5x04: Exorcism

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult content and language. The stories in this show are frightening and can be disturbing for some. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com.

[00:00:13] Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. Now, enjoy the show. My name is Andrew Tate and this is Season 5, Episode 4 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast.

[00:00:34] I live in South Africa, in a smaller neighborhood amongst many in the city. It's not uncommon to hear of people being robbed here, but the funny thing is they aren't always the smartest people out there. This occurred around one week ago.

[00:01:39] Now, I'm a big guy, 6'1", half African, half German. I'm a high school student. For a bit of backstory before beginning, we have these beams covering the entire exterior of the house from top to around the center parts of the building, as well as the exterior

[00:01:58] alarm system which alerts us to trespassers when a door or window is opened. Another small bit of info, I seem to wake up just before something happens to me or my family. I guess it's sort of a sixth sense type thing.

[00:02:14] For example, waking up just before the alarm goes off or just before my parents enter my room minutes later. It was a Sunday morning. My mom, dad, and I were the only ones in our house at the time. At around 5, I woke up.

[00:02:31] But the strange thing was that I had woken up an hour earlier than what I usually would on a weekend. 6am, without a doubt. So I knew something was up. As these thoughts were rushing through my mind, like an overworked college student late

[00:02:48] for an evening class, I heard a shrill scream from my mom's room. Knowing her, as she is extremely loud in general and tends to shout over the smallest things, I wasn't too concerned. As of yet.

[00:03:06] But when she called mine and my dad's name, I knew something was up. Just as I realized my mother's panicked state, I heard footsteps stumbling down the hall. The desperation to get away was extremely audible by the constant yet strangely inconsistent steps.

[00:03:27] Without a thought, I sprung out of my bed like a tightly wound coil and proceeded to sprint in the direction of the intruder. I ran into my living room and spotted the man escaping through the bottom half of my living room window, which was close to the ground.

[00:03:47] The window is a solid pane which doesn't open, as it was mainly there for illumination from the sun. He didn't trip the alarm as he crawled under the beam and was able to take out the window pane whilst on his stomach without setting the alarm off.

[00:04:07] I caught up to him in my front yard where he decided to throw a bag with all his belongings over into our neighbor's yard. He continued to run in a frantic panic, like a carriage missing a wheel stumbling across our backyard.

[00:04:23] When I caught up to him this time, he, now realizing that he had nowhere left to turn, looks at me. As he did, I caught myself staring at a glistening piece of sharp metal staring right back at me.

[00:04:38] It was a Stanley knife or more commonly known as a box cutter. He decided it was a good idea to taunt me by gesturing his other vacant hand at me, signaling for me to come closer. He began to speak to me in this almost demonic sounding voice.

[00:04:55] Of course, me being in my half-sleep contributed to the sound of his voice. He said, Come, come, In his words. He was a large man, clean shaven, some would call big boned. He wore long khaki brown pants as well as a black jacket and t-shirt.

[00:05:18] However, I was too tired to identify any prominent features. He took a slice at my abdomen. As he did, as dumb as this was, I took a swing at him. Half asleep me barely did any damage even though I do kickboxing training.

[00:05:39] I didn't really know what I was doing though. As I did, something seemed to drop from his pocket but I didn't pay too much attention to it. I chased him for a couple more minutes until he got to my wall and jumped over to my neighbor's garden.

[00:05:58] I didn't chase him after that. When my adrenaline wore off, I checked myself to see if I was wounded and I realized that my shirt was torn down the middle. I was bleeding from the stomach as the intruder had been able to cut me with his sorry excuse

[00:06:15] for a weapon. The bleeding wasn't bad. I knew how to properly treat myself as I'm a level 3 first aid student. I went to the garden where we had our encounter and realized that after I hit the man, the thing that dropped was his cell phone, an old BlackBerry.

[00:06:35] Funny thing is, we also recovered his bag with all his belongings in it. Bolt cutters, bottle of whiskey that he stole from our bar, his jacket, all stuffed in a primary school child's bag. Knowing that he robbed a child was even more frightening.

[00:06:56] Knowing that this could have been 10 times worse than it was, I'm extremely thankful for my second chance and definitely, if he decides to return, I will be ready with the weapon that has his name on it.

[00:07:10] The ambulance came and took me to the hospital to get a tetanus shot. We never caught him, but to that dumbass thief who left with less than he came, let's never meet again. A couple of buddies and myself love to listen to your podcast while delivering pizza.

