Speaking to her reflection through a snarl, Marji mimics her mother.

“Marjane, your teeth are so yellow! Please brush them.”

“Marjane, you’re so skinny! Eat mom’s dinner up so you can gain some weight.”

“Marjane! Your nail’s are too long! Men will think you kill them with those.”

“Marjane, Marjane, Marjane. What is wrong with you? Why can’t you do anything right?”

“You’re so stupid. Always taking Mom’s critisism.”

She pushes back and stares at her beautiful reflection, clenching the sink.

“Are my teeth really that noticable? No, Mom’s just getting to my head. But- if I really look at it…”

She gets so close to the glass that her reciprocal noses touch. Her teeth have more yellow pigment than her overdue bathroom appliences.

“I guess they are. My teeth are kind of crooked, too. That’s okay. At least they’re healthy. It’s probably not noticable from afar, anyways.”

She walks backwards and covers her eyes like a child at a horror film. When she removes her hands, she can still see the jaggedness and tart toilet bowl color of her smile. She darts back to the mirror. What else was she missing? As if she was in an art museum, she leans in and out, again and again.

Part, then whole, and before she noticed it in the whole, everything was okay. Then she’d lean in and see her different sized nostrils and massive pores. She’d lean out and see it again.

“I am a piece of ugly art, but you don’t notice that until you examine the crappy composure. I’m going to ruin my self-image if I keep doing this. I should stop..”

But she didn’t. Ticking off all the problems of her body, she slipped into dismorphia. Asymetrical cheek bones and a jaw thats too soft. Bushy eyebrows and eyes that are slanted at different angles. Ears larger that her fists and hands like a man’s. She could hear the rhythm of her heart. Ba thump. Ba thump. Her pupil size doubled as she gripped the sink, taking heavy breaths that appeared on the mirror. Tear ducts formed as she stared at every imperfection.

“There has to be something I can do. Anything.”

Her eyes darted to the swiss army knife in the medicine cabinet. Ba thump. Ba thump.

“Maybe- Maybe I can rearrange some parts.”

She flipped out the sharpest blade of the tool she knew all too well and held it to her scalp.

“One, two, three!”

The knife glided to her temple and Marji dropped it with a shreik. Warm tears and blood flow down her face and create a sensation she’s never felt. The knife glimmers on the floor with danger, soon in Marji’s hand. Her crimson hairline blinds her but her heart says to act. Wailing, she puts the blade as close to the temple as she can imagine.

“Like scissors on wrapping paper. Okay. Four, five, six!”

Blood flows into her mouth and eyes as she drags sloppy, slattern lines across her cheek. More shreiks and screams flood her ears as a piece of skin flips over and exposes deep red tissue. Yellow bubbles of fat cover what used to be her face. The mirror, the sink, the floor, all forming pools of blood.

Trembling and drowing in tears, the beast that was once Marji continues to drag the blade to her opposite ear and back up to the remaining temple. Caterwauls and the symphony of hell exit the body as it places the knife beside the slab. Salty tears touch the bare muscle tissue and the beast howls.

“Seven, eight,”

The beast slides the knife beneath the wound.

“NINE”

The knife slides under the flesh and tears skin away from the dermis in some places and straight off of the muscle in others. Severing globs of fat when it cut too deep and leaving it on the muscle when just right, the beast looked like patchwork. It had it’s eyes shut the entire time and would jolt suddenly at any instance of pain; insicions were impressive considering the curcumstances.

Finally, the piece of flesh that covered the forehead and eyes fell with a plap and clung to the bloody bathroom tile. The beast’s exposed eyes look in terror at what it’s become. The only remaining skin on the face is around the mouth, with which the beast says, “ten..” and collapses. It lies there as it’s veins empty and the bathroom floods.