3x15: Complex From Hell

[00:00:05] My name is Andrew Tate and this is season 3 episode 15 of Let's Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. When I was much younger and far less concerned with consequences, I was introduced to a guy through a mutual friend that was well connected. It took me

[00:00:33] forever to figure out how this guy could stalk the veritable roving pharmacy in his vehicle. But at the time, I wasn't too much concerned with the how, just the when. Like, hey man, when can I purchase some irresponsible amounts of diverted prescription medications from you?

[00:00:54] As I got to know him more, I learned more about my purveyor of happy pills and he thoroughly threw off a bad vibe. I would do my absolute best to avoid the post-deal hangout, but the guy was clearly and completely socially maladroit.

[00:01:12] Eventually, my dealer, who I'll henceforth refer to as D, starts attempting to insinuate himself into my group of friends more and more. He would call me constantly, text me like an abandoned tender date, and generally harass me into hanging out. We would casually be drinking beer in the

[00:01:31] backyard of my house and he'd happen to be in the neighborhood, just like he'd accidentally take a load off and decide to stick around. I am not a complete asshole, so it was difficult to sell someone a clue who doesn't have a proverbial nickel to his name.

[00:01:50] I specifically remember a night when each of us were recounting macho stories of tussles and scrapes that we had been in, and D decided it was his turn to contribute. It went something like this. Oh man, that's nothing. One time I shot a man in the face

[00:02:07] with a sawed-off shotgun and beat the rap on a self-defense technicality. We all sort of went slack-jawed at that moment and nodded our heads, mumbling uncomfortably. Wow, pretty cool. At that point, I think we all just assumed he was a one-upper and would say

[00:02:28] whatever to reinforce his tough-guy persona that he was so desperate to have us believe. I should have realized then, maybe D wasn't exactly an asset to the societal fabric, but you know, I didn't want to hurt the guy's feelings and plus, drugs.

[00:02:47] A few weeks later into the summer, some of the boys and I decide to tie one on and head downtown to the clubs. Now, I know for a fact that I hadn't committed the sin of imparting

[00:02:58] knowledge of our physical location to D, but somehow he materialized by my side as I was ordering a drink. Even in my own greatly impaired state, I could tell that D was in a knee-walking, gutter-sucking blackout. It took me all of 30 seconds of surveying his slack expression

[00:03:20] coupled with those glassy black eyes doing the thousand-yard stare to surmise that D was not going to be a fun man to be around on this night. My hypotheses soon proved all too accurate when

[00:03:34] he began pushing random people on the dance floor, accosting women in front of their respected boyfriends and girlfriends, all the while fiddling around in his pockets for something. Are you starting to get why D wasn't a pillar of social proficiency?

[00:03:50] Eventually, he was ejected from the club and as a mission of pure mercy, I went outside to make sure that he at least found a cab home. That's when I discovered what D was looking for in his pockets all night. As I walked outside,

[00:04:04] I could see several bouncers warily surrounding this dipshit as he is brandishing a 6-inch serrated fold-out knife at them. I still have no idea what possessed me to step in and corral him, and I still believe that the only reason I wasn't cut to absolute ribbons

[00:04:23] is because of the Gumby-like flexibility I'm afforded under the influence of alcohol and prescription medications. I was finally able to convince him into a taxi and sent him packing. At that point, I made a firm decision to stop doing drugs and by proxy,

[00:04:41] stop seeing D. Ever. I blocked his number and refused to go out. It's lucky that I did because some months later, he found himself once again in a scuffle at that very same establishment, only this time, I wasn't there to rescue him. He stabbed a man

[00:05:00] seven or eight times and hot-footed it into an alley in some pitiful attempt at an escape. The police didn't have to do much sleuthing as there were plenty of bystanders willing to point out his

[00:05:11] location. D is now in a level 4 prison and isn't eligible for parole for another decade or so. And I say, good D, let's not fucking meet again. I've recently moved into a new flat, just three weeks ago, and I'm sharing it with my sister.

[00:05:41] The only person we know properly is a single mom who lives in the apartment next door to us. Ever since we moved in, she's been giving us advice and helping us out with other things. We don't know anyone else properly yet. From what we've seen of our neighbors,

[00:06:00] From what we've seen of our neighbors, they're mostly couples in their 30s and 40s or older guys who live alone. We're probably the youngest people here. We're both females, I'm 18, and my sister is only 16. Today I was out with my friends and then later went to the gym.

