The Killing Smile

A short thriller

“ Be ready by six hun.”

“ I will. Do you think you will reach home by then?”

“ Yeah I will. I’m leaving the office right now. Will see you in an hour. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

The day was rather gloomy for her, with the bad weather and power outages. She almost lost the enthusiasm to go along with her husband, to the family’s weekend meet up, cliché party. But she had promised him she would go, and so she convinced herself and started to get ready.

She had chosen a black sequin dress and a matching tux for her husband. She loved this habit of them matching each other every time, she felt like a team. Few minutes passed, she was ready and grudgingly waited for her husband, who was half an hour late.

This is why she insisted going to parties only on weekends, as she knew the weekdays never works because of his job. But, no, they had to go to this party, his mother was on a mission to spread the good news of her son landing the big deal.

She was lounging in the patio, already with a glass of bourbon, the only bottle left, when she saw something across the fence. She wasn’t able to see clearly, and she got up and walked to the steps. All she saw was a dog, staring at her, with a piece of bone in its mouth. She went near to pet it, but it turned in the opposite direction and started to walk away. After walking five steps, it turned back around and looked at her one last time, before sprinting away. She was confused as she walked back to the patio, but brushed it off, it was just a dog and she loved dogs.

Before she could enter the house, she heard their Hybrid rounding the corner. At last he has arrived. He parked it, and ran up the patio with an excuse on his face. They went in and she reminded him that he has only six minutes to get into the tux. She left her bourbon on the kitchen counter, picked her purse and went out to the car. She was not angry, rather just annoyed and this was adding fuel to her already dreading mood, she wasn’t sure how it was going to affect the party.

After five minutes he came out the house, looking handsome in his tux, and a mysterious corsage in his hand. He had bought a corsage made from her favourite flowers, lilac. It immediately brought a smile to her face, he surely knows how to make her happy. He got in the car, tied it on her wrist and they were off to the party.

As they headed towards the high way, they noticed the waiting vehicles in the traffic way ahead. He knew an off track road, it was an old road, not in much use, as everyone liked to travel in the smooth highways. They decided to take that road, as they didn’t want to be more late to the party.

She was anxious about taking the short cut, as some bad feeling was dreading in heart. She felt uncomfortable and suddenly scared once they entered the road. But, she did not voice any of that as she patted them away considering it silly and unnecessary. The bumpy ride along with the unknown fear, made her heart beat faster. After riding a few kilometres, their hybrid started to slow down, it surely was weird, as he had filled the tank before going home to pick her up, but now the indicator showed an empty tank. He did not say that to her, as he already felt fear seeping from her, and did not want to scare her more. “ Hey , there’s a fuel place right up the road, it’s just a walk of ten minutes. Do you think you will be fine until then? “, he asked her, he could see her thinking hard and trying to not show her fear on her face, but he could easily read her. “ Maybe we both should go, get it and come back together?”, she knew he was going to say no. Her gut told her that, and it has never been wrong. “ It’s just ten minutes hun, you just sit in the car right where you are, until I come”.

She was not willing to let him go alone, it was not about the fear of being alone that scared her, it was the fear of unknown, something in this road gave her the chills and she did not know what. She reluctantly consented to it, and he got down from the car. She locked the car and looked at him walk away, after a few steps, he looked back and smiled at her lovingly. She stuck to that image, kept repeating it over and over in her mind. The promised ten minutes, kept stretching and she started growing restless. Suddenly, the whole day crashed into her, she kept seeing him running towards her with the corsage, the suspicious dog on the lawn, the gloomy weather, the bottle of bourbon sitting unfinished on the counter.

She was sure, an hour had passed, and called her husband. It was the twentieth time she called him, and his phone was still dead. She felt abandoned, clueless and confused. An odd sense of relief swept through her, that her dreaded feelings came true, all the way, the sense of fear that followed her, finally had come true. She wanted to go, on his steps and bring him back, but her feet wouldn’t move for some reason. After almost two hours of sorrow, fear and guilt she heard a vehicle approaching her from the way he left. Impulse made her unlock and jump out of the car. She stood by the car, and waved at the approaching vehicle. As it came near her, she saw a person in the back seat. The driver looked at her and turned towards the priest, in the back seat for seeking permission. The priest, looked up at the abandoned car and the lady standing alone. His eyes widened and he clutched his book strongly to his chest. He urged the driver to stop the car, near the lady.

As she saw the car slowing down, she felt a small sense of relief. Help has arrived, she will bring back her husband. The window slid down and a priest called her near, “ Get in the car, quickly”, she stepped back and told him about her husband, and pleaded with him, to help her find him. “ I’m here to help you, I promise, but I can’t take you back to that road, to find your husband, I can take you back to your house, believe me that’s everything I can do for you”, she felt let down. Deep in heart, something urged her to get in the car. “ But, I cannot leave him Father, I cannot just go away with you, he promised he will be back and I trust him”. The priest tried his hardest to make her get in the car. “ Just get in the car. You can call 911 and wait for them in the high way, once they come and find your husband, you can go home. But trust me, just get in the car right now”.

She reluctantly decided to go with the priest, she got in the back seat and the driver locked the car. The car moved slowly, leaving behind their hybrid and her husband. She tried to turn back, but the priest suddenly held her hand, “ Do not turn back. Not till we reach the highway “. She turned back slowly, there was red dripping from their hybrid. She saw a shadow perched on the car, she watched it slowly move forward, her tongue lodged in her throat and her breath caught. She saw a ragged old lady, with a evil scrutiny and bloody mouth hunching on the car, with a head dangling from the hand, as she looked carefully, she saw her husband’s curved smile on the head. She turned to the front, and never looked back. Her husband’s smile haunted her throughout the life.