The Lets Read Podcast - 264: IT WAS STARING BACK AT ME | 29 True Scary Stories | EP 252

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

This episode includes narrations of true creepy encounters submitted by normal folks just like yourself. Today you'll experience horrifying stories about nights out with friends, driving late at night & the paranormal HAVE A STORY TO SUBMIT? [e-mail] FOLLOW ME ON - ►YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/letsreadofficial ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsread.official/ ► Twitter - https://twitter.com/LetsRead ♫ Music, Editing & Cover art: INEKT https://www.youtube.com/@inekt Today's episode is sponsored by Betterhelp

Oh, excuse me. Why are you walking so close behind me? Well, you're a tall guy. You throw a decent shadow when I'm walking in it to keep out of this bright sun. It hurts my eyes. Okay, well you know what? Specsavers, you can get two pairs of glasses from $149 and, oh you'll like this, one can be a pair of prescription sunglasses. Sounds great! Where's the nearest store? Mmm, not far. Come on. Let's hurry then! To my count. One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two. Visit Specsa nearest store? Not far. Come on. Let's hurry then. To my count. One, two, one, two, one, two. Visit Specsavers.ca for details.

Discover the exciting action of BetMGM Casino. Check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer or enjoy over 3,000 games to choose from like Cash Eruption. UFC Gold Blitz. Make instant deposits or same-day withdrawals. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only.

Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Back Back when I was 18 years old, for about 6 months my boss drove me to work. I know that may sound a little weird but I didn't get a license yet and he knew my mom. It also helped that he lived about 2 minutes from my house. It was just a weird situation and no matter how I try to preface it, I just know that it sounds weird. Most mornings the drive to work was uneventful.

We'd usually get to work at around 6.30am and neither one of us would talk in the car. He was usually hungover and I just wasn't the talkative type. I'm a quiet person by nature but I was even quieter back then. One day, we had to go to work at 3 in the morning for inventory. My boss decided it would be good to show me, so I got up extra early for that 3am shift. On the way into work that morning, my boss said that he wanted to grab some coffee at the gas station since it was the only place that was open. When we parked, as he was getting out of the car, he told me that he was going to hit the

restroom as well. I just nodded and decided to wait in the car. I was exhausted from staying up way too late playing video games and I was planning on just resting my eyes until we got to work. I'm assuming a few minutes had passed, I don't know exactly how long it was because I was falling asleep while I was waiting for my boss. With no notice, the backseat door opened and it startled me in my half-asleep state. I just thought it was my boss and then I felt movement behind me. I finally looked behind me and just sitting there in the backseat was a woman. She didn't appear to be homeless or look like she was on anything. She just looked strange. And we made eye contact for a few seconds and then I went back around trying to process

what was happening. I'm a really quiet person and I was even more quiet back then like I said and I didn't know what to say or what to do. I was just hoping my boss was going to come back out soon. I started to finally work up the courage to ask what was going on and I was immediately freaked out when I turned around. She was sitting there, now smiling, but looking forward. I don't really know how to describe her eyes. They were cold and dark and seemed almost lifeless even though she was kind of pretty. Even as I write this, I still can't get the image of her out of my mind. It had probably been about 30 seconds since all this started and I finally uttered my words when I asked her, Hey, is everything okay?

You know this isn't your car, right? Instead of answering with words, she just started to scream, erratically. It was so erratic that it was shaking the entire car, it felt like, or maybe just my head. I jumped back, just out of panic, confusion, and shock, and I saw my boss walking out of the gas station. I just dove out of the passenger side door and shut it behind me. My boss was confused and asked me what the heck was going on and I just pointed to the woman in the back seat of his car. We both just stood there, almost in amazement and disbelief. She was still screaming, shaking and rocking back and forth. We could physically see the car shaking

from her wild movements from inside the car. My boss approached the back seat where she was sitting and as he grabbed the door handle, she put both her hands on the window and I kid you not, I started to hiss and growl at my boss. He said nope and walked back towards me. I was standing probably 10 feet away at this point. He immediately called the police and we were hoping that they would arrive soon since it was a small town. The entire time that we were waiting for the cops we could hear the woman screaming and the car still shaking. After a minute or two of waiting for the police we went inside and watched her from inside the gas station.

There was just something unsettling about the entire situation. She wasn't trying to rob us, she only looked like she wanted to cause harm when we got near the car. I mean, she was sitting in the back seat, so she wasn't even trying to steal the car. It was just all so weird. The cops showed up maybe five minutes after the call. We went outside to greet the officer and fill him in on the situation and he looked confused and I'm not going to lie, he almost looked kind of amused by the whole situation. The officer tried to get the woman to come out calmly but after a minute of her screaming and growling he basically went into the car and apprehended her. And this is where

this bad dream truly turned into a nightmare. Upon arrest, the officer had to remove four knives from her person. Yeah, you heard that right. This woman had four sharp objects on her. Thankfully, she never showed us the knives or even hinted at the fact that she had them. But even more disturbing perhaps is the fact that she didn't have an ID on her and she wasn't talking, so the officer had no idea who she was. This complete stranger came out of nowhere. She got into my boss' car without saying a word. She went from smiling to off-the-wall insane.

Then, to cap things off, she had no ID and four deadly weapons on her. I've had some wild things happen to me over the years, but I'd have to say that this was probably the strangest and most terrifying that's ever happened to me. It's been years, and I remember this moment like it was yesterday. I'll never forget that woman's face, and I honestly wonder what she's up to now. Last year was the first time I truly encountered an evil person. I didn't really think people like this existed. And this is going to sound very ignorant, but I was of the mindset that if something bad happened to you, then you probably were in a situation where you shouldn't have been, obviously not including accidents. Well, I totally changed my stance on that opinion after last year. Horrible people out there do exist, so if you take anything from this story

that I'm about to tell, just remember to always be careful and alert, especially around people you don't know. I was house and pet sitting for a very close friend of mine. She and her husband were taking a weekend getaway for their anniversary. They lived in a mostly secluded area. There wasn't much going on and that's kind of what I liked about it. This was like a weekend getaway for me honestly. I did some errands during the day and I turned in early for the night. I made some chili and planned on just watching some movies with the dog all night. A little after 8pm the doorbell rang and it actually scared me. Even the dog looked pretty spooked.

I could tell this place doesn't get very many visitors, especially after 8 at night. I slowly answered the door. I kept the front screen door locked and just opened the main door. The dog finally started barking and going crazy. I was surprised at what I was looking at. You see, it was a young man, probably in his twenties. He had shaggy hair but was pretty clean shaven. He was rocking two diamond earring studs and was wearing grey sweatpants and a grey t-shirt. I stuttered my way through asking the question, can I help you? The young guy looked scared and almost sad and asked if I had any heavy straps.

I was confused by the question and I think the guy could tell. He went on to explain that his car had gone off the road and was now stuck in the mud. He wanted the straps to help pull his car out. I just politely told the kid that I didn't have any straps and I closed the door. He wanted the straps to help pull his car out. I just politely told the kid that I didn't have any straps and I closed the door. Part of me felt bad for him but I know myself and I know that I wouldn't have been much help. Not to mention I didn't have heavy straps and I doubt that they had any in this house. After finishing watching an episode of The Office, I was getting ready to go to bed. It wasn't that late, but in my older age, 11 may as well have been 3 in the morning. Just as I was shutting off the lights, the doorbell rang again.

This time the dog started to bark right away. She must have known something wasn't right. Before approaching the door, I looked at the time on the stove, and it was 11.13 at night. I looked through the small window next to the door, and stove and it was 11 13 at night. I looked through the small window next to the door and it was the same young guy as before. Now I was frustrated and angry and I was about to tell the guy to get off the property when he says please sir I'm so sorry to bother you again nobody else in the neighborhood answered the door and my phone's dead. I almost got the car I just need a little push can Can you please come and help me?

I'll give you 20 bucks. I was beyond annoyed, but I could hear the anxiety in his voice. I must have been really tired because I agreed to help the kid. I know that sounds crazy, but I don't know. At the moment, it seemed like the right thing to do. The guy was excited and started to thank me, and we started making our way down the dark and not very populated street. I could see about a hundred yards down the road. A small car was off to the side of the road. The guy pointed ahead and said the car is just up there. While I was walking, it dawned on me that I could have and should have just called the police to help.

And then I noticed that I didn't even have my phone in my pocket to call the police in case we couldn't get the car out of the ditch. As we were closing in on the car, I looked down and even in the darkness, I could see that the ground wasn't very muddy. I started having thoughts to myself like, how is the car stuck in the mud with no mud? And once I was standing next to the car, I looked at the tires and noticed that the car didn't look stuck at all. Before I could even ask any questions, a large man who was significantly older than the guy at the door jumped out from behind the car, grabbing me, tackling me to the ground. He started to slap my face, and then he demanded that I hand over my phone and wallet. But I guess the joke was on him looking back because like I just said, the phone was still in the house and so was my wallet. I was able to shout that little bit of

information to the man who looked angry that he couldn't now rob me. He then ripped off my smart watch, which again the joke was on him because it was just some cheap $30 knockoff that just looked like an Apple watch. After taking the watch, they got into the car and just drove off into the night. I ran back to the house, calling the cops. I did the best I could to describe the car and the man who actually attacked me, but I didn't really get a good look at either, especially since it was so dark out. I was able to give a decent description of the younger guy but I don't know how much it helped. As far as I know they never caught them and if they did it wasn't because of me. I told my friend and her husband and they said that they never experienced anything

like that before or since. Like I said in the beginning, this really changed me. I know firsthand now that terrible people really are out there and they truly do want to hurt you. So just be careful and don't just trust people because they look innocent. When I was in college, I attended film school and let me tell you, I loved it. What a great experience. I met so many awesome people and learned so much. And I always loved it when we had a chance to create a short film. A chance to be able to tell stories with your unique vision. For me, I had a really hard time brainstorming and coming up with ideas while I was physically at the school.

I couldn't concentrate in the dorms and the library and places like that just didn't give the creative vibe. So I started going on these long night drives whenever I needed to brainstorm. I'd throw on some tunes and just drive around letting my mind go to all sorts of wild places. On one of these night drives I started to see flashing lights in my rear view mirror. When I looked back the lights were getting closer and it was clear that it was getting pulled over for something. I pulled over and noticed that the car pulled over behind me. The lights went off and I just sat there for a minute or two contemplating what I could have done possibly to get pulled over like this. I took the key out of the car and set it on my dashboard. I don't know if that's like a universal thing but I was always told when you get pulled over put the key there. I started to look

in the mirror trying to make out any details that I could but it was just too dark. From what I could tell it looked like a pickup truck but I couldn't be 100% certain. I started to have my doubts that this was even a real cop. I had just never seen a pickup truck cop car. And I started thinking that it could have been an undercover cop, but I still kept going to that same point, which was, what did I do? Finally, someone emerged from the vehicle. It was dark, but I could clearly see that this person was wearing black pants and a black hooded sweatshirt. Full alarm bells were going off because I was sure that I had never seen a cop with a hoodie on, but it didn't speed away because I

still had that fear of, what if this was a cop? I would be fleeing the police and they would have my license plate and it was a whole mental battle that I was having. He looked like wobbling all over the place as he was walking towards my car and when he got to my window, which was rolled down about a quarter of the way, I could see most of his face even through the hood as it was firmly on. He starts shouting from outside the window, step out of the vehicle now. I could immediately smell the booze reeking out of his breath towards my face through the little crack in the window. And I know I'm stupid, but it took me this long to finally be sure that this wasn't a real cop. And I just yelled through the window, no, grabbed my keys, and tried to start my car.

While I was struggling to find the keyhole, the man shouted again, then I said, get out right now. He then lifted part of his sweatshirt and started to pull something out that looked like a firearm, but I couldn't be sure. I just ducked down, put the car into gear, and drove off as fast as I could. I couldn't enjoy any relief in that moment though, because within seconds, I now saw him following me. He didn't turn on the flashing lights, but got close enough to my car that he was straight up tailgating. If I switched lanes, he switched lanes. The speed limit on these dark roads was 45 miles per hour and I was driving over 65 miles per hour trying to lose this guy.

Before I knew it, I was almost 30 minutes away from campus and this guy was still directly on my tail. I then did something that I had seen a million times in movies and I couldn't believe that it actually worked. I was closing in on an on-ramp for the highway. I waited into the last possible second and then swerved over and got onto the highway, forcing him to miss the ramp or he may have crashed. About two minutes passed and I saw no lights behind me. I hoped that I had finally lost this madman. Instead of getting off at the next exit, which I had a feeling that he may have thought was my plan, I made an illegal U-turn on the highway and got to the other side. I made the short drive back and got off the exit that I got on. I had no idea where I was.