[00:06:21] After this, I went to get my sister so that we could go out for some food. We got in around 10pm. My sister and I got into our pajamas and we were just sitting around watching TV when our buzzer

[00:06:33] rang. I jumped up to answer it, and it turned out to be our neighbor, the single mom. I asked her what was up and she said that our dad's asking for us downstairs. Straight away my stomach dropped

[00:06:47] and I immediately asked her if she's sure he said it was our dad. The reason I asked her was because was just to make sure that's what she actually said, but she replied that yeah, he said that he was your dad and he was asking for you.

[00:07:06] The neighbor asked me if she could let him up to our flat, but I told her no. I wanted to call out to my sister, but I didn't want to worry her right away. I asked the neighbor not to let him come up

[00:07:18] yet, and I heard her repeat this to him. I couldn't hear anything for a few minutes after this and I started to get really worried. At this point, my sister comes up to me and asks me who it is.

[00:07:32] I start to feel really anxious and call out to my neighbor a few times. It must have been about 5 minutes, but I honestly felt like it was ages when she didn't reply. I was actually about

[00:07:48] to tell my sister to call the police when eventually she told me that he had gone. She then came up to our flat and explained what went down. She said that she was walking to her

[00:08:00] flat after finishing work and she saw a man by the buzzers. At first, she assumed that he was just someone who lived here until he noticed her walking up. He asked for us by name and if she

[00:08:14] could let him up to our flat. She asked him who he was and he told her that he was her dad. Now, obviously she buzzed us and told us first as our neighbor doesn't know us that well.

[00:08:29] She said that because we were young, she didn't want to buzz in a strange man up to our flat. She said that her mother instincts kicked in when she heard my hesitation to let him up to the flat.

[00:08:43] Apparently, after he heard me say that, he got really pushy with her and started trying to move her out of the way. He kept saying to her, it's okay, I'm their dad. Let me in, I'm not going to

[00:08:56] do anything. She started arguing with him and asking him to tell her his name, but he refused to tell her. She told him that if I don't feel comfortable letting him in, there's no way he's

[00:09:11] getting in. His reaction was to call her a bitch and then to get in his car and drive away. Now, this is the reason why I hesitated. We haven't spoke to our dad since I was 16. We even considered

[00:09:27] getting a restraining order from him at one point. He's not our biological father, but we were legally adopted by him when I was nine. He was both verbally and physically abusive to our mom

[00:09:41] and had started to do the same to me. It got to the point where we had to leave him in the middle of the night. After this, he became very controlling and he would secretly follow us and record me

[00:09:55] and my sister. He has a criminal record as well and I believe he was convicted of manslaughter in the 80s. I have no idea of the backstory behind that and I honestly don't really want to know. Like I said,

[00:10:11] we haven't found him since so as soon as she said the word dad, I almost had a panic attack. I asked for her to describe him and she said that because it was dark out, she couldn't really see

[00:10:25] him. We ended up staying with her because my sister and I are really shaken up. I don't know whether to call the police or not. I don't know if that's our dad or not as it could easily be someone else. I really appreciate any advice.

[00:10:52] So, I'm a 20 year old female and I lived in a shady as hell apartment complex in an otherwise rich suburban area for three years. I have lots of stories that could fit on here but this one

[00:11:06] is about a neighbor I'll call Bob. Now, I was 18 at the time and my 16 year old sister used to babysit all the neighborhood kids. These kids considered us their friends and it got to where

[00:11:21] they seemed to have a radar of when me and my sister went outside. They'd come out and talk to us and we'd ride bikes and skateboards and such in the parking lot. The kids were ages 8 to 13.

[00:11:38] So, one day we were outside with them and we were joined by a stranger. He stood between us and our car towering over us. He introduced himself and asked us to sign a petition he made up.

[00:11:54] We did, just being friendly. Then he asked us how old we were. I thought maybe he was a fellow teenager that looked older or that he was just awkward. So, I told him I was 18 and the very next

[00:12:08] question was if I wanted to go out with him in front of my mom and all of the other kids. I awkwardly declined but he continued talking about how he thought me and my sister were in

[00:12:23] middle school. Also, he was 28. Eventually, he wandered away and asked someone else to sign his petition. A few days later, he knocked on our door after asking a neighbor for the address. He had

[00:12:41] a bag of what he said was chicken and wanted us to go eat it with him at the park. I declined because we both had schoolwork to do. He walked away and he was mumbling about how antisocial

[00:12:55] everyone was. Later, we looked out our window and we see him playing baseball with two girls. He kept physically moving their arms to different positions even though they shrugged away from him.

