Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 14x19: Someone in the Woods (feat. Mike Lobel)

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

Stories in this episode: It Wasn't His Room | boyfriendsweaters (0:40) Date Didn't Pass the Vibe Check | skeptickall (13:21) Escape From the Unknown | Crafty Dingo (18:04) Nighttime Lyft Driver | NecrOphelia (22:45) A Childhood Friend Threatened to Kill Me | Jdogmcfly (27:38) The Follower | strangepioneer (31:33) Uneasy Encounter With Young Couple on Swedish Countryside | Recent_Influence_699 (35:39) The Someone (Or Someones) in the Woods | LostInThePine (38:02) Extended Patreon Content: A Tipsy Getaway | Lexie Strangers at the Door | 4catsinthecity My Sweet 16th Sleepover | fruitloops96 Car Creeper | pomogirl The Inner Voice | Stormy Raindrop Due to periodic changes in ad placement, time stamps are estimates and are not always accurate. You might recognize Mike Lobel’s voice from his early acting days on shows like Really Me or Degrassi: The Next Generation, where he played the unforgettable Jay Hogart. In recent years, Mike has stepped behind the camera, building a career as a picture editor and director. Now, he’s telling his most personal story yet. This fall, Mike releases his first feature-length documentary, Don’t Come Upstairs—a raw and intimate journey into a long-buried family secret his father kept hidden for over 30 years. It’s a powerful exploration of truth, memory, and the search for reconciliation. Follow Mike on social media for updates and release info—Don’t Come Upstairs premieres this fall, and you won’t want to miss it. Mike's Links: - mikelobel.com - instagram.com/mikelobel Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/84WXQud4gE Follow: - Twitch - https://twitch.tv/crypticcounty - Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/ - Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/ - TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@crypticcounty Check out the other Cryptic County podcasts like Odd Trails, Cryptic Encounters, 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! Text MEET to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products, plus FREE shipping. Message and data rates may apply.  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].     

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Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. When I was 18, I worked at the front desk at a residence building at my college. During the summer, the building operated as a hotel, so two and a half floors were hotel rooms, and on half of the third floor there were student rooms. The whole building operated on a swipe key system that was pretty outdated, and all of the doors were powered by four AA batteries. If the batteries died, there was a fairly lengthy process to replace them and reprogram the door. Late one night, this dark-haired man came to the front desk from inside the building

while I was working an overnight shift. It was about 2 a.m. He said that he left his keycard in his room. I made him a new one, which I've always considered my first error of the night. Technically, hotel guests could have as many room keys remade as they wanted. Students, however, were supposed to be given temporary key cards for a $2 fee that would be refunded when their original key card was located. As I gave the guy a new key card for his room, I asked him if he was a student or a hotel

guest. He replied, student. At this point, I should have checked our system to apply the $2 fee to his account, but I got caught up in doing other administrative duties, so I forgot. Honestly, I was quick to trust people at this job. I trusted everyone I encountered easily, but I quickly learned not to. Later on in the night, maybe around 3 or 4 a.m., he came back to the desk again and said that he couldn't get into his room.

I asked if he just forgot his key again, and he said no, and stated that the door just wasn't working. I asked if a light was coming on when he swiped the card and he said no, so I figured the batteries were indeed dead. I told him I had to change the batteries so I went up to his room with him. He asked me for my name and I told him, but he didn't tell me his. I opened the room door manually with a master key and told him I needed to prop it open while I worked on the back panel to replace the batteries. He said, no, it's okay, I'll close it. Then he closed and deadbolted the door. I remember

thinking that was really weird. But I just brushed it off. I had changed the batteries on plenty of other doors by this point, so I knew some students were apprehensive about having their doors propped open and having their room on display for anyone walking by. He had a thick accent, so I thought he must have been a student from abroad, since the university had a lot of students from other countries where English wasn't their first language. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and thought I was possibly experiencing a language barrier with him. Even so, I just couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

I genuinely felt like something was wrong, but I did try to ignore how I was feeling so that I wouldn't freak him out. While I was trying to focus on fixing the door as quickly as possible, he kept trying to pull me further into his room. He told me that his bed was broken and he needed me to take a look at it. He specified that there was something underneath it and that it needed to be fixed. He specified that there was something underneath it and that it needed to be fixed. He then held out a little gold key that looked like a standard house key and said,

here's the key, go get it, and then threw it under the bed. He was also saying that there was a leak under the fridge. He just kept trying to come up with these reasons to get me down on the ground by rattling off random problems. I said no to checking out any of these issues and told him I'd send maintenance up in the morning so that they could take a look at anything that seemed to be broken. I had my back to him as I kept working on the door and he asked me if I would take off my glasses. I told him I couldn't since I needed them to him as I kept working on the door, and he asked me if I would take off my glasses.

