The… Cold, silent winter night.

Everything that your eyes landed on was dark and lifeless…

Not in a small town in some countryside...not in some little village, but in a city.

It was black, darker than black. A city sunken into darkness. A fallen city.

…Except;

A small sized apartment building lit up by candlelight.

Sounds that echoed the walls were that of children. Young, joyful voice.

The kid spoke to his sister who stared at the wall. She has been staring there for three years now.

Each day he goes up to his sister and asks her to 'play'.

Yet she is motionless.

Each day the boy visits with a smile on his face. Expectantly looking at his sister who sits there smiling. 

She sits there like a keeper of the graves, as she mindlessly stares at the walls.   Smiling.

She had once worn a white gown. It is covered with a rusted smell.

But the scent of rust almost goes unnoticed because of the smell of fresh blood.

And she sits there.      Smiling

The boy approaches her cautiously. He is shaking. 

He looks at her with his eyes wide open and yells, "Again?!!!"

He is trembling with fear; her smile widens.. 

She has a bloody knife in her hand. 

The girl with a sinister smile, she is trembling.. Her eyes are fluttering… 

The siblings amidst the drunken darkness…

…..

Walking slowly on the creaking floor, a man walks to the window to close the curtains. 

But his movements are peculiar. Like that of a kid. 

The girl still sits staring at the wall. 

Her white gown is now rusted brown, the room covered with disgusting odour. 

The man comes closer expectantly approaching his sister, but cautiously. 

Looking at her, his eyes widen and he screams, "Again?!!"

He walks closer and hands her a bloody knife. 

"You wouldn't come to play, so I played outside again.. But you…"

He takes the knife and wipes it clean with  his sister's gown.

The boy was now a man. 

Seven years had passed. 

The boy clenches the rotting hand of his sister. 

He looks at his sister and says, "You tried to jump out of the window again didn't you? Mamma and pappa told you you shouldn't so stay still ok.. What should I do to make you stay still?"

At this moment her shoulders would have been trembling, her eyes would have been fluttering… But she stayed motionless. 

She wouldn't have dared to look back. 

The man pointed behind her and said, "Look. Mamma and pappa have laid there for ten years right.. So.. Oh I know" 

His eyes glowed like that of a curious kid. 

He approached his sister and said, "Ever Since the day those people stabbed them they have stayed there. So." 

He snatched the knife which he placed in his sister's hand and stabbed her the same place he did for ten years.. Everyday. 

Suddenly his face grew pale. He shouted, "Sissy you are bleeding!! Quick, I have to stop it!!"

He was dressing up the wounds as he spoke, "Sissy Smile… Smile and your pains will go away.. Smile.. Smile"

His face grew dark. 

"Ohhh smile I said… if you don't smile then I will make you", he said and he took the knife and with the blood, drew a smile on his sister's face. 

"Look how happy you look. Don't stop smiling ok!",he said with an innocent smile on his face. 

The city in drunken darkness. A fallen city. 

The only appartment that lit up… the voice of children… the walls that heard them… 

Siblings in the room, one that wanders the city, one that wears a white gown and sits on a chair smiling. 

The scent in that room was awful. 

After all, it had three rotting corpses.