Latest / Luke's English Podcast / _215 - Friendly Facades
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: You've got a great idea for a small business, but
- 0:04Speaker 1: you just can't get it off the ground. You want
- 0:07Speaker 1: to be your own boss, set your own hours well.
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- 0:56Speaker 1: with Shopify today. Shopify dot com slash income.
- 1:02Speaker 2: This episode is brought to you by companion. Iris and
- 1:06Speaker 2: Josh seem like the perfect match, but when a weekend
- 1:09Speaker 2: getaway turns into a nightmare, Iris realizes that things aren't
- 1:14Speaker 2: as perfect as they appear. From the creators of Barbarian
- 1:17Speaker 2: in the studio that brought you The Notebook comes, a
- 1:20Speaker 2: twisted tale of modern romance and the sweet satisfaction of revenge.
- 1:25Speaker 2: Companion Only in theaters January thirty first grited are under
- 1:29Speaker 2: seventeen not admitted without parent.
- 1:33Speaker 1: What is it you're afraid of when you get right
- 1:38Speaker 1: down to it. What are we running from? From pain?
- 1:44Speaker 1: Suffering from death? I don't think so. I think when
- 1:51Speaker 1: you find the bottom of the human experience, there's only
- 1:55Speaker 1: one thing that keeps us all up at night, the
- 2:00Speaker 1: fear of the unknown, that looming primal instinct that the
- 2:06Speaker 1: unfamiliar is our greatest enemy and our most cunning predator.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Coming February thirteenth is a special paranormal edition of Disturbed Hauntings,
- 2:20Speaker 1: the occult and the other worldly, the unexplainable in all
- 2:25Speaker 1: its terrifying glory. Listen on the Disturbed Feed wherever you
- 2:31Speaker 1: get your podcasts.
- 2:36Speaker 3: This content may not be suitable for all audiences.
- 2:39Speaker 4: Listener Discretion advised.
- 2:44Speaker 5: His phone buzzed. He quickly looked at it and tried
- 2:47Speaker 5: to hide the screen, but I saw the message.
- 2:52Speaker 6: I'm flabbergasted, I'm angry, and I'm freaked out.
- 2:57Speaker 7: My phone started ringing weird for that time night, and
- 3:01Speaker 7: I saw it was an unknown number, so ignored it.
- 3:04Speaker 7: Next thing we know, there's someone knocking on the front door.
- 3:09Speaker 8: She asked if I was in danger, and I said,
- 3:12Speaker 8: I don't know.
- 3:15Speaker 1: From killer podcasts, true tales of horror, bizarre happenings, unexplainable events,
- 3:23Speaker 1: this is Disturbed. Hello, and welcome back to the show.
- 3:51Speaker 1: This week, we are bringing you four stories that will
- 3:55Speaker 1: remind you why you're not supposed to talk to strangers.
- 4:00Speaker 1: So sit back, listen closely, and dive into the horror. First,
- 4:07Speaker 1: a story narrated by Brandon Alexander Smith from Reddit user
- 4:13Speaker 1: that Rye Guy two thousand and nine. That wasn't an invitation.
- 4:25Speaker 6: A couple of years ago, I flew home to visit
- 4:28Speaker 6: my family. The plan was that I'd be there for
- 4:32Speaker 6: about a week, then we'd head to the coast for
- 4:34Speaker 6: a week, then back home for another week.
- 4:38Speaker 4: I totally needed this break.
- 4:40Speaker 6: I just ended an on and off again relationship, like seriously,
- 4:45Speaker 6: one day on the next off. It took seven months
- 4:50Speaker 6: of putting up with it. You're supposed to fight for
- 4:53Speaker 6: what's important to you, right Anyhow, I finally just said
- 4:59Speaker 6: it was done, no more. Chances, no trying to work
- 5:03Speaker 6: it out, just done. With that chapter of my life
- 5:08Speaker 6: being over, I was more than happy to be somewhere else,
- 5:11Speaker 6: surrounded by family to begin putting myself back together. I
- 5:17Speaker 6: arrived and before we left for the coast, I met
- 5:21Speaker 6: up with John, a friend from grade school that I'd
- 5:23Speaker 6: kept in contact with.
- 5:24Speaker 4: Over the years.
