takora

I have just realized that I must remove my own teeth.

It all started about four months ago. This past winter I found myself biting through glasses as I drank from them. I didnt think anything of it the first few times, figuring it was just an embarrassing (and possibly hazardous) accident. After the fourteenth or fifteenth time I started to worry.

Soon after that I started biting my nails. I had never bitten my nails before. I had always found it a disgusting habit, but I found myself doing it. Constantly. Unconsciously. I could not stop. Eventually I wouldnt even notice that I was doing it until the pain of biting through my finger alerted me to the fact. My fingers were perpetually covered in bandaids, often all the way down to the palms, and I still could not stop.

I also found myself absent-mindedly chewing on the ends of pencils. My lips and gums and tongue soon became gray with graphite and splinters.

And then one night I awoke thinking I had been drooling in my sleep, something that I am unfortunately not a stranger to. But I recognized the taste of blood, and ran to the bathroom. I had started to bite in my sleep, and I had chewed a hole through my right cheek.

I couldnt fall back to sleep that night, so the next morning I went to the sporting goods store and purchased one of those plastic mouth-guards that the boxers wear. I woke up in the middle of the night choking on shredded shards of plastic, the remains of the mouth guard now completely unrecognizable. I went through more than twenty of them over the course of four nights. I even tried wearing two at a time, but the result was always the same.

I can feel my senses slipping away. I dont know what to do. I am delirious from lack of sleep. I am starving, but i do not want to eat. Every time I eat with utensils I end up choking on loose knife ends or fork tines or inch-long pieces of chopstick. The back of my throat is raw with cuts and scrapes. Every time I eat with my fingers I nearly lose a knuckle. I am out of bandages.

I have started sleepwalking. I wake up outside in the yard with something in my mouth. Sometimes it is a branch or a garden gnome, or remnants of the garden hose. Sometimes I cant tell what it is. Yesterday morning I woke up in the neighbors yard. And Im sure that the stuff in my mouth had been part of their pet.

Last night I started tying myself down to the bed, but i dont think that will work much longer. When I woke up this morning my teeth were chattering noisily, evilly, like a rattle snake. As I write this, and night approaches, they are starting to slowly grind back and forth.... they are waking up.