THE SMILING MAN : Story of a terrible night

                                                    

THE SMILING MAN

             

"About five years ago I lived downtown in a major city in the US. I've always been a night person, so I would often find myself bored after my roommate, who was decidedly not a night person, went to sleep. To pass the time, I used to go for long walks and spend the time thinking.

 

I spent four years like that, walking alone at night, and never once had a reason to feel afraid. I always used to joke with my roommate that even the drug dealers in the city were polite. But all of that changed in just a few minutes of one evening.

 

It was a Wednesday, somewhere between one and two in the morning, and I was walking near a police patrolled park quite a ways from my apartment. It was a quiet night, even for a week night, with very little traffic and almost no one on foot. The park, as it was most nights, was completely empty.

 

I turned down a short side street in order to loop back to my apartment when I first noticed him. At the far end of the street, on my side, was the silhouette of a man, dancing. It was a strange dance, similar to a waltz, but he finished each "box" with an odd forward stride. I guess you could say he was dance-walking, headed straight for me.

 

Deciding he was probably drunk, I stepped as close as I could to the road to give him the majority of the sidewalk to pass me by. The closer he got, the more I realized how gracefully he was moving. He was very tall and lanky, and wearing an old suit. He danced closer still until I could make out his face. His eyes were open wide and wild, head tilted back slightly, looking off at the sky. His mouth was formed in a painfully wide cartoon of a smile. Between the eyes and the smile, I decided to cross the street before he danced any closer.

 

I took my eyes off of him to cross the empty street. As I reached the other side, I glanced back... and then stopped dead in my tracks. He had stopped dancing and was standing with one foot in the street, perfectly parallel to me. He was facing me but still looking skyward. Smile still wide on his lips.

 

I was completely and utterly unnerved by this. I started walking again, but kept my eyes on the man. He didn't move.

 

Once I had put about half a block between us, I turned away from him for a moment to watch the sidewalk in front of me. The street and sidewalk ahead of me were completely empty. Still unnerved, I looked back to where he had been standing to find him gone. For the briefest of moments, I felt relieved until I noticed him. He had crossed the street and was now slightly crouched down. I couldn't tell for sure due to the distance and the shadows, but I was certain he was facing me.

 

I had looked away from him for no more than 10 seconds, so it was clear that he had moved fast. I was so shocked that I stood there for some time, staring at him. And then he started moving toward me again. He took giant, exaggerated tiptoe steps, as if he were a cartoon character sneaking up on someone. Although he was moving fast, he looked like he was moving in slow motion. That's when I ran.

 

I ran up the stairs to my building and unlocked the door as fast as I could. Once inside, I looked out the window and waited for him to pass by the front of my building. I finally got the courage to run to my room, locked the door, and hid. I waited for a long time, and finally peered out my window again to see if he had moved. As I looked out, I was greeted by his face staring up at me, standing on the opposite side of the street.

 

He had no color in his eyes, just empty blackness. He looked like he was in a trance. I closed the drapes and ran to my roommate's room and told him what happened. We watched the street and waited for something to happen, but nothing did. We cautiously opened the drapes and saw that he had moved from my window and was now on the corner of the street, facing another building.

It was like he was doing the Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal lean.

I couldn't take my eyes off of him. Eventually, he started to dance, and he danced like he had never danced before, so much so that it looked like his body would snap if he moved an inch more. It was like he was a boneless dancer, the way his body could twist and turn and he was performing like it was a professional performance.

 

He followed my roommate and I for a while, until he finally danced away. I don't know if I would ever see him again, but the "Smiling Man" was definitely one of the weirdest and most unnerving things I have ever encountered."

                        

                                                               

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: The Wraith of Whispering Pines

If you have any of your personal experience you can share at :  vaibhavchelani959@gmail.com