Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 12x17: Knives

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Don't miss our next Let's Not Meet Live Stream on Saturday, May 4th at 7:00 PDT at twitch.tv/crypticcounty. Follow now so you don't miss it when we go live!  Stories in this episode:  Worst Downstairs Neighbor Ever | AcidRainFa11 (1:20) Knives. | Lyca29 (5:08)  I Was Working With A Stalker | Spiritual-Way-7315 (11:27)  man trying to get me to open my door | noicehooman (15:47)  The man who tried to get in through the window. | ExplanationNo1 (21:43)  The Men in the Forest | Eddy226 (26:21)  Creepy encounter during urban exploration | EnvironmentHealthy14 (35:18)  He Was My High School Sweetheart | Public-Alarm2275 (40:49)  Extended Patreon Content:  Music Store Menace | Amy His Accomplice Hid From Me | Christina Tyler From Tinder | Anonymous Everyone Loves a Good Shower | Rob Due to periodic changes in ad placement, time stamps are estimates and are not always accurate. Follow: - Twitch - https://twitch.tv/crypticcounty - Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/ - Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/ Check out the other Cryptic County podcasts like Odd Trails and the Old Time Radiocast at CrypticCountyPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts!    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! 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]. 

Prescription products require completion of an online medication consultation with an independent health care provider through the LifeMD platform and are only available if prescribed. Subscription required. Individual results may vary. Additional restrictions apply at LifeMD.com. Read all warnings before using GLP-1s. Side effects may include a risk of thyroid C cell tumors. Do not use GLP-1s if you or your family have a history of thyroid cancer. If you've struggled for years to lose weight and have given up hope, did you know you can now access GLP-1 prescription medications through LifeMD? LifeMD

is now offering eligible patients online access to GLP-1s, the breakthrough prescription medication that can help you lose body fat and weight. Listen to what people are saying. Probably the easiest thing I've ever done. The medication comes in the mail and it's very easy to use. I've been able to live my normal lifestyle and I've lost 20 pounds already and I've never felt better. It changed my life. And here's the best part. Your insurance may cover 100% of the cost of your medication. So go to TryLifeMD.com to have your eligibility checked right now. Get started today at TryLifeMD.com.

That's T-R-Y-L-I-F-E-M-D.com. If you missed the previous Live Let's Not Meet shows up north, don't worry. We're currently working on locking down dates around the states for 2024. I'll keep you updated along the way. But until then, don't forget to mark your calendars for May 4th so you don't miss our next live stream episode of Let's Not Meet. I'll be there with the whole gang of podcast guests to share some of our creepiest stories live at 7pm Pacific at twitch.tv slash cryptic county. Follow us now so that you don't miss it when we go live. the most. This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com.

Enjoy the show. This happened to me many years ago, but it still seems like yesterday. I was driving with my girlfriend to her parents' house to celebrate her father's birthday. Mind you, the trip from where I live to her parents was a six-hour drive. Before we set off, we packed our things up – gifts, some other small stuff and whatnot – and then we were ready to go. The journey was fine at the beginning. There wasn't much traffic and the weather was nice considering that it was the start

of spring. Out of nowhere, I got a flat tire. This wasn't the problem. I'm a handy guy, so I replaced it, but it took a while, and the evening was quickly approaching. When we continued driving, I was using Google Maps since the road that we were on was new to me. My girlfriend wanted to take a nap since she worked a long day the day before.

She told me to wake her up when we were getting close to her parents. I let her know that I would, and then she fell asleep. Google Maps was showing the road was going to go through some woods. I had a suspicion that maybe the map wasn't showing the right way since Google Maps tends to do that from time to time. It just changes the direction of the route out of nowhere. Now when I reached the forest that Google was guiding me through, I came across a small parking lot.

It was very old and it seemed like nobody had used it. There were patches of overgrown grass and the road leading to the park near the lot was full of holes. This was when, surprise surprise, Google changed its mind on which direction I needed to go in. So I stopped in the parking lot to reassess. There wasn't anybody around, so I turned off the engine and left the headlights on. Then I was checking my phone for Google's new directions. I was so focused on sorting out the directions that I wasn't really paying attention to what was going on around me.

And then suddenly I saw three men appear from the forest in front of my car. They were very close by and they were approaching stealthily. They were heading straight toward my car. I turned the engine back on and reversed the car out of there, driving as fast as I could. As I was backing out of there, I caught a clear glimpse of one of the men's faces as he was following my car. It was very creepy.