I drove around slowly for a while until I found a 24-hour gas station and I go inside and told this guy what had happened and basically just begged him to call the police in that moment, which thankfully he did. I also had to ask him for directions back to the school. Now this was before everyone had cell phones all the time so I couldn't just GPS my way back. I had a brick phone that I usually just kept in my dorm and when the cops showed up, I gave them all the information I could which honestly wasn't that much since it was so dark. I mean how many people own a pickup truck and a hoodie? Probably millions. The cop was honest and told me that they most likely would

never find out who the man was since I didn't get any plate information. He was super nice though and escorted me back to the school just in case that man resurfaced. I think about that night a lot and just how crazy it was and how stupid I was. I wanted to punch the past version of myself for pulling over and not reacting faster. Whenever I have a truck tailgating me at night now, I'm always reminded of that night. And I just hope that all these years later that that truck man never returns. A few years ago, my girlfriend and I decided to drive cross-country. Not for any special reason other than just for the thrill of the adventure. We had done beach trips, cruises, skydiving, you name it, but the one thing we never did was drive across

the country. I can't remember exactly what state we were in, but it was somewhere in the Midwest of the country. We found this cute little diner and decided to grab some food, and that was the one thing that we wanted to do at each place that we stopped at, find a diner and eat. We were sitting in a small booth in the back of the restaurant and a middle-aged woman approached me. She was short and had a bit of an average build. Her hair was red and shoulder-length with some curls at the bottom. What I remember the most about her physical appearance was her bright green eyes. I had never seen green eyes like hers before and they were just objectively very pretty. But she pulled a curveball on me when

she looked me right in the eye and told me that I had the most beautiful eyes that she had ever seen. I just smiled and laughed a little bit. I was flattered and I thanked her and went back to drinking my coffee. This woman then sat down next to my girlfriend and continued to tell me how beautiful my eyes were. At first it was nice but now all of this was getting very creepy and I could tell my girlfriend just wasn't having this at all. It was probably a full minute or two of her raving about my eyes before she finally got up and went back to her table where she was sitting alone. I started to bust my girlfriend's chops because she seemed a little jealous which I found funny

because she's really not the jealous type at all. I did notice a few times at the diner that the woman was staring at me but I pretended not to notice. I didn't want to freak out my girlfriend and I'm not gonna lie this felt a little obsessive and I was just ready to hit the road. We left and hit the road for several hours and every few hours I would ask my girlfriend what she thought about my eyes just to rile her up. She wasn't as amused as I was unfortunately. While we were driving she kept telling me that she had a really bad feeling about that woman. She claimed that something wasn't right and she felt like she was dangerous or at least had the capabilities to be dangerous.

I didn't think necessarily like that even though she was a little wacky. Eventually we stopped talking about her and just continued our trip with no talk about those eyes. During the night sometime we decided to pull over at some sort of desolate mountain road. I pointed to the sky and we couldn't really believe at some sort of desolate mountain road. I pointed to the sky and we couldn't really believe our eyes of the view of the stars. It looked like we were standing in space. I took the truck off road a little bit and decided to open the back of the truck so we could lay back there for a while and just stare at the night sky.

It was lovely and for a moment one of the best times of my entire life, until it nearly became one of the most scary and startling moments that I'd ever experienced. About 20 minutes after getting in the back of the truck, we heard something weird. I was sure that it was a coyote or some other type of animal that just dwelt in the area but it became clear that the noise was a voice and not an animal i grabbed my softball bat which was in the back of the truck and jumped out from the back standing right there on the side of my truck was the woman from the diner she was just looking at me with her hands behind her back. She wasn't smiling or frowning, it was just the most blank expression I had ever seen. She was clearly mumbling something

but I couldn't tell what she was saying. I told my girlfriend to just get into the front seat and grab my keys, which she did quickly. This woman never broke eye contact with me the entire time. I slowly backed up to the driver's side door and once I was next to the door, I basically just jumped into the truck. I put the keys in and sped away, but I didn't get very far because this woman dove in front of my truck. I slammed on the brakes, thankfully I didn't run her over. I could hear this woman crying and screaming on the outside and I was ignoring it to the best of my ability. After that dive I swerved around her and just sped off leaving this huge cloud of dust in my retreat. Maybe a mile or so down the road we saw a car parked on the side of the road and we both just knew that it must have been hers. The pit in our stomachs grew even bigger. We must have made enough distance between

us and her because thankfully we never saw her again and while we were driving away we started to reflect on that moment to realize just how scary and horrible that could have been. We drove for hours after that diner. This woman followed us, and somehow without us noticing, and even across state lines. What she intended to do to us is unknown, and I'm happy that it's going to stay that way. If I didn't jump out of the back of that truck when I did, who knows what she would have done. Enough time has passed now that when we tell this story, my friends like to joke that this woman is the monster from jeepers creepers because she wanted my eyes it's a ridiculous

little chapter of my life and one that's ever happened to me. It was last year, and I'd just finished a long semester at school before the holiday break. I was tired and stressed and I couldn't wait to get home and decompress for a little while before heading back to school. On the drive home, I was planning on staying at a hotel overnight and then just finishing the drive in the morning. I don't know if I got a second wind or if I was just hopped up on all the Red Bull but I decided to drive straight through instead of wasting the money for a hotel. If I remember correctly it was around 3 in the morning and I started getting tired. I was doing that thing where your head keeps dropping and no matter how hard you're

trying to stay awake I could feel myself swerving all over the road and I knew that I was never going to make it. I told myself I was going to pull over at the next rest area but I would never make it that far. I dozed off a little too hard while driving and I lost control of the car for just a second and that was a second too long. I ended up driving straight through a guardrail and my car got wedged into this little ditch on the side of the highway I sat in disbelief for a moment this is the scariest moment of my entire life and little did I know it was about to get much worse once I realized that I was alright I tried to drive out of the ditch and it appeared hopeless. I wasn't getting anywhere. I was dreading calling for help but I knew that it needed to be done.

While I was digging for my phone that was on the floor somewhere due to the accident, someone came up and knocked on the window, much like a cop would do. I nearly jumped through the window. I realized quickly it wasn't a cop and I asked what they wanted with the window still closed. Instead of answering me, he just stared inside the window with this creepy look on his face. Then he started to bang on the window. I kept yelling and telling him to go away, but he just kept knocking and he started smiling. This went on for a while and I screamed the entire time. He never changed the rhythm of his banging or how hard he was hitting the glass. At one point I was just begging for him to stop but he just kept going like some type of machine. Those horrible teeth, I could see them staring back at me. Then he ran to the front of my car and just stood there. And that's when I got a good look at him. He was about 6 feet tall if I had to make a guess.

He was wearing a white shirt, shorts, and sandals even though it was under 45 degrees outside. I couldn't tell exactly what it was but he looked like he had a flower tattoo on his right leg. What was I supposed to do? Get out and confront this guy and probably get stabbed or something? Yeah, I don't think so. I wasn't playing around anymore though. I called the police right away and told them what had happened and told them about the creepy man. Between the banging on the window and then running to the front of the car, maybe two minutes had gone by at most. I did say that he didn't really do anything besides knock on my

window and now he's just standing there sort of looking at me. She didn't seem too concerned and just told me to wait there with the doors locked and that somebody would be there shortly. The entire time I waited, the man didn't move. He just stood there about three feet from my car, just looking, smiling. He never broke that horrible smile, not for one second. Ten long minutes later, the cops finally pulled up behind me and the crazed man ran into the night. The cop came over to my window and asked me to get out of the car. I was frantically trying to explain to the cop that the guy had just run away but the cop didn't seem too concerned and just kept telling me to relax and he actually shushed me like I was some small child. Instead of chasing the guy he claimed that he didn't see him and he asked me if I had been drinking or using any other types of extracurricular substances.

I was outraged and I may have said a few things that I shouldn't have. I ended up having a very unpleasant conversation with the officer who made me take a field sobriety test. He eventually helped me out of the ditch and followed me to a gas station where I filled up on gas, checked the damage on my car, and got a coffee for the rest of the drive. He didn't even take my statement, saying, what am I I supposed to do find a guy with sandals on I got the impression that he thought that I was just dreaming about the guy and after that night I never drove tired again to this day I still wonder what that guy wanted I mean I know he didn't want anything specifically clearly he wasn't all right in the head. I just mean, I wonder what he intended. What if I opened the door? What if my phone was broken in the crash? And most importantly,

who was the guy and where did he come from? I mean, he was literally there one second after the crash. I have to believe those are some crazy odds. I know it's crazy, but I still lose sleep thinking about this all this time later. What do you think this guy would have done if he was able to get to me? I have my own theories, and I don't even want to begin to share them. Oh, excuse me. Why are you walking so close behind me? Well, you're a tall guy. You throw a decent shadow when I'm walking in it to keep out of this bright sun. It hurts my eyes.

Okay, well, you know what? Specsavers, you can get two pairs of glasses from $149. And, oh, you'll like this. One can be a pair of prescription sunglasses. Sounds great. Where's the nearest store? Not far. Come on.

Let's hurry, then. To my count. One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two. Visit specsavers.ca for details. Mom, mom, did you see my race? Of course I did, darling. Look, you did your best. You tried. The thing is, it's not about winning. It's about taking part. Next year you might do better. But I did win, mom. You did? When it's sunny, make sure you can still see. At Specsavers, get two pairs of glasses from $149 and one can be prescription sunglasses. Hey, the sun won't wait. Visit specsavers.ca for details. Conditions apply. Do you remember the 2016 clown craze?

Where random clowns were showing up in neighborhoods and on CCTV and ring doorbell cameras? No one knew if it was a publicity stunt for the It movies or if weirdos were using it as an excuse to go out and terrorize people. Well, I remember this time distinctly, and I have my own story to share, hence why I'm writing this down for all of you now. It was fall of 2016, and I had recently moved from my hometown to my husband's hometown, which was about an hour and 15 minutes away. My hometown was a much larger city where we moved, and so I frequently made trips for appointments and stores and restaurants that we didn't have in our new town. I remember having to travel up after work for a

doctor's appointment and on my way, I saw signs that the main highway was going to be closed for two exits starting at 7pm and reopening first thing in the morning. I remember hoping that I could be back on the road in time so I didn't have to take a detour off the highway. Unfortunately, by the time I was heading home, it was too late and I knew that I was going to be diverted off of the highway for a few exits. I called my husband to see if he knew any quick ways for me to get home, but he didn't and advised me to follow the traffic pattern and the detour signs. There was a line of traffic, thankfully, as it was basically pitch black out. We were moving slowly down country roads when I saw some light off in the distance. It was a gas station, a pretty large one in fact,

and I decided to stop off to use the restroom and grab a little gas before the rest of the drive home. I got out of the car, put my credit card in and started pumping the gas, hoping that it would only take $20 to $30 to fill it the rest of the way. I started looking around at the surroundings as the wind picked up and threw some trash out of an overflowed can onto the ground. Across from the gas station was about 20 feet of grass and a tree line that went the length of the road. As cars were coming in the opposite direction, the side of the road became illuminated briefly as they zipped by. I started to squint thinking that I saw a deer, or maybe a couple of deer, approaching the side of the road. I couldn't really make out what it was, but there was

definitely something moving very slowly coming out of the tree line and approaching the road. As the silhouette got closer, I realized that it was shaped like a person, with light brown tattered clothing and what seemed to be a mask. But as the figure made its way closer to the gas station, I could see that it was someone dressed in a clown costume with clown makeup. Instantly terrified as I was traveling by myself and at a random gas station, I hurried into the convenience store to use the bathroom so I could get in and get out hopefully before the clown made it any closer to that station. I used the restroom, which was disgusting by the way, and approached the exit door, surveying the parking lot before I made a dash for my car. I opened the door,

which the wind flung open, almost knocking me over. I then dashed for the car. I clicked the button on my keys to unlock the door, and just as I was going to grab the handle, I heard, How are you, young lady? I froze as the tattered, horrifying-looking clown rose from a crouch position in front of my car and began shuffling towards me. Panic kicked in and I let out a gurgled yelp and ran back into the gas station, immediately called my husband and proceeded to tell him and the clerk what was going on in the parking lot. My husband was obviously upset and mad at himself for not being with me. He usually always accompanied me on these trips and

I told him that this time he should just stay back and stay with the dogs. He reminded me that he put pepper spray in my purse just in case. The clerk had already made his way out of the parking lot and was surveying the area for anyone. He came back in and said, I don't see anyone out there. I told my husband that I was going to walk to the car with him still on the phone, and the clerk offered to walk with me, which I accepted. I didn't see anything other than the wind blowing the trees in the distance, but as I got closer to the car, I shouted, dropped my phone, and pulled out the pepper spray. The clown was crouched behind one of the garbage cans next to the pump.

The clerk ran directly over there, screaming, telling him to get off the property and that he was calling the cops. The clown shuffled back across the road and towards the tree line. The clerk apologized and asked if I was alright. I said yes and got into my car and told my husband I was okay and that I was heading home and should be back in about 35-40 minutes. This next part, I still can't say with certainty that it happened or not but as I began driving down the road I swore that I saw a person with different clown paint tucked right against the trees slowly waving at my car as I drove by. I think so much adrenaline was pumping through my body that I couldn't rationalize if it was my mind or if I was really seeing something.

My husband, who barely let me go anywhere by myself before now, makes sure every time I drive after dark that he's there with me. And ever since this incident, I've developed an extreme fear of clowns. I can't watch shows or movies with them or it brings me back to this experience. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my story and please let me know if any of you had experienced anything similar around that time. What do you think? Was this guy pranking me due to all the crazy clown stuff going on? Or was I in any real danger. What do you do when teenagers terrorize you? I mean that sincerely.

Like what are the rules and laws? Well, I'm going to tell you a story so you understand what I mean. I stopped at a rest stop while driving to a town that is about three hours from where I live. My job has me visit places all over the region and I usually have to be there at 6 or 6.30 in the morning, so whenever I have to go far I usually just leave in the middle of the night. One night specifically I wasn't feeling very well. A little over halfway through my drive I felt like I wanted to stop at a rest stop to go to the bathroom, wash my face, and just maybe try to recalibrate myself because I was feeling horrible. I was in the bathroom for maybe 15 minutes. I don't need to go into any more details there,

but when I came out of the bathroom and started walking toward my car, I was confronted by four teenagers, clearly under the age of 18. One of them said something, I couldn't understand him, and one of the other ones hit me on the back of the head. And before I knew it, all four of them were kicking me while I lay in this fetal position on the ground. It didn't help that I felt like I was going to throw up, but I also felt like I couldn't defend myself because they were clearly teenagers. They took my phone and wallet from my pocket and I was able to push one of them off of me while they were doing this. I sprinted to my car and for once I was happy my lock button didn't always work. My car was still unlocked so I was able to get in and I manually locked the doors. These kids surrounded my car in the front and the back and I felt trapped. It's easy to say what you would have done in this situation but I promise you if you were in my what you would have done in this situation, but I promise you, if you were in my shoes, you would have been scared and confused as well.

