Mirrored Read Online Free PDF

that.”
    Before I could stop myself, I blurted, “I want to be beautiful. Can that happen?”
    It sounded so bare, out in the open like that, out in the empty street. Yet, it was the only thing I wanted, had ever wanted. Well, that and Greg. I knew beauty was nothing. But it was also everything.
    “Yes, yes, I can do that. Or, rather, you can.”
    “How?”
    She stared into the distance. The street was silent, no cars, no people, only that wind that picked up the dead leaves and whirled them around, finally sending them skittering away like so many winged insects.
    Eventually, she said, “Not all at once. Changing things too quickly is how one gets discovered. But slow changes are fine. I’ve found that most people are stupid and unobservant.”
    “So how—?”
    “Come here tomorrow.” She pointed at the boarded-up house. Again, I remembered my mother—or probably someone else’s mother—saying not to go with strangers. And yet I knew my mother wouldn’t mind. If this woman could make me beautiful, she’d think it was a risk worth taking.
    I said, “Can I see the mirror again?”
    She drew it back out from the folds of her gown. Her eyes were brown now “Don’t break it.”
    “I won’t.”
    I grasped it and brought it up to my face. I studied myself, crooked nose, freckles, frizzy hair, everything.
    “Can I . . . can you change one thing now?”
    She smiled. “Something small?”
    “Something big. My nose. Can you make it smaller or, at least, not have a bump on it?”
    She laughed. “Funny how society stereotypes witches as having long noses. In fact, it’s the first thing most witches would change.”
    I noticed her nose. It was adorable, tiny, and turned up.
    “Very well,” she said. “Close your eyes. It will only be a moment.”
    I closed them. Around me, I heard the wind pick up, felt the dirt and rocks pelting my ankles. I wondered what she would do to my nose and, for the first time, I wondered what she could do. Make me even uglier? How could I trust someone I’d never seen before?
    And yet, I knew I had nothing to lose. Still, I held my arms around myself, shivering in anticipation and maybe fear.
    A moment later, she said, “Okay.”
    I opened my eyes. She was holding the mirror toward me. I stared at it.
    It was my face, still my face, ugly, pale, blotchy, chinless. I still had no eyelashes and horrible hair. No one would notice the difference.
    But there was a difference. The bump on my nose was gone.
    “Oh.” I turned sideways to admire it. “Oh, thank you. Thank you.”
    “Now do you trust me enough to come back tomorrow?”
    I nodded. I still held the mirror in my hand, not wanting to stop looking at it. Finally, I handed it back to Kendra.
    She smiled. “Power can be a wonderful thing, Violet, a wonderful, terrible thing.”
    I was still thinking about the mirror, about me, my face. I wanted to ask her how it could be terrible. But, when I looked up, she was gone.
    I thought about power. A chill ripped through me.

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5
    When I found Mom, she was plucking her eyebrows. “Hello, Mommy.”
    She barely looked up. “Hello.”
    I just stood there. I wanted to see if she’d notice a difference. But she still didn’t look. She plucked one hair, then searched for her next victim. Just when I thought she’d forgotten I was there, she said, “Violet?”
    “Yes?”
    She plucked another hair, still not looking up.
    “You’d tell me if I had hairs on my chin, wouldn’t you?”
    I had to smile. My mother would never, in a million years, have a hair on her chin. A chin hair would be a flaw, and my mother was flawless. She didn’t even have freckles. Not one.
    I must have taken too long to answer because she said, “Oh, my GOD! I already have them, don’t I? You’ve noticed, and you haven’t told me. Violet, what is the point of even having a