Hi everyone! If you’re curious about my new novella, A Stunning New Look, you can preview an excerpt below. Enjoy!
Get ready for a modern-day Cinderella story that takes a terrifying turn when a search for beauty leads to black market genetic experimentation in this horror short story by Nyk King.
In the bustling city of Miami, Maria Alvarez struggles as a single mom and overworked financial analyst at a prestigious law firm. But when her best friend Tyra urges her to take better care of herself, Maria finally decides to treat herself to a facial at an exclusive medical spa. Little does she know, this treatment will change her life forever. As Maria transforms into a stunning and confident woman, she uncovers a shocking truth that threatens to destroy everything she’s ever wanted.
If you’re a fan of mind-bending technological thrillers from Michael Crichton, Phillip K. Dick, or Ken Liu, then you won’t want to miss this chilling short read.With themes of identity, morality, and the dangers of playing god, Nyk King’s A Stunning New Look will keep you in suspense until the last page.
CHAPTER 1. “Are you sure this is safe?” Maria Vega Alvarez skeptically eyed the young woman in light pink scrubs dotted with cartoon kittens batting balls of yarn. She pegged her at about college age, a far cry from Maria’s 35 years.
“Perfectly. This treatment is done at top facilities all across the U.S.”
“It’s not too invasive?”
“Not at all. It’s an outpatient procedure. It only takes two hours. And best of all, it’s all natural.”
The woman’s name glinted from a generic white nametag on her chest. Annabelle. ‘Sounds kind of old-fashioned for someone her age,’ Maria thought. She had been too nervous to register the aesthetician’s name earlier, but now vaguely recalled their hasty introduction after she had scrambled through the entrance to escape a sudden downpour, soggy and six minutes late for her appointment.
“Annabelle, is there anyone who could, you know, provide a reference for your office? Do you have any before and after photos or something?”
Annabelle covered her mouth and barked a harsh smoker’s laugh, belying her seeming youth. She leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “I’ve had it done two weeks ago. I’m actually 48.”
Maria’s head whipped back, her eyes wide open in shock. “No way!”
“Yes way,” the aesthetician retorted proudly. “Here, I’ll show you my driver’s license.”
As Annabelle fished her wallet out of the back pocket of her scrubs, Maria casually scoped out the office. All the tables and medical fixtures were state-of-the-art, a study in pristine stainless steel and white leather, somehow luxurious in their ineffable purpose. The walls displayed multiple framed medical certificates and credentials in addition to honest-to-goodness oil paintings, no department store art here; they varied from neo-contemporary to abstract landscapes in soothing colors and motifs. Surely a place with so much wealth on display had to be legitimate. Annabelle flashed a card triumphantly and handed it over.
Maria glanced at the license, did a double-take at the crows’ feet, laugh lines, and lip wrinkles depicted therein, and compared that to the woman’s current countenance. The resemblance was striking, but the face in front of her looked more like the younger sister or daughter of the woman in the photo. “Huh.” She returned the card to Annabelle. “I’m sold. When can we do it?”
“Let me check a moment on the doctor’s availability.” The aesthetician sauntered over to a tablet, one of which appeared to be in every room. Several swipes and taps later, she confirmed, “There’s an opening in an hour. You’re lucky, normally people wait for a month to get on Dr. Vinu’s calendar, but a patient had to reschedule last minute. I’m happy to make you an espresso if you’d like to wait.”
Maria glanced at her watch, double-checking that she had enough time until she had to pick up her daughter, Posey, from preschool. With a dismissive thought of, ‘What do I have to lose?’ she plucked up her courage. “Yes. That would be perfect.”
“Wonderful. You’re going to love the stem cell Vampire facial! It will change your life.”
Maria recalled how a week ago, Tyra, her best friend, had paved the path to today through a little tough love. “Are you sick?” she had asked. In her exuberant concern, she’d ambushed Maria in the office break room with a torrent of unwanted feedback. “Your face looks a little ashy. Is Posey keeping you up again? You need to take some more time for yourself, get some sleep, get a glow up, do something, girl! ‘Cause what you’re doing isn’t working out AT ALL for you!”
