Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 10x03: Man Behind the Fence - Let's Not Meet

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

Stories in this episode: - The Man Behind the Fence, by Bee (0:50) - Isaac, by SB (8:26) - The Mugger, The Silents Ones, and The Psychoanalyst, by Danny (15:10) - I Am NEVER Exploring Ever Again, by Therealholygamer (25:12) - It Could've Been Me, by Anonymous (33:15) - He Said He'd Lead Us to Water, by Theo (45:17)  Extended Patreon Content: - A Tale of two Daves, by Beth - He Tried to Get Me Out of My Car, by Amanda - Creep at the Park, by Elisa - My First Kiss, by WJJ All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. To submit your story to the show, send it to [e-mail].   Get access to extended, ad-free episodes of Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast with bonus stories every week at a higher bitrate along with a bunch of other great exclusive material and merch at patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast. This podcast would not be possible to continue at this rate without the help of the support of the legendary LNM Patrons. Come join the family! Check out the other Cryptic County podcasts like Odd Trails, Welcome to Paradise (It Sucks), and the Old Time Radiocast at CrypticCountyPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts! Go to prettylitter.com/meet to save twenty percent on your FIRST order. - Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/433173970399259/  - Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com - Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/ - Twitch - https://twitch.tv/crypticcounty  

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If you have a story to share, send it to Let's Not Meet Stories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. My name is Andrew Tate and this is season 10 episode 3 of Let's Not Meet a True Horror Podcast. I'd first like to start by saying I'm a huge fan of the podcast and have listened to every episode at least twice. This story happened around six months ago and I've contemplated sending it in due to how many times I've told and retolded to friends.

Some relevant information. I'm a 21 year old lesbian from New Zealand. I've been with my girlfriend for four years and we live together in a small flat on the main road in our suburb. While the part of the suburb that we live in is relatively safe, there's definitely a fair amount of drug and robbery-related crimes that happen every now and then and in the general area, a stabbing even happened just up the road from a slash year. This story took place in the middle of our winter,

so probably around June or July in 2022. My girlfriend and I both work retail jobs, and usually don't get home until around 6.30 in the evening. We often go for small walks together after dinner to get in our exercise for the day and spend some quality time together. Since it was winter, it got dark very early at around 5.30 pm, so by the time we left for our walk at 9. It was pitch black. To give you a quick idea of our walking route, our street layout is pretty long and straight with the highway exit at one end and a supermarket at the other.

Our usual stroll goes from our house towards the supermarket, then back in the other direction past our house before we turn around and walk back home. I should also mention that just before the supermarket on the opposite side of the road is a large primary school with the fence around it about 1.5 meters or 5 feet tall. The road is only about 3 or 4 meters wide and we always walk on the opposite side of the road to the primary school. On this particular evening, the street was dead quiet, as per usual, at night. We began our walk and started up towards the supermarket, passing the Fentstop School as we walked. It's not uncommon to hear sounds in the evening and the New

Zealand suburbs, such as owls and rats in the bushes, as a stream runs through our suburb. However, as we passed the school, we heard rustling in the bushes and tapping on the wooden fence. We kept walking, assuming that it must be a rat or something of that sort, that is until we heard a deep voice. Hey ladies, a voice growl. Come over here. We glanced towards the fence by the school, and we were greeted by two hands with long fingers peering over the top of the fence with a pair of large green eyes behind them.

The voice set again in a slightly firmer tone. Hey, ladies, come here! We saw his fingernails scraping at the wooden fence. Nothing else of this man was illuminated, just his long, bony fingers and his eyes reflecting the faint glow from the street lamps. Now, we were walking on the opposite side of the road to this man, about five meters away, however, being so late, there were nowhere the cars out on the road, and nobody else was walking.

