I opened the wardrobe to slip in the freshly laundered clothes. Even as I put the dresses in their places and closed the door, my eyes couldn’t help but glance at the mirror. It was but for a fleeting second, and I quickly looked the other way before stomping off to lie on the bed at the other end of the room.

'You can’t run forever,' the mirror seemed to scream.

My sister came into the room just then. Her knee-length red dress, perfectly shaped at her breasts and waist, exuded confidence. She walked across to the mirror, turned sideways left and right, shook her hair gently, and was walking out of the room when she noticed me lying flat on the bed.

'Oops, sorry. I didn’t see you were here.'

'What difference does it make?' I retorted. 'You only care for yourself. You are beautiful. You are stylish. You can wear whatever you want.'

She bit her lip for a moment. 'You have to accept yourself as you are now. It’s fate. Everyone isn’t beautiful. And everyone can’t remain beautiful all the time. Accept yourself first. You can’t run away from reality forever.' And she stomped out, probably to another of her fashion shows.

She was a budding model. It’s something I had wanted to do in life. I was jealous of her.

I’d enrolled in fashion design and had walked the ramp for some pretty big events. But all was lost now.

There was no fault of mine in it either. I cried hard, feeling the tears streak down my dried-up skin.

It all happened in a flash. I was coming back from a party with friends and had just turned around the last corner toward the street where our house was when my way was blocked, and acid was thrown on my face.

I covered my face as my skin burnt. More acid was thrown, wetting my dress and burning the skin on my bare arms and chest. 'Serves you right for rejecting me,' he shouted as he fled from the scene. I recognized him by his voice. Hadn’t he been threatening me over the phone and following me?

I should have listened to my sister and filed the police complaint. But I didn’t until it was too late. He was arrested and put behind bars. But I had lost my beautiful face, and my dreams too.

I picked myself up and wiped my tears, my fingers brushing against the uneven rough skin that covered the right side of my face. I can’t run away from it forever.

I slowly walked across the room, steadying my mind for what I was about to see. In the mirror, I saw a girl with crumbled, burnt skin. But I loved her nonetheless. I stood in front of the mirror for a full 30 seconds, the longest I’d done since that day almost eight months ago.