Chapter 76: S#13. Scary Woman (3)

I read through the newspaper article.

-[…The actress had been suffering from mental illness…]

Twenty years ago, the woman who tore off her face and committed suicide at the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ festival was an actress.

She was said to be ugly, so she must have been quite the character actress.

-[The day after the festival, she was found in a horrific state at her home, naked with her face skinned. She was holding the torn off facial skin in her left hand. She was transported to the hospital but ultimately died]

She was found naked with her face torn off.

The hospital she was taken to was the same one I had been hospitalized in until yesterday.

That’s why her ghost appeared there.

Reading the article, I saw a different side that was hidden by rumors.

An actress suffering from mental illness. Her horrific death was considered a ‘suspected suicide,’ not confirmed.

The rumor that she became a ghost and hunted beautiful women was just that—a rumor.

She had no direct connection to the murders that occurred the following year and the year after that.

The image of the ghost disappearing sadly in the hospital hallway kept flashing in my mind.

—
Raei  Translations
—

Festival day.

For the first time in my life, I shaved my beard.

I also slicked back my wild, wolf-like hair with wax.

This was all to become the ‘Beast’ who would grace the festival.

I looked at my shaven face in the mirror. It was rugged but quite handsome.

Not in a neat way, but in a Viking way. The kind of face that looked like it enjoyed eating raw meat.

I had a high chance of being chosen as the Beast.

But the faceless ghost becoming the Beauty was nearly impossible.

Even though the odds were against me, I couldn’t give up.

The ghost had warned that something terrible would happen if she wasn’t chosen as the Beauty, so I had to at least try.

I opened the bathroom door and walked out. Ellen Strode was there, and she looked at me.

“Who… are you?”

“It’s me.”

I smiled as I spoke.

But Ellen didn’t seem to be joking at all.

She truly didn’t recognize me.

When Ellen finally realized it was me, she was shocked.

“No way…! Where’s your beard?!”

“I shaved it. Don’t you like it?”

“No, it’s not that… it’s just a bit unfamiliar…”

Ellen’s eyes sparkled as she observed my face from various angles.

Then she cleared her throat and fanned herself. Her face was slightly red.

Nancy soon arrived.

“Who…?”

She asked cautiously, mirroring her mother’s reaction.

The Strode women observed my shaven face from different angles.

They seemed a bit awkward but didn’t appear to dislike it. That was a relief.

We headed to the street where the festival was being held.

Since it was the first festival in 20 years, the air was thick with nostalgia and excitement.

People glanced at me as they passed by. Even in the crowded streets, my large build stood out.

“Nancy, where do they choose the Beauty and the Beast?”

“The contest is held in the middle school auditorium. Are you going to watch?”

“No. I’m going to participate.”

Nancy was surprised when I said that.

“You’re going to enter the contest?!”

“I think I have a good chance of being chosen as the Beast.”

“You’ll have to walk around the town with a random woman. And at the end of the parade, people might urge you to kiss her…”

“I have no choice. I made a promise.”

“A promise… with someone you met at the hospital?”

“Yes.”

“Was it a woman?”

I nodded.

I couldn’t bring myself to tell her it was a ghost. The story of the Yuki-onna came to mind.

The miserable end of the woodcutter who broke his promise. I didn’t want to end up like that.

Nancy, who had been smiling the whole time, looked like she had been struck by lightning when I said I was going to be the Beast.

Her gaze turned cold as she looked at me.

“Ha. This is unbelievable… Why didn’t you tell me?”

Nancy’s hand moved, pinching my side.

With our height difference, we looked like a father and his little daughter, but Nancy’s grip was far stronger than any child’s.

“Ow! Nancy, that hurts!”

“Summer, you need to feel more pain.”

Ellen, who had been listening, joined in.

She pinched my other side, and I stifled a scream.

“You said it was a woman you met at the hospital?”

“Whoever she is, we’ll have to show her what’s what.”

The Strode women clenched their fists, declaring themselves as candidates for the ‘Beauty’ contest.

I’m screwed. The ultimate weapons have been unleashed. With the mother-daughter beauty duo entering, it was a death sentence.

I tried to stop them, but it was useless.

We headed to the middle school auditorium where the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ selection was happening.

Quick-footed spectators had already claimed the best spots.

To my surprise, there were many contestants gathered in front of the stage. Some had even come from the neighboring town of Tromaville.

The line of ‘Beauty’ contestants was filled with pretty women, and there was no sign of the skull-faced ghost.

On the other side, the line for ‘Beast’ contestants resembled a drugged-up zoo.

Burly men flaunted their beastly muscles.

Among them, I spotted a familiar face—Officer Bob Bojangles.

“Officer, what are you doing here…?”

“Just patrolling. Are you entering the contest, Summer?”

“Yes.”

“Be prepared. I won’t go easy on you!”

As expected, patrolling was just an excuse; he was here to become the Beast.

His belt was buried in his fat belly, and his holster was empty again. He must have lost his gun.

At the end of the stage, the judges were seated.

They briefly explained the contest.

Twenty years ago, the registration and preliminaries for the contest were held a week before the festival, but this year everything was being done on the spot.

No matter how many people entered the preliminaries, only two would advance to the finals.

The preliminaries began.

Muscle-bound men inflated their bodies as much as possible to look beastly. The judges scrutinized them with eagle eyes, deciding who passed and who didn’t.

I just stood there. Even so, I passed.

When it was Bob’s turn, he unexpectedly ripped off his police uniform shirt.

His belly jiggled. Definitely beastly (like a wild boar) enough, so the judges praised him.

Contestants dropped like autumn leaves.

In the end, it was just me and Bob.

It was ridiculous. They eliminated muscular men and chose an obese donut-eating cop.

