Skin Deep
Colleen was more confused than afraid when she walked out of the kitchen and found her neighbor standing in the middle of her living room.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
Without saying a word, Gerald casually walked over and punched her hard in the stomach. Colleen dropped instantly to the floor gasping for breath. Gerald grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the bedroom. When the air finally returned to her lungs, Colleen began to scream.
Gerald picked Colleen up and threw her onto the bed, tying her arms and legs to the bedposts. “Are you going to be quiet or do I have to hit you again?” Gerald asked through clenched teeth.
She just nodded her head, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. Gerald tore her dress down the front and ripped her bra and panties off. He stared at her naked body, while Colleen silently whimpered.
“I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t kill me,” Colleen begged.
Her voice broke Gerald’s trance sending him into a rage. “You think I’m stupid, that I wouldn’t notice. You think you can just walk among us.”
“What are you talking about?” Colleen whispered.
“I know you’re not human. Nobody has skin that perfect.”
“You’re crazy,” Colleen said, as she started thrashing on the bed, screaming for help.
Gerald walked calmly to the kitchen and came back with a small paring knife. Colleen stopped screaming, and her eyes opened wide, when Gerald approached the bed, knife in hand.
“Please, you don’t want to do this; you’re making a big mistake. I have nice skin but it isn’t perfect. Take a closer look before you do anything drastic,” Colleen pleaded.
Gerald stuffed the torn panties into her mouth to shut her up. Colleen shook her head back and forth violently when he brought the small knife up to her face.
Gerald put one of his calloused hands on her forehead to hold her steady. She let out a muffled scream when his knife bit into her flesh just below her right ear. He cut down under the jaw line and around to her other ear. Her screams stopped and her eyes glazed over as she went into shock. He removed his hand from her forehead and cut up along her hairline from ear to ear. He stepped back to admire his work. Blood was pouring out of the cut along the scalp, saturating the pillow below. He reached down below her jaw and grabbed the skin along the incision and tugged. This brought a fresh batch of screams from Colleen until she mercifully passed out from the pain. He managed to pull the skin from the lower half of her face up over the chin to her mouth where it got caught. He used his paring knife to trim the skin around her lips allowing him to pull the rest of her face off with little resistance.
He was shocked when he discovered that she didn’t look like an alien beneath her perfect skin. He panicked; maybe she was human after all. He looked down at the mutilated body of his neighbor and realized that no one would understand. Adrenaline pumped into his body as he raced next door to his house. He headed straight for the bathroom and turned on the faucet. He set the knife on the counter and cupped his hands under the cool water and splashed it on his face to calm himself down. He looked up at his reflection in the mirror and to his horror noticed his own perfect skin. With a trembling hand he picked up the bloody knife and brought it to his face.