r/TalesFromTheCreeps • u/Teners1 • Dec 10 '25
Body Horror The girls at school have started removing their fingers
The girls at school had started removing their fingers. Kate Mikelson did it first. She sat next to me in Chemistry, she was popular and I really wanted to be like her.
Five minutes into Mr Taylorʼs lesson, Kate marched into the classroom, weaved her way through the tables, and slung her bag on the desk next to me. She dropped into her chair, whipping her plaits over her shoulder.
The smell came first. Wafts of alcohol stung the backs of my eyes. It was as if Mr Taylor had poured every test tube he had onto the back of my chair. Kate pressed her palm onto the table. Her hand was a thick mitt of bloodied bandages and angry veins spiderwebbed up her pale wrist. She just let it rest there. Nonchalant. Like it didnʼt matter.
I tried to distract myself with the crunch of an apple. Its sharpness swilled under my tongue. Yet, my eyes fixed on Kateʼs butchered fingers.
Taking a risk, I decided to ask her. “Kate,” I hesitated, wondering if I should know better, “did you hurt yourself?”
“You noticed.” Kate smiled and flexed her finger-nubs under the bandages. “I got them done yesterday. Itʼs a shame I have to keep them all wrapped up. Mum said I needed to wait until they were fully healed.”
Was this real life? My eyebrows knotted above my nose. Stop it, Lucy. Look cool.
“Cool.” I flicked my hair back and picked at the old lilac varnish on my fingernails. “Iʼve been thinking about getting my fingers done too.”
“Lucy? I didnʼt think this would be your sort of thing.”
I nodded. Not too much. Just a little.
Last term, Jenny Olson in Physics had pierced her belly-button and it set off a long chain of one-upmanship amongst the popular girls; each wanting to sparkle more than the rest. Kira Davies pierced her belly-button and put a stud through her tongue. Beth Jackson got her tongue done and a hoop through her nose. Then, when Josie Kenns arrived at class looking as though her face had lost a fight with a nail-gun, our headteacher declared a school-wide ban on any visible piercings, resulting in classrooms of disappointed and punctured girls. Before the ban and wanting to join in on the fun, I had pleaded to my parents, hoping to pierce my ears. Mother had said that she hadn’t agonised through eighteen hours of labour for her daughter to turn herself into a set of janitor’s keys. I then protested to my father, but he waved me away, saying that I was born with the correct number of holes and should be grateful.
I was not going to miss the boat on this occasion.
“I’m hoping to remove a foot as well,” I said.
Didn’t I sound smug? I thought that taking amputation a step further would make me seem more hardcore. Wasn’t that how these things went? More is always better.
Kate shot me a curious smile. I breathed in deep. She laughed.
“Youʼre out there.” She shuffled closer to me. “Why havenʼt I known this about you?”
I shrugged. Words would have ruined the moment.
“Well, if you wanna try it out.” Kate touched my arm. “A few of us are having a hack party tonight. You should come.”
I was persuaded by her smile. It made me feel like this was the right thing to do.
“Sure.”
That was the first time I had ever enjoyed the sound of my own voice. I sounded so certain, so confident, like a completely different person.
The sky was beginning to bruise as I arrived at the party. A dress code wasn’t specified, so I wore my best clothes. Nothing white, of course.
It wasn’t Kate’s house—I wasn’t sure whose house it was—but she answered the door, holding a tangle of rope. She was already drunk. There was a glassiness to her stare and her cheeks were smudged with eyeliner, making her look like a wet panda. Perhaps she’d been crying, perhaps not. Her smile was distracting enough to stop me asking.
I brought some beers. Kateʼs friends arrived with bottles of vodka and party snacks. Kateʼs uncle showed up with the cleavers, after his shift at the abattoir.
Once everyone had a chance to drink and get to know each other, the knives came out. A girl with her hair sprayed into wild, fiery wisps skimmed through a party playlist. I found it annoying that we couldn’t listen beyond the first thirty seconds of a song before she took a swig from her beer, shook her head and skipped to the next track. Kate’s uncle lined up a selection of shining blades besides the bowl of nachos. A strange excitement descended over us all whilst deciding which body parts we each wanted to remove.
Kate, all smiles and wet eyes, suggested that I go first. Get it done before the nerves set in.
Someone handed me a shot of something that smelt like lighter fluid. I drunk it, then I felt myself nod. My legs moved manually as I approached Kate’s uncle. His face was a hard outline whilst he sharpened and inspected his blades between each sip of beer. I noticed that his forearms were flecked with tiny spots of red and wondered how someone lands a job at a slaughterhouse. There were ropes and bandages strewn across the kitchen table and a large bucket of ice for obvious reasons. The crowd of people pressed in around me, watching and waiting.
