There’s Something That Haunts My Hometown, And I’m Terrified What Will Happen If They Ever Find Me

Most nights were quiet. I would distract myself playing cards alone or straining my eyes to read. Sometimes I could get bored enough to forget I was terrified. But there were noisy nights. Nights when They roamed very close to our house. There was no forgetting on those nights. None of us dared to leave the living room when they were close; if we really couldn’t hold it in, we had to do it in a bucket.

You might be wondering what exactly drove us to such extremes. The thing is, I don’t know anymore than you do. I never saw anything. No one ever talked about what happened on the last day of every month. It was like it didn’t happen. I asked my parents once, when I was very young but old enough to finally realize this wasn’t a normal situation, what was out there on those nights.

My father shrugged. “Evil,” he said.

I don’t think he knew, either. But it was evil, of that I’m sure. We could feel it in our bones, an animal instinct rising up as the Night got closer, warning us that something was wrong in this place.

It was always sunny on the last day of the month, but it always felt cloudy. I noticed that as the years went by. Every time, the daylight felt bluish, yet it also looked like… well, just your perfectly normal sunny day. It never rained. The temperature was always 22°C, all day, regardless of the season. The birds still sang, dogs barked, but they sounded… underwater. To me, at least. Like I said, nobody mentioned what happened during the Night. If others noticed these things, they kept it to themselves. Maybe they preferred to enjoy the normal days and face the Night only when it came. I don’t know. The rest of the month, everyone lived a normal life and even seemed happy. Not me. I just lived in nauseous expectation of the next Night.