The Lets Read Podcast - 88: Episode 078 | Middle of Nowhere & Stalker Stories | 22 True Scary Horror Stories

Episode Date: December 29, 2020

Welcome to the seventy-eighth 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 the Middle of Nowhere, Stalkers & Nightmare Dates... 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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It served as a great way to relax from the pressures of school and getting closer to nature. The spring break of 1997, we loaded up our trucks and headed for the cabin. Our plans included shooting guns, drinking beer, and other things rednecks like us do in the woods. Our first morning kept us pretty busy cleaning the cabin and moving all our stuff inside. Around dinner, we made a big fire outside and cooked a bunch of steaks and fried potatoes. We skipped dessert and broke open some beers. The sun went down not long after,

and for the remainder of the evening we got loaded and passed around a joint or two. At some point in the night I heard a shuffling noise outside and went out to check on it. The fire was barely burning at that point and just outside of its light I swore I could see the shape of a man standing completely still. From what I could tell he was facing me, perhaps waiting to see what I would do. I blinked my eyes real hard to get a clearer look but my position and the lack of light made it hard to see clearly. The shape continued to stand still so I decided I'd walk up a little closer in hopes of getting a better picture. The thought terrified me but I was

transfixed by the being or perhaps I was still too intoxicated to make wise decisions. I took two steps forward but was distracted by a voice behind me. My friend had woken up and noticed the door was wide open. So he got out of bed and saw me walking around the fire. His voice caused me to jump a little but I soon realized who it was speaking. I asked him if he saw the figure on the other side of the fire pit. He just laughed at me and said I must be so stoned I was seeing things. We laughed it off and returned to bed. On my way I turned back to take one more look, but the shape was no longer there.

I chuckled to myself and went back to sleep. The next morning, I wrote the whole experience off as the result of too much fun and went on with my day. We spent the first half of it fishing at the big pond. Post-lunch was shooting guns in one guy's compound bow that he had just bought. The beers and smoke were broken out after dinner. A game of poker was attempted but soon cancelled in favor of another evening telling lies around the fire. On one of my many trips to relieve myself that night, I was spooked by the sound of a stick breaking close by and noped it back to the fire. The look

of fear on my face made the other guys laugh their butts off. I tried to explain what had happened, but was quickly reminded that we weren't the only creatures in the woods. The reasoning seemed sound, so I accepted it. Not long after, we were standing around, involved in some deep discussion, and I turned to speak to the guy on my left. What I saw caused me to clench up so tight I could have snapped a steel rod with my sphincter. Standing within a few steps

behind my friend was another man I did not recognize. It was like he appeared out of nowhere. What made it creepier was that he was staring intently at the back of his head, almost like he was trying to bore through it with his eyes. I remained frozen stiff. The longer I looked at him, I realized he was the same being I saw lingering outside the light of the fire the night before. He was average height with a long, unkempt beard. My friend continued rambling about whatever unaware of his shadow. After several long seconds the stranger turned to me with a blank expression and walked away. This was when my friend finally noticed my horrified look. When he spoke the thrall of

fear was released and I began pointing and rambling about what I had just witnessed. He and my other friend laughed at me again. There was no way I was seeing things this time. I described the man and one of them suggested he was a Bigfoot. Despite my protestations, no one was buying it and I eventually cut my losses and shut up. However, I wasn't beat. Their mockery had made me even more determined to prove the stranger's existence. The next two days were quiet. No stranger, in other words, but I kept my eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. By our fifth morning, I was beginning to question my sanity. I'd seen this mysterious being stalking around us twice and now it had suddenly disappeared. I resolved to put my quest on the back burner until some new evidence

arose. My friend's dad had mentioned him and owner of one of the surrounding properties had spotted a small group of wild hogs running through his land so we grabbed our rifles and went on the search for them. A mile or so, down one of the property's many roads, we came across some hog wallows and knew we were on the scent. We went up the road, now on foot tracking them. Another mile on, we stumbled upon three large hogs rooting up the ground and prepared to make bacon. Two of us chambered around as quiet as possible on our rifles and took aim. I was less than a second from saying three and pulling the trigger when the loud crack of another rifle filled the air followed closely by a burst of wood and bark above my friend's head. It took a moment for it to register that we were being shot at. A few seconds later, another crack and strike.

This time even closer to my friend. We weren't going to wait for a third. The friend who appeared to be the target led us down a side trail that led back to the cabin. No more shots followed as we fled. However, instead of finding safety at the camp, the shots began again. Seeing no other option, we hopped into my truck and hauled it out of there. This was a time just before the commonality of cell phones, so we had to drive the 20 miles to town to get help. After we explained the situation, we returned to the property a few hours later with some deputies. We approached

slowly and remained in the cars when deputies. We approached slowly and remained in the cars when we parked. We waited to see if the shots would start again but nothing happened. A cursory look around counted three holes in the cabin and another two in my buddy's windshield. Perhaps the worst was that all of our camping stuff, sleeping bags and such, were spread out all over the ground. Luckily, we'd smoked everything the night before, so the police were none the wiser. Nothing was missing but a box of 30-30 ammo and, strangely, my sleeping bag and wool blanket. A theory began to form in the deputy's mind that we had stumbled upon a squatter or poacher camping out on the property for

whatever reason. They acted as if they were going to let it go but once my friend's dad who owned the land heard about it he put pressure on them to start a search. This was about the time I repeated my story of seeing someone lurking around the cabin. No one was laughing now and my story was finally being taken seriously by somebody. The search was led around the property by my friend's dad. School had already begun again by the time it took place. It continued for a full week but nothing other than a few old camps were found. It was assumed that he knew the heat would be on him after the shooting incident and he moved on. During the course of the investigation, several avenues were followed to ID the stranger like escaped cons, but he remains unidentified to this day. Because of the chance of another attack, our trips to the property ended.

The next year we tried to camp out somewhere else, but it wasn't the same and our nature getaways died out. Within five years my friend's dad had a heart attack and lost interest in the cabin. The paper company's lease were renewed and the land's trees had been used to make paper and pulpwood products ever since. Each time I jot down a quick note I'm reminded of our awesome, especially, the odd and terrifying week that caused them to stop. I do, once or twice a year, talk to my old college friends on the phone. As far as he's heard, that crazy stranger still hasn't been caught. We sometimes theorize as to his origins and where he may have ended up. I, however, often take this much

further when I'm alone. I wonder why our so-called strangers seem to focus so much of his anger onto my friend and perhaps far more concerning is he still out there waiting for his chance to finish what he began all those years ago. This is a recounting of a terrifying incident that three of my friends experienced during the summer after our junior year in high school. I very nearly became part of a tale myself but a scheduled shift at the movie theater saved me. They showed up in my house earlier that day asking if I wanted to go with them into the woods to explore an area we had yet to search but I had to work later that evening so I had to decline. It's been over 25 years since this occurred, therefore not all that happened can be remembered,

but I'll do my best. Looking back now at the way life was then, I can positively say things have changed greatly for kids. My neighborhood was its own self-contained city on the edge of the city limits. At the end of the 60s, some idealistic developer got the crazy idea to buy up hundreds of rolling acres of prairie and forest land out in the middle of nowhere. He created a little suburban sprawl for the coming rise of manufacturing and the people needed to fill those jobs. The factories did come,

Johnson and Johnson, Folgers Coffee, places such as that, but within 30 years they would begin to leave just as quickly. The children of these factory workers found themselves separated from their peers in the rest of the city and with nothing better to do, took to the woods surrounding them to explore and discover nature much as their distant ancestors who settled this land hundreds of years before. I was one of those children and so were my three friends who would make the discovery on one of these journeys into the woods. Without me along, they took to the fields opposite the new highway. These stretched for miles back then and during the summer were laying fallow.

Our part of Texas rides the line between prairie land and riparian forest. You may find yourself walking for miles on open land only to discover acres upon acres of woods between the next field. After walking for miles across nothing, they came upon a forested area most of us had yet to explore. A path led to an abandoned barn. When they turned the corner to look inside, they came face to face with the corpse of a hanged man. From what I was told later, not a one of them believed it to be real. However, as they got closer there was no longer any doubt. The body was that of a trucker who had parked his 18-wheeler at the nearby truck stop around Christmas. He walked the three miles or so into the woods and ended his life. To this day, no one knows if he knew that barn was there or he just happened upon it, but we do know on that hot,

humid summer day, his bloated body posed a horrific sight to them. Realizing someone was likely missing him my friends returned to the very same truck stop he had walked away from the year before and called the cops. Of course I didn't hear all about this until the next day. Even though it did sound like an amazing adventure I'm thankful I had to sit it out. All three of them went on to differing levels of legal and emotional troubles including battles with addiction. The only one left living, Stephen,

had spent several stints in and out of institutions and the last time we spoke little of my childhood friend remained. I can't claim that the discovery of the trucker's body was the only reason for their eventual decline, but it most certainly contributed to it. During the early 2000s when I was attending law school, I worked nights delivering pizza for one of the national chains. I had done something similar when I was younger and attending my local community college. Anytime I found myself sorely in need of quick cash, that was the avenue I would choose. Despite the many stories I have heard questioning the safety of the job, I never had a single run-in with a thief. I'm sure back in the early days it could be a little dangerous, but by the time I joined the game, companies had learned that implementing

practices such as limiting the driver to $20 lowered the chance of holdups drastically. Even though I was never a victim of a robbery, I did have one or two scary incidents I could write about. The worst of these happened to me back in the 2000s. I was very familiar with the city I was living in at the time. Moving there after junior college and delivering for several places over the last five years had made me intimate with almost every nook and cranny of the place. However, one evening I would be called to an address that I, nor any of the other drivers even knew existed. When the order came in, I went straight to the map to find the

address, but it wasn't there. Not even the GPS on my phone showed it. We didn't have any no-delivery areas at that time, so I had to take it despite my misgivings. Theoretically the place would have existed if the road continued for 10 more blocks so I turned on to said road a block before its ending and followed it south. Sure enough a newly paved road began where the old one should have ended. For what seemed like miles I continued on this new section of road. Nothing stood on the other side of it and I didn't pass another car the whole time. How the state managed to build it without a single report of its creation leaking to the media had me bewildered. The five years I'd been driving all over the city, I'd not known this part existed. In one way, I was very excited seeing all

of it, like a Victorian explorer tracing the sources of the Nile. But at the same time, a deserted road popping up out of nowhere gave me a chill down my spine. It must have been a good ten minutes before the house in question appeared in the distance. I couldn't understand why someone would build a house out here in the middle of nowhere with no way to reach it. When I got closer, I could see the house had to be at least 50 years old or more, and probably hadn't been repaired since then. No cars were around and, for a moment, I thought the house was abandoned,

but I could see the front door wide open behind the rickety old screen. Everything looked to be above board, so I grabbed the pizza and headed for the door. I knocked on the screen door but got no answer. I could see what appeared to be a young female walking around the kitchen. When I knocked a second time I heard a female voice say to come in. Despite my reservations I stepped just inside the house and waited in the small foyer. I'd learned from other drivers early on not to enter an unfamiliar house, but I had yet to see anything to concern me. I assumed the woman would be coming out soon

to pay me. Instead, I overheard an unseen man whisper, Call him into the kitchen. When I heard that, I fled from that place as fast as I could. I was so freaked out I got back to the restaurant and half the time it took me to get to the house. After I told my boss what had just occurred, he called the police. All the excitement had me rattled so my boss sent me home for the day. My phone rang a few hours later. It was the police. All the excitement had me rattled so my boss sent me home for the day. My phone rang a few hours later. It was the police. They'd called to let me know what they had found. Whoever had been there was gone now. Even though the place had more than likely been abandoned for a while, they did find evidence that people had just recently been inside. This was stuff my boss

had already told them. However, they did shed light on where the road came from and why the house was the only building on an otherwise deserted area. The state had been trying to purchase the land on which the new section of road and house were for 20 years, but the landowner wouldn't sell. They even tried to use eminent domain to get it but a judge blocked it. Around two years before the owner passed and his children finally sold the land to the state. They were so happy to get the land after all that time the construction on the road was started immediately. It technically had yet to be formally open but locals had already began using it anyway.

