I Watched My Friend Get Disfigured

The smell of disinfectant filled the hospital corridors. Hedgar Stane’s parents wept in front of the burn unit’s ICU.

But I felt as if there was a filter over my ears. The noise around me was hard to make out.

My mother took my hand. “Henry, go keep Hedgar’s parents company. They need you.”

I snapped out of my reverie and shook my dizzy head.

At that moment, the attending physician walked out and solemnly told Hedgar’s parents to be prepared.

“The fire was too strong. The patient suffered third-degree burns on her face and neck. Even though we managed to save her, she will be permanently scarred.

“The skin tissue on her face will shrivel and change to varying degrees. She won’t be able to return to how she looked even with plastic surgery.”

In other words, the face Hedgar was so proud of was ruined.

Irene, Hedgar’s mother, fell limp on the floor, and I instinctively touched my completely unharmed face.

My face was smooth, and its lines obvious, just like how I had looked before.

I had returned to the past.

In my previous life, Hedgar ran into a few hooligans on her way home in the middle of the night.

A man passed by and helped her when she was isolated and helpless. His presence was like that of a savior to her. Soon, the two of them fell in love.

But Hedgar’s parents felt uneasy about their relationship because they did not know the man’s origins.

One day, while they were having a meal, Irene lectured Hedgar, “No upstanding member of society would linger around the entrance to a residential area in the middle of the night! He might have been in cahoots with those drunkards!”

Hedgar scowled and retorted, “I told you, if he hadn’t shown up when he did, who knows what would have happened to me!”

“And that gives you a pass to date him? Hedgar, you’re too naive. Look at Henry. Would his parents let him date a—”

I had been focusing on eating when my name was mentioned.

Before Irene could finish, Hedgar stormed out of the house.

This time, I remained seated at the dining table and just watched her leave in anger instead of chasing after her.

In my previous life, once I arrived at Hedgar’s rented place, I saw it go up in flames. I rushed in to save her, only to have a falling beam smash into my face.

From then on, my face was covered in horrific scars, and I could not return to how I had looked before.

Out of guilt, Hedgar volunteered to marry me.

“What about him?” I asked softly.

She shrugged nonchalantly, “My parents don’t agree to me dating him anyway. Why should I force it?”

She had said it in such a relaxed fashion that I was caught off guard by her behavior after our wedding.

She sometimes got drunk and cried as she hugged me.

Then, my wounds got infected and started rotting. In time, the infection got so bad that I had to go through a large-scale skin graft.

…

One day, I accidentally heard a conversation between Hedgar and her parents. “He’s so disfigured that it’d be better for him to die. Why is he still alive?”

I had given up on everything because of the hint of pity I had for Hedgar, but she was wishing that I would die…

In despair, I floored the gas pedal when we were both in a car and rammed it into a bridge pier.

Right before the car exploded, Hedgar abandoned me and tried to flee.

But this was a death trap that no one could escape.

At the final moments of her life, Hedgar roared, “If I could choose again, I’d rather be disfigured than be with you again!”