One of the 13 stories in A Friday the 13th Story #9: Please Look at Me by Jon Minton
Fun Fact:
The characters in Please Look At Me discuss creating a church to establish Autophagia as a religious practice to protect themselves from people who are trying to ban it. This was inspired by the Church of Body Modification, which was founded in 1999 by Steve Haworth, an influential body modification artist. It grew quickly because of support from several other influential voices in the body modification community, such as Shannon Larratt, Philip Barbosa, Beki Buelow, and Shawn Porter, and currently lists members from 24 different countries.
The CoBM was created, in part, to protect members from dress codes that banned visible piercings and tattoos, and to establish body modification and body manipulation as forms of spiritual expression and self-empowerment protected under religious freedom laws. It also works to protect and raise awareness about more controversial modifications, practices, and rituals, such as scarification, branding, suspension, corsetry, and fire-walking. While the church has been successful in spreading awareness of the spiritual side of modification, it hasn’t been able to create the overarching legal changes they’d hoped to enact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Haworth
https://wiki.bme.com/index.php/Steve_Haworth
https://www.facebook.com/stevehaworthmod
About Please Look at Me:
Brittany Varon is an Autophagian, part of a controversial movement blending biology and spirituality to achieve radical self-renewal. When a documentary exposes the movement’s founder as a fraud, public backlash fractures the faithful—and devotion curdles into extremism under the influence of the zealous Tatyana Brigam. As belief hardens into persecution and violence, Brittany must confront what her faith is becoming—and whether it can still be saved.
Excerpt:
Time always slowed when the cutting began.
Brittany Varon concentrated on maintaining her breathing, counting her inhales and exhales to keep them steady.
“You’re doing great, honey.” Ian cut through the fat and into muscle, sending white-hot pain through her nerves.
A faintly sweet aroma underscored the metallic scent of blood. Brittany didn’t scream or cry as she had the first time when Ian took just ten grams, only going an eighth of an inch deep, not even getting all the way through skin and fat. Today he would take three ounces and cut a half-inch into her thigh. Those first few sessions had been long and messy, but his practiced hands made quick work of it now.
She sat up and looked at what he’d taken from her, allowing a few tears to trickle down her cheek as she smiled for the cameras. He moved briskly, placing her flesh into the waiting cooler before tending to her leg. The ointment and bandages he applied did little to stop the familiar burning sensation. They had fried up that first session’s bounty like a pork rind, barely a nibble for each of them, but now they had full meals to share with each other…and their audience, of course. Sure, it wasn’t something you’d order from a restaurant, but they would season the tiny flank steak and then flash-sear it.
“We have to edit this.” Ian’s touch soothed as he ran his fingers through her hair.
“I need to meditate first.” She shivered, cool air covering her skin in goosebumps. “And I need a blanket.”
The knitted blanket Ian draped over her calmed her almost as much as his touch. She lay back and closed her eyes. Her heartbeat slowed, and the adrenaline that had flooded her brain dissipated into the mellow afterglow of endorphins. The pain in her leg was there, but distant.
Brittany tossed off the blanket and allowed Ian to help her to her feet, a little shaky, but not bad. Together they walked to their office. He sat at his desk, the editing software already up on his laptop. She sat down next to him in matching office chairs and watched four simultaneous angles of the Leveling Session.
About the Author:
Jon Minton is an American speculative fiction writer based in Oklahoma City. He is a software developer but has always been passionate about a great story. He is the president of the Central Region Oklahoma Writers. Find more of his books at jonmintonbooks.com
Author Alicia Dean 