ᑕᕼᗩᑭ丅ᗴᖇ ౹ 

Today is Friday, which means Kelly will not have school tomorrow. The sun is setting, dying the entire sky orange with a tint of gold. The sparse and translucent clouds flew gently across the sky, birds flying back to their nests in hoards, excitedly chirping. Kally is on her way back home from grocery shopping at a grocery store near her school, both hands filled with grocery bags. She is excited for tomorrow; to submerge herself in producing new food recipes, hence the reason for all these grocery bags filled with meat, vegetables, and snacks.

𝘞𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘩

Kally sees afterimages of something moving through the air across her face, causing her to halt her steps and turn her head to take a better look. Turns out it is just a scrawny black cat, landing shakily on its four paws on the other side of the street, clearly looking starved with its thin frame looking like a skin-covered skeleton, here and there with furs missing. Even worse, it seems to have just given birth to a litter of kittens, which is evident through its swollen breasts.

Kally loves cats. Something about their personality reminds her of her stubborn and introverted-self. Since this cat looks starved, she places her grocery bags on the floor and rummaged through them, searching for the canned tuna fish that she bought. The cat seems to sense no ill will, so it gave a croaky "meow" and starts to stumble shakily over.

𝘝𝘖𝘖𝘖𝘔!

Startled by the engine-like roar, Kally glances up. She spots a red sports car speeding down the road toward the stumbling cat as it crosses the street towards her. Before she can think, her legs begin to move on their own and her hands scoop up the shocked clueless cat. As she makes her way as fast as she can towards the other side of the street, she feels a sharp pain in one of her ankles and falls down.

With no time left to think, Kally throws the cat out of the line of danger. Sitting on the rough graveled road, all she sees is the incoming car's headlight zooming closer and closer, until her field of vision is flooded by the blinding light, then everything goes dark.

In the darkness, Kally feels immense agony. She is sure that there is not a single part of her body unbroken, her nose is filled with the metallic scent of blood. Slowly, she feels her pain receding along with her consciousness.

𝘈𝘮 𝘐 𝘥𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨?

As her breathing gets increasingly labored, her mind is suddenly filled with flashbacks of the entire 16 years of her life.

Kally is the youngest of the three children...and the ugliest.

She was born with small eyes, a short neck, bucked teeth, and acne-prone skin. She inherited her father's thick jawline and large body frame, which often made people mistake her for a man. On top of being the least girly girl, she is also overweight. It is not her fault though. She was born without a thyroid gland, which causes her to feel lethargic and suffer uncontrollable weight gain. There is currently no permanent cure for hypothyroidism, thus, Kally could only rely on hormone medications that help to a degree.

Unlike Kally, her two older twin sisters are slim and dainty, with pore-less unblemished skin, big doe-eyes, and plumped soft lips that look fitting on their small heart-shaped faces, creating a contrast with their lustrous thick hair. In high school, they have been crowned the title 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘺, and one of them was even voted as the 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘮. Both started fashion modeling in middle school, and now that they are in their senior year of college, they have already begun modeling for famous brands like Victoria's Secret and Chanel.

One would have expected one's family to be emotionally supportive, but that is not the case for her family. In fact, they are one of the main reasons why she isolates herself in a shell. To others, her two sisters are kind-hearted fairies, but to Kally they are witches. They think she is an embarrassment and demand that she pretends to not know them outside of the home. However, this is an improvement compared to when they were younger, as they liked to play pranks on her. Most of their pranks were often appearance-targeted, such as sticking post-it notes on her back, face, or hair, and on them were written "𝘔𝘰𝘰" 𝘰𝘳 "𝘖𝘪𝘯𝘬," accompanied by exaggerated drawings of the said animals.

Her mother, a retired model who values beauty, blatantly favors her older siblings more than her, and although her father tries his best to appear neutral, he at times unconsciously displays favoritism.

