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Chilling Stories to Keep You Up All Night · True Horror Stories

• 0:18
  Speaker 1: To give some explanation and background knowledge for this whole encounter.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I was around fifteen when this occurred. I was camping
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: out in the middle of nowhere with my family and
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: part of my extended family. I was the oldest kid
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: there in the RV, so you can probably understand how
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: it felt to have no one else do the stupid
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: crap I did. Back then, there was a good two
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: year gap between me and the inferiors. It was almost
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: like nirvana when I got to the campground and met
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the other teenagers. These were all people we knew fairly
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: well from previous camping trips, so it was considered normal
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to hit it off with them from the start and
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: act like we've known each there for a long time.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Now onto the story. My parents trusted me a lot.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I like to have fun, but I also liked being
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: home in time for dinner equally as much. So when
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I was gone for most of the day with other
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: people from the camp they didn't really think much of it.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: The only rule was I had to be back at
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the RV to eat dinner, which was around eight thirty.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: So picture this a group of sixteenagers, all fifteen to sixteen,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: out in the forest with no adult supervision for the
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: vast majority of the day. That is a recipe for
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: success right there. But on this particular day, we found
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a neat deer trail that we had never seen before.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: On second thought, it didn't really seem like a deer trail.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: It snaked through a very thick part of the underbrush,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: maybe a foot of clear ground. It's a really hard
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: thing to pick out of a brush unless you're either
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: looking or know where it is. Of course, it was
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: promptly explored, marked with a broken branch outside of the entrance,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: and soon was forgotten. But I made note of a
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: very small tunnel that was just off this trail. While
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: we were all eating dinner, one of the adults proposed
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: that we played manhunt out in the woods. Not everyone
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: was totally on board with this idea, but in the
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: grand scheme of the plan, they were all squashed down
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: like autumn leaves. Everyone got a flashlight, and everyone was
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: assigned to a team. For those of you who aren't
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: sure what manhunt is, here's a brief explanation. Everyone who
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: is playing is given a flashflight. They are divided into
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: two groups. It's basically like a glorified game of flashlight tag.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: But there's a catch. As you catch people, you have
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: to correctly identify who they are, and if you do,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: they can join forces with the hunters. The last man standing.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: It's a candy bar or something whatever is being offered
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: as a prize. This is how we played it anyways.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: For the first round, I got lumped in with the runners,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: those who are being chased by the hunters. We get
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: a five minute head start. We can run, climb a tree,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: whatever the hell we want to do to evade the hunters,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: usually him the guy up in the tree, but then
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: never really worked out as being much of a winning spot.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: So to try to score a win for once and
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: use one sheer fire method of escape. The hiding spot
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: was that small tunnel off the path that I mentioned earlier.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: It took almost the entire head start time to find
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: the damn thing because it was so well hidden and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: out of the way. As I passed hiding spots, I
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: heard hushed, smothered whispering from the other runners who were
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: questioning my actions. It should be noted that I have
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: bat like hearing. My ears were probably my greatest asset
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: in this game. But when I'm approaching the destination, I
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: hear the blast of the air horn announcing that the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: five minutes were up. I made this last minute swan
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: dive into a patch in the overgrowth, shuffling on my
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: hands and knees until about half way in, crouching down
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: like some huge, malformed quail. I then entered the tunnel.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: The hunters were doing their initial sweep through the trails,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: looking for obvious hiders and people caught trying to change spots.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: When they finally got to me, they reached the dead
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: end and went straight back. I tried to readjust to
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: myself and crawl further down the tunnel. I honestly don't
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: know how this happened, but I found an even more
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: hidden path. I dragged myself down the rabbit hole. Instead
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: of ending in a dead end, this one ended in
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: a slight I don't ever want to describe exactly what
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I found there, but I'll give you what I can.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: It was a young woman. She had no clothes on.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: She was in the fetal position, covered in lacerations and
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: stab wounds. Her glassy, glazed eyes seemed to look straight
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: through me. I won't go any further than that. I
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: was too frightened to even scream. I froze on the
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: spot as stains formed on my jeens. I was in
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: a pseudo catatonic state, like a marble carving for what
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: felt like ours. I then heard someone else coming along
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the path. Have you ever been so scared for one
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: moment that you consider something incredibly stupid as a viable
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: option to escape. That was one of those moments. I
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: let out a short, trembling whimper and started moving. Whoever
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: was on the path stopped and then eagerly started moving
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: forward again. I could hear their panting, a horrible indication
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: that whoever it was was getting closer and closer to
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: me by the second. By some wondrous, beautiful miracle, they
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: missed the path leading to the hollow. I heard him
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: moving down past the entrance, dragging something clunky and awkward
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: behind him. After re entering the small tunnel, I heard
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: a low curse somewhere towards the other side. I then
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: blasted out of the overgrowth. Cracks, crashes, and obnoxious rustling
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: was all around me as I heard the man breathing heavily.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: The horse deep panting was getting closer and closer to me.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: A testament of how I was too slow at exiting.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Somehow I emerged from deer trail and started booking it
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: down the trail. The unknown pursuer was close behind me
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: for a bit, but it seemed like he was too
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: exhausted to chase me any further. I know that everyone
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: loves to rip on the fact that people always trip
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: in horror films, but in all honesty, tripping is something
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: that I am amazed I didn't do. It felt like
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: an eternity, but I finally reached the main trail running
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: back to the camp, I sprinted down it, screaming, bloody murder.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Confused faces looked out from the trees, and I think
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: somebody called after me. Reaching the camp was easy, but
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: trying to explain why I woke up half of the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: people in the camp and bolted out of the woods
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: at breakinneck's speed was harder. When I finally choked out
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the words, I remember a profound silence throughout the group
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: of adults waiting at the mouth of the trail. I
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: really can't recall a whole lot from beyond that point.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I know the cops came, and my mother and aunt
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: ran shrieking and wailing along the trail, calling for the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: other kids to come back to safety. They rounded up
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: everyone in thirty seconds flat and barreled back into the camp.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: The police found a man in the woods, creeping along
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the trail, clutching a knife and a trash bag with
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: an assortment of sharp instruments found abandoned on the trail,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: some speckled and smeared with dried blood. I don't think
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: there's any way for a kid to get over something
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: like that. In fact, I still have nightmare sometimes of
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the man chasing me, breathing heavily down the back of
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: my neck, trying to catch me, and sometimes he succeeds.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: This happened when I was five years old. Unfortunately I
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: can't remember a lot of the details, but my parents
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: helped me fill in the gaps. I was in dig
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: here because my father was our main source of income,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: and my mother was just beginning to work her way
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: up the ladder at her new company, so she could
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: not afford to take any additional time off after her
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: maternity leave was up. My grandmother would have to take
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: care of me during the day when I was a baby,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: but my parents wanted me to socialize, so they found
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: a local daycare. I initially had trouble making friends because
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I was a very shy child, But for some reason,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: a girl named Bella insisted on trying to get me