He had absolutely no emotion in his expressions, but his eyes said it all. His gaze conveyed evil intentions. My girlfriend woke up from the car's sudden movements, and she started asking me what I was doing. I let her know that we had to stop since Google Maps was rerouting us. I also told her about the men who had come out of the forest, and one of them was following us. I was shaking as I told

her this while I continued driving, so she knew that I wasn't messing around. I told her I didn't care where we went since all I wanted to do was escape this forest as soon as possible. As we made our way out of there I was looking at my rearview mirrors every couple of minutes. It was one of the creepiest things that has ever happened to me. I have no idea who those men were, and I'll never know. This happened around 1987 or 88. The house I was renting was a murder house. That fact has nothing to do with the story, but it's worth mentioning that yes, I rented a murder house for a while at one point in my life.

I had been living in the murder house for around four months with no issues. I was living there with my best friend, Joe, and apart from us constantly pranking each other, it was fine. Joe and I also worked together at station supervisors on the London Underground. Joe was almost seven years older than me, but he and I were great friends. We both 100% mutually friend-zoned each other from the start, and we both shared a love of pranks.

Sure, they got a little bit out of hand sometimes, but it kept us both on our toes. The only issue I had with Joe was that he would take my stuff sometimes. For instance, if I bought a pizza and I put it in the fridge for when I got home from work, I would come home, open the fridge, and find a note that said, I took the pizza. Here's $20 so you can buy another one. He did this with everything, mostly after he had had a few beers.

Also, he once drank a quarter bottle of brandy, one that I had been saving. I was so mad that I punched him right in the arm as hard as I could. Joe just laughed whenever I would react like this, and he had the kind of laugh that made me laugh too so things always blew over quickly between us. Neither of us really took anything seriously for more than a minute. The next time I bought brandy, I put the bottle in the drawer under my bed so that he couldn't get to it.

After hiding my brandy, I had gone to bed and was sleeping, when suddenly I was woken up by my bed moving. I opened my eyes and I saw that Joe was in my room. He was a little drunk and he was opening the drawer as carefully as a big, clumsy drunk could. He wanted to get my brandy. He saw me open my eyes and started laughing. Shhh! Just sleep! I'm just here for the brandy.

Somehow I managed to restrain myself from breaking the bottle over his big drunk head. I handed him the bottle with a tired and nagging, just fucking take it and fuck off. He took it from me and stumbled out of my room. I told him never to come into my room and wake me up like that ever again. And the next night, I started shutting and locking my bedroom door while I slept. A couple of nights later, I was woken up by the sound of somebody jiggling my door handle. Screw Joe, I thought.

The door was locked and he couldn't get in. I ignored him for a while, hoping that he would give up, but the door handle continued squeaking and moving. I very quietly crept out of my bed and put my hand on the lock. I was planning on carefully unlocking it, then wrenching the door open and throwing myself at an unsuspecting Joe, screaming like a banshee. I thought that it would be funny. I silently stifled a giggle as I thought about my prank.

But I managed to remain deathly silent since it wouldn't work if he heard me unlock and open the door. I had one hand on the little lock, ready to twist, and then the other hand on the handle. I counted down in my head, three, two, one, and right then, I had a little impulsive thought that convinced me I was too tired, and I didn't want to prank Joe after all. So then I retreated to bed, pretending to be asleep, and figured eventually he would stop fiddling with my door handle. So that's what I did.

I got back in my warm bed and went off to sleep. I was woken by Joe some hours later. Lica! Joe shouted as he knocked on the door. Come out of your room, really really carefully and don't freak out. Also don't touch anything. I've already called the police. He sounded different than he usually did.

I carefully unlocked my door and slowly opened it. I looked outside of my room and noticed that every knife that we had in the house was on the floor, right outside of my room. They were arranged in a semicircle facing my door. We both liked to cook and had two sets of deadly sharp chef's knives and a set of steak knives, so yeah, we had a lot of knives.

And right now, they were all on the landing carpet pointing directly at my bedroom door. I asked Joe if he heard any commotion in our house, and I asked if it was him trying to get in the room at around 1 a.m. He looked at me wide-eyed and told me that he hadn't even been home all night. His shift started at 11 p.m., and the night foreman hadn't showed up for his shift, so Joe had volunteered to stay for a double. He finished at around 6 a.m. and arrived home to find that a downstairs window had been forced open and a lot of our things had been strewn about. The police arrived, and weren't even that bothered by the break-ins since nobody was

hurt and nothing appeared to have been taken. And nothing, apart from the lock on the window, was damaged. It was so odd, though. Tons of things around the house were moved around, and our stuff was newly situated in weird shapes and patterns. Now I shudder to think of what would or could have happened if I decided to follow through with my prank by wrenching the door open, thinking that it was Joe on the other side. I was around 12 when this happened, and I still get scared when I think

