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3 ALONE AT HOME Horror Stories Animated · Martin Animations

0:02
Speaker 1: This happened to a friend of mine who lived in
0:04
Speaker 1: the same neighborhood as me when we were about 8
0:06
Speaker 1: or 9 years old. My friend E and her family
0:10
Speaker 1: lived just a few houses down the street from mine.
0:13
Speaker 1: We lived in a neighborhood where almost everyone knew each other.
0:17
Speaker 1: The biggest worry we ever had was that some outsider
0:20
Speaker 1: would come into the neighborhood and cause trouble. Some people
0:23
Speaker 1: left their homes unlocked because we felt that safe. There
0:28
Speaker 1: was an incredibly nice family that lived directly across the
0:31
Speaker 1: street from E's house. A mom, a dad, a 16-year-old son,
0:36
Speaker 1: and their other mentally challenged son, who was about 22
0:39
Speaker 1: years old. I'll call him Tim. Tim was always home
0:44
Speaker 1: because he wasn't employed due to his disability, but his
0:47
Speaker 1: parents were working full-time and his brother had school. All day,
0:51
Speaker 1: every day, he would be outside waving and smiling at
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Speaker 1: anyone who drove or walked by. Big smiles showing all
0:58
Speaker 1: his teeth and sometimes giggling just out of pure excitement
1:02
Speaker 1: and happiness of interacting with other people since he spent
1:05
Speaker 1: most of his time alone. He was not creepy at all.
1:10
Speaker 1: One day, E was sick and didn't go to school.
1:13
Speaker 1: Even though she was about 8 or 9 years old,
1:15
Speaker 1: E was allowed to stay home sick by herself. Plus,
1:19
Speaker 1: her mom was going to be home around 2 anyways
1:21
Speaker 1: since she only worked part-time and the neighborhood was safe.
1:25
Speaker 1: He locked all the doors, except the one that led
1:28
Speaker 1: into the garage. They used this as their front door,
1:31
Speaker 1: because it was easier in those cookie-cutter homes to just
1:34
Speaker 1: open the garage, pull in, get out of the car,
1:37
Speaker 1: close the garage, and walk into their house through the
1:40
Speaker 1: unlocked door that led from the inside of the garage
1:43
Speaker 1: to the inside of their home. This is obviously not
1:46
Speaker 1: the safest way to protect your home from intruders, but
1:49
Speaker 1: we literally all did this. The worst part is they
1:52
Speaker 1: had an outside cat and kept the garage door cracked
1:56
Speaker 1: just enough for him to get inside for his food
1:58
Speaker 1: or shelter, if he needed to. So E is asleep,
2:02
Speaker 1: feeling sick with a fever. All the doors and windows
2:05
Speaker 1: are locked, except the door leading to the cracked garage door.
2:10
Speaker 1: Tim was bound to know that she was home alone,
2:12
Speaker 1: since he was outside the front of his house all
2:15
Speaker 1: the time. E wakes up to pounding on the front door. Startled,
2:20
Speaker 1: She walks downstairs and looks through the peephole. It's Tim.
2:24
Speaker 1: She cracks the door and he says something along the
2:26
Speaker 1: lines of how he notices everything and would guard her
2:30
Speaker 1: home since she is home alone. She says thanks, but
2:34
Speaker 1: there was no need to and to have a nice
2:36
Speaker 1: day and that it was beautiful weather. He looked pissed.
