Whispers of the Dead
Chapter One
Skin.
The largest human organ, it is also the most overlooked. Accounting for an eighth of the entire body mass, on an average adult it covers an area of approximately two square metres. Structurally skin is a work of art, a nest of capillaries, glands and nerves that both regulates and protects. It is our sensory interface with the outside world, the barrier at which our individuality—our self—ends.
And even in death, something of that individuality remains.
When the body dies, the enzymes that life has held in check run amok. They devour cell walls, causing the liquid contents to escape. The fluid rises to the surface, gathering below the dermal layers and causing them to loosen. Skin and body, until now two integral parts of the whole, begin to separate. Blisters form. Whole swathes begin to slip, sloughing off the body like an unwanted coat on a summer's day.
But, even dead and discarded, skin retains traces of its former self. Even now it can still have a story to tell, and secrets to keep.
Provided you know how to look.
* * *
Earl Bateman lay on his back, face ...
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