7x19: Lost Stories 8 - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:06] My name is Andrew Tate and this is Season 7, Episode 19 of Lets Not Meet, The True Horror Podcast. I know that some of you might be a bit surprised at the back to back lost stories. I normally like to space these out and do one every couple of months.

[00:00:52] However, you may actually hear a bit of it in my voice still, but on Christmas Eve I was hit with a pretty gnarly cold. Not the worst cold I've ever had, but it's definitely been the longest cold I've ever had to deal with.

[00:01:07] I'm pretty sure it's on its last leg though, and no, I've confirmed it's nothing more than the common cold. I usually get sick once every couple of years and I've been well overdue for a bad one.

[00:01:19] Needless to say, my voice wasn't up to par for a new episode this week. But being locked in my room left me with plenty of time to put together what might be my favorite lost stories collection yet.

[00:01:32] This episode features two stories originally recorded by an old friend of the show, Sarah Aubrey. A very talented and successful voice actor out of Australia. I believe these were recorded sometime back in 2017 or 18.

[00:01:46] As long as I'm not hit with another unfortunate circumstance, we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week with a brand new episode. For now though, enjoy some more ancient creeps with The Lost Stories Part 8. This happened recently, unfortunately.

[00:02:18] About a week ago I was home alone throughout the night. My boyfriend went to work and I just couldn't sleep. I was up until about 3am, which isn't unusual for me.

[00:02:31] I was sitting in my bedroom and my dog was downstairs in her crate to stop her from terrorizing my cat who was asleep in the spare bedroom. Anyways, I was sitting there watching YouTube and TV and writing on a novel.

[00:02:46] And I kept hearing things go bump in the night. A chain rattle, which I thought was weird but figured it was just the neighbor's fence. I didn't think it was my fence. Things moving in the backyard. Like raccoons maybe.

[00:03:05] Anyways, despite me explaining things away in my head, I still got up with my pistol at my hip and looked out all of the windows and didn't see anything of concern.

[00:03:18] I had just went through the house and checked all of the angles again and sat back down to try and calm my nerves. Then my not-so-normally vocal dog barked quickly and growled. That's when I started thinking that there really was someone in my yard.

[00:03:37] See, the thing is, her pen is facing the bay window that leads into the backyard. They would have to be standing on something for them to see her or for her to see them. Someone had to have been peeking in my window.

[00:03:56] I was shaking, tired and absolutely terrified, but when I went downstairs to let my 95-pound pup into the yard, I was towing my pistol at my hip. I still was thinking that there was no way someone could be in my yard. I felt like I was overreacting.

[00:04:13] I let my pup out the door and she instantly started crouching, hair on the back of her neck standing straight up and a low growl as she crept around the side of the house towards that damned window.

[00:04:27] I have never seen her like this and told her to go pee and immediately called her into the house when she was finished. The next morning I wake up, my boyfriend's home and I start babbling about how I thought someone was in the yard last night.

[00:04:42] Talking about it was making me anxious and he thought I was overreacting as I'm scared of the dark anyways. He basically dismissed it as a possum or raccoon. I was starting to think I was going crazy or had just been sleep deprived.

[00:05:00] We took our pup into the yard to play like usual. We were running around in the yard goofing off. My boyfriend is standing near the house smoking a cigarette and pacing around. He goes over to the window.

[00:05:14] I'm kind of watching him now and he tells me to come over to where he is. My heart sank as he says, Yeah, I believe you. He points to the window and right on the sill on the outside there is distinct grip marks

[00:05:32] where someone balanced themselves to look through the rip in the curtains to our living room. I still want to vomit thinking about someone looking into my house especially as there have been probably 16 break-ins in our neighborhood alone in a couple months or less.

[00:05:52] Window creeper that surely would have been eaten by my abnormally large dog. Please do not come back. I really don't want to meet you. Back in high school, my friends and I would love to go to our local movie theater that was situated inside of our shopping mall.

[00:06:15] We usually traveled in big groups but this time it was only my friend Alex and I. We picked up a late night showing of some obscure movie. I can't recall the name because this happened years ago. We arrived on time to find our seats.

[00:06:31] Since the showing was late and the movie wasn't a box office hit, the theater was empty. We situated ourselves in the middle where we could get a perfect view of the screen. Strangely enough, a couple that arrived late decided to sit in our row

[00:06:47] with only two seats between us and them. My friend and I exchanged confused looks and then sat down to watch the show. As the theater got dark, things got a little weird. The woman of the pair kept looking over at us every few minutes.

[00:07:05] The first few times I figured she was just a nervous person and adjusting to her surroundings. Yet maybe she was just a little nervous. She was not a very good speaker. She was a little shy and didn't know how to speak.

[00:07:23] Yet maybe an hour into the movie, she kept up the pattern. She wasn't even discreet with her staring because she'd turn her head completely towards us. I could see her entire face. I still see it in my head today.

[00:07:47] I nudged my friend and told him about the girl staring and he whispered that he had noticed too. At this point, I was feeling very anxious and almost wanted to leave the movie early. My friend didn't want to though,

[00:08:04] so I decided staying with him was safer than leaving alone. And I was his ride home too. Throughout the movie, the girl continued to look over. Every now and then she'd whisper something to her counterpart. But he never looked over.

