The Lets Read Podcast - 69: Episode 060 | Peeping Tom & Mall Stories | 24 True Scary Horror Stories

Episode Date: April 20, 2020

Welcome to the sixtieth episode of The Lets Read Podcast! This podcast includes narrations of true creepy encounters submitted by normal folks just like yourself. Today you'll experience horrifying stories about Peeping Toms, Malls & Nightmare Dates In Korea. Check out this other awesome, similar podcast: http://letsnotmeetpodcast.com For 10% off your first air purifier order with Molekule, visit Molekule.com and at checkout enter "read" HAVE A STORY TO SUBMIT?► www.Reddit.com/r/LetsReadOfficial FOLLOW ME ON- ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsread.official/ ► Twitter - https://twitter.com/LetsReadCreepy ►YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/letsreadofficial ♫ Background Music: Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFvrqVSJE8E PATREON for EARLY ACCESS!►http://patreon.com/LetsRead 

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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. Ben MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. First things first. At the time of this experience, I was 24 years old, living with my then-fiancé, now-husband, who we'll call B, and my four-year-old daughter, who we'll call S. B worked nights six days a week. We lived in a notoriously bad neighborhood,

but up until this one week, my naive self figured if I minded my own business, I would be impervious to bad things happening, right? Right. Before we get to that night, the night of the main event, there are three seemingly insignificant events that happened in the week leading up to that night. For you to get the full picture, I'll go over those first. Event 1. Sunday around 2am, my 4 year old comes downstairs into the living room where my husband and I were watching TV on his day off. I hop up and start to direct her back to bed when she says, There is a man in our backyard. Is he your friend? I turn to look wide eyed at B who, without further prompting, goes upstairs and looks out her window. Due to the bright back porch lights, my daughter's window

actually does have the best view of the backyard. After several minutes, he comes down with a shrug. I don't see anyone and nothing's been moved. So I chalk it up to a bad dream and take S back to bed. Event number two. Tuesday. I have two cats. Because I have two cats I do not open my screens to my windows. They are strictly inside cats. On this night it was pouring out. No thunder or lightning but pouring. My neighbor calls me and says, is your cat supposed to be outside? He's on the porch. I reply, no, thank you for calling. I'm letting him in now. After letting in my poor drenched cat, I set about looking for how he got out. It didn't take long to find the dining room window was open just about 6 inches.

This is when I started to get a little freaked out. This was an old house. The screens were hard to open. It took a considerable amount of effort to open them, and after asking my husband, I knew neither of us had opened it. Yet again, I figured I was just being paranoid. Perhaps S had figured out how to open it. Event number three. Thursday.

Night again. Be at work. My outside dog, Vega, would not stop barking. This was unusual. He likes being outside, especially at night. We didn't have AC at the time and it was cooler outside than it was inside. He just started barking and barking and barking. After about an hour and a half I called him inside but his behavior became even more bizarre. When I called him in he would bound up the back steps into the

house however then he would pace by the back door, like he does when he wants to go out. I don't want him keeping up the neighbor with his constant barking tonight, so I ignored him. Within two minutes, his pace turns into loud whining and determined scratching at the door. So, after ten minutes of this, I cave and let him back outside, where he immediately starts barking again. Just a maddening, constant bark. This goes on for about two hours before he finally stops. Friday, the main event. S and I are sitting on the couch past bedtime.

B, as usual, was at work. We were watching Tangled for the hundredth time. I had just finished painting her nails and told her when the movie was over, no more whining, it was time for bed. Now remember that window that my cot got out of? It is visible from the couch and vice versa. This is important. Over the movie I heard what sounded like a tap. I paused the movie. Nothing. Weird, but whatever. I start the movie again. Tap, tap, tap.

Three seconds. Then tap, tap, tap. I don't even have to pause the movie. I know there is tapping. And my gut starts to twist and knot. I have anxiety though. It's probably nothing. And then my brain starts to twist and knot. I have anxiety though, it's probably nothing and then my brain starts going into overdrive. There are no branches, no trees, bushes or decorations near that window. No brain, you're overreacting, stop it. I get up from the couch and go over to the

window. The reflection of the dining room light keeps me from being able to see anything but darkness in my own reflection, so I act like I'm just adjusting the curtain. Then my other dog Coco catches my eye. This normally happy-go-lucky puppy is staring at the window, hackles raised, teeth bared and growling the most terrifying growl. I mean, I have never heard her make that sound before. I stay calm and walk back over to the couch and send S to bed. I wanted to keep acting normal. I don't know why, but I was afraid that if whoever was outside my window knew

that I knew they were there, that they may act aggressively. I sat down on the couch again and called B. I explained what was happening and all the while the tapping had resumed. B told me to call the police so I did. 10 minutes pass. Tap, tap, tap. 20 then 30 minutes pass. Still no police. Tap, tap, tap. I called B again. He is furious the police aren't there yet. He tells me he's leaving work now. He works 30 minutes away. Tap, tap, tap. Coco is glued to my hip. She wouldn't move from my side, all the while growling. Finally, 50 minutes after my call, red and blue lights turn on in front of my house shouting. Then I hear our car with its unmistakable squeaky brakes coming up the drive. Only after I heard B's voice on the

porch did I dare open the door. Sure enough the police were putting a man in handcuffs into the police car. When they had pulled up they saw the guy and nabbed him. The one police officer just nonchalantly said, oh he was just probably going to rob you when you went to bed. Once they left B told me that there's slim jim wrappers next to our fence, at least 10 of them. The man was feeding my dog so he wouldn't bark. While the officer was putting him in the car, the dispatcher was naming off his priors. One of them was assault. From where he was at the window, he could see both me and my four-year-old on the couch. Because of the first three events I wrote about, I'm fairly certain this man was watching our house. He knew B worked at night and that if he didn't bring food, my

outside dog would tell the whole neighborhood someone was in the yard. He knew Bea worked at night and that if he didn't bring food, my outside dog would tell the whole neighborhood someone was in the yard. He knew he could quietly open the window. I'm afraid to think about what could have happened had I not heard the tapping. If Coco hadn't reacted the way she did. We move two weeks later. I hope that nothing like this ever happens again. When I was about 23 to 24 I met a very attractive Spanish guy I went to high school with at the gym. I didn't know he knew who I was because I was very shy in high school and had my swim team friends and my close friends.

Other than that, I was very quiet in high school and kept to myself while he played sports and was very popular. We started talking in the gym parking lot and he asked for my number. I found him attractive and athletic. I was a very curvy plus-size girl so finding me attractive really surprised me. I agreed to meet up with him and go on a date. Wrong idea. We went on a date to a very small local bar where many of the rural southerners would go to grab a drink. Mind you this bar was very tiny and had one room with the bar and a connecting room that had a couple pool tables. We stuck out a little as many of the people that went there looked like they had done drugs or drank heavily or smoked

their whole life. I brushed off the feeling of displacement and tried to enjoy my evening. That's where it got very strange. There was this thin woman, probably a little older than us, with her ex-mother-in-law hitting on the guy I was with. I didn't let it bug me but I could tell he was not interested. He had made a couple of comments earlier about how he liked my size and we really had nothing to talk about so I thought maybe we were not compatible but I was trying to enjoy the night. I went to the bathroom in the small bar and probably was gone for five to ten minutes reapplying my lipstick and looking in the mirror. When I came back he flipped out on me saying I was talking to other guys. Let me remind you this bar had very sketchy older men with long beards or men that looked like

they were old enough to be my grandparents so I explained no, I was in the bathroom. He didn't believe me and kept going on and on about me talking to other men. When it was time to go, I was more than ready to leave. I really didn't feel this was going anywhere and I was ready to go home. He then decided to not drive me home straight away but to a small dimly lit pond in the rural area where no one was around. That's when I started freaking out. I asked him to take me home, but he refused and asked for us to go walking by the pond. I don't know what his intentions were, but it read red flags. I kept begging him, telling him I really needed to be home,

and he started getting furious with me, saying that me talking to guys at that bar really hurt him. I knew this guy was not well and finally convinced him to bring me home after crying and screaming that I didn't want to be here. We got back to my house and he tried grabbing my leg telling me I shouldn't be working out and he liked his girls a little chubby. I pulled away and told him it was time for me to go. He was so furious with me but I managed to get out of his car, walk quickly to my house and lock the door. I then texted him it wasn't working out and it was best to just move on. I stopped going to the gym the same time he would and eventually stopped going to that gym altogether. I'm 28 now and keep to myself at any gym I go to.

To the guy I thought was attractive but ended up being a creep. I hope we never run into each other again. I work at the Walmart near where I live. At the time this story occurred, I had been working there for a little over three years. I was working one night at the customer service desk where I normally worked. It was a usual night. Understaffed, busy, exhausting, a typical shift at Walmart. I had a long line of people and I was the only one at the desk.

Because it was so busy, I was trying to get my line down as quickly as possible. One guy in line looked a little bit different than the others. He was tall, Caucasian, appeared to be in his late 20s to early 30s, was wearing a short pair of shorts, had a button-up shirt on that wasn't buttoned all the way, had long dreadlocks that almost touched the floor, and had a pair of sunglasses on his head. It wasn't his appearance that stood out to me. I've always made it a goal to not jump to conclusions based on what people look like. I hate stereotypes and I don't want to be another one who subconsciously endorses them.

He was returning a printer, had his receipt, the serial numbers matched, everything was there. Nothing really out of the ordinary. What got me was the way he smiled and talked to me. He spoke as if though he was intoxicated and he gave a smile that looked like something you'd see in a horror movie. A big smile with big wide eyes. What was even creepier was as I refunded him his money, he smiled at me and stared at me as he slowly turned around and walked away. I thought it was a little weird at first, but I let it go because that was the first time I'd ever saw this guy. I really started to get creeped out when he began to regularly come

into the store, returning more printers. He began coming back so much we eventually gave him the nickname Printer Guy. When I saw Printer Guy for the second time I thought maybe he just tried another printer and it didn't work either. I tried not to think too much about it but as the days and weeks went on it became a routine for Printer Guy to come into the store and return printers. He would come to the store, return a printer or two, and would go back to the electronics to get more. We know he didn't steal them because he always had the receipt. He went through the self-checkouts every time. The workers saw him ring up each one and pay for them.

But why would one person need so many printers? Eventually security started watching him. The day security and management told us not to take any printers back from him was the day he made it obvious he was up to something. He returned five printers in one day. Now it it's none of my business, but one person does not need that many printers. The last time I returned a printer for him was that same day. He came up and asked me what was up. He was talking to me casually just like the other times, but before I could even start the transaction, he leaned over to me and said, In between you and me, you don't need to know what I'm doing

with all these printers. That's when I became absolutely terrified. I took that as code for don't be in my business. But he then told me that his dog went missing and he was returning the printers to collect a reward for someone who found his dog. Whether he was telling the truth about his dog or not, that's when it became clear. He was buying the printers to print out flyers and when he used all the ink, he would bring them back to get more. The printer is usually cheaper than the ink so it makes sense why he would buy printers that already come with ink and then return them. After I gave him the money back for the printers he was returning, he once again gave me a weird smile and stared at me, saying, I'll see you around. At that point, I didn't feel comfortable being around this guy.

My other co-workers didn't either. I didn't want to jump to conclusions but the way he acted then really made me fear for my safety. I just didn't feel like he was all there mentally. I told security what he had said to me and that was when the day management said we could no longer take any printers back from this guy. The last night I ever saw a printer guy in the store I was giving a break at the self checkouts. At this point most of my co-workers and supervisors were waiting for him to come back. We were told by management to call them whenever we saw him again. When he came into the store he looked over at me and asked me how I was doing. He looked at me once again with that creepy smile and stare and said,

it's good to see you. As he went to the service desk to return four more printers, one of my supervisors told him that we wouldn't take any more printers back because he had returned so many. He was at the desk for a couple of minutes and then slowly walked out of the store. His creepy smile was gone only to reveal a petrifying look of anger. That was the last time I ever saw a printer guy. I don't know what became of anger. That was the last time I ever saw a printer guy. I don't know what became of him. I don't know if he's still buying and returning printers. I don't know if he really had a dog that went missing and if he did I don't know if he found him. Walmart has a way of attracting many types of people. I've seen a lot of things while I've worked for the company, but he was the creepiest person I've ever come in contact with at the store.

Walmart does have low prices, but that definitely comes at a higher cost. If you find yourself in a Walmart or any public place for that matter, just be careful. You never know what type of people are lurking around the corner. For contextual reasons, I'm a 16-year-old born in the UK. This happened during the summer. I had just finished my final GCSE exams, final exams you take during school in the UK, and had 10 weeks of playing games and sleeping until past 10 every morning. As any kid would be, I was super excited for no school and had planned

with my school friends to play games all summer. At about a week into going to bed at 3am every morning, me and my friends had become good friends with an American that, for privacy reasons, I'll call Jake. Jake soon became friends with us and we played with him every day. He must have been in his mid-twenties and was pretty good at the games we played. No one saw anything off of him because he seemed to play all day in our hours and his hours. This didn't bother us though, as he was able to progress in the game at the same time. Things seemed normal and fun until we met another person. I'll name this girl Jane.

She was a funny and nice girl and me and my close friends didn't mind playing with her as she was good at the game and was also in an American time zone so she could play at times we couldn't. After a day or two I started to realize that Jake was attempting to flirt with Jane now. Jane was a girl in her mid-twenties but she also had a child that must have been around two or three that lived with her permanently. This didn't seem to bother Jake. A few days later I realized that Jane wasn't playing with us anymore. Me and my close friends couldn't think why as we had been doing really well recently and we were all having fun. I asked Jake. He said he had no clue why she had stopped playing. I asked her directly and she seemed quite upset. I asked why. Jane said that he hurled abuse at her

for no reason, screaming at her and telling her all these terrible jokes about assault and forcing himself upon her. As anyone would be, I was pretty mad at Jake. I just couldn't understand why he would say such things to a young woman who lives alone with her infant son. We stopped playing with Jake and Jane decided she didn't want to play with anyone now. However, me and my friend still kept in touch with her every now and then. The next day I get a message from Jane saying that Jake was continuing to message her. These messages were even worse than the first, this time targeting her infant son. He threatened that he would come to her house and do all of this himself.

The messages eventually stopped, yet she still feared for her and her family. It just goes to show you, you never. It's like a subway with pizza. You can come in, choose your size of the pizza and add whatever you want and we never charge extra. I decided to work there after I graduated because during the year I started I had a lot going on that year and having a job with flexible hours where I didn't need to work for my days off and the plan was eventually quit once I started college and get a better job. Months went by at my job with the typical stuff, bad customers, angry people, dumb stuff that anybody in retail or fast food has been through. We closed either at 11 or 10 regardless.

At my dismay, the worst that would happen is somebody comes in at 10.50 or 9.50 and orders, but after that, it would be normal. No people and just us employees working to get home. This will be important later. I like most of the people I worked with. Some people were annoying, lazy, or outright creepy, but they move on or were fired, so it never got to me. But a month before the incident that caused me to write on here, a 21-year-old girl started

working with us. She was actually quite great. Beautiful, super nice, and the cherry on top, great worker. We'll call her Lacey for this story. No real names will be used, obviously. I always found myself to be told all my co-workers gossip in their life. I could never tell you why, but I never minded lending an ear and giving advice. Lacey was no exception. After a few weeks, she told me about her boyfriend. In our area, we have a lot of the wealthy, not the

Beverly Hills wealthy, but the 200k a year wealthy and a lot of these wealthy people were country nobodies. Here actually fits that title but they like to hunt, fish, listen to country and ride ATVs and all that. Her boyfriend was the son of one of these people. Trucks, hunting, and nice outdoor equipment, he always had the nicest stuff, and a nice truck all bought by dad. Her story went like this. He was abusive, always asked to hook up when she wasn't ready, and would belittle her if he didn't get his way. After months of dealing with this, she finally called it off, and as you can imagine, he was not happy. Calling her all sorts of names you can think of and even his father joined in because of course dad had to. But she shrugged it off and told me he'll move on he's just trying to be tough.

She told me this and I gave her my advice and told her a shortened version of my abuse story so she knows she's not alone and we moved on. A week goes by and her and I are closing with one of our managers who will call James for the story. A manager must be closing with us every night. I know this is already long but for you to understand you must understand the layout of the store. As you walk in the store to your left is the line, in front of you is the seating area. It's a self-seat place by the way. The line has all the toppings and you follow through going through until your pie is done and go to the register and seat yourself and behind the line there is a table and on the

other side the fire oven. In the back there is more seats and a left turn to a hallway leading to bathrooms and to the right in that hallway is an exit that is locked once you go outside. Like I said, we're closing. I am on lobby so sweeping chairs up and bathrooms and Lacey is on kitchen, wrapping the line with plastic and cleaning the oven with our manager and back doing dishes. It's one of those nights when we close at 11 and it's now 12 or so and I look out the main door and see four large trucks pull up. One was brand new and all white and raised and the two extra wheels in the back and the others are older early 2000s and all that. They pull up in a line, lights on bright and my thoughts are, you suck, but at least we're closed. Two guys hop out of each truck so we're talking 8 guys standing in front of their trucks, lights blaring into the store.

