It Started with a Smile

It started with a smile.

He looked down, not knowing what to make of the attractive woman smiling at him from the other side of the coffee shop. Nervously, the man walked over and introduced himself.

“Hey… I’m Zach. I’ve never seen you here before, did you just move here?”

“Yessssss,” she said, drawing the word out with an almost snake-like hiss, her lips still stuck in a smile.

“I saw you staring at me hahaha,” he chuckled nervously. “Sorry, I usually just don’t do stuff like this… did you need some help finding things around town?”

“Yessssssss,” she repeated.

“Uh, okay, well I can give you my number and if there’s a good time or wha–” before he could finish, she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him towards the door and out of the coffee shop. “I guess this girl must be pretty confident,” he thought to himself

Now essentially being walked down the sidewalk, Zach tried to explain all the local sites and attractions but everything he said seemed to be met with the same slight hissing sound. Finally they passed a dirty alley and she came to a dead halt.

“Is everything okay? You’re acting a little weird…” Zach asked

She pulled him towards the direction of the alley and slowly the hissing started to grow louder and louder.

“Uh… this is getting a little too strange, I think I’m gonna go, I’m really sorry…” Zach said.

As quickly as he turned away from her, he felt a blinding pain in the back of his head and suddenly everything went black.

When he awoke he was in the alley, and the woman was standing over his body, smiling wider than ever.

“Yessssssss,” she said, as she pulled on her own jaw, cracking the bones one by one until her mouth gaped open wide enough to reveal rows and rows of hideous, sharp teeth. Its face now bloody and deformed, it prepared for its meal as a single tear fell from Zach’s eye.

It started with a smile.