I SHOULD'VE TRUSTED MY GUT | 7 True Scary Horror Stories From Reddit (Vol. 44)

the following rather embarrassing story took place when I was around nineteen years old I'm a male who lives in Australia and this was in the mid 2000s it was Boxing Day the day after Christmas for those of you in America and there were plenty of good sales on at the local shopping centre loaded with a wallet fat with cash I got into my car and made the journey to the mall unfortunately it seemed everybody else had the same idea the car parks were shockers and there seemed very little movements and plenty of cars circling with the same ideas me to my left a man middle-aged and slightly overweight and wearing too many clothes for the height of summer was gesturing to me I ignored him and did a loop on my return he was still there while I was stuck behind stop cars ahead of me he approached the passenger side window he did not give me a good vibe shaved head on tattoos and unkempt fake leather jacket and gloves in the middle of summer afterwards I could not for the life of me understand why I took the course of action I did hey mate he said Merry Christmas I can you could do me a favor and drive me to the cash converters cash converters was a combined pawnshop quick loan out left a couple of streets from the mall because I was full of Christmas spirit or perhaps thinking I could take this gent if need be or frustrated with trying to find a park getting grateful for the interlude I leaned over and open the door why not I said he got in we left the mall and he began to talk I just liquidated my business he said it had been apparently an electronic goods shop I didn't believe it his appearance and demeanor did not speak to us successful are you even unsuccessful businessmen the hackles on my neck were raising but I realized my first mistake had already been made I can sell you a cheap laptop he said or DVD player I've got to get rid of them that's why I need to go to Kashi stop on my business it's closed I'll get you a cheap laptop now Cheers though I said as nonchalantly as I could manage I noticed that he had never put on his seat belt come on he said it'll be a brand new here's the place it did not seem like the place just seemed like any old place I'm grateful to stop I pulled over adjacent to an Asian grocer my old stop is behind the grocer he said I'll get you something nice nah man I repeated and I'll think I'll leave you here what are you saying he said I like you to get out of the car Thanks are you threatening me no I said and realized I was still seat-belted in he turned his whole body to face me yeah I carry a knife for people like you try to threaten me my mouth went dry thinking on the spot I raised both hands as non-confrontational E as possible I'm not threatening you then he took a knife out of his jean pocket it was a kitchen knife nothing fancy but big enough to chill me to the bone but you give me whatever cash you have in your wallets and I'll bring you back a laptop like I said you're robbing me I said and my hands shook as I reach for the wallet I had to push my hips to reach into my back pockets and all I could think was that if he wanted to now was the time he could stab me cleanly and take the car to if he wanted not robbing you he replied and took the yellow $50 notes out of my pocket pinching them as I held it open for him you'll have a Dell in two minutes he put the knife back opened the car door and sauntered into the grocer calming myself I locked the doors reached for my mobile phone and called triple zero the emergency number here I told the operator what had happened the police station was one Street over on the corner so I assumed they would be on the scene quickly I'm going into the shop I said and I can't remember whether they approved of this plan or not I walked into the grocer and asked of a guy I just walked through they shook their heads and made as if though they spoke no English I assumed he'd gone out the back long story short the guy got away the police attended in about ten minutes and once they had finished shaking their heads about how stupid I'd been to accept a shifty looking bloke for a ride took my statement back at the station that was more or less the end of it and I'd lost several hundred dollars for being a would be good if foolish Samaritan a few weeks later the constable who took my statement called me some girls have been robbed by a fellow who matched the description that I'd given he had sat down at a food court table with them and the same Moll and told them that he had had a knife under the table and the hand over their money the police said they'd call me back if they needed me to view footage or come in but I never heard back a second time the total failure of my instincts which are usually quite good bothered me for a long time afterwards and I felt so bad about being such an easy mark I didn't tell anyone about it for a couple of weeks it the thing that stayed with me was the odd psychological approach taken by this guy he tried to convince that by robbing me he was doing me a favor and that he was acting in self-defense by pulling out a knife I am not sure if that was for his benefit or mine but by the way even when pumped with the Christmas spirit I was very careful about who I helped from that point on this happened in the late nineties in a medium-sized town in New England it was the end of summer I just turned nine I got a nintendo64 for my birthday and I was logging some serious hours of golden high in Mario 64 in this beautiful summer day turned evening my friend had gotten 120 stars and may Yoshi already and here I hadn't even breached 70 when my mom came down the stairs it was time to go pick up my younger brother from camp and since my dad wasn't home from work yet I'd had to go with her I was mid star here I pleaded with her to let me stay home no you can't pause it I won't answer the door if someone calls you're in the shower you'll call them right back I'm not a baby my mom had let me stay home alone during the day a couple of times I knew all the rules but it was dark out and she didn't want to