This was good to know but I still wondered how the two people knew about the empty house sitting out in the middle of nowhere. This was something the officer didn't know. We could only assume they drove past it and decided it would be as good a place as any to ambush a delivery driver. Even $20 is a good score if you're desperate enough. He said from personal experience, people have killed for much less. The officer left me with one good piece of news though. The county had slated the old house to be demolished in the coming week, so no other poor delivery driver would be let out there to be robbed or worse. Two days later, I was driving down the brand new road which I was now using as a shortcut across town and witnessed the house's destruction. A load was even being lifted from my shoulders right before my eyes. Never again would

I enter a customer's home or even deliver to an area in which I was not well versed. Perhaps in the future I'll share my other story. While not as harrowing, it was still scary nonetheless. Because my parents had separated before I was born, I spent my time growing up between each of their houses. Each summer until I turned 19, I stayed with my dad in rural Missouri. He had grown up in the area himself and most of his family still lived there. Without much to do, like going to the movies and stuff, I would fill my days hanging out with my older cousin and getting in the mischief. Many of our long summer days were taken in wandering the surrounding woods. On one of these journeys we came across a big lake setting quietly by itself out in the middle of nowhere.

The water was crystal clear and filled with tons of monstrous fish. We asked the adults if they were aware of its existence but none had heard of it. That was probably the reason for it having so many large fish. No one living in the area had fished it and any who had in the past allowed its location to be lost. We would fish the pond three or four times, coming away with a stringer full of lunkers on each occasion. On the fifth occasion we hoped to accumulate enough for a big family fish fry. The summer holiday was starting to wind down and we figured a fish fry would be a great way to cap it off. It was a warm Saturday morning when we headed out. We started about an hour before sun up because the walk-in took over an hour. Besides,

the fish stopped biting by the hottest part of the day and we hoped to get back to my dad's house by early afternoon. The beautiful sight of the pond came into view around dawn. It didn't take long for us to get our first bites and for the next three hours the fish came quickly, one after another. Our limit was caught by 1045 and I was rearing to get going. We had a 90 minute walk back with two 5 gallon buckets packed to the top with fish so I imagined another 30 could be added to that. To my displeasure my cousin thought it would be refreshing to take a dip in the lake before we left. He tried to pressure me into joining him but I didn't know

how to swim at the time. I just wanted to get back but he was older than me so he was in charge. I plopped my tail onto a rock and waited while he did his thing. There was an old rope tied to a tree, probably from a hundred years ago and he wanted to swing from it. It looked unsafe to me, however my concerns were laughed off and he stripped down to his boxers, setting his clothes on the ground next to me. He climbed the tree a little way and grabbed the rope. Pushing off, he swung out just a short distance before the rope snapped right above him. He'd made it out far enough to hit the deep water, but probably not as far as he intended. When he hit the water his body made a dull thud sound. It certainly didn't sound normal and likely hurt. I was

planning on laughing at him and saying I told you so but as the seconds pass he never resurfaced. The situation was quickly becoming scary. I looked around to see if he came up somewhere farther away, perhaps floating unconscious because of the hard contact with the water but still nothing. I began to panic and waited out as far as I dare looking into the water for him. Unfortunately the water became cloudy with every step I took and made it impossible to see. Soon it was clear to me that he had drowned. How, I had no idea. Perhaps if I could have swum back then I may have been able to help him but it was too late now. I was helpless to do anything more than pack up and head home. On the entire walk back, a small nugget of hope lingered

in the back of my mind that he had tricked me and would pop up at some point. This didn't happen however, and the dread I carried of telling my family grew with each step. I tried several times to find the words, but with each attempt I would break down and choke on my tears. Ultimately I could only manage. Mark drowned. They got the point after that and once I was able to pull myself together I led my dad and uncle back out to the pond. Mark's body was still nowhere to be found. With no other options we went into the sheriff's office to report the drowning. When I realized where we were headed, I started freaking out. In my young mind, I thought I was going to get in trouble or be blamed for my cousin's death. It took a few minutes, but they were able to convince me I wasn't in trouble.

Even after they had, I couldn't help but feel guilty every time I looked at my uncle. Regardless of what he claimed, I couldn't believe he didn't blame me. Even if time I looked at my uncle. Regardless of what he claimed I couldn't believe he didn't blame me even if it was just a small amount. I explained what had happened to the sheriff and the search began the next morning. Just by chance that was the day I was going back to my mom's. That Monday night my mom sat me down to tell me that a team of divers had found Mark's body earlier that day. When they discovered him, one of his feet were hung up on a sunken log, so they assumed that was why he never resurfaced. I wish I could say this made me feel better, but it did not. It did, however, serve as a catalyst to learn how to swim.

The guilt of not being able to help my cousin stayed with me for most of my life, and I never wanted to be in the position of not being able to help another person ever again. So in a twisted kind of way, his death had a positive impact on my life. However, if I had the choice, I'd still prefer that he'd be with us. Although what I'm about to tell you may sound like one of your run-of-the-mill horror movies, I swear by the validity of it and what I saw. It all started on a very hot July day this past year. My car is almost 20 years old and sometimes overheats on hot days, just like this one.

However, until I get a better paying job, it's the car I'm stuck with. This day I was driving through the back roads looking for a family of dog breeders a friend had told me about. I'd been searching for the place for several hours and was approaching the warmest part of the day. As per usual my car began overheating and I was forced to pull over. I picked up my phone to call my girlfriend only to see that my battery was dead. After I spent a couple of minutes cussing my luck, I acknowledged that I was going to have to find someone with a working phone. That wasn't going to happen unless I started walking. Soon, I spotted an old farmhouse off in the distance and headed toward it.

A trip that would have taken half an hour on a normal day took almost an hour because of the oppressive heat. I had to take several breaks during the course of the journey but eventually made it. The area around the house looked more like a junkyard. Parts of old cars spread about and I had to weave through a maze of them to reach the front door. I knocked on the door for several minutes but got no answer. Thinking maybe that the homeowner may be hard of hearing, I walked around and looked into the windows hoping to see someone inside. At the side of the house I spotted the telephone hanging on the wall just inside the kitchen.

Now that I knew that there was a phone I became excited and started calling out for someone. Even after walking all the way around no reply came. I was about to give up until I saw a woman lying on a bed. I very nearly banged on the window to try and get her attention but I figured that may scare her so I went to the front door and let myself in. Now in hindsight that was just as scary but before I entered however I took a piece of paper from a notebook I carry with me and wrote out a note explaining what I was doing there. Even then I called out several times as I approached the bedroom. Still no answer came and I continued toward the room. The closer I got to the woman the more her appearance began to unnerve me. She was laying flat on her back and

staring blankly at the ceiling. I had initially believed she was watching the television that was turned on in the room with her but her eyes sat completely still. Regardless I got closer and once I was within a few steps handed her the note. When the note touched her hand, she didn't react. This caused me to get closer and this was when I realized something was very wrong. Her face had a very dry, almost mummified look to it. Her hair was a vibrant black, a color not often seen on older females. She had to have known I was there by that point but her eyes stayed fixed. This is what caused me to lean in even closer and look into her eyes. Rather than being slightly bloodshot or moist looking like most people's, they had a shiny, glassy appearance, like they were fake. In spite of this, not until I actually touched her did I know for sure that she was dead.

I realized that perhaps she was a mannequin rather than a human so I reached down to touch her bare hand. The texture of her skin was dry but stone cold to the touch. The oddity of this was just beginning to really sink in when a loud creaking noise came from behind me. Without a second thought I tore out of there and ran back down the road in the direction of my car. Within a half of a mile I ran into an older man in a truck and thankfully he agreed to give me a ride back into town. I said nothing about my experience to him and anytime he attempted to make small talk I said as little as I could on and anytime he attempted to make small talk, I said as little as I could on the off chance that he may have been involved in what happened to that woman.

He let me borrow his phone to call my girlfriend and she agreed to meet us at a gas station on the edge of town. When he let me out there, I thanked him and he went on his way. Once I was safely inside my girlfriend's car car I borrowed her phone to call the police. I hadn't even told her about it yet so the look of shock on her face as I described what I saw showed me what my expression likely was at the time I discovered it. The cops said they'd send out a car to the house to check out my claims. I called a wrecker next to pick up my car. The police never called me back so after waiting three days I called to inquire about what they found. It took a few minutes to find a person aware of my call but once I did the officer said

that he and his partner searched the entire property and found nothing out of the ordinary, especially not a mummified woman. I thanked them and hung up. What happened after I fled I can only guess. The noise behind me was probably the owner of the home and he hid the woman's body knowing that the cops were likely to be called. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what I saw in that house, on that bed. I am positive that I saw a human lying on that bed, but that's all. More than once, I've been tempted to grab a camera and return to the house to get proof of my claims. But fear of the unknown and what else could be waiting for me if I did has stopped me.

If the nightmares of her soulless eyes continue, however, I may have no other choice. I was hired to do a catalog shoot for a national company. The shoot was scheduled for August of 2014 in rural Montana. When the time came, I flew in and was driven to a quaint lodge in the mountains in which the shoot was based out of. I was introduced to the lady running the shoot from the company side. We had worked together once or twice in the past and I was happy to be working with her again. Her and I were soon joined by her assistant. The three of us spoke for a short time before I was shown to my accommodations.

I had arrived late in the day so after eating a small dinner I turned in. The next morning everyone involved with the shoot, maybe 12 people in all, met in a large hall for breakfast. Upon the completion of our meal myself, the lady running the shoot, and her assistant got into a jeep and went in search of shooting locations. The models and a couple of other people I don't remember followed us in another. After an hour or more of driving, I spotted a beautiful rocky outcropping and we set things up.

The lighting was fantastic on that day, so very little extra work was needed to get the shots I was looking for. A few hours later I was done with that location it was time for lunch anyway. The jeep with the models returned to the lodge. However my counterpart convinced me to check out a breathtaking area she'd seen on a walk the day before. She said she had arrived early in the morning and decided to take a walk before my plane landed. This sounded fine to me and she insisted it wasn't that far. We'd be back for lunch soon after the others, no problem. After a five minute drive,

we made it to the location. She led us about a hundred yards down a trail that ended on a sheer ledge. No doubt it was a gorgeous spot, but I could see without the right light the photos wouldn't be able to do it justice. I mentioned this and she walked closer to the edge to get a better look. She went out much further than I would have recommended. However, I guess she was more occupied with her work than with her safety. After taking one step too many, the loose rock of the cliff broke free causing her to tumble down the sheer cliff. Her assistant, this cute and kind little girl, rushed forward and if I had not stopped her, possibly would have followed her employer down the hill. Instead, I had her get a strong hold on me and I slowly and carefully scooted

toward the remaining ledge. I took in a big breath and let it out, then looked over to see the poor woman curled up about 75 feet from us. She didn't move at first and I feared the worst. However, the longer I stared at her, I began to see her body make small almost indistinguishable movements. I let her assistant know this and asked if she could drive. She said yes so I told her to run back to the jeep and get help. Quicker than lightning she ran down the trail and a moment later I could see the jeep flying down the road in the direction of the lodge. Even if she was unable to respond I wanted her to know help was on the way. I yelled down to her and could only hope she could hear what I was saying. The minutes seemed to drag on but within half an hour a rescue team arrived to help.

