9x17: An Eerie Event in the Woods - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. My name is Andrew Tate and this is Season 9, Episode 17 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. I'm 20 years old and from Copenhagen, Denmark.

[00:00:54] I am definitely a long time lurker. This is my favorite podcast of all time, so much so that I have listened to all the episodes several times. As a 20 year old girl living in an elitist society like Denmark and especially Copenhagen,

[00:01:11] I have my share of horror stories, but this is the one that stands out for me. I was so shaken, but also very angry. It's a bit fast paced at times, but this is how I remember it.

[00:01:26] In February 2020, I traveled with my then boyfriend, who we'll call Christian, to his grandmas in Sevenoaks, England. Sevenoaks is a very calm and quiet place, so I didn't see any threats in going there. As per usual, there are always creeps in every town, right?

[00:01:47] Christian and I were going to stay in Sevenoaks for a week, take the train to London every day and return at night to sleep. Then repeat. Christian's grandma was a delight. I'm not from a native English speaking country, so when she heard me speak English, she was

[00:02:03] very impressed. I'm not perfect by any means. I smoke cigarettes as all the other adolescent people do in Denmark. I have OCD, Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, Depression and Anxiety. As a side note, girls with autism are more likely to develop depression, so living in

[00:02:21] an elitist society does not help. But I'm very glad I live in Copenhagen. Unlike so many others with these diagnoses, I am just like the next girl. In other words, you can't under any circumstances tell that I have these five diagnoses.

[00:02:39] It just means that in an irregular situation, as this certainly is, I might react differently. I went out for a walk and to have a smoke. I had my airpods in and I was listening to Let's Not Meet as I usually do when I need

[00:02:54] to escape from my thoughts when they get too rowdy. I walked for about 15-20 minutes before noticing two men walking behind me. Now it's pure instinct as a girl to be very aware of your surroundings. This incident is an excellent example of why we do this.

[00:03:14] Anyhow, I kept a steady pace and lit up another cigarette. I could hear them speaking to me, then they started yelling after me. I thought to myself, they must be drunk or something. It was Friday after all.

[00:03:29] They kept on yelling at me to stop and have a chat. I was debating on whether to stop and tell them to leave me alone or keep on walking. As I am a very headstrong woman, I turned around and I took a drag from my cigarette before

[00:03:45] taking one of my airpods out. I asked, what? Trying to sound inconvenienced and annoyed that they were disrupting the podcast that I was listening to. They were smirking and clearly drunk. They couldn't even walk in a straight line and they were supporting each other.

[00:04:03] We'll call these two guys Charlie and Daniel. She's pretty, isn't she? Charlie asked as he turned to Daniel. They looked me up and down. For reference, I was wearing a teddy bear jacket and my boyfriend's jeans with Air

[00:04:21] Force One sneakers, so I wasn't wearing anything really that special since it was cold as fuck at that time of year. What's your name? Daniel asked me, like I wouldn't lie to him. Agnes, I replied, as this is a typical Danish name.

[00:04:39] You're not from around here, are you? Daniel asked. I shook my head. Now, I'm 175 centimeters for Americans out there who don't use the metric system. I'm five foot nine inches. I'm above average in height and I'm quite athletic, meaning despite my habit of smoking,

[00:04:57] I could easily run from these two drunken men. Do you need help with anything? I asked while taking another long drag from my cigarette. You can help us, yeah, Charlie said. Come with us, Daniel said and nudged toward the path between the two large houses next to us.

[00:05:18] I took another drag from my cigarette and said, no, have a nice night, then turned around and put my AirPods back in. We were talking to you, they yelled. Come back, Agnes. From past experiences, I know what to expect from drunken men, but predatory men who are

[00:05:38] drunk are the worst. These two guys gave me a malicious vibe. The way that they were smirking and looking me up and down, it made me feel very uneasy. I don't want to sound too proud or anything, but I'm a tall girl.

[00:05:53] I have a slender frame, long brown hair, high cheekbones, big eyes, and I have curves. I've been hit on multiple times before. It doesn't bother me when people are envious or even googly-eyed, but I most definitely did not like the vibe that these two men were giving me.

[00:06:11] I turned down the volume of my podcast through my cigarette and kept my pace. I looked back, and they were still following me. I zipped my pockets to secure the few belongings that I brought with me in case I had to run. This went on for ten minutes.