2:41
Speaker 1: He got angry and said, You think I can't do
2:44
Speaker 1: it because I'm dumb? But you watch and see, cause
2:47
Speaker 1: me ain't dumb. She said sorry and didn't mean it
2:51
Speaker 1: like that, but she had to rest now. She dozed
2:54
Speaker 1: off and woke up to a noise downstairs in the kitchen,
2:57
Speaker 1: the room the door from the garage led into. She
3:01
Speaker 1: hadn't heard the garage door open, but she was sick,
3:04
Speaker 1: so she figured she was deep in sleep and just
3:06
Speaker 1: hadn't noticed. Completely disorientated from the time she looked over
3:11
Speaker 1: at the alarm clock, it was 10.20, way too early
3:15
Speaker 1: for her mom to be home. At that moment, she
3:18
Speaker 1: heard noises again downstairs. She didn't call out. She had
3:22
Speaker 1: been sleeping in her parents' bedroom and ran into their
3:25
Speaker 1: bathroom slamming the door, loudly. Then she remembered their bathroom
3:30
Speaker 1: door had no lock on it. The noise she made
3:33
Speaker 1: slamming the door alerted the intruder to where in the
3:36
Speaker 1: house she was at, and big footsteps started coming upstairs.
3:41
Speaker 1: She moved quickly and quietly to her parents' closet, which
3:44
Speaker 1: was on the other side of the big room. She
3:47
Speaker 1: closed the doors and hid behind some clothes, all the
3:50
Speaker 1: time thinking how someone would have gotten inside. She remembered
3:54
Speaker 1: that the garage door was cracked for the cat, slightly,
3:58
Speaker 1: but not close enough for a thin person to slip underneath.
4:02
Speaker 1: Tim walks into the bedroom. Tim is tall and thin.
4:06
Speaker 1: She can see him through the slatted closet doors. She
4:10
Speaker 1: sees him holding a knife and did everything she could
4:12
Speaker 1: to not scream. He quickly went to the master bathroom
4:16
Speaker 1: where she was just moments before. These cookie-cutter houses only
4:21
Speaker 1: had about three floor plan layouts, so it wasn't hard
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Speaker 1: for him to find. He looked inside the bathroom and
4:27
Speaker 1: didn't see her, then started making loud throaty noises, like
4:32
Speaker 1: someone would do if they're frustrated and angry, while pacing
4:35
Speaker 1: the entire house. She stayed in the closet for hours,
4:40
Speaker 1: even after she heard him exit through the front door.
4:42
Speaker 1: She stayed until her mom got home. She was crying
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Speaker 1: hysterically and told her mom what happened. Had she not
4:49
Speaker 1: been so upset, and had one of their kitchen knives
4:52
Speaker 1: had not been left by the front door, her mom
4:55
Speaker 1: might have blamed it on being delirious from a high fever,
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Speaker 1: because nobody would expect Tim to do that. The police
5:02
Speaker 1: were called and an official report was filed. I am
5:05
Speaker 1: not sure if he had any charges pressed against him,
5:08
Speaker 1: because after she told me the story once, she refused
5:11
Speaker 1: to talk about it again. I overheard her parents a
5:15
Speaker 1: few times talking about the situation to my parents, but
5:18
Speaker 1: never heard what the consequences were. E was so traumatized
5:22
Speaker 1: she went to therapy afterwards for several years and still
5:26
Speaker 1: wouldn't talk to anyone about it because she didn't want
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Speaker 1: to remember or relive the experience. We even moved to
5:33
Speaker 1: an apartment together years and years later for college purposes.
5:37
Speaker 1: She never talked about Tim. It was like he never existed,
5:41
Speaker 1: and I never asked. I noticed she always locked the
5:45
Speaker 1: door that led to the patio and balcony, even though
5:48
Speaker 1: we were on the seventh level, and always locked her
5:50
Speaker 1: bedroom door, onto which she added an additional lock. And
5:55
Speaker 1: when she locked all these doors and the windows, she
5:58
Speaker 1: always checked three times. Every single time. I often wonder
6:05
Speaker 1: if there was more to the story than what E
6:07
Speaker 1: told me. We were kids after all. and sometimes kids
6:11
Speaker 1: don't know how to explain things they don't understand. It
6:14
Speaker 1: is terrifying to think about what his intentions were and
6:17
Speaker 1: if he perhaps did find E and something else happened.