[00:07:39] It's really been a great way to get through the shift and it's been a huge talking point for us when we get back to the shop. With that being said, I've been wondering whether or not I should share my own story,

[00:07:52] but I've come to the conclusion of why not? It takes place two years ago, about halfway through my junior year in college. Coming from New York, I regularly took trips to and from Rhode Island where I attended

[00:08:08] school, making drives like the one I'm about to describe to you today, one that really wasn't out of the ordinary. Something I realized over time is that I could cut my almost four-hour drive back to Rhode

[00:08:23] Island by almost a third if I drove late at night, where the cars that were left on the road were sporadic, late-night travelers like myself, and large trucks hauling their goods to and from shipping sites.

[00:08:39] Being that I've made this trip dozens of times already by my junior year, I wasn't turned off at all by the thought of doing it again after leaving my sister's engagement party at approximately 11.30 p.m.

[00:08:53] I said my goodbyes and well wishes to my family's sister and her at the time fiancé, and I was on my merry way as I truly did enjoy the long, alone time driving at night with some great tunes. The drive itself was going very well.

[00:09:11] I was making some of the best time that I had ever made from New York to Rhode Island, and the elation that carried on from that joyous event I just attended had kept me in good spirits. That is, until about 40 minutes remained in my drive.

[00:09:29] You see, the route that my GPS took me this time around had me get onto a one-lane highway upon getting into Rhode Island that I had only ever been on once before during the day. This wasn't incredibly unusual, as tracking systems have taken me multiple of different

[00:09:48] routes over the course of several trips that I had taken. So I didn't pay any mind. However, this is where the story takes a turn unlike any that I would have ever predicted. As a 20-year-old college kid with the wind in his back, anxious to greet his several

[00:10:09] roommates, back at their shared rental home on the shores of a beautiful beach town hugging the lip of Rhode Island, I was absolutely flying, never quite rearing under 75 mph. Although I was getting quite fast, like I mentioned before, the highway was only one

[00:10:30] lane so eventually I came across another car driving ahead of me, also going incredibly fast. I thought it was cool at first that this red run-down sedan and I were both flying through

[00:10:43] this highway in what felt like unison until the car took a dead stop in the middle of this one-lane road and reared over to the dirt on the right side. It was now almost 2 am and admittedly I felt inconvenienced having to slow down.

[00:11:05] I was so close to my house, only about 45 minutes left in my trip. I beeped at the car, then floored it, reaching my top speeds again within seconds and not thinking anything of it until the car sped up behind me and began to hug my tail.

[00:11:25] I figured that whoever was in that car must have been upset about something but I didn't feel as though I was following them too closely and I definitely wasn't anywhere close enough to warrant a response like I was experiencing.

[00:11:44] This persisted for about 10 minutes until reaching the end of the highway that connected to an eerie, dark and empty intersection. Immediately upon approaching the red lights, the red sedan pulled up next to me and gave

[00:12:01] face to the frustration of a man burly and older and what I'd say was about his late 40s. The cocky 20 year old that I was threw my hands up in the air and looked at him as if to say, what's your problem?

[00:12:20] His response was almost identical however his reaction did not end there. I began to roll down my passenger side window as I thought some nasty words were about to be exchanged but I was definitely not prepared for the exchange that persisted instead.

[00:12:40] The man emerged from his car, flinging the door open, standing tall and infuriated. To paint a visual picture, imagine the look of an old drunk angry lumberjack. Indistinctively I rolled the remainder of my car window up and locked the doors to my car with extreme haste.

[00:13:05] The man peered through my passenger window and began slamming his fists against the glass, yelling inaudible profanities while yanking on my passenger side door as if to rip it open. This whole ordeal was happening in seconds and the light ahead of me was still red but

[00:13:27] I floored it with my foot to the ground without waiver. I wish I could tell you that the story ends here but it doesn't. The man ran back into his car and began to follow me again.

[00:13:41] I'm now doing 80 miles per hour in residential areas, blasting through red lights and twisting and turning down roads trying to lose this absolute maniac. After another 15 minutes had passed, with no waiver on his end, I decided it was time I called for a situation.

[00:14:01] A situation amongst my college roommates means that something serious that requires all of our attention immediately is happening. I called my roommate Sam, being lucky that he was even awake after 2am and I explained my situation.

[00:14:18] He mentioned that our roommate Marcel and his friends from home had still been awake as well and that he would wake the rest of the house so that if I were to come home, still being followed, this maniac would be greeted by 8 young men with bats and other

[00:14:34] weapons. Lo and behold, the man actually did follow me all the way back. A 40 plus minute drive back to my college home. Upon entering the neighborhood, I strategically made turns to give myself a couple of seconds at my house before he would arrive behind me.