about it. I used to live on a busy block where I would babysit for the bartenders who worked at the bar nearby and had kids. It was easy money as the bar was right down the road, so once they were done with work they could quickly come to get their kids. One night, I had three more kids than usual, but since it was a Friday, I understood. I had the kids lying down upstairs, so I decided to watch a movie in my living room. The TV was on the wall and the couch was between the door and the windows. When I grabbed the remote, I saw someone in the reflection of the TV behind me, looking through the windows. When I grabbed the remote, I saw someone in the reflection of the TV, behind me, looking through the window. It was a man who looked to be about 45, staring blankly into my house. I placed the remote down and pretended not to see him as I picked up my

phone. The first thing I did was call my mom, who was a bartender at the time. I tried to make it look like I was scrolling TikTok or something when in reality I was watching this man's every move. When I saw him turn around to leave the porch, I was given some relief until I heard the bushes rustling on the side of my house. I knew exactly what he was doing. There was a big window on that side of my house. It was low and wide enough for him to climb in and out of. Adrenaline started surging right away, so without thinking straight, I dropped my phone and screamed, He's trying to get in! Then I ran to my kitchen, grabbed the biggest knife that I could find, and ran back to the window. When I got there, the man was right in front of me.

He didn't even seem phased that I had met him at the window, even though I had a knife. He was angrily yelling, and he obviously wasn't scared since he reached for the window and tried to pull it up, but I slammed it back down and locked it at the top. He looked at me, almost disappointed, like I was the one in the wrong. And just then, I saw bright lights swarming in, and I heard another man shouting at the guy who was trying to get in through the window. When I shouted and dropped my phone, my mom panicked and tried to leave to run to my aid.

And so did the man who approached the guy outside the window. I don't remember much after that. I only remember unlocking the door to my mom, who hugged me instantly. I recently asked my mom if she remembered the incident, but she said that she didn't. However, my little sister said she did, and she had a few more things to share. While she was supposed to be asleep in her room, she was playing around on her tablet. Her room was above the porch, and she could see the man from her window. She said that she saw him walk up to the porch so she thought that he was a neighbor or maybe

an uncle. But when she heard me scream, she got frightened, then snuck over to the stairs and sat on them waiting for me. She heard me screaming at the man and she got a better view of the situation. She said that the man who came with our mom to help us was known in our neighborhood for being quiet and keeping to himself, so he frequently went to the bar where my mom worked. He was ex-military and loved to box. My sister said that she saw him run down the street towards

the man at the window. He chased him into the alley, where he threw a few punches, and an old couple who lived nearby called the cops. The next day, my mom went and found an actual adult babysitter to watch us when she had busy nights, and luckily we never saw the man who tried to climb into our window ever again. When I was 16 years old, I was doing an apprenticeship in carpentry. Occasionally when there was no woodwork to do, I would be given the job of going around different sites that were owned by the company with a maintenance man to fix and maintain anything that needed repairs on different properties.

The man that I worked with, who we'll call Dave for privacy reasons, was a polite, hardworking man. However, he had an odd manner about him. For example, I remember that he would often drift off and stare into space or go off topic. During conversations, sometimes he'd change the topic to… my mom. For context, he was married to my mom many years ago and the two of them had children together. At the time, I had just assumed that Dave was being polite and asking about her well-being. But at times, his questions were rather intrusive. He asked, is her partner nice to you?

Is he controlling? Is she happy with him? It was like he was trying to scoop information while remaining subtle. Not subtle enough in my opinion. Anyway, after a few months of doing odd jobs with Dave, I learned that Dave had been in a relationship with a lady who was living 15 with Dave, I learned that Dave had been in a relationship with a lady who was living 15 minutes away from him, and they had been together for a year.

I didn't think anything of it. In fact, when I found out that he was in a relationship, I expressed that I was happy for him. I figured that maybe that might keep him off the topic of asking odd, forward questions about my mom. As the months passed, I continued working with Dave. Then I started to notice that he would always take the same route to jobs, even when his preferred route would be longer for us to take.

I never questioned it, but the question was on my mind. I never questioned it, but the question was on my mind. I always wondered why was he driving this specific route to get to every job we needed to go to. And his behavior when driving around these areas was so odd. He would always drive very slow as if he wanted to see who was walking around the streets. His eyes often scanned the sidewalks and elsewhere on the road, and he was always quiet like he was deeply fixated on something. One time, when we were driving on this route, Dave asked me a question that completely caught

me off guard. He asked, How do you go about calling somebody who has blocked your number? I told Dave that the only way was to turn off your caller ID so that when you called the person, the screen just said, no caller ID. The question made me feel off and answering his question made me feel like I was an accomplice of something.

I tried to brush it off and I told myself that I shouldn't feel too bad since what I told myself that I shouldn't feel too bad since what I told him was public information and if he wanted to know he could easily Google it. And besides, it's not like I showed him exactly how to turn his caller ID off. So I shrugged it off and we went about our work. A few weeks later, when we were working together again, he left his phone on the driver's seat of his van and it was unlocked.

