Dr. W. A. Frost's Ides of Revolution

 He came into the gym a skinny little twig, quite literally skin and bones. Never really able to gain any weight, Gordon was known around the neighborhood as the ghost: deathly pale and skeletal. For the past 5 years since he graduated from medical school, he tried strategy after strategy to try and bulk up. From high carb and high protein diets to vegan plans to just eating fast food for an entire month, nothing seemed to work for him. Thus, this new gym membership was yet another rung on his ladder, another step on trying to get swole.  The gym had been a staple of the neighborhood for decades, becoming a well established conveyor belt of successful athletes. The place supplied wrestlers, boxers, bodybuilders of all types to the industry: always winners, always huge. Thus, in the hopes of becoming their next success story, Gordon put pen to paper on the membership form, and struggling to carry his limp gym bag over his shoulder, he drudged toward the locker room. While the i...

It was hot, sweltering actually: the hottest summer on record. All Jared wanted to do was get home and decompress after the bullshit day he had at the store. Twelve Karens all complaining about the heat inside the store, as if there was anything he could do about it. But, instead of doing what he desperately wished he could do (violent explicatives removed), all day long he had to bite his tongue and just “empathize” with the valued customers. For gods sake, Deborah Wyatt had come in three times and complained to managers about “why the a/c wasn’t working” and had to be removed by the police. The heat does crazy things to people, particularly the ones who you’d least expect to turn into some monster. Thankfully before he could turn into one himself, Jared punched in that time card and bolted; wishing the best of luck to his sour faced colleagues. Walking down State Street, he huffed at the humid air drowning his lungs. Thank god he’d swiped a Dove deodorant from the hygiene aisle befor...

Tyler walked into the university gym for the very first time. The hot, heavy air hung low in the brick cavern, with his school’s athletes training hard in every corner. All of them big, thick, sweaty, and smelly- one of the two main reasons he’d avoided the gym for his first semester, the other being the intense insecurity he felt being surrounded by guys who at the bare minimum knew what they were doing. All these men seemed to effortlessly use these machines, these strange different weights like the mysterious kettlebell… And there he would be, somehow fucking up the pec fly machine. As he flashed his student id against the scanner, the loud ping of the system logging his entrance was enough to have a few of the patrons heads turn in his direction, all of which smiling and chuckling to themselves. He quietly returned his id to his wallet and tried to make an a-line to the locker room, only to be intercepted by a loud brutish voice calling him out. Tyler shut his eyes and sighed, grea...

  So imagine my surprise walking into the gym one day, thinking I’d get in a mundane treadmill workout and go home winded and 300 calories less, and see AJ teaching powerlifting in the freeweights section. Not wasting a single solitary moment, I rushed to the locker room, tossed my street clothes into the vacant locker, and burst out of the doorway to take my perch in the corner stairmaster machine. For the next thirty minutes, I climbed the tedious, neverending stairs and stared at an Adonis in the flesh. He was a lot taller than I’d expected. The pictures of course gave a subtle glimpse into his true stature, but my expectations were blown seeing this 6'5 giant Russian Deadlift in front of me. With every strain and lift, the bulging of his veins exuded a sense of vanity and pride that did not go unnoticed by the comparatively amateur gymgoers observing. His grey tank top clung to his body like a second skin, drenched in a thick monsoon of sweat and testosterone. A grey pair of bo...

 24th of May *Knock* *Knock* *Knock* Christian and Stephen stirred awake in their beds. A quick look at the alarm clock showed 2 AM; who in the actual fuck would be knocking on the front door at this time of night? The two brothers stared at eachother in the dark room, hoping that the visitor would just go away. However, it was the click of the lock and the heavy swing of the front door that worried the two. The sound of his mother and father gasping was the final noise before the house fell silent once more. “Christian…” The 18 year old twin voice shook in anxiety, hoping his older brother would relieve whatever terror he had. It had always been that way with the two: Stephen would wake from some night terrors and Christian would always be there to snap him out of the stupor. This night, though, Christian sat silently under his covers- he had no idea what was happening. Before he could even begin to speculate, there was a gentle knock on their door. “Boys?” The sweet voice of thei...