The Magic Facelift, Curse of the Snake

At 3 AM, inside a high-end beauty livestream, Viviene Vance was slicing open her own cheek with a surgical blade.

The camera was zoomed in so close that her followers could see the raw edges of her flesh curling back.

Instead of panic, the comment section was flooded with worship.

Vivi's painless face-lift is literally magic! one fan commented.

"No swelling right after a cut? This technique is insane!" another chimed in.

I stared at the screen as the wound healed instantly. Then, I touched the scar that had just appeared on my own right cheek.

Beads of blood seeped through my bandage. It was in the exact same spot where Viviene had just cut herself.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed. It was a frantic video from my best friend, Piper Reed.

She was collapsed on her apartment floor, her left cheek rotting like spoiled meat.

Meanwhile, on Viviene's stream, a fan who just finished a jawline procedure was flaunting her perfect face.

At the end of the video, Piper's shaking finger pointed at the corner of her vanity.

The anniversary perfume I gave her, etched with a coiled snake pattern, was leaking a thick, black mist.

01

"One million dollars!"

The auctioneer's gavel fell. I gripped the bank card I got from mortgaging my house, my fingertips trembling.

Under the spotlight, Viviene Vance wore a couture gown and a serpent necklace. The ruby in the snake's eye seemed to be staring directly at me.

"Congratulations to Mrs. Sterling for winning the exclusive face-transformation slot," she said, winking at the camera.

The snake's eye on her neck suddenly flashed red. "See you in the livestream tomorrow at the same time."

The chat box exploded instantly.

"Who is this old woman? How dare she steal Vivi's debut slot!"

"I heard she used to run a plastic surgery clinic. She went bankrupt after Vivi took all her business."

"Look at how her face is sagging. Giving her the slot is a total waste."

I touched the scar on my cheek. Just last week, Viviene performed a live face-lift on an influencer.

At that exact moment, my skin felt like it was being tightened by invisible wires. It felt like half of my face was being ripped off.

Now, that influencer was signing brand deals with a face that looked exactly like mine did five years ago.

Piper's call came through as I stepped into the elevator.

Her voice was distorted by static. "Don't go her vanity drawer it's full of human skin"

The signal cut out. The elevator mirror showed Viviene standing right behind me.

She was playing with the snake-etched perfume bottle. When she smiled, the corners of her mouth reached her earlobes.

That was the exact signature expression of a fan who had a "smile lift" procedure last week.

The elevator suddenly plummeted. As my heart leaped into my throat, I saw the snake on her necklace come to life.

It flicked its forked tongue and started crawling toward my neck.

02

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on a vanity table in Viviene's private Malibu villa.

Under the halo of the ring lights, a dozen cameras were pointed at my face. The live comments were scrolling at lightning speed.

"Mrs. Sterling's face is a total wreck. If Vivi doesn't fix it now, it's over."

"Look at the knife in Vivi's hand! That's a top-tier surgical blade!"

"I bet fifty bucks she cries and runs away halfway through."

Viviene circled me in her four-inch heels, her nails grazing the scar on my cheek.

"Mrs. Sterling was a legend in the aesthetics world. Too bad a fire burned half your face off."

She suddenly held up the snake perfume. The black liquid inside was swirling violently.

"Do you know what this is? You threw it out like trash three years ago. Now, it's the treasure that can swap any face."

I remembered a rainy night three years ago. I had found a similar bottle near a dumpster at a flea market.

A young girl had clung to my leg, crying that it was a family heirloom. I had impatiently shoved a few hundred dollars at her and tossed the bottle away.

That girl was Viviene before she became famous.

"Start the procedure," I said, ripping the button off my collar to reveal a new birthmark on my collarbone.

It was in the exact same spot as the birthmark a fan had asked to remove yesterday.

Viviene splashed the perfume onto my face. As the cold liquid soaked into my skin, I heard a thousand tiny screams.

In the mirror, my skin began to peel away in real-time, revealing layers of strange features underneath.

03

The moment the blade sliced my skin, a blood-curdling scream erupted from the next room.

Viviene's assistant ran in, looking panicked. "Boss! The model who wanted the leg extension she's suddenly paralyzed!"

Viviene didn't even flinch. The surgical thread danced between her fingers.

"Tell her it's a normal reaction."

When she looked up, I realized she wasn't seeing me. Her eyes reflected the face of a young man.

It was the rich kid who had requested a height increase yesterday.

My vision began to blur. A chorus of whispers filled my ears.

I heard influencers complaining about their chins and models crying about their legs. I even heard an old woman's voice.

"Give her my wrinkles give them to her"

In the mirror, my face was transforming into Viviene's. Meanwhile, stretch marks from my pregnancy were appearing on her cheeks.

"Can you feel it?" Viviene whispered in my ear, her voice like sandpaper.

"Everyone I change leaves their most hated parts with me. And I I leave them with you."