As I start to realize how this could be bad, Lacey shouts, that idiot. And I walk up and she tells me, that's my a-hole boyfriend. And my manager hears this and walks out and realized what's going on. Me and James head outside and try to calm this down. Hey man it's over we've got work to do and she's done. James shouts this with both of us standing in the door. Well Lacey's boyfriend did not like this and with his arms crossed, mean mug and all shouts, Shut up, I want to speak to Lacey. Before we could respond, Lacey squeezes between us and stands tall and shouts, Yeah, real mature, coming to my work.

They shout typical angry ex stuff before the one comment stands out, You broke my heart. You and your stupid friends are going to hurt real bad. James has had enough and pushes us back in and shouts at us to run to the back. I take Lacey to the back and to the exit. I look back before we turn the corner and see it. The guys are getting on bats and large sticks and large tire iron ready to attack. James is pushing stuff against the door. I hold Lacey behind the corner and as James pushes another table the guys start pushing the door trying to punch James and he knows it's time to bail and runs the corner with us. We empty into the back and run down the road behind the huge stores in our outlet mall our store sits in and call the police. After ten minutes of talking

with the police, we hear the sirens of multiple cars and we run back and find the store trashed, fridges dented by swings, food thrown all over, and a cracked window from a thrown chair. After filling out my report and thanking James for his bravery and I say sorry to Lacey, who's an absolute mess at this point, we all take many days off for the store to his bravery and I say sorry to Lacey who's an absolute mess at this point. We all take many days off for the store to be repaired and I take an extra week to recover. When I came back Lacey had quit and apologized because she believed it was all her fault and her ex was later arrested for his actions and his court date is soon. Lacey, I hope you're okay. James, you are a true hero. And Trucker Rich Kid, let's never meet again.

Ever since I was a kid, I've dreamt of finding a secret room in my house. It seemed like such a magical thing to have a secret place to be hidden from the real world. As high as my hopes have been I just now as an adult found a hidden room in my current house and I really wish I hadn't. I rent a room in a house with three other guys. They all have bedrooms on the second floor of the house while my room is basically a semi-finished attic. For my taste it's actually a really cool room. When I moved in the room was mostly furnished. There was a bed frame which fit my mattress. There was a big dresser and there was a desk and chair. For the first few months I left the orientation of the room as it was but just the other day I decided I was going to change things up

As I moved the heavy dresser away from the wall I spotted a tiny door By tiny I mean maybe 2 feet wide by 3 feet tall I was intrigued I noticed that the latch on the door was fastened by a zip tie And seeing as my room was the attic I figured this was a step taken to avoid any kind of draft. Out of curiosity I cut the zip tie and opened up the small door. I was met by pitch blackness. I had a desk lamp pointing through the tiny doorway but it did little to cut through the darkness. I crawled through the tiny door with my phone light.

As soon as I entered I felt like something was off. Almost immediately I got hit with a bad sense of the spins and started feeling motion sick. I managed to get out back into my bedroom and felt such a powerful and unexplainable sense of dread and panic that I was sick in my trash can for several minutes. Eventually I began to regain my composure and as soon as I did I took a shoelace and retied the latch on that door and pushed the dresser back in front of it. I am still living in the same room and I've been having nightmares about that dresser sliding away and that door opening up. I'm not sure what happened in that room and I also really don't want to find out. I can't afford to break my lease and find a new place so it looks like I'll be here for a little while. Update. Shortly after this happened I had a streak of bad luck which amplified

the feeling of dread. This had been going on for a couple of months when I met up with a childhood friend we'll call Sarah. Sarah is very interested in the paranormal and is a Wiccan. When she first saw me that day her bubbly demeanor quickly turned to one of deep concern. She said, no offense but you look terrible. I told her what had happened and the feelings and nightmares I'd been having. At that point, I'd also gotten strange bruises on the back of my shoulders which for the life of me I couldn't explain. When I showed her the bruises, the look of concern turned to a look of horror. She went into her car and came out with a bundle of sage and burned it as she waved it all over me. She then gave me a couple of bundles and told me to burn them in my room. When I asked her why, she replied, you don't see it? Those bruises look like

tiny handprints. She went on to say I could have picked up something when I went in that little room. After that, I made a habit of burning sage. I know it's an aggressive and risky technique but it seems to be working in my case It's been about a year since I opened that door and I'm living in the same room The dresser is still holding the door shut and nothing weird has really happened But I still try to stay out of the house I'll be able to move out soon Hopefully the next house has no hidden rooms like that one.

When I was little, probably around four or five, my cousin told me and my brother, who was two years younger than me about something called the knock grob. I don't remember exactly what she said it was I think she said it was a ghost though I always thought of it and still do as some sort of paranormal creature. In order to encounter it she said we'd have to close the shutters in front of the window so that it would be totally dark inside the room and then call its name. We usually did this in my grandma's bedroom since we spent a lot of time at her place. I want to note here that I am a Christian yet my family isn't particularly religious and neither

was I, at the time of the story at least. Anyway, so obviously I would never do anything like this today, try and contact something paranormal since it's really not allowed to us Christians. And as we will see at the end of the story, for good riddance. My family knew what we were doing but as I said, since they weren't overly religious and didn't really believe in the paranormal, they never worried. They all saw this as harmless childish fun. For all they knew, we were just lying in a dark bedroom calling knock-grab, knock-grab and giggling. Even later,

when I told them about the encounters we had, they just dismissed it as A, an act of imagination, B, my cousin somehow playing pranks on me and my younger brother and trying to scare us, or C, an adult was probably secretly pranking us. Now, here are some of the things that happened. One time we were at my grandmother's, in her bedroom, shutters closed and was all dark. We, meaning myself, my cousin, and my brother, would lie in my grandma's bed and call out, knock, grab, in the dark and giggle, like we did often. To understand the story, you need to know that my grandma's windows have something that you could describe as somewhat similar to roller blinds but on the outside. You let them down from inside the room but the shutters themselves were on the outside and were made of plastic.

If you really want to understand what they look like, quickly open Google Pictures and type in R-O-L-L-A-D-E-N. They're the usual kind of shutters we have in Germany. Anyway, one of the times we again tried to summon the Nacht Grab, the shutters were actually suddenly lifted up from the outside with a loud noise, and what looked similar to a man looked through the window at us with a creepy mix of extreme anger and extreme pleasure on his face. It was as if though he was partly full of hate, but at the same time, he had the fun of his life

scaring us. I also should mention that when I say he looked like a man I don't mean he looked completely human. The face was somehow too red. It's the kind of red you become when you stand on your head for a long time and all the blood rushes to your face. I also remember that he looked similar to my dad but more like a bad version of him. Similar but definitely not him. Apart from the super red face, my dad never really blushes, especially not to that degree. The facial expression too was just so strange. Even if my dad would try and look angry and pleased at the same time, he just wouldn't look like this. The face also looked more dry is the best word I can think of, as in skin peeling off and has never even remotely been taken care of. He also looked older, and I also vividly remember him saying,

I am the knockgrab, and a voice that fit the facial expression full of anger and hate, but at the same time having the time of his life seeing us so scared. It was also a raspy sort of voice like the voice of a heavy smoker but still strong, not a whisper or anything. I would just say it was my imagination if it wasn't for the fact that we all screamed at the exact same time and when we later described it to each other we all saw the same thing. So how could it have just been in my imagination if all three of us saw the exact same thing at the same place in the same time? None of us have ever had hallucinations so what are the odds of all of us suddenly having one and the exact same one for no apparent reason. I also remember that since whatever this was

looked similar to my dad as we ran outside, I ran to him to either confront him or see whether it still could have somehow been him pranking us in spite of the differences in appearance. But he was sitting at the table with my grandparents, mom, aunt, and uncle and chatting in such a way that it was just clear that he hadn't just left the table seconds ago to prank us. Also, my dad is not a prankster, neither is anyone else in my family, so even if he had decided to prank us, as soon as the three of us would come running to our families explaining what had happened, they would have admitted that my dad was just playing a prank. It's unlikely for any of them

to play pranks let alone for the whole family to join in. My family's just not like that. They're more no-nonsense. Nice but not the kind of people to joke around and play childish tricks. There were other occurrences though. I remember when I was at my friend's birthday party when I was maybe six. I wanted to play the same game as I always did with my cousin. My friend was a Christian already back then, her family was very religious, so she definitely didn't seem to like the idea but kind of joined out of peer pressure, and I was so excited that I selfishly didn't care too much about being scared. We went to her room, closed the shutters, again the same my grandma has,

typical German, Rohrladen, and called his name. And there suddenly was a distant knocking against the shutters. They're made of plastic so you definitely hear it. My friend screamed and ran for it first, I don't exactly remember the rest. Whether her parents just came in and told us to open the shutters again and stop or whether we too just ran. Either way, this is another proof that this was real for two reasons. One, again everyone in the room heard it

so it couldn't have been my imagination. Also, this was a loud, clear knocking noise. Not a sound that the wind could have made. And there was also no trees near her window that could have caused the noise. There was just no other reasonable explanation. Also, unlike my grandma's bedroom, my friend's bedroom was on the second or third floor, so there is no way someone could have decided to prank us and knock on the window unless they went through the trouble to go get a ladder, put it in front of my friend's window

while the shutters were closed, climb up, knock and quickly climb down again before anyone opened the shutters and looked outside. And even that's impossible since I never told my friend's parents what we were planning and again her parents were very Christian and like my parents, not the kind of people who take pleasure in pranking you. If they would have known what we were doing, they probably would have stopped us. And they certainly were not the kind of people to build up a ladder in front of a whole apartment block with other people watching just to knock on her own daughter's bedroom window to scare her. And when we came outside outside her parents were right

there. Again no possible explanation. There was one other story I would like to mention. My cousin had a friend let's call her N who she said was kidnapped by the knock grob. To be fair even though I had seen enough of this then to know it was real, I also knew that my cousin sometimes made up stories back then to scare me. The whole knock-grob thing was basically 50% real things I've seen and witnessed and 50% lies about him my cousin made up. Even when I was young I knew this, so I didn't really believe her with this crazy story. I've also seen her friend several times during the time she was supposedly kidnapped, so this was definitely untrue. However, I wouldn't be writing this if that was all. Even though I knew that N hadn't been kidnapped and that my cousin

had made it up, I still remember that she told me that the knockjob was supposedly holding her prisoner in our basement. So, whether out of my own curiosity or because my cousin encouraged me to do so, I don't remember, I sometimes called her name in the direction of the basement, and several times I would hear a whining sort of noise in response. Again, N was obviously fine, and definitely not living in the basement as a prisoner, but something, something that we had probably attracted through all the times we tried to summon the Noct Grab was making the noise. I'm not sure about this one, it was a long time ago, but I think I can

also remember one instance where N was actually visiting my cousin and I met her and my cousin near the stairs outside my apartment. We actually called her name together then in the direction of the basement and if my blurry and admittedly imperfect memory is correct here, there was actually a whining noise. These were only the big things that happened. In the majority of cases it was just us in a dark room calling his name, a knocking sound in response so nothing worth mentioning further. I don't know when we finally stopped but I guess eventually when I was around 10 I had maybe just grown out of it. If you wonder as to my theory as to what the knockgrab really was,

I can't think of it as anything but a demon. It was attracted by us summoning it and being scared of it made it stronger and caused it to come back each time we called. It seemed to like to terrify us in the story where it suddenly opened the shutters and growled in this scratchy voice. The evil grin that just showed how much it was enjoying our fear. Also I remember that each time I played the game while being a little scared or not scared at all, nothing would happen. Yet every time I called it while being really scared, there was immediately a knocking sound or a whining, as in the case of N, or the one time I even saw it. Again, this could have just been my fear running wild, but then how did the others around me witness it too? So it did seem to be

attracted by fear. The more fear the faster it was there and the red face, the dry skin, the hate in the eyes of that somewhat human looking thing it makes sense. As if it was impersonating a human we all knew, my father, but really failing to do so convincingly or probably not even trying since it was meant to scare us. Maybe its intention was to make me scared of my father by impersonating him in this rather grotesque way, I don't know. And still not 100% convinced whether this was all real. This was all very long ago, I was very young and it has been proven that my brain fills in the blanks after a short time and that memory is not infallible like a tape recorder. Yet as you remember there were several things in the story that I can't explain that if my memory isn't

failing me must be supernatural. One of the reasons I posted this was to warn parents and future parents to not see these paranormal games as games. I was quite lucky to get away unscathed. For years we called this thing again and again. It appeared again and again and it certainly must have felt our fear. Considering this, I can only thank God that this thing didn't latch itself onto me or my cousin or my younger brother or my poor friends I dragged into this. It could have haunted my family or my house. It could have tried to do much worse things than scare us. The only reason I believe I got away is that God never let this probably demon do any actual harm. After all, we were just very young kids back then who didn't know better and meant no harm.

While I believed in God and Jesus and all of that at the time of the story, I had very limited knowledge of Christianity. I never knew about demons, the occults, about how summoning ghosts, demons, and messing with the paranormal is not allowed to Christians, and I wish I had known. So back to my warning to you parents. Summoning ghosts or demons, witchcraft and all this doesn't always look like it does in a horror movie. It doesn't require blood, sacrifices, Ouija boards, satanic paintings and signs on a wall or playing games like Bloody Mary. It can look way more innocent as it did with me. Just a bunch of kids in a dark room calling a nonsensical

name and giggling. It seems like fun, as if nothing bad or evil could actually be summoned this way. But it can. There's a small town about 20 minutes from mine called St. Thomas which is located in Ontario. You know what they say about small towns. Small towns are full of urban legends and spooky stories. In my case, this is true. When I was about 11, my dad and grandma, who also happened to share my fascination with the paranormal, took my sister and I out to the witch's grave.

The grave itself is almost impossible to read due to the aging of the stone. My grandmother began to explain the legend. I sat shivering in the back of the car, refusing to get out. I could feel the evil energy around. The legend starts as many do. There was a woman who lived in town. An odd woman. The town's folk had their suspicions and turned against her.

Nobody ever really knew why they decided she was a witch. After they ended her life, they buried her in a small cemetery behind the town church in order to keep her evil energy at bay from the rest of the town, kept surrounded by a holy place. Around the grave are four pillars. The grave and pillars are now black, but the legend says that they were originally white, and the witch's energy changed the color. At night, the pillars supposedly turned white again. The part of the legend that scared me the most as a kid was the curse the witch laid on her grave. If you go beyond the four pillars, you will die in five years. I remember my dad pretending to go between them and I was crying

and yelling for him not to. A black cat then came over and pawed at him to leave. This is also part of the legend. A black cat protects the grave, ensuring those who are foolish enough to go near it do not go in the pillars. Thankfully, my dad never went between them. Later, my grandma brought one of her close friends there who was not a believer. I didn't know this until the other day when my grandma brought it up to me but she stepped between the pillars and she died a few years ago now. Five years after it happened. I don't know if the legend of the witch is true. I'm sure some things have been twisted over the years. All I know is that there's some hocus pocus stuff going on here and nobody talks about it.

