You Shouldn’t Have Clicked That Link
You’re halfway through an article you’ve read before — Queer Temporality and the Limits of Linear Progression — sipping from a cooling mug of ginger tea, legs curled on your secondhand armchair, laptop warm across your thighs. The soft hum of your air purifier fills the studio, the only sound besides the clack of your fingers and the slow turning of your page.
It’s Saturday. You’re 34. No plans tonight. You’re used to it. You like being alone. Quiet. Smart.
You’d describe yourself as “thoughtful.” Reserved. Maybe a little uptight, if you’re being honest. You have a library of Criterion Blu-rays and alphabetized spice jars. You like writing in fountain pen. You keep your nails trimmed and buffed. Your Grindr profile is a headless torso pic, but your bio lists favorite plays. You haven’t been on a real date in two years.
So when a half-ironic link appears in a random Reddit comment — titled only "Be Him." — you hover over it for a moment.
It’s dumb. It’s probably a video of some roided-out Jersey Shore reject chugging preworkout and farting on his own abs. You almost roll your eyes.
But something makes you click.
“Be Him.”
The tab opens, black screen. One second. Two.
Then a flash — white, and hot — like your screen just exhaled on you.
You blink. Your forehead feels clammy. The page is gone.
Your laptop buzzes faintly beneath your fingers.
Weird.
You minimize everything, lean back. Try to shake it off.
But your shirt is sticking to your back.
You glance down. Frown.
You always keep your apartment cool. You don’t sweat — not like this. But your armpits feel damp. Your collar is damp. You lift an arm, cautiously, and that’s when you smell it.
At first, it’s faint — but thick. Rank. Like old gym clothes. Sharp, sour, masculine. Animal.
You blink again. Lift your other arm.
It’s worse.
The fuck?
You stumble into the bathroom, fingers already unbuttoning your shirt. You stare into the mirror. It’s you — but not. Your cheeks look red. Your hair — your careful, soft-styled hair — looks wet. Greasy at the roots. You push it back and your fingertips come away slick.
You lean in.
Your armpits are no longer smooth. They should be. You shave daily. But now… now there’s growth. Dark. Wiry. Dense. The kind of hair that mats when you sweat. The kind that traps scent.
You raise your arm again and gag.
That’s your stink. Not a stranger’s. Yours.
You stare. Something’s wrong.
You hold onto the sink and take a breath, but your body’s starting to feel heavy. Not just tired — weighted. Your feet ache. Your thighs throb, like you’ve been squatting. You hear a faint pop in your lower back and wince.
You didn’t work out.
And then… a thought enters your head.
It’s not your voice.
“Bro, I needa get my pump in. I fuckin’ reek, bruh.”
The voice is thick. Lazy. Arrogant. There’s something wet about it. Like someone chewing a protein bar while talking through his nose. It sloshes behind your eyes like a slow, stupid wave.
“Where’s my Axe, man? Smell like fuckin’ alpha in here…”
You reel back. That wasn’t yours. You’ve never used Axe. You despise it. But your body tenses — excited. Your stomach gurgles. Your cock gives a twitch.
You exhale shakily. You want to cry. Call someone. Clean yourself.
You turn back toward your bedroom.
But it’s not your bedroom.
Or, it is — but it isn’t.
Your neatly made bed is gone. In its place: a mattress on the floor, sheetless. There’s a stain on one corner. A pile of black tank tops on the floor. The air smells of sweat, jizz, and fabric softener — like a frat house trying to mask the scent of sex.
Your framed portrait of James Baldwin?
Replaced by a poster of a woman in a red string bikini, licking whipped cream off her fingers.
You want to look away. You try to.
But instead, your cock gets hard.
Your lips part. A drop of saliva slips down your chin. You whisper, automatically:
“Damn, I wanna bury my face in those tits.”
You slap your own face.
No. No. You’ve never thought like that. Never. That’s not how you look at women. That’s not you.
But the thought echoes. Louder.
“Tits. Tits. Tits. Bet her pussy’s tight as fuck, bro. Get in there, knock her up, make her mine.”
