10x14: Escape from Moon Mansion - 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 10, Episode 14 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast.

[00:00:21] I want to set the scene for this story. I'm currently 23 and this took place about 10 years ago when I was in 8th grade. A friend of mine, we'll call her Monica, was over for a sleepover.

[00:01:04] Monica was 3 years younger than me and she went to a different school than I did. Long story short, since we couldn't hang out at school, we often hung out at my place making music videos to songs that were popular among our age group at the time.

[00:01:21] These music videos were taken on my iPhone using a popular app. We had a lot of fun trying out the various video filters on the app. One evening, Monica was over for the sleepover and we were making a music video. It was about 11pm.

[00:01:36] In our videos, Monica and I tended to act out the literal meaning of whatever the song lyric was. For example, if the lyric was about skipping in an open field, we'd shoot a scene of us skipping across my room. You get the idea.

[00:01:50] We had been making this video for about an hour or so and the next lyric that we had to shoot the little scene for was something along the lines of, open up the blinds to let the light in. It was some sappy love song. I remember that much.

[00:02:04] For some context, I lived in a bungalow at the tip of a cul-de-sac in a pretty secluded neighborhood and my bedroom faced my driveway and street. The only cars that passed were neighbors who lived there.

[00:02:16] It was very rare to see a random lost car driving by or even turning around in the cul-de-sac. Anyways, back to the music video. We thought the perfect scene for this lyric would be to draw open my blinds and look outside even though it was dark outside.

[00:02:34] We set my phone up on a makeshift tripod, hit record and waited for the music to play. Once the lyric was sung, we drew open the blinds and looked out into the darkness. And that's when we saw him. A man standing in the middle of the road.

[00:02:50] He was wearing a dark hoodie with dark pants and he was facing my house. He had a skinnier frame and was probably 5'7". It took me a bit to process that there was actually a man standing there as it was pretty dark and my eyes were adjusting.

[00:03:08] After a few seconds, a streetlight in the grassy patch in the middle of the cul-de-sac illuminated the street. It confirmed there definitely was a man standing right there. We quickly shut the blinds and stared at one another blankly before nervously giggling

[00:03:25] and asking each other if we had seen the man. We both agreed that we saw him. We decided to take another peek out the blinds after turning my bedroom lights off. Sure enough, he was still there standing. Unmoving in the middle of the road facing my house.

[00:03:43] A chill went down my spine as I had a really bad fear as a kid of somebody breaking into my house. Monica and I quickly agreed we needed to let my dad know. Luckily, my dad was still awake and watching television in the living room.

[00:03:58] We told him that there was a man outside of the house and he was standing in the road facing our house. My dad's face shifted to a slightly worried expression. Then he told Monica and me to go downstairs and lock ourselves in the bathroom while he

[00:04:12] went outside to investigate. We did as we were told and waited nervously for his return. About ten minutes went by and we heard the front door open. My dad yelled at us to come out.

[00:04:24] Once we were back upstairs, my dad told us that he took a flashlight and went outside to confront the man. He didn't find anyone. He looked around the perimeter of the house, up and down the street. Still nobody.

[00:04:38] Monica and I were in disbelief as we were confident that we saw this man illuminated by the street light right there in the middle of the road. Looking back at it now, this person most likely saw my dad coming outside and ducked

[00:04:50] into a nearby bush at one of the neighbor's houses and watched my dad look for him. And that thought still sends chills down my spine. Monica's parents came to pick her up shortly after.

[00:05:03] Monica refused to come back over to my house again after that and we lost touch over the years. To this day, we never found out who that guy was or why he was standing in the middle of

[00:05:13] the road on a cul-de-sac at 11pm staring right at my house. So to the man who was standing in my street late at night while my friend and I were trying to make a music video, let's not meet. I was 13 when this happened.

[00:05:41] I lived in a comfortable house in the suburbs near a big city with my family. Our home was the last house in a row. There were no houses in front of us, just small fields of dry grass separating us from another neighborhood in the distance.

[00:05:58] To the right of us was a cul-de-sac that no other houses were on because the community planners wanted to put a playground right at the apex. For as long as we lived in that house, pretty much my whole life, my dad was always strict

[00:06:12] about closing the blinds at night, especially when the lights were on inside. His biggest concern was that somebody would be able to see clearly into our house and stalk us. At first, I was lazy about it.