[00:14:57] I parked the car in my driveway and immediately, my friends started piling out of the house. We all approached the vehicle, which had now been stopped across the street, and began slamming on it with our hands, making gestures and remarks to the man.

[00:15:15] In response, he stepped on the gas hard and began jerking his vehicle, trying his best to hit us with his fucking car in the middle of the street. We ran onto ours and the neighboring properties, which had large rocks separating the street

[00:15:33] from the lawns, and by the skin of our teeth managed to avoid getting hit by this madman. He then drove away, circled the block once, and seeing us all still there, decided that it would be in his best interest to leave.

[00:15:51] Needless to say, that was one of the craziest experiences and definitely the scariest drive of my life. To the drunk or drugged out maniac who followed me for 45 minutes back to my house, let's never meet again.

[00:16:23] I should probably say a little bit about myself before I get started. First of all, I live in a small town in the south where I was homeschooled by my mom as a kid and online schooled as a teen.

[00:16:36] I have six siblings, so it's not like I had trouble in a group of people, but still, as a homeschool kid, I blossomed into a sheltered teen. Another thing you should know about me is that I go buckwild over holidays and special occasions.

[00:16:56] Any excuse for festivities in a town where nothing happens, and where I don't have many friends, and I'm all over it. Luckily for me, there's a big festival in my town. Once each year, the entire town gets blanketed by festivals, covering the streets in stalls

[00:17:17] for delicious greasy food, snake memorabilia, and your pick of homemade jewelries as well as crafts from locals. There's also a whole flea market, and of course, your obligatory carnival games and rides. It's actually a snake-themed festival.

[00:17:38] But you can avoid all of that if you're not a big snake person, and the most that tourists usually do is snag a basket of fried rattlesnake. Needless to say, it's tons of fun for me, and I make it a point to go every single year.

[00:17:55] This particular time, I was 16. I went with my cousin, and since she wasn't usually around, that led us to check out some of the stalls that I would normally walk right by if I were by myself, or with one of my siblings.

[00:18:12] My cousin stops to browse in front of a stall, a long table covered in ceramic animals and other tchotchkes. I'm not really interested, but she's engrossed with those things, so I linger and paw through the selection while I wait for her to pick one to buy.

[00:18:35] While I'm standing there, the middle-aged man sitting behind the stall turns his attention away from his phone and directly towards me. He sits up and starts talking to me. Now, it's not weird for people to be unusually nice and throw a few compliments at you to

[00:18:56] try and get you to buy some stuff, so at first I just thought that's what he was doing. He's leering at me now while he's talking, and he starts to throw out comments telling me how beautiful I am.

[00:19:14] And not the, a pretty girl like you definitely needs a ceramic turtle salesman type of thing. Creepy things, such as, you must drive all the boys crazy at your college. A curvy blonde like you, clearly darting his eyes towards my chest at regular intervals.

[00:19:38] I bet they never leave you alone. By this time, I was so very uncomfortable and so unprepared to navigate this kind of situation. But he called me a college girl, and I thought he would definitely back off on the creepy

[00:19:55] comments about how he bets boys couldn't keep their hands off of me and how beautiful he thought I was if he knew that I was only in high school. So I corrected him, trying not to sound unnerved. Oh, I'm not in college, I'm actually a high schooler.

[00:20:14] I'm only 16. Yeah, if I weren't so sheltered, I would have known that this is not a thing that creeps care about. He was completely unaffected by this knowledge, and he even seemed like this might have encouraged him more. He kept eyeing me and giving me creepy compliments.

[00:20:35] He even asked where I lived, and thankfully I was scared enough at that point not to give him any concrete answers. The comments were awful, and it felt gross, but by far the worst part of this whole interaction

[00:20:49] was when he took his phone back out and lined it up, taking several photos of me. I didn't have a chance to say anything or stop him, but even if I did, I'm ashamed to say that I was completely frozen in place.

[00:21:04] I had never experienced anything like this before, and I felt gross and scared. My reaction was just to freeze up. I think he gave me some lazy excuse for why he needed photos of me, something about a beauty contest.

[00:21:23] There were no beauty contests in my town, and if there were, that is obviously not what he wanted pictures for. If you're wondering why my cousin didn't intervene that whole time, she didn't think it was a big deal at all.

[00:21:39] She laughed at how funny it was and seemed annoyed that I just stood there the whole time. I think she thought that I was enjoying it, but I still don't understand why she didn't lead us away as soon as the guy started paying special attention to me.