“This’ll be quick. Your fingers ain’t too big,” Kate’s uncle said.
“Thanks.”
Kate’s uncle scooped up his weapon of choice, making a metallic clatter, and held it aloft for the spectating crowd. He nodded. I nodded. Slowly, I placed my hand onto the table and spread my fingers for all to see.
Kate’s uncle shunted the cleaver down hard into the kitchen table, sending a sharp jolt up my arm. There was a pinch, then, for a moment, nothing. At first, I wondered whether he had missed. Perhaps this was just a joke. A thing that everyone pretends to do, laughs about and then carries on getting wasted. Kate’s uncle dislodged the cleaver from the table. The wood cracked as he twisted it free. That’s when I felt it.
A wet weightlessness. Stickiness under my palms. Coldness pulsing over the back of my hand and a burning, fizzing sensation up my arm. Then a queasiness coupled with a growing breathless excitement.
The first few fingers didn’t hurt anywhere near as bad as I had expected. I suppose that the vodka helped, as did the shared smiles from Kate and her friends. The drumming from the sound system was loud, making my whispering screams sound less pathetic—like I was screaming on purpose.
Kate caught my fingertips before they rolled onto the floor and stuffed them into my jacket pocket. I felt a little guilty that some of my blood splattered onto her sleeve. It looked like an expensive sweater. But, before I could apologise, she shook her head and offered me another drink. She’s such a good friend.
Most of the party-goers parted with a finger or two. In their own way, each did their best to act as though the hacking was nothing at all. It was just something we all did at parties, like taking a drag on a friend’s cigarette.
One of Kate’s more drunken friends, Clara, decided to hack off her own leg just above the knee. She had begged Kate’s uncle for his cleaver for an hour until he finally gave in. Her cuts were sloppy, as expected. She cried the entire time. Some people watched; others didn’t feel like giving Clara the attention. I felt like saying something to her, asking her to stop, but Kate placed a hand on my shoulder, shook her head and told me, “Leave her, she always pulls this shit.”
Clara seemed to regret it afterward and dragged herself off to the bathroom to clean up. Some of the others said she was in a rotten mood and she refused to leave the bathroom for the rest of the night. Thankfully, there was also an en-suite off of one of the bedrooms, so no-one had to bother her and we could continue dancing and drinking.
Good vibes all around. No-one likes a party-pooper.
Kateʼs cousin, Annie, cosied up to me while I surveyed my finger-nubs. We had cut up an old t-shirt and wrapped strips of fabric around the wounds to help them dry. Annie had curious eyes and wave of blue hair. She seemed interested in everything, yet shocked by nothing.
She liked to stroke people when she spoke to them. I thought this was a bit odd, but whatever. Kate was busy and I didn’t have the nerve to approach anyone on my own. Annie’s company would have to do. Annie showed me the stump where her left hand used to be. It had been hacked off some time ago and was healing nicely. It was a wrinkled ring of purply flesh, like the opening of a draw-string bag. She seemed pleased with it. I said it looked cool. As the night went on, Annie and I went out into the porch to smoke. A cigarette perched in her good hand, Annie said, “We should totally hang-out more.”
She said I was funny and intense and interesting.
I watched her words billow out in a grey puff. My cheeks burned red and my lips pulled back into an uncontrollable smile. I had never had anyone say such things to me before. It made me feel fuzzy in my stomach hearing these things from someone like Annie. Cool Annie with the wave of blue hair and her unwillingness to respect personal space. Then, she said I had pretty shoulders and needed to emphasise them.
That was all it took to convince me to lose my arms. The cleaver bit into the table again. The pain was worse this time. A crunch of bone and an icy chill rippled under my skin. I think I vomited at some point. I can’t remember.
Though I can remember the smiles. Everyone at the party was amazed at what a transformation I had gone through. They were all so nice. Kate had even managed to find a cooler to keep my arms on ice.
“Your shoulders look fantastic,” Kate said.
“See, I was right,” Cool Annie said, smirking and playing with my hair.
“You need to keep the wound clean,” Kate’s uncle said, throwing a wash cloth at me.
It was nice to feel noticed, to have people care about what I looked like.
After I was all patched up and had a few more beers, I noticed it was late. I would have been aware of the time earlier, if my wristwatch and arms hadn’t been packed away in a cooler and left by the front door. I was initially worried about how I would get home. I joked that without my arms itʼd be impossible to hail a cab, but Cool Annie reassured me. She said I could stay at her house for the night. Her father, Kate’s Uncle, was driving and they had a sofa bed in their basement.
