Sincerely, Jennifer x

Dearest watcher,

I apologise for interrupting your evening. It was not my intention to inconvenience you, but there’s something that you must know, my friend.

You are about to die.

I wish I were bringing you happier news, but alas, your life is coming to an end.

My thirst is endless and my will is weak. Heaven can help neither of us. Believe me, I’ve tried. I traipsed to the gates, begging for relief from my sickness, but all they could do was cower and shoo me away.

They sent me downstairs, but I was too much for them to handle, and so, I and my brothers must wander this world, waiting for it to end.

There’s so much death inside me. It’s spilling out and I can’t stop it.

You can’t stop it either.

I’ve been everywhere. From Buckingham Palace to the New Orleans bayou. Every single pair of eyes that spies me has that same look. Frozen in fear, searching all around us for a way out, but there’s nothing.

I was born to take you to your grave.

Am I talking to you? You’ll never know until it’s too late. I could describe your home to you, the place where you sit, the way that the light of the screen reflects onto your pretty, perfect eyes, the tick tock tick tock of the clock that seems to get a little slower with each word that I say. It would be a waste. You’ll never escape.

Will you help me, my friend? I’ve got an affliction. A hunger. A need. I can see it snaking through my veins, growing larger and darker all the time.

I can see my poison, and how it will make me perish. I can taste it in every breath. I can hear it in every whisper in the wind. I can feel it blistering and burning my wretched skin.

You’ll be the death of me, and I’ll be the death of you.

It isn’t your fault, you just happened to be home and docile. Not paying attention to the world around you. Do you know if your doors are locked? Why don’t you check? The windows too. Such awful, dreadful things can creep in through an open window.

My first had an open window. She thought it was closed, but she was wrong. Nothing is closed to me. She used to check them all before she went to bed, and they were, but it opened very quickly when it met with my head.

I bashed my brains against the glass. It shredded my ancient flesh, all my death falling to my feet with the blood. I led her to her doom, just like I’m going to lead you.

There’s nothing that stops death, once death has his eyes on you.

Won’t you help me, my friend?

I don’t want to hurt you, but I must. There’s something within me. Something none of us can control. It’s eating me alive, and it will have you too.

It was all so long ago. It began so long ago. Death was dead, and his servants swept me up into their world.

I’m not alone. There are so many of us, sworn to serve our decrepit Master.

I wish I could stop, but the butterflies beat deep within my soul, and there’s nothing I can do.

There’s nothing either of us can do.

This night will be your last.