Day 1,266

We'd always known it as Mr. Friday's Woods, where the army trained and where we weren't allowed to go when the red flags were flying. Nanna said this was when they were shooting targets and we'd nod along, assuming those targets weren't alive.

When our Jamie joined the army Nanna pitched such a fit she nearly gave herself a heart attack. I'd never seen her so agitated at the thought of him staying local. That was her only issue - that he'd be joining the other military fellas in Mr. Friday's Woods, shooting alongside them in practice for war.

That was when she told us what they were really shooting at. She gave us its name on a scrap of paper and told us to never say it out loud. Áglæca - that's what Nanna wrote, that's what our ancestors called it apparently and even they never spoke the word.

She told us that it used to roam all of Britain once, long before humans crossed the ice and settled on the islands here. Now it's contained within the army's "training" grounds where they gun it down once or twice a week and watch it regrow in a matter of minutes.

They're all damned, Nanna says, every last soldier is cursed from their first bullet. Made us both realise just how much the army advertise in our town, how desperate they are for fresh meat and how quick they are to send people overseas only for them to die the minute they're out there.

The worst of it all is that Jamie still wants to join, still wants to pretend he's going to save lives and not end up guarding the country from the Áglæca's curse. They're just a distraction for it, that's why it hasn't escaped yet... we keep sending it toys to break.

Now every time I see the red flags go up I wonder if Jamie's had his turn yet, not that they'll tell us. They'll just send him away to die like all the others and pretend its some imaginary enemy in a country that isn't on any map.

Sometimes I go into Mr. Friday's Woods alone, head to the army fence wait to see if the Áglæca will show itself. I may not know what it looks like but I've seen the signs of it out there, all those dead soldiers that its left up in the treetops.

Sometimes they all look a bit like Jamie, other times they're just nobodies. More fools like him only less lucky. Nanna made him a necklace with all these carved beads on it and said that if he ever took it off, even to shower, he'd be just as cursed as all the others.

If he's got any sense left in him, if he's still alive, he'll listen to her.