Beauty is only skin deep

The girl stared into the mirror. She knew she was beautiful,
everyone had told her so all her life.
Her skin was like porcelain, unblemished. Her eyes where china blue, nicely rounded, and framed by eyelashes that were unusually long. Her hair the black/blue colour of magpies trailed down to her waist and her lips were naturally reddish pink to perfection.

She sat in a glass room, where day after day, on a marble pedestal. People, (men mostly) paid to take a look at the beautiful girl. They came from miles around and
left satisfied.

The girl stared at her reflection and wondered if all that was and
would ever be, was this half-life. She wanted to be free. She wanted to
be normal.

One day the girl saw a tiny mark just under her left eye. She was so shocked to see
it she stared at it for along time. It was no bigger than a pinhead. White in colour, it almost but not quite blended into her skin.

She played with it for a while. She picked and worried it with her
fingernail until it became more obvious. Then pop! A short piece of
fine thread came out. It looked like a tiny knot in a piece of cotton.
A stitch. Playing with it again, she loosened it and loosened it.

What would happen if she pulled it out, she wondered. She wouldn't be
perfect anymore. Not until it healed anyway.

She pondered on this thought for a whole hour. Eventually she pinched the thread between her thumb and forefinger and gently took up the slack.
The people standing outside the glass room watched in silence.

The girl gently tugged the piece of string. Unexpectedly there was no pain. Slowly
the string got longer and longer, unravelling itself from just under her now reddened skin. She kept pulling. It started to move. It looked like a tree root being pulled from the earth, making tracks as it travelled under her eye.

She felt a bit of resistance and tugged at the now foot long thread. Suddenly out came a worm like globule of green, pus. She kept pulling. She could hear the
crowd now.
"Urggghhh!" they screamed as they frantically rushed for the
exit.

The worm got longer and longer as she pulled. It travelled across
her nose and under the other eye, leaving a red tail in its
wake.

Warm blood trickled down her checks in rivulets, like a waterfall and
the putrid, smelly string sat in her hand as she stared at the reflection
looking back at her.

It had all been an illusion. A scam. She was a fake.
No longer beautiful. The girl got up not really knowing what she should do. She walked towards the exit and left.

Outside the sky was china blue, two magpies flew past her. She was smiling.