let me stay home alone all night I pleaded with her finally knowing my dad would be home in the next 30 minutes or so she relented score she must have ran into my dad in the driveway because it couldn't have been more than a minute before I heard the garage door open and my dad walk in it was time to go pick up my older brother from football practice I paused my game there was a 0% chance I could convince my dad to let me stay home even for the twenty to thirty minutes it would take to scoop my brother we drove to the field and watched the last 15 minutes the practice under the lights it would have been nearing 9 p.m. by the time we reached the driveway light poured out from the garage as the door went up whoa did you guys see that my brother exclaimed some guy just ran through our backyard our house was set back from the road and surrounded by woods so there definitely shouldn't be anyone in the backyard I thought my brother was trying to scare me and presumably so did my dad because he told him to pipe down it was just a shadow we live in a typical colonial house the garage opened into a finished basement that was our game room my dad and my brother went upstairs as I quickly shuffled back to my game I flipped on the lights and immediately I noticed that the window pane on the door to the backyard had a big hole smashed through it I called for my dad to come back downstairs he went and checked the door it was still closed and locked they checked the rest of the basement another window that opened underneath their deck had a hole in it and a brick was laying on the floor my brother and I were in shock as my dad grabbed a bat and checked the first and second floors no other doors or windows were broken nothing was missing my dad called the police and they showed up a couple of minutes later they checked around outside then they led us out to the back patio and showed us what had happened someone had punched a hole through the door pane so they could reach in and unlock the door they hadn't anticipated that it was actually a key only dead bolt meaning you needed a key to open the door from the inside as well these used to be commonplace but are no longer allowed because of the risk of trapping you in a fire next he tried to kick the door in there were clear footprints all over the door but it held strong after that didn't work he had taken the screen out of the door under the deck thrown a brick through the glass undone the latch and opened the window an inch or two we must have interrupted him when we pulled into the driveway my brother had actually seen a man run into the woods in our backyard two more minutes and he would have been in the really scary part is that all of our doors going in and out of the house were key only deadbolts if he would have gotten in and gone upstairs have we gotten home five minutes later it would have essentially been trapped in the house he would have had to get past us to leave we would have inevitably come face-to-face with the intruder as we went upstairs worse yet he might have hidden somewhere in the house and tried to sneak out later or do God knows what imagine checking your closet as a nine year old and actually finding someone my mom and younger brother got home just as the police were finishing up she told the cop that in the early afternoon she had seen a guy that looked at a place walking down the street he was a youngish white guy with long sandy blond hair and a scruffy beard the cops gave each other a look there had been a string of burglaries one town over and the last one a young girl had been home alone and cotton trying to break in she came face-to-face with him through a window she ran and hid in the closet while she called 911 I actually still broke into the house and left muddy footprints all over he didn't take anything I thought maybe he was looking for the girl because it looked like he had checked under the beds they believe he had fled in a truck stolen from a neighboring house that was burglarized the same day the girl had described him as a young white male with a beard and long sandy blond hair tucked up in a ponytail sure enough the police came back the next morning they had found the stolen truck abandoned and out of gas a couple of streets over it had some stolen electronics in the back and apparently it also had a bunch of woman's clothing that must have been taken from the houses as well they didn't say underwear but I assume that's what they meant they took pictures and lifted fingerprints the cop told us he had most likely been scoping out the neighborhood when my mom saw him they chose our house because there were woods all around it he had probably waited in the woods and watch the cars leave before trying to break in that was when it all started to dawn on me that if my dad hadn't gotten home right when he did or if he had let me stay home while he picked up my brother I would have probably been home alone when the guy tried to break in this guy who had already broken into one house when he knew a little girl was home needless to say I didn't want to stay home alone for a little while after that a couple of days later I was playing outside with the neighborhood kids we went to hang out in the fort we built in the woods that overlooked my backyard and found 20 cigarette butts inside the guy must have hidden out in my fort and watched our house all afternoon and evening until we saw both cars leave if I hadn't gotten that a nintendo64 for my birthday a few days earlier I would have almost definitely been playing in the woods that day I also wouldn't have wanted to stay home alone though so my Nintendo both saved my life and nearly got me killed [Music] this is another story about how my usual spot on instincts concerning people failed me spectacularly it starts with an innocent night on the town with my coworker and friend Georgia or as I always called her gee she's a teensy pocket-sized elf of a girl who bears a close resemblance to a young Claire Danes so not altogether unfortunate looking this was during a period when my boyfriend and I were separated she was single too so we