The Undressed
A morning on the dark side of fashion
I looked in the mirror and my face wasn’t mine.
The black and white floor tiles looked worse than they did yesterday.
Pacing was difficult in a bathroom that small, a shrinking box of a place really. My chest filled with air, I closed my eyes, held my breath. I couldn’t bare to look at my face, I looked to the floor again. A collection of bits of my former self lay on a pile of skin I had shed. They seemed to move.
I couldn’t decide what was worse, my skin peeling or the clashing tie dye shirt I was wearing. What an eyesore, I should have stolen something more on brand. I looked in the mirror again then exhaled. The leg twitching had begun.
It had been twenty-four hours since my skin last touched it, the goosebumps and perspiration started quickly. The scent of sulfur stuck to me like a perfume, and soon after, my thoughts merged. The idea of being awake was too painful, so I slept and slept after sleeping. My nerves would eventually take control where the specter of death loomed.
How incredible my life had been the day before yesterday. Life beyond the golden gate was pure joy. Hidden away behind fortified walls, lush gardens, and impenetrable security, it is a slice of heaven. The endless rows of elegant homes, the streets lined with perfectly manicured trees, swaying with their emerald green leaves
The residents wore a new kind of clothing. Their skin like fabric shimmered in a way I hadn’t seen before, stretching, morphing and moulding to the contours of their bodies.
This material was a like a drug, and I wanted it. I needed it.
The chills now began.
An icy sensation washed over my body. The twitching now migrated to my right arm.
The bathroom window had been open, letting in a breeze that brushed against my face, my good side. The desolate sounds coming with it. A symphony of solemn rituals, mournful whispers and the faint shuffling of feet. I refuse to stay in this place. I refuse to be trapped.
My phone vibrated.
It was Sebastian. “ Meet me in the Elysian in an hour, wear a dress”
I couldn’t let him see me like this. I will have aged more in an hour than he will in a year.
I shouldn’t have accepted the gift. What was I thinking? I could never afford to be one of them. Did I think I could join them?
The moment I accepted the gift, I knew I was dead. The only way to survive was to consider the most unfathomable act, taking someone else’s life.