[00:21:58] I went directly home, and only when I sat down on my couch did I realize how shaken up I was. I held back tears and explained to my mom about a creepy man saying creepy things and taking creepy pictures of me. She was justifiably horrified.

[00:22:17] My cousin thought the whole thing was funny, and I stayed at home for the rest of the day. The next day, I went back to the festival with a larger group, including one of my sisters and two of my brothers.

[00:22:31] I told them about where the stall was and that I wanted to avoid it, leaving out the finer details of my interaction with the guy. Still, on the walk home, I was in visual range of the stall, and the creepy man tried to yell,

[00:22:47] Hey beautiful, at me to get my attention. My heart already racing, I stared straight ahead and pretended not to hear. He followed this up with, Is it always this hard to get her to smile? At my group.

[00:23:06] As we all passed the stall, one of my brothers joked I think he was talking to me. I guess I felt better for it, but I was still unreasonably shaken up by the fact that he

[00:23:17] had picked me out of a crowd and tried to talk to me again. I didn't think any of this was concrete enough to bother reporting it to the police, so the best I could do was avoid the stall at any cost anytime the festival rolled around.

[00:23:32] Even if it made my walks into the festival much longer and more roundabout. I think he still comes every year though, and sets up in the same spot. Always. I hope he wouldn't recognize me now though.

[00:23:47] I've since dyed my hair red, and I get the sense that, since I'm an adult, I wouldn't be half as appealing. I know the whole thing is pretty mild compared to some of the other stories here, and I came

[00:24:00] out unscathed, but occasionally I think about the fact that he has those photos of me, and I feel a bit nauseous. So to the creep who took photos when I was a teen, let's not meet. So this happened a few months ago. I am 29 years old.

[00:24:31] I am a female. I'm not sure if I'm overreacting because of the myriad of true crime that I listen to on the daily, or if this dude actually would have tried something, but you tell me what you think. I'm going to call him Kyle.

[00:24:49] I had previously hooked up with this guy two years ago and had a great time. I still had his number and decided to hit him up. I got to his house, and everything was going great until he asked me if I mind him doing a touch of cocaine.

[00:25:09] I said, sure, you do you, man. I had never been around anyone on cocaine, so I was just going to roll with it and go from there. Fast forward to the erectile dysfunction cocaine causes and him getting very upset about it.

[00:25:32] He was drinking wine this whole time and started pacing after I played a song that I thought was sexy, which turned out to be a huge trigger for him, apparently. He disappeared for a minute, and when I went to look for him, I saw him doing more cocaine.

[00:25:51] After that, I decided I didn't want to be there anymore. But I wasn't sure how to leave because he was acting very scary. He asked if I wanted to chill on the couch for just a bit.

[00:26:05] I said sure because the only thing I knew to do was be cool and complimentary to keep him calm. He proceeds to tell me that he's relapsed on his drug habits and feels depressed and angry about our situation and he has trust issues. I said, what trust issues?

[00:26:28] He said, I don't trust females. Going off the true crime knowledge, not many men say that and then follow it up with good things. So in my head, I'm thinking, well, I'm dying tonight.

[00:26:48] He then pulls out a literal 3 inch pipe he keeps in his couch and proceeds to smoke weed. He gets visibly mad when I won't smoke with him because I started a new job and they drug test. So now he's coked out, wine drunk, and high.

[00:27:08] The dude doesn't even know what realm he's in right now. He goes to the bathroom and I text my friend his address just in case and ask her to text me in 30 minutes that my dogs are loose and then again in 10 minutes reminding me.

[00:27:25] Also, I know I should have run out the door when he went to the bathroom and had it been a movie, I would have screamed at myself. However, I went and located my keys, shoes, and jacket just in case when he comes back

[00:27:41] and wants to watch a movie. He puts on a Tarantino movie after calling me very rude names for not liking Spider-Man. My friend finally texts me. While I'm looking at the phone, he says, are you telling people how bad you want to get out of here?

[00:28:01] I say, no, my dogs are loose and I need to go get them. He looks at me dead in the face and says, why are you lying to me? I told him I wasn't lying while trying not to freak out and apologized.

[00:28:22] My friend then texts me the 10 minute reminder. I tell him, hey, I really have to go get my dogs. He then throws his head back, laughs, and spreads his arms across the couch telling me how relaxing this song was.