[00:06:29] I was so focused on the men following me that I unconsciously walked further away from town. I could hear them laughing just a few meters back. I sent Christian my location via messenger.

[00:06:43] Now when I'm out, he always has his phone around since he has experienced how men can be towards me. There were no other people around anymore. I don't know the number to call in England for the police, and I cursed at myself for being so ridiculously stupid.

[00:07:01] I suddenly heard loud and heavy footsteps behind me. I shot ahead and ran. Then I tripped over something and flew through the air. I could instantly feel that I had scraped my right knee to the point where the blood slowly turned my jeans red.

[00:07:20] As a response to the stress, I started crying. Just leave me be, please. The tears streamed down my cheeks and I asked, what do you want from me? Charlie and Daniel stood in front of me, looking at me.

[00:07:36] They looked at each other and then kneeled down beside me. Poor Agnes, does it hurt? Daniel asked, looking at my knee. No, I said, but I yelped when Charlie pushed a few fingers into the open wound, making it bleed even more. I started laughing a little.

[00:08:01] What's so funny? Charlie asked as he pressed his fingers down again, using his disgustingly long nails to irritate the wound. I just couldn't stop laughing. I know for a fact I'm smarter than the two of you combined and I cut myself off and started

[00:08:21] speaking in Danish to throw them off. They looked really confused, so I continued in English. You two are the lowest of low, since you feel the need to hunt a girl down. I stopped crying and laughing. I was angry now, just fucking angry.

[00:08:40] I do not like to feel helpless. Look where we are now. No one's going to come out here and help you, Daniel said as he put his dirty shoe on my wounded knee. You're a fragile little bird, he continued as he stepped down on it.

[00:08:58] Unsatisfied, I didn't yelp or anything. So we better take you with us, he concluded. I was questioning how some people can be so cruel to another person simply for existing. Okay, I agreed while rummaging through my pockets for my cigarettes, but first, do you want a cigarette?

[00:09:21] I asked while holding up two of them. I could finally feel the heavy pounding in my leg. I got up and handed Charlie and Daniel one cigarette each, trying to conceal the fact that I'm disabled now due to my leg.

[00:09:36] All I could do was hope Christian could call someone since I was actually very scared now. The three of us lit up a cigarette and they turned their backs to me.

[00:09:48] My instincts were telling me to run for my life, but I knew I wouldn't be able to run anywhere even though all my instincts told me to do so. By this point, there were only lights from the street lamps.

[00:10:01] I looked down at my leg and there was a hole about the size of a tennis ball and I shit you not, I could feel my knee pounding as the blood soaked into my jeans and slowly but steadily streamed down my leg. Charlie and Daniel turned to me.

[00:10:16] My heart was pounding out of my chest. I was thinking, holy shit, this is real. Is Christian not coming? Did his phone die? What if no one ever finds me? My head was about to explode as I tried my very best to maintain my icy exterior.

[00:10:33] You're not coming home with us, Daniel said as I saw something shiny he had on him. We're going to stay out here and do our business. Do our business? What does that mean? I felt my expression drop and the blood ran from my face.

[00:10:51] This really felt like the end. Let me have one smoke then, the nicotine is helping the leg. I stalled and hoped that they would let me. Charlie put his hand on my face, squeezing his thumb and index finger on my cheeks.

[00:11:09] I pulled my head back but he wouldn't let go so I bit him. This earned me a slap. The bitch bit me, fuck me, Charlie howled. As pathetic, broken and scared as I felt, I lit up a cigarette and took a long drag, trying to hold back tears.

[00:11:29] I saw a car coming from town and I just ran for my dear fucking life. I can't even begin to describe the feeling I got when I saw that car. I ran out into the middle of the road like a maniac and waved my arms around with the

[00:11:43] cigarette hanging out of the corner of my mouth. The car stopped and rolled the window down. It was a woman. I completely forgot where I was and started speaking Danish. With an extremely confused look she asked, do you speak English?

[00:12:00] I explained to her what happened and she leaned out the window to look at my knee. She said, do you know the address of where you need to go? I'll drive you. I thanked her so many times. We talked for a little while.

[00:12:15] She told me that all the small towns have creeps like this and she couldn't be more right. The drive wasn't long and I was back within an hour or so of when I started my walk. I thanked the woman a million times more and asked if she smoked.