[00:08:22] Once the movie ended, I grabbed my friend by the arm and told him that we should get going because it's late. He followed suit as I sprinted out of the theater. Once we were out, the halls were empty because

[00:08:35] of the fact that barely any film plays towards the end of the night. I was about to say something to my friend about how the couple next to us freaked me out, but they ran out of the door seconds after us. I was freaking out inside.

[00:08:52] But I decided to try my best to keep my composure. My friend was definitely aware of them following closely as we walked out of the movie theater, but he isn't the type to be confrontational, so we just bedwalked to my car.

[00:09:09] Once we got in the car, my intuition told me just to get out of the parking garage as fast as I could. I saw the weird couple make it to their blue car which was on the same parking garage level as us. That wasn't surprising because

[00:09:24] the entrance to the mall is on that level, so everyone parks there. I sped out of the parking garage and drove towards the main street. I told him to keep a lookout and see if their blue car was following us.

[00:09:39] He looked back and said the coast was clear. I felt relieved. Now, we were the only ones on the main highway because it was late at night and we live in a quiet suburban area. Then, a few minutes later, a car came speeding up from behind and

[00:09:57] flashed their high beams at me. My heart started to race. My head just told me it was them. I asked Alex if the car was blue and he said he couldn't tell. The light to turn left onto the next main street was green, so

[00:10:11] I took the left turn necessary to get to his neighborhood. The car backed off and turned on normal lights, but still turned left just like us. I caught a glimpse of the car and started yelling once I realized that it was the weird couple's blue car.

[00:10:31] Alex told me to gun it, so I slammed on the gas and sped down the main street before I had to turn into his neighborhood. The blue car wasn't tailgating me, but was clearly following not too far behind. When the streets are empty, it's easy to follow someone

[00:10:48] since there aren't any cars to dodge. I turned into my friend's neighborhood, but decided to drive past his street so that they wouldn't see where we were trying to go. The blue car followed us into the quiet neighborhood and was picking up speed to get closer to us.

[00:11:05] My friend Alex was panicking and asking what I'm going to do. I just kept quiet as I sped too quickly down a random neighborhood street. I could see the car's lights behind me as I made my turn onto another street,

[00:11:20] but they were far enough so that they couldn't see me for about 30 seconds after I took that turn. After I turned onto another unfamiliar street, I turned off my car and put it into neutral. My car is a manual, so I'm very familiar with driving it

[00:11:35] and knew I had enough momentum to roll into an empty parking spot, even though my car was off. I slipped into the spot on the curb and pushed the brakes to get to a stop before the blue car could clear the turn to get onto the street.

[00:11:51] I reclined my seat back completely and told Alex to lean all the way forward and not to move. We sat there in the silent and dark car, my ears ringing from how quiet it was. My heartbeat was fluttering faster than it ever had before.

[00:12:10] I think it was a mix of fear and adrenaline. Within a few seconds, the blue car cleared the turn and slowly started driving down the street. It made its way past my car that was parked on the side of the street and luckily for us, luckily for us,

[00:12:31] I drive a standard black Scion. There is nothing notable about my car. I haven't even changed the license plate's frame, so they must have figured that the cars parked on the road belonged to the people that lived in the neighborhood. Alex and I literally

[00:12:48] stayed in our hiding positions for 10 minutes just in case the weird couple decided to drive by again. Luckily, they never did. Once we got up, we just stared at each other and really didn't know what to say. We were both freaked out

[00:13:07] and had no idea of what the couple had planned to do if they had caught up to us. To this day, I still don't know what their intentions were. Maybe they were just a couple of deviants who enjoy freaking out young high school students. Or maybe they had

[00:13:22] a more sinister plan for us. All I know is that I don't go to the theater or the night anymore unless I'm with a big group of friends. 13 to 14 years ago when I was around 12 or 13, my family had a gathering at my grandmother's house,

[00:13:54] which we did every so often back then. My brother, cousin, both boys, and I, a girl, were playing in an inflatable pool in the backyard. The neighbor kid, probably my brother's age, about 15 or 16, climbed his fence so he could talk to us. We were having fun joking

[00:14:14] and chatting with him, so we asked if he'd like to join us. My grandma gave me the okay and he came over to partake in the festivities. Everything was great until my cousins and brother went inside to help with something. I got nervous when they left,

[00:14:34] but I'm socially an anxious person who is especially nervous around guys, so I pushed it aside. Suddenly, the cool kid from next door became a jerk. He started hurling insults at me while grinning. I figured he was just playing around so I did it back.

[00:14:56] We started splashing each other, but then he got super aggressive. He was splashing me so much I kept taking in water. I turned my head away and told him to slow down, still kind of laughing. When he didn't stop,

[00:15:15] I got serious and told him to knock it off. He stopped. I was clearing my eyes of water when he grabbed the bucket and he filled it with water and put the bucket on my head. I went to take it off, but he shoved me down.

[00:15:31] I got the bucket off and asked what is wrong with him. He just grabbed me and shoved my head underwater. I was flailing, searching for his face to scratch or hit, but the angle he was at made it impossible. I got dangerously close to passing out

[00:15:49] when he was pulled off of me. I came up grasping for air and my brother pulled me behind him and asked the kid what the hell was going on and what he was doing. The little douche snickered and said we were just playing. My brother stepped forward

[00:16:05] and asked how trying to drown me is playing. The kid kept smirking and my brother told him he needs to stay away from us. The kid scoffed and angrily said you guys are boring anyway and was escorted out by my sibling. We never said anything to the adults

[00:16:23] for reasons I can't understand but they were always there for reasons I can't understand but the kid kept taunting us in his backyard. He even brought one of his friends to mock us and insult us which resulted in us telling our family so that stopped real quick.

