I was supposed to get married today. For the third time.
I just need one day’s break.
Egg
New GIF, took a lot longer than normal
Growth
It was a disgusting habit, but Renee just couldn’t help it as she clicked on the next video.
There was something inherently satisfying in watching popping videos. Seeing people evicting the parts of themselves that were not meant to be there. As a result, Renee often found herself looking resentfully at her own growth.
She was certain she’d seen every video available online in just the last few weeks, watching them under covers so that the roommate lying next to her wouldn’t see. Renee knew she would be upset and repulsed.
Still, she needed to see more. She watched more serious removals. People gouging out larger pieces and repairing the patches left with stitches or filling them with superglue. Salving pieces until the flesh burned and pucks fell out. Her roommate noticed how tired Renee looked, but when she claimed to be feeling fine, her smile was very convincing.
Eventually she found herself watching surgery videos. People had operated on themselves before, in desperate circumstances: caesareans and appendectomies in remote locations with no other options. She felt along the edge of her growth and made a decision. She began gathering the necessary materials in secret.
The hard part was making sure that her roommate wouldn’t disrupt her. A blow to the head sorted that easily.
With all the tools at her disposal, Renee looked at the flesh that connected her to her growth, which was now mumbling as blood pooled from her head.
It didn’t matter what the doctors had told them. She could do this, she repeated as she made the first cut.
Two Sentence Stories (Part 17)
Though he would never tell her out loud, he was certain that his wife’s book needed some drama to spice it up. As he scrolled through her phone’s contacts, he thought carefully about which character’s death would make her autobiography more interesting.
It was a terrible accident, everyone commiserated, but at least some good had come of it. After months of encouraging her son not to wear his helmet, he had finally been injured badly enough that she could tell the doctors to transplant what was needed for her favourite child to live.
There was someone breathing quietly under the bed, he realised as he shakily pulled out a pocketknife. He had thought this house was empty when he broke in, but was willing to put in the work to get a quiet night’s sleep.
Re: Current Display
From: Head Office
To: All
Date: 13 July 2021, 9:37
Subject: Current Display
Good morning,
It has come to our attention that attendance for our current display has been poor.
It is a condition of our tenancy that we display the furniture and artworks of the former occupiers once per year. While the family does not require the number of attendees, it will reflect badly on us if they see how few people come to see this display.
We know that having the same display one month per year might not draw in any crowds, but we ask that you do all you can to boost attendance.
Kind regards,
Jessica S.
From: Marsha C.
To: Head Office
Date: 13 July 2021, 13:21
Subject: Re: Current Display
Good morning,
In regards to attendance, it might help if we rearrange the displays: having the paintings in one room, statues in another, etc. The building has been heavily renovated since it was furnished and many of the pieces no longer suit their original positions.
Are we required to keep everything in the original places?
Thank you,
Marsha
From: Head Office
To: All
Date: 13 July 2021, 13:54
Subject: Re: Re: Current Display
You are welcome to rearrange the pieces as you see fit, provided that they are not damaged.
Kind regards,
Jessica S.
From: Marsha
To: Head Office
Date: 14 July 2021, 9:09
Subject: Incident Report & Reimbursement Request
I attach an incident report regarding an injury I got yesterday.
Also, when I entered my office this morning, everything was shifted around. My shelves, cabinets and desks are all now facing towards the walls and I don’t have enough room to move everything back. Can I please be reimbursed if I need to hire a mover?
Marsha
From: Head Office
To: All
Date: 15 July 2021, 10:27
Subject: Re: Incident Report & Reimbursement Request
Thank you for providing the incident report. We have amended it to read “My hand was cut on the tooth of the statue”. We have also removed your reference to the mouth of the statue being closed.
Please put the display back in order and let us know if this resolves your issue. If not sorted by the end of the week we will approve the expense.
Regards,
Catherine S.
From: Marsha
To: Head Office
Date: 16 July 2021, 2:03
Subject: IMMEDIATE ATTENTION NEEDED
Good evening.
I write “evening”, as it is currently 2am.
The doors are gone. The original masonry of the house is now filling in the exits.
I was the only employee here from 1pm, and there have been no guests in that time. As far as I am aware, the doors were sealed immediately following business hours.
Kindly and immediately provide me with an exit.
Marsha.
From: Marsha
To: Head Office
Date: 16 July 2021, 3:49
Subject: Re: IMMEDIATE ATTENTION NEEDED
Please ignore my previous email. I will call you during office hours to discuss this matter further.
From: Head Office
To: All
Date: 16 July 2021, 9:08
Subject: Current Display
Good morning,
Please be aware that a new procedure is now in place regarding our trust display.
All employees working until close on a day with no attendees must, prior to 5pm, take a complete tour of the display. During this tour, they must give positive compliments to each of the displays, or they may give longer positive feedback to the overall rooms.