[00:28:40] The song was Bang Bang by Nancy Sinatra, which is creepy as fuck. He said, you're just like all the rest. All females do is play the victim. He lifted his head and looked at me saying absolutely nothing, just intense eye contact while that song played.

[00:29:07] I got my jacket, shoes, and keys and said, I'm sorry you feel that way, but I'm leaving. It was so scary putting everything on, waiting for the moment when he would lunge at me. But he just stayed there staring at the ceiling, singing the words Bang Bang.

[00:29:26] He shot me down, Bang Bang. My keychain got stuck in the door as I tried to leave, which made me want to scream. I yanked my keys out and ran to my car. I didn't even turn on the lights. I just peeled out of there.

[00:29:44] So angry, coked out guy, let's never meet again. I met Duncan at work. He was a friend of a friend that worked in the same school and seemed nice enough, if just a little odd.

[00:30:15] I heard through the grapevine that he rubbed most people the wrong way and was a little creepy, but he was always friendly to me, so I didn't think much of it. I was an office assistant, and he would often stop by my office to chit chat throughout the

[00:30:32] day. We became friends and would often eat lunch together with our friend Esperanza. I didn't have a car at the time, so sometimes Duncan or Esperanza would give me a ride home after work. Everything was fine for a couple of months until his tone became slightly more flirty

[00:30:54] and he would often make comments to me about how pretty I looked. I started feeling uncomfortable about it as I was married at the time, and I asked Esperanza in private if she could take me home from that point on whenever I needed a ride.

[00:31:13] About a week later, he came into my office one day with a very serious expression on his face. You haven't asked for a ride home lately, he said, obviously hurt. Oh, I know, it's out of the way for you and Esperanza said that she could go ahead

[00:31:32] and take me from now on. I replied back. A quizzical look passed across his face, and then his usual happy-go-lucky demeanor came back. Yeah, sure, no problem. But if you ever need a ride, I'm here for you. He never really mentioned anything about it again.

[00:31:55] Fast forward a few months, and the details are a bit hazy as this happened about 10 years ago, but I know I needed to use this USB from him that we use to pass along daily for sign-in sheets for our students.

[00:32:11] I plugged the USB into my computer, and I noticed a file that I had never really seen or paid attention to before. The reason I even thought to click on it traced back to one of our conversations we had with Esperanza while eating lunch one day.

[00:32:30] He mentioned casually to me that he often told his wife he referred to me as his work wife. Something that I told him I was very uncomfortable with, and I requested that he stop joking like that.

[00:32:46] This file on his USB stick stuck out to me because it only had two letters, WW, and for some reason it sent a chill down my back. I don't know what made me click on it, but as soon as I did, fear took over my whole body.

[00:33:08] In the file, I saw that he had uploaded over 500 photos of me that he had taken without my knowledge. Multiple photos of me sitting at my desk, photos of me standing in the hallway, of me

[00:33:23] talking to students, smiling, blurry photos of me that looked as if they had been taken quickly before I had seen him doing so. I clicked every single photo. They were all of me.

[00:33:40] Looking at all of this creeped me out, and I can only blame what I did on adrenaline or fear. I copied the file and all the photos onto my personal computer and deleted everything from his USB.

[00:33:56] Now looking back, I realize that I should have just told my supervisor immediately, but I truly did consider him a friend and instead I handed it back over to him and said, look,

[00:34:09] I don't know why you had all of those pictures of me on there, but they're gone now. Please don't ever take any pictures of me without my consent again. I guess I was just hoping that by him knowing that I knew, that would just be the end of

[00:34:24] it. And I thought it worked. He was embarrassed, flustered, and very apologetic. I just wanted memories of working with you, he said. This was a very creepy statement. Due to this situation, I ended up distancing myself from him and not long after, I ended

[00:34:46] up getting promoted to another position in a different school a few months later. He would call or text me every now and then, but I really didn't feel comfortable talking to him anymore. The thought later came to my mind that maybe he had all those pictures saved elsewhere,

[00:35:06] but I was just glad that I was away from him and that whole situation. It doesn't end there though. Months later, I had a new car, new job, and I hadn't really thought about him or this

[00:35:21] situation much until I came home one day to find out that my house that we rented had been broken into. Not much had been taken, except my laptop, a few pieces of jewelry, and a picture of my husband and I that I hung by the front door.

[00:35:41] I instantly knew that it had to be Duncan. A couple of days later, I received a text from him asking me how I was doing. I responded and said that my house had been broken into recently. His response? Truth, it wasn't me. Just to get that out there.

