Was a writing prompt that I’ve read quite a few years ago ago, copied below:
“You live in a world where each lie creates a scar on the liar’s body. The bigger the lie, the deeper and larger the mark. One day, you meet someone that only has one scar; it is the biggest one you have ever seen.”
This is the story that followed, credit to wercwercwerc from Reddit.
He was a real good guy, through and through. Never met anyone quite like him since, never really expect I will either.
People like Joe don’t come around often. Once in a lifetime maybe, if you’re lucky.
Almost everyone I’ve ever met had the tiny silvered papercuts of white-lies on their fingers. It’s a price of formalities, a camouflage of sorts- as everyone has a few, some deeper cut than others over the years; opened and reopened time after time. And not just that, but the larger cuts, silvery things on forearms and shins, necks or backs. People lie, it’s just the way of things.
Sometimes the pain it worth the deception, the balancing scale plays out mentally before a person’s mouth opens.
Joining the force was what I wanted. There was a lie I told myself: A Lie I scratched in deep, over and over again. I wanted to change, I wanted my parents to be proud: All lies, tiny scratching lines on my shoulder to create a strange and deceitful pattern that never seemed to heal completely.
In truth, I joined the force because I had nothing left. I joined as a last ditch effort to save myself from rock bottom. Among the elite, surrounded by the brave and the successful, I simply kept my head down. It felt like being a fox, stuck among a pack of wolves. Just being there in the first place felt like deception.
But then, there was instructor Joe.
I had more scars than most, and that earned little trust- but if people were politely cold with me, they were visibly frigid with Joe. See, he didn’t have the traditional marks on his hands, he didn’t have cuts and nicks along his arms, his face or neck: At a quick glance you might have thought him the most honest man alive. In fact, at first people did. A man in his fading thirties without scars?
That’s like a god-damn unicorn. They’re more myth and legend than person- yet there he was. Plain as day.
Everyone liked Joe that first week. Everyone wanted to be on good terms with him- I mean, who wouldn’t? In a world of liars and cheats, proof reminded at every twist and turn of the road, who wouldn’t want someone they could trust?
Well, that was before he took of his shirt in the locker-room. Before we all saw the hideous mark that covered half his back. One lie, but the most gruesome thing I’ve ever seen. From his shoulder blade to his ribs, it looked like a crashing comet of red and silvered white. A tiny portion of it just finally healing, a rough tear now recovered again.
It was all the same lie. That’s something you can just tell sometimes, just know it. Usually you can tell how many times too, but whatever the number was which he’d said that aloud, I don’t know.
He rarely spoke to begin with, issuing the orders with a stern smile, instructing as all the rest did. He was positive, encouraging, truthful: But that scar was on everyone’s mind. Deep, dark, and terrible: Someone who could tell a lie like that… Well, there was someone to watch out for. In the end though, it was at the range when things went well and truly sour.
Live-fire runs, we’d done them a thousand times, but that day I guess someone forgot themselves. Maybe they thought too much on what and how and their brain skipped a beat, or maybe they were just careless. Regardless of the reason, a shot fired when it shouldn’t have. Brass spit fire, Air swallowed metal, and lead took its first taste of iron, calcium, iron and dirt.
In that order.
We all stopped, eyes wide and watching that kid fall down real slow. First standing, staring with his hand pulling away- not even scared, just shocked. Red, like deep crimson soaking and spreading, he dropped down to his knees. Still, he wasn’t even there yet, it hadn’t quite processed.
That’s when Joe caught him- and all the shouting erupted. The pandemonium, the first real training turned to action kicking in. Cries for “Medic!” and “KIT! Get the kit!” as people ran for the directions they thought mattered.
I was close enough to know that wasn’t going to make a difference. Center of mass was what we trained for, the reason was straight and forward: Shoot to kill. Eliminate the target and move on.
So I sat there, weapon heavy in my hands as I watched Joe hold this kid, blood pouring out into the dirt like a faucet, and I listened to him repeat the words that cut deep. Over, and over, and over again.
This porcelain was tarnished but somehow brought a comfort that I remembered all to well. Streaks of auburn mixed to maroon and soon spurts of crimson peppered the liquid surface. MEDIC I shouted but it was too late. Here I sit, broken hearted
That hall of fame Reddit thread where a guy announced he will try heroin just one time, then comes back to explain how the experience was and how he will try again. Over the course of many posts we see persons entire life unravel as other posters scream of the top of their lungs for him to stop.