It was just us in this man, and despite this, I didn't register at first that he was talking to us. I gave my girlfriend a frightened look, and we picked up the pace pretending that we didn't notice him. Was he talking to us? I whispered to her when we were further away from him. I guess so, just ignore him, she replied. I kept trying to glance over my shoulder to see if I could get a better look, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Don't look, keep walking, my girlfriend hissed. I quickly turned my head back and looked straight ahead. As soon as we were only a few meters up the road from the man, he stopped talking and scratching, retreating his hands back behind the fence, as if he was never there. We continued walking and soon reached the supermarket a few minutes later. Posing for a moment, we realized that there was no way back to our flat, except the way that we came past that man behind the fence. I've always been pretty cautious of everybody that I meet, especially at night, being 5-3

and not athletic in the slightest. I would also consider myself someone who gets scared very easily and I let my anxiety get the better of me, especially due to my true crime obsessions. My girlfriend, on the other hand, is 6-1 and a lot less timid than I am. She tends to remain calm, a lot calmer in the moment, and waits to freak out until after something happens, at least walking with her I felt a lot safer. As we began to pass the school and the fence where the man was again, we put our heads down and hastened our pace, hoping that the man had either left or wasn't going to bother us anymore. Unfortunately, just before we reached the fence, still on the opposite side of the road,

the scratching began again, starting softly and getting louder as we approached. The man was still there, his hands crawling over the top of the fence again, still there, his hands crawling over the top of the fence again, but we couldn't see his eyes this time. However, his hand was positioned as if he were crouching behind the fence and peering through the cracks between the wooden planks. Again, the man whispered to us, Ladies, come over here. Girls, I'm talking to you. Come over here." He kept muttering similar phrases over and over, beckoning us to come over to him.

The scratching continued to get louder. I could even hear the wood chipping off under his fingernails as his voice gradually became more frustrated. My girlfriend grabbed my hand, sensing how uncomfortable I was. I was half expecting the man to jump over the fence and come running after us. But he never did. As we quickly walked away, I kept glancing back to make sure, but there was no sign of him.

His hands had retreated back out of the light. He seemed to have disappeared. My girlfriend wanted to continue our walk, but I was adamant about not going home. I was already scared enough. We only live about five minutes from the primary school, and I was terrified that he might be following us. We got home, locked the door, and shut the curtains. The man didn't show up that night, and I never saw him on our walks ever again. There was no way in hell we would have ever gone over that fence, but it chills me to think

why he was trying to call us over to him, to the man behind the fence and the pitch black. Let's not meet. This happened when I was 16. It was the summer before my junior year in high school. I was using an online dating app, UBO, or Teen Finder, as my parents called it. I matched with someone in my town. I'll call him Isaac for the sake of confidentiality. Isaac and I began talking. The conversation seemed normal enough.

I learned that we went to the same school. He told me that he had seen me in the hallway, but I had never noticed him. We made plans to go on a date a week after we started talking. Now, two major red flags occurred during the week before our first date that I naively ignored. One, Zach told me he loved me over text before we had even met in person. Two, he told me that he had a journal where he wrote attributes of the people he observed in the hallway. He said that he had a whole page dedicated to me in my body language.

Well, I still decided to go on this date. The first time meeting in person went a little strangely. He told me he loved me again and gave me one of his family's crystals. Other than that, the date did go normally enough. He made direct eye contact with me throughout the whole meal. Even though there were noticeable red flags, I just decided to continue dating him. We dated for three months. So many horrible things happened during that relationship. One time while playing the, if your hand is bigger than your face, you're an idiot game. He hit me way harder than the game called for. He claimed that it was an accident, but it really hurt. I clutched my nose and

I looked at him, expecting some kind of apology. He just screamed at me. I'm always in pain. You deserve to feel a little. I got up and left. He started sobbing. Instead of leaving, I stayed and I held him like an idiot. Isaac would also block numbers on my phone. Anyone that he didn't approve of would get blocked. One time he blocked an actual friend of mine. I was getting messages from my friend on my computer, but not on my phone, for about a week until I realized that the person was blocked.

I called Isaac. I asked if he had blocked my friend. He told me no. I pushed a little more and I asked again. He said no again and said, do you think I'm a monster? You think I would do something that horrible and just lie about it?

Eventually, he admitted to blocking my friend. I broke up with Alex a week later. I was tired of being manipulated and lied to. A few days after the break up, I realized that the crystal he gave me was missing. I kept it on my nightstand. I looked everywhere for it. I couldn't find the crystal anywhere.

Isaac knew the security code to get into my house. Now, I don't know for sure if he broke in and took it, but sometimes I do speculate. Things took a turn for the worse, about six months later. He started posting insane things on Instagram. He set a countdown timer on his Instagram story titled Revenge Day. He wrote in graphic detail about how he wanted to see the people who wronged him,

writhing on the floor in pain. He wrote specifically about targeting his revenge on me. He wrote that he wanted to see blood pooling on the floor. This dude was officially nuts. I went to the police and I had a detective laugh in my face and say, ma'am, these aren't serious threats. I went to the school, but I was told that there wasn't much that they could do as he had already graduated. I was terrified. He knew where I lived.