The two men were lowered down with a special stretcher and they attached her to it. When she was raised back to the top it was clear that she was badly injured but still alive. An ambulance took her away and all was left was the waiting. The shoot was obviously on hold until a decision was made on how to proceed. It was ultimately decided to cancel, at least for the foreseeable future, and that was the end of my part in this awful mess. I received no news for a few months, but then I got a call from her. The last nine weeks had been a near nightmare for herself and her family. The initial swelling on her brain was so bad she was put into a coma.

This would eventually pass, but the long hours of being stuck in bed almost drove her crazy. The list of broken bones in her body went well into the double digits and even at the time we are speaking she was still working on crutches. Over the years since the accident her and I have kept in contact. At the time of me writing this she had five surgeries on various bones and parts of her body and will no doubt have several more before she dies. Despite the awful violence of the fall and the long agonizing convalescence she suffered through she still hasn't lost her sense of humor. On her last call just a week ago she said if she could do it all over again, she might pick a shorter distance to fall from. A true heroine, if I've ever seen one.

This had to have happened sometime in the early 2000s. My husband was still spending most of the time on the road working for one of the major insurance companies. As a result of this, myself and our young daughter spent the majority of our days alone. A few years prior, we had purchased a new home on a somewhat isolated piece of land and the journey between town and home could often be harrowing, especially at times of heavy rain. Most of the last five miles of the road that led to the house was nothing more than loose gravel and wasn't very wide for that matter. My daughter and I have found ourselves stuck on this section of road on a really bad night. I did all that I could to keep our old Subaru on the road, but the rain made visibility almost impossible.

It wasn't long until I misjudged one curve and ended up in the ditch. Fortunately, my husband had the foresight to sign us up to one of those roadside assistant programs. I contacted them and was told that the weather was keeping them busy, but they would get to us as soon as possible. Not knowing how long we'd be stuck there I made my daughter as comfortable as I could and waited. The rain stopped soon after and I was now able to see how far away from home we were. I estimated it was about two and a half miles to the house and considered walking until remembering no one was at home to retrieve the car later. Help was on its way so I could wait. Within 10 minutes of the accident I could see the headlights of a truck coming towards us and began to get excited. However, it didn't turn out to be

a tow truck. Instead it was an older man driving a rusty pickup. When he saw the car he slowed down and looked into it as he passed. I thought he was about to offer to pull us out but he continued down the road. I didn't think anything of it at the time but five minutes later the rusty truck approached us coming from the other direction at a very slow speed. He stared at me once again as he passed, even making eye contact with me briefly, but didn't stop. Things were beginning to look odd but I thought maybe he was lost and turning around to return to the highway. He wasn't obligated to help, perhaps he thought I was parked instead of stuck. He probably wasn't from around there and was just trying to get home like I was. Things didn't start to get scary until I noticed the same truck coming toward us for a third time.

It had gotten completely dark by this point and most women I know feel much less safe once the sun goes down. This situation made things even more sketchy. He did his usual by now slow drive-by. What was different this time was that he stopped the truck after he passed and did a quick three-point turn in the road. He was now facing us again, stopped about ten yards away. Rather than get out and come over to offer aid, he sat in the cab and watched for a few minutes. Only now did he open the door and begin to get out of the truck. Almost as soon as his foot hit the pavement a pair of headlights appeared from the other direction. The man stayed where he was, just watching and waiting for a minute before it was close enough to see it was a tow truck. Once he saw this, he jumped back in his cab and made a quick U-turn and sped away from us.

My heart was stuck in my throat as I watched this play out, and not until I could read the name of the company on the side of the tow truck could I begin to relax. The tow truck driver didn't hesitate to pull his truck in front of us and hook up to my car. I was finally confident he was there to help, and I got out to thank him. He had us out of the ditch in a few minutes and we were on our way. For the remainder of the journey I kept my eyes open for the rusty truck and even as I drove up our drive I feared I'd see him lying in wait for me. He was not thankfully and I got my daughter into the house for the night.

When my husband returned from his latest trip I told him about what had happened during the last storm, but I left out the part with the strange truck. I knew it would only make him more stressed when he was away, and at that time, he had no other choice but to continue his trips. Because of this latest trouble, he went out and an almost new jeep with a 4x4 transmission for me i was over the moon to get it and i never got stuck again even on the muddy parts of our property it didn't take long for the stranger in the rusty truck to pass from my mind however for the next two weeks i caught myself looking for it any time I was on that stretch of road.

I had almost completely forgotten about that incident until just recently when I saw a truck similar to it at the store. It of course was not the same one but it caused it all to come flooding back and motivated me to write this. Fortunately in the preceding years since then the county has paved and widened roads, and my wonderful husband gets to come home to us every night. TreadExperts. Conquer rugged terrain with on-road comfort. Until June 15th, receive up to $60 on a prepaid MasterCard when you purchase Kumo RoadVenture AT52 tires. Find a Kumo TreadExperts dealer near you at TreadExperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExperts.ca Everyone's got a pro. Need tires?

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when you purchase Kumo RoadVenture AT52 tires. Find your pro at your local tread experts. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExperts.ca To be continued... myself. This took place about a year ago and I still have to deal with some of the consequences. I'm a 19 year old girl and I go to college about two hours away from my house. I got a full ride and I love making YouTube videos in my free time. I would create makeup tutorials and things like that. I started when I was like 16 or 17 and I gradually built up a small following. It wasn't enough that I was a celebrity or anything

but it was enough that I didn't have to work a part-time job outside of college to have money. To be honest it was really nice. The only real drawback was that I had a couple of really creepy guys that would always comment on my videos and stalk my internet profile. Thankfully I didn't use my real name online and I never shot videos in places that could be recognized or tracked. I met my first boyfriend while I was in college. It was a couple of weeks into our chemistry class and we ended up being assigned partners to each other. He seemed really nice and things just went from there. I dated him for the rest of that semester and a few weeks into

the semester. I started to notice that we weren't the most compatible people. We had extremely different interests and different goals for what we wanted out of life. I tried talking to him about these concerns of mine but he didn't really care. Most of the time he wouldn't even talk to me because he was too busy playing video games. The night that he had told me he'd rather play Fortnite than talk about our relationship problems, I knew that I had to break up with him. There was no way this was going to work. Thankfully, we didn't have many classes together, so it wouldn't be all that painful to be broken up.

I figured that I was going to drop the class that I had with him since I didn't really need it. It was a pretty basic sociology class and I was taking way more credit hours than I needed. I talked to him after class that day and told him that I didn't think we were compatible and that we should look for other people. He seemed really hurt by this. It was really surprising. I told him numerous times that there were problems between us and that I wanted to get to the bottom of them. He never made time to work with me on them but now all of a sudden I want to break up and I'm the bad guy. If any of you have been in a situation like this you can understand how frustrating it can be. I just walked away after I said my piece leaving him pretty frustrated and upset. He texted me a few times later that day but I just blocked his number.

I eventually blocked him on all social media and I dropped the class that night. He would be out of my life I thought to myself. Just a few weeks later I was having coffee at a coffee shop that was pretty popular in town. I had my favorite white chocolate mocha and I was just casually scrolling on my phone replying to comments on my YouTube videos. This is when a really strange looking guy in a dark green jacket walked up to me. He stood over me and just kind of looked at me for a second. I felt his presence immediately and looked up away from my phone to

see him staring at me dead on. I got really intimidated and asked him, can I help you? He just smiled and said, you're even prettier in real life. I had no idea what he was talking about. Uh, what? He then proceeded to tell me that he was a fan of my youtube channel i found this extremely strange considering that he was a guy who obviously didn't wear makeup but it was also strange because i had never been recognized in real life before i had about 62 000 subscribers sure most of my subscribers and viewers were Americans, but it's such a small number of people that the odds of being noticed in public are extremely rare for an audience of this size. I started thinking about the odds of some creepy older guy watching my makeup tutorials,

being a fan, and just happening to find me in public one day and how it all seemed extremely bizarre. He began touching my arm and asked me if I was a lonely little girl who needed some company. I pulled my arm away, splashed my coffee in his face and ran to the ladies room. I waited there for a little while. I texted some of my friends to come to the coffee shop and check if he was still outside waiting for me. They had probably gotten there about 10 minutes shop and check if he was still outside waiting for me. They had probably gotten there about 10 minutes later and said that there was definitely a creepy guy in a dark green jacket still sitting around looking in the direction of the bathrooms. I felt my stomach drop. I asked them to talk to the staff to see if they could make him leave. I don't know how

exactly what they did but they texted me and told me he was gone within a few minutes. I told them the whole story and they were extremely confused, even more so than I was. A couple of weeks later a friend of mine who is still friends with my ex-boyfriend saw him bragging about how he totally got revenge on me. I guess he had gone into the comment section on one of my YouTube videos and found one of those creepy guys. He messaged them and had given them all of my real life information. My friend said that he had made it sound like he had done this with multiple guys meaning that there are potentially more of them out there looking for me right now. It still really freaks me out and makes me question

what kind of monster I had been dating after all. Who gives a person's information out like that to strangers on the internet no less? I understand if he was upset about me breaking up with him but I feel like I was within my right to break up with him. It didn't give him the right to do that to me. Within a few weeks I had to move apartments which was extremely expensive mid-semester but I didn't want to take the chance that one of these creepy guys was going to show up in my house considering that my ex-boyfriend knew where I lived. I made sure to protect myself as best as I could but I still have to worry now. After that whole experience I don't tell anyone

that I have a small YouTube channel and as much as my channel has grown since then I have still not been recognized in public by anyone else and hopefully it stays that way. I know how most of these stalker stories play out. It's normally an attractive young woman and some creepy guy that doesn't get the hint. But I have a stalker story that's probably the most horrifying stalker story I know of. It's the worst story I've ever heard about. Not because there's some grand monster or some horribly deranged psychopath killer. There's no cult. There's no aliens or Bigfoot or monsters or anything like that. But it's 100% true. And to make matters worse, it happens to people that I

know and interact with every single day. So I don't know about you, but that's what makes this the scariest story I've ever heard. It goes like this. I have a special needs uncle. He talks a little funny and doesn't quite understand the way the world works. We all kind of think of him as a five-year-old in an adult's body. Physically, he's about 60. Very wrinkled, bald, and unkempt in a way you could mistake him for being homeless. He's honestly incredibly nice and has a heart of gold. The only thing wrong with him is that he's not mentally functional. He's a little strange too. I'm not really sure he's uniquely strange given his circumstances, but when there's only one mentally handicapped person in your life,

they kind of stick out like a sore thumb. We call him Uncle Steve. It's been my father's responsibility to take care of him ever since my grandparents passed away and he's always lived in the house with us. Thankfully we've been able to have a large enough house that he has his own room and it's never been too burdensome. At least not from what I remember. Taking care of a mentally handicapped person can be a lot but it's never been too much if that makes sense. Well he would ride his bike around our local community and do little things like pick up stuff from the grocery store or go to the local deli. It was pretty nice to have that help growing up but sometimes he

would disappear for long periods of time and we would all be worried about him. I remember when cell phones became commonplace, my dad started sending him out with his cell phone so that whenever we got worried, we could call him from my mom's phone or our house phone. You see, that didn't quite work out. He just wouldn't answer his phone if he was riding his bike for whatever reason. It didn't matter what we said to him. Maybe he just didn't hear it with the wind blowing against his ears. My dad started getting suspicious that he was doing something that he didn't want us knowing about. I must have been around 17 or 18 years old at the time. I remember it was when I was first able to start driving around. My father asked me

to borrow one of my friend's cars and follow him around to see what he was up to around the community just to be sure that he wasn't doing something bad. I agreed and followed him for an entire afternoon. This guy literally rode his bike around the local park for like three hours. It was honestly really strange. I guess little activities like that become much more exciting for people of his mental capacity. Not to knock him but unfortunately I felt like this was the highlight of his day. Well I told my dad about it and he asked me to do it one more time. He promised to pay me $50 for my trouble and to keep it to myself. I don't know why he was so suspicious about Uncle Steve but I agreed. I followed him just like I did the day before but this time when he was riding in the direction of the park he made a turn that I didn't expect.

