Can you tell us how this began?
I think my name was John Williams and it was 19 May 2013 when it started. Back then I had short black hair and a face that could stop a crowd (so I was told). The sun was setting over the horizon and I was waiting on hill I don’t remember where but I know it was in front of a forest and by a circus whose tiger had escaped earlier that day. I was waiting for my girlfriend, Natalie White she was the prettiest girl I had ever seen. She had long brown hair and bright red lips. I had been setting this date up for months now. I was planning to propose to her. But as I waited she didn’t turn up. I told myself she was late and she was on her way but how I wish I had left there and then, because after a while I started to get worried maybe she got lost. So I decided to look for her in the forest.
I searched for hours but I couldn’t find her so I returned to the top of the hill to get my stuff. But when I got to the top a tiger stood in my way. It must have been the tiger that escaped from the circus, if it could get pass guards what could it do to me, I thought. The good thing was that he hasn’t seen me yet. I backed up very slowly but hit a rock that went rolling down the hill. I turned to run but the tiger had lightning fast reflects and pounced on me. I fell to the ground and we both went rolling down the hill like the rock. As we rolled the tiger slashed the air with his claws attempting to slice me. When we got to the bottom the tiger kicked me away onto a metal bar. I fell to the floor dizzy as the surroundings came clear, I was in the circus that the tiger escaped from, all around me people looked shocked at the sight of what they had just witnessed. The tiger came running through the crowd towards me. I couldn’t move I was frozen with shock as the tiger got closer and closer. But as got the ability to move it was too late tiger ripped at my face with his claw. For a few seconds I felt nothing but suddenly a rush of pain came
shooting from my left cheek. “BANG” one of the guards shot the tiger and he fell to the ground. As I looked into it’s dying eyes I saw a person as scared as myself. As everyone started to calm down then they all looked at me in horror. I felt my face to find I had no left cheek, just a big hole. As I looked at the tigers claws I saw that one of them had was looked like a chunk of skin that was once my cheek. I screamed in pain be nothing came out. This was horrible everyone looked at me like I was a monster and I couldn’t speak. That’s when it started. My Hell on Earth.
It was a few hours after the ‘incident’ and the hole had stopped bleeding. I walked home avoiding any people as I did so I hoped my parents could cope with what had happened. As I got home and opened the door I saw my little brother fast asleep on the floor by the stairs with a piece of paper that said “Hope It Went Well!” I smiled or what I thought was a smile the hole in my face made the smile hideous, like a skeleton was coming out of me. I walked upstairs and saw my parents asleep as well. I went to the bathroom and cleaned up the hole best I could. I was horrible, you could see pieces of gum and flesh handing off and sharp bones like jail bars. Then I went to bed and decided to tell them in the morning. But I didn’t sleep all I did was think about what would tomorrow hold for me. I had university in the morning but I couldn’t go in this state. I didn’t know what to do!
As morning came I got up to tell my parents what had happened last night. But as I got to their room I remembered how last night I couldn’t speak so I went downstairs and got the laptop and typed up what had happened. I then went back to their room and as I walked in they were just getting up. My dad looked over at me when he heard me come in and fell off the bed in shock. Then my mum turned
around and screamed then asked “what happened!” I pointed to the computer and they read what had happened. “Oh my poor boy” my mum sadly “but its ok, we’ll..um...get you to a doctor they’ll fix you up everything’s going to be fine…….ok?” She just didn’t know what to say, but I nodded.
Sure enough they took me to a doctor who fitted a mask on the bottom half of my face. But it couldn’t hide the horror I went through. It was a black mask that had ten or so tubes connecting it to my face. It made me able to speak but it wasn’t my voice, my voice died when this was put on my face it was a computerized recreation of my voice. But I knew my parents were doing all they could to help me so I carried on my life with it or that’s what I hoped.
The next day I returned to univericity and as got there, heads turned and whispers began. I saw the faces of people that I knew staring at the mask on my face. Little did I realize that a trouble maker named Luke was sneaking up behind me and when I walked through the doors that lead inside he snatched off the mask. Everyone screamed in horror as the rotted yellow flesh of what was left of my cheek was shown. I saw a girl pushing through the crowd as she lifted her face I saw that it was Natalie. Her smile dropped as she saw my face instead it was replaced by a horrific shock. As I looked at all their faces I took the mask out of Luke’s hands which was easy because he was so stunned he couldn’t move. I put on the mask and ran out the door intending never to go back.
I ran home but no one was there which was prefect, I packed a bag, wrote a note a for my parents to explain my chose and I left. I left behind my family, friends and basically my hole live. I had spend my hole life having fun but this is where it stopped. All I could think about was their faces, their horrified eyes staring into my soul. Now I stay in the shadows watching those that I used to know. I never let them see me. People tell stories about me but often get it wrong. I one thing that I was shore of was that I would never be loved again because who would love ………a monster?
But over time I learned to coup with the staring eyes and horrified looks because society would not expect me if I couldn’t expect myself. I returned home because of my little brother, he saw he once but didn’t recognize me at first as it had been a few years since I had left but once he did he ran up to me and did the one thing I didn’t expect. He hugged me. After that he persuaded me to come home so that we could be a family again. He told me how my friends had come to the house hoping to find me and tell me that they didn’t mind the mask, that I was the same person behind it they were just shocked at first. They even went searching for me for 4 days in the forest. In the end to returned home and everyone got used to the mask and what had happened. Natalie told me that she was on her way but when she got there I wasn’t there (when me and the tiger were rolling down the hill). I got on with my life like nothing happened.