[00:16:43] Shortly after that, the family moved and we never dealt with him again. I'm very grateful for my brother who essentially raised me. He's helped me in more ways than I can count. I don't know where I'd be without him. When I was 15 years old

[00:17:08] I lived in a rural area about 20 minutes outside of the actual town I called home. I was home from school alone one day and a white car pulled up in front of our mailbox and stopped. I was upstairs in my room and saw from the window

[00:17:24] but I couldn't see who was in the car. Whoever it was sat there for several minutes without getting out of the vehicle, long enough to weird me out and then drove away. We were not super close and distant to our neighbors but we weren't miles and miles apart

[00:17:40] and I remembered that one neighbor a bit down was selling their house. I chalked it up to a potential buyer having the wrong address or simply checking out the neighborhood and thought nothing else of it. Fast forward about a week or so

[00:17:56] it was Friday night and I had gone downtown to see the premiere of a movie with my boyfriend at the time. I remember it was a special occasion and I had begged my parents consistently for weeks to push back my curfew so I could see this movie.

[00:18:12] Since it wouldn't be over until after 1am and it took 20 minutes to get home from town they were reluctant but finally agreed. When the movie was over my boyfriend Jason and I walked slowly to the truck. It was a well lit and relatively safe

[00:18:30] area so we stood around in the parking deck trying to push curfew for as long as possible. There weren't many vehicles at that time of night but I realized suddenly that I recognized the one parked straight across from us that same white car

[00:18:48] that had been at my house a week earlier. The car was running and there was a man maybe mid-thirties sitting alone inside. I could have passed all of this off as a coincidence except as I continued to look at him he turned his bright lights on us

[00:19:09] and spun out of the parking deck after almost running into Jason's truck. I obviously had a horrible feeling about this and asked Jason if he would take me home immediately. As we pulled out of the garage we saw the car parked across the street from the movie theater

[00:19:27] All the lights off man still inside but he didn't follow us so we just went home a little shaken. I had no idea at that moment this was the start of three long and torturous years of being stalked by this man. A couple of months

[00:19:45] after the parking deck situation the encounters became more frequent and weirder and I hated being anywhere alone at any time. I never knew when or where I would see him or how much time would have passed between encounters. It all became clear that he was watching me

[00:20:05] all the time by this point because he only made himself known when I was alone or with my boyfriend never my parents or even any other friends. I became terrified for some stupid reason that none of my friends would believe me if I told them so I

[00:20:23] kept it between Jason and my family until one day my friend Rachel who lived maybe five minutes away from me started telling me about this creepy man who showed up at her house over the weekend. Rachel's dad works Sundays so she was home

[00:20:39] alone with another friend of ours Megan. Everything was normal until around dusk when they began to smell cigarette smoke. My heart instantly began racing because by this time this was becoming an everyday occurrence for me. I was smelling cigarette smoke, finding cigarette butts around my house even

[00:20:59] though none of my family smoked and could never trace a source. I had a nagging feeling of course that it was connected to my stalker but hadn't confirmed it. So as Rachel and Megan were looking for the source of the smoke, Rachel realized she had left a window

[00:21:20] in the back room open and the smoke was coming in from their back porch. Seeing that there was a strange man on her porch she quickly goes to close and lock the window and in her words, he turns around with dead eyes and looks straight through her

[00:21:38] like she wasn't really there. Megan immediately called the police but Rachel continued to stand there in a little bit of shock as he smirked at her and stared until his cigarette was done then got up and calmly walked away. The police came but found

[00:21:59] no trace of him except for cigarette butts on the porch and scattered around in the backyard indicating that he had been there for some time. I immediately began to describe the creep to Rachel and it was the same man. She hadn't seen or heard the white car

[00:22:19] at all and they guessed that he had parked down the road and just walked down Rachel's almost mile long driveway or through the woods a bit. As time went on my stories were well documented with the police department but they had never seen the guy

[00:22:37] he was just so good at getting away. I have to give them credit because they never doubted the truth in my stories and always showed up quickly even as it was becoming apparent that this guy knew what he was doing and wasn't planning on being caught anytime soon.

[00:22:56] We also began to suspect he had a police scanner in his car. One night in particular almost two years after the Rachel incident Jason and I were coming home a little early from a date my parents had gone out as well that night and we

[00:23:12] had a strict rule that we couldn't be home alone with no adults so Jason and I began to talk in the driveway since my dad had called and they were only about ten minutes away. We were too scared given the circumstances

[00:23:24] to get out of the truck and we kept our eyes peeled for the creep but we figured ten minutes wasn't all that long. Sure as the world not even a minute later we saw headlights turn on in the bush across the street from my driveway.

[00:23:40] This freak had backed his car into the bushes and waited for us to come home. Jason immediately got on the phone and called the cops and I had called my dad who was literally flying home at this point as the man revved up his

[00:23:54] engine and flashed his lights. He then proceeded to get out of his car and walk towards Jason's truck. I will never forget he was so slow and methodical and emotionless. It felt like I was living out a serial killer movie. I was sobbing.

[00:24:14] We had the doors locked of course as the man walked up to the passenger side where I was sitting and stood only a couple feet away from my window staring at me. He never made a move for the door he simply stood completely still and stared.