went out to the local watering holes together quite often it was that period of our lives where a night on the town meant dressing to the nines and then drinking dancing and flirting all night long now as for myself I very rarely drink I get inebriated even less often my limit is usually one mixed drink or two beers I just don't like to put myself into a state where I am NOT in control especially in a bar type of setting where you really need to be on your guard for this reason I usually drove whenever we went to the local watering holes but that night there was something wrong with my car if I remember correctly there was an exhaust leak it wasn't something that would keep the car from running but could possibly cause us to be pulled over not a scenario that someone who was a drunk passenger and potentially a drink or two and their system wants to invite since we didn't want to run the risk of having any run-ins with the law we decided that G would drive to make a long story short she got spectacularly drunk and decided to leave with an ex that she happened to run into during that night don't worry though she says James said he would take you home James is the nice-looking guy that she had introduced me to during the night she told me that they went to the same church and she had known him since she was a kid and he was a really nice guy James and I had been talking and dancing and yes even flirting a little as the night progressed because I felt like we had gotten to know each other a little bit and because he came with cheese stamp of approval not something she gave readily to anyone I felt fairly comfortable accepting a ride home also I was kind of put on the spot since she had already asked James and told me about it's in front of him I didn't want to insult a guy I potentially wanted to go out with looking back I wish to whatever you worship that I just called a cab on the way to my place James dropped a lot of hints I'm not ready to call it a night I'd like to hang out a bit more I could use another beer etc I casually told him that I was tired and ready for bed and thanked him for the ride he asked for a kiss and I gave him a playful peck on the cheek patted him on the arm and shut the car door the next day I go out to run errands and the phone rings as I'm walking in the door it's James wanting to hang out I'm tired so I say he can come over and we'll watch a movie and hang out for a short while when I hang up I see he's left a couple of messages while I was out hmm a little pushy but okay I guess maybe he just really likes me or sitting on the couch watching a movie and he goes from friendly companion to full-on makeout mode and 0.2 seconds I mean one second were sitting on the couch at a comfortable distance not holding hands or even touching each other the next he's practically on top of me ramming his tongue down my throat oh no dude homegirl don't play that so I'm telling him no when he's acting like he doesn't get it he's getting slightly more and more aggressively affectionate and I'm starting to locate panic and I remember what I said exactly but I did eventually manage to get to not the door relatively unscathed I thought saved for a copious amount of unwanted slobber when I went to change for bed later I found finger marks on my upper arms from where he dripped me so hard the next night I got approximately 10 calls from James I didn't answer he left voicemails every single time this is before everyone had electronic leashes a case cell phones I myself only had a landline so it was a lot easier to go someone back then I figured I just not answered the phone and he'd eventually give up like most sensible people right wrong my phone rings at 4:00 a.m. now we know nothing good happens at that hour the night people don't call you up to chat so when I was jolted out of sleep I answered the phone automatically without even pausing to think or look at caller ID its James what are you doing are you kidding me I'm sleeping no you're not yes I am that's what most people do it for you I'm on a work night why is your living room light on them you know that old saying my blood ran cold well I always thought it was a dramatic phrase to describe sudden fear but you don't fully understand it until you experience it the way I did he was calling me from right outside my front door I was single lived alone and had no weapon I was in the habit of leaving certain lights on at all times because quite honestly I'm afraid of the dark I feel safer with lights on and even sleep with a bedside lamp on I always have since I was a child I don't remember what I said back except that it involved lots of swearing and it ended with him pounding on my door and calling me repeatedly for about a half hour or so I eventually had to call the police to get rid of him the next day I sarcastically thank G for the setup and she was furious when she saw the bruises on my arms she ended up admitting that she didn't really know James all that well but they had been acquainted for a long time and he seemed like a nice guy he kept up the psycho dialing for a while but finally quit when G confronted him about my bruises and threatened to expose his behavior to their church community and worse his mother [Music] I'd like to share a story about a once good friend turned horrible ex with you all we met back in high school by chance I was sitting in the library one early morning doodling a little in a notebook when Tim came up to me we shared a lot of common interests and I was deeply impressed by his drawing skills as he sketched a few drawers for me for the first few years things were fine we were great friends and got to know one another very well he was the oldest of three children and the only boy in his family that was fairly religious not the se Grayson Hail Mary religious but definitely the say grace over the meal for five minutes in church every Sunday religious I'm not really religious myself but I wouldn't say I'm an atheist I believe there is something greater than all of us but I don't believe whatever it is demands we only talk to him and churches or over food now Tim was