3x21: Nick!

[00:00:05] My name is Andrew Tate and this is Season 3, Episode 21 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. To give the context of where this story is based, I live in a smallish college town near a small to

[00:00:31] medium-sized city. The town itself doesn't have a lot of people and is mostly here to cater to the demand that comes from the college. Because of this, the stores around the college are mostly

[00:00:43] open 24-7 so that the college kids will be able to impulse buy whatever they like. The other big seller here is gas. Of course, gas can be bought in the city, but being a town that has often gone

[00:00:58] through an order to get to the city, a lot of places will try to keep the price of gas slightly lower than any of the stations in the city. My story begins when I was working overnights as

[00:01:11] gas station attendant at the gas station liquor store when I was doing my part-time classes in college. But mostly doing classes online so that they wouldn't ruin my availability for a full-time

[00:01:24] job. The store I worked at had only one person working on overnights for a long time. Even though a lot of people, especially girls, would complain about the lack of cameras and the fact

[00:01:39] you don't always get the best of people going into a liquor store or gas station in the middle of the night. The owner's hand was forced on one night before I started working there that a woman

[00:01:52] who came in to buy some milk went out to her car only for a man to come up behind her and shove a gun to her back, demanding for money. She complied and luckily he let her go. She ran into the store

[00:02:10] hysterically and though the police arrived shortly after, he was never found. I personally preferred having two people on even though there wasn't much of a safety issue. The night seemed to go by so

[00:02:22] much quicker when there was someone else and it was really nice that I got along really well with the person that I normally closed with. Overall there were four overnight shift workers Josh, Nick,

[00:02:33] Dixie, and myself. Dixie had another job and really was only working there as a favor to one of the managers so she would only work two nights a week with either Josh or I. Josh and I worked

[00:02:48] together three nights a week. Nick worked with Josh and I two of the nights. Dixie was really nice and fun to be around but she didn't particularly like the job or want to be there.

[00:03:02] Josh would get annoyed with her a lot for just standing behind the register while we did all of the work but it was only one night a week so he couldn't complain too much. Nick on the other

[00:03:13] hand was a bit different. He worked there for five days a week just like Josh and I but they never seemed to put him with one person more than one day a week. Nobody seemed to really like him or

[00:03:30] like working with him. Nick was a little off from the start. He was one of those people who told you his entire life story as soon as they met you, giving a bunch of really personal details that

[00:03:43] no one really was comfortable with hearing. One thing he always seemed to talk about was the strain on his marriage. Apparently he had a really bad drinking and drug problem for a very long time

[00:03:58] and the drug part got better when he could switch over to weed but he couldn't seem to get this drinking thing under control. He was hard to be around but you kind of get used to some people

[00:04:11] in that kind of a job being so sketchy. I was there for almost three months when Nick's stories seemed to escalate out of nowhere. He began telling people that when he was younger he was diagnosed

[00:04:26] as a psychopath and he would take a bunch of pills for it every day so he wouldn't become violent. Not exactly what you want to hear from someone when you're alone with them in the middle of

[00:04:38] the night but okay we all have our problems and some people get dealt a bad hand when it comes to mental illness. I myself have always struggled to get my anxiety and depression under control

[00:04:52] without medicine. I wouldn't be killing people by any means though but I'd probably be hospitalized or a danger to self so as creepy as that was I assured him that a lot of people need to take

[00:05:08] medicine for some kind of illness and as long as you stick to it and are honest with medical professionals there's no reason you can't still do anything anyone else can do. He seemed pleased

[00:05:22] with this answer and soon after the subject was turned to other things. He was especially cheery and nice to me after that for the next week or so letting me know daily that he was taking his

[00:05:34] medicine and felt like things were going well for him. I always answered enthusiastically but I'm pretty sure everyone especially Josh was aware of how much I wish he would stop talking to me about

[00:05:49] it and would leave me alone. Josh had a wife and a daughter who was two and at the time he couldn't help but see us younger girls through the eyes of what his daughter might potentially have to deal

[00:06:02] with when she was our age and he seemed to go out of his way to end my conversation with Nick rather quickly which I was grateful for and didn't really try to pretend that he liked Nick. It wasn't long

[00:06:19] before Nick started conversations with me going into details about why he was diagnosed instead of how his medicine was working which I won't get into here because a lot of it was very violent and sexual. I

[00:06:32] told him repeatedly that I did not want to know about that to which he would act like he understood and change the subject only for him to circle back to it an hour later. When I confided to Dixie about

[00:06:45] it she told me that she would take care of it and told her friend which was the manager who asked her to come to work there. The manager couldn't really do much since I seemed to be the only one