[00:24:32] He held eye contact with me with his eyes like black holes. Jason was a baseball player and had been keeping a bat in the backseat exactly for a moment like this. He pulled me toward him and away from the window and grabbed the bat but this man

[00:24:52] didn't even flinch. He switched his gaze to the bat for a few seconds smiled this huge disgusting grin walked back to his car and drove away. It seemed like 40 minutes passed but it could have been more like 5 because the man was gone for a couple of

[00:25:16] minutes before my dad came into our driveway doing about 80 miles per hour. The cops never caught up to him. There were many more stories of torture such as leaving dead animals outside on our front door and shining flashlights into our windows in the middle of the night

[00:25:37] but nothing anyone did could trip this guy up. My family had tried everything my older brother even desperately tried to chase the guy through the woods behind our house one night and just lost him. The police wanted to help but they only had my stories and

[00:25:57] the corroboration of my boyfriend, Rachel's encounter and one kind of vague sighting of the car in town. I didn't even have a name for anyone to file a restraining order against. Not that it would have done me any good and maybe the creepiest part of all

[00:26:15] of this in the whole three years was that he never spoke a single word. Then one day just as quickly as he showed up, every single trace of him completely disappeared just like that. I never knew if he died, was arrested

[00:26:31] for some other crime or just lost interest even though that seemed highly unlikely. I just simply never saw him again and it has now been ten years. Creeps come in all shapes and forms and many times do not look like what you see in the movies.

[00:26:50] They can seem completely normal on the outside. However this man's behavior was exactly like something you'd see from a horror film. Something in his eyes was so evil it would turn your stomach. Over the course of three years he made my life extremely stressful and terrifying

[00:27:09] and even now that I live in a different state, I sometimes halfway expect him to show up again. I still occasionally feel the lasting effects of that time but thankfully life has become pretty normal again. Needless to say, disturbed stalker who made me miserable for years

[00:27:29] let's not meet. So this happened last night. My boyfriend and I live in an apartment building that is located in an alleyway behind a busy stretch of street with bars. It is not uncommon for people to be out panhandling or stumbling drunk late at night.

[00:28:05] We actually had a few whiskey and cokes at the bar close by and had walked home. I fell asleep naked in my bed because I had to work early in the morning. My boyfriend figured we could use some Gatorades to prepare us for our work shift

[00:28:19] so he left to go right across the street to the convenience store. He made a mistake by leaving the door unlocked but figured he'd be gone for just a few minutes and the store closed in five minutes anyway. Walking to the store

[00:28:35] he says a man asked him for money. Happens all the time but this particular man gave my boyfriend a weird feeling. The only thing I remember is my boyfriend shaking me awake and saying Are you okay? Are you okay? I was confused. I told him yes he says

[00:29:00] There was a man in this room I thought he was joking at first but he goes on to tell me that when he got back from the store our apartment door was wide open He knew something messed up was going on and he enters the apartment

[00:29:16] into our living room This strange man that he saw outside walks out of the room that I was asleep in My boyfriend puts up his hands and tells the man that we are poor and we don't have anything so it might be best if he just leaves

[00:29:34] The man replies saying in this deep slow voice I was just looking for my little mouse I was looking for my dog my little mouse let me know if you find him and walks out At that point my boyfriend makes sure he's gone

[00:29:56] locks the door and goes to wake me up The guy stole my boyfriend's phone and rummaged through my purse He didn't steal my phone because I was asleep with it under me to hear my alarm for work All of our lights were on

[00:30:10] I was in the driveway so creepy man on drugs trying to find his little mouse lets not meet This happened back in 2016 I was 18 and I was planning on visiting my girlfriend We lived in different cities in the UK so I decided to get a train

[00:30:42] and visit her for the weekend The train I caught was slightly earlier Some UK trains have the option of more flexible times as long as it isn't at rush hour It was 5am in winter It was cold, dark and miserable and I had just stepped on

[00:31:00] the platform to wait for it to pull up to the station when a roughly 60 year old man came and stood next to me By next to me I mean he was literally less than 20cm away He was practically leaning on me despite almost no one else being around

[00:31:19] so it's not like the area was that cramped He was balding wore thick rimmed glasses with incredibly strong prescriptions by the looks of it He was significantly taller than me I'd say he was close to 6'6 but slim and gaunt with coarse, greying skin and had an unusually

[00:31:41] wide mouth and a scraggly beard that looked like it needed a trim He was dressed in a black baggy hoodie that was pulled up over his head and wore fatigued jeans that looked as if they were close to falling apart at any moment I stepped away

[00:31:57] trying to politely put some distance between us and fortunately he didn't follow me any further The train pulled up and I stepped onto the carriage found a seat and for reference, I sat on the left side of the train next to the window

[00:32:13] Then I put my headphones in and tried to nap for the duration of my 3 hour journey The train was mostly empty A few tired workers slumped in the corner sleeping off the work from the night before and a couple of old women chatted quietly between themselves

[00:32:29] The journey was mostly painless and I had forgotten about the old man and I couldn't see him in either my carriage or the ones adjacent so I paid the thought of him little attention It was about an hour into the journey when the train went through

[00:32:45] a short tunnel It couldn't have been in there for more than 20 seconds but I felt a strong hand grab my right leg I jerked out of my dazed half asleep state only to find that as the train exited the darkness the old man was sat directly

[00:33:03] next to me still grasping my leg hard enough I pulled my leg away and quickly asked him what he thought he was doing I'm not an intimidating person a pretty fat teenager that barely reaches 5'8 is never going to be a scary sight