What did the judges see in Bob…?

Anyway, the finals began.

Bob and I stood on the stage under the spotlight as Beast candidates.

The judges asked me to take off my shirt.

Without hesitation, I removed it.

There were gasps from the female audience. It was a bit overwhelming, but I straightened my shoulders.

The judges adjusted their glasses and evaluated me.

“His physique embodies the wildness and grandeur of nature.”

“The harmony of his solid muscles and bones creates a juxtaposition of heroism and beastliness. It’s a paradoxical beauty.”

“Even his eyes emit a fierce, blazing intensity. He’s a perfect contender for the Beast. There’s no dispute.”

Then, one of the judges raised his hand.

“But…! A Beast should not be handsome!!”

I was stunned for a moment.

Not handsome? That was absurd.

I wanted to protest, but all the judges agreed with the opinion.

Regret washed over me. I shouldn’t have shaved.

It was Bob Bojangles’ turn.

The judges frowned but praised him.

In terms of sheer ugliness, Bob was already a true Beast.

His fluffy chest hair and a belly that looked like it was carrying twelve babies earned him extra points.

I was eliminated.

Against everyone’s expectations, Bob was chosen.

The expressions of the beauty contestants turned sour.

Booing erupted from the audience, directed at Bob and the judges.

The atmosphere was like the downfall of a nation.

“It’s alright, ladies! The beauty who marches with me will get plenty of kisses~!” Bob said with a sleazy grin.

Upon hearing that bombshell statement, the beauty contestants voluntarily withdrew en masse.

Ellen and Nancy, who had participated, had already withdrawn as soon as I was eliminated.

With the Beast selection over, it was time for the Beauty contest.

The preliminaries began and soon reached the finals.

When I saw the two women on stage, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“H- Hilda…?”

One of them was Hilda Hyper.

She was especially radiant today, dressed beautifully.

Her elegant beauty shone brightly. She definitely fit the role of a beauty, but I hadn’t expected her to participate.

When Hilda saw me, she smiled brightly.

She used simple sign language to congratulate me on becoming the Beast.

I mouthed back, ‘I got eliminated.’

Hilda’s face paled instantly.

She had assumed I had been chosen instead of Bob.

The contestant standing next to Hilda was a woman in a yellow dress.

She looked somewhat older, around her forties.

It was surprising that she had made it to the finals, beating out younger women.

She was pretty, but there was something intimidating about her.

The judges began to speak about her.

“Wow, this is an honor. It’s the return of a champion!”

“She was the last champion. She won three times in a row 20 years ago.”

“Despite the shocking suicide and mysterious murders that occurred over three years, she was our Beauty.”

“Still single, she might be open to date requests after the festival…”

Twenty years ago.

The era when the ugly woman tore off her face and committed suicide, and two leading beauty contestants were murdered in succession—

“…Wait.”

I realized something shocking.

The yellow dress that woman was wearing was the same as the ghost I met at the hospital.

What’s going on?

Did the ghost come to become the beauty as promised?

But where did she get a face?

Nothing made sense.

The ugly woman definitely committed suicide 20 years ago, and the woman on stage was chosen as the beauty 20 years ago.

“Hey, that’s the woman I saw before!” Nancy said.

“Nancy… do you know her?”

“Yeah. I saw her when I was talking with Hilda in the yard a few days ago. Hilda was talking about plastic surgery…”

Plastic surgery?

I used my extraordinary eyesight to look closer. There were faint surgical scars on the side of the woman’s face.

They were very faint but definitely there. Like the centipede-shaped scar I had on my abdomen.

Suddenly, I recalled the newspaper article I read in the library yesterday.

“…Her body was naked, and her face was skinned. She was clutching the torn-off facial skin in her left hand…”

The ugly woman who tore off her face and committed suicide.

Click- The puzzle pieces clicked together in my mind.

I launched myself towards the stage.

Ignoring the confused judges, I faced the woman in the yellow dress.

She blinked at me.

“Who are you?”

“Where did you get that dress?”

“It’s over 20 years old. Why are you asking about it now?”

“…It was you.”

The audience murmured. But I didn’t care.

“You were an actress, weren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re being quite rude.”

“You took the beauty’s dress and skinned her face.”

“Skinned her face? Are you talking about the woman who committed suicide 20 years ago?”

“It wasn’t suicide. It was murder. You switched faces with her.”

The one who died 20 years ago wasn’t the ugly woman but the beauty.

The ugly woman tore off the beauty’s face and attached it to her own. What was held in the corpse’s hand was not the beauty’s face but the ugly woman’s.

The beauty who died with her face torn off was remembered as the ugly woman who committed suicide.

The ugly woman who stole the face continued to pretend to be the beauty to this day.

The murmuring in the audience stopped. The spotlight on the stage highlighted both the woman and me.

“What about the murders the following year? The beauty contestants were killed in succession. Thanks to that, you were chosen as the beauty consecutively.”

“……”

The ghost that appeared at the hospital was not the murderous ugly woman but the victimized beauty.

She had been wearing the yellow dress, her face torn off, just as she had been when she was killed 20 years ago.

She claimed she was beautiful and was sure she would be chosen as the beauty.

It wasn’t unfounded confidence.

The living and the dead had swapped places—an absurd twist.

But in this insane horror movie world, it was a plausible, even inevitable, twist.

“You were ugly inside as well.”

“……”

The woman didn’t respond.

I moved forward. It was time to subdue her.

Suddenly, she moved quickly.

Before I could stop her, she grabbed Hilda, who was standing next to her.

“Don’t come any closer.”

The woman pulled out a gun and pointed it at Hilda’s head. She had taken a hostage.

“Huh. Why is my gun over there?”

Bob Bojangles muttered foolishly.

—