When it did, its lips split into an impossibly wide grin; it was so terrifying, so awful to behold that it took me a moment to realize the flesh there had, at one point, been slit beyond the normal reach of a human smile. The corners of its mouth had the shiny-smooth texture of healed-over skin and now the grin could extend almost to its misshapen ears.
Its teeth had been filed to sharp points.
I was seconds away from turning to leave the monster in its grotesque glow of candlelight when it said,
“Hello, Arthur.”