User blog:Dorkpool/Creepypasta Riffs: Scratchthumbs.gif

You know, Creepypasta has taught me many important lessons. For example: if you see a tall guy in a suit, you're screwed; if you see the word "hyper-realistic" anywhere, you're going to be pissed; some people shouldn't be allowed to write; and never trust file extensions. The story I'm going to Riff is a clear example of the final lesson. So, let's make our thumbs bleed and Riff this bitch!

It was around 9:00 at night when I saw it.

A clown spider thing played by Tim Curry?

You see, I had a folder full of hilarious .GIFs that I found online. The last time I saved anything into it was probably at least two years ago. I was recently scrolling through my documents folder to see if there were any old files from when I was a kid. Nostalgia flowed through me as I saw all my old school projects and little poems and stories I wrote when I was young.

''(narrator) And boy did they suck! ''

That’s when I came across my .GIFs folder. I was a little curious, wondering if what I thought was funny would still be funny to my now older self. I opened the folder and saw all the usual annoying memes, Peanut Butter Jelly Time.gif, Nyan Cat.gif, even the little kid that mouths “That’s Racist” over and over. But one I didn’t recognize.

(narrator) It was called Smile.dog

It was called scratchthumbs.gif. This didn’t sound like anything that I’d heard about on the internet, but I figured it was probably just an outdated meme that I had found funny back then and forgotten about. I opened the file, and, as usual, Google Chrome opened a page and displayed the .GIF.

It showed a young boy’s hands from a first-person view. The boy took a toothbrush and started scratching his thumb with it. I figured this would just loop around and around forever, but the .GIF was longer than I expected. The little boy continued to run his thumbs with the toothbrush until they turned red and raw, and eventually they started to bleed. Then, the .GIF looped. I thought this was really odd, considering it wasn’t a meme or anything, and I doubt I would’ve found this funny. It didn’t scare me. Being an internet community member, I’ve seen a LOT worse.

Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life?

But it was unsettling. However, I just deleted the file and brushed it off. That night when I turned off my computer, it took almost half an hour for the “Windows is shutting down…” screen to go away and the screen to finally turn black.

The next day, I opened my laptop and booted it up. As I logged in, I saw a file on my desktop called scratchthumbs.avi. Now, I have at least a hundred icons on my desktop (I really need to clean my desktop off a little), and I supposed this could’ve been there for a long time. I doubt I would have noticed it, and besides, why would it matter?

(narrator): Let’s see…I’m in a Creepypasta…there’s a .avi file…it’s all good.

I was a little creeped out; being that this was a video of what I saw last night, not a looped clip. I opened up the video and sure enough, I see a little boy’s hands. He grabs the toothbrush and starts his routine. It took me no time at all to realize what I saw in the .GIF was just a small, small portion of the actual video. The boy continued to brush, and brush, and brush, through the blood, through his skin until bone was exposed.

Remember, kids: toothbrushes can scratch through your skin!

Water droplets appeared on the camera lens as if the boy was crying, but a weird laughter was happening in the video simultaneously. This was way too much for me, but the video only had thirteen seconds left. At the very end, the camera turned around to look at the little boy’s face. The boy started laughing and said repeatedly “That’s what you get. That’s what you get.” I was horrified, yet transfixed.

(narrator): Also, mildly aroused.

The video ended with a black screen in silence. Even though the video was off, it seemed like I was still watching a video; only someone’s hand was covering the lens, but I couldn’t be sure. I haven’t been too sure about anything these days.

(person): What’s two plus two?

(narrator): I’m not sure.

After the video ended fully, I closed Windows Media Player and my computer turned off on its own. I turned it back on and there was nothing. No evidence of there ever being anything called “scratchthumbs” on my computer. The only thing different though, was that my old .GIFs folder was completely gone. Erased from the memory.

''(narrator): Noooo! My memes!''

Every now and then, when I’m listening to music online or on iTunes, I hear it. The words, faint, almost completely lost in the beat of the music: “That’s what you get. That’s what you get.”

''What exactly do we get? Bleeding thumbs? Explain, story! Oh, wait, it’s over. I’m both relieved and annoyed.''



END RIFF

Well, this was...meh. It's short, and it's not wrist-slittingly terrible, but it's not very good either. Nothing is explained at all. Why is the file there? Don't know. Why is it back? Don't know. Why does it screw up his computer? Don't know. Why was he hearing "That's what you get" in his music? Don't know. What does the phrase "That's what you get" even mean in context? Don't know. Honestly, this little story is just a tiny mystery that means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

So, what do you guys think? Is the story good? Is the Riff good? Do you wish I would brush my thumbs until they bleed? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.