[00:36:03] But you were lucky he didn't walk in while they were there. You really could have gotten hurt. Did they take any specific items? He asked. Needless to say, I went to the police with this information and with the photos, but

[00:36:19] they of course said there wasn't enough proof and to just let them know if we had any more incidents with this person in the future. I blocked Duncan's number, and because I felt so unsafe in that house, my husband and

[00:36:33] I ended up purchasing a new home and moved far away. Looking back, there were so many things I could have done differently about the situation, but because I considered him a friend, I never wanted to take it that far.

[00:36:48] I'm just so glad he doesn't have access to me anymore. About a year ago, Esperanza reached out to me and said that she ran into Duncan at a grocery store. She said he told her that his wife had passed away peacefully in her sleep and that he kept

[00:37:08] bringing up my name in the conversations. Apparently, he told her that he missed his work wife and told her to give me his number. I of course declined. So Duncan, please let's never meet again. This happened 15 years ago in my final year of high school.

[00:37:41] In the country where I lived, they took Christianity very seriously. You were raised Christian. At school, we had Bible lessons and scripture readings every morning before class started, and your social life pretty much revolved around the church.

[00:38:00] When this event occurred, I was a youth leader at my church, and I even had a key to open the church every Friday evening and Sunday. I was a pretty awkward kid, though. A bit weird and perhaps a little eccentric.

[00:38:17] So I didn't have that many friends in school. Two, to be exact. I was a real social outcast back then. We also lived about 60 kilometers away from the school, and I had to wait like four or

[00:38:31] five hours after school for my mom to come pick me up so that we could go home. All these facts will be important for later. My story starts in January of my final year. As final year students, we had slightly more privileges than all the other students.

[00:38:50] For one, every morning, we would all meet in a big hall for Bible readings and the announcements for the week. Here all the young students would sit on the icy cold floor at the bottom of the hall,

[00:39:05] and the final year students, and the very few girls, would sit on chairs at the top of the gallery overlooking the big hall. This was always made out to be a major privilege. We also had a choice to attend sports events like rugby or athletics.

[00:39:24] One of the major sporting events in the beginning of the year was the Inter-High School Athletics Competition. Here, on one day in January, all the schools in the area would compete against each other

[00:39:37] to find the best athletes so they could be nominated to represent the area in provincial competitions. At these competitions, all the students from each school would need to attend as spectators. Final year students had a choice whether or not they wanted to go.

[00:39:56] However, this year, this event was moved to another school and there wasn't enough space for each high school's entire populace. Therefore, only the first year and final year students were forced to go. Given that final year students always had a choice in the past, and that this event

[00:40:16] was on a Friday, my two friends, who I'll call Dr. Dre and The Wizard, and I decided to stay at home and make a long weekend out of it. Dr. Dre was the only normal person in the little group of friends.

[00:40:31] Dr. Dre was really into rap music, he had good relationships with the teachers, all the different cliques of students, from the jocks to the geeks, they all liked him. And he was overall a really decent kid, very wise and smart for his age.

[00:40:46] The Wizard, on the other hand, was a very tall, blonde Dutch boy that was into very weird things. People found him to be extremely weird but didn't pick on him. He liked to catch mice in the field, skin them and make stuff from their skins.

[00:41:05] He was, in his own mind, into wizardry. He identified as Dark Wicca or a Dark Witch. He was just overall kinda weird. Anyway, the Monday morning after the athletics event, my two friends and I went to the big

[00:41:23] hall for the daily Bible lesson and announcements, as was customary. We sat at the top of the gallery and waited for the plebs to fill the hall at the bottom. When everyone took their seats, two student leaders came to the gallery and said that

[00:41:41] everyone that wasn't at the event on Friday will need to go sit at the bottom with the plebs for the rest of the year. Apparently, they handed out little cards on Friday and we didn't have them.

[00:41:56] So my friends and I awkwardly stood up and made our way down the stairs. Halfway down, I told them that it was kinda bullshit that we had to go sit with the kids.

[00:42:09] The wizard then said, I say we just go outside the hall and refuse to go in. Make a statement about it. At the time, we thought it was a good idea and went to sit outside.

[00:42:22] About 15 minutes later, a student leader came to ask us why we were sitting outside. I responded, it's none of your business. And he proceeded to call one of the teachers. Our mathematics teacher, a short mid-40s balding Greek man, came outside and asked why we were sitting there.

[00:42:44] Without thinking, the wizard said, it's against our religion. The teacher asked what religion it was and we didn't respond. He turned around and walked away. We didn't mention which religion we were and at the time, we thought it was a very smart response.

