Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 11x24: Recruited at the Gas Pump

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

Stories in this episode: Disturbing Elderly Couple Wearing Hyper-Realistic Latex Masks | KaleidoscopeLow1831 (0:40) Recruited at the Gas Pump | Jasyslyn (5:43) High School Stalker | Grace (16:39) Laced Cigarette | littlemissicantdoit (24:58) Sunglasses Stalker | Hemogoblin_7 (32:42) University Cult Leader | Windowguy13 (36:23) Extended Patreon Content: Held Hostage at My Hotel | Winter The Creep at McDonald's | Bowie My Cyberstalker | Levi Due to periodic changes in ad placement, time stamps are estimates and are not always accurate. 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! Get $15 off your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go SkylightFrame.com/MEET.  Go to HelloFresh.com/lnmfree and use code lnmfree for FREE breakfast for life! One breakfast item per box while subscription is active. - Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/433173970399259/ - Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/ - Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/

Business notifications getting out of hand, buried under an avalanche of customer emails, texts, and social media messages, keep your edge with Thrive Small Business Off-Dware and never miss a message again. Thrive offers one solution to communicate, market, and run your business. Put simply, small businesses run better on Thrive. Get Command Center for Free today at thrive.ca. That's THR-YV.ca. Terms and conditions apply free plans have limited functionality. This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to let's not meet stories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. music This happened to me a few years ago, back in 2017 when I was 14.

I still think about this encounter almost every day. My dad lives near a lake in Wisconsin. There are only about 100 people who live in the neighborhood. My brother and I spent every other weekend up there, so we knew pretty much everybody. My dad's house was the second to last house at the top of this large hill. At the very top of this hill was a gas station and a diner where I would work over the summer. At the bottom of the hill was a lake and a small beach. On the morning that this happened, I was waitressing at the diner. At the end of my shift, I brought a slushy from the gas station and was planning on going

down to the beach for the afternoon. When I walked out of the diner, I noticed a parked car outside, a gorgeous teal vintage car. I'm not sure which kind of car it was since I'm not good with that kind of stuff, but it seemed to be from the 60s. It was beautiful, it instantly caught my eye. There was an older man in the driver's seat, and his wife was in the passenger's seat. They had their windows up, and I wasn't too close to their car so I didn't get a great look at them, but I did notice that they were looking right at me.

But I didn't think anything of it, and I started walking home. On my walk home, I remember wondering where they could be from. We don't get many tourists in our remote location. I definitely would have remembered seeing a car like that around here. So it was pretty evident to me that they weren't from around here. My younger brother and I went to the beach that afternoon and we hung out for a few hours. When we decided to head home, I packed up my stuff a bit earlier and quicker than him, so I started walking home slightly before he did. By the time I started to walk up the hill, I saw my brother walking behind me, and there was probably about half a city-block distance between us. He could clearly see me,

and I could clearly see him, but we were too far away from each other to talk. I heard a car approaching the hill from behind me. I looked back and moved to the side of the street so that I could let the car pass. It was the car that I had seen earlier at the diner. They slowed down as they approached me and I started to get nervous. The woman in the passenger seat rolled down her window and I nearly passed out when I saw them. They both seemed to be wearing these hyper-realistic latex face masks. There seemed to be no beginning and no end to these masks. There weren't any noticeable holes for eyes, and there was no seem to be found

at the edge of the neck. They were wearing some of the best masks I had ever seen. They must have cost a fortune. But as realistic as the masks were, it was very obvious it was not their skin. It was very obvious it was not their skin. Something about them was so off. The woman asked me for directions to a highway that I had never even heard of. I wasn't driving yet so this in and of itself wasn't weird. I let them know that I didn't know where the highway was that they were looking for. But I pointed out the highway by the diner since it leads out of town. They thanked me, rolled up the window, and drove away.

I ran to my brother and told him what happened. I told him that I saw them at the diner earlier in the day. I recall them looking normal when I saw them before, but you had to be really close to them in order to notice these masks. The masks were that good. But once you saw it, you couldn't unsee it, and it's obvious how strange they looked. There was something so unsettling about this. Other than wearing these masks, they didn't really do anything else odd, but I guess that stopping and asking a girl who was clearly too young to drive for directions was pretty

odd. I had never seen anything like this couple before, and I haven't seen anything since. I mentioned it to my dad when I got home, but he didn't have much to say about it. I still feel deeply unnerved when I think about them more than six years later. Why the masks? What were they doing in our small community, and why did they ask a child for driving This story took place during a very transitional period of my life in more ways than one. I was freshly 18 and still hadn't shed the air of invincibility that comes along with being a teenager. However, I had developed situational awareness that arose from years