I noticed that he had a text message open. Whoever he was trying to text wasn't receiving the messages, since they were notifications indicating that they hadn't gone through. I remember seeing messages that said, Please talk to me. I don't know where I've gone wrong. If you explain to me why you left, I won't message you again.

I just need to know what I did wrong. I know I should not have read these texts, and I certainly wish that I hadn't. But that's when things began to add up in my head. The specific route to jobs, the questions about caller ID, the relationship he seemed to keep under wraps, the messages. I realized he was a stalker. At the time, I felt very worried about who I was in this vehicle with. I instantly spoke

to one of his children, my half-sister, about the whole situation. She was shocked and ensured that she would have a conversation with him about the whole thing and told me not to worry. Months later, there was an article in our newspaper about a stalking case with Dave's full name and personal details. It mentioned his court appearance and the restraining order that had been placed against him. He had been messaging and calling this person that he said he was in a relationship with.

It turns out she was an ex-partner and he was knocking on her door at night and sending gifts to her. He also followed her in the woods while she was walking her dog and even pretended to bump into her at the grocery store, even though seeing her there was deliberate on his part. He was essentially trying to contact his ex-partner by any means necessary. His family was aware of his behavior, and he never told them about his court appearance until it concluded. He was very secretive, and I no longer have any contact with him, but I've always felt there was something off about him. So it just goes to show you that you should always trust your gut about people. Anybody can have a

secret life, and I'm glad things ended up how they did, but I'd hate to think of how much further he would have gone with his stalking if I didn't bring this information to his daughter's attention. This story comes from Belgium and took place in 2020 during COVID-19 confinements. I was 20 back then. At the time, because of the severity of the pandemic in Belgium, the law stated that you could only go outside to exercise, practice sports, or go to work. So I got into the habit of meeting with my friend solely. We would go out for runs or to practice all kinds of sports in general.

The both of us were quite fond of urban exploration and knew about this spot in the outskirts of Brussels consisting of an old sports and wellness center where we hung out after going for a run. To get to this spot, you must go through a hole and a fence on a street, cross a small portion of the woods, and then come up on a football field and tennis courts. Then, up the hill from there is the Sports and Wellness Center, which is an old four-story building. It's a really big center.

The whole center takes up an entire street block. On that day, we had just finished a 5K run and then went to our spot as usual. We were walking to the building since it was about to rain and we saw two teenagers sitting on the edge of the roof. I remember thinking that it bothered me since we were planning to go to the roof as well. So we went to the hall area to wait for a bit in hopes that the other people would leave.

In the hall area, there was a clear view of the kitchen, which you have to go through if you want to get to the roof. From there, you can also see into another smaller hall and the dining room. Soli was rolling himself a cigarette whilst I pulled up two chairs next to an office table for us to sit. This next part still gives me chills. As I was setting up our seating area, I remember that I started to feel unwell, as if I were being watched. That's when I looked at the kitchen and I saw,

for a brief moment, a head sticking out of the corner of the frame staring right at us. It was a man. I couldn't say what age he was, but the one thing I do remember was that he had an exaggerated, happy expression on his face, like he had just found exactly what he was looking for. At that moment, I just froze, and I leaned towards Soli slowly, all while keeping eye contact with the man. I told Soli very calmly that we had to go immediately. I tend to make a lot of jokes to all of my friends, especially Soli, so when he saw the

look that I had on my face when I told him we had to leave, he didn't say a word. He just picked up his backpack and stood up. Then we ran back outside. We saw that the two teenagers were still on the roof so we asked them if the man was with them or if they had seen him, but they said no, they hadn't seen anyone. They said that they had come by themselves, they were alone. We told them it was probably better for them to leave as well since we were unsure of what the man in the lobby was up to.

Then we decided to leave since we did our due diligence by telling them what we saw. Then as we were walking towards the wooded area to leave, I turned back and saw the silhouette standing in front of the staircase leading up to the roof. I was shocked since nothing like this had happened to me before. I never shared this story of my scary sighting since I was so fearful that no one would believe me. My friend Solie was the only one who was with me and he didn't get a chance to take a look at the man,

but he was just as scared as I was. I hope those teenagers were all right after that. I remember finding local articles afterward about some teenagers who were chased by a man in an abandoned building, but there wasn't enough information for me to confirm that it was the teenagers that I saw in that building. But I have a gut feeling it might be. The end. with an independent healthcare provider through the LifeMD platform and are only available if prescribed. Subscription required. Individual results may vary. Additional restrictions apply at LifeMD.com. Read all warnings before using GLP-1s.

