Let's Not Meet - Halloween Special!

[00:00:00] I hope you all enjoyed last week's season finale of Let's Not Meet. Season 3 will continue next weekend. During my absence this weekend, I want to share with you last year's Halloween special of Let's Not Meet. There are a lot of stories

[00:00:14] here, so buckle in, it's a long one. I left the original ending of the episode intact as I credited all of the authors with their appropriate stories. So I'm now signing off and I hope you enjoy last year's Halloween special. I'll see

[00:00:29] you next weekend. I was about 13 or 14 and I was babysitting two boys for some church members. I had done it before and the kids loved me. The parents were very comfortable with me as well. This was a night that they were going to be gone

[00:00:57] for pretty much the whole evening, at least until 2 30 in the morning. I was doing it for free that day because they were going to do some church related things and that's just how I rolled. Anyway, the house they lived in was an

[00:01:11] apartment complex. You know those small ones that have two floors and four places in each spot? They're on the bottom floor with two bedrooms on either side of the apartment with the kitchen on the left and the living room on the right

[00:01:27] with the sliding glass door to a small patio and a public bathroom next to the front door. It was about 1 30 and I knew they would be getting home soon. The kids were knocked out. This was before Netflix or online services and they had a

[00:01:44] couple of DVDs and VHSes so we watched The Land Before Time to make the night go quicker. I was already very tired and had nodded off a couple of times. At about 2, I could hear knocking at the front door. Knowing the parents had a key, I did

[00:02:01] nothing but sit there in the dark with the TV glowing. Being a paranoid person and one who watches and reads enough horror, I grabbed a baseball bat that was next to the couch. And what happened next will haunt me forever. I heard a small

[00:02:21] voice, almost like a young woman's. Oh dear, that won't help you, it said. My heart stopped and I realized the patio door didn't have the blinds shut. My eyes shifted slowly to the door and I see someone on the patio staring in. I

[00:02:46] couldn't make anything out other than the fact that they were very short and wide. I screamed and ran into the kids room. Thankfully they were still asleep. Sadly this was before I had a cell phone and there were no cordless phones in the

[00:03:05] house. All I did was push the dresser in front of the door and stared out the window of the room. That's when it became dark as a shadow loomed on the window. The knocking started again and the woman's voice called out, come on

[00:03:25] dearie, I won't hurt you, please come out. The window was being knocked so hard I was afraid that it was going to break. The kids finally woke up and they were screaming scared. I was a big girl and at that time I could lift my own weight

[00:03:45] but knowing I had two kids with me, I became vulnerable and afraid. Within two seconds I hear her father yell out, hey who the hell are you? And the person ran off. The front door opened and there was harsh knocking on the kids bedroom door.

[00:04:06] Thankfully it was the parents and after I let them in and put the dresser back I explained what happened and they called the police. When they arrived they obviously found nothing but the bushes that hide the patio were obviously cut

[00:04:21] up or ripped to get through. I babysat for them once more after that but they moved away about five months later and I never babysat for anyone ever again. And to this day I know the woman was long gone but every time I hear a knock a

[00:04:39] chill runs through me. Stranger who was watching me lets not meet again. This story happened many years ago. I was 19 years old. I lived with my parents at home in a fairly bad neighborhood. At the time I had a very large loving dog that was

[00:05:19] half Great Dane and half English Mastiff who was the sweetest little angel you could ever meet but very, very large. We're talking over five feet on her hind legs and well over 100 pounds. It was late one night and I decided in the

[00:05:37] middle of that night I was going to go to the local 24 hour grocery store to get a few snacks. At the time I didn't own a car but I did have a license and my

[00:05:50] father had a car. Since I was young I figured I would take the car, drive a few miles to the store to pick up some snacks and be back having the car in the driveway before anyone knows that I'm gone. The only issue was I knew my dog

[00:06:04] would start barking and crying if I left her alone when I went to the store so I decided that I would take her with me and leave her in the car when I was at

[00:06:15] the store. Since it's the middle of the night and it's not going to be hot it'll all be well. I get to the store, get out, pick up a few snacks, pay the total

[00:06:26] and head back to the car. It's the early 2000s and my keys are on the lanyard around my neck. As I'm walking quickly towards my father's car I notice in my peripheral vision there's a man who has gotten up from a bench on the side of

[00:06:44] the building. I hear him say something but I don't turn around and I have no clue what it was that he said. I had to quicken my pace and I wondered if I was

[00:06:57] just being paranoid. By the time I opened my car door this man was in a full sprint toward me. There was no keyless entry system or alarm. I slammed the car door shut and before I can even lock the door I see a hand slam on the window.