6:22
Speaker 1: As horrifying as the experience must have been for her,
6:25
Speaker 1: it made a huge statement in the neighborhood for everyone
6:28
Speaker 1: to be more careful. I will always make sure everything
6:32
Speaker 1: is locked. It was 2009. I'm in high school and
6:37
Speaker 1: I'm a male. I live in an island where most
6:40
Speaker 1: people live near the coast, but my childhood house is
6:43
Speaker 1: deep in the mountains. Imagine a house in the woods,
6:46
Speaker 1: but at the very top of the mountain. The house
6:49
Speaker 1: is surrounded by thick mist every night, like in a
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Speaker 1: bad horror movie, and the woods around it start less
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Speaker 1: than two feet from the outer walls of our house.
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Speaker 1: Our closest neighbor is about a 15 minute drive, and
7:01
Speaker 1: five minutes away there's an abandoned house. There's no streetlights,
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Speaker 1: and there are all kinds of animals roaming the area.
7:09
Speaker 1: This is important to the story, because even though you
7:12
Speaker 1: couldn't see a group of ten people hiding one meter
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Speaker 1: away from you in the woods, you could hear absolutely
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Speaker 1: everything up to a couple kilometers away. If we saw
7:22
Speaker 1: car lights or heard a car approaching, my family and
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Speaker 1: I would turn off the lights and hide. I don't
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Speaker 1: know why. Shy, antisocial, whatever you want to call it.
7:33
Speaker 1: I think that's enough to set my story up, but
7:35
Speaker 1: I'll add a little bit more detail that might be important.
7:39
Speaker 1: My house is small, but our family car was a
7:41
Speaker 1: good one. I don't know much about cars, but my
7:44
Speaker 1: dad always says that without a really good car, we
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Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to go up and down the mountain
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Speaker 1: we lived in. Also, there's currently eight people living inside
7:53
Speaker 1: our house. This happened one night at about 11pm. So
7:58
Speaker 1: I'm at the dining table enjoying some cereal while I
8:00
Speaker 1: watch some anime. having the time of my life. The
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Speaker 1: lights in the house were on, so nothing could be
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Speaker 1: seen in the darkness outside. There's a window in front
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Speaker 1: of me that faces the front of the house and
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Speaker 1: the road. Something calls my attention, but I don't hear
8:16
Speaker 1: or see anything. Suddenly, I think I slightly see a
8:20
Speaker 1: human silhouette outside, but it's not moving. So I just
8:25
Speaker 1: ignore it as some effect of the lights in the house,
8:27
Speaker 1: or maybe my own reflection. More anime. More serials. Then,
8:34
Speaker 1: I think I see something moving at the other side
8:36
Speaker 1: of the window, and this time, the silhouette is waving
8:40
Speaker 1: at me. I felt my heart jump out of my
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Speaker 1: chest and I froze. There was a person outside, waving
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Speaker 1: at me. After maybe ten seconds, in which I had
8:50
Speaker 1: just looked up with a spoon halfway to my mouth,
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Speaker 1: he decides to call out, Hello, I need help. My
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Speaker 1: parents hear him and approach the window. which made me
9:01
Speaker 1: sure I wasn't looking at a ghost. The man outside
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Speaker 1: starts telling a story about how his car was stolen
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Speaker 1: and he needs help. My parents are surprised that nobody
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Speaker 1: heard his footsteps, so they whisper their theories among themselves.
9:16
Speaker 1: For the mysterious guy's story to be true, he had
9:19
Speaker 1: to have been mugged more than a mile away, gotten
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Speaker 1: his car stolen, and then walked for half an hour
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Speaker 1: in the dark through the woods following the dim light
9:27
Speaker 1: of our house. My parents still decide to believe him
9:31
Speaker 1: and they offer to call the police. Our visitor begs
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Speaker 1: to say the stupidest thing he could have. Don't call
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Speaker 1: the police. I don't have a gun. My parents stay
9:43
Speaker 1: silent for a while. The guy outside knows that he
9:46
Speaker 1: messed up, but proceeds to make his request. Can I
9:50
Speaker 1: please get a ride downtown? My dad nervously chuckles and
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Speaker 1: gives him an excuse. He mentions the time, the fact
9:58
Speaker 1: that he felt the guy was lying and that he
9:59
Speaker 1: had already called the police. This is when my favorite
10:03
Speaker 1: part of the story begins. I stand up from the table, shaking.
