Day 31

Did you know cats leave dead animals because they think you’re too weak to hunt?

Did you know ghosts do something similar?

They don’t always leave dead animals.

Sometimes they leave knives.

Sometimes they leave poison in your food.

Sometimes they reach deep into your chest and squeeze your heart until you collapse.

They don’t think you’re bad at hunting like cats do.

They think you’re bad at living.

Day 32

Remember your childhood dog?

Remember you never had a childhood dog?

Notice the sound of panting faintly behind you.

Notice how quiet everything else is.

Look closely at your reflection.

See the disembodied canine head floating over your left shoulder.

It looks happy. Its mouth hangs widely in an open smile.

Too widely. You see the muscles in its jaw are rotting.

Look closer - you see maggots writhing in the festering flesh.

They drop to the floor and vanish. You wonder where they go to.

You try to ignore the dog that looks very much like the one you had

or never had. You can’t remember anymore.

It’s been weeks now. The head continues to follow you and rot with you.

You’ve grown used to sweeping its flesh off the floor. The maggots still vanish.

You wonder why it never smells. Rotting flesh should smell vile.

You smell nothing. The head is mostly flesh and maggots. The fur is gone.

The flesh is scarce now. The maggots have left. It still grins.

You continue as normal.

You cut yourself while peeling potatoes.

So that’s where the maggots went.

Day 33

Loud chewing is one of the most obnoxious traits a person can have.

There is little worse than hearing someone sloppily working their

way through their food.

Unless you turn to rebuke them only to find yourself alone.

The chewing is just behind your left ear.

It is loud.

You yell STOP.

It stops.

You hear it swallow.

You hear something meaty tear just beside you.

The chewing begins anew.

You leap to your feet and walk quickly out of the room.

The chewing grows quiet.

Morbidly curious you move back into the room.

It is darker now.

You tread closely to the window.

To the source of the chewing.

You step in something wet.

It splashes up your leg.

Daring to look down you see blood.

the floor is covered in blood.

A wet chunk of something lands on your shoulder.

It is lifted up.

The chewing continues.

You stand frozen in fear as you hear it swallow loudly.

Searing pain then darkness.

Day 34

People is a term that generally refers to humans.

Not all people are humans.

They look just like us.

They are our thieves, our dictators, our serial killers.

Their weakness is peppermint.

Spray them with it at your own risk.

It causes their veins to expand rapidly whilst simultaneously dissolving their internal organs.

In layman’s terms - blood and viscera.

Blood and viscera everywhere.

Note that this still doesn’t kill them.

They will come after you if you try this.

Their stumbling bodies trailing gore behind, heads sunken, eyes fixated on you.

Day 35

You walk through your front door and into somewhere else.

It is not your home.

It seems to be backstage somewhere.

You vaguely hear a mixture of cheering followed by screaming followed

by the sound of something being torn apart.

You see that other people around you are practising.

From their costumes they seem to be performers of sorts.

You look at your own clothes and they too have changed.

Curious you head to the side of the stage where a child recites poetry.

The lights are too bright to see the audience but you hear them growl.

The child looks terrified but not for long.

The front row of the audience leap onto the stage and maul him.

The rest of the audience cheers.

A tap on your shoulder signifies you as next.

You are pushed forward as fear renders you frozen.

When you reach the centre of the stage you are pushed again but

you slip on the bloodied stage floor.

The audience catch you.

Curtains fall.

Day 36

Rain is an unavoidable part of the water cycle.

Rain is made up of water vapour which includes bacterium from the surrounding areas.

Sometimes it includes more than that.

Sometimes it is joined by other things.

You are walking down a road when it starts raining.

Just as fore casted - a light shower.

It comes and goes and leaves the ground damp and...red?

The normally clear puddles of rainwater are red.

Walking slightly faster you notice that all the puddles are red.

They begin to smell.

It is a distinct, metallic scent.

Blood.

As if drawn by your realisation another downpour starts.

Heavier than the last.

Much heavier.

You don’t know how you couldn’t have noticed before - the sky is teeming with

dark red clouds.

You hear a distant wail, almost like a siren but much more human.

It comes closer, you brace for impact.

The sound surrounds you, near deafening it howls and cries as you try to outrun it.

Your eyes clamped shut as you sprint, hoping to find a doorway to dive into.

You hit something soft and soaked.

Opening your eyes you see a towering thing that seems to be made of the blood

rain.

It begins to sink down.

It has a head.

Its face is your mother’s.

She seems angry with you.

Day 37

Have you ever noticed your food go missing?

Have you ever heard strange noises at night that reminded you of someone who left long ago?

They didn’t leave.

They’re still with you.

In your house.

Is there a room you rarely spend time in for one reason or another?

The real reason lies within.

Your mind convinces you that the room is fine.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary there.

Your mind lies.

In the warmest corner of the room lies a pile of pulsating flesh.

You knew them.

You still know them.

You feed them.

They grow.

They change.

Some day they will be reborn.

They will not be human.

Day 38

Look at the back of your hand.

Is it as you remember?

Has anything changed?

Are your veins still flowing with blood?

Do they flow with something else?

Are they even veins?

They are not all veins.

On your right hand where a prominent vein should be

is a scorpion.

It sits under your skin but not so far that you can’t

see it.

It waits for you to look away.

When you do it burrows further into your skin.

If you’ve never seen the scorpion under the skin of

your right hand, I’m sorry.

I am so, so sorry.

The most you will live is a week.

Expect blinding pain and internal bleeding.

Day 39

It started small, as most things do.

You spat blood when you brushed your teeth.

Just a little at first.

Then your teeth began to fall out.

The dentist had no explanation, neither did the doctor.

Your new teeth don’t feel right.

False ones that were surprisingly cheap.

You adjusted slowly until your new teeth began to grow in.

You had no idea how, the dentist said you were seeing things,

your teeth were gone.

He gave you the number for a psychiatrist.

Your new teeth are fully grown in now.

They are a lot bigger, more pointed.

Nobody else can see them still.

You bite at your arm to make sure they are real.

The blood running down your arm suggests they are.

The blood.

The delicious blood.

Why have you never done this before?

You can’t seem to get enough of it.

Your arms are falling to pieces but you can’t bring yourself

to stop.

They find you with no arms, most of your legs torn to

shreds and eaten.

They are never heard from again.

You are still hungry.

Day 40

Humans are weak.

We can survive on average less than a month without water.

How long do you think you can survive for?

1 week, 3 weeks?

A day?

A lifetime?

Someone you knew found out the hard way.

They upset the balance.

They drew too much attention to themselves.

They paid the price.

I will not tell you what they did but I will tell you the consequences.

They awoke as usual.

Left the house as usual.

The only thing wrong was the vague taste of iron in their mouth.

Anything they consumed made it worse.

Their tongue felt heavy as lead.

It wouldn’t move.

It spread.

They lie trapped in their own body, overwhelmed by the taste of metal.

They want so desperately to scream.

Scream their apologies.

Their regrets.

The things they see stalking you.

The things I see stalking you.