Eye Bags

by Colbie Mahaffey

She woke up, and groggily walked to the bathroom, splashing water on her face before looking up in the mirror. She drew back, then leaned in closer, squinting slightly at the sight of the dark circles under her eyes. They looked unnaturally dark, like she had a bruise, or dirt under her eyes. She rubbed them, and it didn’t hurt like a bruise, or rub away like dirt. Confused, she decided she must just be really tired- after all, she had been working late recently. She would go to bed early tonight and look better in the morning. When her husband woke up, she mentioned the dark circles to him, but he stared through her eyes and shook his head, “You look the same to me!”

The next morning, she was horrified to see her eyes looked even worse. The bags under her eyes were so dark that her once bright green eyes now looked sunken and her skin seemed droopy. But still, no one else seemed to notice.

Over the next few weeks, she began buying eye creams and following home remedies, but no matter what she did, the circles under her eyes only got longer and darker.

Until one morning, she was pulling at the circles in the mirror, and her fingers sunk straight through her skin, as if ripping through wet paper. And she kept pulling down, until her entire face was falling off, and under it, her skin hung raw and bloody. Moaning through her lack of a mouth, she walked to her husband, who glanced up without batting an eye, and said “Morning sweetie”. She looked the same to him.