there are three of them. they all have long black scruffy hair. the one in the middle walks up to me, and says; "Hello. will you take this?" she says, holding out a singular zipper, the ones you see onto a bag or something. "...OK." was my response. she ploped it in a sack. "Take it out of the sack." so I reached my hand in and couldn't reach it, so I put my head in to see. "Gotcha." "Wha-" A burning pain on my stomach, running up my face.

TWO YEARS LATER...

now I'm one of them. a zipper down my face. "Hey there kid. look." I say. "Oh?" "open it." "You're wird, but OK.' zzzziiiippppp. Crunch, crunch, crunch. you might be next.

Paper skin on plastic bones Keep it together Don’t let them know Smile and show Your tinfoil teeth Walk my way On play dough feet Gruesome sights You zipped up freaks Holding back What’s underneath I despise your horrid frame But I know I look just the same

I ran through the forest, the wolves at my heels. They nipped at me, but i kept running. What i had seen was worse than death. The wolves began to fall back, as if what i was heading to was something they wanted to avoid.

I sighed in relief and examined my ankles. They were bruised and bloody, but it was not like i could do anything about it. I looked up at the trees, and to my luck, there was a cave. As i crawled over to it, I noticed something was different since the wolves had left. I thought and thought, but I couldn't think of what it could be.

I soaked some moss i found and wiped all the blood away from my inguries. I then curled up into a ball, hoping that i would wake up and it would be just a dream.

As I woke up the next morning, I noticed that I wasn't where i was supposed to be. Instead of the dark lights of the room i called home, I saw rock walls and the dim lights of the rising sun. Instead of the screaming coming from the room next door, I heard... nothing.

I sat up, rubbing my eyes as I noticed a faint light coming from the back of the cave. My hair fell back as I stood up. I walked to the light, my blurry vision failing without my glasses. A man stood there, hunched over a lamp.

"Hello?" I said to him.

He turned to look at me, and I remembered why I had left the mental asylumn in the first place.

His pure black eyes had stuffing coming out of them. And a zipper ran across his face.

It all went black.

I faintly heard, "are you okay, miss?" I then felt myself being carried. "No... dont make me one of you..." I murmured.

"It'll be fine... We'll get you to a doctor..."

I couldn't breath... i... would... never... become... one... of... them...

I walk with a stride only I can walk A piece of me still missing somewhere But I’ve sown zippers to the cuts I’ve made on my arms I’m a man of my word At least I’d like to think I am I hold on to the little hope I have Clutching to it like a child Maybe that’s just what I am A child Neglected by the mother that now pretends Parents aren’t perfect but every child wishes they were I zip up my bleeding heart No need for that right now Stuff the emotions in Or feel them? Which one is it? I don’t know anymore I don’t know anything but that I’m lost in a horde Of monsters in my head Creatures under the bed I’d like to go back and change the past But I must move forward Maybe I’m just ranting at this point? But at least I can breathe And tell you I still feel Because all I have right now Is that I haven’t grown cold yet I haven’t lost my mind Not completely at least I still feel crazy underneath But my mind feels clear for once Maybe near death was the only real way To feel alive

I wake up somewhere I don’t recognize. I don’t remember anything from last night and the feeling of groggy and dizziness is overwhelming.

I sit up in bed to try to stand and stumble but still was able to manage to stay upward even when my legs felt like jelly. The smell of homemade pancakes wafted up the unfamiliar stairs. I dash down them to see who’s cooking. Nobody’s there but there’s steam still rising off of the freshly made strawberry banana pancakes.

Those are my favorite pancakes but it’s a little suspicious. I figure I probably just drank to much. Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t risk it and head upstairs to freshen up before going out to do… well.. I don’t know, but something. I suppose.

Once I’m now dressed and showered I walk out the door and down the drive. I look around and notice the street is rather empty I just walk and walk until I finally reach the city. As I’m walking down the busy sidewalk, polluted with old gum and cigarette butts, I notice everyone around me had a peculiar zipper that seems to be inside their skin! I rub my eyes and look again. Even the little fluffy poodle has a zipper.

A large woman comes toward me and thinking I must be in a dream I pull the zipper on her shoulder all the way down to her wrist. Her blood pours out onto the sidewalk, filling my socks and shoes. I stand in shock. I can see her bones, her muscles, blood… all of it! She wobbles a bit before falling to the ground. Her finger tips turn purple and her skin is cold as ice.