- 5:26Speaker 6: I thought it would just be him and I, but
- 5:29Speaker 6: he had invited his friend Sam. I thought it was
- 5:32Speaker 6: weird that John didn't tell me he had invited some
- 5:35Speaker 6: guy to hang out with us too, but it didn't
- 5:38Speaker 6: really phaze me that another person was there. We hung
- 5:42Speaker 6: out for a while, but before long it was time
- 5:44Speaker 6: for me to head home. I needed to head out
- 5:46Speaker 6: pretty early because I had to either drive through the
- 5:49Speaker 6: backwoods for nearly an hour or take a different route
- 5:53Speaker 6: that would add another twenty minutes onto my trek. I
- 5:56Speaker 6: preferred the backwoods path, but it may the chances of
- 6:00Speaker 6: hitting a deer much higher in the dark. So I
- 6:04Speaker 6: said goodbye and told Sam that if he was ever
- 6:07Speaker 6: in my neck of the woods, look me up and
- 6:09Speaker 6: we'd grab a drink and hang out. I told him
- 6:12Speaker 6: to grab my number from John, and out the door.
- 6:14Speaker 4: I went.
- 6:17Speaker 6: About halfway home, I started to get this weird, queasy
- 6:21Speaker 6: feeling in the pit of my stomach. I slowed way down,
- 6:25Speaker 6: and sure enough, there was a deer in the middle
- 6:28Speaker 6: of the road. As I nearly stopped in front of
- 6:31Speaker 6: this deer in the road, out of the corner of
- 6:33Speaker 6: my eye, I could see another car way behind me
- 6:37Speaker 6: on the road. Driving slowly, I couldn't shake the queasy
- 6:42Speaker 6: feeling from seeing this car. It got so intense that
- 6:46Speaker 6: I thought I was going to be sick. I figured
- 6:49Speaker 6: I would be better to cut off and go down
- 6:51Speaker 6: the main road because there were more places to stop.
- 6:55Speaker 6: I seriously didn't want to stop in some rural farmer's
- 6:59Speaker 6: driveway and spill. Oh my guts, I've watched too many
- 7:02Speaker 6: movies to make that mistake. I get over to the
- 7:06Speaker 6: main road and pull into a gas station, where I
- 7:08Speaker 6: sit for a couple minutes trying not to get sick
- 7:11Speaker 6: to my stomach. I ran into the store, grabbed some
- 7:15Speaker 6: water and ginger ale, and came back out to my vehicle,
- 7:18Speaker 6: still fighting to shake that queasy feeling. I started to
- 7:23Speaker 6: head out from the gas station and knew I didn't
- 7:26Speaker 6: want to go straight home, so I decided to drive around,
- 7:30Speaker 6: taking this road or that road, losing this unseen car
- 7:34Speaker 6: I was convinced was still following me. Eventually, that weird
- 7:39Speaker 6: feeling started to go away. I made my way home,
- 7:43Speaker 6: read for a bit, and then went to sleep. The
- 7:46Speaker 6: next day, everything was fine, and so we headed off
- 7:50Speaker 6: to the coast. Fast forward two weeks. My trip is
- 7:55Speaker 6: over and I'm still feeling a little bit fragile over
- 7:58Speaker 6: the breakup, but that's much improved from how I was
- 8:02Speaker 6: feeling when I left. I figured I would spend a
- 8:05Speaker 6: little time cleansing my environment of the negative energy from
- 8:08Speaker 6: that relationship and work through the baggage that came from
- 8:12Speaker 6: the breakup. I knew there was a lot and it
- 8:15Speaker 6: would take time. The next day, I'm going about my
- 8:19Speaker 6: business when my phone rings. I don't get a lot
- 8:23Speaker 6: of calls, so I assumed that there might be a
- 8:26Speaker 6: family emergency and that I needed to answer it asap.
- 8:30Speaker 6: The number wasn't in my contacts, but it had the
- 8:34Speaker 6: area code of my parents' town, so I answered without
- 8:37Speaker 6: a second thought. On the other end was Sam, the
- 8:42Speaker 6: guy I met at John's house. I'm caught off guard
- 8:46Speaker 6: that he'd be calling me in the first place, but
- 8:49Speaker 6: didn't consider anything more nefarious. I asked him what was up,
- 8:54Speaker 6: and he said he was at the airport. I said, oh,
- 9:00Speaker 6: that's cool. Where are you going? He said that he'd
- 9:03Speaker 6: already landed. I'm distracted and going through my excess stuff,
- 9:08Speaker 6: and I really just want to get him off the
- 9:10Speaker 6: phone so I can get back to it. I said,
- 9:14Speaker 6: I hope you have a good time wherever you are.
- 9:17Speaker 6: He said that he needed me to pick him up.
- 9:23Speaker 6: What did you just say you needed me to pick
- 9:28Speaker 6: you up?
