Please note: this story was provided by the author and published as is.
I’m not usually someone who posts on forums, but I need to talk to someone about what is happening. Am I going crazy? Maybe…but the truth is, is that I am terrified, and I just need to write this down. Maybe it will help someone? Or maybe this is exactly what it wants me to do? This all started when my sister, Dina, went missing. No one knows what happened to her, but I do..at least I think I do.
Dina was one of those horror fanatics, the kind who basically consumed that stuff twenty-four seven. She was like a walking, talking encyclopedia for anything and everything horror, the occult and anything that might toe the line of obscure. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy the occasional scary movie or story, but it was different with Dina, it was basically her passion.
Our friend group overlapped quite a bit, and it wasn’t unusual for us both to be at the same gathering. The last night I saw Dina she had been talking to one of the guys who wasn’t in my circle—I try not to be super judgmental, but Jeremy was just…..annoying. Honestly, I just didn’t like his vibe, it was like he was trying too hard to be that guy. You know the one, the one who boasted he knew everything about everything and had seen not one, not two, but ten actual ghosts. Jeremy would trump any story being told with his own and was fast to correct or debunk someone else. He was just a jerk, but for whatever reason, Dina liked him. A lot. I’d grown pretty suspicious that their friendship had quietly crossed over from just friends to official, but Dina never admitted it.
That night though Dina, Jeremy and a few others I didn’t really know, had been huddled around Jeremy’s phone talking about a new thing he had found.
“It’s totally legit, my cousin found it and swears it’s real.”
I’d heard him say that, along with little bits of what everyone else had said, things like: ‘how long does it last Jer? Should I be like…super scared?’ or ‘this is giving major bad energy, no offense to you guys but I’m passing on this, definitely not my brand of scare’ and ‘I’ll totally do it, I don’t even care if I’m the only one’.
Can you guess who the last person was? If you said Dina, ring-a-ding-ding we have a winner, folks.
The thing in question was something called the Silly Face game. My parents, and the police, didn’t really want to know about Silly Face or the weird game surrounding it, though they decided to question Jeremy since he was the last person seen with Dina. It also didn’t help that my opinion of Jeremy was pretty low—for the record, I never said Jeremy did anything to Dina, I just said he was the one who showed Dina the Silly Face stuff.
It was some girl named Tanya that told me what Jeremy and Dina had done.
Tanya, for the sake of total disclosure, did not look like the sort to be into anything horror. She worked at the library, she wore a lot of pastels and gave off more of a….Miss Honey attitude, rather than the dark and macabre I usually found around Dina. She told me the video Jeremy had found, the one from his cousin, did look legit, but that she didn’t trust it. Turns out, the Silly Face game wasn’t just the name of a movie or whatever, it’s the name of whatever entity you go and find.
According to Tanya there’s this place two hours away from here, like an old daycare…or maybe nursing home? She said the details were foggy, but what she did know was that it was totally abandoned. Jeremy—Jer, as she called him—had told her it didn’t matter what time you went, what did matter was going to a certain room. I want to note that at this point Tanya got agitated, like even talking about this part made her feel stressed. She said you had to recite a bunch of stuff, comparing it to Bloody Mary and then…it either worked, or it didn’t. You know it worked if you saw it, if you saw Silly Face.
She had told me this while putting books back onto the shelves, but I felt like there was more to it than what she was telling me. When I prodded for more, she told me I should just look it up, that it would take a few pages through Google to find anything. She left pretty quickly after that, leaving me with more questions than answers.