He knew where I worked. I would flinch at the sound of a customer coming into my work past dark. I bought pepper spray, and now I carry an army every second. Thankfully, the revenge day came, and I didn't hear of anything violent happening. I still get comments and DMs from his accounts with threats. I'm still scared of what he will do if someone pushes him past the limit, but I'm grateful that nothing additionally has happened so far. So to Isaac, you lied, manipulated me, and terrified me more than I've ever known. You taught me many valuable

lessons and I sincerely hope we never meet again. You know it, your wife knows it, your friends know it. Yep, there's no getting away from the fact that there's an outdoor kitchen shaped hole in your life. And it's time to put things right. Thankfully, bull outdoor products are ready with everything you need to create a world-class outdoor cooking space. Bull outdoor kitchens and accessories add value to your property and extra fun to your world. If you're gonna do it, do it right. Turn a bull loosen your backyard.

BullBBQ.com. So just a little detail before I get into everything. This took place during my mid-twenties. And at the time, I didn't know that I had cyclothymia. So I didn't know how to regulate my mind and my life was quite an emotional mess. My story begins in the summer of 2020. I was back in town after being elsewhere for a long while, and at the time I was living at my grandmother's apartment, which was in the worst part of town for work-related reasons. My friend was living 10 minutes away from my grandmother's place, so I was used to seeing

him often. We used to play video games and have long talks about life and the future while smoking pot, usual best friend stuff. One night though, as I thought about going home at around two in the morning, my friend told me that he had the end of a whiskey bottle, and suggested that we drink a glass to enjoy my return to town. We rolled up two cigarettes, poured two glasses, and went into the night to walk around the lot in the park as we continued our discussion. As we were talking outside under a street lamp, we saw a car with a bunch of guys.

They passed the street, so we didn't think too much about it. It was seemingly just a car passing by. After the glass and cigarette, we decided to go back to the apartment. On the way back, we saw two or three guys in the street passing us. One of them shouted, that's them, but seemed to look behind us. Again, we didn't think too much of it, and continue to walk. When we arrived back at my friend's apartment, my friend said that I could stay on the couch for the night since it was pretty late, but I knew I'd be home in just 10 minutes by bike, which was a rented city bike. This is going to be important for later. Plus, I didn't want to bother his roommates, so I declined his

offer to stay. I added that I was used to doing this, so there was no problem, and he shouldn't worry. I was wrong. I packed my stuff up, said goodbye to my friend, and put my headset on. I rode towards my grandma's place. After about a minute, I saw a sketchy guy in the road. I just put some distance between me and a sketchy guy in the road. I just put some distance between me and this sketchy guy and thought that that was it. I turned to make my usual shortcut, a narrow path with a big rock at the entrance that helps to avoid cars when using the path. But this time, there was a car stopped right there.

All the doors in the vehicle were open and the engine was running. It didn't surprise me too much because this was something that I was used to seeing every night in the neighborhood that I was living in at the time. The thing is, with the path being so narrow, I couldn't just pass this car, speeding on my bike, so I got off the bike to walk by, then jumped back on after walking a few meters, and started to ride again. When I was a few meters away from the car, a man appeared from the darkness, with this disturbing grin on his face. That's when I realized there were at least three other guys behind me, just standing there and watching. This guy approached me, squeezing the front

wheel of the bike between his legs. He remained silent as he was staring at me with that disturbing smile. My brain was on alert, but I was feeling slow and hazy because of the substances that I had in my system. I rolled my back back and started to turn around. In the middle of my turn, the man squeezed my front well again. Suddenly, he grabbed the back of my neck with his hand and forced me to lean down. Now I knew that I was in a very shitty situation for sure. He was making fun of me, remarking to his friends,

oh, what am I going to do? What am I going to do now while laughing? At some point I managed to free myself from his grip and took a few steps back and turned away. My back was now facing him, and that's when he threw a punch to the side of my head. I saw a white flash as I fell to the ground head first on my back. I was hyperventilating and in a state of shock. He started to search through my pockets and my bag. He took my phone, headset, papers, and everything that I had on me. I heard the

voice of a girl saying, enough, leave him alone. But this cooked out guy didn't pay attention as he was going through all of my things. The girl obviously knew him and was part of this group. Lying there on the road, I was paralyzed in fear. I remember I was afraid to draw attention to myself if I tried to stand up. I was also afraid that he would beat me up, break my arms and legs, or roll over me with their car if they decided to go, as this scene took place just near the back of the car. After noticing the guy seemed way more interested in my belongings, I decided to stand up. The girl standing near the guy looked at me and said, you need to go now.

