1x14: Kidnapped by my Ex- Let's Not meet

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:48] I decided he could pick me up and we could hang out at his place before he drove me home, so of course, I jumped on the opportunity. Anyway, we got to his place and he got me pretty drunk, not unusual for me, but never tried to make a move. I assumed he was going to wait and just convinced me to stay the night later. Finally, my phone died after about 2 hours. The last 1% lives a lot longer than the rest of it. I didn't even have to say anything

[00:01:16] before I noticed that it was dead. Then he stood up and said, well, let's go to the car then. I asked if he had a charger that I could use and he just said no. After we got in the car, he got kind of quiet and less flirty. I just spaced out and enjoyed his music and looked out through the window. I didn't even notice that he never asked where I lived until I realized

[00:01:44] we'd been driving for over an hour. Not even towards my house, but into the canyons, the greater Salt Lake City, Utah area. I asked where he was going and he just said, I thought we could drive for a while. Well, my drunk ass was like, okay. So anyway, to make a long story

[00:02:06] short, he ended up taking us 4-5 miles, I think, down a dirt road with no signs or horses until it dead-ended into this cabin with no lights on and no cars outside. He parked and turned the car off. That's when the dread started to creep in as I sobered up. I said I drank too much and should

[00:02:30] probably head home. But he didn't even respond, he just sat there, staring at the cabin. Then he said, do you like being kinky? You're pretty submissive, right? And I said, uh, sure, but I just meant like normal rough kind of stuff, nothing wild. And he started sounding a little annoyed and his sentences

[00:02:55] seemed a little less carefully worded, like he was just spitting out the bare minimum of each thought. He said something about how some of his favorite people are those who can find pleasure in pain. And if someone goes into shock enough times, eventually it becomes like a drug and they crave more. Then something about how pushing a person into the deep end is the fastest way to teach them

[00:03:23] to swim. At that point, I was scared enough to assert myself and said firmly, okay, well that sounds fun, but just not tonight. I just want to go home now, this place is creepy. And he just sighed and gripped his keys tighter. Then, right as I glanced at his phone sitting in the cup holder, right before it occurred to me to grab it, he snatched it up so fast and held it with his left hand, kind of behind

[00:03:52] his head to make it clear that he wasn't going to let me near it. I made this kind of, what? sound, and he just gave me this almost, I'm proud of you son type half smile like dads do when they pat you on the shoulder or something. It was quiet and he kept looking me up and down for a minute or so.

[00:04:16] And then he got a little more gruff and said, let's go inside. I have these friends you'll really like once you meet them. You'll feel a lot better. He wasn't even trying to sound genuine or comforting, like he'd been doing so well earlier that night. Finally, I lied and spoke up a bit and told him, I told my roommate and my friends I was meeting up with you before you picked me up. I sent screenshots

[00:04:44] of your face in some of the conversation. They're going to freak out if I don't charge my phone and reply to them in the next few hours. I tried not to make it sound as accusatory, but more like I was just worried about my friends going crazy, but it was clear he knew what I was implying. At that point, he let out an exasperated grunty sigh and started the car and drove away. He kept the headlights off

[00:05:10] the whole way back down the dirt road for some reason. Driving back, I got nervous about him stalking me and coming after me in the future. So I tried to apologize and tell him I'd be down to hang out another time. Maybe, but just tonight wasn't great for me, blah, blah, blah. He didn't say a single word the whole drive back. I didn't ask where I lived. I didn't intend to tell him either,

[00:05:35] but he dropped me off at a McDonald's about 40 miles from my apartment. And when I was stepping out of the car, he suddenly leaned over and gave me a hard shove. So I almost fell out the rest of the way. He then grabbed my backpack off of the floor and flung it out his window across the parking lot and peeled out with the passenger door still open. It broke my laptop and cracked my phone and