10:08
Speaker 1: I go to a closet and even though I can't
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Speaker 1: see the guy's face, I know he's following my actions.
10:13
Speaker 1: I grab two machetes that are half my size and
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Speaker 1: run to the other room. I was terrified. and looking back,
10:20
Speaker 1: I probably took away the only weapons my parents could
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Speaker 1: have used to protect themselves in case of an altercation.
10:27
Speaker 1: I opened a door to the room where my siblings
10:29
Speaker 1: and I sleep, and they were watching some silly show.
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Speaker 1: My sisters are loud, and my younger brothers are four
10:36
Speaker 1: years old, seven years old, and nine years old, so
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Speaker 1: their laughs are angelical by day and demonic by night.
10:44
Speaker 1: I signal at them to shut up, and they do so,
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Speaker 1: joining me and my parents in our fears. There's silence,
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Speaker 1: and then suddenly we hear the guy say, It's okay
10:54
Speaker 1: if you can't help me. I'll go to the next house.
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Speaker 1: My dad replies, There's no next house. You should wait
11:01
Speaker 1: for the police here. I don't need the police. I'm good.
11:07
Speaker 1: This goes back and forth. The guy is now in
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Speaker 1: good shape to walk an hour down the mountain to
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Speaker 1: reach downtown. My dad offers a rusty metal tricycle from
11:16
Speaker 1: our porch so that he can go downtown, as a joke.
11:20
Speaker 1: The guy accepts this offer and grabs the tricycle. I
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Speaker 1: assume he just wanted to leave with something. This tricycle
11:27
Speaker 1: is 20 years old and it definitely doesn't work, and
11:31
Speaker 1: this guy definitely wouldn't be able to ride it even
11:34
Speaker 1: if it did. We hear the screeching of the tricycle
11:37
Speaker 1: for a couple seconds as the stranger struggled to be
11:40
Speaker 1: able to ride it and then stopped not too far
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Speaker 1: away from the house. It seemed like he stopped, and
11:45
Speaker 1: we didn't hear any footsteps that indicated the guy had left.
11:49
Speaker 1: After trying to identify if he was still in sight,
11:52
Speaker 1: to no avail, my dad calls the police. We wait
11:56
Speaker 1: in silence, looking at the road from the front windows.
11:59
Speaker 1: Fifteen minutes later, the police finally arrive, and as soon
12:03
Speaker 1: as the red and blue lights show up, they illuminate
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Speaker 1: the entire road up to the abandoned house. The tricycle
12:10
Speaker 1: is sitting by itself on the road not too far away.
12:13
Speaker 1: The police claimed not seeing anyone on the road, so
12:17
Speaker 1: they just took a look at the woods with a
12:18
Speaker 1: flashlight and called it a night. The cops were clearly
12:22
Speaker 1: freaked out by the eerie look of our house and
12:24
Speaker 1: did not stay more than five minutes. Nothing else happened
12:28
Speaker 1: that night. I slept with two machetes under my bed,
12:32
Speaker 1: which I remember angered one of my sisters. We have
12:35
Speaker 1: no idea who this person was. No carjackings were reported
12:39
Speaker 1: the next day, and even though a lot of weird
12:42
Speaker 1: things happen around my house... We never saw this guy again.
12:46
Speaker 1: It's pretty obvious he was up to no good, but
12:49
Speaker 1: there were a few things that we could never understand.