So I took my bike and started to walk away. The other guys were around watching in complete silence. Then the man screamed that he was going to kill me. Terrified, I threw my bike and started to sprint towards my friend's flat. I heard the guy running behind me for nearly the entire duration of the street before he gave up.

I never ran that fast, not even in sports class. I knocked on my friend's door trying to breathe. He opened the door, let me in, sat me down, called the police and gave me a huge glass of water. I woke up his roommate who appeared to be annoyed by all of the noise. I finally fell asleep on the couch, but this isn't even the end of the nightmare. The next day around noon, I called my friend and asked him to help me try and search for anything that this guy would have left behind. We met at the scene where I found my now empty wallet, and he found a little satchel full of cocaine.

On my way back home, I noticed a car similar to the one that I saw the previous night. It was on a street nearby. It wasn't moving, but the engine was on. It was broad daylight, and I didn't want to concern myself about this car, so I decided to get myself home and try to get my car to get my car home and get some sleep. When I arrived in the parking lot of my grandma's place, I heard a car honking. As I turned back, I saw that same car. It was stopped in the middle of the empty road.

The men inside were throwing me a killer look. Then the tires screeched and they were gone in a second. Now I was paranoid on top of everything else. I walked to the doors and I looked around to make sure nobody was watching. I removed my name from the mailbox and went inside. That night I lay in bed with a butcher knife under my pillow. The guy and his group had all the information they needed about me. I was terrified that they would come back at night, they would hurt my grandmother.

The next day, I headed back to my parents' home in the countryside. Again, this isn't the end. My mother had found a psychoanalyst for me near their home in a small village. I went there. He started to ask me things about my childhood, which wasn't really good, but I'm not going to expand on this. I remembered I thought something was off about this psychoanalyst when he started to say things like, God, your childhood wasn't easy at all. The remarks that he made about my life seemed so personal, which I didn't think was part of his job. This was a red flag, but it worsened after I told him what happened to me the night before.

The psychoanalysts told me that these people were probably spreading the information that they had about me around town, adding that I was now their milking cow and their easy target. He said if I showed up in town again, I needed to be very careful because they would know me. Just before I left, he told me that he would like to talk about the interesting way that I dressed and asked what I wanted to communicate with my quote-unquote different style. Now this was just funny to me because I

dressed like Chandler from the first season of Friends, so it's not that different at all. I was even more shocked and paranoid after meeting this psychoanalyst. For some reason, the town's bicycle rental agency refused to take or acknowledge the police report about the bike theft, so I had to pay the full penalty. I also had to pay for my ID and car replacements, not to mention the psychoanalyst bills. I ended up paying almost a thousand euros for everything. I was a recluse for two years at my parents' home in the countryside feeling deeply depressed. I felt that nobody would understand my distress and nobody would try to help me. I felt alone. I often have PTSD when I try to sleep,

and I also have a lot of anger and feelings of injustice inside. So to that psycho-bastard full of cocaine, the silent group around him in that twisted psychoanalyst that made me flip into paranoia and deep depression, fuck you all, and let's not meet again. 18T Fiber presents A Straight Forward Moment You're wine? Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a Gigillionaire?

Yeah, I have 18T Fiber. The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this wine. I'll fetch you a better one. This is something I have really wanted to share to make sure that everyone is cautious and stays level-headed at all times. For context, I lived in the middle of nowhere in Canada. I lived in an old town with quite a few abandoned buildings due to the tiny population. Many friends of mine and I were tired of the lack of entertainment options for us, so what we did instead

was explored these abandoned buildings. Prior to the experience I am about to talk about, we never had anything too crazy happen to us on our explorations. Occasionally, we would see a small bit of blood-like liquid in these places, and we saw a pentagram on the ground inside an abandoned house previously, but overall, nothing too bad. Until this incident, which was the last time I had explored abandoned buildings. When I was younger, I used to go to daycare. It was part of a mental hospital.