[00:06:02] had to ask a stranger to use her charger and call an Uber. But at that point, I was just so anxious to get home that I didn't give a shit. What was so weird is how while it was happening, even though I was terrified, I guess I wasn't thinking about exactly what he was planning to do with me. I just knew I needed to get away. So it wasn't until I got home and got into the shower that I realized how

[00:06:28] fucked up it all was and what might have happened if I let him walk me into that cabin. I remember being so shaken and smacked by the reality of it. I almost felt like I had a panic attack. So I sat down in the shower with my head between my knees and cried until it ran cold. And I got out and woke my roommate to tell him about it and he calmed me down. So while I still have a Grindr account,

[00:06:53] I really just use it as an ego boost. I'm reluctant to meet up with anyone from it now. So anyway, I suppose the moral of the story is we got to be goddamn careful out there.

[00:07:29] The following story may be a bit graphic and too much for those of you that are sensitive to stories that involve animals. So listener discretion is advised. This is the first and only time I ever used my emergency code word with my mom. My dad was in a band and some of his band members were in a country band that had a performance on the 4th of July. It was taking place on a ranch near a highway.

[00:08:00] When I got there, I quickly realized that everyone was either 20 years older than me or 10 years younger than me. I was about 17 at the time. And so I realized that I was most likely going to be very bored for three hours. One of the band members' wives brought over a girl who looked to be my age. She introduced herself to me and treated her like a friend. The girl, who we'll call Sarah,

[00:08:27] started talking with me and asked if I would like to go for a walk around the field. I agreed and we set off. We started talking about school and it turns out she was a year younger than me and she was homeschooled. I told her I went to an all-girls Catholic school and she started talking about how she thought most girls were pretty bitchy and she was Catholic and practiced witchcraft. I thought it was kind of weird, but I tried to be open-minded so I wasn't judging her.

[00:08:57] We finally got to the side of a field that could be seen by the people at the event, but it was right next to the highway. There we came across the body of a dead deer. She looked at me and said, I really wish I could take its hoof. I wonder if I have any bags on me. I thought she was joking, but she reached into her backpack and pulled out a knife and a brown

[00:09:26] paper bag. She went over to the dead deer and started sawing at its foot, but she couldn't get all the way through. She tried to get me to help her, but I said no. So she put down the knife and ripped the hoof off with her bare hands. At this point, I was freaking out because she had been talking about how she liked violence and didn't really care about people being hurt.

[00:09:54] She grabbed the hoof and put it in the bag, then into her backpack. She was still carrying the knife. I tried texting my mom, but there was no service where we were standing. We kept walking and she was talking about how she would put curses on people that she didn't like and how she was completely desensitized to death and the killing of animals because she had grown up on a farm where she watched

[00:10:20] her mother cut the heads off of rabbits. We kept walking and came across a fork in the road, and she said we would go one way. Then she told me she wasn't going to chop me into pieces or anything because that doesn't happen much these days. We finally got to a place where there was cell phone service, and I texted my mom the code word. She told me to get back to the barbecue, and we would

[00:10:46] leave right away. Sarah asked me when I had to leave, and I told her that whenever my grandma got to our house, we would have to go home and meet her. I mentioned something about her bringing her dog named Buddy, and Sarah got excited about the name. She said she had a dog named Buddy, who she set free in the wild, and he was eaten alive by coyotes, but it was okay because he died happy.

[00:11:14] We finally got back to where everyone else was, and my mom said that we needed to go home. Sarah asked for my phone number, as she had seen my phone. I agreed and put a fake number in before my parents, and I walked away. As soon as we were out of eyesight, I ran to the car. My parents got into the car and asked me if she had pulled out drugs or something. I wish. I would have known how to handle

[00:11:41] that. So did the girl who mutilated the deer corpse and was happy about her dog being eaten alive. Let's not

[00:11:48] meet. I've tried to leave Oscar many, many times. I wasn't happy. In fact, I was in a

[00:12:21] constant state of panic, and I was absolutely miserable in the relationship that had lasted just a year. Each attempt to leave him was met with threats to hurt me and my family, physically dragged me back, sexually assaulting me and purposefully trying to impregnate me, threatened to commit suicide, and constantly stalking and harassing me until I surrendered. Finally, I had had enough. I decided

[00:12:49] I wasn't going back no matter what he did. He called my job non-stop and got me in a lot of trouble and did the same at my house, prompting me to unplug the phone line. He texted me, saying he promised he was going to kill himself if I didn't go back to him. Instead of caving in, I called his mom at work and told her. She got a hold of him and said I must have misunderstood because he was clearly fine.

