Body Horror

“Hey, do you have anything for stomach aches?” Doll, sitting behind the counter, doesn’t glance up from her sketchbook. She’s been doodling in it for hours, painting with the blood that still hasn’t stopped dripping from her gums. She’s having fun! “Try aisle 3. Uh, the one with the big light-up skull. Don’t listen to it, it’s lying.” The ostensible customer graces her with a mumbled thanks as they turn and walk away. There’s something wrong with the rhythm of their steps, a squishy irregularity. Doll ignores it. ...

Doll rinses and spits just like she’s always been told to. Not too aggressively, not enough to drain her mouth of the taste of cold mint; just enough for comfort. Comfortingly routine. But (of course there’s a but) the sink growls at her as she spits. For a long moment she doesn’t realize that she’s heard it. Her mind is so far away, yet not far enough to catch her eyes and hold them fast; her gaze sinks down as inevitably as any sunset. ...

You are dreaming. The oddity of recognizing this does not impede your progress forward into the dining hall’s elegant vastness. Nor does it permit you to deviate from the path the dreaming part of you—the part that weaves the world—has chosen for you. “Oh, you’re finally here!” There is a dining table, a perfectly formed slab of rock stretching impossibly across the hall’s floor, and at its head stands a prism-headed man in a hastily drawn suit. His layered voices sound exactly like him. ...

You were taken in the night from a dream of endless roses; when you woke you looked to your hands, thinking to see the depredations of thorns. Instead of bloodstained sheets you found smooth glossy walls and a space no larger than a coffin, lit by the rhythmic pulse of a single light—a rhythm which, it soon became clear, matched the frantic beating of your heart. When the lid finally opened you came out fighting, clawing at the smooth, featureless faces of the creatures attending you. You broke half your nails on them before they moved to restrain you, and was over as soon as they did. You could no more stay their motions or escape their grip than you could still your heart or quiet your panicked breaths; so you did what you could, and slipped away from your body to watch what would happen next. ...

It is understood that ⸤distillation⸣ is a process by which ⸤slimes⸣ maybe be both concentrated and made more amenable to their ⸤purposes⸣. However, this process does not reduce their ⸤curative properties⸣ when applied to a ⸤garden’s components⸣. Through the application of a ⸤purpose-made object⸣ to a fully ⸤distilled slime⸣ a form of thread may be produced with minimal cost to the surrounding ⸤garden⸣. Such thread is suitable for lacing through any ⸤damaged components⸣, and noticeably prolongs their ⸤life⸣. ...

A ⸤garden⸣ was once a place with plants and paths, ordered according to forgotten aesthetic principles. It was generally understood to be undesirable for the garden’s ⸤components⸣ to retain their eyes, so as not to unsettle visitors and to provide them with drinks. The drinks offered by paths were typically rich and metallic, sometimes fortified with ⸤powdered calcium⸣. Those presented by plants were delicate and floral, full of tender salt and spice. They were considered more intimate, and needed to be replanted more frequently. ...

Each slash of the knife, each thrust of the blade, sends great gouts of sweet red goo splattering across the floor, pouring down to fill the punch bowl below; celebrants clamber up on unsteady chairs, dirty shoes tearing at the paper tablecloth, to reach inside– Eager hands press inside deeper than seems possible, tear at tender tissue, come out sticky-red and full of treats–individually wrapped candies and plastic toys, squishy organs making such silly noises as they deflate on the ground, the spurting mass of a sugary heart– ...

When scientists first started experimenting with genetically programmed radical body plan modifications (which isn’t what they called it—they had a catchy acronym and a billion-dollar PR firm and everything you don’t), the first dozen generations did not go particularly well. They jabbed needles into eggs and grew monsters: pathetic, mewling things with their bones on the outside or no bones at all, with the wrong number of limbs or the wrong number of hearts, things which were little more than bundles of cancer clawing at the womb that held them. ...

“Are you sure?” “Yes, of course.” “Really? There’s no backing out, not after this.” “Y-yes. I’ve wanted this for so long. I need this.” “Well.” Her last word, spoken from a hundred mouths, echoes around the large chamber. She draws it out, letting her bodies desynchronize to add emphasis. Or maybe to give you time to speak, which, of course, you don’t. Then she comes forward to embrace you. Not all of her – most of her bodies stay lounged on couches and pillows, wrapped around one another – but enough arms and hands and mouths to short out your gay little mind for a long moment, to fill your body with taut warmth in longing reflection of her bodies’ heat. ...

Notes: I wrote this back in ‘17 and haven’t rewritten or substantially edited it since. It’s heavily inspired by the stories “drip” and “vending machine woman” in Trashgasm #2, if you’ve read that. The date on this piece is not reflective of when I posted it anywhere or even when I wrote it; it simply feels appropriate to claim that I wrote it one year after beginning my transition. It’s late in the day when I finally remember to eat. Busy, busy, busy, and I can feel the emptiness in my account. My last meal didn’t last as long as it should have. Shouldn’t have expected anything else from a street vendor. ...