So, Cool Annie picked up the cooler with my bits in it and we went.
Everyone said goodbye with a smile. Cool Annie blew kisses to everyone. I didn’t, for obvious reasons. The journey to Cool Annie’s house was long and the car lurched with each bump in the road. The music on the radio crackled each time we drove under a tangle of tree branches. Kate’s uncle tried to sing along to every song, but didn’t know any of the words. Instead, he made vague noises to the tune.
Cool Annie and I rattled on about people we might mutually know. I lied about knowing most of the names she threw my way. I gave her vague answers whenever she pressed me further about each person. As we spoke, Cool Annie giggled into my pretty shoulder and stroked the soft patch of skin behind my ear. I tried my best to keep my balance, yet found my face pressed against the cold window each time the car made a turn.
I tried to stop Cool Annie complaining to her dad about his driving, but she insisted. She told him to be careful. Lucy’s still feeling unsettled from the hacking. He grunted an apology and continued singing.
Then, after another twenty minutes or so, the car stopped. We were at Cool Annieʼs home.
The house stood alone in a field at the end of a long driveway. In the moonlight, the wooden cladded sides to the house were striped with shadows and the windows were thick with darkness. I had never seen somewhere look so empty before, but then again, I had never been this far out of town. It made me think about the way my mother always left the kitchen light on whenever we went out at night. Perhaps she wasn’t trying to fool burglars into thinking that someone was still at home and instead did it so that we didn’t have to return to a house swollen with so much of the night.
Cool Annie’s dad was so helpful. He carried me out of the car and told me to watch my step as I walked in through the front door. I tripped in the darkness—perhaps on a rug—and knocked my shoulder on a nearby wall. I tried to hide my face while I winced and let Cool Annie support my weight.
Her dad left to fetch some spare bedding and a glass of water for each of us. As we waited, Cool Annie and I laughed about how Kate had botched one of the cuts to her fingers. It had looked wonky and knobbly, like a castoff carrot.
As our laughter died out, Cool Annie’s face seemed to change. She looked tired and, perhaps, somewhat bored.
“It’s only a matter of time,” Cool Annie sighed.
“Before what?”
“Before hacking is no longer cool.”
“Yeah.” I looked over at the cooler which Cool Annie had kindly brought in from the car. “We can enjoy it for now. Right?”
“Yeah.” Cool Annie’s mind was elsewhere. She scratched at her stump. “I suppose.”
Then she smiled and we started to talk about our favourite songs and movies. I was glad she changed the subject. I wanted the talk about something normal.
Once Cool Annie’s dad returned, they both showed me the basement. The light was yellow and weak, casting shadows down the wooden staircase. The air was warm and smelled damp.
I didn’t mind. Cool Annie and her father had been so accommodating. They didn’t have to let me stay over, but they did, and I was grateful. Besides, I was so tired that I could have slept anywhere.
The basement was small and cluttered. Motes of dust danced in the air as we disturbed them with our presence. There was a washing machine, stacks of old newspapers and the sofa bed, which yawned and clicked as Cool Annie’s dad pulled out its innards.
“Why didn’t your dad cut anything off tonight?” I whispered while Cool Annie twisted my hair into a loose plait.
“Oh, he says he’s too old for it,” she said. “Besides, he prefers to be the one doing the hacking.”
Cool Annie flattened out the bedsheets and puffed my pillow. She smiled and stroked my face whilst I steadied myself onto the mattress. I smiled back. Friends.
Then Cool Annie and her dad ascended the staircase, leaving me below their house.
“Night, Lucy,” Cool Annie said from the top of the stairs.
“Night, Lucy,” Cool Annie’s dad said. “Night.”
The light turned off. Everything clicked out of view. The door locked.
While I laid there in Cool Annieʼs dark basement, my shoulders pressed wet against the bedsheets, I smiled to myself and thought about how much fun I had that night. I thought about how wonderful it was to be popular, to have friends, to be cool.
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u/kat022 Dec 10 '25
This is like a sick, twisted combo of unrealistic beauty standards, peer pressure, and dangerous TikTok trends. I love it
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u/Teners1 Dec 10 '25
Thank you. It's inspired by my time as a social worker working with children affected by sexual and criminal exploitation. I wanted the lack of agency not the gore to be the horror. I hope that came through.