Whenever I told this story, people would often just tell me, you should have just run them over. Yeah, I'm going to run over a bunch of teenagers. And honestly, in hindsight, I probably would have done just that looking back, but in the moment, I was scared and I just didn't know what to do. While I was trapped in this situation, the kids kept smashing my car and trying to break my windows. I could really only clearly see the one teenager in front of my car. He was smashing my hood with both of his fists and some large blunt object in the other hand. I think it was a pipe or something. He had green hair and he was really

skinny. They were all skinny, I do remember that. But it was his face I remember the most. You know when you can tell someone is just young, like his face was so young and a few of these teenagers still had high pitched voices I could hear them. And I knew it was only a matter of time before they would get in if they kept smashing my car the way they were. And I hate to say this but I was already accepting my defeat. And then something happened that pretty much saved my life. A car pulled into the rest area and it caught the attention of the two teens who were standing behind my car. They kind of stepped away and moved toward the other vehicle for a moment. The vehicle that pulled in saw what was happening and they sped off immediately.

They must have got scared. Either they saw my car was getting smashed or they saw four people eyeing them up and thought to themselves, not happening. That brief distraction was all I needed though. I put the car into reverse and slammed down the gas. I spun the car around, put it in drive, and sped off just like the other car. I could see the 14s pursuing me on foot in my mirror, but once I got back on the highway, I was long gone. And that was the longest drive of my entire life. I didn't know what to do.

I couldn't call for help because they had my phone. I didn't stop, and I ended up driving all the way to work and once I got inside I was able to call the police and told them what happened and more importantly where it happened. I hoped that maybe they would send a patrol car to the rest area in case these monsters ever came back to prey on someone in the middle of the night again. Granted I wasn't in the right state of mind that night but I didn't see anyone at all there when pulling into the parking lot that night. There were no other cars there, so these kids were hiding somewhere literally just waiting to jump someone. It's actually sad that these kids were resorting to this at such a young age. I never got my phone or wallet back, and I clearly cancelled all my cards and had to replace my ID and phone

immediately. A small price to pay for still having my life I guess. I did end up calling the police in that town about a month later to kind of get an update but they didn't find anyone at the rest stop and nobody else ever reported being jumped by kids in that area. He did tell me that they arrested a 16 year old boy for robbery who did match the description of the one I described, but because he was a minor, he got released later on, and that was pretty much all the information he could give me. They did locate my phone in a trash can about 10 miles from the rest area, and the screen was smashed even though the phone still seemed to technically work. So yeah, that's my nightmare story about being jumped by four teenagers.

I'd love to know what you would do in that situation. Would you fight back? Or would you just accept defeat, like I did? For as long as I've known my wife, she's mentioned growing up in a haunted house. I always assumed that she was joking because she always brought it up in quite a lighthearted way and never went into much detail. It was a big old house and I figured that she was talking about weird old house noises. The house belonged to her great aunt who raised my wife for most of her childhood. Her great aunt recently passed away and her great aunt's daughter whom my wife calls her aunt though technically she's her second cousin or something I'll be referring to her as her aunt now owns the

house after my wife's great aunt passed we went to stay in the house for four nights to attend the funeral and spend some time with my wife's family as we live in another state when we got there my wife and her aunt were chatting and mentioned that they thought my wife's great aunt might join the ghosts already haunting the house. I still didn't consider that they might actually be serious. The first night we spent there, I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed someone standing in the corner of the room beside the door. Thinking it was my wife, I asked what she was doing. This woke up my wife who was actually sleeping beside me. I said I thought I saw someone in the room with us but it must just be my eyes playing tricks on me. She said,

the person in the corner next to the door? Yeah, don't worry about it. It almost made me angry. I thought that there was some creep in the room and my wife was too sleepy to process what was happening. I grabbed my phone to call the police, but when my phone lit up the room I saw that there was no one there. There wasn't even a weird shape that I might have mistaken for a person. The door was closed so it wasn't like there could have been someone there who left the room in the moments that I was looking away to grab my phone My wife told me it was common to see shadowy people in the night but I shouldn't worry because they don't do anything She fell back asleep right after that but I just lay there awake the whole night wondering what had just happened

The next morning I asked my wife about it and she said she wasn't kidding about the house being haunted. People who spend the night in the house regularly see and hear ghosts but they never hurt anyone or caused any problems. I remained skeptical even after the next night which had been after the funeral and my wife and aunt both reported that they'd been visited in their dreams by my wife's great aunt. And so far in my mind everything was weird but explainable. The figure in the room could have been a strange trick of the light. My wife and her aunt had just attended the funeral of their loved one and it made sense for them both to dream about her that night. The third night, I was kept awake for hours by the constant sound of footsteps pacing around the house.

My wife also heard them but said it was normal and I shouldn't worry and she fell asleep easily. A few times during the night I got up to look around for the source of the noise. I even did a couple of laps of the outside of the house in case there was someone outside and I never saw anyone walking around. At one point I was in the lounge room and heard footsteps from the kitchen and called out to ask if there was anyone there. My wife's aunt opened her bedroom door and said that she could hear the footsteps too and just like my wife she told me it was normal and there was no cause for concern. Then there was the sound of a drawer opening in the kitchen,

which we both reacted to and I went to check and found the cutlery drawer open. My wife's aunt, who'd come to the kitchen too, simply closed the drawer, commented with mild annoyance that the ghosts are always leaving things open, and went back to bed, leaving me to my existential crisis. I could not come up with a way to explain that away. We both heard the footsteps, both heard the drawer open at the same time, and there was no one there, and no way out of the kitchen except for past us. I tried staying on the couch to try and catch the mystery walker, and there was multiple times I heard the footsteps pass through the lounge room but I never saw anything. Eventually I gave up and went back to bed. Nothing really happened the

final night though we woke up to several cabinets open and no one remembered leaving them open though that could be explainable by someone just forgetting or even sleepwalking. Even so the footsteps still bothered me and the shadowy person from the first night in cabinets opened on the final night and made me nervous in light of everything that happened on the third night. Up until now, I've always scoffed at the idea of the paranormal, but I just can't reconcile my experiences in that house with my skepticism. Talking to my wife's family revealed that everyone who stayed in the house believes it's haunted because they've had at least one completely unexplainable experience

there. They all report that the ghosts leave people alone for the most part, though some who lived there for a long time as children, including my wife and her aunt, have described meeting people they thought were probably ghosts and having positive but strange interactions with them. My brother was in solitary while in jail. He'd had a dental visit with a jail nurse and he was awaiting trial on misdemeanor marijuana charges and he was just 25. He was someone with no concept of consequences and he absolutely hated authority. When he went to prison at 18 and was told to clean the bathroom, he put the sponges on his hands and knees and just sort of crawled around, just to irritate the corrections officers.

I was in high school while he was in prison and he wrote me in a letter saying, if I died, would you cry? I hope so. And that his teachers would ask where the students saw themselves in 10 years and he said, I don't see myself in 10 years. His parole didn't go so well so he finished his five years. It was just a multitude of misdemeanors and then he got a job and happily worked double shifts at a gas station. They loved his work ethic. When the guy he was living with got a girlfriend, she wanted my brother out so he found some greaseball to live with. Then the drug bust came and my brother was caught up in it, over

marijuana. As he was awaiting his appearance before the court, he had his dental visit and he'd been caught making hooch in his cell, and he was put into the only cell with no camera. When you're in solitary, you get one hour a day to shower and clean your cell, under supervision. If you need something like shampoo, you submit a written request. If you're lucky, you get it, eventually. He was known for whistling, tapping, and drumming while in his solitary cell. 11.20pm, he asked for the aerosol cleaner.

A corrections officer gave it to him. His rig was a rag with a toilet paper holder, and he'd written on his clothes, You should delete yourself, as a message to the corrections officer because he despised them so much. Around 2am, the aerosol can hit the floor and the guy in the cell next door started yelling for help. He was dead already, but they called my mother to tell her that he was in critical condition at the hospital. He was on a gurney in the hallway, covered by a sheet. She was just called to identify his body. The officer who gave him the cleaner was not reprimanded and when they mailed his stuff to us, they included the rag and toilet paper holder. They offered to send us the video of them dragging him out of the cell and doing CPR.

A friend's husband started working at that jail as a corrections officer, and he said every night the same whistling, tapping, and drumming kept happening. Everyone heard it. People would ask, who's that blonde guy walking around? Several years after his death, his driver's license was found on the floor of the corrections officer's storage room. I started finding pennies right away after he died. I was having dreams where I told him, you died, and he didn't believe me. And then eventually they changed and I'd be excited to see him and then I'd say goodbye again. And finally in a dream he told me he was ready to go. I still mourn him, and this was over 20 years ago, but I'm still

mourning, and occasionally, I still find pennies. Back in the day when she was alive, we promised to haunt each other should one or the other leave this life. We both firmly believed in an afterlife and spirits spirits so this wasn't just a silly joking promise even if there was some teasing about how we would do it to each other. I actually think we only said it twice. Well it had been two years since my wife had passed away. I recalled being in the room that she died. The machines were breathing for her and I just felt her leave her body. Just gone with the sound of the machines still going. A few hours later they were officially turned off. Now a little back information, my wife had an eating disorder and this disorder destroyed a lot of her gut and organs.

It was a slow painful death. When I say I felt her leave it was like a bullet fast type of leave. In life, I didn't yell, never called each other names, and rarely argued, and when we did, it was a healthy discourse and decisions were made to settle it. I knew her eating disorder had caused these problems, but what I didn't know was how much worse it really was. I found the information on her phone after death. She knew death was the final outcome years before I knew and held back the information from me letting me talk about growing old together. In short, I haven't seen her. Now long post coming to an end, fast forward two years and I'm thinking of her. Alone in my kitchen I was overcome with the intense grief and for the, and I'm thinking of her. Alone in my kitchen, I was

overcome with the intense grief, and for the first time, I got enraged. I shouted, you did this to me, and you did this to yourself, and I'm the one living with it. I hate what you've done to me. Immediately in my brain, from ear to ear, I hear her voice shout back, well, it's about time. I felt a thousand moving tingles going on inside my head. Needless to say I cried the hardest I had ever done in two years since her passing. So I recently got a job at my local liquor store. My job is five minutes away from my place, and I honestly love this job because it's so chill and since I'm a local I already know many of the customers that come in on a regular basis.

This job helped me get back into contact with a lot of people that I haven't seen for a few years. One day an old friend, we'll call him Steve, from high school walks in and he remembers me. We hadn't seen each other for a few years so we had a nice talk and made plans to hang out with a mutual friend sometime in the near future. I remember we talked about how our mutual friend would do this thing where he would tell stories that sounded super fake and made up. For example, he told both of us a story about how he supposedly got shot in the leg but the story was different every time. Anyway, I tell Steve that our mutual friend is like Paul Bunyan with his tall tails.

Steve laughs and says, yeah, totally bro, he's Paul Bunyan, and I remember he had bought some beatboxes, which are this alcoholic beverage that's pretty popular in my store. I remember the exact flavor that he had and everything, and I remember clearly asking him if those things were any good, and Steve tells me, yeah, they mess you up. Now about a week later, I came into work, and I see my co-worker, Diane, and she's acting strange in a way that I suspect that she's going through something tough in her life. She asks me if I remember Steve, and I say yes, of course. She informs me that he had passed away.

I asked if it was an overdose, and she told me that it was not an overdose, but also said that she felt it was not her place to tell me the real cause of death. Well, I think it over and decide that next time I see Diane, I would explain to her that I've known Steve since high school school and he's not just some local customer I met at work. So a few days pass and I see Diane at shift change. Mind you, I work very late, from 9pm to 2am usually. Before I get a chance to talk to her, the manager comes in and Diane goes out to the front to talk to her. I let them have their girl talk for a few minutes then I go outside to let the manager know that I need to quickly use the restroom. Well, when I go outside, I overhear Diane say something along the lines of,

yeah, it's messed up that they would make the wife pay money to have the brains all over the place cleaned up. And the manager replied, yeah, she's going to most likely be getting a bill for that cleanup. And when I heard this, I knew. I went back inside the store and I just felt so sad for my friend Steve. I just stared into space for a few minutes and went back outside to find Diane and the manager kind of staring at me as if though they knew that I heard what she said and were waiting for me to mention it. I chose not to and waited until I was alone with Diane to discuss the issue. I explained to her that me and Steve were high school friends and she opened up to me after that. It turns out Diane had an ex who did the same thing a few years back.

She really opened up to me about what was going on after this. She told me that Steve had just had a newborn two days before the incident and another boy who was about four. Steve's longtime partner had been with him for eight years straight without any major hitches, and Diane tells me that she had known both Steve and his girlfriend since the first grade. They all grew up together. She tells me that she had known both Steve and his girlfriend since the first grade. They all grew up together. She tells me that she was driving the car with Steve's girlfriend in the back seat, and she was finally able to get some sleep in the back seat as Diane was driving. Well, then the four-year-old decides to ask where his dad is and why he can't see him anymore.

They told the child that he's with God now. It's so terribly sad because the poor child thinks God kidnapped his dad and now he's mad at God. Well, this is where things get strange. That night I went to restock beverages in the back. It was around 1am and I suddenly had this sensation that I wasn't alone and it actually felt as if though I was with someone I knew, but I couldn't see them. I had a feeling my buddy might try to send me a message. I thought to myself if I see anything I would try my best not to get scared and pass on whatever message I receive if possible. Well I grabbed the exact same beverage that I sold him last time I saw him and put it onto a shelf. I bent over to pick up something else and the drink that I had just put on the shelf got smacked very loudly to the ground as if someone was frustrated or angry and hit it. This made me very uncomfortable and I ended up calling some friends to come chill

with me for the rest of my shift. I even took a few shots of whiskey to calm me down. Later that night after work I told my mom what had happened and she explained to me that he may have been frustrated and angry at his own sad decision and the fact that it was too late to change it my mom is a buddhist so she gives me a buddhist prayer to play at work to bring positive energy i play the prayer at work the next day and she also comes to accompany me for my part of the shift. During the prayer, a foam cup also got thrown by nothing and my mom and I both saw it. However, this time it felt like a much more peaceful action without anger behind it, almost as if he was saying that he heard the prayer. My mom told me that she felt that this was him

trying to communicate. In my opinion, the prayer did what it was supposed to and I feel as if though he left peacefully and the foam cup being lightly tossed was his way of saying, hey man, sorry I scared you the other day, but it's time for me to go. I miss my buddy and I hope anyone who reads this that is going through tough times in life gets through it and chooses to live on. Taking your own life is never the right path guys. It will only lead to more pain for everyone involved. Oh, excuse me. Why are you walking so close behind me? Well, you're a tall guy.

