Katskin by April Thomas

Hello my name is April and for the past five years I have written and published my own books. I have an great passion for writing and I love sharing my stories with others. Learn more about me at www.ascensionartists.com

Today I want to share a book that I am working on titled Katskin. It is a retelling of a very old and unfamiliar fairytale titled Cat-Skin. Here is the rough draft of the first chapter.

Chapter 1…….

A thin line between love & Insanity

"Take my hand my love," she says weakly as she stretches out her feeble hand towards her husband, Ivan Volkova stands in shock near the bedroom door. His eyes struggle to translate the scene that is unraveling before him. One nurse attends to his wife while, midwife and other nurses quietly leave the room with his newborn child, who is wrapped in white sheets stained with his wife's deep red blood. Although it is morning and the sun beams vividly through the room, it feels dark and heavy all around them, certainly the angel of death is close.

Ivan moves towards his wife, he can barely feel his feet walking across the room nor hear the creaking of the wooden floors. He comes to a stop besides the bed, and falls to his knees. Reality has given him a blow to the gut. This will be the last time he will see his wife. She is young and beautiful, too young to die, this is unfair. He takes her hand and brings it to his lips. "My love, please do not leave me," he begs as tears stream down his cheeks.

"Promise me...promise me that you will never marry another woman unless she is as beautiful as me with hair golden as mine," she cries.

"Please, don't leave me, please..."

"Promise me Ivan, Promise me!" Stephanie demands.

Ivan's eyes lock with his wife's. He knows that once he makes this promise with her, her spirit will leave, and his wife will be lost to him forever. "I don't want to lose you," he weeps. "There is no woman who can ever take your place in my heart, my bed, or my life. I promise you, should I ever marry, the woman I choose will have eyes as blue as the ocean, and hair as golden as the sun, and her beauty can only be in compared to yours.”

 Stephanie smiles lightly as life gently leaves her body. Ivan crumbles under the heavy pain of a soulmate lost forever.