[Editor’s Note: Halloween is a time for horrors… but the most horrifying experiences are often those that occur in every day life. Like for example, the horror of dentistry. Get ready to shake in terror upon reading this true life tale of dental-related horror in an anthology we like to call… THE TELL TALE TOOTH. Enjoy. (Insert cackling laughter here.)]
I could just make out the rain through the frosted windows. I shivered. The darkened glass provided a modicum of privacy while still allowing for the exhilaration of nearly being on display for the public, as if every stranger could choose to watch what was really happening—if only they looked a little closer.
On this side of the glass, the ritual unfolded just as it had since I was 12. Spiders, heights, and tight spaces all made me nervous, but I feared nothing more than what was about to transpire.
My chair lurched and squealed slightly as it reclined. I clenched, trying to maintain my dignity as the operator quietly settled into a chair just behind my head.
She leaned into my field of vision. Her mouth was covered in a green mask like we were strangers at a ball at the beginning of a passionate affair. Or Silence of the Lambs. Her gloves snapped as she pulled them on. She adjusted her light. Then she invaded my mouth. Her eyes hinted at a hidden smile—more menacing than friendly.
There are a dozen, maybe more, identical agents roving through the building—all young women, all doing the dirty work for the old man at the center of this nightmare.
She probed my gums and I tasted blood.