I told him I couldn't since I needed them to see. His tone and voice instantly changed in response to this. In the most steady, chilling manner, he said, Ella, it's okay. You can take them off. He then reached around from behind me and tried to take them off. He then reached around from behind me and tried to take them off. I swatted his hand away, and while trying to remain composed I said, No thanks, I need to keep them on. Even though he was creeping me out, I didn't want to seem rude.

I didn't want to get in trouble if he complained about me, or risk upsetting him and having him yell at me. I then got up to grab something from the door repair kit, and as I did so, I undid the dead bolt on the door and started to open it. He jumped toward the door to close it again and told me to keep it closed. I let him know that I couldn't keep it closed since I had to start reprogramming it from the front. While I held the door open with my foot and grabbed something from the door repair kit,

he started playing with the wispy hair at the top of my forehead and tried to touch my shoulder. I swatted him away again and asked him not to touch me and focused on getting the fuck out of there. Once again, he tried to get me to follow him into the bedroom, saying that the bed was broken, and I went as far as the door frame to see if I could spot any actual problem. This was when I realized that he had nothing in his room. On my way back to the door, I also happened to catch that there seemed

to be no dishes in the kitchen and no shower curtain in the bathroom, nothing. This wasn't his room. My brain once again went back to my theory that he was a student from abroad. I just thought that he must have arrived that day and hadn't gotten a chance to buy anything yet, but again, in the pit of my stomach I knew that something was wrong. I fiddled around with the door a few more seconds before announcing that it was fixed and quickly gathered the door kit and left.

Before I could reach the elevator, he came out without his shoes on to follow me. He tried to get back in to get his shoes and called out, Ella, the door isn't fixed, you need to come back. I went back and opened the door manually and told him if the door was broken, I'd have to send up maintenance to fix it in the morning. I knew that he was going to follow me to the elevator again, so I closed the door behind me once I went inside and ran down the stairwell as fast as I could. When I got to the front desk, I checked the computer and saw that the room that he was

in was supposed to be empty. It wasn't a student room or a hotel room. So, I locked myself in our back office and called campus security. They came down a few minutes later and went behind the desk. I yelled at him to get on the other side and wait, and I kept my tone stern with him, since I knew that he wasn't a resident. He then tore the corner off of a slip of paper that he had sitting on the desk, drew a flower on it, and then put it back on top of the papers.

When security arrived, he ran back up to the empty room and tried to convince him that he lived there so that he wouldn't have to leave. He kept showing them his key, which had suddenly decided to work on the door somehow. They escorted him back downstairs and came to ask me if he really did live there. I'm not sure why they did this since I already confirmed that he didn't. I remember shooting them a look, like, that's why I called you guys crying and terrified. The guy just kept interjecting to argue that he did live there, yet he couldn't even recall his room number when asked.

Security then asked him for a student card. He said that he couldn't produce it. So they told him that he would have to leave if he couldn't prove that he lived there. While they were grabbing his information, I was listening from the office, and I could tell that he was lying. The phone number he gave was just a bunch of random numbers. Before he gave them his name, he said, um, as if trying to think of a name. When they asked him for his address, he vaguely said, across the street.

One security guard asked if he lived in the apartment complex across the street, and he said yes, but couldn't tell them the building number. He did, however, say his apartment number was 1200. I actually moved into that complex a few months later, and there was no 1200. When security asked what his purpose was for sneaking into a room, he just kept up with the ums and uhs, saying that he didn't know. They would ask, were you trying to see a friend? Do you know anybody who lives here?

Were you here to hurt somebody? But he just kept fidgeting and saying, I don't know. No reason. I was just here. He even tried to tell them that he was my friend, at which point I poked my head out of the office to say that I had never seen him before that night. He left and we didn't call the police, since he technically didn't do anything, other than pose himself as a student resident, but it was still unsettling. Later, when I was trying to think of how he knew what room was vacant, it dawned on me.

One of the housekeepers had been using it as their personal break room, and earlier that day, another housekeeper came to the desk and told me that they found the door deadbolted open, and they saw that the TV was on. There was a housekeeper in there watching TV. She must have forgotten to close the door when she left for the night. So when the creep let himself into the building, he found it. I never saw him again, and to this day I have no clue what he was doing there. I haven't worked there since last winter.

