As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 112 - Online Dating Horror Stories and Stalker Stories - 9 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

Welcome to the chilling 112th episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today, we will step into the shadowy corners of reality, where everyday life takes an eerie twist & ordinary people experience the extraordinary. Today we will be diving into stories about The horrors of online dating as well as some stalker and stranger stories. So, turn down the lights, tune in, and let the haunting tales of everyday people take you down that dark and creepy road. Remember, these aren't just stories... these are true experiences that remind us that our world can truly be scarier than fiction. Have a Story To Submit? ➤ https://www.astheravendreams.com Or Post to the Subreddit ➤ https://reddit.com/r/TheRavensDream Support the channel for Early Access AND more! Patreon ➤ https://patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Join ➤ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkW0ihdMHfBUjQrMKjRto6g/join Or Check out the Merch Store! ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in today's Video... Thesilphsecret, Mercer, Chemical-Dirt-5586, BrilliantBex1992, Puzzleheaded-Air2693 , JJ Thomas, CaseyFromKC, Amanda, and any other authors that requested anonymity. 'As The Raven Dreams' is a community where we explore the darker parts of human existence through true and harrowing stories. From sinister encounters with strangers and stalkers, to terrifying experiences that defy explanation and unsettling mysteries that linger in the shadows, I am here to tell you the most haunting narratives ever whispered. Much Love, and Sleep Well... ----- #TrueScaryStories #AsTheRavenDreams #RedditStories ➤ Stories include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Viewer discretion is always advised. ➤ ALL Audio of this Podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format, without explicit permission ➤ If you like any of the following stories, consider subscribing! - Dark Web horror stories, creepy lets not meet stories, stalker stories, Glitch In The Matrix Stories, Unexplained Horror stories, Paranormal stories, cryptid encounter stories, Crazy ex lover stories, creepy neighbor stories, quantum immortality, true scary stories from reddit, or any other True horror Stories! ➤ And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you have a story you would like to hear featured on this podcast, please go to ashtheravendreams.com and click the button to submit your story. Also, if the platform you're listening on has the option to rate this podcast, please consider doing so. And thank you. Back before the pandemic, I was let go from my normal nine to five. And this left me in a bit of a desperate state for money. My wife was still working, thankfully. But I knew that I needed to figure something out, and unemployment wasn't a guarantee. So I got a little desperate.

That desperation led me to doing what a lot of other Americans did at that time. And I turned to the gig economy to try and pat our savings so that bills would get paid. It was a bit tough, but I did what I did, and we made it work. For the most part, I was driving for a ride-share company. I tried to do the food delivery thing, but that didn't pay well enough, honestly, and I found that people were better tippers if you were delivering them to their destinations instead of delivering their overpriced sandwich. One night, I was on the clock, and I had come off of a fare when I got a ping saying that there was another passenger nearby, and they needed a lift. It was on the outskirts of town, but I was kind of close, so I figured whatever. I would get him, take him wherever, and then just go home.

The passenger seemed normal enough. He was a young guy and what looked like his mid-20s, well enough dressed, and he seemed pretty friendly. He opened the door, we confirmed that he was my passenger, and he tossed his backpack into the back, and then sat in the rear passenger site seat. There were literally no red flags that I could see. He looked like a normal dude that you'd see working in IT for some medium-sized company. He buckled in and said, Hey, thanks for picking me up.

Sorry, it's so late, though. I laughed and told him that it wasn't that big of a deal, that I would get him to his destination, and then probably head home for the night. As I drove, we struck up a bit of conversation. He told me that he was working as a contractor for a warehouse, doing system maintenance and whatnot, which wasn't surprising, as I mentioned. He said that he was saving up to go back to school so that he could get out of the contract work and get a full-time job doing tech work, because he was tired of the instability. I mentioned that I knew all about instability, as I'd been let go and we kind of bonded over blue-collar work.

and the annoyances that came with it. He seemed genuine, just another hard-working guy trying to make it. I think that's why I found myself relaxed during the whole ride, and any concern I had about him was immediately dispelled. Then we pulled down the road for his destination, and it was a part of town that I knew for my teenage years, not the best place to be in the middle of the night.

I made a remark that was a bit, inappropriate, asking him if he was sure that he wanted me to drop him off down this way. He laughed and said, yeah, unfortunately. I shrugged and just kept on down the street until the map notified me that we were where we wanted to be dropped off. Which looked like an absolute mess. The house was old, dilapidated, and while I'm not one that should judge people, did not look like a place where this man should be living, staying, or associating with. I pulled up to the curb under the only street light on that part of the strip,

and that's where things took a bit of a turn. The guy hesitated and took a deep breath and then opened the door and said, Hey, could you just wait for a second? His voice was no longer friendly. It sounded almost scared as he asked, but before I could even respond, the front door of the house swung open. Three men emerged, one of them, very noticeably brandishing a gun.

My heart skipped when I saw it, and it immediately clicked in my mind that this whole thing was a setup. I looked back at the man who was now half standing with my door open, looking back at me with that stare of, I'm really sorry, dude, in his eyes. Panic surged through me. These guys were either going to rob me, steal my car, or worse. Without thinking, I slammed my foot on the gas pedal.

The car lurched forward and my tires squealed. I heard someone shout and then the loud bang, followed by more shouting and a few more shots ringing out. My mind was racing. I was pumped full of adrenaline, but I did not slow down. I did at one point look in my rearview mirror, which is when I noticed that the guy that was in the back seat was now lying. on the ground a ways back, and the other three guys were standing over him.

I kept going for a while, and then pulled into a Walmart parking lot before I felt safe enough to call the police. I explained what it happened to them, and told them where I was. The cops arrived pretty much right away, and that's when I had to explain the whole thing to them again. That was also when I noticed that my car had a few new holes by the back door, and in the side of the trunk. I told him that the guy was a fare, that I'd went to drop him off, and that the people just started shooting.

