Day 57

It caught your eye just lying there in the shop window.
You'd never seen a necklace like it before.
You had to have it.

It hung so perfectly around your neck you felt it was made just for you.
You wore it every day.
You noticed yourself losing a lot of weight after you purchased it.
Putting it down to coincidence you continued life as normal, still wearing
the necklace.

It felt heavier than you remembered it being.
You decided to weigh it every day after you weighed yourself- still concerned
over your sudden weight loss over the past few months.
You discovered that the necklace gained the same amount of weight you lost.

You decide to sell it in the hopes that your weight will return.
Putting it for auction online was easy enough.
You finally felt at ease.
You could finally relax, knowing this would soon be sorted.

You awoke with a start, unable to move and a huge weight on your chest.
Managing to look down you see the necklace around your neck glowing a
dark red.
You can see the outline of your ribs, you weren't that thin when you went to bed.
Slowly the weight on your chest grows as your body wanes.

You wonder what will come first, being crushed by this cursed pendant or will
you simply cease to be when its had its fill?
Either way, you won't wait long.

Day 56

What if you could see ghosts?
What if they were nothing like you expected?

Imagine walking down the street at night and hearing the echoed
voices of hundreds of people all around you.
They are trying to get your attention, calling out to you by crying
out your appearance.
Hey, red coat! Over here! Excuse me, miss! Oi shortie, I'm talking to you!
You mustn't respond, if you do they will all rush at you at once and  yes, it
is entirely possible to be crushed by ghosts.

You notice they aren't just calling to you, they are calling to everyone,
sometimes by name.
They remember their former lives and they want to return.

If you squint you can see them, blackish people shaped clouds.
Almost gaseous, they float along following people.
Sometimes you only see a few in one area, sometimes there are huge swarms
of them in the sky.

You even see them chase after someone.
A young man.
He runs around a corner with a large group of the dark shapes following after.
You cautiously go over to where he ran, just to see if he made it away from them.
He didn't.
They surround him, screaming.
When they leave you see what's left of the poor man.

Unable to stare any longer you turn around.
They have you surrounded.
They know you can see them.

Day 55

"Your clothes become you" can be taken two ways.
A compliment, your clothes suit you perfectly.
A warning, your clothes are adapting.

Yes, I said adapting.
The more you wear something, the more of you is taken in.
Souls cling to familiar objects, given enough time these objects become more.
They are given life from your presence, or do they take life from you?

Little by little these items begin to devour their host, leaving gaping holes
where flesh and muscle once were and forming a body over the wearer.
Given enough time the host may be devoured wholly leaving nothing but the
newly formed creature.

Another possibility is that the creature will run out of strength midway leaving
the host trapped inside a thick layer of their own skin.
This leads to death by asphyxiation.

Should the creature live through this, they can be spotted by the texture of their
stolen skin and the lingering scent of blood.

Day 54

The results are in.
You aren't human.
In fact we aren't sure what you are.
You look reasonably human but somehow not.
Like somebody took a description of human and made a being accordingly.
Only the description was full of myths.

Whatever you are, blending into the darkness, turning to smoke at night,
you aren't human.
Yet you think you are.
Curious.

Curiouser still you remain alive while your organs are on the tray beside you.
Oh you didn't notice they were gone?
Well we wanted to see what you were made of.
Not much really.

Your only organs seem to be a heart (twice the expected size), a pair of
lungs (again far larger than they should be) and a stomach full of partially
digested humans.
Yes humans. Plural.
The family who raised you, if the police records are anything to go by.

How does that make you feel?

Day 53

Great aunt Mavis stopped speaking three years ago.
Her pale face utterly void of emotion.
Her breath a strange hissing wheeze.
You felt glad your only interaction with her was tidying her room.
If only you could get rid of the smell.

You and your relatives take turns sleeping in the room next door
to aunt Mavis' in case she needs something.
You never get sleep when you're there.
All you can hear is that wretched hissing wheeze breathing.
You plan to end her.

On your next turn you will smother her in her wheelchair.
It'll look like she naturally passed away.
You'll play the part of distraught relative losing their beloved great aunt.
It couldn't be simpler.

Two weeks later it was time to put your plan into motion.
3am you creep into her room.
She was still propped up by the window.
The open curtains to reveal an empty morning.

You move in with the pillow but trip over her oxygen tank.
Accidentally the wires have come out... of her head.
Pulling a good deal of her flesh with them
The stench of decay is nigh overwhelming as is the silence.
You hear the wheezing hiss coming from the wires on the floor.

How long has she been dead?
Since she stopped talking?
Since she had her first stroke?
Since before she came here?

Wait, her eyes were closed a moment ago...
Her head turns towards you

Day 52

We are surrounded at all times.
Countless microscopic organisms have made us their home.
They are everywhere.
You can't wash them away.
They cover the water too.

At which point does water cease to be water?
Do these trillions upon trillions of organisms think or feel?
Are they us?
Are our conscious minds nothing more than the gnawing of
minute beasts in our heads?

Are you human?
Are you a meat suit for something else?
How can you prove either?

Day 51

There's an old children's play area nearby.
One of those foam-padding-everywhere, spit-soaked-plastic-ball-pit places.
Cheery paint, cheerier staff and food dripping with grease.

There's always been a lot of missing people here.
After the old place closed down I found them.
Some of them at least.

I went in at night, when security was low and everyone else was sleeping.
The smiles on the murals seemed wider than I remembered and I swear
their eyes followed me.
The foam padding had already been torn apart by whoever came before me.
The kitchen area looked ransacked and grease-stained, still the scent of food
lingered in the air.

Heading further into the complex I came across the ball-pit.
Empty of course, they'd taken all the balls when they moved out.
I stepped in and walked the length of it, for old times' sake.
The front right corner was hollow, peeling back the tattered foam I saw a handle.
It was well hidden, I'll give them that.
It took several good pulls before it finally opened.
The hinges seemed to be sticky with some unnameable grease.

There was a ladder heading down, my torch beam hit the floor, it wasn't
deeper than 7 feet.
A nasty fall for a kid, I wondered why this was here.
Maintenance maybe?
Holding the torch in my mouth I began to descend, nearly slipping on the
slick rungs.
The floor wasn't much cleaner but I noticed it had reddish streaks.
Kind of like someone had dragged paint buckets along it.

I headed down the tunnel opposite the ladder.
The streaks grew thicker along the ground, in some places I swear I saw hand
prints.
Tiny hand prints.
The tunnel ended in a large room.
A room full of bodies with most of their limbs missing.
Mostly children,some adults.
Their clothing was hanging on hooks at one end of the room.
To my horror I recognised a few missing friends' things and at least one police
uniform.

Further into the room were butcher's tools, stained and blunt with use.
Where were they taking the missing body parts?
I soon found out, there was a dumbwaiter in the very corner.
I'd almost missed it, someone had pushed a few empty boxes in front.
It was larger than they usually looked in the movies and seemed stable enough
so I climbed in and pulled myself up with the rope attached.

I hadn't realised how long the tunnel was, how large the room was.
The dumbwaiter took me to the back area of the kitchen.