The Skin Condition

He shuffled to the mirror hanging over the washbasin to see how far the malady had progressed. His face looked mostly normal. As he gently dragged a fingernail across the bridge of his nose, the skin gave easily and revealed a dark oily substance under the top layer of skin. He squeezed his nose, and pus quickly came to the sensitive, newly-exposed surface. Fearing his whole face would fall into the palm of his hand, he carefully crawled back into his bed and wept, but was careful not to shed any tears. He did not want to quicken the spread of disease.