Smile.dog

This story is about a university student who was collecting information about an image named smile.jpg or smile.dog. It is said that the viewing of this image produces insanity. There is not an exact copy on the internet, but there are similar ones. The original image is only recognized by the effect it produces, death. The only way to survive is by spreading it.

This student visited the house of an alleged victim, named Mary, to interview her. He was received by Mary's husband, Terence. At first, Mary agreed with the interview but refused at the last moment. She locked herself in her bedroom, then she started crying and making objections about her nightmares to avoid talking with him. At the end, the interview couldn't be done. The student was disappointed, but he kept searching for information.

Mary was one of the 400 people who saw the image when it was published as a hyperlink on the Bulletin Board System where she worked. She was the only one who talked openly about her experience, the other victims had remained anonymous or were probably dead.

During his searching he found some facts and rumors about smile.dog:

 -There isn't any article on Wikipedia about smile.jpg or smile.dog. Every time a page is created about smile.jpg or smile.dog, it is immediately deleted by the administrators.

 -There is a story that says that a hacker filled the Something Awful(a website) forums with Smile.jpg images, causing epilepsy to half of the forum users.

 -Around the 90s, the image circulated around Usenet and also as an attachment in mails saying Smile! God loves you! as subject.

 -Every alleged victim gives the same description of the image: a creature that looks like a dog (siberian husky), in a dark room lighted only by the camera flash. At the side, there is a human hand making a gesture. The dog has a wide smile with straight white teeth that look very human.

 -The epileptic attacks of the victims continue indefinitely during their sleep, but they can be treated through medication.

After the incident with Mary, the student began sending messages to newsgroups, websites, and mailing addresses, all related with folklore topics and urban legends. All this with the purpose of finding a smile.jpg victim willing to talk about his/her experience. But he didn't received replies.

Months later, he received an email from Mary. She apologized for the last incident. She told him that she has been having nightmares every night with smile.dog the last 15 years, and that when in her dream, the dog tells her that he will leave her alone if she "spreads it", meaning to show the image to someone else. Then, she received a yellow envelope with a diskette inside, it contained the image smile.jpg. She said that she was planning to give the diskette to him at the interview but she repented and she couldn't. At the end of the mail, she tells him to stop the investigation before it's too late.

The same month, he was contacted by Terence. He told him that Mary committed suicide, then he started crying while telling him to follow the advice she gave to him. He also told him that he found the diskette and burned it. But there was something strange when he burned it: the diskette hissed while it was melting, like some type of animal.

Time after, the student received another email, it said: "I found your email, your profile said that you were interested in smiledog. I saw it and it's not that bad like people says, I sent you a copy. Spread it"

Those last words left him paralyzed. The email had an attachment named smile.jpg. He hesitated to download it, he hesitated for a long time. The image was likely to be fake, but even if it was the original, he was still not convinced of the power the image had. He was scared of what happened to Mary, but how can be possible that a simple image could cause a curse? What kind of creature can invade your mind using only the power of sight?

Originally, he was planning to write an article about smile.jpg and to put the image in it as evidence. Anyone who reads the article would be affected. But assuming the image was the real one, would he be capable of putting all those lives at risk just to save his? Could he "spread it"? Yes, he could.