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: to play with everyone else. She managed to break down
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: my walls and we became best buddies. We remained close
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: friends to this day. She was the most outgoing kid
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: in our group, so she was friends with all the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: other children. One kid in particular, named j Jackson, was
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: always fighting for her attention. I was never fond of him.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: We argued a lot, and the daycare teachers would often
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: have to separate us. One day, Jackson and I were
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: in a particularly bad fight and our parents had to
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: be called. Jackson's father showed up to take him home.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I can vividly remember the moment he walked in. It
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: was a tall man, probably around six foot three, and
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I can't exactly describe it, but he just looked off.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Something about him struck real and genuine fear into me.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I think it was because of how lanky and malnourished
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: he looked. He almost moved like something pretending to be human.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: When they greeted him and explain the situation, they pointed
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: me out. He looked at me with an expression that
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I still can't quite figure out. His face didn't really
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: move much, but it seemed like he was going back
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and forth between anger and indifference. He just stared a
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: hole through me until an obviously fake smile spread across
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: his face. Well, as long as there was no blood,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I think we can let it go. His deep voice
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and his slow drawn out speech gave me the chills.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: He waved goodbye to me as he left with Jackson.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: After that day, he was always the one to drop
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Jackson off in the morning and pick him up in
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: the afternoon, as if the first time I encountered him
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: wasn't terrifying enough for me. Each time he saw me,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: he would always have that stupid smile on his face
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and gave me a wave. About a month later, Bella's
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: birthday was coming up, and her parents sent invitations with
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: her to the daycare. Her family was particularly well off,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: so they threw her a big party in the yard
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: behind their house. This will matter later on, but Bella's
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: house had a patch of forest behind it. For some reason,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: their fence only covered the sides of the yard, so
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the tree line sort of served as a boundary for
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: how far we could go. Seeing as we were all
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: still quite young, all of our parents came with us.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I had a great time for the first fifteen minutes
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: until Jackson and his father showed up. It was almost
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: like he had some kind of built in radar, because
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: he found me and locked his eyes on me within
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: seconds of arriving. I spent most of the time after
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: that in the inflatable bounce houses Bella's parents had set up,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: but eventually I had to go inside to use the bathroom.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Bella's mom led me down the hall to the guest bathroom.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: For some reason, this door didn't have a lock. While
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: it was fin up and getting ready to wash my hands,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I heard the back door open. After the door closed,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: footsteps began to move down the hallway. By some miracle,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: little me was smart enough to realize these steps sounded
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: like the long, slow steps that Jackson's father took. I
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: don't know for sure if it was him, but I
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: couldn't fathom who else it could have been. I began
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: to panic and hid in the small towel closet. Either
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Bella's mother had assumed that I was already done and
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: was back outside, or he ignored whatever she told him
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: because the bathroom door creaked open. The fear I felt
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: in that moment of not knowing what was happening on
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the other side of that closet door as something I
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: don't think any human should have to experience. I heard
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: him opening the door all the way and stepping into
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the bathroom. He must have been looking around for about
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: fifteen seconds, but to me it felt like an hour.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: I heard him opening the cabinets under the sink. It
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: moved around until the only place he hadn't checked was
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the closet I was hiding in. My heart was pounding
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: at this point, and if I just hadn't used the bathroom,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I surely would have pissed myself. I saw in the
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: shadows of his feet in the crack under the door,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming right before he opened the door. There was
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: a loud commotion as the back door opened, and a
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: kid was crying loudly. Jackson's father left the bathroom, and
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I breathed a sigh of relief. I waited for a
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: while before coming out, quickly washing my hands and leaving.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: The commotion was over a boy whose name I have
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: since forgotten. He had run into another kid without looking,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: and had fallen onto a pretty sharp stick. Once I
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: was back outside, I was on high alert, constantly aware
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: of wherever Jackson's father was. Oddly enough, he seemed to
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: forget about me. He didn't look at me and just
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: socialized as best he could with the other adults. Bella's
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: party is in early December, so this was around the
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: time of year that the sun was starting to set
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: really early. Once it started to get dark out, we
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: played hide and seek. I guess I regained my courage
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: because I had forgotten all about Jackson's father and ran
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: into the trees to find a hiding spot. We designated
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: a line that you couldn't go past, so I found
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: a bush that was just barely in bounds. I listened
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to the other kids whooping and hollering as they were found,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: and watched what I could from my spot. This bush
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: grew in a very odd way, so I was almost
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: able to climb and side of it. It was only
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: partially covered from above and mostly covered on its sides.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Bella's parents yelled that once heper finished, we should come
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: inside and watch a movie. Most of the parents, with
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: the exception of Bella's father, and two other men went inside.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: I guess they were out there to keep an eye
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: on us, but they weren't paying a lot of attention.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I must have been one of the last hiders remaining.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: At this point. It was very dark out now. Bella's
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: mom had brought flashlights out for the seekers. The seekers
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: were now beginning to move closer to where I was,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: because I could see them every now and then I
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: overheard one of them saying that the trees were the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: only spot left. There was the sounds of twigs snapping
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: and the crunching of the now long dead autumn leaves.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I thought for sure it was one of the seekers
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: about to close in on my spot. I tried to
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: be as still as I could and blend into the bush.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: I then heard two more set to steps approaching from
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: different directions. These were fast and light steps coming from
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: my left and right. I was trapped. They had formed
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: a triangle around me and were unknowingly about to surround me.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: It then hit me that the steps behind me were
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: not only out of bounds, but they had also become
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: almost silent. As soon as the two sets on either
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: side of me had appeared, I had just assumed they
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: didn't realize they were out of bounds. Just then, through
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: the bush, I could see one of the seekers in
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: front of me. I then looked behind me, but it
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: was too dark to see anything. Just when I was
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: about to turn around, there was a sound off to
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: my right. Something had hit the ground. The seekers darted
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: off in that direction, chasing what they probably thought was
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: a hider moving in response to their position. I watched
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: them go and then looked over my shoulder to see
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: what the seeker behind me would do. Quiet steps began
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: moving in my direction. They were sort of circling me,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: seemingly always positioning a tree between themselves and me. I
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: could hear them moving in, but I couldn't see anything.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Something about the rhythm of these steps was off. I
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: noticed that they were slow and deliberate. It was like
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: they were making it a point to be very quiet.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I looked over my right shoulder and thought I saw
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: movement by a big tree about fifteen feet away from me.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: From that vantage point, that person would have had a
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: clear view of me. Just then it occurred to me
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: that the movement I saw was someone moving behind that tree.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: That's when it occurred to me that it could have
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: been an adult hiding, but there were no adults playing
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: with us at the start, so do they join in?
