Latest / Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained / 4 Disturbing TRUE Scary Stories

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4 Disturbing TRUE Scary Stories · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I had spent a few days in Austin visiting friends.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I live in Louisiana, so it's sort of an all-day drive.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: On my last day in Austin, my old friend Tom
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: had commented on my Instagram story asking when I leave,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and I said today. He told me he lived an
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: hour outside of Austin, which was actually in the direction
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: home for me. I hadn't seen Tom in years, and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: it would be nice to catch up. He said I
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: should stop by, and I said sure, why not. I
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: set my GPS for Tom's address, and it said about
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: an hour and a half drive. Tom and I had
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: been friends back in high school, but lost touch after graduation.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: We followed each other on social media, but hadn't really
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: spoken in years. When I pulled up, I noticed his
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: house was a little old fashioned. It wasn't run down
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: or anything, just aged. The wooden porch creaked under my steps,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and when he opened the door, I caught the scent
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of old wood and something rustic, like an old cabin
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: in the woods. Tom was of course very welcoming, giving
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: me a big hug and pulling me inside. Some friendships
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: stayed just as pure no matter how much time passes.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: The inside of the house was just as old as
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the outside. The furniture looked like it had been around
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: since the 70s, and every step I took on the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: hardwood floors let out a small creak. It felt kind
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: of Texas, I guess. It was kind of charming in
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: a way, like stepping back in time. We sat down
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: in his living room, catching up on life drinking whiskey.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It was like 5pm by this point. One drink turned
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: into two, two into three, and before I knew it,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I was pretty drunk. The warmth of the alcohol made
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: the room feel smaller, cozier, but also heavier. Hours passed
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: like minutes, honestly. We were having such a good time
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: catching up that eventually he dropped the question I knew
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: he'd ask. Hey man, you got a long drive back.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Why don't you crash here for the night?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: He offered.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I hesitated, but he was right. I wasn't in any
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: shape to be on the road. I said, yeah, good idea,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and asked if I'd take the couch we were on.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: And then he said, nah, I got a spare room.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: It's nothing fancy, but it's better than the couch. That
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: was good enough for me. We ate some Chinese food
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: that we had delivered, and after a while, he led
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: me down a short hallway to the spare bedroom. I
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: didn't pay much attention to the inside of the room
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: because I was hammered.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: We both were.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: But I remember the air in the room was still,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: like the room hadn't been used in a long time.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I barely had time to register my surroundings before I
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: collapsed onto the bed, completely exhausted and drunk. Sometime in
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: the middle of the night, I woke up. My mouth
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: was dry, my head was spinning, and the room was dark,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: except for a little bit of moonlight sneaking in through
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the blinds. That's when I saw it. In the far
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: corner of the room, on the closet door, there was
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: something hanging. At first, it looked like a long black
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: trench coat on a coat rack, but as my eyes adjusted...
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: The shape of it felt wrong. It had a broad
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: upper portion, almost like shoulders, and the way it hung
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: made it look less like fabric and more like a silhouette.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: My heart pounded in my chest. I didn't remember seeing
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: that when I stumbled into the bed, but I had
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: been drunk. Maybe I just hadn't noticed. I rolled over,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: trying to ignore it. It was just a coat, nothing more,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: but I couldn't help myself. I peeked again, still there.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I squeezed my eyes shut, took a deep breath, and
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: forced myself to sleep.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know how long I.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Was out there before I woke up again. It wasn't
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: just discomfort that pulled me from sleep. It was sound.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: A slow, soft creaking, like someone stepping carefully on an
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: old wooden floor.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: My eyes shot open.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: The room was dimly lit now, dawn creeping through the blinds.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I turned my head toward the corner, and my stomach dropped.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: The coat was gone. I sat up so fast that
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: my head spun. My body was buzzing with a sickening
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: mix of fear and leftover alcohol. I scanned the room,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: my heart thudding against my ribs. There was nothing in
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the corner, just an empty closet door. I threw the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: covers off and rushed to Tom's room. He was snoring,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: completely unaware of the panic storming through me. I shook
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: him awake, which took a lot of effort considering he
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: was out from all that alcohol. He finally woke up
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: very confused, rubbing his eyes. The coat, I said breathlessly.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: The one on the coat rack in the spare room.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: He squinted at me, confused. What coat, he said. The
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: black trench coat, the one that was hanging on the
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: closet door. It looked like a person almost. Tom sat up,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: looking more awake now. I don't own a trench coat, man.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: I don't even have a coat rack in that room,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: he said.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: I stared at him.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Waiting for him to say he was messing with me,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: that this was some kind of joke, but his expression
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: stayed serious.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Come look, I said.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: He sighed, but got up and followed me back to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the spare bedroom. I pointed to the exact spot. It