[00:06:27] Why did I have to close the blinds if there was nobody living next to us? Only the occasional walker would see inside but walkers were few and far between. But after getting constantly scolded by my dad for not closing the blinds, I got into

[00:06:42] the habit of doing so. If the lights go on, the blinds go down. That was the rule. For a month during summer vacation, my dad had to travel out of the country to look after his relatives. This left me, my mom and my brother alone in our house.

[00:06:57] This wasn't the first time we were apart from my dad but it was still lonely. During this time, my mom liked to go on walks around the neighborhood often. Her walks went on about 45 minutes or so and she never went too far.

[00:07:12] One day, it was nearing 7.30pm and my mom wanted to go for a walk as the sun hadn't set yet. Since my brother was older, my mom told him to take care of me and asked that we make sure that we closed the blinds.

[00:07:25] I remember she jokingly threatened that she would call our dad and have him yell at us over the phone if we didn't. My brother and I were in our own rooms with our doors closed, both finishing up some school work.

[00:07:39] I was so lost in my work that I didn't realize how dark it had gotten and completely forgot about closing the blinds. It wasn't until I had to get up to use the bathroom that I realized how dark the house was.

[00:07:54] I knew if my mom came back and saw that we didn't do what she asked, we would have gotten into trouble for real. I quickly went downstairs to turn on the lights and close the blinds.

[00:08:05] I turned the lights on in the kitchen, family room and the living room. I then made my way to the rightmost window of the house to close the blinds. These windows were larger and had a clear view of the park. That's when I saw her.

[00:08:19] A very tall silhouette of a woman stood idly in the distance at the park. I couldn't quite make out her face, I just saw that she had a long mess of dark hair that was let loose around her back. The most unsettling, eerie feeling wracked my body.

[00:08:38] She was just standing there, watching the house and watching me. I don't know how long she had been standing there motionless with a clear view inside of our house. I quickly closed the blinds and moved to the next window to my right.

[00:08:55] My hands were shaking a bit from the nerves. I looked at the woman again. She hadn't taken her eyes off of me. What the hell? Something was definitely wrong. No sane person just stares at somebody for this long.

[00:09:11] That's when she started walking, slowly at first, then a bit faster. To my horror, she was walking straight toward the house. At this point I was freaking out. My heartbeat leapt into my throat.

[00:09:25] My first instinct was to call my brother's name as I worked on closing the rest of the blinds. He brushed me off, responding with a dismissive, I'll be down in a minute. Suddenly, she started fully sprinting down the cul-de-sac, running straight for the side of the house.

[00:09:42] My nerves went into overdrive as I watched in terror. For a second I was absolutely frozen. There was no way this was actually happening, I thought to myself. Overcoming a momentary shock, I forced myself to close the last of the blinds and screamed my brother's name.

[00:09:59] This time he came running downstairs, finally sensing the fear in my voice. He was silent outside as I told him what happened. We both were thinking the same thing. Was she still out there? We obviously couldn't see anything and we couldn't hear anything either so we were

[00:10:17] dying to know. My brother called me over to the main window and we both decided to lift part of the blinds so that we could peek outside to see where she was. What we saw will always haunt me.

[00:10:31] When we lifted the blinds, we were expecting to see darkness or maybe we'd see her wandering around the cul-de-sac. Instead, what we saw was a face centimeters away from the window. Her big eyes were staring at us from the other side.

[00:10:49] What really sent me into a panic was the giant smile plastered across her face. There was something so artificial about it. Her eyes weren't reciprocating any emotion. Her eyes were dead. My brother immediately jolted away from the window as the blinds fell shut.

[00:11:10] He called 911 and I called my mom with tears rolling down my cheeks. I wanted to warn her about the woman who was right next to the house and suggested that she delay coming home until the cops arrived.

[00:11:24] My brother and I stayed in fear-induced silence for the next ten minutes as we waited for the cops to pull up to the house. We knew she was probably still outside the window waiting for us to open the blinds again. There were a few taps against the glass.

[00:11:40] Every time that had happened, I clung to my brother's arm for dear life. I prayed that she wouldn't come through that front door. Eventually there was a knock. It made me jump. I almost fainted. The only thing that stopped me was the words, this is the police.

[00:11:57] My mom came home shortly after and we all cried together in relief. The police were unable to catch the woman but to be fair, I don't think they even tried. Maybe they figured she hadn't done much and there were more important things for them to worry about.