I have encountered my boyfriend's doppelganger as well as his sister's doppelganger. I will also be changing the sister's name. The first incident was that I saw my boyfriend's doppelganger as well as his sister's doppelganger. I will also be changing the sister's name. The first incident was that I saw my boyfriend's. To start, this happened in 2017 when I was 19. We went to bed and I had woken up in the middle of the night. The only light that slightly illuminated the room was coming from the TV. We like to listen to thunderstorms while we sleep. So when I woke up, I turned over and my boyfriend wasn't next to me. Then I saw him pop his head up over the bed and looked at me. I just went back to sleep. The next morning, we were on our way to work and I asked,

so what were you doing on the floor in the dark last night? He replied, I wasn't on the floor what are you talking about i said no i woke up in the middle of the night and looked over and you weren't next to me then you popped your head up over the bed and looked at me do you not remember that he said i was never on the floor whatever you saw wasn't me i then asked well did you get up in the middle of the night at all? His reply, I mean the only time I got up was to go to the bathroom but I came right back to bed. This kind of stunned me because I very clearly vividly remember seeing this happen. I clearly remember waking up and seeing that he wasn't next to me. Then I clearly remember seeing his head come up and look at me from the

edge of the bed on his side. We have always known our house was haunted and have had lots of experiences in the house together and separately so it wasn't an uncommon conversation to have if something strange happened. However, a doppelganger situation had never happened before. The second incident happened in about March of 2019. My boyfriend's sister was getting married and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding. She made plans with me to come over and drop off a little gift she had made for all of her bridesmaids which was incredibly sweet. In the morning she was supposed to come I woke up and got ready for her arrival. I went to the bathroom and while I was brushing my teeth I heard the doorbell ring. I then heard my boyfriend answer the door and greet her. I heard his sister ask, hey where's Ashley? Deciding this was my cue I clean off my toothbrush

and walk out of the bathroom. When I walked out of the bathroom there was no one at the front door and I surprisingly found my boyfriend in our bedroom. I was confused on how he could have gotten to the bedroom so quickly considering I opened the bathroom door seconds after hearing that she was here. I asked my boyfriend, where's Vivian? Did she already leave? He just said, what? She was never here. I told him that I heard the doorbell ring and conversation between them. No sooner than that I get a message from Vivian saying that she wasn't able to make it. I suppose the doppelganger situation would make sense because the house we lived in was originally built and owned by their great uncle who ended his life by a fatal gunshot wound to the head in the backyard. Although I don't think he ever truly left. To start, I should probably tell you that I am

one-third Native American. I have always been a bit sensitive to the supernatural. A couple of weeks ago, I worked an odd shift, 3pm to 3am. After work I decided that I was going to go to the local native reservation for cigarettes and gas. When I had finished getting gas I was a little bit too tired to drive. I decided to take a nap in the darker corner of the parking lot. I faded off into sleep. At 4.37 I was awoken by a howl like a wolf but more like a man mimicking a wolf. I look out from my car and there was a wolf-like man white in color standing about 50 to 60 feet in front of my car. It slowly walked towards me. I started the car and put it in reverse. I decided to get out of there. As I was leaving it scratched the trunk of my car. It's been three weeks since then and

I am working my normal shift at work 6pm to 6am. I have seen it many places since and I feel it's getting closer to me. I talk to the local native chief and he says that if it is following me like this, that it may be hunting me or that it could be trying to protect me from something more dangerous. He also told me that he can do nothing to help me. Just out of college and despite having a degree, it was almost impossible for me to get a job. Day after day, week after week, I sent out my resume to every game developer and computer company in the country and a few in Europe and Asia. Six months into this, my money was running very low. This was when I was forced to face the facts. I needed a job immediately and it didn't matter where and for how much. Just in time, I found a job listing for

a video game store at the mall. You know the one I mean, and the terrible stories you hear about them are almost always true. Because of my background in games I was given an interview immediately and hired soon after. My first shift was the following morning. Other than a few hiccups along the way it kept my head above water until I got on with Dell two years later. The meat of the facts began just before my second year was about to start. Because of the high turnover I was made an assistant manager by month nine. None of my shifts were evenings so I was tasked with keeping the younger employees in line. A job I never really took seriously since I was only a few years older than they were. I didn't care how they acted as long as they did their job.

Around this time a girl was hired that could have been my undoing. The second I saw her I knew she would be a problem. However it wasn't just her that was the source of trouble. Her super jealous boyfriend became a thorn in the side of every guy that worked with her and sometimes just spoke to her. A shift of hers didn't go by without him showing up to check on her. Some nights he would do no more than sit on a bench outside the store and watch her work but anytime she would get too close

to a guy for his liking, he'd approach them and physically intimidate the guy she was talking to. She never said a thing when this happened. I actually think she kind of liked it, but it would be what would push her away from him in the end. She'd worked at the store for a couple of weeks before someone showed her the hallways that ran along the back of every place. She took advantage of the fact he wasn't aware of them and this turned out to be a big mistake. If any person reading this doesn't know what I'm talking about, pay attention. You're about to learn something. I'm not sure how common this is, but some indoor malls,

those built in the old way where each store inhabited an area that leased from the mall owner, there are a network of paths or halls that run behind each business. They're used mainly by the employees. The system allows them to enter and leave their jobs without being seen by the customers, although I'm pretty sure their intended purpose was to give janitorial staff an uncluttered pathway to maintain the spaces. That being said, in all my time at that job I only saw a member of the cleaning staff a handful of times. Most of those times they were sneaking a cigarette rather than working. Luckily we could still smoke inside the building back then. No one said anything to the office if they caught you, probably because they were doing the

same thing on their breaks. If we are all on the same page now, I'll get to the real story. Like I said, his jealousy, no matter how it turned her on, was at the same time pushing her away. On her breaks, she'd often sneak out the back and disappear for a while. Where she went, I had no idea or really cared. The boyfriend took forever to catch on but when he did, he was super angry. She continued this routine for a few months and just one day she never came back to the store. I didn't attach any importance to this. It was during the holidays and work was a nightmare. It wasn't uncommon for employees to go on break after an especially hectic rush and not return. The turnover was simply that bad.

Things got a bit more interesting about four or five days later. The police showed up and had some questions about her disappearance. I was like, disappearance? What's going on here? They then informed me that she had been reported missing the day after she bailed on work by her parents. She had never made it home and they thought we may know something. The crazy thing was that when they visited her boyfriend's place to see if she was there, in addition to him not being there, after some digging, they learned that nobody had seen either of them for about a week. I was quick to make it clear that I didn't know anything. I had just assumed she got sick of the place and bailed. I guess they were happy with that. Never heard from

them again. Time passed and the situation around her almost faded completely from my mind until something really big in February happened and brought it back into crystal clarity. Some workmen were renovating one of the store's spaces for an incoming client and once they had completed emptying the space of what the previous renters had left behind, they began the undertaking of finding the source of a terrible smell. Initially, it had been inferred that the smell was emanating from some old food products left behind in the space, but even after the clearing, the stink remained. The next theory was that an animal like a rat had died in the wall. It had happened before. So, before they went to the extreme of busting holes in the walls to find the source of the smell, they went next door to the adjoining space that was also empty and had been for some time.

They spent close to an hour sifting through tons of old displays and leftover building materials. It turned out that the mall had been using this space for years as storage and the place was a mess. The two guys tasked with doing this were about to say forget it, when one of them stumbled upon the source of the stink, and it definitely wasn't a rat. Someone had taken a large piece of plywood and put it over a tiny little closet, thus making it invisible. The guy had caught on that the smell grew worse as he got closer to this board, so he pushed aside the heavy display rack holding the board against the wall, and as soon as he pulled back the board, he found what was causing it.

The semi-mummified body of what looked like a female was lying on the floor facing the wall. It appeared the arid and dry Arizona heat had preserved the corpse and suppressed decomposition. This had to have been why it wasn't stinking up the entire mall and managed to remain hidden for so long. Naturally, the mall was alive with talk of who the body could possibly belong to. Numbers of people had just stopped coming to work one day or skipped out during their lunch. We'd gone through at least 15 people in the last year ourselves. When the answer came, no one could have guessed who it was. Early one morning, I was awakened by my manager with the news that Becky Morrison was the person they found in the empty store. My only answer was, who? He reminded me that she was the girl with the crazy jealous boyfriend that had disappeared

just before Christmas. I hung up and went back to sleep. When I returned from my shift that night, it was the only thing anyone could talk about. The next question asked was, who did it? The overall favorite was the crazy boyfriend. Everyone knew by now that he had disappeared just after her, and considering his body wasn't found alongside hers, it was a fair assumption. He was most definitely nuts, it made sense. The story took a whole new angle just a couple of weeks after she was identified. An article was published in the paper discussing a possible new motive behind this. The police had recently received information that Becky had been messing around with a fellow mall employee during her breaks. They were meeting in the unoccupied store her body had been discovered

in and fooling around. After following some leads they were able to identify the employee. He was a 22 year old guy working in the Hallmark store but no name was given. He told the officers that he and Becky were supposed to hook up the day she disappeared but he got holed up by the time he'd reached the empty space and she was gone. He figured she couldn't wait and return to work. It was only a few days later when the cops showed up at the mall to ask questions that he heard she was missing. His mind went straight to the worst and he was afraid he'd be blamed for it so he said nothing. Then when the news reached him that the boyfriend was also missing, it was too late. He figured if the boyfriend was hiding out, waiting for his chance to get him,

it was best for him to say nothing, just on the off chance he didn't know for sure who the guy was. It all boiled down to him being afraid and, with what I knew, I could understand. What nobody knew and still probably doesn't is that her and I had a thing for a short while too. It wasn't long, but once is all it takes. I was the person who told her about the back hallways after all. We slipped out there a few times to mess around. Fortunately, we never got busted. When she moved on to the next guy, I wasn't hurt.

I knew she had a boyfriend anyway. Now you know why I had to act as if though I didn't care about her. We figured it was the safest thing for the both of us. Turns out we were right. I was overjoyed no one knew about us. If the dude was crazy enough to strangle her for cheating, which seemed to be the reason, he would no doubt come after the dude she was with. I felt sorry for the Hallmark guy.

It wouldn't take much mental math to figure out who he was if he didn't already know, and since they still haven't found him to this day, the fear of her boyfriend popping up out of nowhere and putting some holes in him must have been real strong. I know I was looking over my shoulder for several years after. The police have this theory that he may have ended his life not long after. There hadn't been any activity on his bank account or card for years and I still wasn't taking any chances. Nine years later, a week doesn't go by that I don't think about her. An outsider may have seen her as an easy girl but I still don't think of her that way.

It struck me that she was just looking for a guy that would treat her well and commit to her for the long term without being psychotic about it. She was genuinely a good person and certainly didn't deserve the end she had but then again I can't think of very many that do. The week leading up to the Christmas holiday my my family, consisting of one son, a daughter, my wife, and myself, took a last minute trip to a small outlet mall type place about 20 miles away from our home. We had one or two presents left to get and we knew the place had what we needed. After three plus hours of shopping, the whole family was beginning to complain about being hungry. The food court contained this little

Italian place that had awesome spaghetti and lasagna so we chose it. It came as no surprise that my son wanted chicken nuggets and fries. They made up a good 95% of his diet. Unfortunately on this occasion the Italian food wasn't that good. All three of us eating it thought it tasted a little funny but because we were starving most of it was eaten. My son on the other hand was pleased with his and had me wishing I would have just chosen Chick-fil-a too. Although we didn't like it none of us felt bad or had any reason to believe anything was wrong with our food. No one said so at the time at least. When everyone finished their meals we headed home.

The following morning I was awakened around 4.15 with the worst cramps I've ever felt. I noticed my wife was already using our bathroom so I had to use the one in the hall. The next hour was torture consisting of vomiting and diarrhea on levels to the point of unknown. In between explosions I could hear the sounds of my wife suffering through the paper thin walls. The idea that we had food poisoning first came up that morning. I was granted a brief reprieve from my sickness just long enough to go check on my wife and get a drink of water. I also took some to her but she just couldn't keep it down long enough. Our son came into our room around now to tell us that our daughter was also very ill and had locked herself in the bathroom upstairs. His only concern was that he had nowhere to go to the bathroom.

I told him to be considerate of others and stop being such a brat. If he needed to go so bad, he could go in the backyard. It was one of the few benefits of being a man, I suppose. I was planning on saying something else, but the cramp started again, so I had to run back to the bathroom. The whole time I was stuck in that place, the only thing I could think of was, why didn't I go to Chick-fil-A instead? I thought about it, but I knew my girls wanted Italian Italians so we went there. I catch myself doing that a lot. It took some time but I was able to purge myself of the poisoning.

While my stomach remained on the sour side, the need to lock myself in the bathroom had passed. Once again I checked on my wife and found her condition to still be terrible. I also knocked on the upstairs bathroom door. When I got no answer I knocked again and still got nothing. Something told me that this didn't bode well. I forced myself in and discovered my daughter unconscious on the floor next to a giant puddle of vomit. When I checked her pulse I could barely feel anything. Trying not to panic, I ran down to my bedroom and grabbed my phone. I dialed 911 as fast as I could and told them my daughter and wife were very sick and that my daughter was unconscious.

I'd completely forgotten about myself. They were my only concern. The two ambulances arrived quickly and rushed them both to the hospital. I scooped up my son and we followed in my car. The two ambulances arrived quickly and rushed them both to the hospital. I scooped up my son and we followed in my car. This would be the first long day of many in the coming weeks and not just for my family. My daughter's illness was found to be the worst and landed her almost three weeks in the hospital, some of it in the ICU. While my wife's, though still being bad, passed within the week. I myself was forced to

spend the night to take fluids, but compared to them, I got off easy. I would quickly come to light that we were not the only ones to become sick after eating at that place. The rumors spread like wildfire through the hospital that a massive salmonella outbreak had started. These rumors were confirmed a day later when the news reported to the full extent of the spread. At that point, 14 people had been infected. Two of them, an older couple, passed away the same night we first spent in the hospital. The numbers would reach 36 infected over the two days the restaurant was allowed to stay open. The final toll was reported to be 11, when the last victim, an 8-year-old girl who had been on life support for two weeks, was allowed to pass by the family. As the winter of 2018 became the spring of 2019, life eventually returned to normal, whatever normal is. My wonderful woman had been back home for a couple of months so we decided to have the Christmas we never got to have.

All the presents we had purchased were still sitting in the spare bedroom. The week of Easter seemed appropriate. The rest of the family was invited over for food, food in which all the proper safety measures were practiced, by the way. And we exchanged presents with one another and had an all-around great time. I may be speaking for myself, but it was the best Christmas I'd celebrated in my life. It may go without saying that the little Italian place could never bounce back from all the bad press. They reopened soon after the problem was discovered but no one would go back and they soon closed for good. They had already closed by the time we were able to go shopping at the mall again and just getting up the courage to do that took a while. Of course we wouldn't have eaten there anyway.

I've learned my lesson. As of the 1st of September, when I'm writing this, we've only been back to the mall once since that nightmare of a meal. Even before stepping foot in the parking lot, eating anywhere in that food court was banned. My daughter has become a vegan since returning from the hospital and I can't say I really blame her. I love to have the self-control to go that way myself but I can't pretend to be something I'm not. These days on the rare occasions we don't eat at home, 99% of the time, we go to Chick-fil-A and we've never had a bad meal from there. This has proven to me that I was right to want to go there in the first place.

Before I wrap this letter up I want to take the opportunity to express my deepest condolences on behalf of myself and my family to the families of those who perish because of this awful act of negligence. Your loved ones' memories will always remain in our thoughts and prayers. I wrestled back and forth with whether I should share this story. Amy had been my best friend since kindergarten and I would never want to do something that would have hurt her but the fact is, her repeated bad choices put her in the place she ended up in. The local press has done their best to create a picture that isn't true.

She is far from the good girl that they had painted her to be and the public deserves to hear the truth so they can make an informed decision regarding the outcome. Everything written here comes from a person that witnessed her actions first hand and was present at the time the crime was committed. My part in it was negligible and I have been punished for it. Anyone who says I betrayed her by testifying against her, I say in fact it was her who betrayed her friend by doing what she did. I certainly wouldn't have participated in any of it had I known what she had planned. If that's all we need to address I'll get to my story. Amy and I both got our jobs at American Eagle around the same time. We loved the job and working with my best friend was the coolest. Even when we weren't scheduled together we spent most of our shift talking on the phone. Our managers didn't really care. They spent their shifts hitting on

girls in the store. They had done the same to us when we first started but we just laughed at them. They were almost old enough to be our dads and that's gross. We had boyfriends anyway. Spencer, my boyfriend, was a senior and the quarterback of our school's football team. Amy's guy, Neil, was I suppose a real bad boy, just like the kind you see in the movies. He had the motorcycle and all that kind of stuff. They fought a lot and the worse he treated her, the more she loved him. Even through all of this, she was still the most popular girl in school. All the teachers loved her and regardless

of how much she skipped, she never failed a single class. I'll admit, I was jealous of her sometimes. Her life seemed so perfect. Guys were always trying to hook up with her, but Neil was the only guy she cared about. Then one day, everything began to change. Neil and Amy had gotten in another one of their one million fights, but this time, they didn't make up, and Neil started dating another girl. Megan also worked at the mall. She was an assistant manager at Hot Topic. Amy didn't know that they were together until she saw Neil and her in the food

court one night kissing. She was super angry and confronted them. Even after Amy called Megan all sorts of terrible names, they both ignored her. Neil called her a psycho and the two walked away. She did her best to act unhurt but when we got back to the store and went in the back room she started crying. This was the first I heard that she was going to hurt Megan but I didn't take it seriously because we all say things like that when we ourselves are hurt. The next time we ran into her was on purpose. Amy had come to the store to take my break with me and on our way back from the food court we took the long way past Hot Topic. I wasn't stupid enough to not know she was looking for Megan. I had always had my friends back and this night was no different. We walked into the store and Amy spotted her. She snuck up behind her and

began calling her all sorts of terrible names again. Megan had been so surprised by Amy's appearance that she couldn't fight back. Instead, she ran into the back and hid. The other girls in the store told Amy to leave and she gladly did with a feeling that she'd won that round. I'm not sure if she realized this would cause Megan to have a strike back at her, but she did, just three days later when she carved the word psycho into the side of her car with a key. Amy's parents had bought her that car for her 16th birthday and she loved it almost as much as Neil. This had to be the night she decided to do it. She was so angry that her crying had morphed into blind rage.