I explained that the last thing I saw was him on the ground with the other guys, and I didn't know if he was alive, dead, or other. Worse yet, his backpack was still in the back seat. And when the cops opened it, they found a handgun. So much to my disdain, this guy was all. also armed, and he was sitting in the prime position to put the gun to my head. After a while, the truth did come out. It was a setup. The friendly guy was part of the scheme, and their whole plan was to steal my car, and leave me there on the side of the road with

nothing, in a rough part of town. Their plan, obviously backfired completely, because the guy had apparently hesitated, which gave me time to take off. Also come to find out, when I took off, he was still hanging on to my car, and then they shot at me and his friend with the gun actually shot him. He survived. It wasn't that bad of a shot, thankful for him, but I'm pretty sure that they weren't very good friends after that. Of course, after all of this, I couldn't help but shake that feeling of betrayal. The guy seemed normal. decent, and we developed that quick momentary friendship that you create with people.

I ended up going back to the food delivery gig. It paid less, but there were fewer chances for things like this to happen. I'm not going to lie. I do often think about that guy, and I wonder if he has any regrets about the choices he made that night. But, mostly, I'm just grateful that I got out of there alive. A bit more cautious, a little less trusting, but alive. I have an online dating story that is, in my opinion, weird and creepy.

It's kind of more weird, though. It was just a really strange encounter with a guy that seemed okay at first. I'll try not to go on too long with this story, but my apologies if it does get a bit long-winded. So, obviously, this happened at a point where I found myself in the endless sea of dating apps. Like many others, I was in search of something more. Having been single for a few years at this point, I was just trying to find someone that wasn't an absolute creep, and that I could stand to spend some time with.

And if it became something extra, then great. and at one point I matched with a guy that seemed okay. Let's call him Jamie for the sake of the story. Jamie seemed like a pretty decent dude. His profile had that nerdy air about it and was filled with humor that resonated with mine. Our conversations were mostly smooth, we seemed to have quite a bit to talk about,

and we liked a lot of the same things, so it goes. We then decided to put all of that, to the test and meet up in person. I was excited. I was thinking that this could actually be a match that could lead somewhere. And like everyone else in our position, we decided to do a meetup at a local coffee shop, a neutral ground where, if nothing else, we could enjoy a nice cup of coffee before never speaking to each other again.

I got there first, and Jamie messaged me saying that he was on his way, but that he was running a couple minutes late. No big deal. Things happen. I just sat there with my latte and scrolled to the conversations, chuckling at a few of the jokes that were made and thinking about what to talk about when he showed up. This is normally the part of these stories where I would say he showed up and looked nothing like his picture. But it was quite the opposite.

He actually looked exactly like he did in his picture. But there was something about him that bothered me. And at the time, I just didn't realize it. I brushed it off. He ordered his coffee, and I already had mine, obviously. But I hadn't drank much of it. And we sat down at a comfortable table. The conversation continued to flow pretty smoothly.

We kind of picked up where we left off in our messages. But as it continued, Jamie started to ask a few questions that were weird. Mainly he seemed to be. really interested in my daily routine, and the questions were awkwardly personal. He asked what time I walked my dog, if I ever got scared living alone, how much my rent was. Worse yet, each time he asked one of these questions, he would change the way that he was looking at me. He would go from a normal, casual look to a wide-eyed, straight-on penetrating, glare. It felt like he was trying to intimidate me, but only when he asked specific questions.

I later learned that this was a supposed, quote-unquote, alpha-male technique to make women submissive, but it's not important, just funny to mention that people think this stuff works. I tried to steer the conversation to safer waters, thinking that I could salvage this to some extent. But when I asked about his hobbies or interests or anything that was worthy of idle conversation, he would be vague, evade anything personal, and then further try to deflect, trying to turn it back around so that I had to answer his questions instead. It was pretty clear at this point that he was manipulative. I'd seen it before, and he was showing the telltale signs of being that kind of person.

I don't remember specifically how we got on to the topic, but Jamie ended up talking about one of his exes. He talked about how he used to watch her online activities, how he would show up randomly at her work to make sure that she was there, and he said it all with a hint of serendipity. He said that for the longest time he thought that she was the one, but that she, again, and quote, couldn't handle him at his best. Which, yeah, there were way too many red flags going up during this conversation. The whole time he talked about it, there was no hint of remorse,

or an understanding that he violated her privacy. He almost sounded amused. The final straw came when Jamie made a joke about having used a fake profile to learn more about me before the date. He mentioned that when we matched, a couple weeks prior, he had sent me a friend request under a secondary profile, and I accepted it without thinking, which, my bad. He then dug through my Facebook to learn everything about me, and then said that he'd even been around my block where I lived, which is where it hit me.

Earlier, when I mentioned that something was off about him, it was because I had actually seen him in person before, like the day before. this date. When I'd left for work the morning prior, there was a guy just walking down the street, and he waved at me as I was leaving. It didn't hit me that it was him

because I was tunnel-visioned on getting to work on time. He had, for lack of a better word, stalked me shortly before our date. The way that he said it made it seem like I should be flattered. I wasn't.

I excused myself. mentioned that I had a lot to do that day, so I needed to cut the date short, because I needed to go do something with my mom. I don't think I even gave a specific excuse. I'm pretty sure I literally said, I need to go do something with my mom. Jamie was completely unfazed, asking if he could walk me to my car or go with me, and holding that same confident smile that he had while telling me about, everything else.