- 9:29Speaker 1: Yeah, he replied, I came to visit you.
- 9:33Speaker 6: Pause there for a second. I know for a fact
- 9:39Speaker 6: that I didn't show any more interest in him than
- 9:43Speaker 6: general courtesy. Even the toss over the shoulder look me
- 9:48Speaker 6: up comment was one of those polite things to say,
- 9:52Speaker 6: because you never actually plan on seeing someone again.
- 9:56Speaker 4: Unpause, Why did you come to visit me? I asked.
- 10:02Speaker 6: He said he felt a deep connection and wanted to
- 10:05Speaker 6: be with me. I'm starting to get angry and freaked out.
- 10:11Speaker 6: I told him I didn't feel a connection at all
- 10:15Speaker 6: and couldn't believe that he would fly across the country
- 10:18Speaker 6: to see someone that he'd spent maybe two hours with.
- 10:23Speaker 6: He said that I invited him when I said look
- 10:26Speaker 6: me up, I said, um no, that's just a polite
- 10:32Speaker 6: thing to say to some random person that has made
- 10:35Speaker 6: a very small impression on me. He said that he
- 10:39Speaker 6: needed to find a way back home since I misled him.
- 10:44Speaker 6: Misled him, what the fuck look me up if you're
- 10:50Speaker 6: ever in my neck of the woods had led him
- 10:53Speaker 6: to think that was a basis for any sort of
- 10:56Speaker 6: encounter that was meaningful.
- 10:59Speaker 4: He said that he needed.
- 11:01Speaker 6: A place to stay until he could get the money
- 11:03Speaker 6: for a plane ticket back. I said there were more
- 11:07Speaker 6: than enough hotels that he could stay at while he
- 11:10Speaker 6: got himself sorted out. He said he didn't have any
- 11:14Speaker 6: money after buying the random one way plane ticket. So
- 11:19Speaker 6: at this stage, I'm flabbergasted, I'm angry, and I'm freaked
- 11:25Speaker 6: out that someone would do that on a one way ticket.
- 11:29Speaker 6: I finally caved and said he could stay the night
- 11:32Speaker 6: while he sorted shit out, but I expected him to
- 11:35Speaker 6: be gone no later than the morning of the day
- 11:38Speaker 6: after tomorrow. So I bring him back to my place,
- 11:44Speaker 6: throw pillows and a blanket on the couch, and turn
- 11:47Speaker 6: to head to my bedroom. He asks if he can
- 11:50Speaker 6: sleep with me in my bed, and I'm like, Uh No, Actually,
- 11:56Speaker 6: no fucking way is that going to happen. I pointed
- 11:59Speaker 6: out that I have firearms and that he should not
- 12:03Speaker 6: attempt to come in the next day, I have to work,
- 12:08Speaker 6: so I wake him up in the morning and tell
- 12:10Speaker 6: him to get up and find a way home immediately.
- 12:13Speaker 6: I also told him that I had to work, but
- 12:17Speaker 6: would check in on his progress, because the next morning
- 12:20Speaker 6: I was dropping him off at departures regardless of whether
- 12:24Speaker 6: he had a way back or not. I went to work,
- 12:28Speaker 6: but he blew up my phone all day. He wanted
- 12:32Speaker 6: me to come back to my place for lunch, but
- 12:34Speaker 6: I told him no, I'm way too busy. I finally
- 12:38Speaker 6: get home from work, and I'm chuckling at a text
- 12:41Speaker 6: that I got about my dog from the dog sitter
- 12:43Speaker 6: who was still watching him from when I went on
- 12:46Speaker 6: my trip. I'd look up from my phone to notice
- 12:49Speaker 6: that he rearranged everything in my house while I was gone.
- 12:54Speaker 6: And by everything, I mean every room of the house
- 12:58Speaker 6: has been rearranged. I flipped my lid. I asked him
- 13:03Speaker 6: why he thought it was normal to do any of that.
- 13:06Speaker 6: Instead of answering, he asked me who I'd been talking to.
- 13:11Speaker 6: I said that it really wasn't any of his business,
- 13:14Speaker 6: but I had received the text from a guy who
- 13:17Speaker 6: was watching my dog while I was on vacation. Color
- 13:21Speaker 6: me shocked. When he says that he doesn't want me
- 13:24Speaker 6: to talk to that guy, I'm no longer freaked. A
- 13:29Speaker 6: full force apocalyptic disaster is about to be unleashed, and
- 13:33Speaker 6: it will leave nothing but a smoking crater. The temperature
- 13:38Speaker 6: drops about ten degrees, and I very calmly said to
- 13:43Speaker 6: get his shit, and I was calling a cab to
- 13:46Speaker 6: take him to the airport because he's fucking psycho.
