Mr. Smiley -The Stories of the Smiling Man-

:Chapter 2:

     Over the next few years I saw the tall Smiling Man off in the distance of the house, but nothing like before has ever happened again as of yet. He just stands off in the distant shadow, watching me. I told my Mom about the Smiling Man whom I took to calling Mr. Smiley soon after and my Mom just blew it off as a childish fantasy, or at least at first she did. My father on the other hand, took to another approach. He told me to stop lying and to stop telling stories they aren't funny. He would spank me if he ever heard me talking about him and I knew not at the time why.

     As I grew older, my father became more and more abusive, verbally and mentally, berating my work and beating me for any wrong I did while leaving my brother alone. He could do the same thing and where he got a stern talking to I was met with several sharp slaps to my backside and sent to my room. It wasn't fair. But I know the truth now. It wasn't his fault, not entirely. The Smiling Man was influencing him because he hadn't kept his end of the deal I would find out much later he had made. But more on that later.

     My next encounter on the Smiling Man was when I was in third grade. My two bestfriends in the whole world, Trevor and James, was in my class. Our Teacher, Mrs. Meanen was having us do group work for a writing project on a book we had just read. It was a book about some girl in England and a Giant whom she befriends. I personally loved the book but my friends weren't exactly the literary types, one kind of a hippie and the other trying way to hard to be cool.

     We had gathered our clipboards and our work and went to the Beanbag chairs near the coatrack against the wall. In group activities we were allowed to sit anywhere in the classroom. While most of the class was mostly talking and dorking around rather than doing the work, I set out talking immediately about the book as we headed over to the Chairs. My friends politely nodded and then went to talking about their latest favorite cartoon, SuperOrb K, when I saw Mr. Smiley outside the classroom window staring right at me.

     Fear gripped me, I had never seen him outside of my home where he would lurk just outside in the shadows. But he was here! I felt panicked but he didn't move. It wasn't until Trevor said my name and I looked away just for a second before he was gone from the window and I didn't see him. Maybe it was just a trick of my imagination, I thought as I went over to the chairs with my friends and went to sit down.

     That's when I saw the Smiling Man again. As soon as I was sitting down and looking up I saw him over me, and he thrust his hand into my clipboard, pushing it into my chest and forcing me into the chair. Normally you'd think, Oh scary he pushed the clipboard and made you sit down. Id think the same thing, except I have severe asthma, and the clipboard went in between my ribs perfectly to hit my lung and then me slamming into the chair made the impact worse. It immediately sent me into an asthma attack. I didn't have my inhaler with me at school either, the school didn't allow it without a permit.

     Gasping for air, my friends immediately saw me fall into the chair and saw me gasping for air. They thought I had tripped and knew it was my asthma acting up and helped me up. Even though we were all very different, they were my friends and actually cared for me and I them. They helped me over to my Teacher, Mrs. Meanen, and through gasped breaths I asked her if I could call home because I needed my inhaler. Any normal teacher would have immediately sent me to the office along with herself to make sure I was okay, my mother made it a habit to inform all of my teachers about my severe asthma and how little it takes for it to be provoked especially in the fall and spring.

     But she said no and thought I was faking it, and I saw Mr. Smiley standing behind her, grinning all the more menacingly. It was his doing, I knew it, and he wanted me to suffer. I tried throughout the rest of the day to try and ask her to call home but she didn't allow it. I tried some breathing exercises I was taught but nothing was helping and I had to suffer the next three and a half hours barely breathing with my lips turning blue. When the bell rang for school to end my friends helped me, who could barely walk at this point, get my brother Wolfgang and head to the office.

     My Mom didn't pick up the phone but my Dad did, apparently she had already left for work and he had just gotten home. I told him what was going on and he immediately came and picked me up bringing my inhaler. We got home and even though this is one of the worst days of my life, it is also the most memorable for me.

     When we got home my Dad took to caring for me, monitoring my breathing making sure I could and getting my inhaler. I relaxed in his armpit, cuddling, and watching movies like the French Cat Cartoon movie I had never seen before but always wanted to see. My Dad had just bought it and we just relaxed watching it. My breathing though just kept getting worse.

     On my Moms work break she had called my Dad and he informed her of what was going on and she told him not to let me fall asleep and so he didn't, which was hard because I was getting very sleepy very fast. It wasn't till my Mom got home very late at night and saw my lips and my lulling eyes that she had realized what was going on and she rushed me to the hospital. My Dad tried to come with but couldn't leave my sleeping brother Wolfgang and my other new two younger brothers whom were four and three, Josh and Jeff, alone and asleep.

     I don't remember the way to the hospital because I was in and out of it only seeing bright lights, my Moms shrill voice telling me to sit up and stay awake. I thought she was mad at me and I tried my best but it was so hard, my eyes so heavy. I just wanted to sleep, I had school in the morning and Trevor and James were waiting for me and we were gonna watch the new episode of SuperOrb K. But those weren't the only things I saw, Mr. Smiley sat in the back of the Van, smiling at me with glee with just one feeling I got from him, one thought. Soon.

     We arrived to the hospital to which I was immediately rushed in, my memory of this even foggier because I did end up falling asleep and then having a strange dream. I was in the hospital room with my crying mother and the two nurses standing over me, with me in the hospital bed and my eyes closed. But my sight wasn't that of my eyes closed but viewing this all from outside my body. The world was almost frozen in time, all in black in white. I would have thought time had stopped if I had not seen the very slight movements of everything around me. There was no sound, no color, nothing. Yet I was not afraid.

     There was no shadow large enough for Mr. Smiley to enter the room in for there was lost of light around in this room. But where there was a lack of him, there was two figures that stood near the nurse near me holding a syringe of clear liquid that she was about to put into my IV.

     The figure on the left, a tall man with long bright hair and a fair handsome face dressed in white robes and armor stood there with two beautiful white wings behind him brandishing a sword. The other, a dark figure cloaked in black robes hiding his face, same height as the bright man, with six black wings behind his back next to him on the right.

     They both simultaneously pointed at me and said, "Your plan is not yet fulfilled and is not yet your time" and then both pointed towards the vial. from their finger tips, swirling clouds of silver both bright and dark, shimmered into the vial and turned the clear liquid into what only I could describe as looking, as if it was liquid quicksilver. I wish I could tell you what their voices sounded like, but that memory escapes me. Not because of time, but because it is too hard to describe. The bright mans voice was like that of a thousand singers ringing into the heavens, the most beautiful thing in the world. The Dark Mans voice like that of an eternal deep abyss that never ends. Both combining into a perfect harmony. That's the best I can describe it but even that doesn't give it justice.

     I woke with a start as the Quicksilver was pumped into my veins opening my lungs. I found out later that I was declared Dead for a little because my lungs had totally closed and my brain, for going so long without oxygen, was on the verges of giving up. I didn't suffer any brain damage thankfully which was a fear the doctors had, and my lungs became a lot stronger after this. I was in the hospital for about a week recovering, all the while seeing them pump liquid quicksilver into my IV. But I recovered but my nightmare was just beginning.

     I have only told one person of this experience, always pretending I just fell asleep, and dont remember anything. But I do. This is what happened when I was dead and it was Mr. Smiley's attempt at killing me for reasons unknown to me at the time. Luckily I had those two watching out for me and brought me back. If only they could have protected me from what was about to come next.