[00:07:16] Full palm. In the next split second my beautiful amazing dog lunges from the passenger seat across my driver's seat toward that window, baring her teeth and barking. I had never seen her act like that. Then I hear

[00:07:33] oh shit before the man disappeared off into the darkness. I got home safe that night and nothing came out of it. The neighborhood that the store is located in is notorious for panhandlers and theft or robbery so I can't tell you for

[00:07:49] sure what the person wanted from me. If they would have hurt me or I was just overacting what I can tell you is that I'm very glad I had my baby with me that night. Just yesterday I collected my son from school. While driving back there was

[00:08:30] a white health services van reversing quite fast onto the road. I came to stop as this driver didn't seem to care about oncoming traffic. I couldn't move my car as there were cars behind me and cars coming towards me. Plus I was irritated

[00:08:49] that this driver had such a careless attitude so I gave a gentle friendly beep. Such a friendly beep that another parent who was walking her granddaughter thought that I was giving her a beep so she gave me a friendly wave. The driver of

[00:09:08] the van stopped as I beeped and proceeded to drive on. As I did the van followed after. I thought nothing of it and continued on the main road. Traffic was quite heavy due to school collections so I decided to take a detour

[00:09:27] through the housing estate to make my journey home a little quicker. The van to follow. I noticed that it was coming up quite fast behind me. I remained calm but my son who kept looking out the back window commented, mom that van is

[00:09:46] following us. He looks angry. I assured him that he was just going the same way but I was finding it very strange myself. The detour through the neighborhood that I took was not a place I was very familiar with so I started driving

[00:10:04] aimlessly trying to find roads that I recognized. All the while the van was still driving behind me picking up speed. I eventually came back to the main road by my house but I was afraid to go directly to my house because I was very

[00:10:21] aware this man was following me. I indicated right but quickly changing my mind indicated left and the driver in the van did the same exact thing. My heart was pounding. I decided I would drive to my local petrol station and stay

[00:10:37] there. As I drove towards a petrol station and as I indicated right to turn in the van sped up beside me almost forcing my small car off the road. I pulled in and gasped but breath. The van drove on breaking many red lights. I was

[00:11:00] so scared especially considering that I had a six-year-old in the back. What would he have done if he had the chance? Psycho and the health services van let's never meet again. Two years ago right around Halloween I was babysitting for

[00:11:39] these two ladies who each had a son. They wanted to go out so I stayed at one of their houses and watched both of their boys. It was around 8 p.m. and the boys were sitting on the couch playing on their iPads and whatnot. When somebody

[00:11:56] knocked on the door I asked them if anyone was supposed to come over and they both said no. I go over and check the eyehole of the door and it's some guy in a gray hoodie deliberately hunched over so I can't see his face. Immediately

[00:12:16] I'm thinking to myself nope and don't say anything and start pacing around because I don't want to give him any inclination where inside. A couple of minutes later I check outside the little window through the curtains and

[00:12:32] he's gone. I didn't want to spook the kids anymore and there weren't any more knocks so I just kind of let it go as a prank. Cut to a few hours later and the

[00:12:46] moms get back. They they asked me how everything was and I say the kids were great but somebody had come to the door. They asked me what time and I said around 8 and one of the moms starts freaking out and going through her phone. The

[00:13:03] other one tells me that right around that time somebody had been making strange phone calls to them on a blocked number. They had disguised their voice and were saying things like I can see you through your window. They didn't

[00:13:21] think it was serious because it didn't make sense in the context of where they were but in retrospect were almost positive it was me he was looking at through the window. They escorted me to my car and I touched bases later and

[00:13:39] apparently nothing strange ever happened after that. I'm really glad I didn't open that door because I have a feeling in my gut it would have been very bad. So last night I was at a classmate's house working on a group project we have

[00:14:15] due tomorrow. I live in an apartment in the town where our university is located and my classmate lives at his parents house which is in the foothills just outside of town. In order to get to the house you have to drive along a

[00:14:28] relatively secluded and narrow two-lane road for about five to six miles. We started working on the project at about 6 p.m. and I ended up hanging around after for a while when we finished our working. So I left his house pretty late