You throw a decent shadow when I'm walking in it to keep out of this bright sun. It hurts my eyes. Okay. Well, you know what? Specsavers, you can get two pairs of glasses from $149. And, oh, you'll like this. One can be a pair of prescription sunglasses. Sounds great.

Where's the nearest store? Not far. Come on. Let's hurry, then. To my count. One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two. Visit specsavers.ca for details. Mom, Mom, did you see my race? Of course I did, darling.

Look, you did your best. You tried. The thing is, it's not about winning. It's about taking part. Next year you might do better. But I did win, Mom. You did? When it's sunny, make sure you can still see.

At Specsavers, get two pairs of glasses from $149, and one can be prescription sunglasses. Hey, the sun won't wait. Visit Specsavers.ca for details. Conditions apply. I gave birth to my baby at 26 weeks almost two weeks ago. But something happened during the birth that I can't stop thinking about. I don't know if this is normal or not, but I've decided to share it here to see if anyone else has experienced something similar. During labor, I wasn't on any strong drugs, just morphine along with gas and air, which shouldn't make anyone delirious. I know this because I had the same combination during the birth of my daughter three years ago and that was fine. Towards the end,

right before I pushed him out and the pain was becoming intense, a young man in a white shirt, blue jeans, and dark hair entered the room. I initially turned away from the door to talk to my fiancé but he walked over and stood beside him. I then asked both the midwife and my fiancé if they could ask him to leave as I wanted only us in the room. Their response was, no one else is here. However, he was. He was standing right there. I saw his face and I didn't recognize him. I remember exactly what he was wearing and he just

stared at me for a solid minute or so before leaving and shortly after that I delivered my son. The direction he walked in was towards the room where they take the baby for checks and dressing and to look better considering the circumstances, but this man definitely went to the room where my son was going. I'm writing this because today I saw a TikTok video of a lady going through something similar during an emergency c-section with it being her dad who passed away in 2008. However, I still don't know who this man was. Describing it again to my fiancé, he's certain that it could have been his grandfather who passed away young from being murdered, but we're still so unsure. Am I crazy for thinking it was a spirit coming to guide my son to a safer place? Could it have been my son's soul showing how he was going to

look? I honestly don't know and it hasn't left my mind at all. I've been up since 5am and I just can't get this off my mind. So last night I'm sleeping and I'm having a nightmare that I'm in an apartment, looking into a kitchen area and the drawers, cabinets and a door to the pantry were all opening, closing and moving by themselves, almost like poltergeist activity. I was scared in the dreams so I began praying and then my wife, who was in bed next to me, kicked my foot and woke me up because I was clearly distressed and mumbling a lot in my sleep. And here's where things get weird. I jump awake because my wife kicked my foot and feeling relieved to not be having a nightmare anymore,

I turn my head towards my wife, who was laying beside me, and say, thank you babe, really sorry about that, I was having a nightmare. But I don't hear any response, so I figured that she's already fallen back to sleep, or might just be so tired that she's still kind of out of it. Then I turned my head back to facing forwards, the direction I was facing the whole time I was sleeping, and I noticed something in the corner of the room, standing in front of the bedroom door. The room was dark, but its skin still appeared to be like a dark matte grey color. It was really thin, had thin legs and long thin arms, a small almost childlike torso, a narrow neck and then a really big bulbous head with huge black almond shaped eyes. It looked exactly like a traditional grey alien but it was slightly

transparent. Needless to say I was shocked and to be honest my very first reaction was that I was seeing things because I just woke up. So I rub my eyes and it's still right there. Trying not to panic and trying to come up with a rational explanation for it I thought this must just be dream chemicals still working in my brain. So I sit up slightly and look into the other corner of our bedroom by the closet expecting to see something there too but there's nothing. Then I look at the ceiling. Nothing. The floor, nothing. The other wall, nothing. I look back at the corner of the bedroom door, and it's still right there. Standing there, completely still, just staring at me with its huge, jet black eyes,

which were shaped like almonds and appeared to wrap just slightly around the side of its head, much larger than a human's eyes. And it's still slightly transparent, but I'm seeing it clearly, and only in that one spot too, not anywhere else in the room. Because the Texas power grid sucks, I always sleep with a flashlight next to the bed, and after seeing this thing for about a minute and a half, it occurs to me to grab the flashlight. I lean off the bed, reach down and grab the flashlight and shine it in the corner of the room at this being. And because it's transparent, it became much less visible when I shine the light on it. I could still see it very slightly, but it was much less. Again, in disbelief at what

I was seeing, I began slowly scanning the whole room with a flashlight. From the bed, of course. I wasn't going to try getting out of bed. I was too scared to even move, to be honest. And again, I see absolutely nothing strange anywhere in the room at all, except for this thing I can see in the one corner by the bedroom door. I turn the flashlight off and instantly, I can see it super clearly again just staring at me. I rub my eyes again and squeeze my eyes together tightly, hoping that when I opened them it'd be gone. But it wasn't. So I finally begin truly freaking out internally and

I just begin praying out loud. And after about 20 seconds of praying, I literally watched this thing just fade out of existence, dematerialize right in front of me. It was still standing there, dead still, and staring at me the whole time. It just seemed to suddenly begin to become increasingly transparent until it was just not there anymore and gone. I've been awake since then. Spent the rest of the night reading random stuff here on reddit to try and distract myself because the experience shook me up quite a bit to be honest. I was wondering if anyone else here has ever experienced something like this.

I feel so genuinely weirded out that I just don't know what to make of it. I started working at a convenience store back in the 90s. Shortly before that, the owner's son was working and a man rushed in to ask for a knife. He'd been in a car accident and his girlfriend couldn't get her seatbelt off. Owner's son turned around to grab the bagel knife and by the time he turned back, the dude was dead on the floor. His seatbelt had done something to his esophagus, crushed it I believe, and while adrenaline helped, he suffocated and died right there at the register. I didn't know this when I started working there. I found out after I asked about the things that I was experiencing. I'd get kicked or poked in the leg or shoulder while nobody was behind me.

I'd walk through coal patches that had moved through the store, see the reflection of someone in the cooler door but turn around to see nobody there. I felt like I was being watched while I was in the cooler filling sodas. But the knife, the bagel knife, while working by myself on camera with nobody else there, that knife would be gone the minute I turned around, and then I'd find it back a bit later, maybe somewhere else. The other staff said similar things were happening to them. The overnight shift was one person and often the store was empty. The people who worked the shift heard whistling sometimes, but mostly they heard crying.

Turns out the girlfriend was a teacher at my high school. I started talking to him while I worked, and I'd let him know that she was okay, she survived, and he couldn't let it go. And things started to calm down. I stopped getting poked, and the knife stayed where I left it. It was definitely the most intense experience I've ever had. So around 11 years ago, I was a telecoms engineer. A typical day involved visiting several residential houses to either install or repair phone lines. Everything seemed no different from any other day day but then I received my next job assignment and it was a 20 line installation. Now this wasn't the norm for the role that I had because these

tasks usually went to other teams. No issues, I thought that it would be nice to spend more than just an hour or two in one place rather than here and there. I called the contact which was a contact center and they informed me that either the caretaker or manager of the building was aware of the job's requirements and would explain what was needed. So I arrived at the location and it turned out to be a really old building built in the 1920s as I later found out. I made my way inside with my tester and tool bag as was customary After speaking with the receptionist I discovered that the building had once been a nursing home

And after being derelict for a few years Was now being used as offices for various businesses As promised Two managers arrived and told me that they believed what I was looking for was in the cellar As there were a lot of cables down there, but that's all they knew. So I asked if the caretaker was around, as they usually have knowledge of such things, and I was told that he wasn't available because he was ill, but would be back the next day. I followed a man and a woman to a numbered padlock door.

They opened it and provided me with the access code. On the other side of the door, there was a stairwell that led down to the cellar. As we descended, I noticed that the lighting was very poor, extremely poor in fact, and I had no chance of working in these conditions. There were lights, yes, but they were pendant lights and not very effective. Understanding my concern, the woman informed me that they had hanging lights, so there was no problem. I returned to my van, grabbed an extension cord, and headed back towards the cellar. As I passed the receptionist, she asked, Are you going to be in the cellar on your own?

I replied, Yeah, sometimes you have to, but if what I'm looking for isn't there, I won't be there for very long. And she laughed, but commented, I'd rather you than me. Nobody likes going down there, even for storage space. To be honest, I just thought people didn't like going down in dark stairwells. No big deal, it was something that I was familiar with, so it just needed to be done. After a quick look around with the mail manager, we found a socket. I set up the lights, and there it was, the DP I was looking for. However, it was an old solder block, not suitable for broadband, so I informed him that this would take a bit longer,

and this was before even knowing where these 20 lines even needed to go. He agreed and showed me where the office fitters had left all the cables for the clients, which, to my relief, were in the cupboard behind the receptionist. With all the information I needed, I got to work. I tested all the lines and things were going well. More than half of them were going to the cabinet, with a few remaining. However, I knew the lines and things were going well. More than half of them were going to the cabinet with a few remaining. However, I knew the area and knew that from there I could get them through as there were two 200 pair cables running through it. By this point it was around four o'clock. I didn't have the blocks I needed in my van so I tagged the cables and turned off all the lights on my way out before closing and locking the door.

I signed out and told the girl at the desk that I'd see her tomorrow and then I left. On my way home I called my manager to explain the situation that I might need assistance for at least half a day or possibly more as I wasn't even sure if anything had been done in the exchange. The next day at 8am I received a call from one of the other engineers who told me that he would be with me all day but he didn't know the details yet. We divided our roles, I would push the pairs from the box of the cabinet and he would handle the cabinet in exchange if necessary. Then it was just a matter of fitting the box and running a large internal cable from the box to behind the receptionist area.

I returned to the building, entered with the access code and to my surprise all the lights were on. I was 100% sure that I had turned them off so I assumed that one of the managers had come to check if I was still there and had left the lights on by mistake. I went down and did what I needed to do, left to push the cables outside and called my colleague who was getting them one by one so things were going well. I finished up and went back to fit the block. I grabbed the blocks, drilled all the necessary holes and set everything up. As I was marking pilot holes I heard a voice saying,

What are you doing? I nearly jumped out of my skin. But when I turned I saw a man in gray overalls. I asked if he was the caretaker to which he replied in the affirmative. He expressed surprise that nobody had been down there for years. I continued with my work, drilling and all, and as soon as I stopped using the drill and it got quieter, the man started chatting again. He asked about my favorite football team and whether he could watch what I was doing. I assured him that was no problem and tried to be as polite as possible. He introduced himself as Gordon and mentioned that he had been working there for over 30 years. A bit confused, I recalled what the receptionist had said about the building being

empty for a few years and from the looks of the cabling, it hadn't been updated for at least 15 to 20. Gordon simply stated that things were always happening there. After about an hour of conversation while I was working, I heard a hello from the top of the stairwell. Expecting Gordon to respond, I didn't reply and then I heard it again. I turned around but Gordon had disappeared. I thought I had been chatting for 10 minutes and he wasn't even there. I went back up and it was one of the managers asking if I was expecting someone, another engineer. I apologized and explained that the phone signal was poor down there so he probably couldn't reach me

With that cleared up he came down and we chatted for a bit And he mentioned that he would start at the receptionist end and work his way towards me while I finished up After a quick bathroom break I went down to the cellar I was in the final stages now just putting phone numbers to pairs So that when my colleague arrived we could connect the test and go. As I was doing this I heard a voice say, sorry about that. Again out of nowhere it was Gordon. I acknowledged him, called him clever and made a joke that if they couldn't find him they couldn't ask him to do anything. I continued for another five minutes and I had done all I could so I told

him that I was heading up to assist my colleague and would be done soon out of the way. Gordon told me that he liked the company that had been nice to talk. I felt a bit sad at this point thinking that maybe he had been treated poorly by the people in the building so I said of course mate it cost nothing to be nice and have a chat. I went up the stairs leaving Gordon down there and helped get the cable through a void and into the cellar. After about 10-20 minutes of trying to thread it through we succeeded and we went back down. Gordon was nowhere to be found and we finished our work. My colleague informed me that it was time for food and he would go to the fish and chip shop and meet me back at the yard. I told him I just needed a few signatures to ensure that

the lights were turned off so I could retrieve my extension cord. I obtained the necessary signatures from the manager and showed him where the link was behind the reception. I also informed him that I needed to retrieve my extension cord so were the lights okay for now or did he want to move them as we went since there was good lighting and he replied that the lights might as well stay on for now and he would get another extension cord in case anyone else needed to go down there I went down and started unplugging the lights and once again Gordon appeared telling me that he didn't realize that the lights were mine, otherwise he wouldn't have touched them. Immediately I thought,

ah, so that's why they were on this morning. But then it occurred to me, the door, it was locked? I asked him if he had come down yesterday evening and he said, yes, of course, I'm always always here it's where i'm needed confused and wanting to leave i said no worries nice to meet you and extended my hand for a handshake and he raised his hand and replied hope to see you soon so i left signed out and didn't think much of it then a week passed and I received a call from our control center asking if I could return to that same address because one of the lines wasn't working and it was a high priority issue. I agreed and got there, greeted the receptionist again and

asked if I could check behind her desk before going down to the cellar. To my relief I found what I was looking for, it just hadn't been connected properly. While I was fixing it, an older guy asked me if I had been there the previous week. I said yes, and he apologized, explaining that he was the caretaker and had to take more days off than planned. I reassured him, saying, Oh, don't worry about it. I'm sure Gordon will tell you everything. And as soon as I mentioned Gordon, the man looked at me intently and asked, what did you just say?

