5x03: Mr. W

[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.

[00:00:53] This experience happened in 2008. I was 19 and living in my first apartment. I grew up in a small town, a farming community. Not much there except for a factory that has long since closed its doors. And no one has ever really heard of my hometown unless they've lived

[00:01:14] there. My long distance boyfriend at the time, Sean, brought up the question of wanting to move to Lansing, Michigan with him and get an apartment together after I graduated. I happily agreed. Everyone hopes to escape their small town life when they're young and I wanted

[00:01:35] to see what the world had to offer beyond cornfields and apple orchards. Sean is now my ex, was much older than I was at the time. Daddy issues, I suppose. While I didn't know anyone in Lansing, being completely new to the area, and since we were

[00:01:53] in his old stomping grounds, Sean started to introduce me to his friend circle to try and get me more acquainted. I found myself participating in activities that I probably shouldn't have.

[00:02:07] Most of Sean's friends sold drugs for a living, and I was around that sort of thing quite often, so I inevitably got wrapped up into experimenting with drugs as well as drinking even though I was

[00:02:21] underage. I never did any hard drugs though. That was never my style. I mostly smoked pot since it was always around and something to do and also was something that I enjoyed doing because it

[00:02:36] helped with my anxiety. We had been living in our apartment for about a year. It was on the bottom floor. Our building and others were next to a small lake. On the other side of that lake

[00:02:51] was another apartment complex owned by the same landlord but whose apartments were more spacious and updated. So when our year lease was almost over, our landlord asked if we wanted to renew

[00:03:03] our lease at the current place but also gave us the option of going to the newer updated buildings across the lake. I seized the opportunity to go to the other location because they were better

[00:03:15] apartments. Not to mention my next door neighbor was an odd fellow, which is where the story begins. I honestly never even knew his name. I avoided him like the plague. He gave me very weird vibes.

[00:03:34] For the sake of this story, we'll call him Mr. W. He was an older man in his 50s or 60s, gangly with hardly any hair at the top of his head but he had long

[00:03:48] wispy gray hair on the sides of his head. It was usually unkempt and about down to his shoulders. He never said much to me the whole time I lived there. I didn't see him leave his apartment almost ever. I would hear him shuffle down the hallway

[00:04:07] past my apartment to do his laundry but that was about it. I would also see him when I would go to check our mail, which was located outside across the road from our building in a cluster-style

[00:04:20] mailbox setup. Mr. W had a slider door in his apartment that conveniently faced the road where the mailboxes were stationed. I went to go check the mail one day. We had been living there for about a month at this point. On my way back, as I was flipping

[00:04:41] through the stack of mail that we had received and walking back to my building, I happened to glance up when some movement caught my eye. It came from the long white blinds that cloaked

[00:04:55] the slider door to Mr. W's apartment. He had slightly moved them aside and was peering at me through the slit that he made. At the time, I didn't think anything of it.

[00:05:05] I figured he was either curious or just a nosy neighbor and I continued on my way. However, as time went on, Mr. W made this his routine, hence the name Mr. W since he was always

[00:05:22] watching me. He started to become bolder in his habits of watching me when I would check the mail or go on my walks, to the point where when I would be walking back from checking the mail,

[00:05:36] he would have his blinds pulled all the way to the side and he would stand behind his slider window in a ratty faded blue robe with his belt lazily tied around his waist. He would intensely stare

[00:05:51] at me while sipping his coffee, looking me up and down with a crooked grin as I would walk towards the building. I never felt dirty just by being stared at before, but that's how I would

[00:06:07] feel. I would usually just look down at my feet as I walked back to avoid making eye contact or anything. Eventually, I would do things to avoid checking the mail like asking Sean to do it or

[00:06:24] trying to change up the time of day that I would get it. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. One thing I could never seem to escape though was coming back from my walks and seeing

[00:06:39] him standing behind his window watching me as I would return. Since we lived by that small lake, I would often take walks by myself around it because I found walking to be therapeutic for me and help with my anxiety. I've always enjoyed taking walks, especially after smoking.