I almost lost him because I just thought he was going back to the park again to ride around for hours again. I slowly followed him as he rode down the park again to ride around for hours again. I slowly followed him as he rode down the street that I've never been on before. He came in front of this one house and parked his bike on the sidewalk. I parked my car across the street so I could watch him. He began walking toward the house. He got up near the front door and tried walking inside. I guess the door was locked so he opens one of the windows and climbs inside. At this point I was extremely freaked out. I had no idea what to do. Do I call the police? I was afraid someone was going to hurt him. He was just this mentally handicapped old guy

after all. I could imagine that it must have been horrifying to find him inside of your house unwelcome. After a few minutes of sitting there in awe he climbs back out the window, closed it behind him, got back on his bike and rode away. I drove back home and called my dad's workplace from the house phone. I told him what I had seen and he left work immediately. I always hated watching my uncle get disciplined because it made me feel bad for him even though I knew that he needed to be disciplined like a child. It was just a weird situation and I never really got used to that. So I went out with my friends that night and figured I would just find out what happened the next day. When I got home the next morning my father told me that Uncle Steve had been institutionalized and I'm never going to see him again.

I was shocked. You institutionalized him? I yelled. My dad told me to sit down and then he told me something that I would never forget. I guess he had searched my uncle's room before and found a black box that had hair in it. It was a girl's hair. I guess he had been breaking into this family's house during the day and stealing belongings from their daughter like hair on her pillow or underwear and even things like tissues. It was really creepy and disturbing. The creepiest part is knowing that this girl went to the same high school as me but she wasn't my age she was 14 years old uncle steve must have seen her in the community one day

and taking a liking to her i don't know how he figured out where she lived but he did and found a way inside multiple times my father told me that this wasn't the first time that he had been creeping on young girls. A couple of years back Uncle Steve had become friends with a teenage girl in our local community. She spent time with him because she felt sorry for him or something like that. But things escalated when he tried kissing her in front of her parents. After word had gotten back to my dad the girls' parents threatened to press assault charges. The only reason they didn't was because their daughter talked them out of it.

I guess after that my parents did everything they could to keep Uncle Steve on a short leash. But you can only control someone like that so much. I wasn't sure what to think of the whole situation when it was all said and done. I feel bad for him knowing that he's going to suffer the rest of his life in a rubber room or whatever but it's also not fair to put girls at risk for his sake. The reason I find the story so scary is that even the most innocent seeming people in your life can turn out to be monsters and creeps and that's why it's the scariest story I've ever heard. I've always been a fan of horror stories and true crime, which is why it was so strange to

have my own experience. So a little background on me. I'm a 21 year old male college student. I attend a local community college and live at home. My local area includes garbage pickup but here's the problem. We have a really big piece of property. Our driveway is a good long walk from the house itself. We normally throw garbage into the garbage cans that are just outside of our house and then on garbage days I have to take the garbage cans all the way down near the road so the garbage man gets them. It's a little bit of an inconvenience but it's not the end of the world. Some of my friends have to bring their own garbage to the local garbage dump

and I'm just happy I don't have to put any of this trash in my car. If you're a college student you probably understand the struggle of maintaining a healthy sleep schedule. If I'm going to be honest with you, I don't really have one. I kind of sleep when I'm tired and I'm awake when I'm not. Sometimes I get my school work done early in the morning like 3am and at times it's in the afternoon after class. It really just depends. My horror story begins with me bringing down the garbage cans late at night. What almost always happens is that I don't remember to bring down the cans until the night before, like 11pm or sometimes later. This means that I'm making

multiple trips back and forth carrying heavy garbage cans in the pitch black. I mentioned that I like horror earlier, but I don't consider myself to be someone that's scared easily. Neither night nor darkness scares me very much. I've had a few experiences where I'll hear noises or imagine that I see something out of the corner of my eye, but it's never been anything horrible. I never imagined that I'd have a bad experience carrying the garbage cans until this last summer It must have been about 2 a.m. and I was moving a really heavy can of trash It felt like it was at least 70 pounds full of kitty litter

Why you might ask? My family has five cats, don't even ask They wouldn't have been an issue but all of this kitty litter was in the worst trash can that we have The wheels both fell off and the handlebar rips off sometimes if you pull it too hard. So I was pulling this ridiculously heavy garbage can full of kitty litter that stinks to high heavens. I get about halfway down my driveway and the handlebar rips off. The entire can fell over and at least one third of everything came out into the driveway. I cursed under my breath and just stood there for a moment wondering what I was going to do.

There was honestly a big pile of dirty kitty litter here now. My best idea was to sweep it back into the trash can so I started making my way back up the driveway. I didn't walk very far before something possessed me to stop and turn around. I had this strange feeling that I was being watched. I turned my head and looked to see a light coming from my neighbor's house and all the time that I've been doing the garbage at night I've never seen this neighbor up that late before. I was pretty sure it was an older man, he had to have been at least 60. So it was kind of a surprise to see a light on in his house.

It was on the second floor, maybe his bedroom window. His house was on the other side of the road and it must have been about 10 feet away from the road so it was a good distance between me and him. I just remember feeling really freaked out that there was someone else awake and watching me. What possible reason could he have been awake at two in the morning? I stood there for a moment wondering to myself. I was just kind of staring at the window. Again there was a good bit of distance and I couldn't see all too clearly but I felt my heart drop when I saw him walk away from the window. I wasn't exactly sure but the way he moved made me think that he was standing at his window watching me. He didn't turn on his light and I didn't see him

at the window anymore. I tried telling myself that he was just an old man and I must have woken him up by dropping this garbage can. I got the broom, started sweeping the kitty litter back into the garbage can and then brought it next to the road. I felt his eyes on me the rest of the night, even after he turned down his light, and that was the night everything changed. Every time I ever did the garbage after that point, I noticed him watching. I even started mixing up the times when I would bring the garbage down, and it didn't matter if it was at 2pm or 2am, 2 a.m. he would be there watching. It was around this time that I also noticed that there must have been a different garbage man. The old guy used to get the garbage out of the can and throw the garbage can itself and the lid

on the ground in a really sloppy way. I didn't really blame him. It must suck to be a garbage man but I did appreciate that this new guy was making me after to put the lid back on the garbage can neatly. It makes my life easier to just grab them and bring them back to the house. This was a pleasant change but it didn't calm my nerves one bit from being watched. I started getting really freaked out. I asked my parents about what I should do and they told me I was just being paranoid. That he was an older, retired gentleman that probably doesn't have anything better to do. If I'm going to be honest with you, I don't care how bored or unoccupied someone's time is. I don't think there's a person on earth that would go out of their way to watch their neighbor take out the garbage if there wasn't some kind of reason for it.

This went on for the rest of the summer and into the next semester. I started getting frustrated with the whole situation. It still made me feel really uneasy. I read about stalking laws to see if I could report him for something. I really couldn't do anything because he never actually left his own property. He just always happened to be around when I started moving the garbage. Fall break came around and I decided that I was going to make a change. I was going to watch him instead. My bedroom just happened to be on the side of the house that I could see his house from my bedroom window. I found a pair of binoculars in the basement and after bringing the garbage down at 4am one night, I got situated next to the window and began watching this old man.

He didn't turn out his bedroom light like usual and it seems like he was just sitting there. A half hour must have gone by before I started getting really sleepy. This guy was just sitting here, watching the garbage. I was just about to go to bed when I noticed he left his bedroom. I tried paying attention to see if any of the other lights would turn on in his house, but it didn't seem to turn any of them on. I looked closely to notice any kind of changes. About 40 seconds went by and I thought that I had completely lost him. I didn't see him anywhere. I just concluded that he was some kind of schizophrenic freak and this was a waste of my time.

Before putting the binoculars down I looked down at the garbage pail and I noticed that they were gone. I got really confused for a minute and had no idea what was going on. I waited a few more minutes to see that the old man was carrying what looked like my garbage cans out from his own house. He placed them exactly where they had been before. I waited about 40 minutes for him to go to bed. I was only sure that he was asleep after the light in his bedroom went out. I rushed down to the garbage cans and was shocked when I noticed that they were completely empty. That was when it hit me.

We never got a new garbage man. This guy actually started stealing our trash, and he must have been emptying it in his own house for whatever reason. This made me really freaked out, and honestly, I had no idea what to do about it. I started driving the trash to the dump just to avoid having to bring those garbage cans down. A couple of weeks of doing that and I noticed that the old man seems to be less active around his house. I'm too scared to confront him directly. I don't know what he's trying to do, but it still freaks me out to this day. I'm a 22 year old woman.

I live in your typical small American town. I own a small house right across the street from my parents and the rest of my family lives within a mile. We're all really close and I really like living this way. Our family is pretty well connected with the local community but this comes with its good and with its bad. Small town gossip is notorious for being a plague of people's lives and after having been on the receiving end of some of that small town gossip I can confirm that it really sucks. There's this one guy that lives in my community and he has a bit of

a reputation for being a creep. We went to the same high school but he was two grades above mine. We never had any kind of interaction while we were in high school but he messaged me on Facebook this one time and asked me if I was single. Being a woman I knew exactly what he was after by cold messaging me one day on Facebook like that. All that I knew about him was that he was considered a creep by quite a few people. Now I'm normally not the kind of person that buys into these kinds of rumors but when there's smoke there's usually fire. After reading the message I simply ignored him. This prompted him to message me like four more times asking why I read the message I simply ignored him. This prompted him to message me like four more times asking why I read the message and didn't reply. After reading these other messages I told

him that I was not interested in dating him and that I knew that he was just trying to be a creep. He called me a sexist for thinking that men only want one thing and I almost found this a little humorous. He tried telling me that he just wanted to be my friend because he had heard that I was a funny person. I decided that I play along with it and accepted his friend request. We talked a couple more times on Facebook Messenger and he honestly had some interesting thoughts. We talked about movies and some of the local gossip of our small town. We didn't talk regularly or anything but when we did he was always the one that initiated the conversation. Quite frankly I had enough friends and was really close with my family so it's not like I really needed anyone else in my life to keep me company.

A couple of weeks after knowing him on Facebook at least he spotted me in Walmart. He said hi and wanted to take a selfie together. Of course he posted it to Facebook and tagged me for the whole town to see. So there we were standing in front of the cucumbers in our local Walmart. He had this goofy looking grin on his face and I had a very obvious fake smile. He commented on his own picture, tagged me in the comment and wrote that I look so beautiful. He had one of those heart eye emojis and I officially started to feel kind of freaked out. Buckle your seatbelt kids, cause it gets even worse. I don't know how but he got my phone

number somehow and started to text me. At this point I was feeling really freaked out but there was also a part of me that felt bad for this guy. I knew that he had no friends and this was the only way that he was interacting with people other than his family probably. And even then his family had a reputation for being drunk and misfits so maybe he didn't have anyone. I asked him how he got my number and he told me that he messaged one of my other friends on Facebook and asked them for it This was the moment that I knew that he was being sneaky in addition to creepy He knew that if he had asked me directly I would have said no and probably would have blocked him I asked my one friend who gave him my number, Alexis

And she told me that she had figured it was okay because we had public pictures together on Facebook. Of course she was talking about the Walmart picture. That's when I started feeling really frustrated with the whole thing. I stopped responding to his Facebook messages and I only replied to his text messages when he double texted me at once. Honestly I know this is the point that I should have just blocked him altogether but I didn't quite understand the severity of this guy's mental illness just yet. He started getting the hint that I wasn't all too interested in chatting with him and he began messaging me less. That was until one day he sent me a random picture message.