I replied, Gordon, he told me he's the caretaker here. The man turned pale and asked if we could talk outside, so I followed him. He asked me if I believe in ghosts and then proceeded to tell me that before the building became what it is today, it was a nursing home and the old caretaker was a man named Gordon. He knew this because when the building was taken over, he found an old desk with to-do lists, letters, and requests addressed to Gordon. Furthermore, there was a sign on the door that said caretaker and behind the door was the entrance to the cellar.

I initially dismissed this and laughed thinking that he and his friend were pulling my leg. However, he then asked if Gordon was wearing overalls to which I replied affirmatively. He looked me straight in the eye and said,s to which I replied affirmatively. He looked me straight in the eye and said, listen mate, I'm not lying. Gordon passed away years ago, supposedly while on the job. I just thought you should know because it's not something that's considered funny. He told me that he had also seen Gordon but people never believed him. I didn't mention this to anyone beyond that point until one night while fishing with a friend. Just as the caretaker had said, my friend thought

I was joking. But I know what I saw and I know what I heard. I don't tell this to anybody because it's not worth the ridicule, hence why I'm using this throwaway account. But I can tell you, ghosts and spirits are real. So yesterday was my 29th birthday. It was overall terrible. Once all the kids were settled in bed, my spouse and I sat down to watch TV and he ended up falling asleep. Closer towards midnight, everything from the day finally hit me and I began sobbing, like real ugly crying. From where I was sitting on my couch, I can see into my whole dining room, open concept doorway with a two-foot lip that comes down from the ceiling that has a little shelf for pictures and

through the kitchen doorway to my back door. The TV was the only thing lighting up the house. Last week when my daughter finished school, I bought her three balloons that were scattered across the house. One to my left, one wedged between fan blades in the dining room, it was off, and one right next to a dining room chair right by the kitchen doorway. I had been crying but I thought I saw a small flash in the dining room. I wasn't sure if the TV light reflected off one of my kid's toys or not. I kept staring that way when I noticed the balloon string closest to the kitchen was moving around. As I was staring I saw the balloon string slowly start to glide across the floor towards me. We do have central air which was on but none of the balloon strings slowly start to glide across the floor towards me.

We do have central air which was on, but none of the other balloons had been moving, even the strings. It kept coming closer and closer, but I figured it was going to stop because of the little lip that drops down between the two rooms. It stopped for a moment once it hit that point. I watched the balloon slowly lower down, bopping up against the little shelf and come into the living room. At this point, honestly, I stopped crying and was more or less just soiling my pants. It continued to glide across the room, coming directly toward me. It stopped once it was in front of me and then shifted to the left a little bit and the string hit my left hand. I didn't know what to do. I was shocked. I was frozen. The balloon shifted in front of me again then proceeded to shift left again and the string came up and hit my hand and at that point the only thing I could think to do was grab the string and hold on to it. I kept trying

to reach over and nudge my husband to wake up. I finally got his attention and when he came to he asked me why I was holding a balloon. I told him what happened and all he had to say was that he wished he was awake so he could have seen how scared I was. Anyways I had a terrible birthday and I think someone or something from the other side wanted to make sure that I at least got a balloon to celebrate. A few years ago I was woken up one Sunday morning by a phone call. It was a little girl, I'd guess, maybe four years old. Good morning, Grandad. I laughed.

She sounded sweet and then gently explained to her that she'd dialed the wrong number. Oh, she said, before hanging up. A few minutes later, the phone rings again. Morning, granddad. I laughed again and apologetically told her that she'd dialed the wrong number again. Are you coming, granddad? What time are you coming? Hurry up, we're about to get started. She was absolutely bursting with joy and whoever her granddad was was obviously a very lucky guy. It sounded like there was a birthday party or something going on. Still laughing, I tried to explain her mistake to her and said that obviously I'm not her granddad before saying bye and hanging up the phone. I lay in bed laughing and a minute later, the phone rings. Morning, granddad.

For the third time, I explain I'm not her granddad. You are my granddad, silly, she said with a funny tone. She thought I was her granddad playing some trick on her and she thought it was funny. And again, I explain to her that I'm not her granddad, at which point she drops the phone and runs off into the background. I could hear her in the background saying, Dad, granddad's playing tricks on me. He won't talk to me. I could hear that she was getting slightly upset at this point. Then the man picks up the phone Dad, is everything okay? The man says So I, still finding this whole thing kind of funny Explain to the man that his daughter has simply dialed the wrong number a few times

And it's all a big misunderstanding And then he says in a concerned tone Okay dad, are you at home? Stay where you are, we're on our way over way over okay and now he thinks i'm his dad so again not laughing anymore i explained that i'm not who he thinks he is obviously then it's just the wrong number what he said next scared the crap out of me he said said, my name. I'm really worried now. We'll be over in 15 minutes. Don't move. At this point, I just hung up the phone and lay in bed wondering what in God's name was happening. They never called back and I had assumed that I was just being pranked by a friend or something.

Over the next few days, I asked everybody I knew to own up to that prank. Everybody swore blind that it wasn't them. Not only was this girl convinced that I was her granddad but the man also thought I was his dad and also said my actual first name. Obviously coincidences happen but this was just weird. So a few days later, still puzzled, I thought that I'd just ring the number back and see who answered. The number wasn't in use, I just got a dead tone. Weird, huh? I think I was called by a grandkid in some sort of parallel universe or something, and

judging by the sound of her voice, the parallel me was one lucky guy. I bought a black Labrador Retriever puppy back in 2009 because I got into waterfowl hunting, and I read all kinds of books on training and decided to train him myself. It became a routine that every day I would work with him before and after work. From the beginning, it was apparent that this dog was special. He was so quick to learn commands and was a breeze to train, looking back now after I had trained many other retrievers since. He started as just my hunting buddy for a year or so until I hunted with someone who was into retriever competitions. After a little coaxing I was persuaded to enter my dog into a few

competitions here and there and was actually able to get him titled as a junior hunter and started hunter in AKC and HRC when he was a year old. I lost interest in the competitions and eventually he just became my hunting buddy again. Over the years, he retrieved hundreds of ducks for me and spent countless hours out hunting with me. He went everywhere with me, slept inside, was a playmate to my young kids at the time, just a once in a lifetime type of dog. In 2016, I let him out to use the bathroom and never saw him again. You see, I live in a rural area of Texas and I figured that he would just show back up soon, but he didn't. I searched for

him for months, posting on Facebook, talking with neighbors. I even made flyers with a thousand dollar reward and posted a business in town. It took me forever to let go and finally realize that he wasn't coming home. I own a Cane Corso now and last night, November 1st, 2021, I woke up to him barking which he rarely does. I went downstairs to see what he was barking at. I flipped on my porch light and saw a black lab laying on my porch and immediately noticed the collar. A collar that I had gotten made for my lab. Black leather with orange reflective circles around it. Now, I'm sure that there are other collars around

like that, but this one had a special touch added by my kids, a pink strip of duct tape near the buckle. As soon as I saw the pink stripe, my heart skipped a beat. I didn't want to let my cane Corso get out as he's very protective, so I grabbed him by the collar and took him to the laundry room. I ran back to the door and opened it and the dog was gone. I grabbed a flashlight and looked all over my yard for him but couldn't find him anywhere. I stayed up and called for him for most of the night but he never came. I still cannot figure this out and I'm embarrassed to even say anything to anyone close to me because it sounds so far-fetched. He's been gone for over five years. Mom, Mom, did you see my race?

Of course I did, darling. Look, you did your best. You tried. The thing is, it's not about winning. It's about taking part. Next year you might do better. But I did win, Mom. You did?

When it's sunny, make sure you can still see at spec savers get two pairs of glasses from 149 and one can be prescription sunglasses hey the sun won't wait visit specsavers.ca for details conditions apply do you really think it was him. I live on a 13-acre property in an area of my state where the suburbs turn to rural farmland. My parents live in the main house near our road while my fiancé and I converted one of the barns on the back half of the property into our house. Our house and another barn are set in a pretty wide clearing slash pasture, but beyond that we're surrounded by woods on three sides. All of this is to say that we don't get many visitors out here.

From the time we moved into the house almost a year ago, there had been some occasions where I get this inexplicable feeling of terror while outside at night. I've lived in the woods my whole life, including in places far, far more remote than here, but I've never had this feeling. The woods are home. In every other place I've lived they've felt like my woods, but not here. I've repeatedly had the feeling that I'm trespassing on someone else's land, someone who was not happy to have me here.

The other night I took my dog out for his last walk, it was around 11pm so it was pitch black outside, the ring of light cast by the floodlights on the side of the house. As I was walking towards the edge of the tree line where my pup likes to do his business, I heard a sound like someone imitating the hoot of an owl coming from the direction of the other barn about 30 yards away to our right. I was so certain that it was a human making the noise that I called out, Very funny, Dad. I assumed it was my father closing up the barn for the night and he was taking the opportunity

to try and spook me, but no one called back. It was at this point that my dog lifted his head from sniffing all over and froze, staring in the direction of the barn. His hair stood up along his spine and he started to give a low, menacing growl. Now this dog is obsessed with all people and animals, everyone is a friend waiting to be made. I've never seen him act aggressively toward anything, even other dogs that have tried to fight him. My dad especially is his favorite person on the planet, so there's no way that he would have started growling at him. It was my turn for all the hair on my neck to stand up as a cold wave of fear hit me like a brick. My dog had stopped right at the edge of where the light met the darkness of the woods. Normally, the light gradually dissipated into the trees, still providing enough visibility to see the outlines of the trees and shrubs, but this time it ended with a solid wall of black.

Suddenly, I heard the same fake owl sound from only a few feet away, just on the other side of the darkness. My dog jumped and immediately started barking, pulling himself between me and the sound. He's only a little guy so I darted forward, scooped him up and took off running toward the house. Behind me I heard the sound again but this time it had a strange warble to it, almost like laughter. The next morning when I went out to check on the barn, I found the doors had been partially broken off the slide and were swung past each other the wrong direction, like someone had tried to force them open the wrong way. There were no signs of footprints in the sawdust or dirt or any other signs of an intruder. I have no idea what was out there that night,

but suffice to say, my dog and I stay well within the floodlights when we go out, after dark. This is a story about Hilda, my little old lady hospice patient who lived in an Odessa, Texas nursing home. This is also a story about Claude, who was her son, but also my hospice patient who lived in an Odessa, Texas nursing home. This is also a story about Claude, who was her son, but also my hospice patient, and lived at home in Midland, Texas with his wife, Joni. Yes, mother Hilda and son Claude were both dying at the same time in two separate places 20

miles apart. And poor wife slash daughter-in-law Joni was trying to take care of both and doing a great job doing it. Between the two, Hilda the mom and Cloud the son, I really expected Claude to just go first. He was confused. He would still get up a little bit, but now he was weak and he just looked sick. I really expected to be seeing him for maybe a couple of weeks before I anticipated him dying. His mother Hilda, all things considered, was doing relatively well. I really thought that I might be seeing her for two if not three months, maybe even longer. She had been a long-term resident in the nursing home with Alzheimer's. It just continued to take its toll on her to the point where she was almost bed-bound. And yes, she stopped eating as much and had been

losing weight and she was very confused. But she was pleasantly confused. I would typically see her twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays, normally after seeing her son on the same day. And each time I would have to reintroduce myself to her and we would chat for a while and sometimes she would tell me the same stories from her youth over and over again but she never failed to bring a smile to my face and due to her confusion she would sometimes just come out with things that really showed her confusion like I'm gonna go play baseball at the park this weekend when obviously just getting out of bed was almost beyond her but she was an amazingly sweet, even if she didn't remember who I was each time and sometimes came out with things that didn't make sense. And like I said, I didn't expect

her to die anytime soon. I really thought that she would just continue to slowly decline and probably in a couple of months I expected her to die peacefully, but sadly to outlive her son. So one Friday, I made my stop to check in on son Claude and he's doing okay. I make sure his pain is controlled and he's breathing okay. His wife Joni is also doing an amazing job and I let her know that I'm on my way to see Hilda and I'll see them back the following week. I drove over to the nursing home, checked in with the staff, and they say Hilda's doing fine, maybe even happier than normal. I'm in a bit of a hurry and running behind,

and I know I won't have much time to visit with Hilda today. I go into her room, and she greets me with, Hi, I'm Hilda. Hi, Hilda, I'm your nurse, and I was coming by to see how you are today. Well, I think I'm good. Are you hungry? Have you eaten? Oh, yes, dear. I think I've had some pancakes and sausage.

Very good, Hilda. Do you have any pain today? No. You know, I never have any pain. Who are you? I'm your nurse. So I'm going to check your blood pressure and listen to your breathing if that's okay. Of course, honey, you do what you need to do. But I really don't think I need a doctor or a nurse. I check her vitals. Everything is good.

No obvious signs of distress. No pain. Hilda's in great shape, relatively speaking. Alright, Hilda. Looks like you're doing well. I saw Claude and Joni this morning and they're doing well. I plan on seeing you next week. Well, honey, my son, you know, the one on 145th Street, said he was meeting up at the gate today at two. He's taking me home. I won't be here. So, knowing the condition Claude was in, I knew that there was no way he was getting her.