I declined. I told him to enjoy his coffee and hurried out of the coffee shop and drove off as quickly as I safely could. What wrapped this whole event in a lovely little bow? A few hours after the date, he sent me a text saying, I think that you and I had a real connection today, and I think that you have a real chance at making me happy. Tell me when you're available, and I'll take you somewhere way nicer than the

that coffee shop. I never texted him back. I decided that ghosting him was the best way to handle it. I think that his ego and narcissism stopped him from messaging me again, because I didn't hear from him after that. Looking back, this experience is my chilling reminder that some people out there, not necessarily just men, are simply weird creeps. He seemed totally normal at first, but he was in.

anything but. I have done a few more online dates since this, but there hasn't been anything substantial. And honestly, I'm grateful that most of them have just been forgettable and boring, because I don't think I could handle another Jamie in my life. Lazzang sur-gillet, puissance-moyane for 15 minutes.

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to you aid is made to now. I want to apologize for this being a bit longer, but while it

may not seem like much to some, This event was pretty traumatic for me. I used to play a few MMOs many years ago, and I spent hours playing them. My downtime was pretty much spent in them. I shamefully even got a few friends hooked on it, and we would play as we chatted. I also met a lot of people in the games, some of them becoming good long-distance friends, too.

Unfortunately, that's also when this story took place. I'd been playing alone one night when someone started asking the server chat about a specific mechanic in the game. No one would answer them and I felt bad, so I responded with the answer. They thanked me and became very appreciative of it. After a while, we began talking about the game as well as other games that we enjoyed. They tried asking about things about myself, but I wouldn't tell them anything past that I lived in the U.S. and that I was 19, which was the truth. At the time, their character was a female, and yes, I know that anyone could have been behind that character, but for some reason I didn't think I had any reason to doubt them. I think part of me also thought that I needed to stick up for the other female gamer or something.

As we talked, she did tell me her real name was Heidi, and that she was also 19 and from the U.S. We started talking more, and I even gave her my email to message me outside of the game. I began playing with Heidi more often, and she caught on quickly in the game. She had a few questions, but otherwise she was a quick learner. We became a two-woman team when it came to taking on some of the more difficult quests, and we did great. I tried to invite her to my friend's group so that we could all play together, but she always declined, talking about how shy she was and how she preferred it just being us. But she also didn't mind if I was already playing with my other friends.

This continued on for about a month or so, but we also started talking a lot through email. She even sent me a picture of herself holding a sign that said hello with my username. I once again didn't see any harm in it. She was obviously who she said she was, so I sent a picture of myself in the same manner. Our friendship only grew from there. We talked more personally about our home life, we talked about things that we loved, our fears,

our hopes for the future, and even vented some frustrations. And maybe some people could call me naive or immature, but I actually started to have some feelings for how. Heidi. She had sent me many pictures of her, and after getting to know her, I realized how alike we were. One day I was comforting her after she mentioned that she'd had a particularly bad day, and how she felt worthless. And as I comforted her, I let it slip than I loved her and told her that she was valued and that I needed her. Whether I really meant that in an intimate manner, or maybe just as a friend that really cared for her, I don't know, but at that moment it felt important to say.

To my surprise, she actually told me that she felt the same way about me, but she didn't want to say anything because she didn't know how I would take it, and she didn't want to lose me. That night really seemed to change things for us. Our relationship took off from there, and I even expressed this to my friends. Many of them congratulated me. one thought it was kind of suss because we never talked on the phone, so even though we've shared pictures,

I couldn't confirm they were who they said they were without video, or hearing their voice. I tried to tell them that I trusted her when another friend became very defensive on my behalf and told them that they should just be happy for me. It became a bit of an argument between them, which I feel really did some damage, but I tried my best to fix the situation. I continued to try and include Heidi, my now girlfriend, into my friend group and finally she agreed to join.

However, my friend Max, the one who stood up for me prior, said they wouldn't be able to make it, so we were down one person. I just thought that I would catch up with him when we were able to get together again. Playing with Heidi and my friends was a lot of fun, at least at first. She was shy and didn't talk about. much to my friends, but they all talked to her, and tried to involve her as much as possible. My friend that was suspicious, Seth, would ask Heidi more intrusive questions, almost like they were interrogating her. He would constantly try to catch her in a lie, but she either was

able to explain herself better, or she would apologize for being confusing. After this happened a few times, I told Seth to back off because he was being a jerk. so he left. It was down to two of my other friends, myself and Heidi. But we still had fun. Heidi even began loosening up and was slinging jokes at them. It was like she had always been a part of the group and we all had fun. I just hope that Seth would come around to the idea and then all six of us could be

unstoppable. I even wanted us to be able to hang out in person. And yes, that is something I learned about Heidi. she actually lived pretty close to me, a little over an hour away. It didn't take very long from there that we became even closer, and even though we still didn't talk on the phone, she had sent me a voice recording of her saying that she loved me, and I thought it was really sweet.

She said that she played from a computer at the library and that she didn't have a phone. She told me she still lived with her parents because she had a disability, so finding work was hard for her, and they didn't have much money. She said that her mom would take her to the library daily so that she could do whatever she wanted for a few hours to get her out of the house.

Again, stupid of me to believe. Maybe, but at the time, it seemed believable. But by then, I really wanted to move forward and meet her. I asked her about coming to see her, but she was hesitant. I told her that I would go to her so that she would go to her so that she wouldn't have to pay for anything, but again she was nervous and said that she would think it over.

I agreed, thinking maybe I was rushing it, and I didn't bring it up again. But then things started to crumble. Seth finally seemed to come around to the idea of Heidi and joined another game session with us, but Max was still unavailable saying that he had to work late. This time we played a trivia, game. The answers were clicked or typed in so speech wasn't required. While the rest of us

were in the game's voice chat, Heidi just used the text chat. Heidi blew us away with her knowledge of geology and ancient history, and we even joked that her geology knowledge would make it that someone else in the group could finally give Max a run for his money. He was usually the one that hammered those categories out. But then after a question was answered, someone cracked a joke, and Heidi had a clapback to it. The problem was, was that the joke was an inside joke between my friends. It wasn't something that she would have known about as she wasn't a part of it at the time, nor did I tell her about it.

