His sweet little nightmares

I smiled for him

He would always visit me every night. Standing outside my window and would stare from the outside. What makes me feel uneasy is his smile. His wide hysteric smile. Always on on point. You won't be able to see much of him but only his smile.

He comes every night. But sometimes late at night and at time earlier than that. I never even bothered talking to him. Asking him why he's there. I never wanted to deal with a weirdo like him. I always lay in bed whenever he's there. My curtains are always closed but I could still see him because the curtains aren't really thick. They were thin enough for you to still see the outside of it.

I told my mom about it and even my dad. They would just scold me, accusing me of scaring them, especially my sister. My sister hated creepy stuffs. Her bedroom is mostly filled with nightlights and her curtains are more thicker compared to mine.

I wasn't scaring anyone. But probably, we never know, maybe it's just an old geezer always drunk or maybe a no-life dude who just wants to scare people off. But I doubted it.

My sister also started telling me this. She also feels like someone is watching her from outside her window. She would sometimes hear a knock on her window but she would practically go to sleep immediately. Mine doesn't knock, probably because he could already see me through my stupid thin curtains. I just told her to ignore it and if worse comes-- just scream for help. Or better yet, just smile at him. I snorted out a joke and she did not like it one bit.

One night, it was probably almost midnight, as I was just about to go to sleep. I heard a huge thud outside, the sound wasn't really clear as to where it really came from. I just shrugged it off and procceeded laying on my bed.

The clock struck 12 o'clock in the midnight and that's when HE showed up again. Still standing, staring from the outside, smiling like a mad-man. As usual, I just stayed on my bed.

Until he finally started knocking. It was okay at first but he started on knocking repeatedly. Almost as if he was planning on breaking in. But he was still-- smiling.

I stood from my bed and quickly picked up my screwdriver just in case. I slowly walked towards my window, ready enough to strike him if he intends to surprise me or anything. As I was getting near, his knocking stopped. I felt myself getting nervous as hell.

I couldn't move my body. My fear rendered myself immobile. And as I looked at him, he said:

"Smile for me"

It was unclear at first but as he started to raise a knife on his left hand. I started to stare at him and smiled for no apparent reason. I smiled the way he smiled.

He became silent and for a minute. He held down his knife and for just a second-- he was gone.

I quickly ran to my bed and covered myself with my blanket. I went to sleep.
---
The next day, I felt exhausted by what happened last night. I woke up late but worth it, at least I'm alive. Wonder what mom's cooking this morning. It's awfully quiet outside.

I wore my slippers before heading our of my bedroom. I took a glance of my window. Hopefully it wouldn't come back anymore.

As I head outside, I slowly closed the door of my bedroom and went straight to the dining room. There, I saw mom, dad and my sister eating together. Somehow, everything's normal.

"Hey, Aleah" my sister called, "I smiled at him last night"

What I heard sent shivers all over me. "T-that's good"

I felt so much relief after knowing that. My sister would have been dead by now if it wasn't for my joke.

My dad was busy reading the newspaper though. I went close to him and gave a kiss on his forehead. "Good morning dad, what's up?"

He was too focused on reading, "Nothing Aleah, just intrigued by the article today. A murder case just happened near our neighborhood."

"What is it exactly about dad?"

"It stated that the murderer killed his victims by ripping apart their mouth and stabbing their eyes"

My sister choked, "Why the fuck would they do that?"

I've read the last part of the article wherein you'd be able to see an image. The image was clear and it was terrifying to the point I started to remember vividly what happened last night. The image shows a wall written with blood by his victims.

"They didn't smile"