[00:33:21] but I put on my most confident voice and repeated my question though this time it was louder and contained a few choice words for the odd man I had barely managed to I had barely managed to finish the question before he grabbed my face with his hand and

[00:33:42] slammed my head against the window so that I was pinned in place despite my struggles, he easily held me in place and leaned in until he was only inches from my squished up face with a deep baritone voice that seemed to echo around

[00:34:02] in my brain, he whispered directly into my ear, something similar to you would be a very nice plaything and then he said my name I apologize that I can't remember the exact words, the adrenaline that had me freaking out made it difficult to concentrate on things like that

[00:34:22] but I vividly remember he knew my name he then licked the exposed side of my face slowly until a bridge above the tracks blocked what little light was trickling into the carriage as the light dimmed I felt the hand release my face and I snapped to look at

[00:34:42] where the man had been sat but he had already disappeared from view I rose shakily from my seat and rushed to the toilet to vomit from the fear I stayed in there for over an hour before an inspector knocked on the door

[00:34:58] to check my ticket, I informed him what had happened and he escorted me to the police officers at the next station who swept the train the entire train and did not find the man it was treated as an assault so the police viewed the CCTV from

[00:35:14] the train but were unable to identify the old guy I nearly broke down into a panic attack when they said that they couldn't find him but that wasn't the worst part when the police later viewed the CCTV that covered the route I took to reach the train station

[00:35:32] they stated that the same tall black hooded man could be seen following me for almost 2 miles starting from just outside of my house to this day I refuse to return to that city I moved away about 2 months later and have made a promise to myself

[00:35:48] that I will never ride a train again about 25 years ago when I was in middle school, 7th grade I had a real bad problem with bullies I couldn't handle the ridiculing I took while riding the school bus so I started walking 3 miles to and from school every day

[00:36:20] the path I walked was pretty safe mostly on a sidewalk and always on a busy road with the last 2.5 miles being a straight shot directly to the school back then there wasn't a stigma attached to kids being outside on their own so this wasn't deemed unsafe

[00:36:36] by anyone, or so I thought I lived alone with my father parents being divorced and my mother saw me on weekends he didn't see any harm in the walking and my mother wasn't aware of the bullying or the walking, I didn't want her to know

[00:36:50] so I continued unimpeded for over half the school year now, I wasn't really an active kid and I sure didn't like having to walk 6 miles every school day so I assumed this was the motivation for the error I was about to make one day on the way home

[00:37:08] a car pulled up on the shoulder and stopped about 100 feet ahead of me that car looks familiar hey, it's my father he's going to drive me the rest of the way woohoo! I started to jog up to the car seeing him in the driver's seat, waiting patiently

[00:37:24] huh, his hair looks darker than normal today wasn't the inside of his car tan not red? I knew I had minutes left as soon as they entered and I caught up to the car, opened the passenger side door and started to get in

[00:37:38] as I was tossing my backpack on the floor in front of me and swinging my legs into the car, I started saying thanks dad! but the sentence never completed. Before I knew it I had shut the car door and we began to move this isn't

[00:37:54] my father. This man was much older, by at least 20 years, hair obviously dyed black and hands propped at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel the shirt he was wearing looked just like one my father would have worn a short sleeved collared button down brick red with black horizontal lines

[00:38:12] not pressed, but not too wrinkled either. He was smiling at me, which probably would have felt warm if it was coming from my grandfather but instead felt menacing I heard a click and looked over at the door, which had just been locked. I stared at the

[00:38:30] door for a moment longer, then turned and faced front and completely froze, terrified what do I do now? Hello? I saw you walking I figured I'd come give you a lift I did not move or answer don't act scared just act normal his voice matched his smile, deceivingly

[00:38:58] friendly. We were roughly a mile from home and half a mile from the next turn needed to head in that direction. All I could concentrate on is how I was going to get out of this situation stay calm don't act scared are you on your way home?

[00:39:16] this snapped me a little out of my zone. Home? Home? Yes I want to go home, I answered Yes! Stay calm talk normally, don't act scared Where is your house? I can take you there. Feeling slightly relieved, I told him to take the next right turn

[00:39:38] I felt myself begin to breathe and I realised how tense I had been my body relaxed slightly and I finally moved and wrapped my hands around my backpack straps See? Things are fine you are fine Stay calm and you'll get home just don't act scared

[00:39:56] We started to come up on the intersection and I pointed ahead reiterating that this was my turn Ok, but if you want we could take a ride instead? It sounded like a question but it didn't feel like one The dotted line for the turn lane had begun

[00:40:16] but he did not get over Instantly, I tensed back up and my grip and my gaze on my backpack tightened Don't act scared Through strained muscles I choked out that No, no I really need to get home I really need to get home

[00:40:38] He swung the car into the turn lane and began to make the turn Wide eyed, I glanced up and verified that yes indeed we were making the turn Ok, ok See? Everything's gonna be fine He's taking you home Are you sure?