[00:14:44] about 11 and started down the road back towards town. I didn't realize how tough it would be to navigate the road at night. There were no streetlights and the road was unkept and riddled with potholes. On top of this I had no cell

[00:15:02] service so I had to drive very slowly to make sure I didn't blow out one of the tires since I had used my spare a couple of weeks back. I figured I was about three miles from the house when I rounded a tight corner and saw a pickup

[00:15:18] truck with a camper shell parked diagonally across the road. The manner in which it was parked completely impeded my path and I couldn't drive around it because there was a gully on both sides of the road. The only way for me to go at

[00:15:33] this point was backward where there was a pull-off that I could use to turn my car around. At first I couldn't see inside of the cab but when I turned on my high beams I saw that there was a man slouched over in the driver's seat, his

[00:15:50] head resting against the steering wheel as if he had been knocked out after a bad accident. I immediately sensed something was wrong. The way that this car had just coincidentally come to rest in a position that totally blocked the

[00:16:05] road was a big red flag for me. I had heard stories of people playing dead on the road as a way to lure unsuspecting people out of their cars so that they could rob them. I decided fuck this shit and elected to go back to my classmates

[00:16:20] house and explain what was going on. I threw the car into reverse and kept my eyes darting back and forth between the rear view and the truck. I looked and saw that I was almost to the pull-off where I could turn around. When I looked back

[00:16:35] my heart skipped about five beats. The man who had been slouched over the driver's seat was now walking at my car at a hurried pace while a few other men jumped out from the camper shell and started moving towards me as well. I

[00:16:51] panicked and accelerated backward into the pull-off which messed up the undercarriage of my car pretty bad. As I put it into drive the guy was already at my passenger door tugging at the handle which thank the Lord was locked. I only

[00:17:07] caught a brief glimpse of him and his face appeared to be scabbed and leathery definitely a meth head or some sort of drug abuser. I sped away and didn't slow down until I reached the house constantly checking my rear view to see

[00:17:23] if they were following. Thankfully they did not tell me and when I reached the house I explained what had happened to my classmate and we called the cops. I was grateful that my buddy's parents were kind enough to let me stay the night.

[00:17:38] They didn't find anyone on the road matching the description but I filed an incident report and they told me that they would be on the lookout for similar vehicles and suspicious activity but holy shit I'm still so shook up over it. I keep

[00:17:53] getting the same adrenaline rush I got when I saw the guy charging at me whenever I think about it. Please share similar experiences you may have had as I would appreciate a good read or a good discussion to help me clear my headspace.

[00:18:08] I was at the gym jogging on a treadmill. As always I had my phone propped up against the dashboard and I was watching an episode of a new show that has been quite popular recently. I've got noise cancelling headphones on and am focused

[00:18:47] on the show so I don't notice the woman who gets onto the machine next to me. I don't know how long the woman was trying to get my attention but suddenly I feel my headphones pulled from my ears. I almost fall off my treadmill and look

[00:19:03] around to see the woman next to me bright red and angry. I was calling you. She hissed at me so I slow down my machine my heart still racing and I ask what she needed trying to be as polite as I can and ignoring her initial rudeness.

[00:19:22] I feel pretty embarrassed that I didn't realize she was calling me. She huffs and points at my phone saying turn that off it's distracting. I try to calm the situation by telling her I'll turn the phones brightness down but she insists

[00:19:40] that I turn it off. I ask her why and she responds with I haven't seen that episode and you're spoiling it for me and she tries to lunge forward and grab my phone. I quickly put my arm out between her and my phone. The motion startles her and

[00:19:59] causes her to stumble off her own machine. She screams that I pushed her off but everyone had witnessed her harassing me. When she realizes that no one is paying attention she got up grabbed her things and walked out. I wish

[00:20:14] I could give a more satisfying ending but I'm not one for confrontation. Ford Bragg, California is a small beach town northwest of Sacramento. It has a kind of Stephen Kingville to it you know what I mean that misty almost eerie small

[00:20:51] harbor town but it's beautiful and a huge tourist attraction. You get people from all over the US that travel here. My fiancee and I decided to drive up here after I had to take some time off of work due to stress. It was a last-minute

[00:21:06] decision and we packed up our bags in less than 10 minutes grabbed our dog and took off. If we wouldn't have had our dog with us I'm pretty sure I would have lost her. I guess this is where I tell the story. It's our second day here now

[00:21:21] and we're staying at a motel that overlooks the ocean. You can see the fog roll in during the early morning hours and watch the fishing boats leave the harbor to go get their haul for the day. It really is a beautiful thing. I woke up

[00:21:37] early and I was craving eggs and bacon. After getting dressed and deciding what spot to stuff our faces at we left for our morning adventure. See here's where I made my mistake. I was driving down the road and it looked like the stop we

[00:21:54] crawled up to was a four-way stop sign. I clearly guessed wrong because when I pulled out and cut off a small Ford Ranger with a dinky trailer attached to it and two old men driving I realized a little too late that I had cut them off.