[00:07:00] I swear it would be like clockwork no matter the length of time my walks would be Mr. W would always be standing there upon my return behind that damn window staring. It was quite unsettling to me. I thought about confronting him a few times, but my anxiety got

[00:07:20] the best of me. I don't like confrontation and I'm a pacifist by nature. I even told Sean about it and he would laugh it off saying he was harmless and even joked

[00:07:30] saying that he was probably just a horny old man and maybe I should give him a show and he'd leave me be. I didn't think that was very funny. Anyways, back to the story. The last night that we owned the apartment, we decided,

[00:07:48] along with Sean's best friend Erin, to walk back there and smoke one last celebratory blunt before we moved out officially and turned in the keys. There had been a lot of fun times in that apartment and we wanted to have one last smoke session. Our furniture, belongings,

[00:08:07] and everything else had already been moved into our new location across the lake which was about a half a mile away so it didn't take long to walk back to my old building. It was late,

[00:08:20] about 10pm or so, I can't remember exactly. I just know that it was dark outside already. I could see Mr. W's apartment lit up inside as we walked up the steps towards the complex.

[00:08:35] I had also seen him peek through his blinds as the three of us walked into the building. His shadow's silhouette was visible behind the blinds making him totally noticeable.

[00:08:47] So I know he was watching us. Sean, Erin, and I all walk into the apartment and make our way to the bathroom that was located in the master bedroom. I turned on the exhaust fan and we

[00:09:01] proceeded to all pitch in for a spliff. We then realized none of us had any wraps or papers. I had a lighter but that was it and our apartment was completely empty. I'm 5'2 and I don't walk very fast. Sean and Erin are both taller than I am,

[00:09:24] both have a lot quicker pace than I do so they suggested that they would run back to our new place and grab some papers in return. They told me just to sit tight and wait. I wasn't fond of

[00:09:37] this idea since it was kind of creepy being in an empty apartment by myself at night but they insisted saying I would slow them down if I came with which was probably true so I

[00:09:49] reluctantly stayed. Did I mention I also had no cell phone? I did own one but Sean was very controlling and he would often take my phone out of his own insecurity of leaving me without one.

[00:10:05] They left to get papers and so there I was, sitting in the bathroom waiting for them to come back. You know how people say you should listen to your inner voice? It's true because

[00:10:18] I was waiting and a voice suddenly popped into my head. It's hard to explain but for some reason something or whatever was looking out for me that night. It told me to check and make sure

[00:10:32] that the fellas had locked the front door when they left. At first I was going to ignore the voice and thought to myself, I'm sure they locked it behind them after they left.

[00:10:47] Yet the inner voice was so insistent and kept telling me to just get up off my ass and go check. So I did. Just thinking about all this now is making my head start to race. How naive I was,

[00:11:03] just waiting there all alone with no phone, no nothing in a dark and empty apartment. I walked out of the bathroom, out of the master bedroom and towards the kitchen where the front door was

[00:11:21] located. I saw that the deadbolt was not locked. I quickened my pace. I kind of hurried to the door because that inner voice at this point was screaming at me to hurry and lock the door.

[00:11:40] Not a second later as I turned that deadbolt to lock the door and heard it click into place, I could see from the moonlight shining into the kitchen from our slider door that the

[00:11:52] knob on the apartment door was turning. At first I thought, oh shit, I probably just locked Aaron and Sean out. But then I thought about it and I knew there was no way they could have

[00:12:07] came back that quickly unless they forgot about something. But I didn't think they had. I peered through the peephole in front of my door and to my horror, standing outside, I could see someone. The yellowish light of the hallway illuminated a figure,

[00:12:27] one that was neither Sean or Aaron. Through the concave lens emerged the ever watchful neighbor next door, Mr. W. I heard him wiggle the doorknob again and push on the door. I froze. I didn't know what to do. Thoughts were racing through my mind like,

[00:12:52] what if I wouldn't have locked the deadbolt when I did? Did he maybe get confused and think his apartment was mine? Why is he outside? In any case, I didn't think his intentions were good at

[00:13:06] all. I could just feel it in my bones. A second later, my thoughts were answered when a gruff voice snarled at me, let me in. I didn't know three words could be so terrifying.

