7x16: Crawlspace - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:00] My name is Andrew Tate and this is season 7 episode 16 of Let's Not Meet a True Horror Podcast This story took place about 21 years ago when I was about 10 years old. I had a stepsister

[00:00:45] who was the same age as me and a little brother of 2 years old. Our parents used to leave us alone to babysit for a few hours on most weekends. I need to explain a little bit about our house before I can tell you what happened.

[00:01:02] This house was built a long time ago. Upstairs is where all of the bedrooms are. In each room there are crawlspaces which connect each room through the walls. My sister and I shared

[00:01:15] a room and my bed was right next to the door of our crawlspace. It's creepy I know. One night we were left home alone. It was a cold winter night and our parents were at

[00:01:29] a friend's house in the next town over. We were in the downstairs living room when we heard noises coming from upstairs, both being only 10, we were obviously scared. The stairs to the second floor were located in front of the front door. We creeped through the

[00:01:50] house trying not to make any noise. We heard two voices talking about what they were going to do with us when the time was right. We looked at each other and instantly had the

[00:02:06] same idea. We booked it through the front door, no shoes, no jackets, we just ran. As we left the house we turned back to look. There, outside of the window of my bedroom

[00:02:22] was a ladder. We ran across town. Back in the day we didn't have cell phones like they do now. We waited for hours freezing outside, down the street waiting for our parents to come.

[00:02:36] Finally after what felt like a lifetime they arrived. We told them what had happened. Of course they chalked it up to our imagination. It took me a while to fall asleep that night

[00:02:51] as no one bothered to check the crawl spaces and it being an old house we always heard bumps in the night and just chalked that up to being a creaky old house. About a week later my younger

[00:03:07] brother was playing in his crawl space and managed to venture to our room from his. When he came out he had a protein bar and magazines in his hand. My parents asked us if we were hiding food in our

[00:03:23] crawl space. We told them we were not. They went in with a flashlight and discovered one of the scariest things I've ever experienced in my life. There just around the corner from the door to the

[00:03:36] crawl space, from in front of my bed, were photos of us sleeping. Food wrappers from what could have been a week's worth of food and dirty magazines. Who knows how long they had been there? Who knows

[00:03:52] how long they were watching? But to the creepy guys in our crawl space I hope we never meet. I apologize for the long story in advance but this situation still rocks me to my core. This

[00:04:21] happened a couple of months ago when I went out with a few girlfriends. Let's call them Kay, Jill, and Bev. Kay is friends with the guy who is in this awesome band. They were performing at this

[00:04:36] bar in the downtown area of our city that we currently live in. It was a Saturday evening. The band typically starts playing around 10 p.m. and goes on well into the early morning about 3

[00:04:49] a.m. But I knew I wouldn't last that long and would leave the event earlier than the others. We also had plans to meet up the following afternoon for Jill's birthday. The plan was I would pick

[00:05:04] the three of them up at 9 p.m. from Kay's house. We would arrive at the bar a little before 10, grab some drinks, and dance our asses off until I was ready to go. They decided that they would

[00:05:18] stay behind until the band finishes playing and request a lift back to Kay's house. We arrived at the bar and I parked directly across the street. This detail is very important. Everything went as

[00:05:34] planned. We were having a blast while drinking beers and dancing. It was 1 30 a.m. and I could feel the exhaustion quickly coming over me along with an aching hunger since the last meal I had

[00:05:47] was a slice of cold day-old pizza. There was a white castle across the street from the bar with a line wrapping around the drive-thru. You could see the white castle from the bar and I couldn't

[00:06:00] resist the temptation. Jill was also feeling tired and decided that she would leave with me. She agreed on stopping at White Castle for some late night chow and then I would drop her off to her

[00:06:14] car parked at Kay's house. We let the other two girls know that we were heading out. Kay insisted on walking us to our car and we assured her that we would be fine and she should stay and enjoy

