12x14: The Hills Have Eyes In Texas

[00:00:00] This podcast contains adult language and content, listener discretion is advised. If you have

[00:00:05] a story to share, send it to Lets Not Meet Stories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:30] This happened about 13 years ago. I was a sophomore in college attending a liberal arts

[00:00:44] school in New York. Within the first month or two of freshman year, I found myself a very

[00:00:50] tight-knit group of fellow theater geeks. This group consisted of six guys, myself included

[00:00:57] and one girl. All of us bonded over our love of horror movies and ghost stories, so I felt

[00:01:04] that I had found my crew. Getting through freshman year was tough, but we all held each

[00:01:10] other up and made the whole experience more enjoyable for one another.

[00:01:15] At the beginning of our sophomore year, we decided that in October, as the Halloween season

[00:01:20] was ramping up, we would find a creepy wooded spot in a nearby town and scare the crap

[00:01:25] out of ourselves. So we did some research and found that there was a particularly isolated

[00:01:31] area about 30 minutes away, infamous for paranormal sightings. This was perfect.

[00:01:40] On the night of this outing, the seven of us split into two different cars and headed

[00:01:44] out to this place. Allow me to set the scene. You turn off a busy main road, flooded with

[00:01:51] strip malls, restaurants and whatnot, and you're almost immediately greeted by complete

[00:01:56] darkness. Again, this area is very heavily wooded. It was essentially a large web of winding

[00:02:04] roads surrounded by trees with very few streetlights and even fewer houses. Without GPS or at

[00:02:11] least a good sense of direction, one could easily get lost out there. We all made sure to

[00:02:17] have fully charged cell phones and flashlights just in case since our goal was to keep driving

[00:02:24] until we collectively agreed on a spot to pull over and go exploring. So for the directions,

[00:02:31] we made a left turn off of the main road, driving for about 30 minutes or so, picking directions

[00:02:37] at random, basically intentionally getting lost. After our cars had made the final turn

[00:02:44] to our surprise, there was a huge log in front of us. We had reached a dead end of some

[00:02:50] kind with nothing but trees beyond it. We all got out, stepped over the log and noticed

[00:02:56] two narrow trails leading in different directions. This seemed as good a time as any to grab our

[00:03:03] flashlights and do some amateur ghost hunting. We flipped a coin to decide which trail we were

[00:03:09] going to head down and then set off on the trail to the right. The trail was so narrow

[00:03:16] that we all had to walk single file to avoid getting whacked by tree branches. For whatever

[00:03:22] reason, I ended up in the back of the line. I'm usually pretty rational and levelheaded,

[00:03:28] but I have to say, the further we went in, the more I was overcome with an uneasy feeling.

[00:03:36] I kept hearing sounds deep in the woods, unable to shake the feeling that we were being

[00:03:41] watched. But I seemed to be the only one who heard these things so I shrugged it off

[00:03:48] as my imagination. In any case, the whole point of us being there was to get scared. Not

[00:03:55] to mention, we were seven able bodied college students. What could we possibly come across

[00:04:01] that could take us down? We headed down this trail for about 20 minutes and just when

[00:04:07] I thought it would never end, we came upon a massive clearing. And I mean massive. It

[00:04:14] was a large open field of unkempt grass. It was comparable in size to a golf course but

[00:04:21] not nearly as well manicured. Trees surrounded the entire clearing which was so large

[00:04:28] that we couldn't see the end of it from where we were standing. I was thrilled to get

[00:04:32] out of that narrow trail, but I don't think any of us were expecting to find an area

[00:04:37] so vast. One of us looked to the right and said, Hey, check that out. We all turned and

[00:04:45] there was an old dilapidated house several hundred yards away. The house was completely dark.

[00:04:52] There were no cars or any signs of somebody living there. We walked over and shined our

[00:04:58] flashlights at it. And sure enough, the windows and doors were all boarded up. I was able

[00:05:04] to appear between the boards on one of the windows and what I could see was an old white couch

[00:05:09] covered in plastic but it was sitting in an empty room. Whoever used to live there was

[00:05:14] clearly long gone. Since there was no way in and because we all felt sufficiently creeped

[00:05:21] out by the house anyway, we decided to walk closer to the trail we had entered the clearing

[00:05:26] from. We figured that from there we could take a seat in the field and figure out where

[00:05:32] to go next. We made our way back closer to the narrow trail but before we could sit my

[00:05:38] friend Mark stopped in his tracks. His expression dropped and he pointed. We all turned and on

[00:05:46] the very far side of the hill directly across from where we had come in. We could see

[00:05:51] what appeared to be a tall, lanky, pale man. He was dancing among the trees and by dancing

[00:06:01] I mean he was skipping around, grabbing a tree, swinging around it and then doing the

[00:06:07] same to another. Basically like a dozy doe, the moon was so bright and the woods were so

[00:06:15] dark that it actually took a second for us to understand what we were looking at. J, the

[00:06:22] six foot four skeptic of the group said he wasn't seeing him. I leaned into him, pointed in

[00:06:29] that direction and said J, look where I'm pointing don't you see him? He squinted a bit

[00:06:35] and the second that he saw him, he gasped with everything he had clutching his arm and whispered