[00:22:10] They threw up their hands and pointed at me but Lily didn't even notice. I threw my hands up in a sorry I'm just a dipshit tourist kind of way and they just stared at me. It was a hillbilly standoff that George Strait would be proud of. I didn't

[00:22:27] much of it and kept driving down the foggy two-lane road to get to breakfast. I didn't even say anything to her about it. I never thought I'd see them again and I didn't want her to complain to me about not knowing how to drive. I was

[00:22:41] wrong though. I was wrong and I'll never forget what happened next. We got back to the motel after a not so great but overly expensive breakfast. We cuddled up and talked about our plans for the wedding, what we wanted to do after the

[00:22:56] wedding and midway through our life plans she realized that we were out of dog food to feed Bruce. I agreed to going up to the cute but creepy market and grabbing a bag of goodies, kissed her on the cheek and jumped in the navi. We call

[00:23:15] our Navigator Navi. I got about halfway to the store before I realized that I forgot my wallet on the nightstand. When I pulled back into the parking lot I saw it, that same fucking Ford Ranger with the janky trailer attached to it. The only

[00:23:35] difference was that Hank and Boomhauer weren't inside of it. I don't remember seeing them here last night, I thought to myself. I walked up to our door while looking over my shoulder wondering what are the chances these douchebags are

[00:23:53] staying here and then not two seconds later my heart started beating faster. Our motel door was open but barely cracked. It was open slightly to the point to where you could see a sliver of light but nothing more. I slowly pushed

[00:24:14] it open and looked inside. I didn't see anything. Lily and Bruce were both gone. It was like they were never there at all. My heart started racing and I dropped my keys on the floor and ran outside, heart pounding in my chest faster than a

[00:24:36] jackhammer in New York. I didn't see the creepy old guys from the Ford truck or my fiancee outside. I was becoming angry and frantic at this point. Fuck, where are you guys? I thought before the screaming inside my head was cut off by the sound

[00:24:53] of familiar barking. I heard Bruce barking and ran faster than I ever have my entire 28 years of life. I ran straight over to the front office where the sound was coming from and that's when I saw her and our dog inside the

[00:25:08] office. She was crying sitting on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably, Bruce's hair standing straight up until he saw that it was me sprinting towards them. Lily got up and ran into my arms. Meanwhile the clerk is on the phone and

[00:25:25] I'm wondering what the fuck happened in the two minutes I was gone. Well this is what happened told by her and it makes my blood run cold. It turns out as soon as I left not 30 seconds went by and those fucking guys knocked on the door.

[00:25:42] Lily opened it up thinking it was me forgetting something, which I did and they tried to force their way into the room and one of them said you can thank your boy toy for what's coming to you while grabbing her and covering her mouth

[00:25:59] but those assholes didn't realize one thing and that's that we had a dog in our back seat when I cut them off. Bruce jumped up off the bed and didn't hesitate to bite one of them grabbing her. They kicked him and tried to shake

[00:26:15] him off but he would not let go. After being bit and realizing that the noise would draw attention if they didn't leave they ran off and Lily was able to run to the front office and wait for help. Bruce followed suit. I wasn't there.

[00:26:30] I couldn't protect her. If we would have found a dog sitter she could be gone right now but my dog was there and he did exactly what a good boy does. No the

[00:26:43] best boy would do and for that he is truly my best friend. If he wasn't there what would have happened? Would she have been kidnapped, beaten, killed, all of the above? The craziest thing is that they haven't been caught yet. We filed all

[00:27:00] the reports with the local sheriff. I told them what happened earlier that morning and the cop looked right at me and said you're lucky your dog was there. If he wasn't and they got in there with her you could have been filing a

[00:27:13] different kind of report right now. I got tears in my eyes at that. I looked over at Lily and Bruce and thanked God that I rescued him from that pound because in return he rescued the love of my life when I couldn't. So people from the Hills