[00:12:32] She said that she did so I gave her the rest of my cigarettes. My head was racing when she pulled out of the driveway. I sat down on the steps, lit another cigarette from a new pack and reached up to ring the doorbell.

[00:12:45] Christian opened the door and said, I was just going out to look for you. He trailed off when he saw my leg. I looked up at him and started to cry. He was a sensitive guy.

[00:12:58] He closed the door and just sat there with me on the steps holding me. I told him everything. His phone died and it was charging in our room while he was cooking with his grandma.

[00:13:09] We didn't report it to the police because I sure as hell was never going out there alone again. I don't know where I would have wound up if it hadn't been for that woman who had stopped and gave me a ride.

[00:13:23] To everyone listening in, when you're traveling, find out about the area that you're staying know who to call and always keep people around you. Please be safe and be aware of stranger danger. To the doctors out there, I cleaned my wound out. Christian's grandma is an old nurse.

[00:13:43] It's now been a while since this happened. I started therapy for this one, but also some other things. I know not all men are like Charlie and Daniel, but this has really made me scared and jumpy around men. So, to those two men, Charlie and Daniel.

[00:14:02] The shit that you two put me through. I hope you get caught with your pants down before you hurt another person. Let's not ever meet again. This story means a lot to me because one of the friends I shared this experience with has since passed away.

[00:14:32] I usually find it difficult to adequately explain the particular kind of horror my friends and I experienced that night. Hopefully, I can do our nightmare justice in telling this story. So here goes nothing. Years ago, as young adults, my friends and I were traveling absentmindedly around the

[00:14:53] country as a lifestyle. We decided one summer to converge on the west coast to attend a sort of witchy kind of festival. In the woods. We were all pretty into metal at the time and figured that it would be cool, even if

[00:15:08] the festival was a bunch of hippie stuff. We all met up in Portland, Oregon and hopped into our friend's van. There were seven of us in total. This was right before the era of smartphones being ubiquitous.

[00:15:22] All of us had flip phones except for one friend who had his mom's Palm Pilot. We diligently looked up and wrote out our directions then headed south on the highway. Our exit was for Wolf Creek.

[00:15:39] I don't remember the exact number of the exit, but for the purpose of this story we'll call it Exit 87. A while into driving, we took Exit 87 for Wolf Creek. We pulled into a gas station and decided to double check the next steps in our route.

[00:15:56] We asked for the wifi so that we could look at the email from the festival with the directions on my friend's Palm Pilot. The directions in the email said that we needed to take a left off the freeway exit, go under

[00:16:09] a stone bridge, then drive a mile or so down the road. Then we had to take a turn at a dirt road and the entrance area was supposed to be marked with a bunch of colorful ribbons. The directions sounded simple enough.

[00:16:25] We followed those instructions to a tee and found ourselves in a maze of dirt roads, chasing a trail of ribbons down one of many offshoots into the dense forest. At one point, the color of the ribbons changed from pink to orange and we wondered if that

[00:16:43] meant something but convinced ourselves they just ran out of pink ribbons. The road came to a dead end with a loop to turn around. We were stumped. We were expecting a parking lot with a bunch of other vehicles. We got out of the van and looked around.

[00:17:02] We didn't see anything until one of us happened to spot a ribbon a few yards into the woods. We rushed through the thick trees, following a trail of ribbons, ribbon after ribbon. But the trail went dark somewhere out there so we returned to the van clueless.

[00:17:22] We figured the change in the colors of the ribbons had to mean something so we backtracked to a split in the road and departed down the other fork in the road. Then it happened again. We ended up following more ribbons to another dead end.

[00:17:40] This time we turned our music down and rolled down the windows to listen just in case we could hear any noises. Instantly, we were floored by the immense sound of drumming nearby in the forest. It had to be at least a hundred people drumming.

[00:17:59] The sound was deafening to the point where it sounded like it was just a stone's throw into the forest. The seven of us collectively rolled our eyes and thought, of course they're having a drum circle.

[00:18:13] We were hemming and hawing about the obnoxious west coast hippie stuff, but nonetheless we felt certain that this enormous drum circle must be where we're trying to go. We considered walking into the woods to ask these people where the hell we were supposed

[00:18:29] to park but eventually decided that we couldn't be too far from the entrance. We spent five to six hours driving around with the windows down trying to listen for this drum circle to locate it to no avail.

