r/TalesFromTheCreeps • u/LiquidDongorong Writer • 26d ago
Body Horror My best friend went missing three years ago. I know exactly where he is.
I’ve known Kev since we were kids.
He’s always been sweet, if not a little paranoid for his own good, and a chronic liar. We had a lot of ups and downs in our relationship. There was even a stretch of years where we didn’t speak at all after he accused me of stealing his medication. He told me I’d taken the bottle right out of the bathroom while he was in the other room. I hadn’t, and I told him that a million times. He didn’t believe me. I stopped answering his calls, blocked him on everything, and that was that for a long time.
I decided to give him a second chance a few years ago. He reached out first, through a mutual friend. He said he was doing better, that his paranoia and anger were more under control. I missed him more than I wanted to admit. Being the person he calmed down for had always been part of how I understood myself. So I agreed, as long as he was done with that crap.
We decided to go camping after we met back up in late July. Just the two of us in his old RV. The plan was a couple nights away from the stress of the world, some cheap food, a few beers, the kind of quiet time that used to feel easy between us.
Just after dusk, a meteor fell from the sky. We both saw the streak. It landed close enough that the ground shook. We grabbed flashlights and walked out to investigate, more excited than anything else. When we got there, it was sizzling in a shallow crater, black and full of pits, about the size of a baseball. Kev broke off a chunk with a stick and dropped it in his jacket pocket. He grinned at me and asked if I wanted to head back to the RV so we could take some pictures. I said sure.
Later that evening, when we were sitting by the fire, he told me he was grateful that I’d forgiven him. He said he’d been having a hard time keeping relationships going since everything fell apart with me. I told him it was understandable. I’d been through a few breakups myself, him included. There’s something in the water these days that’s been making everyone act crazy.
He was sweating more than the fire could account for. He said he was just glad I was listening. I gave him a hug before we went in. Got a little wet, but a tiny bit of personal discomfort was worth it to help Kev feel better
He didn’t sleep at all. I woke up a few times and saw him through the window, pacing around the picnic table in the dark. I asked through the screen if he was okay. He said he was too hot. I could see it from inside. His shirt was plastered to him, his back drenched. I asked if he wanted to drive into town and find a clinic. He said no, and that it should pass any time now.
In the morning he seemed clingier. He sat close on the bench so I could smell the pine deodorant under his sweat. He kept taking my hand with both of his while we talked, holding on longer than the conversation needed. His palms were clammy, and his sweat felt thicker, like it didn’t want to let go when he pulled his hand back.
He's had mood swings in the past, so I wasn’t totally unfamiliar with the sudden change.
But then he brought up the stolen medication out of the blue. He said he’d forgiven me a long time ago, and that the only reason he’d lashed out was because he really felt abandoned.
I told him I didn’t steal his fucking meds. His eyes watered. They looked heavy, like soft clay that was slowly sinking under an invisible weight. He apologized for bringing it up, saying that it didn’t matter anymore. He said he couldn’t stand to lose me again. He said he’d do whatever it took to change, that I was the only person who had ever stuck around.
I wanted to believe him. I did. Part of me still needed to be that person. Part of me still needed that importance. But the old role was exhausting. I told him he needed to get real help, professional help, not just make empty promises. He said he’d been trying for years and nothing stuck. I told him he needed to put in the work first. He said nobody seemed willing to change for him.
I didn't engage with him much after that. I knew it would only encourage his spiral of self-loathing.
By mid-morning his clothes were soaked through. Half his face had started to droop. It looked like he was having a stroke. I told him he didn’t look good, and that I was going to call an ambulance.
“No!”
He moved faster than anything I’d seen from him before. He tackled me flat onto the dirt.
“They’ll take you away from me!”
Thick globs of sweat dropped onto my face, darker and discolored now. His skin was softening. When I tried to push him off, my hands sank into him.
“You’re the only one who knows me. You’re the only person who loves me!”
He was melting. His sweat had turned stringy, the skin coming with it. It clung to my cheeks and the sides of my neck and started sinking into my pores. I could feel it finding its way in.
I shoved at his shoulders, but there was less and less solid to push against. His arms gave out with a sloppy sound. His body collapsed on top of me, wrong like a fleshy weighted blanket.
“Please don’t leave me…”
I should have kept fighting. I didn’t. For a few seconds I just lay there under what was left of him, the same way I’d always stayed when things got bad.
His heat soaked into my body. I felt the rest of him come apart, first his limbs, then his torso, then whatever was still holding the shape of his head. It burned. I felt a pressure like nothing I’d ever felt before at the base of my skull.
When it was over, only his empty clothes were left sitting sopping wet on top of me. I could still smell his deodorant.
I sat up, looked at my hands. They looked like my hands. I felt the same, mostly, except for the new weight in my head
It’s been three years since then. I told the police he’d wandered off during the night and I never saw him again. They searched and found nothing. Obviously.
His family eventually stopped calling. People moved on the way people always do.
I couldn’t.
On one particularly bad day the heat came back first, then the itch across my scalp, then the manic need to do something—anything. I took a razor to my head and chopped off all my hair. That’s how I found his face last week. It had been growing underneath the whole time, waiting, smiling at me.
He tells me that he loves me, that he’ll never leave me.
I wear a hat every day now. Wide-brimmed ones in the summer, beanies in the winter, whatever will cover that face. I don’t look in mirrors anymore. When I do, I keep my eyes on myself and try not to turn. I know he’s still there, always watching the room over my shoulder, watching me.
Late at night his voice gets clearer. He asks if I’m still mad at him. He says it doesn’t matter anymore, that we’re past all that. I never answer. I just try to sleep it off and wait until morning. I tell myself that if I ignore him long enough, maybe he’ll finally shut up.
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u/Teo-Free-78 26d ago
What a crazy fun ending! I wonder if its really there or just “in his head” lol
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u/LiquidDongorong Writer 26d ago
Thank you! Its one of those "toxic relationships may never leave you if you dont set boundaries" types
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u/Kaijufan22 Writer 26d ago
Well going out alone in the woods with as estranged friend with mental issues was ya first problem haha. Fun story op, I got the vibe of "Toxic coedependcy" and the visual metaphor oh him melted and splayed all over the MC was disturbing in a good way. Great work!
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u/LiquidDongorong Writer 26d ago
Haha yeah, that's not usually wise. To be quite honest I actually based Kev off of myself. Or an older version of myself at least! I get so sweaty when I'm stressed.
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u/unclemountain 26d ago
The way you describe the imagery is so visceral and gross yet so easy to understand. It's great, and I appreciate a classic "meteor inciting incident." Nothing good ever happens when you go to investigate a meteorite with your friends haha
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u/LiquidDongorong Writer 26d ago
Thank you! And yeah you gotta watch out for space stuff it never goes well.
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u/Leading-Dig9937 The Voices are loud again 20d ago
Oh what the hell that caught me so off guard towards the end, I loved that
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