I nearly pass out but try to dart around the corner into the alleyway nearby. I search my entire body for any of these zippers yet found none. Confused I peak around the corner and the woman’s body is gone. However the stains are still there….

I woke up on a seemingly normal day and got myself ready to go to school. I could hear my mom from downstairs yelling at me to hurry up. It was the second day of school and I had been late to the first day. My mom did not want a repetition of yesterday.

“Emma! Hurry up, you know you have to walk and I have to go to work!” My mom yelled.

Since I’ve been late already, my mom chooses to wait for me to walk out the door before she leaves, just to make sure I’m not late.

I finished brushing my teeth and getting dressed and was ready to go downstairs. I ran downstairs and grabbed a piece of toast that my mom had put out for me. She didn’t want me missing breakfast. I ran out the door and slammed it behind me. I looked back to see my mom watching me as I made my way to school. Once I turned the corner and I was out of her sight, I slowed down and started to walk the rest of the way.

As I was walking, a dog ran by me and it looked like it was running from its owner, but there was something wrong. The dog had something on it, it kind of looked like a zipper, like something on a jacket. I tried to double check but the dog was already running far down the street. I tried to shake it off as if I was seeing things, when a old lady came running past me. The lady had a leash in one hand and was yelling out to the dog that I had just seen. As the lady ran past me I again saw a zipper on her back. This time I was almost sure I wasn’t seeing things. But again I brushed it off and continued walking to school.

I was looking at my phone when I saw a toddler and his mom walking beside me. The toddler was holding on to his mom’s hand. On the toddler and the mother’s back were more zippers. The zippers on their back looked as though they were holding their skin together. Their skin was tight and the zipper looked as if it was going to break off. Since this time I knew I wasn’t absolutely crazy, I asked them about their zippers.

“Oh, the zippers? Everyone has them.” The mother told me.

I told her that I didn’t have a zipper on my back and she just laughed.

“Of course you do honey!”

She gestured me to feel my own back, so I did. I put my hands on my back and started to feel something. It felt like a bunch of bumps and they were huge. I then realized that I did have a zipper. How could I have not known? I asked myself. Goosebumps formed on my body as I began to realize that my zipper was tight too. As if it was going to pop any second. I looked over to the toddler and he was laughing while unzipping his zipper. His mom did the same and began to laugh and unzip hers too.

As they unzipped their zippers, I could see their skin beginning to fall off of their bodies. The only thing under their skin was flesh. My heart dropped when they grabbed me and started to unzip mine. I tried to push their hands away from me but was unsuccessful. I could feel my skin begin to loosen and fall off of my body. They then began to rip my skin off and tugged over and over again. Every time they tugged, it hurt more and more. I closed my eyes for a second then opened them. All of my skin was gone and I could only see my own flesh.

But I didn’t run home, I ran to school. I wanted to see if anyone else had the zipper too. Once I arrived I could see everybody. Everyone had no skin and they seemed fine. They acted like nothing had happened. I ran up to my friend and asked about the zipper. He looked at me and started to laugh, then he took something that looked like a towel out of his backpack.

“W-What is that?” I asked him.

But he kept laughing. He then took the towel in his hand and began to shove it in my face. Breathing became harder and all I could hear was him laughing. I tried to push the towel away from my face but it was too late. I was weak and I could feel my vision beginning to blur. The last thing I saw was his skinless smiling face staring back at me.

I followed my daily routine, coffee cup in hand, heading to my boring office job. My mind sat blank as always on my walk through the city. Until my eyes were drawn to a lady walking in front of me. She wore a long red dress that exposed her lean back, but it was not the dress that had caught my eye. Strewn across her backside was a zipper embedded into her flesh. I rubbed my eyes as if something clouded my vision but the zipper was still their. I took a big gulp of my coffee just to try and snap my head into a logical sense, but the zipper just seemed more clear to me. It had now been a while of me walking, staring at the zipper intently as if things would suddenly make clear sense. My mind didn’t accept it. I didn’t accept it. This couldn’t be real, so I tried to prove it. I reached out while walking to the lady’s zipper and in a fast motion pulled it down. Felsh and bone revealed itself to me and the lady stopped walking. Not turning around, but extending her lanky arm around her back and promptly zipping herself back up. Her flesh placed itself back inside her body with the zipper leaving no mess. That was when I noticed, everyone in my sight was stopped, their backs faced toward me bare. And each person had their own zipper, daring me to upzip them.