[00:18:44] At times we were close enough to hear it, but the roads led to nowhere. My friend kept saying how nauseous he was but just attributed it to feeling socially anxious about going to a big event. Eventually we found a road that led to a locked gate.

[00:19:01] We convinced ourselves that we were wandering around too long and they locked up the gate for the night because by this time it was quite late. A few of my friends hopped the gate to find someone to unlock it for us.

[00:19:14] A friend and I stayed behind in the van while they were gone. We realized none of our electronics were working, not even the battery powered devices like cameras and flashlights. A while later our friends came back.

[00:19:27] They said they just walked and walked and there was no sign of anything. At this point we were very low on gas. We debated spending the night in the labyrinth of dirt roads with a sign on the windshield hoping to try again by the light of day.

[00:19:42] Eventually we did decide to just go back to that gas station, fill up and check the directions on the Palm Pilot once more. When we got to the gas station we realized that we had gotten off at exit 87 but we were

[00:19:55] meant to get off at another exit exactly 100 miles away. Exit 187. Both exits were confusingly named Wolf Creek. Maybe it was the nature of trying to attend a specifically witchy or magical event but we couldn't shake the feeling that we were possibly being lured into some kind of trap.

[00:20:22] It felt as if we had fallen into some kind of weird mirror world causing us to delude ourselves into believing that we were in the right place. We may have let our imaginations run wild but it's also no secret that rural Oregon

[00:20:37] can be pretty unfriendly to non-white people, especially if they look like freaks. Who were the hundreds of people drumming in the woods? Were they an unusually large group of innocent hippies having a good time in the woods or was there something more insidious going on?

[00:20:56] To the cultists, hippies, or whoever was in the woods in rural Oregon, let's not meet. This story has been rattling around in my head for years. I'll likely never know how much danger I was truly in. And that's the scariest part.

[00:21:32] To set the scene, my manager, Greg, was leaving for a new job. On his last day, he invited me and a couple of other people out for drinks. Generally, I don't drink with people that I work with.

[00:21:45] In this case, I felt compelled to at least show up for one drink since it was his last day. We had worked together for four years doing customer service. We weren't that close but did have some rapport, usually sarcastic banter and some

[00:22:02] back and forth chatting about the day's events. A little insight into his character, Greg was the kind of guy who thought that negging women was the ultimate way to flirt. Since we worked in the public, I unfortunately got to see him shoot his shot on quite a few

[00:22:21] occasions. He was always trying and always failing to score. After my shift that day, I went home. I changed and arrived at the bar later that evening. It was a new bar for me since I had never been there before.

[00:22:38] It had a cowboy theme but it was giving off ghost town vibes, not saloon. I've never been a heavy drinker so I ordered a cider and sat at the bar with Greg and a few other co-workers who showed up. Here's where things start to get hazy.

[00:22:56] A couple of other patrons showed up. They joined us at the bar and got to flirting with me and my co-workers. It was all pretty mediocre stuff but once there was a lull in the conversation, Greg put another cider in front of me.

[00:23:12] I had said that I was only staying for one drink but I felt bad that his going away party had flopped so I took the drink begrudgingly. Two drinks in and being a 5'2 woman, I was feeling a bit of a buzz.

[00:23:29] The bartender was a Dolly Parton type with big blonde hair and red lips. She was wearing Daisy Dukes. She was interjecting here and there during our conversation. In one of the classic flirtatious moves, Greg began complaining to the bartender about the music.

[00:23:49] He told her he could play some better stuff that would get people dancing. To my surprise, she handed him the auxiliary chord and let him put on some shitty country music. Yeah, as I said, it was so dead in the bar that she let us pick the songs.

[00:24:08] Knowing Greg wanted us to get up and dance, we did. The other guys who were sitting near us got up as well. I admittedly can't dance but I was down with swaying to what I thought was the beat.

[00:24:21] On the floor, Greg comes up to dance with me and that's when I notice how drunk he is. He brings me in for a big hug. Although he's thin, he's way over 6' tall so I was instantly engulfed. He started telling me how he thinks I'm beautiful.

