Narcissism

The sheer vanity of it all should have been an early indicator of the type of pain to come. But it was just something that Allison cannot easily accept. He was charmingly handsome, and had a good attitude to boot. And when he asked her if she would be his girlfriend, there was little reason why she should say no.

They went out on a few dates, each date more magical than the last. The only thing that kept recurring was his seemingly obsessive need to check himself out in front of any reflective surface that they happened to pass by. At first, Allison found it cute, but by the time the fifth date came about, it was starting to get tiresome. While he kept looking at himself in the reflective surfaces, he did not demonstrate any other of the more overt signs of being narcissistic.

Or so she thought.

It was nearly six months since the start of their romance. She had learnt to live with his peculiarities, and his general demeanour and interest in her had not waned since the day they started going out. He proposed, she accepted, and two weeks later they had signed the marriage license. It was a simple affair, that wedding was, since both their immediate families were small without any extended relations. They had rented a place to live together while they were saving enough for their first house. It was the first time that the two of them would be living in close proximity with each other; all this while they had been quite proper in their behaviours when they were relatively alone, something that was fast becoming an antiquated practice with all the notions of free love and sexual liberation. Allison was excited about it; she had loved him with all of her heart, and soon she could begin a new chapter of life by living with him.

When they were done with moving their own things into the rented apartment, they collapsed in exhaustion on the couch that was provided by the landlord, elated at their new lives together. Allison turned to look at him, and found that in the midst of moving, he had a tuft of hair that was a little out of place. She playfully pushed it back with her hand, only to find the clump of hair falling out into her grasp, and his suddenly melting away, the skin sliding off the flesh which was also dropping off, exposing the bone that was beneath it.

Two loud screams were heard.