The Human Toenail

I wasn’t planning to leave anything that day.

I wasn’t in the mood to ruin anyone’s afternoon. But sometimes the past calls your bluff, and sometimes it dares you to answer back with a typewriter and a grudge.

So I did.

I picked the book carefully. Breaking Dawn. The kind of love story that glorifies obsession, sparkling manipulation, and being old enough to vote while dating high schoolers. It felt right.

I slipped the letter between the pages, tucked in an envelope that simply said:

“To the Human Toenail.”

I hope someone finds it. I hope someone reads it in the silence of a thrift store aisle and feels that slow-burn what the hell is this crawling up their spine.

Maybe they’ll laugh. Maybe they’ll cry. Maybe they’ll put the book back and walk away with questions.

But I know this:
They’ll remember it.

I wrote it down so I could leave it behind
-Elsie Thorne