[00:13:09] Next day, one of the kids runs up to me. I'll call her Maddie. She's eight. She got a new pair of Heelys and wanted help with them. I was holding her hand and guiding her along when Bob appears

[00:13:22] and says that he could help better. Maddie says no but he insists. He pushed me aside and reaches for Maddie, holding her tightly around the upper chest area. Her grandma was there too.

[00:13:38] She flips out. He wanders away. The next day, Maddie is freaking out saying Bob was just sitting on her porch when she left for school that morning. Her parents found out and as they

[00:13:52] walked outside, he let himself in. They said that he went to their kitchen to make orange chicken. We later found out another neighbor had a similar story. Another time, we were helping a family

[00:14:06] move. They had a two-year-old son. The garages are in a triangle shape to the road, almost in a roundabout. There's a flat patch of grass behind them. Well, here comes Bob to quote help us. He

[00:14:23] criticized the way we packed things. He stayed until our neighbor politely asked him to leave. Instead of leaving, he asked the two-year-old if he wanted to play. The kid said no and it made

[00:14:37] him mad. He picked up the kid to play and the kid slapped him. He asked the kid if he wanted to go behind the garages to play ball. The kid's mom didn't even notice, so I guide the kid to his

[00:14:53] mom. The climax of this story is when my sister and I went on a walk with our 17-year-old friend and her other friend. Maddie found us and went to come along. So we're starting our walk when Bob

[00:15:06] comes out. He sees our friend and asks how old she is and how much she weighs because she's so skinny. He asks where we're going. My friend tells him we're going for an ice cream on a

[00:15:21] girls trip. We didn't ask her to say that. He's like, ah man, and then stomps away. We continue our walk but halfway through we have a weird feeling. I look behind us and Bob is running

[00:15:38] towards us. He yells at us for hiding from him while also telling Maddie she's pretty. An older neighbor sees this and asks him what's going on. He tells the man that we're being mean

[00:15:54] and he needs to go write a song about us. He leaves but we see him sitting at the park later. He saw us and again comes running. We stop and he asks which one of us is over 18.

[00:16:09] Maddie's dad is here at this point and tells him we aren't interested in him. He explodes, telling the dad to go fuck himself. Maddie's crying and the neighbor who saw us before

[00:16:21] came to check on us since he saw Bob running. He's like, ah, I'm not sure if I'm going to go fuck myself. Bob goes inside, muttering to himself. For weeks we don't see him. A single

[00:16:38] dad and his 5 year old daughter move in and we are introducing ourselves to them. My mom kind of tips him off that there's someone in the building who is a little off, especially around Maddie.

[00:16:53] The dad says he's seen someone like that giving kids candy at the pool when the kids looked uncomfortable. Here comes Bob, as if on cue. He immediately tells the girl in front of her dad

[00:17:09] that she looks like a movie star and that she's so pretty. He asks to play with her but the dad says no and they go inside. Turns out, there are next door neighbors. We didn't see him much but

[00:17:24] other neighbors were telling us stories about him. There's a woman who's alone most of the day with her two kids under 5 who told us that he watches her when she goes to and from her car. Also,

[00:17:37] Maddie's parents continued to see him watching her. Then one day, we're again babysitting. And here he comes, only this time he's swinging nunchucks. Maddie screams and hides in our car. Bob strolls over with his nunchucks and starts talking to us casually. Then his head cranes to

[00:18:02] look into the car and he says, where's Maddie? We told him she wasn't here and he walked away. By then, most of the kids were afraid to go outside when they saw him. He had a habit of

[00:18:18] wandering around the complex. We could tell by his height and lankiness. A few times we'd see Bob with his dad. Those times, neither even glanced at us. Then finally one day, he just stopped

[00:18:37] showing up. We'd see his dad and brother come in and out all the time, but never him. We only saw him again a year later. And it was for one day near Christmas. And then he just disappeared again. So I don't know what happened to him,

[00:18:57] but it was just one of our weird experiences with neighbors and the three years living there. Maybe I'll share the stories of a chick who tried to kill her parents because she was a witch. Or the old man that bites children next, if you want to hear them.

