logo.png
Banner

SF Quotes

" If your God is everywhere, if He is always watching, why should your people make houses to go to worship Him? Faced with an all-seeing, everywhere-being God, I would think what is needed is a place to hide. "

Tad Williams, Caliban's Hour


Login Form

Please register with AntiSF if you'd like to rate the stories or if you'd like to leave comments about them.



Next Issue

A Night in Caliet
by Mick Dawson

An Ancient Malice Rising
by Steve Duffy

Best Ever
by Houston Dunleavy

High School Hunt
by Mark Farrugia

Say The Word
by Felicity Dowker

Predator Tank
by Liz Simmonds

Story With A Moral
by J(ae)D Brames

The Bet And The Body
by Liam Thorpe

The Man Who Did Not Dream
by Shaun A. Saunders

The Glass Man
by Jan Napier

And all the usual features...

 

Who's Online

We have 6 guests and 1 member online
Soon The Teeth PDF Print E-mail

By Kirstyn McDermott

It's growing inside of me, this thing without a name. No one believes me but I can feel it in there. Its blunt claws scratch lightly at my belly.

And soon it will have teeth.

A malignant parasite, it feeds from my body. From my blood. I am being sapped away and can do nothing except watch with helpless terror as it swells my skin drum-taut. Sometimes I'm sure I can see its evil little face pressing out, leering at me.

And, oh sweet Jesus, soon the teeth.

Then it will feed and feed and, once full, it will tear through my flesh and breathe and screech and drip saliva from black little gums and then . . . oh then.

Already its slick, bulbous skull rolls inside of me, and I know the greasy snuffling of its nostrils and the eager clutch of its paws. It is my fledgling sin, my voracious spawn, my intimate death.

And no one will believe.

Do you believe?

Doctors chuckle smugly behind their files as they show me grainy images on a screen and tell me it's a boy. Nurses squeeze my hand.

Congratulations.

My husband has painted the room sky-blue. A teddy bear sits on the pillow and plastic aeroplanes wheel and dip from the ceiling. Wooden blocks dangle their coloured letters over the crib.

Never too early to learn.

Never too late to die.

Soon now, before the teeth.

The navel is the weakest point, and the skewer shakes as I press it there. Or is it my hand? I crouch on a towel to catch the blood; dark blue, to swallow the stains. Will it hurt?

 

but it will be dead and I will be safe

and we will be safe together

my husband and I

from the thing

the sinful thing that would bear his name

but not his genes

and I think of this

and smile and laugh as --

 

Oh sweet Jesus, the teeth!

aus25grn

Rate this story:


( Average: 4.11 out of 5 )
 
Comments (2)
Owww
2 Monday, 26 January 2009 16:54
Lyn Battersby
Not in the belly button. Oh my god, not the belly button.

Lyn (Omphalaphobe) Battersby
Good Stuff
1 Saturday, 24 January 2009 23:15
Philippa
Ouch! :) Good, scary stuff.

Ten...

Thumping Headache

By Jill Smith

Aleeta screamed, "It's in my head again." She rocked back in her seat, then slumped forward —  lifeless.

Read more
 

Nine...

Soon The Teeth

By Kirstyn McDermott

It's growing inside of me, this thing without a name. No one believes me but I can feel it in there. Its blunt claws scratch lightly at my belly.

Read more
 

Eight...

The Rebel

By Julie Cohen Wornan

Clara snipped the thread, then examined the garment carefully. She gave particular attention to the counterfeit brand label sewn conspicuously onto the front right pocket.

Read more
 

Seven...

A Spork In The Road

By Matthew Sanborn Smith

What the hell was that in the road up there? Sam pulled onto the shoulder as soon as his brain gave up on the interpretation.

Read more
 

Six...

All The Way Down

By Angie Smibert

Cherie Larsen-Metcalf
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-867-5309

Read more
 

Five...

The World Is A Very Dangerous Place, Dear

By Shaun A. Saunders

Lisa had just returned home when her mother trapped her in one of those 'dear, why don't we sit down and chat' spiels.

Read more
 

Four...

The Phone Rings

By Richard Thorne

It's never a good thing when your phone rings and shows an unrecognised caller ID.

Read more
 

Three...

Lost In Space

by Mark Farrugia

I've never believed in alien abductions. They always happen to crackpots or the mentally insane, but what else could this be?

Read more
 

Two...

The Virgin Strand

by Ashley Hibbert

"ua mau ke ea o ka ana i ka pono" — the life of the land is established in righteousness [Hawaiian]

Read more
 

One...

Hidden In Plain Sight

by Felicity Dowker

The man made dangerous by delusion stood on the dais, his arms raised above his head.

Read more