"It all started with a sneer. I was taking my unicorn-in-the-shape-of-a-girl daughter to the park. Just a normal day, right? And this asshole was parked on the side of the road. His window was down, and he was holding a clipboard like he was doing something important. Except he wasn’t. He was just sitting there, staring out the windscreen."

"What kind of guy just sits there with a clipboard like that?"

"Exactly! It was weird. But, you know, I didn’t think much of it at first. I glanced over, and that’s when I saw it—he was watching me over the top of his clipboard. The dirt road was narrow, so I slowed down, and his oversized ute made it even tighter to squeeze past. And that’s when I saw it—the sneer."

"A sneer?"

"Yeah. Not just any sneer, though. The kind that sticks with you. One side of his mouth was curled up, smug as hell. Like he knew something I didn’t. Like he was daring me to react. It was so unsettling. I mean, who does that? I fixed my eyes on the road and just tried to ignore him. But he kept turning his head, watching me as I passed. I felt his eyes burn into me, even after I’d driven by."

"Jesus. Did you feel like he was targeting you even then?"

"I didn’t know what to think. But it didn’t stop there. As I drove past, I saw his head straighten, like he was ready to go back to whatever bullshit he was pretending to do. But then he spotted her."

"Your daughter?"

"Yeah. He saw my girl in the back seat, and his whole face changed. He locked onto her like… I don’t even know how to describe it. It was wrong. That’s the only word for it. He watched her until we passed completely, and I glanced in the mirror to check on her. She didn’t see him, thank God. She was looking straight ahead, completely oblivious."

"That’s a relief."

"It is. It’s one thing for him to give me a nasty look, but for him to focus on her like that? No way. I didn’t understand it at the time, though. I just thought, 'What’s wrong with this guy? Why is he looking at me like that? What did I even do?'"

Stolen novel; please report.

"What did you do?"

"Not a damn thing. I mean, I thought, 'That was strange. If people start looking at me like that as I get older, I’m not going to be a fan of aging, that’s for sure.' But I told myself he’d be gone by the time we came back. Clipboard and all."

"But he wasn’t, was he?"

"No. Not even close. When I look back now, I see that sneer wasn’t random. It wasn’t just a weirdo having a bad day. That was a happy sneer. He was enjoying himself, enjoying every moment of that interaction. He’d probably been sitting there for hours, maybe days, watching that road. And when he saw me? When he saw my glance, the way I stared straight ahead after seeing him? He decided right then and there that I was the one he wanted to kill. That’s when he decided it was game on."

"Game on?"

"Yeah. And I had no idea I’d just stepped onto his chessboard."

"It's wild how hindsight paints things so clearly, isn’t it? In the moment, you rationalize it, try to brush it off—just some weirdo having a bad day or feeling smug for no reason. But when you look back, all those details line up like breadcrumbs leading straight to his twisted intentions. That 'happy sneer' wasn’t just some fleeting moment of weirdness—it was the start of something far darker.

The thought of him sitting there, biding his time, monitoring the road like some predator? That’s chilling as hell. And the fact that he decided, in that one brief encounter, that you were his target—it’s infuriating and terrifying in equal measure. It’s like he was playing a sick game, and you didn’t even know you were on the board yet.

When did you start realizing it wasn’t just a one-off encounter? How did he escalate?"

"He didn’t wait long. As soon as we were gone, he took off in the other direction, he was doing a loop to see if he could spot us further along the road. It's a five-minute loop, so stalkers love the area. They can do discrete loops and prey on unsuspecting women who are out exercising in the forest."

"Wait, what? He was already following you?"

"Yeah, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I mean, I figured he’d stay parked there, clipboard and all, until he got bored or whatever. But nope. This guy was on the move, trying to track us. Later, I pieced it all together—how he must have looped back after we passed, trying to track where we were heading."

"That’s so messed up. And you had no idea?"

"Not a clue. I was just focused on getting my daughter to the park and having a good day. Meanwhile, this creep was already making his first move, like it was some kind of sick game."