HEARTSTOPPER - TIMELINE #817032

(Timeline Tuesday #50)

Heartstoppers are a species of frightening, parasitic invertebrate from a nearby timeline. These creatures are approximately the size and shape of a human heart, appearing in a similar crimson tone and featuring all the same muscles and chambers of a typical functioning heart. Closer inspection, however, reveals a heartstoppers disturbing nature.

Heartstoppers feature a handful of eyes and mouths placed across their body, which can range in number. Typically, these creatures will sprout more of sensory organs as they age, the growths appearing in random placement across their form. This species is also equipped with five appendages, these long muscular tendrils erupting from the top of their body. Heartstoppers use these arms to carry themselves around, and to manipulate any objects they encounter.

The most sinister part of a heartstopper’s appendages, however, is the sharp tip of these tentacles, which they use to pierce the skin of their prey. When making its attack, a heartstopper will find a way to leap onto the chest or back of its target. Typically this target will be a human host, but heartstoppers have also been discovered within a variety of other mammals when no suitable human can be found. This creature will plunge its sharp appendages within the hosts body, then immediately struggle to wiggle its way inside.

This process is very painful for a host, and they will often do whatever it takes to remove the heartstopper. However, this species is incredibly quick. Typically, a heartstopper will enter the body of its potential host within thirty second, using all the energy it can muster to tear its way inside. If the heartstopper fails, it is very likely it will die of exhaustion.

Once inside a host’s body, a heartstopper will devour the victim’s heart, then insert itself within the cavity as a replacement. In the vast majority of cases, this transplant is successful.

Heartstoppers are near impossible to remove once they have found a host, meaning most victim will simply live with this creature inside their body for years. For the most part, the hosts life will remain the same, the only difference being that they have a strong craving for a heartstopper’s favorite meal: red meat.

When the host eventually perishes (which can sometimes occur early thanks to the host’s new red meat heavy diet), the heartstopper will crawl forth and begin their search for a new host.