Gaze into it instead. Watch your skin peel back in tantalizing, translucent strips. It won’t hurt, I promise. Your eyes will sting at first, but that’ll ebb once you see yourself for the first time.
Don’t hide from your new body. Admire the stubble revealed on your cheekbones as the old you sags away. Feel your shoulders crack and expand, released from those strangling confines. You’re free.
Don’t hide. Glance back at the abandoned skin and watch blood stain that crumpled shell of a face. Those features were never really yours, anyway. When I devour them, you won’t even scream.