[00:13:27] I was frozen in fear and confusion. I couldn't speak. My mind was going a mile per minute. I could only stand there as if my feet had grown roots and planted into the ground.

[00:13:41] He then jiggled the doorknob again, trying to get in. This time he was more aggressive than before. I didn't realize I had been holding my breath as it fogged up the peephole when I finally exhaled.

[00:13:57] He then banged on the front door. I felt a lump in my throat. My heart felt like it was a jack in the box, about going to pop out of my chest. I could feel my heartbeat pulsating in my ears

[00:14:10] when I looked through the concave lens again and I wish I hadn't. He took a step forward, leaned close to the peephole and said, I know you're in there. He then cracked a malicious

[00:14:29] grin, showing his crooked coffee stained teeth. I finally worked up the courage to weakly yell through the door. My boyfriend is here and he's going to beat your ass if you don't leave.

[00:14:43] However, my voice was so shaky. I don't know why I didn't threaten to call the cops or something. Even if I wanted to, like I mentioned, I didn't have a cell phone with me. I was

[00:14:55] completely defenseless. All I had was a lighter and that was useless. I then heard Mr. W let out a scoff and cackle on the other side of the door as if to call my bluff. Once again, that gravelly

[00:15:12] voice said, don't lie to me you little bitch. I saw your friends leave. Shit, he knows. Of course he knows. Then in a more hushed voice, he said, don't make things worse for yourself. I just stood

[00:15:34] there and when I didn't respond or unlock the door for him, he became angry. Mr. W suddenly banged on the door once again, this time in synchronicity, he shouted, let me in. My fight

[00:15:51] or flight mode kicked in and I unfroze. I backed away from the door and frantically started pulling open the drawers in the kitchen, hoping to find a knife or anything. But in my panic,

[00:16:03] I forgot that everything had already been moved into the new apartment. I didn't realize I was crying until hot tears fell on my hands as I was looking for something to protect myself with.

[00:16:15] I decided to run back to the bathroom for safety. It was all I could think of to do. I locked the slider door and the windows as well as the door to the master bedroom. And then I

[00:16:28] locked myself in the bathroom and hid in the bathtub thinking if this motherfucker is going to break in here and get me, he'll have to get through those doors first. I didn't know how

[00:16:38] long I sat in that tub. It felt like an eternity. My senses became hyper aware of every new and every movement. I just sat there crying, scared shitless. I had never known what it was

[00:16:53] like to be in danger before, to know a stranger wanted to harm you. I wished I would have never agreed to come back here to get high. It seemed so stupid. I regretted foolishly agreeing to stay

[00:17:07] in here all by myself. All I could do was stare at the bathroom door, praying that he wouldn't get me. Praying that Sean and Aaron would come back soon. My prayers were answered though.

[00:17:22] I heard a familiar voice yell my name. Yo Jess, why'd you lock us out? Open the damn door man. It was Sean and Aaron. They had returned. They had been outside calling to me to let them inside.

[00:17:38] I could hear them through the small window that was slightly cracked open above the shower. At first I couldn't speak. However, I was relieved to hear the voices, but my own voice was just trapped in my throat. I eventually came to my senses though,

[00:17:58] and I told them that I'd meet them at the slider door. I tried to pull myself together, wiped away my tears and straighten myself out, then cautiously opened the bathroom door. I took a few breaths and then once again cautiously opened the master bedroom door

[00:18:16] and peeked out, making sure that the coast was clear. I could hear Sean and Aaron outside saying, Hey Jess, open up. I walked to the slider door and I saw Aaron and Sean impatiently waiting on

[00:18:33] the other side. I don't think I've ever been happier to see their grumpy mugs. I unlocked the slider and I was still crying as I tried to tell Sean what had happened. He was like, Whoa,

[00:18:45] whoa, slow down. You're talking too fast. I can't understand you. What's wrong? And I repeated how the creepy older guy next door tried to come in once they had left. How he kept telling me