- 13:51Speaker 4: Full rage has been achieved.
- 13:53Speaker 6: When it feels like the temperature drops and I speak
- 13:57Speaker 6: very calmly if I'm complaining about something, it's a quick burn.
- 14:02Speaker 6: If I go monotone calm and tilt my head to
- 14:06Speaker 6: one side slightly. However, that is where I hit Arctic
- 14:12Speaker 6: level anger. So he, unaware of the environmental change that
- 14:18Speaker 6: has occurred and that the chances of survival are dropping
- 14:22Speaker 6: by the second, decides to tell me that he used
- 14:26Speaker 6: my computer and got my exor's phone number, and they
- 14:30Speaker 6: both agree that I was just heartless. We're fast approaching
- 14:36Speaker 6: the epic scale disaster, and he finally seems to notice
- 14:40Speaker 6: how deep into rage I have sunk. I told him
- 14:44Speaker 6: it was unlikely that he had gotten into my computer
- 14:48Speaker 6: because it's a full quote of a part of the
- 14:50Speaker 6: Art of War by sun Suit, and that he would
- 14:53Speaker 6: have to have the processing power of the Hadron collider computer,
- 14:58Speaker 6: and it was obvious.
- 15:00Speaker 4: That was not the case.
- 15:02Speaker 6: I told him he had three minutes to get his
- 15:05Speaker 6: stuff and get out, or I wouldn't be responsible for
- 15:09Speaker 6: what would occur. So, still yelling insults at me, he
- 15:15Speaker 6: gathers his stuff and leaves. Finally, I used to get
- 15:22Speaker 6: calls and texts from him. I'd block one and six
- 15:26Speaker 6: more would pop up, but it eventually stopped. To this day,
- 15:34Speaker 6: I have no idea nor interest in knowing where he's
- 15:38Speaker 6: at or if he made it back.
- 15:41Speaker 4: So to the crazy dude.
- 15:43Speaker 6: Who would hop on a plane with a one way
- 15:46Speaker 6: ticket based on a random, polite comment, let's not meet again.
- 16:01Speaker 1: Our next story is told by Megan Barlac Smith about
- 16:07Speaker 1: an uber driver who decided not to follow the map.
- 16:18Speaker 8: This happened a couple months ago. I was at a
- 16:21Speaker 8: friend's house one night and didn't realize how late it was.
- 16:24Speaker 8: Around two am. I love sleeping in my own bed
- 16:28Speaker 8: so I decided to call an uber home instead of
- 16:30Speaker 8: staying over. My friend lives in a more rural area
- 16:34Speaker 8: of town, so it took a while to get an
- 16:36Speaker 8: Uber and it was around a forty minute drive back
- 16:39Speaker 8: to my house. Upon getting into the Uber, the first
- 16:44Speaker 8: comment he made was telling me how pretty I was. Immediately,
- 16:48Speaker 8: red flags start going off in my head. I'm already
- 16:52Speaker 8: a very anxious person and have always been afraid of
- 16:55Speaker 8: taking ubers alone, especially at night, so I was already
- 16:59Speaker 8: on edge before the comment was made. I just replied
- 17:03Speaker 8: thank you, and he started to drive me home. My
- 17:06Speaker 8: friend was a boy and I assume the Uber driver
- 17:09Speaker 8: saw him standing at the doorway before we left, because
- 17:12Speaker 8: around five minutes into the drive, he asked, was that
- 17:16Speaker 8: your boyfriend. At this point, my gut feeling tells me
- 17:21Speaker 8: something is wrong. I reply yes and say nothing further.