And besides, she said 145th Street. There's no numbered streets in Midland, and even Odessa streets don't go to that high. And it was noon now. There's no way even Joanie would be coming over to get her. Sweet Hilda, confused as always, but I guess she has something to look forward to. But at least Hilda looked good. I enjoyed my visit with her

and was glad that I would be able to keep seeing her for a while more. Okay, Hilda. Well, I'll see you next week, okay? Okay, but I won't be here. I gathered my bag and stethoscope, said bye to the nursing home staff, and drove back to Midland to start seeing my afternoon patients. 2.15, I get a text to call Hilda's nursing home. I figure they just need to refill on her medication or something. I call and talk with her nurse Annie. Um, hey, it's Hilda. I went to check in on her and she's dead. We'd seen her about 30 minutes earlier and she was fine and we walked back in and well, she's just gone. I was shocked. Over the years I had become really good at predicting when my patients would die and

yes, she was sick but I never expected her to die that day or even that week or month. I thought back to her conversation about her son meeting her at the gate. I called Joni's number and she answered and let her know that it sounded like Hilda had passed. Joni was sad but not overly surprised. I guess when anyone is 102 it's not a terrible surprise really. I told her I was going back over to officially pronounce her and Joni told me that she would meet me. I asked about Claude and she said that he was fine and they had just been visiting and she wasn't sure if she would tell him yet or not. I drove back to the nursing home, checked on Hilda and sure enough,

just like the staff had said, she had passed. Joni showed up just a bit later and after some hugs she told Hilda goodbye and that she and Claude loved her. We stepped out into the hall. I told her that I was surprised that it had happened so quickly but it looked like she had gone very peacefully. I told her about our last conversation. Joanie, it was strange that she said that she was going to meet her son at the gate at two. And that's almost exactly when she died. I thought first maybe Claude had died and met her,

but it sounds like that's not the case. But then I really think it was just her confusion because she said that her son was on 145th. And you all don't live on 145th, so I guess it was just her confusion talking. And Joanie responds saying, No, she was talking about her other son, Claude's brother. He lived on 145th Street in Lubbock.

He died about five years ago, and it sounds like he was meeting her at the gate today at two to bring her home. I was shocked. speechless really. Claude would go on to die a couple of weeks later and then Joanie a couple of years after that, and each time I would think about all of them gathering at the gate to welcome each other home. home I fell asleep on my mom's living room couch with the TV on. I tuck my phone under the pillow under my head. It feels like an hour had passed and I feel my phone vibrating like someone is calling me and I look at it and it's from Peanut. I answer and sleepily say hello. My dad comes through the other end, staticky but very clearly him and

says hey, like he always did, with a bit of surprise in his voice like wow it worked. I say oh my god hey and he says my phone isn't working or I couldn't get my phone to work, implying that's why he called me from Peanut's phone. He says, I've been trying to call everyone. I just wanted to tell you I love you and I'm safe. He goes on to say that I'm in room four and it was a three digit number, definitely beginning in a four. I tell him I love him too and I'm glad he's safe and I ask him to repeat the last part again because I didn't hear the room number part. He says the I love you and I'm safe again and then said the room number again once again I couldn't make it out because it got too staticky and the TV was too loud. I say I love you too dad and I don't remember the call ending but I remember waking up in the exact environment I was in

dream thinking what just happened. A few other details he sounded kind of like he did when he was sick on the phone but definitely improved a bit. I was watching Family Feud when I fell asleep and infomercials played on that channel when it ends and an infomercial was what was too loud in my dream and the same one was playing when I woke up as in the dream and no one in my family has any idea who Peanut may be. My mom and I went camping in the woods of northern Wisconsin. When we arrived to the campground, we were the only people there, which was weird by itself, sure. Everything went semi-normal until our tent filled to the brim with spiders and we ended up sleeping in the car. It was about 2-3am and I was wide awake because

I was just restless and almost paranoid someone was out there in the woods. I looked out the left rear window when I saw a large portal open. I couldn't believe my eyes so I pinched and slapped myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I wasn't. I could feel the pain as I watched the portal getting larger and wider about 7 to 8 feet tall. It was this bluish green, almost like Rick and Morty ironically. And immediately after this I woke up my mom to see if she could see what I was seeing too. And she did, and freaked out a bit and said, don't move and be quiet. I saw one humanoid figure come out with a lantern. He looked around and then gestured to the others to come out and I would say five to six people came out,

almost in a sort of Amish Mennonite sort of clothing. They all had lanterns as well. They gathered around each other and seemed to talk, then one by one they all entered the woods in single file line. The first man to walk out of that portal was the one to go back in the portal. After he got in, the portal closed and we watched the humanoids walk into the woods until we couldn't see their light anymore. My mom immediately started the car and we left in complete silence and silent the entire car ride back to Illinois. Ever since then, both my mom and I had been avid believers of the paranormal and aliens.

I'm wondering if anyone has ever seen anything like this before or experienced it before because I know this sounds absolutely insane, but I swear it happened. This story happened back when I was 22 years old. For context, that was over 10 years ago. And at the time, I was still trying to figure out life. I did the whole school thing for a while, but it wasn't for me. While I was in school, I met a friend whose family owned this construction and contracting company. They did everything from manufacturing buildings to plowing driveways in the winter.

He and I became closer one semester and I started working with him and his family at the company. Within a couple of months, I made more money than I made the entire previous year at my last job. He and I became closer one semester and I started working with him and his family at the company. Within a couple of months I made more money than I made the entire previous year at my last job. The work was hard but it was rewarding and it paid well. That summer I stayed in the town where my school was so I could work with my friend and his family. When the fall semester was getting ready to start I made the choice to drop out and just

work for his company. That first year, I did all the work I could and made enough money to survive by myself. One day, a job offer came up that was going to pay very well, but the job was going to basically be a 72-hour straight job. We were going to build a bridge in a small town that was about an hour away from where the company was located. The work was tough, obviously, but we eventually got it done and it was up to code. I was excited to get paid because with this money I was planning on putting a down payment on a new house. Immediately after the job, one of my co-workers suggested that we go out for some beers to celebrate a job well done. Now you're probably wondering why I didn't just go home and just pass out on the

couch. The simple answer was that by this point I was overtired and the thought of celebrating the completion of this big job with my friends was very appealing to me. While we were sitting at the bar I noticed a woman on the far side of the bar. She kept eyeing my direction. Maybe I was just feeling confident since we got the job done and I knew that I was going to have some extra money, but more realistically, it was probably because I had one too many drinks. I decided to make my move and I was pleasantly surprised to see that she seemed to be interested. We started with some small talk and very quickly that evolved into some heavy conversation. I'm not going into a ton of details here, but let's just say that I was feeling lucky.

At this point, after talking to her for a little while, I had this feeling that she was going to head back to my place. While we were sitting there, I noticed that she kept looking up, and the smile soon turned into a frown. I tried to ignore it at first, but it was becoming too obvious. I finally asked her what was going on and she decided to inform me that the man sitting across from us at the bar was her ex and he was a very jealous man. I told her we could move and she was smitten by that idea.

My group of friends was still there and we all moved to a table near the rear of the bar. Her ex was nowhere in sight and we soon forgot about all that unpleasantness. However, that only lasted maybe 10 more minutes. I noticed the frown on her face and I thought the ex may have been back. And before I could ask what was going on, she pointed to a different guy sitting at a table not far from us and said the same things before. Ex-boyfriend. Very jealous man. I'm not going to lie. I started having second thoughts about this woman around this time. I even thought that maybe she was messing with me. Who knows? Maybe this girl was wild.

She has all these exes looking at her at the same location. Now, don't misunderstand me. I have no issues with dating and meeting new people. My issue was with how these men were looking at her. Something just felt incredibly wrong. Those ideas of doubt don't swirl around too long in my head because she suggested that we just get out of there and maybe have a few more drinks at my place. I jumped on the chance and took her up on this offer. We got to my place a little after one in the morning. I was exhausted mentally, but the adrenaline and excitement from meeting this woman was keeping me going. I put on some music and grabbed us both a drink. She was acting weird,

but still sort of flirty. I was trying to put on my moves, which I admit are not the greatest, and she was being a little dismissive and kept checking her phone. I didn't ask what she was doing on her phone because obviously that wasn't my business. And a few minutes later there was a knock at the door. It scared me half to death. Remember, it's after one in the morning. I haven't slept at all, so hearing a knock at the door is a little strange. I knew the music wasn't that loud, so I had no idea why someone would be knocking at the door is a little strange. I knew the music wasn't that loud so I had no idea why

someone would be knocking at the door at this hour. I was weighing my options silently in my head and that's when my nice date got up and said in this sort of annoyed voice, I guess I'll get it. I jumped up and asked her what she was doing. In a very arrogant tone she says, what does it look like? I'm answering the door. I instantly felt sick to my stomach as I watched the man from the far side of the bar walk into the place like he owned it. Before I could even react, the other man from the bar was only a few steps behind him. The man in front whispered in a loud and aggressive voice saying, if you make a sound, your night's gonna get a whole lot worse.

He had some sort of weapon concealed in his waistband because, as he said that, he lifted his sweatshirt and showed me the handle of something. The other man then pulled out a knife and demanded that I give him my wallet and any other valuables. I of course complied, but thankfully for me, this was just a small studio apartment. I don't have much of anything, and since I'm trying to buy a house, I didn't really have any belongings in this place, as I'm a pretty minimalistic person. The man with the knife stood in front of me as I stood there with my hands up. The other man in my date, who I had realized during all of this was part of this little setup game, decided to search my apartment for anything else they wanted to take.

A few minutes passed and they ran out of my apartment with basically only my wallet, which had a $20 bill I think, and my debit card, which didn't really have much in my account. I waited a few minutes to call the police which I knew was stupid but I was scared that they might be still lingering outside my apartment. When the police arrived it occurred to me that I never even got this woman's number. I only had a description of her and the two men that she was with and maybe mentioning that they could possibly check the cameras at the bar that we were at that night. And later on they must have decided against using my card because I assumed they could figure out that it was tracked. I did eventually cancel that card, but I waited a few days to maybe see if they left a paper trail or something.

After I filed the report, I was sure that they would catch them, but they never did. I never saw that woman or those two guys at the bar or anywhere else, and the bar staff there didn't recognize them when I brought it up. All in all, I guess I'm kind of lucky. I didn't get hurt, and I only really lost 20 bucks. But that doesn't change the fact that this is still just a terrifying memory of my life, and I'm just so thankful that nothing more serious happened. Be careful meeting people out there. She seemed like a great person or maybe I was just too tired to see through all the red flags that were right in front of my face. So this story is pretty crazy, and honestly, every time I think about it or I'm reminded of it,

I still shiver a little bit. It has to be at least five years ago now. I went out with a bunch of friends to a comedy show. I love stand-up comedy and going to see a comic perform is one of my all-time favorite things to do. The show was at this massive resort and spa place near where I lived. Down the road were a few casinos, so I think the place was designed to be a place for patrons of the casino to stay at. The resort had an awesome bar and a bunch of suites, and there were six of us in our group, all of us couples. The night out was planned months in advance. We'd see the show, go to the bar for some drinks,

and then we'd all get separate suites for the night. It was kind of a romantic getaway, but also a friendship getaway as well. The rooms were awesome. They had hot tubs in the room, and I was just getaway as well. The rooms were awesome. They had hot tubs in the room, and I was just looking forward to soaking in that after the show. And the show was awesome though, and we all hit the bar right after. It was probably around 10 or 11 when we were actually sitting in the bar. I think it's worth noting that you don't need to be staying at the resort to visit the bar.

It's open to the public, and I think it's one of the more popular bars in the area. While we were sitting together enjoying each other's company, we got approached by a strange looking fellow. He was a tall man with some pretty nasty teeth, I remember. He was also uncomfortably skinny. And with some weird confidence he asked us about how we liked the show. Nobody answered right away. I think it was solely because of this man's sketchy appearance. I tried not to judge him so I answered and told him that the show was awesome. He started talking about the show and I have to say that he knew what he was talking about. He mentioned certain bits from it and kept mentioning how we all look like pretty big fans. I could tell my friends were pretty annoyed but I just continued engaging with this man. After a little bit of back and forth, the guy asked if we'd actually like to meet him, the comedian that is. We all looked at each other in disbelief and asked if he was serious.

He said that he could only take two of us, but it'd be worth it. My friends didn't trust the situation, so they passed, which meant that me and my girlfriend were going to be the two that get to meet him. Now I know how sketchy this sounds especially coming from this guy but at the moment it really didn't give off any sort of red flags or anything like that. Like I said in the moment he really did seem like he knew what he was talking about and he spoke with a lot of confidence. The man said that the comedian had some press stuff to take care of, but he could sneak us into the back where he was staying after midnight. But this gave us a little pause. He was staying in the back? It just didn't make a lot of sense.

And the man went on to explain that the resort had some special suite in the back that was meant for the entertainers, whether it was comedians, bands, or even plays. It seemed legit, and it seemed like he knew what he was talking about. A few minutes to midnight, my friends went back to their rooms, and me and my girlfriend made our way back to the back room where this man said to meet him. We had a bad feeling almost right away. There were no trespassing signs everywhere, and it just had that feeling of we're not supposed to be here. We kept telling ourselves that we belonged here and that we were invited but it still didn't help that bad feeling. A few minutes after midnight and we were getting ready to bail and we heard a commotion coming from down the dark and narrow alleyway.

