Jeverica screamed at the sight of her face.

Her skin was red, and full of blisters that spread around her face. Bubbles of pimples grew across her forehead and chin.

Jeverica panicked. This was not happening.

She quickly called her friend to cancel her schedule for the day, because she was feeling unwell. Jeverica put on her usual make up to cover the redness and the swollen pimples on her face, wincing in pain as she touched one of them.

She put on a hoodie to hide her face, and made her way to the mall where she found the shop.

She walked the right path, turned the right corner, but she was surprised to find the shop replaced with a dog adoption center.

She looked around, telling herself this must be a mistake. She retraced her steps, and went outside the mall, then went in again, making sure not to miss a step or a turn, or a lift.

The shop was gone.

This infuriated her. She stepped inside the dog adoption center and asked for the manager.

"The shop, the beauty shop, it was right here! Three days ago I was here, I bought the cream! It turned my face into this!" Jeverica screamed, pointing at her now red and swollen face.

The manager seemed clueless about what she said. "Look, I'm sorry ma'am, but we've been in this area for ten years. Are you sure you're in the right mall?" The manager asked worriedly.

"You think I'm making this up? I'm in hell!" Jeverica yelled.

"There's no need to raise your temper, ma'am." The manager said.

"No, you don't understand. I'm the face of beauty. Days ago, people praised me for my face, I was beautiful...I am beautiful. Until the cream, that I bought in this shop, turned me like an alien." Jeverica enunciated.

The manager looked at Jeverica and sighed. "I wish I can help you ma'am, but I do really have no idea of a beauty shop in the area, nor has there been any in this spot for ten years." The manager said.

Jeverica felt like crying. She stormed out of the adoption center and left.

Jeverica didn't step out. She felt angry, she felt ashamed. She felt like the world turned over.
She couldn't find the shop, or the saleslady that sold her the cream. She couldn't even search for the product since the product didn't have a label.

Upset and distressed, she slept sober.

That night, Jeverica had a dream.
She went back to the mall and found the shop, only this time it was closed. She knocked on the window and peeped to see if there was someone inside.
The dream felt haunting, and there was nobody else in sight. Jeverica was about to give up and leave when the door swung open slowly.
She went in, and there was no one around the shop.
It looked exactly like the first time she went in, except it grew dimmer and dimmer with every step she took.
She remembered the way to the inner room where the saleslady took her days before to see the special creams.
Only as she opened the door, it led to a forest.

A forest, full of thick trees and mystic fog. Little fireflies glowed in the dim atmosphere, and Jeverica suddenly sound herself amused.

She came across a river. Its water shone on the sunlight, and the rocks were gray and blue.

She touched the water, and miraculously it travelled up her hand to her arm, then up to her neck, then finally to her face, which, she felt getting cooler and cooler. She looked in the water for her reflection and she gasped.

She was beautiful again.

Someone cleared a throat and Jeverica looked back at her to see the saleslady behind her standing by a tree.
Only this time she didn't look old or wrinkly. She looked magnificent, dressed in a long white veil, the front of her hair pulled back in a braid. She almost look normal, but she was floating two feet above the ground.

"Jeverica, you looked for me." She said.

"You...what did you do to me?!" Jeverica asked.

The lady stared at her.

"Careful, Jeverica. You are not in your world. In your world you can be who you want to be, but in this world, you are a subject to me." She said.

"This world, is my world, because this, is my dream." Jeverica pointed out.

The lady smiled. "It only looks that way."

Jeverica started to cry. "You ruined me."

"I did not ruin you, Jeverica. You ruined yourself. I tried to warn you, that the cream was made for people who wanted change. You didn't want change. You wanted fame. There's a difference, and the results showed. The cream brings out who you really are from the inside.
A sad, uncontented, desperate woman." The lady said calmly.

"Well, okay, but I've only been doing that for my career. I would never hurt anyone." Jeverica defended herself.