The only thing she said was, I'm going to teach her a lesson. Nothing worse. So now perhaps you can understand why I was surprised by what she did. A week after the keying, we sat in Amy's newly painted car, waiting for Megan to come out to her car after work. The plan was that we would overpower her, throw her in the trunk, and take her to the woods to teach her a lesson. That was all. Instead, when she did come out, Amy jumped out of her car and

started running toward her. She'd moved so fast I couldn't catch up. She'd managed to sneak up behind her once again. Megan caught a glimpse of me running up, but it was too late. Amy grabbed her and spun her around, but instead of holding her, she began punching her and slapping her over and over. At this point, I don't even think Megan realized Amy had the knife. I didn't become aware until I was standing right next to them both and saw her white blouse covered with something dark, but I still wasn't sure what it was. It was all happening

so fast. I yelled at Amy to remind her that the plan was to grab Megan and take her somewhere else, but she was in her own world. The glint on the blade caught my attention and I began screaming at her to stop, but the stabbing and slashing continued for at least another minute until she was too exhausted to go on. Megan had stopped fighting back long ago, but the ferocity of Amy's attack kept her upright until she stopped and she slowly slid down the side of her car and landed with a dull thump. If she hadn't already passed, she certainly wasn't moving. Her eyes stared blankly ahead. When I finally summed up the power to look over at Amy, she was completely covered in a dark mess and gasping with a wild look on her face. I was too scared to move now. She had me terrified of her. I was so enthralled I didn't

notice the group of people coming out of the movies approaching us. When they were close enough to see what was going on, the two girls screamed and they all ran off back towards the theater. While I was watching all this going on, Amy still hadn't moved and remained still, oblivious to everything happening around her. I knew it was just a matter of time before the cops arrived and I kept telling her that we had to go but she didn't move. She remained in the same spot the whole time, staring into Megan's empty, dead eyes. I wanted to run but I couldn't leave my best friend and if she wasn't leaving I was going down with her. So I did. It wasn't until later when I had time to think about what had happened

did I realize she had lied to me to get my help if she needed it. Maybe she thought I'd join in somehow. I don't know but she had to have been crazy to think I would. I never claimed to be an angel or to be lacking some amount of blame. I freely admit that she didn't force me to be there that night but had I known that she was planning what she was planning there's no way I would have been there. Yes I was willing to help her beat her up but I see a big difference between that and something so cold-blooded as this. That's why I testified against her. She took the choice away from me and in doing so made me an accomplice. Regardless of what I did, my just being there while she did it makes me just

as bad as her according to the law. A real friend would have given me the option to say no, but she didn't. That was the night our friendship ended forever. Now that I've served my five years and am free, it was important to me to get my side out, and I have. Whether anyone believes me or not, it doesn't matter. No one who wasn't there to witness what occurred has the right to judge me or my actions. I know what happened. And that's all that matters. I'm not sure how common Christmas holiday thefts and robberies are in your area, but in mine they've become a real problem.

Although the numbers have dropped somewhat since our state legalized the concealed carry of firearms, there's still enough idiots with a death wish to make it a concern. Last year I had a very close call with two men that could have ended in very similar circumstances. We were around two weeks out and every place in town that sold anything was packed. I've been fighting the crowds all day and I was starting to feel beat down. My last stop was the little Kmart at the end of the strip mall. It was nearly 10pm when I got there. Even that late in the evening the parking lot was filled. I did finally find a spot and it was all the way on the far side. The walk to the doors took forever and I could barely keep my eyes open. For the next 30 minutes I grabbed anything I could think of we needed at home.

Finally I headed to sporting goods and picked up the bike I had purchased earlier for my daughter. It soon became clear that walking with a basket and a bike wasn't going to work. I left the bike with a checker and took the grueling walk to my truck. As I left the store I noticed two guys loafing around the doors. When I made eye contact with one of them and he looked away I had a bad feeling. There had already been multiple robberies in that same parking lot so my mind went straight to that possibility. They did their best to look casual but I caught them watching me more than once. I began my walk to the truck, watching them the whole time or trying to.

A quarter of the way there one guy turned back and headed for the doors. The other continued to follow me. When I made it, I noticed the guys circling towards me. I moved as fast as possible, throwing bags in the bed and jumped into the cab. I pulled away just in time to avoid him. It was obvious I was being stalked now. In the hour I was in the store, the parking lot had cleared out and I and only a handful of cars were left. My safest place was going to be at the front doors, so that's where I parked. On my approach, I noticed the other guys standing near them but I still had to park there because I had to go in and get the bike. My hope was that the cameras and chance of being seen by a shopper would dissuade them. I parked the truck

and got out as fast as I could and ran inside. Odds were that the longer I took in the store, the better the chance they would have time to form a plan. I moved as quickly as possible. I grabbed the bike and jogged it back outside. My efforts were all in vain. Just as I made it through the second set of doors I could see both men pacing around just a few feet away from my truck. I did the only thing I could think of. I rolled the bike between them as I ran and they jumped out of the way just as I had hoped. This would give me the small amount of time I needed to throw the bike into the bed and get to safety of the cab and lock the door. I unfortunately misjudge how

long it would take them to regroup. Before I could get the door completely open, I heard rocks crunching under someone's foot behind me and I was forced to act in a way I'd hoped I wouldn't have to. I pulled my pistol from under my shirt and pointed at the person behind me. I'd been avoiding taking things this far, even pointing a gun at someone, not to mention shooting a person is a very serious thing to do. When I spun around and aimed at the threat, I got my first close up look at the guy who had been following me through the parking lot. Moving so fast caused me to lose my balance and fall back into the door. This is when he got a full view of the gun and stopped moving towards me. His eyes got real big and he threw up his hands in surrender. Just under his

breath I heard him say, okay, not worth getting shot, while backing away from me slowly. The other guy had been about to run after his friend until he saw him with his hands up. I could only assume he knew what was going on because he turned and ran off. Soon his partner followed. I'm glad he was focused on the gun, not my shaking hand holding it. Or maybe he did and this made him even more scared. I sat in the truck for a minute and caught my breath before I headed home. The tired feeling I'd had just an hour before it was gone. It took at least three hours to relax enough so I could sleep. On the drive home I mulled it over in my mind if I should call the police but I eventually chose not to. No one had been hurt and

I got away with my presence. That duo must have gotten frightened off for the remainder of the holiday. I didn't hear any more robberies or car break-ins. Looking back on the incident is still a very sobering experience. When I think of how close I came to have to shoot somebody, I pause and thank God it didn't get that far. You may disagree with my actions and say no one's life is worth a couple of Christmas presents, but I say to you that the happiness of my children is worth far more. The thought of having to tell my daughter that I let two men take her bike without doing anything to stop them breaks my heart, and unless you're a psychopath, in Oklahoma with nothing much to do for kids my age.

I wasn't young enough to be playing G.I. Joe's in the yard, but I also wasn't old enough to drive to Tulsa to see a concert or something similar. What adults don't consider in places like that is when kids are left alone to find a way to entertain themselves, the thing they discover often gets them in trouble or sometimes even hurt. It was sometime in 1990. Myself, my brother, and his friend were bored out of our minds. We were on summer break from school and had been looking for something fun to do. This was before the time of online multiplayer gaming and my friends and I couldn't spend all day inside playing them. Honestly, if they would have been around we likely would have done it. Although I'm constantly on my son's back to get outside and experience the real world, I would have loved to have had those games when I was his age.

Sick of flattening pennies on the railroad tracks we were desperate to think of something to do. We threw out ideas one at a time until my brother suggested the idea of exploring in the old mall. I've known a few kids around town who have been inside of it but I've always been kind of scared to check it out. When my brother suggested this I agreed. Not because I wanted to but rather because I didn't want to look like a wuss in front of the other kids. They were all younger than me and they'd never let me live it down. I swallowed the lump in my throat and led the way through downtown and toward the older business district where most of the newer stores had been open in the 70s and 80s. With the new highway coming in,

the majority of those stores moved closer to it and the old area died a slow death. One of those dead businesses was the new mall that had opened on the same spot as the original in 1976. By the time I have any memories of the place, its days were already numbered. Rumors of a new bigger and more modern mall with a multi-screen movie theater began spreading, and in 1985 when the ground was broken on it, just off of the brand new highway, the town couldn't wait. The opening of the new mall, a year and a half later, was the final nail in its coffin. By the Christmas holidays of 1987, all the stores had moved to the new mall and the doors were locked soon after. We did our best to make sure no one

saw us walking toward the old building by taking the long way around to the back to enter. Once we had pried the boards back from the door frame, we were inside. Even though it was a little dark and messy, it looked almost just like I had remembered it. I told everyone to stick close together so we wouldn't get lost and despite the overcoming urge they all had to run off and explore on their own, I think the immense size of the place scared them more than they would ever let on. When my brother spotted one of the fountains, I happened to mention that people would make a wish and throw pennies in them. Upon hearing the money part, he and his

friend ran off towards it to see if the pennies were still there. Of course, they weren't. I couldn't stop laughing for a long time, at least until I thought I noticed some movement off in the distance. I began to get very afraid, but then a group of pigeons flushed soon after and I could breathe again. Naturally, my brother and his friends wanted to go in that direction, so we did. Exploring turned out to not be as cool as I'd hoped. Most of the storefronts were covered with heavy steel gates that were impenetrable to a group of kids. We continued heading north toward the old JCPenney's until we noticed the gate on the arcade was open. As you can imagine, no games were left behind. It was nothing more than a big empty space with a restroom and back room for an office. Since others had been left there before

us, the place was already trashed, but somehow my brother found an unbroken sink on the restroom floor and smashed it against another broken one. The office was filled with old clothes and sleeping bags. This was the first time I thought of people living in the building and I got a chill down my back. I prayed to myself that no one was there while we were. Stories of kids disappearing in old houses started going through my head and I suggested we go somewhere else. We left the empty arcade and continued toward Penny's. A few minutes later we reached the old Gap store and we found a hole big enough for us to squeeze through the gate. It was basically like the arcade inside. Old clothes

and trash were spread everywhere. We decided to leave and look elsewhere. I had a little harder time squeezing my fat butt through on the way out. After a bit of a struggle, I made it. When I stood up, I saw a man standing in front of the old JCPenney's. A jolt of fear went through me and I was frozen stiff. He just stood there, watching me intently. I could hear my brother and his friend behind me bickering about something but I was too scared to say anything. The man kept watching until he noticed my brother squeeze out from behind me, followed by his friend. That's when he started yelling at us and running in our direction. My brother's friend was only halfway out of the hole when the guy started running.

My first instinct was the run and I did, but quickly remembered the other two with me. My brother was still back at the gate trying to yank his buddy out of the hole. His foot was hung up on something. The entire time this is going on, the man was getting closer. I was too scared to wait any longer and ran back to the gate and grabbed and ripped him from the hole. We got away just in time it seemed. I was now running as fast as I could. My brother and his friend were fortunately right behind me. Unfortunately, the man was hot on their heels. I knew if I slowed down even just a little,

he would catch us and God knows what he would have done to us if he had. In less than a minute, we were back at the front doors and crawling out as quickly as we could. I watched anxiously as my brother and his buddy came out one by one after me. Before I could take a breath, I heard a man's voice say, Well now, what are you boys up to? I looked up to see a pair of police officers standing at the curb next to their car. I wasn't sure whether to be happy or not. I cut my mouth shut as one of them waved us over to him. This entire time I'm expecting that man to come crawling out from behind the plywood on the door but he never did. As we walked over to the officer I told the other two under my breath to not say anything and let me talk. The officers met us halfway and continued to ask us about what we were doing.

I only said that we were bored so we went to look around but we didn't see anything and were going back home. Just as I had finished my sentence my brother's friends started to say something about the man chasing us but I nudged him in the ribs and whispered for him to shut up. There was no way I was going to tell them I ran away from an adult who could have been a police officer like him. Where I grew up we were far less afraid of the police than we were of our parents. I can guarantee you if they found out my brother and I ran away from a policeman we would have both gotten a major whipping I wasn't especially concerned about my brother getting spanked but I would do anything to avoid hiding from my dad and don't get worried our father never abused us we came from a very loving home but whenever we made a big mistake we knew a few whacks from his giant hands were soon to follow. Anyhow, what followed was the

usual serious talking to about dangerous old places and responsibility. Then the officers drove us home. To my relief, my folks were both at work at the time so they never heard about our trespassing incident. I was scared the police would call them or come by for about a week but they never did. Although my brother and I did talk about it that night before bed, we never really figured out if that man in the mall was a policeman or not. The officers never said a word about him to us so I didn't think he was once I arrived at that conclusion the fear I first felt when I saw him began to creep back I said nothing to my brother about this it would have just scared him even more and he may have told our parents and I definitely didn't want that none of us ever went back to the old mall. I didn't and I never heard

anyone else mention it. I also never saw that man that chased us ever again. We went on to other legally questionable things to occupy us and before I realized it, school started again. Over the years, I'd heard crazy stories about the abandoned old mall. One or two people said there were satanic rituals going on in there. Another rumor talked about it being haunted. I ignored most of them but a news report about a girl being abducted and taken in there to be assaulted did catch my attention. She stated that the man carried her into the abandoned pennies and had her way. I wondered for a little while if it was the same

man, but I never saw a picture or anything else, so I let it go. In 2005, when the city finally made the decision to bulldoze the old place, I supported it fully. A plan to restore the building and make it some kind of expedition hall was thrown around briefly, but it ultimately went nowhere. I went down there the day of the demolition and took a few pictures. Seeing that old rotten building go down filled me with a bit of belated relief. It seemed to serve as some type of way to close the book on a terrifying chapter from my past, regardless of how minor it may have been in hindsight. Not to mention the very idea of my

son going into that dump all those years later scared me far more than any yelling and crazed man ever could have. Right after I turned 16, my sister's boyfriend got me a job at the mall's five-screen movie theater. He was an assistant manager at the time and soon to become the head man in the following year. I enjoyed the job and stayed on until I went off to college a few years later. Even though I have a ton of scary stories that went down over my time there, and I may share those in the future, the one I'm sharing with you today occurred in the mall our theater was attached to. If I remember correctly, it was a Friday night just after school let out for summer break.

The mall was packed like normal for a weekend night and I was running around like crazy trying to make sure the snack bar stayed stocked in addition to doing my job tearing tickets and keeping kids from sneaking into movies they didn't belong in. Soon all the movies for the 7 o'clock show had started and things calmed down. I was in major need of a smoke so I walked into the food court and lit up. The usual chaos was going on around me while I scoped out some girls standing at the Arby's counter. Suddenly across the food court, a woman's scream blasted out over all the other noise and got my attention. It took me quite a while to understand what she was saying until I finally heard her say, my daughter, somebody help me, I can't find my daughter. Once I'd put it together, her actions

made a lot more sense. she was running around frantically looking closely at almost every young girl she passed several women heard her screams and were doing their best to calm her down and help by now a few of the other employees at the theater had heard the ruckus and came out to see what the matter was I explained the little I'd heard to them and we continued watching with a mixture of concern and ghoulish curiosity. The mother's panic and fear began to spread through the food court. Other mothers started calling and reaching out for their children. A security guard arrived and the mother and a group of other shoppers were talking to him. He was soon joined

by two other mall guards and I could see them shaking their heads in a no motion. Hearing this caused the mother to begin crying and a few women in the group attempted to soothe her. In a matter of seconds, the situation was to become a horror all mother's fear. While myself and a few girls from the snack bar were composing some possible theories among ourselves, a man came running into the mall from outside and approached one of the security guards. They said a few words to each other and walked back outside. We weren't sure what this meant so we continued to sit and wait for any news. Less than five minutes later we noticed the head security guard talking into his walkie-talkie. We knew the serious look on his face couldn't be good.

He led the mother through the food court and out the doors. The mood in the food court was serious and almost no one was speaking. Some of the shoppers had a hopeful look on their faces while most looked very scared. Although we hoped to see the mother come back with some good news, she never returned. Some shoppers were looking through the doors to the outside and a few had walked out to get a better look, but could only see a group of people about a hundred yards away, surrounded by flashing police lights and cars. When this news spread, the mood grew far grimmer. Things got so quiet at times you could hear a pin drop. We must have been gone too long because one of the assistant managers had to come out to bring us back to work.

