She placed the egg carefully down i

She placed the egg carefully down in the far corner, away from any light that might reveal it to wayward eyes. With her treasure tucked away and secure, she began to back out of the closet into the light of her room, but stopped before she made it all the way. Near where she stowed the egg, there was a box she couldn’t account for. With her thoughts no longer on the egg, she shifted herself over and opened the fold down lid.

The box was filled with an assortment of grotesque and horrifying latex faces. “That’s right” she thought “my Halloween mask collection, I forgot I even still had these”. She’d always loved Halloween masks, the scarier the better. Instead of the usual princess outfits the other girls would get, she would beg and beg her mom to get her a new mask every year, a new face to scare the neighborhood kids with. She grabbed one at random on and pulled it out, bringing herself into the light of her room to get a better look at it.

The mask was slightly crumpled, but once she loosened her grip a bit its original shape became much clearer. In her hand was the head of a monstrous creature with tannish-yellow skin, a bald head, and a gruesome face with bared fangs and a forehead curled down in perpetual displeasure. It’s features continued down the neck and tapered off along the shoulder blades where the material looked like it was torn from the rest of the creature’s body.

“Wicked” she muttered with a toothy grin.

She looked the mask over once more and then put it on the small table next to the mirror. She needed to get changed, her mother would expect her to be in bed soon, and she had to get up for school early tomorrow. She pulled off her shirt and wiggled her way out of her pants, leaving her just in her underwear.

She paused.

There it was again, that feeling in her abdomen. She glanced over at the mask, still staring up with its vacant eyes, eyes that were yearning to be filled. She walks over to the table and picks it up, feeling the texture of it in her hand as she rubbed the thing between her thumb and forefinger.

She stood there for a moment, mask in hand. She looked down at her feet, and then her eyes move upwards along her body. She wasn’t bad looking by any means, but that didn’t stop her from criticizing every little aspect of herself. Thoughts came unbidden to her head every time she looked at her body. “Your breasts are too small” she thought “your hips are too narrow, your hair is unruly, your arms and legs are too scrawny…” this would go on and on until she inevitably resigned herself to the fact that this was just the way she was.