[00:19:26] These events happened over several months in 2016 when my sister and I were 16 and 14 and we had first moved into our most recent apartment complex with our mother. We now call the apartment complex, the complex from hell, because there were many incidents like

[00:19:44] this. You may remember the recent story of Bob. Admittedly, we were still into the hoverboard craze then and would ride them around. This is how we met Savannah. She was our age and lived in our

[00:20:01] building. She asked to hang out and we were happy to hopefully make new friends. So we said yes. We hung out outside the complex at a little park area. It got dark and we started making up ghost

[00:20:15] stories. Turns out she liked creepy paranormal stuff like we did. Now note, I did not actually believe in this stuff and still don't every time I reference the paranormal. It's a hyperbole.

[00:20:31] As we were walking home, the light in one of the apartment hallways flickered and I joked and said it was a spirit trying to communicate with us. Savannah made up a flash once for yes twice for no

[00:20:44] system to communicate with the spirit and we messed around a bit. We thought it was just harmless fun. Well, the next day she runs over to us excited. She informs us that the spirit we had met last night

[00:20:58] told her its name was Kirin and that it meant light. So it all made perfect sense now. We asked her how she knew and she said she went back later that night alone to talk to it. This

[00:21:13] was the first time it occurred to us that she might have really believed in this stuff. Our aunt had given us an old Ouija board as a joke a year before and we thought that Savannah

[00:21:26] might like it. Savannah lit up and said she wanted to try and talk to Kirin. So we huddled in the hallway that was connecting the apartments and put our hands on the board. We kept getting

[00:21:38] random letters that didn't make sense but soon Savannah's questions were directed to Kirin. We felt her moving the planchet and called her out, but she got mad and said she'd prove it.

[00:21:53] She took her hand off of the planchet and it no longer moved. She just huffed and insisted that it wasn't her. Over the next few weeks we did mostly normal stuff with her, but she kept

[00:22:06] talking about the ghosts and Ouija boards until we broke down and played it again. This time we were introduced to a new ghost, Evan. We knew it was Savannah moving the planchet, but we were curious about the story she was making, so we just let her follow through.

[00:22:25] Evan was a ghost, or demon rather, who was our age, that wanted to be free from a greater demon controlling him. That greater demon's name was Kirin. Savannah's parents called her inside and conveniently, Evan had to go too. He told us he'd protect us against Kirin, especially Savannah.

[00:22:48] Savannah commented on how cute that was for him to offer. A few days go by normally, but then Savannah's back to tell us she has a boyfriend. We're happy for her until she tells

[00:23:00] us his name is Evan. We're wondering what the hell she's talking about, and she explains that while sleeping over at another friend's house, something had tugged off her shorts while she

[00:23:11] slept. She woke up and heard Evan's voice. Then he'd visited her in her dreams and asked to date, or something like that. She said yes. Of course we knew she made up Evan, so we're kind of like,

[00:23:29] what's wrong with you? And we don't talk about demon stuff anymore. Now Savannah was extremely possessive over her friends. When she'd see us with someone else, she'd text us nonstop about why we hadn't invited her. We tried to keep our distance, but she lived

[00:23:50] on the ground floor and literally watched out her window waiting for us to come inside. She'd latch onto us. We didn't know much about her home life, but she always seemed troubled. She had scars on

[00:24:05] her wrist and even talked about running away from home. Her parents seemed alright, if rather strict and religious. We still hung out with her because we were worried, but were starting to feel weird

[00:24:17] about it. Worse, she randomly showed up holding her hand out, saying Evan was holding her hand. She'd look at random things and laugh when no one was talking because Evan had told her a joke.

[00:24:33] Once, she made us feel her cheek where it was supposedly warm from Evan kissing her. It wasn't warm. One day my sister and I were bored from talking to Evan on the Ouija board

[00:24:47] and wanted some fun. I texted my mom to call my phone from a blocked number and play creepy sounds. Looking back, it was one of the dumbest things that I did, but at the time, it was just for fun.

[00:25:03] My mom made the call and I put it on speaker. Savannah is living for it, especially when my mom played a track from a scary movie about a ghost. My mom took it a step further and threw a banana

[00:25:19] off our third story balcony for us to see. Savannah said it was a sign that Kieran was winning. I had no idea of the fire this would light inside of her. We were about to tell her it was a prank,

[00:25:35] but again my mom called her inside. She found us again the next day, and I came clean about the prank. She laughed and said that there was no way we could have done that. I said no,

[00:25:50] my mom literally did all of that. Well, Savannah had told her friend about it, who had told her that yellow objects like the banana were a sign of the devil and seeing them

[00:26:02] meant that the devil was hunting you. This was all she talked about for a while, but since nothing else happened, she gradually forgot. Things went back to normal for a while until Autumn moved in. Autumn and Savannah connected instantly because of their history with depression.