Even after we filled her in on what was happening, despite the concerned look on her face, she demanded we return to the theater. So, with a sense of growing dread, we returned to our jobs. I went back to my assigned tasks and tried to put the tense situation into the back of my mind. Probably ten minutes before the last 7pm show let out, an employee from the burger place came into the theater to fill us in on the missing child. He seemed to be overcome by the news as he told it to us. The good news was that they had found the little girl. The bad news was far worse. It appeared that the little girl, barely five years old, had gotten away from her mother somehow and ended up walking around alone in the parking lot.

The last part was the hardest for him to say. At some point after she made it outside, a car that was cutting through the parking lot ran her over. By the time he'd gotten this part out, he was visibly weeping. The girl from the snack bar had been standing nearby listening and they began bawling themselves. I could feel tears begin to well up in my eyes, so I slipped off to the broom closet to be by myself. The shoppers that had waited together in the food courts must have already heard the news for themselves. When I returned to the main floor I could see small groups and sometimes single people leaving the mall with tears in their eyes. I almost began crying again but I choked it back. Although the mall was open until 10pm, it was emptied out after the news had

spread to most of the shoppers. I could see the employees inside the various businesses shutting down the gates and heading to their cars. All had the same distraught look on their faces that I and the rest of my co-workers probably had. The 9pm rush came and went without me noticing. Once I finished my closing tasks, I caught a ride home from the guy in the ticket booth. On the ride home, not much was said. The next morning I went about my day like I normally did. Wash my work clothes, had lunch, things such as that. The entire time I did my best to put the night before out of my mind. I think my sister tried to talk to me about it at some point but I said nothing.

That evening at the theater most of us ambled through our jobs like a group of zombies. Occasionally a customer would bring it up but none of us felt like talking about it. At the end of the night I called my dad to pick me up. I hoped he hadn't heard about it because I knew he'd want to talk about it if he had. That was the last thing I wanted to talk about. The whole scene was just too depressing for me. I was happy he hadn't. After reading the Sunday comics in the paper, a rush of morbid fascination led me to search for an article regarding the incident. I was hoping the guy who had told me was wrong, but when I came across an article laying out the entire ghoulish scene, I knew he

wasn't. According to the paper, the driver was a 43-year-old man from Allen. He swore he hadn't seen the little girl. The police confirmed that even with his headlights on, that area of the parking lot was hard to see in. When asked if the mother would see any charges, the police answered with a firm no. The article ended with a brief quote from the mother. She simply said, I can't believe this has happened. My husband says I shouldn't blame myself, but I do and always will. Without my daughter here, I don't want to live. All these years later, I still tear up when I remember that terrible night. Five years ago, I was reminded of it when my youngest managed to slip away from me.

Even though he was quickly found, I could see nothing but that poor mother's face before me and think that she was never able to experience the relief I was feeling at that moment and never would. I've heard a lot of stories here in which individuals have discussed some of the most scary and horrible things that have happened to them in their lives. A lot of them have sounded like they were very traumatic at the time in which they occurred but a small amount wasn't even half as bad as the person thought it was. I'm sorry but if you have to get therapy for the rest of your life because your boyfriend slapped you, you have much bigger problems than your choice of men. I don't want to be mean but many people make things into being far bigger than they really are.

Half of the things I've heard recently have been the textbook definition of first world problems. If you want to hear a recounting of a real horrible event in which I was involved, pay close attention. At 16, I was emancipated from my parents because of repeated abuse suffered by me and my sister. While my sister, who was only 12 at the time, was sent to live with our aunt, I moved into an apartment with my boyfriend. Despite it being terribly hard to find a job at that age to pay my bills, I did it, and I don't mean by selling myself like many of the runaways and the street girls I had met. Even though it meant we didn't get to see much of each other, my boyfriend's job at his family's company

allowed us to live a stable and happy life. A life far better than I'd ever known growing up. My 17th birthday was the first year I'd ever received an actual present that wasn't purchased at a dollar store or shoplifted from Goodwill. My only regret at the time was that I couldn't bring my sister along with me, but the judge felt I was too young to handle such a large responsibility. I'd been raising her for as long as I could remember, but he didn't want to hear it. August 14th of 2005 was my sister's 13th birthday and I wanted to buy her something really special. A few days before her party, Brendan, my boyfriend and I had a rare day off together and he volunteered to drive me to the mall to get her a gift. Since he was the one doing the driving, we had to take

his beloved BMW M3 that his dad had bought him for his 16th birthday. There were many times I truly believed that he loved that car more than me but the pettiness of thinking that made me ashamed. He dreamed his whole life of owning one of those cars and had been working any job he could get since he was 12 to save money for one. He'd no doubt earned it but this fact was sometimes lost on me. Any of you ladies out there who has a man that seems to love his car more than life itself will hopefully understand the petty jealousy I often felt towards his. It wasn't out of the ordinary to have guys approach him and tell him how cool the car was.

I think he liked the attention the car got, and it got him. The second we parked, I could tell the two men were lusting over the M3. It became very obvious quickly that I wasn't what they were eyeballing. I continued to watch their focus and I never broke from that car for a second. Unfortunately the two stores I checked didn't have what I needed. Brendan and I stopped to have a slice and then headed back to the car. As soon as we exited the mall, we saw the two guys I'd noticed earlier standing around the car like they were waiting for us to return. The time was approaching 9pm and it was already getting dark. The parking lot was almost

completely empty. As we got closer to the guys, I started to get a weird vibe from the two. Their body language was tense and unnatural and as they spoke to each other, they would laugh in an obviously uncomfortable manner, almost like they were attempting to soothe their nerves. I assume this was because they were a little younger than Brendan and nervous about talking to him. When I got to the car, I went around to the passenger door to get in like normally. Brendan said hi to them and asked if he could help in a friendly manner. The taller of the two asked him if the car was for sale. None of the guys came off as aggressive in any way at this point and Brendan was never anything

other than respectful to them. He didn't have to think about the offer. His answer was a brief matter of fact no. Thinking it ended right there he began to turn his back and get in the car but apparently that wasn't good enough for the guy and he must have felt Brendan should rethink the offer. He grabbed Brendan as he turned. Hey don't turn your back on me. I wasn't finished talking to you. The rich boy thinks he's too good to talk to us. When he said the last part, he was facing his friend. Being no stranger to people with aggressive attitudes, a sick feeling grew in my stomach. Brendan did his best to diffuse the situation, but it quickly became clear that the dude wanted a confrontation. Once more, this time around in a far more aggressive manner, he asked Brendan if he wanted to sell the car and once again, he did his best to decline the offer in a friendly way.

Then the guy changed tactics and demanded that Brendan give him the car. When he said this, I started to feel very scared. This idea must have struck him as insane because when Brendan heard it, he began laughing uncontrollably in the guy's face. His expression showed just how angry Brendan's reaction made him. This was when he pulled the gun and stuck it in Brendan's face. My body began shaking the second I saw it. Now it seemed we were getting to the actual goal of this exchange. We were going to be robbed. I glanced over at the other a-holes standing at the back of the car. His rotten teeth filled smile made the bile rise up

from my stomach and into my mouth. Just the taste almost caused me to vomit but I managed to stifle it back. His buddy with the gun told Brendan through gritted teeth to laugh in his face again. Wisely he didn't. He attempted to de-escalate again by trying to reason with the guy. He told him that the car wasn't actually as great as it looked. The fact was is that it cost a lot of money to maintain but the guy said nothing. I saw Brendan's expression change at this point. It was a look I'd only ever seen once. He was terrified and knew he was in trouble. This desperation caused him to do something very foolish. When the guy looked back toward his partner, Brennan grabbed for the gun. They began fighting for control of it and soon fell on the ground out of my sight.

I was afraid the guy's partner would rush to help him so I rushed him and said. It didn't take long for him to throw me off. Just as I landed I heard the shot. It made me jump. I had to see if anyone had been hurt. When the guy with the gun ran past me to his car followed by the other, a horrible feeling came over me. Even before I'd seen him, I knew Brendan had been shot. Honestly, I was too terrified to look, but I knew I had to. What I saw would take away my will to live for many years to come. He was lying flat on his back, writhing silently in pain and staring hopelessly into the starless sky. I shuffled over to him as fast as possible in a vain attempt to stop the blood pouring from his stomach. Doing my best to make his end as

peaceful as possible, I held him and sang quietly to him as he slowly bled out of my arms. I'm not really sure how long we stayed there. Does it really matter? I'm sure he'd already been dead for some time when the ambulance and police showed up. Those monsters ended his life for this stupid car and in the end didn't even bother to take it with them when they left. What a waste. If anybody reading this cares about what happened to the two guys, I have two words for you. Not much. The shooter was able to cut a deal on a lesser charge and is scheduled to be released sometime next year. As for his little buddy, his age at the time and it being his first conviction was taken into consideration.

The yuck-mouthed sleazoid only served five years with an additional ten of probation. If you've done the math, you realize he'll be free and clear himself soon. No two men in the history of crime got off so easily. If I would have been born a man, I would have committed a crime just in the hopes I'd be put in the same place as one or both of them, so I could break a shank off into their guts and watch them bleed just as I had to watch the only man in my life who has ever treated me with respect or love. It's painfully clear that I still have a long way to go before I'm able to put this behind me if I ever can. If you've made it this far then maybe you can now understand even a little why I've criticized some of the other submitters of these

stories. However, maybe due to my stubborn determination to deal with Brendan's death myself, I've ruined my chance to move beyond it. Perhaps then getting to the place in my life where I'm able to share this story with another person was assisted by those very same people I criticize. I'm still not sure. The last fourteen years have been a long series of ups and downs and I'm still very confused about much of it. Regardless of my petty sniping, I thank everyone who's had the bravery to publish their terrible times. I'm only here because of you. I had been sent to Korea from my university a few years ago.

They told me for my major I had to go somewhere in Asia, and my friend had really talked up Korea for me. I knew nothing about it, but I decided, why not, and I embarked on a semester-long trip. I'd only had one serious boyfriend in my life, who I had broken up with a few months prior. I also don't enjoy one-night stands and wasn't digging the dudes at the clubs in Seoul, but I still wanted to have some sort of romantic experience, I suppose, so my friend recommended I use this dating app to meet English-speaking Koreans. That way I could meet someone and experience the actual dating culture. I thought, I'm young, why not? I was just so eager to have some new experiences. Maybe it sounds dumb to try dating in a foreign country, but it worked out for me eventually. Just not the first date. I met him on a dating app after being

in Seoul for about three weeks. Let's call him Tim. I still didn't know the culture or city very well and was a bit naive about everything. He eagerly wanted to meet for a date after talking to me and he seemed nice. I should have asked more questions and I should have noticed that he was not giving me any details about himself. Tim was a guy a bit older than me but claimed he was a college student. I assumed he had done his military time, all men in Korea have to and return to school. We talked for a bit and decided to meet for a tea date near the school I went to. He wanted to come to my dorm originally to pick me up but I live in an all-woman's dorm and I didn't want him to know exactly where I

live since we were all still strangers. So instead I insisted we meet at the main tower center near the subway. He really didn't like this idea which looking back was a red flag but eventually I insisted. The night of the date I waited an hour for this guy. He was very late. Tim weirdly claimed he just wanted to make me wait. I thought he was kidding and messaged him a laughing emoji assuming he was just lost. When he finally arrived he was much smaller than I thought but a man's height has never been something I care about much. He was also quite thin. Maybe I let my guard down because I didn't see him as physically threatening to me which was a mistake in the end. Right off the bat he was way too touchy with me and breathed creepy and heavy. I was so off put with his demeanor. I'm usually very tolerant with

different personality types but this was very odd to me. I had been told that Korean men would be polite and not so touchy on the first date. He was also dressed oddly like in business attire for a date and I thought that maybe it's just a Korean thing. Again, I was dumb and knew nothing about the culture. Then the first thing he said to me was, you're not as white as I thought you were. I thought this was a translation error but his English was near perfect so I asked for clarification and he said what he meant. I thought you'd be more white. Your skin is darker than I thought and your eyes aren't as green. Are you pure European? Now I was officially

weirded out. First of all, I'm pretty much as white as you can get. I'm Irish and Scandinavian, so white as all possibly can be. So the fact that he thought I could possibly be any whiter was funny. And why did he care in the first place anyway? Why does my skin color matter to this guy and why is he bringing it up? He said about three times on the date how he wished I had greener eyes. And every time I would just apply, well, maybe my online photos make me look brighter. And brush it off as him being nervous and trying to start a conversation. Isn't it funny the dumb excuses you make for people when you're panicked? When we arrived at the tea place I tried to order a basic raspberry tea

and he stopped me and told me I had to have this special tea. I thought it was weird he wanted to choose my tea for me but in my head I brushed it off once again. He really insisted I drink only this tea type and I just agreed. These small details became weirder later. After tea he asked me if we could look around my school. It was dark but the school is very well lit so I agreed. And the whole time we walked around he would randomly stop and grab me for long hugs. At first I let it happen but then I stopped him and he just kept trying. He kept grabbing me and breathing hard in my neck. It was so incredibly awkward. He also

would not tell me any personal details about himself. I asked so many questions desperately trying to distract from all the awkward grabbing and to try to get to know him, but he would never tell me anything. He even said at one point, I'm a mysterious man, like a movie line. He also said something like, you look so much like my favorite movie character. And I asked who, but he said that I would have to figure it out on my own. Finally, he said, I want to go to a dark area. And in my head, I screamed no. At this point, I wanted this date over fast. He somehow knew that there was a wooded area behind my campus,

and he said we should go there. I said no, and that I wanted to stay near the main campus in town, but he kept pushing. Finally, he grabbed my arm and started dragging me there. He said, I can't let anyone see and I started to panic. I finally ripped my arm away and just demanded we leave and go back to the main road immediately. Looking back I don't know why I didn't ask for help or get angry. Maybe I was scared but I just began to book it back to the main road and he followed. We ended up in front of a hospital near the center of town and I told him it was time for him to go. I made some excuse and he was pleading with me to stay.

I told him we could meet the next day, a lie, and that I would message him. I just wanted to get away at this point. I was pretending it was all okay just so that he would message him. I just wanted to get away at this point. I was pretending it was all okay, just so that he would leave. Suddenly, I think he's leaning in to kiss me, and I immediately think, oh god no. But it was so much worse. Instead, I feel pain on my face.

It takes me a second to realize he was... biting my face. It was like a dog. I had never felt this sensation before. He leaned his head sideways and bit me on my nose and cheek as hard as he could. I screamed and pushed him away from me. His face looked so freaky and I barely had time to react in words. Instead I ran up the sidewalk until I saw a convenience store on the right.

I ran to the back of the store and bent down to start crying. The man who owned the store started to yell at me but I couldn't explain my situation. I just begged him in English to let me stay. I ended up having to buy a popsicle to stick around. God, I wish I had learned some Korean by then. I guess Tim didn't follow me. I peered outside the store and didn't see him. I texted a friend and waited for them to get me to take me back to my dorm. On the way, I messaged Tim and basically told him to stay away from me. I told him he was a creep and that he shouldn't bite women and something along the lines of me calling the police and then I blocked him. I was so scared to walk around my school area after that. I was so afraid

that he would find me somehow and so thankful I never let him pick me up at my dorm. I called my mom to tell her about what happened when suddenly she said, wait what did he ask you? She then put some details together and realized that all of these weird things had to do with the 50 shades of grey books. At first, I thought she was just being silly and overthinking a bad date. I thought she was joking. But oh god, she was right. She had recently seen the movie or read the book or something and knew the details. The eye color and way he dressed and the tea he made me drink and the random lines he said. It all matches the books and movies for his dirty little fantasy. My mom thinks he picked me up

because I look like the girl in that movie to him. It explains why he was so fixated on my appearance and his whole thing with the biting and trying to dominate me. Even if it wasn't his intention I later learned that there are some few creeps who seek out foreign girls to dominate and do what they will with them like a prize. They call it riding the white horse or something along those lines. On a happier note, this bad experience didn't stop me. I did eventually meet someone else in Korea and we ended up falling in love. We even did the whole long distance thing and now I'm living in Korea studying and working, hoping to marry soon. So I guess I didn't let bad creepy guys stop me from living my life. I grew up in the south.