[00:27:31] of Eyes and Deliverance let's meet but this time I'm going to be the one grabbing you and trust me I'm not going to let you get away this time. Oh and Bruce is getting a steak dinner tomorrow night and all the treats he could ever

[00:27:47] want. A lot of people may have heard about this girl. She was all over the news after she stalked a guy, bombarded him with 65,000 texts and broke into his house all over one date. We met shortly after she went on the date with him and

[00:28:22] we were friends for a while before she broke into his house. At first she seemed like a nice albeit quirky person. I met her when I spent a couple of months visiting the west coast of the US in summer of 2017. I thought she was cute

[00:28:40] and we spent a lot of time together. We were living next door to each other for a few weeks and we were never really more than friends. I stopped having any sort of non-platonic feelings after she started to talk about this guy that she

[00:28:55] had met on some dating website. Apparently he was her soulmate and she had somehow been guided to him by following her birth calendar. I would only later come to know that they had only been on one date and he never spoke

[00:29:09] to her again. I thought that that was weird but I enjoyed our conversations for the most part and she was funny and nice so we remained friends. Eventually she moved on to short flings with a guy and then another girl from Tinder. All the

[00:29:24] while still talking to me about this guy that she was going to marry, saying that she liked how jealous he got when she would tell him about hooking up with other people. A couple of weeks later she started acting really erratic. I

[00:29:40] confronted her a few times about how she was acting and she told me that she had recently stopped taking her meds but would start taking them again. She came home one day and decided to tell me that she had a court date coming up for a DUI.

[00:29:55] I have no idea if this is actually true but if there's a way to find out, it happened in Arizona and her name is pretty easy to find so you could probably look it up if you wanted to. Her plan was instead to leave the country

[00:30:12] and go to South America. I told her what a dumb idea that was and even though she actually went all the way to the airport in a different city, she wound up coming back. Apparently her soulmate was no longer answering texts and she looked at

[00:30:30] that as a sign that she would drag her ass back to where he was and fix their relationship. She was so upset that he may be seeing other people even though it seemed okay for her that she was seeing other people. Later on she told me

[00:30:44] that she texted him and said if he blocked her, she would know that meant he wanted her to come find him. Obviously he blocked her. Obviously that didn't go over well with her. So she moved a couple of days later and the summer was ending

[00:31:01] and I moved back to the East Coast. I didn't hear from her for a little while after that but then we started talking again through texts and whatsapp. She seemed like she was doing better. She told me she found a roommate and was

[00:31:17] working on her art again and just generally seemed like she was in a better place. I was happy to have my friend back and healthy but that didn't last any longer than maybe a couple of months. Eventually her behavior started

[00:31:32] to seem erratic again. She was sending dozens of texts at a time and they were all over the place. Several of them had to do with her soulmate and how she was still following him even though he had called the police and blocked her. I told

[00:31:47] her to stop. Tried to get her to take her meds and tried to reason with her a few hundred times. I was on the opposite side of the country and had no way of

[00:31:57] getting in touch with her family who I never knew much about or her friends to try to get her help. She was a kind person and a good friend when she was taking care of her mental health and I cared about her but it couldn't force

[00:32:11] her to take care of herself. One day I set aside some time to call her and I told her that she was overwhelming me and that she really needed to reach out to her

[00:32:21] family or someone who could help her. She told me I couldn't do that because she needed to stay with me or she would have to go back to her ex-husband. I don't know if any of this is true but she thought her ex-husband was going to have

[00:32:37] her killed or followed. That he had the entire police force in his pocket and paid off her family to give him intel on her whereabouts and what was going on in

[00:32:47] her life. I had just moved for a job and I lived in a small studio in a big city. I had no room for anyone to stay long-term and I wasn't about to do that

[00:32:58] anyways since she was starting to scare me at this point. She asked me if I was still living at my current address which really freaked me out because I had never given her my address or put it anywhere online. She wouldn't tell me how she got

[00:33:15] it. I asked her to leave me alone and told her we couldn't be friends anymore unless she took some steps to get better. She obviously didn't take that well. Though I hated my tiny cramped apartment, the reason I was drawn to it was because

[00:33:31] it had great security. It was actually on the upper floor of a hotel although the hotel rooms were much nicer than the residences but no one was allowed through to the residents elevators unless the resident had given their name to

[00:33:45] security ahead of time and the guest had to show ID. After what happened next, I loved my cramped little apartment because the staff kept me safe. It had been over a week since I had talked to her because I blocked her number and blocked her on