After I got home, I started digging but found that looking up the Silly Face game wasn’t going to be as easy as trying to research other things like the Elevator Game or the Three Kings. Like Tanya had said, it had taken me nearly to page six on google before I found something on someone’s ancient Livejournal. Someone by the name of KDKAT was talking about how they’d played the Silly Face game and how they were terrified. They had made several entries begging anyone for help with what to do after the Silly Face game. There were also pictures instead of actual entries—the first picture was of a poorly taken mirror selfie in what looked like a school bathroom. KDKAT had her camera held up beside her face, the flash obscuring the picture but not enough to totally wash out everything. KDKAT’s face was set into a grimace, her smudged eyeliner contrasting harshly against the pale flash, her mouth sort of warped looking, like it was…too long maybe? I’m guessing it was just the quality and the flash that made her mouth look like that, but the caption had sent a wave of unexplained unease through me.
Can you see him?
The next entry had been a pair of super dirty checkered Vans standing on an even dirtier linoleum floor, again, the quality was pretty poor, but you could make out old leaves and debris exposed by the flash. KDKAT had either gone in the dead of night or on an extremely overcast day. The caption to this one said: going back, xoxo.
The last thing posted on KDKAT’s livejournal was another mirror selfie, this time in what looked like an abandoned restroom. I could make out the stall doors behind her, the hand-towel dispenser and an old sign with what looked like some weird cartoon, the words wash your hands barely visible. I looked back to KDKAT, noting the red smears on her fingers, wrapped claw like around her camera as she faced the mirror. Her eyes were….all wrong, one higher than the other, her nose weirdly twisted up to one side and her mouth was….stretched? I wanted to blame the camera, or the flash, or the quality, but I couldn’t….I had no way of explaining the way her face looked so…twisted up.
The caption? Don’t play the Silly Face game.
It was her last entry, and when I showed it to one of my friends, who I’d been sort of keeping in the loop, they told me it was probably some kid who was decent at photoshop. I agreed, mostly because I didn’t feel like arguing my point, before tracking down someone who knew where Jeremy and Dina had gone to play Silly Face. While I waited for someone to get back to me, I continued my research online. KDKAT was one of the many old blogs I found, almost all of them nearly the same as KDKAT’s. I quit looking at the pictures after a while, praying my friend was right and it was just some weird creepypasta a bunch of random people were in on. There was one though that made me feel almost sick, it was some guy standing behind an old woman, someone else must have been taking the picture.
He was in what looked like an old cafeteria, his black hoodie and jeans making only his neck and face visible in the dark room. He was smiling wide; his hands placed on the hunched shoulders of an old woman. She looked scared, and I don’t mean this old lady is going along with the bit, I mean scared. Her eyes were wide and red rimmed, her hands curled into fists on her lap as she stared into the camera, the poster had written underneath: made my grandma play Silly Face, RIP.
It felt like I had stumbled onto something that should have never been found. The more I looked, the more the pictures came. People, hundreds of people taking selfies, their features warped and obscure—some smiling, some grimacing, some holding others in front of the mirror, their own faces normal while the one being held had terribly pained expressions on their stretched faces. I had found a few reddit posts, old and archived, warning others to stay as far away from the Silly Face game as possible.
It sounds harmless and fun until it isn’t, someone had posted, their account deleted, don’t be an idiot and play like I did.
This post had gained quite a response, many of which calling the deleted user a troll, a scammer and some even going so far as to call the post itself predatory.
You don’t just make a statement like that and not back it up with fact, it’s like you’re wanting people to look this game up. I thought this urban legend was dead and now you’re just digging it back up, fuck you dude.
Interesting, right? There were others chiming in with the same sentiment, going so far as to say the less people warned against the Silly Face game, the better.
Dude, stop warning people not to play, you know that’s exactly how this shit starts again. Some asshole throws out the bait and a bunch of idiot fucks take it. Guess I’ll be taking a break from this place until the craze dies back down.
Another user, also deleted: bunch of pussies, I played the Silly Face game and I’m totally fine. It’s scary for like one week and then it’s over, everyone just needs to grow up and let people do what they want. Message me if you want the address deets.
My head felt bloated with it all. Dina was still missing and there were no leads, my parents were losing it and it felt like everything was just….spinning out of control. No matter how hard I tried though, it felt like I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Sleeping came in small bursts, even then my dreams felt weighed down with dream-muddled versions of the pictures I had seen.