12:52
Speaker 1: Where did he come from? Where did he go? If
12:56
Speaker 1: his story was true, he had the worst luck in
13:00
Speaker 1: the world. I think the situation was interesting because I
13:03
Speaker 1: think about his point of view and our horror night
13:06
Speaker 1: turns a bit comical. I mean, imagine this. You go
13:10
Speaker 1: rob a house. Turns out the people inside speak calmly.
13:14
Speaker 1: There's a scrawny, seemingly mute kid that tries to be
13:17
Speaker 1: sneaky in grabbing some huge machetes and then hides somewhere
13:20
Speaker 1: in the darkness of the house. Then you hear children's
13:23
Speaker 1: laughter coming from the room, and then absolute silence. I
13:27
Speaker 1: think we were lucky, but probably out-creeped this creep that night.
13:32
Speaker 1: I don't see any other reason for this guy to
13:34
Speaker 1: back out of his plans. The guy clearly had a
13:37
Speaker 1: gun and bad intentions. Not to mention his ability to
13:40
Speaker 1: ninja walk through a forest, where we even hear wild
13:44
Speaker 1: cats walking around. Also, no neighbors witnessed or heard anything.
13:51
Speaker 1: I am sure some other person would have told this
13:53
Speaker 1: story better, but I gave it a shot. Obviously, I
13:57
Speaker 1: hope I never see this guy again, even though I
13:59
Speaker 1: wouldn't know if I did, because I never saw his face.
14:05
Speaker 1: This happened to me a couple of months ago now,
14:07
Speaker 1: but when it first happened, given how crazy it was,
14:10
Speaker 1: it took me a few weeks to collect myself enough
14:13
Speaker 1: to tell this story. It's relevant for me to tell
14:16
Speaker 1: you up front that I'm a military veteran, and I
14:19
Speaker 1: have PTSD and anxiety, as well as a pretty bad
14:23
Speaker 1: case of depression that I'm currently in my third year of.
14:26
Speaker 1: I have read that CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, can massively
14:31
Speaker 1: improve PTSD symptoms and in turn, help to reduce anxiety
14:37
Speaker 1: so I have been trying various techniques at home the
14:40
Speaker 1: problem there is my wife and I live in a
14:42
Speaker 1: small two-bedroom ground floor flat with an upstairs neighbor with
14:46
Speaker 1: absolutely no concept of other people a jock douchebag type
14:52
Speaker 1: who's a personal trainer but he trains at home too
14:55
Speaker 1: cause gains you know the kind of guy who's only
14:59
Speaker 1: two topics of conversation are protein powder and steamed rice
15:04
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can imagine the type. With that being
15:07
Speaker 1: a constant issue, meditation and quiet mindfulness are just not
15:11
Speaker 1: possible with the constant noise. My solution to this was
15:15
Speaker 1: to do my normal routine during the day, but take
15:18
Speaker 1: advantage of my insomnia later on, at around 2300. I
15:22
Speaker 1: would put on my coat and my shoes, and as
15:24
Speaker 1: we live near the beach, I figured I could walk
15:27
Speaker 1: to the beach now that there's pretty much no people around,
15:30
Speaker 1: walk on the sand and be mindful to the sounds
15:32
Speaker 1: of the ocean. Sounds nice, doesn't it? It was the
15:37
Speaker 1: first two times, but you know what they say, the
15:40
Speaker 1: third time's the charm. The walk to the beach from
15:43
Speaker 1: my home isn't that far, maybe a little over half
15:46
Speaker 1: a mile, but once I got there, I would walk
15:49
Speaker 1: to the very end of the beach until you reach
15:51
Speaker 1: the cliffs where there is a World War II artillery
15:54
Speaker 1: gun turret, which was another half mile-ish. Sometimes I would
15:58
Speaker 1: walk the path up the cliff to the gun, and
16:01
Speaker 1: stare out into the blackness of the midnight ocean, which
16:04
Speaker 1: was only broken by the occasional flash of light from
16:06
Speaker 1: the lighthouse. I would sit and listen to the waves
16:09
Speaker 1: crashing against the cliffs. Sometimes I would close my eyes
16:13
Speaker 1: and just concentrate on nothing but that sound. I felt
16:17
Speaker 1: safe there, knowing I was alone. Just me and the ocean.
