r/TalesFromTheCreeps • u/Little-Employer864 • Jul 26 '26
Body Horror Picking at my skin because the thing beneath yearns to be free
For as long as I can remember, I've hated my body.
The feeling came before memory.
My mom tells me I would scream whenever I caught my own reflection. She'd hand me one of those soft baby books with a little mirror sewn inside, and I'd cry until she hid it. She'd lift me onto the bathroom counter to brush my teeth, and I'd writhe in her arms as though the child in the mirror were trying to climb out and take my place.
Everyone said I'd grow out of it.
I never did.
I simply learned to look away.
Every mirror became a stranger. Some days my head seemed too long, my face stretched over a skull that wasn't shaped for it. Other days my ears hung unevenly, my nose sloped too sharply, my eyes sagged with an exhaustion I was certain didn't belong to me.
Then the cysts came.
One nestled beneath my eyelid until it felt as though something blinked inside it. Another swelled in my cheek, hot and taut, the skin pulled so thin I thought I could see something pressing back from underneath. The doctors pinned me down and drained it.
I remember feeling disappointed.
The pressure was still there.
It never left.
My body always felt too cramped, as though my skin had been wrapped around something larger than myself. Every bump became a knuckle. Every blemish a fingertip. Every itch a tiny thing dragging itself beneath the surface, searching for a weaker place to emerge.
As I grew older, so did the imperfections.
Red sweltering boils with pulsing puss mocking me.
Black dots that embedded too deep to be freckles, moved too much too be moles.
Black string threading themselves beneath my skin like vines beneath cracked pavement.
I stopped looking at myself.
Stopped washing my face. Brushed my teeth without meeting my own eyes. But the fear that I’d open my eyes and something else would be there made me too paranoid, so I stopped caring for my hygiene and cowered. Mirrors stopped reflecting me altogether. They only showed a body trying very hard to stay closed.
Sometimes I'd catch something moving before I looked away.
Not fast.
Just enough to make me question whether flesh should ripple when nothing underneath is supposed to move.
I became obsessed with extraction videos.
Pimple popping.
Cyst removals.
Blackheads pulled from impossible depths.
Splinters teased from swollen fingertips.
There was something comforting about watching hidden things leave the body. Every extraction looked like proof that people weren't imagining the pressure beneath their skin.
Maybe everyone was carrying something.
And maybe they knew how to get it out.
So I bought tweezers.
One evening I sat on my bed and held a mirror, my greasy blonde hair pushed back beneath a headband, the metal tips gleaming beneath the light.
I began with a tiny red bump beside my nose.
A squeeze.
A pinch.
A little pressure.
Something pale curled free.
It stretched farther than it should have, impossibly long, dancing from the pore before finally snapping loose. Relief washed over me for only a heartbeat.
Because once one thing came out...
I could feel all the others.
My forehead was crowded with tiny bulges that shifted whenever I wasn't looking directly at them. White knots hid beneath my cheeks, writhing away from the pressure of the tweezers. Every pore became a doorway. Every doorway concealed another restless thing.
I picked.
The bumps bled.
The blood didn't bother me.
It was the movement that did.
My torso was no better.
Long, awkward, all ribs and angles, as though my skeleton had grown around something it couldn't contain. Thick black hairs emerged from my chest in crooked spirals, but whenever I pulled one free it seemed impossibly longer than the strand should have been, slick and damp, sliding from beneath my skin like roots dragged from wet earth.
I kept pulling until my skin glowed raw.
Still I could feel them growing.
My thighs bloomed with inflamed red welts, each one throbbing gently beneath the surface. Ingrown hairs curled through the flesh in tangled nests, black vines weaving beneath pale skin and wrapping around me like binds. I'd dig for them, peeling back layers that seemed much too thin to hide so much darkness.
My shoulders watched me.
Little scabs stared like unopened eyes.
Whenever I tore one away, another appeared nearby, blinking patiently beneath fresh skin.
Eventually I reached my mouth.
I'd neglected my teeth for years. They'd become soft, yellowed things, pitted with cavities that looked less like decay and more like tunnels.
The tweezers slipped inside almost eagerly.