- 17:28Speaker 8: He then proceeds to go on about how lucky my
- 17:31Speaker 8: boyfriend was, and again how pretty I was. At this
- 17:35Speaker 8: point I didn't answer. Around ten minutes into the drive,
- 17:40Speaker 8: the Uber driver tells me that he knows a quicker
- 17:42Speaker 8: way to get to my house and we're going to
- 17:44Speaker 8: take a detour. I immediately start to panic. Inside because
- 17:49Speaker 8: as an anxious Uber writer, I consistently watched the Uber
- 17:52Speaker 8: app on the driver's phone and need to be following
- 17:55Speaker 8: the map. Also, this detour seemed to be going deeper
- 18:01Speaker 8: down the rural roads versus into the city. I then
- 18:04Speaker 8: called my dad, but because it was past three am
- 18:08Speaker 8: at this point, he didn't answer the phone. I then
- 18:11Speaker 8: decide to call nine one one. The operator answers me
- 18:16Speaker 8: right away, and I act like I'm talking to my
- 18:19Speaker 8: dad on the phone. She immediately sensed that I was
- 18:23Speaker 8: unable to tell her the exact situation, but I acted
- 18:26Speaker 8: like I was telling my dad that I was in
- 18:28Speaker 8: an Uber and would be home soon. She then started
- 18:32Speaker 8: to ask me questions about the color of the car,
- 18:34Speaker 8: by having me simply answer yes or no, the make
- 18:38Speaker 8: of the car, my location, et cetera. She asked if
- 18:42Speaker 8: I was in danger and I said I don't know.
- 18:47Speaker 8: After telling her my location, she then told me to
- 18:51Speaker 8: tell the Uber driver to get on the highway because
- 18:54Speaker 8: the detour he had taken consisted of more rural roads. Thankfully,
- 18:59Speaker 8: we were only about five minutes from the highway and
- 19:02Speaker 8: then another ten minutes to the police station. She told
- 19:06Speaker 8: me to tell the Uber driver to drop me off
- 19:08Speaker 8: at a house in a neighborhood close to the police station.
- 19:12Speaker 8: She gave me an exact address and advised that an
- 19:15Speaker 8: officer would be waiting there for me to take me home.
- 19:18Speaker 8: After politely trying to beg the Uber to change the address,
- 19:22Speaker 8: you finally did and continued to go in that direction.
- 19:26Speaker 8: I stayed on the phone with the operator until I
- 19:29Speaker 8: got to the destination. Sure enough, an officer was waiting
- 19:33Speaker 8: a couple of houses down. I got out of the
- 19:36Speaker 8: Uber and walked straight towards the car. I'm not sure
- 19:41Speaker 8: if I was overreacting about the situation due to my anxiety,
- 19:45Speaker 8: especially by calling nine to one one, but the alarms
- 19:47Speaker 8: were going off so loud in my head that I
- 19:51Speaker 8: genuinely thought I needed to in that situation. I now
- 19:56Speaker 8: only take Uber alone in the daytime and always share
- 20:00Speaker 8: my ride with my parents or friends. Stay safe, everyone.
- 20:10Speaker 1: You're listening to disturbed, We'll be right back.
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- 21:11Speaker 3: This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or
- 21:14Speaker 3: prevent any disease.
- 21:18Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Our next story is about
- 21:23Speaker 1: getting trapped in a theater narrated by Dallas Stark.
- 21:36Speaker 5: This happened during my freshman year of college. I was
- 21:39Speaker 5: taking a theater appreciation class and we had to attend
- 21:42Speaker 5: some of the plays the theater department put on. Normally
- 21:46Speaker 5: I went with friends, but for this one I had
- 21:48Speaker 5: to go alone since I had another event when my
- 21:50Speaker 5: friends went. The play started at six point thirty, so
- 21:54Speaker 5: I set out on the short ten minute walk to
- 21:56Speaker 5: the theater. When I arrived, I saw a man's by
- 22:00Speaker 5: the entrance out of habit I smiled at him. I
- 22:03Speaker 5: tend to do that with strangers. He smiled back, but
- 22:07Speaker 5: there's something about him that made me feel uneasy. He
- 22:11Speaker 5: got in line right behind me, and while we waited,
- 22:14Speaker 5: I overheard him muttering to himself about his car and
- 22:17Speaker 5: where it was parked. I wasn't really paying attention until
- 22:21Speaker 5: I heard him say, where are you sitting? I thought
- 22:24Speaker 5: he was talking to someone else, so I didn't respond.
- 22:28Speaker 5: Once my ticket was scanned, I went in and found
- 22:30Speaker 5: my seat, But then, to my surprise, the same man
- 22:34Speaker 5: sat down right next to me. I heard him mumble
- 22:38Speaker 5: I can't believe it, right next to me. His tone
- 22:42Speaker 5: sent a chill through me, but I tried to ignore it.
- 22:46Speaker 5: He was probably in his early thirties, and soon enough
- 22:49Speaker 5: he turned to me and started asking questions. Too many questions?
