7 Elements of Horror

Sp-Eye-Ders

In dire need of both a friend and doctor, Cecil called Daisy. She told him to swing by her office during lunch. He was more than happy to.

"So, what brings you to my office today?" Daisy greeted him and led him back to her private office so they could talk and eat without distraction.

"Well, I just haven't been feeling very well of late," Cecil admitted, head low.

From what he described, it was the usual case of depression, anxiety and low esteem. They combined to create other issues like social awkwardness and imposter syndrome, but it all boiled down to self-hatred. Even if it wasn't an intense, violent, vicious hatred, it was still obvious Cecil didn't really like himself all that much. He felt bad and unlovable even though he consciously knew otherwise.

As Daisy listened to him berate himself for not knowing how to get better, she suddenly got an idea. She took him to the labs and had him stand before what seemed like a normal mirror, save that it hung on a pole rather than wall.

"Just look in it for about 10 seconds while I check something," Daisy instructed as she walked behind the mirror. It was a vague request, but Cecil and Daisy were old friends, so he trusted her and did it without question. But he couldn't help but cringe at what he saw in the mirror.

It was only his face, but seeing it filled him with such disgust and discomfort. It wasn't that he was ugly, but being forced to look at his own face made his skin crawl. Without meaning to, he began to scowl, but that only made him look even worse.

"Why are we even doing this?" he demanded as the 10 seconds ended. He turned to Daisy, still scowling slightly.

"To diagnose you," she replied calmly. Then she explained. There were tiny parasites, informally known as Sp-eye-ders, that looked and did exactly what they sounded like. Through unknown means, they would crawl into people's eyes and distort their visions and thoughts, making it hard for them to see the goodness and beauty in themselves.

They would nestle in the eyeball and travel back and forth along the optic nerve to the brain. It was the natural venom they secreted that caused these visual and cognitive distortions, that venom coating the eyes, brain and optic nerve, and that was exactly what Cecil was dealing with.

"I could tell by the way you glared at your reflection," she said.

"They aren't... fatal... are they?" Cecil asked, sounding disgusted and horrified at the thought of spiders living in his eyeballs. They were living in his eyeballs. Tiny spiders. Parasites. Living in his eyeballs... And they would scuttle along his optic nerve with their long, pointy, spindly, little legs. They'd burrow into his brain before skittering back along his optic nerve to settle back down inside his eyeballs!

"No," Daisy reassured him. "And there is a way to get rid of them, but it's a slow process and it can be mildly uncomfortable..." Then she explained again. Surgery. That was the cure. In order to flush out a Speyeder, one needed a donor eye from a loved one. That eye would replace one of the infected eyes. By sheer exposure to uninfected eye, the other would slowly correct itself and kill the Speyeder. Once the first infected eye was cured, the donor could have their eye back, and the previously-removed, infected eye would be returned to its original owner. The process would then repeat, the healed eye causing the other eye to self-cleanse until both eyes were totally normal again.

It was a slow, slightly gross and slightly uncomfortable process, but Speyeders were tricky to get rid of. Low esteem wasn't fixed in a night.

"Gross! Why does it have to be so complicated?!" Cecil cringed at the thought of having one of his eyes cut out, then replaced with someone else's, only to have that eye re-cut out and replaced with his old eye (which would apparently still have a spider living in it).

"Because the Speyeders are currently making it impossible for you to see the real you. You are only seeing a distorted reflection, the flaws and faults magnified while the virtues and beauties are muted," Daisy said. "One of the ways to fix that imbalance is to get a clean, healthy eye, which will help you to see the real you again. That will be what sparks the other eye to fix itself. That's also why the donor must be a loved one. You need someone who sees you in a very positive light so it can counterbalance the Speyeder. Once the power of the clean eye starts working, you learn to love yourself again, and that's how you kill a Speyeder."

It still sounded needlessly complicated, but it was starting to make sense. What was one way to fix negative self-image? Bring in positive self-image! Likewise, what was one way to start believing compliments from people? Getting to see it through their eyes, literally. Besides, like Daisy said, it was not easy to overcome cognitive distortion. It was going to take time, effort, discomfort and care, like mending a broken bone. It wasn't easy to love oneself after spending so long lost in hatred. That's why it was such a long, complex process. It was no small injury.

"But wouldn't it be so nice to see the good in yourself again?" Daisy reasoned. "Don't you miss being happy and confident?"

"But who should I get the eye from?" Cecil asked back. He couldn't deny, it sounded like a sweet deal, but...

"Sheesh, I thought you were smarter than that," Daisy teased, tapping the corner of one of her own.

"Seriously?!" Cecil's jaw dropped.

"Of course, you're one of my oldest and closest friends!" And that was all the answer he needed.

ooo

The next time Cecil woke up, he was met with three interesting sights. The first was Daisy and her new eyepatch. The second was a jar that contained one of his own eyes. Then the third was his own reflection when Daisy handed him a small mirror. Even though he knew it would happen, it still felt strange to see himself with someone else's eye in his skull.

"Heterochromia looks good on you," Daisy joked. At the same time, Cecil came to a fourth, unexpected, epiphany. For the first time in ages, he could look at his reflection without feeling disgusted. And he thought he even saw traces of the handsome man he used to consider himself...

While Cecil gawked at his new look, Daisy stood a few paces away and smiled softly at him. This handsomeness that he was just now noticing had been there all along. It just took her eye to see it. But that meant the cure was already working! Cecil had only just started using his new eye and he was already noticing that his reflection no longer seemed so repulsive.

Given enough time, the sight in his other eye would change as well, and the first Speyeder would be eliminated. That was still a long way off, but this was a promising start, and as far as both of them were concerned, it was more than good enough for now!

AN: I just wanted to make negative self-image into an actual, physical creature, and this is what I came up with.

Also, don't ask how Daisy managed to do the eyeball swap. Let's just say they found another free doctor and had him do it, LOL!