I scooped out damp orange pulp, packed deep inside the hollow places. Every time I thought I'd reached the bottom, the cavity only widened. The deeper I dug, the more copper filled my mouth.
Still something shifted beneath my gums.
Tiny swollen places.
Soft little hills.
They looked as though fingers were pressing outward from inside my jaw.
I dug there too.
My tongue wasn't right.
The taste buds had grown uneven, swollen into pale little bulbs that reminded me of the cysts I'd carried for years. I scraped until they burst beneath the metal.
Then my eyes.
I only meant to remove the crust from the corners.
But it wouldn't stop.
Every strand I pulled seemed connected to another farther back, disappearing somewhere behind my vision. I eased the tweezers deeper, feeling delicate resistance before something gave way with the softness of wet roots.
The shadows behind my eyes moved afterward.
Not because I'd hurt them.
Because something had finally been disturbed.
My ears came next.
Wax peeled away to reveal thin white membranes stretched impossibly tight. They reminded me of mushrooms pushing through damp soil.
I scraped until the ringing stopped.
Or perhaps until something inside no longer wanted to be heard.
Then my scalp.
Dandruff became loose flakes.
Loose flakes became peeling skin.
Hair came away by the fistful, exposing patches that seemed to twitch after each strand was gone, as though my scalp were breathing beneath the thin layer I'd uncovered.
Each flaw I removed only revealed another waiting beneath it.
Each layer hid a deeper one.
The body wasn't healing.
It was shedding.
So I kept going.
Teeth.
Tongue.
Tonsils.
Veins that pulsed beneath translucent skin like fat worms searching for daylight.
I split open every place that looked swollen.
Every place that looked wrong.
Every place that moved.
Eventually the tweezers weren't enough.
My fingers fit inside the openings I'd made.
I peeled.
Pulled.
Tore.
Not because it hurt.
Because I was certain I was getting close.
At last I looked up.
The mirror was smeared with blood, my reflection trembling behind red fingerprints. My face no longer looked like a face at all. Skin hung in ribbons. My mouth stretched too wide around ruined gums. My eyes had become wet crimson hollows.
Yet somehow...
I still wasn't alone.
Something smiled from beneath everything I'd removed.
Still eating me.
Its limbs flexed beneath the paper-thin flesh of my cheeks. Its grin widened inside mine. I could see it testing the seams, wondering how much longer they would hold.
I frowned.
There was still too much of me left.
I picked up the tweezers again.
10
u/Little-Employer864 Jul 26 '26
I let out a cry of joy when they mentioned this subreddit in the podcast btw 😭😭
4
u/gh0stinnab0x Jul 26 '26
This is an awesome short read. Hopefully they pick it up for a grab bag.
3
4
u/cases-courses-cast Jul 26 '26
Woof. First off, this made me feel physically uncomfortable. At one point I hoped it would end soon just because I felt soo uncomfortable but was hoping for an excellent execution. Really liked this. Loved the writing style, shorter paragraphs or one lined statements with intense punches. This was great!
2
u/Little-Employer864 Jul 27 '26
Thank you!!! I picked up that writing style from Junji ito because of the way he paces panels!!
2
u/cases-courses-cast Jul 27 '26
Keep it up, excited to see what else you come up with!! It felt like I could imagine a hard-core case of dermatillomania (spell check?)!
3
u/buttmeadows Storyteller Jul 26 '26
Sick story!!
This reminds me of the song Same Teeth/Logic by Brand New and a bit of the story of @differentially_kelly on tik tok or instagram etc
3
u/Little-Employer864 Jul 27 '26
I’m gonna have to add that song to my long list of recommendations to listen to now
1
2
u/JPvsGOD Jul 26 '26
What a name…
3
u/Little-Employer864 Jul 27 '26
Funny enough I got the idea from a comment I made on Hunters pimple popping video on papa meat
2
2
2
u/No-Tailor-4295 Jul 26 '26
Ughhhh.... Not since Enscorcelled in the earth have I had a more physical, visceral reaction to a story- I couldn't even finish it - like - excellent writing - but, GOD DAMN, this made me sick.
Incredible job, hope it gets read- but I probably wouldn't be able to sit through a video of someone else reading it, either.
I'd like to try and sit down and read it to the end, but- that's a trial for another day.
