Day 2,942

He didn't see it til he nearly walked right into it, that vague hazy creature standing in the middle of the bridge like translucent silk hung over an unseen figure. It seemed to notice him standing far too close and peered down at his frightened face.

Day 2,941

She bought it from a car boot sale for a fiver and called it an absolute bargain. Three weeks later she was calling everyone she could to beg them to take it away.

Day 2,940

The sink was full of teeth and his mouth was fuller still, no matter how many he pulled out there were always more to fill the raw and empty position. 

Day 2,939

Autumn is coming and the land needs a signal to know that its time to start fading and resting for the upcoming spring. Everyone has their own way of reminding the land from cutting back their gardens to singing to sacrifice.

Our family has always been one of the latter.

We tie our eldest ewe to the oak tree way out in the fields and slit her throat at sunset. As she bleeds out, the life in the land bleeds with her and all starts to silence by sunrise.

Day 2,938

Hands reached from inside the horse's severed head, prying the rigor mortis-stiff jaws open before digging jagged nails into the wet earth to drag itself towards her.

Day 2,937

The painting itself was some blandish local landscape but the frame was what concerned her. Namely the eyes that sleepily opened and closed, perfectly camouflaged among the ornate golden scrolls and floral swirls.

They were pale red and somehow didn't terrify her. In fact they reminded her more of her childhood pet rat than anything monstrous or demonic, though it was unfortunately quite likely to be demonic in nature.

It felt warm and gently pulsed to a heartbeat she couldn't hear as she carried it towards the old churchyard, hoping that the initial steps onto consecrated ground wouldn't cause it to lash out at her... not that she quite knew how it would or if it could attack.

As the church loomed into view, she felt the frame grow cold and started to feel like she'd made a mistake.

Day 2,936

We tried not to make eye contact with the bodies as we stepped over them to reach the staircase. The sand was slowly but surely eating away at them, still fast enough for us to watch them sink and loud enough for us to hear their flesh being shredded beneath our feet.

We should have stayed on the rocks and climbed up that way but the staircase was so close by and the sand that had drifted into the carpark hadn't attacked us when we arrived so we assumed it would be fine. We assumed we could just step over the bodies and dash up the staircase and it would all be fine.

It was very much not.

Day 2,935

It feels like we've always been drowning.

They say time slows down towards the end but I never thought it would feel like this.

I swear I've seen a thousand sea creatures live and die and seen the house around me crumble into nothingness and debris and yet when I blink, I'm back in that initial moment of realisation that I can't open the window.

That I've gone too long without air and the world closes in again.

Day 2,934

We hadn't given it a name yet but we all knew someone who'd been infected. Someone who'd woken up with a tumour on their shoulder that would grow so quickly it would have teeth by the end of the second day and a full jaw within the week.

From day 1 it was a matter of rushing to a hospital before the tumour grew big enough to start attacking the rest of the host, tearing at their chest and face and anywhere it could stretch to until both bled to death.

Day 2,933

It scanned the water, trying to detect a single human life among the pulsing mass of decaying meat.

Day 2,932

The walls groaned as they settled, the house gently shuddering in its foundations as a harsh wind blew through the broken windows that left it as blind and helpless as a newborn pup.

Day 2,931

The stag's head twisted to look at them with a sickening snap, a snarl curling through its torn lips as its herd began to approach them. 

Day 2,930

It peered around the door like a child... a seven and a half foot cluster of shadows was playing peekaboo with her like a child.

This settled it for her - the house was bloody cursed.

Day 2,929

 He'd been here before. Maybe not exactly as he currently was but everything about the room, the flickering light coming from behind the half open bathroom door, the snarling half-thing still trying to find him - it all felt like it had already occurred.

Perhaps this time would be different. 

Day 2,928

Even though they'd been skinned, their raw and bloodied face still seemed to sneer up at him. 

Day 2,927

They only told him about the hauntings after he'd paid them.

Day 2,926

My dreams have all been the same these past few weeks - I'm back at the beach, standing at the top of the cliff. A phone rings behind me and there's a phone booth where there's never been one before.

I try to dial home - my childhood home - but all the numbers kept moving around the dialling pad and I was never able to finish dialling. Whether I wanted help, reassurance or just a chat, I don't know.

My dream always ends with me curling up in the bottom of the phone booth, sobbing and clutching the receiver.

Day 2,925

It's been locked in the shed for three weeks with no food or water and it's still alive enough to spend every damned night clawing at the door and begging for me to let it out.

Day 2,924

Half the city had fallen into the sinkhole left behind when the creature emerged from the depths and the other half soon wished they'd been as lucky.

Day 2,923

It's mouth stretched into a facsimile of a smile and continued to stretch til its smile bisected its face, yellow-tinged saliva spilling over the edges as it stared and waited for her response.

Day 2,922

They braced against each other beneath the iron table as yet another storm drew yet another flock of hungry gaunts towards the settlement. As their shrieks and snarls overwhelmed the harsh gale and rainfall outside, they each prayed that the others weren't as afraid as them, knowing that if just one of them felt too strongly it would act like a beacon for the grunts and lead to all their deaths. 

Day 2,921

As it lumbered towards him, arms usessly trying to hold its entrails inside, he was torn between fear and pity.

Day 2,920

The signs warned that the human voices emanating from the area were likely to be non-human in origin but he ignored this to follow them deeper into a facility he never should have entered in the first place. 

Day 2,919

The corpse was used as a marker within the shipwreck as time and tide had worn most of the old signs down to rusted squares. They called him cousin out of respect mixed with a healthy dose of fear as they claimed he'd follow them around the ship in the same breath as they'd say how easy ot was to get lost without him.

Day 2,918

The harvest is howling out in the fields, we'll have to start thinking about what to sacrifice soon.

Day 2,917

It hung from the ladder as if it was dead, begging someone to give into temptation and try to help it. Beneath the loose human clothing draped over its spindly form, three sets of skeletal arms clutched a small hoard of its favourite parts and assorted viscera - delicious treasures that it would take back to the nest when it was finished with the hunt.

Day 2,916

The left side of the photo showed the last time my mother ever smiled, leaning against the side of the bridge.

The right side of the photo showed my little sister falling over the edge.

Day 2,915

My nana always used to tell us ghost stories when my parents weren't around. I used to think that she trusted us enough to tell us all these terrifying truths, then as a teen I thought she was just trying to scare us.

Now I know better.

Everything she used to tell us is real. All the headless figures and blood-soaked bridges and clawed hands growing from dead tree branches - one by one I'm seeing all of those old tales come to life. 

And I have a feeling there are far worse things out there that she was too scared to speak about.

Things that are coming this way whether we're ready or not.

Dau 2,914

The bodies all stood up at once, blood still running from the week-old wounds across their throats. They looked at one another, silently deciding which intruder to head for first before darting forwards.

Day 2,913

The tunnels never seemed to end, nor did the creature's desire to eat him. No matter how far he ran or how far away he seemed to be, he'd always see its teeth creeping towards him from the shadows.