Mr. Anderson, his wife Hailey, his son Joyce and his daughter Julia, made their way out of their family car and into their new house. The rain was pouring heavily. Thunder and lightning were also playing their tricks on people. "Joyce, you better not run around and get in trouble again," said Mr. Anderson. Joyce, a boy of 8, started going up the stairs to get his toy car that his mom told him was in the box in the attic. The house seemed to be brightly lit, but the attic and the stairs leading to it were quite dark. There was one switch that could light up the stairs, which was placed at the end of the attic stairs on top. Joyce reaches the top of the stairs and turns on the light, only to witness a smiling mask face, floating in the air, almost like a balloon. He loses his footing, and the attic light turns off, with the figure slowly disappearing in the dark, smiling and unnoticed. Joyce falls from the stairs and lands on his back, screaming in pain. His parents and sister come running up the stairs. "I saw a smiling balloon! It was there on top of the stairs!", the boy screams in agony as he tries to tell his tale. Hailey runs up to the attic to look around but could not find any smiling balloon. She then runs back down and helps Mr. Anderson get the boy in the car to take him to the hospital along with his sister. As soon as the car leaves, the figure slowly comes out of hiding from the cupboard in the attic and runs down, leaving through the back door. The rain had stopped now. He boards the now functioning bus at the stop and smiles to himself.
Joyce traumatized from smiling faces, now leads a difficult life. He does not recall much from the incident, but one thing that his mother always disagrees with him over is the fact that the attic light was off, as she herself ran up to find the supposed balloon.
One year later, a news broadcast on TV in the living room is sharing updates and information about a killer who was caught after trying to flee the country. In evidence, the news shows a smiling mask and some rubber gloves. The headlines read, "The killer used to wear a smiling mask and was involved in several murders". Reading the headline and noticing the location and addresses of the killers' victims, the boy gasps. The mother, noticing this sudden change, slowly realizes the truth and screams.