of trauma that made me grow up too fast. In an attempt to distance myself from the causes of those traumas and gain some independence, I moved 1,000 miles away from home. I left behind the small town that I knew like the back of my hand for a big, unknown city to create a better life for myself. I was living with an old friend from school and her new husband, a man I hardly knew at the time. Aside from those two, if you can even count the husband, I knew absolutely nobody. I started a new job, and after a week I had begun getting the hang of my commute and figuring out which gas stations had the best prices. So when the familiar glow of my car's gas light caught my attention, I knew that the gas pump, I let my vision drift over to the horizon to admire the view of the sunset.

My moment of peace was disrupted when my attention was called elsewhere by an unfamiliar voice, asking me a question. So I was just wondering, what was the reason for this? I was just wondering, what was the reason for this? I was just wondering, what was the reason for this? I was just wondering, what was called elsewhere by an unfamiliar voice asking me a question. So, are you visiting or new to the state? I looked over to find the source of this disturbance and I saw a man in his mid-50s dressed in slacks and a nice dress shirt. dressed in slacks and a nice dress shirt. He was standing next to a brand new BMW minivan.

It took me a second to realize he was referring to my out-of-state license plate. I had moved to the area very recently. I hadn't gotten around to changing it over to the in-state plates. I politely answered, oh yeah, I just moved actually. I had been raised to be friendly when somebody tries to make small talk, even if it's the last thing I want to do. The man followed up with another question. Did you move out here with your family? As this man smiled at me, nothing about him or his appearance raised any alarm bells. Despite this, I had an uneasy feeling creeping in from this question.

I knew that I wasn't a good liar so I opted for a half-truth. I'm living with a friend right now, but I have family out here too. I wanted to slap myself as soon as the words left my mouth because I knew I hadn't been convincing enough in my response, and I could tell that he thought the same. I turned my attention back to the slow ticking of the numbers on the pump, hoping that this was the end of the conversation. As I focused intently on the slowest gas bomb ever, I thought if I focused hard enough, it would go faster. Unfortunately, the pump continued to go slow, and he didn't take the hint that I was

done talking. Or perhaps, he just ignored my cue and he asked, what are you going to do for work out here? His first question unnerved me, but this one had me confused as I was standing there in khakis and a red target t-shirt with a name badge. I felt the answer to his question was fairly obvious. My confusion turned back to unease as I realized that I worked at the only target within a 30 mile radius. If I confirmed what was already

obvious, I would be giving away the exact location of where I could be found daily. Feeling stuck, I reluctantly replied. Target for the time being, my stomach churned with his next words. You're far too pretty to be working at Target. To sum, this might be fairly innocuous as a comment, but I've experienced enough older men giving me unwanted attention, so I knew where this was going. Typically a comment like this is followed by a proposition of some sort. I've even been offered money in similar instances, but always declined. Having dealt with this before, I started mentally forming

a polite rejection to deliver, but then he continued. I've been trying to find a new concierge to hire from my business. You seem perfect. I stared at this man, trying to get a read on any underlying message that he was trying to send. I studied his gaze for any signs of ill intent. But didn't find any. And yet, my gut was telling me not to trust this guy. Regardless of what my eyes were observing. He elaborated. You would be amazing for the job. You can even keep your ear piercings in, but I'm not so sure about your tattoos. We will have to see what we can do about those.

You're beautiful. The men would love you. After being bombarded with this barrage of unexpected statements, a million thoughts started racing through my brain. What do my piercings and tattoos have to do with anything? And the men would love me? What men, what kind of concierge is this? What kind of business recruits employees at gas pumps?

But the thought demanding my immediate attention with deafening loudness was how do I get out of this conversation and far away from this man? I laughed uncomfortably as I fumbled with the pump trying to get out of there. Then I felt him making his way toward me. Not wanting to be completely caught off guard, I faced him. He handed me a business card and said, here's my info if you want to give it a shot. You could make a lot more than you do at Target, that's for sure.

I took the card. The card stock had a thickness that is usually reserved for important people with important job titles. The weightiness of the card felt like nothing compared to the weight that I had on my chest from this interaction. I smiled and said, thanks, I'll let you know. And then speedily got into my car without taking another glance at the smiling older man, or the card in my hands. Heart pounding, I peeled out of the station. I had one hand on the wheel, and the other hand on my phone as I called my mother, who

was back in my home state. I needed to let someone know about where I was and what just happened, even if they were states away. My mom answered and I filled her in on the details. My eyes were flittering back and forth between the road and my rearview mirror to ensure that I wasn't being followed. My mom told me to drive around a bit more just in case, so I did exactly that. After making some extra turns, I finally reached home.

