Monster

Monster

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Sylvia Snyde. Sylvia was very beautiful. Every morning, she looked into the mirror that she had bought at a local antique shop. The mirror was enchanted; it could speak, and daily, it told her how glorious she was. “No one is your equal in beauty," it would say. So Sylvia knew she was beautiful, and that knowledge affected her.

At school, Sylvia had a group of friends that she called her court. This group would sit on the tables near the front of the school before school, during lunch, and after school, to pronounce judgement on their classmates. No person was safe from their captious gazes; nobody was free from catty remarks; no one, not even teachers, avoided their fault-finding commentary. Derision, gossip, and slander flowed freely from their lips.

Then one day, a new student arrived who was more striking than Syliva. However, unlike Sylvia, her beauty was both outward and inward. This girl’s ears were always open, listening for others in need. When she saw a classmate with holes in his shoes or clothing, she put a gift card in that student’s locker. If someone needed help on his or her classwork (because she was also brilliant), she offered to help for free. So this new girl became very popular, and Sylvia became green with envy. The last straw came when the magic mirror told Sylvia that the new girl was the most beautiful in the entire school. Enraged, Sylvia threw the mirror against the wall, shattering it.

Sylvia’s jealousy was so great that she started vicious rumors about the new girl, but because the young lady was so kind, no one believed these lies. Frustrated, Sylvia, with great dramatic flare and fake tears, resorted to acting like the new student tripped her on purpose. Surprisingly, the first person to offer a hand to help her up was her target.

“You did that on purpose to make me look like a fool!” Sylvia screamed while pushing the girl’s hands away. “You’re…you’re a monster!”

“I’m truly sorry. I didn’t know I tripped you. I definitely didn’t mean to…”

“Liar!” Sylvia screamed. “You’re always scheming against me! You’re jealous!”

As friends teachers surrounded the hysterical Sylvia, the new girl turned and walked off, muttering, “As the bully begins to pout, let her darkness turn inside out.”

The beautiful new student was in fact a faerie, and what she had uttered under her breath was a curse. She only cursed those with truly dark hearts, and Sylvia’s was one of the darkest she had ever seen. She had only ever seen one other that was darker.

The next day, Sylvia showed up to school with bandaged knees, a brace on the wrist she didn’t fall on, and an exaggerated pout. Her group was trying their best to cheer her up, making particularly cutting remarks about everyone that day. What Sylvia really wanted was to tell the new girl off in public, but the faerie was never seen or heard from again.

While the group dispersed to go to their classes, Sylvia pulled out her compact to check her makeup. It was then that she noticed a pimple–a small blemish directly on the end of her nose, and it seemed to be growing before her very eyes.

“Oh no!” she thought. Ducking behind a nearby bush, she took a deep breath and peered once again into her small mirror. What she saw horrified her!

The pimple was indeed growing rapidly, as were her eyebrow hairs. Her chin also sprouted some hair growth. As a matter of fact, thick, black hairs were sprouting out everywhere on her body!

She waited until the bell rang and the parking lot emptied before running to her car. Unfortunately, by the time she reached her vehicle, she had grown to an enormous size! The door came off in her hands as she tried to open it. When she put her foot into the car, it went through the floorboard! Her claws shredded the material of the seat as she used it for support to get her foot out. She was just about to put her head into the car when someone behind her shrieked.

Turning, she met the wide eyes of one of her court.

“A…a…monster!” the girl exclaimed, pointing a shaky finger at what used to be her leader.

Upon hearing scream, students and teachers began to file out of the school. Sylvia, realizing that the present situation would not end well for her, loped towards the woods as fast as she could. This task was made more difficult by her knuckles that now dragged the ground. She ran and ran, on and on, putting as much distance as she could between her and the school. Eventually, her hands got in the way and she tripped, rolling head-first down an embankment and landing in mud. When she raised her head, she saw the entrance to a cave and decided to hide there.

Making her way through a tunnel, it opened into a magnificent cavern. A small hole in the ceiling provided a small ray of light to illuminate the room. The cavern was gorgeous; crystals dotted the walls, amplifying the light. In the middle of the space was a clear pond.

Overwhelmed with thirst, Sylvia kneeled by the water. The shape of her hands and sharp claws made it impossible to cup the liquid, so she bent over and lapped at the water like a dog. After she drank her fill, she looked at her reflection.

Matted black hair covered her body. Her jaw jutted forward, creating an underbite with two yellowed fangs poking out around her inky black lips. A small river of drool fell from the corner of her mouth. The pimple was now a huge mass of warts with a nose somewhere underneath. Heavy, unruly eyebrows framed green, bloodshot eyes.

She truly was a green-eyed monster.

Overcome with grief, Sylvia began to cry. Large tears fell from her eyes, mixing with the water from the pond. She wailed and wailed, but had no idea why this fate had befallen her. She had been so beautiful, so popular, and in her mind, everyone loved her.

Finally, the tears wanned, and Sylvia fell into a deep sleep. She dreamed that she woke up normal again and that she went back to her old life. It was a good dream–a happily ever after dream. Best of all, she saw her mother who had mysteriously disappeared three years ago.

Several hours later, the sound of humming brought her consciousness from its slumber. It was a familiar tune, but she couldn’t recall from where. Turning her head towards the sound, she slowly opened her eyes.

Her voice left her. Still on her back, she tried to back away from the grotesque monster beside her.

“You’re up,” it growled. “You’re okay, sweetheart. No need to fear me.”

Sylvia remembered her reflection in the cave’s pond. This beast was almost her doppelganger, save a few gray hairs that betrayed its older age. Could it be?

“Mom?” she asked.

Smiling hideously, for there was no other way that it could smile, it said, “Yes dear, it’s me.”