Side effects may include a risk of thyroid C cell tumors. Do not use GLP-1s if you or your family have a history of thyroid cancer. If you've struggled for years to lose weight and have given up hope, did you know you can now access GLP-1 prescription medications through LifeMD? LifeMD is now offering eligible patients online access to GLP-1s, the breakthrough prescription medication that can help you lose body fat and weight. Listen to what people are saying. You just take your shot. It doesn't feel like you're on a diet. What I wasn't expecting it to do was to shut off the food noise. This was life-altering,

and if I can do it, I feel like anybody can do it. And here's the best part. Your insurance may cover 100% of the cost of your medication. So go to TryLifeMD.com to have your eligibility checked right now. Get started today at TryLifeMD.com. That's T-R-Y-L-I-F-E-M-D.com. Changing a light bulb should be simple. Whoa, whoa, whoa! Uh-oh, that's not supposed to happen. Quickly submitting and tracking a claim on the Bel Air Direct app actually is simple.

Bel Air Direct, insurance simplified. When I was younger and attending college online, I got my first apartment. I had three jobs, one of which was third shift, so it took a lot to keep me afloat. But I was more than ready for independence. While I was having a great time in my new apartment, I did have one problem. My new downstairs neighbor. The other tenants in the building were a bit older than I was at the time. One of them was this older man who had been living there for over 20 years.

The other was an older woman with a small kid who had been there for 3-4 years. And then there was an empty apartment unit downstairs which was occupied by my new downstairs neighbor some time after I moved in. I tend to keep to myself so I never really spoke to any of them until I noticed that the new neighbor was moving in. The new neighbor was a man who seemed to be close to my age or maybe slightly older. My experience living there was alright since the other people living there seemed nice, and after meeting our newest neighbor I was happy to possibly have someone to say hello

to. That possibility quickly turned sour when our casual hellos turned into snide remarks from him. Whenever I'd be taking out the trash, he'd say something like, "'Your trash really smells' under his breath. Or he'd remark on how my sister wasn't wearing a bra when she came to visit me. Naturally, I was grossed out and annoyed that he had to comment on that. I would be grossed out and annoyed if he had said that about anyone but was especially uncomfortable since he was commenting on my sister. I told the landlord about all of

these remarks, but nothing came of it, of course. Then one day, I was asleep when someone came banging on my door. I had no idea who it could be, so the spike in my anxiety was beyond high. Since I was living alone, I was never expecting a knock that wasn't planned. I went to the door, and it was the downstairs neighbor saying that I was being too loud and I needed to stop harassing him. I explained through the closed door that I was asleep and not making any noise. So he left and stomped down the stairs while muttering something about me being a bitch. My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest, but I went back to bed,

only to hear him tear back up the stairs and bang on my door again. When I addressed him for the second time, he said that I was still harassing him. He said that he was calling the cops because I was still making noise. I told him to ask the other upstairs neighbors because I know that there was no way it could possibly be me making the noise. He thanked me as he stomped off, but he was cursing and calling me a bitch yet again. I informed the landlord about the interaction right away.

I told him that one of his tenants was acting hostile towards me, and I didn't feel comfortable or safe. All he said was that he would look into it and then I heard nothing for a week. Turns out it was the older neighbor who had been living there for 20 years that was making all of the noise. He was hitting his floor with the stick like you see in one of those classic cartoons since the rude downstairs neighbor was playing his music too loud. I swear he should have known that it wasn't me, as the older neighbor was right above

him. I have no idea why he even came to me with a noise complaint as I was on the other side of the building. It was like he wanted an excuse to come and speak to me specifically or something. Things only worsened in the following months, though. One day, I walked out in a snowsuit so that I could go out and play in the snow. I'm a big kid at heart. When my downstairs neighbor saw me, he had to remark on my clothing being unnecessary,

which was confusing since we had gotten three feet of snow. I forgot what I said in response. I probably told him that it wasn't any of his business, but he said, fuck you. I went outside and played in the snow, but it gave me little enjoyment because I kept thinking about our interaction. So I went back inside and got ready for work. As the day continued, the snowstorm got worse. After I came back from my night shift, I saw the downstairs neighbor was alone in the parking

lot with his car on and the windows up. I was on high alert, as I carefully walked up the alley to the entrance of the building. The second I closed the door to the upstairs, I heard loud wall-shaking music. It was him. He was blasting his music in his car at max volume during a snowstorm at 3 a.m. He did that until 8 in the morning. And I later found out it was to spite the older neighbor for telling him he was playing his music too loud in his apartment.

Everything just kept escalating from there. His cursing in the hallway and music playing only became louder. The police were constantly knocking on all of our doors asking us about noise disturbances. And there was a firm mutual hatred amongst the neighbors at that asshole who kept all of this up. But the worst part is yet to come. I had just gotten back from another night shift and it was 3am. I was dragging my tired feet over to the mailboxes.

As I was looking through the ads and letters, his door opened. My stomach tightened as I hoped that I didn't have to interact with him. Then my stomach quickly dropped when he started speaking unintelligibly. He stood there, gurgling and mumbling. I asked him, what? Then he repeated these strange sounds, only more aggressive. I felt that something was more off than usual, so I got out of there right away. I just walked back out the door and headed to my car. I decided I'd rather sleep in my car than possibly be attacked in the hallway.

