This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/YeetManXD69 on 2024-10-10 05:15:54+00:00.
Standing short at five foot one at the ripe age of twenty, I often longed for days when I could reach the top shelf. Daily reminders of my shortcomings existed all around every corner.
Going to the local gym with my acquaintances, I cannot help but feel envy. I watched in horror as Chow dunked a basketball into the hoop with ferocious force. That piano playing twat! Why is he so talented at everything?!
“Hey Bo, come join us! We could really use one more. The teams are uneven right now,” Chow said, motioning towards the ball, grinning.
I panicked. He’s just trying to embarrass me. What a jerk. He’s always done that, faking kindness just to show off how awesome he is. Ever since we were kids, he’s always been inviting me to play sports he knew I wasn’t good at. My stomach roiled as I brushed him off and went about my business.
When I arrived home, still upset over Chow’s rudeness, I sprawled out in bed and scrolled through Facebook as per usual. That’s when I saw it.
A small little ad in the bottom right corner of my screen, barely noticeable. It had a crude gif of legs growing taller. Of course. These targeted ads were becoming ridiculous.
“We’ll Make You Taller.” It read, followed by a ton of thumbs up emojis. Ok, weird.
It must be like one of those boner pill ads, I thought. Unfortunately I was intrigued, I clicked it. It took me to the most rudimentary webpage I had seen in a long time. It reminded me of the stuff I’d make in my HTML class that same year.
I lay there staring at my glowing laptop screen in the darkness of my bedroom. The website only had one feature: to make an appointment. Fuck it. What have I got to lose? Well, a lot more than you’d think. The funny thing is, it didn’t have payment options. Or even a time and place. All I did was click yes. I never expected anything to actually happen.
Two days passed, and I had almost forgotten about the whole ordeal. Until I picked up the mail. Well, now I had my time and place. Funny, I don’t remember giving them my address. This all, of course, felt like a horrible idea, but, I was desperate. I longed to dunk a basketball, for people to like me.
After thirty five minutes of driving I ended up in a part of town I’d never been in before. I didn’t even know this street existed. It was right next to a trailer park. I waltzed into the sterile grey building with no signage posted outside. Met with an empty waiting room, I headed for the front desk. No one was there, but I saw a bell, like the ones you find in hotels.
I dinged it and waited. Soon after, a very short woman meandered towards the counter. Huh, that’s funny. She must not have used the services here.
“Hi, I have an appointment with Doctor Okanavić at eleven A.M.” I totally butchered the pronunciation of his name, but I guess she knew who I meant. “Do you guys take insurance?” I asked. “Yes, we already have yours on file.” Alright then, that’s weird. I never gave them that information. But, I mean, my insurance surely wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me. If they’re covering it, it must be safe. Right?
“Okay great.” I said hesitantly.
“If you’d fill out this paperwork for me, please.” She said without even glancing up at me. I took the clipboard and sat down in one of the many empty chairs. It was your standard medical information, list of medications, allergies, all that boring stuff.
I was eager to get this procedure done. I skimmed through it all, my head swimming. I stepped back up to the counter and slid the clipboard to the woman.
“Follow me through that door on the left.” I followed the woman through the desolate halls. Did anyone else even work here? The woman must have been four feet tall. Wow, finally, someone shorter than me. She probably makes more money than me though.
The lady led me to an empty room and sat me down on the table. That white paper material they used to cover the seat crinkled as I sat on the chair.
“The doctor will be with you shortly.” I sat there shaking my leg. I fidgeted with my phone when I heard a knock on the door.
He was a normal sized man with glasses and balding grey hair. I thought he looked like your typical doctor, almost too typical. That’s the last thing I remember.
It’s strange, usually in surgery, you’ll at least remember them putting you to sleep. Not this time. All I remember is the doctor walking into the room. And then I woke up. I already felt different, of course I probably still had the drugs in my system.
I squinted my eyes, looking up at the doctor. It looked like there were four people in front of me. The drugs definitely hadn’t quite worn off yet.
“How tall am I now?” I managed to say.
“Seven foot one,” the doctor said confidently.
“What?!” Is this real? I’m actually that tall now?
I stood up. Sure enough, I towered over the doctor, who, before, was a pretty tall man. I felt great. This was everything I had ever wanted. I was so ready to show off.
“Don’t I need to wait around awhile for the drugs to wear off or something?”
“No.” Alright then.
The following day, I went back to my normal life. Well, normal as it could be. I arrived at work and immediately caught everyone’s attention.They couldn’t wrap their heads around it. Their responses disheartened me. Wishing to be praised, instead I was met with countless befuddled faces and even more questions.
After work, I went to the gym again. This time with the goal to accept Chow’s offer to play basketball.
“Bo? How are you so tall? Is that really you?”
“Yeah, it’s me. I got surgery. Isn’t it great?”
“What, seriously? That’s a thing?” He said blinking rapidly.
“Yean man, I’m finally tall.” I said with a grin.
“I don’t even know what to say. Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, what are the side effects?"
I played two on two basketball with Chow but quickly ran into a problem. I may be tall now, but I still suck at basketball. Also, I am out of shape. I got so out of breath from running up and down that court; I had to take a breather on several occasions. This was a low blow. I thought being tall would fix everything. Desperate to get out of there, my stomach fluttered as I left the gym.
It was not going as planned. Most people were freaked out by my newfound height. I expected to be congratulated, but all I got were strange looks and so many questions.
But it got worse, not only was my mental state affected, soon my body was too. One night, as I was brushing my teeth, a sudden sharp pain entered my molars. I spit my toothpaste out and rinsed out my mouth. The pain was so bad it gave me a splitting headache. It felt like a million tiny razors were chipping away at my teeth.
Then I huddled over the sink in pain as my teeth fell out of my mouth, clinking into the sink. What happened? Was this a side effect of the surgery? My mouth was wide open, unable to close. I looked up slowly at my reflection in the mirror. Where each tooth once was, a long dangling red ligament protruded from the tooth hole in my gums. My bathroom sink was a bloody mess.
Stumbling backwards, I tripped and landed on the hardwood flooring. The pain in my mouth still remained. For an unknown reason, I had the strongest urge to rid my mouth of those disgusting ligaments. So I did. I got back to my feet, stood in front of the mirror and pulled them out, one by one. The pain finally ceased.
The next day I awoke to even more complications. When I went to cut my nails, they grew back tenfold. What was wrong with me? Why was this happening? I should’ve never agreed to that godforsaken surgery. I didn’t know it was possible for the human body to change in ways like this.
I stared back at myself in the mirror one final time. All my pores had enlarged to a disgusting degree. I had lost weight rapidly overnight, so much so that my ribs were visible. My skin turned as grey as the paint on my walls and my pupils had completely blackened. I didn’t even feel human anymore.