Short Scary Stories Mini Volume 10: Harsh Reality Edition

==In Them We Trust==
"You will die tonight if you don't take it now." one of the community advisers said injecting a needle in a community member. The People's Council announced a deadly disease has reached landfall, and we need to take the serum needle in order to prevent infection. I don't want to get sick and die, so I'll take it. I'd hate to leave this paradise. I own nothing, but all my basic needs are met, so I'm happy. I'll be glad to support the trustworthy People's Council. 
A sharp pain shot through the veins in my arms as the needle dug into my flesh. I winced, followed by the dribble of a tear. But after it was ejected, I was fine as can be. Hopefully once the media realizes our community has defeated the disease, countries worldwide will adopt our societal model. My arm was still in great pain from the shot and a wave of tiredness hit me out of nowhere, so I quickly fell asleep in my government mandated bed sheets. 
Hours later I woke up to commotion outside. Our community is rather peaceful, so I found this rather odd. I sprang to the window and saw... the people... they were-- I can't even describe it. This has to be a nightmare! I ran to the kitchen sink to splash cold water on my face. But as the facet water poured on my hands, the flesh on my fingers started pealing away. I stopped and pulled a piece of flabby dry from my index finger, which revealed the bone. My pupils shrunk and the veins in my eyes tensed. As I stumbled back wanting to scream, a sharp pain from my foot shot all the way to the back of my head.
I tried opening my mouth to scream, but my lips were locked together and I couldn't feel them anymore. A rush of cold blood felt like it was swirling around in my head, like an endless loop of excruciating brain freeze. I instinctively put my hands over my head, gripping the pain. I pulled my hands toward my eyes and saw I was holding clumps of my own hair. A waterfall of burning sweat drenched my face as I rushed to the door. While twisting the door knob, my bone-exposed finger fell off and the rest of my skin stuck to the door knob like glue. I yanked and pulled hard for my hand to come off the door knob, but all it did was pull my arm out of my socket.
My feet grew numb and my vision was weakening rapidly by the second. Within minutes nearly all the nerves innings in my body were destroyed. I couldn't feel anything other a blistering sharp pain in my head. This is either the disease or an extremely bad reaction to the serum and not the serum itself I'm sure. They know best. I trust them. But regardless if I live or die, the only thing I want to do is scream. Please for the love of God let me be able to scream again!
==Blood, Sweat, and Tears==
Me and my savvy social media friends were invited to check out the grand opening of a luxurious $1 billion gold plated building in a very wealthy part of the world. We spent the day taking selfies and uploading carefully curated pics of ourselves to social media. "Ugh, I sent this pic out 10 minutes ago and I still only got 70K likes!" I said. "Try snapping a pic in the clear river in the back. That's among our favorite spots!" a spokesman who helps guide us through the building said.
"We didn't plan for parts of the building to have splashes of rose gold, but it was a comprise we had to make with the armature artists." He took us out back to this shallow, yet beautiful small river that wrapped around the back of the outside portion of the building. The hot sun was beating down, which made the river feel very warm. "This is like, so amazing!" I exclaimed whilst doing a live video on my phone. A bunch of hearts from my millions of followers appeared on screen. I struck a pose in the tiny river as my friend tried snapping a picture, but some disgusting, beaten and scarred creature was in the shot. "Seriously? Buzz off!" I shouted at it. It appeared to be some kind of dirty construction worker hanging out by the bushes. He was giving me a cold eye while limping and scratching a strange dark patch on his skin. Security noticed him and quickly dragged him away. As he did, he shouted something that made me regret ever coming here.
"That river is of our sweat and tears! The rose gold is our blood! 20 hour work weeks and no pay! I watched my friends die and they didn't care!"
The spokesman came out and laughed awkwardly. "They may have been overworked to death, but look at the wonderful art it created! There's no place like this. Well, other than the trail of tears, but that wasn't plated in gold now, was it?"
==Anosognosia==
I love my family. I wouldn't do anything to hurt them. They need help moving around the room to do things, but it's fine. I like helping my family out. I enjoy changing their clothes and tucking them in before bed. I often ask them how we can survive being stuck in a tiny room with no doors or windows for so long, but they call me silly for even fretting about it. 
Don't ask them about how food gets here every morning, because it's one of the few questions they can't answer. But it's okay. Not everything in life needs answers. I wouldn't leave my family for anything, because with out them, I'm incomplete. My family is almost an extension of me to some existent. All four of them... As I was putting on clothes on Johnathan's, his arm suddenly fell off. I screamed. There was no blood or anything! How could this have happened?! I picked up the arm and tried putting it back in its socket... And it worked! Wow, Johnathan! Really scared me for a moment! I thought you were a goner... But you're all fixed up! I tucked him in bed and I went to sleep. Goodnight, family. See you all tomorrow!