Toby, a friend of Dina’s, had reached out to me, telling me they knew exactly where Dina and Jeremy had gone. He had offered to drive me thankfully, and we headed out on a Saturday morning.
When I asked him if he knew about the game, or had played it, he had shrugged it off, explaining, ‘It gives me the creeps, and not in the fun way,’ he had said, driving us down some old highway, ‘the stories about it are enough to give a person nightmares….how’ve you been sleeping? Not great, right?’
He laughed, nervously, I’ll add. He was quiet for a while after that, I had assumed he was done talking about it until he randomly pulled off onto the shoulder of the highway.
‘The nightmares, you’re getting them right?’
I’ll admit, I was a little shocked by the question, because I hadn’t told anyone about them.
Toby told me that once you even think of playing the game, the game has already started. You never know what is in control, you, or Silly Face. He explained that the game has a way of warping things, making reality feel imaginary and the imaginary feel real. He had lost his brother to this game, a guilt that I could still see ate away at him. Worse, he was right, the game—whether I had realized I was playing it or not—had changed my brain. I hadn’t even asked where we were going, or let anyone know who I was with. It was like all that mattered was finding Silly Face—which is crazy, because I had started all of this to find Dina.
I hadn’t even realized how far off track I had gone from trying to find my sister. I felt sick, my mind racing as I tried to remember how long she had even been missing?
Tanya was right, it was an old nursing home Toby had taken us too. It stood like an unholy tomb. The windows were dark, the door open wide with a few flimsy caution tape ribbons.
Toby wouldn’t go in, instead assuring me he would wait outside, the car ready to go if shit went south.
He wouldn’t look me in the eye, so I went in.
I recognized the floors instantly from KDKAT’s pictures. She had been in the front lobby, her words going back, xoxo burning in my mind as I walked in. I don’t know when I pulled my phone out and started recording, the bright beam of my phone’s flashlight guiding the way. I understood why all the pictures were so dark, why it didn’t matter if it was rain or shine to play this game. Someone had painted all the windows black, thick drips of it dried and peeling on the walls.
It looked like the building had been empty for awhile, wheelchairs and bed trays discarded on the floors, a tower of walkers stacked haphazardly in the corner of one room. I let my flashlight move slowly over the wall, a face, pale with grayish eyes stared back at me, a mouth stretched from ear to ear into a gaping frown. I had nearly screamed, the lump of it fading when I realized there was nothing there.
I’m lost in this craziness and don’t even realize it, Toby’s words repeated in my head.
Why had I gone here? The thought was brief but crystal clear, as if for the first time since learning about Silly Face, my mind had woken up and screamed at me what are you doing?
I walked, trying to convince myself to just leave, telling myself that wouldn’t the police have already looked into this place? Why did I think Dina would be here, of all places? Even if she was, no one had heard from her, even if I had found her…why did I think she’d be anything but dead?
Because you’re not here for Dina, this thought felt entirely not my own, like some strange, faceless spectator, you’re here to play the game…silly.
I was in the cafeteria then, surprised to find the tables either pushed up against all the walls or completely tipped over in disarray. The floors were streaked with peeling black paint, like someone had run around with the paintbrush after covering the windows. There were…handprints…streaked through the paint, footprints too….
“D-Dina?”
I couldn’t get my voice to go higher than a whisper, fear had fully taken over and had squeezed down on my throat. The more I tried to call for her, the more it felt like something was watching me.
I realized the footprints and handprints weren’t random. I followed them, my skin crawling as I was guided out of the cafeteria and into a dark corridor.