"You hurt yourself, Jeverica. That's why you're here. You're selfish. You told me you would share its magic to the world. Instead you kept it all to yourself." The lady pointed out.

"Well, it's a business thing. That happens in the real world." Jeverica said.

The lady smiled and looked up at the trees. "I don't understand your world sometimes. But let me tell you this, just because it's how hundreds or millions of people do it, it doesn't mean it's right."

Jeverica shrugged. "Well, okay. I'm going to have to learn that, but I'm beautiful again, thanks to the water! So, everything's cool."

"So you believe this is real?" The lady asked.

"I know this is a dream, but even for a while, even if I could be beautiful last time in my sleep, I'd take that chance." Jeverica was crying now.

The lady took pity on her. "You're not a lost cause, after all. You see, you were supposed to die. That cream, will eat the flesh of your face in your sleep, but you won't feel a thing. By the time the sun rises, you've bled to death."

Jeverica looked at the lady in shock.

"But I will give you a second chance." The lady said.

"Anything, just don't kill me. Please." Jeverica begged.

"Again, Jeverica. I didn't kill you..." The lady said. "You chose this, you killed yourself. Now I'm giving you a choice."

The lady floated near her, and together they looked back in the water. Jeverica stared at her reflection, but the lady didn't have any.

"Why don't you have a reflection?" Jeverica asked, and looked at the lady beside her, then looked back again on the still and empty water.

"We don't like vanity. I don't even know what I look like, but that doesn matter. I have many faces. What I look like is a reflection of what you want me to look like. I may look like a completely different person to someone else. If they envision me to an old lady, or imperfect." The lady enunciated the last word loudly.

A thought dawned on Jeverica.

"So, that's why the first time I saw you, you were old and wrinkled." Jeverica said to herself.

"Because you thought no one else was beautiful except you." The lady said.

They stood there silently. The lady let Jeverica state at her reflection.

"What will I do?" Jeverica asked.

"You choose. Wake up with a beautiful face, or a ruined face full of scars. Either way, no one will remember who you are and you will lead a different life, one which I cannot tell you."

Jeverica stared at her reflection for long. "My beauty haunts me." She said. "It's brought me nothing but pretension and fame, too much I can handle."

The lady looked at her, seeing the pain in her eyes. "You can always choose what you want, Jeverica."

"I do like my face." She said.

"Then you have your choice."


The water morphed and distorted. Jeverica looked back but the lady was gone. She called out for her, but there was no response. The fog lifted, the trees broke away, and Jeverica felt herself float two feet, ten feet, higher and higher into the white light of the sky.

•••

Jeverica woke up.
She quickly got out of bed and got dressed. After a quick breakfast she cycled to the mall, and into the dog adoption center.

"Hi, I'm sorry I'm late. " She said to the rest of the team catering dogs and filing paperwork.

"You're just on time, Jeverica." Their manager said.

"On time is late." Jeverica said.

"Okay, I need you all to prepare it's the yearly adoption day sale, people wi be coming in and out of the store like it's Black Friday. Jeverica put on some make up, will you?" The manager called out.

Jeverica rolled her eyes.A friend of hers, approached her and told her to sit down.

"Here, I'll do your hair."

"Ugh, thanks." Jeverica sat down as her friend pulled her hair to a ponytail.

"You know, pretty face like yours, you should be a model."

Jeverica laughed. "Funny, maybe in a previous life I was."

"Okay, hold still I'll do you a simple make up." Her friend put a quick blush and lip tint on and tried to escort Jeverica to the mirror.

But Jeverica stopped.

"It's okay. I don't need to look at my face." She said.

"Are you sure? You don't want to check yourself out?" Her friend asked.

Jeverica shrugged.

"I don't like vanity."

"Now come on, we've got puppies and dogs to care!" She added.




© IllegnaTheScribbler
Cover photo credit: iBralui on DeviantArt