[00:06:44] who the fuck is that? What happened next sent shockwaves through all of us. Whoever this was

[00:06:52] stopped dancing looked in our direction and started charging straight at us. Without even thinking

[00:06:59] we freaked out and ran back to the trail yet again J was the only one who didn't see what was

[00:07:05] happening he shouted after us guys where are you going? After about 15 seconds of running like hell

[00:07:12] I heard J scream holy shit. I looked back and I saw his flashlight following the rest of us

[00:07:19] back down the trail. While the walk into the woods took about 20 minutes we made it back to our cars

[00:07:25] hopped in and we're peeling away and closer to half that time maybe even closer to five minutes

[00:07:32] once we were a safe distance away we pulled over, got out and checked in with each other

[00:07:38] about what we thought just happened. My heart was pounding and I knew that everybody else was

[00:07:43] feeling the same way. Nearly 15 years later we're all still friends we live in different states yet

[00:07:51] we keep in touch with each other through marriages divorces children etc but occasionally out of

[00:07:58] the blue one of us will send a group text to the others to the effect of the woods that one night

[00:08:05] that really happened right? While it most certainly did that experience has always been in the back

[00:08:12] of my mind and I'm pretty sure it always will be. Here's the thing that still resonates with me

[00:08:18] about that night, whoever he was he was dancing almost maniacally in the woods seemingly by himself

[00:08:27] at one in the morning then he charged directly toward a group of young adults unfazed by the fact

[00:08:33] that he was severely outnumbered. Did the person know that we were there from the second we parked?

[00:08:41] Was he the sound that I kept hearing as we walked down the trail? Whatever the case may be

[00:08:48] when he came for us that night you can be sure that none of us wanted to stick around and find out

[00:08:53] what he was capable of.

[00:09:04] This happened to me and my boyfriend about two years ago. We live in a city that has a main

[00:09:19] downtown area. I was living in the downtown area at the time having just recently graduated college

[00:09:26] and wanting to be close to the nightlife. My best friend who I met in college and I were room mates.

[00:09:34] Our apartment was right in the middle of downtown. It was the perfect setup. My boyfriend,

[00:09:40] who will call Jack, happened to live on the next block over and then about five or six blocks south

[00:09:46] of that. It was about a ten minute walk give or take. His place was even closer to the heart of

[00:09:52] downtown so you can imagine how convenient that made it for hanging out and not having to take a car

[00:09:59] or worry about where to park. One overcast Sunday morning, Jack and I woke up at my place and decided

[00:10:07] to walk over to his apartment so that he could grab some things. The route to his place is really easy.

[00:10:14] It was pretty much a straight shot from my place and we were on sidewalks the whole time.

[00:10:19] We were walking on the right side of the road and the street was on our left. We were under a minute

[00:10:25] away from my boyfriend's place when I suddenly noticed something ahead that made me feel a bit

[00:10:30] uneasy. There was a guy walking in front of us in the same direction that we were going with his

[00:10:35] back to us. I could see that this guy had both of his earbuds in. He was walking at a steady pace

[00:10:42] so we weren't worried about running into him or anything but in front of him, facing and walking

[00:10:48] towards all of us was a different guy. He was about 5'8", and he had a small frame.

[00:10:55] He was wearing dark pants, a red sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and a backpack.

[00:11:01] Even though his hood was up I could see his face. Some of his short black hair was poking out of his

[00:11:07] hood and he had these crazy black BDIs that I'll never forget. The guy in the red hoodie wasn't

[00:11:14] looking at me or Jack but rather the pedestrian with the earbuds in who happened to be further

[00:11:19] up the block in front of us. All of a sudden the guy in the hoodie literally rushed the pedestrian

[00:11:26] in front of us. He ran up on him and stopped about 6 inches from this guy's face.

[00:11:32] Since the guy had his earbuds in, he was taken by surprise so he stopped and took one of his earbuds

[00:11:39] out to see what this guy wanted. While I'm generally a bit of a risk taker,

[00:11:44] I don't like intentionally putting myself in the wrong place at the wrong time, seeing this

[00:11:49] freaked me out and I didn't want the guy to notice us and come for us next so I stepped to

[00:11:54] the left off of the sidewalk and into the street. The lane I stepped into was pretty wide

[00:12:00] so there was room for street parking. It was lined with parked cars so I conveniently hid myself

[00:12:06] from view behind a parked car and continued walking. I heard the guy in the hoodie start yelling

[00:12:12] something at the poor guy who was walking ahead of us. My boyfriend and I were less than 100 feet

[00:12:18] from the entrance of his apartment at this point and after witnessing this unfolding, I wanted to be

[00:12:24] inside. Now my boyfriend's apartment building did have a main entrance from the street but

[00:12:30] my boyfriend just moved in and didn't have the code for that front door yet. All he had was his

[00:12:36] fob to the parking garage which had access to a stairwell leading up to his place so we were using

[00:12:43] that as an entrance to get into the building. We walked up to the parking garage door and

[00:12:49] clicked the button so that the door would start rolling up. I hadn't looked behind me since seeing

[00:12:54] the scene. I knew I probably should have but most of the time you ignore eccentric or angry people

[00:13:01] on the street and they won't come after you or bother you so I guess I was subconsciously

[00:13:07] using this as a tactic in hoping that Jack and I would go unnoticed.