I had been in our local car show and it was kind of a big deal in our town and it was a picture of me. It was very obvious that he'd been across the street from where I was standing and talking with someone. He told me that I looked beautiful and that he wished that I would talk to him more. I really didn't know how to respond I just ignored his text message but when it started happening frequently he would Facebook message me or text me and send me pictures of myself that he had taken without me knowing and it would be really strange places too. While I was parked at a red light coming out from the dentist randomly around town I knew that something was wrong and I told myself that I was eventually going to go to the

police about this because it got really out of hand. I kind of figured that if I just ignored him though the problem would just go away on its own. Of course that's never how it works. The final straw was when he took a picture of me playing Guitar Hero with my sister. We were literally in our house in the living room. He must have been across the street and zoomed in with his phone and looked through the window to see us playing. When I saw that picture message, I literally dropped my phone and screamed. I told my dad everything that had happened and he immediately asked me why I let it go on for so long. I told him that I didn't really know but I just wanted it to stop. He told me to block him on Facebook and block his phone number and anywhere else he could possibly reach me.

He went over to his house that night. I don't know exactly what he said but he told me that I wouldn't be hearing from him again anytime soon. After this whole experience I never talk to anyone that I don't personally know that well. Especially when it comes to social media or texting. It's just way too easy to creep on someone and then become obsessed with me. And if you're curious, my dad didn't hurt him or anything like that. I still see this creep around town sometimes, but thankfully, he doesn't even look in my direction. This is probably the worst stalker story that I know but it didn't actually happen to me.

It happened to my aunt. Throughout me and my cousin's time in school there was never enough supplies for the humanities. If you know anything about the way public school funding works, you know that almost all of the budget goes to sports and primarily football. There are very few opportunities for students to pursue things like artwork or other creative projects because the funding just isn't there. Those crazy football dads make sure their NFL wannabe star

can have enough money to practice with the best equipment and whatnot. I come from a very artistic family and on top of that, me and all of my cousins are girls. None of us played very many sports and we all focused on things like music and art with our free time. Year after year, there was never enough money in the budget for us to get supplies to work with but there was always an abundance of funding for the football kids and even the cheerleaders. When I was in high school and some of my cousins were in high school and middle school my aunt finally had enough of the broken system and decided to run for the school board. She wanted to make sure that students could have the opportunity to pursue the humanities.

She was friends with the woman who was in her position before her who just so happened to be retiring and she promised to endorse my aunt. And as you might expect, it wasn't all that hard to get elected to the school board after that. My aunt did everything she could to play by the rules and to even be fair for all students. It's not like she just showed up and slashed the football budget in half. She did everything fairly and evenly. But many of the school coaches and football dads did not take kindly to her approach. There were regular fights at the school board meetings,

and they started making it out like she was an anti-football person. Some coaches even called her anti-American. Despite all of the chaos, she stood her ground and things went pretty well. She was on the school board making decisions for about 10 years. The job didn't pay a whole lot, but she was able to ensure that students could pursue extracurricular activities other than football and cheerleading. After a couple of years, she decided that she actually wanted to work within the school system. She was tired of her job and wanted something new. After asking around in the town, someone told her that there was going to be an open position for a head administrator in the high school. She was totally qualified for the position and really wanted to get it. This meant that she

was not able to stay on the school board as there would be a conflict of interest. Honestly I don't entirely understand why but that was one of the rules for accepting the job. Well one of the coaches who really disliked her said quite a few nasty things to her over the last few years. The one that called her anti-American. He told her that she wouldn't be able to win her last election before accepting the administration job. She went out of her way to prove him wrong and won the election only to resign three weeks later to get that job. Of course you can understand how this infuriated this guy. It finally got to him and for some reason he decided to destroy my aunt's car

one day in the parking lot. Her first week on the job as an administrator, she went out to the parking lot to find her car with smashed windows and slashed tires. Of course, the security tape malfunctioned that day so there was no evidence as to who did it, but everyone knew it was him. But unfortunately there wasn't any evidence at the time. There were a few other incidents like that. Things going missing from my aunt's desk and little things that he could do to make her life more difficult. There was even one incident when he had accused her of messing with a student's file on purpose to get back at him. The student was the backup quarterback on the football team and he claimed that my aunt was messing with his file and changing his grades

to make him fail classes. Honestly I'm really surprised the entire ordeal went on for as long as it did. I don't even know everything that he had done but just from the things that I had heard about him I have no idea how this guy was allowed to be a teacher and a coach in a high school I attended. And throughout this entire ordeal, my aunt was regularly receiving death threats and hate mail at least once per week. He always used different fonts or email addresses to make it look like it was a bunch of different people. But there were enough similarities that anyone with two brain cells to rub together knew it was probably this coach. It finally came to a head one day about two years later. My cousins and I, along with my aunt and my mom, were all around our house getting ready to go to

the local swimming pool after school one day. We had been packing sunscreen and pool toys in the minivan when, all of a sudden, a truck that I didn't recognize pulled up in our driveway. My aunt yelled at all of us kids to get into the house and I heard some screaming. She didn't tell us exactly what had happened that day and it would be years before I would find out what did. So, I guess he had been sending her threatening messages anonymously on her phone. My aunt started carrying her handgun on her person since she had a carry permit. The day he drove to the house he began walking up to her before she pulled her gun on him and he stopped and turned around and ran away. He got back in his truck and drove off.

I guess she had reported the incident to the school system and he was fired without much of a fight. I don't know what he does these days. I just hope it's somewhere very far away from football and children. I've always had a philosophy about life. I've always believed that good people finish last. That it always seems to be the bad guys who are winning. I don't want to be right about this. I just am. Unfortunately the world is just an ugly place where the worst kinds of people almost always happen to be the ones that manage to claw themselves to the top. The only person I knew of that really went against the

grain was my best friend in high school. Let's call her Lola. She was a bleeding heart empath who always tried to do the right thing. Lola had the strongest moral compass I've ever seen on a human being. I had never seen her say or do anything that was truly bad or malevolent. Don't get me wrong, she wasn't some kind of holier-than-thou kind of person. She was honestly very down-to-earth but also maintained what I can only call moral excellence. The story goes like this. Me and Lola were hanging out after school one day. We had been on the track on one of those days where there wasn't any track practice.

A lot of us kids hung out there for some reason. We were talking with some of our other friends and the topic shifted to this one guy that we all had an economics class with. His name was Albert and he was the kind of guy that you knew he was labeled a loser in high school the second you saw him. He had this really greasy hair that really needed to be cut. He had a patchy beard that always looked like he had just eaten a meal and got all over his face and he always wore these really weird anime t-shirts to school. The only reason I even knew of his existence was because he answered questions really weird in class. There was this one time when the economics teacher called on him

to answer the question the class had been working on. At first he whispered the answer and nobody heard him. The teacher told him to speak up and then he screamed 42. The entire class went quiet for a minute. We just kind of looked at him for a minute. One guy started laughing, but he was the only one to do so. The rest of us were all kind of freaked out. Anyway, suffice to say, Albert had a really rough time in high school. One of our other friends started making fun of Albert as we were walking around the track. Lola got really offended and started defending him, saying that he wasn't that bad or weird.

She went on this rant about how everyone is a little weird in their own way and that we shouldn't make fun of people. I stopped going on about it. I don't like to be the kind of guy that makes fun of others but sometimes it can be really hard to stop yourself in the right crowd. But some of our other friends just kept going. They just told Lola that it's not hurting anyone. She didn't take too kindly to this. Lola got really annoyed and left. I was much closer with her than I was anyone else there so I went with her. We're going back to the car and she asked me why I made fun of Albert. I try to explain that I really didn't mean to. Sometimes I just don't think about those kinds of things. She told me that she wanted to be alone.

I could tell that she was pretty upset about the whole thing. I didn't live all that far so I just walked back home. The next day in economics we had a partner project. I always hated those, but it wasn't too bad because I normally got to work with Lola, but not this time. When the teacher told us to find a partner, Lola went right over to Albert. I'm pretty sure he was always the person that either had to work by themselves or get randomly matched up with someone else who didn't have a partner. I got really annoyed with Lola because

this man I had to get partnered with was one of the dumbest people in class. A couple of times during class I looked over and noticed that they were both laughing and having a good time. I walked up to Lola after class and asked her why she had abandoned me. She told me that she felt bad for Albert and it wasn't right that he got ignored and roasted by everyone in school. I told her that was fine and dandy and everything but you shouldn't abandon your own friends to make sure that the weird kid fits in. She got kind of annoyed at this and walked off. And that was the day that she started hanging out with Albert on a regular basis. It was really weird.

I was honestly kind of annoyed that I sort of lost my best friend to the weirdest kid in school. I still talked to Lola when I could but we didn't hang out as much as we had used to after this. That was until things between her and Albert started getting weird even for her. She started telling me that he really wanted her to become his girlfriend. After a couple of weeks she showed me the text messages that he would send her and I'm not gonna lie they were freaky. He talked about wanting to do all this really weird stuff to her. He even bought her a furry costume. He sent her a picture of it and it was this purple fox in a bikini. That was hands down the weirdest thing I've ever seen

in my life. She tried to back off because she told me that Albert was honestly a lot to handle. She said that he was a nice guy just really creepy and overbearing. I told her that's what she gets for hanging out with a weird kid. Things got really bad when the rumors started and it went like this. Everyone had already been talking about Albert and Lola getting married over spring break. Lola told me multiple times that she never did anything with Albert. He grossed her out. But that doesn't ever stop the rumors, does it? Well, I guess Albert had this laptop in class one day and was looking at pictures of Lola on it. The only reason we knew

was because the girl that was sitting behind him took a video with her over his shoulder without him noticing. It went on for about 40 seconds and Albert was just sitting there staring at all of these pictures of Lola doing various things. But here's the weird part. There was at least one of the pictures that looks like it was taken at school without Lola even realizing it. Everyone started sending this video file to each other and it wasn't long before everyone knew. People started making fun of him for being a stalker. And honestly, from what Lola has told me, he kind of was stalking her in a lot of ways. I guess the situation had finally escalated enough that

Lola had had enough. She texted Albert that she didn't want to be friends with him anymore and was really creeped out that he was sitting around looking at pictures of her like that in class and this is why I firmly believe that good people finish last. Because Albert ended his own life the next day. The news shocked the community and no one was more upset about it than Lola was. In the following days she talked about how she was responsible and she was the reason that he had done this to himself. I even heard a rumor that she had called 911 on herself because she felt so guilty about the whole thing. Of course she never got in trouble for anything obviously. She never did anything wrong to Albert. She just didn't want to do this weird furry stuff with him.

This all happened when we were seniors in high school. It's been about two years now since it all went down and it's been really rough. Me and Lola don't talk anymore. A few weeks after Albert ended his life she stopped talking to everyone. She basically dropped off the face of the earth. The last I heard was that she was still living at home and never left her bedroom. I've tried reaching out to her a couple of times but she doesn't want to have anything to do with me. The saddest part is knowing that she's one of the nicest and smartest people I've ever met in my life. She was only trying to do the right thing, and because of Albert's selfishness,

her life might have been ruined. Forever. forever. My brother is three years younger than me. He's always been a bit of a goofball, never really took anything very seriously and managed to have more fun than anyone I've ever known. Growing up, everything always seemed to work out in his favor. He never had to take responsibility for things and even when he made horrible mistakes he always managed to come out without a scratch on him. I had been going to the same college. We both happened to like engineering and we lived 20 minutes away from one of the best engineering colleges in the state. It was a no-brainer that we ended up going there together. Growing up he always was the popular one with a lot of friends.

