Blurb：
Wren thought she was doomed to suffer under Joanna Larson’s cursed beauty and Zack Graham’s betrayal. But death revealed the truth: a cursed amulet transferred Joanna’s pain to Wren. Reborn on their first day of college, Wren vows revenge. As Joanna brands herself an influencer against beauty standards, Wren’s face erupts with pimples from Joanna’s late-night parties. When Joanna’s rash spreads, Wren’s body bears the scars. Trapped and tortured in a basement, Wren died knowing the amulet’s secret. Now, with a second chance, she must outsmart Joanna and Zack before the curse destroys her again. Can Wren reclaim her life and make them pay? Dive into this dark tale of betrayal, supernatural curses, and ultimate revenge.
Content：
My roommate branded herself as an influencer against beauty standards, vowing to free girls from appearance anxiety.
Strangely, whenever she stayed up late partying and broke out in pimples, they would appear on my face instead.
When she fooled around and caught an infection, the rashes spread across my body.
The more radiant she became, the more monstrous I looked.
People recoiled from me. Friends cut me off. My own boyfriend, before a crowd, told me I should just die.
Then my roommate got pregnant, yet it was my stomach that swelled like I was eight months along, scarred with terrifying stretch marks. She, meanwhile, looked more flawless than ever, appearing barefaced on camera to encourage girls not to fear their looks.
I knew something was not right.
When I tried to dig for answers, my roommate and boyfriend trapped me in a basement.
They tortured me until I died.
Only then did I learn the truth.
He owned a cursed amulet that shifted all her pain onto me.
The moment I opened my eyes, I was back on our first day of college together.
This time, the game is mine.
I’ll make sure they pay.
Chapter 1
“Wren, your face is like something out of a horror show! Come on, you’ve got to care about cleanliness, tidy yourself up, or it’s just going to get worse!”
It was only when I heard those familiar words that I realized I had been given a second chance at life.
As I snapped back to reality, I caught Joanna Larson with her phone out, snapping pictures of me from every angle.
She even snatched a bottle of face cream off the desk, ready to dab some on me, and grabbed a mirror to shove in my face.
The reflection staring back at me was a mess of acne, my skin so lumpy and twisted it could turn stomachs.
I could not stand it, I swatted the mirror away, and it shattered, sending shards flying.
Joanna’s face flickered with shock, but she bounced back fast.
“It’s just a few zits, no biggie. We can’t freak out over how we look; we’ve got to roll with the punches life throws at us. Take me, for example. I burn the midnight oil, live life on my terms, and don’t let anything hold me back.”
With that, she thrust her phone in my face. “Give everyone a shout-out, it’s step one to finding your mojo again.”
The comments started flooding in, and the viewer count was on the rise.
[Yuck, I’ve never seen anyone with that many pimples. Gross!]
[How can you hang with Joanna and not feel totally outclassed? No comparison, no despair, right?]
[I’m all for ditching the beauty pressure, but you could at least try to look presentable.]
I was so ticked off I chucked the phone to the floor. “You didn’t get my okay to film me! That’s crossing the line.”
That was the first time I had ever lost my cool.
Back in the day, as my face got worse, my confidence plummeted. I never had the guts to clap back, no matter what anyone said. In turn, that led to my roommate and boyfriend playing mind games with me like I was nothing but a sewer rat.
When I blew my top, Joanna sent a desperate look to my boyfriend, Zack Graham.
He looked worried, setting Joanna’s bags down with a sigh before turning to me, his finger pointing at me.
“Wren, what’s going on with you? Joanna’s just trying to help you chill out, and here you are, freaking out. Aren’t you blowing this way out of proportion? And you need her help with your skin, remember?”
Joanna chimed in, her voice tinged with hurt. “Wren, I’m on your side. Every girl wants to feel confident and bold, right? I’m just trying to help you find that spark again.”
Zack’s voice was full of concern, almost scolding.
“I get it, you’re jealous of Joanna. But hey, not everyone’s a knockout from the start. She’s just trying to boost your confidence. You don’t have to take her advice, but why be so harsh?”
The chat was blowing up with more and more people throwing shade:
[Seriously, why do the ugly ones always have to cause a scene?]