[00:13:11] Once the garage door was open we went inside and my boyfriend clicked the button to close it behind us.

[00:13:17] From there it was just a short walk from the garage to the stairwell.

[00:13:22] The garage door was nearly closed and I don't know what prompted me to look back

[00:13:28] but I did and what I saw still gives me chills. It was the guy in the red hoodie. He was squeezing

[00:13:35] himself under the garage door while he still could. I remember the chill that ran down my spine as I

[00:13:40] locked eyes with his. I yelled, Jack he's following us. I don't know what I expected my boyfriend

[00:13:49] to do. He was ahead of me so he pushed the door to the stairwell open and we started running.

[00:13:56] This became an oh shit moment for me when I realized this guy had access to the whole building

[00:14:02] since the door to the stairwell didn't require a phob. It didn't even have a lock. Not wanting

[00:14:08] to be close to this guy I took off running after my boyfriend. As I pushed the door open and got

[00:14:14] inside the stairwell I could hear the guy behind me doing the same as it was swinging close

[00:14:20] I looked back and locked eyes with him once again. I realized my only option was to keep running

[00:14:26] and try and get inside Jack's apartment then close the door before he got there

[00:14:31] and yeah this guy was smaller so I figured I could probably take him but what really freaked me out

[00:14:38] was he had a backpack. I had no idea if he had a knife, gun or some other sort of weapon. I mean

[00:14:45] why else would a man chase down two people just to be outnumbered.

[00:14:50] My boyfriend lived on the third floor so of course we had three flights of stairs to sprint up.

[00:14:55] All the while I could hear the guy's footsteps pounding behind me up the stairs.

[00:15:00] Once we got to the third floor we opened the door to the hallway and sprinted toward his unit without

[00:15:05] even looking back. We unlocked that door as fast as we could which felt slower than hell in that moment.

[00:15:13] Once the door was unlocked we slammed it shut behind us. I remember looking through the

[00:15:17] people and expecting to see the guys standing there ready to yell at us but after that there was

[00:15:23] nothing. My heart was pounding I mean what just happened. Then we called the cops.

[00:15:31] I was freaked out since this guy was inside the building with access to all of the apartments

[00:15:36] and residents. I just imagined him hiding in the stairwell waiting for the next poor soul to come

[00:15:42] up or down the stairs. The cops ended up coming by after we made the call. They drove around the perimeter

[00:15:50] for a few minutes but they weren't able to search inside the building because they said that

[00:15:55] they didn't have the authorization. They left after not finding anyone. They probably did all that

[00:16:01] they could but it didn't feel like it. I'm sure that the guy probably left the building after

[00:16:06] realizing that he would be screwed if he were found inside after the cops were called.

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[00:18:12] When I first got out of the army, I was in a relationship with a guy who was in the third

[00:18:16] ranger battalion. Let's call him Jim. He and I had an apartment together.

[00:18:23] I thought I loved him, so instead of going back to my home in Nebraska, I stayed in Columbus,

[00:18:28] Georgia to be with him. A relationship started with him being what I thought was protective over me.

[00:18:36] Even though I was very attractive at the time, I had very low self-esteem because of an assault

[00:18:41] that I experienced while I was living in the barracks and the bullying that I endured afterward.

[00:18:48] Things between me and Jim moved very quick, in fact we were inseparable from the night that we met.

[00:18:55] Anytime any other man looked at me he would get very confrontational toward the guy.

[00:19:01] At the time I felt safe and protected by this and it made me feel special.

[00:19:06] I thought he must value me if he would get so upset by a guy simply looking my way.

[00:19:13] But then I noticed when we would be out at the bar, he would get hammered and start acting very

[00:19:19] nasty toward me if he thought that I was looking at another guy. This would cause bitter fights,

[00:19:26] which would always end with me in bed in the fetal position sobbing.

[00:19:32] But even though this was happening regularly, I stayed.

[00:19:36] I always ended up staying because he would always apologize the next day.

[00:19:41] He would say that he only acted that way because he was so drunk,

[00:19:45] but then he would proceed to explain that what I had done was wrong.

[00:19:51] It wasn't long before I found myself completely isolated from my friends and family

[00:19:56] because he was so insecure. He made me take all of my phone calls on speakerphone.

[00:20:02] My family begged me to leave him, but I was afraid that I couldn't get by on my own.

[00:20:08] Then one night we came home from the bar in the usual fashion.

[00:20:13] He was screaming in my face and I was sobbing. I told him I was going to get a room at a motel

[00:20:19] when he lost his mind. He yanked the keys out of the ignition and through them passed the

[00:20:25] treeline into a wooded area that I had parked by. Then he got out of my car and proceeded to

[00:20:32] kick the front quarter panel of the car. He used so much force when kicking my car

[00:20:38] that the hinges to the passenger door were bent. After that, he screamed at me to get inside

[00:20:45] the apartment, but I couldn't unlock the door without my keys, which he blamed me for.

[00:20:52] He then grabbed me and shoved me into the door. First he grabbed me by my shoulders,

[00:20:57] then he wrapped his hands around my throat. He screamed,

[00:21:02] can't you see how much I love you? No, no, I can't. I managed to choke out.

