Marred Beauty

It happened so fast. The school he had once known had become so distorted and alien within mere minutes. Granted, the walls and floors were the same as they had always been, yet with someone in the school, everything seemed to be on edge. Rogers looked around to see where he was going. Surely someone would be in the cafeteria?

“Attention, attention, the campus is in lockdown. The campus is in lockdown,” the automated voice droned overhead.

“Where do I go? I can’t just stay out in the open forever,” he muttered, trying to find someone, “Of all times for the bathroom to call…”

Thankfully, no one seemed to be actively wandering the halls in this section of the school. In fact, it seemed quite empty, even though he knew nearly every room had at least one person holed up in them. Obviously, they didn’t let him in. It was protocol after all– but it would be really helpful if he had somewhere to hide.

“God, this is terrifying,” Rogers thought as he started to notice vague pictures that looked like they were drawn by children. The shapes were shown with precise rips and tears, and the colors seemed to be exclusively painted with blood. “I’m in the wrong section,” he simply said as he turned and went the other way.

He knew how this worked. It always started with minor things, like creepy dolls and small stains and notes, and he wasn’t about to deal with some Lovecraftian horror from space. No way! It was like shouting in a crowd of zombies when you’re trying to sneak past them.

“No, nope, nada, nuh-uh! Not having that today!” Rogers rationalized as he speed-walked down the stairs and onto another floor… and straight into a woman wearing a ragged trenchcoat and a surgical mask covering her mouth. She looked distinctly of a Japanese descent, yet Rogers didn’t know any teachers that looked like her.

“Uh oh…” he said.

A faint smile crept its way near her eyes.

Rogers slowly stepped away from her in turn.

“Do you think I am pretty?” she said with a raspy and horrific wheeze to her voice.

Rogers blinked. That sounded like a trick question, “Um… yes?”

She pulled off her surgical mask, showing a large tear on her cheeks, as if she were smiling all the time; she had a horrific Glasgow smile carved into her face.

“How about now?”

Rogers flinched, scared out of his mind. He quickly pulled an excuse off the top of his head and said, “What’s that over there?”

Thankfully, the woman took the schmuck bait and turned to look, giving Rogers a small head start in his escape attempt.

Rogers’ steps echoed throughout the hallways as he desperately ran for his life, his shoes scraping against the concrete. A large clanging sound seemed to be angrily making its way towards him as he ran. Oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God! he thought as he remembered that woman’s face. What the hell was that! It looked like her cheeks were cut open into a smile by a freaking sword!

He snapped out of his musings when he saw that woman casually step out from behind a turn in front of him.

“My, how rude to–” The woman didn’t get a chance to finish as Rogers promptly turned around to get away.

Rogers leapt into the stairwell and practically jumped down the stairs as he fled.

“Not killing this boy today!” he yelled, the primal survival instincts hidden in everyone (also known as adrenaline) kicking in.

“Want to bet?” The woman was somehow already at the bottom of the stairwell!

“Gah! No, no, no, no!” Rogers shrieked as he turned and scaled up the stairs again. But somehow that woman was already there, hands in her pocket. She couldn’t really control her lips, seeing how they were ripped open more than Jeff the Killer’s smile, but Rogers got the feeling she would’ve had a smug or cocky grin on her face right now.

“How did you get up here so fast!” he screamed, taking a step back…

…on a stairwell.

That was a horrible idea, as you may have guessed already.

“D’oh! Gah, daughter of a–! OW! Freak! Of! Nature! OWWW!” Rogers cursed oddly as he tumbled down the stairs. Almost immediately shrugging off the pain, he got up and ran before that woman could catch up.

He ran and ran, and spared a quick glance. He could see her figure faintly shimmering and becoming more opaque. Ahhoooh…great. She can teleport.

Blinking as if realizing she was done, the woman shook herself a bit and began to pursue him again.

“God! It’s like you’re a bloodhound!” Rogers squeaked as he picked up the pace.

Soon, he heard a snipping noise like scissors come from behind him– they sounded like very long scissors at that! He hesitantly looked back and saw the woman had scissors the size of his forearm, and she definitely didn’t look like a professional barber.

While he was looking back, Rogers accidently ran into a wall and was quickly cornered by the maniac.

“Now… answer my question,” the woman demanded.

“Um, what’s your name?” Rogers answered with another question.

“Kuchisake-Onna– Wait, what does…” The Infamous Japanese Ghost of The Slit-Mouthed Woman realized it was just a diversion as Rogers tripped her and ran away, again.

Rogers faintly heard some strange cursing that sounded a lot like archaic Japanese. “Uh-oh… She’s really angry now!”

He kept running and running until he was sure Kuchisake couldn’t catch up to him so easily. He ran from the lowest corner of Fluvanna County High School all the way to the highest corner under a table with clothes draped all over it. He wasn’t taking chances now, not with a crazy ghost killer after him, though how that made any sense on paper was a subject he wanted answered.

The question that mattered most, however, was how was he going to survive? He had a bit of knowledge about some Japanese folklore monsters and how to escape them, but they never really stated how to kill a monster outright. Their monsters could’ve been accurately described as forces of nature, and not many people would disagree.

He heard a slight scratch against the wall accompanied by a horrific stench. It smelled like a skunk’s corpse left out to rot in the middle of a latrine that was never cleaned.

The scratching grew louder and louder, and soon Kuchisake’s boots were visible under the table. A loud sniff took in the air’s warmth. The room felt ice-cold, and Rogers could feel the hatred and despise coming off of Kuchisake in waves.

“Somewhere… he’s here somewhere,” Kuchisake hissed as her image began to fade into a gaseous state. She was teleporting again. Perhaps she could be beaten if her form was scattered?

Worth a shot! Rogers thought as he charged through the transparent image of the killer and randomly threw punches and kicks as if to dispel her form.

Kuchisake stared in shock as her physical form was dispersing beyond her control.

“Ha ha! I’ve beaten you!” Rogers shouted proudly.

Kuchisake stared at Rogers, furious. Her mouth became filled with rows upon rows of sharp and jagged fangs and needle-like teeth stained with blood, and she lunged at him in anger. But she just passed cleanly through him. Rogers took this chance to mock her.

“And to answer your question, I thought you looked more attractive when you didn’t have a shark’s mouth… but you definitely had looks.” Rogers began to laugh hysterically as Kuchisake tried to stab and slice him with her scissors out of embarrassment and fury, but failed to do anything due to her rapidly fading body.

“I’ll be back, mortal! You’ll see!” she swore as she faded away for good this time.

Rogers stood on edge, waiting to see if she’d randomly pop up again. But thankfully, she was gone for good this time.

“Whew!” Rogers wiped off the sweat on his head, “Thank God I managed to survive,” he sighed in satisfaction as he sat down and waited for the authorities to arrive.