But overnight shifts still give me the creeps. Stay safe and trust nobody. IQ Mix is a zero sugar drink mix from IQ Bar that hydrates, boosts your mood, and promotes mental clarity. iMix has three times the electrolytes of other sports drinks and is packed with electrolytes and nutrients shown to support sustained cognitive and physical performance. It comes in seven refreshing flavors, like passion fruit, pina colada, lemon lime, peach, mango, pink lemonade, and raspberry lemonade.

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energy and mental clarity. So it's a win-win for me. I love IQMix. And right now, IQBar is offering our special podcast listeners 20% off all IQBar products, plus get free shipping. To get your 20% off, text MEET to 64,000. Text MEET to 64,000. That's MEET to 64,000. That's meet to 64,000. Message and data rates apply. See terms for details. I'm a 24-year-old male, and I've recently branched out with dating.

I ordered food from Uber Eats late one night, and when I was done, I decided to try and find someone to hook up with while I was in the city, away from my rural home. My attempts to find someone on Grindr for a quick meetup were unsuccessful, but I wasn't quite ready to give up yet, so I got on another app and started swiping. The first swipe of the day seemed like it was a lucky one, or so I had thought. At 4 AM, I got a few messages that went like this. Come chill, I had thought. At 4 a.m., I got a few messages that went like this. Come chill. I'm bored.

Let's go with the flow and get to know each other. In their final message, they gave me their number and address and specified that they lived in a borough of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was unnervingly forward, but I thought I'd take a chance. So I texted the number and said, hey, are you still up? They replied, yes, come chill, let's talk. Have you had breakfast yet? I asked.

They said they hadn't had breakfast, so I offered to go get some for us. They seemed indifferent about this idea, so I let them know I'd just head out to them, and it would only be a 30-minute drive. I asked them if they wanted to talk over the phone in the meantime, and they said they were interested in doing that but needed to take a shower first. When I was about 10 minutes from the address, I got a text from them. They said, I need 15 more minutes.

I was fine with this, but since I didn't get a chance to talk with them, I couldn't get a sense of who they were. So, I took my knife with me and positioned it appendix style to the side of my waist just in case. When I got there, I circled the block to scope the place out and find parking. I was hoping to find a parking space that was close in case I needed to get out of there. I ended up finding a spot close by, but I didn't park directly in front of their address. Just then a car pulled up and parked in the street right in front of this place.

Whoever this was just sat there in the car and waited for a bit, but they never got out. I eventually gained the courage to go up to the door but was also mentally prepared in case shit went down. When I knocked on the door, the door opened. I didn't recognize the person who opened the door, but I told them who I was there to see so they let me in and directed me to the door to my left. The guy who opened the door then stood between me and the exit and said, come on man, what the fuck?

As if on cue, another man entered the building and they went upstairs. I think this was the man who parked right out front but never got out. There were three apartments in this building. One was to the left as soon as you entered the main door, out front but never got out. There were three apartments in this building. One was to the left as soon as you entered the main door, then the other was up some stairs facing the main door, but I didn't pay too much attention to where the last one was. I knocked on the door of the apartment to see my date, and they answered right away.

They said, I still need a few more minutes, babe, and then shut the door again. I didn't get much more than a glimpse of their face in the process. Once they shut the door, I was in the hall alone. I then heard two to three male voices nearby speaking to each other inaudibly as music dampened their hushed conversation. In that moment, my heart sank into my stomach. I felt an urgency to leave before anyone noticed I had left, so I walked out and went straight to my car.

After I started my car, I drove forward. I watched a man in the street walk in my direction to see where I was going. I then made a U-turn only to find my original path was blocked by an idle car. So I took a side street just to get out of there. I passed through a few lights, but noticed that the car that had parked in front of the building was now right next to me looking at me. I managed to lose them by going around big trucks, and I finally felt relieved when I reached a more familiar territory.

I don't know what was going to happen to me that night, but something was definitely off. Looking back at it now, I'm glad that my instincts kicked in while I still had a chance. This happened quite a few years ago when I had an affinity for a particular white substance that's known to be ingested in the form of lines. One very cold, snowy night at around 11 p.m., I went for a walk to meet my dealer. I had never been to his place before, so he gave me the address to a small two-story apartment

building that had maybe six units in it. Upon arrival, I noticed several strangers inside. After they had hit their pipes, two unkempt guys came over to sit at the dining table while I waited for my dealer. I've never smoked anything besides weed or cigarettes, so I was instantly uncomfortable. They tried making small talk, but I grew increasingly uneasy, so I gave them vague, short answers. After I paid for all of my stuff, I quickly grabbed a baggie and got up from the table. That was when one of the guys offered to walk me home.

