On Thursday, unbidden, shadows start spreading: pooling in shallow depressions, dragging along reluctantly, getting fat and lazy in the light of noon. In rural areas, some get pulled into streams and simply disappear.

It’s Kori and her thinspiration community who first notice that they’re losing weight, and their shadows are gaining. The news spreads quickly. The smarter people hide in their basements and put blackout curtains on the windows. They can hear their shadows growling, but it’s soon drowned out by the poor people outside: they’re the ones on the ground now, shrieking, helpless, stretched like taffy by the setting sun.