You shake your head furiously, pacing. The stink of your armpits follows you like a stormcloud. You’re sweating more now. Your shirt clings to your thickening torso. You catch your reflection in the black TV screen. Your neck looks thicker. Your traps — they’re there. You don’t have traps.
You press a hand to your chest.
It’s not soft anymore.
There’s a shelf forming. Hard. Fleshy. You dig your fingers into it.
Muscle.
Real, throbbing, hot muscle.
And then your thoughts start to slow down. You try to think — clearly, academically — but it’s like your brain is melting. Sentences break. Words vanish.
You want to scream. But all that comes out is:
“Uhhhhhhnn, fuckkkk. I’m gettin’ swole…”
Your own voice. Lower. Stupider.
You grab your cock through your pants, trying to stop it. But it’s hard. Rock-hard. Leaking through your cheap gray briefs — which aren’t even yours. You fell asleep in a Calvin Klein jockstrap.
These boxers are unfamiliar. Cheap. Athletic. They stink. So do you.
And you love it.
The scent. The filth. The dumbness.
The pressure in your balls grows hot. You feel it churn — like something inside is bubbling. Mutating. Swapping out your cultured, gentle, fussy gayness and replacing it with sperm. With stink. With straight.
You grunt.
Your feet crack inside your slippers — toes spreading, heels thickening. Your toenails yellowing just slightly. Your soles already a little rougher. Dirtier. Your thighs are so thick now, they brush when you walk.
And in the mirror, you see it. Your face.
Your jaw is heavier. Brow thicker. Your nose, broader. Lips plumper — parted, drooling, panting.
There’s a chain around your neck. Thick gold. You don’t know where it came from.
But you like how it feels.
You flex in the mirror.
“Yooo,” you murmur, chuckling. “I’m fuckin’ JACKED, bro.”
You stare at your reflection.
And deep down, you know:
You’re not you anymore.
But you’re only at the beginning.
You sit hunched on the edge of the ruined mattress, sweat-slick and shivering.
You try to remember your name. Your real name.
But all that comes to mind is a growl — low and heavy, like your throat’s full of gravel. You wheeze, spitting on the floor. The sound is vile. The spit’s thick, like syrup, clinging to your lips. You wipe it with the back of your hand. Your knuckles are hairy. Calloused. Veiny. Like a factory worker. Like a bouncer. Like someone who never read a book.
The laptop flickers on across the room. But it’s no longer yours.
The background image is a pair of tits. Huge, fake, orange. A watermark reads "BustedBimbosLive.xxx"
Your own dick pulses at the sight. A throb. You can feel it—deep, behind your balls. Like it’s building something inside you. Something hot. Something that doesn’t care about love. Or connection. Or men.
Only holes.
Only pussy.
You gag, doubling over. You can feel the virus crawling now, slow and sticky, coiling through your spine and up into your brain. Your thoughts are molasses. Muffled. Foreign.
You try to think about your thesis. Your students. Your queer theory class. What even was it?
Your lips part dumbly.
“Uhh… somethin’... somethin’ ‘bout time bein’ gay, or whatever… fuck it…”
You slap yourself.
No. No. No.
But your hand just lingers, rough fingers cupping your own square, stupid jaw. Admiring it.
A shudder rips through your biceps. A twitch. Then another. They’re… swelling. You grab your upper arm as the fibers knot tighter beneath the skin. Veins rise, pressing outward like snakes under tight canvas. A single, thick pop echoes through your shoulder.
“Fuckk bro. Look at that meat…”
You say it out loud. You mean it. You love it.
You flex in the cracked mirror. Your shoulder bulges grotesquely. There’s a fresh tan line slicing through your upper arm. You don’t tan. You’ve never tanned in your life. You’re ghost-pale. You wear SPF 100 and carry a parasol in July.
But now…
Your skin is going orange.
You stagger back, watching as pigment pools unnaturally beneath the surface — like it’s being injected. It spreads in blotches. First your chest. Then your forearms. Your thighs. It glows — artificial, sickly, sticky — a shade too dark, a shade too fake.
