AM I BEAUTIFUL?

Nickole yawns, holding his phone as a beautiful Caucasian man looks back at him via facetime.

"Tired?" he asks.

"Yes, absolutely exhausted."

Out of the window, Nickole hears what sounds like multiple sticks breaking. He looks up from his phone as the noise continues.

"Nick, what is that sound?"

"I don't know; it sounds like someone is out there breaking up firewood. Let me see."

Nickole places his phone face down on the bed and moves over to his bedroom window, lifting a blind. There standing in the street, is a figure under the streetlight cloaked in darkness. Nickole lowers the blind and lays back in the bed.

"Who was it?"

"Some weird dude. I think he was breaking a twig or something," replies Nickole.

"That doesn't sound like a twig Nicki."

"Josh, I get it, but ..." Nickole stops as the sound gets closer.

"Nick, do you want me to come over? That noise is very concerning; it actually sounds like someone is breaking a bone over and over again."

"Josh, I'm fine. I am about to go outside and tell him he needs to take the noise on somewhere," replies Nickole as he puts on a pair of grey joggers with an oversized hoodie. As he slides into his sneakers, he can hear the cracking sound coming from his front door. He peers out of the peephole, and there is a longhaired figure twitching as the sound continues. Nickole backs away and runs into his bedroom.

"Josh, call the police. I feel like something is wrong."

"Why?"

"You know we've had so many deaths in the hospital with the overwhelming cases of COVID 19. One of them today really shook me. It was a young girl who took her own life because of isolation or that's what I was told. However, it just didn't sit well with me. It looked like the old Japanese urban legend about the smiling split-mouthed woman with the mask. The creature would ask if she was beautiful and if you said no, you would die by her weapon; if you said yes, she pulls down her mask and shows you her hanging jaw, then she cuts the corners of the victims mouths like hers."

As Nicole holds his phone up, Josh notices a shadow.

"Nicki, is Erica there with you?"

"No."

"Who is that standing behind you?"

Nicole turns, the figure moves into the light. There standing before him the young girl with the hanging jaw from the hospital.

"AM I BEAUTIFUL?" She asks.

Nicole's scream echo throughout the apartment as he steps back, crushing his phone screen.

An hour later, Josh gets to Nickole's apartment. "Nicki?" he continues to no answer.

As he turns on the bedroom light, Nickole is slumped over in the bedroom corner. He runs to him, he is motionless. Josh lifts his head, and Nickole's jaw hits the floor, rolling underneath him.

Josh's screams fill the quiet neighborhood as neighbors' lights come on.