I was kind of a loner but here's the thing, his friends were all fake. They hung out with the worst people you could imagine. They didn't lift him up, make him feel good, brighten his day. They were only there when things were good and they always left my brother's life worse than when they came. This was the second semester of my junior year and I was really working hard to finish up my degree. I was taking a lot of credit hours to try to graduate a semester early. Even though it was an in-state college and fairly affordable it was still a lot of money to go there. My brother just so happened to have graduated high school a semester early and this was his first semester in college. He was smart enough that he didn't have to study all that much in high school and he really struggles with his classes in the beginning.

We weren't in any of each other's classes but we did ride to and from college together most days and occasionally played video games together on the weekend. Our favorite thing to play was Halo 3. We were always both nostalgic over the good old days of Xbox. We would normally play the campaign on Legendary with some of the skulls activated. We would also occasionally 1v1. I don't know where he found her but he managed to get a girlfriend. He must have met her on Tinder or something. They started spending all of their time together and he dove headfirst really fast. He stopped hanging out with me at all and he spent all of his time with her it was about three weeks into the relationship that he told us they wanted to get married my mom tried talking some sense

into him my dad yotted him for being so naive and stupid he was literally a college freshman and this was his first real girlfriend well it was only about two weeks later when they hit a rough patch. They had some kind of argument over who was going to pay for lunch. From what he told me, it sounded like they really got into it. The saddest part about the whole situation that it was literally a $12 meal at McDonald's. They started having really bad arguments in general and a lot of it went back to this whole who's paying for lunch thing. I know how ridiculous this might sound but it totally went down like this. They literally fight over some of the dumbest stuff I've ever heard of in my life and it was at that point that I realized how emotionally immature my brother and his girl

actually were. Well as all young relationships like this tend to do they eventually broke up but here's the catch. This girl went back to her previous boyfriend and broke up with my brother. This left him in a really weird headspace. He's normally not the kind of guy that cries but his room is right next to mine and I definitely heard him cry every night for a couple of weeks. I knew that he was taking things pretty badly, but things were about to get worse. He started hanging out with more of those bad friends I was telling you about earlier, and a lot of these guys were high school dropouts or older without jobs. Most of them smoked, which is highly illegal in our state, and some of them even used harder drugs than that.

One dealer in that friend group owns a really nice house on Main Street in the town and pays for it in cash with his drug money. He doesn't even have a way to launder his money. If you're wondering, every person in this friend group had this kind of recklessness about them. It wasn't long before my brother didn't want to ride together to college. He didn't give me a good reason, he just said that he wanted some independence and alone time and I didn't think anything of it. Me and him slowly but surely started to drift apart. We talked twice as less and he became even more unreliable and unstable as things went forward. I now know that he stopped going to class altogether,

didn't even bother to officially drop out or anything, he just stopped going. He spent all of his time with these sleazy friends of his doing God only knows what, and through it all, he still regularly talked about his ex-girlfriend. I found that really strange. At one point, my curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to try to find a way to help him. I tried having a couple of heart-to-heart talks with him but nothing got through to him. He just didn't care anymore. That was when I had the idea to go into his room to understand what was really going

on. I know I shouldn't have but I really had no idea what else I could do about the situation. I went in there one day when he claimed that he was going to class. I searched for about a half hour and didn't really find anything too interesting or incriminating. I found his stash. He didn't even have it hidden really well. He literally had a hat on his table when it was under the hat. That was until I started looking around his computer. I went onto the documents and saw that he had a folder with the name of his ex-girlfriend. I clicked on it and found the most horrifying thing I've ever seen. It was literally hundreds of pictures of this girl. I mean hundreds of them.

Some of them were from when they had been dating, some of them were from Facebook, and others were apparently at her random locations. Sometimes there were even pictures of her with this other boyfriend. I got really freaked out and concerned, and that was when I noticed another folder called edited pics. I clicked on it and saw some of the strangest stuff that I've ever seen in my life. I guessed that my brother had photoshopped his and her head onto adult film stars. The craziest part was that it looked fairly believable. I had to look for a few minutes before I even realized that they weren't actually real. I was surprised that he had gotten so good at photoshop but also mortified at what he was doing with his newfound

skill. The creepiest part is that some of the pictures were him and his ex-girlfriend getting it on while there would be a dog or something in the background watching and he photoshopped the other guy's head onto the dog. I mean literally what the heck. I was so freaked out and I really wish that I hadn't looked at any of that stuff because I had no idea what to do. I couldn't go to my parents with this stuff and I wasn't sure that I wanted to talk to him about it either. Well it's been six months since all of that happened. He never quite got his act together. He continued hanging out with these sketchy friends of his and he got addicted to some stronger things. I'm not exactly sure why but it was bad enough that my very caring and forgiving mother kicked him out of the house.

I was extremely surprised that she had done this but I guess I can't blame her because she had caught him with some harder stuff in the house on multiple occasions. I haven't talked to my brother since he got kicked out and I have no idea what he's been up to since. Even now I still have no clue what possessed him to take things to such an extreme. Maybe he had some kind of underlying mental illness and that was why he reacted the way he did. Whatever the case, I know he's just not a part of our lives anymore. I do really hope that he's doing better now though. It was around 1983 I think when my family had our first trip to Cape Cod.

Somewhere around Cape Cod, at least. I won't be too specific. I've learned the hard way to keep details like that to myself. I must have been around 10 or 11, and whilst for the first couple of weeks swimming in the ocean, seafood and ice cream kept me entertained, Before long, I grew pretty bored. I was an only child and an awkward one at that, and so I had no one to pass the time with whilst my parents read or shopped or carried out one of any number of adult activities which would bore a child to tears. Which is why, when we were taking our usual morning walk along the beach, I spied a brown bottle with something inside of it and I was beyond excited. I remember running towards it, tearing ahead of my parents,

digging through the seaweed and throwing aside empty crab shells to get at it. There it was, an actual message in a bottle. I couldn't make out what it said exactly, but the shape of a rolled up piece of paper was unmistakable. I remember crouching there desperately trying to force the cork out with my tiny hands as the cold sea lapped at my feet. I couldn't get it open and managed to persuade my parents to take it back to the house we'd rented to open it. It ended up proving so difficult to open that we ended up having to use a knife, slowly chipping parts of the cork out of the neck of the bottle until the rest of it fell inside. The paper was tied tight with string and when we tipped the bottle upside down the roll slid out alongside the cork dust. It took me a while to read it. Deciphering the awful

handwriting took a while but eventually I got there. It was from another child. Their name was Robbie and they said that they were bored this summer and sent out several of these messages from their dad's fishing boat to see if they'd get any responses. They gave an address and asked a few questions. I can still remember the question now. At the time they seemed so innocent. The sort of questions you might ask a pen pal. How old I was? What did I look like? What was my name? Was I a boy or a girl? I don't know if my parents had a discussion about whether or not I could write to Robbie but I do remember them supporting my letter writing the next morning. Going with me to buy stationery from the store and helping me when I found a word that I struggled to spell. I thought my summer was saved.

Suddenly it all didn't feel so lonely. The knowledge that somewhere out there across the country, miles and miles and miles away was a boy just like me, bored and looking for a friend. It was so electrifyingly cool. We went as a family to post the letter and for the next few days I'd check the post as soon as I woke up, even though my parents said my letter probably hadn't even arrived yet. But he did reply quickly. He said I sounded like fun and that he was glad someone had found the bottle because he hadn't had any other responses and was beginning to think that it must have sunk or gotten lost in a storm somewhere. Me and Robbie talked all summer and even when I moved back from the holiday home into our usual home

we stayed in contact. We became friends. He told me about his life and I told him about mine. We shared secrets and tips for all sorts of things. How to build a slingshot, the best candy combinations, how to do tricks on your bike. It was easier I think through letters to be honest. I'd always struggled with kids my age but with Robbie there was an element removed. He was honest with me as well which I think helped. He'd tell me about all of his childish insecurities and the fact that his parents didn't talk to him much and he'd ask if mine talked to me much. He said that he hadn't told his dad about the bottles but in fact had slipped them overboard when his dad wasn't looking and asked me if my mom or dad knew

about him. I told him that they did sure but they didn't know exactly what I was saying. I do remember that he started to ask stranger and stranger questions. Questions that weren't appropriate for kids our age. He asked if I ever looked at boys the same way I looked at girls and would sometimes ask questions about my body. What it looked like, what swimming costume I'd wear, stuff like that. He began to get more and more intense especially when my replies slowed down due to school. He'd tell me these weird stories about things older boys had done to him like how they stripped him naked and made him bathe in a puddle

and that he'd ask me what I thought. He'd tell me that he thought about me a lot and that he didn't have any friends but me and that sometimes he'd imagine what it would be like to play with me. It began to creep me out a little bit although at the time I couldn't really explain why and I remember writing a letter to him telling him that unfortunately I wouldn't be able to keep writing to him and that I had too much going on at school. It was the next letter that changed everything. His next letter was angry and mean and his handwriting had changed almost entirely. It had gone from sloppy scrawl of a child to a tighter cursive script. He said that he thought I was better than that and that

friends didn't just ditch each other and said that we should meet up soon if we couldn't write. He said that he could probably make it to my city fairly soon and that we should go somewhere, just the two of us, like the pier for a walk. I know most of the details because after I was an adult my parents finally told me everything. See all I remember is leaving that letter out on the kitchen table and then the next day having to talk to a few men in funny outfits. I remember them asking me all sorts of questions and my mom crying and my dad giving me a big hug and telling me to be honest. They'd found the letter on the kitchen and alarm bells had immediately started ringing. My dad had wasted no time in calling the police and telling them that they thought a predator was targeting his son and he gave them the exact

address that he'd been writing from. They wasted no time in investigating and apparently discovered that I hadn't been talking to a boy my age at all but a much much older man. In fact when they ended up searching his house they found that he had been in contact with dozens and dozens of kids just like me and that he'd stuck their letters up all over the walls of his room. There were other details my parents obviously left out and occasionally whilst telling me the story they'd made a face as if though they were consciously avoiding something uncomfortable. Apparently it was his MO to leave messages in bottles overnight on popular beaches across the country using his left hand to write the

messages and then waiting for overexcited kids to reply. My parents never told me if he'd met any of the other kids he'd been talking to and I haven't ever really wanted to find out. All I know is that whilst I don't think I ever would have met up with him, there were moments where I really believed that Robbie was my friend and felt a little less alone and I know that all it would have taken would have been a moment like that and I'd have considered it. A bad day at school, an argument with my parents and I might have biked my way to the pier to meet Robbie, to meet the only friend I thought I had.

What really creeps me out is that he knew the whole time where I lived. He didn't live too far away either, and sometimes I wonder if he ever parked outside my house and watched, or if he ever followed me without me knowing. It wouldn't have been hard, and I'd have no way of knowing. Sometimes even now, even now I'm an adult and have kids of my own, I'll find myself watching a figure in a parked car, heart racing through my blinds where I've seen him before. I assume I might have met him on a night out. It was a last minute thing and I told him how I wasn't looking for anything but it would be nice to hang out.

That was a mistake. When I first met him, he seemed like an alright guy but things quickly turned when we got to a restaurant. He didn't order but I did and he started saying about loving my curves and my body. I laughed it off but I thought he was being a bit too forward. He could have put it nicely or kept that to himself. While having my food he began telling me about how I was different from other girls because they don't give nice guys like him a chance. Red flags immediately going off so I came up with a story that I could only be out for a little bit because my parents wanted me to dog sit. He bought it but then proceeded to stare at my breasts and saying how he wished that he could see me without clothes on, even saying I should send him a picture. I told him I don't do that and he was making me uncomfortable. He stopped but then told me how he brought me a gift. He pulled out of his bag a bouquet of roses, which I guess I did think was sweet, and a bag of Tesco prawns.