My heart began to sink as I politely declined. Oh, I hesitated as this caught me off guard. I'm okay, thanks. I don't live far. Then the other guy stood up and said, no, really, we can walk with you. We don't mind. We have to get going anyway. That was when my instincts finally kicked in. I remember feeling very aware and very scared. I was

immediately thankful that I was fully dressed and ready to go while they still had to put on their coats and shoes. I figured if I left right at that moment, I'd have a decent head start and be able to quickly disappear. They said something else as I headed for the door, but I pretended to make a phone call, waved goodbye to my dealer, and closed the door behind me. I then jogged down the hallway to the exterior door, and once I got outside, I ran for the street. I decided not to take the fast route home because from the building they'd be able

to see me. I also did not want them to know even the slightest direction that I lived in if they were to follow. The building was at the end of a street, so instead of going straight up the hill, which was the way I initially came from, I turned right and started jogging. I kept glancing back and finally I saw them. They were about one block behind, following me. The street that I needed to get to was across the intersection on my left, about one more

block ahead, at a four-way light. I noticed the corner house on my right. There was an older man sitting on his porch smoking. I recognized him since he was another dealer whom I had met only a few weeks before my usual guy was dry. As I approached his porch, I asked him if he remembered me. He said that he did. So then he asked, what's wrong?

I quietly told him, these two guys are following me. Then I asked if I could go inside until they passed. He didn't hesitate, so we went inside where I explained what was happening. He told me not to worry and assured me that I was safe there. He told me that I could stay as long as I needed to. Then we heard a knock at the door, and I began to panic. He went to the door, looked through the peephole, and yelled, Just a minute!

He came back quickly and whispered that he knew the guys and was going to invite them in to have a hit. He then told me that I should sneak out through his back door, walk down the right side of the yard, and find the gate that would lead to a side street. He instructed me to stick to the side of his house, close to the shrubs, and double-check the porch to make sure that they did go inside. I followed his plan, and when the coast was clear, I didn't jog.

I sprinted up the street and zigzagged all the way home. When I think back now, I'm in disbelief of my actions. I can't believe how foolish I was. I thought that I was invincible. I was far too trusting, but I truly thank God for the man who helped me that night. I don't know what those two guys wanted from me, but I am forever grateful that I never have to find out. This happened to me recently. My boyfriend lives in the next town over, so he orders a lift for me to go back and forth just to see him. This is something we'd be doing for several months without any problem.

We spent the day together and had an amazing time as always. After he ordered a lift for me to go back home, the driver pulled up, and my boyfriend put me in the car and then gave me a passionate kiss goodbye. This driver was from Cuba. He hardly spoke any English and was using Google Translate to talk the entire time. At first he said, Do you mind sitting in the front seat? I don't like it when people sit behind me.

I let him know that it wasn't really a problem. However, instead of letting me out of the car, he asked me to climb over the seat. This made me a bit uncomfortable, but I quickly grew even more uncomfortable when I realized that he was staring at me the whole time that I was doing this. He then proceeded to say, I hope I'm not being too daring, but you're very beautiful." I get this compliment from time to time, so I just kept my response simple and said thank you, even though I was put off by this.

Then he went on like a regular driver does. He asked me if the music volume was okay, you know, regular stuff. And then he asked me the address that he was driving me to. Am I taking you to your home? He asked. Yes, I'm going home. I replied. Can I go home with you?

He asked. I laughed at this and said no. The Lyft driver then asked about the guy who put me in the car. He asked if he was my boyfriend or husband. and I said yes, he's my boyfriend, but soon to be husband. He asked, can I be your boyfriend too? Which was a hard no for me.

I said absolutely not. No wasn't enough for him. He asked me why, so I let him know that I was totally against that. I said that I was very much in love with my boyfriend whom I was extremely loyal and faithful to. He doesn't have to know, he insisted. In Cuba, we believe in having multiple partners and not all of them know about each other. That may be, I replied, but that's not for me.

Then he said, your boyfriend made the mistake of sending you home alone. I would have taken you all the way home to make sure that you got there safe. I was getting upset by what he was saying and started defaulting to laughing at him since I didn't know what to say. I also knew that it would be in my best interest to remain friendly, since I know how ugly things could turn if I started to give him attitude. He didn't speak again for a while, but when he did, he asked yet again if he could come home with me.

I told him no, just as I did before. But you're just so beautiful, he nearly whined. I wanna be your boyfriend, your other boyfriend. I didn't even dignify this with a verbal response, I just shook my head no as I fidgeted with my phone. He kept talking and told me that he had a lot of money and that he could take care of me. I told him that I didn't care about that and let him know that I still was not interested.

