Smile

Chapter Five: After Dawn

"You aren't diagnosed with anything worse than depression," A psychiatrist told me, "But there's no possible way it couldn't be in your head. Maybe you're schizophrenic?"
"I really don't think I am, doc," I told the psychiatrist, "What if this is real? What if what was in those pills hid Smiler from me?"
"I highly doubt that," the psychiatrist continued, "I think I'd know if monsters were real, kiddo."
"Would you, now?" I pried out of him, "Because you're controlled by the government. What if the government is hiding something?"
"I can assure you the government isn't hiding anything about real life monsters," The psychiatrist told me, "And if they were I don't think they'd tell me."
"I'm sorry," I confessed, "I don't understand what's happening. Maybe this is karma."
"Karma for what?" The psychiatrist asked, intrigued.
"I'm not a good person," I admitted, "I hurt people, I'm self centered, I cheated on my girlfriend and I push everyone close to me away from me. The worst part about all of this is I don't know how to stop. I don't know how to be normal, I don't know how to be happy...
All I ever wanted was to smile."

"Get out of bed," Aubrey sternly told me as I slept, "You're going to explain everything to me."
"Explain what?" I sleepily asked, confused and scared it was about Katrina.
"What's the real reason you went on a bender and disappeared off of the face of the Earth?" Aubrey barked at me.
"Shit, how do you know about that?" I questioned, before slowly getting out of bed, "I already told you I wanted to escape, okay? That... creature was chasing me around. I had to get rid of it."
"You're literally batshit insane, I swear to God," Aubrey sighed, "Monsters aren't fucking real, Dale."
"Then why did I see one?" I rhetorically asked, "Why is one stalking me?"
"There is no monster other than you, Dale," Aubrey stated as she walked out the door for work, "I have to go, don't do anything stupid while I'm gone, okay?"
I begrudgingly replied, "Okay," knowing that anything which happened after dawn was off the record.

"You've got to move, man," Donnie complained as he hit his bong, "This place is fuckin' trashed."
"It fits the city," Katrina added as she ran her fingers on me seductively, "This whole town is a dump."
"I don't want to move," I exclaimed, before getting up and grabbing a bottle of vodka, "I fit this city. I am garbage."
"We're all garbage," Katrina said, before puffing a joint, "That's why we fit I guess."
"I say none of us are garbage," Donnie remarked, before putting the bong down, "We're all just lost. Life is big and scary, and we're just little cogs in the machine, not sure where to go."
"That's a more optimistic way of saying we're useless in the long run," I joked as I took a swig, "Which we are."
"Maybe we are," Donnie responded, "It doesn't matter. Might as well make the most of our lives."
"Holy shit," Katrina gasped, "I've wasted my entire life. I could have been happy but I was depressed and threw everything away for needless sex and alcoholism."
"Your life ain't over yet," Donnie told her, "You can change still."
"I'm not gonna," Katrina jokingly stated, "It would take too long."
"You have to be patient," Donnie explained as he lit a cigarette, "Not everything is immediate."
The clock slowly struck 6 P.M., the time I used to always wish Aubrey would come home.
"I'm gonna head back to my place," Donnie informed us as he took a final drag from his cigarette and put it out on the wall, "See you two lovebirds around."
Donnie closed the door as he walked out, and Katrina suddenly kissed me before pinning me against the couch.
A car door shut outside, presumably Donnie's, then Katrina giggled and pulled her shirt off.
I began to rub her, and as I took her jean shorts off the door began opening.
"What the fuck?!" Aubrey screamed as she ran up to Katrina and pulled her off of me, "I knew it!"
"I-It's not what it looks like," I stammered, before she grabbed me by the hair and socked me in the face.
"You are a disgusting piece of shit!" Aubrey yelled at me, before running into the kitchen.
Katrina slowly got up before attempting to escape, but Aubrey came out dashing towards her with a butcher knife in hand, proceeding to lunge on top of her, not before I got up and yanked her off.
"You didn't tell me you were dating a psycho!" Katrina shouted at me before Aubrey tried to stab her, missing and hitting the floor.
"He isn't anymore!" Aubrey roared as she pulled the knife out of the ground, proceeding to turn to me, "I hate you! You're such a mentally exhausting idiot and you won't ever live without me, I hope you fucking know that! I am done! I'm done supporting you, get the fuck out of this apartment complex."
I began to stutter, not sure what to say before blurting out, "The bill is signed in my name! You get out!"
"Fine," Aubrey told me as she threw the knife at Katrina, hitting the wall, "Have fun paying for this shitty place."
"Why did you come home early?" I asked, slowly calming down.
"Because I wanted to see you, Dale," Aubrey revealed as she opened the front door, "But I should have known. All you ever do is hurt people. Have you ever heard that saying? It goes 'hurt people hurt people'. I thought it was bullshit until I met you."
Aubrey slammed the door, leaving me alone with the petrified Katrina.
"Yeah," Katrina said, slowly beginning to get up, "Fuck that shit."
Katrina left as well.
Now I was alone with nothing but my thoughts, those either being about my mental state or Aubrey.
I sat down on my broken couch, turning on the television, when I felt something touch me.
I turned upwards instinctively, before I met eyes with his.
It was Smiler.
He touched the screen, cracking it on impact with his bony fingers, before it read something on the screen.
"DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY", read the TV, as the pale figure of Smiler stared down at me, his empty eyes encapsulating me with fear and intrigue.
"How do I know what will make me happy?" I asked Smiler, finally open to his ideas.
The lights flickered off, before coming back on and revealing he had vanished once again, this time leaving more engravings on the wall.
"GET RID OF WHAT SADDENS YOU", I read from the wall, before I suddenly collapsed, escaping from this reality.

I woke up in a subway train, the carvings sprawling everywhere from the ceiling to the seats.
That wasn't the only thing that was off.
I glanced down at myself, examining my skin.
It was pale and rough, and I noticed that I felt taller.
It slowly hit me, I was Smiler.
I gradually lost control of my body, as I began to get up from the grungey metal flooring and looked around myself.
The train came to a halt, before the door opened and in came a young, blonde woman.
It was Katrina.
I proceeded to walk towards her.
"Stop!" I shouted at the force controlling me, to no avail.
I lifted my arm up, before she spun around and screamed, piercing my eardrums.
Then everything went silent, and my surroundings faded to pitch black.