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Later on, I heard the seekers moving around and started
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to take an inventory of all the adults. There were
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: only three of them outside, and the rest were inside.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Just then I remembered Jackson's father and realized that I
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: hadn't seen him at all since we began playing. Right
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: when this occurred to me, the footsteps quickly approached, and
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: right when I was about to turn to see what
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: it was, a hand covered my mouth and an arm
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: wrapped around my upper body. Jackson's father had gotten me.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: He sat down and pulled me back into the bush.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I was squirming and trying to break free, but he
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: was too strong. He got right in my ear and whispered,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: no one will ever find you. I began to cry
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: and scream into his hand, but it was no good.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I reached down, trying to find a rock or a
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: broken root, something, but there was nothing. He grabbed me
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: harder and forced me to be still. When one of
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: the seekers began moving back in our direction, I knew
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: that I couldn't let this one last glimmer of hope
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: go to waste, so I began searching again for something
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: to alarm them. I reached behind me and realized that
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: I could get into his pocket and one move, I
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: quickly grabbed his phone, yanking it out of his jacket,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: and then threw a short distance away. It hit the
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: ground with a thud, and the kids ran toward us.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Jackson's father let go of me, and I exploded out
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: of the bush. The kids laughed and tried to taunt
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: me that they had won, but I pivoted and ran
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: towards the house as fast as I could. They had
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: no idea what was going on, but they followed me.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Bella's father caught me by the shoulders and asked me
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: what was wrong. I tried as hard as I could
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: to explain, and I guess he got some semblance of
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: what I was trying to say, because the three men
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: immediately stormed off into the trees. Jackson's father went running
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: off and they chased him but couldn't catch him. My
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: parents immediately brought me out to the car and we
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: went home. That night. I had a lot of trouble
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: sleeping as I thought every sound in shadow was Jackson's father.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I was listening to the passing cars in our neighborhood.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Eventually I heard a car stopping just outside of our house.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: I only heard one of the car's doors closing, so
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: perhaps it was the teenage boy that lived across the street.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: There was silence for a while until a sound at
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: our side gates startled me. We have gates on either
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: side of our house which accessed the back yard. I thought,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: maybe it wasn't the gate. I bet our neighbor's dog
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: is jumping on the fence to try to figure out
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: what my neighbor was doing out there. But then I
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: heard footsteps quietly approaching my window. My blinds cover most
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: of the window, but there was a small gap at
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the bottom that they don't quite reach. The sun peeking
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: through always woke me up in the mornings. I was
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: too scared to look. There was silence for a moment,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and then there were fidgeting sounds. All of a sudden,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the window was forced open. Something pushed through the blinds
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and onto my floor. A horrific tall shadow figure unfolded
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: itself and stood over me. The scream that erupted from
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: my mouth was unlike any sound I have ever produced.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: I backed into the wall, still shrieking, the figure laughed
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: at me. I reached out on both sides of me,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: almost as if I was trying to melt into the wall,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: when I felt something with my left hand. Earlier that night,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I had been so scared that I got out my
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: wooden baseball bat that my dad had given to me
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and placed it in the crack between the bed and
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: the wall. My dad was a semi pro baseball player,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: so my childhood room was fully baseball themed. I grabbed
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the bat and swung it at shoulder level, which happened
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: to be even with the figures crotch. Suddenly, that deep,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: bone chilling laugh turned into a bellow of agony as
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: the figure collapsed onto my floor. My dad practically broke
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: down the door and turned on the light to take
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: in the scene. There I was sitting on my bed
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: with a baseball bat, while Jackson's disgusting creature of a
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: father was lying on my floor clutching my first two
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: home runs. My dad got me off the bed and
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: out of the room. My mom then took me down
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the hall and into their bedroom, locking the door. My
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: dad turned back to face the pitiful sight on my
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: floor and threw in a few more kicks for good measure. Apparently,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: when he ran off from Bella's party earlier that night,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: he then got in his car and sped off. He
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: then waited in the woods until he saw us strive past,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: then followed us home. We were all too frantic to
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: even notice. Once he found out where we lived, he
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: returned later that night. Thankfully, after this last incident, he
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: was arrested and nothing like this has ever happened to
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: me again. Despite Jackson's father receiving a very hefty sentence,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: we moved away. I I just couldn't handle living in
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the same place that I experienced something so traumatic. Fortunately,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Bella's family was also about to move. We didn't know
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: this at the time, and we ended up in the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: same city, so I still got to grow up with her.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I'm nineteen years old now and I still sleep with
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: the TV on because of this. Outside of that, my
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: life is unaffected by my experience. I guess the moral
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: of the story is to teach her kids to be
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: vocal about things that bother them, and to not brush
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: them off when they say that there is a monster
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: in their room, because there's always a small chance there
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: just might be one. I used to work at her
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: daycare from the mornings until three pm. I would watch
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: after the very small children until the elementary school kids arrived.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: And this took place a few months ago. The daycare
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: I were I had a basketball court at the base
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: of a hill that was situated next to a major road.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I had taken our fifth graders down to the basketball
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: court and everything was fine at first. I'm watching over
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the kids and occasionally glancing at the road, because although
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: we're separated by two different fences, a dedicated individual could
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: climb over both. The daycare was located in a very
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: wealthy area, but we did occasionally have some homeless attics
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: who wander into the parking lot. You never know what
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: those kind of people could do. I got distracted trying
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: to defuse an argument that had broken out between two
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: of my boys when a few kids ran to the
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: fence and were waving frantically. So I turned a look,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: assuming that they had seen some other teacher leave. Instead,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I saw an unfamiliar great car with the hazard lights flashing.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: The passenger window was rolled down, and a woman with
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: red hair was leaning over the driver's side seat and
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: waving at the kids. I shewed all the kids away,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: not liking this uneasy feeling I got. They all assured
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: me that they knew who it was. It was an
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: old teacher, but from what I heard about previous employees,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I didn't recognize her, and at that point I had
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: been there for about a year. The woman made eye
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: contact with me, just for a moment. She didn't appear
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: to be threatening, but she did look remarkably unhappy. After
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: what felt like a lifetime but could have been no
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: more than a few seconds of her just staring daggers
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: at me, she drove off. The entire situation felt very bizarre,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: so I called for an administrator on the walkie talkies.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: We had my supervisor and the assistant director of the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: daycare came shortly after, and I explained to them what happened.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: They called over one of the boys who greeted the lady.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: He again explained it was an old teacher who used
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: to work there, and she would drive by and frequently
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: stopped on that road to say hello. The director asked
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: him to describe her, and when she listened, she frowned
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: and said that she was going to check the cameras
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: after closing time. The assistant director told me that there
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: had never been an employee there matching that description, and
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: she didn't recognize her or her vehicle on the cameras.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: She couldn't catch the plates of the car, so we
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: didn't have much information to give to the police. Not
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: to be too dramatic, but this story freaks me out
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: because this woman had stopped by the daycare enough for
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the kids to recognize her. It's also very unsettling where
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: her car was positioned on the road. We have plenty
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: of cameras filming the entire property and many of them
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: catch that road, but she always parked in such a
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: way that none of our cameras could catch her license plate.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: It felt very liberate for clarification on a couple of things.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: We did notify the police, but we never heard back
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: from them. And even though I don't work there anymore,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I do still have a few friends who do work there.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: The woman has not been noticed since last November, which
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: is when this happened. I have no idea what that
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: lady is up to, but I hope she never returns.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: I grew up in Central Florida as a child of divorce.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: The separation between my parents was not a smooth one.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: In fact, it was a nightmare. The mid to late
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: nineties was not a good time for my family. The
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: year was nineteen ninety seven and I was five years old.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I had to attend daycare down the road for my
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: mom's job. Since I was very young, I don't remember
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of what happened, but I can piece
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: together the fragment of what I can remember and my
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: mother's recollection of the events. One day, all the kids
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: were playing outside. I had this very faint memory of