This still wasn't enough for him, since he asked me if he could give me his number so that we could text each other. After what seemed like an eternity, we pulled up to my house. He got out and tried to help me with my bags, but I declined. He told me to hold on, then pulled out his phone to translate one more time. He then asked, Can I come inside with you? I just told him to have a good night and darted inside as fast as I could, locking all of the locks behind me.

I then called my boyfriend immediately so that he could report this weirdo since I didn't want this unpleasant experience to happen to anyone else. The only thing that Lyft did was give my boyfriend an automated $5 credit to his account for the unpleasant experience. The app didn't even allow my boyfriend to specify why it was unpleasant. So ladies, in case you're unaware, creepy rideshare drivers are definitely a thing. Please be careful. I haven't had too many experiences that I could deem creepy happen to me in my life. However, I had an experience with an old acquaintance from school that kept me paranoid for a good bit of my childhood years. Obviously, I won't share any real names in the story, I'll just call the girl Jess.

For a while, during my school years, starting in elementary school and up until middle school, I went to school with Jess. I wasn't friends with her, but I knew her. And I wouldn't turn down any time to talk with her. She was a bit odd, in the way that she presented herself at least. She was dainty and sort of just kept to herself. She almost had this ethereal vibe to her. She had blue eyes, completely white hair, and she was always soft-spoken.

One day I was at our local park during the weekend, and Jess and her little brother were also there. We played the usual park games together and had a good time. Eventually we ended up playing hide-and-seek, and I was the seeker. I found her little brother, and we eventually found her at the top of the slide. Our town's park used to have this giant frog slide that had a platform at the top. From there, you could go down any of three different slides. We found her on one end of the platform, and when we caught her going down the other end, her tone shifted.

Like completely shifted. She suddenly had this unnerving, stern expression on her face, which was a stark contrast to how she had been acting. She then turned to me and flatly said, "'I'm going to kill you.'" This verbal threat genuinely scared me. It made me feel like I had done something wrong, so I ran away and hid elsewhere in the park. Soon enough, she confronted me and said that she was going to come clean.

She apologized and revealed what she had been keeping from me. She revealed that she was an actual vampire. She told me this was 100% true, and she was keeping it a secret from everyone, since she wasn't supposed to reveal the truth. When Jess made this confession to me that evening at the park, she told me straight to my face that with her powers she was able to see what I was doing 24-7. She said that if I told anyone, she would come to my house in the middle of the night and kill me.

Now this was terrifying to hear as a young, gullible kid. I really couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. So as far as I knew, this was a genuine threat. I kept her secret for years, even after I left school. I was torn about whether or not to tell anyone about it. Years later, I came to learn that none of what she was saying was real, but the years I lived with that paranoia in the back of my mind are just time that can't be given back to me.

The entire time I knew this girl, she wholeheartedly believed she was a vampire. She was so adamant that to this day, I don't believe she was screwing with anyone. I think she actually believed it. Having someone threaten to come to your house and kill you in your sleep just isn't normal, and it's very unsettling for a child to be saying it to another child. In any case, wherever Jess is now, I hope she's doing well, and I hope she eventually grew out of the vampire phase. This story took place in northeast Oklahoma around 2009 when I was 14 years old. Back then, my aunt and I did everything together.

She was my best friend, my rock, my everything. Our favorite thing to do in our boring rural town was to just drive around. I had just finished school for the summer, so it was May, and she offered to take me on a celebratory drive around town. In my hometown, there's an old mental hospital that has been closed since the 90s. It's located in a very desolate area. I had always been fascinated by it. She was as well. She even worked there as

a teenager. There's a prison located extremely close to it with guards and white trucks frequently driving the roads, preventing people from trying to sneak into the abandoned mental hospital. We both decided to drive around this abandoned mental hospital since we thought that it was just too cool and creepy, especially since there's a cemetery where many of the patients were buried. It was just beyond the hospital and the doctors' houses. Past the cemetery is even more desolate. It's quite far from the town, and it's down this one lone single-lane winding road.

So we were driving and having fun, just talking about anything and everything. It was the late afternoon, probably around 4.30. It was just like any other drive that we had been on so many times. But then, I looked in the rearview mirror, and I saw a white Jeep Cherokee that appeared to be from the 90s right behind us. Even though it had seemingly come out of nowhere, we both shrugged it off and assumed it was a prison guard or something like that. It became more unnerving the longer we drove.

He never turned off onto a side road, he just kept following us. I remember my aunt playing it so calmly, but I knew that she was fully freaking out. She kept asking, is the jeep still following us? There were times when I didn't see him, so I'd say no, but then he would reappear right behind us again. He was following so closely that at one point, I somewhat saw his face. He was wearing a hat and sunglasses. He seemed to be middle-aged, and his dashboard was covered with junk. We then kept driving further on this road through the middle of nowhere. At one point, we reached a railroad crossing on a hill.