[00:40:58] I'll make sure you get home before anyone realises you're gone Stay calm, don't act scared Grip tightening further I abruptly stated that no I need to get home now My father is expecting me home now He's waiting

[00:41:14] I just hoped it sounded more convincing than it sounded to me We completed the turn Ok Maybe next time We can meet at the same place tomorrow Sure, yes Tomorrow is good I just need to get home today now Maybe it actually was convincing

[00:41:34] My eyes were firmly trained on the road ahead of us hoping that if I just focused on the direction to home I would get there A man to my neighbourhood was approaching and I informed him, again pointing towards the direction The direction home The next few moments

[00:41:52] were silent even if it was loud in my head Act normal Don't act scared It'll be ok Everything will be ok Just don't act scared Things will be fine Just be normal As we came upon the turn and incredible relief he made the turn It's ok It's ok

[00:42:20] Everything's gonna be ok For the first time I had more hope than doubt Oh, oh no He can't know where I live What should I You know, it's probably not a good idea that I drop you off right at your house Your dad might see me

[00:42:38] and get mad that I gave you a ride home and then we wouldn't be able to meet tomorrow I was able to appreciate the good fortune of my silent question being answered for me My old neighbourhood consisted of mainly apartments

[00:42:52] but in the back were a block of townhouses which is where I lived If you are unaware of the layout of the complex, the townhouses might go unnoticed. Right before we got to the area where I lived I told him, here, stop here

[00:43:06] He pulled over to the side of the road in front of an apartment building He unlocked the door and I hurried out of the car, backpack still in hand. I began to close the door behind me See you here? Tomorrow? Same time? I paused for just

[00:43:24] a second and risked another look at him. Still smiling Still terrifying Yes! Tomorrow See you later I finished closing the door and hurried off Don't run Don't run. Don't act scared Don't run I swung my backpack on the right way and briskly walked in the opposite direction

[00:43:50] of my house. I could hear the car still idling behind me and it wasn't until I was able to turn off that road and leave his view that I heard him start to move He had to drive up to where I was walking

[00:44:02] to turn around and I glanced back as he was making an awkward turn, instead of going around the block to leave. He caught my gaze and gave a slight wave before driving off My hand was in the reluctant process of waving back but I was slow enough

[00:44:22] that he was gone before I completed the motion I turned my head and kept walking and the moment I could no longer hear his car, I ran as fast as my pudgy legs and heavy backpack would let me. I ran around to where I could

[00:44:38] hide between two buildings and hid there for a while until I felt enough time had passed for me to feel confident he was not driving around, waiting, looking for me. It was probably 30 minutes but it felt like hours to me at the time

[00:44:52] I ran the rest of the way home keeping a lookout, making sure he couldn't see me going through the backyards I reached my front door, unlocked it and almost spilled inside I was moving so fast It wasn't until I locked the door behind me that I

[00:45:06] felt safe. I didn't feel scared anymore. I was home and I couldn't believe it In the end, I told my parents and my mother forced my father to drive and pick me up from school for the remainder of the school year and luckily for me, the bullying

[00:45:26] stopped the next year My father didn't believe me and thought I made up the whole story to get out of walking to school In his defense, me trying to explain that no, the car was exactly like yours, except the entire colour of the inside and no

[00:45:42] he did look like you but with darker hair and it all happened so fast and... well it didn't matter It was worth his disbelief and annoyance every day in the car, so I never had to meet that guy again About three years ago when I was 18 or so

[00:46:18] I used Grindr and someone messaged me For convenience, this lovely gentleman I shall refer to as Robert So we started talking and we asked how we were and what we were up to the usual conversation starters Shortly after ending the conversation, Robert begins to sound rather depressing

[00:46:40] bemoaning about his insecurities and how everyone hates him, occasionally talking about how he should just kill himself So being the nice person that I am I try finding something about him that I could compliment him on Try to make him feel better

[00:46:58] That sort of thing, or bring a smile at least And that's where things begin to get heavy Robert began deflecting my compliments, calling me a liar or a user or saying I'm just trying to make fun of him I try my best to reassure him that my compliments

[00:47:18] were genuine because I hate seeing people depressed or down It's just in my nature to bring joy to people. Now I have been in his shoes before with the severe insecurity thing so I know exactly how he felt After he finally began to believe

[00:47:34] that my compliments were real He began to get very attached to me Starting to send me over 20 messages at once and if I didn't reply within 5 seconds he'd start to say things like Oh, I guess you found someone better to talk to then. You're like all the rest

[00:47:50] And it began to get frustrating at this point Now, I could have just blocked him and saved me the headache But I have anxiety and I feared that he'd turn up at my door someday or do something drastic if I did block him

[00:48:06] He also tried sending me nudes to grab my attention when I didn't reply literally instantly to his messages and it got worse and worse from here Eventually, he told me he'd be in my town over the weekend and began to get very pushy about meeting up somewhere

[00:48:24] and doing abject things When I didn't reply he flips out and started finding me on different social medias to keep tabs on me Facebook messages, friend requests Instagram, etc I went on a night out with some friends of mine at the time forgetting he was in town

[00:48:44] over the weekend and he saw me walking down the street and ran up to me bawling his eyes out about me trying to avoid him and he began begging for my phone number and house address and whether he could join us on our night out and when we

[00:49:02] politely refused, he followed us further and tried forcing drinks into my hand when we got to the bar Infuriated by how clingy he was being, I went home just to realize he boarded at the same bus as me and followed me back to my place before he

[00:49:22] finally disappeared He started messaging me on Grindr about visiting me at home sometime or trying to find my friends to get my phone number I finally snapped at this point and I blocked him and I thought that was that Only to discover the next day

[00:49:42] he was trying to catfish me with my own pictures to try and get my attention and screaming to know why I blocked him At this point things got way too heavy and I deleted Grindr from my phone, changed my phone number and moved house just to avoid him