[00:18:56] to let him inside so that he could do God knows what. At first I was worried that Sean was just going to blow it off and say that the dude probably got the wrong apartment. However,

[00:19:08] when I told him about Mr. W and what he had said to me and how he called me a little bitch, I guess that's what did it. That's what flipped his protective switch. He and Aaron turned back

[00:19:22] around and walked right over to Mr. W's apartment door and started banging on it. It can be very intimidating when they wanted to be. I was grateful for that at this moment, both of them were knocking and yelling through the door. So you like harassing girls when their

[00:19:40] boyfriends aren't around? Huh? Why don't you come out here and say what you got to say to us? You coward. They said those things as well as a bunch of other obscenities. I can't quite remember

[00:19:53] what all they said that night. But Mr. W finally spoke from behind his door inside his apartment and told them, go away or I'll call the police. They laughed and said, go ahead, call him. We'll

[00:20:10] tell them what you just tried to pull a few minutes ago. The old man kept repeating that he was going to call the police. He refused to come out, of course, and turned all his lights off

[00:20:23] and stopped responding to their threats. I know two wrongs don't make a right. And I don't mean to have an anticlimactic ending to the story, but we ended up just grabbing our things and

[00:20:38] getting the hell out of there. Sean and Aaron both had criminal backgrounds and we didn't want the authorities getting involved. So we ended up walking back to our new place. I was still shaken

[00:20:48] up and really upset. So they tried to console me, saying that it was all good now and we're never going back there again. I don't remember how the rest of the night ended after we got back to our

[00:21:00] apartment. I do know that Sean and I got into an argument about him always taking my phone. He was jealous and controlling. I could have really used that phone at a time like that.

[00:21:11] I haven't told many people this story, not even my own mother. I'm ashamed how I spent most of my youth being irresponsible, young and dumb. However, aren't we all at some point? Anyways,

[00:21:24] later on after we moved into the newer apartment, I still took walks by the lake but never went near our old building. Hell, I wouldn't even go by that side of the lake. I lived in Lansing for a few

[00:21:37] years and things with Sean and I obviously didn't work out. We went our separate ways. I moved back to my hometown. I'll never forget that awful experience in the city. It truly terrified

[00:21:50] me. I'd never quite gotten over it. I'm cautious and I don't trust most people. These days, I try to make better life decisions so I don't end up in a situation like that again. Sometimes

[00:22:03] at night when I can't sleep, I wonder what would have happened to me if I wouldn't have locked that deadbolt at the exact time that I did. I'm just grateful and thank my lucky stars nothing bad

[00:22:15] happened. I was telling this story to one of my good friends and I mentioned how in retrospect, a lot of my clothes would go missing when I would do laundry at the old apartment. Like I mentioned,

[00:22:27] we lived on the bottom floor so the laundry room was actually right by me. The laundry room on the right and Mr. W on the left and my apartment smack dab in the middle. Looking back on it,

[00:22:44] I've wondered if the numerous clothes that I owned that disappeared was the work of Mr. W. The usually tank tops and undergarments would go missing. I guess I'll never know and I probably

[00:22:59] don't want to. The moral of this story is you should always, and I mean always, trust your instincts. Listen to your inner voice and for fuck's sake, please lock your doors because you

[00:23:12] never know who might be on the other side. To the voyeuristic creepy older man who lived next door to me, no, you still can't come in and let's not ever meet again. This happened in 2005. I was

[00:23:40] working as a server at a movie theater in Houston. It was one of those places that served food and drinks during the show. There were about six screens inside plus a full bar and restaurant.

[00:23:54] It was a really popular spot and I made great money for someone my age waiting on tables. I was about 19 at the time and going to college as well. The manual work at this theater wasn't too

[00:24:07] difficult and I liked my co-workers and managers. I felt like we all looked out for each other. My shifts did often go a bit late into the night due to the run time of some late shows and the

[00:24:23] cleanup and cash out afterwards. But I was young and full of energy drinks most of the time so leaving when it was dark outside didn't bother me, that is until this one night in particular.