[00:24:40] He asked if he would have had a chance with me if he wasn't my boss. This was so awkward and out of left field that I defaulted to our usual conversation style. I sarcastically told him, you're drunk and you wouldn't want to be my boyfriend.

[00:24:56] I tried to laugh to lighten the mood. I tried to keep this from turning into a Hank Williams, there's a tear in my beer downer situation. Things were really getting hazy at this point though.

[00:25:12] After my second drink and after dancing to a few songs I wanted to head home. My field of vision had shortened to maybe 2 feet in front of me. Having a coherent thought was a huge task.

[00:25:26] I remember trying to pay my bill but I couldn't find my cards, they weren't in my wallet. The bartender was looking at me and I just kept saying, why am I so drunk, I shouldn't be this drunk, to myself as I fumbled around in my bag.

[00:25:43] During this one of my coworkers came over and I listened to them and the bartender have a conversation but I wasn't really absorbing anything. The bartender found my card in a wallet left behind by another bar patron.

[00:25:59] The part of me that was conscious wanted to argue how absurd that was, but that part also felt like it was behind 2 feet of glass. I numbly let her use my card to pay for my drinks and then I took it back.

[00:26:15] I wanted to get outside and get some fresh air so I stumbled into the night. I knew I needed to call a cab but I also couldn't smoothly string my steps together. Greg found me outside, I imagine I was just staring at my phone.

[00:26:31] He called me a taxi and we both got in. He tried to get me to crash at his place but I was adamant about being dropped off at my own. Luckily the cab driver was familiar with our city because all I was saying was my street

[00:26:44] name over and over. I was dropped off. I opened the door to my place, lay down on my bed and fell asleep. The next morning I tried piecing things together still confused and a little angry that I had gotten so out of control.

[00:27:02] Later Greg texted me something like, did you make it home safe last night? And I responded, yeah just went home and went to bed. He responded, haha well I wish you were in my bed last night. With a winking face.

[00:27:20] I took one look at that cringy message and thought, you aren't my manager anymore. I'm blocking you. That's exactly what I did. I never saw or heard from Greg again. I've had years to think about this incident but I've never arrived at a conclusion that I'm satisfied with.

[00:27:42] If I think about it too long, I spiral out as to why two drinks had me acting like a zombie. I'll never be able to prove that there was something in my drink that night but I'm glad that I made it home safely.

[00:27:56] So Greg, wherever you are, let's not meet again. I've been listening to your podcast for a year now and I think I've listened to every single episode to date. I often wondered if this particular story would be a good fit for the show but nonetheless

[00:28:28] it's creepy so here it is. A little backstory, I had an uncle who I now know isn't really blood related to me. My mom would always seem to be more protective of me when he was around.

[00:28:43] She once told me that he had asked if I could go on a ride with him on his new motorcycle, just him and I, to which my mom quickly answered, hell no.

[00:28:58] Growing up, I never thought that much of him but looking back I'm so glad my mom had always been the type to be extra paranoid when it came to her kids. At the time of this creepy incident, I was a young 14 year old girl.

[00:29:15] My parents were in the midst of a terrible divorce so I was in a bit of a rebellious phase in my life. At 14, I smoked weed for the first time, drank alcohol for the first time and lost my virginity.

[00:29:29] I was too young for all of that, I know. One normal day after school, my friend and I were hanging out with her boyfriend and another male friend of ours. We were outside on the stairs leading up to my apartment.

[00:29:45] My mom was at work so it was just the four of us, sitting around and hanging out as teenagers do. All of a sudden my uncle randomly walks up with a small target bag in his hand.

[00:29:59] This was unusual because I have never hung out with him without my parents around and it was during their work hours. I know he knew that my mom was at work. He was someone from my dad's side of the family.

[00:30:14] Now that my parents were divorced, why would he be showing up at my mom's? I remember his demeanor was exceptionally weird. He stopped in the distance and asked me if I would come over to him since he had something for me.

[00:30:32] I wish I could say that I ignored him and went into the apartment but I didn't. I walked over to him to see that he had something for me. He handed me this small bag and when I looked inside, there was a vibrator and a bottle of lube.

[00:30:52] I don't remember reacting much because my friends were right there, witnessing the entire thing. I knew that they would most likely ask me later what was inside the bag and I knew this wasn't something I was not going to flaunt to my friends.

