Smile

Chapter Ten: In The Machine

"You're getting a call, Dale," Ryan warned me from the other room as I slept, before I groggily answered the phone.
"Who is it?" I asked into the phone, before I heard a young woman speak on the phone.
"Your girlfriend is named Aubrey, correct?" The woman questioned, "I'm Officer Jacobs, head of the smiley killings case and you're one of our top suspects."
"Yeah, my ex is named Aubrey," I confessed as my blood ran cold, "Why do you ask?"
"Aubrey was found dead in her home last night," Jacobs revealed as I nervously began tapping my foot, "Her eyes were scooped out and a grotesque smile was carved into her face. We think this is definitely connected to the smiley murders, and it's yet another connection that leads back to you."
"I didn't even know she was dead," I lied frantically, "And what about the cases you can't lead back to me?"
"Those were random killings," Jacobs explained, "The suspect didn't have a motive for those. With Aubrey and Katrina there was clearly a grudge, there was something else in it other than pure entertainment."
"What did Katrina ever do to me?" I responded, "And for that case what did Aubrey do either?"
"Katrina got in the way of you and Aubrey," Jacobs told me as chills rolled up my spine, "I know everything, Dale. I know what you did, all I need is a little more proof. You're done for."
Jacobs hung the phone up and Ryan approached me.
"What's wrong?" He asked me, before I replied,
"Everything."

I blocked out most things from that night, mostly the screaming.
Smiler's screaming.
Screaming is the only thing I can call it, as the noise was more like a shrieking-screetching sound.
It was raspy, and almost animalistic, with a enough human in there to make it meet with its appearance in the uncanny valley.
I made him mad.
Smiler began "screaming" at me, before he clawed my face.
I felt for my cheek, yet there was only one slash mark.
I tried to escape by jumping out of the window, but that only brought me to a worse place.
Much, much worse.

A loud buzzing noise ringed through my eardrums and pierced my withered slumber.
I opened my eyes, and when I did, I noticed something unusual;
I was in the same place as I had been only once.
The factory like industrial structure was dark, and the air was smokey.
On the walls I saw scribbles etched of Smiler's face.
His smile.
When I finally gained the strength to get up, I noticed that I was not alone this time.
I saw Smiler peek around the corner, with that petrifying face and an unholy smile, before dashing back behind the wall.
I ran towards him, and when I did, I turned the corner to face towards his direction.
All of a sudden, there was nothing there, the only trace being a note written in the wall.
"Turn back now, this isn't an option," it stated, "You are not prepared for what you will see."
Smiler faces lined the wall, and when I turned around, he was right behind me.
He grabbed me and pulled my face to his, a couple feet off of the ground.
His breath smelled like maggots on a corpse; not a freshly dead one either.
"Please, help me," I hopelessly whispered, before he dropped me and walked away.
My face slowly began to burn all over, and my mouth began to close on its own.
My eyeballs slowly rotted away at the same time that my mouth started rip itself open; just like I had seen in a past hallucination or real life encounter.
The pain was horrific, and I have never felt anything so truly painful.
I wish I could have stopped there, or woken up like I had started to think I would.
My mouth tore itself into a grotesque smile, whereas my eyes could see nothing.
I was in Smiler's territory.
Another one of myself ran up to me, and as it did, it screamed a horrendous screech, before yelling,
"You are in the machine!"

"Where the hell were you last night?" Ryan groaned at me, "Why do you always disappear?"
"I was in the machine last night," I deliriously replied as I stumbled into the living room, "Help me, Ryan."
"You're fucking crazy, Dale," Ryan responded before tossing me onto the couch, "The cops have been here twice today and they're about to be here again. They said they have enough proof linking you to the smiley murders that they can arrest you."
"No!" I screamed as Smiler peered at me from the bathroom doorway, "I can't go!"
"You know what, Dale?" Ryan told me as Smiler grinned into my soul, "I think you did it. I think you're a serial killer and you only brought me here to have an alibi."
"I didn't do it!" I shouted angrily, "I swear to God!"
"Then who the fuck killed two of your exes?" Ryan growled at me.
"Smiler did!" I broke down, before collapsing onto the ground and bursting into tears, "Smiler did it!"
"It was you, Dale," Ryan told me as he walked into his room. "I'm leaving. Have fun with the cops."

Smiler stood tall in the doorway, scratching the mirror and cracking it slowly.
"How do I do it?" I asked Smiler, fully breaking down, "How do I be happy?"
Smiler pointed towards the mirror, and when I looked into the mirror, I saw it.
"RID OF WHAT GIVES YOU PAIN," the cracks in the mirror read, and when I saw the text, I knew what I had to do.

"Is there anything else you need?" I asked Ryan as he packed his things in the kitchen, "Or do you not want my help?"
"The cops are on their way," Ryan warned me as he shoved a shirt into his duffle bag, "I turned you in."
"You backstabbing fuck!" I yelled at him, before I remembered what Smiler said.
Rid of what gives you pain.
I ran to the kitchen drawer as I heard police sirens approaching outside, and I quickly pulled a kitchen knife out.
"I'm so sorry," I told Ryan, before I stabbed him in the torso, driving the blade through his chest cavity.
"Why?" Ryan asked me, betrayed.
"I must rid of what gives me pain," I explained to him as I drove the knife into his stomach, "I'm sorry."
The police banged on my door, shouting to open with my hands up.
"Help me!" Ryan screamed before I slashed his throat, slowly watching the life drain from his eyes.
Suddenly, the kitchen window slid open, revealing a blinding light even though it was the dead of night.
Smiler reached his hand out of the window, and the police began trying to kick the door open.
Smiler stared at me, before finally emitting words from his ghastly mouth.
"Take my hand," Smiler stated in a gruff, yet somewhat calm and soothing voice that didn't sound human, "They can't hurt you anymore."
I took Smiler's hand, and as I did, the police barged the door down, running up to me, but by the time they got close to me, it was too late.
Smiler had taken me out the window.
Now I was emerged by the light, consumed and finally happy for once.
Smiler looked at me, and as he did, he told me one last thing.

"Never forget to smile."