It was night again, Luke couldn’t help but look forward to his evening activities. His life at school was dreadful, his parents always fought, and the death of his younger brother haunted him. It was a terrible, awful accident. The stupid kid wasn’t paying attention and had run into the street during darker hours. It was truly horrific how easily a car could kill someone, of course, it doesn’t help when the headlights of said car are broken.

The only relief he got from his thoughts was reading a novel that he and his brother had liked. It wasn’t anything special, a simple story about a boy on an adventure to find his long lost sibling, but it had always connected deeply with Luke. At one point, his own brother had a copy of the book as well, though it had gone missing after his death.

And so Luke sat in his bed, reading the piece of literature he had flipped through ten times over. As he was nearing the end of one of the chapters, he noticed the light within his lamp flicker. It continued to do, prompting Luke to turn it off and on. However, it failed to ignite and stayed dead.

Luke scoffed as he got up from his bed and attempted to turn on his ceiling light. It too failed, keeping his room plunged in darkness. As Luke groaned, about to exit his room and call his parents, a strange knocking came from his window, near his bed. He approached the glass film and peered through, yet there was nothing outside. How odd.

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Luke returned to the door handle, turning it, moments away from calling the name’s of his parents. The knocking continued for a second and then ceased. Fear trickled into Luke’s thoughts, his heart rate quickened. Was someone playing a prank on him? He looked out the window once more, but all was still, nothing could be seen.

“Enough of this…” he muttered to himself as he began to open the door and leave his room. For a third time, a light knocking was heard. Instinctively, Luke tried to flick the ceiling light on again, even though it didn’t work the first time. To his surprise, the room quickly illuminated itself, a dim, yellow luster covering the area.

Luke’s heart stopped as he viewed the window for a final time. Something had been drawn on the surface of the glass…from the inside. A red, thick liquid had been traced in the shape of a dreadful, disturbing smiley face. A red handprint had been pressed on the window as well, right next to it. Below the handprint, on the floor, laid a book.

Luke hesitantly picked it up, revealing it to be the same novel he had been reading. He opened the cover, and on the very first page, his brother’s name was violently scribbled, right next to the same grotesque smiley face staring back at him.