[00:34:03] WhatsApp. She tried texting me from four different phone numbers using textfree but I blocked them all and never responded. I was walking home from work one day and I was sure I saw her across the street from my building but it was

[00:34:23] storming out and I didn't get a good view. I rushed upstairs and calmed myself down in the apartment. Maybe I was just being paranoid. It's a big city, lots of people have brown hair and glasses. I'm just worried about her. But then the

[00:34:44] phone rang. The desk was calling to see if I had forgotten to let them know I had a visitor. My heart sank. I asked them who was waiting. They said they tried asking for her name or ID but she just walked out and I knew it was her

[00:35:03] from the way they described her. I texted a mutual friend from over the summer. I wasn't really close with him so we hadn't stayed in touch but he told me she lost it and that he had blocked her as well. Apparently she had gone back on

[00:35:21] the dating site that she met her soulmate on and found someone who looked just like him in my city. She was convinced that it was him and had to come find him. This was a very touristy city but there was no way this guy

[00:35:37] had coincidentally come out here. I was sure she had gone bonkers and I knew she was well aware of where that guy actually lived. I took a page out of her book and used a text-free number to text her that she should leave me alone and I

[00:35:55] would call the cops if she ever came near me or my building again. In retrospect I shouldn't have contacted her at all but I was emotional and not using my better judgment. She said she just wanted to know if I could help her

[00:36:11] find something. She texted back really fast and didn't even try to hide it. Then I deleted the text-free app so she couldn't reach me again. I lived in a very crowded area and I knew she couldn't get into my building but I was

[00:36:25] still scared whenever I had to take public transit alone at night or was walking through less crowded areas to get home. I had a friend who used to work for the police but not in the city or at the time that this happened and she

[00:36:39] would drive or walk me home from work whenever she could for a while. She told me I should go ahead and report it even though they couldn't really do anything since she hadn't hurt me and nothing actually happened. But I was embarrassed

[00:36:53] and again I didn't use my better judgment. I felt like it was my fault for engaging with her for so long. I knew she was mentally unstable and I would still try to be her friend and help her. Maybe I gave her the wrong idea. Maybe I

[00:37:09] gave her the idea that I could do more for her. I ended up moving to a new city for another job after that and didn't hear from her again. I later found out the

[00:37:19] reason why was that a couple of months later she had once again gone back to Arizona and had been arrested for breaking into her soulmate's house and using his bathtub. They found a large knife in her car. This happened in New

[00:37:56] Orleans a while back. My boyfriend and I and two other couples were partying in the French Quarter and after several hours and many drinks we called an end to that part of the night. This was before Ubers and Lyft drivers. We'd

[00:38:12] walked a few blocks from our hotel earlier that evening while it was still daylight and now in the early a.m. hours past midnight we began to make our way back. I was on crutches, not a good combination with alcohol, and I began to

[00:38:27] slow down lagging behind. My two girlfriends, Bree and Zee, were a few steps talking. They're talking about a strange guy dressed in tights and a cape who seemed to stalk us through a few of the bars, even to plastering himself

[00:38:44] Spider-Man-like against the window of one of them for several minutes. Our boyfriends were leading the way while laughing at anything and everything and sharing a smoke between them. Ahead I watched the two guys pass a food vendor

[00:38:59] and turned down a shortcut alley looking street rather than continue to the end of the block and turn. The vendor, an older man, says something to Bree and Zee but they don't hear him still giggling over the night's events. They're on the

[00:39:14] verge of turning into the alley behind our guys when the vendor looks at me. Just in case he feels dissed by them I react kindly making eye contact and sending a friendly nod his way. Little miss, I got you right here. He pushes a

[00:39:31] steaming white paper wrap over the cart toward me. I start to refuse but he quickly lowers his voice saying, no charge. Something about his tone alerted me not to mention the food aroma is tempting so I pause. He then speaks in an

[00:39:49] even more hushed tone. Don't look but they've been trailing you since before you crossed. Speaking of when we crossed over the opposite sidewalk a while back they're gonna roll you. He warns me of impending danger to me and the rest of

[00:40:07] the group now disappearing from sight. I'm freaked out but I remain casual since his furtive manner implies his safety is at risk if he's heard warning us. I holler at Bree and Zee and our respective boyfriends to come back and

[00:40:23] taste his food. When my friends double back the vendor wraps and serves each of them a hot boudin ball while quietly repeating what he told me. He stresses to stay on the main walk where it's well lit and busy and stay out of the

[00:40:38] dark alleys. On the pretext of hanging back while eating we sneak a glimpse of who we've been so strongly warned about and notice at least three sketchy guys loitering a few doors back watching us. They look away when we look their way.

