londonrainfall
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This is the skin of a killer, Richard by londonrainfall
Fandoms: The Secret History - Donna Tartt
05 Feb 2026
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After his mother's death, Richard Papen moves to Forks, Washington to live with his estranged father and continue his college education. He expects mundanity and solitude, but he is quickly enthralled by the beautiful, untouchable students in his Greek class...
“This is why we don’t show ourselves in sunlight,” Henry said as he stepped towards it. “People would know we’re different. This is what I am.”
As the sunlight fell on him, the bare skin of his face and hands began to shimmer like so many crystals, like the finest diamonds; he was hard to look at. It was mesmerizing, spell-binding; I pitied anyone who never had the chance to see something so otherworldly and transcendent, so all-consuming. I could have been looking into the face of a god, come down from Olympus.
“You’re beautiful,” I said, unable to help it.
“Beautiful?” Henry bared his teeth in a cruel smile. “This is the skin of a killer, Richard.”
“Yes,” I replied, following him into the sun, “you are terrifying, and terror is beauty. Beauty is terror. Beauty is harsh.” I stepped even closer. “You said death is the mother of beauty. How could you not be beautiful?”
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Ah, this was the moment Francis had been waiting for; the moment he would know whether this play would be a triumph or his worst nightmare; his maiden love, his Juliet, was—
In dreadful, soulless black Sharpie was written a name.
HENRY WINTER
Francis stared. He blinked. He removed his pince-nez, cleaned the lens, and replaced them, even though they were plain glass, no prescription.
JULIET………HENRY WINTER
That cleaning had not been sufficient.
There were gasps and exclamations from behind him.
Francis raised his eyes to Mr. Jeffries, the cause of his suffering. His self, his soul, was consumed by one question: Why?
No: How?
No: Goddamn you, Mr. Jeffries, you son of a bitch, how could you do this to me?
Mr. Jeffries grinned. “It would be very unfair to mix anyone else up, so I just made the simplest change!”
Francis was going to expire.
Or, Francis Abernathy, Shakespeare snob, is forced to play Romeo opposite Henry Winter, stuck-up classicist, as Juliet.