Legolass
Mistress Leggy of Amethyst
Inner Sanctum Nobility
The Face Stealer
When I was a little girl, my best friend Veronica and I loved to go exploring. We lived in a small town, and it was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a forest. Our parents always told us not to go in there. They said it was dangerous. People who entered never came back.
It was the middle of summer. Veronica and I were excited to finally be graduating College in the Spring and we decided to channel our excitement into our exploring. We were desperate for something new. All of our old haunts no longer had any secrets left to share with us, so we turned our eyes to the forest. Growing up, we had all heard the stories of a ghost that haunted the place or some kind of a vicious monster. No one really knew what was in there, and we decided to find out.
We waited until it was the dead of night, the moon high in the sky and shining down on us. We had only a few hours to explore and get home before our parents woke up so we hurried out and took those first steps into the undergrowth. Immediately, we could tell something was off. The town was usually quiet at night, but the forest contained no sound at all. No animals seemed to be moving about. Veronica lifted the lantern we had brought and glanced at me before walking forward. She had always been the fearless one.
Deeper into the woods we went, slowly making our way through the thick growth with only minor scratches until something rustled nearby. It was the first sound we had heard since starting the trek that hadn't been created by the two of us. We stood still. Minutes passed but it felt like hours before we had the courage to continue walking. Suddenly the stillness of the night was broken by loud cackling that seemed to be coming from right behind us. We spun around and saw...nothing. There was nothing there, and the sound vanished as though it had never been there, to begin with.
Thoroughly spooked, we decided to turn around and go back home. We figured it would be better to try again in the afternoon with the brightness of the sun shining down on us.
We walked for minutes. Hours. And yet we seemed to make no progress back to the town. It was as though the woods had gotten bigger since we had entered it, and the sky didn't seem to be changing any, the moon still in the same position it had been in when we began our no longer harmless escapade. We felt hopeless. And just as we were beginning to give up, we saw a light. In the distance, flickering ominously, but anything was better than being left in that darkness.
Veronica hurried off, and I took off after her, following her and the light of the lantern she still carried. We came out in a clearing that contained nothing but a small fire beside a creek. There was a woman in a green dress there, in the water, just standing there knee-deep. She was facing away from us. Veronica suggested we ask for help.
All of our calls to her went unanswered though, and we walked over to the edge of the water, trying to get the woman's attention. She didn't acknowledge us, and we were desperate, so Veronica waded in over to her. Suddenly, she spoke.
"Oh, my dears, what beautiful faces you have." Her voice was hollow, empty...dead. White hair masked her lips. "May I have it."
I heard Veronica voice her refusal before the woman turned around and revealed her face. Or lack thereof. I remember to this day...the way her voice screeched like nails on a chalkboard as she spoke.
"I wasn't asking." And suddenly, it was Veronica's face I was seeing on her. I froze in terror, glancing between the woman and my best friend who no longer had any face, and was falling back into the water. The woman cackled and it broke me out of my stupor, sending me running in fright. I could hear her behind me, which only pushed me to run faster. I could see it. The exit, the way out. It was right there. So close. I cleared it and ran all the way home, certain that I could still hear her behind me, never looking back to make sure.
As I lay safe in my bed, finally, I trembled, thinking I could hear her laughter faintly, nails scratching at the door. From then on, I would glimpse her in my reflection, and be forced to look away before she could steal my face. It's only a matter of time though. I know about her. She'll never let me go. She'll forever torment me unless...I'm so sorry, my friend. It was the only way...She wouldn't leave me alone unless….I told someone else about her. She's after you now...Don't look at your reflection.