Horrific Short Stories

Be Happy

lowering it, 120 votes for new chapter or July 10th (whatever comes first)

Cover (side) by @farctate  <3

Inside the hall is nothing but pictures.  The wall is literally covered in them.  They are of all shapes and sizes and fit like a jigsaw puzzle from the floorboard to the ceiling. Each picture is a portrait of the exact same man.  Sure sometimes he faces to the left and other times he faces to the right, but it’s always him.  It’s him outside, inside, doing activities or simply posing.  The man is seen a thousand times in the hall, everything about his image is different.  Everything except his smile.

It’s his smile that’s always the same.  He always has exactly four teeth showing, his dimples always in the exact same spot, his eyes glisten in the exact same places, and lips always curve into the exact same half circle.  The smile isn’t too odd or different from something normal but it’s the fact that every single picture has the exact same brushstrokes that makes it eerie.

There’s not a single door or window in this hall and the entire thing is lit by a sole bulb hanging unshielded in the center.  At the furthest part of the hall is a door.  The door leads to a study of sorts.  This study is covered with images of the man just like the hall, except these pictures are more extravagant and more massive than those encompassing the hall.  What’s more the study doesn’t spare the roof or even the floor, massive murals are painted one after another directly on the top and bottom surfaces of the room.  In the middle of this study is a plain wood desk.  The desk looks flimsy and has a chair in front of it with a larger chair behind it.  There’s a small nameplate on it with silver lettering ‘Be Happy’.  There are exactly two pens on the table, a notepad, and a small calendar propped up to one side.  Otherwise there’s nothing on the desk.

The man behind the desk is currently absent and has been for the last six months.  He claims the world hasn’t seen his perfect smile and maybe after a tour they will understand that everyone should Be Happy.  Maybe once his face is on every billboard, every bus, or every wall the people will come to accept the truth behind it all.  We should all Be Happy.

Withdrawing from the office and the long hall we come to a staircase.  This staircase spirals down to a bottom floor.  This bottom floor is not filled with his portraits, but instead is simple and clean.  There’s a basic kitchen, a living room with two couches and a small TV. There are two rooms with only a bed and closet in each.  Going out into the front yard we can see the family.  There’s mom, daughter and son.  Each does what they do in slow motion.  The mother is reading a book with no words, the daughter is playing with dolls that have no faces and the son is kicking a ball with no air.  Even with the general lack of normality it’s a happy family.

The mother has hair down half her back which is ironed straight and mimics her daughter’s hair to the T.  The son has a bowl cut and the exact same color hair as his mother and sister.  The mother and daughter both wear the same yellow dress with frills at the end while the son wears a blue polo shirt with white cargo shorts.  Each one of the family members have a smile burned into their face, it’s that exact same smile as the father in his thousand portraits.  Each of them has the exact same dimples, the four teeth showing, the same glisten and the same brushstrokes as the father. 

There’s not a flaw on their faces and they look almost too perfect to be real.  The daughter looks up across the street to see a red car drive by and behind that car is a neighbor.  The neighbor looks at the daughter and her uneven smile slowly shifts to mimic that of the daughter.  Like a parrot copying its master her face soon reflects that of the daughter.  She pulls a phone out of her pocket, types something in, and puts it away.

The daughter gets a vibration from the phone on the floor next to her dolls and picks it up to read the message, “Be Happy.”  The daughter hits reply and slowly types in B-e H-a-p-p-y.  She hits send and goes back to her perfect faceless dolls. 

Just remember, Be Happy.