Strange combination I know. The mental hospital had closed down due to a lack of patience and a lack of children at the daycare. I decided to go back there with my friends to explore just a few years ago. I was 15 when this happened and most of my friends were the same age. When we got there, it was rather cliche, there was fog, it was particularly dark, and there was a light drizzle of rain. We went to the main gate, which was padlocked shut.

We decided to help each other hop over it, making a ton of noise in the process. We were laughing and giggling the whole time, unsuspecting of what was to come. We looked around the small jungle gym and play area outside with flashlights. Even with our somewhat powerful flashlights, our visibility was still limited. We decided to enter the decaying building. Glass and dirt crunched under our shoes as we stepped into the daycare section of the complex. There were still old Legos, wood chips from previous furniture,

old torn up dolls and toys, strewn about everywhere. The further we walked around the daycare section, we actually became more and more silent, until we could all hear the crunch of the dirt and debris under our feet. I found some crayons in a plastic container in the corner of one of the rooms. I walked over to pick them up. When all of a sudden we heard a loud crash coming from behind a metal door leading to the

psych ward part of the building. My friends and I all looked at each other. We were a group of five and most of my friends were very bold and cocky. We all looked at each other when my friend Brian suggested that we go and look to see where that sound came from. Personally, I was not too fond of the idea, but with my group of friends there was no way anyone was going to decline such a thing. We all stacked up on the door and opened it. It was rusted to the floor, so we heaved to get it open. As we walked in, the musty metallic smell became stronger. There was a hint of something else in the air which I couldn't quite put my finger on. As we walked in, with our flashlights

pointed in every direction, Ryan was leading the group. The hallways were tight. To the left and right, there was an occasional metal doorway, some with doors open. I felt slightly claustrophobic and I found it a bit hard to breathe. As we continued, Brian shone his flashlight into a room and recoiled. We all stopped walking as Brian slowly entered the room. What is it? I asked him. I thought I saw something in there. It seems all fine now, Brian said.

To be honest, I thought he was just messing with us to increase our anxiety, but looking back, I think he was being completely honest. He backed out of the room and we continued walking deeper into the psych ward, when another friend urgently told us to stop. We came to a halt and carefully listened. In the distance ahead of us, we heard the subtle pitter-patter, of footsteps echoing through the hallway. We looked at each other with fear in each of our eyes.

Brian continued walking toward the sound. The rest of us considered turning back for a second without Brian, wondering if some kind of ghost was in the building or something. But we couldn't do that to him. The closer we got to the noises that we were hearing, the more we felt like we were being watched. When finally we entered a room on the right, it had the smell of rotting meat. In front of us was a dead deer, a friend of mine who had a very weak stomach got sick all over the floor. That's when we heard whispering coming from somewhere.

Brian shone his flashlight on the corner of the room where a man with short hair was standing with his head down. He wore a bright green t-shirt, stained with what I assumed was blood, and he was wearing torn beige pants. He didn't have any socks on, and his feet seemed damaged. He was twitching sporadically and continued to mumble even after we saw him. We stared at him for a solid thirty seconds before he made his first real movement. He looked up at us with this haunting face that sent shivers down our spines. Are you guys here for the feast? He asked. Each word was varying energy and inflection.

This kicked us over the edge and we bolted out of that room all the way back to the day care center. The door was still open and we decided to try and slam it shut, but the rust and pure weight of the door almost kept it open. It took three of us, pulling with all of our strength to close it. Just before we did, I saw the silhouette of the man watching us. As we sat behind that metal door, catching our breath for a second, we all looked at each other for a confirmation that we saw the same thing.

After a little bit of labored breathing from each of us, we heard a light tapping on the other side of the door. That's when we decided that it was time to leave. We booked it out of the vicinity, completely, and ran all the way home. A year after we visited that spot, police went back to do a routine search and found the man. It was stated that this guy used to go to the psych ward before it closed down. He had escaped the facility that he was transferred to and lived off of the wildlife around the complex. When the cops brought him in, he had a series of diseases and sicknesses from eating raw meat. His mental condition was much worse than before. There were future rumors that he killed

somebody in the forest while searching for food, but nothing from that rumor has been confirmed. In the end, I just want to say guys, be careful, especially in dangerous areas, such as abandoned buildings. And to that man, well, let's not meet. AT&T Fiber presents A Straight Forward Moment Your wine? Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a Gagillionaire?

