It’s a rhetorical question, only I can that I know of, ever since I was a kid I could see strange people, they were all unique and deformed except for their large black grin across their face. I learned to not tell people after copious doctor visits and no explanation, and for most of my life they kept to them selves, it all changed one fateful night.
The smell of burgers and hotdogs on the grill and the sound of my two young children playing happily with each other, I pulled this round of meat off the grill and put more on and closed the lid. I turned my head to the left seeing one of the happy people as I called them, it had a black dress and a long arm that looked sharp, it’s face was deformed with one bloodshot eye sagging out of the socket and the other gone, either way it had a big smile across its face.
I payed no attention to the nasty monster, I headed inside to crack a beer and say hello to my wife.
“How’s food going” her face was deep in a book.
“Good, Tom and Tim are getting along” she was about to speak but then we heard the sound of a blood piercing scream. It wasn’t a scream of a kid who was upset but one that was badly hurt, I practically threw my beer onto the table and burst out of the front door sprinting as fast as I could.
I found Tom laying on the floor with a bad cut in his knee, i would’ve suspected they got themselves hurt from playing rough if it weren’t for the happy person standing there and the fact the cut looked like one made from a claw. Blood dripped from the happy persons one claw as it emitted a small chuckle, fueled with pure anger I threw a punch, it collided directly into its already deformed face splattering black liquid on my face.
I turned around to help my son but the sight I laid my eyes on was horrible, at least four happy people stood around them blood dripping from their mouths with the sound of wet tearing and bones cracking. Tears openly flooded from my eyes and the strength in my legs all but vanished.
“Honey?” I slowly turned my head, she stood their, a large black claw through her chest and blood dripping onto the floor. A large black figure stood behind her, it’s large black mouth stretched open swallowing her in one bite, I could barely hear the sound of crunching and see the buckets of blood dripping out of his mouth over my wailing and the tears falling from my face. I prayed to the gods they would take me with them, but they left me alone, after weeping and weeping I felt myself get numb. I walked in the street with cold rain pelting my skin but I didn’t feel it over my numbness. Tons of happy people walked the streets past and through the normal people walking in the streets, I didn’t know where to go so I walked and walked and walked until I saw a house of one of my friends, it was dark out but I decided to knock.
Knock, knock, knock. Silence, the quite noise was maddening, all I heard was the sound of crunching and chuckling replaying in my mind, over and over and over. The door opened with my friend standing there excited, he reeked of beer and perfume with blonde stubble on his neck.
“Heeeeey. Buudddyyy” his speech was slurred and I could hardly make out what he said, the numbness was to much to understand him, I had to really focus “what briiiiingggs yoooouuuu heeeeere”
“I just wanted to hang out, maybe a drink or two, looks like you had quite a bit already”
“Weeeelllll cooome iiiin” he stumbled to the side allowing me to enter, mountains of beer cans stacked on his coffee table, floor and counters.
“I’m gonna use your bathroom” I walked right past him to the bathroom and closed the door making sure it was locked. A stream of vomit excited my body into the sink, I was red in the face and sweating quite a bit, I lifted my head up met by a happy person. I backed into the wall looking at it, this one was taller then the rest, it’s head went past the ceiling so it had to bend down and dark hair dropped over it’s eyes. It had the muzzle of a horse with its normal large smile.
I thought it might kill me, but it didn’t as usual. It reached a boney hand out and wrapped its long fingers around my arm with its smile growing wider, blood began to drip down from its mouth but it wouldn’t let me leave, I pulled my arm back but it wouldn’t let go even making scratches and cuts on my arm with its jagged bones. I screamed out seeing as the blood went up to my knees and was only rising.
“Let go!” The thing let go making me stumble backwards and slam the door open, I collapsed to the floor with my friend standing there confused. He helped me up but questioned me on the blood soaking my pants, I dismissed him and he was drunk enough that he didn’t care if I sat on his couch, i decided to strike up conversation with him and maybe ask him about the happy people.
“So hey, buddy. You good?”
“Yeah bro, I’m fine” at least his speech was fine now, I couldn’t handle if he spoke slurred the whole time.
Silence followed until I spoke again “have you ever heard of the happy people?”
