Not a killer

Chapter 2: Two months earlier...

The man sitting on a bench at the other side of the park had been staring at me for quite some time. It was most disturbing.

That day I had casually just gone to the park to read my book for a couple of hours, but after a while I couldn't help noticing the odd stranger, only about fifty yards away. He was wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt (which made perfect sense because it was a hot summer's day), loose jeans, nike trainers and sunglasses that made him look like a mysterious detective. Give him a long brown coat, a pipe and a newspaper and he would play the part perfectly. At least from a distance, he looked quite relaxed, as if he had nothing to worry about in the world. But outward appearance was nothing, as my father had told me years ago, before he passed away.

I obviously couldn't be sure, but something told me that the man was actually looking straight at me, for some unknown reason. Just in case, I looked behind to make sure he wasn't looking at something or someone else, but all I saw was an unhabitted, broken-down building that hadn't been used for years.

I waited a bit longer, to see if the man would go away or do something else, but he remained exactly where he was, with the same blank expression on his face. Finally, I sighed, put the book away in my bag which I then slung over my shoulders and I walked over to where the stranger was sitting.

"Excuse me" I said politely "Sorry to disturb you but I think you have been watching me for the last while. Is this so?

The man then answered me with a heavy voice, pronouncing the words slowly "I haven't been watching you, kid"

I could now see more physical detail on the guy's face. He had a long nose, a small mouth, a pretty neat hairstyle and a fairly rectangular, long face. I still couldn't see his eyes because of the black sunglasses. He was also a lot younger than I had thought. He only looked about twenty or so.

"Well, it certainly looked like it. If you weren't looking at me, then what were you looking at?

"I was actually just dozing off a little, but sorry if I scared you" I thought I heard a slight hint of irony in this last sentence.

"Okay, well just... look another way or something. Bye"

"Wait"

I turned around again to face the man.

"One more thing, kid. What's your name?"

That's what freaked me out a little. "I'm not going to give my name to a random stranger that I have just talked to for a couple of minutes. It's not wise. Farewell, stranger"

And with that, I hurried off with a quick pace, quite startled at what the man had asked.

Since it was only ten to four, and I had the whole afternoon to kill, I finally found another bench quite a distance away from the park, in a small street a couple of blocks away. It was enough for me. I got out my book (which I was already halfway though) and began to read.

***

I finished at seven in the evening. The lamposts were on, and the sun had disappeared ages ago.

I sighed and put the book in my bag. The plot hadn't been a very good one. The idea that six astronauts had gone to battle an army of aliens that wanted to conquer the earth (which they ended up conquering) didn't seem to fascinate me. But somehow, I had been sucked into it until the end. Strange.

I looked around. That was when I realized that there was no-one in sight. The street was completely deserted. There weren't any cars either. "Does no-one live here?" I thought to myself. I then looked up and had another surprise. The buildings were only half built. No wonder there wasn't anybody around! But I soon realized that the houses weren't under construction. They once had been, but they were never finished. Now, abandoned, the walls were covered with spray-painted words and pictures, and there was glass and broken ceramic everywhere. It was as if the street had collapsed alltogether!