Sheena's life had always been a quiet one, punctuated by the soft clicking of her keyboard and the gentle hum of her refrigerator. The outside world was a distant concept, something she observed only through the windows of her tiny apartment. Partially because she was an introvert with severe anxiety, but mostly due to the fact that she was — for lack of a better term — a total hermit.

But, unfortunately, anxiety wasn’t the only illness Sheena faced. She was also a severe diabetic. And as her insulin ran dangerously low, she came to the horrifying realization that she would have to face the outside world. For two days, she had tried to reach the pharmacy, but the line was as silent as the empty streets outside her window. With a trembling hand, Sheena opened her front door, stepping into the sunlight that felt like a spotlight on her insecurities.

The walk to the pharmacy was short, but with each step, Sheena felt the weight of a thousand eyes upon her. The people she passed were like mannequins, their faces devoid of expression, their movements too jerky and abrupt to be human.

"And people wonder why I never leave the house… Fucking weirdos," she muttered to herself.

But Sheena noticed something even more disturbing and peculiar about the passersby. It wasn't just their blank expressions that unsettled her; it was the odd, metallic glint that caught her eye. As another person walked past, Sheena's gaze fixated on what appeared to be a zipper, seamlessly integrated into the man's jawline. Her heart skipped a beat. The zipper extended from the base of his ear, curving down to his collar. Sheena's mind raced with confusion and fear. What were these zippers? Why did they look so... real?

She couldn't help herself. She reached out to a woman who stood still, staring into nothingness. "Excuse me," Sheena whispered, her voice barely audible. The woman didn't react, didn't even blink. Sheena's fingers trembled as they grasped the zipper's tab. With a hesitant tug, the zipper parted with a whisper, revealing not flesh, but a glimpse of something shiny and artificial beneath. Sheena recoiled, nearly losing her balance in the process. What the fuck was going on? What had she missed? The woman remained motionless, her skin hanging open slightly where the zipper had been undone.

Sheena tried to collect herself, taking a deep breath before reaching forward once more. She swallowed hard and mustered up every ounce of courage she could manage, and with a slow and steady hand, began to unbutton the woman’s shirt. That’s when she discovered a whole collection of zippers beneath the woman’s clothes.

"Motherfucker!" Sheena cursed with a shriek, jumping back once again. And to her surprise, the woman teetered over like a 2 x 4 and smacked into the concrete with a clank.

After further investigation, Sheena found that there was one master zipper that would completely remove the woman’s skin. So, with a look of fierce determination in her eyes, Sheena gave the master zipper an angry yank, until the woman’s shiny metallic innards were completely exposed, revealing a human-shaped robot form.

Fury flickered in Sheena‘s eyes as she slung the unzipped skin down on the concrete.

"Nobody fucks with my insulin!" she snarled.

And with that, Sheena‘s adventure began.

This morning I was walking down the side walk when I noticed that everyone had there skins zippered together, I then reported to the police about this phenomenon but they thought I was crazy and was on drugs. So they came to my location to arrest me, they took a look at everyone and immediately started an investigation. 4 months after the case started they found the suspect, Albert zipper hands. Iconic huh. He was put to custody for a life sentence because zippering people’s bodies wasn’t to only torture he did. When they went to his lab, they found an abamanation. It was a human that had 6 arms 12 legs and 2 heads all sewd together. “It” was fat and chunky and really bloody and disgusting. But the sad part is that it can still survive. So they police put it out of its misery.

Eli walks around town as he notices something wrong.

Everyone has zippers holding together their skin…

Jeez, Plastic surgery went rogue.

Out of curiosity, he checks his own hand.

It was in fact laced with zippers…

“Wow, terrifying,” he scoffs.

“You are sad man,” says a voice he can't trace.

“Annnnd your deranged,” Eli responds nonchalantly.

Damian waves his hand slowly revealing himself as all the zippers disappear.

“You are a hard person to scare sir.”

“And you are an interesting person to exist Damian,” Eli says.

“You know my name!”

Oh boy, Eli thinks as he walks away rolling his eyes.

Hey!

Are you going to answer me?

Helloooo?

…..

“No.”

——- I'm sick but finally got motivation to post!