[00:06:59] that he would talk to about these things and told me to come to her again if I was ever made to feel uncomfortable. It was starting to get increasingly tense for everyone working with him after he was

[00:07:12] talked to by the manager and soon enough two other women who worked with him on the night shift reported comments that he made to them to the manager. I was questioned in which I agreed that

[00:07:26] all the statements made by the women were similar to the things that had been said to me. Nick was given a final warning and a write-up. The next couple of times that I saw him he would go into

[00:07:38] rants about how people were only reporting him because they didn't like him. I assumed he didn't know that I had been questioned too and neither Josh or I had any intention to tell him. He got

[00:07:52] so angry at one point that he practically was in tears saying how lucky those cunts were, that he was on his meds and what he would do if he wasn't on them. Luckily it was about that point that his

[00:08:08] shift ended and pretty much as soon as he clocked out Josh told him that we had a lot of work to get done that night so we didn't really have to chat with him. He nodded and walked out the door without

[00:08:22] another word. Josh wasn't lying either. The truck had come extremely late that day so there was still quite a bit of things that we needed to put on the shelves. One thing that the early shifts never

[00:08:36] seemed to do unless they absolutely had to was stocking the drink coolers. It was true that it was easier to do at night when there was a lot less customers so it was annoying since we couldn't

[00:08:49] chat but we just went on with it. I can't remember the time that Josh went to the drink cooler but it must have been pretty late since we had been there for a while at that point. I was still focused on

[00:09:03] stocking the shelves and making sure that everything looked full if we didn't have it when the bell chimed signaling that someone had come in. I threw out a good evening and I'd be right there since

[00:09:15] anyone that came in that late usually just wanted a pack of cigarettes or to pay for gas and cash. I put down my box and went to the registers slowing dramatically once I could see them. You guessed it

[00:09:28] there was Nick not looking at me but leaning next to my register. I'd be lying if I said I had a reason to be afraid. It did turn out he was drunk but I couldn't detect it right away from the

[00:09:42] smell of booze that always seemed to linger in the air around there and Josh was right on the other side of that wall. Even so I considered for about 30 seconds as if I should actually go or if I should

[00:09:57] run into the cooler to get Josh. Nick wasn't a young fit guy or anything years of drugs and drinking had aged him prematurely and ruined his body but he was still intimidating to a 20 year

[00:10:11] old girl. Unfortunately Nick made the decision for me when I'm probably tired of waiting turned toward me and that's when I noticed immediately that there was something off about him. My voice

[00:10:24] was nothing more than a pathetic whisper when I asked him what he wanted. He just stared at me nothing on his face to tell me what he was thinking. I was about to speak again when he spoke barely

[00:10:37] intelligible because of his slurring. He leave you here alone? It took me a second to shake my head and tell him in a hopefully steady voice that Josh was in the cooler and asked if he wanted me

[00:10:53] to go get him. Again staring at me in silence. At this point I didn't even care what he said I just wanted him to say something. The silent staring was creeping me out. I asked with more force in

[00:11:07] my voice, what do you want Nick? As soon as I stopped speaking he grinned at me and in a disgusting almost singing voice said you're lying you're alone. He laughed and took a step towards me

[00:11:26] but he stumbled allowing me to take several steps back at this point I should run to Josh. I should have called for him anything but I couldn't believe that I was reading the situation right.

[00:11:41] Nick was really weird but I had never felt an actual danger around him before. He had never come off as more than a little unstable. He continued to come forward in a slow stumbling

[00:12:21] step telling me to come here I just want to talk. I kept out of his reach telling him to back off and that I would hurt him if I had to. He thought that was particularly amusing and laughed loudly

[00:12:37] enough that Josh told me later was what caused him to look through the spaces of the racks and see what was going on. Josh was out the door in a second and seemed to come out of nowhere

[00:12:52] shoving him in between Nick and I. They didn't even say anything just stared at each other before said in a stern tone I think you should leave now. Nick stared blankly for a moment then scoffed

[00:13:07] telling us that we couldn't take a joke. I was trying not to cry at this point the only thing more terrifying about this situation was knowing that if Josh hadn't been there and he had somehow

[00:13:22] caught me I wouldn't have stood a chance against him. Josh left me standing with my back against the wall corralling Nick to the door completely unexpected on both of our parts Nick turned

[00:13:39] and took a swing at Josh luckily because he was drunk or just really uncoordinated he missed Josh's face and Josh grabbed the back of his coat and brought him down as he smashed his knee into

[00:13:53] Nick's stomach or chest area I'm not sure which and used the opportunity of his sputtering to drag him out the door and throw him out locking it. Josh had just turned and told me to call

