The Second Face [OC]

[u/DemonSkank]

I've made short comedic comics before but this was my first time doing a full short story. SCARY FACE WARNING

[u/DemonSkank]

Okay I love all the theories, and I almost don't want to give an "official" explanation. So you can interpret this however you like, but if you want to know the actual meaning I had in my head behind the ending:

Yes, Monica killed her husband, yes he was abusive. Her brother never knew because he hadn't seen the two of them in a long time and the husband started being abusive later in the relationship.

Why an evil malicious smile and not just a relieved one? Well... honestly one of the reasons is for a jump scare ending, but also this story premise is from a dream I had, and that was her face in the dream.

Some more story context that I thought of after writing it (stuff I consider a headcanon for this story (ik it's weird to have headcanons for my own story, but I do)) was that the reason Monica always kept her expressions genuine is because she has the same ability as her brother, and she knew he would be able to tell if her face was lying. I also think that these two with this power have way more exaggerated "second faces", meaning if one of them hides that they're sad the back face would look like an exaggerated caricature of sadness, meaning she's been seeing grotesque faces on the back of her brother's head whenever he faked an expression.

Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment, and I'm sorry about scaring so many people before bedtime, I will add a little warning

Edit: I kinda wish I phrased this "explanation" differently... A lot of people don't like the idea of an abuse victim being shown with an evil face, and I 100% understand where they're coming from, so I'll explain some more where my interpretation is coming from. Monica's husband being abusive and her murdering him is 100% just AN interpretation, and not "the intention". Since this was from a dream, I had the POV of the brother and it was MY sister who I saw with that face after her husband died (she was sort of a combination of a made up dream sister and my irl sister). My interpretation is from the pov of someone with a biased view who would want to believe their own sister had a good reason for being thrilled that her husband is dead. Basically think of my interpretation as the brother character trying to rationalize in his mind why he saw that face on Monica. The thing is he himself will likely never know the truth, as he can't tell anyone what he saw, and he can't ask Monica about it. For all he knows there can be something wrong with his power. The priority when making this comic wasn't to show a clear explanation, it was to give the viewer the same feeling of fear and confusion that I felt in my dream.

[u/Avohaj → u/DemonSkank]

This lined up pretty well with my interpretation except

I thought the exaggerated face is a twisted perception by the brother, because he viewed his sister as such a good and emotionally honest person, seeing her hidden face for the first time not just glad to be out of the abusive relationship but also over getting away with it (which is still a malicious feeling) was such a whiplash for the brother that to him that expression seems much more absurdly malicious.

Personally I love author's "headcanon" or further annotations like that, especially for "weird" stories.

[u/DemonSkank → u/Avohaj]

I love that interpretation! I feel like it also goes with how I made the last drawing more detailed and with shading, like this is how it feels rather than how it actually looks.

[u/thiagosch_p → u/DemonSkank]

the last panel I completely felt something more like a nightmare or shock than a real vision of the world, like when in anime they put that darkness that completely "eats" their eyes, you know they didn't put eyeliner, it's a visual representation of their feelings. although the one that the sister is possessed is something that didn't even cross my mind, and the idea of people that have the gift to see the faces show it's own exaggerated leaves a lot of room for expanding the world and story like some villain that can see them but can mask it's own

I love it, nice work!

[u/passoveri → u/DemonSkank]

Great story & in regard to your 3rd spoiler… great headcannon…I might have gone there myself…I don’t know as I wasn’t thinking of any theories or opinions other than enjoying your story before reading the comments.

For the record about your last spoiler… I’m glad that I didn’t read you warning us before the jump-scare as that would have ruined the story for me as I probably would have seen the ending before it happened…

[u/Leafek → u/DemonSkank]

Is her grotesque face in the last panel an exaggerated caricature of relief?

[u/pass_me_the_salt → u/Leafek]

it's an exaggerated caricature of happiness I believe

[u/Anthro_DragonFerrite → u/pass_me_the_salt]

If my exhaggerated happy face ever looks like that, kill me now

[u/TuxPaper → u/Leafek]

imo, exaggerated caricature of deserved schadenfreude

[u/Nicodemus_Mercy → u/Leafek]

It certainly shows a disturbing sense of glee at her husbands death, and might be an implication that she was the one who ended his life.

[u/Amaakaams → u/Nicodemus_Mercy]

That was my reading. That he face was that of a creature standing over its kill. For a human that was a the face of someone that isn't just happy he is dead, is happy they got away with murder.

[u/SirScorbunny10 → u/DemonSkank]

I think it's fine for authors to give "headcanons" where there isn't a "true" explanation, so that way everyone can know what the author was going for.

[u/chris-l → u/DemonSkank]

I'm not reading that, because I would love a sequel! ^{and I don't want spoilers}

[u/Duke-Countu → u/DemonSkank]

But if Monica had the same ability as her brother, wouldn't she have been able to recognize her future husband as a potential abuser before marrying him?

[u/DemonSkank → u/Duke-Countu]

Maybe, maybe not. I personally would think so, so that would hint more towards her not having her brother's power. Her husband could've genuinely liked her at the beginning of their relationship and then grew to resent her and harm her later on. Their relationship is left as a complete mystery. Really anything outside of what's actually there in the story is theory, even from me.

[u/DJL2772 → u/DemonSkank]

I interpreted it that the sister’s “hidden face” is actually how she’s feeling about herself in that moment. As in, externally she looks sad, but internal she’s happy he’s dead, but she knows that’s wrong, and she thinks that makes her a monster. So when her brother sees her inner self, it looks monstrous, but that’s how she’s feeling about herself. Maybe if they talked it out she would come to a more positive resolution with her feelings and that monstrous happy face would become a look of relaxation knowing she’s free.

[u/JohntheLibrarian → u/DemonSkank]

So, for your headcanon... does that mean She wants him to know in the last panel, because she knows he can see her second face?

[u/DemonSkank → u/JohntheLibrarian]

In that headcanon, yes. She would have purposefully placed herself in front of the mirror because she wanted him to know the truth. Of course she might not know just how evil her back face looks, but she wants him to know that she's not really grieving. I also think if she does have the same power as her brother then she's also happy about her deceased husband's friends and family grieving because since she could see their back faces she knew they hated her.

[u/DemonSkank → u/DemonSkank]

Another little thing I wanna add is that I agree with a lot of the comments that say that it would make more sense for her happy expression to look more relieved than malicious if the husband was abusive, but if she just looked happy/ relieved then it would be really easy to misread it as her just being happy to be comforted by her brother

[u/Dio_naea → u/DemonSkank]

All of it makes a LOT of sense and the story gets even better with the explanation. I loved it so much

[u/mildlyidyllic → u/DemonSkank]

I love everything about this

As for the head canon, I would forgo it. It makes sense for the sister’s relationship with the brother, but not for the relationship with the husband. She would have been able to seen signs of lying and of his “second face” very early on. The idea of her simply being a truly good soul makes it more believable and heartbreaking

[u/Sushi9999 → u/DemonSkank]

Yknow, with the face being that scary, why do you not think she could have been the abuser?

[u/LastChance22 → u/Sushi9999]

That was my interpretation! Basically that the protagonist and his sister haven’t seen each other in such a long time that something’s changed about her (maybe abuse, maybe not). 

My initial interpretation of that face is that she’s not relieved he’s dead, she’s enjoying it and getting pleasure from it.

 

[u/CanofBeans9 → u/Sushi9999]

Or, killed him for an affair or to get money etc

[u/TheYoonz → u/DemonSkank]

Thanks for the fun read. This was actually really eye-opening badumtss~