At first we all laughed, but then Seth called it out, asking if I told her about it. It caught me off guard, and at the time I thought it was odd, but I must have said something, right? So I just said, uh, yeah, probably. And Heidi agreed. The remainder of that night felt a little off. Heidi didn't seem to talk much, and Seth appeared to act the same way. It wasn't until after we finished that Seth said he wanted to talk to me. We talked on the phone and he apologized for acting the way he had earlier, but then expressed his concerns.

He asked me if I really had mentioned that moment to Heidi, and I answered truthfully saying that I didn't remember. He expressed how concerned he was that Heidi wasn't who she claimed to be. He gave many reasons, including how she wouldn't talk to me on the phone, how she didn't want to meet in person, and even weirder how she knew about the joke. I tried to be reasonable and explained how I approached her in the game on the day we met, that she didn't approach me,

but he again asked me to recall that day, and pointed out that she spoke first, asking a question that I could answer. I would be lying if I said I wasn't skeptical. I told him that I would confront it, and then apologized for being a jerk to him. So my plan was to try and set her up, in a kind of test. The next day we talked,

I brought something up, an event that I hadn't told her about before. As I explained it to her, she mentioned something about it that, once again, she would not have known about. I was mentally freaking out. Was this really happening? Had I been fooled this whole time? And if so, who the hell was this person? I needed to confront this. I was already scaring myself, and to be honest, I was heartbroken. I really fell for her, or I guess the thought of her. So I told her that I really wanted to meet her in person and that it was important to me

in order to continue our relationship. She seemed to become upset and begged me for more time, but I stood firm. But I don't really know what came over me at that point. I decided to tell her that I had concerns. I mentioned the joke from my first. our game and how some things didn't add up. She started becoming defensive, and I saw a sight of her that I never saw before.

Her messages were more sporadic, short, and in pieces. She talked about how she loved me and that she's loved me for years, but I would never give her a chance. I didn't understand. We'd only known each other a few months. What did she mean by years? I started panicking, asking her to explain herself, but she wouldn't. She just kept saying it was my fault and that I should have left things as they were.

I told her to tell me who she really was, hoping that maybe we could work it out. Hopefully we could start over, but she wouldn't. She left with one final message, saying that it would never work between us. It made a hint at ending her life and said goodbye. I was devastated. She would not respond after that, and I had no other way of contacting her. I knew her last name, but I knew nothing of her parents. I tried to find someone by her name and location anywhere online,

but it was like she didn't exist, which only cemented the idea that that wasn't her real name. In the back of my mind, I had this dark thought that my actions might have led to someone. once death, and I couldn't forgive myself. I felt like even if it was all a lie, I should have left things alone. I told my friends about it, and they consoled me, saying that I couldn't blame myself. Seth, again saying that he thought it was just another way to manipulate me, and that got me thinking that maybe that could be true.

I called them out, and that was their response, so what were the chances that this was just another one of their plans. But then Max became very defensive, and said that Seth was being insensitive, but I tried to tell him that he had a point. He then became angry with me, but then seemed to become defensive like we insulted him. At first I felt like it was out of character for him, but then I remembered something crucial. A few years prior to all of this, Max had confessed to me in person that, he loved me, and he asked me out.

I told him the truth, and that was that I didn't have feelings for him like that. For one, he was a really good friend to me, and two, I wasn't interested in guys. But instead of accepting this, he got defensive. He seemed like he had to explain himself and give reasons to be with him, but it would never work. You can't just make someone like you, especially when you're hit. hitting on a gay girl. He stopped talking to me for a while, which made our friend group awkward, but he came back around and mellowed out.

Since then, every once in a while, he would say something flirty. I would deny him and he would get defensive. So when he did this as we talked about Heidi, something he didn't normally do, I became suspicious. I had known Seth the longest of our friends. He was the only one that I told about Max, so after that ended, I brought it up to him. I told him I would ask him about it the next day and left it at that. What I did not expect was an influx of messages between Seth and Max overnight.

To my surprise, Seth had actually confronted him, and yeah, he pretty much confessed what he did. Max messaged me, all but apologizing for what he did. did, again claiming it was all my fault because I wouldn't give him a chance. And Seth sent me screenshots of their conversation. I felt betrayed. I poured my heart out to Heidi. She seemed nothing like Max in the way she talked to me, and the pictures. I was attracted to her, not Max.

I learned the pictures were of his older sister's friend. He basically flirted with her to. get them. That was a bad week for me. Not only did I lose what I thought was a girlfriend, I also lost a friend. I never wanted to talk to or see Max ever again. He just couldn't accept our friendship and continue to push it, ruining what we had. It took me a while to get past this, and I also don't like talking to new people online. I may have some small talk with others, but I never let it go offline. It absolutely broke my trust.

So there's my story, and hopefully a lesson for others. Don't trust everyone online and do your research. Or, at the very least, have a friend like Seth that can see through the lies. This happened when I was around the ages of 11 to 13. I'm 20 now, by the way. We had it rough. Our family lived off of minimum wage. My dad was an alcoholic.

My siblings were banned from our neighbor's houses because they were accused of stealing. One of our neighbors that lived right next to our house was a teacher. Let's call him A. He worked at our local high school. He lived with his wife, and let's call her B and his two kids. We were friends with his kids and occasionally spent after. afternoons at their house with our other friends. The husband had a brother that had mental problems caused by drug addiction, call him C,

that lived just beside their house, like a duplex, but with his door facing our fence and A.B.'s door facing the road. There were times when we were watering our plants that sea would come up to our fence and show his tongue as if he was trying to lick the air in front of me while making eye contact. We don't usually hang out at our garden because of this. If we had to go to A and B's house, either has to come out and watch us go in, so C won't touch us,

especially me, because I was just so terrified of him. But still, this was our only house that we were welcome to and we were dumb little kids. One day I was coming home from school. As I unlocked our gate and went in, I saw C picking our doorknob with a flattened spoon. He ran when he saw me and climbed up the fence back to his house.