[00:43:03] Later that day, we were in our homeroom class. The intercom went off. It broadcasted over the entire school. An old woman's voice asked the wizard, Dr. Dre, and I to go to the principal's office.

[00:43:17] Obviously, this story had already spread across the entire school and everyone knew what this was about. We went to his office and sat on the old wooden benches in front of his door. Dr. Dre was the first to be asked to go in.

[00:43:34] Ten minutes later, he comes out and returns to class. The wizard and I were then asked to come in together. The principal asked us to sit down and proceeded to ask us to explain the situation.

[00:43:49] Not willing to give up the jig, we proceeded to stick to our story. He then asked if we were Satanists. The wizard then responded and said something that would put me on a path of lifelong psychological trauma. The wizard said yes, even though he wasn't.

[00:44:12] The principal then proceeded to ask questions why and how and when. It felt like we were sitting there for hours. The wizard said that he was in it for the power and control. All the time I'm thinking, what the fuck dude?

[00:44:27] I was quiet throughout the entire session though. Mostly because I was afraid, but primarily because I was shocked from the things that came out of his mouth. Around an hour later, we were asked to leave and return to class and I thought that the situation was resolved.

[00:44:44] The next day at 7am, all the students lined up in the quad as we always did from Tuesday until Friday. The principal did his bible reading and then the announcements. His final announcement sent shivers down my spine though.

[00:45:02] He said that he made it his mission to destroy the satanic rituals and Satanists in the school. At this point, it felt like all the students' heads turned towards me. With the extra incentive, the majority of the students started to bully me and I was

[00:45:22] consistently made fun of. Given that both Dr. Dre and the wizard were macho gym junkies, no one picked on them. So I took the brunt of the students' and teachers' wrath. This went on for about 3 months.

[00:45:38] By the end of the third month, people already forgot that Dr. Dre and the wizard were involved in the matter and I was basically now labeled the school demon. Already an outcast, my life was now an absolute living hell.

[00:45:57] The smart-ass remark to get us not to sit at the bottom of the hall had now turned into a life of constant physical and psychological torture from students and teachers. Although I kept telling everyone that I wasn't a Satanist and that it was the wizard lying

[00:46:17] to get us out of sitting with the younger students, no one believed me. Everything weird that happened at the school was now always made out to be my fault. I even talked to the principal and even my pastor from the church but nothing ever came of it.

[00:46:34] I just wanted the torture to stop and no one would believe me. So this brings me to D-Day. The last Friday of the semester, the school got out at 11. It usually got out a little bit later.

[00:46:51] Although the school was out and everyone was on their way home for the start of the summer vacation I still had to stay at school until around 5.30 so that my mom could pick me up after work and we could go home.

[00:47:06] Around 11.30 the school was empty and I proceeded to go sit under my usual tree and entertain myself with Snake on my old Nokia phone. Mid game I see the vice principal and the teacher that was in charge of religious studies. They walk up to me.

[00:47:25] They asked very politely if I wanted to ride with them. I declined saying that my mom would be here at any moment to pick me up. The vice principal said he already spoke to my mom and she wasn't going to be here until around 6.

[00:47:40] Fair enough, he caught me out of my bullshit excuse and given that was the usual time she would pick me up I didn't think to question it any further. We walked to his car and I asked where we were going.

[00:47:53] He said he wanted to introduce me to what he called a friend of his. We climbed into the car and drove 15 minutes until we arrived at a church. I knew the church because that was where the school's minister, kind of like a priest, worked.

[00:48:15] The minister was big and wobbly. He looked as if he could afford to skip a few meals. A pudgy fellow with rosy cheeks, a massive belly, and this weird bluish-gray tint to his eyes that always seemed as if it stares through you as he looks at you.

[00:48:36] I'll call him Minister Bear. So we get there and I feel my heart sink into my shoes. I knew where this was going. I was walked around the church and led into a dark room in the back of the building.

[00:48:52] As my eyes adjusted from the bright sun to the darkish room, I saw Minister Bear sitting behind his antique yellow wooden desk. He welcomed my two teachers and stood up and made his way around the desk.

[00:49:13] As his friendly eyes moved slowly away from my teachers and towards me, his gaze systematically turned into this deep look of concern and fear. He locked the door next to me and said in a deep and serious voice, I feel a dark presence in this room.

[00:49:34] He then thanked my teachers for bringing me there. He told my teachers to sit in the corner and ushered me into a chair in front of his desk. He sat down and proceeded to ask me a bunch of personal questions.

