The Skinless Man Counts to Five and Other Tales of the Macabre by Paul Jessup

Author:Paul Jessup
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Underland Press
Published: 2024-02-08T23:18:14+00:00

WHEN MAX WAS HUNGRY AGAIN

Eleanor had been looking over these photographs all day. She went through each of them in chronological order just to try and remember when it had happened. When Max had started to fade away into nothingness.

Early pictures showed no sign of decay. Always smiling, always happy. She kept moving through the years, picture by picture, and it seemed so gradual. A few pounds disappearing on Max here and there, a smile slowly starting to slip away from his face.

In the later pictures he no longer had his arm around her waist. In the later pictures he was always sullen, in a dark corner or hiding away from the light. The listless look in his eyes seemed haunted, as if filled with the voices of the dead.

She didn’t know why she looked at these pictures every week. Why she still went over to where he lived and tried to get him to eat. She hadn’t seen him eat anything in the last month.

Last week she tried to force him to eat some food she had prepared. He chewed it up and ate it, but she had this distinct feeling he had thrown it up when she had left. He kept telling her that food had no taste anymore. That it all had begun to taste like ash, and dirt. It all had begun to taste sticky and muddy, hanging in the roof of his mouth.

Eleanor couldn’t force him to eat. She couldn’t force him to be happy again, or to smile again. All she could do was be there for him and try and help him out. Try and comfort him and help move him back to the old Max she had known four years ago.

The Max that had kissed her every chance he could. The Max that would eat to his fill at every restaurant they had gone to. The Max that was able taste food.

She had to give him credit that he was trying. Every time she brought over food he looked a little happier than before. He looked hopeful, that maybe by somehow eating her food he would be transformed back to the old Max.

Each time Eleanor had done it, Max had always spit out the food she had given him. He would look up so sad, his hopes crushed and claim that no, it didn’t taste good. It didn’t taste bad. It tasted like nothing, nothing at all.

The photographs were all put away neatly now, only one still remaining out. It was a picture of when they had first met; his hair was long and wavy. His face was round and joyful. He looked nothing like his current self.

Eleanor had to bring him back.

She had to transform him into his older self.

Later that day she decided to take a break from looking at photographs, to take a break from talking on the phone to Max. She decided to shove him out of her system for at least a few moments of the day, to see if she could find happiness somewhere again.

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