[00:12:12] It's now been years and I still think about it. Had I closed the blinds earlier, would this woman still have approached my house? What did she want? The fact that she didn't go up to the main door, only the main window, makes me believe

[00:12:28] that she didn't want to come inside of the house. She just wanted to watch us. That to me is so much more sinister. My parents both think that she was some sort of addict.

[00:12:40] A few friends think that she might have been a ghost but whatever she was, I hope that we never meet again. In 2005, I was a naive 18-year-old, strutting my independence and feeling invincible.

[00:13:09] I was invited to a big Christmas Eve party at the historic Moon Mansion by one of the tenants. The Moon Mansion was an old church that had been renovated by artists as their eclectic living quarters. The building is over 200 years old and in the heart of Dallas.

[00:13:29] The guy that invited me was friendly. I didn't get any weird feelings from him so I decided to go. He just casually invited me as I waited on tables at a local pub.

[00:13:40] But not in a date way, it was more of a traditional neighborhood party with kids and family members of all ages. There were carolers singing, a giant gingerbread house and plenty of booze and food.

[00:13:53] It felt like some kind of storybook Christmas party during the first bit of it. I had casually mentioned the party to one of my best guy friends. I invited him but he declined. So my friend Samantha and I went.

[00:14:08] When we first got there, we had a bunch of fun as we met new people while eating and drinking. Eventually, I had to use the restroom and I didn't want to be the annoying girl by making her friend go with her.

[00:14:22] I decided to go to the bathroom in the cellar where there were plenty of people everywhere so I felt completely safe. But this ended up being a bad decision. On my way out of the bathroom, I felt somebody grab my arm with a lot of force.

[00:14:39] It was the guy that had invited me. He was trying to drag me into his room. Even though I'm only 5'3", I am solid, I'm athletic and this guy was a bit of a puny twerp.

[00:14:53] As people passed us, I was yelling for help while he kept pulling me closer towards his room. Nobody even paid attention to me despite my yelling and pleading for help. I was even completely ignored when I yelled fire.

[00:15:09] I was getting scared but attempted to loosen his grip on me. He successfully shut the giant cellar door closed with us inside. I started to think that I had no hope of getting out of what he had planned.

[00:15:24] I somehow found the strength to get out of his grasp and bang on the thick cellar door that he had just slammed shut. Luckily, there was a person on the other side that happened to have a key.

[00:15:37] They unlocked the door but could only open it a few inches due to the shithead trying to close it again. I stuck my hand through the tiny opening, grabbed whoever was on the other side and yelled, fucking pull me.

[00:15:50] The next minute involved me getting pulled like Stretch Armstrong until the door was open just enough for me to squeeze through. I'm so beyond thankful for that random person who actually helped me.

[00:16:04] I ran up the stairs and away from the cellar as fast as possible to discover my best guy friend arriving on a whim. I was thankful to see his face and ran to him for safety.

[00:16:16] From then on, I have lectured all of my nieces about the importance of traveling in groups, even to the bathroom. I wasn't able to do anything about the shithead of a human except tell my boss at the pub.

[00:16:31] Luckily my boss had my back and I was able to ban him the next time that he tried to walk into the pub. It was definitely a sign of the times because I felt so accomplished that I was able to ban him from the pub.

[00:16:44] 2023 me would do so much more. I wouldn't be able to recognize this guy now because my brain has a great way of filtering out unwanted information. I just hope he eventually got what he deserved. Let's never meet again for your sake.

[00:17:01] On the other hand, I'd like to finish this story with all of the gratitude and thanks for the random person who actually intervened. Thank you. I'd love to meet you again. My mother used to be a sonographer at a doctor's office.

[00:17:34] She worked in a high-rise building overlooking the water in downtown Bal Harbor, a somewhat ritzy town in the Miami-Dade County or, as the website for Bal Harbor says, a shining enclave to the northern tip of Miami Beach.

[00:17:52] I was a 90s kid so the leash my parents kept me on was shorter than that of the latchkey kids from the 70s or 80s. At least my leash wasn't as short as the leash that I keep my own kids on now.

[00:18:06] I was visiting my mom's office with my grandpa. He was my babysitter for the day and I had to go with him to his cardiac sonogram appointment. I got to spend time with the office manager Lola, she was my favorite person back then

[00:18:20] because she had Russian nesting dolls that she always let me play with. The appointment for my grandfather wrapped up and I remember riding the elevator down to the ground level with him and walking out to the street.