[00:26:22] Autumn was a few years younger than us, but had a lot more of a past. This included significant time spent in psychiatric facilities and violence towards her classmates and family. Autumn claimed

[00:26:36] she heard demons talk to her at night, and just like that, the ghost stuff had started again. Savannah felt threatened by Autumn and felt the need to one-up her with ghost stuff. She told her

[00:26:51] Evan was her ghost brother that looked out for her. I said, hold on, you claimed he was your boyfriend? She giggled and said, that's gross, he's my brother. Her story had completely switched.

[00:27:05] Now, she was dating another demon named Jacob and they were engaged. She even showed us a ring to prove it. The next week or so was literally like a match between them to see who was the darkest

[00:27:23] and most involved in the spiritual world or whatever. They'd compare scars on their wrists and brag about cutting themselves and doing things like sneaking out at night. In a move to one-up Autumn, Savannah drew a giant pentagram in the parking lot with chalk.

[00:27:43] Her parents found out, and she backed out, blaming it on Autumn. The next freaking day, I swear, people come to repave the parking lot. The pentagram is now buried under it forever. Literally.

[00:28:00] Savannah moved on to saying her friend had found Jacob's body and was going to put his spirit back inside of it. Savannah continued to take advice from this friend who fueled everything she did.

[00:28:14] Savannah now said the friend was teaching her witchcraft. We mostly avoided her at this point, but she'd ask us to do similar things like make holy water with her and try to summon her a

[00:28:27] familiar. From that point on, she insisted she was a fire witch and walked around wearing all black with Halloween-like makeup on her face. She and Autumn frequently snuck out together, and occasionally we'd see cop cars at our house. My sister and I were avoiding them both,

[00:28:47] but now we'd get fiery texts from both of them if we hung out with other people, especially our guy friends. Once, they saw us get home and stood in the parking lot pretending

[00:29:00] to be possessed. Autumn also cut off her hair and claimed to have tried to kill her teacher. My sister and I knew it was bullshit, or at least we hoped, but Savannah took it seriously. She'd go around telling neighbors of terrible crimes she committed,

[00:29:19] or wanted to commit. She even told us that she'd first seen us outside with hoverboards, and she wished for them to blow up. One day, we saw the police come to her door, and the officers had jackets that said they were from the juvenile justice department.

[00:29:40] Her mom pulled me, my sister, and our mom aside to explain what was going on. Apparently, two years before, they discovered Savannah talking with a man online. Her messages to him were, quote, hiring him to come literally kill her parents after making threats of killing them

[00:30:02] a few days before. We were able to confirm the story after pet-sitting for them and finding court papers about it. We'd known she was on probation, but she'd always tell us different stories as to why. Savannah continued to beg us to hang out with her after that,

[00:30:22] even inviting herself to spend the night. We avoided her at all costs, but she would follow us everywhere. It kind of died down when Autumn moved out and Savannah moved in with her family shortly after. Since then, she's started doing service hours at horse stables and graduated high

[00:30:43] school. I really hope she's gotten happier and more stable. Autumn messaged my sister a few months ago asking to call her mom to confirm she was with us. She wasn't. And later, we saw her with

[00:30:58] a 19-year-old dude. She's 14 now. My family has moved as well. There were too many incidents in those apartments. Our new place is so quiet and peaceful, but to Savannah and Autumn, let's never meet again.

[00:31:32] Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet. This week you have heard My Old Drug Dealer by Reddit user Berkshithouse, Your Dad Wants You by Reddit user FFaily,

[00:31:43] and finally, Man Asks to Go Out with Me, Thought I Was in Middle School, Obsessed with Being Around Children, and My Friend Claimed She was a Witch and Tried to Kill Her Parents, both by Reddit user

[00:31:54] CLCliff. Now if you want to hear that third story about the man who bites children, I read that on this week's bonus episode over at the Patreon. If you want to sign up and hear that episode,

[00:32:05] go to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast, along with a story this week about a traveling preacher who stays with a family in the early 90s. I especially am excited to share this

[00:32:18] one simply because I think I know exactly what religion these people were, and I happen to grow up in it, so it's kind of a personally terrifying story for me. So go check that out. Again, it's

[00:32:33] patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast. If you have any stories you want to hear on the podcast, email me at letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com, and for any questions, email me

[00:32:43] at letsnotmeetpodcast at gmail.com. I'll see you guys next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet.