What Little Remains

A haunting exploration of identity, where stolen skins blur the line between who we are, who we pretend to be, and whether there’s anything real underneath.
YEAR
GENRE
FIRST PUBLISHED IN
LENGTH
2019
Slipstream
On Spec

2,500 words

Excerpt

Skins carry remnants of souls. If I listen carefully, I can hear them whispering in fear and confusion.

Momma 

I resist it as long as I can, but eventually I clutch the skin and cradle it close. It’s fresh and carries the copper tinge and slickness of blood. My body tingles and buzzes.  My claws edge through my fingertips.  A deep sensation that might once have been hunger crawls through me. I want to slip my arms within the sleeves, dip my head and pull the child’s face over my empty space. I want to breathe in the scents and memories. Perhaps I could pull some dreams and thoughts from the layers of fat and from underneath each freckle.  


Stupid idea. There’s no point getting to know these remnants. Marcus tells me that we must regard them the same way they look at a steak.  

I place the skin on the faded couch, and move to the bathroom. I stare into the mirror and slip a claw into my own skin, just beneath my throat. I tear down and peel myself open. In the half-light my black slit eyes stare back.

I am a monster made of smoke. A nothingness that only steals.

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About the story

I see this story as a confrontation with how fragile identity really is.The act of wearing skins feels like an extreme reflection of how we all adopt roles to fit into the world around us.What unsettles me most is the idea that memories and emotions can linger without truly belonging to us.It makes me question how much of who I am is genuinely mine versus shaped by others’ expectations and perceptions.At its core, I see it as a search for something real beneath all the layers we hide behind.

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Review by R. Graeme Cameron in Amazing Stories

Shades of Ed Gein, the grave robber and murderer who wore the skins of his victims and later inspired the creation of Norman Bates, Leatherface, and Buffalo Bill in the movies. This story involves monsters who utterly absorb their victims but for the skins which they retain as suitable clothing/disguises to enable them to blend in with humans on the street. Every once and a while they like to fondle their wardrobe because the lingering fears and fading memories attached to the skins give them perverse pleasure. Don’t want to give away too much, so I’ll just conclude by saying this is one creepy “human interest” story.

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Review by Victoria Silverlight, Tangent

“What Little Remains” by Paul Alex Gray involves a pair of supernatural creatures who wear the skins of those they have killed. The narrator, the less aggressive of the two, plans to escape the dominance of the other, who enjoys slaughtering one person after another. Their struggle involves a drug addict with whom the narrator hopes to make a new life.

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