I took a look at the man's business card and further detail. The only information he had listed was his name, a phone number, and a personal email address. Nothing was tying him to any business in particular. There was nothing on this card indicating his involvement with any business, yet he implied that he was a business owner. I tried to look him up online. Nothing came up aside from a bare bones Facebook page, including nothing but a single picture of the man that I saw at the gas station holding a newborn baby. I feel like most people would think it's just a grandfather holding his new grandchild.

But something still didn't feel right. Everything about him felt perfectly curated to make him seem non-threatening. This man was perfectly polite. There wasn't anything about his disposition that made him seem like a threat. Nothing about him should have scared me, but it did. And I think that that's the scariest part. Not all danger that you face in life will be accompanied by neon warning signs, sometimes danger could manifest in the form of a well-dressed person, driving a luxury minivan.

I don't know if he was planning something or if he was genuinely trying to recruit a new employee. All I know is that I never saw him again. Who knows, maybe I missed out on the career of a lifetime by trusting my gut, but honestly, my gut still says I hope I never meet that man again, whether he has a high-paying job to offer or not. Alright, I want to tell you about mine and America's Number 1 meal kit, Hello Fresh. With Hello Fresh, you're going to get farm fresh, pre-portioned ingredients, and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep.

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later. Sam was especially close to my friend who will call Mallory. Mallory was an exceptionally energetic person, and she was very, very kind. She had her own struggles in life, and from that she learned street smarts. I trusted her, and she trusted Sam, so I trusted Sam. She said that Sam was a good person and I believed her. At one point, Mallory informed me that Sam had a crush on me. When she revealed this to me, I had very little relationship experience, but I wanted a boyfriend so badly. So this information was exciting to me. Even though I wasn't particularly

attracted to Sam, he was nice and tall, which as a tall woman is a big bonus. So I decided to give him a shot. I wasn't a very outgoing person at this time, so in my efforts to pursue him, all I could do was flirt and hope that he got the message to ask me out. All of my flirting with him every day during lunch hour, or whenever I would see him between classes finally paid off since he eventually did receive the message, but he didn't pursue me the way that I expected. Sam started doing these random favors for me. If I offhandedly said that I wanted something, he would buy it for me. At first, I enjoyed this since the gifts started small. I didn't have an income at the time, and he did, so I didn't have any problem with him

buying me a drink from the vending machine every once in a while. Spring of that year I volunteered to do hair and makeup for the junior high production of the Wizard of Oz. As someone who loved theater but was too shy to audition, I was beyond ecstatic to be involved in the production. One day at lunch I mentioned that I was volunteering for this production to Sam. I let him know that there was a dress rehearsal that night that was going to be running very late.

I told him that I was excited, but I knew that I would be very exhausted by the end of the night. Sam offered to bring me a coffee that night, and I gladly accepted. That night, when he brought me the coffee, he stuck around for a little while. During the dinner break, he and I had a fairly nice conversation until he mentioned that he could stay for the rest of the dress rehearsal. I told him that wasn't necessary since I didn't want to make him wait around that long, as I'd be fairly busy and unable to talk with him. He said it wasn't a problem, and he even offered to give me a ride home after.

I felt bad at the time for making my parents pick me up so late in the evening so I accepted. This would soon become a big regret of mine. That night, during the ride home, he tried to make physical advances on me. I was tired and nervous since I hadn't even had my first kiss yet, so I told him not now. Luckily, he obliged. At the next musical practice,

I was having a conversation with one of the moms running the hair and makeup team. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sam. At the time, I was busy, so I couldn't stop to talk. When I was available, I approached him and I apologized for not being able to say hi right away. I told him that I was busy, I couldn't chat or hang out that night. And then I went into the dressing room to continue working. When I eventually re-emerged from the dressing room, Sam was still there, waiting for me. This was about the time that I started to feel uncomfortable. I told Sam once again that I couldn't hang out with him that night,

and he offered to wait and give me a ride home. I declined and I told him that my older sister was going to be giving me a ride as she was there with me, working as part of the stage crew. Sam didn't leave though, so I decided to ignore him and I went to a different part of the auditorium where he couldn't see me. On my way out that night, I didn't see Sam and I was leaving with my sister. But once we got outside, he approached us and asked me to go to Sonic with him to get a late night slushie. I told him that I was tired and had homework.

