The Lamplighters

Stratum spinosum

He’d had to work the dark boy quickly. Too quickly, for shame. It seemed like an age since he’d performed a field procedure. But then the heat had taken him, reminded as he was of the old days in the forests when his craft was younger and more primitive rather like those it was visited upon. He’d been a god then and they had names for him that made children cry themselves to sleep and women cradle those children tightly as they writhed perspiring in the humidity of nightmares to come. The dark boy’s flesh had reminded him of those villagers and their supple ways. Too quickly. Working on the boy should have been a gift. It was a part of the calm after the storm, its opportunity a vital component of ritual. As he’d undressed the carcass, he’d rattled through the root of his base knowledge, tasting the words on his tongue like blood.

The skin is the largest organ in the human body.

Cut.

The skin is formed of three layers—epidermis, dermis, subcutaneous fat.

Slice.

The epidermis is the site of pigment production, melatonin, and keratin (which determines skin rigidity).

Another incision, deeper this time.

Dermis is divided into two areas—papillary dermis and reticular dermis—and contains blood vessels and nerves, gives skin elasticity, and produces collagen.

He carefully stretched out the flaps of skin, peeling back layer upon layer of mystery, pinning them out and making meaning there.

Subcutaneous fat protects the body from physical trauma and is the site of fat metabolism.

Then he’d seen the imperfection embedded into the dark boy’s skin. The tattoo was an affront to all his beliefs, a mockery of his labors.

Protects the body from physical trauma.

He lost his patience. He tore the rest of the boy apart.