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: was right there, I said. Tom scratched his head. He
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: asked me if I was sure I wasn't just dreaming,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: but I said I know what I saw. I insisted,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: with my voice shaking slightly. I woke up and it
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: was there, Then I woke up again and it was gone,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: I said. We stood in the room for a few moments,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: both of us feeling the same eerie silence pressing in
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: on us. Tom finally exhaled and shook his head, agreeing
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: we should check the house just in case. We searched
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: every room, every closet, every corner.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Nothing.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: No signs of forced entry, no weird coats hanging anywhere,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: nothing that could explain what I saw. Eventually, Tom tried
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: to convince me that maybe I had been in some
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: kind of half-dream state, seeing things that weren't there. I
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: wanted to believe that, really. I didn't want to think
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: about the alternative. As soon as the sun was fully up,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I grabbed my stuff, said goodbye, and hit the road.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I almost felt guilty leaving him alone after that. The
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: whole drive back to Louisiana, my mind kept circling back
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to that moment, waking up to that coat-like figure staring
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: at me from the corner. The way it was just
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: gone in the morning. Maybe Tom played a cruel prank
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: on me, but to this day he's never admitted to anything,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: so I doubt that. Or maybe, just maybe, there had
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: been someone in that house watching me sleep, and they
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: decided to leave before the morning came. This happened to
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: me when I was 18 years old. I was on
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: a trip with my parents and a friend of mine,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: whom we can call Anna. This story takes place in
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Sweden when we were on a road trip. My parents, Anna,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and I were going on a domestic trip, and we
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: had an eight-hour drive from home. The plan was to
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: visit a theme park and stay at a campsite, but
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: we hadn't booked one. The day came, and we arrived
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: in the city where the theme park was located, but
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: we planned to visit it the next day, so we
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: needed a place to sleep. Since we had brought tents
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: in our car, my dad searched online for a nearby campsite.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: He found one that seemed good and close by, so
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: he called the campsite. Unfortunately, that day coincided with a
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: big soccer tournament, and the campsite was fully booked. Since
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: we hadn't reserved a spot in advance, there was no
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: space left for us. My dad called around, but we
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: couldn't find any campsites that were reasonably priced and near
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the theme park. Our only option was to find a
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: camping spot in nature. We set the GPS to the
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: nearest parking area in a forest to avoid parking fines. Eventually,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: we found a spot in a nature reserve. When we arrived,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: there were some people around, so we asked if it
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: was okay to set up our tents there and whether
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: it was a good place to stay. A woman who
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: was hiking told us it was a good place to
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: sleep and that there were no parking attendants. Based on that,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: we decided to sleep in a small, lonely gravel parking lot.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: We were surrounded by forest and a 10 minute walk
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: away was a beach. At first, we considered setting up
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: our tents on the beach, but something told me it
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: would be better to camp in the parking lot. As
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: we got out of the car to set up our
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: shelter for the night, I noticed a lone car parked
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: further away in the lot. It looked like it was
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: in bad condition, and there was no one inside. I
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: found it strange because it was already evening, so there
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: were no more people at the beach or hiking in
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the woods. However, I didn't think too much about it
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: at the time. I helped my parents set up our tents.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: They were sleeping in one tent, while Anna and I
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: shared the other, with both tents placed close together. After
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: struggling to build them, we finally finished. Anna and I
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: made our tent cozy, watched YouTube, and ate snacks. By
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: this time, it was around 11pm. We wanted to sleep
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: at a decent hour, so we wouldn't be too tired
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the next day. After a while, around midnight, we decided
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: to sleep. At this point, my parents were already asleep
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: in their tent. Anna and I were scrolling through TikTok
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: when we suddenly heard a metallic sound from the parking lot.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: It sounded like a shovel being thrown onto the gravel.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: We both jumped in fear and asked each other what
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: it could be. Too scared to peek out of the
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: tent window, we chose to stay silent and listen. The
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: sound had come from the same direction.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: As the abandoned car.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: We then heard what I assumed was a shovel being
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: thrown into the car's trunk, followed by the trunk slamming shut.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: We sat in silence, our hearts pounding. Then we heard
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the car speed off as if someone were trying to
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: get away quickly. I texted a friend from a nearby city,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: telling him where we were staying. He replied, warning me
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: that the beach nearby was known to be dangerous. with
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: organized criminals often engaging in illegal activities there we had
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: no idea about this before when i read my friend's
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: message i felt cold and deeply unsettled about 10 minutes
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: passed in silence after the car sped away anna and
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: i had started to calm down a little when out
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: of nowhere We heard the loudest, most blood-curdling scream from