[00:14:08] the cops as we heard this sickening crack behind him we both jumped and looked back at the door to find this big circle of glass it's hard to explain but if you've ever seen a movie of one

[00:14:24] or an actual car wreck when something hits a windshield but not hard enough to break it it turns all white around the point of impact that's what the door looked like Josh didn't

[00:14:35] have to tell me what to do this time I ran to the register grabbed the phone going around the corner farthest away from the door and huddled on the floor I didn't even notice at the time but

[00:14:48] Josh told me later that when he turned to see the glass that was the first time he noticed that Nick had a hunting knife in his other hand the fact that he tried to punch Josh instead of stab him

[00:15:01] is a mystery and a miracle I was sobbing when the operator picked up the phone I didn't know how she even understood me I was crying so hard but between the sounds of my distress and Nick and

[00:15:17] Josh yelling at each other in the background with loud smashes of Nick hitting the door she got the urgency of the situation she asked me where I was and luckily she knew the address

[00:15:28] because just as I got up to look at a receipt to see what the address was the glass smashed I dropped back to the floor and she told me that officers were already on their way

[00:15:40] and to do whatever I could to get away or hide even if I hadn't leave Josh the hole wasn't big enough for him to get through and he had made it by grabbing the ashtray from outside and throwing

[00:15:52] it at the part of the window that he had been repeatedly punching causing it to break through from that hole he could reach to the lock on the door according to Josh he walked to the door and

[00:16:05] put his mouth against that hole that he had just formed and said something that I'm sobbing about right now just thinking about in that horrible sing-song voice that he used the first time I

[00:16:21] talked to him that night he said in such a happy tone they're never going to find you too needless to say as tough as he was acting Josh was shitting bricks as much as I was

[00:16:36] he was older than Nick in his mid-30s but was a beanpole and wasn't exactly known for his fighting skills even so as soon as Nick unlocked the door and started opening it Josh slammed his body into

[00:16:51] it knocking Nick backwards from the impact Josh yelled for me to run and even though my legs felt like they would give out at any moment I ran right behind him to the receiving doors in

[00:17:04] the back of the store Josh was cursing and yelling at us while the door jingle went off Josh slammed back into the door cursing in pain as he realized that it wouldn't open we found out later that Nick

[00:17:20] had pushed the dumpster in front of the door locking the wheels of it before he came in we seemed to both realize at once that he actually planned this and planned to kill us

[00:17:34] Nick rounded the corner still doing that awkward stumbling walk though faster now it at least gave me time to slam the back room door shut and lock it I was sitting in front of it Josh bringing over

[00:17:51] anything that he could find to barricade the door shut that's when Nick reached it he must have heard me crying because he kept calling out my name telling me that I wasn't who he wanted he would

[00:18:04] make sure that I died before I felt any pain if I opened the door now he then started stabbing the door screaming at me to open it I screamed and moved when he started stabbing for the first time

[00:18:20] but Josh and I both moved immediately to hold it shut again I remember Josh and I making eye contact we were both crying by now and wanted so badly to say something to comfort him but we

[00:18:34] couldn't think of anything to say I had dropped my phone when I ran to hold the door shut neither of us could move to go get it so we had no idea how long until the police would get there and the

[00:18:49] door was simply made of wood so it wouldn't last long against his body slams and offered no protection if his knife were to go into our hands all I could think about was that I was going to

[00:19:02] die here that my dog would never know why I didn't come home that I would never get my degree and have enough money to actually start enjoying my life that all the plans for the future my girlfriend

[00:19:15] and I made would never happen and the most anticlimactic and wonderful finish ever it suddenly became silent there were no police car alarms no yelling nothing it was as if Nick had

[00:19:31] just vanished Josh and I both looked at each other not even daring to breathe listening for any sign of life on the other side of the door we both slammed to the ground when a gunshot went off

[00:19:46] then twice then a third time there was more silence then a voice rang out asking if anyone was here we weren't sure if we should say anything then the voice continued with his name and that he

[00:20:03] was an off-duty EMT who had been listening to the scanner Josh got up and pushed things aside in front of the door opening it just enough to put his head out and then it seemed like all his breath

[00:20:19] just left him he opened the door went out into the store with relief all over him I ran and grabbed my phone seeing that the call had been disconnected or the dispatcher had hung up I went out into the

[00:20:36] store where Josh and our rescuer was he was in the middle of explaining how the police over the scanner were sending a bunch of cars but they were all pretty far away and he had a horrible feeling

[00:20:49] that they wouldn't get here in time when the dispatcher was telling them what they'd find when they got there he didn't want either of us to go outside until the police got there because