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: running around the yard playing tag with the other kids.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: I found myself running toward a wooden bench before blocking out.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I woke up in a room and signed the daycare.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Some time later, I could hear my mom talking to
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: someone in the whole way outside. She was very upset,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: borderline hysterical. I remember that she would sometimes talk this
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: way with my father, and I knew that she would
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: take this tone because something bad had happened. I tried
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: calling for her when I realized that I couldn't speak properly.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: There was one of those tall mirrors in the room.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: When I got up and walked over to it, I
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: saw a bandage that was right below my mouth, covering
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: my chin. My five year old self couldn't quite put
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: two and two together. In other words, I don't remember
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: getting a booboo. So I removed the bandage and was
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: absolutely traumatized to see my bottom lip literally hanging off
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: of my face, exposing the bottom row of my teeth.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Everything was a blur beyond this point, but I had
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: to get two separate surgeries to repair my lower lip,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: which the daycare foot the bill for. To this very day,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: there's a tiny scar on the inside of my lip.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: As a father now myself, I cannot imagine what my
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: poor mom went through that day. She was already dealing
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: with a bunch of other problems at the time, and
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: then had to come to a day care center to
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: see her son had literally busted his lip open. This
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: story happened in September of two thousand seven. I live
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: in leon for Trance. I was eighteen years old when
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: this happened. I was taking a train back to my
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: hometown from the south of France. I visited my grandparents
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: in the countryside before beginning my first year at university.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I left on a Sunday at around seven pm and
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: I got on the inner city train. Here's a detail
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: that will be important later on. The train was one
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: of those old salam door trains. This means it was
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: possible to open the door while the train was still moving,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: no matter how fast it was going. It also seemed
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: like this train didn't have any cameras. Once I got
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: on the train, it was mostly empty. As expected, it
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: didn't have any air conditioning, but I couldn't afford the
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: high speed train tickets, so I would have to endure.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: About thirty minutes into the trip, the train made its
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: first stop. Three shady looking men boarded the train, and
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: I was instantly creeped out. The three of them looked
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: like they had just escaped a mind shaft explosion, and
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: they were staring at me like I was a sir
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: loins steak, the kind that costs more than one hundred dollars.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: I decided to go into the next car and use
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: the bathroom, but right after getting out of the bathroom,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: the three men surrounded me. They all had knives. One
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: of them then yelled at me give us all your
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: fucking money, or throwing your rass off the train. I
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: frozen fear, and out of nowhere, one of them struck
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: me in the back of the head, and then they
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: dragged me to the door of the train. One of
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: them opened the door and tried to kick me out
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: while the train was still moving at high speed. Half
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: of my body was out of the train and I
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: was trying hard to fight them off and prevent them
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: from pushing me onto the gravel. I was screaming at
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the top of my lungs. I thought I was going
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: to die. Suddenly the train began to slow down. All
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: three of them forced me off the train and I
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: landed onto some grass next to the tracks. I got
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: up and started running. Once my ajournalin died down, I
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: was processing what just happened. There was definitely something wrong
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: with my leg, something I hadn't felt until that moment.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: It turns out it was fractured during the fall. A
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: bystander happened to see me being thrown out of the
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: train and called an ambulance for me, and before I
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: knew it, I was in a hospital bed. The police
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: later caught these three crazy men and they were sentenced
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: to three years in prison along with a huge fine. Yeah,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: I know, three years in prison for attempted murder. And
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: this is France. This is just how things go here,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, I'm just glad
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: to be alive. A long time ago, during the pre
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: internet era, I worked in a local pizza place. I
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: was only seventeen at the time. It was a nice operation.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: The staff and management got along well. Try saying that
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: with a straight face nowadays. One of our servers was
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: a lovely young woman we'll call her Brittany, who was
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: very much a free spirit. She didn't own a car
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: and would walk to work and would get rides home
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: from other coworkers after her shift ended. She usually worked
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: a late shift and closed up at around ten, usually
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: leaving at about eleven after cleanup. I often gave her
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: a ride at home on the nights I didn't bike
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: to work. She would sometimes even hitchhike home if no
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: one could drive her. She was pretty fearless, but always
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: kept pepper spray in a all nighte in her purse
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: just in case. On one busy Friday night, we finished
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: the post shift cleanup at around midnight. We were the
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: only two left at the very end, aside from the
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: owner who was in the office counting the cash drawers
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: and cataloging the sales receipts. Remember this was before computers,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: so this had to be done with an adding machine
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: and pencils. I rode my bicycle that day, as it
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: was really nice outside for the first time in weeks.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: The owner said that she would give Brittany a ride
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: if she waited until the accounting was done. It would
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: be about another hour or so. She decided not to
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: wait and said that she would just hitch a ride home.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: We both tried to discourage her from doing that, and
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: I told her that she might not even get a
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: lift in an hour anyways, but she just laughed and said, Hey,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: I'm a nice, licking girl with great legs. Somebody's going
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: to stop half myself a defense kit. Honestly, I don't
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: think her pen knife would have even cut an apple,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: but it was something, and the pepper spray she used
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: would at least be effective. I walked her outside and
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: we talked for a while in the parking lot. She
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: joked about sitting on the handlebars of my bike and
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: saying that I could bike her home. Of course, that
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: wasn't an option, so we both laughed. I offered to
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: stay with her until she got a ride, but she
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: said no things and that no one would stop if
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: they saw her with a guy on a bicycle, and
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: that it would have made them suspicious that we were
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: up to something. So we said our goodbyes and headed
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: off in separate directions. She didn't report to work on
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: her next scheduled day, which was the following Monday. This
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: was highly unusual. She was never late for work or
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: missed a shift without calling. A couple of days later,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: her mom came in frantically asking if her daughter had
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: been to work. She hadn't come home or called since
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Friday night. If she was coming home late or staying
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: at some place, she would always call her mother. We
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: were all freaked out a little bit. Her mother eventually
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: reported her missing, and the police came around and questioned
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: both me and the owner about that Friday night. The
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: owner being a middle aged woman and me being a
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: goofy seventeen year old kid, didn't interest them much as
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: potential suspects or even persons of interest. After the police left,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: the teasing started. Restaurant workers can be a hard bunch,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: especially the kitchen staff, and most have a very dark
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: sense of humor, at least the ones that I worked with.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: This went on for the next few shifts and things
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: didn't help, and it became evident that I was the
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: last person to ever see her alive. The cops came
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: back into the pizza place and questioned me again and
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: also my parents, which of course freaked them out. Finally,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: about a week after she went missing, a coworker was
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: really giving me hell about it, telling the waitresses not
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: to get too close to me or they might disappear.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I finally had enough of his underhanded remarks after he
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: sarcastically asked me where I hit the body, I snapped back,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of the fucking lake. You want a joiner.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Of course, everyone who overheard this went ooh and act
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: us both on being seventeen and stupid. I said, yeah,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: I put her on the handlebars, rode out to the dam,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and threw her off. Now shut the fuck up and
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: leave me alone. That quieted everyone down. He ended up
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: calling me a few names, and we eventually returned to
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: our duties. Well, Brittany's body turned up in the reservoir.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. There
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: was a reason her body wasn't discovered sooner, but I
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: can no longer recall why needless to say, the cops
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: got a whole lot more interested in me now. After
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: that sarcastic tirade at the restaurant where I unknownly foretold
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: almost the exact way her body was discovered, they had
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: my parents bring me into the station and I was
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: questioned again without an attorney present. Back then, unless an
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: arrest was imminent, a juvenile could be questioned without one
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: as long as a parent was there. As the dam
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: was a good twenty mile drive from the restaurant, I
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: was eliminated as a suspect. They made an arrest a
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: short time after that. It was a man they had
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: suspected in a similar incident the previous year. He confessed
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: to both murders in exchange for a life sentence. Obviously
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: there was no connection between me and him, but I
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: still felt awful. When I went to Brittany's memorial, I
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: just sat in the back quietly. By that point word
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: had gotten around about my morbid joke that turned out
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: to be true. I didn't attend the burial service. I
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: didn't want to upset her family. A few years later,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: I got work at a gas station and had the