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: a man coming from the woods. We were absolutely horrified.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I immediately texted my mom, telling her we just heard
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: a loud scream. When she didn't respond, I called her
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: phone to wake her up. She finally answered and said
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: neither she nor my dad heard anything. She reassured me
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: that it was probably nothing serious, but at that moment,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I couldn't think of any normal reason for someone to
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: scream like that. Anna and I crawled onto the blankets, terrified,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: not knowing what was happening. Every minute felt like an hour.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Even though it was midnight, we were too scared to sleep. Suddenly,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: everything became eerily silent.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Then, my blood ran cold. I heard footsteps.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Someone was walking around our tents, moving stealthily. Anna and
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I sat up, frozen in fear. I put my phone
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: down so that its light wouldn't illuminate the tent. My
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: heart was racing, and I could hear my own pulse.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: There was no logical reason for anyone to be walking
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: around our tents in the middle of the forest at
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: this hour. The footsteps moved around our tent first, then
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: toward my parents' tent, and then circled around our car,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: which was parked nearby. The person stopped and seemed to
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: be looking at our tents. For a moment, there was
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: complete silence. Then, I heard the same car from earlier returning.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Its headlights lit up our tents, and Anna and I
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: quickly laid down to avoid being seen. I gathered the
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: courage to peek through the small tent window. I saw
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the car door slam shut before it sped off again.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I felt a brief moment of relief when the person left.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: From my vantage point, I could see the road they
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: had driven down. Five minutes later, I saw another car
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: approaching fast. It was a police car, racing in the
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: same direction the other car had gone. Nothing else happened
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: after that. Anna and I were still shaken, so we
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: decided to sit in a locked car to feel safer.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I stayed awake until around 5 a.m., keeping watch over
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the forest, while Anna eventually fell asleep beside me. After
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: about an hour, we went back to our tent, and
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: out of sheer exhaustion, finally fell asleep. We woke up
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: around 9 a.m., completely drained. I told my mom everything
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: that happened, and she revealed that she had also heard
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: the footsteps, but when the person was near their tent,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: she had also heard heavy breathing. like the kind you
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: hear in horror movies during a scary phone call. She
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: had been terrified, too. However, my dad had slept through
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the whole thing, so we had to tell him the story.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Without hesitation, we immediately packed our things in the tents,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: eager to leave as soon as possible. None of us
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: wanted to stay there any longer. Despite the terrifying night,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: we had a good time at the theme park later
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: that day. However, that evening, I decided to research the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: forest where we had camped. What I found made my
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: stomach drop. Just a short time before our visit, a
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: man had been murdered there, stabbed to death due to
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: gang-related deaths. Even more disturbingly, two men had gone missing
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: from that exact beach and had never been found. I
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: couldn't stop thinking about it. What if the person walking
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: around our tents was a dangerous individual, checking to see
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: if there were any witnesses? What if we had been
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: in serious danger without realizing it? Even now, I still
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: think about that night. Who made that horrifying scream? And
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: why was someone using a shovel in the middle of
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the night in a forest? And the police, what exactly
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: were they chasing? I guess I'll never know. This is
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: a story that still haunts me when I think about it,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: even though I was so young when it happened. Six
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: is around the age where a lot of my childhood
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: memories start to become more clear. I have one sibling,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: my older brother Keith. Keith is two years older than me,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: so at the time he was eight. When I was six,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: I had a strict bedtime, 8.30. If I didn't abide
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: by it, or our dad caught either of us up
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: past our bedtime, we'd be in serious trouble. Our dad
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: was always strict with us as kids. Honestly, I don't
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: remember if this happened on a school night or not,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: but I woke up in the middle of the night
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: to Keith shaking me awake. Keith and I shared a
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: big bedroom upstairs in the house. My parents' room was
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: on the first floor of the house. I was confused
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: why Keith was waking me up until he told me
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: in a whisper to be quiet and listen. And I
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: did listen, and I heard what he was talking about.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: It was our mom's voice calling for us downstairs, but
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: it was in a very quiet, whisperish type of voice.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: I was going to get up to go answer our mom,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: but my brother told me not to. He said that
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: he didn't think it was mom. I told him to
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: stop trying to scare me. I remember being so mad
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: at him. He told me to go closer and listen,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: so I got up and went towards the bedroom door.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Right outside of our bedroom door was the little hall
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: that led to the bathroom and another bedroom that our
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: grandma would sleep in whenever she'd sleep over. Directly to
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the right, when you leave our bedroom, was the stairway downstairs,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: which had a door as well. I put my ear
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: up on the bedroom door, and I heard the voice clearer.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: It sounded like our mom's voice, calling our names.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Keith! Mikey!
