Gaslighting

(I’m not sure if I ever posted this one publicly; back when I still had a patreon it was there, but now … well, here it is. 2.1k words of trauma and spiders) Kids on one side of the glass, the spider on the other. There are three of them there on that sticky summer day, Grace and Florence and Ash, set adrift in the zoo’s carefully curated expanse while their three sets of parents get drunk and reminisce about old times. They’re all old enough to be left alone—and more than old enough to insist that they’d rather not have an older teen disinterestedly keeping an eye on them—but not old enough to be left to downtown’s tender mercies. There are kidnappers about, everyone knows that! And worse things too, lurking in the shadows and blasted across every news channel lest anyone might forget that the world is a dangerous place. ...

Originally posted to Twitter on August 13, 2022, and a week earlier on Patreon. content notes: child viewpoint, cults, grooming, gaslighting, vague body horror, self-harm as worship. “Mommy!” You cry as she’s just about to walk out the door, “I want to go worship with you!” Her scarred flesh wrinkles into a smile as she laboriously reaches down to ruffle your hair. “Not until you’re older, dear heart.” “But why? I’m a big girl now!” ...

“Are you sure this is okay, Miss?” “Of course it is. Get that lock open.” Doll’s fingers, long and fine as needles, dip inside the keyhole once again. She fancies that she can hear the house shudder as she massages its pins, and it’s hardly a moment before the door clicks open. Behind her she feels her witch’s smile: a vast gash cut into the night’s fabric, teeth dripping with the moon’s pale blood. Its empty eyes gaze hungrily past her from the sleepy suburban street’s every shadow, and Doll thanks her lucky stars that no one’s awake to see it. ...