Day 2,850

Each of its three mouths whispered his name as the creature slowly walked towards him, cracked hooves clicking gently against the weed-strewn concrete.

Day 2,849

Oxygen ran as thin as the tempers of every damned soul still stuck in the welded tunnels. Something had to give and the unlikely catalyst was about to arrive...

Day 2,848

Frail little hands pressed against the frosted glass window and even from his hiding pace several stories below in the street, he could feel its clustered eyes searching for him.

Day 2,847

The cavern was vast enough that the topples skyscrapers touched neither the sides nor the bones strung between colossal stalactites.

Day 2,846

As the sound of claws on linoleum grew closer, I held my breath and played it wouldn't check under the counter.

Day 2,845

The city was flooding and everyone over the age of twelve was standing in the streets, arms wide open and rigid smiles stretching their cheeks til the corners of their mouths bled. The unaffected youth screamed and cried, unable to break the silence as the water rose.

Day 2,844

The difference between a Fleshling and a child is negligible at best but one we still cling to so that we might feel less guilty about killing them on sight.

Day 2,843

They called it the red forest, not for the plants but for the air and the way it crystallised just enough to rupture the lungs of anyone too foolhardy to avoid the damned play entirely.

Day 2,842

They say only ghosts walk the disused line behind the railway station and they're almost right. 

Day 2,841

A loud crack echoed under the water as a thin line broke through the barnacle encrusted seafloor, gradually opening to reveal a colossal eye staring straight up at them.

Day 2,840

I remember how scared she looked when she was dying but I don't remember how I felt while I was holding her head below the water.

Day 2,839

Heading towards the arms reaching up out of the water somehow felt safer than waiting for the rest of the convoy to arrive. 

Day 2,838

The forest was lit up with stray neon striplights and glowsticks left behind by the ravers, colouring the world in surreal shades of green and yellow, leading her back to the main stage in front of the lake.

Leading her back to their bodies.

Day 2,837

Nothing quite prepared you for the smell of raw sewage and absolutely nothing could have prepared me enough to not immediately vomit when I reached the end of the ladder and set my first foot into the sewer tunnel. The world above was still too busy writhing and screaming to seek such desperate shelter.

For some reason I was determined to survive at that point.

Day 2,836

Through the crack in the elevator door they could see it sprinting towards them.

Day 2,835

They were called The Laughing Ones for the way their howls sounded just like human children screaming with joy. They were usually forewarned by dozens of vultures swaming the skies mere moments before The Laughing Ones arrived and the slaughtering began.

Day 2,834

His hands shook as he tried to type in the 4 digit code and unlock the exit as the sounds of snarling and weeping steadily grew louder.

Day 2,833

We called them The Lonely Dead and prayed that they'd feast on anyone else but us.

Day 2,832

It looked like minced meat poured into a person-shaped mould, all raw and writhing around the edges, eyeless yet still able to follow them from the barn back to the farmhouse.

Day 2,831

I only found out that he wasn't my dad when I discovered the pile of human skins hidden in a box at the back of his shed. I recognised the tattoo my dad got when his best friend passed away - a tattoo that he was so proud if getting but refused to show anyone now.

It made me wonder if the thing pretending to be my dad wasn't able to mimic people that closely, had missed the finer details and somehow still managed to trick us all for several months now. 

Day 2,830

It stumbled towards them, gaping wound where a trunk would be, maggots falling from empty eye sockets like tears, raspy breathing from ruptured lungs.

The zoo hadn't been abandoned after all.

Day 2,829

Parts and storage was bad enough during the day when everyone else was around, but in the middle of a night shift you'd rather be in a morgue. At least in a morgue you know that the groans and thuds were just gasss escaping the dead.

Ain't nothing supposed to be alive in parts and storage but it sure sounded like you had company. 

Day 2,828

We tried to follow the trail of teeth it left behind and, while we didn't find the children it had stolen, we did find what little was left of its body when they were done with it.

Day 2,827

The church was filling up with black water faster than any of us could carry it out with our buckets and crates and anything we could get our hands on. The church was drowning and we were slowly being swallowed alive on the foul smelling waves that lapped at our waists.

Day 2,826

The skin split painlessly at first but as the bones continued to grow, so too did the pain til they were all screaming mad with it.

Day 2,825

Heavy footsteps wandered slowly about the house, meandering towards the room they were now locked in as the gramophone continued playing a cheery piano duet that was undoubtedly drawing it straight to them.

Day 2,824

At the back of the school theatre, hidden in one of the costume wardrobes, was a small door that always felt warm to the touch. It was the subject of many a school rumour, fuelling countless playground legends and dares.

Still, for all the taunted dares and haunting stories not one student had managed to get any further than just touching the door before a teacher or administrator stopped them.

They simply didn't want to lose another one. 

Day 2,823

The wolf rose up on its hind legs and continued to rise before the eyes of the terrified villagers who began to recognise some of the faces sprouting from its upper torso - their missing loved ones finally returned to them.

Day 2,822

I was left alone a lot as a lad - a combination of working parents and siblings who didn't especially care about the youngest in the house. I mostly spent my time staring at the small window above my bedroom door and pulling faces with the lady who'd peer down at me from the ceiling on the other side.

Day 2,821

They could only over through the cracked glass as the bodies floated by, some still alive enough to continue struggling against the shoal.