[00:40:55] The cape man mentioned earlier is not one of them. The scary vibe around them is very intense. I've always been one to feel those types of auras. So Boudin vendor man I've thought of you several times through the years thank you for making

[00:41:11] sure we never met what would have been our fate that night. I hope you have enjoyed the Halloween special so far. I'm including the following listener submitted story on the grounds that while this kind of story can only be described

[00:41:38] as some sort of unexplainable phenomenon it is a very real occurrence. It spoke to me because I myself have experienced similar encounters. I can imagine a few of you might have as well. While this steps out of the realms of the typical

[00:41:53] let's not meet story it is a very real and very frightening experience. Plus it's Halloween lighten up a bit. Listen now to a detailed description of sleep paralysis by Mark Cross. I couldn't move but I was awake. I was having another one

[00:42:17] of those dreams. No one of those nightmares. The unexplainable horror of mental consciousness mixed with complete and utter physical paralysis. Most nightmares are remedied by waking up not this time. This time my dark paralyzing lucid state had clasped me completely in its clutches and I was pinning me

[00:42:43] between my mattress and sheets. I've suffered from sleep paralysis in the past but nothing was as frightening as this experience. Nothing as vivid or real as this night. My mind begins to wake up deciding not to communicate with the rest

[00:43:00] of my body and stays disconnected from functioning normally. I can look around I can think but I cannot move an inch. My arms feeling restrained to the bed like a mental patient. They won't budge no matter how hard I try to lift them. I

[00:43:19] try to call for help exhausting every breath I can muster but nothing comes out. Was I even making noise? It all feels so real yet. I know this is only a lucid dream. A faint light dances in the hallway outside my open door. I hear

[00:43:40] people talking then I see an old friend of mine walk in accompanied by a stranger. Is this real? Is he really walking in the hall this late at night? I don't remember inviting him over yet I am not the least bit surprised to see him.

[00:44:00] They stop in the doorway and look at me. I ask who's your friend? He doesn't respond. Instead they continue walking through the hall towards my parents room. Is he going to hurt or rob my parents? Hey you're not allowed to go that way! I

[00:44:21] yell or at least I think I yelled. At that moment fear rears its ugly head and kicks in. My heart beats faster than a race car and my skin crawls with anxiety slowly sulking in the shadows I see him. The shadow of a tall slender

[00:44:43] man creeping his way into the light of the doorframe. With every step he takes closer I feel more and more worried and try harder and harder to move with no prevail. Before I can wake he's there a tall dark shadowy figure of a man

[00:45:06] wearing a bowler hat and a dark cloak. He hunches in my doorway creepily staring at me his face is shrouded in shadows every synopsis of my brain begins to fire and I beg my body to cooperate. Alas my body is too stubborn to comply

[00:45:28] and lays still motionless. You're not welcome here I want you to leave now I say in a shaky voice to the creature he lifts his head a bit and continues to walk down the hall. I sigh in relief somewhat comforted by the fact that I

[00:45:47] couldn't see this stranger anymore. I'm safe or at least I think I am as this shadowy demonic presence exits my view but man I was I was totally wrong. Like wind blowing through an open window the man flies into my room and stands

[00:46:07] directly at the side of my bed. He's standing over me breathing and reaching his hand ever closer to my face. I can sense that this is a ghost or a demon or some other malicious being connected with me in my half-sleep half-awake

[00:46:27] state. He leans completely over me now breathing heavily with a subtle growl and inspects my limp lifeless body. My mind fills to burst with fear unfamiliar voices are ringing in my ears needles prick and poke at my brain and send

[00:46:48] shivers down my spine but my body still lies motionless. He stares into my soul searching for a weakness to take advantage of. The floor creaks as he lifts off the ground and floats directly above me his mouth is open to show his

[00:47:06] sharp saliva dripping teeth as he clicks them together while letting out a low menacing chuckle. I can feel the warmth of his breath contour around my face I switch my gaze from his razor-sharp teeth and we lock eyes which are two

[00:47:27] dark empty holes staring past my flesh and into my soul. He's going to eat me alive he's going to try and steal my spirit with every bit of strength I can possibly gather I struggle and reach up to touch the intruder's face the