Tons and tons of beautiful places to see that haven't been taken over by concrete yet. It's nice. But along with that, it's pretty boring. Being a teenager and wanting to go out and have fun led to mostly improvising with your buddies and hoping something good will come out of the night. There wasn't really a local spot to go hang out like a club or cool bar and the places that were close to this were boring because you did them so many times. I'm sure if you've ever lived in a rural area, you can understand that feeling completely. Something that I found a ton of enjoyment in as a teen

was just cruising around super late at night listening to music. I would fill my gas tank up, grab something to drink, a cigarillo, and I would just take off driving around until the sun came up. It was a way for me to just clear my mind and relax. Those country back roads were always fun to drive down at 2am and was also just the right amount of spooky. Well one night I absolutely got more than I was to bargain for. I can't remember what month it was exactly but I know for a fact it was in the summertime because I was out of school and I also remember it being a comfortable chill night. So if I was to guess, it just had been around July or August.

I was cruising around like I always did and was completely worry free. I had music blaring and I was in my zone. I decided to head down to a park just out of boredom. This particular park is at the very end of a long stretch of desolate country road but it is a really pretty drive because of that. When I say desolate country road I don't mean that it's some dirt road that goes through the woods or anything crazy like that. It is a normal paved road but there is really nothing on it after a certain point. The entire road takes about 20 minutes to drive down to get to the park and after

about 10 minutes into the drive the houses start to get spread out further and further becoming no houses and just road leading into the park. I think a lot of the reason I like this drive at night is because of how creepy it was and I looked at it as some sort of adventure or whatever. The park isn't open for camping or anything. It's mostly just a lot of land with walking trails and biking trails set up through miles of woods. So obviously at around 3 a.m. in the morning it's pretty dead. I made it there and just did a slow normal little loop around drive of the park. The night before it stormed very badly. So badly I remember my parents and I had to take shelter because of the threat of a tornado touchdown. There ended up being no tornado but the storms

were pretty rough. Because of this I came up on a fallen tree in the road that looped around to the exit of the park that must have happened because of the storm. It wasn't some massive tree or anything but I know for a fact that there was no way I could have gotten over it in my car obviously. It was pitch black everywhere besides the front of my car because of my headlights and because of that I immediately rolled out backing up the entire way I drove when I entered the park. I knew that was super dangerous and there was no way. At this spot on the road there was flat land on each side of me. I figured that was super dangerous and there was no way. At this spot on the road there was flatland on each side of me. I figured that it would make the most sense to just back up into the grass

beside me just a little then drive back the way I came. It was a one-way loop around the park but I wasn't really worried about going out the wrong way since it was so late. So I started to back up off of the road so I could get my car turned around. All was good until I went to pull back up on the road. I totally didn't take into account how wet the grass was and the amount of mud. My car went absolutely nowhere. My back tires were completely stuck and were spinning in place as I was trying to floor the gas pedal. I started to become pretty scared at this point. Not the most ideal situation to be in. I immediately take my cell phone out of my pocket and saw that I had service. Super huge feeling of relief. I called my parents and told

them what happened and where I was. They were pretty angry at me but said that they will pay for a tow truck to come get me out. My parents both drove small four-door sedans and they would have been zero help in that situation. I was about 45 minutes away from my house and the rest of most human civilization. So I realized that I would be stuck out there for at least an hour before someone was able to get to me. Freaky feeling but I tried getting out of my head and just continued to listen to music and be on my phone in the car while I waited. Not really much more I could do. After I kind of calmed down from the initial anger I had I started to check out my surroundings. I didn't even notice at first because of everything going on but in front of my car's

placement was a field that was full of the most amount of deer I think I've ever seen at once. There legitimately must have been about 40 deer in this field just walking around and eating the grass. The field wasn't directly in front of my car but if I was to get out and throw a rock in that direction I would have easily been able to hit one of them. So if I was to guess they were about 30 yards out. This didn't really help with the creepy level going on. Looking out in front of your car and seeing 80 eye reflections staring back at you is a bit of an alarming feeling overall but I was relieved it was just a field of deer. I watched them for a little bit but I was quickly over it and started to just

browse through my social media apps while waiting. They seemed to have been over it quicker than I was because they all went back to walking around and eating once they figured out I wasn't going to attack them or anything. After browsing my phone for about 15 minutes I finally get a call back from my parents letting me know that a tow truck guy is on the way and about an hour and a half out from my location. Still to this day I remember hearing that and having the thought, you've got to be kidding me. I understand that me and only me was the reason I was in that situation I was in so I couldn't really be mad at anyone else. But that was very obviously not what I wanted to hear. I decided that the smartest thing for me to do was just to make sure my doors were all locked,

lay back in my seat and take a nap to pass time quick. So that's what I did. So I wake up 45 minutes later to the feeling of being watched. I'm not sure if anyone has ever experienced that feeling before because I don't know how common it is. But there was this sixth sense alarm going off in my head telling me that I needed to wake up. Waking up to that feeling in the situation I was in and the surrounding I was in is probably worst case scenario. I sit up and immediately check my surroundings and see nothing. I look through my car very quickly for any sort of weapon and found a pocket knife. A pocket knife. I was very scared. Even though I saw and

heard absolutely nothing, that feeling is terrifying. I was shocked to see that the field of deer in front of me was still full of deer. I don't know anything about the animal, but I guess I always just assume they don't hang out in the same place for long. Not sure why I thought that, but I was surprised to see them nonetheless. I called my parents back to see if they heard any kind of update from the tow truck dude. I decided not to mention the feeling I was having because I didn't want them to worry more and I also knew that it was literally nothing more than a feeling I had and had nothing to back up why I was feeling

that way other than just being spooked out in general. No update from the tow truck guy so we all assumed everything was still the same on his end. The call lasted just a few minutes before I felt like such an idiot. They both had to wake up for work in a few hours. Now they had to spend a random hundred plus dollars and on top of all of that they were worried about me. I could tell that they were annoyed at the situation, but worried. I told them I'll make sure to tell them when the guy arrives and that I'm sorry. We hung up, and I looked up from the phone and immediately went from 0 to 100 in panic mode. The deer in front of me were all completely perked up staring in the same direction right of them.

Let me remind you that there are around 40 deer in the field. Every single one of them were stopped dead in their tracks, standing completely still, looking at something. I put my high beams on and stared, waiting for absolutely anything to happen at all. Nothing. I tapped my horn real quick. They didn't even budge or look away. They were all still completely glued to what was by them. The way the tree line was I couldn't see that far over in the field. I know that they were looking into the woods by them but where I was I was only able to see them. I could hear my heartbeat. I grabbed that stupid pocket knife and just waited for something to happen. I would say it was about a minute after I honked, every single one of them

in unison started to run the opposite way. They were running at full speed and within 20 seconds the field was completely empty. I was petrified in fear. I knew that staying in my car is what would be the safest thing to do, but it's the worst feeling in the world when you feel like a sitting duck. My head was on a swivel. I was freaking out in every way possible. I assumed it was a bear or something, but it could have been absolutely anything. I was convinced at that point it was the devil himself. I didn't know what to do. I knew that the tow truck was close by but I had no idea where he was. I began to shake because of nerves and just looked around to make sure nothing was by me and focusing on the field in front of me.

I did this for what felt like an actual eternity. Sitting in complete silence and darkness in the middle of nowhere, waiting for something to jump out and attack you. Fifteen of the longest minutes of my life go by and I start to see lights break through the tree line on the road. As it gets closer, I see it as the tow truck guy. The lights on his truck felt like it was Jesus coming from heaven to rescue me. He gets up to me and I jump out of my car and immediately ask him if he has a gun on him. I told him very quickly what just happened to me and that something is

definitely out here nearby. He let me know that he had a shotgun in the truck and assured me that it was most likely a bear or bobcat. He gave me the whole, they're more scared of you than you are of them, etc, etc. The tree was small enough for him to sort of bulldoze it out of the way with his truck and then he attached my car to his and pulled me out of the spot I was stuck in. He was very nonchalant about what I just experienced but I was pretty badly shaken up from it. The whole time he was doing his thing I still had my eyes glued out in that field waiting for something. He was completely done with everything in about 15 minutes and he told me to follow his truck out of there

onto the main road again. I got in my car and was ready more than anything to get out of this park. We started to drive away from the spot I was in and I still had my head on a swivel, completely shook up. As we were driving away I looked in my rearview mirror. We were down the park road just a tiny bit but I could still see the spot I was stuck in partially lit up from the vehicle lights and the moon. I watched in my rearview mirror a man come out of the tree line behind where my car was and walk into the middle of the road and watch us drive away. My heart stopped beating legitimately. I lost my breath and my eyes started to get full of tears because of how absolutely scared I was in that moment. I couldn't see any sort of details like what he looked like or even

necessarily what he was wearing and to be honest I didn't really care. The feeling that I felt driving away from that spot knowing he was right there the whole time watching me. Watching me as I was freaking out looking around. Watching me as I was completely alone for a long time. Maybe even coming right up to my window and watch me as I sleep. That's a feeling that is something I can't necessarily put into words. All these years later and it still messes with me quite a bit. The entire time we were driving off, as long as I could see him, he didn't move. He just watched us in the road. A million things went through my mind. I was scared there may have been multiple people up the road waiting for us.

I was trying to figure out if I should start beating on my horn like crazy to get the tow truck guy to stop or not. I decided that all I wanted to do was get out of there more than anything. The second that we finally got out of the park and was able to be on a two lane road again, I flew past the tow truck driver and I did nothing below 70 miles per hour the entire way home. I flew through stop signs and stoplights. I absolutely didn't care. The only thing on my mind was making it home. I got home, ran inside, very quickly acknowledged my parents and said sorry and thank you and went to my room. I didn't get a single second of sleep the rest of the night. I was searching for any sort of records of things happening in that area, escaped convicts, similar stories, etc. I came to the

conclusion that the man was some sort of squatter or homeless. I read many things online of how it's common for homeless in rural areas to build shelters in the woods, which does make sense to me entirely on why they would do that. But obviously, the unknown is the scariest part of all. What if he wasn't homeless? What if he was going to hurt me? What if, what if, what if? There's so many possibilities of what could have happened, but the outcome that did happen is what I am most grateful for

I never told my parents this story until many years after it happened and I was already an adult and moved out It freaked them out too when I told them I never went back to that park, ever Even though I no longer live by there I still have no desire at all to ever go back there I don't think I could even in broad daylight with a ton of people around Even though I no longer live by there, I still have no desire at all to ever go back there. I don't think I could even in broad daylight with a ton of people around. I also made the decision to stop doing those late night cruises. I did a few after that time with people, but even then I felt very uncomfortable and on edge. non-edge. When I was about 13 I used to have my bed right under my bedroom window. It was also around the time my dog was brought inside because she got too old to stay out. At the time we didn't

have the screen coverings we have now so the window could easily be opened and there was no barrier. I always left my windows open during the day to let in fresh air then close and lock it when it started getting dark. My house is surrounded by forest. Not very thick but still thick enough that you can't see clearly through it. It's completely normal hearing strange noises at night because things like bears or stray dogs or even our former neighbor's chickens that would roam around our yard. So when I heard something shuffling around my window I didn't think about it and continued playing video games. Not even 10 minutes later I heard something hit against it. I thought it may have been a June bug. When they hit a window they can sound like rocks so I ignored it. The knocking

kept going but I just kept ignoring it and finally it stopped. Fast forward until around 2am. I was finally settling down and going to sleep when I hear breathing. Very faint. Enough to miss if the room wasn't silent. I heard something drag down my window like a stick or a finger. It did it a few times and that was enough for me. I jumped out of bed and ran into my dad's room. I told him that there was something at my window and he immediately came to look. We turned out the lights so he could see better but there was nothing. I told him what I heard and he said that he would take a look in the morning. We did just that and my stomach churned. Under my window there were two different foot tracks, one back and forth beside the generator and one that was back and

forth directly under my window. There was even cigarette butts laying around near some bushes, like he had crouched there and waited. The foot tracks led toward the woods. We have neighbors that live through the woods and down the hill, and are very trashy, so we chalked it up to one of them coming here while drinking one night. Though what scared me the most about this was the fact that when I went to open my window later that day, I found that it was unlocked. I forgot to lock it the night before. He could have gotten in without issue. For some background, I am an early 20s female who have had a pretty rough childhood and due to some bad decisions found myself homeless in 2017. My aunt lived in a completely different state and I had only met her a handful of times. But she's getting older and said she could use some help around the house and honestly I think she's just a bit lonely. She doesn't have any kids and she's at that age where a lot of her

friends have either passed away or are really sick. Fast forward to September 6th of this year. My aunt is about to go on vacation with her three sisters and a sister-in-law. She's set to leave on the 8th and the only thing she's nervous about is this will be the first time I've been home alone since I started living with her. She's going to be gone for an entire week and it's not that she doesn't trust me, it's just that I haven't had the best of luck with people in my life. My mom used to pick on me that I always attract the crazy ones. My aunt is very well known in this community and especially with her neighbors who all love her and I've become really good friends with too. So every morning I wake up between 6

to 7 and take my dog out on a run so we usually get back around 8.30 right when my aunt is waking up, get my dog breakfast, go shower, etc. This particular morning I really wasn't feeling well. I had cramps like I was going to puke. Yeah that time of the month again so I decided to sleep in. My aunt must have fed my dog and led him out into the fenced in yard because I didn't hear a peep from him until I woke up around 10 30 to 11. My aunt was already gone to work and I felt awful about not taking my dog on a walk. He's still very young and very energetic. When he doesn't get his walk he gets so sad and just kind of mopes around all day so I decided since it was a nice enough day that the road wouldn't be too hot on his paws that I'd take him anyway. I got dressed and got everything ready,

grabbed my keys, brought them to the door all harnessed up and ready, opened the door, and hanging across from the door on our porch is a hook that normally my aunt puts these hanging flower vases on early in spring. Instead of a flower vase though, there was a black backpack. It was just a normal black hiker's backpack that had a strap over the top to hold a sleeping bag and a couple of compartments on the side to hold a water bottle, plus if you wanted to add any other bags to it. Weird, but my aunt was about to go on vacation and she's a bit of a pack rat. She probably found it in the back of her closet and hung it up to air dry so it wouldn't stink when she took it with her. I completely pushed it from my mind, locked the

door behind me and we went on our way. About an hour or so later we come back, backpack hasn't moved obviously, brush right past it, go inside and continue my morning. My aunt had a particularly long day at work and I had to turn the porch light on for her so she could see to come inside. When she got to the porch she paused for a moment but I thought nothing of it. My dog is famous for launching at the door when she sees it's one of our vehicles that pulls in and sometimes you want to take a second so he doesn't slam the door into your face. She came in and of course told my dog what a good boy he was and all the baby talk dogs normally get. She glances at me while she's on her way to the kitchen and asks what's up with the backpack. I told her I thought it was hers. We kind of stare at each other for a few moments,

processing what had just been said and my aunt is immediately uneasy. She asks if we should call the police. Probably smart, but as you will realize throughout this story, I am not smart. I like to think I'm tough. I've seen some stuff, been through a lot. I don't like to think that there's things that I can't handle, so I told her we don't need to call the cops. It's just a backpack. I go out and though my hand hovers over it in hesitation for just a moment, I grab it by the middle and tug it off the hook, taking it inside. I shoo off my dog, whose nose is immediately attached to it, and take it to the table where I inspect every single pocket of the entire thing.

Empty. Completely empty. The only thing that is even worth noting about this particular backpack was a long white tag on the back of the largest compartment which in perfect block letter sharpie read the name Dave. I didn't know anyone named Dave and the few people my aunt knew named that either wouldn't make sense to be them or they weren't in the area. I could tell she was freaked out and I hate to see her all worked up so I told her I'd go talk to the neighbors. Sure that one of them could come up with an explanation. Now about my house. Without giving away landmarks I live on a hillside where houses are kind of stacked on top of each other.

For example on my road there's our house, a neighbor next to me, a neighbor next to him, a house at the end of the dead end, and then a mirror of houses across the street. This happens for four different streets going up this particular part of land. The first place I go are to my neighbors across the street, Jack and Jill. Jack answers the door, but as soon as he sees me, he assumes I'm there for Jill and calls her, while he goes back to the couch and his beer. Jill and I do our usual pleasantries and then I ask her about the backpack showing it to her. She looks it over and shows it to her husband who remarked that it's weird for it to be a hiker's backpack because pretty much everyone around us has small children

so no one really does intense hiking anymore. They also didn't know anyone named Dave that it would be attached to. I thanked them anyway and wished them a good night. I didn't expect a different answer but mostly just to talk to someone about it I went to my friend Megan's house. I practically jumped out of my skin when a six foot two wall of muscle opened the door. I still wasn't used to her husband being around. He'd been back for a few months from deployment now but usually Megan came over to my place or we'd go out and do things together with her baby, a ten month old, and her son, three years old. I exchanged pleasantries and asked if I could see Megan which she happily

got her for me. She had a giant smile on her face as she came to the door, ready to hug me, only for her smile to turn into a question as she saw the backpack. Her husband, James, seemed to sense that there was some sort of tension in the air so he didn't go far. I explained about the backpack and how it had freaked out my aunt a little bit. Megan looked it over but as expected no idea of who it could belong to. Just then the baby started crying so she rushed an apology and I waved it off giving her a farewell. I told James goodnight and turned to go off from the porch. He touched my arm on the second step down stopping me. He asked when my aunt was leaving for a vacation and I told him she leaves on the 8th.