She suddenly yanked my shirt open. A burn scar had appeared on my lower back.

It was the mark of a gang leader who had asked to remove a tattoo last week.

The livestream tips started flooding the screen. Someone commented, "Look at Vivi's neck! A new mole just appeared!"

Viviene touched her neck. It was the exact birthmark my daughter was born with.

Her face turned pale instantly. The surgical knife clattered onto the floor.

04

I woke up in a hospital bed with Piper crying by my side.

the rotting flesh on her left cheek had healed, but she now had a surgical scar identical to Viviene's.

"I recorded this secretly," she said, handing me a USB drive. "I found it in the base of her perfume stand."

The video showed Viviene kneeling in her basement at midnight. Seven or eight perfume bottles were lined up.

Each bottle had an IV tube connected to a person lying on the floor.

She was chanting a strange incantation as black liquid flowed into their bodies. Their faces were becoming transparent.

"This is the price of the face-swap," Piper said, pointing at a familiar figure in the video.

"See her? That's the beauty blogger who went missing six months ago. Now she's Viviene's assistant."

I remembered that the assistant always wore a mask. Every time she showed her face, she looked like a different influencer.

My phone buzzed with a news alert: #TopInfluencerFaceMeltsDuringLive.

The photo showed a star with a left cheek that looked exactly like Piper's old, rotting one.

The hospital room door swung open. Viviene's assistant stood there, her face expressionless.

She held up her phone. It was a photo of my daughter. A new mole had appeared near the girl's right eye.

It was the signature beauty mark that Viviene was most proud of.

"The boss says if you want your daughter's mole back, come to the villa."

05

The villa's basement was even more terrifying than the video.

Dozens of glass vats were lined up. Each contained a full body soaking in liquid.

Their faces were covered with a transparent film. I could see different facial features swimming underneath it.

Viviene sat at a control console, her screen filled with thousands of orders.

"You want your daughter's mole? Simple." She pulled up a photo of a little girl.

"Swap her birthmark with this client, and I'll give it back."

The girl in the photo was smiling. She had a heart-shaped birthmark on her cheekDit was Piper's missing niece.

I lunged for the controller, but Viviene pinned me down.

She pulled back my hospital gown. A wolf tattoo had appeared on my lower back.

It was the tattoo the gang leader wanted to hide.

"You think only faces can be swapped?" Viviene laughed, turning a dial. The sound of bones cracking echoed from the vats.

"Voices, bodies, even memories. Everything is for sale."

She pointed to a vat in the corner. "Look, that's your old partner."

It was Valerie, who had vanished three years ago. She wanted a younger body, but now she was a puppet.

Valerie opened her eyes inside the tank. Her face was Viviene's old face from before her fame.

Her lips moved, forming the word, "Help"

06

Piper burst in with the police just as Viviene was labeling my daughter's photo.

Viviene's face was falling apart. Her left eye was a cat-eye, her right was an old woman's drooping lid.

Her mouth was twisted as if it had been forcefully yanked to one side.

"It's too late," Viviene screamed, hitting a red button. The vats began to drain.

"The backlash is here. We're all going to become faceless monsters."

The people in the vats started to sit up. Their faces looked like melting wax, their features blending together.

Valerie reached out to me, her fingers turning into snake scales.

"The perfume is made from snake skin we are all sacrifices"

The police officers dropped their guns. They began clawing at their own faces in terror.

New features were surfacing on everyone's skin.

A young cop developed an age spot on his forehead. It was in the exact spot of a client who had removed one last week.

Viviene burst into a manic laugh. She peeled off her own skin, revealing a face covered in scales.

"I thought the more I swapped, the more beautiful I'd be. But we all end up like this."

She smashed the snake perfume against me. As the black liquid hit my face, a thousand faces flashed before my eyes.

Influencers, models, old ladies and finally, my daughter's terrified face.

07

I woke up in an isolation ward. A nurse was taping gauze over my face.

The news was playing on the TV: An epidemic of "Facial Merging" had hit the city.

People were randomly growing the features of strangers. Experts blamed a tainted batch of cosmetics.

Piper's face was wrapped in bandages. "The police found over a hundred vats. Thirty were empty."

She handed me a mirror. "See for yourself."

The person in the mirror had a jigsaw face. The left eye was mine, the right was Viviene's.

The nose belonged to the missing blogger, but the mouth was my daughter's rosebud lips.

The most chilling part was my forehead. A heart-shaped birthmark sat there, identical to Piper's niece.

"Where is my daughter?" I grabbed the nurse's arm, my nails sinking into her skin.

The nurse screamed. My fingerprints started appearing on her skin, turning darker by the second.

The news cut to a live stream. Viviene's assistant was removing her makeup.

She peeled her skin off like a banana, revealing my daughter's exact face.

"Hi everyone! I'm your new face-swap host!" she chirped.

Behind her, the shelves were packed with snake-patterned perfume.

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