My sister didn't ask too many questions, but I explained to her that Sam and I were talking at the time, and I felt silly for feeling uncomfortable. After that night, I started to pull away from Sam. He noticed this, and this was when his strange behavior started to escalate. One day, I was at the mall with my sister and some of my friends, and I saw a gorgeous dress at Hollister. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford it. But I put it on my Snapchat story with a caption about how pretty I thought it was. Later that day, I received a message from Sam. It was a picture of the dress. He said that he

had bought it for me. But, guessed my size. I told him that was too expensive and that I could not accept it. Then, days later, my doorbell rang. When I opened the door, there was a blue velvet box sitting on the ground with a note for me. Inside the box was a diamond necklace and earrings. They were very expensive and clearly from Sam. This was when my sister started to really ask questions. I finally told her what was going on as I was genuinely scared. Sam began to show up at other places that I was at and continued showing up to my musical

practices. Every time that he would show up, the moms would alert me about him being there. I'll always be thankful for them. They would tell him that I was too busy to visit and usher me into another area where he couldn't see me or be around me. This happened every time, but he continued to show up in linger. Eventually the director placed a ban on anyone unrelated to the musical, coming to practice, as Sam was a disturbance to the actors and the volunteers.

This new rule helped justify why he had been ushered out by the moms whenever he would show up. He would still show up a lot. I was happy when he stopped coming to the practice space, but he started coming to my house instead. I didn't want my parents to know about any of this as they were very strict and I wasn't allowed to date, so I never told them. I think Sam knew this because he would only show up when my sister and I were home alone. It got to the point where whenever there would be a knock at the door or if the doorbell

rang, my sister and I would hide in the garage where there were no windows. He finally got bored of pursuing me since I stopped interacting with him entirely. I had to stop eating lunch with my friends for a while as he would eat with them too. He stopped doing everything over time, and I was able to have somewhat of a normal high school life even before he graduated. He was a year ahead of me. I consider myself lucky that things never escalated further than that. I'm lucky that he never got physically aggressive, but I also know that what I experienced was scary. So, to my high school stalker, the guy who made me feel scared to be in my own home, let's not meet again.

A few years back when I was around 18, I entered a very rebellious phase in my life. I had always been a prodigy child. I always did as I was told. Never stayed out late, didn't smoke, didn't drink, scored the highest in all of my classes. All of my family, friends, and my friends' families thought that I was the perfect kid. But then something changed. I was on a lot of medication due to my health, and I started going through bouts of depression. I started acting up, like never before. I stopped going to school.

I would stay in bed all day. I didn't like to talk to anyone. Then I slowly started talking to strangers online. Initially, it was just talking online. I would talk to people until I found someone interesting. And when I found someone, I would dedicate all of my time to talking to them until they no longer held my interest. And then I'd move on to the next person.

This went on for about a year. Then I eventually started meeting these people in person. Most of these meetings were sexual, as I was being very reckless. I slept around with more people than I'd care to admit. And regardless of my lack of concern for my own safety, I somehow never met anybody that had any evil intentions. After I focused on someone, we would meet a couple of times, do the thing, and then that was that. That was the routine until I met this one guy. I was talking to a couple of guys at the time, but I wasn't in any sort of relationship. I was just being out there.

So, this guy started talking to me and asked me about my hobbies, my interests, and what I do. I told him that I didn't smoke or drink, and he was shocked. I told him it wasn't that I had never done it. I tried, but just didn't feel like it was my thing. We talked for a couple of weeks. I ended up talking about how I've been going through depression. At first, he just listened, but eventually he started telling me that I should

try smoking. He said that it would help alleviate my anxiety and my stress. I always turned it down, but he was relentless. After a month or so of talking online, we decided to meet. We never had any sort of sexual conversation or anything, so we were just going to meet up as friends. I was also supposed to meet another guy, an acquaintance, to get something that I needed. So I suggested to the guy that I was chatting with online that we should meet briefly for lunch and he could drop me off at the other guy's place. He agreed and we decided on when and where to go. The day that we were supposed to meet, we met at a local cafe.

We had brunch and then I got into his car for him to drop me off at the place that I needed to go. It was a good 45-minute drive, so I put on some songs and decided to relax. Five minutes into the drive, he offered me a cigarette. I declined, but he kept insisting until I gave in and agreed. I opened the box, and there was only one cigarette in there. I told him that it was the last one, and asked if he was sure he wanted me to smoke it, since I knew that he would have enjoyed it more than me.

