Fairytale Collections

Faceless Beauty

Once there was a girl with such incomparable beauty wandering through an open meadow, when a wicked witch stole her precious face.

She had the most enchanting eyes, sparkling like emeralds, and is accentuated by her ruby red lips, and a nose as perfectly sculpted.

Her ethereal beauty equals to a thousand flowers. Her radiance shines brighter than any celestial bodies so much, that it is admired by many, even the Heavenly Seven.

After her face was thieved, people began to fear and started to call her a monster. Her once beloved face was mutated into a flat plane with two small holes that act as her nose, and a single eye.

She cannot eat anything without her mouth, but she never became hungry. No one wanted to make friends with her, nor does anyone talk to her without scorning.

As each day passes, she became lonelier. To prevent her misery, she locked herself inside her room for days. Every night, she would pray to the Heavenly Seven to heal her and turn her into a normal person again. But her prayer remained unheard.

The once loved beauty became a faceless horror.

One evening, a star named Hoffen appeared in her dreams.

"I heard your prayers from above and I descended to give you an answer. The only way for the witch's curse to be reversed is through the act of true love. Until then, will you return to your original form and live peacefully in eternity."

When she woke up, Hoffen was gone. She thought of what the star meant by an act of true love.

"Perhaps, a true love's kiss?" She blushed at the thought of someone kissing her. But who would ever put themselves in the torture of seeing her hideous face? Not that it's even considered one at this point.

The next morning, she decided that this is the answer to her prayers, and she knew that she had to act upon it. And so she groomed herself with fine clothing, and wrote her dream in a piece of paper which she showed to her mother.

The news of the star's condition quickly spread throughout the kingdom like wildfire.

She was certain that someone will come knocking at their front door with flowers of different kinds and colors and is willing to help her become the beauteous woman she was before by kissing her.

She waited for that man for hours, but only the sting of disappointment and embarrassment awaited her that day.

Only then she realized that people only adored her for her face and not for who she is inside.

That evening, her mother went to her room and sat beside her. She lent her a mirror. She looked at her mother strangely, questioning her intent.

"My sweet, look in the mirror. What do you see?"

Her eye shot fire at her mother. She knew very well that she had no mouth anymore.

"Hush, dear. Now, look. What do you see?"

Her mother knew very well that she could not speak. Why is she doing this?

"Silly girl. Speak with your mind. Now, look at you. What do you see?"

She was reluctant at first. She doesn't want to see her hideous face. But, her mother was persistent and she could not resist.

She turned slowly, then all at once. She stared at her reflection.

"Do you know what I see? I see a young, strong, confident woman. I don't see you as an imperfection because, clearly, you are not. If you start defining yourself by who you are and not by who you were, you'll finally know what true happiness is - it's from within. No need to cry. Let the world judge you because they always will. What's important is how you view yourself. Embrace your changes and all of you."

"But mother, I'm scared."

"Fear makes us wiser here," she touched the girl's head, "and stronger here," and her chest where her heart is beating.

She spent the evening staring at her own reflection. Tears started streaming down as she realized what she had really lost.
She lost herself in the process of pleasing others. She relied solely in her beauty, where, in fact, she had so much to offer. She had her family by her side.

She closed her eyes and prayed to the Heavenly Seven. This time though, she thanked them for the silver lining she found that night.

She learned to accept and love herself.

The next morning, the faceless beauty went outside of her room for the first time. Everyone in the house was startled by her sudden act.

What's more shocking is she finally had her face back.

Maybe a kiss isn't the act of true love she needed all along. Embracing yourself was.