As we adjusted our eyes to the dim lighting we saw the tall sketchy man from before running at us at full pelt. The man sees us, doesn't say a word, and just runs right past us and leaves the back room. Seconds later, two very large security guards turn the corner and yell, Freeze! Both my girlfriend and I look behind us, expecting to see the man or anyone else, but to our horror, it was just us. We looked back at security, and we could now see that they were running directly at us, seemingly ready to attack. But before we even knew what was happening, I was taken to the ground. Three more guards approached, and we both got apprehended and taken to the small room at the back of the resort. We explained the situation to them and told them dozens of times that we didn't know that man and

he told us that we can meet the comedian if we met him back there. This back and forth went on for a while but they eventually released us. We were detained in that back room for quite a while and I don't even know if any of that was honestly legal but it did happen. We finally found out that this guy had some strange stalker obsession with the comedian, I guess. I think they did arrest him, but I actually don't know for sure if they caught him or not. And for the record, there is no special suite in the back of the resort for the entertainers. It was all a lie, just like everything else this strange man told us. But what makes this story so unsettling is not that this guy was creepy,

it's that we have no idea what his intentions truly were for us. Why did he invite us back there with him? Did he plan on framing us for some horrible act that he was about to commit? Or is it possible that this guy really thought that he was friends with the comedian? We never got answers and unfortunately endured a night of very uncomfortable detainment. I wish I could tell you more, but I've really told you everything I know, and I just hope wherever this creep is and my husband hates going out as well. I never really enjoyed it either. I know a lot of people, especially as they get older, they slow down. That's mainly because they get it out of their system when they're young.

My friends started going out every weekend back in high school, and I was always looking for ways to get out of it. One weekend during my senior year of high school, I was talked into going out to get out of it. One weekend during my senior year of high school I was talked into going out to this house party at a friend Wanda's house. I tried every excuse in the book but she practically begged me to go and I caved. I remember being so anxious leading up to the party. Everyone from school was going apparently and all week long I just remember people talking about the rager of a party going down at Wanda's. I got there early so I could find a nice corner of the house to just post up in. It took a little while but I finally started to unwind as the party went on.

I was drinking a little bit and I'm sure that was part of the equation of me loosening up. The party started around 7 that night so by the time midnight rolled around people were already leaving. I remember thinking to myself, maybe going out isn't so bad. I didn't want to drive home, at least not right away since I had been drinking. I stayed with Wanda and helped her clean the place up a little bit. She lived alone with just her dad and she didn't want him to come home from his business trip to a destroyed house. There was five of us left at the house at around one in the morning and the house was almost spotless since we all divided and conquered different rooms for cleaning. The other three girls were going to stay overnight and I was going to leave around two since I wasn't feeling the alcohol at this point. I went into the bathroom

to wash my face and take care of my bladder before the drive home. I really just wanted to make sure that I was okay enough to drive. While I was in the bathroom, I heard a loud crash, followed by these gasps and screams of friends. After all the OMGs from my friends, I heard Wanda yell, you can't be here anymore, and then was instantly responded by some aggressive woman yelling, shut up. I didn't know what to do. I started to hear crying and more panicking coming from my friends. I felt like a coward, but I locked myself in the bathroom. I heard Wanda yell to my friends who were out in the room, let's get out of here, and I started to hear more loud bangs happening,

and I just sat in this sort of fetal position in the bathroom floor. I wish I could call someone, but my cell phone was in my bag which was in the kitchen and I started to hear that aggressive voice again yelling you're not leaving. I could hear the sounds of shoving and screaming and it was like witnessing a nightmare but not being able to see what was happening. I couldn't imagine what my friends were going through on the other side of that door and I just sat there in the bathroom like a coward. The continued crying and screaming of my friends accompanied by the loud bangs and glass shattering was enough for me to be paralyzed in fear. And a few moments passed and I heard Wanda yell, okay go now. And then I heard a series

of footsteps running by the door and I was too scared to act. This aggressive woman ran by the door, assumedly chasing my friends and screaming get back here. She then started to scream and it was the most unsettling thing I'd ever heard in my entire life. I had no idea what was going on, and just when I thought this nightmare couldn't get any worse, the woman approached the bathroom door and tried opening it, but realized it was locked. She started pounding on the door, screaming, who's in my bathroom? I just started crying and just remained on the bathroom floor. The woman was relentlessly pounding on the door and I was convinced that the door was going to break at any second, although I don't

think that was actually possible. And this went on for a few agonizing minutes. I just hoped that it would end soon. Then I'm not even joking, the woman started to run back and forth outside the bathroom door. I don't know if she was on something or just some crazy insane woman with the zoomies, but her footsteps were fast and heavy. It sounded like some bear outside the bathroom stomping around. I couldn't figure out what was happening. Clearly this woman thought that the house was hers and she knew Wanda's name. I was trying to put puzzle pieces together in my mind but due to the frantic nature of the woman I was a little distracted to say the least.

It wasn't long after my friends ran away that I heard the sound that I found strangely comforting. It was the sound of the police coming into the home and apprehending the woman. She was screaming, and I could hear a fight being put up. One of the officers knocked on the bathroom door and asked if I was okay, and it took me a second to answer, but I finally was able to shake the words out of my mouth. I unlocked the door and slowly came out, and it was like seeing your nightmare finally coming into reality. I saw the wreckage of their beautiful home. Glass was everywhere. In the kitchen, I saw the woman handcuffed, standing with two officers, and she looked at me, and I'll never forget what I saw.

She had the most deranged eyes I'd ever seen in my life. They were big, nearly bulging out of her face. She was breathing heavily and when she noticed me leaving the bathroom she just started to howl again and scream that I was trespassing in her home. As one of the officers started to escort me out of the house, I noticed her hands were all red with what I assumed may have been blood. Then I noticed outside the bathroom door had red handprints all up and down the door where she had been banging. This woman was destroying her body and it was traumatizing. When I got outside, I saw Wanda and all of my friends and I'd never been so happy in my life.

I remember being locked in the bathroom and thinking to myself that they may have abandoned me, but they actually went and got help to save me. When I got my phone, I had dozens of texts and missed calls from Wanda telling me to stay locked up and not leave the bathroom. She thought I had my phone even though I didn't and it turns out the crazy woman was Wanda's ex-stepmother. I guess if that's a thing. When she was married to her dad she ended up going nuts and trying to hurt her father which was ultimately what led them to separating but she never quite accepted it clearly. We never really found out what happened to her after that night. We realized quickly that Wanda didn't want to talk about it, and we never pushed it, and then eventually everyone just sort of moved on.

So I have my reasons as to why I don't like going out, and this right here was top of the list. At the beginning of this past summer, I had an experience that was about as far opposite of a good night out as you can possibly have. Me and my four friends met at my apartment after work that night. We all got ready at my place since I have two bathrooms in the apartment. I had a new dress and I was feeling pretty confident. I was able to wear these cute blue heels that I bought at a thrift store two years ago that I never found a good outfit to match with. We spent about an hour getting ready and were about to leave and head to this party. My friend Megan's boyfriend was having this big party at this barn. I know that sounds like the setup for a bad horror movie, but we've done this before many times.

His name is Charlie and he goes all out. Gets a DJ, a dance floor and even lets people crash at his house. The only thing that sucks is that the drive is about 45 minutes from my apartment so we wouldn't get there until a little after 10.30. The barn is exactly where you may think it is, the middle of nowhere, but that's part of what makes the party so great is that we can be as loud as we want and we're not disturbing anyone. So why am I writing this, you might ask? Why was this night out so particularly bad?

Well, in short, because we never made it to the party. Megan and one of my friends drove separately. I drove with my friend Ashley so we could stop and grab some beer first and then drive out there. Megan was getting antsy from being so late, so that's why we just said we'd meet them there. We grabbed our beer and started our drive to the party. About halfway through the drive, you get off the highway and the rest of the trip is just long, desolate roads. It's kind of creepy at night because it's just pure darkness for like 20 minutes until you reach Charlie's place.

While we were driving the dark roads, we nearly went off the road because out of nowhere, this random person came out of the darkness and into the middle of the road, waving this bright flashlight around. We both screamed just out of the randomness of the situation. We pulled over, which was mistake number one. Ashley said that she needed to catch her breath. I was pushing her to hurry up because I could see the person with the flashlight approaching the car. Ashley didn't seem to care about the person though. She was still trying to get her composure from almost driving off the road. And just as she was getting ready to drive away, this figure was approaching the side of the vehicle on her side. He was walking strangely close to the car, but I didn't think too much about it at the time. She cracked a window and started to talk to this young man, which was probably her second

mistake. He told us that he was coming from the party and that he had lost his phone. He said while he was driving, he got a flat tire and his car drove off the road. Ashley was trying to be sympathetic, even though I just kept telling her to drive away. Then, in a calm and reassuring voice, this guy says, listen, I know I'm a stranger on the side of the road. I'm not asking for a ride or anything. I just want to use your phone so I can call for a ride. I mean, I just came from the party. I assume you guys are heading to. We're all friends. I didn't like it though, but Ashley has a weakness. She's just too nice. And instead of just asking him what the number was, she literally handed him the phone through the crack in the window. He took a few steps from the car and appeared like he was trying to make a call. I was freaking out out but he just kept telling me that it'd be okay.

A few moments later, he came back over to the window and dropped the phone back into the window crack. He thanked Ashley for her kindness and I started to think that this guy might have been right after all. Then he asked if we could help him get his bag out of his car. Ashley seemed confused and asked him why. He went on to explain to us by saying that his car went off the road and it was tangled in some thick brush on the side of the road, and to get his bag out one of us would have to hold his arm. It didn't make sense to me in the moment, but this guy didn't give us any reason not to trust him to that point. Ashley thought about it for a second but then unlocked the door.

I grabbed her arm and asked what she was doing and she just shushed me and opened the door. The man kept saying thank you like every two seconds. I didn't want Ashley to do this alone so I got out of the car as well. And there we are, two girls in heels and a dress, helping some random guy in the middle of nowhere. This is literally how every stupid character dies in horror movies. We got to the side of the road and he said, it's just down there. We both looked at each other and then asked him if he was going to shine the light in that direction and he didn't say anything. We turned around and he was looking around frantically like

he was waiting for something. I hit Ashley's arm and motioned my head out to our car. This was my way of saying that we needed to leave right now and I think Ashley agreed with me. Without saying anything, we turned around and ran back to our car. The man followed us and said, Wait, sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out. Please, I need your help. As we were getting into the car, we noticed that the tires on the driver's side were completely flat. We didn't run anything over, so we had no idea what had happened. She tried driving, but it was rim on the road, so we didn't get very far. I called our friend Megan and Ashley called the police. Megan didn't answer and I texted Megan and told her what was happening and to send help right away.

Ashley told the police what was happening and they said that they would get someone there as soon as possible. Not two minutes later, two bright lights appeared from off the road and a big truck parked in front of us. Now, the man with the light was standing right outside Ashley's window and he was banging on the glass. We knew we'd never make it until the cops came, and the next ten minutes were the worst of my entire life. The man with the light was banging on the windows and showing us a pocket knife, now with this horrible smile on his face. It became clear to us that someone with this man most likely slashed the tires of Ashley's car when we left to assist this dude. There was also another person in that big truck that we still haven't seen yet. Then, two huge trucks sped down the street. The man with the light jumped into the truck blocking our path, and they sped away in the opposite direction.

The two trucks were Charlie and a bunch of their friends. Megan got our text and told everyone at the party that we were in trouble, and they came right away to try and save us. In the heat of the moment, nobody thought to chase the big truck because everyone wanted to make sure that we were alright. It was nearly ten minutes after that when the police showed up and it was only one squad car. We told them everything, and they seemed a bit dismissive and were more concerned with the alcohol in our car even though we hadn't even had one to drink yet. It makes me so mad that this man is most likely still out there causing harm. And who knows what happened to his accomplice that was also most likely in the woods.

I hate to say it, but sometimes being kind can get you seriously hurt. We're lucky to leave with no physical scars, but not everyone is as lucky as we were out on a family vacation, and one of the worst things that's ever happened to me happened. I think sometimes we have a tendency to think that when we're with our family, we're safe, but that isn't always the case. This specific year we went to West Palm Beach in Florida. It was beautiful. It doesn't have the fame and glamour of a place like Miami, but it's still amazing. It's like the light version of Miami, I'd say. We spent the first

few days doing nothing except going to the beach and going out to eat, which for money is the best way to spend a vacation. But I can understand how people can get bored. On the fourth day, my sister suggested that we all go out and party since this was the first family vacation that we had gone on where my sister and I were old enough to drink. My parents were hesitant, but then came around and started to like the idea. My sister has a way of getting you excited to do things that you may not want to do. Yeah, she's a monster, but not the monster of this story. That afternoon, while we were at the beach, my mom asked if we had any kind of game planned for going out or if we were just going to wing it. I was curious too because I was forced into this

because I'm part of the family and I didn't want to be a party pooper. And that's when my sister said that we were going to meet Nate at nine o'clock outside the front of her hotel. This concerned me and my parents as who the heck is Nate? We were all thinking the same thing. And I hate to say that about my sister, but she has a horrible habit of meeting terrible, random people who seemingly take advantage of her. So we started to grill her about the Nate character that we were supposed to meet and wanted to know why we needed him to go out for the night. She said that she had met Nate at our hotel and they hit it off. I guess she was telling Nate that she was a little bored and wished that they could do more on their trip before heading home.

Nate, who claimed to work at the hotel, said that he would take her and her family to a special spot that tourists never get to see. She told us that the situation reminded her of the movie Dirty Dancing, where all the employees secretly party at this fancy resort. And surprise, surprise, Dirty Dancing is one of my sister's favorite movies. My parents were a little skeptical, but like I said, my sister is persuasive, and she convinced my parents that there was nothing to be skeptical about. We had dinner together at a restaurant near a hotel, and then walked back to the hotel to meet this Nate. It was nine on the dot, and a large bald man came out from the alley and asked for my sister, who spoke up right away and said, Yes, can I help you? The man claimed to be a friend of Nate

and said that he was here to transport us to where we needed to go. My sister started to follow the man with my mom, but my dad and I stayed back. My sister asked what was the issue and I said, am I the only one who thinks it's a bad idea to walk down a dark alley with a stranger we don't know? My sister started to yell at me, saying that I was embarrassing her, but I didn't care. I knew that there was something wrong here. My mom convinced my dad, and I went almost out of peer pressure at this point. The big man wasn't saying anything and was sort of just keeping to himself. In the back alley was this ugly tan van. The man opened the side door with no bedside manner just says, get in. We all looked at each other. I could tell that my parents were

not okay with this but they were trying to go with the flow and since my sister was all for this they seemed to think that it was alright. They all jumped into the van and again I followed just because. The man slammed the door behind us and got into the driver's seat. My heart was racing and I was just praying that this van would show up at some bar or something and that we could just Uber back to the hotel. I was trying to talk to the man asking questions like where's Nate, where are we going, but the man didn't really answer. When asked about Nate, he just said, I don't know. We'll see him soon, I think. And when asked about where we were going, he just shrugged and said, where I was told to take you. I could finally see my sister starting

to get nervous. She was trying to get the big guy to talk about Nate since he was the reason we were sucked into this whole adventure. But the big man wasn't giving up any information. It was about a ten minute drive, and the van pulled over to some warehouse. It was pitch black, and we didn't recognize anything around us. It was a run-down industrial looking area. This big guy opened the door and barked at us to get out of the van. We listened, but continued to ask what was going on, and now the big man kept telling us to shut up.