[00:21:09] He let go when I fell to the ground. That night I finally had enough.

[00:21:15] I was finally so angry that I didn't feel afraid anymore.

[00:21:20] The next morning, while he was sleeping it off, I began to make plans. I started telling him

[00:21:26] that he had to leave and move back into the barracks. When he refused, I had to get his chain of

[00:21:31] command involved to make him leave the apartment and go back to live in the barracks on someone's couch

[00:21:37] or in the street. I didn't care where he went just as long as he wasn't with me.

[00:21:43] After he moved out, he stalked me mercilessly. I filed complaints against him,

[00:21:50] but he bullied me into dropping everything I tried to file.

[00:21:54] I knew I would never be free from him if I stayed in Georgia, so my parents sent me some

[00:21:59] money via Western Union. It was 2002. I rented a Penske truck with a trailer,

[00:22:06] then when the sun set, I moved the truck in trailer from where I had been hiding it,

[00:22:11] and I got help from guy friends to load it up. My best chance of leaving successfully

[00:22:18] was to leave under the cover of darkness, which wasn't easy since I was really sick that night.

[00:22:25] I was running a fever of 103 degrees, but I knew I had to get going. I couldn't wait.

[00:22:31] I just told myself that all I had to do was get out of the city limits, then pull over and

[00:22:38] sleep somewhere for a bit. I then put my puppy in the cab of the truck with me,

[00:22:43] attached my car behind the truck and left. I don't know how except through divine intervention,

[00:22:50] but somehow I managed to drive non-stop from Fort Benning in Georgia to my parents' rural home

[00:22:58] in Nebraska. I only stopped for fuel where I would feed, hydrate, and walk my little dog scruffy.

[00:23:05] After driving all through the night for 14 hours, I pulled into my parents' driveway at 10am

[00:23:13] the following morning. I crashed on their old couch and slept nearly 24 hours straight.

[00:23:20] I still hope for nothing but pain and suffering for Jim. During our relationship, he turned me

[00:23:27] onto pills, then coke, and then crack, all while he was on active duty. He was a scumbag of his soldier

[00:23:35] and a man. He reached out to me on social media a couple of years ago, and when he did,

[00:23:41] I told him what a staming pile of shit he was and told him to rot in hell. It felt amazing to say that

[00:23:48] to him even after all these years. I felt vindicated as I was the one who left him stammering for once.

[00:23:56] I'm actually glad that he reached out to me because I wouldn't have had the opportunity to

[00:24:01] verbally rip him to shreds otherwise. I'm not afraid of you anymore, Jim, and let's not meet ever again.

[00:24:17] Three years ago, my roommate and I made a last minute decision to go night swimming at the river

[00:24:23] in our city. It was around 8pm, so there were still a few people hanging out in the area, but it was

[00:24:30] quite dark. About 15 minutes after we got there, I saw a man walking around shining his flashlight.

[00:24:38] He was seemingly looking for something near where we put our stuff so I turned to my roommate and

[00:24:44] said hey, let's keep an eye on that guy. I said this loud enough for him to overhear me,

[00:24:51] and he obviously did since he quickly scurried away. Even though he appeared to be gone,

[00:24:57] I began to feel anxious, but I waited a bit before saying something to my roommate.

[00:25:04] When I finally said something, we decided to leave. We packed up our stuff and began walking

[00:25:10] up the staircase that led to the parking lot using our flashlights to see the steps. Then out of

[00:25:16] the corner of my eye, I saw a dark shadow dive into some bushes by the top of the stairs.

[00:25:22] I stopped, grabbed my roommate's arm and said nope. And we started walking back down the stairs.

[00:25:31] My roommate didn't see what I saw so I told her about it when we got to the bottom.

[00:25:36] She said I was probably being paranoid. It was likely just a tree blowing in the wind.

[00:25:42] As she was justifying what I saw, I started getting the strangest feeling in my stomach that

[00:25:48] I had never had before. I just knew that if we went up those stairs, something bad was going to happen.

[00:25:56] I stood at the bottom of the stairs. I began to shine my flashlight up to the top,

[00:26:02] trying to see any trace of anyone hiding up there. And sure enough, I saw the outline of a man

[00:26:09] for a split second. As soon as the light hit him, he ducked deeper into the bushes again.

[00:26:15] I went into full blown panic mode and started looking for other people lingering around, hoping

[00:26:21] that someone could walk us to our car. Luckily we found a couple not far from the steps,

[00:26:27] and they walked us to our car but seemed quite annoyed by it. Especially since by the time we got

[00:26:33] to the top of the steps, he was nowhere to be seen. We got home after a few hours and I got a

[00:26:39] notification on my neighbor's app, which is an app available for ring doorbell users.

[00:26:45] It sends alerts of crimes in your area to you. I got a notification that said that somebody

[00:26:52] had been stabbed by a man in that exact area. I'm 100% sure that my gut feeling was letting me know

[00:27:02] that the man who was hiding in the bushes had bad intentions. I don't know if he was planning

[00:27:08] on kidnapping us or robbing us, but the feeling that something really bad was going to happen

[00:27:14] was undeniable. I'm not sure what would have happened if I hadn't been paying attention

[00:27:20] and we did walk up those stairs. Needless to say, that notification chilled me.

