THE DEAD BIT by Kay Cuthbertson

The Anaglypta curled at the corner like a dead insect. I chewed a hangnail at the side of my thumb. “Don’t bite your nails,” Mam barked.

I started, marvelling at Mam’s ability to see round corners as she scrubbed with the sugar soap. The hangnail persisted, throbbing with tenderness. I wanted to bite out the pain.

So I started with the dead bit. Slim strips at first, then large swathes of skin, flaked onto my knees with a satisfying kkkkch. Soon I was ripping off thick sheets at a time, clawing at the stubborn parts, like behind ears and between toes.

“What in the blazes happened here?” Mam cried.

There I sagged, in a puddle of smelly wallpaper, crying at my bleeding fingers.

Kay Cuthbertson is a new Scottish writer based in Edinburgh whose work was commended by the Dead Cat Poetry Prize in December 2023. She writes in a range of fiction types, primarily short stories and prose poetry, along with writing her debut novel, but microfiction is an exciting new venture.

Follow the author on X/Twitter.

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