- 22:54Speaker 5: Do you come to these plays often? He asked? I
- 22:57Speaker 5: told him no. He quickly launched into how he was
- 23:00Speaker 5: a regular and loved them, even mentioning that his girlfriend
- 23:03Speaker 5: was in the play that night. I was still creeped out,
- 23:06Speaker 5: but I felt a twinge of guilt for judging him
- 23:09Speaker 5: so quickly. A girl had been abducted, trafficked, and murdered
- 23:14Speaker 5: in my college town a year or two before I
- 23:16Speaker 5: was there, so I was on edge about getting into
- 23:19Speaker 5: a bad situation. But maybe he was just being friendly.
- 23:23Speaker 5: But then something strange happened. Everything I said. He had
- 23:28Speaker 5: the same interests, the same experiences. It was unsettling. When
- 23:34Speaker 5: he asked what kind of music I liked. I decided
- 23:36Speaker 5: to mention Regina Specter, a lesser known artist, thinking he
- 23:40Speaker 5: wouldn't know her. His response, Oh, I love Regina Specter.
- 23:46Speaker 5: She's amazing. I listened to her all the time. It
- 23:49Speaker 5: was too much. He was agreeing with everything I said,
- 23:53Speaker 5: and the more he did, the more uncomfortable I felt.
- 23:57Speaker 5: Right before the play started, a woman around him age
- 24:00Speaker 5: sat on my other side. The moment she sat down,
- 24:04Speaker 5: he went quiet. Then oddly, the woman struck up the
- 24:08Speaker 5: same kind of small talk with me. She even asked
- 24:12Speaker 5: similar questions, almost as if they had compared notes. As
- 24:16Speaker 5: she talked, she touched my arm a few times in
- 24:19Speaker 5: this weird, too familiar way, just like the man had
- 24:23Speaker 5: done earlier. I felt trapped between them. Thankfully, the play
- 24:29Speaker 5: started and everyone went silent, but I could still feel
- 24:33Speaker 5: their eyes on me, watching me the whole time. At intermission,
- 24:39Speaker 5: the man offered to get me something from concessions. I declined,
- 24:43Speaker 5: but he kept insisting I'll surprise you, he said, his
- 24:47Speaker 5: tone a little too eager. I kept saying no, but
- 24:50Speaker 5: he seemed frustrated and eventually got up to leave. As
- 24:54Speaker 5: soon as he was gone, the woman picked up right
- 24:57Speaker 5: where he left off, asking me about singing because she
- 25:00Speaker 5: thought my voice sounded pretty. I told her I used
- 25:03Speaker 5: to sing in high school but had stopped. Again. She
- 25:07Speaker 5: touched my arm while she talked more than once, and
- 25:10Speaker 5: it made my skin crawl. When the man returned, he
- 25:14Speaker 5: brought back some eminems and milk duds, both of which
- 25:17Speaker 5: looked like they had already been opened. He offered me
- 25:21Speaker 5: the milk duds and I declined. He didn't eat them either,
- 25:24Speaker 5: He just placed them on the floor like he wasn't
- 25:27Speaker 5: sure what to do next. Then he started asking more
- 25:31Speaker 5: personal questions about my family and whether I came to
- 25:35Speaker 5: college alone. I lied, telling him I lived with my
- 25:38Speaker 5: brother in an apartment far from where I actually stayed.
- 25:42Speaker 5: That's when he leaned in and told me he was
- 25:44Speaker 5: an amateur music producer and that I had a great voice.
- 25:48Speaker 5: I should come by his place some time to record.
- 25:51Speaker 5: He just happened to live near where I said I lived.
- 25:54Speaker 5: It was all too much, and attention in my chest
- 25:57Speaker 5: wouldn't go away. Then his phone buzzed. He quickly looked
- 26:02Speaker 5: at it and tried to hide the screen, but I
- 26:05Speaker 5: saw the message, She's really cute. Do you think she'll work?
- 26:10Speaker 5: My heart was racing. I wanted to bolt right then
- 26:13Speaker 5: and there, but I didn't know what to do. The
- 26:16Speaker 5: woman beside me suddenly touched my arm again and whispered
- 26:19Speaker 5: that she was going to the bathroom, suggesting I come
- 26:22Speaker 5: with her. At first, I thought maybe she had noticed
- 26:26Speaker 5: the man's odd behavior and was trying to help. But
- 26:29Speaker 5: then I saw her phone light up in her lap
- 26:32Speaker 5: with a message that read yes it was from an
- 26:36Speaker 5: unsaved number. I felt my stomach drop. She never went
- 26:41Speaker 5: to the bathroom. We all just sat there as the
- 26:44Speaker 5: second half of the play dragged on. Tension thick in
- 26:48Speaker 5: the air. Both of them kept glancing at me, and
- 26:51Speaker 5: I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. The
- 26:55Speaker 5: moment the play ended, I got up and climbed over
- 26:57Speaker 5: the woman, making my way to the exit as fast
- 27:00Speaker 5: as possible. Once outside, I darted into the bathroom, trying
- 27:04Speaker 5: to collect myself. When I finally came out, I saw
- 27:08Speaker 5: the man a woman standing in the corner of the
- 27:10Speaker 5: foyer having what looked like a heated whispering argument. When
- 27:14Speaker 5: the woman spotted me, she immediately stopped talking, and the
- 27:18Speaker 5: man began walking toward me. I can give you a
- 27:21Speaker 5: ride to your apartment, he offered. I told him no,
- 27:24Speaker 5: that my brother was picking me up. Just then, one
- 27:27Speaker 5: of my classmates ran over, calling out to.