[00:49:51] It started innocent enough, like who I was and where I lived, then drifted towards if I ever had sex, if I'm gay, which is a taboo subject where I'm from. Then the questions became darker. I would answer and he would tell my teachers, this isn't her talking.

[00:50:13] He then asked me if I was a Satanist to which I responded with a clear no. I told him I was a youth leader in my church and that he could phone my pastor to ask.

[00:50:27] He would then respond by saying things like, don't lie to me demon, release this child of God. The more I would deny his claims, the more he would tell my teachers that they needed to pray because the demon has a very strong hold on me.

[00:50:45] This went on for about two hours. I looked at my watch and it was clearly 1.30. He then asked the demon inside me its name and how many of them were in me. I kept denying it and eventually I burst into tears, begging him to let me go.

[00:51:06] He said to my teachers that this was a demon's way to escape, that he was getting closer to getting them to release me. He asked me about Satanist rituals and in between each question he would ask, he would pray under his breath.

[00:51:25] No matter how much I cried, he didn't want to stop. I stood up and screamed that I'm going to phone the police and ran to the door. I tried to open it. I shook the handle, but it was locked.

[00:51:39] You won't escape this room with this child, demon, he yelled. I fell to the ground crying, saying that my mom is looking for me and that I just want to go home. At this stage he picked me up with both his hands and held me in the air.

[00:51:57] He pushed me against the wall and started praying louder. As I struggled to get free, he yelled at my teachers to come put their hands on me and pray as the demons were losing control. I was afraid for my life.

[00:52:11] As a kid of 17, I didn't know what was going on. I remember thinking that how can they feel a dark presence as I spend all my time in church? Why don't they want to phone my pastor? Why won't they believe me?

[00:52:27] At this stage, I realized that the only way out of this was to act the role that they clearly want me to play. That would be the only way out of this locked room. I tried to pull my tears back and look him in the eyes.

[00:52:42] I tried to push the quiver out of my voice. Okay, you got me minister, I said. You can have the child. He immediately dropped me and took a couple of steps back. He stared repeating the questions from earlier and told my teachers to pray harder as we

[00:53:03] are now getting to the crux of the matter. They needed to cast him out. I kept responding to the questions in the way I thought they wanted. I then started speaking German backwards as they started praying harder. At this point, I just wanted to get out of there.

[00:53:24] After what felt like years, they finally stopped and I fell to the ground. Minister Baer said, it's done. Laying on the ground, the tears again started boiling out of my eyes, but this time out of total relief. They asked me how I felt and I couldn't stop crying.

[00:53:46] I just wanted to go home. I lied again and I said, I feel relieved and lighter and that I'm not sure what was going on and how I got there. The minister then told me that I was possessed with a series of demons.

[00:54:00] I can't remember the names that he gave them and that they were holding on deeply to my soul, that it took hours for them to cast them out, but that I'm free now. That's why I felt so light and that crying is normal.

[00:54:19] He prayed one more time and gave me his number. He told me that I should come see him next week and that I should phone him if I feel something is coming back. They finally unlocked the door.

[00:54:33] Not knowing if I was actually free to go, I stood there silently, still shaking, looking at my watch. It was now 5.45 and I knew that my mom was waiting for me at school. The teachers then asked if it was okay to go.

[00:54:49] They then took me back to the school and dropped me off at my mom's car. I climbed in and burst into tears. My mom asked what was wrong and I explained. She then told me that I probably just misunderstood what was going on and that she would speak

[00:55:08] to the principal. Nothing ever came of this. This was by far the most traumatic event in my life. Although I know I contributed to the situation, 15 years later as a trained and registered psychologist, the matter still haunts me.

[00:55:35] So Minister Baer, my vice principal, and my Bible study teacher, let's not meet again. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. This week you have heard, the time the man who tried to rob me left with less than what

[00:56:18] he came by Josh D. Clerk. The Scariest Drive of My Life by Sal42. Rattlesnake Festival Creep by listener Sarah Tisdale. Bang Bang by Foxy Sinatra 101. Work Wife by listener Vida Unraveled. And finally, How a White Lie Led to an Exorcism by listener Llewellyn.

[00:56:44] All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors. Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast, is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online.

[00:56:54] As always, if you want to hear your story on the show, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. I read every email that I get. I take them very seriously and I truly appreciate all the authors for sharing these terrifying but important stories for everyone to hear.

[00:57:10] If you want to support the show, head over to patreon.com forward slash letsnotmeetpodcast to get access to bonus episodes and exclusive merchandise. I'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast.