Smile for Me

“Smile for me!” He cheered, throwing his arm around me, strangling me in a joking manner. His face was alight, and his mouth was stretched wide in a smile. I returned the smile shyly, letting out a soft giggle.

“There it is!” He cried, pulling me closer to his death grip, squishing me against his shoulder. I let out another giggle and gently pushed away, “Why do you look so down all the time?” He nudged me, shaking his head disapprovingly. I responded with a shrug. Truth be told, I was feeling a bit down lately.

Recently, a series of disappearances had been plaguing the girls at school. Unfortunately, several had been close friends of mine. It was terrifying, to say the least, but also very saddening. I missed them dearly. I’m sure he knew, maybe that’s why he was trying to cheer me up. He had known most of those girls two, some had even been childhood friends. I remember him disappearing from school for a few days after our friend had been pronounced dead. I had been on the phone with him that night as he bawled his eyes out, speaking about how amazing she was. I cried, too.

“You should smile more. It looks good on you.” The compliment rolled easily off his tongue, and his grin widened a bit at the noticeable blush that appeared on my pale skin, “Aw, blush looks good, too.”

“Shut up.” I joked, shaking my head, sending ripples down my long, light hair. He grinned even wider, bumping his hip into mine.

We walked down the street, heading to my house. He always walked me home. As we began to near my block, he turned to me and spoke softly, “Hey, tomorrow, can we meet up someplace?” It was a Saturday. I had no plans, and my parents would be out.

“Sure,” I nodded, always willing to hang out with him as I had been for the past several years.

“Cool!” He nudged me playfully, “I’ve been wanting to show you something for a while, I bet you’ll love it!”

I’m sure I would.

He left me with an over-enthusiastic hug and a rapid wave as he dashed off down the sidewalk while I climbed the creaking porch steps. Entering my house, pondering what could be making him so excited, I had no idea what was yet to come.



The night had been full of rapid-fire texts sent back and forth to discuss the “someplace” we would be meeting. We had settled on early in the morning at the park. Early as in, early. We planned to meet at 5:30 in the morning. He had coerced me into agreeing to the ungodly time through careful wording and the promise of something amazing that I just had to see.

I went to sleep late, knowing I would regret it when I would have to drag myself out of bed at 5 in the morning to get ready.



I had a small breakfast before getting dressed and quietly leaving the house. The park was not far from my house, only a few blocks, so walking was easy. When I arrived at 5:27, he was already there, absentmindedly swaying to and fro on the old, creaking swing. His face lit up when he saw her approach, and he quickly leapt to his feet.

“Hey!” He exclaimed, running to meet me, a grin wide on his face.

“Hey.” I responded, smiling in return.

“Come on, check this out.” He took my hand, which was considerably smaller than his, and began leading me into the wooded area south of the park. As we entered, the breeze stilled and the chilly air sat unmoving, sending goosebumps prickling up my bare arms.

We walked deeper into the area, far away from our meeting place. In a considerably secluded area, he turned to me.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” He raised his arms to gesture to the area around. I looked around slowly. The shadows cast by the leaves above made spots of white light on the ground. These spots shifted subtly in the breeze that rustled the treetops above, but did not reach this deep into the trees.

“Yeah, I suppose…” I ran my hand over the rough bark of a tree that was closest to me. My fingers fell into a small indent where the bark had been worn down, smoothed inward. It was like a step in the tree. My eyes travelled upward, viewing more and more of these little steps.

My hands went cold.

“Now you see.”

There, above us, like gruesome ornaments hanging from the branches of a christmas tree, were bodies. Many, many bodies. Strung up in the trees, dangling lifelessly, swaying with the movement of the branches. My stomach dropped, my head spun.

I screamed, turning to run, but a hand was pulling at my shirt, stretching the fabric as I struggled violently. I continued to scream until my face was shoved roughly into the dirt and leaves that blanketed the floor. After recovering from the shock, my screaming began again, now muffled.

Then there was a rope around my neck. Rough and cold, it pressed down against the soft skin of my throat, threatening to cut of my airway. I pulled at it, accomplishing nothing but gaining a mild rope burn as the rope rubbed against my thin fingers. My screams became coughs as I struggled.

“S-Stop!” I managed to choke out, tears streaming from the corners of my eyes, my nose running.

He was rolling me over, tightening the rope as he positioned me to lay on my back. He straddled me and reached into his pocket for his phone. Unlocking it with quick fingers, he held it up and aimed the camera. Yanking the rope, I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut tight, trying to draw in a breath.

“One last time, Darling!” He cried out, a sickening grin evident in his tone, “Smile for me!”