[00:06:27] the rest of the evening. Besides, there were two of us and we would be fine together. We left the bar and proceeded to cross the one-way street. There was a bus stopped so we decided to

[00:06:42] hustle across the street when suddenly I heard somebody yell. I slightly turned and a man dressed in all black emerged from the darkness. I'm not sure what came over me but something told me to run

[00:06:59] and I did just that. Jill must have had that same feeling and began running. The man was hot on our trail. I quickly unlocked the door and hopped into the driver's seat since that side of the car

[00:07:14] was facing the street so I was slightly closer. Jill had to run around the car to get into the passenger seat and the man was in hot pursuit of her. I had my finger ready on the lock button.

[00:07:27] I didn't know what to do but hope and pray that she made it into the car before he caught up to her or worse attempted to get into the car. I could hear him yelling. Jill yelled back,

[00:07:40] no leave me alone. She quickly got into the car slammed the door and we both began repeatedly hitting the lock button. He began to bang on the trunk of the car and I glanced in the rearview

[00:07:53] mirror only to see him menacingly smiling back at me. Suddenly I see him raise his hand to gesture as though someone were coming over. He said, oh we got some good ones. I look in front of me and

[00:08:11] just thinking about this makes my blood run cold. Two men were quickly approaching the car from the darkness. The one coming towards the driver's side had a mask that covered the bottom half of his

[00:08:22] face. A dark hoodie pulled up and was reaching in the front of his pants for something. That's all I needed to see. I quickly peeled it out of the parking space and sped down the street towards

[00:08:33] the highway to get as far from these men as possible. I honestly don't even remember starting the car. Everything happened so fast and my body instantly went into flight mode. We skipped out on

[00:08:47] White Castle thinking that they would chase us there. We wanted to get as far away from that area as possible. As soon as we were far enough and felt safe, Jill and I spoke about what had just

[00:08:59] happened and how thankful we were that Kay didn't walk us out because they could have snuck up on her as she was walking back to the bar or worse grabbed her as we were trying to run away. I know

[00:09:11] a lot of people are probably wondering why I didn't call the police or react faster. Well, this incident happened in a matter of one, maybe two minutes tops. It was so fast and I honestly

[00:09:25] just wanted to get out of there and remove ourselves from what could have been a very horrible situation. Calling the police didn't even cross my mind and they honestly wouldn't have made it

[00:09:38] in time if something were to have happened but thinking about it, they could have patrolled the area to ensure that it didn't happen to someone else. I was shocked that this even happened because

[00:09:50] we were parked right across the street from a busy bar, the busy White Castle with the line of cars wrapped around the street and on a fairly busy street. Anyone could have seen this happen if they

[00:10:02] would have just glanced to the street. I was under the assumption that they were trying to carjack us since carjackings happen in this city at a higher rate than other cities in the US.

[00:10:14] They also waited until we were closer to the car to approach. I told my boyfriend the story and he said that they were probably trying to assault us. He's a bit more of a cynic so my mind didn't

[00:10:25] really jump to that conclusion though that could have been their motive. I'm not sure what their intentions were and I'm so thankful we didn't find out and got out of that situation in one piece.

[00:10:36] I can't help but wonder how frequently this happens and the other ones who aren't as lucky to get away. To the three men who wanted to do God knows what, let's never meet again. I'm a new listener to this podcast and I'm so interested in hearing other stories

[00:11:07] but now it's time for me to share my own. I'm going to change names just to be safe. This happened about a year ago before my little sister Bailey or any of her friends could drive

[00:11:19] since they were freshmen in high school. It was a Friday night in the winter and my sister went to the local high school basketball game. I was home from college on break and hanging out with my mom

[00:11:32] when she got this strange phone call. Now to understand the story it's crucial to understand the setup of our house at the time. It's common that we come in and out through a side door that

[00:11:46] leads to the kitchen. From the kitchen there are two routes to go upstairs to my room and my sibling's room. Only one way through to the family room where we all hang out and the other you go through the

[00:12:00] piano room where we don't spend a lot of time. This particular night my mom and I had been sitting in the family room watching tv when Bailey came home from the game. She said hello briefly and went

[00:12:14] through the kitchen to the living room and upstairs to shower and head to bed after a long day. So we saw her quickly but she didn't go the route through the room that we were in.

