They don’t wear faces; they borrow them.

  They don’t speak; they repurpose your mouth.

  They don’t crawl; they recalculate the geometry of walking.

  And they are learning to love Prague.

  It didn’t start like you thought it would based on all the thrillers and horrors created throughout human history. Not really.

  No panic, no big events that made people tremble in their shoes. It just…

  Suddenly it just was there.

  First – tremors in deep-Earth observatories. A rather common thing: the layers moving, the soil rearranging itself. It wouldn’t even go as far as outside of those facilities, because people in those would pick up on the signal the equipment was emitting, move the scanners there for checkup and find nothing. First couple of cases with no visible epicenters were shrugged off – things like that weren’t exactly something out of the ordinary.

  Some would say the ground was still rumbling after the war on the European part which finally came to an end in 2029, that the impact from all the bombings was still buried deep beneath the surface. “That damn war changed the lithospheric moving patterns”. It was an easier thing to believe; it was always easier to blame someone for certain things. Gave you reassurance, confidence.

  But then it unexpectedly became a detail not only for geologists to worry about. Tremors. Then – equipment picking up on them. Though every search for the source failed, the tremors still whispered of a buried origin – they could not be without one. Everything must have had a starting point. The tremors had their own, and, appearing from it, they were going wider and wider, moving in an outward spiral-like motion.

  With scientist folk now seriously invested, they decided to wait for another one and, after calculating where it would be heading to, they looked into it immediately.

  Everyone knew the drill: send drones, retrieve data, all done. Answers would be on the desk.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Except it wasn’t that easy at all. Drones were reported lost somewhere in the forests of Siberia. Then in other assumed points. No retrieval, no data. The official statement blamed sensor “blackouts” and the technology not being perfect.

  But then again – sure, it was weird, maybe it had something to do with the magnetic fields which affected the drones. No one really paid attention to it that much.

  Until everyone had to.

  After two years of mild disruptions everyone woke up one day to see the news about it.

  A hole.

  A big one, opened up in the middle, ironically, of St. Peter’s Square right beneath the Vatican Obelisk.

  It was cold, lightless, looking like someone put a black patch over the spot on the map, except this was real life. The government said not to worry; the hole was closed off from the nosy civilians and after that, just like it should have, a bunch of police, researchers and military swarmed the place. The Vatican suspended all visits, emptied the halls in silence, and spirited away from its museums and vaults the treasures too precious to be left behind.

  Official reason?

  Subsidence of lithosphere plates.

  Yet those who were lucky enough to sneak in behind the cordon and see it said it looked nothing like that.

  No broken off pavement, no sign of the Obelisk laying at the bottom, ruined and crumbled, no sight of soil protruding from where the main sink took place. A video got out on Instagram – first person point of view, the light shining into the hole… to point at nothing but darkness. Seemingly, a bottomless one.

  Of course that started speculations, people making up conspiracy theories, and then, as if to stir the things up, the officials finally decided to speak.

  The news anchor looked disbelieving and scared at the same time as he read the statement:

  “As of this moment, the cause behind the recent appearance of these formations remains unknown. However, we can confirm that a similar incident occurred previously in Geneva, prior to the current case in Rome. Despite the smaller diameter of the Geneva sink, it regrettably resulted in casualties.

  Following extensive collaboration with the Geographical Institute of Geneva, we must acknowledge that, at this time, we are unable to provide the public with a clear explanation. Data is severely limited. Multiple drone units deployed into the formations have failed to return, and it is currently assumed that no accessible bottom exists — at least not within the reach of our available technology.

  In light of these uncertainties and potential risks, we strongly advise the public to avoid all identified Pits until further notice. Public safety remains our highest priority, and further updates will be issued as more information becomes available—”

  That was the day the holes got a name. Pits. And it was as if something in the ground waited to be named, because they started appearing in other places.

  Portugal, Germany, Albania, UK…

  Czech Republic.

  In the beginning of 2032, first was found in Brno.

  That same summer, Prague got its own, a rather small one near Vy?ehrad cemetery. Then, a bigger one, on Pet?in Hill. Tourists thought it was cool and atmospheric, even though a little creepy.

  And then?

  They appeared.