The Skin - Chapter 1 - Back

Prologue - Hospital. Pain. A doctor talking to a patient. This is how we meet Katherine Williams and her past as a supermodel. It was less beautiful than people generally believe. But her current situation doesn't seem very pleasant either.
Chapter 1 • Andy Peterson, haunted by his missing wife Fran, is skipping work. His secretary, Jamie, finds him and urges him to see a patient, Katherine Williams, triggering old memories. Meanwhile, Supermodel Mia Wong is in trouble …

Prologue

As the pain returned, Katherine couldn’t help but smile. I wondered where you had been for so long. She greeted him. He grabbed her again, his power taking her breath away. A gray nothingness spread before her eyes.
“No, Katherine!” the professor’s soft baritone warned.
“Don’t pass out. Just hold on to the pain a little longer.”
“No problem,” she whispered, barely audible. She was being cynical. The pain swirled inside her, but the professor didn’t seem to notice.
“That’s my girl,” he said. It sounded paternal, but it echoed emptily in her skull. This man didn’t give a damn about her. She knew that. Indifference was something she was well acquainted with. She wanted to hit him. But right now, she couldn’t even move her little toe. The pain paralyzed her, throbbing in her head, gnawing at her lungs, burning her skin. And she let it consume her.

Katherine Williams knew the pain well. From the time she turned fourteen, it became her confidant, companion, and invisible friend. The entirety of her glamorous, horrible, professional modeling existence. The pain followed her everywhere. None of the airport pat-downs revealed it. No customs official in the world declared it. He flew with her across oceans, dashed from one show to the next, had his makeup and hair done with her, strutted down the runway with her, threw on another lavishly expensive rag, and wobbled down the runway again. With her, who was called ‘The Goddess’ and yet was nothing more than a delicious piece of meat on a stick.
Middle-aged women gasped, fingered their wrinkled necks, and immediately prescribed diets or surgery for their fading bodies.
Fat, tanned men licked their lips, tugged at the pants of their suits to hide their erections, and attentively fucked her when she paused briefly at the end of the runway.
Flashbulbs pierced her, thousands of eyes scrutinized every inch of her skin. And the pain was always there.
He eagerly shared a line that glowed bluish in the black light.
In those moments...when she was completely out of herself, when her immaculate cocoon did things that her mind, her spirit, would never have allowed - when her arms wrapped around the body of her Adonis of the week, her fingers clawing into his dark hair, and the triumphant expression on his smooth, sweaty face as he, of all people, was granted the privilege of sexual intercourse with one of the most beautiful women on the planet - in those moments, the pain briefly took a step back - back into the darkness from whence it had come. She became very calm and peaceful inside. For a few moments, she felt … liberated.
The moment of silence and freedom ended, and she heard her heavy breathing and stilettos against the tiled walls. The distant bass thump, the chatter of two women at the large mirror, and the moaning of two gay men in the next stall.

“That’s enough,” She usually said. Adonis kissed her with gratitude on the neck. He slipped off the condom, and they shared the toilet paper to clean themselves up, attuned like a familiar married couple. Then they straightened their clothes, snorted a quick line, walked out of the stall, and threw themselves back into the noisy swirl of bodies of beauty and emptiness.

“Ah! No, no! What did you promise me, Kathy?” the professor reminded her.
Katherine thought about it.
What had she promised that idiot?
She was so tired. She couldn’t remember. Then it came back to her.
“Stay awake?” she asked.
“That’s right, Katherine. Stay awake.”
“Pain ... Thirst ...” she gasped. Her eyes filled with tears.
“It’s all right. It’ll be over soon. The nurse will get you a glass of water. But I don’t want to give you anything for the pain just yet. The collapse of the PCL isn’t quite complete. The same medicine that would take away your pain could prevent the nerves from connecting to your epidermis. And we don’t want that, do we?”
No. Of course not, you moron.
She did not know what he was talking about. She nodded quietly.
What had happened that she was lying here helpless, wrapped in unbearable pain, talking to this professor asshole? Was she in a hospital? And why couldn’t she see?
She abruptly remembered something. An image in her blurred memory came into focus: a happy, familiar face. She had to ask. His name was...
“Danny. Where’s Danny? Is he okay?”
“Danny?” the professor repeated her question, then paused. Not for long. But even that brief silence made her more desperate than all the previous pain and thirst.
“Danny’s fine,” the professor said. “Don’t worry about him.”
Something was wrong. She didn’t feel Danny’s presence. It felt like the connection between her and her child had been abruptly cut.
Oh, my God! Danny.
“Don’t lie to me! Where is my son? Where is Danny?”
“He’s fine, Katherine. Really,” the professor tried to reassure her.
Another face appeared in her mind’s eye.
“I know you,” the face had told her a million years ago. Then it extended its hand to her.
"I know," she had replied and taken his hand in hers. Then it had happened.
She had felt it.
Shelter. Protection. Perhaps love? The end of pain.
“Richard! Where’s Richard? Is Rich here?”
Again that little eerie pause. The nice professor fell silent again.
“He’s here. Safe and sound. He wanted to see you right away, but we can’t allow that yet. “He’s here, safe and sound. He wanted to see you right away, but we can’t allow that yet,” he finally said, emphasizing the need to maintain the sterility of this room.
“Will see him...”
“Later. I promise you, Katherine.”
“Swear!”
“Katherine, please. All that matters now is that ...”
“Swear!” Her voice was shrill, and with each word came a strange, gurgling sound. She was getting scared. What was wrong with her?
The professor sighed. “I swear on my wife’s life you will see Richard and Danny again. Everything will be all right, Katherine.”
“Fine?” she croaked. “Everything’s going to be fine?”
Rich had always said that. There had been a time when she truly believed him. Just pregnant with Danny. She had been so afraid that her past pain would poison the new life growing inside her, turning it into a nightmarish monster.
“It’s going to be okay, Katherine,” Rich had said. He had held her until her tears had dried and the panic had subsided.
Yes, she had trusted Richard. But she didn’t trust this professor. Because the pain was back. And how! It ran through her body like glowing wires.
“Don’t, Katherine,” the professor’s voice urged her. “Don’t faint. Katherine, please! Don’t faint now! Stay right here! Stay with me, Katherine...”