[00:20:59] though Nick had been shot in the shoulder he had still had the knife when he took off EMT said he would run after him but with the state that the store was in he was scared that someone

[00:21:12] in here could be dying or hurt the next 20 minutes were a blur Josh and I were sitting on the floor hugging each other when the police got there the EMT called dispatch and told them of the

[00:21:26] new situation and most of the cars that were coming to our location were diverted to looking for Nick it was soon after that that Josh got to his phone to call his wife and she came right over

[00:21:40] only bringing their daughter because he begged her to he seemed to completely break down when he held his daughter and hugged his wife I had an extremely similar reaction when I finally got home

[00:21:55] and came to see my dog's body wiggling excitedly proudly displaying his flamingo toy for me to have as a welcome home gift Nick was found two weeks later in an old RV in the woods that he

[00:22:11] was using to do his drinking and do drugs so that his wife wouldn't catch him apparently the reason that he had come after us was because he thought that the reason Josh wanted him to

[00:22:25] leave so quickly was so he could call the owner again and this time the complaint would get him fired unbeknownst to us his wife had kicked him out four days before all of this happened

[00:22:39] and was in the process of getting a restraining order against him over threatening texts and phone calls that she had been getting he stated that his job was all he had left and

[00:22:50] Josh needed to be punished for trying to take that away from him he said that I wasn't the target and he didn't want to have to kill me but he knew that he had a much better chance of killing Josh

[00:23:02] with me there than Dixie since Josh would be more likely to face him to protect me neither Josh nor I called the owner or even the manager over his comments that night though maybe we should have

[00:23:18] it was disturbing what he was saying in hindsight but we were so used to him being a creep and saying really horrible things at that point that it didn't even register to us that he could be

[00:23:32] serious about trying to hurt someone I had known him for three months and Josh had known him for six and he had never done anything violent toward anyone everyone just thought that he was all talk

[00:23:46] we also put faith in the fact that every employee had a background check on them before they were hired so it's not like Nick had ever been violent before he took a plea deal so that the two counts

[00:24:00] of attempted murder would be dropped and he would instead go to a mental hospital for offenders the reason that I'm writing this story now other than the other two stories and this sub inspiring

[00:24:13] me is that I got a call two weeks ago notifying me that as long as there's no setbacks to his mental health status Nick would be released on June 8th of this year when I called Josh

[00:24:30] he said he had received the same news the day before neither Josh nor I work there anymore and Josh has since moved away to another town on the other side of the city and I have switched

[00:24:43] to going to college completely online and I am in a new place that I'm renting with a roommate I don't think he'll come after either of us I don't see how he could blame us for what happened

[00:24:58] I've read so many of these stories and after the fact everyone seems so prepared for what to do if they ever see the person they're writing about again I don't think I'd be any more prepared to

[00:25:10] face him this time than I was back then I've had pretty intense nightmares ever since that day but ever since I got the call every time I close my eyes all I can hear is that one sentence louder

[00:25:25] and clearer than I ever heard it since it was actually said they're never going to find you too Nick if it was true that you were diagnosed as a psychopath I hope you're getting the help that

[00:25:41] you need you already destroyed my peace of mind and even now years later I don't feel safe especially at night I don't personally believe in God but I pray to anyone that's listening we never meet

[00:25:56] again thank you for listening to this week's episode of let's not meet a true horror podcast this week you have heard sometimes it's not the customers that are the scary parts of overnight

[00:26:25] shifts by reddit user dance of horrors I hope everyone out there is staying healthy and safe and if you have any stories you want to send in to me don't forget you can always email me

[00:26:36] at let's not meet stories at gmail.com to hear them on the show don't forget I also have a patreon you can go to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to get access to all the bonus

[00:26:48] content I'll see you guys next week for a brand new episode of let's not meet the one you little sit back in that you haven't got a gun no but I've got a knife David

[00:27:04] my jackknife but it's sharp and strong so don't try any tricks all right threaten me watch me while that woman is out there all you can do is sit and wait for her to make the must have been

[00:27:21] on the same road they were in their car too they must have let her in we'll leave then the three of us will walk we'll stay close together we'll be quiet look if you want to go why don't you leave we're gonna stay here until some help comes

[00:27:48] oh I'm helpless alone if I had a gun or something you're nice why doesn't somebody come I can't stand it nobody'll come there's no one in these woods they're burned out

[00:28:03] in the circus I was sure I didn't use this road he wouldn't listen to me and stop for gas why don't you do something not just sit here wait do something before we're murdered are you so helpless oh I go for help that's it get help

[00:28:35] I saw it in the moonlight your wife is hysterical is she waiting for her