Sleeping Beauty

"Friends, family members of my dear best friend, Chastity - this will truly be a wedding to remember," Sarah tapped her microphone and smiled, looking at the audience. Then she looked down at Chastity lying in the glass box at her feet. The flowers draped over her. The veil covering her face. She was the perfect 'Sleeping Beauty.' 

"Chastity has been my friend since - well, as long as I can remember, really. We go back to elementary school. No, preschool even. I remember one day at recess when she taught me how to click my tongue." Sarah slapped her tongue down from the roof of her mouth to the floor, making a clicking sound. "I remember her going with me to Arizona, to the Grand Canyon. We would sit on the rocks and watch the sunset. I remember camping with her down in Shadowhead.

"And when we got older, I remember going to Virginia Tech with her. She would always help me with my homework. She was so bright. Still is so bright. And, of course, so beautiful. She was the star. Always shining there on the world stage, attracting all the attention."

Kevin grumbled in the back, shifting from one foot to the next. Chastity could tell he was uncomfortable. But, she thought, she hadn't gotten to the best part yet.

"I remember one winter we went to Vista Point, overlooking the Mediterranean there. Such a beautiful spot, standing on the cliff where that man had disappeared some years ago. It was beautiful, which appealed to her, but its dark mystery appealed to me. It made me wonder where that handsome man - Ms. Carter's paramour - had gone.

"I suppose things with Chastity and I were always a little like that. I was the dreamer; she was the dream. I was reaching for the stars; she was among them."

Everyone was quiet now. Sarah had them right where she wanted: listening to her, enraptured. Below her, on stage, Chastity shifted position in her glass box.

"I was always a little jealous of Chastity," Sarah said. "Her beauty, well, it was the stuff of legend. It obviously attracted the men too, like Kevin, and of course, it also attracted my ex-husband, Phil."

Chasisty leaned forward and pushed against the glass lid, but Sarah had secured it. She would open it if and when she was ready. And besides, the glass was soundproof, so she could make all the noise she wanted inside, and no one would know.

"I admit, I was surprised when she asked me to perform the surgery on her face. 'No one can see me before the unveiling, not even me. And when my husband awakens me, it will be like a fairy tale,' she told me. And so here we are. But secretly, I wondered why I was messing with perfection." Sarah grabbed her champagne glass and drank it in a single gulp. She placed it back on the piano next to her. "But I think I have really done a work of art on this girl. And, of course, I stand by my performance. Not to mention, I absolutely love the Sleeping Beauty theme you both went with for the wedding. So romantic."

There was a soft pitter-patter of applause from around the room.

"So, for those of you who don't know much about me, well, as of a few years ago - after Phil left me - I picked up the hobby of playing the piano." Sarah sat down at the black, baby grand piano on stage. "And I've prepared a few songs that I think you will all enjoy. I've been practicing every night when I can't sleep or when I'm sad, which has been often here lately. But let's keep this chipper, shall we? Kevin, if you want to come up and awaken your sleeping beauty..."

Sarah began to play a chipper wedding melody.

Kevin came up and unlocked the box, and as soon as he lifted the lid, Chastity sat up, screaming at the top of her lungs. "It's Sarah! Call the police!"

Sarah just kept playing her melody, stealing glimpses of the not-so-happy newlyweds.

"Honey, what's wrong?" said Kevin, raising the veil. "Oh dear God!"

"This is the best part here, guys," said Sarah, playing up a crescendo, doing her best to act like she wasn't watching the events unfolding with grim satisfaction. 

Chastity tried to stand, but the blood loss was making it difficult. thick gashes seeped blood and pus down her cheeks and chin. Red drops covered her dress like a rash. "What have you done to me?" she screamed at Sarah.

"There's a mirror in the box, sweetie," said Sarah, smiling. "I think I really managed to capture that inner beauty of yours."

Kevin ran toward Sarah, grabbing her shoulder and receiving a dagger to the heart for his efforts. 

He stumbled backward two steps, then forward one. His wife grabbed him, also stumbling, as the audience screamed and fled. 

The unhappy couple clung to each other in a morbid death dance, locked in each other's embrace. Sarah continued to play as Kevin died and Chastity sobbed over his corpse.

"So you might be curious about what I did to you," Sarah said. "First, I took out about a half pound of fat from each of your cheeks, giving you that gaunt look that is so chilling." 

Chastity attempted to crawl over to Sarah but was finding it predictably difficult.

"Next, I shaved your chin, filing it to a point, but I still had this pound of flesh that I didn't know what to do with." Sarah continued playing the music. "So I decided the forehead was the place to go. Two nice little devil horns with contacts to match. Permanent contacts, by the way. I used this special water-based adhesive to meld them to your eyeballs."

"You're a monster," Chastity cursed. 

"Says the woman who had an affair with my husband."

The bride had crawled only a few inches, so Sarah began playing another chipper wedding song. 

"You know, I considered body modification too," she said. "I thought, maybe I could do something with 'the ladies' or your nethers or maybe shave a few inches off your height. But then I thought, 'Wouldn't it be so much crueler to leave that alone? To only make it your face that I ruined?'"

"They'll lock you up forever when they find out. You'll never be safe anywhere. They'll give you the chair."

Sarah stopped playing. "Yeah. Probably."

And then she got up and left.

But that's not the end of the story.

Sarah heard something rustle in the rose bush next to her as she walked down the aisle, and stepping from the blood-red blossoms and thorns was the groom, adjusting his tuxedo and straightening his blood-covered tie. The dagger's hilt bounced up and down with each beating of his heart.

She glanced behind her, but Kevin's hands prevented her from moving her head.

"Hey, eyes right here," he said, calm and confident. 

Sarah noticed his teeth had changed and was sharp like a bloodhound's. His pupils were black, and his eye sockets deepened, giving them a sunken-in look that was ghastly.

"You think your little surgery revealed the monster within Chastity?" he sneered, "Sarah, you didn't even scratch the surface."

And then from behind her she heard sounds of change, transformation, mutation, evil. And she knew without looking that this was where her story would really end.