As I was having this thought, I heard a window above slam open. I froze then spun back around to see that it was him, and he was looking for me from his window. I stood there for a moment listening to him as he was yelling out to me. I knew that this was my chance to sneak upstairs past his door and rush into my apartment. So I ran back inside past his door and ran up the flight of stairs to the second floor. Right as I reached the top of the stairs, his door swung open with a slam so loud that it made me jump. Then he started muttering some more as he started walking up the stairs after me.

My heart was beating out of my rib cage as I was simultaneously fishing my keys out of my bag. And just like a classic horror movie, I kept fumbling with my keys, trying to find the correct one in the dark hallway as I heard him walking up the last couple of steps. I told myself not to panic as I finally spotted the correct key and slid it into the keyhole. Then I swung the door open and practically launched myself inside before slamming and locking the door behind me. I paused and held my breath as I heard him outside about five feet away from my door. He just kept muttering gibberish until he called me a bitch and walked back downstairs

and out of the building. I watched him through a crack in my window blind as he was pacing back and forth outside. Then he started screaming before walking off into the night. The next day I got a text from the landlord. He said that the downstairs neighbor was arrested and won't be coming back. And he attached a link in the text. I raised an eyebrow as I followed the link which took me to his mugshot. There was also a description of his activities which included theft from a nearby store,

threatening cops that he would shoot them and punching one of them. I never saw him again after that. I only saw his family coming to move his stuff out. So to the rude neighbor downstairs, let's not meet again. This happened around 2021 in India. It was around the period of COVID when lockdowns were still very much enforced. My dad used to live in another city. My brother was in college and my mom, as a government employee, was an essential worker so she still had to go to her office every single day.

So this basically left me alone from 10am until about 6pm daily. We used to live in an apartment unit that had two doors to choose from to enter through. One was the main door and the other door was located in the primary bedroom, which was my parents' room. We had a doorbell primary bedroom, which was my parents' room. We had a doorbell outside of the door in my parents' room. It was connected to a light bulb, so whenever someone was giving that door a ring, it would blink. So one day, at around noon, I was in my room, which was adjacent to my parents' room. I don't know how to explain it, but I just started to get this weird feeling, so I went to check parents' room. I don't know how to explain it, but I just started

to get this weird feeling, so I went to check on their room. I went into their room and saw that the bulb was blinking, indicating that somebody was ringing the bell outside of their door. My mom used to tell me to ignore it, especially if I was alone, since if somebody we knew was coming over, they would know to go to the main door. I continued to stand there for a moment, watching the bulb blink. But then it suddenly stopped and whoever was outside of that door started pounding on it. They were pounding so hard that the door was straight up rattling. But the thing was, due to there being a metal gate in front of the door on

the outside, it was very hard to maneuver your hand through to knock on the actual door. Even then, as a teenager with smaller proportions, I couldn't even fit half of my palm through the gate, so I was confused as to how someone was able to reach through the gate and bang on the door. I got scared so I called my mom, who told me not to panic. I was very weirded out, so I made sure that my parents' door was completely locked before going downstairs to chill in my brother's room, away from the noise. It was one of those days where my mom had to stay late at work until 8 p.m. so I was alone for a long time. I stayed downstairs for a while since I was too scared to go back upstairs to my room. Around 6 p.m. my aunt came so I felt a bit better since someone else was in the house with me. I

also had a private tutor at that time and my teacher was supposed to come at around 7.30 p.m. so I felt even better knowing somebody else was going to come over and be at home with me as well. Our main door had a big window just beside it, so whenever someone was at that door, we used to look out the window to check who it was before opening. My aunt had a habit of opening the door without looking through this window. Later that day someone came to the main door. There was a man outside of the door and when she opened it, he said he was there to deliver

a cake to me specifically. She left the man at the door and went to my brother's room, where I was still hiding out, to let me know that the cake delivery had arrived. The thing was, I had not ordered a cake. So I followed my aunt to the front door and looked through the window. I saw a man wearing a cap. He was hiding his face and holding a very small box. Now, a cake box is typically a square and pretty big, so it was very confusing since he didn't appear to have a cake at all. I looked out the window and asked the

man who the delivery was from. He didn't give me a name. He wouldn't even provide me with the name of the cake delivery company that he was supposedly working for. All he said was that the cake was for me. I called my mom and asked if she had ordered a cake or anything, but she had no idea what I was talking about. Meanwhile, this guy was still standing outside the door, and he was growing impatient. He said, just open the door and accept the box. Just then, by some sort of miracle, my teacher walked up to the door and asked what was going

on. When the dude saw my teacher, he ran up the stairs, which was peculiar since we lived on the first floor of the building. After he dashed up the stairs, my aunt and I opened the door and let my teacher in. Later, when my mom came home, she asked the security guard at our apartment building about the delivery guy who came to our flat. It turns out he was away from his post for half an hour and the timing lined up when this guy came to our door.