[00:50:00] This whole experience has really put me off to dating people with severe insecurities out of fear that something like this will occur again and I've been trying to go against my nature to avoid complimenting people too much to avoid something like this happening again. Three years later

[00:50:16] I haven't seen him So Robert, let's not meet I was having dinner with a Tinder date this evening and somehow we ended up sharing scary stories of things that have happened to us I told him a couple of mine and he told me I should put this one

[00:50:40] specifically on here So here I am, sharing this with you as well First off, I was 17 when this happened in 2016 and I am a girl, for context My house is laid out kind of funny To get to the front door you have to walk down

[00:50:54] the drive at the end of the driveway and then you have to walk down the street To get to the front door you have to walk down the drive at the side of the house

[00:51:02] and to get to the back door you have to go through a 7 foot gate It's pretty obvious which door is the front door though which makes this experience even creepier I have two dogs A border collie called Daphne and a little rescue sprollie slash lab mix called Dolly

[00:51:18] These dogs are my pride and joy So when my parents suggested leaving them with a sitter so we could all go visit my brother in America, I said no I didn't want to trust someone else with my dogs and to be honest

[00:51:32] as cool as a trip to America sounds it was a long trip just to stay with my brother in Utah I'm not a bad sister just a good dog owner My parents told me that they would still go and I could stay here with the dogs

[00:51:46] This wasn't a big deal since I'd stayed home alone before and wasn't really scared of being by myself at night or anything So in 2016, about a year after they'd booked the holiday my dad is very conscientious of booking in advance and saving money off they went to Utah

[00:52:02] and I stayed home with my pups They were going to be gone for a couple of weeks so my mum had left a list of things that needed doing feeding the dogs, taking the rubbish out that sort of thing

[00:52:14] I wasn't really the type of person to throw massive parties or even go to them so I was pretty happy just to spend my summer in my home and chill I didn't really have a plan for the holiday at first just normally, nothing to write home about

[00:52:26] The best part was that I would take the dogs on the best walks where they could get absolutely filthy since my mum didn't usually like it when they came back from a walk covered in mud I don't remember which day it was that I had been alone for

[00:52:40] I wasn't keeping track since it was summer and I didn't have a schedule for college or work I do remember though that it was about 5 o'clock so it was still light outside but the sky had a nice pink glow to it I was sitting in the front room

[00:52:54] which I don't usually do when my parents are home because that's where they sit and we don't watch the same shows so I had sprawled myself out on the sofa with my feet up probably watching Grey's Anatomy or something I liked Then someone rang the doorbell

[00:53:10] not that crazy but the thing was that they had rung the doorbell at the back of the house I don't know why we have a doorbell at the back door since no one ever really used it apart from to play pranks and stuff

[00:53:24] so it was really odd that someone would reach over the side of the gate where it was shorter, unlock it and go to the back door and even weirder because it was a small village and everyone pretty much knew each other and knew that the front door

[00:53:38] was much more accessible I wasn't worried just a bit annoyed that someone was bothering me so I got up and answered the door looking a little pissed off The man wasn't particularly tall or intimidating the dogs seemed to like him as well

[00:53:54] but they're soppy things and will make a fuss of anyone I ordered them off him and they retreated back to the front room clearly already bored of the visitor He said he was a salesman of some sort and that he was confused by the layout of the house

[00:54:08] so he let himself in through the back way He was smiling at me timidly kind of embarrassed I think or at least pretending to be I told him it was fine but I'm not interested in buying anything and began to close the door

[00:54:22] but he put a hand up to stop me and try and give me a sales pitch That's when the dogs started going nuts at the front door They're barkers but the barking they were doing was aggressive something I hadn't heard before from them

[00:54:36] I told the man that I was sorry but he needs to leave and went to investigate It's literally a few steps away from the back but you had to round a corner to do it and as I did I saw a man with one foot in my door

[00:54:52] one hand on my dog's collar, Daphne's and the other one raised to hit her I quickly realised what was happening that someone was trying to distract me at the back door so someone else could break in the front and rob me or worse

[00:55:06] I felt like my body was deflating from this realisation and I was honestly terrified The man at the back door didn't seem to follow me in In fact, I had a view from the front room window from where I was standing and saw him get into their little

[00:55:20] courser pretty much as soon as I had seen his friend at my front door I hope this is making sense Anyway, the man had his hand up to hit Daphne, the collie but Dolly, who was very protective of her new family after being rescued

[00:55:34] and had some pretty razor sharp teeth was having none of it I'm not sure exactly where she bit him she seemed to do it all over and Daphne soon joined in I'd never seen a dog attack before but it was actually quite gory

[00:55:50] I literally stood there for a few seconds in pure shock As silly as it sounds the only thing I could think of while my dogs were attacking the intruder was that if they killed him they might have to be put to sleep so I stupidly called them off

[00:56:04] It took a few yells It took a few yells but they did eventually release the man who got up and limped slash ran to the courser his friend was waiting in thankfully not coming in any further to my house Yes, I called the police

[00:56:20] No, we don't have cameras so naturally, not much came of it I didn't tell the police that my dogs attacked the man just that they had scared him off because I was honestly terrified that they would be punished for protecting their home So, I kept the doors locked

[00:56:36] all day for the rest of my spell home alone My parents came back early and we do the same thing to this day All I can say is that I'm so grateful for my dogs and words can't express how much I love them