When I woke up, my family had disappeared. They can't move without my assistance, so someone must've snuck in and kidnapped them! I searched everywhere for an opening in the room, but nothing! Except for a tiny crack with a wire hanging out of it behind the couch. I move the couch out and began digging into the wall with a fork. On the other side was a huge, bright room that was pure white. A man that could move without my help lowered down from a director's chair and approached me. 
"Zandra, you've been under a mental psychosis experiment for over 6 years. Your family wasn't real. They were just dummies that you attributed to being human due to severe isolation and extreme schizophrenia. You suffer from a condition called Anosognosia. The test was a success and now you will be transported to a mental facility. Thank you, have a nice life."
==Leeches==
I pulled up to my mansion in my bright red, glossy Ferrari holding a stack of hundreds. I twisted the gold plated door knob to the front door and burst in. "Who wants cheddaaaaar?!" I hollered while swiping dozens of bills on the crowd. The whole party lit up, scrambling like rats on the floor collecting cheese. "Ay, Young Blood, you the man!" one of my new friends said, standing by my $5,000 sound system that would make Bill Gates blush. 
There were dozens of strangers in my new crib wiling out. Last week I was a nobody. But thanks to my lucky lottery ticket win, I'm the coolest cat in town. I'm so grateful for all my new friends and side chicks. It doesn't get better than this. Well... Tomorrow is when my private jet arrives, so maybe it does. The next day, my crib was in ruins. Beer cans and stuff all over the floor... Hah, it doesn't matter. To me it's the aftermath of a good time. But my smile faded once I received a text from my phone. My bank is charging me a hefty fine for overdrawing. No worries, I got all the money in the world to pay it off! It's funny, cause I grew up in the crumb-side ass-crack backwards part of town all my life. Always got made fun of at school by the big cats for wearing ripped white t-shirts every year at school. No affording lunch, smelling bad due to our water getting shut off, and more. Now look at me. I've made it. Ma would be so proud...
After traveling to Dubai, buying a private yacht, and buying more expensive sound systems and cars, I could sense that the bread was turning to crumbs. I got a nasty letter saying I was overdue for my mortgage. This is one of the most expensive mansions in the nation, so this bill is nothing to sneeze at. As I checked my bank account, I saw I had just enough to pay it for this month. After that? Only 1K left in the wallet. The money went to my head so much that I ended up burning through all of it, and now I'm paying the price. 
Stressed about having to lose my house and my cars, I contacted all the new people and friends I met over the past month. "Y'all got my back?" I asked them. The answer? No. They want nothing to do with me anymore. All I got back were disingenuous "sorry to hear that" messages and pathetic excuses to not be around me. "Damn, Dried Blood! It sucks you gonna lose those Ferraris. I got so many likes posing with them!" one of the messages I got back read. I really pondered at the "Dried Blood" nickname in the message before I finally got it. 
The leeches come when there's blood. But when the blood is dried up... they are no more.
==The Final Act==
Tonight's my final show as an entertainer. I sent a text to my mom telling her, but she never replied. I sent it a week ago. I would text my dad about too, but he left at an early age. I would also text my friends, if I had any. The only people I have in my life at this point are the people I try to entertain, but I know they hate me too. Not a single laugh from the crowd, but plenty of heckles and laughter at me. I failed my job as an entertainer. But tonight I will make up to them. I will give everyone here in this venue tonight the show of their lives. Let's see if anyone cares now?
I walked up on stage wearing a chicken with rope tied to my left leg. There was a big lump in my throat. Everyone in the crowd shot daggers at me with their piercing eyes. "What does this prick want?" I know they're thinking to themselves. I'll show 'em. I stepped up to the mic and cleared my throat. "Why did the chicken cross the road?" I was met with silence, so I answered it for them. "To get to the slaughterhouse!" That's when I fell to the ground, busting my lip as the rope pulled me away toward the back-end of the stage. The rope shot up to the ceiling, suspending me upside down by one leg. I groaned and yelled while making chicken noises. The people were actually laughing, and gasping! I finally manage to entertain them! In fact... I could make a career of beating myself up on stage to get laughs. This idea made me reconsider the last part of the act, but it was too late.
I tried signaling to the stage people to let me down, but they didn't seem to get it. My chicken shrills turned to ones of actual screams as I knew what was coming next. The automated rope swung me around and to the back of the stage behind the curtains where no one could see me. An egg then dropped from the ceiling, landing on the stage, followed by confetti, signifying the act was over. The last thing I heard was the crowd clapping and cheering at my tomfoolery excuse of an act. The curtains then spread open, revealing me hanging from a noose. I planned on committing suicide after the show, but I decided to incorporate it in part of the show instead. I'm just glad I could finally entertain people in my final moment.
Category:Body Horror
Category:Wealth
Category:Mental Illness
Category:Suicide