Day 2,973

They tracked it to a motel near the mountain pass where it had been feeding on solo travellers for almost a year, if the pile of abandoned cars was anything to go by. And it was, as it always was with these things.

They kill whoever seems the most untroublesome and,  using their genetic template, they either move on to new feeding grounds or dispose of any evidence tying them to their latest victim. In this case, it checked its victims out of the motel and drove their cars deep into the forest before heading back in the form of small birds or rats.

It eventually made a mistake, as they all do. It got too complacent and cocky and answered a call from its victim's phone. The voice is one thing they can never get right and while ot made excuses of a sore throat and a bad signal - we'd just been given all the evidence we needed to strike.

Day 2,972

They were like spiders - if you've already found and killed one, there'll be another close by.

She remembered this as she stood over its still-twitching corpse watching steam softly rise from the gaping visceral mess that had once been a torso.

Day 2,971

When they cut him open they found a thriving cluster of mushrooms sprouting through his heart.

Day 2,970

I wouldn't say that I'll never forget the sickening cracks it made as it's hands reached out from his mouth, breaking his spine and jaw as it climbed out. I wouldn't say never... but thirty years has at least added a slight haze to the nauseous terror I feel whenever I remember.

Day 2,969

She watched the shore drifting further and further away from the oarless little boat she'd woken up in. With a half-muttered curse she turned back to the sealed coffin she woke up beside only to find it open.

Day 2,968

I suppose its garbled howls might have been an attempt at speech - whether it wanted to kill me or for me to finish killing it, I couldn't quite determine before it finally stopped.

Say 2,967

The clock struck 20:38 and the broken radio jolted into life as her gentle voice rang out once more to say how much she loved and missed her before cutting off with a sharp crack as the radio fell silent for another year.

It marked the beginning of her journey around the empty village she once called home as other radios sung, whispered and wept all around her. Even the telegraph wires above her whispered with voices she hadn't heard in years.

Today, and only today, they all came back to her.

Day 2,966

Its wings unfurled as a screech rattled through its chest and the windows. The children chained to the altar before it were cold and silent. 

Day 2,965

The train and its passengers screeched as they approached the platform, half-dragging most of the creature behind it, entrails still steaming in the cold autumnal air.

Day 2,964

Our equipment started going haywire as she began to float in the air - suspended by unseen hands that were clutching her throat so tightly she was already beginning to bruise as she slowly stopped struggling. 

Day 2,963

The tour guide claimed this shipwreck was a hidden gem among the dozen or so other tourist traps that were always swarming with divers. The one beneath us was far deeper than we'd initially thought, so much so that by the time we'd reached it, we knew we didn't have enough air to safely resurface.

Day 2,962

It wire the fog like a funeral shroud as it wailed and staggered through the village. Whether it was searching for someone it knew or hunting for prey, we didn't know and didn't dare try to find out.

Day 2,961

We kept following the pipes, hoping that the faint rushing sound inside them was water and not blood again.

Day 2,960

Everybody tried to ignore the man at the back of the bus as he groaned and clutched at his throat. The less attention you gave the Hollows, the more likely you were to walk away unscathed. 

Day 2,959

Sure enough, when he checked through the binoculars he saw thousands of hands waving frantically among the windswept grass.

Day 2,958

When he'd finally mustered up the courage to glance down at the hammer embedded in his chest, he noticed that he wasn't bleeding. With trembling hands he grasped the handle, preparing to take another swing but as he pulled it out his chest crumbled and fell to the floor with a soft thud.

He turned to the mirror beside him and saw that where flesh and blood and all his damned organs should be, was a dark hollow space.

Day 2,957

Something was crying in the bone pile and it definitely wasn't human.

Day 2,956

The fire had gone out recently, judging by the smoke surrounding it but the damned thing was still trying to crawl towards him, blistered flesh and scorched bones grating against the smouldering dirt.

Day 2,955

With breath held and bag of entrails held tight to her chest, she began to cross the car park.

Clustered eyes snapped from their prey and the pack began to approach from the shadows.

Day 2,954

If the blood-red circle full of strange symbols was anything to go by, someone had clearly tried to summon something and judging by the glisteningly fresh red drag marks were anything to go by - they'd succeeded. 

Day 2,953

The body-bag hadn't been moved in weeks and yetbthe second she went to call the cops, it vanished and was replaced by a plastic skeleton.

Whoever moved it was mocking her.

Day 2,952

There must have been thousands of them, all stood in exactly the same position and all blind from centuries of waiting for someone to find them.

Day 2,951

As the world shook around her and the village began to collapse and fall into the raging sea, she found that all she could think about was how quiet it was.

Day 2,950

The good thing about working odd jobs and gigs was the freedom she had. Always something new, always somewhere interesting and always skimming the fine line between bills paid and living in her car.

This week she'd been given a cardboard box full of posters. A local celebrity had gone missing and, while it wasn't large enough to break past local news, it was enough that the whole town was in a frenzy to find him.

She'd been given set quantities per location and a list of suitable streets whose heavy traffic might bring back some clue as to where the missing man had gone.

She suspected a bender in one of the seedier areas of the town but it wasn't her problem at the end of the day. Until it got to thend of the day and she found herself staring at some kind of something at the back of an alley she very much didn't want to go down.

It took her a while to realise that the mangled mass of meat pinned to the wall with an ancient looking butcher's knife, was in fact the missing man from the posters she'd been putting up around town.

Day 2,949

The task system had long since shut down but the husks still lives, or rather they existed in a state that mimicked living while their organic components rotted away.

Dy 2,948

The nursery looked like it hadn't been used for decades when he'd only been on his hour lunch break. Plants had grown through the windows, paint had cracked and flaked, the ceiling had partially collapsed under the weight of a tree that definitely hadn't been there an hour ago.

He knew he'd have to check inside the cribs eventually. 

Day 2,947

The only light around was the red haze of her hazard lights and with every flicker, the shadowy figures in the treeline crept a little closer.

Day 2,946

Faces swarmed the window, pressed so harshly against the glass that it started to crack and all the while she found she could do little more than try to remember how to breathe.

Day 2,945

Something dripped from his face - whether it was blood, sweat or tears, he didn't know. All that mattered was outrunning the mob that howled for his head on a spike and how close they were behind him.

Day 2,944

The cage seemed to be formed from the shadows spilling out from under the pitiful creature huddled in its centre.

Day 2,943

The boat had been beached and listing for five days now and despite all the council's warnings to stay far away, me and my friends boarded it last night. Only two of us made it back alive and we may have shown whatever was hiding there exactly where the exit was on our way out.