Day 516

I saw him every day outside of my shop, always signing the cross and mumbling blessings.
Apparently he did it all over town, rarely the same place twice.
Strange how he was always outside my shop first thing every morning.
It had been going on for at least thirty years too, according to the previous owner.
She'd said he was "a fixture" - a permanent part of the shop grounds really.

And then five weeks ago he stopped coming no obituary, no nothing just silence.
That's when the town began to slowly but surely fall apart.
It took me a fair while to notice how many small shops were closing down, how empty it got.
Eventually people just stopped coming by altogether and those of us who stayed did so in silence.
There are fewer of us each day and we still have no idea what the old man was keeping away.