Aurelia watched as the rain pattered on the window of her office and let out a sigh. She would have to call a rideshare now that her plan for walking home had been dismantled. The rain normally didn’t bother her. Had this been any other day, she would have welcomed it and looked forward to the walk to her apartment.

The rain seemed to wash away all of her worry, stress, and doubt. She felt as if the rain could wash away her past and bring forth a better future, one without worry and sadness.

Today, though-oh, today-she had to accompany her boss, Jerry, and some other higher-ups at the company to a dinner with some very prestigious guests who were looking at the potential of collaboration. Her attendance had been explicitly requested at the high-class restaurant uptown.

She thought of the outfit her sister, Bryn, had helped her pick out last week and shivered. The beautiful dress did not belong on someone like her. Besides the dress, she had not prepared for the meeting. She wasn’t sure exactly what to prepare for.

She was mid-level within the business. The uppers treated her with more respect than the newbies and lower levels, but she could be on the down low and not have to deal with the grandeur of the higher-up levels. Until now, and for what, she wasn’t sure she was prepared to find out.

Knowing her upper, he just wanted to bring a pretty face to the party to get the partners to let their guard down a bit. The only issue with this was that she knew she wasn’t the most attractive in the office. She rated herself similarly to her status within the job: mid-level and average.

She broke out of her thoughts to look at the clock on the wall next to her office door. Ten minutes until she could leave. The realization of the time made her pull out her cell phone and put in a request for a rideshare before turning her attention back to work.

Her job within the magazine company was similar to that of an editor, which was her attentive position when she first started. Her degree in English wasn’t much use for the fact-checker position they opened last year, but she accepted the promotion at the drop of a hat.

At first, she hated the job. Slowly it grew on her as she navigated the new world that was presented to humanity five years ago through websites and articles to find out what was true and what was bullshit the writing team was just throwing together.

When the Otherworld first merged with the humans, mass chaos ensued. A war was started between the creatures and humans. After a year of enormous amounts of bloodshed throughout the world, primarily humans, a peace treaty was created.

Now, Aurelia worked for a magazine called Enchanted Realms that looked into the creatures from the Otherworld. Most days, she spent her time fact-checking dragons, werewolves, and vampires. She felt as if she knew all there was to know about them.

She now enjoyed looking into these creatures, and though they scared her, they also intrigued her. Their inhuman abilities were deadlier than anything manmade, but they offered a better life to the humans. She wanted to know everything there was to know about each and every one. The dragons, werewolves, and vampires were closely knit to what we had thought of them before they had come to our world. So close, that it made her question if they had been here this whole time, saving themselves from the attack, learning all of the humans’ tricks and ways.

Today, though, she found herself researching the newest of the creatures who had peeked their heads through the one-sided door from the Otherworld. The basilisks ’snakelike features seemed to call to her. Her love of snakes and amphibians allowed her to see the beauty in all three forms of the basilisk: human, serpent, and hybrid.

The chime of the clock on the wall caused her to startle. She peeked at her phone and saw the notification that her rideshare had arrived. Leaving the building, she walked to the driver of the car detailed in the rideshare app. He smiled at her and extended his arm. She scanned his hand with her phone as he did the same to her.

Human, the government app showed.

This app, this tool, was now standard in the human world, scanning strangers to make sure they were human and not some deviant creature.

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She got into the back, and they headed towards her apartment. She watched out the windows at how their world had changed. It seemed darker now, spoiled with the bloodshed of the humans from the monsters who had climbed into their world as if the human world had been left in despair and depression.

That was far from the truth. After the peace treaty, humans and their world flourished. The creatures had brought their own sort of way to the world that allowed the humans to make more money, build grander things, and help think deeper in their endeavors.

As soon as the driver dropped her off, she tipped him and sent Bryn a text message to let her know she was still not confident in her choice of dress for the night.

Bryn sent back a winking emoji.

Aurelia walked up the stairs to her apartment and scanned her hand into the screen next to the front door.

Since the creatures, more security was offered in all aspects of life. It baffled her that humans were more worried about these creatures, who were the cause of less than 100,000 human deaths per year since the peace treaty, than their own kind, who were directly responsible, through homicide and war, for over 500,000. If you add human accidents to that number, it was around 1.3 million. That was how humans worked, though it seemed.

At least the creatures reduced the amount of war, racism, sexism, and homophobia throughout the human population. They were more focused on hating the creatures.

She unlocked the door to her apartment complex and saw the dress as soon as she walked in. It was stunning. She wondered how a plain Jane like herself could wear such an outfit. She kept her eyes on the dress as if it would offer some encouragement and confidence as she walked to the bathroom.

Starting to get ready for the night she turned on the shower. She checked her phone to see the time. She knew based on how long it took to get to the restaurant, that she had about an hour and a half to get ready.

She hopped in the shower, the hot water eliciting a sigh from her lips. She washed her hair and scrubbed her body before standing under the water, letting it calm her back and nerves. She could have stayed under the water for hours, but she knew she didn’t have the time to dawdle. Turning off the water, she opened the shower door, the cold hitting her skin and bringing another sigh out of her.

She started on her hair, telling herself that she could finish the makeup in the rideshare if she needed to. The long, thick, dark brown locks of hair bounced with the hit of the blow-dryer. She took a brush through as she tried to frame her face with subtle curls. She took up a wide piece from each side of her hair and placed it into a pin. Her fingers found the pieces of hair she normally played with and pulled them out to add more life to her face, while also concealing it more.

Aurelia did not think of herself as beautiful, not even pretty. The harshness of the world had gobbled her up and spit her out and she felt that every time she looked at herself, only seeing the imperfections.

She picked up her phone again and relaxed, seeing that she would have enough time to apply a soft touch of makeup and get dressed before the rideshare she had requested arrived.

Her brown eyes looked tired as she looked at her appearance. She placed some foundation and highlighter on her face before adding a soft touch of brown eye shadow and a dark, deep pink lip stain. She debated on fake lashes and decided against it. Her eyelashes were naturally long, and it made it hard to apply the fake ones. She ran some mascara through her wonderful lashes and checked herself over in the mirror.

She looked pretty; not in a hot, men want to take her to bed look, but in a sophisticated way that she thought would make people take her seriously and show her more respect, even if it was only at face value.

Respect is something she had never really had. The only person who respected her, she thought, was her sister. She racked her brain thinking of what it would be like to be respected. How different her upbringing would have been if just one person had shown a little bit of it.

Holding her breath, she walked out to the dress that hung from the closet door. She exhaled, letting out all of the air in her lungs. Looking at the dress did not end up helping her confidence. Instead, it crushed it, making her feel lesser than she truly was.

It’s time, she thought as she grabbed the hanger of the dress and put one arm under it. She didn’t want it to touch the floor, it was too beautiful.

As the sparkly gold fabric went over her body, showing off her curves, she felt like an imposter. She had never thought she would wear such a beautiful dress. She had never had the luxury of going to prom and she figured that if she ever got married, she would just elope.

Grabbing the matching gold heels, she placed them on her feet, laced the small ribbon around her ankle, and stood to try them out. She enjoyed heels even though they made her taller than most men.

Her phone pinged with a notification that the rideshare had arrived. She grabbed her purse and took off out of her apartment.

As she scanned the driver’s hand, he looked at her awestruck. She was beautiful, even if she couldn’t see it herself.

On the way there he asked her if she was an actress or a model, which made her cheeks flush a deep red. She had blamed the cause for the question on her attire, though in truth, many would see her just as beautiful.

She thanked the driver and tipped him as she stepped out in front of the restaurant.