Smile

Chapter Nine: Cogs

"Where the hell were you?!" Ryan asked as I chatted on the phone with him.
"To be honest," I replied as I glanced around myself, "I'm not sure."
"Have you been doing drugs again?" Ryan questioned, before getting upset.
"I haven't done anything since August," I truthfully responded, "I think I have something wrong with my head... mentally."
"Well no fucking shit!" Ryan shouted at me, "I was scared half to death waiting for you to tell me you woke up naked in a fucking parking lot!"
"I'm sorry," I apologized, before sighing and leaning to the wall, "I'll be home soon. I just have to make a stop."
I hung up and looked forward, in front of me was Aubrey's home.
I walked up to the doorbell, and rung it a couple times.
When the door swung open, she looked repulsed, before she started shouting awful things at me.
I opened the screen door and pushed past her.
I closed the door behind me...
I locked it...
And then I let Smiler have his fun.

"Ryan!" I shouted as I pounded on the door, "Let me in!"
"I'm coming, Dale," Ryan groaned, "Just hold on a second."
"I need help," I told Ryan as he unlocked the handle and responded, "Well, no shit."
"I need a job," I explained to him, "Once I'm on my feet you can leave."
"I can't get you a job," Ryan said as he opened the door and let me into the absolutely trashed apartment, "But you can get yourself a job. Look around town."
"Where should I look?" I asked Ryan, before he replied, "Maybe the mall?"
"Alright, but first I'll call a friend to go with," I told him as I dialed my friend...

"Why the hell did you ask me of all people to come with you to a public space?" Donnie asked sarcastically as we stood in the middle of the mall, looking around for now hiring signs.
"Who else would I ask?" I responded, "Aubrey? Katrina? Fucking Smiler?"
"You stop right there with this smiles bullshit," Donnie sternly warned me, "You're gonna get arrested for those murders and I know damn well you didn't do it."
"Did I?" I rhetorically questioned, "Don't doubt my ability."
"You're freaking me out, Dale," Donnie told me before walking into a soft pretzel shop.
"I freak myself out, too," I muttered before following him inside.
"Hello, welcome to Mr. McKenneth's Pretzels, how can I help you?" A female waitress asked, before meeting eyes with me.
"Are you hiring?" Donnie asked as he glanced towards a sign on the menu.
"Why yes we are," The waitress responded, "Are you the one who needs an application or is it your friend there?"
"It's my friend," Donnie explained, "He's gotta provide for his little girl thing."
"She's dead," I blurted out on accident, before the waitress froze up and I subtly switched it into a joke, "Dead to me! That's what I meant."
The waitress nervously chuckled as Donnie gave me a concerned look and took the application from the waitress.
"What the hell, Dale?" Donnie stuttered as we walked to a bench, "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," I told Donnie,
"Smiler did it."

"Did you fill out any applications?" Ryan asked when I got home.
"Yeah, one for the pretzel stop in the mall," I said to him as I sat down on the torn couch.
"Are you gonna get fired if they hire you?" Ryan sarcastically remarked, "Are you gonna be their little cog or just trash the place and carve all over the walls?"
My blood began boiling, and for a second I swear I saw Smiler in the corner, egging me on to get rid of the vermin which sulked in my home, but I didn't.
I stood there, and I stared at him with bloodthirsty eyes, a look of pure malice and rage.
"What did you just say?" I asked in a dead voice, no emotion, not even anger.
"It was just a fucking joke, Dale," Ryan groaned before walking away,
"Grow up."

I'm not sure why, but those words stuck with me.
As the cockroaches slithered on my skin and I shivered in my cold, damp room, those words replayed in my head over and over.
Then I saw him.
Smiler standing in the corner, a twisted expression of happiness on his face which haunted yet soothed me.
"What do I do?" I hopelessly asked the creature, not expecting an answer.
Smiler took his sharp fingers and etched into the wall, "YOU RUN."
"Where?" I continued to question, before he carved more into the wall, "YOU RUN... FROM YOURSELF."
I was slightly taken aback, not sure what to make of the advice, before I started thinking about it more.
"Let me see how you see once more," I told Smiler, demanding to see through his eyes again.
Smiler approached me, before putting his hand onto my face.
His palm reeked of rotten meat and dog urine, but they felt oddly smooth.
All I could see was blackness, before I eventually began to fall asleep.

When I awoke, I felt the happiest I had ever felt.
A surge of pure joy pumped through my body, I felt like a 7 year old ready for school.
"You know this won't last, right?" I heard a familiar voice tell me, before I turned over and saw myself.
I attempted to speak, but I couldn't, proceeding to stare myself down as the copy of me continued, "You're going to wake up and you're going to wish you never had. Just like every day. This will never end unless you make it end, Dale. Make it end."
The ground around me rotted away and became The Pound.
I heard the mental patient screams, and while I was still happy, I had a feeling of worry pulsing through my veins.
On the ceiling there was a noose made out of barbed wire, and the copy of me kept going, stating, "Make it end," before beginning to get louder and louder until he was shouting the words, crackling my ear drums and causing all sorts of pain for me.
"Make it end, you worthless piece of garbage!" I yelled at myself, before I finally wrapped the noose around my neck, and when I did, I stopped being Smiler.
I was just Dale.
I was nothing.
As it always was.
As it always will be.
Unless I make it end.