Those who come out of the magic shop often find success with the artifacts they are bestowed with. Those who got too greedy are often robbed of their success and placed in a situation far deplorable than they were started with. Success and failure, there is no measure on which one a person will get.
Still dazed from the shop, Paul caught his breath at the alleyway at the side of the building. Little did he know, the zipper on his finger breathed a life of its own. While not conscious in its entirety, it has the choice of what person it will serve. And Paul is not his choice. The zipper snaked from his grasp and coiled around his neck. The zipper latched on his nape and followed the spine. It happened in a flash.
Paul’s hollowed-out body slumped on the floor and was left abandoned for days. Hobos would come to find his clothes later and loot them out of his body, leaving his skin to fester in the winter cold. Another hobo would find it and see it far from what it actually is. He saw it as some strange material that he could use as a blanket. Despite its non-electric properties, it gave off a warm temperature that helped him survive the worst of the night. And if he closed his eyes, he swore he could feel a heartbeat.
Paul’s use as a blanket would soon come to an end. A powerful gust of wind blew his skin, puffing him up, and lifting him off the air. People would see him levitating amongst the clouds wondering which sick fuck in the city lost their male sex doll. The journey in the sky wound to its finale when Paul landed on the ocean, his skin now carried by the influence of the waves.
For years, Paul’s hollowed-out skin traveled the Pacific. He moved with the waves and the occasional trade ships that carried him from the tip of their hulls. Despite a teeming surface for microorganisms and barnacles, the surface of his skin remained sterile and barnacle-free. Fish would sometimes wander in the vicinity but they don’t remain long. They are probably sensing powers that made them wary and go away.
In the fifth year of his disappearance, Paul’s hollowed-out skin would finally return to land. He washed ashore on a beach where other drowned things would come to rest. He would lay there for a few more days until a street vagrant looking for something to sell in a junk shop would find this strange-looking material wrapped in a broken piece of a boat.
Danilo was his name, but people call him ‘Dan’ for short. He’s a 16-year-old guy living in the Philippines. He’s the youngest of his 4 other siblings. By the 2nd child, his parents abandoned the thought of caring about them at a degree above the bare minimum. As long as they eat twice a day and they have a house they can sleep in, that’s enough for them. Dan would fester in this kind of squalor if he didn’t take this matter into his own hands. With only his older brothers supporting him, he enrolled in a public school. He scours this beach for junks he could sell so that he has the money for his uniform, school equipment, and daily allowance.
It rained a lot these past few days, and the reports on the neighbor’s television said something about a high tide. The tides have settled down which brought new junks on this beach. And today, he saw something he could not recognize.
Dan picked the skin away from the junk and cleaned the insides of any debris. He looked at it with outstretched arms and saw it for what it is. A suit of some sort. It’s shaped like a person. More specifically, an American with pale white skin and short hair as dark as his. Down on his crotch is a hollowed-out penis.
“Holy shit… that’s huge.” Dan blurted. It’s large. Far larger and girthier than his own.
Even though entranced with the suit, the thought of wearing it scarcely passed his mind. He stuffed it in his wagon and spent the latter parts of the day looking for worthwhile trash.
At 4 PM, an hour before the junk shop closes, Dan would sell his haul to the local junk shop owned by Mr. Gutierrez - a gaudy overweight man who smoked a pack every day. Dan settled his haul in a weighing scale while Mr. Gutierrez scoured it for something out of the ordinary. And sure enough, he saw the skin.
“Don’t tell me you’re selling this?” Mr. Gutierrez plucked the suit of the wagon and spread it for Dan to see.
“Is it not okay to sell? It looked interesting.” Dan replied.
“Just because it’s interesting, it doesn’t mean you can sell it. Do you even know what this is?” Gutierrez raised one of his bushy brows and waited for Dan to answer. Hearing no response, he continued. “This is a sex doll. Not that you would know about it. You know how disgusting these things are?”
Mr. Gutierrez threw the suit at the dirtied Dan and wiped off his hand at the lad’s barely holding sleeves.
Dan weighed the rest of his haul, got about $2 from it, and went home. If what Mr. Gutierrez said is true, the skin is rife with dirty and disgusting things. He thought of throwing it out but something about it allured Dan. He can’t put it into words but he’s getting this feeling that he shouldn’t throw it out. There’s more to it than just a warm hollowed-out skin.
Dan came home. His father is nowhere to be seen, and will probably stay that way until late in the evening. He drives a tricycle, a motorcycle with an attached sidecar that he can use to transport customers. His mother is in the kitchen cooking their dinner. His two eldest siblings left the household a long time ago and never came back. Anthony, the third sibling, didn’t finish his studies so he freeloads around the house all day. Rivier, the fourth one, does go to school. Dan doesn’t see him though. He’s probably with his friends.
Alone in his room, Dan always takes a bath before dinner. He ate his food afterward and helped his mother clean the dishes. The thought of the hollowed-out suit nearly slipped his mind. He remembered it again when he saw it spread out on his small bed. Its hollowed eyes gave him an empty yet somehow personal look.
