Bare Bone

The heated rain from the showerhead poured down Randy’s neck and streamed

down his back. He clenched his bare chest with his eyes closed enjoying the hot steamy

shower. Some wack ass shit, he thought to himself.

He took a hit of some new powdered drug that everyone was raving about. It was

said that some people lost their grip with reality, but most just felt a very pleasing high.

Just then, he had a bad itch under his wet scalp. It felt as if a roach was crawling in his

skin. He placed his finger at the spot and began to dig. It felt wonderful, so satisfying.

He began to press harder, it felt even more amazing, then harder and harder.

He stared at his pointer mudded with blood and dark stringy hair, returned and

began to go deeper. When he could finally touch skull he became terrified, but the

orgasmic feeling was too good to stop. He began again, this time he wiggled his finger

between the skin and smooth bone of skull. The feeling then was pure ecstasy. He kept

it up.

The next day, Randy’s sister, Sandy, stopped by at noon for their weekly lunch

and smoke session. She brought over turkey sandwiches and a family size bag of

cheddar chips. There was also another big bag of green herb in her purse, but that was

used that night after she left the morgue.

She used her spare key to unlock the door and walked into the fairly bare

apartment. Just a ratty old couch, a television stand and a television stood in the living

room. A handful of photographs were tapped to the walls.

Hearing from the bathroom the shower, she walked over to the cracked door and

made herself known.

“Hey Rand, I’m here and I got the good shit this time!” she said. She peered into

the crack and saw no steam was in bathroom. A cold shower? Who the fuck takes a

cold shower? She thought. “Hey!” she shouted “You hear me shithead?”

After no response, she opened the door. She crept in, seeing no movement she

pulled back the shower curtain of swimming fish, to find her big brother horribly

disfigured lying in the tub.

Sandy belted out a high pitched horrified scream. Her baby brother lied there with no face, ripped off with stringy muscles attached to his bloody yellow skull. In his hand

he held his head skin like a halloween mask.

Ted Quinn turned off his television after the news reported a body was found in

the shower of Millstreet Apartments. The woman interviewed was Sandy, his friend’s

sister who he basically grew up with his whole life. He knew the gory details of what

happened even though the news didn’t report the finer details. But he knew.

Ted put his head in his hands and cried. He vowed to get a job and quit this life

of selling drugs. He killed his best friend.

That night Ted hardly slept, he thought of his last encounter with his friend

Randy. He begged and begged to try the new drug Ted was slinging. Ted told him it

was some crazy stuff, it was for the big boys. But he never listened. Now Randy is in the

county morgue dead and skinless from the neck up.

Staring at the ceiling from his bed he heard a loud knock at his apartment door. He shot a

glance at his alarm clock across the room. Who the fuck is here at three in the morning?

Another couple loud bangs from the stranger at the door. I hope it’s not Sandy, I

couldn’t see her right now. Another thunderous BANG.

Ted whipped off his comforter and started out his room into the living room. He

stared at his coffee table, littered with baggies, powders, and a gram scale. Another

BANG. Any harder and that psycho is going to break in my damn door. He peeked into

the peephole and saw no one, just a lit hallway. BANG. Ted jumped back, his heart

pounded in his chest like a deep drum.

He slowly reached for the knob on the door. Before he could touch it, it began to

wiggle. He fought the urge to run back to his room and call 911, and unlocked the door

instead.

A wet hand reached through the small crack of the door and tried to reach for

Ted. Ted tried to push the door back into the jam, but whoever this was was much

stronger. The door burst open, Ted flew back onto the floor. Wet feet walked towards

him squelching on the carpet. He looked up to see the stranger that has entered his

home. Randy stood there naked with his skinless face staring down at a horrified Ted.

“You…” said the ghoul that was once his best friend. “You did this Teddy.”

Ted was frozen from fear. The raspy voice that came from Randy was dead and

hollow. “No…. I tried to tell yo…”

“NO!” came from the nude bone jaw of Randy. “You knew this would happen! I

think I know what just to do..” The undead skull lurched closer to Ted’s frightened face.

He could see the almost bare bone of his friend. Only little muscle was left, like the pith

from a badly peeled orange. The lidless eyes sat in his skull. They stared emotionless.

He could smell formaldehyde and rotting meat on the breath of this monster.

The faceless Randy ran is cold wet fingers around Ted’s temples to the back of

his head.

“This is going to really fucking hurt buddy.” Randy whispered looking into his

childhood friend’s terrified eyes. He dug into the skin and began to rip.

That morning Sandy texted Ted to see if she could swing by to pick up some of

that Bare Bone drug everyone has been talking about. It killed her brother, but it only did

that to only twenty percent of first time users. At this point, she really didn’t care, slightly

hoping it would make her want to do the things people said it did.

She waited in her car in her driveway for a text back.

TEDDYBEAR: come on by

She drove to the side of town you wouldn’t want to go unless you knew where

you were going, luckily she knew the way to Ted’s place like the back of her hand. She

pulled into the U shaped parking lot like she did every Thursday to pick up her fixes.

She found a spot a few cars away from Ted’s car.

SANDY: HERE

TEDDYBEAR: UNLOCKED COME ON UP

She started towards the front door, which was oddly propped open with a shoe.

She turned to look if someone was grabbing something from their car. All she saw was a man walking down the street, who looked a lot like Teddy. His skin looked oddly

loose. She thought to herself, Looks like that man’s neck is bleeding. Sandy returned to

the doorway and up the stairs to Ted’s apartment. #drugs #creepy #horror