[00:13:15] I felt I'd done all I could do and told him I'd call the police to go check on him if he said something like that again. The next day, I got a call on my cell phone from Oscar. I rejected it. He called again, and I rejected it again. Then I heard the loud exhaust of a car outside while I looked down at my phone and saw him calling again. I let it go to voicemail while I peeked

[00:13:40] through the blinds to check if I truly heard his car, as I'd started to falsely hear it sometimes out of paranoia. But this time, he was indeed out in front of my house. My phone started ringing again, and I wanted him to stop, so I answered it. He told me to come outside. I don't want to see you, I said. Just come outside for a few minutes, please,

[00:14:05] please, Oscar said, making a huge effort to sound pleasant. I told him to stop calling me. And you show up at my house? Why can't you respect my wishes? I asked, knowing the question wouldn't be addressed. I just felt bad about how everything went down, and I wanted to give you something that I made for you before you broke up with me. Just come out for a few minutes so I can

[00:14:31] apologize and then I'll go away, and you'll never hear from me again, Oscar pleaded. I don't know. I don't trust you, I told him, looking at him sitting in his car through my living room window. I promise, he said, kind of convincingly. I drove all the way here to give you what I made, and just have a proper goodbye. In hindsight, I should have called bullshit on all of that immediately, but I was young and still way too controlled by my need not to hurt other people's

[00:15:01] feelings. I felt bad that he'd driven the 40 minutes to my house with something he made for me, for me to just refuse to come out. Fine, only for a few minutes, I stated firmly, and you promise you're not going to try and beg me back. He promised, and I went outside. I opened the passenger side door and sat down in the seat, leaving the door wide open. He commented that I must think he's going to kidnap me, trying to pass it off as a joke. I told him I

[00:15:30] just wanted the legroom. He had a bouquet of flowers and some cases of DVDs that he had burned for me of all of the seasons of my favorite TV show. We talked for a minute when my cell phone rang. I shouldn't have picked it up, knowing it was a guy from my job, but I was an idiot, I guess. I answered it and talked to the guy for less than 30 seconds. Oscar could hear that it was a man's

[00:15:56] voice. I could instantly tell when I saw his head snap to attention and my peripheral vision. When I hung up, Oscar looked at me with fury in his eyes and asked me some questions about the caller that I can't even recall now. Before I could reply to whatever he asked, he slammed on the accelerator and was flying down the street with my door still open. I instinctively pulled my legs

[00:16:24] into the vehicle and started screaming for him to stop. He didn't even seem to be hearing me. I tried to jump out when he slowed at intersections. And seeing this, he grabbed my clothes with his hand to hold me in and started making sharp left turns through the neighborhood to force my door to swing shut. Once that was accomplished, I tried to open the door again, but he kept hitting the automatic

[00:16:48] locks to stop me and was constantly increasing the speed to ensure any leap out of his car would be dangerous. By now, it was dark outside. He was speeding through my town, double the speed limit. I was hoping a police officer would see this and start tailing him and pull him over, but apparently he'd gone unseen. He reached the freeway and I really started to panic. He would be able to go even

[00:17:14] faster here and fast track me wherever he planned to take me. It took maybe three minutes to get onto the freeway at the speed he was going, all of which I spent trying to get out of the vehicle. Once he was on the freeway, he was going over a hundred miles per hour. I kept looking at the speedometer. It was dark outside and that was much too fast to be jumping from a moving car on the

[00:17:39] freeway with other cars driving at high speeds and unable to see me. I still had my phone, so I tried to call 911. I pressed the numbers with my hand, shoved it down the side of my seat by the window away from Oscar, but he saw what I was doing and started swerving all over the road while trying to grab my phone. I still don't really know how he managed to get it away from me because every ounce of my being was trying to hold on. He took it, rolled down his window and threw it out.