He said yes, he wanted me to have it. I took this cigarette out, and there was something odd about it. It didn't look like it was store-bought. Rather it looked like it had been hand-rolled. But then again, I had never smoked enough cigarettes, so I really couldn't be sure. I went ahead and lit it up and smoked. I couldn't smoke even half of it. It made me inexplicably nauseous, so I gave up halfway through and offered it to him. Instead of smoking it, he put it out and threw it away. I thought that it was weird, but assumed that he probably

just didn't want to smoke while driving. Well, thirty minutes into the ride, I started to feel very sick. My whole body was shaking. I was extremely nauseous and I could barely keep my eyes open. I kept telling him I wasn't feeling good, and that maybe we should go to the nearest emergency room instead of where we were going. But he kept telling me to relax and lay back. Everything about that ride felt so off. I told him to stop the car and drop me off anywhere, but he refused. All I could think of was pulling out my phone and calling for the police. But he noticed what I was doing.

He immediately stopped the car and I got out. But I couldn't even stand. I sat down on the side of the road and I called the guy I was supposed to visit. He immediately drove to where I was, picked me up, and took me to his place where I threw up all over the living room multiple times. For the next hour and a half, I just laid back on his couch. My body was trembling. I was constantly throwing up. This guy brought me water, gave me some electrolytes and kept insisting that he'd take me to the hospital, but I refused. I have no idea what I had smoked, but I was certain that it wasn't just a plain old cigarette. I was scared that if it had been some kind of illegal drug, the hospital would have caught on. I would then get into trouble. And I absolutely did not

what my parents defined out what I had been up to. So I continued to lay there on his couch. I kept throwing up to let whatever was in my system out. All these years later, I'm now married to the guy who picked me up from the roadside and helped me through an insanely embarrassing time. To the random guy from the internet that had to have laced my cigarette with who knows what, let's not meet. If you're fed up with the same old holiday gifts like neckties and gift cards, or if you're scratching your head about what to get your loved ones this year, let me revolutionize your Christmas shopping experience, so to speak. What you really need is a gift that's not just thoughtful, but it's also unique and personal. You need to get a skylight frame.

Whether it's for your significant other, friend, sibling, or grandparent, a skylight frame is a wonderfully sweet gift. It's a state-of-the-art touchscreen digital picture frame that allows you to effortlessly share photos directly from your phone. You can even do what I did and preload it with cherished memories before handing it over as a gift. You should have seen the joy in my mom's face when she unwrapped her skylight frame and turned it on.

All of those special moments instantly came to life. It's the perfect unexpected delight for everyone on your gift list. And using skylight frame is a piece of cake, the setup takes less than a minute, and you can effortlessly send photos from your phone to the frame using the free Skylight app or just a unique email. Everyone in my family is asking for one this year. Make sure you don't miss out. As a special limited time offer for our listeners, get $15 off your purchase of a Skylight frame when you go to SkylightFrame.com slash meat. To get $15 off of your purchase of a Skylight frame, just go to SkylightFrame.com slash

meat. That's SKY, L-I-G-H-T, F-R-A-M-E.com slash meat. Now back to the show. So this happened a long time ago but I've never forgotten it as it was one of the strangest encounters my family and I have ever had. One time as a child I went with my family to the grocery store. It was our monthly trip to stock up on groceries so we all knew that we were going to be there for a while. I was about 12 at the time, so by that age, I had a good understanding of how to read people. We started in the produce aisle and suddenly a strange man caught my eye. He was standing

awkwardly close to us, seemingly browsing the vegetables. His body language seemed off. He was standing with his back to us, but something seemed strange about the way that he was positioned. As we slowly moved down the aisle, he would slowly rotate so his back was always facing us. As we got a little closer, I could tell that he was wearing those gimmicky sunglasses with mirrors hidden on the sides of the lenses, enabling him to see what was behind him. He appeared to be in his 40s. He had a dirty gray zip up jacket on and long, dark messy hair. Our shopping went on, but wherever we went in the store, I would see him standing and

staring at me. He would keep his distance from us, but he was always with an eyesight no matter where we were in the store. About 30 minutes into our shopping trip, my mom still hadn't noticed him, but he was starting to creep me out. When I finally told my mom about him, she didn't believe me at first. Eventually, we got to the refrigerator aisle, and this was when I got even more weirded out. Whichever aisle we were in, he would quickly pace past us occasionally. At this point, he wasn't even trying to look like he was shopping.