- 27:29Speaker 3: Me, Susie, Hey, Susie.
- 27:32Speaker 5: The man backed off when he saw my friend. We
- 27:35Speaker 5: left together, and as we walked out, I heard him
- 27:38Speaker 5: yell behind me, Susie, hoped to see you again. I
- 27:42Speaker 5: didn't look back. I just ran, staying on the phone
- 27:45Speaker 5: with my mom the whole way home. I can't stop
- 27:49Speaker 5: wondering why did they act like they didn't know each
- 27:53Speaker 5: other when they clearly did. Why did they both ask
- 27:57Speaker 5: me the same creepy questions, touching my arm like they
- 28:01Speaker 5: were trying to establish some weird familiarity. And what was
- 28:05Speaker 5: with the text? Were they communicating with each other about
- 28:09Speaker 5: me the whole time? Where did that candy come from?
- 28:13Speaker 5: Why was it already opened? Why didn't he eat it?
- 28:16Speaker 5: And why did they keep acting like they were trying
- 28:18Speaker 5: to separate me, asking if I wanted to go to
- 28:21Speaker 5: the bathroom or ride with them? Am I paranoid? There
- 28:25Speaker 5: was something seriously wrong.
- 28:36Speaker 1: Our final story is narrated by Hannah Robertson from our
- 28:41Speaker 1: slash Creepy Encounters. We all love pizza, but the interaction
- 28:48Speaker 1: is supposed to end when the delivery guy drives off.
- 28:58Speaker 7: So me and my boyfriend going out dancing on the weekend,
- 29:02Speaker 7: which always ends with us stumbling into our favorite pizza
- 29:04Speaker 7: place before joining the taxique. We've done this most weekends
- 29:08Speaker 7: for over a year now, so have become somewhat friendly
- 29:11Speaker 7: with the guys who owned the pizzeria. They know us
- 29:14Speaker 7: by name and always make a big fuss over us
- 29:17Speaker 7: and offer us discounts every time. Well, last Sunday night,
- 29:23Speaker 7: around eleven pm, my boyfriend and I were in bed
- 29:26Speaker 7: because we both had work. This morning, my phone started ringing,
- 29:30Speaker 7: weird for that time of night, and I saw it
- 29:33Speaker 7: was an unknown number, so ignored it. Next thing we know,
- 29:37Speaker 7: there's someone knocking on the front door. All the lights
- 29:40Speaker 7: in the house were off, so we were clearly in
- 29:42Speaker 7: bed or not in. I had another call from the
- 29:45Speaker 7: same number, and then the person knocking started hammering on
- 29:48Speaker 7: the door and flicking the letterbox. My boyfriend got up
- 29:52Speaker 7: to answer it, even though I was a bit shaken
- 29:54Speaker 7: up and warned him not to. If I had been
- 29:56Speaker 7: alone in the house, I never would have answered. Goes
- 30:00Speaker 7: downstairs to answer the door, and lo and behold, it's
- 30:04Speaker 7: one of the guys from the pizzeria holding two freshly
- 30:07Speaker 7: cooked pizzas that we didn't order. He said not to
- 30:10Speaker 7: tell the other guys at the shop, but they were
- 30:13Speaker 7: a gift from him to us, his favorite customers. My
- 30:17Speaker 7: boyfriend took them from him and thanked him, but we
- 30:21Speaker 7: couldn't get back to sleep for hours. We just felt
- 30:24Speaker 7: so odd about it. A couple of weeks later, we
- 30:28Speaker 7: went out for drinks and ended up back at the
- 30:30Speaker 7: pizza shop. We noticed immediately that Bill wasn't there, and
- 30:35Speaker 7: I assumed that he was out on a delivery instead.