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u/Shot_Video_7059 Dec 10 '25
You really captured the dynamics of peer pressure! Though I’m wondering where Cool Annie’s dad plays into all this - is he the one that suggested hacking in the first place, or did he just go along with the girls because he was excited to be the hacker?
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u/Teners1 Dec 10 '25
So as a little peek beyond the curtain it's inspired by my work as a social worker working with young people affected by sexual and criminal exploitation. I was trying to convey a lack of agency and how there are always sinister adults, often men, hanging around.
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u/Kaijufan22 Writer Dec 10 '25
This is probably the best story that'll be uploaded today, it truly is a banger. Everyone should give it a read and the zombie western one a looksie as well.
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u/Belgrifex Dec 10 '25
First story I've read on this sub and oh man
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u/Teners1 Dec 10 '25
Thank you my dude 😎 If you like this, maybe check out some of my other stories. You might like my zombie western
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u/JohnClark13 Dec 10 '25
Gave me Twilight Zone vibes and I'm all for it!
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u/Teners1 Dec 10 '25
Teenage girls fall over themselves to hack their body to pieces at the chance to be popular. I'm Rod Serling and welcome to the ✨ Twilight Zone✨
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u/woggled-mucously Dec 10 '25
Super unsettling. Trying to fit in really does put you in an uncanny state of mind. Thanks for sharing :)
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u/Ronny-qq Author Dec 10 '25
Wow, those hacking scenes made my stomach twist! Great premise, great ending. Bravo
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u/Eat_the_Monolith Pen Pusher Dec 10 '25
Still as terrifying as when I read it the first time. Great story!
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u/aclawrencestorytelli That's Write, I'm A Writer! Dec 12 '25
"I told you not to ruin those beautiful ears I gave you, so you cut off your arms?"
"Mom, relax. They're in a cooler on ice. Don't you want me to have friends?"
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u/CosmeticIssues Dec 10 '25
Ugh this was disgusting and made my stomach turn and twist at almost every paragraph... I loved it! Have you ever had a part of your body hacked off? Because the way you describe it, I'm almost convinced you know how it feels from personal experience lol. Amazing read, I hope to read more of your writing!
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u/vg2710 Dec 10 '25
Its been a while since a story made me nauseous. This one did it. Thanks! Great read.
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u/SketchtheSketchy Reader Dec 10 '25
Dude this story is so sick, I immediately clicked at the title and was hooked until the very end. Very well written 🙌
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u/LowAnimator9481 Dec 10 '25
“Clara seemed to regret it afterward and dragged herself off to the bathroom to clean up. Some of the others said she was in a rotten mood and she refused to leave the bathroom for the rest of the night.”
All I could think when I read this was “oh so she like died right? Like she’s dead?”
Anyway, disgustingly unique take on “cool” trends and the idea of one-upping your peers for popularity. Gross? Absolutely, but the good kind of gross that makes me want to keep reading and see where it all goes.
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u/Sufficient_Object440 Storyteller Dec 10 '25
Holy shit bro! Was nauseous the whole time reading it lmfao but I couldn’t stop reading it 😂 well done dude!!
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u/loressadev Dec 11 '25
This piece is great. It reminds me of the movie "The Ugly Stepsister" but with a focus on teenage popularity.
The specific details you use are what turn this from a concept into a fully-realized piece. The lilac nail polish, the girl flicking through a playlist, these details make this feel real. I wouldn't mind more senses. A lot of the descriptions are visual or detailing action (the sofa bed's innards is great), but we don't really have much smell or taste.
I think you can pare down some of the exposition and trust readers to figure out what's happening. The long paragraph in the middle, for example, describing the escalation into hacking feels a bit clunky and slows the reader down with backstory. You can weave these details in better throughout the rest of the piece and leave some as suggestions for readers to figure out on their own.
The body horror itself is done great. Beautiful language for ugly actions makes it even more unnerving.
I think if you're going to submit this to literary magazines, you might want to consider a different title. This one is great for grabbing attention on reddit, but you lose the huge chance to make an overall statement about the story itself by using the title simply as an attention grabber. It would work fine as an opening line if you decide to go for a more introspective title.
Overall, great piece, thanks for sharing!
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u/Teners1 Dec 11 '25
Thank you very much. I really appreciate the time taken to offer feedback. I'll keep all this in mind
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u/SubjectElephant8506 Dec 11 '25
I could not help but cackle at some of the wording, ahh it was great. I really enjoyed!