[00:18:34] For some reason, my papa, as I affectionately called him, had to go back upstairs. I can't recall why but the logical decision in his mind was to leave me waiting outside on the sidewalk while he ran back upstairs.

[00:18:48] Looking back, I believe this was a major lapse in judgment on his part. This is something I would never do with my kids, let alone somebody else's kids. Regardless, thank god I made the choice that I did.

[00:19:02] While my six-year-old self was standing on the sidewalk waiting for papa to return, an older woman in a fancy car drove by very slowly. If it was a man driving by, strong alarm bells would have gone off. I didn't feel nervous about it being a woman though.

[00:19:22] I simply just took note of her. I continued to wait and again the same lady drove by. This time she waved and gestured for me to go over to her. I stepped closer to her car but made sure to stay on the sidewalk and out of arm's reach

[00:19:38] from her. She kept wildly gesturing for me to come closer but I shook my head no. The lady then asked, What? You don't want to see the mannequin that I have? I replied, You have a mannequin in your car? She said, Yes. Come look and see.

[00:19:57] I shook my head no again. She had been sitting in the street blocking traffic so she drove away only to circle back around. She stopped in front of me again and offered me once more, Are you sure you don't want to see the mannequin?

[00:20:14] He's just right here, next to me, in my front seat. I peeked around her and I didn't see a mannequin next to her but something was in the back seat. Whatever it was, it wasn't moving. But it wasn't large enough to be a mannequin or an actual person.

[00:20:33] I decided my initial answer of no was still correct. The promise of seeing a mannequin sitting in a car with some lady was not worth its appeal. I turned around to walk back closer to the doctor's office building and just then, Papa came back downstairs.

[00:20:50] I quickly grabbed his hand and the lady drove off. I can't remember if I told Papa what happened because at the time, I really thought that it was an older lady just trying to show me her mannequin but 32 year old me says those were absolutely not her intentions.

[00:21:08] I turned to the old lady who kept circling around to show an unaccompanied child her mannequin. Let's not ever meet again. Not in this life or the next. I was 18 years old when this happened. It was a Tuesday night around 11pm.

[00:21:42] It was challenging as a female to be out this time of night in the area that I was located in but what could I do? Tuesday nights were class nights. I had class from 6-9pm.

[00:21:54] After the 2-3 hour trip from my university to where I lived, a vehicle called a tricycle in the Philippines dropped me off at the nearest convenience store. It was 7-11, open 24 hours. I'm someone who thinks, every time, that I deserve to treat myself.

[00:22:13] I liked to go into the store, buy ice cream and eat it while I walked to the entrance of the neighborhood where my house was located. My parents would scold me every damn time they knew that I was holding my phone as I was walking.

[00:22:27] As my mom would say, in her fullest booming Asian mother way, Nicole, that's dangerous. What if someone robbed you while you were walking while listening to those god damn songs you don't even understand? As you probably know by now, I ignored what my mom said.

[00:22:45] I continued to walk while listening to music on my phone at the highest volume in my right hand. In my left was the ice cream. I have repeated this routine every Tuesday. When this incident happened, I had ice cream with me as usual but instead of listening

[00:23:02] to a song that I couldn't understand at full blast, I was listening to the recording of my 3-hour class. I needed to memorize different international political economy theories for the next day's final exam.

[00:23:16] My professor's voice wasn't loud in the recording even when I had the volume at the highest level. I walked slowly repeating the lecture into the air. I stopped licking my ice cream and I looked behind me as if somebody was following me,

[00:23:32] maybe it was a reflex or just my gut, I don't know why. And there was somebody behind me. It was a guy, an older guy with salt and pepper hair, his sideburns, mustache and beard, everything salt and pepper.

[00:23:48] He was a bit bony but a whole foot taller than me. He was just inches away from me when he stretched his hands out to my face attempting to cover my mouth. Then I saw a cloth in his other hand.

[00:24:01] You might be thinking my fight or flight response should have kicked in but I'm different. I don't have that kind of response. I was just still, not moving at all. The man inches behind me also wasn't moving. Then I realized I was saying Karl Marx over and over.

[00:24:21] I was repeating it since I formed a bit of a habit of repeating words or phrases when my train of thought has been interrupted. That's a big part of my memorization process.

