Finding Herself

Alex Zayas: TAMPA — Alone, she stood in a hospital bathroom, peering into a small mirror at a woman she had never seen — herself, the new Audrey Mabrey.



She'd been beaten, doused with gasoline and set afire. She had awakened from a coma to excruciating skin-stretching therapy. She had mustered the strength to get out of bed



But she hadn't yet looked.



Now here she stood, one-on-one with the burn scars that covered 80 percent of her body. Her eyes fell on her deformed mouth.



The bathroom light was dim. That was the only mercy. She would avoid the next mirror she saw, and the one after that.



But she wouldn't hide forever.



Not the new Audrey.