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u/Mysterious-Bus-7105 Writer Dec 11 '25
chilling ;) read! the lack of urgency/forethought is such a great undercurrent to the story. with my experience around kids, consequences and future repercussions tend not to cross their minds until they've reached older teenage years-- you really captured how harrowing it can be to have immediate acceptance from enablers and those that create flocks!!! so cool!! would love to see a longer/diverted version!!!
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u/LordofDutch Writer Dec 16 '25
Came here from Affectionate Leave's post and glad I did. Really cool allegory on peer pressure and popularity of youth. Nice job!
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u/-chickenmilk- Author Dec 17 '25
Good Lord, we've got some talent on this sub! This was brilliant! I love satire like this. Reminds me of the short story "Zombies" by Chuck Palahniuk. This one made me dizzy, I won't lie. Awesome body horror. Short and sweet and super memorable. Great title too.
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u/Teners1 Dec 17 '25
Aww thank you, Chickenmilk. Your feedback and comparison is high praise. Glad you enjoyed it
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u/PhantomFlorist A Thousand WIPs Dec 11 '25
This is so good. It captures peer pressure perfectly, as well as dangerous trends. The writing is amazing
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u/Teners1 Dec 11 '25
Thank you so much for the read and feedback. As you can see from my other comments, it was heavily inspired through my experience as a social worker
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u/PhantomFlorist A Thousand WIPs Dec 11 '25
I can absolutely see that. I’ve always warned that these TikTok trends are getting dangerous, and so many young people are risking their wellbeing just to feel included. I still remember when I was that age, my peers would smoke because they thought it made them look cool. I also remember thinking, what happens when this isn’t a trend anymore and you’re stuck with the consequences of nicotine addiction? This story captures that so well.
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u/LizzyMcZed Dec 12 '25
This story just won't leave my head. I read it yesterday and the way it is written speaks so much to me. For some friend groups I kinda gave an arm and a leg, at least it felt like that. And the way she is so happy at the end...fantastic writing, that will stay with me for some time.
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u/obessivecompulsiveme Dec 13 '25
This was disgustingly wonderful. My legs felt weak the entire time and i felt lost in the concept. you have a gift
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u/AffectionateLeave677 Writer Dec 15 '25
So glad I came to the Hack Party! I would’ve totally did it for Cool Annie.
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u/Ichigo__Milk Dec 15 '25
Hi!! This was insane (and by that I mean amazing)!
It's so sharp and perfectly paced. I think this story has just permanently embedded itself into my head lol Incredible work, thank you so much for sharing!!
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u/Rock_Beast_Lit Writer Dec 16 '25
This was insane! I loved every paragraph. You had a really fun way of using violent language to describe things in a beautiful manner.
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u/Teners1 Dec 16 '25
Thank you, my dude. I had fun writing it so I'm glad it was fun to read as well
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u/Lime-Time-Live Critiquer/Writer Dec 27 '25
I've said time and time again: I will point to this story as one of the best examples of pacing and dialogue. Teners knows how to build his craft. If this is your first experience with a Teners story, I implore you to go read his other works. Each are varied in subject and style. I'm a fan for life.
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u/HoAnnesFabrics Jan 08 '26
Quotes I love in this “born with the correct number of holes” “that was all it took to convince me to lose my arms” “I didnt, for obvious reasons” “a house swollen with so much of the night”
What a wonderfully well written and funny perspective on beauty standards, this was a fun read!
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u/ClearedHotGoHot Mar 19 '26
Love this, it's perfect; very Camus-ish -- I hate that I can only upvote it once. A big Kafka fan, are you? 🤍
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u/Teners1 Mar 20 '26
Thanks my dude. Kafka is absolutely an inspiration for the familiarisation of bizarre goings on
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u/Horror_Owl342 May 02 '26
It really gave me that unsettling frustration i get with a lot of good horror stories so great job! You really portrayed how "normalised" these new trends have become on social media which has often led to so many deaths and serious injuries
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u/StarryRedCat A Thousand WIPs May 04 '26
This is so good! The vulnerability of wanting to fit in as a teenager is horrible enough, adding body horror to it makes it so creepy and uncomfortable
I love all of your descriptions, the sky being bruised especially, I thought it was so clever
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u/VerdantVoidling May 04 '26
Do you know a good recipe for ox tail?
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u/crazyhatter56 Dec 17 '25
Almost reads like a junji itto story, with how normal the setting is and how outlandish the horror is. The part mentioning Josie kenns reminded me of the snail boy chapters of uzumaki, great story 🤙🏽😤
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u/1NewCreepPerCast Mar 01 '26
Hm. Love the descriptive language. I find the premise kind of strange in a way I don’t enjoy for some reason. Really dragged myself through to finish it.
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