Neodermis

The mirror shimmered oddly in the bathroom lighting. The presentation was only minutes away, and she was already wracked with fear. They were waiting—ready for the new business plan, but she felt far less ready than she knew they did.

Jacket.

Lapel pin.

Bracelet.

She had everything she needed—everything to make a first impression to the board. Her nervous face stared back at her in the mirror, uglier than ever. The asymmetrical features hadn’t been her fault—that was a struggle genetics had resolved decades ago. A tiny blister marked her left cheek, one of countless imperfections.

But this one was new.

She scratched at it, feeling the shame welling inside her with the tears from her eyes as clear fluid spilled from the blister. A disgusting flap of skin slowly peeled away from her face, like ancient wallpaper in a decrepit house.

She swallowed in horror. There was no pain. No blood. Only the clear fluid and a desire to keep pulling, to destroy the imperfection until nothing remained. The skin on her face came away in patches now, as its wearer, its owner clawed frantically.

Her facial deformities were nothing new; she was used to the strange looks and cowering children, but she still felt an impossible urge to strip away her own tissues. She knew she should stop—she was tearing herself apart—ruining her face even more than her deformities ever had. She couldn’t present like this—not now, when she crouched over the bathroom sink, watching bits of flesh fall to the floor.

If I keep pulling, I can start over. Just one more scrap, and it’ll even out, she thought—by removing the skin, by continuing to attack it with her nails, she could peel away the damaged portions much like the skin on a rotting onion.

Her pale fingers tore at the edge of her forehead, feeling the tissue release under her grasp like wet paper. Like the peelings of an apple, like the thin fibers surrounding a plant stem, a mask of skin was flung away from her face, revealing—

A face.

Her own.

Even as her skin peeled away, falling in sheets down her back as if a costume had been unzipped, she saw her old body fall to the floor like a dead thing.

Something new stepped through, naked and warm and dripping in clear fluid.

Something perfect.