[00:12:28] While my mom and I were downstairs my mom gets a phone call. It isn't someone in her contacts or star 67 or any kind of unknown caller. It's a phone number with a local area code so she answers.

[00:12:47] When she answers a young girl's voice on the other end says, Mom I don't know what to do. I need your help. I just don't know what to do. My mom startled and being concerned says,

[00:13:04] What? Where are you? The caller says, I'm at Walmart. I just need your help because I don't know what to do. My mom replies confused. Whose phone is this? The caller says, A lady at Walmart

[00:13:21] is letting me borrow hers. What should I do mom? I just need your help. Being that Bailey didn't hang around or talk to my mom and I when coming in we couldn't remember if she really was home or

[00:13:36] not. I have many siblings so it could have been someone else or never even happened. So my mom stopped answering the caller for a minute giving herself some time to think. This was an odd call

[00:13:50] and we were both trying to process the situation. During the small bit of silence on our end the caller continued to say a few times, Mom, Mom will you just come and get me? I just don't

[00:14:04] know what to do. I just need some help because I can't decide what to do. Her voice was worried a little whiny but innocently desperate as if she just needed some advice. My mom and I ran

[00:14:19] upstairs to be sure that Bailey was in fact home and not borrowing a lady's phone at Walmart truly needing our help. Luckily Bailey was sitting on her bed and safely at home not on the other end

[00:14:33] of the phone. But still on the call we hear, Mom, Mom I just don't know what to do. I need you to come get me. My mom and I then became concerned that the girl on the other end still asking for help as

[00:14:53] she is unsure of what to do was truly a girl in danger. Nervously my mom asks, who is this? It still gives me chills typing this as the caller on the other end says in a voice

[00:15:10] like it should be obvious, Bailey! Not only did she say my sister's name but it sounded exactly like her voice. Everyone in the room had goosebumps we couldn't even answer. After a short pause the voice continued, Mom can you just come get me here? Obviously my mom

[00:15:40] the real Bailey who is home and safe and I are all shaken up by this response. Unsure of what to do we hung up the phone. That night my siblings and I texted all of our friends

[00:15:55] the phone number that made the call in search of the person on the other end. We were hoping it would be a prank although a heartless prank to play on a mother but we never found anyone who

[00:16:08] knew the number even with the local area code. To this day we don't know who called. Whoever it was knew they were talking to a mom with a daughter named Bailey.

[00:16:23] If the girl truly needed help I hope she is safe but my gut tells me it was something much darker than that. So to whoever was on the other line please never call again and let's not meet.

[00:16:55] A few months ago I, 22, was at the local coin laundromat. I went late because I had been studying it was around 10 p.m. The laundromat is pretty small closer to the edge of the beach town

[00:17:10] that I live in. The town is pretty well known for drifters and people experiencing homelessness. Most people are friendly and there is a lot of drug abuse but I never really felt scared. Everything was fine until I went to move my laundry to a dryer.

[00:17:29] I was listening to music on my headphones not super loud. Suddenly I just got the feeling that someone was watching me. I can't really explain it I just felt the presence. I turned around

[00:17:44] and there was a man standing just a few feet away from me. He had pink hair wearing a full face mask like a ski mask. He had a hoodie, gloves, and sunglasses even though it was dark outside.

[00:18:01] The gloves and sunglasses especially made me uncomfortable. I thought maybe he was a drifter or high but I didn't want to be rude. I tried to laugh it off and told him he surprised me.