[00:56:54] Oh, and also, I'm seeing my tinder date again next week, so there's a second happy ending for you I don't really know where to begin but I suppose it all started before I was born My birth set in motion a series of actions

[00:57:19] that led to a threat on my life beyond my control Before my existence my mother, Jane, dated an older guy named James when she was in her mid-teens He adored her but wasn't of the same religion as her, so she ended up marrying a gentleman from her congregation

[00:57:37] instead leaving Jane was the one that James rather put out A year after being married Jane birthed me and decided she was unhappy with my father Dave and contacted James with intent to go back to him So Jane packed a bag one night and took me and left

[00:57:59] As soon as she arrived at James's she was bombarded with messages from Dave telling her he would take full custody of me if she didn't return So with a heavy heart she chose me over James and therein lies my problem

[00:58:17] She went back to my father and after another year of failed attempts, they divorced and my mother moved to the south to be with family completely forgetting about James My childhood was fairly normal for the next 13 years A few house moves, a new stepdad and a few siblings

[00:58:35] Mother's second marriage falls through and she's single again About the year 2010 and she had discovered Facebook Being newly single and having sudden contact with all of her old school friends she quickly strikes up a few romances out of nostalgia Nothing sticks though until she finds him

[00:59:01] James has a Facebook account Not very active and no profile picture but my mom is sure that it's him and immediately falls in love again He comes down south and meets us kids and stays for my 16th birthday party He looks wise He's easily in his 50s

[00:59:19] with shaved gray hair balding on top glasses and a creepy grin So far not too bad so why am I posting this here? How does this involve me and not wanting to meet this guy ever again? Well, when my mom leaves him a third time he finally flips

[00:59:39] and crazy comes out to play He starts turning up at my house uninvited He is told to leave every single time The visits become less frequent and we think maybe he's gotten the message But then hand delivered letters start arriving from my mom

[00:59:59] and it's the contents of these letters that cause me alarm In them he details how if she had never met my father they could have been happy together and he had a plan to get her back that was ruined by my untimely arrival

[01:00:15] So he did what any crazy man would do and started plotting to get me out of the picture After all I'm the reason she went back to Dave wasn't I? Back in 1995 she had a near miss of a car accident with baby me in the car

[01:00:33] when a car clipped her at a junction She didn't get the car's details but put it down to chance In the letters James tells her that that incident 15 years ago was him and that he won't miss this time He informs her that he still believes

[01:00:53] that there is a chance for them but only with me out of the picture I'm not a baby anymore my father is well and truly out of the picture but the crazy in James' brain won't let it go The next letter informs my mother that he has told

[01:01:11] social services that she is a drunk and that they will come and take me away Not hard to prove that false so we don't panic The next letter tells her that he will burn the house down if he can't have her no one else will

[01:01:29] This is the one she takes to the police Upon investigation it is revealed that an ex of James with the same first name as my mother has a restraining order against him for stalking and attempted arson We are put on high alert

[01:01:45] and the process for a restraining order has begun A few nights later my mom hears someone outside the house thinking it's him she calls the police they arrive within 5 minutes and search the street no James but his car is found behind the resident garages

[01:02:05] he doesn't return to it that night The next day the police contacted a woman's hostel in a neighborhood in county they have a spare room so we packed our bags and headed there And so that summer of my life was spent in hiding no friends, no social media

[01:02:23] well I wasn't supposed to use social media but it was easy enough using the computers in the teen rec room that was easy, I was the only teen at the hostel at this point and very stupid James began messaging me through my facebook

[01:02:39] playing nice, telling me how much he loved my mom and needed to know that she was ok I ignored him and blocked his account I had a number of fake accounts to try and befriend me and they were all blocked also now after 3 months

[01:02:59] they find us a new house and we have a week to go back and pack up our old lives so that's what we do and now it's 8 years later and I've moved several times since including for university and honestly haven't given much thought to the man

[01:03:15] who wanted to kill me so he could be with my mother 2 years ago I moved back up north not far from my birthplace 2 weeks ago I received an email from an old email account for a rental agreement at first I thought it was spam but upon

[01:03:33] opening it the name at the top read to James Smith and the rental address was not too far from me that sick fuck gave my email to the rentals as his so that I would know he was nearby I heard nothing else but I seriously

[01:03:51] hope that we don't ever meet again It's a Psycho by Charlie Ain't Here My Stalker Disappeared After 3 Horrifying Years by Hollypop Asleep When A Stranger Enters The Room by AMG Glitterfinger A Train Journey From Hell by an author that asked to remain anonymous I Accepted A Ride

[01:04:40] From Someone Who Was Not My Father by Unfair Advantage Grinder Stalker by BritishDweeb96 My Dogs Might Have Saved My Life And Their Home by M. Boo How Being Born Put My Life In Danger by Twilight Tea Leaves All of the stories you've heard this week

[01:05:00] 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 As always, if you have a story to share send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com and if you're looking for

[01:05:16] the true paranormal don't forget to check out the new episode of my other podcast Odd Trails at oddtrails.com or wherever you get your podcasts and if you're a patron stick around after the music for a special extended version of this week's episode

[01:05:30] and if you want to get access to that extension as well as a ton of other bonus stories and content head over to patreon.com forward slash letsnotmeetpodcast to support the show today I'll see you all next week for a brand new episode

[01:05:42] of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast Stay safe This part of my life always makes me feel anxious whenever I think about it