Every day I tell my mother to stop wearing makeup. To stop getting ready for work. To stop wearing tight, pretty clothes.

She doesn’t listen.

Listen, my best friend Elena went missing 4 years ago. She had a normal school day but didn’t show up to her bus afterwards. Didn’t show up after that, ever. Didn’t leave a note, no signs, no traces. Nothing.

It scared me brainless.

There were so many people to choose from that would want to hurt her. So many jealous girls in school, so many boys who she’d rejected, so many ex boyfriends and ex friends.

Yet, I knew none of them had done it. But I knew she hadn’t just disappeared into thin air, either.

This morning, I stood with my mother in the kitchen as she stirred her green smoothie. My mother is a beautiful lady. Long blond hair, perfect skin. Piercing green eyes, a curvy figure. She’s brought so many boyfriends around to our house that I’ve stopped caring.

“Mom,” I plead. “Please, can you stop wearing makeup? You’re already so beautiful without it.”
I know this is true, but I thought if she stopped wearing so much makeup maybe she’d look worse. Maybe it will stop looking. Maybe it’ll ignore her.

“Shush, Roger,” mom replies, her face twisted in a frown. “Why do you care if I wear makeup? It is none of your business.”

“But-“

“Roger, please.”
See? She doesn’t listen. Never.

But it still doesn’t relieve the knots in my stomach, the anxiety. Because it is right there.

Behind our sliding glass doors, it stands on its twisted, crooked body, watching intently with hungry black eyes. Its eyes are right on my mother.

I’ve seen it for the past 12 days, sometimes in mom’s bedroom window, sometimes in the hallway, sometimes even in her bathroom.

But it hasn’t made an attack yet. Maybe it will stop watching if mom stops wearing makeup.

That’s why I plead her every day. Because this is exactly what happened with Elena. Elena was beautiful, and that’s what made her fate so terrible.

I’ve seen the same creature watch her in school, every day. For 12 days it watched her until on the 13th, it pounded. Grabbed her, dragged her away while I couldn’t do anything.

It only hunts pretty people. It took Elena first, then Marie, Sienna, Alex. And many more.

And now it will take my mother.