My mom and sister took notice of this behavior, and also seemed concerned now. At one point, we were grabbing something off of the shelves, and I could see him standing on the opposite aisle, peaking through the shelves at us. He still had those strange gimmicky sunglasses on, but now his hood was pulled up. We started to walk faster while doing some random zig-zags throughout the store to see if he was really following us. We were also hoping to possibly lose him, but he would always keep up. He was acting very suspicious, and while he continued to keep his distance, he was still diligently keeping up with us. We finally seemed to lose him, but my mom was concerned, so we pushed our cart up to the customer service area to talk to a manager about it. We informed the manager,

and she was very helpful. She was able to find him based on the description that we gave her and she talked to him. We waited at the counter until he sent her back to us with a confused look on her face. She walked up to my mother and said, He told me that, You're his mom? My mom and sister were very concerned, so the manager just rang us up right then in there. She said that we should leave and then the grocery store staff would escort the strange man out of the store. We walked out to the car in my sister and I stayed close to her mother. We were met with a horrible sight though. The

man was standing at the end of the parking lot across from our car with his head slightly tilted and a huge grin on his face. Needless to say, we floored it out of there, but we could still see him just standing there watching us as we left. Whoever that guy was in the sunglasses, let's not meet again. All of this started when I was in my first semester of university. I had just graduated college not too long ago and had entered into a program that I would come to resent after a while. During that time I was adjusting to taking public transit daily for an hour and a half to get from where I grew up in the big city to study.

It was somewhat of a new adventure for me. In a lot of ways I was just beginning to sprout as an individual and trying to carve a path for my life while also opening myself up to a new environment. I have long time friends who went to the same facility as I did, but at that time our schedules wouldn't always line up. This meant that a lot of my days were spent traveling back and forth and walking around the city by myself. I really wanted to try and expand on my horizons during this period. I was ready to meet new people and have new experiences, in a lot of ways I wanted to

find a good community on campus that could help me satiate my boredom and loneliness. I can be extremely extroverted, but sometimes I find that it takes a lot out of me to try and actually pursue and maintain friendships that haven't been established years prior. One day, however, I met Joel. I distinctly remember exactly how it all went down. I was on the phone with my fiance, and I was walking out of the on-campus Starbucks with a decaf coffee. I had one earbud in as I was heading to class through a small stretch of an underground passageway.

This passageway is under the street, and it connects the school's library building to the actual building that asked classrooms. As I was hastily making my way, I saw this short and stout guy who appeared to be roughly around my age at the time. I was 21. He had a thick brown beard and a hat on. Our eyes met, and I was about to simply walk past him. But he asked me something in a very calm and charismatic tone. Hey, sorry to bother you. You look like you're a pretty busy guy. But I was wondering, do you mind participating in a survey about religion? It's for one of my classes.

To this, I regret answering, and I wish I had simply continued walking, but at the same time I was becoming compelled by the notion of formal religious institutions and questioning my own religious faith, particularly Christianity. Sure, I replied. He then introduced himself, and we went through a small survey about religious affiliations and perspectives on religion. He informed me that a small group of students like himself were planning on getting together as a group to discuss various religions to gain new insights to create a community.

Of course, with the prospect of finding some new friends on campus and exploring my own spiritual perspectives, I gave him my phone number after he asked for it. He said that he would contact me sometime in the following days with details regarding the meeting. Upon entering my first meeting, I sat down in this very crowded room filled with seats at our school. I was greeted by Joel, alongside a bunch of other members. They introduced themselves

to me and vice versa. They were all extremely kind to me. We began our group meeting, and I was a bit shocked to find that the sole topic that we were to discuss was Christianity. I wasn't aware that we were only going to be discussing Christianity, it was against what Joel had proposed this group was going to be about when we met. That being said, I was still curious enough to stay, and I was accompanied by three other young guys also of my age. After talking with these guys for a bit, I found out that we had a lot of similar interests. Joel, who now presented himself as the leader of our study group, relayed how we would be analyzing Christianity through a multi-step program designed to unveil

the holy power associated with the religion. Since I was curious and wanted to learn more about the religion, I continued to attend this study group for the rest of the semester. During this time, there were a few circumstances where I questioned Joel's interpretations, and I was met with hard resistance. At times, it felt like my wavering belief in what Joel was saying would be met with straight dismissal as opposed to actual conversation. I continued to brush that off as the group that I was working with got closer. Our study group then turned into a club on campus which I was now a part of. I went with the flow as it provided me with exactly what I wanted. We even went to a church run event together where I quit vaping and many individuals