Overtime will not be authorised if this continues past 5pm.
Kind regards,
Catherine S.
Exhausted
Our son had never been good at sleeping alone.
Night after night we found him in our doorway, begging to be allowed to sleep in our bed. My husband became increasingly frustrated as his sleep was disturbed. He swore he couldn’t sleep with that many people in one bed. He tried locking the door, but couldn’t ignore the crying in the hallway for long.
I decided to take things into my own hands. After reading my son his usual bedtime stories, I looked into his wide-awake eyes and decided to tell him about something new.
“There’s someone else in this house that you’re old enough to meet now. He’s hard to describe. You can only see him in the corner of your eye if you try really hard. That’s why you wake up with sleep in your eyes in the morning: it’s because he was here and your eyes tried to hide him. But if he catches you out of bed after lights off, it doesn’t matter if you close your eyes and hide. He’ll skit-skit-skitter across the ceiling and snatch you. He’ll drag you under the carpet or into the crack in the wall. And he’ll keep you in his castle where you get tired but never ever sleep, so that you can’t break the rules again”
My son looked terrified, his eyes wide and teary. More importantly, I was certain that he wouldn’t come to our room for a while. My husband stood in the door, smiling and nodding.
We had one week of peaceful sleep. Our son looked tired in the morning, but I didn’t care. For the first time in years, we could sleep the night through.
Perhaps that’s why the sound of my husband shuffling out of bed was enough to wake me. As I tried to fall back asleep, I assumed he was going to the bathroom but realised that his footsteps stopped too early to reach that far.
My husband’s scream was interrupted. First, I heard something skittering on the ceiling. Then, I heard the carpet tear up off the floor. Finally, I listened for hours to the sounds of wet tearing and snapping.
Once it was dawn and I was brave enough, I found blood dripping from a crack in the wall.
My son never has to sleep alone any more.
An Anniversary
Our loved ones come to visit
For one raucous night each year
With creaking limbs to dance with us
And familiar smiles from ear to ear
They never do look quite right
Not quite what we remember
But we greet and embrace them all
Our long-lost, well-loved family members
Anne’s grandpa walked with a cane
But tonight he seems quite spry
Unfurling his crooked spine
She laughs as he lifts her to the sky
Roy’s wife had beautiful eyes
Shining, like a new penny
And as he meets her smiling gaze
He can’t recall her having so many
The barman was a large man
Muscled and barrel-chested
Now from his torso spouted beer
Twas superb, the drinkers attested
Mother sang sweet as a bird
Her voice now comes like a wave
Singing about next year’s crops
As I help her step out of her grave
For only one night each year
Never more but rarely less
We celebrate with the dead
Before we put them all back to rest
It is known by all who live
That death comes with morning light
So reunite with weapons close
They only recall us that first night
Solipsism
It’s been weeks since I saw a human face.
I can still feel them, sometimes. When I walk through streets that should be busy, I feel figures knocking into my shoulders. I tripped over a warm space on the ground and landed on a towel and backpack that looked well-used.
I heard my roommate in the windowless bathroom yesterday, but when I broke through the locked door, no one was there. I tried to feel around for her, but then I heard the front door slam. Her towel was gone, and there were wet footprints on the carpet.
I’ve been using the self-checkout at the store, but I don’t have much money left. It’s not like there’s any point showing up for my retail job.
I tried to walk out of the empty store without paying once, but felt hands on my shoulders. I had to shake them off and hurried home.
I don’t know where everyone went. If I look out of my window for long enough, I swear I can still see shadows moving along the empty streets. Sections of darkness that cross the roads when the empty cars stop.
There was a pounding on the front door this morning. I answered it in blind hope, but there was no one there. Then I was grabbed and led roughly to an empty car outside.
I am in an empty room now. Meals appear through a door that opens by itself. The sheets change themselves whenever I go outside for a walk.
There is a TV high up on the wall. There is no one at the newscaster’s desk, but the scrolling headlines still appear. Something about a disease “manifesting as solipsism”.
It’s a shame there’s no one to explain to me what that means.
Freckles
Last Call
It was dark outside. It had been sunset when he had entered the bar, but this darkness was more than midnight.
There were no signs of the dingy street outside. No streetlights, no headlights passing by, bathroom windows lighting up regretfully. It was a pure and relentless void.
He had drunk until he fell asleep in the corner booth. He was there often enough that the owners wouldn’t kick him out unless someone raised a fuss. Walking unsteadily around the bar, he couldn’t see or hear anyone else inside.
He moved towards the front, peering through the large glass panel in the door, between the bars.
Pure darkness. He put his hand against the glass to steady himself, pulling away when he realised how cold it felt. Then he finally saw something in the window: a crack, steadily spreading as the darkness pressed itself towards him.
Sketched Text 