Never figured if it was real or scripted, but hella effective.
Oh yea. /u/SpontaneousH was the account. I think about that story every time I read or hear something about Heroin. Even if it’d be fake, this story influenced my view of heroine more than any movie, video or article about it.
As a recovering heroin addict, I wholeheartedly believe his story. His later stories contained some region-specific drug slang and his post-recovery updates were the perfect amount of mundane and specific for me to recognize exactly the same feelings in myself.
Side note: if you’re watching a movie or TV show, one thing that non-junkie writers never get right is withdrawal. They often show characters skipping withdrawal entirely, or show them mildly sick but still moving through the story without any real issues. Worst case, they’ll show a character being sick and then totally fine after a short time. Huge pet peeve of mine. Really undersells the catch-22 you find yourself in when using heroin.
What withdrawal is actually like is pure, unadulterated misery and suffering for two weeks at minimum, followed by months or even a year of exhaustion, depression, suicidal thoughts, restlessness, and feeling like everything is weird and new. It feels like you’re a reptile that just shed its skin and everything is raw including your emotions and thoughts. Those first two weeks are just nonstop puking, shaking, sweating, an uncontrollable urge to kick and jerk your body, total insomnia, scary and suicidal thoughts, full body aches and pains, and enough self-loathing to last a thousand years.
I made it three months cold turkey once before relapsing. Fucking never again. I honestly don’t know how people quit dope before modern medications like Buprenorphine and Methadone.
Feeling like you want to break the cycle of addiction but knowing you can’t get through the withdrawal is an incredibly scary and traumatic experience.
Have you watched Euphoria? I’ve never had experience with drugs like that but I feel it’s got representation of addiction and withdrawals. Some recovering addicts say it spoke to them and others say they can’t watch it because it’s too triggering, so I’d totally understand if you haven’t seen it. The special Rue episode in between the two seasons is spectacular at showing a recovering addict trying to talk sense into a struggling one.
I recall he disappeared for Multiple years and then came back saying he became a junk, had been in addiction clinics and was finally clean after years.
Not exactly a story, but a picture thread on Reddit where a guy posts a photo of his tattoos on his arms, and someone goes “how did you take this picture”, so he posts a selfie showing him balancing a phone on his shoulder, and someone replies “wait how did you take that picture” and then he posts a photo of him taking a photo of him taking a photo… and this continues until he reveals multiple complex camera setups. Such a legendary thread.
Hell yea the poop knife. His family had one because their shits would block toilets. He thought it was a normal thing to require and have a poop knife but after going to a friend’s house and asking for it, he discovered that it was indeed (Samuel L. Jackson voice) not a normal thing to possess.
Disagree- as someone coming from a family with similar abilities, this is more related to volume and personal flexibility. Just because it’s extra large doesn’t mean you have been constipated or not eating enough fibre, sheesh.
The story of how a woman lost her daughter because the grandmother didn’t believe that the girl’s coconut allergy was real, despite years of watching the parents trying to find out the allergen so that they could stop the girl from winding up in the emergency room. The grandmother kept the kid overnight and used coconut oil on her hair; the child went into anaphylaxis and died.
The mother said that the grandmother begs her to see her other grandchildren, as they’ve now cut ties with her; the mom’s response was, “You can come over when you bring my daughter with you.”
A horrible story of how some people just believe they know better than everyone, including doctors.
I have legitimate fears of letting my fiance’s crazy conservative parents ever have our kids alone. To this day her dad will come out of nowhere with a 10 minute prepared speech about how covid isn’t real, which is always followed by the entire family being silent and wondering to ourselves, “who the fuck even asked you anything at all?”
There are several, but one that kind of haunts my mind is the story from the guy who experienced another life in a blackout and had it all torn apart by that fucking lamp.
Sadly, this is not that well-known anymore. I think the whole concept of “cybering” is probably unknown, nowadays. There doesn’t seem to be a good website still online with the whole bloodninja saga anymore, so this is the closest I could find in readable text ;) newschoolers.com/…/I-put-on-my-Robe-and-Wizard-ha…
I’m not even saying this to be a broken record, but that site is fucking unusable without 3rd party apps. Just tried to read through that thread and it’s pointless, it’s a complete mess. I need like a picture gallery of the comments worth reading from that thread, lol. 😂