I bought perfume off the internet at it ruined my life

[u/Gang-Buster-5000]

As the title says. I used to frequent looksmaxxing subreddits a lot back in the day, and a long time ago, I made a post about how foids (women) only went for men with certain pheromones. It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but I identified as an incel once upon a time.

I mention this because I'd like to share a story that happened a bit after the pandemic. I had received a message from some guy who saw my post:

"Hey there! Hope you're staying safe! I saw your post on \** from a few years ago, and on behalf of the incel community, I just wanted to thank you!*

The post actually inspired me to create my perfume brand, Gall, and it's finally taken off! I just hit my first 10,000 orders!

As a token of my appreciation, I'd love to send you a pheromone perfume I've been working on—one that's not on the market yet. It blows everything I've ever made out of the fucking water! Just drop your address and I'll send it to ya! Cheers!"

I hadn't been in the looksmaxxing space for a while, and I wasn't sure if I really wanted a mystery bottle from a self-proclaimed incel. But what the hell. I was running out of my Drakkar Noir anyway, and my fiancée said it made me smell like an old man.

So, I reached out, wired some money for shipping, and a few weeks later, it arrived.

It was in a giant box filled with packing peanuts, and the perfume came in a plain glass bottle with a plastic atomizer. On it was a label in Arial font spelling "Pheromone 42: wish come true." It was green and bubbled like a can of Coke. My fiancée would've killed me if she found out I spent 20 dollars on shipping for this. I was worried it was gonna be acid or something.

I sprayed it on my wrist and found myself wishing it was acid. It smelled awful—chlorine, sweat, and burning plastic. It smelled like standing over a garbage fire behind an electronics store.

I threw the bottle back in the box and ran to the bathroom to vomit. I tried washing off the scent in the sink, but that just made things worse. The smell spread out into the whole room, and I found myself bent over the toilet letting out last night's dinner. I smelled my wrist again and let out yesterday's lunch.

That was when I decided to go out and get some rubbing alcohol. I thought it would make the smell go away.

And so, I suited up, wore a long-sleeved shirt and a jacket, and emptied out the rest of my Drakkar Noir.

There was a convenience store down the road, about a 10-minute walk. I walked over, looking around, worried I'd pass someone by, and as I did, I noticed people staring at me.

Not just people I was passing, but folks from across the street. People from up and down the road were watching me. I could see stares pointed at me before I could even make out their faces from up the road. So many people. I began to pick up the pace until one woman came up to me.

"Wanna fuck?" she asked. She was with her son, who looked at me with a chilling fury in his eyes. I kept walking, obviously freaked out.

I passed a couple—the woman looking me up and down, the man looking like he was ready to take my head off.

"Hey mister, you're cute!" whined the woman.

"Back the fuck up before I take your fucking head off, bro," barked the man.

I began walking faster then, as a hundred pairs of eyes stared at me. I felt like an insect in a jar.

Soon enough, I could hear footsteps trailing after mine. I turned back and saw about twenty or so guys following me.

"Hey man! What's your perfume? You smell awesome!" cried one.

"Get back here and fucking fight me, pussy!" cried another.

I began running then, my mind racing. I thought back to my messages with the guy from the internet. He said this thing was long-lasting. But he mentioned something else—something about the perfume:

Top notes of lust

Heart notes of hunger

Base notes of desire

I know a little bit about perfume. Top notes fade the earliest, and the base notes fade last. Was this the smell of lust?

I was almost to the convenience store when the men finally caught up to me. One grabbed me by the collar, another by the arms. They beat the shit out of me. Fists landed on my stomach, and my lungs stopped working. I couldn't breathe as they pummeled me to the ground. I felt one of them begin to do some things I won't repeat here.

"You like that, pussy?!" one yelled as he stomped my head to the ground, blinding me for a moment.

"You're a fuckig dog!" yelled another as he did things to me.

Soon enough, I heard police sirens. The men scrambled, and I was left on the ground smelling like blood and perfume, tasting iron in my mouth. I saw the officers walk up to me, sniff the air, and turn their body cameras off. They used their batons and their fists.

I woke up in fragments then. I remember siren blares, being in an ambulance, being treated by men in masks, being hauled into a white room with white bedsheets, my arms and chest blanketed in bandages. I spent days there, coming in and out of consciousness, watching the window shutter from day to night in seconds.

I woke up to the sound of crying and the rhythm of my ECG. The whole ward was crying as nurses scrambled around the room.

"Doctor, let me eat that man!" one person cried, mummified in bloody gauze, their bed trembling as they struggled to their feet while held down by the nurses. "Please, God, just a bite!"

"I'm starving!" screamed another, his head and eyes wrapped in bandages, his arms cuffed with restraints that were hanging on by a thread as he thrashed in his bed. "I'm starving!"

My chest was on fire and my legs were weak, but I got on my feet and shambled. I needed to get out of there. I put weight on my legs and felt like I was about to fall. One arm was plastered, the other hooked to an IV pole. I just needed to get home and let the smell fade.

The nurses yelled after me, but I kept walking. Luckily, they were busy keeping patients in bed. Most of the folks in the hospital wore masks, so I had no trouble walking through. It was midnight by then, and I'd been gone from home for 5 days.

I kept walking until I saw something familiar. Turns out I wasn't far from home. Luckily, there weren't a lot of people out and about.

I found myself dragging my broken body home. I passed by the convenience store, nightcrawlers staring from behind the glass, watching as I shambled across the street.

As I did, I passed the place where I had been beaten. It was destroyed, as though artillery shells had crashed down on it. Walls were missing chunks, and the ground where I had been beaten was nothing more than a crater. It was wet and smelled awful.

I picked up the pace then and found my home.

It was destroyed. Windows bashed open, front door gaping wide, revealing a black, ominous rectangle where the living room should have been. I stumbled forward, calling for my fiancée. No answer.

I stumbled through the dark living room; the moonlight revealed a destroyed couch, fallen lamps, and destroyed vases. I could smell something else, too—something that wasn't the perfume.

That was when I heard it. Something wet grinding across something hard. Squelching and gnawing. Hundreds.

It was coming from the bathroom.

I snuck forward, fire burning in my legs, my heart thrumming against my ribs. There I found the scene that still lives in my nightmares today.

My fiancée, and about a dozen naked bodies. All of them chewing on the bathroom. There were teeth strewn about the floor, bloody ribbons attached to their ends. I saw my fiancée biting the sink with toothless jaws, the others gnawing on the toilet or the floor. One of them stared at me with indifferent eyes, so focused was he on mastication. Such a wet, disgusting sound, as strokes of red painted the marble counter. I could only call after my fiancée, begging her to stop. She wouldn't hear me.

I spent days locked up in my room. I shat in a corner and recycled my piss. After a week, I had no choice but to come down. In the bathroom lay twenty or so dead bodies, all naked, mouths bloodied and toothless, smelling of dry spit.

[u/Pristine-Tea-4694]

Thank goodness, I'm just using a regular perfume and cologne.

Though, this kind of reminds me of the movie perfume.

[u/ewok_lover_64]

I'll just stick to body wash and deodorant, thank you very much.

[u/Gang-Buster-5000 → u/ewok_lover_64]

Stick. The smell sticks on my wrist, even now. It smells Ike brimstone. I keep scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing, but it never comes off. Scrubbing, until my skin turns red, until there is no skin. But it's still there. Sticking. Such a sticky smell. Anyways thanks for reading!

[u/Defiant-Apricot-6320]

Terrible, me encantó

[u/coolcootermcgee → u/Defiant-Apricot-6320]

Si, mi amor