16:22
Speaker 1: Usually before I turn tail and head home, I would
16:24
Speaker 1: walk down to a small row of benches. They are
16:27
Speaker 1: all marked with plaques in remembrance of someone who also
16:30
Speaker 1: came and enjoyed the view, although I imagine they came
16:34
Speaker 1: during the day. The benches are close to an old
16:37
Speaker 1: pub that was shut down years ago, and I had
16:39
Speaker 1: heard the place used to get used as a dogging
16:41
Speaker 1: site or a brothel or something back in the day.
16:44
Speaker 1: So when I saw vehicle headlights coming towards the pub,
16:47
Speaker 1: I figured it was some young lads trying to catch
16:50
Speaker 1: potential doggers at it. I sat on the bench and
16:53
Speaker 1: waited for the car to pass me, but as it
16:55
Speaker 1: rounded a bend in the road further up, I was
16:58
Speaker 1: momentarily lit up by the headlights. The headlights of the
17:01
Speaker 1: vehicle went off immediately, and the car went off-road and
17:05
Speaker 1: out of sight for a moment. At this point I
17:07
Speaker 1: was fully alert and a bit cautious, so I dropped
17:10
Speaker 1: to one knee, and ducked behind the bench I had
17:13
Speaker 1: been sitting on. The vehicle drove past me. It was
17:16
Speaker 1: only maybe 40 feet from me, and as the lighthouse
17:19
Speaker 1: illuminated the vehicle, I could now see it was an
17:22
Speaker 1: old beat-up Land Rover kind of vehicle, with crappy camo
17:26
Speaker 1: paint on the wings. At that moment, someone popped out
17:30
Speaker 1: of the top of the vehicle with a scoped rifle
17:32
Speaker 1: and a big torch. In that instant, in my head
17:36
Speaker 1: I was back in Iraq, and my senses felt razor sharp.
17:40
Speaker 1: I dropped onto my belt buckle and crawled into a
17:43
Speaker 1: patch of long grass adjacent to the benches. Then I
17:46
Speaker 1: got in position where I could see them, but they
17:48
Speaker 1: couldn't see me. The guy with the rifle shone his
17:52
Speaker 1: torch at the exact bench I had been sitting on,
17:55
Speaker 1: then the others, searching for me. He started looking all
17:59
Speaker 1: around him through the scope, looking for where I might
18:01
Speaker 1: have gone. My heart was pounding so hard, I felt
18:05
Speaker 1: as if I could hear it. I held my sleeve
18:08
Speaker 1: over my mouth to muffle the sound of my breathing,
18:11
Speaker 1: but more importantly, to try and hide the condensation of
18:14
Speaker 1: my breath. The vehicle started to move to get a
18:17
Speaker 1: better view of the benches, so I started slowly crawling
18:20
Speaker 1: towards the main road, as not only is there a
18:22
Speaker 1: row of houses, but an old stone bus stop I
18:25
Speaker 1: could take hard cover in if they saw me and
18:28
Speaker 1: opened fire. After about five minutes of hiding in the
18:31
Speaker 1: long grass, it started to rain, and they were still
18:35
Speaker 1: clearly looking for me, but were now about 150 feet away.
18:39
Speaker 1: The guy with the rifle was scanning around with his
18:42
Speaker 1: eye down the scope, so I waited until he was
18:44
Speaker 1: looking away for me to seize my moment and run
18:46
Speaker 1: for cover. I pushed my hands hard into the wet
18:50
Speaker 1: dirt to launch myself onto my feet, then I sprinted
18:53
Speaker 1: towards the bus stop while throwing some zigs and zags
18:56
Speaker 1: in there, just in case they had seen me. Luckily
18:59
Speaker 1: they hadn't, and I was now far enough away that
19:01
Speaker 1: I could take out my phone and call the police.