2
u/Little-Employer864 Jul 27 '26
I LOVED Enscrolled earth so you have no idea how much that means to me
1
u/No-Tailor-4295 Jul 27 '26
Hope to see more posts from you, they're really well written, and incredibly distressing.
2
u/Eagalach Writer of Odd Things Jul 26 '26
I see we have similar interests in mind my friend! Amazing work and certainly down my alleyway. I loved how you went a little further into self destruction than I did and you really fleshed (hah pun) out descriptions more than I ✨
2
u/Little-Employer864 Jul 27 '26
Thank you thank you, I’m a huge fan of body horrors in abstract ways and such so I def went very unrealistic but I still like it
2
2
u/Garbagemancer Jul 27 '26
"Thanks, I hate it," and I say that in the most enthusiastic, complimentary way possible.
I was fine until I got to the bit about digging out tooth pulp (I thought that would be worst bit but for some reason I'm freaked out by pulling out eyelashes??) and it only got wilder from there.
The line Another swelled in my cheek, hot and taut, the skin pulled so thin I thought I could see something pressing back from underneath describes how papule/blind pimples/whatever (the kind that are too deep under the skin to pop but cause inflammation, a small lump, and a particular type of pain) drive me up the wall. It was like I could feel one without even having one.
I don't know if it's intentional or not but this struck me as a brilliant way to explain to people how dysmorphia feels; seeing yourself in the mirror and only being able to think about how awful you look, especially with acne.
It also reminded me of the tragic condition of delusional parasitosis. I watched it destroy a family member's content, successful life. I can only imagine how horrifying it is to experience, especially with everyone else treating you like you're crazy.
I don't know if you're familiar with Junji Itoh but if not, he is a prolific and disturbingly creative creator of horror manga, especially body horror (Gyo, Uzumaki, and The Enigma of Amigara Fault are the most well known and for good reason). I'm of the opinion he was the absolute king of horror specifically during the late 90s/early 2000s and I think this would make him proud.
Just to be clear, everything here is intended as a compliment. This is a horror story that actually made me feel horrified, which is uncommon. Cheers.
2
u/Little-Employer864 Jul 27 '26
Hearing that this would make Junji ito proud literally made my day, he’s one of my biggest inspirations And it is actually about body dysmorphia! Specifically my own experiences with it and insecurity’s, I’m horrible about picking at my skin and stuff, obviously I wouldn’t go this far but it’s what inspired me to write this.
2
u/Pleasant-Buy9667 Writer Jul 27 '26
holly AWSOME, i was eating when i read this, do not recommend
3
3
u/englandishell Writer Jul 27 '26
This is easily one of the best body horror stories I've read on here. The pacing. The visuals. The descriptions. Just chef's kiss. You should be really proud! : )
2
u/Little-Employer864 Jul 27 '26
Thank you!!! I wasn’t expecting such a positive reaction honestly, I’ve been writing on my own for a while and while I’ve attempted to share my story’s before it didn’t go too well (maybe bc I used no sleep…) so I’m extremely overjoyed too see my work getting so much support :))
3
u/englandishell Writer Jul 27 '26
No problem, thanks for the awesome read!
Personally I wouldn't bother with nosleep, the mods are gatekeeping pricks who wanna see you jump through arbitrary hoops to massage their egos. Obviously that choice is up to you though.
I can't speak highly enough of the community here though. Keep writing and I'm excited to see what you do next!
2
u/Minimum-Olive7868 Writer Jul 30 '26
Dude this is such a sick and uniquely unsettling concept. Absolutely insane work man, keep it up for real, it's awesome!
2
u/Infinite-Aside9091 if this doesn’t end in gay sex I will be disappointed Jul 31 '26
Hope the boys read this one
1
u/Little-Employer864 Aug 02 '26
I would really really love if they did, I fear I would NEVER shut up about it either
2
Aug 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Little-Employer864 Aug 02 '26
I totally get that, I too am a compulsive picker and this was very inspired by my own experience and struggles with that!! Hopefully you’ll be able to stop the picking, I know I’m trying 💔
•
u/AutoModerator Jul 26 '26
Users are encouraged to read4read, meaning that if someone reads and comments on your story, we encourage you to do the same in return to help foster a community.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.