I wanted to post this earlier, but I’ve been trying to collect my thoughts and prepare for the inevitable. I just need someone, anyone, to know what is going to happen and whether they have any suggestions on how to stop it…
Since before I was born, my town has never celebrated New Years Eve. It’s now a tradition that on December 31st around 8pm, everyone bolts their doors and windows, draws their curtains, and holds onto their loved ones in anticipation for who will be next. Before you ask, no, I won’t tell you what town it is because I would be hung drawn and quartered. Despite the atrocity that occurs here every year, for some reason the people most affected don’t want any outside help, opting to keep this sordid secret between the townspeople. I will tell you however, it’s somewhere in Europe along a coastline.
Despite asking why, my family never told me anything until the day of my 14th birthday when my classmates began to talk about the rumours circulating our high school. Apparently, every NYE someone, seemingly chosen at random, begins to descend into pure madness, convinced they have seen someone who looks identical to them walking along the coastline shortly before diving into the rock infested waters below. At midnight on December 31st black humanoid-like creatures walk through the town, ignoring all houses except the abode of the chosen towns person. Screams of the victim echoes throughout the desolate streets, unanswered and ignored by any soul unfortunate enough to hear it. What’s strange is that the victim turns up exactly 72 hours later as if nothing happened.
Except they come back… wrong. When the missing are asked where they have been for three days, they shut down the conversation in severe hostile fashion, adamant nothing is wrong. My friends mother went missing when we were nine, he said when she returned she wasn’t the loving mother he was used to, but a sour and bitter woman who was more interested in gossiping and spreading hateful words to anyone who would listen. Come to think of it, for the past 5 years or so, almost every missing person has been female.
Anyway, according to my dad it began around 100 years ago when my great-grandfather was a child. He said that it happened approximately every five years and it was only sick children who were being abducted. Each time a search party was formed and every inch of the coastal town was scoured looking for the sickly victims. It was believed at first to be a case of the children wandering off and getting lost, or falling off the coastal cliffs edge into the murky waters below. But when the children returned three days later the town rejoiced, not wondering where they got to just happy that they returned… and returned healthy. Some sightings have been noted over the years of children diving off the cliffs before being reported as missing, hence the people initially thinking they had not gone missing at all, but in fact perished when they fell off the cliffs edge. However, when they turned up three days later the encounter was dismissed, even with the witnesses testified to the fact they saw the children dive off the cliff, not fall. People believe what they want to believe I guess. Over time, more and more people went ‘missing’, including some adults too.
Back to what urged me to write this story, last year my mother was chosen. The events of that fateful night are hazy at best, almost as if I’d been drugged, but I do remember the primal bone shaking fear that I felt. Around two days before NYE, my mother became a recluse, similar to the way dogs isolating themselves from their owners when they know they’re dying. When my father pressed her for information she broke and told us that she had indeed witnessed a woman with her exact likeness down to the mole on her chin, jump off the cliff overlooking the sea.
In one fell sweep, our whole world had shattered. We tried to prepare as best we could, boarding every entrance point to our house, gathering anything we could fashion into weapons and awaiting the worst. My father sent my younger brother and I upstairs so we wouldn’t witness the cruel ordeal, but you know kids, they never listen, so we sat on the top of the stairs in anticipation. As if in an instant, all the sound around us ceased…That’s when the wailing began.
The air was so still you could hear a pin drop. My heart was in my throat as I looked over to my mother and father cradled in each others arms, tears free flowing as they kissed and bid their farewells to one another. I heard my dad say that she would be back in three days and everything would be OK, what a sweet lie that was. The events that followed felt like they happened in slow motion. The wailing increased in volume as vicious thuds surrounding every square inch of the house, and just as the sounds became too ear shattering the front door succumbed to the immense pressure of the force pushing it open. I think I began to pass out from fear as my memories from this point come in flashes.
Dozens of humanoid mist-like, creatures entered our home.
Darkness.
My father tries to fight them off to which he is violently thrown headfirst into the fireplace mantle.
Darkness.
My mothers ear-piercing screams as she is forcefully dragged out of our living room window.
Darkness.
As the legend fore tells, my mother emerged exactly three days later from the forest surrounding our desolate town. At first I was overcome with joy and relief that she had returned… until I saw her face. Have you heard of the phenomena called Uncanny Valley? It’s where something looks and acts human, but instinctively we can tell that they’re not. Innately you are aware that this thing is not human but is merely imitating a human. Well, that was my mother. Her skin was ever so slightly grey, and her once fiery red curls slightly less red and thinner. Small changes that are not easily noticeable to anyone who doesn’t see her everyday, but I noticed. Over the past year, the mother I had adored was gone, she was now a wicked woman with no interest in her children and a cruel disposition. This led to me becoming depressed and withdrawn, she was my best friend who I would tell everything to, but now? Now she’s not even a mother anymore.
Our household now felt hostile and unfamiliar to me, that imposter living with us and slowly spreading her venomous hate. My father couldn’t make sense of who his ‘wife’ now was or what had happened to them and began drinking heavily. My younger brother, well… he no longer talks to anyone, not a single word muttered to a single soul. I, on the other hand, began avoiding crowds, my friends, and pretty much anything that required being social, leading to late night walks around the very town I hated with every fibre of my being for taking my mother away from me. With Christmas now over and the New Year looming I’ve seldom been out the past couple of weeks, petrified of what was awaiting our town once again. But dad had drunk himself into a stupor and my mother, or whoever she was, had begun her usual verbal berating and I was not in the mood to sit there and take it.
Lost in my own thoughts as usual, the air bit my skin leaving goosebumps trailing down my arms. Suddenly aware of how cold I actually was, I decided to head home which would take me near the dreaded cliffs edge if I were to take the shortcut. But, if I was quick… no, I’d rather freeze and take the long way. With my mind set, I took off, breaking into a slight sprint to hopefully warm myself up a bit. After around ten minutes, I found myself near the cliffs edge, panicked and confused I spun on my heel and began to head in the other direction away from the lifeless sea. How did this happen? I headed away from the water didn’t I?
Scolding myself I tried to rationalise what just happened. I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, my own fault for being lost in thought and not paying attention. Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks. No, face your fears I thought, if I see myself on that cliffs edge I’ll tell her she has a good ass and accept my fate. I chuckled internally, smiling for the first time in what felt like months until I spotted a red-headed woman a few yards away from me. Freezing with fear I lifted my eyes to study her face… staring back at me were eyes I recognised as the ones I loathed the most, that looked back at me each morning as I absentmindedly brushed my teeth…
Before my brain had time to catch up with what I was witnessing, the exact double of myself winked at me before she dived off the cliff straight into the rock infested waters below.