After we passed it, I didn't see him. We were rejoicing at first, but then there he was again. He followed us for what felt like hours. If we sped up, so did he. We really weren't sure of what to do, and we couldn't call anybody since we were in such a rural area that neither of us had cell phone signals. Finally, we merged onto the highway.

We had no idea where we were, but that didn't matter. We were just elated to have found a main road. We turned onto it and my aunt sped off. When we got back to my mom's house, we were full of fear and adrenaline. We frantically said, We were out driving and this guy was following us. That was when my aunt finally confessed how scared she really was. It was terrifying to be out in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone signal and have

a strange car following us so diligently for so long. What if we had run out of gas? What if her car broke down? What would have happened? I still get chills when I think about looking in the rear view mirror and seeing his face. This happened a while ago when my brother and I were driving between two medium-sized cities. We live in Sweden, and it was late at night, so it was pitch black. On the stretch of road that we were on, there was nothing but forests, and since it was late, the road was very empty. We were on a narrow road without any kind of space on the sides.

It was flanked by low railings, and behind those, there were these high fences to prevent wildlife from getting onto the road. As we were driving, we suddenly saw a person ten meters in front of the car on the other side of the railing on the road. As we were driving, we suddenly saw a person 10 meters in front of the car on the other side of the railing on the road. My brother was driving over 80 kilometers per hour, so he didn't have a chance to maneuver, but we managed to fly by this person at full speed. It happened so fast. After the initial shock wore off, we both wondered what the hell that was. We agreed that we both saw a young woman dressed in black who was perched against the railing

in a strange way. Behind her on the other side of the railing stood a man in all black who was holding her from behind with both arms. The high fence was right behind them, so how did they even get there? There were no cars nearby, not that there was anywhere to stop with a car anyway. After a minute we decided to call the cops. They asked us to turn around and see if they were still there, but by the time we got back there, they were gone.

After the police arrived, they started searching for them with headlights, and we continued home. The only possible place for them to go was into the forest, as this was an area without any houses nearby. If that's where they were going, they weren't well equipped for that since it was dark and cold. They definitely didn't have any lamps or anything with them. My brother and I were shaken from this, and thinking about unexpectedly seeing those two

people out there really still haunts me. What was their deal? Was the guy holding the girl so that she wouldn't run in front of our car? Was she trying to escape from him? Our guest this week is Mike LaBelle. You may recognize his voice from his early acting days on shows like Really Me and Degrassi the Next Generation, where he played the unforgettable Jay Hoggart. In recent years, Mike has stepped behind the camera, building a career as a picture editor and director.

This fall, he releases his first feature length documentary called Don't Come Upstairs, but we'll talk more on that later. Let's get back to the show. I've shared this story with my roommates, who are from the same town where this happened. I've also talked about it a few times with some of the people who were there. But that's about it. I don't like to talk about this broadly, since inevitably, someone will say, really, we should go try and find that place again.

But I truly don't want to. I've looked for it on a map a few times, but I've never been able to find it, though my male friend who drove there that night swears he had the directions memorized after pulling them from Google's aerial maps. I'm originally from a major city in southern Ohio, and outside of town there are a number of smaller townships. One of these townships is known to be a little more rural and gritty. It's not in the same county as the city I live in, but it's not too far away.

In this area, there's this legend of Hell's Church. According to the locals, an old church burned down and Satanists do rituals there. Some also say that the church was actually a Satanist church to begin with and it burned down during a ritual. It honestly depends on who you ask as there are several Hell's Church myths in many different places in Ohio. Some of my friends decided they wanted to be ghost hunters and go check out haunted places around where we lived. We were juniors in high school and while most of us thought ghosts, hauntings, and whatnot were just stupid bullshit, we thought it would be funny to get out there and scare ourselves.

Plus, this was right around the time when most of my friends had gotten cars or drivers licenses so we were enjoying a new burst of freedom. I'm more of a scaredy cat than I let on about stuff like this, but I didn't want to look like a loser or a wuss in front of everyone. So one night in November, we decided we were going to go out and try to find this church. We had actually been to this location once before that year. That time we were with a friend who had a curfew, so after exploring an old barn and the railroad tracks on a bridge nearby we had to leave. To our disappointment, and my mild relief, we hadn't found the church during that trip,

which was supposedly just a chimney by that point. The next time we went we took two cars out there. We had to drive past the more populated areas of our city and the township to get back to this woodsy area. I honestly can't tell you how we got there, but I know it's off of a state highway. From there we had to go down an abandoned access road, past some old warehouses, and then down a dirt road. The end of the dirt road has a wide shoulder, so we parked our cars there.