[00:18:09] Rolling his window back up, he said flatly, If I can't have you, then no one will. That sentence made my heart sink. I felt like I was in a Lifetime movie. Oscar possessed by his need to possess me. And I was trapped. This is when the grim reality started to really set in. He was out of control and I was out of options. I started screaming for help and pounding on the windows, but Oscar had tint on the windows so

[00:18:37] dark that I probably wouldn't have even been seen since it was dark outside. I watched as the people in each car remained blissfully unaware of the chaos going on in the car I was being kidnapped in. I was feeling very defeated, but was running through all the possibilities of how this could go over and over in my mind, trying to figure out how to survive. I decided to stop fighting and

[00:19:01] acting afraid because the only way I saw myself getting out of this alive was by feeding into Oscar's delusional state that had no other weapons or means of escape at my disposal. So I decided on psychological warfare. Oscar had this friend named Jose that he'd gotten exceedingly close to over the course of our relationship. After a time, it was revealed to me in confidence that Jose had fled

[00:19:27] from Puerto Rico, supposedly on the run for murder. I saw Oscar was taking the necessary freeway interchanges to get to the other side of the car. I knew that even if his friend hadn't really been wanted for murder, he was the type of guy who would do anything for Oscar without moral restriction. Jose and I got along, but I knew he'd have no loyalty to me whatsoever. He was nice to me as long

[00:19:54] as I was an extension of Oscar. I had to act quickly. I proceeded to tell Oscar that I loved him and I wished that we could be together, but I didn't see how it could ever work when things like what he was doing right now proved that he never cared about what I wanted. I hadn't necessarily cited that as a reason for wanting out of the relationship before, as it was more complex than that, but I was hoping it was

[00:20:19] enough to offer him hope in his state of desperation. I told him that I had been considering giving him another chance when I saw the flowers in the DVD, but now that he was refusing to take me home when I asked him to, I was starting to second-guess things. Oscar got off the freeway on Jose's exit, and I started trying to formulate the plan for when the car stopped. I knew Jose had neighbors close by, and I

[00:20:46] decided I was going to run as fast as I could and scream at the top of my lungs. I was trying to keep Oscar's mind preoccupied in the meantime so that he wouldn't think to call Jose and give him a heads up. They usually spoke to each other in Spanish, so I would have no idea what was even said. Oscar told me that he didn't care about what I wanted and asked if he still had a chance with me if he turned

[00:21:10] around right now. In an effort not to expose myself with an overly enthusiastic reply, I hesitated a bit and said, I thought we could probably work it out, and this would be a good place to start. Oscar looped around and got back on the freeway, headed in the opposite direction, back towards my house. The rest of the ride was tense because Oscar was normally so perceptive, and I didn't want to reveal myself and

[00:21:36] end up back in the line of fire. I can't recall what was said on the commute back, but I opted to talk about regular everyday things I'd normally say to him in casual conversation. When we got back to my house, he let me open the door and didn't stop me from leaving. I could finally breathe. I got out, taking the flowers and DVDs with me, and waved to him before walking into my house. I walked straight to the garbage bin and threw it all in the trash and then collapsed on my couch, shaking violently,

[00:22:06] but ultimately so grateful that I had made it back home. The next day, I went to the police station and filed a restraining order against him. Within a few years, he would be jailed for other appalling crimes and sentenced to 60 years. Until I found that out, I never truly felt safe. He's definitely where he belongs. So psychopath I dated that kidnapped me and was likely going to murder me. Let's not meet again.

[00:23:28] If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Finally, make sure to check out all of our other storytelling podcasts, like Odd Trails, our true paranormal podcast, and the old-time radiocast at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.