That confused me and I burst out laughing. I asked why he got them and he said he knew I liked tempura and prawns. But the thing is, I never once told him I did, so alarm bells were going off again. My head told me to run, but I didn't want to be rude, so I stayed until the time I said I had to go. So I had less than an hour left. Okay, I can do that. He kept talking but started to scare me because he started guessing aspects of my life, the school I went to, what I was like as a kid and what I am currently doing. He got every part right. It scared me because I had not told him any of this and haven't posted anything online about it.

So I backed away and asked how he knew all of that information. Turned out his mother was one of my teachers in school and he asked her everything she knew about me and looked online for anything about me currently. I don't know when he asked her but at this point I wanted to get out of there and thank God for my mom. Not long after I got a text from my mom asking how things were. He didn't see the text but saw it was my mom and I just said, Oh God, my mom and dad got the times wrong for the picture so I have to go home now for my dog. I'm so sorry.

The guy just accepted that and then started to walk me home. I said about only going halfway because I'm not comfortable with people knowing where I stay but he then started insisting. He then dropped the bombshell that he knew that I stayed on x such and such road but didn't know which house was mine. I told him that is really weird and that it creeped me out that he knew that. He claimed I told him but I never tell people that. So I started to walk to the main road for my own safety but he grabbed my hand and said he knew a shortcut. I told him I wasn't comfortable again and he told me it was fine and basically dragged me to a quiet road.

I was getting really scared when he stopped and shoved his tongue down my throat. I shoved him away and told him to stop it and he apologized. That's when I noticed a stranger walking a dog coming so I used that and said I needed to go and went to the main road. I thought it was safe but no. The guy kept walking with me. I stopped and told him I wanted to part there and how it was nice to meet him again. He looked confused and said we have never met. He said he set about meeting on a night out just to get me to come.

I then began saying, look, I have to go. When he cut me off, grabbed and pulled me near some bushes saying, before you go there's one more thing. I told him I needed to go and let go of me but he ignored it. The guy then pulled me, hurting my wrists and kissed me again. He saw the bushes and said about having privacy and I managed to shove him off and tell him no. He then grabbed me again and tried to take me to the bush saying, it only be a second while I resisted. Some dog walkers came by and he stopped and pulled me to kiss me again, this time grabbing my breast. I shoved him and screamed I said no and just ran. My heart was racing, I was terrified. I thought

he might have tried to do something to me. I kept looking back and he was nowhere to be seen. I ended up taking the long way home just in case. When I got in, I just started to cry. I thought something bad would have happened to me when I got a message from another account. It was him. He said about how lovely it was meeting me and how it was the best date ever. How it was the prettiest girl he'd ever kissed and that he would see me again. Adding how he hoped I had a lovely time and that he showed me he was a gentleman. Then adding how he was on my road. I just hid on the floor for the rest of the day.

When I looked at his profile I remembered where I had seen him before. He used to message my old Facebook account years ago with weird messages and creepy edits saying how he loved me. This whole event happened within an hour and a half. This is something I didn't realize the severity of till I was older. My mom had left me and my brother home alone. It was midday. My brother was 12, maybe 13, so I was 9 years old. Watching him play Xbox in our living room, he had his headset on talking to his friends.

There was a knock from the door on our carport. I run and answer the door without looking. It's a grown man I've never seen before. We are separated by the screen door which at the time was unlocked. He asks, Are your parents home? Horror washes over me. First of all, he's knocking from the carport which is strange in and of itself. A stranger would knock on our front door, right? And our carport is empty. We only had one car and my mother had taken it. This man knows that my parents aren't home. I'm afraid. I don't know why, but

I am scared. Immediately my brother in the other room comes to mind. I've never had a father figure. My brother has always been the one who has made me feel safe. The strongest person in the whole world. Someone who could protect me in any situation, how most people would regard their father I think. I feel as though I can barely speak. Wide eyed I manage to stutter out, no but uh, big brother here. Without even a moment's pause this man reaches for the screen door and starts to open it. Like an act of God, divine intervention, an arm reaches out from behind me over my shoulder and grabs the door. My brother pushes past me holding the door forcing the man back with his presence, out into the carport and closes the door behind him.

The man tells my brother he was looking to buy some old swing set that was in our front yard at the time. My brother comes back in without saying anything to me, puts on his headset and continues playing. I sit down as well and continue watching him. I don't believe we ever told our mom. Luckily I never encounter this person again and it pretty much fades from my memory. But as I got older it became one of the scariest things that ever happened to me. When I was around 15 I lived alone in a two-story house. Although there were bedrooms upstairs I would sleep on the living room couch.

This was for two reasons. One, it was the central location of the house so I could hear everything. Two, it was equidistant from every exit. One night at around 2 in the morning I heard somebody jiggling the front doorknob. It was a slow, cautious jiggle like they were trying not to be heard. When the door didn't open, they didn't stop. The jiggling slowly became less cautious and more irritated. They persisted for at least two minutes. They went to the back door which was also locked. I didn't want to call the police because I was an

unemancipated minor living alone. I didn't want to be placed into foster care and I didn't want to call the police because I was an unemancipated minor living alone. I didn't want to be placed into foster care and I didn't want my parents in trouble for neglect. Eventually the jiggling stopped. I stayed up that night waiting for them to try other entrances but nothing happened. A few nights passed and I awoke to the sound of a door opening upstairs. The doors in the house would really stick so they took a lot of force to open. When you popped them loose they'd make a loud scrape, pop and shudder noise. At the time I would take sleeping pills. It made it really hard to fully awaken and I'd sometimes only awaken with sleep paralysis.

I couldn't determine whether I dreamt the sound or whether I awoken from it. I started to fall back asleep and thought I heard the door close, like grinding of wood rubbing together. Then the sound of bed springs screeching, like weights were being shifted. I thought maybe somebody is homeless and they thought this was an abandoned house. I was super tired and wasn't sure if I was actually conscious. I fell back asleep and awoke to the feeling of somebody watching me. There were stairs parallel to the living room door and I could see them from the couch. Halfway down the stairwell I could see a long haired man crouched over looking at me. It was dark and I felt like we were both trying to verify what we were seeing.

I kept a metal baseball bat by the couch and grabbed it. Slowly the man erected his body and without turning backed up the stairs. I just listened for him to leave or waited for him to come back down but I heard neither. It was like he just stood at the top of the stairs waiting for me. I didn't go back to sleep. I heard nothing even until sunrise. When I left for school that morning I questioned what I'd actually experienced. I had my boyfriend over later that evening. As we approached the house he said, hey your window's open. I looked and the room to the sticking door was wide open. I told him what I'd experienced the night before and he helped me check out the house.

After finding nothing I closed and locked the windows. I figured it must have been a hobo. Once they realized somebody lived there, they left. I still stayed there that night, but I didn't take sleeping pills. I awoke to the door opening again. This time I knew it was real. They knew somebody lived there, but they still returned. At this time in my life, I had little value for my life. I had no fear of death because I knew where I'd go. I decided that I wasn't going to hide in my own house. I got my baseball bat, turned on the lights, and went upstairs. I yelled something like, listen buddy, I'm coming up. Be out by the time I get there. I heard nothing and prepared for the worst. I checked the rooms and the closets, but I found nothing, and the windows were still closed.

I checked the downstairs and found nothing as well. I felt pretty silly after finding nothing, but still stayed up that night. I got ready for school the next morning and saw that the window was open again. It occurred to me that I hadn't checked under the beds when I'd done the search. I didn't have my bat with me and bailed. To think that intruder was possibly hiding under the bed as I searched the house is spooky, but I'm partially relieved that I hadn't checked. If I'd bent down and come face to face with the man beneath my bed, the story may have ended differently.

I had just turned 22 and was working F&B. They had just promoted me from server to behind the bar and I couldn't be more excited. Now being a young, somewhat attractive female in F&B you get a lot of creeps. You learn to shrug them off almost as though they're not even being a creep though. With that said, it takes a lot to creep me out. So I'm being trained behind the bar one night when this random guy comes in. I say random because you see the same people every day. He's probably late 40s or early 50s.

He sits down, asks me some questions about some beers and makes some general small talk. His first impression was polite and kind of chatty but nothing out of the normal. He finishes his food and orders another beer, then his demeanor changed. He made a comment about how cute I was after I did something ditzy or clumsy. I laughed it off and made a dumb blonde joke. Then out of nowhere, I could just kidnap you. Excuse me? Okay, that's awkward, but I don't want to make this a more awkward situation. I should joke it off. My dumb self responds, I'm working at a double. I wish I could get kidnapped. I messed up. What are you doing after work? When do you get off? I immediately become short with him,

shutting him down, name dropping my boyfriend left and freaking right. When I started name dropping my boyfriend, he made it very clear that my boyfriend was nothing, that my boyfriend has nothing on him, etc. I was becoming rude at this point to this man and he was still not letting up. I tried just ignoring him and staying away from that general area of the bar but he would not stop calling me by name. When I'd go to check on him, if he didn't need anything I'd walk away. But he wouldn't let me out of his sight and his stare was predatory and I kid you not, he would literally lick his lips when I looked his way. I finally admitted defeat and told the girl training me that I couldn't serve him anymore and that I refused to interact with him. She took over and anytime he tried calling me over, she'd cut him off and be like, how can I help you? I figured he got the hint because he stayed

glued to his phone and avoided looking at me or anyone else. I got cut maybe an hour later. I grabbed my car key and walked out the back door and started walking to my car. I wasn't worried about anything until I started crossing the street and the voice inside my head started screaming, run. I took off running to my car but since since you could see my driver's side from the back door, my inner voice told me to climb in through the passenger's side. As I'm trying to climb into my driver's seat from the passenger's side without being seen,

I come to the realization that I'm being ridiculous. So I pop my head up and guess what? This idiot is right in front of my car. I almost ran him over, hauling it out of that parking lot. So that's the end of the story, right? Wrong. The next night I'm helping my manager with a catering order that's about to be picked up when the phone rings.

So I answer the phone. This is Fat Granddaddy, how can I help you hey it's Greg how are you baby uh fine I had no idea who it was at this point I'm glad you answered the phone I wasn't sure you were working tonight. Uh, you don't know who this is, do you? No? It's Greg from last night, remember? Oh. It finally clicked and I looked mortified and my manager was mean mugging me because I sounded like an idiot and we didn't knock this order out. So did you want a place in order to go? No, baby. I just wanted to make sure you were working.

I'll see you soon. I hung up and my manager was like, What was that? So I told her everything about the night before. When he shows up, she had me point him out to her. He sits at the bar, tries to speak to me right off the bat but the bartender intervenes immediately Within 5 minutes of him showing up the manager was not digging the vibes from him and the way he was watching me She calls me over and tells me she's sending me home early

Now our restaurant has an upstairs for storage and offices There are two staircases, one towards the back of the restaurant and one to the front sending me home early. Now our restaurant has an upstairs for storage and offices. There are two staircases, one towards the back of the restaurant and one to the front. She tells me to grab my stuff and go to the back staircase. I totally understood what her plan was. I ran up the back stairs and halfway down the front. If you stand about halfway up the front staircase you can pretty much see the whole restaurant, so I peek my head and my manager immediately waves me to hide back upstairs. A few minutes later a kitchen guy comes up the stairs and grabs me and we go out the front door, and he walked me around the block to the back parking lot to my car.