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: misfortune of selling an arsonist the fuel he used to
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: set his own house on fire, but that's a story
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: for another time. For context, this took place almost two
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: years ago. I was twenty six at the time. I
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: was in Washington on sort of a vacation visiting my
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: then fiancee. It was for a graduation she was having
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: for basic training. It was a big deal for her family,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: and she asked me to be there for it, so
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: I said why not and booked a flight. I would
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: be arriving a week before the rest of her family,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: so her and I could have some time together just
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: the two of us before she would be busy having
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: all of her family there for the occasion. She stayed
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: with me at my hotel during this time, and eventually
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: we decided that we wanted to get out and explore
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: some of the nearby historical sites that Washington has to offer.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: I had never been there, of course, say the idea
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: piqued to my interest. Once we arrived at our location,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: we spent about four hours walking around and seeing all
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: the sites, from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the Congress Building, and even the White House. It was
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: a very fun and exciting experience for myself to see
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: all these places as I had missed out going on
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: a school trip in high school to visit them. Sarah
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: at the time seemed to appreciate my interest in them,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: and we basically enjoyed ourselves. After we finally decided that
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: we had had enough of walking around and were ready
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: to go back to the hotel, we used the Uber
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: app to call for a ride. We had used it
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: before to arrive and had no issues, so we decided
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: just to use it again for the ride back. Sarah
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: made the request on her phone while I sat down
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: under some shade and waited. I was pretty tired from
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: all the walking we had done, and I could feel
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: that I was ready to get back to the hotel
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: for a nice long nap. Eventually, after about ten minutes
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: of waiting, a car pulled up in front of us.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Sarah mentioned to me that this must be our Uber,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: as the place that they had stopped at was not
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: a parking spot. I stood up and followed her to
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: the car, where she opened the back door and stepped inside,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: asking the driver, Hey, you're the Uber right. He gave
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: a slight nod to her without saying anything, and I
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: then followed her into the car. Shutting the door behind me. Now,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: looking back on this, I realize how dumb we were.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: We should have been asking for the driver's name and
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: verified on the app. I didn't have access to any
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: of this myself, as Sarah was the one who had
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: made the request on her phone, so none of these
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: concerns occurred to me at the time. As we both
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: sat in the back seat of the car, which was
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: a gray colored van, the driver didn't say a word.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: I found this a bit odd, as any other Uber
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: driver we had had would at least greet me once
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: and confirm my name and the address I was supposed
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: to be driven to, but this guy nothing. The vehicle
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: began moving. Whether the driver ignowledged either of us other
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: than that brief nod he had given to Sarah. I
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: did pick up on how weird it was, but I
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: was tired and didn't really feel like trying to engage
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: the man myself. I laid my head back and just
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: closed my eyes. I then felt to tap on my
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: arm from Sarah. After it felt like only five minutes
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: into the ride, I opened my eyes and looked at her.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: She didn't speak to me. I could see the look
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: on her face was one of worry, and it had
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: me wondering what exactly she was concerned about. He then
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: pointed to her phone, which was showing the route the
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: uber would take to drive us back to our hotel.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: It didn't take me long to realize that we were
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: heading in the opposite direction. I could see the color
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: in Sarah's face drain. Shortly after, our notification popped up
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: on her phone saying that our uber had arrived, followed
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: by a message from the driver asking where we were.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: The picture that popped up on Sarah's phone did not
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: match the driver of the van. My heart sank into
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: the pit of my stomach. I then knew that we
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: had gotten ourselves into a situation I never thought that
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: we would be in. I slowly looked back towards a driver,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: but I didn't say anything. I didn't know what this
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: man's intentions were or what he was capable of, and
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: I honestly did not want to find out. I just
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: knew at that moment that I had to get us
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: both out of this van. I leaned forward and told
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: the man that we had changed our minds and would
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: be fine with being let out where we were. This
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: was an attempt to get us out of the situation
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: without alarming the man that we knew. He glanced at
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: me through the rear view mirror, and the first actual
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: acknowledgment of me since we had gotten into the vehicle.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: I caught his glance as he stared at me without
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: saying a single word in what felt like minutes it
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: was probably only about ten seconds. He didn't stop the van,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: and he didn't say anything in response to me, and
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: just kept driving as if nothing had been said. My
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: patience had run out, and I knew that whatever this
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: man had in store for us wasn't good. I then
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: did the only thing I could think of in that
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: moment and reached into my pocket, pulling out my pocket
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: knife I always carried on me. I flipped out the blade,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: and without wasting another second, I told the driver, we
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: know that you're not the uber. I don't know what
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: your plane is here, but I have a knife, and
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: if you don't pull over right now, I'm going to
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: stick it right in your temple. The driver's eyes quickly
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: looked at me again in the rear view mirror, and
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: I knew he could see me gripping the knife in
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: my hand. He then quickly pulled the van over and
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: I heard heard the doors unlock. Sarah and I wasted
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: no time getting out as fast as we could. The
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: moment we were both outside, the man sped off a
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: We quickly took a moment to gather ourselves as Sarah
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: was having a panic attack and I was still trying
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: to wrap my mind around what the hell just happened.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Sarah quickly pulled out her phone and responded to our
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: actual Uber driver and informed him of our location and
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: asked if he wouldn't mind picking us up. The Uber
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: driver arrived a few minutes later, and this time we
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: made sure it was the right one. We told him
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: everything that had happened. He then informed us of something
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: that made the blood in my veins turn to ice.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: He told us that there had recently been multiple instances
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: where people were posing as Uber drivers in that area,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: as it was easy to find manyists surround there who
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: wouldn't think twice about getting into a car thinking that
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: it was an Uber or a lyft. The guy told
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: us that we were very lucky to have gotten out
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: of that. We made it back to the hotel without
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: issue and quickly reported this incident to the local police.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: We gave the description of the unknown driver in the
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: van he was driving. The police told us that they
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: would call us with any further information, but we never
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: heard back from them, so I'm assuming the man was
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: never caught or found. That worries me because he could
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: still be out there doing this to somebody else. Again,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: I realized how stupid we both had been and how
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: he didn't verify the vehicle before getting into it. But
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: let this be a reminder to everyone listening to do
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: just that and always make sure you're aware of your surroundings.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: My husband used to a beauty queen, titleholder of a
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: well known pageant before he and I got together. They
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: broke up before we met. She was a statuesque blonde,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: very tall, in an absolute knockout. In my opinion, this
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: is important to the story. While she was a dazzling
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: pageant winner on the outside, on the inside it was
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: a very different story. She could be charming and beautiful
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: if she needed to be, but mostly she treated people
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: around her terribly, including my husband, and one day he
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: eventually got fed up and broke things off with her. However,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: she never went away. She would continue to call and
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: email him repeatedly, even after my husband and I met.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: If anything, her calls increased. She would call over and
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: over again, day and night, even after my husband then
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: boyfriend blocked her number. She would ask for money and
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: would threaten to go to the police and claim that
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: he abused her if he didn't give in to her demands.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: He never gave her any money, and this infuriated her.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: The threats continued and became more malicious. When that didn't work,
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: she would switch tactics. She would then sweetly ask him
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: to help her with certain projects she was trying to
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: get off the ground, or more accurately, have him do
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: all the work for her and she'll take all the credit,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: with the promise that if he did this one last
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: thing for her, she would go away. My husband knew
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: better and did not reply, so she soon went back
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: to being malicious again, anything for attention or for what
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: she really wanted from him money. My husband became terrified because,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: of course, while he never did anything to her, it
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: would be her word over his, and he was terrified
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: of ruining his reputation and career. We unfortunately ended up
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: at an event she also was attending. She had been
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: waiting for us to arrive, and had placed herself near
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: the entrance of the event. As we walked in, she
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: stood across the room, looking me up and down, laughing
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: and whispering into the ear of her date, making it
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: a point to try and making me feel uncomfortable. But
