Mr. Stitches

Mr.Stitches chapter 3

It was warm summer evening. Me and my cousin Carl were playing basketball in the park near my house. Carl and I were bestfriends. We grew up togather and every vacation, we go to each other's house to stay.

After 6PM, there was hardly anyone around. But as highschool was over, we had more time to play so we decided to stay as the match was getting fun.

At around 7:20PM we decided to leave.
The moment we got out of the park, I noticed on the other side of the street, was someone just standing, staring at us. I couldn't quite make the face but he was wearing a dirty suit. A Harris Tweed Jacket but there were stains all over it. Also, the man was tall.

I felt uneasy as I'm not one of those adventure loving types. But Carl seemed to be too amused to not check out who it was. Standing in a corner of the street, alone, doing nothing.

"Hey, it could be him, the one they call Mr. Stitches! I've heard about him online, he's trending everywhere!"

I didn't really knew what he was talking about but I didn't want to find out either.

I tried telling him to leave and we shouldn't mess around with strangers but he was already on his way to the other side.

Just as he crossed the lane, he stopped and suddenly fell as if trying to flee.

"Yo! Yo! Yo! Run! Run! Run! It's him! It's him!"

"It's who Carl?!" I asked
"Just run God Damn it! I'll tell you on the way!" He said

We made a run and got away maybe 2 blocks and the guy wasn't following so we started walking at a normal pace. Before I could ask Carl about if he knew who he was... a car pulled over and the window rolled down.

"Aye chaps! Headed home? Hop in, lemme give you lads a ride."
It was Mr. Fernandez, our neighbour. He was in his early 30's and was really cheerful of a guy. So we got in. It was still 4 blocks till we reached.

After a few minutes, I looked at the rear-view mirror and my heart jumped!
It wasn't Mr. Fernandez
Precisely, I didn't knew who he was, he had no face!

I motioned Carl towards the mirror and he did a big gasp, before he would scream, I held his hand and motioned towards the lips as to not speak.

"Uh... Mr. Fernandez, could you pull over around here please? A friend of ours lives here and we really need to return this ball to him. We'd be good on our own from here. Thanks for the ride."
I said gathering my courage.

Nothing.
Those 20 seconds of awkward scilence felt like an eternity.
Then, the doors unlocked.
We calmly got off, then I screamed...
"Run Carl! Run!"
We started dashing in God knows what direction!

Without even realizing, we were back in front of the park... and he was still there. Just standing, doing nothing, staring at us.
This time I realized that this was for real...
He had no face! Just a mouth! All stitched up, smiling... like maniac!

We turned around hoping we could get out of there. But he was behind us too!

I grabbed Carls hand and ran in the opposite direction of my house.
We kept running for about only 15 seconds untill I felt like I was pulling someone much bigger in size than Carl with me.

When I realized, my heart almost burst!
It was him!

I froze in fear, my heart raced but my legs refused to.

He put his hands on my should and said...

"You're really good a basketball kid"

I fell down and went numb. And before it all went black, I heard...

"And yea... Carl's home, sleeping"