Real Encounters

*The Train Journey with a Killer*

I travelled to my boyfriend's family's house for the Christmas period. I set off 10pm (2hr train journey) and it was an odd train journey to say the least. Usually it's packed out full of people, but today it was almost empty apart from about 5 people in the carriage. I just assumed it was due to being close to the Christmas period.

I was busy studying for my winter exams, when a rough looking, older guy sat next to me. He seemed okay just started talking about Christmas time. I'm not the kind of person not to talk, so I engaged in conversation.

He loved talking about his grandson, and showed me various photographs of him in Disneyland Paris on his 60th Birthday. The conversation progressed and I asked what he was doing for Christmas. He had a huge smile on his face, he got his suit case from the holder and said let me show you.

It was a bit odd but he had more pictures, he seemed like a loving Granddad. The pictures seemed great, the family looked happy, the children seemed overjoyed with presents and gifts. He mentioned that they had it early this year because "granddad" wasn't too well. It was odd I noticed two things about the photos, the first thing was that there was a glare on pretty much each photo.

Now I'm not an expert but I take a lot of photos of my garden in the winter because it looks beautiful (I know sad), but whenever I do, I take them inside of the house through my window because its way too cold. It just reminded me of the glare I get when taking photos.

Secondly the old guy wasn't in any of the photos, it looked almost as if he wasn't there, as no one was actually looking at the camera.

I stupidly asked, "Have you got a picture of you and your grandson?" He just said he was the photographer in the family and laughed. At this point me and my over-active imagination took over and I started to think, maybe, just maybe he wasn't his Granddad. I got a weird feeling about it and mentioned I was just going to the toilet.

I took my stuff with me and walked down the aisle towards the toilet and snoop into the other carriage. I left my stuff on the table and again the train was empty, so I knew they were safe. I actually went to the toilet, and when I returned my stuff was gone. I walked into the other aisle and there was the older man, sitting with my stuff by his side. He said, "Never leave your stuff unattended, not everyone's trust worthy".

The way he said it though, he went from being a kind hearted Granddad figure, to a sinister, dark person. He asked me if I wanted to see more photos I just said I'm really busy and thought fuck this and sat next to the train attendant at the very last carriage.

I just let my mind drift until it was my stop, I walked towards the holders, got my bags and walked through the door. Just before I walked out the man tapped me on my shoulder, I fucking shit myself! He looked at me straight in the eye and said, "You've forgot this, see I'm trustworthy". He tossed me my other bag.

I got to my boyfriend's car and he asked how I was, I just acted normal, said I was fine. I went straight to bed, I couldn't sleep, and I have a stupid over-active imagination, just thinking what the other photos could have been?

I ended up telling my boyfriend about it. He literally froze and all the blood in his face drained. My boyfriend is a news fanatic wants to become a journalist, so was constantly reading the media.

He said he was reading the morning paper and there was a 9 year old boy who was found dead in his house near by the area where I lived.

The suspect was his granddad.

The little boy who was in the pictures, was the little boy from the news article.

Shit. Just realised the guy on the daily mail picture, looked different to the guy on the train.

(Picture of murderer shown above)

No word of a lie the pictures of the little boy are the same, I actually feel sick.