September 9th, 2018

I can't go out for Halloween. I can't go trick or treating. I can't wear a costume. I can't leave my house.

Do you want to know why?

It's because I'm hideous.

A complete monster.

Scary.

Ugly.

I would give the little kids nightmares.

My mom doesn't let me go to school because of my ugliness.

My dad never comes home because of me.

My name is Olivia Laker. I'm in the sixth grade. Well, I would be in the sixth grade if I went to school. I haven't always been the ugly, nightmarish mess I am now. I used to be normal. Plain. Simple. But now...nobody cares. They just don't understand. They never will. Nobody knows what happened in that asylum. Nobody except me and my best friend, Jalynn Miller. She came out just like me. Nobody knows our pain. Our suffering. Our grief at our lost selves.

You say you want to know the story?

I'll tell you the story.

?????????????????.

I turned on my flashlight, glancing over at Jalynn. She looked just as scared as I felt. We had been dared that morning to explore the asylum after school. Being the person I am, I accepted. So now we were there, exploring the creepy, abandoned asylum.

"Olivia?" she asked hesitantly. "Do you think it was a good idea to accept that dare?"

"Of course!" I exclaimed. "We can't let Damien and Jacob think we're scaredy cats!"

"I guess you're right. But shouldn't we have told our parents first?"



I sighed. "Yeah, probably. But it's too late now."

We kept on until our flashlights flickered. They turned off. We were thrown into immediate darkness.

"Jalynn?" I called, unable to see anything. "Where are you?"

"I'm over here, Olivia!" She called back, but something didn't seem right. At that moment, my flashlight turned back on and I saw Jalynn tied up against a chair. Her face was scarred and bruised and I gasped quietly.

"What happened?" was all I managed to whisper.

"This is what happens when kids go places they shouldn't."

I froze, turning my head slowly around to see a tall, slender figure standing behind me. I turned my flashlight to face him and saw a horrifying sight.

+

His face was twisted in an unnatural grin, and he was completely black. Nothing except that ugly, twisted grin on his face. He came closer.

"Olivia, come to me," he whispered. "I just need something from you."

I screamed and dropped my flashlight, running to Jalynn's side. I started to untie the ropes, but he grabbed me by my shirt collar and lifted me off the ground. He held a sharp piece of glass up to my face.

"W-What do you want from m-me?" I whimpered.

He smiled even more.

"I just want your blood."

I opened my jaws in a horrifying scream of pain and agony as the guy sliced my skin open. I could feel warm blood trickling down my cheek. He put something like a glass jar to my face, and I saw my blood run into it as he pulled the glass across the whole of my face. I screamed in horror. He dropped me and I fell to the ground, crying. The guy smiled his twisted grin and untied Jalynn, throwing her towards me. We hugged each other, not letting go until we heard familiar voices calling our names.

"Olivia? Jalynn?" I dared lift my head slightly and saw Jalynn's mother and father, my mother and father, what seemed like the whole police force, and a few search dogs.

I lifted my head all the way and pulled Jalynn upward, and I tried to ignore the gasps of fear and horror as our faces were revealed. I felt my father lift me and carry me away. I closed my eyes and fell into pitch-black darkness. We were rushed to the hospital as fast as a cheetah could run and we had to have immediate surgery. But that did nothing to save our faces.

We were scarred for life. We had gigantic scars across our faces and we were ugly, hideous, horrifying messes. The doctors and our parents thought we were so ugly that my dad ran so far we never saw him again. Jalynn's dad and mom just disappeared. We never saw them from then on out. My mom works so much that it feels like she ran away, too. We're all alone. No one but us. Just us and our hideous scars. Jalynn lives with me now, and we live with my grandparents who, miraculously, still care about us. We live on with the guilt and grief of knowing we'll never be the same again.

And to this day, I and Jalynn are still alone, and though we had friends when they first saw us they unfriended us forever.

Nothing will ever be the same again. They will never know how we felt in that asylum that night. Terrified, horrified, and scarred.

But the real scars will always be hidden on the inside.



-Olivia Laker