Albino Child

Six

My hand twitched in a violent manner, the jar's contents were mildly mixed around causing sappy bubbles to excrete from the cartilage-ribbed decaying tissue, I was still shrieking in horror but by now I had somewhat died down the noise to a mere whimper- I tried to gain control over my trembling but failed to do so, bringing the container close to my face I began to annalyse it- the damaged innards of the of what seemed to be two tubes of organic matter were tattered on the ends suggesting that they had been ripped out rather than cut with a slicing instrument; I studied it more intently, attempting to ignore the closeness of the other boys, there was the ribbed pipe and a slimy, almost gelatinous, pipe attached to it- both of them were clearly not kept in the best condition as they were preserved disgustingly, the workmanship pathetic, crystals of the liquid meant to embalm the organs infested coiled entrance to the jar and leaked onto the animal skins causing patches of damp darkness. I recoiled at the foul stench that emanated from the fleshy passages but did not push the container away from my face, the gloopy liquid dribbled onto the dried out scaly surface of my skin but I payed no attention to sticky substance- I glared at the monstrous sight, it was unusually small for what it should have been so I assumed that it must have belonged to some kind of child or a deformed adult- I pondered and re-evaluated the choices; little did I realise that the smallest boy had been gently tugging onto my sleeve this whole time, it was hardly noticeable but as his patience waned he pulled harder until I was finally snapped out of my thoughts.

"What." I demanded, deadly irritation laced throughout my command, he evidently flinched- his small figure retreated and hunched over in defence- realising that what I had done was not the best reaction, I softened my facial expression into a softer, more welcoming smile; he shuffled closer, "Can you not just say what you mean?"

The fragile boy shook his head indicating that he could not, I tilted my head to one side to expressing confusion, he began to take off the white robe that covered his entire body and stripped away any form of clothing that clothed his pale translucent skin, blueish veins snaked the underneath of the butterfly-wing-thin membrane- I would have gagged at the sight of limited amounts of sickly flesh hardly covering the brittle bones but it was a sight like my own so I was somewhat used to such a deathly sight- he had a rusty zip down his sternum, I was confused, people did not typically have zips down their chest but I had seen something similar with other children when I lived in this place but never on such a large scale, it reached between his clavicle to underneath where his bellybutton should have been, it was not well kept of- the teeth of the zipper had dapples of dried blood but that was to be expected, it was after all apart of his body now, the zip looked relatively old, the oxidized teeth had matted amber lumps that were covered by congealed blood but the petite boy ignored the tarnish on his body and struggled to pull the tab down, furiously tugging at the flesh, parts of the butterfly-skin had peeled off and cracks of blood snaked around the metal object, the zipper had been jammed and he was clearly distressed. Looking up and around to find sympathy from the other boys, he found none in them- faces a void of anything, they had no interest nor care for the younger child- I gestured to him to come over and he timidly scrambled over; pushing his chest over to where I was, he looked away, a light blush of pastel peach highlighting his cheekbones, I tenderly brushed the translucent shin and goosebumps tickled the entire abdomen, as he winced, silent moans escaped his chapped lips- he was uncomfortable with anyone touching the sensitive area. I touched the top of the zip and yanked the zip painfully down, he mutedly screamed in pain, having the gaping slit be opened was not an everyday occurrence and he had collapsed onto the floor, blood pooling on the formerly pristine floor; he flopped and flailed around like a fish, the boy that gave me the box originally had held the boy up indicated for me to do something, I was unsure as to what to do, the frail child tugged the hole open for me to peer inside, pointing at the jar he pretended to grasp the container and shove it inside the boy-