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: that was fine. It was easy for me to ignore
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: her until she ambushed me as I came out of
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: the bathroom. She had clearly been waiting for the moment
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: when I was alone. She was very tall, and she
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: towered over me. For context, I'm five to five. I
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: had no intention of getting into it with her, and
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: I hurried past her to find my husband, but she
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: kept pace beside me, hunched over so she was at
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: my eye level. She looked like something straight out of
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: a Tim Burton film, hunched over with that crazy, demonic
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: smile right cher back. Pug, she added, grinning. She liked
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: to call me names like Pug because I own a pug,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: and I guess she thought it was an insult. What
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't know is that while I was in the bathroom,
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: she walked over to my husband while he was talking
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: to someone, and had thrown her arm around him, as
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: if she and my husband were together. My husband unwrapped
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: himself from her and told her to get lost. She
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: then b lined it and waited for me outside of
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: the bathrooms. We stopped going to parties after that night.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: The last time we ran into her was at a
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: funeral for a mutual friend. She followed me around at
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: the wake. As my husband was talking to the man's widow,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: I was talking to another friend and his wife. She
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: walked right up and stood with us, joining us us
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: in mid conversation, as if she were part of the group.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: It was unnerving, but also just bizarre. But this was
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: a funeral and I didn't want to make a scene.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: I silently picked my glass of wine off the bar
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: and walked away, leaving her with the couple I had
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: just been speaking to. She stared at me with a
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: smirk on her face. All in all annoying but manageable. However,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: the emails and calls never stopped. She would call my
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: husband over and over again, night and day, even though
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: he had blocked her number. She would also drive by
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: our house. Once I found my car keyed after leaving
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: it outside for a night. Obviously I couldn't prove it
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: was her, but my husband and I knew who it
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: was and enough was enough. My husband had a lawyer
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: send her a cease and desist. After the first she
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: called him from a private number. He answered and she said, Hi,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: it's me. Like they were the best of friends and
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: he hadn't just sent her a legal document demanding that
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: she stay away from him and his family. He said
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: nothing and hung up. Another cease and desist was sent,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: then a third. Nothing would make her go away. She
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: couldn't handle that my husband was capable of not wanting her. Eventually,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: she became infuriated that my husband was not giving in,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: so she decided to take this rage to the internet.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: I knew that she was checking out my social media accounts,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: but I didn't really use them much, so I didn't care.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: She created a fake Twitter account and tweeted out that
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: my husband was a fraud. She then tagged his colleagues, friends, investors,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: family members, every single person she could think think of
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: to try and ruin his reputation and career. We went
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: to the police, armed with the threatening emails of extortion
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: and false allegations. She was charged with two counts of
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: harassment and restraining order was put in place. To our shock,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: the next day, our phones were buzzing. This story had
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: made a front page news. Clearly it was a slow newsday.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Her day in court came right before the COVID pandemic.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: We arrived to the courthouse and sat down. She walked in.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: We were shocked by her appearance. Gone was the statuesque,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: dazzling blonde. She had apparently shaved her head and was
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: wearing a short, ratty brown wig. She had gained about
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: eighty pounds, give or take, and was now sort of punched.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: With her height and new weight, she looked like a linebacker.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: To add to her new look, she wore a bulky
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: brown men's overcoat and a scarf tied over her wig
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: like a bubushka. My immediate thought was her outside now
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: matches her inside. But her eyes is the thing that
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: I noticed the most. A year earlier, we showed a
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: picture of her to our kids. We should give you
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: an idea of how long this was going on, for
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: saying that if this woman ever approached them, they should run.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: At the time, my son, who was very young, commented
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: that she had mean eyes. Maybe it was because she
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: changed so much physically, but her dark eyes had a
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: narrowed into deep black slits. As she scanned the court
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: room and saw us. She would turn around every so
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: often to look back at us and glare. She would
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: then whisper into her lawyer's ear and laugh as if
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: she were having a grand old time. She had a
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: pair of big, round, cheap sunglasses that she would put
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: on and take off intermittently. When she addressed the judge,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: she would put them on, and he promptly asked her
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: to remove them. We thought she was putting on a
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: brave face and treating all this like a joke, but
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: we were about to find out. Getting arrested would not
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: slow her down. The restraining order didn't seem to face
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: her at all. If anything, it angered her even more.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: From then on, she would post from multiple fake social
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: media accounts photos of myself and my husband. She would
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: post a photograph of my husband with a caption pedophile
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: and other terrible names. To give you a slight idea,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: She posted altered pictures of my husband, photoshopped to look
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: like he was wearing heavy make up and referring to
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: him as a quote pre op transgender. She posted more
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: altered and unflattering photos of myself, calling me old and ugly.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: Those are just the g rated ones. There was a
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: lot worse. The name calling, while obsessive and gross, wasn't
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: what bothered me the most. Although I'm not going to lie,
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: hundreds of photos of myself on her fake Twitter account,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: obsessively pointing out every single preconceived flaw did succeed in
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: dragging me down at times. So why did I keep looking?
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: Part of it was my own morbid curiosity glimpsing into
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: a mind that was unraveling. But also she could have
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: dropped hints if she was planning on doing something else,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: because it wasn't just her insulting posts that were concerning.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: There were sinister captions like keep an eye on your
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: kids because I'll be watching. Why don't you plan some
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: in your front yard? Be good to your kids because
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: you never know what could happen. Howzier uber EAT's order,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: she would post photos of me with an arrow directed
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: to my head, which I figured with some kind of threat.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: She posted pictures of my husband's workplace, which she was
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: not allowed to be within two blocks of in accordance
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: to the restraining order, but the police said that this
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: could just be a picture she took from the internet.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: Which was a complete cop out. She would share these
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: Agatha Christie quotes. Every killer is usually someone you know well.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: Your end is near. Her profile picture was taken from
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: a movie called Stalker like she was in on the joke.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: We called the police again, but they said that there
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't anything that they could do since she didn't directly
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: tag us. I took screenshots of everything. Most of her
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: posts were photos of us on this fake account. We
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: never managed to get it shut down. I became anxious
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: every time my kids were outside shooting hoops in the driveway.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: My elderly mother wouldn't take the baby out in the stroller.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: She was too frightened. The situation affected all of our lives.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: Things were becoming dramatic. Missus Beauty Queen taunted us with
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: posts that said catch me if you can, while posting
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: close ups of her dogs genitals or a piece of
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: dog shit with my name beside it. The implication was obvious.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: It still bothers me knowing that she had a dog,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: since I didn't think anyone like her was capable of
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: caring for anything. The calls then started back up, this
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: time our home line. Yeah, we still have one of
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: those bitch, Karma will get you, and then made this
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: weird chantlike sound, as if she was reciting an incantation.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: Sure enough, she posted photos of a pentagram with candles
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: and the caption ring ring. Finally, the police asked us
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: to come in and give statements. We gave them a
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: drive containing thousands of screenshots of posts that she had made.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: They arrested her again and charged her with two more
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: accounts of criminal harassment. She would frequently mention our kids
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: in a very ominous way in her online rants, calling
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: them rude names which I won't repeat here. My husband
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: was furious at this point. I just wanted to get
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: this over with. The judge also issued a social media
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: band for her. By the time she was arrested for
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: the second time, her fake Twitter account had over sixteen
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: thousand tweets in a three month span. She had no followers,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: so they were just mostly to herself. At this point,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: I kid you not. I felt weird walking into my
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: own kitchen at night to make a sandwich, feeling creeped
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: out that she might be outside watching. I put nothing
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: past her, as there's nothing more dangerous than a desperate
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: woman who has nothing to lose. That was one of
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: the quotes she posted. I have no idea what was
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: wrong with her. From what I researched, it's possible she
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: is a malignant narcissist with perhaps some other mental issues
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: at play. I wanted to mention that we heard from
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: a reliable source that after my husband broke up with her,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: she allegedly became known to the police for other reasons.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: While my husband dodged a bullet regarding her threats to
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: go to the police saying that he abused her. Apparently
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: other men have not been so lucky. Well in this
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: story with a quote from one of her posts. Some
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: of her online rantings were done in her native language.