We pretty much had to, since the road thins out from there and it was impossible to drive further down. Also, some of the land further down the road is private property, and there are some no trespassing signs posted. I'm sure a ton of kids go back here, so it didn't seem odd to me, and I assumed that the landowner wanted to deter people, so I barely thought twice about it at the time. We got out of our cars and started walking down the dirt road, wandering off the path from time to time to check out barns or clearings where we thought the chimney might be. At first, it was only scary because it was dark, and the barns we saw were

really old. But then, the barns started to get stranger. We saw some that were covered in these symbols that had been spray painted on them, but that's not what bothered us. We saw the carcasses of local wildlife that looked like they had been opened up. They were dried out and decomposed by the time we got there, along with other bits that looked like they might have come from animals as well. I was grossed out. But we all agreed that these were probably left by some teenagers trying to stage a fake satanic ritual.

We also thought it was possible that the animals were trapped in the dilapidated barn and were picked apart by other animals. This only made my friends more determined to find this stupid chimney. So they kept veering off the main path and taking off through the trees to check out the clearings. The other two friends and I hung back and stayed outside of the treeline, getting a little more nervous and then a little irritated when the others were coming up empty. As we kept going, we found a bike, propped up against the treeline.

It was a pretty juvenile looking bike that appeared to be something a 12 year old would ride. This was a little creepy to see, but we brushed it off and assumed it probably belonged to someone who owned the land. We decided to go a little further, and soon enough we found another bike. This bike was older and a little rusted, but still This bike was older and a little rusted but still undersized. We didn't talk too much about the second bike. We just kind of mumbled and said that it was probably still nothing. A few of the guys in our group were trying to amp up the situation by saying the bikes probably belonged to some kids who were murdered but no one was really having it. By this point, we'd been there for about two hours, and it was getting late. Plus, I think we were all a little more creeped out than any of us wanted to admit, so we

decided to head back to the cars. I was feeling relieved, happy to be getting the fuck out of there and heading back to my house. When we got back to the cars, we saw a road that went straight up a hill through the trees. At the start of the road, there was a big metal gate that had a road closed sign on it, which we had seen before, but for some reason, it had never occurred to us to try to go up that road. We had a small debate at the gate, which resulted in a nearly even split.

About half of the group wanted to venture up, while the others did not. I voted against going. But eventually the whole group decided we'd go up there quickly just to see. Both of the drivers wanted to go so there wasn't much we could do. We then climbed over the gate and started to go up the hill. The old paved road cracked and crumbled under our feet, though it was probably a solid asphalt road at some point. In addition to the road condition and the brush being an obstacle, someone had placed

a bunch of trees over the path to block the road off intentionally so cars couldn't get through. Some of the group started to seriously question if we should be doing this, arguing that somebody obviously wanted to keep people out of there, only to get teased for being afraid. So we kept going. I couldn't see where the road was supposed to end since it was so dark. We had a few flashlights with us, but they weren't doing us much good since the dense foliage made it hard to see. Plus, the road was extremely steep.

We were convinced the road was just going to keep going, but we suddenly reached its end. At the end of the steep road, the trees opened up, and at the top of the incline, there was a flat field. It was quite a sight. The field was completely flat, with tall prairie grass on either side, probably about two to three feet high. The path we were on then split into a large clearing. We were continuing down the path which led through the grass and to a cul-de-sac with three buildings. Two of the structures looked like farmhouses, but the third building looked more like a

barn. These were made of wood, and while they may have been painted at one point, they all looked mostly weathered and stripped by time. When I saw this, I was done. I wanted to leave. But of course, some of my friends said that we had to check out these buildings. I wasn't having it, though. I finally put my foot down, as did a few others, and we decided that we had seen enough.

So the three guys who wanted to go into the buildings told us to just wait there. While we weren't exactly big fans of being left in this field out in the open, we decided we couldn't just leave them. At this point, we had turned off our flashlights, since the moonlight was so strong. The three other guys then took off down this little path and the remaining four of us stood together, bitching about how stupid our friends were and making small talk. None of us vocalized this, but we were all looking at the tall prairie grass now and again as we were worried something

was going to jump out. This whole area was just so creepy. It was like an abandoned little settlement. As we were waiting, it felt like our friends were gone forever. We watched them as they approached one of the buildings and went inside. It was unlocked, I guess. We could see the flicker of their flashlights in the windows, and I just remember feeling so tense.

