She lets the mask slip.
She's not really conscious of it. Not yet at least; that mask has been stuck on her face her whole life. Yet, she's still unconsciously strained against it; something within her fighting to be let out. And after years and years, in a quiet moment, thinking on those feelings... it finally falls off.
It's not a complete removal, not a complete unleashing. She still keeps the same general shape, the same clothes on her back, the same idea of self in her heart. But for a few quiet moments, she feels a change. Her face feels... longer, the right shape. An ear idly twitches atop her head. She takes a deep breath and tastes new scents upon the wind, and growls gently. Something swishes behind her.
She's not fully aware of what she is, not yet. The moment only lasts a few seconds, as she sits in her room alone, before the beeping-noise of an incoming text message interrupts her reverie and she snaps, reflexively, back into the masked shape she's worn for so long.
But that mask is no longer so tightly fastened. Her ears are a little more pointy, her eyes a little sharper. Few if any, will notice.
That moment lingers in her memory. She starts to wonder. To question what that was, why she felt such serenity.
Those questions, those feelings, start to open the door. Soon, it'll happen again. Easier each time, to let go of what she isn't, to find that relief and peace. And one day, it'll become more than momentary, and she'll catch a sight of herself in the mirror -
and learn of the beauty beneath that mask.