[00:18:17] He immediately started talking. A lot of it was disjointed and didn't really make a lot of sense. He was just talking about coming up from Brazil to bring his brother some money to get a classic car.

[00:18:32] None of it really made any sense but he would ask me questions and wait for me to respond so I tried to just play along. I still thought he was just high but he was standing between me

[00:18:45] and the only door. I started to get this gut feeling that he was blocking the door on purpose not just accidentally as he talked to me. He was getting closer to me as he talked and this feeling this uneasy feeling got stronger. Logically something was off but mostly

[00:19:07] I just had this gut feeling in the pit of my stomach that I needed to leave and keep him talking until I could. I started to edge to the side but he stayed in front of me.

[00:19:20] The feeling got more intense. I started to grip my keys in the attack position just in case. He talked more but then backed off a little. He took off his backpack which was a child's

[00:19:36] unicorn backpack and set it on a nearby dryer. I looked over to the door just for a second and when I looked back he was pulling something that I couldn't see out holding it to the side.

[00:19:53] It was behind him where I couldn't really see but I did see what was in his backpack duct tape. Instantly it was just like an alarm went off. There was no more worrying about being rude,

[00:20:09] no more second guessing myself that he was just off but harmless. It was like this cold numb dread just washed over me. I almost felt calm like I knew the next steps. I knew I had to do something.

[00:20:28] Time seemed to move in slow motion and he turned back to me not saying anything anymore. He took a step forward. I gripped my keys as tightly as possible and tried to mentally prepare

[00:20:43] to fight. I remember being afraid that I would move too slow or be too weak like some kind of nightmare. But all of a sudden the door to the laundromat opened and a woman walked in barely

[00:20:59] even looking at us as she went to get her laundry. It was like a scene from a movie, a moment of intensity just interrupted by something innocuous and suddenly it's over.

[00:21:11] He just turned got his bag and left. I was so scared I just stayed there for one minute until I could get my laundry and just go home. Now I didn't report it. I never knew what to say

[00:21:25] since nothing had actually happened. But when I think about it, I think the scariest thing is that he just left as soon as someone walked in. If he was just crazy it wouldn't have mattered. I think that a stranger's laundry timer saved me from something terrible.

[00:21:44] I don't go to the laundromat anymore. I joined a laundry service. The extra cost is worth never having to go back. So to the man with the pink hair and the unicorn backpack, let's not meet again.

[00:22:01] I'm a female, 22, from the Philippines. This story happened in 2016 when I was in my sophomore year of college. I lived in my campus dormitory but I usually spent the weekends with my family back at

[00:22:29] home. I would go home after my last class on Fridays which ends at 5 p.m. On average, I get home at 9 p.m. as the ride from my college to my house is around three to four hours depending on

[00:22:45] the heaviness of traffic, of course. My commute consists of a bus, train, or tricycle ride. Whenever I go home, I bring my backpack and a small suitcase filled with my laptop, school stuff,

[00:22:59] and some clothes. One Friday, it was raining cats and dogs all day and some of the areas of the campus were slightly flooded. I hesitated about going home that day because I was worried I might

[00:23:13] get stuck in traffic and that I would be greeted with swarms of people or lots of floods which make my commute 10 times harder. I still went though and boy was I dumb and right. Our bus was stranded

[00:23:29] for six and a half hours on the expressway, four and a half hours more than my usual bus ride. Before we reached the train station, I asked the kind lady beside me on the bus

[00:23:42] if I could borrow her phone and text my mom to update her about my situation. She let me borrow her phone and my mom immediately replied that she didn't want me to go home alone

[00:23:54] and that I should wait for her at the station since I probably won't catch a train ride anymore as its last trip was 11 p.m. I met up with my mom at around 11 30. Since the train station was already

[00:24:08] closed, we could only take a jeepney. Every jeepney that passed us though was already full. My mom and I decided to walk further hoping to find and hail a jeepney. She dragged my suitcase