I didn't think it was strange he knew even if Megan hadn't told him. Everybody knew my aunt was leaving for her vacation and I told him she leaves on the 8th. I didn't think it was strange he knew, even if Megan hadn't told him. Everybody knew my aunt and how she'd been planning this vacation for months. He seemed to think for a moment and then as if a light bulb went off he suggested he come up on the 9th in the morning just to make sure everything was alright. I was a little hesitant because I didn't really know James but I trusted Megan so if she thought he was good then he must be good. I accepted and thanked him. He offered to walk me back to my house but I laughed it off and told him something cheeky like I think I can handle it or something silly. I felt his eyes on my back the entire way until I got to my house and I happened to glance at him just as I was shutting the door and he was still out on his porch just watching me. I set the

backpack on the floor next to where we keep our shoes and I told my aunt no luck with finding the owner but James was going to be popping in while she was gone to make sure I would still be breathing when she got back. She laughed and we carried on with our night. She leaves as scheduled and the whole day was overall uneventful. I got home from work late, fed my dog, decided to work on school work until it was time for me to go to bed. The next morning I get up around 7, get everything ready and go out the door and almost run right into James who is standing on the bottom of my steps. My dog is giving him the death stare but I rub his head and he instantly relaxes, leaning on me. James asks if everything was fine and I told him nothing weird had happened.

It had been quiet and uneventful. He offered to walk the property which seemed unnecessary but he had already started walking off before I could say anything else so I shrugged at my dog and we followed him to the backyard. My dog was a lot more interested in the sticks than anything he might have been looking for so I started playing a little game with him with the sticks until James called out to me from on the other side of the deck. We went to where he was and I glanced into my house through my sliding glass door, more out of impulse than anything. I walked down the little divot in the rocks that lined our deck and pretty much a whole pack worth of cigarette butts were just laying there smoked and then smooshed into rocks. Whoever had been there was there for a while.

James seemed to have been thinking the same thing I was because after a few moments of looking at each other he said he should probably come up the next morning too. That night I was really freaked out but I tried to play it cool. If someone was watching me I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing I was scared. I turned up my music and tried to focus on my bio quiz instead of the million what-ifs that were going through my mind. The next morning James beat me to it. I was debating if I should take Ash on a walk that day or not when he knocked on my door. I unlocked and opened the door for him reporting that nothing of interest happened the night before. He seemed

relieved by the news which made me feel better. I told him about not being sure if I should be walking Ash by myself anymore and he offered to go with me. In the back of my mind I felt a little weird spending so much time with my best friend's husband while she was home with two little kids but it's not like I was going to steal him as everyone knows I'm into girls and I was going through some tough stuff at the moment. James was a little strange, but we got along well enough. Plus, having a super tall, muscular, military-trained, take-no-nonsense kind of guy around at that point did genuinely make me feel safer. The day went on pretty much the same.

9th, 10th, 11th. James seemed a little off yesterday before he went home. I kept asking him if everything was alright and if he'd just be quiet for a moment, staring off and then look at me and smiling and saying it was nothing. I didn't believe him but it was obvious he didn't want to talk about it. I was wondering if maybe Megan was giving him guff for spending so much time with me and I was planning on telling him the next morning that I think whatever was happening was over and I would probably be fine now. It must have been someone trying to scare me I thought.

Early into the night last night I could tell I wasn't going to be sleeping. I never sleep long much anyway but sometimes I can go days at a time being tired but not being able to sleep. James was a million miles away from my mind as I lay in bed reading my book on my tablet. My dog was curled up next to my legs sleeping and suddenly he stopped snoring. He lays perfectly still and silent for maybe two seconds and then lifts his head up and growls. I pet him and tell him it's okay. It was probably going around 11 p.m. or so. If anyone was out there it was probably Jack or my next door neighbor Jake whose dogs decided they needed to go pee in the middle of the night so

they were standing out there with a leash pleading their respective dogs to do their business and get back inside so they can go back to sleep. My dog spooks easily and growls at night but usually me talking to him and petting him helps him calm down. It wasn't helping this time. In fact he seemed to be getting more agitated. I could see the whites of his eyes as he looked at me in panic. I was trying to comfort him when there was a loud knock on the front door. I visibly jumped and clutched my chest for a moment to try and calm down my heart which was racing. My dog didn't like the knocking either. His haunches were up and he was out in the living room pointed like a missile at the door. I put my hand on his back on the way past him to go up to the door.

I tried to make my voice steadier than it would have been otherwise and I asked who it was. It was James. He asked if he could talk to me. He sounded a little upset but not mad or anything, just different from how he usually sounded. Now it was 11pm at night and this is a married man who probably should not be coming over to a much younger woman's house. Not to mention I am short and not muscular, physically imposing or at all intimidating. As we revisit many times in this post I am an idiot and I chide myself for being an idiot. If this were Megan on my doorstep at this time upset I'd let her in a second. I open the door for him and am

immediately hit with a wall of alcohol stench. I didn't even know James drank. I never saw him touch so much as a beer. I asked him if everything was okay which he kind of shrugged off and evaded answering. I was immediately regretting opening the door and my alarm bells were immediately going off. This was nothing like if Megan came over upset. This was not okay. I needed him to leave. I suck down a curse word as he enters the room and sits down on the couch. I put up my hands so that my dog won't move and my dog looks at my movement but his eyes immediately go back to James. He's not growling. He's not snarling, he's not moving,

he's just staring, low to the ground, ready for anything to happen. I turn to face James, not wanting to turn my back on him and leave the door open enough so I could slip out and shut it behind me. I make sure there's nothing between me and Freedom, but he just sits there, he's not even looking at me. He has that far away distant look that he had had before he left earlier. I was about to say his name when he just starts talking really fast, ranting almost. It was so much information coming at me so fast it was hard to process it for a moment. He was telling me that I was smart because I didn't have kids at a young age, that girls are always way too eager to have kids these days. He stood up and squared off as if he were going to try and fight me right there but he just looked at me and told me how that Megan had

ruined his life because she was so stupid and couldn't figure out how to take birth control every day. He told me how he only let her have the first kid because he was 100% sure that he would not survive his first tour. Then when he did survive he immediately signed up to go back. He came home for a while. It took longer than he thought it for them to get him back over there and she got pregnant again. He let her keep that one because he knew he'd die this time. When he went back over there he was a lot more reckless he did a lot more horrible things made people a lot more angry things that happen in war that i don't even want to think about he stops his ranting and it's as if he just realized i was the one he was talking to he looked really lost and confused for a moment

i didn't know what to say but the back of my head was saying maybe this was a PTSD thing and he needed to get some help. Honestly my number one priority was going to check on Megan and the babies. I know he'd never hurt them intentionally. I knew he wouldn't hurt me but PTSD can mess people up big time. Without moving I tried to comfort him. I told him it would all work out. It's perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed as a dad especially if you miss the first part of your children's lives. He'd get there, we'd help him. He watched me the entire time I spoke to him and almost seemed like he was back to normal. I half expected him to just walk out the door, go home and us never speak of this again. Just a new father facing his new responsibilities. He just exhaled

really long as he smiled, watching me for a few moments, then he sat back on the couch. In the moment between standing and sitting, it was like he turned into a completely different person. I can't even describe his face, into a completely different person. I can't even describe his face, it was completely emotionless. He didn't even look bored, just nothing and his voice was the same way. It was almost like in one of those old movies where a guy is obviously voicing the robot except there was nothing funny about this. It was terrifying. The only thing that even resembled the James I knew was the sparkle in his eyes. He has really dark blue eyes that are normally closed off and give nothing away,

but occasionally, when we got to laughing on our walks or just when he first saw me in the morning, there was a certain light that would just come into his eyes that I never really wanted to put too much thought to. He sat there for a moment and with his robot monotone voice he said the words that I don't think I'll ever forget. It's so much more fun to watch people when they don't know you're watching them. This game of cat and mouse I've been playing with you has been the best I've felt since coming back stateside. In movies this is the part when you get mad at the girl character for not running, not fighting, nothing. But I couldn't. It was like I was in concrete.

I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. I felt like I couldn't even breathe. It seemed like it took only a second for him to be standing in front of me. I felt his fingers trace over my cheek and start to pull my head up from my chin so I'd look at him or so he could kiss me or whatever was going on in his mind at that moment. I wouldn't look at him. I wouldn't even cry. My eyes were as frozen as the rest of me. I felt his breath on my lips and then all of a sudden his hands were off me. I couldn't move but my dog could and he either jumped on him or bit him. His cry of pain was enough to wake me up from whatever trance I was under. I ran from the house as fast as I could. I think I felt his hand grab at mine as I was running out the door but I can't be sure if that was real or if that's just something that showed up in my brain afterward.

I admit that in that moment I was not a good friend. I didn't even think about going to Megan's house and playing hero. The fact her babies could be dying didn't even cross my mind. I climbed onto Jack's porch and started hammering on the door as loud as I could, screaming for them to help me. Jack is very fat and lazy and also a high functioning alcoholic but when he opened the door, it only took a second of seeing the fear in my eyes for him to grab me by the shoulder and practically throw me into Jill who was standing behind him. He roared for Jill to call 911. This is when I made my second selfish request of these wonderful people. I was literally on the floor hugging myself, sobbing. I was having trouble breathing I was sobbing so hard. I was making Jill cry just watching me. I literally on my knees begged this man who I'd only been to a few block parties with and our dogs had been on maybe three playdates together to go save my baby because James would hurt him. Jack didn't even

hesitate. As soon as he heard James's name a fire lit up in this man's eyes like I'd never seen before and he tore into his living room and grabbed one of his guns. Jill was full out sobbing by this time and she couldn't tell the operator what was going on. She didn't know. She just kept saying her address over and over again begging them for help. I heard my front door open and it's like all sorrow in me dried immediately. I wasn't crying. I wasn't having trouble breathing. I stood up and looked out the door. James was on my porch, his hands up, scowling down at Jack as if though he was ruining his night. It would have been smart to stay in the

house at this point and wait for the police but I am not smart so I rushed outside. Jill clawed at me desperately, begging me not to leave her but I brushed her off. I wasn't scared at all. I ran out and scanned around the open doorway and the porch. I happened to meet James' eyes and he smiled at me. It was as if he was actually happy to see me. There was blood all over him but I didn't care about him anymore. That's when I saw the black mass at the bottom of my step. You could see the white stripe around his neck completely soaked with blood. By now pretty much every neighbor on our street was outside their house asking what happened. Everyone except for Megan and her babies. I couldn't think about what that meant. I had to get to my baby. I jumped off the porch and started running towards the black

mass. Jack says he was screaming at me to stop and James turned to walk down the stairs towards me, but I didn't hear or acknowledge any of this. I dropped to my knees and hugged my dog, practically screaming with grief. It was some time when I dropped to my knees, but before James could get to me, three squad cars came tearing into our yards and driveways. Guns were pulled. No one knew what was happening since Jill hadn't been able to relay any information over the phone. James identified himself as a marine and told them that he wanted Jack arrested for threatening him. Jack wanted James arrested for doing whatever he was doing

to me and I couldn't hear any of them. My dog looked up at me with the most intense eyes, licked a tear off my face and thumped his tail twice before he laid back down, whining. I looked up as an arm was put on my shoulder. It was my next door neighbor Jake. Jake had gotten his dog as a puppy the same time I got mine and we were both avid animal lovers. He took our dogs to puppy kindergarten together. They graduated puppy school together. We even took a couple of shifts volunteering at the same animal shelter that I got my dog from. I knew I could trust this man with my dog. His wife Helen was standing a distance behind him looking like she was ready to break every one of James's fingers if he stepped off the last step onto the ground, which would have made him close enough to touch my hair.

Jake had to repeat himself twice before I understood and let go of my dog. He picked up my dog immediately and rushed him to his car, Helen rushing over and pulling me away from James who had been watching me through the entire exchange. When I look back at him, his hand was even extended out and lifted with me as if he expected me to take it and say this was all a misunderstanding. Jake tore past the cop cars to take my dog to the emergency vet clinic. James and Jack were put into handcuffs in the back of patrol cars in my front yard with Helen behind me, rubbing my shoulder and Jill holding my hand crying. Covered in a mix of dogs and James' blood,

I directed one group over to James' house where Megan and the babies were still nowhere to be seen and I told them what happened. I tried to be as detailed as possible but I was pretty hard into shock, so even this version is more detailed than the one I posted a few hours ago in another thread. Everyone got a ride to the station but Jack was released soon after and is actually being named a hero for going above and beyond to defend his neighbor. A cop that knows my aunt very well took pity on me and took me to the emergency vet clinic where I sat in the waiting room with Jake and cried for I don't even know how long. He stayed with me the entire time and held my hand through it. The vet working on my dog came out and said that two of his legs had been broken, all of the ribs on one side of him were damaged in some way and it was very touch and go for a while because of internal bleeding.

He said that he was responding well to medications and he was resting comfortably at the moment. They let me go in and see him and I sat with him for those early hours of the morning until about 10am. Jake had to leave but he said to call him when I was ready to go home. I would have probably stayed longer but the doctor said they all knew my dog was a hero and they'd take good care of him if I wanted to go home and wash up. I was already a mess from crying non-stop for hours and not having slept at all yet but with the now dried on blood all over my clothes and skin I probably look like a zombie. I went back home and stumbled upon Jake, Helen and Jill trying with every bit of know-how they

could to scrub all the blood off the walls, floors and Jill trying with every bit of know-how they could to scrub all the blood off the walls, floors and ceiling before I got home. I thanked them and told them I needed to be alone for a bit. They agreed to leave but only after asking if I was sure about a hundred times. I didn't even take my clothes off, I just laid down on the bottom of the bathtub with the shower running and tried to make sense of what just happened to me. When I finally did get undressed and scrubbed all the blood and dirt off from me, I got changed into clean clothes so I could go back to the vet clinic as soon as possible, sat at the kitchen table and called my aunt. There are still some mysteries that unless James tells them, they'll never know.

They found a digital camera in his house and the entire reel was just pictures of me from different windows in my house just doing mundane things. Apparently the pictures were dated all the way back to a few days after he got back from deployment. We don't know what set him off that night. We don't know what his intentions were to do to me. I'm very small compared to him and even with my dog in the room he could have easily overpowered me at any time. He could have even just shut the door. He could have done so many things to trap me in there with them, to hurt me, but it was like he just let me escape. And that's the one thing that bothers the cops and honestly Jack is we just weren't sure what his intentions were. I don't know if he thinks I'm lying or not. I know the cops think so.

That moment when James was standing on the bottom step his hand reached out to me and Helen was holding me to her a few feet away. The cops were rushing to get him when they pulled him off the step. To put his hands behind his back he pushed forward and shoved his face against my face and whispered into my ear. They pulled him off immediately and dragged him into the car. He didn't even fight them. He just kept looking back at me as long as he could. Of course, one of the cops immediately asked what he had said to me and what it meant. I honestly have no idea.