[Joanna’s just being nice, and she gets no thanks. If I had to walk around with that face, I’d hide forever.]
[Some people just take up space and food, don’t they?]
Before I could get a word in, Joanna turned her face to the camera, her tears flowing for all to see.
“Please, don’t fight over me. I won’t interfere anymore.”
I let out an icy laugh. “If you two are such a perfect match, then I hope you’re happy together.”
I stripped off all the jewelry he had given me, dumped the makeup back in his hands.
He looked genuinely freaked out, quickly piling everything back on my bed.
“I was kidding! Joanna’s out of everyone’s league, and she’s got plenty of admirers. Plus, you’re my girl. I’m not about to break up with you!”
Chapter 2
I tuned him out, climbed into bed, then yanked the curtains closed to shut out the noise.
He kept on with his apologies, begging me to stop being so stubborn.
I closed my eyes, trying to silence the world.
The pounding headache was like an alarm clock, waking me up to my second chance at life: back to the first day of school.
In my previous life, today was the day Joanna, with her camera always rolling, would fuss over me, promising to clear up my acne.
I was thrust into the spotlight, but instead of support, I was drowned in a sea of cruel comments.
My photos spread among students and I became the biggest joke in the school.
Joanna, with her flawless beauty, was always held up next to me, making me feel even more insecure and miserable.
One day, she whispered a promise, “Work with me on a skincare routine, and I’ll make you beautiful.”
Trusting her, since she claimed to be a blogger fighting against beauty pressures, I naively gave her several vials of my blood.
However, my acne did not get better; it spread like wildfire across my skin.
As she grew more stunning by the day, I clung to the hope that she could somehow fix me.
I never imagined that this hope would lead to my downfall.
…
My face started to decay, and my body ballooned out of control.
Still, Joanna used me for her live streams, preaching self-acceptance to her viewers while my condition worsened.
She became an internet sensation.
Meanwhile, she lived a wild life, bringing different guys back to our dorm. I warned her about the dangers of her reckless lifestyle, but she brushed me off, telling me to mind my own business.
Then, I got sick, really sick. I caught a bunch of infections, even HIV.
When her secret flings were exposed, she flipped the script and blamed me, claiming I was the one who could not keep it in my pants.
My boyfriend, devastated, confirmed my illness during a live stream, and just like that, I was a pariah.
My friends turned their backs on me, and strangers told me to leave school before I infected them.
Disgusted, my parents threw me out.
With nowhere else to go, I dropped out and holed up in a tiny rental all on my own.
I once believed that if I could just get away from them, my life would get better.
However, instead, my health spiraled, and my stomach seemed to expand every day.
Joanna showed up at my doorstep with her crew, pretending to care about body image issues, only to film me at my lowest.
I became the talk of the town, and not in a good way.
“People are probably betting on who the kid’s dad is.”
“Looking like that, plus the HIV? Might as well check out early, you’re a walking hazard.”
“Seriously, how can you stand being so huge? Doesn’t it make you sick?”
The gossip and insults hit me like a tidal wave, destroying any peace I had left.
Kicked out by the landlord, no one else would take me in.
I was left with no choice but to scrape by under a bridge.
My belly did not stop growing, and my skin was a roadmap of stretch marks. I even birthed a hideous placenta that seemed to ooze darkness.
A Mystic took one look at me and declared I was cursed, which explained the disasters befalling me.
All the hurt was piling up on me.
I had to find the source and smash it.
Joanna noticed what I was up to and teamed up with my boyfriend to trap me in a basement.
She blocked every exit, her face twisted with rage.
“We’re so close, I can’t have any slip-ups!!
“When you’re gone, I’ll just move on to the next one.”
Lucky for me, fate handed me a second shot.
I was going to find the source and make them pay.
…
To keep the curse from striking back, I stripped my life down to the essentials.
However, I was still out of it, too weak to even make it to class.
I decided to take a break and track down Joanna and send back the agony she had caused.
I tore through her desk, searching for a clue, but came up empty.
The room started spinning worse than before.
I struggled to breathe, shocked by how frail I had become.
I flopped down on my bed, a sudden poke from something small and hard under my pillow jolting me awake. I flipped the pillow and found a little amulet, weirdly warm to the touch.
