User blog:MrTyeDye/The Nightmare House (Part 8: Lola)

Previous Chapters:

(Lori)

(Leni)

(Luna)

(Luan)

(Lynn)

(Lucy)

(Lana)

For most young girls, it would be nerve-wracking to stand on stage and get scrutinized by some haughty adults. For Lola? It was business as usual. She'd done this countless times before and she knew exactly what to do. With the sweetest, most inviting smile she could muster - not too big, not too little - she sauntered onto the stage, moving her hips back and forth as she walked.

Even disregarding her extensive pageant experience, Lola knew she had nothing to be nervous about. Just moments ago, she had wowed the judges with a beautifully choreographed baton-twirling act, that ended with her tossing them in the air, doing a handstand and catching them between her toes. None of the other contestants were going to top that - certainly not the girl who tried to follow her act with an insipid, underwritten poem about peace and charity and starving children in some country she'd never heard of.

Looking downstage, Lola found the judging table manned by a single middle-aged woman, with a short bob haircut, inch-long fingernails, and even more makeup than the contestants she was critiquing. Due to the darkness of the auditorium, Lola found it difficult to make out the judge's facial expression, but she assured herself that she would receive nothing but praise, as she usually did.

"Okay, contestant number eight," announced the judge. "Lola Loud, was it?"

"Yes, ma'am," Lola said with a curtsy, batting her eyes.

"Mmm-hmm." The judge took out her notepad, licked her finger and started flipping through the pages.

"Well, darling, your confidence is unshakable," said the judge. "No complaints from me in that department. You know what you got and you know how to flaunt it."

She flipped to the next page in her notes. "And your attitude? Perfect. Exactly what we want in a pageant queen."

She flipped another page. "Your talent? Remarkable. You definitely know how to twirl those batons, girl."

Lola had to suppress a giggle as her heart fluttered with excitement. The next category - beauty - was by far her favorite. Confidence, attitude and talent were all things you could acquire and cultivate, but beauty was something you either had or you didn't - and Lola most definitely had it. Her big, Bambi-like eyes, her dimples, her cute little button nose... they were all unmistakably hers, and always would be. Anyone could act like a pageant queen if they practiced enough, but Lola was blessed with the ability to look like one, and she relished the feeling of self-worth she got when the judges pointed that out.

"Now your beauty, dear," said the judge, "could use a little improvement."

Lola's heart sank, as did the corners of her mouth. A little improvement? Lola had enough experience to know that, in pageant language, "a little improvement" was a polite way to say "a whole lot of improvement".

"First of all, the eyelashes," said the judge. "I was watching you all the way from back here, and even I could tell that those things were fake."

Lola's stomach lurched. She was right; they were fake. Lola had some false lashes applied before going on stage, under the impression that they'd make her look cuter. Apparently not.

Figuring that the jig was up, she peeled off the false eyelashes and let them fall to the floor.

"See? No more fakes!" said Lola. "Just my natural, beautiful la-"

"Don't interrupt," snapped the judge, as she flipped through her notepad. "Second of all, let me make something clear," she said, sounding increasingly cold. "Nobody is gonna cross my stage with a mole on her face, like the one you've got on her cheek."

Lola gasped at the word "mole" and instinctively clutched her face. Sure enough, she felt a tiny bump just above her cheekbone. The young girl, mortified that she'd let such a glaring blemish go unnoticed, tried to rub it off with her finger. To her surprise, she felt the bump peel off her face and fall to the floor.

''Huh. Those things just come right off. Who knew?''

"S-see? Mole's gone!" said Lola, her voice trembling. "So now I'm beautiful, right?"

"Not quite, sister," said the judge. I've got a few more notes."

Lola gulped.

"Let's talk about that chin," the judge said as she pointed towards Lola, her long fingernail jutting out like a bayonet. "It's too sharp. Too angular. It sticks out like a violin. I don't like it."

Lola grabbed her chin, desperate to reassure herself that it wasn't at all like what the judge was describing. Her heart nearly stopped when she heard a piercing snap from just below her jawline, and she felt an odd-shaped mass fall into her open hand. With her breathing growing heavier, she raised the object up to her face, and was greeted with a sight that confirmed her worst suspicion; her chin had just snapped off.

Instead of delivering the apology Lola thought she was more than entitled to, the judge continued her nitpicking.

"For the record, your cheekbones are also too sharp."

Lola's first instinct was to tell off the judge and stomp out into the main hall, where she'd hopefully find someone who could get her chin reattached. Unfortunately, her body didn't seem too inclined to follow her brain's orders, and her feet remained planted while her hands started moving up towards her cheeks.

What am I doing?!, she thought. Somebody stop me!

In spite of her internal protests, she felt her fingers, acting of their own accord, latch onto her cheekbones and start pressing down. A sickening crunch was heard as both of them were crushed and flattened.

"Oh, and your ears are too big."

Once again, Lola's hands bowed to the whims of the malevolent judge. Lola grabbed herself by the earlobes, tore them off of from her head like velcro, and cast them to the side.

"And your nose is shaped weird."

Lola gasped. Not my nose!, she thought as she frantically tried to will her hands away from her face. ''My cheeks and my ears were one thing, but not my nose! Not my adorable little schnozzle!''

But it was no use. Lola cringed as she felt her fingers coil around the bridge of her nose, grip it tight, and snap it off her face like an icicle off a rooftop. She let the severed nose slip from her fingers and started doubling over, dry heaving, nauseated by the sensation of having such an essential feature absent from her face.

"And those teeth!" said the judge. "I don't know who told you that tooth gaps are cute, but they're not. They never have been."

Lola's lips pursed themselves together, in an instinctive attempt to hide her teeth from the prying eyes of the judge. Lola tried to open her mouth again, but she felt her top and bottom lips start to fuse together into one conjoined mass, sealing her teeth off from the world forever.

"Mmf! Mmf!"

In a panic, Lola pried at the bottom part of her face, but felt no sign of an opening or even a seam. Her mouth was gone. Lola's lungs froze in place, apparently realizing that the air stored within had no orifice to exit out of. Her respiratory system was now completely dormant, and yet her body was somehow able to keep itself from suffocating, thus prolonging her torment.

"And another thing," said the judge, prompting Lola's eyes to bulge out in shock. What more could this lady possibly take away from her?

"Your eyes are too green. I don't like green. It's an ugly color."

Pop.

Her eyes jettisoned themselves from her sockets and fell to the floor with a splat, rendering her completely blind. An endless, impregnable sea of blackness surrounded her, leaving her with nothing but the soul-crushing knowledge that the face she was once proud to call her own was now lying in pieces on the floor of the stage. And this pain, this searing pain, was locked tight inside her body. She had no eyes with which to cry, no mouth with which to scream. All she could do was drop to her knees and pound her fists impotently against the wooden stage.

''YOU MONSTER! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!'', she bellowed inside her head. ''YOU'VE RUINED ME! YOU'VE DESTROYED ME! YOU... YOU...''

She ran her hands up and down her face, now a smooth, featureless plane, with all the bumps and contours ironed out. It was like touching freshly sanded wood. All the features and details that made her recognizable, that made her unmistakable, that made her Lola, were gone.

''My face... my beautiful face...''

That blank, flat surface was the last thing she felt before she woke up.