[00:24:40] My shift on this busy sweltering humid Saturday night started right at the dinner rush. So I arrived to find a full parking lot. The dinner cinema was nestled in the corner of an otherwise sleepy strip center that housed other businesses such as a hobby store and a guitar

[00:25:01] shop. The only other busy spots of the center were two restaurants on opposite ends of the strip center but they had their own lots. Now on this evening I was pleasantly surprised to see an open parking spot along the front sidewalk relatively close to the entrance of work.

[00:25:23] Just a few cars to the left of the door. We didn't have any rules about employee parking so I happily pulled in and parked the car. I pulled off my sunglasses and reached to the passenger

[00:25:36] seat to get my purse and my waiter's apron when I see someone waving in my peripheral vision. The people in the truck next to me on the right are trying to get my attention. I completely

[00:25:52] ignore it and continue gathering my things, exit my car, put on my shades again, lock the door and casually look up to see who had been waving. It was two very rough and scruffy looking men

[00:26:09] probably in their mid to late 40s in an equally rough looking truck with the windows rolled down. They looked really out of place and not friendly at all. Great, I thought to myself. I had to pass

[00:26:27] their truck to get to the building. There were other people around me so I didn't feel at all threatened at the moment, just annoyed. So I held my chin high, stepped up on the sidewalk and

[00:26:42] started towards the door. These two men proceeded to make a scene. They honked their horn, called out for me to come over to them, whistled and yelled some other catcalls. It was loud. And I

[00:26:55] see other people around the theater all turn their heads and look at the source of the noise. It was quite embarrassing. Now I'm 5'3", 95 pounds, female, today and back then I was even smaller.

[00:27:12] This didn't mean I would allow myself to be bullied and I didn't want them to have the satisfaction of thinking that they intimidated me. So without stopping my stride, I turned towards the men, shot them the middle finger and yelled, suck my dick. This of course was met

[00:27:31] with one guy yelling something back equally as aggressive and the other calling me a fucking bitch. I paid it no mind. I entered the building and started my shift. It was an otherwise normal

[00:27:44] busy dinner shift and I made great tips and had a good evening. When it came time for the late show, I was assigned to a theater whose movie ran about 30 minutes later than all the other shows,

[00:27:57] which meant another late night for me. There weren't that many customers. So rather than split the tables with the other servers working with me in the theater, I offered to take all the tables and let the other server go home early. They happily took my offer and left.

[00:28:14] By the time that the movie was finished and all the work was done, there was only myself and the shift manager left in the building. The kitchen staff, bartender, other servers, projectionist, literally everyone was already gone. This was not out of the norm. And like I

[00:28:34] said, I liked the managers. Today, the manager on duty was a nice guy just a few years older than I was. I'll call him Red. As I was finalizing my cash out with Red and walking through the theater

[00:28:47] with him, I mentioned that there were two weirdos parked next to me earlier when I arrived and that they yelled a bunch of gross things at me before I walked in. He said that was fucked up and asked

[00:28:58] why I didn't say anything earlier. I said I didn't let it bother me and I just jumped right into work. I forgot about it. He said that he would walk me to my car to make sure that it was safe.

[00:29:12] I laughed out loud at this. Red, what the hell? You think those pervs would actually still be out there waiting for me seven hours later? Nobody would do that. But Red insisted,

[00:29:25] joking that I needed to work tomorrow and he didn't want to deal with calling in a substitute server if I got kidnapped. I huffed and agreed, still thinking he was being ridiculous and

[00:29:37] overcautious. I told him I needed to go to the bathroom before we left and hurried to the back. When I returned to the lobby area, Red was standing by the front door looking to the right.

[00:29:50] I walked up next to him and asked what? And as I looked over, my jaw dropped. They were still there. Those two men were still here, still parked right next to me. With the window down, just like earlier in the evening. Only this time their truck was running.