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I said to Keith, that's mom, and he said no
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: it's not. Somehow, as a six-year-old, and as the little brother,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I found myself being the one confident enough to open
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: our bedroom door and then listen through the stairway door.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: But now, the voice stopped. I whispered to Keith that
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Mom walked away, and again he said, that's not Mom.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I kept telling him to shut up and that he
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: was scaring me. I unlocked the stairway door and slowly
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: pulled it open to avoid making noise, and when the
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: door was open just enough, I peered through the opening.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: At the bottom of the stairs was clear as day
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the silhouette of a person, a woman, but right away
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I knew it was not our mom. Whoever it was,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: she saw me because she said, Hi sweetie, come down.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Immediately I shut the door and locked it and went
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: back into our bedroom and locked that door as well.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I started to cry and Keith kept saying I told you.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: We both agreed to start screaming as loud as we
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: could on three to wake our parents. So on three,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: we started stomping on the floor and screaming as loud
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: as we could. It didn't take long for our parents
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: to barge up the stairs pounding on the locked door.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: At first, our dad was pissed about the door being locked.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: But as soon as we let them in, they saw
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: that I had been crying and we were genuinely disturbed
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: about something.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: They listened to us. My mom was.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Particularly concerned after telling us she was not at the
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: bottom of the stairs and she was not calling our names.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: She asked what the woman looked like, but all we
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: could say was we couldn't tell. Meanwhile, I remember our
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: dad running downstairs to, I guess, look around for the woman.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: After a bit, our mom kissed us goodnight again and
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure she told us to lock the doors,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: which was a first. I was too young to catch on,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: but it seemed as if our parents knew exactly who
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: it could have been. Keith and I looked out the
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: window when we heard the doorbell after a while and
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: we saw a police car outside. We wanted to go downstairs,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: but we stayed put. I remember we begged our parents
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: to tell us who it was and what happened, but
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: our parents would always say they didn't know. They would
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: also say they're proud of us for not going downstairs. Personally,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I think they did know who it was, and to
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: save my brother and I from any kind of further
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: trauma or fear, they just never told us, because the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: last time I saw my parents for dinner, I asked
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: them about it, and they still shrugged it off as
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: some random intruder, but that never explained how that woman
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: knew our names. This happened when I was 16. I
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: was still in high school. I obviously didn't have a
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: car yet, so I was at the mercy of my
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: parents driving me around, or just walking if it was close.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: It was the weekend.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: My friend Haley was having some of our friends over
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: since her parents weren't home. My mom drove me to
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: her house. Haley lived close, about a 3 minute drive
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: and 20 minute walk. My mom was single at the time,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and she also liked to go out too, so she
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: told me that if she's out late, then to just
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: walk or get a ride home, which meant she was
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: going on a date. A few of our girlfriends were
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: at Haley's house, Tina, Courtney, and Belle. The five of
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: us hung out in her backyard for a few hours
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: until some boys from our school unexpectedly showed up. By unexpectedly,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I mean Haley didn't tell me she was inviting them.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: The reason I was annoyed by this was because one
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: of the boys that showed up was a boy I
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: had some annoying history with and didn't really want to see.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Haley thought she was being cute and sneaky by inviting
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: him there, against my knowledge, because she for some reason
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: wanted him and I to work things out. It was
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: just an awkward mess. There were four boys and five girls,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: including me, so eventually, I just decided I wasn't really
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: feeling it.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: So, after a while, I left.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I'm sure after I left that some of the others
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: started to leave shortly after, because it was already late,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: but I just didn't want to be around those boys.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I made sure to let Haley know how pissed off
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: I was over texts as I was walking home. and
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: she kept saying, OMG, come back. She apologized, and I
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: forgave her, but I still just wanted to go home.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: I walked for like five minutes until I slowed down.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I thought I heard footsteps behind me, and when I
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: slowed down, I confirmed I heard footsteps that weren't mine.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: I turned around, and there was a middle-aged man with
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: a hood up over his head and his hands in
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: his hoodie pocket.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: He was smiling.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Looking at me, and said, how you doing? I responded, hi,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: and just turned and kept walking. We were in the suburbs,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: people are walking around, it's not unheard of, even if
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: it was late. Five minutes more passed of me walking,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: and every time I'd glance around, that man would still
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: be behind me, more or less the same distance away.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: maybe a little closer each time I looked. It was
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: not a straight path home. I'd have to make multiple
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: turns onto intersecting roads to get to my house, and
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: each turn I made, he was still there. I was
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: texting my friends about it, and then the man from
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: behind me said, isn't it such a nice night?
