12. Nail Biter

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Oliver had the most overwhelming urge to bite off his fingernails. Not to eat them, just bite and spit. He has never done that before. He would clip them once in a while, often letting them get a bit too long before getting around to them. He saw other people bite their fingernails and he did not get it and never felt like doing that to his own fingers.

And now he wanted to do that more than anything else in the world. He worked on one fingernail, delivering lots of small bites to detach it. He spat it out and carried on to the next finger. Biting off one fingernail has only made him want to do it more. At first he was still watching the unfolding events in the latest episode of House, but by the third finger he was completely consumed by the biting and the rest of the world ceased to exist.

Oliver started biting the rough bits of flesh outlining the space where the fingernails used to be. He drew blood in a couple of places and moved on. The purpose was not to draw blood, but to remove fingernail and dead flesh. There was a purpose. He did not know where it came from and why he was so willing to oblige, but there was no room in his mind to think about any of that.  A voice in his head kept ordering to keep on biting. Bite! Bite! Bite!

Oliver finished biting his right hand and moved to the left, methodically working on one finger at a time. Bite and spit. Bite and spit.

He glanced at the wet nail clippings on the floor as he carried on biting. Soon he was finished with the left hand, drawing some blood when he took care of his pinky.

Oliver placed both hands in front of his eyes with fingers stretched out and studied his fingernails. They were not even. While he bit off most of the fingernail from most of the fingers, some still had more leftovers than others. Oliver worked on these fingers to even it out. When he looked again he was more satisfied.

Oliver brought his right thumb into his mouth a dug a premolar tooth between the fingernail and the finger. He had to make sawing movements with his lower jaw to dig the tooth deeper. He then bit down and peeled off a thin crescent of nail off his finger and spat it out. That hurt a bit, but followed immediately by a pleasant buzz.

From the corner of his eyes Oliver could see that adverts were playing on TV. He was not sure if it was a break in the middle of the House episode or if another show already started and he did not care. He was digging a tooth into the next finger. Then another.

Then he reached the point where he really did run out of fingernails.

Except for his toes…