Strangely Exposed

A smooth bald scalp gleams beneath the salon lights. For a moment, nobody speaks. The room simply studies the result. Then Marina lets out a long, dramatic sigh and presses a hand to her chest. "Oh, that's devastating," she says. The room immediately erupts with laughter again.

"Wow," said the Nixie, "This is really freaky! She looks so...so, alien without any hair!"

I can barely breathe. The woman staring back at me from the mirror looks like a stranger. Without my curls, every feature of my face seems exposed and impossible to hide. I feel **** in a way I have never experienced before, as though a layer of armor I never realized I was wearing has been ripped away.

The laughter echoes around me while I struggle to process what I am seeing. Then Callista steps forward carrying a straight razor. The sight of it sends a fresh wave of panic through my stomach. "No," I say. I have already lost my hair. I tell myself there cannot possibly be anything left for them to take.

Callista's grin widens."Oh yes, you ugly bitch."

The look on her face immediately proves me wrong. She places one hand against my forehead and gently stretches the skin above my right eye. The razor touches my face. I watch in helpless disbelief as the first pass removes a narrow strip of dark hair.

The women lean forward with obvious interest. Marina watches with the same expression someone might wear at a fashion show. Reina studies the process thoughtfully. Even Valeria seems curious to see the final result. Unable to bear it, I squeeze my eyes shut.

"Look at yourself," Valeria says. The command slides through me like a hook. My eyes open immediately. I hate that they do. I hate that I cannot stop them. The curse forces me to watch as Callista continues her work. Slow, careful strokes remove the rest of my eyebrow. Each scrape of the razor leaves a little more bare skin behind.

The familiar arch that has framed my face for my entire adult life vanishes piece by piece until nothing remains. "There we go," Callista says softly. "Now let's do the other one." The women murmur their approval. I stare at the mirror while she moves to my left eyebrow.

Again the razor glides across my skin. Again dark hairs disappear. I watch the second eyebrow shrink, then thin, then vanish entirely. Every pass makes my reflection look stranger. Less familiar. Less like me. By the time Callista lowers the razor, both eyebrows are gone.

"You took her eyebrows off!" exclaims Nessa "That's fucked up!"

The room falls quiet. I barely recognize the woman staring back at me. Without my eyebrows, every emotion seems exposed and exaggerated. My eyes look larger. My face looks unfinished. The effect is subtle and devastating all at once.

"My eyebrows!" I cry out as I sink into the chair in despair, "You took my eyebrows!"

Then Callista smiles. "Oh, we're not finished." My stomach drops. She picks up a fresh razor and runs her hand across my newly shaved scalp. Tiny dark stubble remains where the clippers passed. The Empusa hums thoughtfully before placing the blade against my head.

The first stroke removes the shadow of stubble, leaving perfectly smooth skin behind. The women immediately begin offering opinions.

"Much better," Marina says. "She looks like a penis."

"It makes her eyes stand out," Nessa observes, "like an exotic bug."

"It makes her look ****," Reina replies.

"Exactly," Callista says. I watch in horror as she continues. The razor glides back and forth across my scalp. Every trace of remaining hair disappears. Tiny shadows vanish. Rough patches vanish. Soon the razor is no longer removing hair so much as polishing away any evidence that hair had ever existed at all.

By the time she finishes, my scalp reflects the salon lights. Callista steps back. I stare into the mirror. The woman looking back at me is completely bald. She has no eyebrows. Her eyes are wide with fear. Her expression looks lost and exposed in a way I have never seen before.

For several long seconds, nobody speaks. Then Marina lets out a low whistle. "My God," she says. "She really hates it." The room erupts into laughter. I never take my eyes off the mirror. For several seconds I simply stare at her before the awful realization settles in. The woman in the mirror is me.

Silence settles over the salon once more. Valeria studies the result thoughtfully. Marina tilts her head from one side to the other. Nessa nods with quiet approval. Reina circles the chair as though inspecting a sculpture from every angle. Finally Xiu Lian smiles and folds her hands together.

"What am I going to do?" I ask, "I look like a freak! No one will ever want me again!"

"That's the whole idea you stupid bitch!" snaps Drusila.

"No one will want you? You think?" says the Vampiress as she leans in close to my face. "Open your mouth." With a sniffle, I slowly comply. The removal of my eyebrows had taken any and all resistance from me. She spits into my mouth. "Swallow it."

I swallow hard, but my eyes never leave the mirror. The seven women admire their work. I mourn it. I cannot stop staring at my reflection. The loss of my hair had been shocking enough, but without eyebrows the effect is far worse. My face no longer looks natural. It looks unfinished. Alien. Every feature seems exaggerated and strangely exposed.

My eyes appear too large for my face, floating above smooth skin where familiar arches should be. Every expression looks wrong. Fear looks wider. Sadness looks emptier. Even blinking seems strange. The woman in the mirror still has my icy blue eyes, my nose, my lips, and every other feature I have carried my entire life, yet somehow she no longer looks entirely human.

She looks like a pale, hairless imitation of Jezebel James, something assembled from memory rather than reality. The sight sends a fresh wave of nausea through my stomach. For the first time in my life, I understand how much of my identity had been tied to those simple details, and seeing them gone leaves me feeling less beautiful than exposed, less unique than incomplete, and more **** than I have ever felt before.

"And you ladies," Callista asks the others, "What do you think?"

"She sure does look strange, that's for sure!" answers Marina. "Like some kinda strange bald faced monkey or something."

"The hardest part for me was not laughing the whole time!" said the Kitsune. The other temptresses nod and smile knowingly.

Marina immediately points. "There! That face right there!" The Siren laughs so hard she nearly doubles over. "She's already imagining it. The first time somebody looks at her and doesn't see Jezebel James."

"Oh, don't worry," Callista says. "People will still notice you." Then the Empusa smiles. "They just won't be thinking what they used to."

"Face it, sweetheart," Callista says. "Right now you aren't the terrifying monster hunter. You aren't the mysterious temptress. You aren't the woman everybody notices when she walks into a room." I open my eyes. The Empusa's smile is merciless. "Right now you're just a scared little girl trapped in a chair, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it."