reported mystical experiences. Now things only started to get concerning with Joel during our one-on-one conversations. I discussed my personal experiences, my newfound religious beliefs, and all of my former spiritual experiences. This triggered Joel and detelling me a story that at the time, I should have considered a red flag. He told me that when he was younger, he had gone on a retreat where, as he was in prayer, he began to hear the voice of God talking to him. My question at first, if he was referring to the voice

of God as more of a metaphor, but he reassured me that he literally heard God speaking to him. When he told me this, I became a bit unnerved. At the helm of this community was Joel, but in all other senses, I was satisfied with who I was surrounding myself with and what we were doing together. Though I am not entirely dismissive of strange occurrences, especially pertaining to spirituality, his experience of talking with God in his head came off as uncomfortable for me. He also said that the way he would pray would involve a direct conversation and reply with God.

Out of discomfort, I never prodded him on what he meant by this, and this, of course, was just the beginning. After the summer ended, I had found myself in the most religiously devoted state I had ever been in. Throughout the summer, I had a treacherous injury that made me housebound for months, and I called upon God in a lot of ways for strength. With my newfound devotion, I was elated to fall back into the community that I had nurtured and grown with throughout the last semester. During my first lesson of the following semester, something was very different. Joel, as before, was at the helm of our group, but he was now perpetually interrupted by people coming to greet him and give him praise. It was so bad that we essentially sat and watched these interactions for at least 20 minutes

before we could even move forward with our lesson. More than ten people, mostly young men of my age, came to greet him. As aforementioned, he was extremely charming and gave the impression that he cared deeply for everyone. Once our lesson began, he introduced us to the second phase of the program. He explained that this was one of the toughest programs, as it required even more devotion and more importantly, it was to demonstrate an emphasis on sacrifice for those who engaged.

He showed us a diagram of a small stick person and also showed that in this program, we would have to accept Jesus as the center of our life. He explained that by making our lives surround Jesus entirely, we would not be losing something, but we would be gaining something. He also began to go over the notion that sex before marriage is a sin. He said that if we were to continue with this program, we would have to make the sacrifice of giving up sex in our relationships, and we had to prove that we weren't having sex. He said that many guys weren't able to continue because of

this. I talked about this afterward with one of the members of the group who, not unlike me, had been in a serious relationship with someone that they loved for several years. In my personal opinion, though we weren't officially married, I knew that this other member and I felt devoted enough to our partners. It was as if we were already married in a sense, and we both expressed how Joel's behavior surrounding this topic was off-putting, controlling, and intrusive. After our lesson, I was a bit dumb-founded by the intensity with which he gave his speech about the next phase of the program. Joel and I sat down for a few more minutes

and talked, in which I expressed my experiences of devotion from the summer. I explained my entire catastrophic experience with my injury. He then went on to tell me that, at times, he was actually able to know about things beforehand. This seemingly random and strange statement shocked me. He said that he was able to know about something another member of the group had experienced before they had even mentioned it. The way that he described these information downloads sounded as if he were saying he had some kind of mystical foresight. I was a bit jared to say the least, but I felt like it would be impolite to question any further. Joel then went on to tell me that he believed that if I successfully completed

this program I was primed to become a teacher for the program we had completed the semester prior. He said that he could see me leading others who would join and assured me that I had a bright future in the organization. At that moment, I felt overwhelmed by his expectations of me. It also became evident that Joel was not a student at our facility. In fact, he was in his mid-30s and had children. He was actually just a part of an organization that recruited people to become Christians and missionaries. This meant that he lied to me when I first met him. He wasn't conducting a survey on religion, and there

was no group talking about various religions. His whole purpose was to convert me to make me join the organization that he was already a part of. At this point, school began to pick up a lot, and I was also working part-time to help support myself. As I was on the train to head back home the next week, I had completely forgotten that my second lesson in the program was supposed to happen, so I texted Joel and said, hey man, I actually got on to the train and forgot about our lesson. Sorry about that dude, I'm not going to be able to make it since I also have to work later." He replied,