[00:27:27] Even when I think about it years later, I still feel sick to my stomach,

[00:27:31] but I'm glad that my roommate and I avoided a different fate.

[00:27:55] One of the creepiest stories that I personally know is from my best friend David.

[00:28:01] This happened when he was babysitting a friend's kid at his house.

[00:28:05] The kid, whose name was Junior, was roughly four to five years old.

[00:28:10] David's dad was a courier and he often made deliveries late at night.

[00:28:15] David was a teen and due to his home life, being home without an adult was no easy task.

[00:28:21] It's important to mention that his father was a pretty paranoid individual who bought into a lot

[00:28:27] of fear mongering in the world, so he had cameras set up all over the place.

[00:28:33] Anyway, David was in his bedroom, minding his own business, but then he decided to head into the

[00:28:40] den where all his dad's cameras happened to be set up. But the den was locked.

[00:28:46] David knocked on the door and Junior opened it.

[00:28:50] Why did you lock the door? David asked. Because of the lady, Junior replied.

[00:28:57] What lady? David questioned.

[00:29:00] Your mom, I saw her in the kitchen. Junior explained.

[00:29:05] A living room of this house was connected to the kitchen and if you were standing in the kitchen

[00:29:10] entryway, you could see the door leading outside since the kitchen was attached to one of those

[00:29:15] screened-in sitting areas. It's like a sunroom. Junior claimed that he had seen David's mother

[00:29:22] right there in the doorway. This struck David as very strange, considering that David's mother

[00:29:29] had passed away just eight months prior. David was chilled by the remark, but the skeptic in him

[00:29:37] knew it was likely just Junior's overly active imagination. David agreed to go and check it out

[00:29:43] with Junior, but before they went to look, he stopped in the kitchen to grab a knife first.

[00:29:49] Then David and Junior walked down the hallway and into the kitchen where the door was open.

[00:29:55] It was pretty normal for the door to be open since it was summer and the house trapped in a lot of

[00:29:59] heat. David stepped through the open door and onto the screened sitting area. He then looked left

[00:30:07] and down the ramp his mother used to use to get outside, but he saw nothing. Then he looked to

[00:30:14] the right through the length of the yard. Still nothing. Junior continued to be insistent that there

[00:30:20] was somebody there. It was strange because usually in situations like these, kids tend to feel

[00:30:27] better after you bulk around for them. But even after seeing nothing, David couldn't seem to calm

[00:30:33] Junior down and Junior was absolutely certain about what he saw. He kept saying, I saw your mom she

[00:30:42] was there. David told Junior, everything is recorded on cameras so we'll just go look at them

[00:30:49] and that way we'll know for sure whether somebody was here or not. So they sifted through the camera

[00:30:55] footage and David looked for a timestamp around when Junior claimed that his deceased mother had shown

[00:31:01] up. He stared at every camera monitor as the timer ticked on but nothing was showing up.

[00:31:08] And suddenly he watched a figure enter his backyard from the front by pulling the latch on the

[00:31:15] gate. It was an older woman who appeared to be in her mid 60s at least. She confidently walked

[00:31:23] into their backyard with a cloth grocery bag in her hand. She headed up the ramp then stood in

[00:31:30] the kitchen screened and sitting area for a few moments. She then reached for the door in the kitchen,

[00:31:37] cracking it open as she brazenly stepped inside. After some time Junior saw her.

[00:31:44] Based on the camera's timestamps, she stood in the kitchen for about 10 minutes.

[00:31:50] The insane part is she left as David went to investigate with Junior. The camera footage

[00:31:56] showed him looking around and her leaving just as he started to do this. When he looked left

[00:32:02] down the ramp where she had come up, she had already headed to the right to take the long way back

[00:32:08] through the length of the yard. When he looked right, he quite literally just missed her. This took

[00:32:14] place in maybe half of a second. Someone wandered right into his backyard and then into the kitchen

[00:32:20] then stayed there for 10 minutes doing god knows what. It was so bizarre but at least nothing

[00:32:27] was stolen and nobody was harmed or anything like that. The rest of the night carried on and

[00:32:33] nothing else came of it. Personally, I would have phoned the police but David wouldn't.

[00:32:40] I think he decided not to since there's a chance that his dad may have had some guns that were

[00:32:45] acquired through some not so reputable methods. It's likely that David's instinct was that his

[00:32:52] dad would be furious if the police were called.

[00:33:08] I understand the struggle of trying to kick a bad habit. It can feel as though you're battling

[00:33:12] an entire army by yourself, turning even the simplest daily tasks into daunting challenges.

[00:33:19] I've been in those trenches plenty of times. However, life is about perseverance.

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[00:34:59] Again, that's tryfiumfum.com slash meet now back to the show.

[00:35:14] Although it doesn't seem like it, this happened quite a while back, probably over 10 years ago.

[00:35:30] I was in the later years of high school and was home alone. My parents were at a wedding that

[00:35:36] required them to stay overnight in a hotel that my brother was working the night shift at.

[00:35:41] At that time, my family lived in a very well-known East Coast city in a blue collar neighborhood

[00:35:49] that was starting to take a nose dive. As a teenager, I was a bit of a loner. I wasn't necessarily

[00:35:56] a nerd or anything. I was a big guy who had friends and went on dates but I'm naturally introverted.

