SKIN (2024)
This is a short horror story.
Word count: 1,780
Warning: body horror, body & social insecurities (pls let me know if I missed any triggers that I should add!)
Scene 1: Morning Bathroom
A 14-year-old girl is staring at the mirror in her bathroom. Her skin looks wrinkly, and her eyes look horribly drowsy as if she never had slept in her entire life. The eyelids drooped over her eyes and the corners of her mouth also showed signs of saggy skin.
The girl reached towards her face and pressed at her cheek, moving the skin around and seeing how wrinkles increased on one side and decreased on the other. Her nails also looked brittle and needed care.
The teenager sighed deeply as she dropped her arm to her side, swinging lightly.
“This skin needs regular care, I need to maintain it every morning,” thought the girl as she reached for her skincare lotions and creams. It was a routine for her; the moment she wakes up and takes a sip of water, the next thing she does after getting up from bed is not brushing her teeth or her hair, or changing her clothes, but to take care of her skin first and foremost.
This morning though she changed her clothes first before taking care of her skin, an act she regretted later and had to pull her shirt and long skirt up to better reach her skin. Looks like that day was not her day. She even forgot to put on her contact lenses.
After thoroughly cleaning, washing and applying lotions on her skin, she gave a good smack on her now puffy cheek. Her cheeks and lips looked more plum and had a rosy tint, her eyes were open and clear like glass, the skin in her body was firmer and had a nice healthy glow. The girl smiled at herself in the mirror, tilting her face to the side while her palms were still pressed on her cheeks, spreading the fingers.
“Hmm, who knew that taking care of your appearance can be this rewarding? To get along with people you have to look appealing and not... gross...” the teenager said out loud first in girlish cheer but then her voice trailed into sadness. Her skin was special and required a lot of care than other people, and the thought of being avoided and even bullied because of her wrinkly skin made her a tad depressed.
Then she shook her head by literally shaking it from side to side followed by slapping her cheeks several times. She psyched herself up and stomped her feet, it was her own ritual to motivate herself in the mornings. Now she took care of her nails, she already brushed her hair and teeth, and then she’d have her breakfast.
Scene 2: School
The girl was sitting at her desk and propping her head with her hand, daydreaming and mentally preparing for the class. Some of her classmates approached her and greeted her, having a light chat with smiles. The girl enjoyed this kind of interaction, she wasn’t ready for more meaningful relationships at the moment but soon she was thinking of going out more and experiencing life more bravely. She won’t let her skin stop her from living a life like a proper human being, to be happy.
As the group of her classmates left for their desks, one of the friends stayed and leaned on the girl’s desk, pressing her cheek on her folder armed that she placed on the desk, looking at her with a wide and pleasant smile.
“Your eyes look different today, Kaleah,” she then made a small gesture by extending her index finger from under her chin, pointing at the girl. Kaleah, the girl, winced at the remark and made a sharp inhale. She blinked several times and then made an apologetic expression, scratching her cheek sheepishly. Her friend grinned even more at the reaction and then waved at her reassuringly, she won’t tell anyone about it.
“I... I seem to forget... to wear my lenses...” the embarrassed girl tried to explain, to which her classmate laughed but immediately suppressed it with her palm.
“Do you mean to tell me that you usually wear coloured contact lenses? Oh my GOD, Leah! You’re a rebel!” now her friend almost guffawed but managed to cackle instead to have mercy on her friend. Kaleah began blushing and shook her classmate’s shoulder to take this more seriously and stop making a scene.
“Mikala! Please... c-cut it out...” the girl pleaded with a hushed voice. She’s clearly not used to attracting attention, be it good or bad.
“Okay, okay!” Mikala, her classmate and friend, wiped her tear from the corner of her eye while waving at her friend, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry... I just couldn’t help but to think that you’re a sleeper, a shy rebel... ha-ha!” then she cleared her throat and added with more neutral tone, to show care towards her friend, “but it’s kinda strange how simple contact lenses can affect your eye colours, yours are usually dark brown but now they look as clear as ocean water! Who knew such small things could make such a big difference,” now Mikala was pondering in a pose of a thinking statue.
During the class, Kaleah tried to avoid direct eye contact and even read a book to the class by placing it directly in front of her nose. Some classmates giggled at her theatrics, but the teacher didn’t mind, which was a major relief to our poor girl.