[00:24:32] I'm not sure how many times I said Karl Marx but my reflexes finally kicked in and I ran like a madman. My backpack was heavy with books and my laptop but it didn't seem heavy at all as I was running.

[00:24:46] When I looked back, this creepy old man was now running at me full speed. Now I didn't want him to know where I lived. Assuming that he wasn't a resident of my neighborhood I thought maybe taking wrong turns would confuse him and make him lose his way.

[00:25:02] I turned on blocks 12, 13, and 14 then I ran the 15th block until I made it to 16th. I ran like my life was on the line and honestly I think it was. On the 16th block my mom was outside playing with our dog waiting for me.

[00:25:20] She saw me running straight for our gate so she opened it right away and locked it behind me. She joked that I could have won a track race when she saw me dashing like that. We both entered the house and my mom asked me about my school day.

[00:25:36] I answered vaguely and grew evasive when she asked me why I was dashing like that. I didn't want her to know about the man. I didn't want her to know that I was genuinely scared.

[00:25:48] I didn't want to explain why my face was just as red as her lipstick. You're holding your phone while walking? You don't ever listen to me. You even have those earphones in once again. What if somebody robbed you or abducted you or… I didn't let my mom finish.

[00:26:06] I just went to my room. While I was in my bed waiting to drift off to sleep I remembered the old man's face. Specifically his bloodshot eyes and he had this smile on his face. It haunted me all night.

[00:26:21] When I woke up the next day I prepared for another day of school. My mom said, be vigilant Nicole. My friend said there's a bad man lurking around the neighborhood. He's abducting women of all ages. I nodded as I continued my morning routine.

[00:26:37] To the insidious man with that sinister grin running after me, let's not ever meet again. It was a hot summer day in Belgium and I was feeling bored. I spent most of the day playing video games in my small apartment, which I love to do,

[00:27:09] but even that was starting to lose its appeal. I decided to take a break and go for a walk outside to clear my head. I was walking down the street and I noticed a man in a hooded sweatshirt walking towards me.

[00:27:22] I didn't think much of it at first, but as the man got closer I could see that something was off. The man was staring at me so intently, almost as if he recognized me. Hey, he said as he approached me. You're the guy who streams video games, right?

[00:27:39] I was taken aback wondering how this stranger knew me. I nodded cautiously in response. I'm a big fan of your channel, the man said smiling. I've been following you for months now. You're really good. I had this sense of relief that washed over me.

[00:27:57] The guy wasn't dangerous, he was just a video game fan. I smiled back at the man and thanked him for watching my videos. We chatted for a few minutes about our favorite games and I even gave the man some tips on how to improve his gameplay.

[00:28:13] But then the conversation took a strange turn. I figured out where you live, the man said suddenly, his smile fading. I've been watching you for a long time. I know everything about you. My heart started to race. He suddenly wasn't a harmless fan.

[00:28:34] This was somebody who had been stalking me. I'm sorry, what? I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. The man leaned in closer and I could smell the stench of his unwashed body. I said I know where you live, he repeated.

[00:28:51] I can always tell when you're home alone. My mind began to race. I needed to get away from this guy as fast as possible, but I didn't want to provoke him either. I appreciate you watching my videos, but I have to go now, I said sternly, edging away

[00:29:07] from the man. He then grabbed my arm suddenly. His grip was tight and painful. You're not going anywhere, he said. I want to play some games with you. I struggled to break free but the man's grip was very strong. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest.

[00:29:27] That's when a group of people appeared from around the corner. Their voices were loud and boisterous. The man released his grip on me and disappeared into that crowd. I stumbled backward, my legs weak with relief.

[00:29:41] I looked up and saw a group of my friends approaching, laughing and joking. Hey, what's up? My friend asked with a friendly slap on my back. I took a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves.

[00:29:54] Not much, just a weird encounter with someone who watches my channel, I explained. My friends looked concerned. I could see the worry etched into their faces. We'll walk you home, one of them insisted firmly, just to be safe. I agreed, grateful for the support.

[00:30:12] As we walked down the street, I couldn't shake the feeling of dread that had settled in my stomach. I was always worried that my online persona would attract attention, both positive and negative. But I never imagined that it would lead to an encounter like this.

[00:30:28] From that day forward, I was much more cautious about sharing any personal information online. I made sure to keep my home location and other personal details private. I also started to be on guard for any signs of stalking or harassment.

