The Smiling Redhead

I don’t know how many of you have heard about the rumors. I only know I don’t want to see that thing again. It was creepy enough once, so take this as the friendly advice of a stranger.

Do whatever you want with his information.

Do not get closer to the Smiling Redhead. Wave back at it and move on. Don’t take too much, do it fast; you don’t want to give it a chance to get closer to you.

The Smiling Redhead lurks in lonely, dark areas. A friend of mine said she saw it early in the morning on the subway, and a friend of hers said he saw it walking inside the nearby alleys of his job. That thing likes darkness, and from what I could gather, animals hate it too. If you hear your dog barking while walking, get back home fast.

Its name is straightforward; it is called the Smiling Redhead because it looks like a human (some say it looks like a young boy, others say it looks like a cute girl), with a big smile and pretty long red hair. It wears a sweater.

If you are foolish enough to get closer to him, you’ll be done. Dead, gone forever, whatever you want to say.

I have yet to hear of anyone who has gone closer to it and survived long enough to share the details. My friend says if you make eye contact, you must wave back at it. It’s the only way to keep your way safe. I’m not really sure about this; keep it in mind anyway, it could save your life.

From anonymous.

xx October.

I think The Smiling Readhead ate one of my coworkers.

The police came asking us questions about him. When was the last time we saw him, where, and with whom; his family came too, begging us if we have any information about their son, reach them or the police. I’m one hundred percent sure that guy is gone forever. I’m sorry for his mom; she seemed like a nice person, but she’d have to make peace with that fact.

Why am I sure?

Because I saw it.

His name was Mark (this is a fake name, so don’t try to look for it). We all hate him. Well, the women hate him; he was a creep. Always asking them to give him a chance, swearing he was the best guy in the company, then getting angry and bullying those who didn’t want to date him.

I’m not surprised he died.

Everyone knew about the smiling redhead in our department. Some don’t believe it, others do. I was cautious, not sure whether to believe it or not, until three days ago. Sadly, Mark and I were the last ones to leave the department; it was 10:30 p.m. We don’t talk to each other outside of greetings when our boss is around, since things happened (I’m not going to get into details).

I waited five minutes after I saw him leave the building. Enough time to secure ourselves, we wouldn’t end up walking side by side.

I thought he’d be far enough when I left, but he was still there. Not waiting for me, of course, he was talking to someone at the other side of the street. Mark had that stupid smile he used when he was flirting. They were near the streetlight, at least, he was, the other person (or what I thought was a person at first) was closer enough to be visible, but not fully under the light.

Mark got closer, the light flickered, and for an instant I could see it clearly.

The stupidly long hair touched the floor; it was wavy. It looked soft but… weird, like moving, really slowly or something. I don’t know how to explain it. I had to blink a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things; it wore a knee-length sweater, and it was too dark for me to see the color. His skin was dark, but not dark like black people. I mean dark, really dark. And his smile, damn, that smile was unnatural. I still feel shivers on my spine when I remember it. It was too perfect, too wide, perfect white teeth.

That thing cocked its face to the side when Mark said something (maybe one of his stupid jokes), kept that perfect smile, and blinked once. Only once. I think it said something to Mark, because that idiot immediately smiled, offering his arm like a gentleman.

When it got closer to the light, it saw me. Mark was between us, giving his back, but I’m sure it saw me because it opened up more of its smile, his eyes looking directly at mine, red, red, red, the fucking pupil was red, the rest was dark. Did Mark see the same, or was I hallucinating? And…

His chest.

Eyes open inside his chest.

Red pupils, there were so many, they covered all the area. It was just a second, but it was there.

Mark walked opposite the subway direction. He was laughing, so happy to notice the monster walking next to him. Or maybe, maybe, that idiot couldn’t see what I saw.

That was the last time anyone saw him.

The surveillance cameras recorded him a block away, still happily chatting with that thing. But the cameras, for whatever reason, couldn’t properly record the person next to him. Like static covering that area, the police thought it was a malfunction and didn’t dwell much on it.

I didn’t tell them what I saw.

I told them I had waited inside, got to the subway, and moved on. He wasn’t a good person anyway. He knew the stories, too, so fuck him. But for me, I won’t leave the office alone anymore.