Am I Beautiful?

by Jon Athan

Miki placed the nose on Riley’s tray, then she moseyed over to Adam. She said, “I didn’t want to hurt your family.” “Fuck you!” “But I’ve had a… change of heart now that I’ve heard everything again. You do deserve this, Adam. Your entire family deserves this.”

It looked like her eye was melting, her pupil drooping into her brown iris.

Miki gave Amber’s head a shake and asked, “Who’s more beautiful

After Miki’s amateur facial surgery, Riley didn’t recognize her. She didn’t know the bloody, mutilated woman at the end of the table was her mother.

There was something about his desperation that tickled her.

“Do you know what the ultimate revenge is?” “God, don’t hurt my family.” “So, you do know,” Miki said with a sly smirk.

“Physical pain is nothing. Your wife understands that and I know you understand it. Look at yourself. Your hands are trembling so bad. Your feet are shaking so much. Can you hear your feet tapping against the floor? Tap, tap, tap, tap. And I’ve barely touched you. Mental torture is the greatest form of torture. The ultimate revenge is… taking everything a person loves… right in front of them… while they’re helpless and hopeless.”

Miki put Riley in the smart electric oven. She slammed the door shut, then she tilted a chair and propped it under the handle. She used the oven’s control pad to set the heat at 550 degrees Fahrenheit, then she pressed the START button. She skipped back to Amber’s side, swinging her arms while humming happily.

“Your husband killed my baby, so I’m going to kill yours. But revenge isn’t about… making things ‘even’ or ‘fair.’ I didn’t plan this for years just to ‘get even.’ I’m here to do much worse. If you live, you’re going to want to get revenge against me. And that’s what it’s all about: Continuing the endless cycle. So, I’m taking Riley… and I’m taking your uterus so you can never replace her.”

Her body was dark red like a newborn baby, sweat glimmering on her peeling skin.

She examined the uterus. It was supposed to be pear-shaped, but it looked more like a big, crushed tomato in her fist.

Miki stood from her seat and said, “Oh no, honey. It’s not because I’m scared. I don’t get scared anymore. I’m the monster, remember? I do the scaring. It’s because I don’t want to give you what you want.”

Revenge gave her something forgiveness couldn’t: Satisfaction.

Thinking about all of the murder and mayhem, counting corpses like sheep, she dozed off before the plane even took off. She slept like a baby throughout the entire eleven-hour flight.