[00:36:02] So I cherished the rare alone time that I got. Since my family was gone for the evening,

[00:36:08] I was looking forward to engaging in my normal empty house routine. Play some playstation on the

[00:36:14] big screen TV, then late night takeout, either pizza or Chinese, and pick out while watching some

[00:36:21] dragon ball z. These nights always wound down around 2 a.m. when I generally fell asleep on the couch

[00:36:29] with my old dog Cecil. Cecil was a beagle who was as old as the hills and he had been in our family

[00:36:36] for about 8 years. He was quiet and peaceful and spent his time begging for food or sleeping.

[00:36:44] Unlike most beagles, Cecil never howled or barked. He was more than content to just rest his

[00:36:52] head on your lap and spend the night there. Anyway back to the story. At approximately 1 a.m., I had

[00:36:59] just finished the last slice of pizza and was starting to doze off on the couch when I heard a

[00:37:05] bang coming from the back alleyway. I didn't think anything of it. Anyone who's lived in a city

[00:37:13] knows that outside noises happen at all times of the night. Cecil's head popped up off of my lap

[00:37:20] and the hair on her back stood on end. He was always a bit skittish so I calmed him down

[00:37:27] and started dozing off again. Not more than 2 minutes later, I heard another bang which prompted

[00:37:35] Cecil to do something I had never seen him do before. He leaped off of the couch and ran like

[00:37:41] the wind towards the door leading to the basement. He was barking and growling like a dog twice

[00:37:47] his size. The look on his face reminded me of a German shepherd canine unit. I had never seen him

[00:37:55] like that before which got my adrenaline pumping. Through Cecil's incessant barking, I finally managed

[00:38:03] to hear a persistent banging. There was a seldom used door in the basement that led to the back alleyway.

[00:38:10] It was old and rusted. It was very hard to open even with a key but it made a lot of noise.

[00:38:18] I suddenly realized that somebody was trying to break into my home through the basement door.

[00:38:24] For a bit of context, for anyone who hasn't lived in a bad neighborhood if somebody tries to get

[00:38:29] into your house but moves on after they realize the door is locked, they want your stuff.

[00:38:35] If someone is persistently trying to get into your house despite the door being locked then

[00:38:40] well they want you. Knowing this to be the case I rushed upstairs to grab a heavy wooden

[00:38:46] baseball bat that I always kept under my bed for situations like this.

[00:38:50] Then I headed down to the basement. I probably should have run but I was a macho teenager

[00:38:58] with a tough guy complex and I had nowhere to go anyway. While I was heading down the stairs

[00:39:05] to the basement Cecil blew past me with the speed of a dog half his age and then suddenly I heard

[00:39:11] a man's voice say, oh fuck! And the banging stopped. I didn't call the cops or anyone else

[00:39:19] which was probably the dumbest thing I had ever done. I just sat up for the rest of the night

[00:39:25] with my baseball bat in hand. My brother came home the following morning and I told him about what

[00:39:30] happened. We went to the basement door to take a look and when we gave it a tug to open it

[00:39:37] the whole door fell off. This psycho was one good shove away from getting into my house

[00:39:45] but good old Cecil scared him off. I'm pretty sure that lazy dog saved my life.

[00:39:53] When I tell this story to people they dismiss his actions as a dog doing what a dog is supposed

[00:39:57] to do but when I tell you that Cecil never barked or moved that urgently in his life

[00:40:03] you can take that to the bank. It was almost like he understood the danger of the situation

[00:40:09] like he knew that the door was going to give out. A few years back we had to put him down

[00:40:16] because he no longer had the will to live anymore. Before that event I had a moment alone with him

[00:40:22] I thanked him one last time for his friendship and for what he did that night. At that point

[00:40:28] I was a grown man with a wife and kids. I'm convinced none of that would have happened without

[00:40:33] the protection of old Cecil. Thanks pal I miss you.

[00:40:47] I do some volunteering at a hospital three times a week which involves me reporting to the hospital

[00:40:53] at 5 a.m. I enjoy the volunteering I've been doing it for almost two years and I have never had

[00:41:00] any issues until recently. On a recent volunteer day I was a bit early and I had about 30 minutes

[00:41:07] before I had to report in. Normally I would have just waited in my car but I had been pretty stressed

[00:41:15] about things in my personal life so I thought that I'd go for a little walk to blow off some steam

[00:41:20] and clear my head. After all I was in a nice upscale neighborhood in West Los Angeles so I figured

[00:41:27] what could go wrong. Since it was 4.30 in the morning the streets were naturally quiet and

[00:41:34] it seemed so peaceful but then up ahead I noticed that somebody was walking in my direction.

[00:41:41] This should have struck me as odd but I didn't think anything of it at the moment.

[00:41:46] Seeing somebody else out and about at that hour didn't seem inherently suspicious. After all if it

[00:41:52] did would that automatically make me suspicious for being out here too? So I kept walking and we made

[00:41:59] quick eye contact as we crossed paths which suddenly gave me a bad feeling. I can't explain it

[00:42:07] other than the fact that I felt it in an instant. Sometimes you just get a sudden bad gut feeling

[00:42:12] about somebody you know. That's exactly what I felt when I passed him. I immediately went on

[00:42:19] high alert and made sure that he wasn't turning around to approach me from behind or anything like

[00:42:24] that. Very soon after walking by this man about 15 to 20 seconds later I passed by one of the many

[00:42:31] parked cars on the street. This car was parked different. There was a man sitting at the wheel.

