A Vicious Cycle of Nightmares
Author's Note
This is a body horror story and fairly gross, so yeah, you've been warned.
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Waking to bedsheets covered in wet streaks of crimson and what appeared to be maroon specks of an unknown substance was initially, quite startling. Just hours prior the material had been a pristine white. Currently, they looked like they'd been used to nurse a victim of a stabbing back to health. If they looked this awful then...
Staring at myself in the bathroom mirror sent a chill down my spine. I nearly cried as I examined myself. My own ivory coat was speckled with blood and scabs, not an inch of my body as it had been just a week prior. It was... I was hideous. Disgusting. Grotesque.
I don't know how or why it started. All I knew was it refused to depart. Perhaps it was something I'd eaten? Or maybe it was a product I'd been too enthusiastic to use. Or was I suddenly allergic to something that was plaguing me?
It began as a disturbing red blemish on my forelegs. It was just a touch irritated and so I'd rubbed some balm on it and went about my day. What a mistake that proved to be. Days later, it'd spread over every inch of my coat.
Flames. It was as if I was constantly on fire and all the lotions and salves I slathered on myself did little to aid my plight. Slipping into the cool water of a bath sent a jolt of pain into every cut and gash that decorated me. The first attempt I'd almost leapt out of the water, but I forced myself to endure the pain.
Soap was an even worse source of despair, but I refused to walk around smelling of rotted, mangled flesh. The scented soap that dissolved into the water made it feel as if I was submerged in acid. The feeling made me want nothing more than to tear into every inch of my skin. It turns out gentle scratching is quite the oxymoron.
And so, after weeks of trying solutions, after weeks of hiding away at home, after weeks of suffering, I was forced to schedule an appointment with the best doctor I could find...
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"I'm very sorry, Miss Rarity... but, we really don't know what the problem is..." My heart sank when I was informed that I'd be getting no real help. I'd expected it, but I still hoped...
"Is there nothing you might be able to suggest?" I nearly cried as I pleaded with him, doing my best not to start scratching as the stress of the situation began to make me feel ten times worse.
"I suppose you should just keep doing what you're doing," he sighed as he looked down at the clipboard he held. "take care of your skin and try to eat well, maybe try not to stress out so much."
"Th-thank you, doctor." Leaving the hospital was especially difficult. The cool interior of the building was swiftly replaced by the heat of Celestia's day and with it pinpricks of discomfort peppered my body. I had to get home, quickly. The more my body perspired the more I felt the urge to scratch, thus, the worse my condition became. Under the intense kiss of the Sun Princess' greatest treasure, I clenched my teeth and stumbled my way back home.
I wanted nothing more than to sequester myself to a cold room and sit there, motionless. Movement hurt. Heat hurt. Scratching hurt. Living hurt.
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Please, just let me die...
At this point it would be the sweetest release. I laid in my posh bed, the discomfort slowly becoming unbearable. I contemplated getting up, or at the very least tossing the blankets off myself, but both sounded like poor options. How long had this mess truly persisted? Months? Years? It felt as if as far back as I could recall.
Should I try to adjust myself or remain still?
Why was it so darn hot? Why was I so hot? It felt like I might be in a sauna at the spa, but the ambient temperature definitely wasn't that high. If I didn't concentrate my all on breathing I risked a wave of discomfort washing over me entirely.
They would always start out as a slight tingle somewhere on my body. A foreleg, my cheek, or maybe my withers. In an instant it would begin to crawl to other parts of me, like a trail of fire-ants that couldn't be expunged.
Unfortunately, even if I stayed motionless the heat would eventually become unbearable and my entire being would ignite.
Rub
Rub
Rub
I cautiously slid my hooves over the offending spots in the hopes that it would satiate my desire for relief. It didn't. It never did. It was merely the first step in the degradation of the night. With each movement a sharper more demanding ache replaced the initial one. Foolishly, like every time before, I pressed harder and harder. The greater the ache, the harsher my motions.
Scratch
Scratch
Scratch
The vicious scraping of hoof against flesh always felt absolutely delightful, if only for the moment. I'd come to regret it in the morning, but just then it felt absolutely divine. As the falling of dry, flaked skin gradually gave way to a moist, slick feeling, I knew I'd pushed too hard, but in the darkness I pretended nothing was wrong.
I could make believe only for so long. Once the acrid scent of dead or rotted flesh began, I knew I'd gone off the deep end. Falling asleep in a pile of your own expired skin is one of the most unpleasant feelings in the world.
The worst part? I knew tomorrow... I knew the next day after that... they would all be the same.
I would wake to bloodied, filthy sheets. My body would be covered in lesions and blemishes, cuts and blood. I'd take a painful bath and have a horrid day.
This was my life now.
There was no escape.
This was my own hell.
