Submitted by MarauderOnReddit t3_10pk32s in WritingPrompts
wiltyspinach t1_j6l8j8n wrote
[NSFW] Inspired by American Psycho
I am something of a normal guy. When I wake up in the morning, I have an erection that presses into my memory foam mattress in a very satisfying way, and it is not so much that I do not want to get out of bed, but that I want to be inside it, thrusting my hips until the heat is too much to bear and the frustration gets me up and into the shower. On days I don’t wash my hair or shave my face, I like to use the coldest water I can. It’s better for the skin. Or so I’ve read.
The most important part of my day comes next.
I like to air dry so I put on my slippers and go to my study where three of the four walls are coated in chalkboard paint. This is where I keep tally of the innocent people I’ve killed, and I hope to fill the second wall by the end of the year so that the open space isn’t uneven anymore. Another fifteen today should complete the rest of the last line. Three or four lines after that will complete the wall. I just need to make sure I write evenly so that I don’t have to erase any again. The third wall is blank and on it I used to have the number of innocent people I’ve saved with the innocent lives I’ve taken. But is anyone truly innocent? Is anyone worth saving? Just because I can point my finger at a random stranger walking down the street, or through the slits of a curtain at a stranger washing dishes and claim their lives, doesn’t mean they are innocent. The fact that they die might very well be because at that moment, they weren’t dangerous. Who’s to say it isn’t the same for those I save? I can’t tell you when it was I stopped saving people with the lives I take, but I have made a game of trying to claim more innocent lives at the most inopportune times, or when the irony of their death steps ever so gingerly into the realm of comedy.
“See a penny pick it up, all day long you have good luck!” And then they’re facedown in the concrete, their loved ones going from giggles to screams as the blood flows. I put my phone in airplane mode in times like these, and they never even notice when I give them the phone to call an ambulance. All they know is that the call isn’t going through. This one time, I even waited until the ambulance came speeding down the street and I claimed the life of the driver, sending the wailing ambulance into the crowd of onlookers and police cars.
When it rains, it pours.
Speaking of, I’m dry. I have a collection of colognes because I believe the scent you give off adds to the aesthetic of your outfit, adding weight to your presence wherever you may go. The second most important part of my day is choosing my outfit for this very reason.
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WiltySpinach! Remember the name! 👹
t3hjs t1_j6lha1f wrote
The writing is captivating and quite creepy. But trying to understand the theme, is it that the "hero" with such a power eventually goes psycho?
Or that there is no way to use/obtain such power without being psycho in the first place?
Having said that, are you taking the stance that killing 1 person to save many is not morally correct? Cause it seems to be put in a negative light
wiltyspinach t1_j6li9xy wrote
I won’t lie I misread the prompt and thought it was a one for one, so I added the tweak that if you kill this # of people, you can save that # of people at another time. So, he decided to bank them, but in banking them he found himself.
My take on it is that he went psycho after using it. It’s why he questions if anyone is truly innocent, if his powers only work in certain situations. Because what if he saved someone who later turned out to be bad? It’s a lot of guilt and power for one person and it broke him. Flipped the psychopath switch, and he now sees life as a sort of joke or game.
Edit: thanks for the compliment though!
t3hjs t1_j6ll5mh wrote
Ah, very interesting take coupled with intriguing writing
mismanaged t1_j6m2c8g wrote
Considering this power is the adapted trolley problem, it is easy to frame it as morally wrong.
I really liked this morally black take on it.
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