I remember feeling like I was watching a horror movie in real life. About ten minutes later, we saw our three friends coming towards us, lightly jogging, looking afraid for the first time all night. You idiots went inside, I asked, genuinely pissed off at them. One of my friends just looked at us, and I'll never forget what he said. It was full of bikes. There were just tons of bikes, and they were all chained to the walls. We didn't believe them, and we just kept waiting for

them to say they were kidding, but they insisted it was true. They said it was like whoever owned these buildings was just storing a bunch of bikes there, most of which were smaller like the two bikes we had seen earlier. They looked terrified, and as much as I didn't want to believe them, I knew I had to. These guys weren't the type to be able to pull a prank this elaborate. By then we agreed to get the fuck out of there, and we started running to the path to go back down the hill.

Then, all of a sudden, when we were about halfway across the field, we saw the headlights of a car as it was heading down the hill. It appeared to be heading to where our cars were. We saw them pass slowly, and we knew someone was out there looking for us. The road the car was driving down wasn't that long, so I knew they'd be turning around, circling back soon enough. And because our cars were there, I figured they'd probably wait for us.

We were all whispering about this as we picked up the pace and sprinted down the hill as fast as we could. I'm not a good runner, but I was hauling ass, basically hurtling over the fallen trees. Once we got down the hill, we didn't see any headlights, but we knew they couldn't be far away. One of my friends yelled, get in the fucking cars! And of course we were all fumbling with the doors like in a fucking horror movie. When we started our cars, the headlights came speeding down the road, and a giant black

truck came roaring up behind us. The truck seemed larger than life, raised up high off the ground. The whole thing was terrifying. But what was even more terrifying was that we couldn't see who was driving since it was still so dark and their headlights were blinding us. We peeled out of there as the truck was bearing down on us, chasing us out of there. The truck was getting real close to us, threateningly close, almost like it was trying to run us off the road.

We were all screaming, looking back at the truck, fighting to gain some distance. Once we got to the highway, we were switching lanes, trying to escape. Luckily, we were in sedans, so it was easier for us to weave in and out of traffic. But this truck was still chasing us. The two cars my friends and I were in wound up in different lanes on the highway, so the passengers of both cars were texting back and forth trying to communicate and form a plan. It took us about 15 minutes to lose that truck.

I'm not sure how we lost it, but once we did, we decided to duck off the road and into a sonic parking lot. We then sat in our cars for a little bit, watching the road to make sure we weren't going to get cornered or anything like that. When we finally got out of our cars to get food, everyone, even the guys who were trying to act tough the whole time, was pretty shaken up. As much as we talked it over, we just couldn't figure out what had happened.

Eventually, we all went home, during what was a pretty silent car ride due to exhaustion and lingering fear. We didn't talk about it again for a long time, and we never called the police, which, honestly, as an adult now, I feel like we should have. I don't think about it often, only during the fall, since that's when we went out there. When I do think about it, I can't help but ask myself, who chased us? Why was that little settlement abandoned? Who owned all those bikes?

And where are they now? Thanks for listening. Stick around after the music if you're a patron for your extended version of this week's episode. If you want to get access, go to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up and support the show today where you'll get access to ad free versions of every episode and bonus content every week in those extended episodes with stories you won't hear anywhere else. Again that's patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. Thanks again to our friend and guest Mike Labelle for coming on the show.

Again he's releasing a feature length documentary titled Don't Come Upstairs This Fall. It's a raw and intimate journey into a long buried family secret that his father kept hidden for over 30 years. It's a really powerful exploration of truth, memory, and the search for reconciliation. You can follow Mike on social media for updates and release info. Don't come upstairs, premieres this fall, and you're not going to want to miss it. I'm really excited about it, and I'm so happy to have been able to have him on the show. This Week You Have Heard It Wasn't His Room by Boyfriends Sweaters, Date Didn't Pass the Vibe Check by Skeptical, Escape from the Unknown by Crafty Dingo,

Nighttime Lift Driver by Necrophilia, A Childhood Friend Threatened to Kill Me by J. Dog McFly, The Follower by Strange Pioneer, Uneasy Encounter with a Couple on Swedish Countryside by recentinfluence699, and finally The Someone or Someones in the Woods by Lost in the Pine. 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 that's not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. Send your stories in to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com to hear them on the show.

And be sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts, like Odd Trails, Cryptic Encounters, and the old time radio cast, all at CrypticCountyPodcasts.com, and follow me on Twitch at twitch.tv slash Cryptic County for my livestreams. We'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet. Everybody stay safe. life. I'm a 20 year old female. I'm 5'5 with an athletic muscular build.