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Live like a Gigaigillionaire with AT&T fiber, limited availability and select areas, visit AT&T.com slash Hypergate for details. I'm originally from Mexico and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah back in 1998. In 2013, I met a guy who turned out to be a total piece of shit. Excuse my language. He loved

to pray on women who had low self-esteem like me. We talked and went on on dates every weekend and I ended up moving in with him after maybe three or four months of dating. Anyone who comes from a Mexican culture knows the pressure of being told by family members that you're getting old and you need to get married. That's exactly what was happening to me, so when this guy asked me to move in with him, I hopped on that train right away. Long story short, this relationship did not last, and by August 2015, I broke up with him. We went our separate ways and I never heard from them again. Thank God. For a very long time, I never heard from him again. Thank God.

For a very long time, I didn't date because this left me a bit traumatized and honestly, I loved feeling free again. I started a new job a few months after the breakup with a company that does medical assembly. My co-workers and I worked in a clean room environment, which means that we were required to wear hair nets, smocks, gloves, no makeup, no jewelry, you get the picture. When I started working at this place, only women were working inside the clean room except for one of the supervisors. Honestly, it was a little weird at first, but I could see the reason why men wouldn't

like working in that kind of environment. In October of 2016, my co-workers and I were told that we would be having a new temp come in, and it was a guy. We'll call him Jay. After Jay completed all of the mandatory training, like reading about company policy, standard operating procedures, safety protocols, etc. The supervisor asked if I could train Jay on what I was doing. I smiled and said, yeah, Jay smiled back and sat down right away. The first thing I noticed about Jay was his big blue eyes. They were the bluest I had ever seen. His height was another thing that was hard to miss. He was at

least 6-3. With me being 5-2, he looked like a giant next to me. He had blonde hair, and it was obvious that he worked out a lot. As soon as the supervisor left, and we were left alone, I started getting nervous. Now I'm not the type to get nervous around men, so I just brushed it off as being rusty from being out of the dating game for a while and not really interacting with men. I began to explain the process of what I was doing, and from the corner of my eye, I saw that he was staring right at me the whole time. Not once did he look at what I was doing. I felt myself getting far more nervous,

and my hands started shaking. He noticed. He asked me with a giggle if he was making me nervous. No, I said right away. Not wanting to admit that he was in fact making me nervous. He smiled and said, don't lie, I could see how read your face is turning. My face felt hot, so I knew there was no point in lying. I just laughed and said, I've never trained anybody before, so yeah, I'm a little nervous. He smiled and responded. Okay, if you say so. The rest of the day went by normally, and Jay thanked me for training him. The more I worked with him, the more I started to get relaxed, little by little. Eventually he didn't make me nervous anymore, and I started to like him.

He was a very silly person. He told me about how he was a big fan of Spider-Man, and he always liked to talk about his cat. He loved that cat so much. He showed me pictures of his cat and some of him hugging and kissing the cat, which made me laugh so much because it was hard to imagine somebody like him being a cat person. Fast forward to the next month,

I was working with Jay, and the day started out as usual, except Jay's eyes looked different. They looked dark, and he was acting far more serious." I asked him if he was okay. He said that he was just a bit tired. My laugh didn't ask, did you stay out too late trick or treating? It was Halloween the night before. He didn't really react, he just smiled a bit, and I left him alone for the rest of the night before. He didn't really react, he just smiled a bit, and I left him alone for the rest of the workday. It wasn't uncommon for him to come into work

with a bad mood sometimes, but I noticed that it was happening more frequently. The next day he showed up for work, he was his normal self again very happy and excited to talk about his adventures with his cat and how much he had benched at the gym. I sarcastically said to him, dude, you're totally doing drugs. He looked at me, laughed and said, do steroids count. Just as I was about to say something, we were interrupted by our supervisor. We never revisited that conversation, so I didn't have a chance to ask if he really was taking steroids. Later that day he came up to me and said, hey, do you want to do something

