Skeletons

Excerpt

There was no describing her. Her long, flaxen hair. The endless pools of hidden beauty where her eyes should be. A tinkling of bells when she laughed.

To say the least, I was envious. Still, her physical appearance held nothing towards her being, her aura. She held a certain charm that not one of us had. Charisma. Out of all of the faults to have, God gave her charisma. As if she was not given enough.

The allure that radiated from her body, out of her pores and all orifices of her body, was unimaginable. Heads always turned wherever she went. And her teeth would flash white, her eyes lighting up with the satisfaction of knowing she was loved for something as simple as her smile.

And she enjoyed the attention. Men dreamed of being with her while women dreamed of being her. She led the perfect life. She was perfect.

It was nothing out of the ordinary that when she enter my store, my gaze followed her. As per usual, so did all the other heads in the room. Her hair flowed past awe-struck faces, leaving a scent of lilac behind. Dimples and lips were pointed in my direction. Bright red lips. She had never looked at me before. Not like this. Her eyes gazed directly at me, a seemingly polite expression on her face.

But her eyes, how could it be so? Her eyes now looked dead. There was no brightness in the blue of her eye. A glaze fell over her vacant expression as she analyzed me. She would not stop looking. I felt exposed. As if under a microscope, she observed me. I could see her lips moving yet no sound could be heard. The beauty that I saw from afar was gone. Her hair was nothing more than a bundle of twigs, her laugh sounded like shattering glass. And the eyes, those haunting eyes. How could I stop her from looking into my soul, she was destroying it bit by bit. The longer I stared at her, the more I disappeared. Like she was drinking up my essence to fill her own.

Then she turned to bone. And her skin fell off her body like a suit. She picked up her foot and motioned towards it, letting more of her skin slid to the ground. Her skeleton was becoming more and more prominent. Soon enough, piles of soft flesh and fabric lay at my feet. I wanted to run away, but I couldn't. Thin fingers grasped my arm and chills ran down my spine. Couldn't she go to someone else? I obviously could not help her. She was too far gone. Her skeleton was exposed.

Slowly, she released my hand and I felt very cold. I was not this cold before. A window must have been opened. Turning away, she left her previous body at my feet. Eyes still followed her as she headed out the door. I felt relieved, but my body did not warm. Still, I laughed. How silly was I to think like that? I laughed. She was never any threat to me. I started to chuckle and it came out like a flood. How completely barbaric were my thoughts? My sides started to hurt at my previous silliness. I clutched a hand to my side and my hand travelled further than it should have. I looked down and saw a cage of bones looming towards one another. My hand came into view and I saw ligaments moving together. Bones. I saw bones. The wretched, old lady had cursed me. All eyes were on me as I stared at my arms in terror. Quickly, I dashed to the full-length mirror in the back.

I put my hands in front of my face, but I heard a terrible sound, like nails against a chalk board. Little bits of dust fell across my face and I knew I was rubbing myself raw. Looking down at my feet, I could see what was hitting my ankles as I ran away. A mix of pale white and bright, vivid color lay at my feet and I looked up into two black holes.

My skeleton was exposed.