september 18th, 2021

one day, as i'm driving home across town, i notice a billboard that just says "EAT." i smile. i think it's a bit
strange & funny. over the next mile, i notice two more of these weird "EAT" billboards. is this a weird marketing
campaign? in the next mile, i see four of them. they seem to get more frequent as i drive along, as i get closer to
my home, it would almost seem. i start to notice the odd little sign posted up in the grass. these, too, say "EAT"

the signs get more & more numerous. i start to feel a bit bewildered as the silly notion of a correlation
between the amount of signs & proximity to my home starts to feel more real. surely it's related to
some business or organization near my house... the signs have increasingly diverse fonts,
colors, sizes, etc. i begin to notice flyers on trees & telephone poles, "EAT"

i turn onto a street pretty close to my house. the signs are lining this street, about every five feet,
"EAT," & an "EAT" poster on every pole & tree, & soon, as i proceed, every fence & mailbox,
sometimes the doors & walls of houses. i have one more turn to reach the street my house is on

i drive down the street my house is on. by now the signs lining the street are clustered against each other,
the plethora of posters on everyone's homes seems like some pretty egregious vandalism. i begin to
see signs nailed up on things, & banners hanging from tree branches & streetlights. "EAT"

finally i see my house. the yard is blanketed with tightly packed "EAT" signs. posters & signs blanket the
exterior of my house, nearly blacking out the windows. i park, get out, & wade my way through the
signs which are less thick around the path to my front door but still jutting out a bit, threatening
to trip me. "EATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEAT," my front door says

i open the door & look inside. all of my furniture is gone. there are only "EAT" signs, now so tightly packed that
they practically form the unbroken walls of a tunnel around me, leaving me no choice but to proceed where the tunnel
leads. i follow it toward the back of my house, to my bedroom, where it seems to ultimately lead. i open the door

in my bedroom, there are no "EAT" signs, posters, etc. a black trash bag has been nailed up over
the window. the room is lit by a single candle, sat on the one piece of furniture here, albeit
an unfamiliar one: a circular table with white satin draped over it. on the table
is a small, white plate, & on the plate is a dead mouse

the end!