The Dentist

The beige waiting room, complete with posters of pretty people with immaculate smiles, felt obscenely sterile. The tile floor was spotless, the magazines organized in a flawless fan for viewing delight. . . even the receptionist appeared picture perfect.

Maggie, with her crooked yellow teeth and scraggly brown hair, felt as out of place as a fork in the spoons.

With her arms crossed over her chest, she slunk up to the counter. She scrawled her name onto the check-in page. The platinum blonde with her shining white teeth didn’t glance up from her paperwork when she gave her practiced welcome.

Maggie shuffled over to one of the shining pink, vinyl chairs and sat down. The unfriendly plastic wasn’t designed for comfort. In an effort to find the best position so her cheeks didn’t fall asleep, she shifted a couple of times. Her gaze flicked over the magazines but she didn’t dare disturb their alignment. No one else waited in the room with her. Left with nothing to distract herself, she focused on the wall clock’s second-hand tick away.

A voice called from the open door next to the front desk, “Maggie?” Like the receptionist, the woman who called her name was stunning. She had dark brown hair swept into a loose ponytail, big blue eyes, and when she smiled. . . her teeth, they were so pristine.

All too aware of her imperfections, she rose with her lips locked over her teeth. She understood this was a dentist’s office, but couldn’t they have someone less lovely to make the lowly teeth folk, like herself, feel a bit more at home?

The sashaying aide took her to a room where she did the uncomfortable x-ray process, making Maggie’s mouth feel dry and distorted. Why was everything so shiny and clean?

Her head ached. She didn’t want to look at the artificially friendly, perfect smile brunette anymore. The woman tried to invite her to talk, but Maggie wanted to show off her teeth as little as possible, so she remained silent.

After the x-rays, the aide led her to a chair. It sat in a room with three quarters of the wall around it so people could see into it. The woman left her alone. Maggie stared at the tray of frightening equipment.

Like everything else here, they seemed shiny and sterile, but somehow, deadly. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight. She cringed into the chair. Something about this place felt so wrong, but she couldn’t figure out what.

The dentist, a tall man with a head of feathery brown hair, strode in and extended his hand. He introduced himself as Dr. Listes, but she could only fixate on his faultless smile. Like his female coworkers, his teeth shone a blinding white and he wasn’t shy about flashing them.

When Maggie didn’t take his hand, the smile dimmed for a brief moment. He shook it off and pulled up the spinning stool.

He asked about the reason for Maggie’s visit, but her ears rang too loud for her to make out his words.

The perfection. Everywhere. It was too much.

She needed to escape, get away from the man whose brown eyes held something dark and ominous.

Instead, she shrank into the chair, flinching at the sound of his voice. Her gray eyes tracked his gloved hands as he spoke. He explained what he would be doing and reached up to lower the magnifying lamp above her. His movement, though slow and measured, felt abrupt and sudden to her.

Something snapped inside of her. Survival mode and she exploded into action. She launched up and grabbed the lamp, swinging it around hard enough to knock the good dentist off his stool.

He lay on the ground, blinking and trying to orientate himself. A little trickle of blood oozed from a cut on his forehead.

Before he could figure out what was going on, she leaped on him with his forceps in hand. She pried his mouth open. A weak shout escaped him. Hands pawed at her face but the animal had woken in her.

She grabbed him by his hair and smashed his head against the pristine tile floor. His bright blood marred the perfection.

His warbled shout became a dull groan, his struggles pathetic flails. Again, she wrenched his mouth open. She gripped his front tooth with the forceps, her yellowed teeth bared in a feral growl. With a horrible twisting motion and a popping sound, she yanked the tooth out and dropped it on the floor. Crimson filled the dentist’s mouth.

He sputtered and coughed on it, splashing Maggie’s face. Somehow, that only fueled her. She smiled and giggled as she pinched the forceps down upon another tooth. Each one came out in a slippery gush of rich red liquid, piling up on the floor until she’d stolen every tooth.

She rose from Dr. Listes chest and stared at the true beauty he’d become. After tooth three, he passed out. Now, he lay listless as blood bubbled out of his mouth and drooled down the side of his face to pool on the floor.

His perfection would never be the same.

Another snicker escaped her and she leaned down to scoop up his teeth. The pearly whites tumbled into her pants pocket. Her gaze wandered around the small medical room. The tooth display on the counter felt pretty solid, perfect for hitting someone on the back of the head.

She lifted it with both hands and left the room that started it all.

Maggie needed to find the pretty brunette aide.

She wasn’t done yet.