Changing into a skimpy medical gown and jumping up onto a paper-covered chair, Maria felt chilly and vulnerable under the harsh fluorescent lights of the procedure room. She drummed her fingers on her thighs while Annabelle and Dr. Vinu donned blue nitrile gloves with a nerve-wracking snap. From his outward appearance, she pondered if the good doctor had just graduated from med school; otherwise, he’d be a strong contender for the World’s Best Genetics Award. In silent concert from much experience working side-by-side, doctor and aesthetician laid out multiple formidably large syringes filled with an electric green fluid on a stainless steel rolling table. Their unnatural size and color filled Maria with unease. “Am I going to regret this?” she second-guessed herself, guilty about the expense that could have gone to ballet lessons for Posey or a spontaneous vacation at Disney World.
Noting Maria’s distressed stare at the syringes, Dr. Vinu was quick to explain. “Looks radioactive, doesn’t it?” he asked rhetorically in a slight, lyrical Indian accent, completely oblivious to the effects of his words on Maria’s mental state. He laughed. “Not to worry. The stem cell solution is clear, but the manufacturer adds green dye for identification purposes so it doesn’t get confused with saline or another drug. As for the needles, pretty soon Annabelle will apply some numbing cream and we’ll start the anesthesia; you won’t have a care in the world.” True to his word, within a minute of putting on a mask and starting the flow of nitrous oxide, Maria felt her anxiety melt away into blissful lethargy.
During the procedure, Dr. Vinu turned into a chatterbox, only lagging behind Maria’s dentist in one-sided conversation. Maria was bemusedly puzzled, as Dr. Vinu relentlessly asked generic questions about her life, and then continued with his monologue as if she’d answered. The single time she tried to reply, he gently admonished her and reminded her to hold still.
Dr. Vinu changed subjects, matter-of-factly chatting in same lackadaisical tone he’d used to describe his breakfast. “You know, stem cells used to come from medical waste, from aborted fetuses, things like that.” Maria jolted back to awareness, and an alarm klaxoned from her blood pressure monitor. Dr. Vinu paused and gestured for Annabelle to administer more laughing gas. “Take a deep breath in. That’s better,” he encouraged. “Try to keep calm, or you’ll metabolize the anesthesia faster and start to feel the injections. We wouldn’t want that!”
He cleared his throat. “But as I was saying, what the scientists were doing back in the early days of stem cell research was very unethical. Those methods are now illegal–no one does that anymore.” Dr. Vinu chuckled again between needle strokes of the serum. “Nowadays, the stem cells come from a lab, very scientific, very pure. Nothing is wasted–this is a highly efficient and environmentally responsible process. Great for rejuvenating skin, joints, hair, you name it. The stem cells are like a blank slate; they can transform into anything the body needs.”
Despite the unexpected history lesson, Maria’s procedure went like clockwork. There was a brief waiting period afterward to ensure she was no longer affected by the laughing gas, masked as leisurely time to enjoy the office’s luxurious Korean massage chair while sipping on a complementary European sparkling water. Plastic exchanged hands, and with Sophia’s exhortation of, “Be sure to keep hydrated!” she returned into the humid gloom of a Florida afternoon, undecided on whether the clouds had rained out or if another deluge was imminent. Climbing in her decade-old beige Ford Explorer, Maria flipped down the sun visor and examined herself in the mirror. Although she suspected she’d looked like a horror show in the office based on the ‘Vampire Facial’s’ reputation and the shocking amount of blood saturating the blue medical towel with which Annabelle had cleaned her face after the procedure, she now appeared surprisingly normal. Her visage was a little puffier than usual, but nothing that would scare little Posey. Same limp black hair, with too little shine and body and too many streaks of gray. But…the brown spots on her nose from too much time sunbathing in her youth, the sallow pallor of her cheeks paradoxically from too much time indoors nowadays, and the purplish undereye bags from too little sleep as a single mom DID seem a little less noticeable. Before folding away the sun visor, Maria admired a complementary office gift presented by Annabelle on her way out the door, a raw silk scarf with an ink-printed foliage design, which she carefully knotted around her neck. “Beautiful,” she mused.
Copyright (C) Numanity LLC, 2025.
Hope you liked the beginning! A Stunning New Look will be released on Amazon on October 21st, just in time for Halloween. There will be a promotional deal from Oct 21-23 where it will be available for the low price of only $0.99! It will also be available through Kindle Unlimited for FREE for 90 days, so be sure to grab it before it’s gone (or place a pre-order now)! Check it out at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FRZZ1W7P