burn my memory, burn my outline
the tears scream to scar your unpierced flesh
shattered mirrors reflecting back your face
'let your defences fall'

                          [ Black Tape for a Blue Girl]

Chapter1: Welcome
Mandy looked up at the large mansion. It filled up her sight completely. She could count five stories, at least three tower-like outcrops and dozens of black flags. Though the mansion was quite beautiful, the air around it felt heavy. Mandy imagined the steps that led up to the building to grow ever higher until she'd be unable to climb them.
Feeling discomfort creep around her heart Mandy strengthened her resolve and placed her right foot on the first step. Her future lay at the top of these stairs. No more would she be held back by her face. No longer would she take life laying down. She would return to the cruel cold world with a fabulous face. She'd use it to get on top of the world. She deserved it as much as the next girl.
"That's right. Fame, fortune, revenge if you just climb those stairs."
The lonely figure of Mandy climbing the stairs could be seen al through the area since the mansion she was heading for had been built on a hill. Not a single tree obscured sight of it, though trees had been planted on the hill's slanted slopes. Clothed in black and hesitating she sometimes looked like a crow or a ghost, appearing too early in the Autumn season.
As Mandy finished the last flight she noticed two others already waiting. Had they received an invitation such as herself? Had they too been lured to this forsaken place because of a promise? Going on their faces as they watched her approach it was highly possible. One of the two was a big woman. She had two blond ponytails pointing away from her head, widening her face even more. Bitter because of years of bullying and knowing all too well what people were able to do onto others, Mandy found it no surprise that the woman wanted to get rid of all her excessive weight. She should have done something about it years ago. The man was something else entirely. He was the sort, Mandy knew, who'd never give her a second look. Though Mandy had a great figure and long beautiful hair that many a beautician had been envious off, her face was something that repelled man in general, be they handsome or not. Riddled as it's skin was with scar tissue and red discoloration her face had been called monster more than once.
"You came to get rid of that face, burn-girl?" the man called.
Mandy shot him a glare and then looked away, not because she could not think of a snappy comeback, but because he was right.
"Don't talk like that!" the blond woman called, obviously shocked by the man's impertinence.
"I don't nee help from you." Mandy said in an icy voice, "He's right anyway. We all now why you and I are here."
Dorothy looked to the ground and tried to fade into the ground, which was hardly possible considering her size. She smiled an ironic, half-sad smile that showed plainly the scars on her soul.
"Yeah, I'm fat. Dorothy can't fly to Oz like this." she whispered.
Mandy shrugged and turned toward the man, "And what's your reason for being here, mister...?"
"Gilles." the man breathed out, "just Gilles who would kill for a cigarette right now."
"Fire burns you know." Mandy smiled with a look of superiority on her face that made her look all the more monstrous, "I'm Mandy."
"Well, Mandy..." Gilles smiled, taking up the challenge laid before him, "I'm here to become beautiful just like you two."
He felt the need for nicotine rise in his system now that he'd have to deal with an unattractive bitch. It was this particular type of woman, who he realized resembled his late mother, that frightened him. He'd always been handsome. Even as a child he'd known he could get away of he just smiled in a certain fashion. Women had never gotten enough of him. And yet he'd found plenty about his body that was amiss. Humans in general were pitiable creatures. they had no fangs, no wings, no tail. They came on the earth naked and left it in the same way. There was plenty he'd wish to change about his body and the invitation he'd received had opened up the means by which he could.
The large front door of the mansion, beautifully ornamented by wood carvings, opened behind Dorothy and a tall, muscled man dressed in leather pants and a plain white shirt appeared before them.
"Welcome to our mansion of wellness and beautification." He said with a rich baritone, "We're better known as the clinic around here though. Would you three follow me in please?"