Slit-Mouthed Woman

Fog crept in on the cold, depressing night as the streetlights went dim. Wind howled as if in pain, but nobody paid any attention. The streets of  Sakaiminato  were almost completely deserted with the exception of a few adults quickly scurrying to their small, plain houses to see their beloved families and rest in their soft mattresses. Just as the last one locked the door to their unadorned house with a click, all the streetlights flickered off. It was dead quiet and there appeared to be no one wandering about. Just then, there came a piercing voice echoing from every direction.

“Am I...pretty?” she asked, her voice full of sorrow and pain, but nobody answered. A little girl came



from nowhere and drifted from place to place unfamiliarly, trying to find her home. She was a beautiful child, with long, shimmering black curls that went down her back. Even in the faint moonlight, the little girl was as stunning as ever. She bumped into a strange lady and stared up with pure curiosity with her big, compassionate eyes. This lady stared back down at the little girl with jealousy and disgust, her eyes diluted to a point where they almost looked see-through. These eyes were slitted and hard, but the expression she had on her face was full of depression, as if she were drowning in her worries. She wore a long, black trench coat and a dirty, old surgical mask over her mouth. She had long, rustic, dishevelled black hair and would have looked beautiful without that dirty, revolting mask covering her mouth. In her right hand, she carried a long pair of rusty, aged sheaths drenched and dripping in deep, red blood. “Am I...pretty?” she asked again, a bit louder and more forceful. The bizarre lady sounded a tad maniacal at this point. There was a murderous intent in her painful, fervent voice. This time around, the small, curious girl replied in a low tone.

“Yes, you’re very pretty,” the cute little child shyly replied in a juvenile voice to the strangely dressed lady. Then the strange woman removed her dirty surgical mask slowly and carefully.

“Am I still pretty?!” she screeched, revealing her heinous, scarred mouth. The daunting lady cackled loudly, enough for the whole entire neighbourhood to hear clearly. What appeared to be an eccentric woman turned out to be a terrible, disturbing nightmare. Her mouth was slit from ear to ear, leaving a nasty scar connected to her dainty little mouth. It made her look as if she was always smiling a colossal, insensitive smile. That’s what you would think until she actually opened her mouth, it looked as if her jaw was hinged and it would fall off at any second.

The small girl screamed and tried to run away from the slit-mouthed woman, but she grabbed the little girl’s silky hair and yanked. The fragile little girl fell into her grasp and they both disappeared into the mystifying darkness.