this weekend? This totally took me by surprise, and since I couldn't think of a lie fast enough, I said, yeah, sure. He gave me a big smile and said, cool, I'll see you tomorrow. We'll talk about what we're going to do. The first thing I did was talk to some of my friends. They all encouraged me to go on this date, but honestly, I was really nervous. My friends told me that it's normal to feel like this after everything that I've gone through with my ex. They thought that I was overreacting. The nervousness that I was feeling was something different that I've gone through with my ex. They thought that I was overreacting. The nervousness that I was feeling was something different that I couldn't explain. As the weekend droop closer, I couldn't shake the eerie feeling that I had about going

on this date. Many times throughout the workday, I came very close to canceling on Jay, but I kept stopping myself. I told myself everything that bit more confident. I was just a little bit more confident. I was just a little bit more confident. I was just a little bit more confident. I was just a little bit more confident. I was just a little bit more confident. I was just a little bit more confident. I was just a little bit more confident.

I was just a little bit more confident. I was just a little bit more confident. I was just a little bit more confident. I was just a little bit more confident. I was just a little bit me up and I quickly said, no, nearly yelling. I didn't want him to know where I lived. I told him I would meet up with him since I had some other things to do after our date. He didn't seem very happy about it, but luckily he just said, see you Saturday then, instead of insisting on picking me up. I woke up super early the day before our date. On top of still filling extremely nervous, I felt sick to my stomach like I was going to vomit. I took this as my final sign to cancel the date.

I texted Jay and told him that I was going to have to cancel with him due to a family emergency, I texted Jay and told him that I was going to have to cancel with him due to a family emergency, adding that I was already on my way to California. He texted me back immediately and said, no worries, hope everything's fine, text me when you make it to California. This made me feel horrible. I questioned if I was overreacting. The eerie feeling that I had completely went away as soon as I canceled on him. I felt like I had a weight lifted off my shoulders. A couple of hours later, I still hadn't texted him to let him know that I, quote unquote, made it to California. I was busy with other things throughout the day and totally forgot

about it. When I checked my phone, I thought I was going to have a bunch of text messages, asking me if I was okay, and about my family emergency, but there was nothing from him. I was a little upset about this, but then again, it was I to be upset if I was the one who canceled on him. I didn't bother texting him at all for the rest of the weekend. I just figured I would come up with a random excuse when I saw him on Monday. The weekend went by, and on Monday morning, when I got up for work, I was trying to think of an excuse to tell Jay about why I never texted him back over the weekend. I figured he was going to be extremely mad at me. I arrived at work and I noticed that his car wasn't

in the parking lot. I quickly got out of my car and ran inside as fast as I could. Our morning meeting came and went, and still no J. I brushed it off and thought that he was just running late. I started working to try and stop thinking about how our conversation was going to go. I was starting to get very anxious. The door suddenly opened, and I turned to see if it was him, but it wasn't. After an hour went by, the supervisor asked if anyone had heard from Jay. Everybody said no, including me. One of my co-workers said, Everybody said no, including me. One of my co-workers said, well, if we don't hear from him soon,

this will be a no-call no show. I still didn't bother texting him to ask if he was okay. I know, I'm horrible. I wondered if he had gotten mad about me canceling on him and ended up just quitting instead. This was the best case scenario for me because I wouldn't have to face him and explain myself.

I was focusing on work. When suddenly one of my co-workers came running up to me, clutching her phone in her hand. Her face was red and I could see the shock in her eyes. Oh my god, you have to see this." She said, as she turned her phone toward me. I saw a picture of Jay on Facebook. It was an article. The headline read, "...man arrested after choking girlfriend."

My jaw dropped. Shivers ran through my entire body. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I started shaking. I felt like I was going to be sick. The only thing running through my head at that moment was, I could have been me. My co-worker said Jay had told her he had a girlfriend, but that they were always fighting. The rest of the day was a blur. I couldn't get his image from the article out of my head. I was playing through so many scenarios in my head about what would have happened if I would have gone on that date with Jay. I was in shock for a couple of days and I just couldn't believe how close I came to that

possibly happening to me. I read the article over and over. He choked his girlfriend multiple times until she was unconscious, then he left her in a parking lot. He deliberately delayed getting her treatment while he attempted to cover up his involvement and the crime. She was only 24 years old. I also read in another article that this poor girl had lost her mom to cancer just a few months prior to her death, so her poor father was now mourning the loss of his wife and daughter.