[00:30:44] Even though I've been way more careful, I haven't been able to shake the feeling that somebody is watching me. My family and I visit India every couple of years just to visit some relatives or stay at our ancestral homes. This story happened during one of those visits.

[00:31:13] It was the first time back to India since leaving in 2010. Some background on where we were staying, our house is pretty safe and we have neighbors literally in every direction so safety really just wasn't an issue for us. The house is a two-story home.

[00:31:30] Another important point for this story is that my mom has severe allergies and asthma. She's always suffered from it in India but it got better when she relocated to America. However, being back in India, her asthma and allergies worsened again to the point where

[00:31:48] she would stay up all night coughing and sneezing. We didn't really want to sleep in the bedrooms because all of the cousins wanted to sleep in the same place and talk all throughout the night.

[00:31:59] So we ended up sleeping in the big hallway on a long cot on the floor. The sleeping locations are very important here. One end of the cot is almost right up against the window which was closed as not to let any bugs in.

[00:32:17] My oldest cousin slept there because everyone was scared of something like a spider or a snake climbing in. My mom was on the other end of this long cot for easy access to tissues and meds. Around midnight, my mom started to cough and wheeze super loud.

[00:32:36] My oldest cousin was already awake. She started telling us in a panic, I heard something, there's something coming from the window. We assumed that she was just playing a prank on us or something like that as she usually does.

[00:32:51] We laughed it off and we didn't hear any more noises that night but my cousin kept swearing that she heard something hit the window. The next morning, one of my other cousins was brushing her teeth on the patio enjoying the view.

[00:33:07] There are three short steps leading to the patio right next to the window that we slept against. Under the window, there's a faucet. My cousin was using this faucet to rinse her toothbrush when she looked up at the space above the faucet right next to the window.

[00:33:25] There were muddy footprints walking up the wall. She yelled for us to come outside and showed it to us. We were terrified so we told the adults. They pushed it off as simple mud splatters.

[00:33:39] I assume this was to calm us down but it was very obvious that these were footprints. I'm sure that they saw what we saw. After that, the adults in our family started taking more precautions.

[00:33:53] They wouldn't let us go outside alone at night and a male family member was always in the room with us from then on. We don't really know what happened but looking back we assume that somebody tried to break in that night.

[00:34:07] Whoever it was must have heard that we came from America, making us seem like a promising target. We had a balcony on the second floor with railings so they probably tied a rope to it and attempted to scale the wall.

[00:34:21] What this person didn't count on, however, was my mom being awake and hearing my cousin complain about the noise outside. This likely scared the person off. We never had any problems after that, as far as we know, but whoever left muddy footprints

[00:34:38] going up the side of our ancestral home, let's not meet. I live in Washington State. We have a Six Flags type amusement park which during the Halloween months transforms into a Halloween themed park called Fright Fest. There are haunted houses, corn mazes, themed rides, food and games.

[00:35:19] I was 15 then so this was about 15 years ago. I was there enjoying myself with two of my friends. We were going through this haunted house, the corn maze, etc. If I remember correctly we were taking a break to go get some food.

[00:35:34] We were just walking along and some strange random girl who was probably our age approached me. I had never met or seen her before. She started yelling at me, telling me that she had just spoken to my mom, which was impossible.

[00:35:50] She insisted that my mom was out in the parking lot waiting for me. This strange girl stated that she had just come from the parking lot and my mom told her to come and find me. She said it was an emergency and I had to go right away.

[00:36:06] I knew that my mom was safe at home as I had just spoken to her not long before being approached by this girl. Honestly, my mom would have just called my phone if there were any kind of emergency.

[00:36:18] There was no way that she would send some random girl in to come and find me in a huge fairground type area. I told the girl that she was mistaken and I tried to continue on my merry way.

[00:36:30] However, when I went to walk away this girl grabbed my wrist and started to pull on me. She was holding my wrist very tight and repeating the same nonsense about my mom looking for me, trying to drag me in the opposite direction from my friends.

[00:36:45] There was a group of people around her, also around our age, who were standing by and watching all of this happen. I had to physically rip her hands off my wrist. As soon as I was free I walked away as quickly as possible because, well, this was weird.