To say that I was mortified was an understatement. I told his brother about it, but they did nothing. I thought that he was the only creep, and I also gave it that thought that maybe he was just really struggling with his mental state. A few months passed by and my dad was away. By the way, I did have two siblings. All of us were girls. So when my dad left for something, we were only females left.

One night, I heard a discreet, pst, while I was filling our water containers. I ignored it, but then I heard it the second time. I looked around and saw that it was A calling me from the other side of our fence. He signaled that I should go outside because he was going to give me something. It was a 20-Peso bill, rolled really tight. This was weird because when he handed me the bill, his other hand was inside of his shorts. It happened again after a few days, and this time he was wearing only a towel on his lower half,

and his hand was, again, inside the towel, clearly doing something, because I could see his forearm moving. This time I was really creeped out, and I went inside. immediately. I never told my parents about this. I noticed that he was also calling my other sister, and I told her to stop going whenever he called, and she did. We never went to their house again.

We transferred to the province after that. Since I attended the high school he was teaching at, and some of my friends are his students, I still heard stories. He was really into the female students, mostly sarcastic to males. Years after, it was discovered that he had inappropriate relations with some of his students. I don't know what happened after that, but I still haven't told my parents this story.

For this story, I, 31 female, was 15 when this started. I've alluded to it in comments on this sub, so I thought I would share the full story, since I can't sleep, and am an oversharing type of person. It started when I went to a movie at the indie theater in my hometown. We had two when I was growing up, both owned by the same people, but one theater featured major films slash blockbusters, and the other did the film festival, well-known kind of everywhere, and more indie movies.

My French teacher gave an extra credit assignment to see Man on Wire, I think it was called, so I went with a friend to see it, though she wasn't in the class. When we went to the front, there was a very cute older guy that I recognized as a girl in our class's older brother. I think he was 22 to 23 at the time. He complimented me, and he offered to comp our tickets and gave me free popcorn and candy and whatnot, ignoring my much prettier friend. It felt nice to be noticed, so I accepted, obviously, and we enjoyed the free movie day. For a little backstory, again, the girl who was his younger sister, in my grade, used to be a friend of mine. And I had met him many times as a kid, but he was older enough that I don't think he recognized me at first.

And at that age, I looked more like I was 19 or 20. The next couple of weeks, I saw him everywhere. Grocery store, check. Outside of my school, check. Walking home from Safeway, check. Everywhere. But being 15 and him being cute and older, my dumb ass thought it was flattering. So, I went to the theater again and was with a different friend.

Same thing. He gave me free popcorn, free tickets, etc. This friend already knew it had happened before because it was a major subject that I had a hot, older man interested in me. We were so young and thought that it was so great. He came into the theater during the movie to bring me an extra candy and his number on the back of a receipt. I thought that it was so cute.

He continued to show up everywhere over the next few months. At this point, I was halfway through 16. and I was at the same theater with the same friend that I was with the first time. He once complimented me, saying I was beautiful, asking if I had a boyfriend, if I liked to party. I said yes. He invited me to his house for a party that he said he was having. His address was very close to the house my friend I was with lived in, so I said yes. Knowing if I had a sleepover with her, we could go and I would get to go.

go to my first party. I wasn't allowed out late, nor was I allowed to go to parties, if I'd even ever been invited to a high school party, so it was perfect. We went late so that we wouldn't seem lame, and as we walked up, we could see through the front-lit window to where he was. It was an hour past, and it was just him, with several bottles of booze. We looked at each other and decided to walk back to her house. I still saw him a lot after, almost everywhere until I graduated high school and moved up north for college.

I didn't go to that theater again until about a year ago. A couple of years ago, I started using some dating apps to try and find someone to spend my time with. I don't think I was quite ready to settle down, but I also knew that I wanted something more than a one-night stand. So being able to filter those people out of the dating pool was pretty convenient for me. In my search, I came across a woman named Tracy. Tracy was gorgeous with her all of skin, dark hair, and eyes. She was the right amount of funny and outgoing, but also a badass.

She had pictures on her profile and even told me about how she had traveled all over the country, and even to a few others. She had pictures of her climbing mountains, riding camels in the desert, and diving with sharks. She said it was all part of her previous job, but that she had quit due to medical reasons. I felt like even if we didn't work out,

we could still be friends, and I could just live through her, hearing about all of the trips that she went on. So to say that we had been talking for a while would be an understatement. We chatted, which turned to talking on the phone and even video chatting. I had no reason to doubt her authenticity. She was definitely Tracy.

I really wanted to meet her in person, but when I asked about a month in, she denied saying that she couldn't at the time but would love too soon. It didn't bother me at first because she continued to talk to me, so it couldn't be that she wasn't interested in me. But then one day while I was working, she texted me asking what I was doing that day. I found it a bit odd because it was early one morning during the week, and she knew that I worked a standard Monday through Friday 8 to 5. I was clearly at work.

There was no reason to be mean about it, though, so I just told her that I was at work and asked what was up. She asked me if I wanted to meet up at her place and that she would make us lunch. We had discussed where I worked and where we lived before, so I knew that she actually lived close to my work. I thought meeting for the first date at her place would be unusual, but at the same time, the thought that she didn't want to go to some fancy restaurant and dress up, it made me think that she wasn't that high maintenance,

which was pretty cool, so I agreed. Worst case scenario, my lunch took a little longer than an hour, but it would be worth it. However, as I pulled up to her place, I was immediately caught off guard. Her house looked like it was one good huff and puff from being blown down. She had a wooden privacy fence that was haphazardly put around a chain-link fence. From a distance, the windows all looked covered with cardboard or wood on the inside.