[00:31:10] He then looked up at me and said, I heard you lost your virginity and I wanted to bring this to you so you can do it to yourself. He just left after that. My stomach dropped. I didn't know what to say or do.

[00:31:27] I remember walking into the house, bringing the bag into my room and hiding it. I felt like I had done something wrong accepting my uncle's gift. I felt like if my mom knew, I would get in trouble or something. Fast forward to now, I'm 33 years old.

[00:31:46] I was talking to my dad one day, thinking I'm telling him about this incident for the first time. He told me that he had already known about it, after it happened. I don't remember telling him or my mom.

[00:32:02] I think I tried to block most of it out of my memory because it was very traumatic at that time in my life. My dad told me that he had called my uncle up and threatened to kill him if he ever came near me again.

[00:32:17] Looking back, I remember seeing my uncle at this coffee shop slash donut place that I stopped by in the mornings before school every day. But after this happened, I never saw him there again. I haven't seen him around town since. I never thought much of it until now.

[00:32:40] What could have happened if my mom let me go on that motorcycle ride with him alone? What would he have done? Would I have come back? What if I walked to school alone?

[00:32:51] What else would he have done or said if I didn't have my three friends with me that day? What if I had just been home alone? I'll never know. And I'm glad I'll never know.

[00:33:06] So to the creepy uncle who thought it was okay to give a 14-year-old girl a vibrator, I hope we never meet again. I was about 17 at the time. It was in the fall of 2004.

[00:33:30] My brother, who's a few years older than me, and my friend decided to go out for some fast food. It was about 9 or 10 o'clock at night, so it was dark and some of the places were already closed.

[00:33:44] The city that we live in has a main drive with commercial buildings and restaurants on either side. There are two lanes of traffic going one way, two lanes going the opposite direction, and stoplights stationed at the intersections. My friend decided to drive us in his 90s Toyota Camry.

[00:34:06] My brother was in the passenger seat and I sat in the back. As we were cruising down the road, we put on some punk music and cranked it. We uneventfully cruised down the strip hitting red lights here and there along the way. We were in no hurry.

[00:34:22] We were driving in the right lane, so it would be easy to just pull into a food joint on our right. We approached another stoplight and as we slowed to a stop, a red van pulled up and stopped right next to us in the lane to our left.

[00:34:39] My friend and brother were just talking and joking around with each other. I would chime in here and there from the back seat. I peered over to look at the van next to us and I saw that the driver was by himself.

[00:34:53] He was looking over at us with an unusually intense demeanor. He was continually looking back and forth between the stoplight and us. I thought that it was odd how focused this guy was.

[00:35:07] He seemed to be angry and I thought that perhaps maybe my friend who was driving accidentally cut him off or brake checked him without realizing it. Whatever the reason was, this guy looked upset and I had a bad feeling in my gut.

[00:35:23] My brother and my friend weren't aware of what I was observing from the back seat. As the light stayed red and the punk rock music played, my friend began to do some air drums and turned his head to look at the angry guy next to us.

[00:35:40] As he did, I was expecting my friend to notice this guy glaring at us but my friend just glanced quickly and went back to air drumming. Totally oblivious. I looked at the guy in the van again and he seemed to have gotten even more agitated.

[00:35:58] Now, I don't think he noticed me in the back seat because I was watching him the whole time and he never looked at me. The light was still red. The next thing I know, my brother in the passenger seat decided to recline his seat.

[00:36:14] I began thinking to myself, please don't look at the dude in the van, please don't look. My brother looked into the van next to us but just like my friend, he was totally oblivious. The light turned green and we continued driving forward.

[00:36:29] We were ahead of the van as it stayed put and barely moved. I slightly turned my head to use my peripheral vision to see what this van was doing. Just as I feared, he purposely drove slower until we got to the intersection then slowly

[00:36:47] crawled through that intersection, changing lanes to get behind us. It was then that I knew, something was about to go down. I chose not to say anything to my friend or brother. I continued to observe the guy behind us as discreetly as possible by keeping my head

[00:37:05] down and turning at an angle to use my peripheral vision to keep eyes on this guy. He didn't tailgate us but rather casually followed behind. Since we were in the right hand lane, I figured, okay maybe he's going to turn right onto

[00:37:23] one of these driveways, into a Walmart or Best Buy or something. As we cruised along, he followed and then my friend changed lanes into the left lane. The van changed lanes as well. We moved back into the right and the van did as well.

