"Looker" by David Nickle

For now I could see that what I'd first thought were star-points, were nothing of the sort.

Tommy is at a party when he decides to take a break from the mass of people and head down to the beach for some quiet time. While there, he meets a girl named Lucy. They have a bit to drink, and smoke a little bit as well, while the sun dies on the horizon. Lucy seems to mumble to herself from time to time, but Tommy doesn't seem bothered by her quirky behavior. Once the darkness takes over the beach, they decide to go for a swim. Stripping off their clothes, they frolic in the waters. This moment of exposure is when Tommy first notices that Lucy's skin seems to flicker like the stars against the night sky. As it turns out, Tommy is in for a surprise when he realizes exactly what type of skin condition Lucy has...

This short story appealed to me in the unapologetic way that it portrays a very normal world with a single oddity that drives the action. Rather than attempt to explain why Lucy is the way that she is, David Nickle chooses to describe her without feeling the need to "make sense" of it all. I was also engaged by the perspective, as we are told the story through Tommy's eyes as he attempts to tell the story to an ex-lover. I enjoyed the ending, and the twist that accompanied it, but felt that it could have been fleshed out in a bit more detail. The motivations that drive Tommy to accept his ultimate fate were not clear, which is the only aspect of this tale that I would have liked to be different.

"Looker" can be found in the anthology The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four, which was edited by Ellen Datlow.

"The Little Green God of Agony" by Stephen King

Answer a question for me, sir. What color is your pain?

Newsome, the sixth-richest man in the world, has been in an accident. He is relegated to his hospital bed, and must rely on nurses to empty his bedpans and clean his body. Being an extremely rich and spoiled man, Newsome has no grit. He refuses to put forth the effort required to recover physically from his accident, instead choosing to seek out someone that can be paid to erase his pain. Many have come and tried (enticed by the thought of getting rich quick), but all have either failed or been exposed as money hungry fakes. Running out of options, Newsome has contacted a man named Rideout, who claims that he can exorcise the pain from Newsome's body.

Is Rideout just another kook, looking to swindle a billionaire into separating from a sizeable chunk of money? Or is Rideout able to legitimately exorcise the pain from Newsome's body?

I have read quite a bit of Stephen King's work, and the master of horror rarely disappoints. This short story will not go down as a classic of his by any means, but it was a fun little read. The story is pretty standard fare as far as plot goes, but a great writer can make gold out of straw on occasion. Once the exorcism begins, the events unfold rather quickly, and the reader is treated to a number of events that are almost comical in the way that they take place. A less talented author would most likely not be able to pull this story off without coming across as cheesy, but King does what he does best and entertains the reader from start to finish.

"The Little Green God of Agony" can be found in the anthology The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four, which was edited by Ellen Datlow.