Serena Smile (2014)

Serena lost her father years ago, but death doesn't stop him from finding her. Serena will smile again.

"Time for school, Serena."

It’s Wednesday, September 3rd 2002, and Serena's first day as an elementary school student. She's young, six years old, and the girliest girl in her town. Blue eyes and blonde hair, the "perfect child", but something about her is just a bit... Off. Serena has been this way since her mother can remember, always scared, fidgety, but her mother has never been able to figure out why. Serena doesn't talk often, she's a very shy and quiet child.

"Hurry up, you don't want to be late or your big day!" Says her mother. Serena runs out of her room in a pink and black polka dot skirt and a blue and purple plaid shirt. "Serena, you can't wear that. It doesn't match." Her mother quickly found a shirt and shoes to match her skirt, then brushed Serena's messy hair, together they rushed out the door and out to the car, Serena refused to take the bus.

Serena walks through the doors with her mother and they search for classroom number 62 with Ms. Michaelis. Kids walk past with their parents flailing their arms around excitedly, you can just feel their excitement, but Serena is different. She walks down the halls holding her mother’s hand, quiet and expressionless. Finally they’ve found room number 62.

“Hello, Ms. Michaelis” says Serena’s mother.
“Hi! Who do we have here?” She says pointing to Serena. She’s quiet for about 30 seconds before her mother speaks, “This is Serena.” She says as she rubs Serena’s head. She speaks again to Ms’ Michaelis, this time a bit quieter.

“She’s really shy and may not speak much.”

“Oh, Mrs. Grell, that won't be a problem. I’m sure she’ll open up eventually.”
Serena’s mother spoke with Ms. Michaelis a bit before leaving, and as any mother would be after watching their child go to their first day of school, she was in tears, proud of Serena, but also worried, hoping she’d speak and connect with the other children.

Serena’s life, though not very long, has definitely not been the best. Her father left a year ago, she was unsure of why or where he had gone, unsure if she’d ever see or talk to him again, she missed him dearly, and still does. Her mother doesn’t pay as much attention to her as she used to since she recently married a careless and irresponsible man, so Serena spends the majority of her time drawing. Though her mother doesn’t see them, she knows she’d be amazed, and very proud. Serena’s family is very poor, they live in an apartment, a really old one, it was built in the 1900’s, god only knows how many people have lived there before. It’s a rather small apartment, the last room on the right is Serena’s room, it is also very small, she can only fit her bed, little toy box and her dresser, luckily she has a closet… But her closet is empty, or so she  thinks. She’s never opened it. When Serena is home she feels uncomfortable, like something is wrong. The closer she gets to the closet, the worse she feels. Serena, due to her quietness never tells her mom how she feels, her mother doesn’t know, no one does, but something about the closet in her little room is wrong.

“Riiiiiiiiing”, it’s 3:30pm and time for Serena to go home. She walks out of the school to find her mother already waiting for her. When Serena arrives at her apartment she can feel her anxiety rise, everyday she feels worse about being home. Yet she never says a thing to her mom.

Now it’s Wednesday September 10th, a week after Serena’s first day of school. Nothing new has happened. Serenda is still silent, the closet door still hasn’t been opened. Serena finished school today, but her mother wasn’t there like she had been all of the previous days. Serena waited and waited.

“Five o’clock and she’s still not here,” Serena thought to herself as she read the clock on the wall in the waiting room. “I guess I’ll walk home, it’s not too far…”

Serena begins walking, counting her steps as she goes. One, two, “Crash,” Serena looks around but sees nothing so she keeps walking. Three, four, five, six, seven, “Bang,” She began to panic and rushed to her house but before she could reach it something caught her attention. At the end of her street she saw him, her father, just standing there waiting for her. Something was weird about this, but she missed her father, so without thinking she ran to him faster than she knew possible and leaped into his arms. Her face once again showed emotion. Her face lit up and her smile grew as he hugged her. Then suddenly  she heard a voice, her mother’s to be exact, her voice sounded weird, a whisper almost like a breeze running past Serena. “Serena,” that’s all her mother said, so she just ignored it.

“Serena, run!” the voice calls out, but this time Serena acknowledges her mother’s whispering voice and finds her way out of her father’s arms. She looks up to him, a bit confused about what was happening, and he looks down at her, smiling. He looks happy, but not like he used to. His smile doesn’t fade, it only grows… Larger and larger, now all of his teeth begin to show. His smile stretches, eventually the corner of his mouth reach his ears and his teeth sharpen to a point. Serena is extremely frightened, her hands begin to shake but she can’t move. she continues watching her father, he’s staring at her now, with his terrifying grin, his eyes begin to bleed and his grin turns into a frown, he pulls out a blood knife and slowly begins to walk towards Serena. Tears pour out of her eyes but she knows she has to get away. She takes one last look at her father.

“I’ve missed you so much, father. I love you... “ She says, then turns the other way and sprints. Serena looks back, he’s barely moved an inch, but she’s still running, so fast she can feel the heat beneath her feet.

One block, two blocks… “Crash!” She runs faster. Three blocks, four blocks, five blocks, six blocks, seven… “Bang!” Serena slows down. She can feel him breathing down on her, she doesn’t have to look to know he’s there. Still she’s turns around, but… He’s not there. The sky began to get dark, Serena knows her mother is worrying about her and decides that she ‘s going to find her way home and pretend that none of this ever happened, that she never saw her father.

She sprints down the eight blocks she ran past before, turns left and continues walking down the street. One house, twos houses… crash! Three houses, four houses, five houses, six houses, seven…  She made it without seeing him again. She enters the building and rushes to apartment number 27, her apartment.

“Mom?” The apartment is silent. “Mom? I’m home.” The silence continues. “Mom!” Now she’s screaming. Still the apartment is filled with silence. Serena began to worry. Where is she?  She thought, as she began searching every room in the apartment, she searched each and every room and closet, but she was nowhere to be found. Serena looked out the window searching for her mom’s car, it was there.

There’s one place I haven’t checked…

She goes into her room to find that the closet door is already open. In front of her closet she sees the knife that her father had when she saw him. Curiosity lead Serena into her closet, she found the string to turn on the light and as soon as the room is lit, she closes her eyes, even though she knew she’d have to open them soon.

One, two… crash! Serena opened her eyes immediately, she knew that if she were to continue counting he’d come again.  As soon as her eyes open she lets out a blood curdling scream. There lies her mother and stepfather. Their death was not quick or painless, blood was everywhere and so were their organs, it was a gruesome sight to see, and not only that, but their faces were clean, not a drop of blood on them, and they both had the creepy grin on their faces, the same one she had previously seen on her father.

Serena had to call someone, she went to the living room to search for her mother’s cell phone, although her vision was blurry from crying. Luckily she found it right away, she started to punch in the numbers 911 but before she could hit the call button, she once again saw her father. The grin was still on his face, it never left. She dropped the phone and begged him not to kill her.

“You have nothing more to live for, you worthless child” He said, and before she could run, he stabbed her chest, deep enough to reach her heart and kill her. Then he carved a smile onto her face.

“Now you’ll always be happy, just like me.”