[00:24:22] and I wore my backpack on my chest. I held my gold umbrella with one hand and linked my other with my mom's arm. The crowd slowly began to thin out until we realized that we're already alone

[00:24:37] in this dimly lit street. We were now surrounded by dark and quiet houses and not by bright public establishments. We walked fast. Most of the street lights were broken and the only lights that illuminated the street were from passing cars' headlights. We were walking almost on the center

[00:25:00] of the street as the sidewalk was full of parked motors, tricycles, and pedicabs. I was closer to the passing cars as they could easily hit my gold umbrella so my mom said, be careful with your

[00:25:15] umbrella. It could be when all of a sudden this shirtless man pushing an ice cream cart appeared out of nowhere behind us. I apologized because I thought I accidentally hit him with the umbrella

[00:25:31] but he stopped walking. He stood beside me, looked me straight in the eyes with his bloodshot eyes and whispered something angrily and incoherently. All I understood from him was you thought that

[00:25:48] I was going to... I suppose that the guy thought we were referring to him possibly snatching my gold umbrella because I knew I didn't accidentally hit him and that could also be the reason why he

[00:26:01] was so angry at me. Just a side note, in the Philippines it's normal for men to be shirtless due to our weather but it's not normal to be shirtless when it's so cold and it's raining

[00:26:13] outside. Also, it's normal for vendors to sell ice cream even when it's raining but it's definitely not normal, it's crazy to be pushing an empty ice cream cart at almost one in the morning.

[00:26:28] But back to the story, the guy briskly walked past us then he was gone. We thought that that was the end of it but my heartbeat continued to increase rapidly and I knew that something was wrong.

[00:26:45] I asked my mom to hold my umbrella this time and I put my backpack on my back and carried my suitcase since it might slow us down if something happens. When I looked up, the man was already

[00:26:57] standing about 10 meters away from us and two seconds after that started running towards us fast. He was screaming like a banshee, pushing and intending to hit us with that ice cream cart. Fortunately, there were no cars around so we immediately crossed the street and ran.

[00:27:16] We figured that he couldn't easily maneuver or turn the cart around so we kept running. My mom said that we shouldn't show him even the slightest bit of fear. She kept repeating, don't scream, just keep running. We ran even faster when we heard the sound of the cart's

[00:27:36] wooden wheels meeting the pavement getting louder and louder as the man runs after us while screaming, laughing, cussing, and mocking us. We never turned around to look at the man though. We kept running and running until we found a well-lit gas station and hid behind a parked

[00:27:55] huge white van. We peeked through the van's window and saw that the man was looking for us but didn't dare come near the gas station. He stayed on the dark side of the street.

[00:28:09] Thank God for an empty jeepney that pulled into the gas station after just a while. We made our way to it as quietly as possible. When we got inside, we immediately collapsed on the seats

[00:28:21] and ducked down. We took our first breath of relief when the jeepney started moving and being filled with passengers. Mom and I discussed the incident the entire ride home. We also considered reporting it to the police but we didn't know where we were and we only

[00:28:38] saw a glimpse of the man's face when he looked me in the eye. I just know that he had short hair, a thin physique, a dark skin tone, wearing only black shorts and slippers, and was pushing an

[00:28:52] empty yellow dirty ice cream cart. To the ice cream man, I don't know if you really were an ice cream man or just someone who stole that cart in the middle of the night but please let's never

[00:29:07] meet. As the following story contains some descriptions of domestic violent abuse, I want to take this opportunity to remind you about the National Domestic Violence Hotline. You can call 1-800-799-SAFE or 7233. You can go to thehotline.org and chat live now or simply text

[00:29:39] START to 88788. It's free, confidential, and they offer 24-7 help. I've been listening to your podcast for a whole year now. I binged it obsessively. My daughter knows about my past with her biological father. She's 14 now and she listens with me and

[00:30:14] on her own. She told me the other day that I could tell one of my stories on your show so I said why not. I hope this makes it. Let me preface by saying I'm not the best with words. My story

[00:30:29] won't be flawlessly written as if by a best-selling author like many other stories I hear on Let's Not Meet but I'll do my best. The story starts in 2007 when I was 17. I had been dating an older guy.