She was born on a different date than her sisters, but why must she celebrate her birthday on 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 birthday?

Also, while her siblings wore brand-new clothes and shoes, why was she given hand-me-downs?

The reason her mother gave her was "since your looks are... uh... 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘦, it would not make so much of a difference what you wear."

Kally could not remember being hugged or receiving an "I love you" from her parents, only remembering them talking to her when they needed help around the house or when they told her to yield to her sisters.

Kally used to go out of her way to make friends and to be loved by her parents. When she could not take it anymore and voiced out her feelings, her parents said with impatience that she is being "too dramatic" and needed to learn to live in poverty to be grateful for what she currently has.

"You should be grateful that you have a roof over your head, good food to eat, and the chance to go to school." Said her mother.

Surely, Kally is grateful for all those things, but she is convinced that emotionally neglecting a child is not what good parents do. All Kally wants is simply some occasional gesture of care and understanding, at least in pretense. She is tired. Sixteen years of emotional neglect has taught her that some things in life are simply unsalvageable. Honestly, Kally doesn't even know if the world is filled with this kind of superficial people, or is she simply unlucky to be surrounded by them?

Despite feeling that everything is unfair, Kally at times understands her parent's sentiments. She is not easy to love. Heck, she herself hates to look into the mirror. Unlike her beautiful sisters who contributed more than half a million U.S. dollars to the household with fashion modeling gigs, Kally is nothing more than a high schooler whose way of earning income only amounts to doing a part-time job at a run-down café. Even worse, she might soon be losing this hard-earned job as she accidentally overheard the manager talking on the phone, complaining to an acquaintance that a younger, more beautiful recruit would do a better job attracting customers.

However, not everything in Kally's life is dim and dark. Kally likes to read fiction novels, sing, cook, and create new food recipes. She is perfectly happy when alone, and things only get bothersome having to deal with people.

Kally knew she could only rely on herself, so she worked hard in school and became the number one scorer in her entire grade. She is now 16 years old - currently in her senior year of high school. The first year of high school was hard due to bullying, but being an outstanding student has its perks as her teachers look out for her. Now, other than some occasional snide remarks, no one dared to make a move.

However, everything came to an end when she is now dying alone on the rough gravel road, dying even before she could graduate from high school. All her hard work and hope flushing down the drain.

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘴𝘢𝘥? 𝘖𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘶𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭?

𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦, 𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘴 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭. 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘳.

To Kally, surely, being beautiful means having an advantage in life; easier to make friends, easier to attract romantic partners when one grows older, and more job opportunities. Although outer appearance is not everything, it is a cruel reality that what people see first about someone is their appearance. A beautiful girl does not have to go out of her way to leave a good first impression, and by simply existing she has it easier. When something bad happens to a beautiful girl, she receives others' sympathy and helps with relatively lesser effort, sometimes without having to ask for it. Meanwhile, an ugly girl often has to over-share her stories and beg.

𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴, 𝘐 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵. She thought playfully, internally chuckling at her last futile attempt to lighten the fear of looming death.

"ʙᴇ ᴄᴀʀᴇғᴜʟ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡɪsʜ ғᴏʀ," a voice echos powerfully within Kally's unconsciousness.

Alarmed, she tries to recall what the voice sounded like, simply to realize that she could recall nothing...as if a part of her memory has been wiped clean.

"ᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ sᴜʀᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ's ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ?" asks the mysterious voice. "ᴏɴᴄᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʜᴏɪᴄᴇ, ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ᴛᴜʀɴ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛɪᴍᴇ."

Feeling her consciousness receding every second, Kally knew she is running out of time and blurted out a "yes", unable to think with clarity.

"ʀᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ...ғᴏʀ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏ ᴡɪsʜ ᴅᴀʀᴇ ᴀsᴋ, ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ɪs ᴀ ᴘʀɪᴄᴇ."

Soon after, she is enveloped by a strong suction force and her consciousness vanishes.