[00:42:37] The man waved at me. He then beckoned for me to come over to him.

[00:42:42] This was pretty creepy but still not really worth freaking out. But then as I kept walking

[00:42:49] I realized that while the car was parked it wasn't turned off. His engine was running but the car

[00:42:55] was in park. Then he pulled out and started driving in the same direction I was walking. He was

[00:43:01] driving at a pace that essentially matched my walking speed. I decided I had had enough and my brain

[00:43:07] was saying nope so I immediately turned around and started speed walking back in the direction

[00:43:13] that I came from. Then I saw something that in that moment scared the fuck out of me.

[00:43:21] When I turned around the man that I encountered also turned back around at some point because when

[00:43:27] I started walking in the opposite direction he was standing pretty close to me like way closer

[00:43:32] than somebody who had just been walking in the other direction should be. Then he made eye

[00:43:38] contact with me and started walking in the same direction that I was going. I was incredibly

[00:43:44] suspicious and more than a bit nervous at this point since it was pretty dark out I decided to

[00:43:49] play a hunch. My car keys fold out in a manner that is similar to a switch blade so I pulled it out

[00:43:57] and pressed the button to make the key flick out. Then I stood there and stared at him.

[00:44:03] It caught him off guard because he stopped walking for just a second.

[00:44:07] The second that he stopped was all I needed. I promptly took off running at top speed and

[00:44:12] quickly crossed the street. This wasn't just a two lane street we're talking main street in

[00:44:17] Los Angeles with six lanes in a median divider. I'm no Olympian but I was on the cross country team

[00:44:25] at a D2 college and I still run multiple times a week so I'm pretty confident that I could outrun

[00:44:31] the average person especially one who's up to something by a comfortable margin.

[00:44:37] I didn't take any chances with my getaway and I ran the entire way back to the hospital.

[00:44:42] I'm not necessarily saying that I was going to be the next prominent murder victim or kidnapping

[00:44:47] victim but there was definitely something going on there and I'm glad that I got away.

[00:45:03] In 2010 I was driving from Louisiana to Oregon. I'm a 24 year old female and I was alone with my

[00:45:18] two year old pit bull in a 14 foot U-Haul truck packed with everything that I owned in the back.

[00:45:25] I was also equipped with a fancy flip phone and printouts of directions from MapQuest to guide me

[00:45:31] on my journey. I think that early versions of some smartphones were available around that time

[00:45:39] but I didn't have one. Cell phone service was also much sponnier back then and there were long

[00:45:45] stretches through the desert where I had zero service for hundreds of miles. I was driving down a

[00:45:52] lonely stretch of highway through central Texas when I realized that I hadn't seen a town or exit

[00:45:58] for a very long time which was concerning as my giant U-Haul was running low on gas.

[00:46:05] Just when I was starting to freak out I saw that there was a small town coming up just ahead.

[00:46:11] I had other things on my mind so I never paid attention to the name of the town but it was very small.

[00:46:18] There were only about six streets in the whole place. After I pulled into this town I went to

[00:46:23] gas up and I got ready to get back on the road but for the life of me I couldn't seem to find my

[00:46:30] way back to the highway. I circled the town about four times and started getting frustrated since

[00:46:36] this was such a tiny town. I was wondering why could I not find my way out?

[00:46:44] I could literally see the highway but I couldn't figure out how to get to it.

[00:46:48] I returned to the gas station to ask for directions. When I had got gas initially I paid at the pump

[00:46:56] and I never went inside the store. This time I entered. There was a skinny nondescript guy who had

[00:47:03] black hair hanging down in front of his eyes that looked like it could use a wash. He wasn't particularly

[00:47:10] creepy but he was rude. He never really met my eyes since he was looking down at a magazine the

[00:47:17] whole time. He gave me directions that didn't sound right at all. He told me which road to take in

[00:47:23] order to get back to the highway and said that he would need to drive down the road for about 17

[00:47:28] miles to reach it. For a moment I was dumbfounded. Then I pointed out that I didn't drive that far

[00:47:37] from the highway to get to town so I asked why so far to get back? Why did I need to take a road

[00:47:43] that seemed so out of the way to get to the highway when I could see it from the town?

[00:47:50] He was so casual about it almost like I was an annoyance. He pretty much acted like my choices

[00:47:57] were to follow his directions or not. Why should he care? He gave me some explanation about the road

[00:48:05] curving around resulting in a longer drive back to the highway but it didn't really make any sense.

[00:48:12] He just sat there half-heartedly as he gave me bland explanations and continued not looking at me.

[00:48:20] When he felt he had given me ample directions, he just kind of dismissed me and waved his hand in the

[00:48:26] direction of the door. When I got into the parking lot my whole body started trembling violently

[00:48:34] and my heart started racing seemingly for no reason. I didn't think anything of it.

[00:48:40] I just thought that my body was reacting to being frustrated about the interaction.