The smeared hand and footprints led me to a bathroom, the door had been wedged open with a crate, someone had painted across the warped wood time to play. The bathroom smelled like mold and stagnant water, a thin sliver of light piercing through a spot on the window missed by the sloppy paint. I took the room in with a quick glance, the stall doors all open, dirt and grime smeared across the walls. My gaze, and phone, landed on the mirror last, a strange pit forming in my stomach. There was a black-smudged handprint on the mirror, what looked like the sweat-smear of someone’s forehead pressed into the splintered glass.
Words I don’t even remember memorizing came to the front of my brain, as easy as remembering my address, or my phone number. Had I seen it online somewhere? Maybe Toby had said them? It didn’t matter, because the words were coming out of my mouth….I don’t think I could have stopped saying them even if I wanted to. It was like falling into a trance.
“Silly Face, Silly Face, don’t make that Silly Face. Do you want to be like Silly Face.”
Something in me snapped after I said it, like a cord at its limits being cut.
Stale air rushed into my lungs, as if I was taking a true breath for the first time in a long time. My hand had moved to press into the handprint smudged on the glass. Pain prickled on my palm as tiny shards stuck into my skin, my teeth chattering as a strange, hollow noise seemed to swirl around the room. I don’t know…what I saw, when I looked back into the mirror, but I can say it wasn’t right…it wasn’t me.
You can hear my scream on the video, the remaining minutes are just the camera jolting up and down, my own voice warbling as I ran out of the building.
Toby was gone, I mean his car was still there, but the driver’s door was open and his phone was in the seat. I refused to go back in, instead screaming his name in the doorway. Maybe he went in, maybe he ran away….I don’t know.
I drove his car back to town, parking it at one of the gas stations closest to my house before walking home. If you’re reading this and know Toby, just know…I don’t know where he went, and I’m sorry if I pulled him back into something he tried so hard to get away from.
So here I am…freaking out. My head feels full and I keep hearing noises…like random bursts of laughter, sometimes whispers. I said the words yesterday, but it feels like it was weeks ago…nothing makes sense anymore and I’m just so tired. Is this a ghost? An entity? I’m going crazy. I wish Dina was here…she would know what to do.
I can’t find the forums anymore about Silly Face, even KDKAT’s livejournal is gone. That’s weird, right? If I didn’t have my own video I think I would have tried convincing myself that it was all fake, made up somehow. I wish I could say that…even as I write, reader, I can hear it…Silly Face?…in my head. It won’t stop, it just keeps mumbling….
I guess it’s important to note they did find Dina, she was there….in the nursing home. I probably ran right past her body. My parents won’t tell me much, just that someone had horribly disfigured her face.
Jeremy is missing now, I tried to track him down, I just wanted someone, anyone, to talk to, to get help from. He’s missing, imagine that, right? Not only that, but now he’s being considered as the main suspect in Dina’s murder. Not that my opinion matters but…I don’t think Jeremy did it. I don’t know why I am posting this, maybe to dissuade someone from trying to find the place where Silly Face lives, maybe to get someone to go, I’m not sure. It’s like a nagging itch, I have to talk about it, and the more I say don’t go, don’t play the game, the more it feels like that’s exactly what…whatever it wants. I’m sharing my video here too, I know it’s blurry, sorry….Take it or leave it, I guess this is just my story and how I came to learn about the Silly Face game.
Edited:
I can’t look in the mirror anymore, or into anything that might have a reflection. When I touch my face, I can feel that my right eye is lower than the other, and my mouth is getting wider….sometimes I get a foul taste in my mouth, a sourish, coppery taste. I took a picture, one pretty much like the kind KDKAT had posted….when I went back to look at it there is something behind me.
I can see his eyes, sort of peeking out from behind my head. They’re bloodshot and swollen, bulging out at me. He’s smiling, black teeth practically hanging out of his terrifying grin, his fingers hooked into and around my face, pulling and pushing my features. My face hurts, everything hurts. I think I need to go back…maybe if I go back, I can stop this…fix this somehow. Can anyone help me? Please?
I posted the picture below…can you see him?
Created by: Danny Ingrassia
