Day 2,092

We don't talk about the Ash Fields out loud, nobody does. Stories are whispered in playgrounds and staff rooms alike - always with the same fear and reverence, always with furtive glances over our shoulders in case an Ash Child is somehow nearby.

They don't tend to leave the Fields but I swear I've seen them running down the street late at night and I know for a fact that they knock on our doors at Halloween, trying to trick us into letting them in. I know somebody did once, someone new to the area who thought it was just kids in costumes.

Never saw them again but the bloodstains remained until their pavement was smothered in tarmac.

I'm sure that they're running with the other Ash Children out in the Fields, that's where all the taken kids go so it only stands to reason that taken adults would go there too. Unless their bodies are buried somewhere instead but who'd ever try to check?

If the police enter a house after a commotion and see ash smeared all over the walls, see small fires and bloodied animal skins, they just seal the house and declare all of the occupants dead. It's safer for everyone to not go looking out in the Fields.

We don't want to disturb the Children.