[00:37:03] As I was walking away my friends, neither of whom I am friends with any longer, stayed behind and continued to talk to and watch the strange random girl. Not that they had any reason to do so, they didn't even seem worried when the girl

[00:37:18] was trying to drag me away. I guess the reaction to the situation must have put me at ease since we went on about our evening as if nothing happened. I didn't even call my mom to confirm her whereabouts or tell her what happened. Dumb, I know.

[00:37:34] I asked my friends why they stayed back and talked to the random girl. They said they were curious about what she was saying about my mom. I was a 90s baby, so this was a different time. We were less informed about the dangers of the world back then.

[00:37:49] We used to be able to play outside into the wee hours of the night without a care in the world. I have no idea if there was something more sinister planned, but I'm glad that I was able to break free from that girl's grasp.

[00:38:02] Who knows what could have happened? I don't know if I'd have been naive enough to go with this random girl. So to the weird girl who latched onto my wrist and tried to lure me out to the parking lot

[00:38:13] at Fright Fest, I don't know what your intentions were but let's not meet again. A few years ago, I did in-home care in the county where I live in. That particular job entailed me traveling from one client's home to another pretty much all day.

[00:38:42] I met the peeping tom of this story at one of my client's apartments. He was introduced to me by my client as the maintenance man for the apartment complex that she lived in. He would do basic handyman fix-it duties in the tenant's apartments as well as the yard

[00:39:00] work around the small complex. I say small complex because that apartment complex was only two stories tall and only had about 20 apartments or so. On the day that the maintenance man and I were introduced, everything seemed fine and normal. No red flags were waving as of yet.

[00:39:20] My client and I sat and talked with him while we had lunch since he was just a sweet person. He came over on short notice to fix her leaky faucet. He told us a little bit about his wife and kids and how much they loved playing outdoors

[00:39:34] on his expansive property in their new side-by-side ATV. He even said that if I were to ever be in his neck of the woods, I should stop by, meet his family, and take a ride on his side-by-side to tour his woodsy property.

[00:39:50] Fast forward a few weeks later when I needed to hire him to do some emergency plumbing at my new house. My normal plumber was away on vacation at the time. My client agreed that he would be a great fit for the job so she gave me his business

[00:40:06] card. I called him up and scheduled an appointment the next morning. He showed up on time and did the work, although I honestly found it to be a bit janky. What he did worked.

[00:40:17] It was just that he didn't even bother to go get the right parts to make the plumbing fix permanent. So I ended up with a sort of long-term but overall temporary fix. Everything was fine after he did the job. He left still showing no red flags or anything.

[00:40:34] Then later that month, he began calling me for really odd reasons. One time he called me wanting to know if I'm still working with the client that I met him through. According to him, he needed to do some work that she had called him about, but he was

[00:40:50] unable to reach her on the phone. I thought that was weird, especially since I thought that he had worked in her apartment complex almost every weekday. Why couldn't he just knock on her door or let the complex manager know that he couldn't reach her?

[00:41:03] Did he really need to call me? I brushed it off, but the calls came more frequent over the next couple of weeks. I woke up with 17 voicemails from him one morning. Enough was enough.

[00:41:16] When I went to work for the client the next day, I showed her all of the voicemails. She was appalled by the messages and immediately called the apartment complex manager to inform them of the situation.

[00:41:28] I would be lying if I said that it wasn't totally awkward after my client made that phone call, but it was. At first, I was able to simply ignore him and go on about my job duties as usual, but

[00:41:40] I wouldn't be writing this if that's all there really was to the story, would I? The calls began to amp up again and eventually, the maintenance man turned to incessant texting. Some of the texts were angry, some were sexual. They were all quite creepy.

[00:42:00] To my dismay, I was beginning to hear strange noises outside of my isolated house some nights. At first, I assumed that it was some kind of local wildlife, which there was a lot of out in the countryside where I was.

[00:42:16] Since I happened to know a little bit about tracking, I got bored one late afternoon. I decided to go explore and do a bit of tracking. I was horrified to find several human, man-sized, 13-inch outsole boot prints all around my house and field.

[00:42:35] I brought out my little tape measure just to make sure, and sure enough, it looked as though someone had been walking around outside my house and outside my bedroom window.

[00:42:45] I knew deep down in my gut that this had to be the source of all the strange sounds that I had been hearing late at night. I went out to the local electronics store the very next day after I got off of work

[00:42:58] and purchased a night vision game camera with a motion sensor to take still pictures. I also purchased a small night vision live camera for outside that I could view on my TV. At first, the game camera didn't really come up with any good pictures except for some

[00:43:15] deer and a skunk. But one night, as I sat in front of my TV by myself, I decided to switch from the satellite dish to the live game camera outside. I didn't see anything at all for the first few minutes, but that quickly changed.