"'Can't you just get off the train? Try and get here as soon as possible.'" That was a bit dumbfounded by this. Since I was living an hour and a half away, it wasn't easy to get off the train and head back in the opposite direction. And he knew that. He knew the area I lived in was rather remote and a long distance away. I also told him that I had work, which he had outright disregarded. No, man. Unfortunately, I can't come in today. Have a good lesson, I replied. He quickly responded to that. Come on,, just get off the train, come back. I was now annoyed. Not only did I feel like he was commanding me, but I also felt that he was blatantly disregarding the fact that I said no. So I didn't answer him. I talked with my

fiancé about how I was starting to feel about the whole ordeal. I told her about how I felt guilty about having feelings of wanting to distance myself from the group. I simultaneously expressed not wanting to lose the community and friends that I had established along the way. My fiancee said that, by the way, Joel was acting, and with regard to the things that he had said, she was starting to become uncomfortable about the whole situation herself. I remember sitting in bed thinking about leaving the group and how the prospect made me

feel physically ill. After that, I had been given everything I wanted in a community with the exception of who was at the helm. There was an event the following Friday that was going to be at the church which was organized by the community. Originally, since many of my friends from this group were going, I intended to go as well, but alas, I was scheduled by my boss to work that day. So there was no way that I was going to be able to attend.

I knew that Joel would be insistent upon me coming anyway, so when Joel texted me to remind me about the event, I told him that I wasn't going to be able to make it do to work. To this, he replied, what? Bro, no way. You've got to come. Take work off and find somebody to cover your shift. God wants you there."

As expected, he dismissed my explanation for not being able to go and attempted to guilt me into going by saying that God wanted me there as if he was his mouthpiece. I went on to text him again and said, no, sorry man, I can't do that. I just got a promotion and I have to be there. I hope you guys have a great time. He replied again echoing something similar to what he had said before. This was my personal breaking point.

He knew the importance of my financial situation. His dismissal of my personal boundaries as well as his commands made me decide to text him explaining that I was done with this group. I let him know that I wanted to pursue my own religious exploration without the group from then on. I told him that I felt as if he were slowly but surely trying to control what he could. I told him that I felt that he was commanding me as if he were slowly but surely trying to control what he could. I told him that I felt that he was commanding me as if he were the leader of my life. He replied with a long paragraph persisting in an overly kind manner.

He said that I had to continue with the group, and that it was God's will for me to show up to this event, even though I was completely unable to. He was certain that this group was meant for me, and that God had told him that this was where I needed to be. After that I responded again, telling him to stop, and that I would not be going to this event. He then sent me another paragraph of similar length, essentially repeating what he had just said. No matter what I said, even when I would say no, he would overstep my boundaries by maintaining a kind and friendly tone

in order to try and push me into submission. At this point, I said I didn't want him to talk to me anymore. He replied, bro, why? Can we meet up? I want you to explain why you don't want to continue in person. We need to meet up so that we can get a better sense of what we can do from here." I knew that he was trying to increase his chances of bringing me back into this group so that

he could continue his reign of control. I said I didn't want to, so he asked again. I decided at that moment that I needed to block him, so I did. A semester later, I was walking down the street of my school, and as I walked by a pizza parlor, Lohan behold, who came out, Joel. He walked over to me with one of his friends and said that I was a friend of his to his buddy. I uncomfortably stood there as his friend went inside. Joel then turned to look at me and

asked with his disarming gentleness. Did you block me?" I replied. Yes. he said, you should unblock me that way we can meet up and talk because I really want to know why you left the group. I was frustrated, but I said, okay, before continuing on my way, that night he texted me on my Instagram, insisting that we meet up again and I blocked him there as well. In short, I'm thankful for my fiance, who is the love of my life. Without her, I'm not sure I would have been strong enough to leave this group and his control. The fact of the matter is that there were other guys in that group who had absolutely nobody. They had nothing, making them prime targets for this charismatic and controlling freak. There were members of that group who were at higher levels, so to speak, who had completed all of the programs.

They were emaciated as they had become such restricted fundamentalists. Their lives and their openness to new experiences were significantly thwarted by Joel and this group. Beware of who you let into your life, just because somebody is nice to you does not mean that they do not have ulterior motives. Also, learn to stand your ground and respect yourself. If you say no, mean it. Joel, you controlling cult leader. Let's not meet again.

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ad-free version of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast, and if you'd like to get access today, head over to patreon.com forward slash Let's Not Meet podcast to sign up and support the show. This week you have heard Disturbing Elderly Couple wearing hyper-realistic latex masks by Collider Scope Low, 1831, recruited at the gas pump by Jasislin, high school stalker by Grace, laced cigarette by little Miss Can't Do It, sunglass stalker by Himo Goblin 7, and finally University Cult Leader by Window Guy 13. 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 of the message boards online, as always if you have a story to share and send it to Let's Not Meet Stories at gmail.com. Make sure you check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Odd Trails, my true paranormal podcast. Welcome to Paradise at Sucks and the Old Time Radiocast all at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you guys next week. Everyone stay safe. I started listening to this podcast in 2020 with it.

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