My manager caught me in the parking lot before I left. Basically since the back staircase is near the back door, he thought I left and went to follow me out again. My manager confronted him and he was banned. Thankfully, I haven't seen him since. I met a guy online back in August of last year. We immediately hit it off. I was reluctant to get in a relationship though as I had been cheated on a few months prior and lied to that entire relationship. Catching feelings for anyone again scared the life out of me. But this guy was so sweet and nice that I trusted him and was willing to risk it for him. Skipped to mid-September, we had both admitted feelings for each other a while before this but he was reluctant to ask me

out. I wasn't sure why but I figured he was just waiting for the right moment, which he was, because he slipped that his birthday was coming up and I pointed out how come he's turning 19 and still in high school. Then he said that he isn't 19, he's 17 and he's turning 18 in a few days. This made me mad because although we've never actually been intimate, I'm 18 and I don't like being lied to. We both met in a place that's only for 18 plus people. He pointed out that I never directly asked him his age, I just assumed because of where we met. Despite this, when he turned 18 and asked me out, I said yes. We lasted less than a month. He would start fights every single day over the dumbest stuff. If I took over 10 minutes to

reply he would get mad at me and told me I needed to tell him when I was going to do stuff so he wasn't waiting for my message. He got mad that I'd been in relationships before him despite none of them turning out good. So I broke up with him. I thought maybe in the future things would stop because this is his first relationship and he was just inexperienced. I thought maybe in the future things would stop because this is his first relationship and he was just inexperienced. I told him multiple times, calmly, that things need to change and once the fight stopped we can try again. But they never stopped for more than a few days. One time he lied to me, saying some girl had been flirting with him and asked if he was single or taken just so I'd confirm our relationship, which I didn't. Because we weren't dating anymore and he got mad. I pointed out it

was obviously a lie but he insisted it happened. Only later that evening did he admit that it was a lie. Eventually I shut off my Snapchat map because I didn't want him knowing where specifically I lived and he got mad that I didn't trust him. One of my best IRL friends messaged me asking why he was requesting to follow her. I checked his Instagram and he had started following everyone who was following me. I told him to unfollow them because he doesn't even know any of them and it's kind of weird. He got mad but he did unfollow them. Two weeks ago I woke up one morning and he told me we needed to talk. He asked me why I've been lying to him, why I've been hiding things behind his back. I asked him what he was talking about because I never lied to him nor hid

anything from him. He says he's been messaging all of my friends on Instagram asking for information about me, who I've dated, who I've been doing, etc. He asked me why I've been facetiming people behind his back, not telling him everything about my past relationships, etc. I don't know if I was more shocked at the fact that he did this or the fact that these people were actually giving him information about me. I never did anything behind his back though. The only person I ever facetimed, facetimed me first randomly and for 30 minutes just to play 8-Ball on iMessage. He even mentioned talking to people who I haven't talked to in months.

He also made alternate accounts, befriending people from my past, voice chatting with them, playing games with them, all just to get info from them about me once they opened up. He even mentioned that my ex had messaged me which I never told anyone so I have no idea how he found that out. My snapchat kept logging me out so I think he hacked into my snapchat to read my conversations with people. He found my old Reddit and went back two years of comment history to get mad at stuff I've said in the past. When I asked him how he found out about my one ex contacting me he said, you don't deserve to know, before proceeding to block me on everything. The day after he emailed me saying that there's nothing left to say, we're just acquaintances now, etc, etc. I told him nah,

we aren't even acquaintances anymore. He's just some crazy dude I dated. And it's his loss in the end because he caused this by doing detective work as he liked to put it. He said he did all this and he was curious, not that he didn't trust me, and he found lots of stuff he didn't want to. I guess about my past relationships, because that's all he ever mentioned. His little tangent went on for quite a while, saying he's my loss, and he could have made me happy, and blah blah. I told him he never could have made me happy. His money, which wasn't much, maybe, but not him as a person. Not since the first fight started. This took place maybe around the age of 13. Let me set the scene. I had my first serious boyfriend, Sam. Sam was a

nerdy kind of guy. We had met at church. When he had asked me out, I was over the moon as another girl had been talking to him at the same time. I was flattered that he had chosen me. At the point in time this story takes place, I was having a lot of issues at home. I had attempted to take my life during my relationship and had a lot of issues with self-harm. My relationship with my parents was terrible, still is. That probably explains why I never told them any of this. Besides my personal problems I'd say the relationship was running smoothly until Sam came into contact with Allison. I don't recall exactly when or where Sam met Allison. I believe it was at his air cadets.

It's almost like she just appeared. Whenever Sam and I were going through a rough patch he would talk to Allison and she would console him. It made me really uncomfortable at the time being a jealous 13 year old. Our key communication was over Skype as he lived a good 40 minutes away from me. On average I saw him twice a week. Once on a Saturday in which I would catch two buses to his home. The second being at church on a Sunday. He would often tell me stories about his long conversations with Allison. How she was hilarious but she didn't like, although I had never spoken to her myself. I assume this was due to him mainly speaking to her during our childish arguments.

I first came into contact with Allison during an argument with Sam. We were bickering about something unimportant and a message popped up on my Skype. It was from Allison. I don't recall what exactly the message said as this was in 2014 but I tried to gain access to my old Skype to go through the messages but have not been able to. But I do remember her insulting me repeatedly and saying I didn't deserve Sam and I should have died in regards to ending my life. I responded harshly, telling her to screw off or something of the sorts. Was a polite no, I was extremely standoffish at this age. My response seemed to anger her. I was bombarded with call after call. I declined every single one.

I reported to Sam what had gone on and he said he had told her to leave me alone. All was good for a while. This didn't affect me too much. This was semi-normal for me as high school relationship drama was almost an everyday occurrence at my school. Looking back on it, Sam was almost definitely cheating on me but I was too naive and in childish love to care. My second incident with Allison was on a summer afternoon. I was relaxing on Sam's bed after an afternoon of messing around. He had gone to complete a chore in the kitchen and had left his computer on. I decided to check my Facebook and went to log in. On the screen was a chat with Allison. Being curious, I scrolled through the

chat. I was greeted with an onslaught of naked images of her. This started a huge fight as you can imagine. Sam said that she was just a jealous stalker girl. My third interaction with Allison was at my local library. Allison must have been 16 as she was completing some work experience at the time. I have and still am an avid book reader. I was there with my mother and sister when I saw her at the counter. She stared me down and it took me aback as I didn't recognize her to begin with. It then clicked. I was more annoyed than anything. I didn't pick up a book instead of opting to hanging around my sister as she checked some books. Allison's eyes never left me. The time came to leave as mom was renting the books out, she made small talk with Allison.

I was surprised at how polite and well-mannered she was in comparison to the girl who had messaged me. I began to feel guilty for the way I had responded to her. Once at home, I hopped on my phone and wrote a message to her apologizing for the way I had spoken to her. The message I received back from her was a different tone altogether. She started listing all these terrible names. She said I had no right to date Sam and all I brought him was misery. This time her words really did affect me. I called Sam and begged him to never contact her again. I remember vividly sobbing and crying for hours. This happened a couple more times each time escalating in severity. Threats to beat my lights out were sent. My mental health was greatly affected.

I wasn't afraid of her but more upset at the things she said. I never took a single threat seriously. To this day I have no idea why Sam stayed in contact with her and I began to avoid the library. My relationship with Sam continued. One day I got into a large argument with my mother and called Sam sobbing. He consoled me and told me it was going to be alright. Impulsively I decided to go for a run, leaving my phone at home. I wanted to be out of the home. I was gone for maybe an hour or two. I returned home to an onslaught of messages from Sam deeply concerned for my well-being. I apologized and explained the situation, a reminder this entire time that I had not blocked Allison. She messaged me with the usual dribble. I was so used to her threats at this point it

hardly fazed me. The same threat happened again. I'll beat your lights out. Calling her bluff, I replied, well go on then, you don't even know where I live. She replied with my address and my heart skipped a beat. All the threats of violence were all too real now. I remember shaking uncontrollably. I sobbed down the phone to Sam. I begged him to block her and never to speak to her again He continued to speak to her Although I never did New girls appeared in her place but none were as invasive as her We ended the relationship after a year and a bit

In one of the messages I sent to him regarding our breakup I spoke about Allison and his stalker girls It's been a long time since then. Sam and I occasionally speak and I'd say we are on good terms. He's in a band and I'm studying still. At the time, I didn't realize the severity of her actions. The fact that she had gone onto the computer base at my library and searched for my address didn't pass my mind until many years later. It still sends shivers down my spine. What would she have been actually capable of doing, I'll never know. I truly hope no one finds out. I tried finding her online out of curiosity, to no avail. If she was capable of that amount of calculation at 16 years old,

I wonder what she was capable of now. I hope this serves as a word of warning to parents to look out for their kids. I know this story may not be as severe as many on the subreddit, but I finding this sub, I felt compelled to share. My husband and I were 21, just moved into our first apartment, and I was about six months pregnant. The small one-bedroom apartment we found wasn't one of those nicer, corporately owned communities. It was more like a slumlord situation. But rent was cheap and we were just getting started in life. A little backstory. The city we were in was still close to family and my husband had a great aunt we knew lived nearby. She was one of those family members

we would only see at big family reunions so it wasn't like we had a close relationship. As a great aunt she was one of like 13 children, you know back in the day when everyone had a thousand kids, and she had been married for many years with four of her own children. They were all mostly grown up but being that this was over a decade ago, her youngest was maybe 16 or so at the time. We hardly ever saw him at reunions because he was one of those gang banging kids that was always getting into trouble. Apart from his poor choices, he was born with a very striking facial deformity that really gave him a unique appearance. We'll call him E. So we had just moved

in two weeks prior to this incident. I was only working part-time so I came home early in the day and continued to unpack and organize until my husband got home in the evenings. Our then English bulldog was my faithful companion and although they have a lazy stigma she was a great guard dog. So it was early evening and there was still light out when I started hearing banging or prying of some sort coming from the back of the apartment where our bedroom was. On the other side of our bedroom the back wall faced the parking lot so we got a significant amount of noise when people came and went. At first I figured it had to be a gardener or someone loading things from their car. As the noise continued I realized it was right up against

that wall. I peeked out our window but due to the angle I really couldn't see much. This noise obviously aggravated our dog who wouldn't stop burping. You dog owners know what I'm talking about and it was starting to make me scared cheap rent came with some shady neighbors and we quickly realized this wasn't going to be a long-term residence so this noise continued my dog continued to birth and I was getting freaked out because I couldn't see anything outside our window and I didn't have the guts to go investigate. I was really pregnant and I don't like running even when not pregnant. Finally, my husband made it home just as it's getting dark and at this point I hadn't heard the noise for nearly an hour. Of course, I tell him right away that I had been freaked out for the last few hours because of banging,

prying, and moving going on outside. So yes, he went to investigate and came back saying nothing seemed out of place. Later that same night, we had made dinner, eaten, and my husband was shaving in the bathroom getting ready to take a shower before bed. Suddenly I hear him yell, hey, in the deepest booming voice I had ever heard. I come quickly running to the living room and I see my husband and his boxers stretch from just outside the bathtub with both his hands on the small windows still inside the shower and tub. I ask him what happened and he turns with an alarming look on his face and says, someone's cut the screen. I had chills go straight down my spine and was basically frozen.

He yelled for them to get out of here. When some more movement started happening and he slammed the window shut and locked it. This is the uncomfortable part. As soon as he turned around again, out of breath, he says to me, That was my cousin E. I was so shocked. I asked him if he was sure, and he says he could recognize that face anywhere. Then he started questioning what the odds were that E recognized him,

and to this day, we really didn't know. Immediately following the incident, we had the manager replace the screen and I placed a dowel in the window to keep it shut. We lasted nine months in that complex and will never rent from a slumlord again. We have also not seen E since even before the incident at a family reunion. About two years ago we found out he had been incarcerated and isn't due to be released until 2022. We don't know what the charges were. The family keeps the situation hush-hush,

but I truly hope we don't ever see him again. Hey friends, thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and click that notification bell To be continued... 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 anywhere you listen to podcasts. Links in the bio. Thanks so much, friends. And remember, DALs are not TALs.