You sniff your arm.
It reeks.
Coconut. Sweat. Cheap cologne.
Guido.
You moan, and it’s wrong. It’s not the sound of distress anymore — it’s need. Your cock slaps against your thigh, thick and pulsing, leaving a dark stain on your boxer-briefs.
And then your voice breaks.
“Yo… I’m fuckin’—ah—shit… I’m gettin’ so tan, bro… so swole…”
It’s happening. The accent. That thick, slurred, nasal grunt. Every vowel sounds lazier. Every word, like it’s been dropped on its head.
You punch the wall.
Your knuckles split. You laugh.
“Fuckin’ wall’s gay.”
The moment it leaves your mouth, you freeze.
You try to apologize — to yourself, to no one — but the words won’t come. Instead, all you hear in your head is a string of slurs. Cruel, thoughtless, flat-out disgusting ones. You try to reach for guilt, shame — but your mind just shrugs.
“Ain’t my fault if faggots wanna act like girls. That shit’s gross, bro.”
“Men fuck pussy. That’s just real, yo.”
You grab your temples, but it doesn’t stop.
You blink—and your room is gone.
You’re in a club now. A cheap one. Somewhere deep in Jersey. The air stinks of vodka, vape juice, and artificial strawberry. Bass throbs. Lights flicker. Your tank top clings to your oily chest. You’re not sure how you got here — but your feet are sticky against the tile, and your cock is aching.
You turn.
And see her.
God. She looks fake as hell. Bleached extensions. Cake makeup. A tan deeper than your own, sprayed on in layers. Her lips are massive, glossy, parted in a pout. She’s chewing gum like she’s solving a math problem with her jaw. Her thong is peeking above her mini-skirt. She stinks of hair spray and peach vape.
And she’s fucking perfect.
You moan. Openly. Like an animal.
She notices. She turns, blows a bubble, and smirks.
“You lookin’ at me, baby?”
Her voice is high-pitched, nasal, cloying.
Your cock twitches.
You grab it through your sweatpants, no shame. None left. “Damn right I am, bitch.”
“You wanna buy me a shot?”
You don’t even answer. You grab her waist, haul her in, and grope her ass like it’s yours. She squeals — not protesting. Loving it.
“Fuck yeah,” you growl into her ear. “Bet your pussy tight as fuck, huh?”
She giggles, presses her tits to your chest.
And you drool.
Openly.
A long thread slides from your lips down your chin. You don’t wipe it.
You can’t.
The last thought of who you were — books, men, decency — vanishes in a puff of tangerine-scented body spray and bubblegum lip gloss.
You lean in close.
“Name’s Frankie,” you grunt. “Frankie DePalma. I fuck bitches and crush weights, feel me?”
She moans.
And you know—
There’s no going back.
You wake up sore.
Your throat’s raw. Your abs ache like you’ve been screaming and humping all night. The sheets beneath you are crusted, the air rank with the warm, sour scent of sex, Axe, sweat, and flatulence. There’s no denying it anymore.
You stink.
You’re shirtless. Oily. Tanned a hideous caramel-orange, your pecs rising and falling as you wheeze out a shallow grunt and scratch your thick, hairy chest. A line of drool crusts your chin, and somewhere beneath your bloated cock and bulging thighs is your phone—buzzing.
You pick it up.
It’s your old friend. Alec. Gay, sweet, smart. He must’ve seen something. Heard something.
Incoming FaceTime: Alec 🧠🌈
Your gut rumbles. You’re shirtless. You don’t care. You answer.
The moment your stupid, smirking face fills the screen, his jaw drops.
“Frank—?” he stammers. “Is that you? Oh my God… what the fuck happened to you?”
You chuckle. Loud. Loose. You wipe your nose on your wrist and rip a fart without hesitation, lifting one meaty cheek.
“Hah! Damn, bro! That one marinated.”
Alec recoils.
You flex one massive, tattooed arm. A crude tribal swirl runs over your bicep now. You don’t remember getting it. It’s just there.