[00:30:15] But the headlights were off. They didn't seem to be doing anything other than staring at the door that I had entered so many hours before. I started to shake and panic. Red said not to worry

[00:30:31] and wrapped his right arm around my shoulders. We slowly walked out the door like that and the two men made eye contact with us. It was utterly bone chilling. I saw hate and anger

[00:30:45] in those eyes and I felt my knees turn to jello. All my confidence evaporated and I was acutely aware of how vulnerable I really was. Without a word, the driver threw the truck into reverse

[00:31:00] and peeled out of the parking lot with an ear piercing squeal of the tires. They mowed over the speed bumps and tore onto the feeder road and sped out of sight. I was crying but no sound was

[00:31:12] coming out. I was too shocked and confused to make any sense of what had just happened. Red made sure my car was okay and that I got on the road without any issue.

[00:31:25] Then I drove home without any incident. I only worked at that theater a few months longer but made sure to never walk out alone again. What if I had walked to my car alone that night? What did they plan to do when they saw me again?

[00:31:44] To the creepy assholes who made me afraid to walk to my car every night, let's not meet. We moved to Ohio back in August of 2015. My wife Kayla, her aunt Gail and I decided that

[00:32:13] we would go to a local arts and crafts festival called Shaker in the Woods. It was a festival where people would make loads of Christmassy crafts and paintings. Before we got there, we decided to stop at McDonald's to get some breakfast. We were there for about an hour

[00:32:36] and had finished our food and coffee. Then we got up to leave and exit through the side door by our car. As we were leaving, I noticed this guy kind of slumped in one of the booths. He

[00:32:51] seemed like he was sleeping so I brushed the bad feeling that I was starting to get off. Just as we reached our car, I noticed this guy is now barreling towards us with the most

[00:33:06] disturbing look in his eyes. We managed to get into the car and lock the doors when he starts yanking on the handle of my wife's door. At this point, I start getting pissed and I'm thinking

[00:33:20] of rolling down the window to say something to him. However, at this point, he started to walk away backwards, flipping us off and yelling something about being fatasses. As we left the

[00:33:33] parking lot, I could see him still staring at us with his middle fingers exposed. To this day, I still get slightly anxious whenever I see someone sleeping in a booth at a fast food place.

[00:33:47] As for the creepy junkie, next time I see you, my anxiety won't get in the way. I hope for your sake we never meet. At the beginning of this year, my friend's family and

[00:34:12] mine went hours away from our homes to visit a mutual friend. Our plan was to visit a certain type of beach area which was divided into certain areas. The layout of this quote unquote beach

[00:34:28] is a bit important in order for the story to make sense. So there's this small hill sort of thing and that's where the car park is located. When you go down the path of the hill, there's this

[00:34:40] grassy surface which people set up their tents and chairs at. Then next to it, there's a public water fountain sort of thing that people use just to rinse off after getting out of the water.

[00:34:53] Then, there's a closed off pool area for the younger children so they can be supervised. Most importantly, there's the open water and another area designed specifically for diving which consists of diving boards and wooden bridges that help people get around the place,

[00:35:11] if that makes sense. So I'll call my friend Danny and after swimming for a while in the main area, we walked into the diving area just to take a dive, watch the others, and dry off.

[00:35:26] After a while, we started walking back to the main area. While we were walking back, there were two guys, A and B, standing on the deck in front of us who looked like college guys.

[00:35:42] My friend hadn't noticed but I did so A smiled at me. I smiled back just because it was the nice thing to do. When we were exiting the diving area, I looked back and he waved at me.

[00:36:00] I regret it now but I smiled again which I now believe he took as a sign of me wanting to be friends or whatever. So now we're in the grassy area where our tent was set up and while Danny

[00:36:16] and I walked up, I realized A and B were slowly following us. I'm a person who automatically gets anxiety from being in a public place alone. Note, we are two young girls and both of our families

[00:36:33] are nowhere to be seen. I started panicking and I told Danny which she had brushed me off as overreacting. Then we got to our tent, wrapped towels around ourselves and since I kept telling

[00:36:49] her to call our parents, she picked up her phone. It was dead. I started to worry because I saw both guys sitting on a bench just watching us. I tried using my own phone. After a few tries,

[00:37:04] my friend's mom picked up. Once we found out they were all in the pool area with Danny and I as younger brothers, we started walking over. Although Danny was not completely alert, I was.

