The Deadman's smile

The last laugh

Morning comes,bringing the cold breath of old man winter.The sun peeks out over the horizon like a juicy cherry on an ice cream sundae.The gray building of the morgue is bathed in the sunlight,seemingly washing away all the creepy auras of the building with its golden glow.On this morning tara arrives early to work.Her coffee brown hair glistening in the morning sun like liquid dark chocolate.But on this bright cheerful morning,tara finds herself in a very concerned mood.Jeff had not come home yesterday night,she knew this because she went over to his apartment to join him for movie night.When jeff did not answer,tara waited for him.Tara knew that if jeff was working late,then he would come home at 10:00 on the dot.But he never came.Tara tried to brush it off as jeff having more work to do then usual,but she could not shake the feeling of unease that she felt all night long.So when she went to the front entrance,she looked around in hopes to see if jeff was still here.The whole morgue was silent and nothing looked out of place."I'm being silly.He probably worked so late that he decided to take the day off to sleep."she thought.But tara could not shake the nervous feeling in her bones.She didn't know why,but the inside of the morgue felt like the inside of a venus flytrap,beautiful on the outside but deadly on the inside.This creeping fear brought tara back to old suspicions and fear as she walked down the hall.Tara's mind drifted to the day igor got his promotion.Images came in short clips like in movies.First of seeing jeff stand still as a statue over the lingerie corpse,then hearing his furious howl.Second image was of jeff slumped against the wall of the back crying.Tara felt a pain of sympathy for jeff from the shadows.She knew he wanted that job.And of all the people she knew who deserved it was him.Her sympathy quickly turned to fear as she thought of what happened after,which was igor's disappearance.After watching jeff's meltdown in the hallway,tara felt she knew in her heart what really happened.She tried to forget about the feeling since she had no actual proof,but she could not stop the fear from rising every time she saw jeff.

Especially when he smiled.

Tara could not help but feel uneasy when jeff smiled. Something was wrong with it. His smile always said he was happy,but his eyes told a different story. His eyes told Tara that something dark and ominous hide inside of the man she called her friend.Along with a big secret that she felt was even more disturbing.

"What hides behind his smile?"

Tara shook her head as if to shake all the fear from her mind."You're being ridiculous."She thought."There's no way jeff could have some big scary secret right?"

As if to answer her a loud clang came from tara's right,making her jump.

She turned to look over to where the sound came from,which was the bathroom.All was quiet for a moment, then she heard mumbling.Tara slowly crept over to the bathroom,while the mumbling began to get louder,with sounds of frequent cursing being added to the mix.Tara griped onto the door handle and pulled slowly so the door wouldn't creak.When she had fully opened the door,she looked into the restroom.Facing her was a long row of white sinks,and hunched over one of the sinks was a figure.His white lab coat was wrinkled and one sleeve hung askew to the floor,and one hand griped the sink so tightly his knuckles were white.His shoulders shook as muffled sobs racked his body.

Tara knew who this was with no question.

"Jeff?"

A part of her yearned to rush to her friend and comfort him in any way she could,but another part of her kept her in place with just two words.

Keep away.

Jeff continued to sob as he moved his other hand,which covered his mouth,down to the sink.Blood from his hand stained the white ceramic sink.Tara gasped,she looked at the blood dripping from his hand and watched as it dripped on an already bloody blade Then she began to go to jeff to help him.But she stopped when she heard him speak."I don't want to be the fool.....I....want it...off.....He.....had....the.....last laugh......."jeff said.His tone of voice strained and shaky by crying and something else.Jeff then slowly,began to turn to tara,but then seemed to change his mind and turned his back on her.Finally she couldn't take it.

"Jeff!!!"she cried,rushing at him and forcefully turning him around.

Tara sherieked in pure horror as she backed up outside the bathroom.Jeff's whole mouth was completely shaved and shredded off.Bits of flesh hung from his mouth in stripps like a curtain. Peeking behind them was deep red muscle and sinew that was stretched into a wide painful looking smile that pulsed with jeff's mouth as he babbled the same phrase: "It won't come off.It won't come off.It won't come off.It won't come off.....And as he babbled this continuously,he smiled.

He smiled through what looked like his face was being painfully stretched to the limit,his teeth shone through the fleshy strips in all their blood stained glory.Shining bright red under the fluorescent lights like pomegranate.Even though he was smiling his eyes cried tears of sorrow and fear.

The End