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  Speaker 1: This had to be translated into English, which is why
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  Speaker 1: it is strangely worded. It was a statement to let
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  Speaker 1: us know that she enjoyed this drawn out court process.
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  Speaker 1: Violent women and the cruelest never answer questions. They like
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  Speaker 1: to continue the misunderstanding indefinitely. So I seek to contact
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  Speaker 1: people only to torment them. My cruelty is my last
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  Speaker 1: attachment to the world. It was the fall of two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and seven and I was living in New York.
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  Speaker 1: I was a competitive athlete in high school, the type
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  Speaker 1: who got up before school for workouts and trained for
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  Speaker 1: long hours. With regard recruiting season a year away. I
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  Speaker 1: was under tremendous pressure to perform in my sport as
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  Speaker 1: well as in the classroom. At the time, I was
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  Speaker 1: struggling to keep up in calculus, so my mom suggested
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  Speaker 1: a tutor. She made an appointment with a teacher friend
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  Speaker 1: of hers who really knew this stuff. I had been
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  Speaker 1: going to him on a regular basis about three times
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  Speaker 1: a week for a month before I ran into Alex.
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  Speaker 1: Alex had a tutoring session after mine. We had crossed
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  Speaker 1: paths every week. It had never been more than a
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  Speaker 1: glance and a smile, as I was incredibly shy and
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  Speaker 1: terrified to talk to boys. He was tall and blonde
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  Speaker 1: with piercing blue eyes, so naturally I thought he was
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  Speaker 1: very good looking. One day, my tutor had to change
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  Speaker 1: his schedule and decided to book us together as we
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  Speaker 1: were learning the same topics in calculus. I was shocked
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  Speaker 1: and delighted when Alex started chatting with me after the
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  Speaker 1: class and asked me for my number. I had never
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  Speaker 1: had a boy pay attention to me in that way,
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  Speaker 1: and I was flattered that someone that attractive won in
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  Speaker 1: my number. Eventually, Alex and I began dating. Alex went
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  Speaker 1: to Catholic school in another town, but he lived in
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  Speaker 1: the same town as I did. He took the bus
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  Speaker 1: every morning from my school to his. This gave us
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: most mornings together, and he was able to meet my friends.
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  Speaker 1: I was a bit taken aback when they didn't take
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  Speaker 1: to him like I did. They mentioned him seeming weird
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  Speaker 1: and I got super defensive, but I eventually let it go.
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  Speaker 1: I realized that I had been spending less time with
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  Speaker 1: them than I normally did, and assumed that they were
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  Speaker 1: just jealous that I had a boyfriend. As time went on,
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: things became more serious, and I eventually lost my virginity
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  Speaker 1: to him in the back of his Ford escape. That's
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  Speaker 1: when things began to change. While Alex and I always
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: talked regularly, he started getting over the top about staying
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  Speaker 1: in contact with me. He would make me stay on
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  Speaker 1: the phone with him all hours of the night, until
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: eventually my mom started taking my phone before I went
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  Speaker 1: to sleep. This relationship began taking a toll my athletic career.
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  Speaker 1: I was too tired to spend any extra time training,
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  Speaker 1: and I began skipping my practices to see him, driving
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  Speaker 1: thirty minutes each way to his school. Eventually, my friend
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: sat me down and told me how unhealthy this relationship
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  Speaker 1: had become. I had isolated myself from them, and my
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: entire free time was spent with Alex. At this point,
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  Speaker 1: I wanted so badly to end the relationship. I had
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: fallen out of love with Alex. College applications were approaching.
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  Speaker 1: I had been scouted by ten schools. My plan was
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: to attend Brown University, my dreams school. Alex's obsession with
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: our relationship had taken a huge toll on his grades,
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  Speaker 1: and Brown wasn't going to be an option for him.
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  Speaker 1: I remember telling him that's where I planned on going,
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  Speaker 1: and he freaked out, saying that he would never be
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  Speaker 1: accepted there and begged me not to go. At the time,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: I was also recruited by the University of Illinois. Alex
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: applied there in hopes that I would ditch Brown and
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  Speaker 1: go to Illinois with him. That was the final straw
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  Speaker 1: for me, and I ended things with Alex for good,
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  Speaker 1: and I assumed that was it. I still had to
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: see him, because Alex would take the bus from my
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: school to his every morning. I remember walking into school
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  Speaker 1: past him and his classmates who rode the bus with him.
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  Speaker 1: One of his friends called me a salute as I
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  Speaker 1: walked past. Apparently he had spread a rumor that I
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: was cheating on him. I tried to ignore it, but
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  Speaker 1: that's when I started getting messages on my Facebook from
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  Speaker 1: random people who went to his school. I spent months
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: getting nasty messages accusing me of having STDs and telling
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  Speaker 1: me that I was going to get gang banged. Eventually,
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  Speaker 1: I had to shut down my Facebook because it wouldn't stop.
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  Speaker 1: In retrospect, I think deleting my Facebook was what set
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  Speaker 1: off the stalker tenancies and Alex. He wasn't able to
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  Speaker 1: see my face online, so he started calling me non
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  Speaker 1: stop and sending me desperate emails saying that he loved me.
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  Speaker 1: While this was going on, I was the favorite to
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  Speaker 1: win the high school championship in my sport. I had
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: gone undefeated all season. Alex ended up showing up while
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: I was competing for the championship and I saw him there.
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  Speaker 1: It shook me up so badly that I ended up losing.
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  Speaker 1: I was furious and heartbroken. I ended up answering one
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  Speaker 1: of his calls later that night and screaming into the
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  Speaker 1: phone telling him to never contact me ever again. That's
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  Speaker 1: when the threats began. I got a call a few
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  Speaker 1: nights later from Alex after he texted me saying that
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  Speaker 1: he had something important to tell me. Stupidly, I answered.