[00:37:19] I watched A slowly stand up and follow us while we walked behind and stood just a meter away while talking to our parents. Mind you, we hadn't told our parents just yet. All of this had just been in the span of 15-20 minutes but it felt like forever.

[00:37:41] Once both of our families were dried off and had gone back to the tent, we began to relax before heading home. I noticed that guy A was standing a few feet from us in the showering area and they

[00:37:56] were talking on the phone, only to be joined by another three guys, not including guy B. We had to walk down to the showering area which was directly in front of where they were standing

[00:38:12] just to wash our hands. I remember my heart beating very fast as we walked up and I tried my best to seem calm like I hadn't noticed them. The entire way there and back, I could hear and feel them watching us and laughing. When the children, including us,

[00:38:31] settled inside the tent, the door still opened for us to watch the ocean. Danny and I started stressing even more when one of the bigger guys walked past our tent multiple times,

[00:38:46] slowing down each time that they passed. We had a very little flap in the tent which I looked out of every ten minutes to check to see if guy A was still staring at us, which he was. I thought

[00:39:01] that they would leave after a while because how long would a group of guys possibly waste in their day to just stay and watch teenage girls? After a little while longer, the guys had seen

[00:39:14] our families start to pack up our stuff which I guess is why guy A walked over and sat at the start of the incline which we had to walk up to get to our cars. I was the one who noticed this

[00:39:28] once again. Danny and I quickly pulled Danny's mom aside and told her everything. I know, we finally decided to tell someone. Since guy A had not moved from this spot, we made our family practically climb up the small hill without using the incline, which was pretty difficult,

[00:39:50] but I was too worried to walk past him. Thinking back at it now, I don't think they really would have done anything at that time, but I believe I still would have had the same anxiety that I did

[00:40:04] if I were put in this situation again. Maybe more because after that, I just get more worried deep inside to even be left alone at a shopping center. Anyways, we reached up to the parking area and started getting ready to head home.

[00:40:23] Danny and I really thought everything was over by now, but after a few minutes, we saw the group of guys walk to their car, which was just a bit away from us. While we were standing outside of our cars because our parents were loading the bags,

[00:40:38] they drove past us, only to turn around and drive back to park one spot away from both of our cars. Two of them got out of their car and stood against it, talking while watching us

[00:40:53] discreetly. We all got into our cars, and I was in a car with Danny. We had to drive onto the freeway, and at some point I guess we lost them. I remember looking back multiple times while we were driving, which

[00:41:07] is when I realized by some miracle their car was no longer following us. Like I mentioned before, they were college guys, so I tell myself every time I think about it that they wouldn't do anything since they had many opportunities to come and grab Danny and I,

[00:41:23] despite the fact that there were a generous amount of people watching. Constant memories of them all watching us with their phones and it still creeps me out to this day, and I hope I never run into them again.

[00:41:52] When I was about ten, I had the most terrifying walk home. For some reason, I lived with my mom and sister in the woods right beside a big country road with more than

[00:42:06] a mile to the nearest neighborhood. From the bus stop, there were two roads to my house. We could either walk along the big country road, or we could cut through the woods through a small

[00:42:19] man-made way to our backyard. I would normally take the safe road through the woods, which I did on the day that this story happened. I had gotten off of the bus with a friend, and we started walking towards my house, chatting away. Halfway through the woods,

[00:42:40] we suddenly felt this silence. It became uneasy. We stopped, looked at each other, while trying to listen to this sound that made us feel less alone. After what felt like ten minutes,

[00:43:00] which might have only been one, our hearts sank to the bottom of our stomachs when we heard someone breathing inside the dense cluster of trees, followed by the crack of the layers of leaves

[00:43:15] and branches on the ground. Not wanting to think about the likely possibility that we were being watched by someone, we brushed it off to be the sound of a deer or maybe another animal.