Last time I checked in April 2018, Jay was sentenced to up to 35 years in prison. Rest in peace to Jay's poor girlfriend who became his victim. She didn't deserve a death like that, especially from someone who was supposed to protect and love her. I hope that she's reunited with her mother and heaven. And a J. I hope you're getting hell in prison and let's never meet again. This story happened about 10 years ago. For some background, I was in the 7th grade. I went on a school field trip to a park with nature reserves and nature trails. Our school decided that it would be fun to go to a tech-infested park on a scorching

hot day, but that's another story for another time. We were told to bring water bottles and lunches with us. I decided that I didn't need a water bottle since the trip was only a few hours. Rookie mistake. We started the day hiking the trails and examining trees. It was exciting. We finally took a break at a playground area with picnic tables and restrooms. I was very thirsty.

So was my friend. I'll refer to them as Elsa. Elsa and I walked around the restroom to try and find the water fountains. Once we finally did, we found out that they didn't work. Great. We tried telling the teachers that we needed water, but they told us to stop complaining, and just drink water from the sinks in the bathroom. Elsa and I looked at each other, and rolled our eyes. We tried the sink water, but it tasted disgusting. Then Elsa and I walked around for a bit and tried to get water from other people, but everyone refused.

Finally, we just sat down under the shade and suffered through the heat. We were talking about life when this man approached us. He was scruffy looking looking with an unshaven beard and he looked to be around his early thirties. Are you guys thirsty? He asked us in a deep voice. We were desperate so also responded, yes, very, the water fountains don't work. Now keep in mind, we didn't know this man in the park was right next to a deep forest that

you could get lost in very easily. Well, I have some water down there, you guys can follow me. I'll give you both some of it. The man responded, as he motioned for us to follow him. Elsa and I didn't even hesitate. We needed water. The man let us deep into the forest. He headed toward a torn tent that had a fire next to it. Elsa and I started to become suspicious. A campfire in this heat. We also saw rope and a large kitchen knife on the ground. We started slowing down, questioning what we really should do. Before we could go any further, we felt somebody grab us and drag us back to the picnic benches. It was our home room teacher who asked, where were you guys? We were scared to

death. All of our teachers surrounded Elsa and me, making sure that we were okay. They didn't even let us say anything. They rushed us back to the group and we kept on walking. Thinking back, I now realize how stupid Elsa and I were. We potentially could have been kidnapped or maybe even killed. Just for some water. To the scruffy man leading us to get some water, let's never meet again. 18T Fiber presents A Straight Forward Moment Your wine? Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good.

And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a Gigillionaire? Yeah, I have 18T Fiber. The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this wine. I'll fetch you a better one. Straight forward is better.

No equipment fees, no data caps, no price increase at 12 months. Live like a gillionaire with AT&T fiber. Limited availability in select areas. Visit ATT.com slash hypergig for details. Don't forget to stick around after the music for your extended ad-free version of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. If you want to get access, head over to patreon.com

forward slash Let's Not Meet podcast to sign up and support the show today. You're gonna love it. This week you have heard the man behind the fence by B Isaac by S B the mugger the silent ones and the cycle analyst by Danny. I am never exploring ever again by the real, holy gamer. It could have been me by a listener that asked to remain anonymous. And finally, he said he would lead us to water by Theo. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission

of their respective authors. Let's not meet a true horror podcast, not associated with Reddit or any of the message boards online. As always, if you have a story to share, not associated with Reddit or any of the message boards online. As always, if you have a story to share and it to let's not meet stories at gmail.com and don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts, odd trails, my true paranormal podcast, welcome to Paradise It sucks as well as the old time radio cast all at crypticcountypodcasts.com. We'll see you all next week. Stay safe. It was the summer of 1994.

I was 14 years. 18T fiber presents a straightforward moment. Your wine? Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a Gagillionaire? Yeah, I have AT&T Fiber.

The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this wine. I'll fetch you a better one. Straight forward is better. No equipment fees, no data caps, no price increase at 12 months.

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Are you a Gagillionaire? Yeah, I have AT&T Fiber. The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this wine. I'll fetch you a better one. Straight forward is better. No equipment fees, no data caps, no price increase

at 12 months. Live like a gigillionaire with AT&T fiber. Limited availability in select areas. Visit att.com slash hypergig for details.