19:05
Speaker 1: They were there with a riot van and a squad
19:07
Speaker 1: car in about 10 minutes, and as I was talking
19:10
Speaker 1: to the officers in the van, They spotted the gunner's
19:13
Speaker 1: vehicle and took off after them. The officers in the
19:17
Speaker 1: squad car stayed behind to talk to me. The rain
19:20
Speaker 1: was coming down in sheets by now. They asked me
19:23
Speaker 1: if I was absolutely sure it was a rifle, and
19:26
Speaker 1: I told them yes, I was 100%, no doubt in
19:30
Speaker 1: my mind at all. The officers both looked at each
19:33
Speaker 1: other and then one of them asked, and what exactly
19:36
Speaker 1: is your experience with firearms? I told them I was
19:39
Speaker 1: ex-army and have seen my fair share of all kinds
19:42
Speaker 1: of firearms. They then asked me what I was doing
19:45
Speaker 1: there after midnight, which is a pretty fair question to
19:48
Speaker 1: be honest. I explained that quite ironically, I was taking
19:52
Speaker 1: a mindfulness walk to ease my PTSD symptoms. They were
19:57
Speaker 1: satisfied with that explanation, if not somewhat amused, and told
20:01
Speaker 1: me that the armed response unit was en route. I
20:05
Speaker 1: asked if they needed me to stay behind and make
20:07
Speaker 1: a statement, but the officers told me not to bother
20:09
Speaker 1: waiting around, because they most likely wouldn't need to take
20:12
Speaker 1: a statement beyond the call I made. And also, it
20:15
Speaker 1: was pissing down with rain, so I should get home
20:18
Speaker 1: and get dry. It was over, but I still felt
20:22
Speaker 1: super wired, and my heart was still thumping hard in
20:25
Speaker 1: my chest. I started the walk home, and when I
20:29
Speaker 1: was about halfway there, A police helicopter buzzed overhead and
20:33
Speaker 1: settled over the area where I'd been sitting on the benches,
20:36
Speaker 1: with the searchlight going. It was right then. It hit
20:40
Speaker 1: me like a shotgun to the chest. That happened. That
20:44
Speaker 1: was real. And it was here. My head started swimming.
20:49
Speaker 1: My heart was pounding twice as hard now, and my
20:51
Speaker 1: legs felt like jelly. And my lungs felt glitchy. I
20:55
Speaker 1: couldn't breathe properly. I dropped to my knees crying in
21:00
Speaker 1: the street in the pouring rain, the only light coming
21:02
Speaker 1: from a nearby street lamp with a flickering bulb. I
21:06
Speaker 1: was gasping for breath, thoughts flashing in my head, thinking
21:10
Speaker 1: that if I had stayed still, if I hadn't hunched
21:13
Speaker 1: behind the bench, if I had done any number of
21:15
Speaker 1: things differently, or hadn't, then I could have gurgled my
21:19
Speaker 1: last breath alone in the dark in the cold wet dirt,
21:23
Speaker 1: and my wife would be none the wiser till the
21:25
Speaker 1: following day. I have no idea if they were even
21:29
Speaker 1: there for me, and if they were, how could they
21:32
Speaker 1: know I would be there? I had been twice before,
21:35
Speaker 1: I suppose. It's not like there's animals to hunt there
21:38
Speaker 1: beyond foxes. But why hunt foxes from a vehicle with
21:42
Speaker 1: a rifle and a torch at midnight? Anyway, I am
21:47
Speaker 1: not ashamed to say that that experience terrified me. I
21:51
Speaker 1: guess my army training helped me stay alert to stay hidden,
21:54
Speaker 1: but I don't really know. I don't go walking at
21:57
Speaker 1: night anymore, and I have the occasional nightmare about the
22:01
Speaker 1: whole thing.