[00:43:32] We finally began to move towards the house a little faster now. When we arrived at the house, we were greeted by my mom, who embraced us both with a big hug. I was confused,

[00:43:47] since my mom isn't a big hugger. She then told us that she had arrived at the bus stop to pick us up and was happy that we're now safe. She said she did this because she was worried out

[00:44:03] of her mind, since she had learned that there was a wanted murderer on the run from the police in the woods around our house. My blood ran cold, and I told her about the feeling of being watched

[00:44:17] on our way home. I don't know if it was really the murderer that watched me and my friend, or if it was maybe just a deer. But the chance of it being him still haunts me to this day. So, creepy murderer watching from the woods, let's never meet.

[00:44:50] This happened in my first year of college when I was living in one of the well-known cities of India. I lived in a privately owned hostel with my roommate. I'll call her Zee.

[00:45:04] Zee and I were very close and openly talked about things. We would often have to share our room with other people who would stay for just a few weeks and then leave. They were just temporary

[00:45:17] roommates. Oftentimes, these people were kind of shady and weird, but we had no choice but to share our room as it was the biggest in the hostel and the owner would not give up on any chance of

[00:45:30] getting some extra money. Now, I was just a naive 19-year-old and would get uncomfortable with these weird roommates. So one day, Zee and I started watching some horror movies and videos on YouTube. And obviously, I got scared and I couldn't sleep well that night.

[00:45:50] Now, normally this would only continue for two or three nights and then everything would go back to normal. You know how people get spooked and this stuff happens, but this time, it didn't stop. Zee and I would talk a lot about paranormal stuff. She had more knowledge

[00:46:10] and experiences, so I'd listen. Eventually, I started losing sleep and if I slept at all, I would have weird dreams and always wake up before four in the morning. It affected me in a lot of different ways, but somehow I overcame that problem and started living

[00:46:32] a normal life. Towards the end of the academic year, Zee and I found ourselves sharing the room with two other temporary roommates who would often target me and out of nowhere start telling me

[00:46:47] these paranormal experiences that they have had. It was creepy. One of them told me about how she was possessed and then cured, and the other would tell me about black magic. This happened almost

[00:47:01] every night. Without me even asking them, they would initiate the conversation and I was too dumb and naive to tell them to stop it. Zee made it a point to tell me that all this talk of paranormal

[00:47:17] might open a gate or something might attach itself to me. Of course, this scared me, but I decided not to fall for it. After all, I didn't believe in this stuff. One night, right before summer break, Zee and I were awake past midnight doing our own stuff.

[00:47:40] She had earphones on with music blasting at high volume and I could hear it. The other two roommates were asleep. One of them woke up, looked at the time and said, it's about time and went back to sleep.

[00:47:57] It was around three o'clock. Of course, only I heard her saying that since Zee had the earphones on. Just after the other roommate went back to sleep, we felt a cold wind rush in through the windows

[00:48:17] and we heard a loud bang. I mean, it was a really big thud that came from the apartment complex beside our building. It was so loud that I almost pissed my pants and even Zee heard it

[00:48:32] and sat straight up out of fear. It sounded as if someone had jumped from the terrace of the building that was next to ours and fell right under where our window was. We were scared shitless to see what it was through the windows.

[00:48:52] Right after the thud was heard, the other roommate woke up, looked toward the window facing towards the building and smirked, then went back to sleep. This messed me up so bad. Did she know something?

[00:49:10] We never found out since I went home for summer break the very next day and that roommate moved out a few days later. Now, the next morning, I summed up the courage to see what it was.

[00:49:28] I saw a big wet patch as if something had been washed from that spot. However, I saw brown patches that looked like dried blood. However, there was no smell or any kind of remains.

[00:49:47] It was just a big wet patch with brown stains. It really scared me. Zee, however, was oddly calm. I got over it as I spent a few months at home peacefully, but to the weird temporary roommate, let's not meet again.

[00:50:10] Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. If you'd like to get access to ad-free versions of all of our episodes and over 100 bonus episodes with

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