[00:48:46] I got back into the U-Haul and as soon as I put the key into the ignition, I burst into tears.

[00:48:52] I was overcome with this terrible feeling that no matter how nonchalant he acted,

[00:48:58] he had bad intentions. I didn't know what he could possibly be up to but I knew right then and

[00:49:03] there that there was no way I was going to follow his janky directions.

[00:49:08] Yet this was the only store in town and short of knocking on doors which I wasn't going to do,

[00:49:15] there was nowhere else to go to ask for directions.

[00:49:18] I decided I didn't care if this town seemed like something that dropped out of the twilight zone.

[00:49:24] I was going to drive around until I found my way out even if it took all night.

[00:49:29] Then this big red pickup truck consisting of equal parts rust and metal pulled up and a man

[00:49:37] got out. He was a big Texan man huge and husky wearing flannel and work boots.

[00:49:44] When I saw him jump out of the U-Haul, I approached him quickly yet wearily.

[00:49:50] Looking into his eyes I saw a kind human being or at least I was hoping that I did.

[00:49:55] I asked him if he could please give me directions to the highway.

[00:49:59] I told him I knew it was silly but I couldn't seem to find my way back.

[00:50:05] He looked concerned as I was visibly upset so he made me laugh and very cheerfully gave me

[00:50:10] directions for a hairpin curve turn off right at the end of a small concrete tunnel that I had

[00:50:16] passed several times. He said it often confused travelers because it was so hard to see.

[00:50:23] He even said that the town needed to put up signs or some things since it's so easy to miss.

[00:50:29] With the sinking feeling in my stomach I asked him how far I would need to drive

[00:50:33] and miles to get back to the highway. He laughed and gave me a funny look.

[00:50:39] Miles, he said, I'd say a quarter of a mile at most you can see the highway from right here.

[00:50:47] It's not far at all.

[00:50:48] I thought about the directions that the gas station guy gave me.

[00:50:53] I just had to know. I gave him these strange directions.

[00:50:57] The man looked at me very intently and asked me how I knew about that route.

[00:51:02] He explained that it was pretty far out and usually only locals knew about it.

[00:51:07] I told him that the man working at the gas station had given me these directions.

[00:51:12] He was quiet for a few minutes and then asked what the attendant looked like.

[00:51:17] He asked if I had a map of the state.

[00:51:20] I told him I only had my printouts from MapQuest, which were not very helpful in this kind of situation.

[00:51:27] He went back to his truck and grabbed a raggedy local map from his glove box.

[00:51:32] He spread it out for me, tracing the route I described to him.

[00:51:36] The way that the man from the gas station had told me led away from town,

[00:51:42] away from the interstate, and to seemingly the middle of nowhere.

[00:51:47] The man that I was talking to told me that the road did run for about 17 miles,

[00:51:53] but it stopped at a dead end in the desert.

[00:51:56] I asked him what was out there and he told me it was nothing,

[00:52:01] except for some scrapped cars and a few mobile homes and trailers.

[00:52:05] It's all owned by the same family.

[00:52:07] The family was known locally as troublemakers.

[00:52:11] They were drug addicts and alcoholics, and these were the nice things that the townspeople would say

[00:52:16] about them. The clerk was part of this family, and he lived down that road.

[00:52:23] I'll never forget the look in that man's eyes as he told me this.

[00:52:26] He also said that I was smart to listen to my instincts,

[00:52:29] and he told me to be careful while traveling.

[00:52:32] I don't know if the man at the gas station wanted what was in the back of my U-Haul,

[00:52:37] or possibly wanted what was in the driver's seat, but thankfully I didn't have to find out.

[00:52:43] Oh, and I learned that sometimes angels can appear in the form of ruddy-haired Texans with

[00:52:49] scruffy faces and rusty pickups.

[00:52:53] And with that, I say thank you to the random Texan stranger.

[00:52:57] He really saved my ass, and I will remember him with tons of love.

[00:53:01] Thanks for listening, and stick around after the music if you are a patron for your extended

[00:53:18] version of this week's episode with bonus stories. And if you'd like to get access, head

[00:53:22] over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign up and support the show today.

[00:53:27] You'll get instant access to hours and hours of bonus content with stories you won't hear

[00:53:32] anywhere else all ad-free. This week you have heard The Creeper in the Woods by DJ Bafoon,

[00:53:40] the guy who chased us up the stairs by gagliad. Can't you see how much I love you by girl veteran?

[00:53:49] My paranoia saved us by barracuda bitch. I was hiding from your mom. My mom is dead by Jared's

[00:53:57] underwear. Home Alone with my dog by Mars 1317 was I almost the victim of an elaborate mugging or

[00:54:05] kidnapping by a literate art vark? And finally, my hills have eyes moment in Texas by Wolfdream.

[00:54:14] All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission

[00:54:17] of their respective authors. Let's not meet a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit

[00:54:23] or any other message boards online. As always if you have a story to share send it to let's not

[00:54:27] meet stories at gmail.com and don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts

[00:54:33] like odd trails, my true paranormal podcast and the old time radiocast at crypticcountypodcasts.com

[00:54:40] or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll see you all next week everyone stay safe

[00:54:53] bye

[00:55:15] right after I graduated from high school my family