[00:47:48] heaviness persists but my will to banish this man is stronger. After a few agonizing moments I finally lift my arms and reach directly through the nightmarish creation. In that moment I feel complete relief I'm awake I'm

[00:48:05] alive I sit up in my bed and try to wrap my mind around what just happened now it all makes sense it was just another fit of sleep paralysis I sigh and get up

[00:48:15] for a few minutes to clear my head after getting a glass of water I return to my bed and lay with my eyes wide open thinking about what had just happened and what I had experienced. The presence of the dark shadow man was real he

[00:48:32] wanted to do me harm but I was not willing to let him in since that night I have not had any other encounters with the demon and I hope I will never have to

[00:48:44] gaze into his empty face again. I'm a male it was my freshman year in college and around the springtime I enjoyed working out and after a busy day it was time to hit the campus gym now to give you a visual of how the campus fitness

[00:49:25] center is pictured the main center area has several treadmills some hamstring sets and small televisions this area also has windows for people outside of the gym to peer into as well and to the right of the treadmill area includes the

[00:49:43] weight and bench press section and to the left is the entrance to the gym anyways I was doing my nightly routine and the gym was very empty after I was finished I decided that it was time to head back to my dorm now this is when

[00:50:00] things started getting creepy as I left the gym and I was going up the steps I noticed someone across campus he seemed suspicious and I heard him say from the distance what's up this was a bearded rugged looking male and he had a hood

[00:50:19] over his head I said what's up back to the man as well at first I didn't think too much of it maybe he just wanted to be friendly I began to walk across the grass to my dorm however the man started heading my way with his eyes completely

[00:50:40] locked onto mine I became unnerved and went back into the fitness center rapidly now fortunately there is always a fitness center worker near the entrance of the gym who sits at a desk and has people sign in before they work out at

[00:50:55] the moment I did not tell them about what had just happened because I felt I was possibly being paranoid what if this guy just wanted to chat however during that time I peered outside one of the windows near the treadmill area and saw

[00:51:11] shoes pacing back and forth I started to panic and suspected this was the same guy as before after this happened I decided to stick around and watch TV in the treadmill area for a good 10 to 15 minutes just to ensure the creepy man

[00:51:27] had given up it was obvious now that this guy did not have good intentions the fitness worker at the desk asked me if everything was okay when they noticed I seemed uneasy I said that someone may be following me they asked if I needed

[00:51:43] to walk back to my dorm with somebody and I said that the guy might be gone however I was dead wrong after a good 10 to 15 minutes it was time with a deep breath and butterflies in my stomach I braced myself and left the gym slowly

[00:52:04] stepping outside it was still and humid what came next though terrified me as I crept up the gym entrance steps into the dark night there was a bush rustling I peeked around the corner slowly and there was the strange man

[00:52:25] leering at me with an odd expression only a few feet away now I was horrified without a second thought I ran back to the gym with my heart in my throat and I told the worker that someone was right outside the gym stalking me campus

[00:52:43] security was then called however by the time the security got there the man was nowhere to be found fortunately they walked me back to my dorm but not before I had filed the report about what happened thinking

[00:52:56] about the situation still unnerves me to this day I thought the guy wanted to be friendly but clearly he was up to no good let's not meet hope you've enjoyed this Halloween special of let's not meet a true horror podcast strap in this week

[00:53:23] you have heard babysitting gone wrong by reddit user Ivy mom late-night grocery store run by she fell from grace no more beeps by Lulu 29 I'm pretty sure I almost became a murdered babysitter urban legend by count dooku

[00:53:42] fabula had an incredibly frightening experience last night and wanted to know if anyone has ever had a similar encounter by shark sir day you can't watch that I haven't seen it yet by lemon sloth cake my rescue dog rescued

[00:54:02] me by the closer 1989 my friend went crazy later found out she sent a guy 65,000 texts after one date and broke into his house by L&M throwaway 9 Cajun angel by war burrita it lurks in the shadows by Mark Cross and I met a

[00:54:26] strange man during my freshman year of college by Sparks the monkey if you like what you've heard this week please subscribe on iTunes or any other way you listen to your podcasts and give us a review as always visit let's not meet

[00:54:40] podcast.com for all the episodes and links to social media if you would like to hear your story on the podcast email me at let's not meet podcast at gmail.com I'll see you guys next week for a brand new episode of let's not meet