[00:30:46] I was 16 and he was 19 when we met. We'll call him Matt for the sake of the story. He quickly became possessive and controlling. There were a lot of red flags but what can I

[00:31:00] say? I was young and dumb. I thought that I was in love. I couldn't have been more wrong. Matt constantly cheated on me and he was physically and mentally abusive. There are many other stories from our relationship that would be fitting to tell here but I'm only

[00:31:16] going to give you the two worst ones. It was April 2007 and I was about three months pregnant with Matt's child and we had gone to his friend's house to hang out with a bunch of people. We were

[00:31:31] all hanging out outside. They had a large driveway that led to a sort of parking area as it was a four-family home. So we were all just standing around. Everybody but me was drinking. I noticed

[00:31:46] his car door was wide open so I shouted to him, hey babe your car door is open. He yelled back, so shut it. I was irritated that he said this since he was only about six feet away from the car

[00:32:02] while I was about 20 feet away. So feeling brave because there were so many people around I replied no you shut it. This angered him. He called back, fine then walk home. It was only a little over two

[00:32:19] miles from where we were to my parents house so again feeling brave I snapped back okay peace out. I turned to walk away. I started heading down the driveway feeling proud of myself for standing up

[00:32:35] to him. After only a moment I could hear pounding on the pavement behind me. I realized that he was running after me. Everything inside my body was screaming to run but I didn't even turn to look

[00:32:51] because I was sure there was no way he was going to put his hands on me in front of all of these people. I was wrong. Suddenly my right shoulder jerked back and the next thing I knew I was on

[00:33:02] the ground lying on my back while he straddled me with one hand around my throat. The other one was covering my mouth and nose. I was a fairly small girl 5 foot 2, 115 pounds even at three months

[00:33:16] pregnant. He was only 5 foot 7 but he was burly probably 170 pounds of lean muscle. I couldn't overpower him even if my life depended on it. Occasionally he would remove his hand from my mouth

[00:33:31] to wrap both hands around my throat at the same time picking my head up and slamming it down. This obviously caused me to scream but every time I began to scream he would cover my mouth and nose

[00:33:46] again. When he did this I couldn't breathe at all. Remember he also had a hand around my throat literally squeezing the life out of me. He would alternate between just choking me and slamming

[00:33:58] my head on the pavement. Meanwhile everyone just stood there. Nobody tried to help. Nobody said a word. They just stared. Eventually he got tired of the screaming so in what I guess was a panic

[00:34:18] to shut me up he leaned down and bit me. As soon as he sat up he looked at me and walked away. I immediately rose my hand to my mouth and I could feel with my fingers that something was very wrong.

[00:34:36] I got up and wobbled away to his car and sat down to look in the visor mirror and began sobbing. He had bitten my mouth, top and bottom lips, an entire chunk of my top lip was now hanging from

[00:34:51] my face. I was in shock and panicking. I told him, Matt I need to go to the hospital. He started to freak out and of course started with the I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. He even cried. He begged me

[00:35:10] not to go to the hospital. Since he was my ride he came with me. I couldn't really disobey him so I lied. I told them that I fell even though I was only 17. I was pregnant so in my state

[00:35:25] that automatically makes you emancipated. So they did not have to call my parents. And how the hospital staff believed that I fell, I have no idea. I ended up with 23 stitches.

[00:35:39] They wanted to put me on an ambulance and send me to a different hospital to have plastic surgery to put my lip back together but I declined. It was late and I was in pain and exhausted. I just

[00:35:52] wanted to get out of there and go to sleep. I lied to every one of my family and friends about what happened. We went back to his house and he apologized to me until I fell asleep.

