He Wanted to Skin Me

I stared at the shell of my own body, waiting for the chest to rise. It didn't. The flesh was shockingly pale, drained of warmth, yet completely devoid of the lividity that usually accompanied death. If I wasn't standing outside myself, I would have assumed the woman on the slab was merely trapped in a deep sleep.

Up until this second, I had clung to the delusion that I was just badly hurt. I tho