[00:37:42] We finally decided where we wanted to go and realized we had already passed the food joint just a mile back so we got back into the left lane again and decided to turn around in a closed parking lot of a Starbucks. It was coming up on the left.

[00:37:59] When we moved into the left lane, the van followed again. This is finally when my friend caught on. What are the odds someone else would be pulling into a dark Starbucks parking lot right behind us? Before pulling into the Starbucks, we had to wait for traffic.

[00:38:16] An opening big enough for one car came and we would still be able to pull through as long as we hurried. We accelerated to quickly turn into Starbucks. Surprisingly the van behind us punched it as well and barely made it while still being right on our tail.

[00:38:35] My friend looked into his rear view mirror and noticed but didn't say anything. I was already in full panic mode on the inside. We pulled through the closed drive-thru and drove around the Starbucks. The van followed.

[00:38:51] We turned back onto the main drive to head back in the direction we came from with the van following close behind. My friend finally blurted out, Guys, we're being followed. I explained everything that I had noticed up to this point and I let my friend and brother

[00:39:07] know that this guy was upset about something. He was pissed off. We accelerated and the guy in the van accelerated as well. This guy had been playing it nonchalantly at first.

[00:39:20] Maybe he wasn't sure if he knew that he was going to follow us but at this point it seemed like the game was on. He was obviously a predator and we were the prey.

[00:39:30] As we sped up over the 35 mph speed limit the van immediately pulled into the lane adjacent to us and accelerated in an attempt to pull up next to us. We were driving about 40 and we saw the van pull up beside us. My friend shouts,

[00:39:45] Hang on, I'm going to hit the e-brake. Then boom. E-brake initiated. The car skidded and screeched to a stop as we all lurched forward in our seats. Hitting an e-brake mid drive isn't as chaotic as you might think it is but it stopped us quickly.

[00:40:03] The van went blowing by and as it passed us we could see the rage contorted face of this guy. He was screaming at us. We couldn't really catch what he was saying though. We watched as he began to slow down to possibly turn around.

[00:40:19] Thankfully he had already driven further down the road and there was no place for him to turn around. He couldn't just stop since we were in the middle of this main drag and cars were coming up behind him. We remained where we were skidded to a stop.

[00:40:34] Then I saw him punch it and take off. We decided to turn into a closed car wash that we had happened to stop in front of. We pulled in. We pulled in and around the back of this small building to stay hidden from the road.

[00:40:50] My friend turned off the car and the lights. We all finally exhaled as it felt like we had been holding our breath the entire time. In a panic we discussed our options and the possible scenarios. We had a feeling it wasn't over yet.

[00:41:06] We wondered what in the heck we did and why this dude was so adamant about following us. There were three of us so he had to have had a weapon or something to make him so confident to confront three guys at once.

[00:41:20] I explained that I thought that the man in the van took off to hurry up and find a turnaround point and if he was watching in his rear view mirror he may have seen us pull into this car wash.

[00:41:31] All three of us considered fearfully he may come back. Did we stay here and sit? There was no way out from behind this small car wash from where we were parked. We would essentially be sitting ducks.

[00:41:44] If he had a gun he could easily mow us down unseen in the darkness behind this car wash. We thought maybe we should attempt to get back on the road but we were too nervous that he might be somewhere waiting for us to drive by.

[00:41:57] My friend turned the car on and drove back around the car wash to pull back onto the main drag. Slowly and anxiously we approached the edge of the driveway to exit back onto the main drive.

[00:42:09] We all had that feeling like in the movies where we know that the creature is out there somewhere maybe even closer than we realize. And it could pop out at any moment. And that's exactly what happened.

[00:42:21] All of our stomachs dropped as we realized we had made the right decision but barely in time. We saw the red van flying back toward us. He was getting ready to pull into the car wash while we were waiting to make a right turn back onto the road.

[00:42:36] A patch of traffic just so happened to stop him from entering the car wash but at the same time the traffic prevented us from exiting. As we waited for the gap in traffic we were essentially face to face with this guy. He was screaming and shouting absolutely furious.