Our building didn't have CCTVs in it, so he was able to enter the building undetected and no one ever saw him. This shook me so much that I asked my mom to at least try to make it home from her office quicker than she normally does. I'll never know who this man was or what he was trying to deliver. To the mysterious cake delivery man, let's not meet. Changing a light bulb should be simple. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Uh-oh. That's not supposed to happen. Quickly submitting and tracking a claim on the Bel Air Direct app

actually is simple. Bel Air Direct, insurance simplified. I'm Alex L. I'm Libby Delaney. Welcome to This Morning Walk podcast. We started this show because after our morning walks, we would connect and have a conversation and the things that we were seeing, smelling, learning might be really interesting for someone

else to hear. We are so excited that This Morning Walk Podcast has joined Blind New Audio, a new podcast network from executive producers Chip and Joanna Gaines. Follow, share, and listen to This morning walk podcast wherever you get your podcasts. The final story contains scenes of domestic abuse. Listener discretion is advised. I was just a sophomore in high school when I fell head over heels for the new quiet kid and thought that he was my forever.

We were high school sweethearts and eventually, I went on to marry this guy just one week after graduation. It's crazy to think about now, in hindsight, especially now that I realize how many red flags there were. I feel like I was aware of the red flags all along, but I ignored them since I was so young and eager to be grown up. On the night before my wedding day, I was so young and eager to be grown up.

On the night before my wedding day, I was going over last-minute wedding details with my mom, who is easily one of the most caring and selfless people I know. I remember asking her if she would be mad if I decided that I didn't want to go through with the wedding. My mom thought that I was messing with her, and in that moment, I felt that I couldn't tell her the truth yet, so I took a deep breath and forced a believable chuckle. She genuinely thought that I was pulling another one of my pranks, but in reality, no one knew what was going on behind closed doors, since I was essentially his PR team.

Only two hours after saying our I do's, he was throwing me out of his truck in his parents' driveway, cussing and yelling that he wanted a divorce before recklessly driving off. So much for the honeymoon phase. When I ran inside, my dad came out of my parents' bedroom. He couldn't understand a single word I was saying through my sobbing, but he was trying to ask me what was happening. My dad was pissed, but relaxed as he tried to rationalize the situation. Maybe he forgot something or he's pulling a bad joke on you or something like that,

my dad theorized. Then we saw his truck flying into our driveway so my dad smiled and continued, See? He's right there. I wiped my tears as I walked to the door and agreed that yes, it must have been a prank after all. But on the inside I was screaming. I was so embarrassed about it since I thought this was making me look crazy. I still couldn't give my parents the bigger picture of what was going on. If I wanted to save this relationship, they could never know the truth.

So I went with him. Months went by and my husband started being sweeter than ever since we had to be long distance due to him being away with the military for training. Meanwhile, I could tell that my parents were starting to see the cracks that I had been working so hard to glue together. I felt like I had to hold it together more than ever since I was in the process of packing my life up and moving to Texas to be with my husband soon. I remember shortly before moving to Texas, my mom picked up my phone that was on the

table since she mistook it for hers. She saw this huge message from my husband and just started crying, begging me to stay because he wasn't a good person. But I assured her that the message she read was way out of character for him. This was a lie. I said that he was just lonely. I knew that she didn't believe me, but she also knew I was going to do whatever regardless of her concerns.

After just a few weeks in Texas, I knew my life was in danger. On Thanksgiving Day, my family called to check up on us and tell us to have a Happy Thanksgiving. The moment I hung up, the man I thought was my soulmate started cussing at me and saying that I needed to stop talking to my family because he was my family now. When he said this, I let out a little chuckle as I thought that he had to be joking. But then he picked up the champagne glasses from our wedding that I had specifically made for us and threw them directly at me. Glass shattered all around me. I was shocked. I didn't know what to do, so I walked over to the broom and started sweeping up the broken

glass. I was hoping that was it, but as I was sweeping, he kept picking up framed pictures and throwing them at me. That night broke me. I stopped seeing him as my other half, and more as a monster. A monster that I was now stuck with. I became very depressed, and he loved every second of it. He would break me down over and over again and bask in my reaction when he managed to

get me to snap. A few months after Thanksgiving, one night, he completely lost his shit over the washer and dryer people since they messed up their schedule. He started pacing back and forth, mumbling a bunch of words. I couldn't quite make out what he was saying. He then demanded that I call and I fix it. He grabbed me, sat me down on the couch, and told me what to say, adding that I better not fuck it up.