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Love this weather. I replied back, yeah, and that was it.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I started walking just a bit faster, but not enough
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: to draw suspicion like that I'm running away. The man
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: spoke again, and every time he opened his mouth, part
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: of me died a little more inside. Like, why was
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: he talking to me? Why was he following me? He asked,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: are you from the neighborhood? I replied, no.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: I was making my answer short and firm. The man chuckled.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: I started asking all my friends for help, to send
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: one of the guys to come pick me up. Ironically,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: the boy who I was trying to avoid was on
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: his way to come get me. I'll just nickname him Brandon.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: The man behind me then said something that changed everything.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: He said, I'm not going to hurt you. You live
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: by the elementary school, right? I turned around, and he
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: stopped in his tracks. He was still smiling, but now
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: his smile seemed more disingenuous, more sinister. I screamed, leave
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: me alone, and started to run. I heard the man
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: running behind me, catching up to me. At that point,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: it was my life on the line, so I started
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: screaming bloody murder. I started screaming help me, for everyone
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: in their houses to wake up and hear. The man
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: dropped his nice guy facade and said shut up you
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: little bitch. My screams definitely scared him off because he
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: obviously didn't want a bunch of witnesses about to come
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: out of their houses. He ran away into the darkness
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: and I saw some lights in the houses around me
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: turn on. One couple came out of their house and
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I explained I almost got kidnapped. I stayed there in
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: front of their house until Brandon arrived to pick me up.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: He drove me home. It was only like a one
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: minute drive after that. My mom wasn't home, she was out.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and she wasn't answering my texts. I didn't want to
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: be alone, so I invited Brandon in to stay the night.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: I know he was the happiest camper alive, but it
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: didn't end there. We were up late just talking and
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: reminiscing about old times when we both heard footsteps circling
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the house. My room in that house was upstairs facing
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the backyard. We heard the gate to the backyard opening.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: My mom would never enter through the backyard, so something
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: was off. I held back from yelling out, Mom. and instead,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Brandon and I just looked out the window, watching. We
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: didn't hear any more sounds. We were expecting to see
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: someone walking around the yard, but instead, we both heard
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: a man's voice say, I see you up there. I
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: let out a very audible gasp, and I stepped away
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: from the window. Brandon yelled out something along the lines of,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: we're calling the cops, you pussy freak.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: That's exactly what we did.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: The fact that this man knew where I lived, he
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: probably knew who I was.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: What if he knew I was going to Haley's house?
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Brandon did a lot of the talking on the phone
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: with 911. Looking back, I know he tried really hard
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: to be the man in the situation, and I appreciated that.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I was honestly so happy he came inside. The cops
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: showed up, and their presence just made me feel safer.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Even just giving them a description of this man made
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: me feel better, like at least something was done. My
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: mom got home soon after, and she was just as
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: freaked out as I was. They kept a police car
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: parked on the block for a few hours as a deterrent, thankfully.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: From there on, I didn't do any walking at night.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: I was even scared to go into our backyard after that.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: My mom had to have our uncle come over and
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: install an entire security camera system. He made no effort
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: in hiding them. They were on full display to deter
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: that creepy man and any other creep from coming to
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: that house. I'm glad to say that the story ended there.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: because this incident also prompted my mom to sell that
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: house about a year later, just because she hated seeing
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: me living in constant fear in that house.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: We never found out who that man was.