[00:36:05] I should have left then but I was pregnant with his child and was determined to make it work. Now for the second story we have to fast forward to October 3rd 2007. I'm only a few weeks away

[00:36:19] from my due date. I had just turned 18 in August. I had decided to end my relationship with Matt. I finally had realized that I didn't want to raise my daughter in that kind of environment

[00:36:32] and it was clear he was never going to change. It was about 10 30 p.m. and he called to ask if we could talk. He understood my choice to leave him and he just wanted to talk through it and get some

[00:36:44] closure. He said I owed him that much. Foolishly I agreed. He pulled up in front of my house about 10 minutes later and I got in the passenger seat so that we could talk. It started out calm

[00:36:58] and civil but the mood quickly changed. It was like some kind of switch flipped in his head and he became enraged. I don't even remember exactly what was said but he began calling me

[00:37:10] nasty names telling me nobody would ever want me. At some point I had this knee-jerk reaction and spit in his face. I should have known what would come but I figured I was right.

[00:37:25] I should have known what would come but I figured I was right outside my house and I could just make a run for it if I needed. I never had a chance. That moment that I spit at him he reached across

[00:37:38] the car and grabbed a fistful of my hair and slammed my head into the dashboard and then into the window. He did it with so much force I was surprised that the window didn't

[00:37:50] shatter. After throwing my head around and screaming at me he threw his car in drive and started to leave my neighborhood. The speed limit is 25. He was going at least 45. He started

[00:38:04] screaming, if this is how you want it to be this is how it will be. I'll drive this car into a goddamn tree and kill all of us. I was terrified. I believed him. I was sobbing. I couldn't breathe.

[00:38:21] I couldn't think. He turned out of my neighborhood and started heading towards his house. He lived a couple of towns over, usually a 20-minute drive. He drove 50 almost the entire way.

[00:38:37] I begged and pleaded with him through tears, Matt please stop. Please stop the car. Let me out. I'll do whatever you want. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have spit at you. It's my fault. I'm sorry. Please.

[00:38:49] But my pleas were only answered with a tug on my hair and my face and the dashboard again. He even grabbed my throat and pinned me up against the window while driving at high speeds. As we

[00:39:04] were coming up on an intersection in front of the hospital the light was red. I thought to myself this is my chance when he stops I'm going to open the door, jump and make a run for the hospital.

[00:39:16] The closer we got the crazier my adrenaline went and then my heart sank as I realized he wasn't slowing down not even a little. He laughed as we drove under the red light like he knew what I was

[00:39:30] planning. I just wanted him to stop the car. We finally entered his neighborhood and pulled into his driveway. His sister pulled in a moment later while we were still sitting in the car and he

[00:39:45] and he whispered do not get out. You wait until she's inside so she doesn't see that you've been crying. If you say anything I'll kill you and no one will ever find your body. He said this

[00:40:02] matter-of-factly like he wasn't just threatening my life and the life of his own child. I tried to fight back the tears as we waited the few moments for his sister to enter the house and

[00:40:15] go into her bedroom. Then we walked inside with him holding my arm so that I couldn't run away. When we got inside I asked him if I could call my parents. I told him I just needed to let them know

[00:40:27] where I was since it was late. I hadn't told them that I was leaving so they might worry and call the police. He agreed but told me not to say anything only that I was spending the night there

[00:40:41] and my dad answered the phone. Hello? I responded with my voice shaking. Hey dad um I'm just calling to let you know I'm at Matt's. He came by to talk. We left to come here but I forgot to let you know

[00:40:58] before I left so I'm letting you know where I am. My dad must have known something wasn't right. Normally he just would have said okay I'll see you tomorrow but this night he said are you okay?