You smirk. "Yo, whassup, bro? You lookin’ at me like I did somethin’ wrong."
“Dude. What happened to you? You were— I mean—your books, your work, you were applying for that—"
“Yo, shut the fuck up with that nerd shit.” You lean in, nostrils flaring, chest puffed out like a pit bull. “I don’t fuckin’ read, bro. I lift and I fuck, aight?”
Your voice is slurred. That Jersey slush. Consonants dissolve into nasal vowels. It sounds nothing like the crisp, clipped tones you used to teach with.
Alec blinks. You see it. Pity.
You snarl.
“You look like a little queer still, bro. You still takin’ dick up the ass, huh?”
His face falls. "Frankie… you’re gay, remember?"
That name. Frankie. You grunt. Deep. Instinctive. Then, with a low grin—
“Nah, bro. That was a fuckin’ phase. I like pussy now. Fucked three bimbos this weekend. Didn’t even jerk it, bro. Just raw dogged ‘em till my nuts were empty. You feel me?”
You scratch those nuts for emphasis. The sound is audible. Wet.
“Fuckin’ balls’ve been full ever since. Ain’t busted since, like, 3 a.m. Fuckin’ hurts, bro. Can’t stop gettin’ hard.”
Alec closes the app.
You snort, spit thickly onto the floor. "Fag," you mutter, with no hesitation. Like the virus has hollowed out the part of your soul that used to love him.
You waddle into the bathroom.
Your reflection makes your cock twitch.
You’re bloated with muscle and bad decisions. Thick traps slope into your neck like meaty hills. Your skin’s unevenly tanned, dark in patches, peeling on your shoulders. Your jaw is obscene—angular, heavy, with a five o’clock shadow that smells like protein shake and pussy.
You flex. You kiss your own reflection. You fart.
“Fuck, yeah. Lookin’ jacked today.”
You dig your fingers beneath your pits and sniff. “Mmmm. Rank.”
You raise one arm. The hair’s dense, wiry, slick with dried sweat. You like it. You crave it. You stick your tongue in your pit and moan like it’s a pussy.
Somewhere in the back of your brain—something screams. Distant. Trapped. Faint.
But you drown it in fart and cum and arrogance.
That night, you hit the club again.
You're barely dressed. Tight Ed Hardy tee with the sleeves cut off. Gold chain bouncing between your pecs. Crotch a visible bulge. You reek. You like that.
You spot her.
Same one as last time? Maybe. Who fuckin’ cares.
She’s fake. She’s caked. She’s ready.
“Yo, bitch,” you slur. “You lookin’ to get wrecked tonight or what?”
She squeals. She loves it.
You don’t waste time. You drag her into the bathroom. Stall door slams. Your cock’s already out—thick, veiny, heavy with viral cum. She drops to her knees like muscle memory.
You grab her hair. Ram. Thrust. Groan.
“Fuckkk yeah, choke on that guido cock…”
You grunt like an animal. You smell your own pits, spit on her tits, slap her ass. The stall reeks of sex and beer and garlic breath.
You cum hard. A groan. A belch. A loud, unashamed fart.
“Daaaaamn, that’s fuckin’ relief, girl.”
You zip up. You don’t help her. You just flex in the mirror.
You don’t even ask her name.
At home, your laptop boots automatically.
You stare, mouth open, at the screen.
Your name is gone. So are your documents, your photos, your work.
Just one file folder remains. It's called:
“_BIMBO_HUNTER_FTP”
Inside: videos of you. Frankie. Flexing. Cumming. Shouting slurs. Screaming into women’s holes. Lecturing shirtless about how “fags ruined masculinity.” There's footage of you farting on your ex-boyfriend’s face, laughing.
You should be horrified.
But you reach for your cock.
And all you whisper, thick with Jersey sleaze, accent permanent now, intellect long dead:
“Fuckkk bro… I’m a fuckin’ KING.”
You bust again.
And you laugh.
Forever.