- 30:38Speaker 7: Before we left, though, the manager came out of the
- 30:40Speaker 7: back and said hello, and then apologized profusely about Bill's
- 30:44Speaker 7: behavior and told us that he fired him. He was
- 30:48Speaker 7: very thankful that we weren't boycotting the place, and I
- 30:50Speaker 7: assured him we wouldn't because it really was the best
- 30:53Speaker 7: pizza around. I'm not sure how the manager found out
- 30:57Speaker 7: about Bill bringing the pizzas to our house. I informed
- 31:00Speaker 7: the manager about everything else that happened that night, how
- 31:03Speaker 7: late it was Bill calling my phone, etc. He was furious,
- 31:07Speaker 7: to say the least. He assured us that he wouldn't
- 31:10Speaker 7: be letting him work there again, and my partner and
- 31:13Speaker 7: I went on our way and went home. A few
- 31:17Speaker 7: months later, we moved houses and completely forgot about how
- 31:21Speaker 7: weird Bill and that whole situation was until he showed
- 31:26Speaker 7: up one night at our new house. He was delivering
- 31:29Speaker 7: food for Uber Eats and happened to pick up our order.
- 31:33Speaker 7: I didn't want to take it further because we hadn't
- 31:36Speaker 7: heard or seen him in months, so we just left
- 31:39Speaker 7: it alone and went about our life. About a month ago,
- 31:44Speaker 7: I was going through my message requests on Facebook and
- 31:47Speaker 7: I saw that someone called Bill had been messaging me
- 31:50Speaker 7: or trying to for months. I went into the messages
- 31:54Speaker 7: and clicked his profile and lo and behold, it was
- 31:57Speaker 7: creepy Bill. I blocked him in meeting and that's when
- 32:01Speaker 7: I decided to report him on Uber eight. So I
- 32:03Speaker 7: filed a complaint about him, and I haven't heard anything since.
- 32:07Speaker 7: But yeah, I have no idea how he found me
- 32:09Speaker 7: on Facebook or how he knew my surname, but he
- 32:12Speaker 7: did and try to message me for months. It's just
- 32:17Speaker 7: so creepy. What does this guy want from us? We
- 32:21Speaker 7: just got pets at the place he worked. What gives
- 32:24Speaker 7: I hope? I don't have to do anything more drastic
- 32:26Speaker 7: to get Bill off our backs and out of our
- 32:28Speaker 7: lives for good.
- 32:41Speaker 1: Want more Disturbed check out our patreon for member exclusive content,
- 32:47Speaker 1: early merch access, and other cool perks. I'm your host,
- 32:55Speaker 1: Doug Bailey, and this has been Disturbed, a production of
- 32:59Speaker 1: Killing Podcasts and part of the Evergreen Network. For more
- 33:03Speaker 1: paranormal and true crime shows, visit Killer Podcasts dot com.
- 33:08Speaker 1: Follow our social channels at Disturbed podcast on Instagram or
- 33:12Speaker 1: Disturbed Underscore Pod on Twitter. If you enjoyed the show,
- 33:17Speaker 1: please consider subscribing and reviewing on your favorite listening platform.
- 33:22Speaker 4: Share your own.
- 33:23Speaker 1: True horror story at Disturbed podcast dot com. Music by
- 33:27Speaker 1: Epidemic Sound and by Carl Casey at Whitebat Audio.
- 33:32Speaker 4: Our producer is Elizabeth Flood.
- 33:34Speaker 1: Our sound designer and are your Engineer is Mason Corson.
- 33:38Speaker 1: Executive producers Bridget Korner and Yoah Fouts. Until next time,
- 33:44Speaker 1: stay safe out there.
- 33:51Speaker 4: Hello.
- 33:52Speaker 3: We have this superb podcast called We Didn't Start the Fire.
- 33:55Speaker 4: The Only podcast started by Billy Joel.
- 33:58Speaker 1: Is the most original, fascinating and random way to learn
- 34:01Speaker 1: the story of the twentieth century.
- 34:03Speaker 9: Oh pretty darned random, and we are joined by some
- 34:06Speaker 9: pretty incredible guests.
- 34:07Speaker 2: I only wrote stuff that I wanted to hear if
- 34:10Speaker 2: it turned out to be a hit, it was pure
- 34:11Speaker 2: dumb luck with me, Katie Puckrick, Me Tom Ford. I.
- 34:15Speaker 2: This is We Didn't Start the Fire, The Only podcast
- 34:18Speaker 2: started by me, Billy Joel,