Day 650

The statues in the graveyard were rotting, their formerly placid and peaceful marble faces gradually melting away to reveal porcelain-looking bone. From the doves carved onto simple Christian tombstones to the elaborate cherubs of deceased infants, nothing was safe.

Beneath each one of these strange occurrences puddles of stone "flesh" were found, some analysed and found to contain trace amounts of human blood cells despite their greyish appearance. Most masons compensate for this now by carving delicate skeletal based gravestone designs, equally respectful of the dead while not leaving any room for the grieving relatives to imagine their loved ones rotting in tandem to their marble counterparts. It only made things harder for them.

For a while time lapses of rotting statues became quite popular, it was fascinating to watch the stones mimic life in such a detailed way. If course conspiracies came about declaring the phenomenon a prank, a cover-up for the countless missing persons around the world, a virus that would eventually lead to us calcifying and becoming new tombstone decorations ourselves and of course something about aliens.

The truth was simpler, kinder in a way too. The human body contains a multitude of things in it, one being about 3-4grams of iron. We resonate with our environments without even realising it to such an extent that the stones around us are feeling what we feel. The great rocky monuments we hold dear to us in graveyards, in war memorials and even common hiking ground gradually become infused with whatever emotions transpire in that place.

When enough emotion occurs in one place something is bound to change. In this case, the stones aren't just rotting with us, they are feeling with us. Mourning in their own way by shedding parts of themselves to become more like the bodies they guard. They are sad for us and sad with us.