I don't even know if I heard him right and he refused to say a single word since they arrested him. I think he said you're my Lily but that doesn't make any sense. He never once called me that in reference or anything and he's never called his wife that and she doesn't recall Lily's or anyone named Lily being an influential part of his life. Now a report on the health status as of 20 hours after I let James into my house. Megan has a cracked jaw, a broken nose, two black eyes, a concussion and apparently she had been unconscious when he left to come to my house. The three-year-old had to try to protect his mom and got kicked pretty bad. He's in the

hospital right now where his mom says that the doctors are a little worried about his ribs, but he seems to be okay. He's just very confused as they both are. The baby was dropped during the attack and apparently got a bump to the head. Doctors are keeping an eye on it, but they think she's going to be okay. Megan told the police that before last night James never so much as raised his voice at her. His bad mood seemed to come out of nowhere. She was just asking him where he'd been, if I was alright, etc. And it seemed to set him off. The worst of the blows were to the side of her head because she was holding the baby when he started hitting her and she crouched down to protect the baby. My dog is still not home but they called a few hours ago and said they tested

him off the ventilator and he's now breathing on his own. I still haven't slept and I don't know when I ever will again. The worst part of all of this is I don't think I can even emotionally handle being friends with Megan anymore. I know she needs her friends now more than ever and I'm her best friend but I just can't look at her. I don't blame her for bringing James into my life because it wasn't her fault but I do blame her for not noticing something was wrong sooner. I blame her for never questioning why he was never home at night. Never questioning why whenever he went out into the dark he brought his camera with him. There's just so much I'm not okay with right now and the biggest thing is that he didn't end anyone's life but he hurt his wife, assaulted his child, stalked me and

tried to destroy my dog. He's not going away forever. He could get out at any time. I don't even know if all of the charges they do have against him will stick. I don't know how long I have before he's free again and every time I look at her that's all I can think of. The only other thing that really bothers me, something that I hate him for and I hate the cop who brought it to everyone else's attention instead of just letting it swirl in my head where it should have stayed. I was the target. I was the one he was after and I'm the only one in this situation who did not get injured by him in any way. I don't know what he would have done to me if my dog hadn't intervened. I don't know what his plan was but my dog reacted because I was terrified. James didn't make a move to hurt me, he didn't

make a move to stop me from leaving. When he finally got his hands on me and had the chance to hurt me all he did was try to force me to look at him and put his face really close to my face which honestly felt like he was trying to kiss me. I don't even know why I hate that fact so much but sitting here all alone at night with the next room over still splattered with blood, the fact that I don't even have so much as a scratch on me, is what is eating me alive. There's no place to even begin this story other than jumping straight into it. I was entering freshman year and from what I understand this year is super special for the simple fact that you finally have new beginnings. I figured I'd move past from middle school and I would become my own person and make new friends. Now, it was quite hard to make new friends because we all live in a very small town in the middle of nowhere and our high school has 400 students maybe. It's a very

small school system. It's a place where everyone knows everyone so it makes it hard to find new people to talk to if their initial impression of you is a bad one. I was hoping to be friends with some older kids since my older brother and his friends were then entering their junior year. Enough story prior to the main one and now I'd like to get to the main story. I wanted friends as mentioned before but before this I really needed to know where I was going inside my school. My schedule was up to my nose 90% of the day on my first few days and I got through my first few classes on day one. My second period class was health class for the first semester.

In this class there were a few people from every grade level but only one senior. I found this odd but I never questioned it because I didn't understand the credit system quite yet. He introduced himself to me as Brian. I introduced myself of course and we left it at that. He was attractive and I didn't know his age until later in the year so he deemed himself as a love interest to me. The class was normal and so were the others but then I hit fifth period and Brian was in this class with me as well. It was world history and the teacher of that class was very close with me and we are still close to this day. It was world history and the teacher of that class was very close with me and we are still close to this day. He was a natural father figure to me. Anyways Brian

and I had the class together but I also had this same class with my present day acquaintance Cameron. Cameron was the world's biggest nerd and he's quite narcissistic but he's also hilarious and he too was a person I was interested in at the time because I could relate to him a lot but I realized he was just a friend. Brian and I talked a little bit about our assignments and then we continued on with our days. No other classes emerged from this point with Brian. The second day began and he approached me in health by stating my name as if it were a question. He talked my ear off in that class and he actually sat next to me that day. I thought nothing of it because I liked the

way he looked and he now wanted to talk to me. I felt special to say the least. Nothing out of the ordinary and he waved to me in the halls and such. I felt like I was finally making friends. The next class with him came before I knew it and we had normal conversations including small arguments me and the two boys had. It was day three. This is when things began to get very very weird. After my first period class I found Brian at my locker. How he knew that was my locker I wasn't sure but I assumed he knew I was somewhere down this hallway and he maybe glanced and saw me there once or twice. I thought nothing of it and said hello and grabbed my stuff. He walked to my second period health with me and once again I thought nothing of it.

Class was normal but I had an odd feeling in my stomach and my heartbeat was elevated. I was nervous. Brian knew my full name, which is nothing odd, but he also knew things that I never told him. He knew my brother too well and he also knew my old and new friends. He knew my past relationship and how it ended. He knew my favorite color and my hobbies, including the sports I played. Now all of this sounds quite normal and the information isn't weird to know about someone but it's weird when you've never had the conversation with them about any of it. It made my stomach drop so I got aggressive and asked him how he knew those things and he brushed it off and told me that he just did his research and we never spoke

of it again. I asked Cameron what it could mean and Cameron assumed it was because Brian liked me. I guess he was right then also thought nothing of it. Day three though wasn't the worst day. On that day I watched him get on my bus and he never rode my bus before. He ignored me and sat in a seat one and to the right of me. We didn't talk at all through the ride and when I got home I got a request from him on Facebook. I accepted and he sent me a message and it was all normal conversation. I got to school the next day and the first words he said were, now I know where you live. At this point it's been four days into the school year and this man Brian knew more about me than I

intended him to know the first week. On day four though he memorized my schedule by heart. I asked him how he knew that and he said he saw my schedule in my binder and looked to see if we had other classes together not the first day. Brian from this day on walked me from class to class and always bothered me. He was obsessing and I was terrified. He always would whisper odd things to me in health class and I would have to ignore him to get him to stop. This went on for months and it progressively got worse. One day Brian and Cameron got into a fight about something I said and Cameron told Brian that I was scared of him and I could see this look in Brian's eyes that makes me grow weak anytime I think about it. Brian asked if it was true and I said nothing then I remember Brian looked at Cameron and told him

that I was his as if I was an object that they were fighting over and chills went through my spine from that statement but I did nothing. From that day forward he began to say that I was his. Luckily as mentioned before my brother was in high school with me and his friends treated me like I was their little sister. I had helped through the situation before it grew too late. My friend Anna was there and helped me through the entire thing. When I finally opened up to her she grew furious because she felt I didn't deserve to have this creepy guy attached to me. We went straight to the principal about it. The principal told me that since this has gone on so

long it was partially my fault. I didn't speak up soon enough and I never told him to stop so how was he supposed to know? The principal also in turn said this wasn't the first time it's happened and that he should have known better. After talking to the principal I got sent to class and I wanted to cry. I actually felt like it was all my fault. The next day in health class Mr. Sandin stopped me and asked me about what was going on and he told me he would rearrange the classroom for my sake. I told him what had happened vaguely and asked him to please do so. Mr. Sandin was sympathetic to my situation but very angry with Brian for treating me the way he did. Brian after class asked me what was going on and I said nothing. I just walked to my next class.

Then world history came along and Mr. Brown knew what was going on and I said nothing. I just walked to my next class. Then world history came along and Mr. Brown knew what was going on already and addressed me and asked if I was okay. He didn't move the seats though so I was still stuck next to Brian but Cameron was there luckily. Cameron knew I was uncomfortable around Brian since day two so he helped me through it. The next day the principal called me to the office as soon as I arrived into the school and Anna was waiting there and she apologized but she said she needed this to end for my sake. I had to face Brian and I was a crying mess in the principal's office and he was yelling towards me, not necessarily at me, and was telling me to tell Brian I didn't want to talk to

him anymore. Through my tears I muttered it out and the principal dismissed me. As soon as I closed the door behind me I heard yelling back and forth between the two and I broke down. I spent the rest of my day hidden in my hood in fear of the next day. Days and days after that Brian continued to pester me and get inside my head. He was everywhere and he even went to begin touching me physically like grabbing my arm to stop me or touching my shoulders. Once he blocked me from going to my biology class by trying to get me to hug him and all I remember is getting suddenly angry and I pushed him a little too hard and I walked forward and disappeared in my class.

He gave up and began dating one of my friends and then one day he just disappeared. My Facebook got hacked and sent a dumb video out to everyone and I went through and sent everyone a message saying sorry and telling them what happened. One of those people was Brian. I thought I had blocked him but I guess I was wrong. I got a notification from him and I opened it reluctantly. He said that I deserved it and that I also in turn deserved every negative thing I got in my life and he began to say bad things on my name and my school's name. He said that I never changed and I was still cold-hearted and I had nothing to say in return. I never said sorry and that was the last I've heard of him. Freshman year is a special year for everyone. It just depends on who you are of course.

I hope nothing like this happens to anyone. I spared some details to keep this story from getting too terribly long but these were major points. If anyone has any questions please feel free to answer but I'm praying that I'll never have to meet this man again. This happened when my friend and I were 15 years old. We both lived super close to each other so I'd often go to her place after school to do homework and hang out. Her house had a park that pretty much backs up to it and a side entrance to the park that is literally right next to her house. It's typically only used by people in the neighborhood but you are immediately in the

thickest part of the woods when you enter from that entrance. So it was a Friday and we really didn't have any homework for the weekend. Her mom had dropped us off at the house and left to do errands so we decided to go on a walk with her dog. We live in a very good neighborhood with low crime and we were very familiar and comfortable with the park. Plus, there being two of us with a dog during the day, we weren't all that worried. So we change out of our school uniforms, get some hiking shoes on and make our way to the park entrance. We start our walk and the day is a perfect day for being outside.

We instantly fall into comfortable conversation as we head to our favorite part of the woods. So there's a couple of miles of winding paved trail until we run into the first split. If you go left, it will lead you to the main park area with swings, restrooms, picnic area, and all of that. If you go right, it leads to a bridge that will take you to another trail option. We went right to head over the bridge since the trail we wanted was that way. This is where things got weird. We began making our way over the bridge and see a runner heading our direction. We both moved to the side to let him pass and I just got a really bad feeling. You know the one, hair standing up on ends, heart speeding up and just a true sense of alarm by this person. He passed us and stared at us

over his shoulder a while, but I mostly decided I was being overly paranoid or he was staring at the dog because who doesn't like looking at a cute dog? After all, he seemed pretty average and non-threatening in general. Still, I tucked it in the back of my mind just to stay a little more aware of our surroundings. So we continue on our walk, which leads to another two trail options. Left continues as a paved area and right as a dirt trail that is overgrown in spots. We took the right because it was deeper into the woods and where our hangout spot was. So our spot is completely off the dirt trail and we have to walk across to log over a small part of the creek to get to it.

So not many people know about this area which is why we liked it. Most people don't even take the dirt trail unless they are bird watching or taking nature photos. We get to our spot and we hang out just chatting about life. We both didn't have the best home life, crazy mothers putting it mildly, so it was nice to be able to chat with each other about stuff and privacy. So maybe ten minutes after we made it to this spot we heard a branch snap at a distance from us. From where we were we could see that someone was on the dirt trail but whoever it was wouldn't have an easy view of us. We looked over and my heart just drops. I can just make out the runner from the bridge through the trees. He had on bright

red shorts so it was easy to tell it was him. Immediately we both knew that something was not right. This isn't a trail someone out on a run would take ever and he obviously turned around on his run to head back in our direction and he had originally come from the paved trail that we didn't take earlier so alarm bells were ringing. He walks past our spot and quietly continues down the dirt trail, no longer running like he's trying to be quiet. We are at a decent distance and thankfully he was keeping his gaze forward or he may have seen us. My friend and I are silently watching and when he is out of view she turns to me and says we need to go now and I say yeah something's not right about that guy my friend just nods yes

so she lets her dog off her leash she is very good at following and she would be able to move faster without the lead and so would we I do have to mention that this dog will not be helpful if the situation escalates because she failed at being a service dog because she was overly friendly to strangers, i.e. she couldn't stay focused on her tasks. So very obedient but everyone is a friend. So no helping coming from her and he hadn't even been deterred from seeing her to begin with. She was just a very smaller yellow lab. We take off at this point trying to be quiet and fast because we will have to cross over the dirt trail that he was on and we don't want him coming back and seeing us. My friend falls

scrambling across the log into the creek. I slip at the end so both of us have very waterlogged shoes and we panic because of the noise. So we just take off knowing that we already made a ton of noise anyway. We didn't run back to the paved area because we were too deep into the woods at this point and a straight shot was our best bet. We very quietly hear noise from behind us and she yells to me that he's following us. I am not a runner but adrenaline saved the day because I could have ran a marathon with how scared I was. So we are crashing through the bushes and not following any sort of trail at this point but heading in the direction we needed to go to get out of the woods and closer to her house. We had to be running for at least 15 minutes and most of the time my friend is

yelling directions to me from behind because she can still see the guy. I'm clumsy and I knew if I looked back that I'd be the idiot to trip like in the movies. At some point we either lost him or gave up but we finally broke through the woods into the field because the woods and the houses in her neighborhood. So we jogged close to the fences, heading to her house, scanning the edge of the woods and trying to get oxygen back into our lungs. We never saw anything once we made it out of the woods, but we didn't feel safe until we got inside her house. We were a mess. She's soaked up to her thighs and I'm soaked up to my calves. At one point I wrap my hands around the branches coated with thorns so my hands are bleeding. She has some rips in her pants and

shirt and her dog was perfectly fine because she didn't fall into the creek like an idiot and avoided all the thorns. We immediately start talking and she said she had the same creepy feeling about the guy too but didn't say anything at the time either. She said she noticed that he had given her dog kind of a dirty look which is what made her feel uncomfortable. She had also caught a few glimpses of his face while we were running from him and she said he looked absolutely livid. Her mom got home and we told her what happened. Now her mom is not someone I'm a fan of. She merely tells us he was probably an off-duty cop coming to check on us to make sure we were okay since we were two young girls alone in the woods. Neither of us bought her explanation but she

managed to make us feel like idiots. I never mentioned anything to my mom because she would have just blamed us for going on a walk by ourselves and nothing came of it. That was also the last time we went into the woods, just the two of us. We only ever went with a group of friends or her older brother but we never saw him again. As an adult I realized how truly messed up the situation was. The guy had to have been about 6 foot 2 and in his 40s. I was 5'1 and my friend was 5'3. We both looked even younger than 15 because I still had people at restaurants automatically

giving me a child's menu when we went out to eat so there wasn't any real excuse for a grown man to follow two young females into a secluded part of the woods when we were obviously scared of him. So it's been over a decade now and we now live in the same neighborhood and frequent the park. The dirt trail is now paved and a lot of the trees have been cleared away. I still to this day can't go to this park without looking for that guy though or keeping a constant lookout for someone to start following me. So I truly hope I never ever meet this creep again, even though so much time has passed. So this happened a few months ago when I was taking Hapkido class in Korea.

It was a small class of five to eight people at the time. There's 3 classes that happen every day in 3 consecutive hours. I take the first class when I have time from work or the later class when I can't. I usually try to make it as much as possible. Whenever I take the first class I would finish up and get ready to leave and I would notice that the second class always had one guy. He is a much older Korean man and looks somewhere to leave and I would notice that the second class always had one guy. He is a much older Korean man and looks somewhere to be in his 40s. If you've ever seen a guy in an anime who's the creepy old guy with glasses, that's basically what he looks like. He only wears half the uniform and trains with the master privately. I assumed he was a co-trainer but he may have been a close friend because his class level wasn't that far ahead of me.

He speaks pretty decent English and translates sometimes for the master. I also never interact with him unless he tries to have a short conversation between classes. But one day he asked me for my number. I asked for what? And he says it's for updates in the class. The way he was acting was really weird when he was asking me. He looked at me wide-eyed and really nervous and even breathed kind of loud, like he was hiding something. I also noticed how he made sure to only ask me when we weren't around

the master. Suspicious, I gave him a fake number. He looks like he got a huge sigh of relief as I gave it to him. Then, at the corner of my eye, I catch him doing his best attempt of very discreetly bending his phone upwards at me and I hear a camera shutter. I look back and he's doing his wide-eyed, nervous look again with the really heavy breathing. Before I can say anything, the master calls me over to train. As I'm stretching, I can see him sitting on the bench in the back of the class right next to my bags, and I can see him occasionally doing his non-discrete phone bending in my direction again. Even though I can't hear his phone this time, I can pretty much assume what he's doing. I couldn't explain this to the master

because he doesn't speak English very well and my other classmates don't speak Korean. He teaches using a lot of charades and word repetition in case you're wondering. But anyways, after class he tells me to come in tomorrow to the later class. This is strange because I've been going for a while and he's never done this before. Maybe it was part of his schedule availability so I agreed. The next day I show up to the designated time and I find the guy who took my picture sitting there waiting with the master having a conversation. I thought maybe he's just finishing up the second class he is usually in and getting ready to leave. Instead the master calls me over and points to the other guy with a big smile and says, New training partner.

I look over at the man and he's smiling really creepy about this. So I reluctantly agreed. It was just the three of us that day, by the way. We start our class with the usual stretching and practice with our partners. When it was time for me to practice new moves on my partner, he started to do his creepy look again and started to lick his lips when I was reaching out to grab him. After the class, the master told me to come every day at that exact class because this guy wanted to be my partner. I just nervously told him that I had work to do and the guy looked really hurt about it.

After I left, I never went back. and give and receive feedback from the community, and maybe even hear your story featured on the next video. And join my Discord to interact with me and other listeners directly. 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 these stories in long compilation form and save huge on data. Located on both Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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