The airport where my plane had touched down was only a few kilometers away from the dutch family estate. I had used an alarming amount of my money on the plane ticket already, and there was no one I could call for a ride, so I would be making my return to my prestigious family's house on foot.


It was a warm night, for my standards at least. It was above zero, and there was no snow on the ground. I wistfully thought of how scenic it would be to walk the quiet countryside streets with beautiful fluffy snow coming down, I shook the thought out of my head, and shoved my hands in my coat pocket. My best friend had never liked the snowy weather, she, like I had, had lived somewhere much warmer than new york prior to college. When it snowed for the first time in our first year of college, I had loved it, and she had refused to leave her dorm for a week.


I made a final right turn onto what Google maps had told me was the street the estate was on. There was still about a kilometer until I reached the estate, and this road was shrouded by trees on both sides, with no streetlights. The darkness of the woods didn't bother me, ever since I was attacked with acid in broad daylight in a public space, I had feared the crampt new york streets. It felt like home alone on the dark road. I felt like a monster. If someone saw my horrible ugly face wandering on a street where nobody except the rich Dutch family lived, they would likely run away screaming, and a new urban legend would be created.


As if my thoughts had summoned a person out of the blue,I could just barely make out a human figure jogging towards me. I panicked. Debating whether I should hide in the trees and risk that she had already seen me, and would see a creature without a face walk into the bush, or cross the street and keep walking with my hood up and my head down.


Before I could do anything, the jogger was a few feet in front of me. She was running a lot faster than I thought she was. She had clearly seen my figure, because she shone her phones flashlight in my direction. The sudden bright light in my eyesmade it impossible to see her reaction upon looking at my hideous face, but i had heard enough to understand. She screamed, and then froze. She was silent and unmoving, as if she was waiting for me to give her an explanation, or maybye to kill her. I had expected that reaction, I got it all the time.


What I wasn't expecting, was that her face would cause me the same horror mine caused her. She had features that I had only seen before the acid attack. Wavy medium brown hair was pulled into a ponytail on the top of her head, and her wide brown eyes were open in shock. Everything, from her sharp Jawline, to her wide nose, to her slightly offset eyes and splattering of freckles was the same.my heart and stomach dropped to my toes, and I felt more and more sick the longer my eyes lingered on her.


" penolope " I asked, my voice faint and strained.