“The what now who’s there?”
“Sorry I should explain, have you ever seen deformed people wearing black with big smiles”
He gave me an odd look but was drunk enough to play along “I’m pretty sure I’ve been to a funeral with a disabled person”
“No, like ghosts, but they can touch you”
“You good broski?”
“No I’m not good!” I stood up and yelled “these things have been haunting me for years and now they killed my family! Not good at all!” The sound of blood spurting came from the couch, large tendrils erupted from the couch stabbing my friend through both arms and legs.
“No” I stammered “take me! Not him!” His skin darkened with the tendrils growing inside his body, he threw up a whole bunch of black goo violently before they erupted from his body ripping him apart and reducing him to nothing but black goo.
“No please… why won’t you take me!” I slammed my fists on the floor and decided to take myself to them, if you want the job done right do it yourself. I used my nails to claw at my face and my eyes, I would never see the happy people then I would shove a knife into my chest.
Blood dripped from my eyelids and around my eyes but my eyes themselves were fine so far, it was instinct to close my eyes. Just before I could resist my instinct I felt my arms violently grabbed and put to the floor, I heard their voices speaking to me, not only the police trying to restrain me but the happy people laughing, I resisted and pulled back and looking up at the larger happy man, I think I’ll call him Cain.
They put me in a room saying I needed to go to a mental institute. They chained my hands to the table and tried talking to me, they placed a folder at my table with a man in a lab coat.
“Have your parents ever taken you to a therapist when you were young?”
Cain stood in the corner smiling, smiling, smiling .
“Only once, after my dog got ran over, we went as a family”
“Well let me bring up to speed on what happened, it appears while you were cooking on the grill something caused you to have a violent breakdown, we suspect you have schizophrenia because of the things you keep yelling that you say you see. After the breakdown you killed both your children and your wife and hid the bodies somewhere. You then went to your friends house where you killed him and” he stops in his tracks “what posses someone to do that to a friend, we found you trying to claw your eyes out. After trial you’ll likely be placed in a mental facility and for the time being, you’ll stay in this mental hospital until your not a threat”
“Its the happy people! I didn’t do anything!” Tears once again streamed down my face “these cuts are proof!” I motioned towards many cuts I’ve gotten from them, they never killed me but often cut me at night.
“Take him to his room” I freaked out as they grabbed me and practically dragged me to my room, it had padded walls with bars that were also padded, they decided to not straight jacket me and just see how I did. All I could do was was huddle in the corner and talk to myself.
“It should’ve been me, it should’ve been me, it should’ve been me, it should’ve been me, it should’ve been me, it should’ve been me, it should’ve been me” over and over and over.
If you are like the police you may believe this story to be in my mind, I have no evidence so far, people I could’ve killed, cuts I could’ve made. You are simply taking my word for it, so far that it. Cain stood in the corner hair covering his eyes.
“What do you want?”
“Why… do… you…” his voice was deep but very slow, like he had to process each word he said “see… us…”
“I don’t know! I’ve been trying to get rid of you for years! Why do you stick around!” He appeared close to me in a blink, I looked into his dark, shiny eyes with his warm breaths flowing down my chest.
“Only you see the truth” suddenly an alarm went off and the sound of wet tearing “death, in the wake of the beast. The sign of the beast!” His voice echoed though my cell with the sound of chaos just around the corners, I could smell blood and see it when it splattered against the concrete walls and hear the metal bending open and everything stop… just silence…echoing… everywhere.
My footsteps are the only provider of sound, dead pieces and piles of blood from the guards and other inmates proves my innocence. And if I made this up how did I get out of my cell to write this, you see, I’m writing truths here! The happy people are real! And know everyone can know, and I can be free.
I just walked out of the mental institute and back home, the familiar smell of my wife’s perfume and my kids play dough. I grabbed my laptop to write this down, Cain follows me around silently.
This, this will be the only evidence of the happy people, I pray someone out there sees them as well, that someone can make understanding of the sign of the beast and the big smiles, after i’m done posting this and making sure its seen it will be the end for me, for me it is darkness, a loaded gun and silence… silence…it’s deafening…the loudest sound in the world…silence…silence…silence…BANG!