Here we were, in our vacation outfits, at this abandoned industrial area, with a large man making hostile remarks. The big guy told us to move toward the warehouse, and we complied, basically out of fear. My sister and mom started to cry, and the guy just kept telling us to shut up. The man started to get into our faces, yelling, phones in the bag, phones in the bag.

He pulled out a white pillowcase, and we all dropped our phones into the pillowcase. We continued to move forward, and when we got inside, my sister yelled out, Nate. And a fairly handsome man, tan with blonde hair and blue eyes, ran over and told her to shut up. He then told us that if we made a move, we would regret it. This night had gone from bad to worse, to very, very bad in just a matter of minutes. He told us to wait here and not make a sound, which we all did. I just remember trying so hard not to freak out. The big man and Nate were about 10 to 15 feet away from us and they were talking to each other. The big guy had this bag of phones in his hands and Nate was talking on his cell phone. He looked frustrated

and angry and he kept yelling the word no over and over again. Both of them left the area of the warehouse where we were basically being held hostage. We heard the loud echoes of doors slamming and weren't sure if they had left or maybe even let somebody in. We waited for about 10 minutes and then noticed that they weren't coming back. My dad led us quietly to the door we came in and we noticed that the van was gone. We got outside, making a run for it. The area was horrible and even though this big guy and Nate weren't around, we expected to be jumped at any second. We finally came across a gas station and went inside and told the woman everything.

She called the police for us, who came fast and we reported the incident. These men didn't work at the hotel. They didn't even have one employee there named Nate. Whoever these two were, their intentions were completely unknown. Something spooked them because they left without finishing whatever it was they were starting. They did find our phones, but not until days later. They found the pillowcase in a dumpster with the phone smashed inside. And honestly, I'm not sure if they ever caught these two. We went back home after that night and we haven't returned to West Palm Beach since. And needless to say, we never take our sister's advice anymore. I love you. This story took place approximately five years ago. One of my friends was getting married in late summer. She was getting married at a local casino and if we called in with a bride or groom's

name, we were able to rent out a room at the casino for a discounted rate. I knew that the availability would probably go quickly so I decided to book a room straight away knowing that I wouldn't want to drive home after the wedding. The casino was about 15 minutes away from my house so I figured I could also check into the room early at around 3pm, get ready and then just walk to the wedding. The wedding was one of the best I had ever been to. The venue was amazing and had indoor and outdoor access. It was a gorgeous day and the food was the best I've ever had at any wedding before or since. After the wedding, a lot of people went their separate ways. Some people went home, some people went directly to the casino to gamble, and some hit up the numerous bars on

the property. I decided to go gamble with a few friends. We went to the roulette table where I think I asked for $50 to $75 in colored chips. We all were picking our favorite numbers but were having any luck. I decided with my last 20 chips I would put them all on 22 black. A few of my friends joined me and we actually hit the number. I can remember all of us jumping up and down and cheering and then trying to regain our composure of feeling a little embarrassed. As soon as we got our chips, we put them in our pockets until we could cash out. As soon as we left the table, I was stopped by a short man dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie, wearing sunglasses and doors.

He stepped in front of me and said, Hey, I was really impressed with your play. I got a suite upstairs and I'd love to have you and your friends up for some drinks. I responded by saying something along the lines of, Oh, we're all set, man. And he smiled, responding, Well, I'll be around if you change your mind. I walked to the side and caught back up with my friends.

A few people wanted to take their winnings to the slot machines, but since I had won a good deal of money, I was done gambling for the night. However, I decided to stay with my friends, even though I wasn't gambling. As we looked for open slot machines, I noticed that the guy who had approached me at the table wasn't far away. He was sitting at slot machines adjacent to my friends and me. I didn't make it obvious that I was looking, but every time we went to a different section of the casino, I kept an eye open to see if he was following us.

He was keeping his distance, but I continued to see him each time we moved around. I let my friends know and they suggested that we give up on the casino and meet up with some of the others from the wedding who were drinking at one of the bars at the casino. We went and had a good time for about an hour or so but could start seeing people fading. Everyone was getting tired and leaving to go back to their rooms. I asked my friend Michael if he would walk back with me to my room as we were staying on the same floor. I'm glad I did because as we left the bar, I saw the same guy from before and he approached me and said, Have you considered that drink? Michael stepped in and just said, Hey listen, back off, she's taken.

Putting his arm around me. I thanked him for doing that and hoped that his pretending to be my boyfriend would be the end of the story. However, my night didn't end there. Michael dropped me off in my room and made sure that I got in okay. I took a shower and set out some clothes to get into before bed and also started packing everything I had out from earlier in the night. My plan was to wake up early and check out and head home. After my shower, I dried off and put on a towel. I thought I could hear something but it wasn't very loud so I assumed it was doors shutting in the hallway. But I continued to think that I heard something.

I stayed silent and held my breath as I moved toward the door. As I got right near the door, the handle started jiggling. I jumped back without making a sound and turned the light on in the hotel room. I went and pressed my eye near the peephole and saw someone pacing outside the room. I couldn't quite make out who it was, but my gut was telling me that it was probably the creep from earlier. I made sure all the locks were fastened on the door, especially the one that wouldn't let the door open all the way even if it was open slightly. I got into bed, turned the TV on at a very low sound and tried to see if I could close my eyes, but I couldn't get comfortable.

The thought of someone jiggling my door handle wouldn't allow me to relax my mind enough to try and sleep. I was watching cartoons at maybe 2 or 3 AM at this point and I felt myself slowly starting to doze. My eyes were getting heavier and heavier and then I sat up and heard bang. There was a pounding at my door. My heart was racing. I still remember feeling like it was going to beat out of my chest. A second set of pounding and then I heard someone from the hallway yelling, what are you doing, it's the middle of the night. I heard footsteps trailing off down the hall and I sat in bed for about 15 minutes before I got the courage to approach the door. When I did, no one was outside of it and I went back to bed. I stayed away for probably another two or so hours

and then waited until I heard a door open and close in the hallway and heard what sounded like children's voices. I grabbed my stuff and left the room and took the elevator with what seemed to be a dad and two kids heading down to the pool. I checked out, speed walked to my car and bolted out of there as fast as I could. I still remember this night like it was yesterday and sometimes I still have nightmares that I'm in my room and someone is knocking on the door. Now anytime I travel or stay in hotels I bring my boyfriend with me. It's given me a sense of comfort and thankfully I haven't run into any other creepy stalker guys again. When I was in high school, I had a close relationship with all of my friends.

Now I know that may seem like a common sense statement. I just feel like we were closer than a lot of friend groups. It was a group of eight of us, and we were together every weekend from 7th grade to 12th grade. When college came, we all went our separate ways for the most part, and even though we tried to stay in touch, after a few years, life just took over. We graduated 15 years ago now, and I had only seen a few of my friends from high school. Sure, we're all friends on social media, but it's just not the same. My one friend Brian was going back to our hometown to visit his mother, and he decided to reach out to all of us several months ahead of time.

He basically begged all of us to come home so we could have a night out together like we used to. It was tempting, but I wasn't sure that I could take the time off to go home for one night. When I was about a month away from his coming home, I noticed that all my friends had said yes that they would come back and I was the only hold out. My friends started to beg me and I finally caved in and said that I would join them. And my life was starting to feel a little bit like the beginning of the movie It 2 when all the friends were going back to their hometown. Now I was just hoping that there weren't any demon clowns when I got there. Before I knew it, I was on my way home. I stopped and saw my parents and spent the afternoon with them. I brought my wife with me, which I was about

to find out was a major problem. We all met at a local dive bar in the area. Some friends hadn't seen me or my wife since my wedding, and some of them hadn't even met her at all yet. After we all exchanged pleasantries, Brian pulled me aside and walked us away from the group. He was annoyed and gave me a hard time for bringing my wife. He claimed that this was about a friend group reconnecting and that my wife was going to ruin it. I was angry and I didn't like the way he was talking to me. I'm a pretty nice guy and I brushed it off and I assured him that she's cool and there's really nothing to worry about and I brushed it off and I assured him that she's cool and

there's really nothing to worry about and I think he should be more respectful. He just groaned and he said that he would deal with it anyway. The night continued and it was a great time. We were laughing and joking all night and whenever I see these guys it's not like a second has passed. My wife couldn't believe how long it had been since we all talked as we really didn't miss a beat. We visited all the local bars in the area and just continued keeping the night going. Finally, Brian said that he had one more bar to show us. We were all intrigued but pretty tired and we drove to a beautiful home and were confused about where Brian was leading us. When we got out of the car, Brian held out his arms and said, surprise, but nobody really knew how to react. We didn't know what we

were being surprised with. Brian then explained that he had bought this house and that he was moving back to town. We all congratulated him and he invited us in for one last drink, and when we got inside, he had a cake for the friend group and an entire spread of food prepared for us. It was a super nice gesture, just a little late in the evening for all of this. We had been drinking and partying for several hours by this point, and we all stayed for a few drinks and continued to party at Brian's new house. When we were getting ready to leave, Brian says, well, you guys can't leave yet. Just stay here. I appeared grateful and thanked Brian for the offer, but I told my parents that I would go home to sleep. Brian insisted and it ended up

getting really awkward. And loudly in front of everyone, he says, it's because of her isn't it i told you that she would ruin everything and we were speechless and the rest of my friends were in shock everyone kind of threw their hands up and said whoa which was the only response you could really have unless you were me and in that instance i wanted to hit him, but I didn't. I swallowed my pride and said my goodbyes to everyone, even Brian, who didn't even apologize for what he said. My wife was a little upset that I didn't stick up for her more and I totally understand that, but I just wanted to end the night on a positive note and leave before more damage was done. We got back to my parents' house a little after two in the morning. We both got

ready for bed and crashed right away. Not long after falling asleep, my wife woke up. She said that she had heard something outside. I kept telling her that it was probably some animal since my parents' house was surrounded by woods. Then I started to hear it too, and it sounded a little strange for an animal. The room that we were sleeping in had a bed against the window, and it sounded like something was brushing against it. Our hearts were racing. I whipped back the curtain, and nothing was there. I cut my hands on the window and saw nothing but just some dark backyard. I told myself and my wife that it must have been an animal and that

we'd probably just go back to sleep. Not two minutes later we heard another strange noise but this time it came from the kitchen. My wife was in a panic but I told her that it was probably my parents just waking up early or something. She begged me to go check and so I did. I wasn't sneaking or scared at this point because I was sure that it was probably just my mom or dad. As I walked down the hall, I walked by my parents' bedroom, and I saw something that instantly freaked me out. Both of my parents were still in bed, sleeping, but I could clearly hear someone downstairs. I turned around and my wife was in the doorway of our bedroom. I mouthed a call 911 just because I didn't want to risk it, better safe than sorry. She closed the door and

I heard her lock it. I went downstairs slowly and just sitting at the kitchen table was Brian. I approached him aggressively, demanding to know what he was doing. He didn't move. He just sat there at the table, not making a sound. I was whispering, trying not to wake my parents, but I was whispering in a pretty loud and angry tone, and I told him that the police were coming. And then he finally reacted. He lifts his head slowly to look at me, but didn't say anything. I don't know why, but I was unnerved by all of this. He slowly got up and to look at me but didn't say anything. I don't know why but I was unnerved by all of this.

He slowly got up and just stared at me. I had known Brian for a long time and this was a very weird behavior for him. This entire reaction was probably less than a minute but it felt like it dragged on forever. Brian moved in closer and without notice he pushes me taking me to the ground you see Brian's a pretty big guy and I couldn't get him off me in that moment he just sits on top of me and starts just throwing down punches I put my hands up to defend myself but there was only so much I could do he was claiming that I ruined everything and because of me our friends will

never come back home. Thankfully the police arrived not long after this altercation. My dad ended up coming downstairs before the cops came inside and he hit Brian with one of his golf clubs. The police then swiftly arrested him and took him out of the house. Thankfully I didn't have any serious injuries but my face did have one or two bruises on it. And this night was just insane. But the craziest part is that nobody really knows why Brian snapped. He didn't have any history of mental illnesses, drug use, or anything that would indicate this erratic behavior. And he always was one of the best humans that I knew, and to see him lose it like that,

it just still breaks my heart. Nobody's gone home since that night, and everybody's kind of lost communication with Brian. He's deleted all of his social media accounts, and as far as we know, he could be getting professional help somewhere. And Brian, if you somehow hear this, I'm sorry if I did anything to hurt you, and I just hope that you find the peace that you need. To be continued... new videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7pm EST. If you get a story, be sure to submit them to my subreddit, r slash let's read official, and maybe even hear your story featured on the next video. And if you want to support me even more, grab early access to all future narrations for just $1 a month on Patreon, and maybe even pick up some Let's Read merch on Spreadshirt. And check out the Let's Read podcast, where you can hear all of these stories

in big compilations and save huge on data. Located anywhere you listen to podcasts. Links in the description below. Thanks so much, friends. And I'll see you again soon.