Clutching the amulet, a chill ran down my spine, and I felt like I had just dived into an icy lake.
Then it hit me: that was the birthday present from my boyfriend.
Oddly enough, he had made me promise to keep it under my pillow.
Chapter 3
My anger was like a wildfire, growing out of control.
I chucked the amulet to the floor with all my might, but it was as good as new. Not even a scratch could be seen.
I grabbed a craft knife and tried stabbing it. I even took a hammer to it, but nothing worked. It would not budge.
My head throbbed like crazy. The more I tried, the worse I felt, like I was suffocating.
Desperate, I tried to torch the amulet, but instead of it burning, I felt like I was the one on fire.
Was I somehow tied to this thing? Was death the only escape from its grip?
I looked closer at the amulet and its weird patterns. They seemed… familiar.
A memory clicked, my previous life. The Mystic had given me stuff with the same patterns before!
I snatched the amulet and bolted outside.
I ran all the way to the underpass, and there he was, the Mystic, acting like he had been expecting me, not even bothering to look up.
He murmured, “Darkness clings to you. You can’t shake off that gloomy vibe. Looks like you’ve got an evil trinket on your hands. It’s an amulet, am I right?”
I nodded and showed him the amulet.
He looked grave and pointed at it, “This thing’s bad news. It feeds on human blood. Whoever tries to hurt the owner of the amulet ends up hurting the blood donor instead.”
He sighed. “Then again, a life’s at stake. That’s what really counts.”
He let out a sigh, brushed the air around me with a handful of willow fluff, and sketched a sigil of protection I could not make heads or tails of, pressing it onto my forehead.
“This amulet’s got a deep hold on you. Keep these sigils of protection, tuck them under your pillow, and you’ll start feeling like yourself again soon.”
The moment he said that, I felt like a weight lifted off me, and the tightness in my chest eased up.
The amulet in his grasp let out a mournful cry and then just fizzled out.
I tried to pay him, but he would not take my money.
Back at the dorm, Joanna barged in with some guy I had never seen before. They were all over each other right off the bat.
I was totally grossed out. “You’re always dragging random people back here. Aren’t you worried about catching something? Take your guy and beat it!”
She just rolled her eyes and shot back, “They’re into me because I’m hot, and they hit me up. Can’t say no to that kind of attention.”
Then she had to go and rub it in. “Hey, Wren, how come Zack hasn’t been around looking for you lately? He’s so into you, I bet he doesn’t even care about a couple of zits. No biggie, we’ve got to be the heroines of our own stories.”
With that, she and her flavor of the night headed for the bed, and I even caught him muttering under his breath, “Your roommate’s face… It’s kind of freaky. It’s not catching, right?”
I could not stand the thought of them putting on an X-rated show right there, so I bolted to find a hotel to crash at for the night.
I only started to relax after I had dropped off my application to live off-campus.
Then my phone buzzed with a new notification. It was Joanna’s latest update on her social feed.
[Just another night of hitting the dance floor and knocking back drinks.]
The photo showed a sea of empty glasses with a bunch of guys lounging around. The comments were already rolling in.
[Totally jealous! How do you party like that every night and not break out or pack on pounds? Meanwhile, your roommate’s cooped up and just keeps getting bigger…]
Amidst a sea of comments, she zeroed in on one to respond to.
[Hey, don’t talk like that. Girls gotta have confidence. We should all embrace our imperfections. I’m just lucky to have this natural glow, while my roommate’s been battling zits every single day.]
[We need to be kinder to her, keep her from feeling so down on herself.]
Her words were dripping with sarcasm, aimed right at me. No matter how much I tried, I could not compete with her flawless complexion.
That message got my blood pumping with anger.
‘Without that amulet, I’d love to see how you’d keep up this phony chill vibe!’ I seethed silently.
The phone rang off the hook all night long.
It was Joanna. I cut the call and crashed hard.
The next morning, as I was getting my stuff together, I noticed the protection sigil I had stashed under my pillow had vanished.
Joanna looked up, her gaze locking onto me, the mega zit on her chin impossible to miss. It made her look downright spooky.
A look of suspicion crossed her face. “What’s the deal with these? You know they’re bad mojo, right?”
Download the GoodNovel app, Search 【 339252 】reads the whole book.