When the class ended, Kaleah immediately went to the bathroom to check her eyes. How did she miss that in the morning? Maybe she was so focused on making sure her skin was looking good that she forgot about everything else on her body? Compared to her skin, everything else was so minor that she forgot to pay attention.
Kaleah sighed at her reflection in the girl’s bathroom. Her eyes did indeed look like a pair of glasses of water. It won’t be surprising if teachers asked questions but so far no one but her friend Mikala noticed.
The girl straightened her back and gathered her resolve; she will make sure to behave normally and slyly avoid direct eye contact. It shouldn’t be hard since she knew that she was known for her shy character. It should go well.
But then one thought crossed her mind:
“I should have told her that I put on the wrong contact lenses instead”
As soon as she realised that fact, she facepalmed and her face winced in frustration and pain. Now Mikala knows her real eye colour...
But at least now she had a good excuse for her extraordinary eye colour.
Scene 3: Afternoon Homecoming
Finally reaching home, Kaleah sighed deeply with great relief.
No more presenting herself to people so she could live a normal life, no more light make-up to make her skin look livelier, and no more stress. But despite all that, she liked how she looked, and she liked chatting with people, just in moderation.
“Finally... Home, sweet home, I can shed my skin off again,” her face bore an odd expression, she was happy, but that joy seemed unnatural to a human mind. Her eyes glowed with extraordinary bliss and her coy smile curled up with more vigour.
Kaleah turned her front door lights on, they were old and dimmed but it was enough for her to see. In fact, she didn’t need much light, but she did it for practice.
She slowly moved towards her bathroom, as if consciously moving her legs one by one and swaying her upper body from side to side in a mesmerizing way. Once she reached her bathroom, Kaleah casually gazed at her myriad of skincare items.
Lotions were potions, powders were flours, creams and moisturizers were ointments, and everything smelled nice and enchanting.
Kaleah outstretched her left arm and admired it, she eyed her upper arm, then the nook of her elbow, then the wrist and finally the fingertips. She wiggled her fingers just slightly to get a better feel of it.
Then the skin on her fingertips started to peel off and curled like banana peels, carefully as if cut by a first-class chef. Her skin peeled to her elbows, and they flapped down like hem. The same happened to her legs, stopping by her knees.
The skin around her chest also started to peel off, dividing from the middle and opening like a jumper with a zipper, from top down. The peeling skin stopped by her hips and hung down like a skirt. The same thing happened on her face, the incision was in the middle of her face and the skin peeled down to her collarbone and now it looked like a fancy flesh collar.
Beneath all that skin was another skin that was a colour of dark night with blue hues. Her nails... sorry, you can’t even call them nails; her dangerously red and crooked claws were long and sharp.
And “Kaleah’s” shedding didn’t just stop there. Her eyes were also peeling as if her eyeballs had several layers and they opened one by one like eyelids. Beneath the third layer were hiding blood-red eyes with blue-like clear water irises, and two pupils were in the shape of four-pointed stars.
As her transformation finished, she let out a satisfied sigh, thus revealing her sharp teeth, toxic blue tongue and the insides of her mouth looked like fuchsia.
“It’s been almost two months, and no one suspected me even a tiny bit, which is a relief,” the creature mulled aloud while toying with her snack, a dead rat. The rat wasn’t just found dead randomly, “Kaleah” hunted it and dried it to eat as a snack. She wasn’t fussy about food, but she loved flesh, especially dried and seasoned.
After examining her snack and playfully twirling it around her claws, she popped the dead animal into her toothy mouth. For a second it looked like she grew an extra row of teeth. “Kaleah” took her time to savour her snack with a satisfying hum.
“One day,” she turned her upper body to face the poster that hung next to the bed, her eyes glowed with intent, “I will find my own Lilo,” and then she clawed at the wall, next to the face of a girl in the poster, slowly drawing down with creaky noise.
As soon as the claws reached the edge of the bed, the creature spun to face the front door, directly at you, reader, and then she sat on her bed without the help of her arms.
“Kaleah” was casually looking towards your way, reader, hugging her knee with her one arm, eyes glowing red like warning lights.
Could you be what she is seeking?
