as the oldest corpse).
Investigations into the monastery were renewed, this time by professionals.

They found the locations of the geotags and found only a waterfall.
Still the location was searched as thoroughly as possible given the climate and area.
Strange noises were reported, something like distorted speech coming from behind the waterfall
but they saw only solid stone and a small indent housing a bird's nest.
The alleged steps that descended far past the waterfall weren't found.

Years later and people still go missing in the highlands, that village is forever strung with corpses.
Nobody mentions it or the failures of the task forces assigned to stop this.
The neighbouring settlements were either heavily fortified or abandoned entirely.
Sounds of distorted singing echoed throughout the hills and moors louder than ever.
It was almost understandable by this point, tugann siad duínn a n-chomhlachtaí