Dan grabbed the skin and gave it a thorough look. It doesn’t look that dirty. The skin is spotless, except for some scars here and there. Come to think of it, it feels like a real person’s skin. It’s warm to the touch, and you could feel the bumpy texture on the skin. Looking closer, Dan saw fine strands of hair. The only disgusting part is the groin. When he looked closer at the place, a damp smell hit his nose. It reminds him of the smell of his own groin.
If there is somebody who created this suit, then hooray to them. It seems like somebody was skinned alive to create this thing. Then the reality of the thought hit Dan. He shuddered.
If you discount how real the suit is, another strange thing is the zipper on the back. Zippers are usually placed on two things. A bag or a garment. This hollowed-out skin doesn’t seem like a bag. But a garment? It could work… somehow.
Most of his assignments are done and there’s nothing more to do for this day other than sleep. Satiating his curiosity, Dan decided to wear the suit even though he’d look ridiculous in the getup. Before wearing the suit, he removed his clothes. The suit won’t fit properly with those in the way.
With everything in place, Dan started with the left arm. The hollowed-out skin is larger than his body and he expected them to sag on his arms. He was surprised when they were a snug fit. The same for his right arm. When he wiggled his finger, it was as if there was not a second layer on them. They seemed like actual human fingers. Next, he moved with the arms and procured similar results. When he touched the hair on his lower leg, he shuddered. He could feel the graze of his fingers as if this leg was his own.
The groin is the embarrassing part. Imagine inserting a pencil in a PVC pipe. Because that is what’s happening here. His 3-inch dick paled in comparison to the hollowed-out 6-inch shaft of this suit. Dan decided to continue wearing the rest of the suit just to move away from this part already. But little did he know, that 6-inch flaccid staff is slowly becoming his.
The last part would be the head with its foreigner-looking face. Dan thought it looked like an American. But there’s a hint of European in there as well. Can’t say for sure since Dan never personally met a foreigner in real life. Well… up close, he means. There was an American who visited their place once. A volunteer, they said. But some whispered in hush tones that it was an American coming to pick up her Filipina wife. Dan didn’t really see him closely since lots of people blocked his view.
Dan grabbed the suit by its hair, which is surprisingly silky despite finding it amid salt-encrusted trash. This suit is nothing short of unexplainable things and surprises. He stretched it over his face and made sure that the holes were aligned with the proper locations on his face.
The zipper closed on its own like a sharp whip, surprising Dan. He thought it’d be stuck but he could still open it. So, that’s a relief.
Dan looked in the mirror and saw the reflection of another person staring at him. This person is a bit taller. His skin is relatively whiter than any skin color he personally saw. There are light freckles on his chest, and looking at him made him realize how pink his nipples are. Below his chest, lean muscles bulge out giving a slight musculature of his abs. He touched them. They are dense underneath, yet somewhat soft on the surface. The same goes for his biceps and legs; slight muscular yet softness on the surface. His face, like what he said, looked American. He has a sharp chin yet a smooth jawline. His eyes were a dark shade of blue and upon a closer look, his hair wasn't black at all. It’s the darkest shade of brown.
Then there’s the elephant in the room. Dan doesn't feel the suit at all! It was as if this skin was his actual one. When a mosquito landed on his arm, he could feel the slightest steps of its feet and the slight pain as its proboscis dug on his skin. To top it all, it’s sucking blood! Dan walked backward but he misjudged his gait. He fell on his bed with a loud thud.
In that momentary daze, Dan’s mind is flooded with the memories of another. Memories of the life of someone named Paul Krause, a typical 18-year-old American teenager living in California suburbia. His life is nothing of the ordinary. He is above average in his studies and played baseball for a bit. But for Dan, the life Paul lived is what the richest of the rich would experience in this place. Paul’s bedroom is almost the size of Dan’s house. He ate thrice a day and never spent a day in his life working so that he could have the necessary materials for a school project. In a way, it pisses Dan to hear Paul describe his life as something typical or boring. He’s a king and he doesn’t know it.
Dan woke up, now armed with the memories of another. There is still much of Paul’s memories hidden by a shroud of fog. And the memories he saw moved too quickly for him to make a sense of it. He only understood the general gist of his life. And probably also the fluency of the language he spoke.
Then there is also that memory at the end of the tunnel. It revealed a shop of wonders, littered with things that broke mortal comprehension. Much of that memory is hidden in a fog different from the other ones. It feels like he won’t ever see what’s behind them. What he does remember is the suit’s existence thanks to the zipper on his back. Paul might have received the zipper but the zipper chose Dan as its owner.
With this knowledge open to Dan, the zipper let go of his skin, now free to attach to a host of his choosing. Dan isn’t planning on using it on another person so he attached it to his back again.
The clock strikes 7 PM. The night is young and the establishments near his place are still brimming with life.