[00:42:53] We couldn't tell what he was saying still but our emotions were intense and all of our minds were racing because none of us could even say anything out loud. We were just staring at this extremely hostile man praying and hoping that we would get

[00:43:08] an opening in traffic before he does. He had two lanes to wait for and since we were turning right we just needed one lane to open up. I felt like our lives were in the hands of my friend who was driving.

[00:43:21] Looking at the oncoming traffic to find our opening we realized that both lanes would clear at the same time. I remember thinking how crazy this whole situation was. We were in what felt like the battle of life and death.

[00:43:37] Cars were just driving by with people going about their regular lives having no clue that they just passed by a car of three young men who may very well be in the news the next day. I was also thinking, please someone has to notice that there's something seriously

[00:43:52] wrong here. Help us. But still no outside observer recognized the situation that we were in. I started to wonder how many times I've been a casual passerby to somebody's traumatic experience. The traffic was close to clearing for both us and the van when my friend made a sudden

[00:44:11] and quick decision. I felt the car jerk forward and my friend shouted, I'm going now. He then punched it and squeezed into a small opening of traffic barely missing being hit.

[00:44:24] I'm not sure if the car that we cut off honked at us or not but we were able to get back on the road and just take off. Looking behind us I saw the van waiting for a few more cars to go by.

[00:44:35] My friend continued to floor it and we were driving at about 60 miles per hour now. We didn't care if we got stopped by a cop because we would just explain everything that had just happened.

[00:44:45] I saw the red van behind us starting to make its way back towards us. However, we had gained quite a bit of distance from him. We quickly found a road off the main drag that led to a residential area.

[00:44:58] We turned onto it and began to zigzag our way through the maze of streets until we felt we were safely hidden in the jungle of cookie cutter homes and cars. We parked, turned off the car and lights and waited.

[00:45:11] Our adrenaline was still surging but we felt much safer. We decided to wait for five minutes before slowly creeping back out of the residential area. We parked next to a house near the main road where you can see a good amount of traffic going by.

[00:45:27] We kept the lights off and watched all the cars go by for a bit to make sure that we were in the clear. Our emotions transitioned from fear to exhilaration and relief. We couldn't believe what happened. It was absolutely crazy.

[00:45:43] As we were sitting there, talking to each other about the what ifs while observing vehicles passing by, we saw it. The red van drove by. No way, this guy was literally patrolling the road for us.

[00:45:58] Since we had the jump on him, we decided to drive closer to the main drive and just watch how far down he was driving. When he was a good distance away, we decided to quickly jump back on that main road.

[00:46:09] We drove to a Walmart that was just one stoplight away. We pulled into the Walmart parking lot then went inside for refuge. We hung out there for about 45 minutes before heading home. Thankfully, that was the last time we saw the guy in the red van.

[00:46:25] I don't know what we did. Maybe my friend playing air drums was interpreted as throwing up some type of gang signs? I don't know. Maybe my brother reclining back and looking over at him came across as some kind of taunt?

[00:46:40] Whatever the reason was, he felt emboldened to pursue three guys by himself. So to the guy in the red van, why were you so angry? And let's not meet again. Don't forget to stick around after the music if you're a patron for your extended ad-free

[00:47:12] version of this week's episode and if you want to get access to that as well as all of the other bonus content we've got hours and hours of stories there for you. Head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up today and support

[00:47:26] this show. This show is not possible without all of the amazing patrons over at patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. This week you have heard Leave Me Be by Caroline, An Eerie Event in the Woods by G, I Think

[00:47:42] My Manager Drugged Me by Katty, Creepy Uncle by a listener that asked to remain anonymous, and finally Guy in the Red Van by Jeremiah. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors.

[00:47:59] 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

[00:48:09] don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts, Odd Trails, a true paranormal podcast as well as the Old Time Radiocast and don't forget my upcoming podcast, Welcome to Paradise, it sucks, you can subscribe on any platform that you get your podcasts.

[00:48:25] We should be launching sometime in January, I'm really excited about that one, I think you guys are really going to love it. It's very similar to Let's Not Meet but with some very interesting spins and some surprises along the way.

[00:48:37] I'm excited to share that one with you guys. You can check out all of these podcasts at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your shows. I'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet. Stay safe.

[00:48:50] I'm a female and I moved to Sweden 10 years ago.