It was a Wednesday somewhere between one and two in the morning and I was walking near a police control park quiet away from my apartment to be exact. It was a quite night even for a weeknight very little traffic and almost no one was on foot.
The park as it was most nights was completely empty I turned down the short side of the street in order to loop around back over to my apartment. That's when I first noticed him. At the far end of the street. On my side was the silhouette of a man dancing.
It was a strange dance, similar to a waltz but he finished each box with an odd forward stride. I guess you could say he's dance walking headed straight to me. Deciding he was probably drunk I stepped as close as I could to the road to give him majority of sidewalk to pass me. The closer he got the more I realize how gracefully he was moving. He was very tall and skinny and wearing an old suit.
He danced closer still until I could make out his face. His eyes were open wide and wild. Head tilted slightly looking at the sky. His mouth was formed in a wide cartoon of a smile. Between the eye's and a smile.
I decided to cross the street before he could stand closer. I took my eye's off of him to cross the empty street as I reached the other side I glanced back and then stopped dead in my tracks. He stopped dancing and standing on one foot in the a street. Perfectly parallel to me. He was facing me but still looking skyward.
Smile still wide on his lips. I was completely and utterly unnerved by this. I started walking again but kept my eye's on the man he didn't move once I had put about half a block between us I turned away from him for a moment to watch the sidewalk in front of me. The street and sidewalk ahead of me were completely empty. Still unnerved.
I looked back to where he had been standing to find him gone. For the briefest of moments I felt relieved until I noticed him. He had crossed the street and was now slightly crouched down. I couldn't tell for sure due to the distance and the shadows but I was certain he was facing me. I have looked away from him for no more than 10 seconds so it was clear he had moved fast.
I was so shocked and I stood there for some time staring at him and then he started moving toward me again. He took giant exaggerated tiptoe steps as if you were a cartoon character sneaking up on someone except he was moving very very quickly. I'd like to say at this point that I ran away or pulled down my pepper spray or cell phone or anything at all but I didn't. I just stood there completely frozen as the smiling man crept towards me and then he stopped about a car length away from me still smiling smile. Still looking to the sky.
When I finally found my voice I blurted out the first thinking that came to mind. When I meant to ask was
"What the fuck do you want"!?
In a angry commanding tone. What came out was a whimper.
"What the fu...."
Regardless whatever or not humans can smell fear they can certainly hear it. I heard it in my own voice. That only made me more afraid but he didn't react to it at all. He just stood there smiling and then after felt like forever he turned around very slowly and started dance walking away just like that.
Not wanting to turn my back to him again I just watched him go until he was far enough away to almost be out of sight and then I realized something he wasn't moving away anymore nor was he was dancing. I watched in horror as the distance shape got bigger and bigger. He's coming back my way. HE WAS COMING BACK MY WAY AND THIS TIME HE WAS RUNNING.
I ran to. I ran until I was off the side road and back on to a better lit road with sparse traffic. Looking behind me then he was no where to be found. The rest of my way home I kept glancing over my shoulder always expecting to see his stupid smile but he was never there. I lived in that city for six months after that and I never went out for another walk.
There was something about his face that always haunted me he didn't look drunk he didn't look high. He looked completely and utterly insane. And that's a very very scary thing to see.
