The Smiling or Grinning Man

The Smiling Man

As a night person, Riley would often take walks to pass the time and in the early hours of this particular morning, he was taking one of his usual jaunts around the city. Being a weeknight, the streets were quiet with very little traffic and turning down a side street, something caught his eye down the far end of the street on the same side as the paceman. it was a man, well more of a silhouette, and the silhouette was dancing. A waltz like dance, but with an additional forward stride, a kind of dance and walk at the same time and he was heading in Riley’s direction.

Thinking the dancer was drunk, he attempted to give him plenty of space to pass by, but the closer he got, the more he realised this person was not in fact drunk, his dancing was extremely fluid and purposeful. He was dressed in an old suit and was tall and thin and continuing to pace towards Blue, his face slowly came into focus. His eyes were wild and wide open, and his was head tilted back as if looking up at the sky. But it was his mouth that really gave pause for concern, it was 'painfully, cartoon wide' a real grin from ear to ear. 

Taking his eyes off the spectacle before him, Riley quickly crossed the street and glancing behind him he saw the man had stopped dancing and was standing as if to cross the road, one leg poised outstretched, standing directly opposite. He was positioned facing Riley but wasn't looking directly at him, his face was still tilted towards the sky and his wide smile was still present.

Resources:

Introduction - https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/sp9vo/the_smiling_man/

Story 1 - https://www.reddit.com/r/freehorrorstories/comments/74rl16/true_the_grinning_man/

Story 2 - https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSmilingMan/comments/vdkhx9/i_think_saying_hello_was_a_mistake

The Grinn - http://www.thegrinn.com/

The Somerset Gimp! - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-63393521

Thanks so much for listening and we'll catch up with you again next week for some more true, scary stories.

Sarah and Tobie xx

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About The Whispering Woods

The Whispering Woods is a UK paranormal storytelling podcast exploring true ghost stories, unexplained mysteries, haunted history and folklore from around the world.

From firsthand paranormal encounters to historical hauntings and centuries-old legends, we bring you atmospheric stories of the strange and unexplained.

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