[00:43:32] I began to hear the faint but familiar sounds of light footfalls outside. Then, to my complete and utter horror, I watched on my TV as a man in a dark hoodie walked right past my camera. I instantly froze, not knowing what to do.

[00:43:52] I didn't dare move a muscle or even breathe as I listened to him creep past my window. In my mind, I thought that my heartbeat must have been audible to him as he slipped past the window.

[00:44:07] I didn't know why I didn't call the cops right then and there, but I figured he was probably already gone since it was now silent again. Two weeks later, when I returned from home, I found the front security screen that I had

[00:44:19] locked was standing open along with my previously locked door. I couldn't believe both were wide open. I was then forced to call the police finally. They sent an officer out, but all he could do was look for footprints outside the bedroom window and take a report.

[00:44:39] Fortunately, the handyman was fired shortly after that due to unknown reasons, and all of the weird nighttime activity outside my house stopped. If I learned even one thing from that whole scary experience, it was that you should always

[00:44:54] be careful about who you invite into your house, especially if you're a single female. This happened around 3 months ago and I'm still upset over it. For a little background information, I live in an apartment complex in a pretty safe, low crime neighborhood.

[00:45:24] I live with my two dogs who are basically my alarm systems, but very importantly, I always lock my doors. One night at around 11pm, I was turning off the TV before heading to bed when one of my dogs started growling.

[00:45:40] This is not uncommon because he does this when people walk past my place, so I wasn't worried. But suddenly, I heard the jiggling of the front door handle. This was followed by the door opening. My other dog basically loves everyone, but even he started to growl.

[00:45:58] I was frozen in fear sitting right there in my living room when this happened. A man in his mid-30s with silver streaked hair entered my living room and stared at me.

[00:46:08] There was something in his hand, but he tucked it behind his back before I could make out what it was. Who the fuck are you? I asked, trying to sound more confident than I really was. The man just continued to stare at me. Hello?

[00:46:24] I said, who the fuck are you? This man kept staring, and at this point, my hands were shaking. He then asked in a raspy voice, is this room 229? No, it's not, I replied. This is room 226. 229 is a few doors to your left.

[00:46:46] The man smiled, and I saw his hand clench something that was behind his back. He then said, oh, my mistake. I'm very sorry to disturb you. I'm just seeing some friends. Again, I'm very sorry.

[00:47:05] I let out a sigh of relief after he left and stood there for a few minutes, trying to figure out what had just happened. I then continued to get ready for sleep. I didn't know my neighbors in room 229 all that well, but we were friendly to each other.

[00:47:20] I saw them in the hallway as I was taking out the trash. I hope you had a good time last night. Your friend seemed nice, I said. I looked pretty confused and asked what I meant. I continued, your friend?

[00:47:33] He got the wrong apartment number and walked into my apartment, but it's fine. He said he was just looking for yours. The lady's eyes widened in shock as her husband said, I don't want to alarm you, but we didn't have anybody over last night.

[00:47:50] I called the police and I told them everything that I could about the man. I don't know what might have happened to me or to the couple in room 229, and I'm scared to think of what he had hidden behind his back.

[00:48:01] I installed door alarms and I'm getting new locks for my doors as well. Almost every person I see now looks like that man. So to the man who scared the shit out of me by breaking into my apartment, let's never meet again.

[00:48:30] Don't forget to stick around after the music for your extended ad-free version of Let's Not Meet, and if you'd like to get access, head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up and support the show today.

[00:48:42] This week you have heard Open the Blinds by Emma, followed by Close the Blinds from a listener that asked to remain anonymous, Escape from Moon Mansion by Abby, The Mannequin Lady by Tara, Neighborhood Chase by Nicole, He Knew Where I Lived by Liam, The Muddy Footprints

[00:48:59] by Veronica, The False Emergency by Anonymous, My Peeping Tom by Sonora, and finally 229 from Charlotte. All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors.

[00:49:13] Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. As always, if you had a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts, Odd Trails, my True

[00:49:27] Paranormal Podcast. Welcome to Paradise That Sucks and the Old Time Radiocast over at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll see you all next week. Stay safe.