[00:41:13] I said yes while glancing at Matt not wanting him to realize the shift in conversation. He was staring at me trying to read the situation and growing impatient. Then my dad said

[00:41:26] do you want to be there? I quickly blurted out no just the one word. Matt knew that something was up so he snatched the phone from my hand and hung up on my father. I immediately began to panic.

[00:41:43] I was trying to come up with a lie to calm him down but when the house phone rang I knew it was my father trying to get a hold of me again. Matt wouldn't let me answer. The phone kept ringing

[00:41:57] and then I could hear footsteps coming down the stairs. Matt's mother squinting from sleep. She was holding the phone asking when I got there. She handed me the phone and it was my dad.

[00:42:11] Can you please come get me? I sobbed on the phone. I'm on my way and like that a wave of relief rushed over me but it didn't last long when Matt's father came down the stairs and both his parents began

[00:42:28] questioning us about what was going on. I stood in silence and Matt started yelling. His dad asked if his dad asked if he was drunk and he walked out of the house. His dad yelled at him not to get

[00:42:42] into his car if he had been drinking not realizing that he almost already killed us both on the drive there. After what seemed like forever my dad arrived and I ran to the car. The ride home was

[00:42:56] quiet. He didn't ask me anything and I didn't give much more information other than Matt drove off with me in the car but I didn't want to go. I went home and sat on my bed and cried my eyes out.

[00:43:10] After a little while I went into the bathroom and took a look at myself in the mirror. It startled me. My eyes were bloodshot and puffy from crying. My face blotchy and swollen. I had bruises around

[00:43:24] my neck along with marks on my face from the window and the dashboard. I took pictures of the marks. I went back into my room. I looked at the pictures and cried until there was nothing left.

[00:43:38] I truly thought I was going to die. I had never been so terrified in my life and then I made a decision. It was 2 a.m. and I picked up the phone to call my older brother. When he answered I said

[00:43:54] I need you to come get me and drive me to the police station. He asked why and I said please just come. I'll explain when you get here. I just can't talk about it right now. He came right away.

[00:44:09] I went to the police station with my brother by my side and asked to speak with someone about getting an emergency restraining order. They brought me into a room and I told them through

[00:44:19] tears all of the events from the night. They called and woke a judge up in the middle of the night to get approval for the order and to obtain a warrant for Matt's arrest. The charges were

[00:44:33] assault and battery, kidnapping, and threatening to commit a crime. He was arrested early the next morning. He was in jail when his daughter was born. I still don't speak with him. It's been almost 14

[00:44:47] years and he has nearly killed many other women and yet somehow he walks free. So to the narcissistic alcoholic woman beating asshole who destroyed my teenage years, let's not meet ever again. And if we do you better hope my boyfriend isn't around because he's always armed

[00:45:09] and will always protect me and his daughter.

[00:45:11] I hope you enjoyed this episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. Don't forget if you also want to get your weekly dose of the true paranormal, check out episode two of my other podcast Odd Trails at oddtrails.com or wherever you get your podcasts. It seems like you guys are really loving the new show and I'm really enjoying being free to tell some truly weird and supernatural stories for you all. Thanks for all of the positive feedback and thanks for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast.

[00:45:55] This week you have heard Crawl Space by Tiffany Kidro, A Night Full of Funky Brass Bands and Would-Be Carjackers by Melly A, Walmart Help Call by an anonymous listener, I Don't Go to the Laundromat Anymore by Lena, Ice Cream Man at 12am by m.mun. And finally, a story by listener Michelle. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors.

[00:46:25] Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. As always, if you have a story to share, make sure you send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com and if you have any paranormal stories, send them to stories at oddtrails.com.

[00:46:41] If you're a patron, make sure you stick around after the music for your extended ad-free version of this week's episode. And if you want to get access to all of these bonus episodes and so much more content, head over to patreon.com forward slash Let's Not Meet podcast to support the show today. I'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. Stay safe.

[00:47:32] I've been listening to your podcast and I couldn't help but think about one of the scariest moments of my life.