He was paranoid. He said that they were only acting like this because he was a soldier. Then he started blaming me, even though I wasn't involved in making the appointment with them. He yelled at me for hours before going into the bathroom, but I stayed on the couch, still processing everything that was going on. Then he tore out of the bedroom and snarled, "'You're so fucking stupid. This is all your fault.

Did you plan this with them just to make me look dumb? Or are you really that fucking dumb?' I just stood there. I was too shocked to say anything. He continued, That's what I fucking thought. You're no fucking good. You're an ungrateful bitch.

I then blurred it out. You know what? I'm done. You don't do anything except bitch at me and blame me for everything. All you do is cuss and yell at me for no damn reason." And with that, he looked at me with the look that I've heard so many other victims try to describe. And just like them, the best way I can describe it is there was a darkness in his eyes. I felt like I was looking into emptiness and thinking about it still gives

me nightmares. Without further hesitation, he lunged at me and threw me against the wall, choking me. I slowly started to see black, but he let go for a second, and then slammed my entire body on the floor. I'm not sure if I actually blacked out, or if my brain just tapped out to shield myself from processing what was happening. Either way, when I came to, he was holding me by my shoulders and repeatedly slamming me into the wooden floor.

This was during the day, so our windows were open. Neighbors were outside, but my screams were ignored by everyone. I was pleading for somebody to call the police. I was yelling for help repeatedly. My fight or flight eventually took over and chose flight. So I got out of his grasp, got up from the floor, and ran to the main bedroom, locking the door behind me. From there I frantically called my mom because honestly I just needed to hear her voice. At that moment I was unsure if that would be the last time I would speak with her or not. My poor mom didn't realize the nature of

the call until it was too late. She was with my sister and my dad when I called and she put me on speakerphone immediately since that was pretty standard for our calls. I was always on speakerphone pretty standard for our calls. I was always on speakerphone, so they could just talk to me like we were all together. Instead of launching into a normal call, all of them just heard me screaming for my life. And they heard my husband in the background calling me awful names and yelling at me to unlock the door. They were confused, but my dad was ready to come kill this asshole. And then it stopped.

There was no more banging in the background. The only noise was me, softly crying, trying to calm my mother over the phone since she was freaking out. As soon as I realized I was alright, I knew I needed to leave as quickly as possible and as safely as possible. I knew if he were to catch me, I may not make it out alive. When I walked out of the room, my husband was sitting in the living room with a blank stare, like nothing even happened. This was a theme throughout our three-year relationship, but I decided I could no longer ignore his behavior, especially since it seemed to be escalating.

So I quickly made an escape plan and put it into action. I got myself up at 2 a.m. so I could make a run for it. My keys to my Pontiac were on the kitchen table and he was asleep in the bedroom. He was sleeping in there alone since he had banned me from the main bedroom several days earlier. I busted out of the spare bedroom that had been my prison and I made a beeline for the front door as quietly as possible. It was a nine and a half hour drive to my home state, but I only stopped once in Dallas to

fill up on gas. With every mile that I put in my rearview mirror, I felt more and more reassured that I was finally free. I feel like I'm forever scarred, but most of those scars have healed or faded away. I made the right move. I'm glad that I got out when I did because I 100% believe that had I stayed, I'd be six feet under. So to my ex-husband who I fled from that late February night, let's not meet again. Ever. Thanks for listening and make sure you stick around after the music for your extended ad free version of this week's episode.

If you're a patron, if you'd like to get access, head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up and support the show today. You'll get access to all kinds of bonus content with stories you won't hear anywhere else all ad free. This week you have heard Worst Downstairs Neighbor Ever by Acid Rainfall, Knives by Lika29, I Was Working With A Stalker by SpiritualWay7315, Man Trying To Get Me to open my door by Nice Human The Man Who Tried to get through my window by Explanation No. 1 The Men in the Forest by Eddie226 Creepy encounter during urban exploration by Environment Healthy14

And finally, He was my high school sweetheart by public alarm 2275. 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. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. And finally, don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Odd Trails and the old time radio cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and don't forget on May 4th at 7pm Pacific, we'll be live at twitch.tv slash cryptic

county performing a full episode of Let's Not Meet all on video. There will be plenty of guests and lots of scary stories. You won't want to miss that. Again, that's twitch.tv slash cryptic county on May 4th, Saturday at 7pm Pacific. Everyone stay safe. I I discovered this podcast about six months ago. I'm Alex L. I'm Libby Delaney. Welcome to this morning walk podcast. We started this show because after our morning walks, we would connect and have a conversation and the things that we were seeing smelling learning might be really interesting for someone else to hear.

We are so excited that This Morning Walk podcast has joined Blind New Audio, a new podcast network from executive producers Chip and Joanna Gaines. Follow, share, and listen to This Morning Walk podcast wherever you get your podcasts.