Day 2,442

He asked if I saw them too and I told him no. Perhaps if I had said yes he'd still be alive.

In the weeks before he went missing he'd spend every free moment drawing, writing or talking about the children in the walls. At least, he called them children. Near as the rest of us could make out he was describing something closer to bears with mange and broken teeth.

They all had names, normal human names that you'd expect to a teacher to call out at the start of class only nobody else had seen them at that point and they lived inside the walls. Not just his bedroom walls either, not just his house but every house.

He'd say that groups of them were assigned to each person, forming clans in response to us making or joining families. After he initially went missing each of us had a journal of his posted to us the following day with specific phrases highlighted and corrected.

Seems they weren't just aware of him observing them - they were encouraging it and trying to persuade him to cross through the walls and join them in exchange for one of theirs becoming free. It's hard to say if he did this willingly but the last night I saw him was the first night I saw them clearly.

You know how you stare at a wall for long enough and your mind makes faces out of nothing? I thought so too but then the face smiled and mouthed out my full name. Even when I brought my eyes back into focus I could still see it and slowly several others moved forward til we were surrounded.

He asked if I saw them too and I told him no but I've been seeing them on every wall ever since and even though they found his body last week I know the child that replaced him is still alive and close by. I know it from the strange handprints it leaves all over the windows in the morning.

I know it from the way the children in the walls smile at me.

I know it from the heavy breathing coming from under my bed.