The once vibrant blue-looking paint was peeling, showing gray paneling underneath. The wooden patio looked badly splintered and warped. Just overall, it did not look like it was in good shape. I was seriously starting to think that I was being set up, but why? What had I done to cause this? I tried to be rational, though, and I called to make sure that I had the address correct.

She confirmed, with a cheerful sound to her voice, and she said that she would meet me at the front door. I pulled into the driveway, and as I got out of the car, the same woman I had seen from the photos greeted me at the door. The only difference was that she looked a little more casual. She didn't have any makeup on, and her hair was just in a messy bun, and, to be honest, she looked great. I like confident women that don't have to overdo it.

So, looking past the house, I told myself that maybe she can't afford it, or can't do it herself, or just hasn't had the time to work on it. Whatever the reason, it wasn't a game-changer for me, and surely the inside would look much better. Surely. I would love to tell you that I was right, but unfortunately I really can't. It was way too dark. As we entered the front door, the lights were off, and when I expected her to turn them on, and she apologized but said that she didn't have power.

I didn't know how to respond to that, so I just looked around the best I could and could only say, Oh, I gotcha, as I spotted a single candle burning on what I assume was a coffee table. That's when it all started to come out. She said that she refused to use electricity in her home because she knows it's part of a government conspiracy. She said that she said that she was,

use it to take too many people hostage in their own homes. But she didn't even mean it like TV sucking the life out of people. She meant like they used the electrical waves to get into your head. As she ushered me to the kitchen, she explained how she used to work for the government, and she saw some pretty crazy things, which was part of why she quit, because she knew that they were making her sick, worried that she knew too much. so now she only charged her phone, laptop, and tablet when she went to the library or local coffee shop. She explained how she was okay with using them at home in small doses,

because their power was strongest through anything plugged in. But she only used electronics in her closet, because she covered it in some kind of protective film she got from some guy online. I couldn't make this stuff up if I had to. At this point I kind of zoned out as I looked around her kitchen. It was still dark, but there were several large candles placed around the table, as well as many more lining the counter. She even had one burning right next to the little gas camping burner she was using to make what,

I assume, was our lunch. That's where I started to really feel uncomfortable. Where had this part of her been hiding? She seemed so normal the whole time we talked, so where was this hiding? Or why didn't she speak of any of this before? And in her case, why not try to find someone on conspiracy theorists looking for love.com instead? Surely, since we were both still looking for someone in our 30s, she hadn't had much luck either. So why not be up front with that kind of thing?

I mean that's kind of a big deal, right? So call me an ass, but it was way too much for me, and I didn't want to take the chance of getting blown up, so I asked if I could use the bathroom. She happily pointed it out to me, and I calmly, but quickly, ran to the bathroom, immediately pulling out my phone. I texted a buddy I worked with, who knew that I was going to be here, and I told him that I needed out.

Telling him I would explain later, I asked him to call me in five minutes, saying that they needed me back at the office ASAP, so I had a reason to leave without looking like a jerk. I put my phone back in my pocket, flushed the toilet and washed my hands, thankful that she at least had running water, and I made my way to the door. However, I was startled to see her standing right on the other side, holding a single candle. I nearly screamed when I saw her, but then tried to laugh, commenting that she scared me. She didn't budge. And instead, without even breaking eye contact, she asked me what I was doing on my phone. I acted confused, telling her that I wasn't on my phone, but she called my bluff. She said that she knew because she could sense the electricity being used.

I was baffled. How the hell would she have known? How would she have sensed it? Reluctantly, I was semi-honest with her and admitted that I was on my phone because my coworker had texted me, demanding I come back due to an urgent issue that came up. I tried to explain to her that I had to run back to the office, but that I could return afterwards. She wasn't falling forth, though. And I'm assuming this has happened to her before, because, from the light of the camp,

handle, I could see her brow furrowing as she grew angrier. I was trying to avoid this whole situation, so I tried to just comfort her and went to touch her arm, partially trying to get past her as she was blocking me in. But she pulled back yelling something like, You're just like the others. What I didn't realize was that she was holding a pan in her other hand, and had now raised it over her head, ready to swing. I quickly jumped backwards and just barely got the bathroom door closed, but that hardly stopped her.

I felt the thud several times from what I assumed was the pan hitting the door. I had to get out of there, as this was not going to look good for me. Regardless, I was in her home, and I didn't like my odds. My only option was the window in the bathroom, and to my surprise, it wasn't nailed shut or something equally crazy, so I opened it and, thank God, it was just a single-story house. I managed to squeeze myself through the window that faced the backyard, ran to the side of the house, still hearing her screaming and quickly ran to my car.

As I got to my car and started it, Tracy was flying through the front door, still carrying the frying pan. I started backing out when I heard a loud thud from my car. She'd thrown the pan at my car. I sped off as I saw her yelling and pointing at me through the rear view. I made it back to work, parking in the far back, hoping that she wouldn't drive here looking for my car. I took a moment to look it over, and I saw the wonderful dent that she left in it, too, grueling at how much that was going to cost.

I then went inside, and I told my co-worker what had happened, as he joked about calling the cops because I missed his call. I explained it all to him, and while he thought it was the funniest thing, he also said that I could press charges so that she had to pay for the damage. The thought crossed my mind at first, but then it felt like it would be even worse for both of us. I just decided to eat the cost and call it a lesson learned. Public place is only from now on, and I should probably just be honest with my dates, when I don't think it's going to work. Never too early to plan your summer's story in Europe with WestJet,

from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets. Begin your next chapter. Book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent. WestJet, where your story takes off. Bien to aboard, Via Rai, Embarked and profite. Embarked and celebrate. Rigolet. Publié.

