Skull Beneath The Skin Novels & Stories

So thin, so bony . His panting breath stumbled when he felt clear bumps under his palms where - if his memories weren't very fooled - shouldn't be. Then it dawned on him. Bone. It was his bones that he felt. A little frightened, he raised his head and peeked timidly down at himself. He looked like a living skeleton. His ribs and hip bones were clearly visible under his white, parchment-like skin. Every tendon caught his eye. Horrified, he dropped back again and stared in disbelief at the shattered ceiling. He needed food immediately.

It smelled of the sewers, of old blood, and of the grave. From the darkness of the tunnel, a creature emerged. It stood on two legs, hunched over, massive shoulders scraping the sides of the tunnel. It was covered in grey fur that was matted with slime and falling out in clumps, revealing black, scaly skin beneath. Its right arm was visibly larger than its left, pulsing with red veins. But the face... the face was the worst part. It was a wolf’s muzzle stretched over a human skull. The eyes were burning red pits.

“It’s beautiful.” “She gave it to Ember the night before she died,” Kael said, voice low. “It’s not just decoration. It’s protection.” Isla looked up at him. “From what?” Kael didn’t answer. His eyes flicked to the hallway. The air had shifted again—barely. But enough. A scent like scorched metal. A pressure behind his ribs. They were close. The Hollow Clan didn’t announce themselves. They crept in like smoke. They waited for weakness.

"Countdown: 29 seconds!" "Raargh…" Under the red alarm lights, a zombie in tattered patient clothes closest to them lunged forward with a gaping mouth. Bang! Just as the zombie leapt, a bullet tore through the center of its forehead. A charred pea-sized hole marked its forehead, and at the back of its skull, a bowl-sized crater opened up. Dark red blood, mixed with pale gray brain matter, burst from the back of the zombie's head. Its skull cracked like soft pudding, the contents splattering apart as if crushed by a sudden, brutal force. Under the impact, chunks of flesh and bone sprayed outward.

The face she had desperately wanted to trust peeled away. Something tall and skeletal stood beneath it. Its limbs were too long. Its shoulders too narrow. Black skin clung tightly to bone, and silver eyes gleamed from deep, hollow sockets. The thing smiled again. This time there was no trace of humanity left. "Blackreach sends its regards." Its voice still sounded exactly like Kaelen's. That made it worse. Much worse. Before anyone could react, movement erupted across the mountainside. The snow around them shifted. Not because of the wind.

"If an enemy is holed up in an impenetrable fortress, you do not throw bodies at the walls. You undermine the foundation until the castle collapses into the moat." "In neurosurgery, when we need to access the brain, we perform a craniotomy," I explained, the clinical horror of the situation washing over me. "We drill a series of isolated burr holes in the skull. Then we use a saw to connect the dots, completely detaching a section of the bone. The Skarn are doing the exact same thing to the earth's crust. They are drilling burr holes at the fault lines and connecting them. If they complete the circuit, the tectonic plates will detach. The mantle will breach the surface."

Cold black eyes locked onto the man standing outside. There was murder in that stare. And something else beneath it. Something sharper. Alexander could no longer contain what was happening to his body. The skin along the left side of his face split apart. Rotting flesh peeled back from the bone beneath. Ancient mutation patterns spread rapidly across his skull like living markings. The outline of something inhuman emerged beneath the remains of his skin. He dragged his distorted right leg forward. Step by step. Until he reached the blast glass. Then slowly lowered himself onto one knee.

She looked around the room slowly before staring at a shadow in the corner of the ceiling. I watched the darkness, nothing. I started to turn back to her but I noticed a ripple. Snapping my eyes back to the darkness, I caught the glint of eyes. The figure at first seemed to be feline, but its head was skinless. White bone stared at me as its green eyes shined from beneath. Almost like a mask. Its white fur still blended perfectly into the skull, and if I paid attention, I could see its mouth was how it should be. A long tongue slid over its long teeth and its cat-like ears that poked out from the partially exposed skull twitched. As if half its head wasn't skinless, but a full flesh covered

I squinted, trying to make out my surroundings, but it was too dark to see anything clearly. The ground beneath me cracked ominously as I shifted, and I almost fell again. Curious—and horrified—I reached down, my fingers brushing against something smooth and cold. I brought it closer, trying to make it out in the shadows, and then froze as the shape became clear—a human skull, empty sockets staring back at me. A scream tore from my throat as I dropped it, the bone shattering as it landed on what felt like an endless layer of bones beneath me.

“Let’s just try to find our way from here.” But it was like he didn’t hear me at all. He climbed up onto the porch. “Hey, man, say something at least! What, did you fall asleep or what?” He stepped closer and tugged the hood down — and I couldn’t hold back a scream of horror. Konstantin himself jumped back in shock. Under the hood was a skull — a human skull — tilted slightly to the side. “Holy shit…” he muttered under his breath, stepping back. I clapped a trembling hand over my mouth, trying not to sob.