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  Speaker 1: He began to tell me how he was going to
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  Speaker 1: kill me. It was going to show up at my
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  Speaker 1: house when my parents were at work with a rope
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  Speaker 1: and knife and make me suffer like I had done
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  Speaker 1: to him. I began to cry. He went on to
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  Speaker 1: say that he was going to get me before I
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  Speaker 1: went to college. I was driving my own car at
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: this point, and he said he knew where I parked
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  Speaker 1: every morning, and my parents were never going to find me.
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  Speaker 1: I decided to record what was being said and had
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  Speaker 1: it taped on my phone. I hung up once I
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  Speaker 1: felt he had said enough. The next morning, I went
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  Speaker 1: to school extra early, much earlier than I figured that
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  Speaker 1: he would be there. I showed my adviser the recording,
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  Speaker 1: who then called my mom. I remember feeling a deep
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: rooted shame as my mom listened to the recording, like
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: I had done something to bring this on myself. My
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: adviser was so alarmed by the recording, he advised me
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  Speaker 1: to go to the police. My mom and I were
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: in the police station all day explaining the story of
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: my relationship with Alex and how it got to this point.
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  Speaker 1: The police then drove to his high school and arrested
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  Speaker 1: him while he was in class. The topper on the day, though,
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  Speaker 1: was when I went out to bring food back to
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  Speaker 1: the police station for my mom and I and I
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  Speaker 1: pulled into the parking lot at the same time that
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  Speaker 1: Alex arrived there in a cruiser. I saw him in cuffs,
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  Speaker 1: and he in fact did look like he wanted to
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  Speaker 1: kill me. Post a rest we got a restrainting order
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  Speaker 1: against Alex and he was sent to a mental institution
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  Speaker 1: to be evaluated. He did end up breaking the restraining
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  Speaker 1: order on more than one occasion. I contacted to the police,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: but they didn't think it was cause to do anything
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  Speaker 1: about it. I think it's important to note that Alex's
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: family was very wealthy and was well known in the area,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: as not really surprising that they tried to brush this
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  Speaker 1: under the rug. I ended up attending Brown and had
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: to inform them of the restraining order to let them
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: know that Alex should not be allowed on campus. It's
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: been over a decade since the cull happened, and I
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: still continue to receive phone calls and friend requests from Alex.
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  Speaker 1: I recently moved across the country from where this saull happened.
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  Speaker 1: I finally feel safe now that I'm far away from Alex.
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  Speaker 1: But anytime I get a blocked call or a text
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  Speaker 1: from a number I don't know, a thought goes through
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  Speaker 1: my head that it's him. It's safe to say that
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  Speaker 1: this experience has changed who I allow into my life
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: and who I choose to date. I'm a fan email.
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  Speaker 1: This happened when I was thirteen, so I was fairly
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  Speaker 1: naive at the time. I was a major introvert and
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: only had a few friends in my school. I wanted
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: to be more social, but I naturally preferred to be
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: alone so I could read and write. In early November,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: I was added to a group text from a few
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  Speaker 1: of my friends and a couple more numbers I didn't recognize.
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  Speaker 1: The group was planning on hanging out at a park
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  Speaker 1: near our school that night. My parents would never allow
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  Speaker 1: me to go. Luckily, they were heading out for an
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: overnight trip and they wouldn't be back until four in
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  Speaker 1: the morning. Everything fell into place. My parents left around
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  Speaker 1: eight o'clock. I ran out the door and made my
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  Speaker 1: way to the park. The one thing I made sure
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  Speaker 1: to do before I left was lock the door. My
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: folks are very paranoid, and that was the biggest thing
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  Speaker 1: they ingrained in me. Once I got to the park,
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  Speaker 1: I noticed a creepy figure standing near the edge of
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  Speaker 1: the forest. No one else seemed to notice it. I
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: already had a reputation as a weirdo who was obsessed
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: with true crime, so I didn't mention it. The night
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  Speaker 1: went on and I was having a lot of fun
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: ignoring that sinking gut feeling I had. Every so often
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: I would look over my shoulder and the figure was
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: still standing there, watching us. It was around nine forty
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  Speaker 1: five when four out of the ten people there had
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: to leave because of curfew. It was getting cold and
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: it was nearly pitch blackout with only a few street
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: lights on the rest of us decided to leave as well.
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  Speaker 1: The park we were hanging out at as a field
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  Speaker 1: that was fenced in with only a few exits. The
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: front of the field faced an empty road with either
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: side bordered by forest. All of the group except for me,
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: were being picked up by cars. I didn't want to
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: ask for a ride because my parents might find out,
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: And of course, the figure reappeared by the exit I
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: had to take to get home. As I walked, I
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: tried to steady my heavy breathing. I didn't want to
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: be paranoid, but all the true crime I had listened
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: to was catching up to me. The man was probably
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: in his early forties or late thirties. I would say
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: he was around five nine, with dark hair and a beard.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: He stood about ten feet from the exit. When I
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: got close enough to it, I ran for about thirty
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: feet through the exit and into the forest. Once I
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: felt safe enough, I just started to quickly walk through
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: the woods, at least until I got to the road.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: I heard a branch snapping behind me. I stopped walking
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: for a second and quickly checked over my shoulder. Around
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: fifteen feet behind me stood the man. He was walking slowly,
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: almost as if he was trying to not seem suspicious,
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: but it only made my fear intensify. I turned back
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: around and began jogging towards the road. I lived about
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: ten minutes away from the park. After about seven minutes
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: of jogging. I was in my neighborhood. I knew that
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: I could run the rest of the way if I
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: had to, so I checked to see if he was
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: still trailing behind me. To my horror, he was only
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: five feet away from me. He had kept pace this
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: entire time. I ran faster than I ever have in
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: my life. I could hear his footsteps pounding on the
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: concrete behind me. I dove down an alleyway I knew well,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: trying to lose him. I could hear his heavy breathing
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: as he tried to keep up. As I ran up
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: the steps, I looked behind me. He had just arrived
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of the porch steps. When I managed
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: to unlock the door, burst through it, quickly closing it
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: behind me just before he threw his entire body against it.
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: I ran around the house, locking all the doors and windows.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: I turned off the lights and hit in my bedroom
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: with a kitchen knife just in case he managed to
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: get inside. Fortunately he didn't. If this was a better world,
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: this is where my story would end. I never told
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: anyone about what happened, since I didn't want to get
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: in trouble with my parents for sneaking out my loner
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: status returned. I began writing fictional horror stories as a
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: coping mechanism and never went out past seven. It was
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: around February when a classmate of mine was sharing a
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: story of some random man following her home from her
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: bus stop. The man that she described was the exact
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: same man who had stalked me and chased me home.
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: Another female student had a similar story. I didn't joined
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: the discussion, but everyone knew that there was some weirdo
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: stalking girls outside of our school. As time passed, everyone
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: seemed to forget about him, and I eventually moved on
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: from it myself. I was getting ready to go to
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: school who my mom pulled me aside and showed me
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: a picture of a man. She told me that this
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: guy had been arrested two weeks ago for sexually assaulting
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: a child and had escaped from the local jail, and
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: to call the cops right away if I saw him.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: I was shaking the whole time because the picture was
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: of the same man who had followed me home that night.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: It still haunts me to think what he would have
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: done to me if he had caught me. There's always
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: a reason to be afraid