Savoy. Admire. And profite. Villaray, the voice that we love that we love. This happened around 10 years ago, give or take, about a year. I just found out about this sub-reddit, and I thought that it was worth posting. My friend Craig and I made plans to go hang out with our friend, Jeremy, and his new girlfriend. Neither of us had to work the next day, so we grabbed some beers and made our way to Jeremy's mom's apartment complex,

where Jair was temporarily staying. When we got there, we went out into the woods, behind the apartment complex to drink. This wasn't just a little patch of trees, but a good-sized patch of forest. For context, this was in New York State. It was a nice fall day, late afternoon, and the sun was still out.

We finished the beers and decided to go get more. So we go to the store to get some more beer, and head back to the apartments and enter the woods. This was autumn and the light outside. was right at that stage, where it starts to very quickly fade. We underestimated just how dark it would be once we were in the woods, and how fast the light was fading away. We planned on making a fire, but didn't really count in it being so dark when we got back.

So we're walking into this sort of clearing area, from where we can choose to head off in a few different directions. We're having a good time, laughing, talking, but... Something not too far in the distance catches my eye. It's too dark to tell, but I swear that I can see a very large figure. No, it's too big. It's probably a tree or just your eyes messing with you. So, as Jeremy is gabbing in the background,

I asked Craig as an aside if he can see something standing up ahead. And he's like, no, where? Oh, wait, there. Oh, crap. We were still walking, and it was becoming clear that I wasn't seeing things. There was a very large person standing in the forest up ahead, apparently facing us. So I tried to get Jeremy's attention without cluing the big guy in that we've noticed him. Just in case something sketchy is going on, which I get the serious feeling there is.

We tell Jeremy that there's a person up ahead, but Jeremy is in a jovial, no-chill state, And he exclaims, Holy crap, is that Bigfoot? We humor him and laugh, but it's clear to Craig and I that this is actually creepy, and probably not a safe situation. And it's clear that Jeremy is not understanding that.

It's hard to communicate the pacing of our approach onto the guy, but essentially we had gotten too close not to acknowledge him, partially because it took us a moment to get Jeremy's attention. and partially because we weren't trying to just turn around and run like we were scared. There were four of us, and one of him after all. But this was a big guy. Not supernaturally big or anything, and not like he was jacked or anything like that. Just a naturally gigantic dude.

Very tall and heavy without being particularly fat. And he was just standing there, in the middle of the forest. In the dark, alone. So as we approach this guy and just sort of say hello, Jeremy, the absolute fool that he was, gets way too close into this guy's personal space as he enthusiastically tells him about how scary he looks, standing in the woods alone.

We thought you were an alien or something, bro. I thought you were going to jump up and blah. Jeremy mimes an extra set of teeth coming out of his mouth like a xenomorph from the Alien versus Predators movie, all up in this guy's face. To be clear, Jeremy is not trying to be intimidating, or a jerk in any way. He's trying to be friendly and joking around with the guy,

but he is literally leaning into this dude and practically sticking his hands in his face, with his impression of an alien. Did I mention that Jeremy was kind of a moron? Jeremy was kind of a moron. Love you, Jeremy, but you were kind of a moron. And Jeremy's poor girlfriend, who was a few years younger than us, and very shy, was clearly terrified, to which Jair was also oblivious.

So, Craig and I are both standing here kind of trying to brainstorm a way out of the situation. Jeremy is clearly too dense to get it if we say that we have to go. He'd be like, what? We just got here, aren't we having a fire? And we were trying to seem confident and in control of the situation. The big guy says, Oh, you guys are drinking. I got some drinks too.

And he walks over to the tree line where he has a bag laying beside a tree. He reaches into the bag, and while he grabs a beer with one hand, he sneakily sort of pulls something else out with his other hand and places it into his hoodie pocket. I'm convinced that it was a knife or a gun, probably a knife in all honesty. He then re-approaches us and cracks open his beer. I glance around casually and then I notice something else.

Somebody else is out here. There's someone moving along the tree line to our left, a relatively good distance away, but somebody else is here, and they're circling around as if to come up behind us. screw this I need to leave now so I go well I got to work in the morning

and Craig's driving me home so we gotta get out of here Jeremy and his infinite wisdom responds with what you said you didn't have to work tomorrow I face palms so hard on the inside no Jeremy you must have

misheard me I said I do have to work tomorrow and Jeremy proving there is no end to his wisdom says, All right, guys. Well, it was nice hanging out with you. Get home safe. He wasn't leaving the woods with us.

Craig and I started walking away, and I told him about the other person circling to get behind us, and that we needed to move. We started trying to brainstorm away to get Jeremy and his girlfriend out of there, and decided to call him and tell him that his mom was out in the parking lot looking for him. Jeremy is terrified of his mom. Craig explains to me, and this should work. Because we clearly couldn't just call him and tell him the situation was not safe,

without him blurting out. Oh, this guy isn't sketchy. I totally feel safe. Jeremy was madded us for lying about his mom. I think his girlfriend appreciated it, though. I'm not sure what was going on there that night. I've talked to several people about it over the same. the years, and there are a few different ideas. Did they know we were coming back? Were they waiting for us? Or did we stumble into something that we weren't meant to? Almost everyone I tell

about this has, you guys just accidentally interrupted a drug deal. But something about that just doesn't seem right. Who does a drug deal in the middle of the woods at night? I don't know. Very possibly it was just a homeless dude with no ill intentions, and another homeless dude with no ill intentions as well. But it was a very creepy and scary situation, and I just thought I would share it. As I was walking home from work last night, about halfway to my house, a disheveled man who looked to be either homeless or extremely down on his luck crossed paths with me from the other side of the sidewalk. He had initially been walking in the opposite direction, but as soon as he saw me, he immediately turned around and started following me. He began rambling incoherently and aggressively,

and his words were so slurred that I hardly understood a thing that he said. All it could make out was something about a care package, and look at you. It was obvious this man was under the influence of multiple substances. I quickened my pace to try and avoid any eye contact with the man, and he was getting agitated that I wasn't paying attention to him. When my walking speed got too quick for his inebriated stumbling to keep up with, he stopped talking and instead began just trying to follow me. I kept looking over my shoulder at him, and every time I saw him,

he would either stop or try to duck behind a bush. Finally, I started outright sprinting and looking for a spot that I could hide myself. I came up to my local mosque, and I tried to sneak around the corner into the parking lot of it, where there was a tree that I hid behind. While hiding there, I frantically dialed 911. I told them that a strange man displaying unstable behavior was trying to follow me, and I described my location, myself, and the man to them. The dispatcher assured me that officers were on their way to where I was,

but while waiting for them, I saw a figure heading up the sidewalk in front of the parking lot that I was hiding in. Panic immediately filled me, until the passerby was close enough to where I could see that it was not the same man who had just bothered me, and they turned out to be harmless. Mere moments after this, the cops arrived to where I was, pulling up next to the tree and motioned for me to come out and talk to them. The officer driving the vehicle asked me the standard questions,

a description of the incident, where I was when it happened, etc. While we were talking, he spotted a man in another parking lot down the street, not far from where I had my first encounter with the creep. He asked me if this was the man that I had encountered, and it was hard to tell between the darkness and the distance, but I was pretty sure that it was. Another police vehicle had pulled into that parking lot, and it appeared that an officer got out to talk to the man.

The officer I had been talking to asked me how far I was from my house, and I told them that I was pretty close to my street at this point. He assured me that I should be safe to walk the rest of the way home, and that they had other cop cars patrolling the area. I thanked him and finished him. walking home without further incident. Thank God. Shortly after I got home,

I saw that I had a text from my boyfriend that read, Are you okay? The text had been sent at around the time the incident was occurring, as if he could sense that I was in a fearful situation. I replied back telling him what had happened.

He told me that he had gotten yelled at by a homeless man earlier too. I described the creep that I encountered to him and asked him if he thought, thought it was the same guy. He said that he didn't think so. We also had a brief phone call to make sure that each other were okay. I let him know that I was home safe,

and he told me that he wasn't a vehicle with a group, so he was safe too. I don't know what the cops ended up doing about the man, but I hope that he stays as far away from me as possible. So the story started when I was 14, 17 now. I used to play in a park with my friends. I had a crush on a boy who was 14 as well, who used to play with us, and he too had a crush on me.

And he had a friend who was older than him, 16 to 17, maybe. So we all used to play together. I always saw my crush's friend as a brother. But his feelings for me were not appropriate. He liked me. So one day, on my friend, birthday, he randomly approached me and told me that he loved me. I replied that I did not have

the same feelings for him and that I liked someone else. He did not take the no as an answer. Now, that's when the creepy part started. I recently joined Instagram and somehow he found my Insta ID and began messaging about how he loved me. I rejected him multiple times, but he just wouldn't stop, so I blocked him. Now, he started making multiple Insta accounts to stalk me, and messaged me from each one of them, and I kept blocking him. I was annoyed and enraged at this point and threatened him that I would report him to the cyber police. So, he took it up his ego, and kind of started following me at places.

He would take the same route as mine, knew the timings about what? when I was going to the park, when I was going to buy groceries. So, whenever I went out of the house, he would creepily stare at me, and would continue ogling until I was out of his sight. He wouldn't even budge his eyes for a second. When I used to play, I stopped playing with him, but he continuously roamed around me and stared. Now, I was scared to a point where I started hesitating to go out of the house.

Whenever I saw him, my heart would drop, and I started hyperventilating. I thought that it was only me who found him creepy, but when my mom was like, who's that guy that always roams around you? He doesn't give me good vibes. Try to stay away from him. I was like, yep, he is bad. And you know that that person is not very good if your mother's instincts sense something fishy. This went on for a whole two years, and his staring or messaging and stalking from fake accounts didn't stop.

He even went to the extent to manipulate a friend of mine and my crush, whom I started dating, and trying to tell them that I was a slut. We didn't break up, though. That's when I had had enough, and decided to take action. I went straight up to that bastard, and I saw him. slapped him right in his face. Still, to this day, whenever I hear his name or see his picture, I get a panic attack, and my hands and legs start shaking in fear. And, in fact, he was sexually attracted to one of my friends, and he asked her if he could

see her chest, but she was too scared to do anything to him or tell any adults. Hey there, friends. I hope that you enjoyed this. collection of scary stories on this episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. If you did, make sure that you follow the podcast on whatever platform that you're utilizing, and if the platform you are on has a rate the podcast option, please consider doing so. Those ratings push the podcast into the algorithm, and we all know how the algorithm controls everything, so, yeah.

I also do have a patron. If you go to patreon.com slash as the Raven Dreams, you can support the channel further. For as little as a dollar a month, you can get early access to all of my content in audio format. The content's a little different, as it's based on what I upload to my YouTube side, but it's the same stories,

just in different collections of stories than how they're presented here. Speaking of stories, if you have one you would like to submit to me, please, go to as the ravendreams.com, and click the button in the middle of the screen that says submit your story. These stories are mostly sourced by listeners, so let's keep the podcast alive. If you've got one, I'd love to read it. Anyways, friends, I hope you're all having a beautiful day and a lovely week.

And I hope I see you again very soon. But until then, remember you're loved, you're valid, you're important. You're the best you can be, never forget it. And until next time. much love and sleep well. Fan of soccer, you could assist at a moment historic. You could gain

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