a nice guy and I did develop a crush on him but I always felt whenever I made a move he would back off and avoid it so I never assumed it would ever evolve into the anything more things however changed at the end of my junior year at the time my family's visa in the US had been misfiled and we were told we had two options leave the US for a year and reapply or fight it and risk being deported at the same time my dad had been fired from his job for some BS reason and my maternal grandmother was not doing well this in turn affected my mom very badly because this was her last living parent and she hadn't had the chance to help her father during his last few years this left her with a lot of guilt and what-ifs and could have stat plate her endlessly at the same time I was entering my senior year three credits short of graduation early and my sister was in the second year of college there was also the fact that the United States was pretty much the only home I had ever known so it was a question of when and not if so my dad does the only thing he can think of he asked some of his co-workers and family friends if they would take my sis in me in for a year so that I could finish high school at least the family I ended up living for and that year was absolutely wonderful they had only a son who we were friends with and they treated me like family from day one the mom was Catholic but she was one of the really great ones that wouldn't preach her faith in to others or judge you by it they had sort of adopted a lot of their sons friends who didn't have the nice home life and when one of them came out as gay she just smiled and said to him God doesn't make mistakes you're exactly as you're supposed to be I started to call the mom and dad version 2.0 really fast because I felt they deserved those titles too for everything they helped me with they took me into their home and let me live with them absolutely free all they asked was that I studied hard in school did a few chores when they asked and respected that there's no alcohol or anything elicits in their house easy it was here though that Tim started to show a side that none of us liked at first it was just minor stuff he would call almost daily to ask what I was doing and to hang out and if I said I couldn't because of something studying wanting to spend time with other friends then he would call my other parents to ask if it was true it wasn't new to relationships but because I was technically an illegal immigrant in the States at the time I'd had so many things in my plates I didn't notice the signs things got even more stressful as my other father got prostate cancer and needed help getting to and from the hospital I had to prioritize my school other family and then boyfriend and friend with other responsibilities for whatever reason Tim didn't like that he started demanding I spent more time with him that whenever I was free to go over to his house and spend the day I liked his family they were nice people but I am also an introvert and if I don't have at least a little bit of solo time I can't recharge proper soon the pressuring started it was strange it was to go to church his church he kept saying how it was important and how I'd feel great going there and loved it and it was a Christian duty this is right when the whole muhammed drawing controversy happened and I've never found comfort in religions much less the kind where they pressure you on Christian duties I avoided it for a while until I finally got the courage to tell him I wasn't comfortable with the idea of going to church and given everything I need to ensure to graduate as well my other family's own problems I didn't feel I had time to add Church to it he would think it was okay but not for Tim he got super offended and started demanding that I give a better reason as to why not even went as far as to go to my other mother and talk to her about the idea of us going to church she thankfully told him that was my choice and regardless of his feelings about it he needed to respect that then the creep factor went up knotch he started showing up uninvited both at my home in school he had graduated at the time and was in college it was easy for him to get into school grounds since he had gone there too he would go looking for me all over campus try to guess which classes I would take him to find me both my other parents and even other brother even caught him once trying to peek into my room through the blinds to see if I was home after asking if that was really there or not my other mother told him that was inappropriate while my other father told him to never do that again because it was unacceptable my brother at first made a few jokes about him calling him bogles for trying to peep in but after he caught him doing it again at 2:00 in the morning while it was asleep he told him he was officially going into Creepers territory and that he would beat him down if he didn't stop I stopped laughing whenever Tim was around I became more and more reserved to the point where everyone but Tim commented that I didn't seem happy in the relationship at all and it was weird too because the furthest that we'd ever even really gone was holding hands he wouldn't even let me kiss him on the cheek in private the final straw came when I was over at his place trying to figure out how to tell him I wanted to go back to being friends when his mom suddenly said that it was so nice that we were following tradition I asked her what she meant and she told me that she and her husband had been highschool sweethearts and married right after high school and that Tim was doing the same my full-on panicked we hadn't dated long we barely did anything that could be called being a couple and I was heading back to Denmark after I graduated I was only 18 and nowhere near the age where I felt ready to marry not to mention how conflicted I was feeling about the relationship I couldn't see this ever working out I was starting to see that our relationship as a couple was more toxic rather than healthy the first chance I had I told him in private that I didn't feel like this was working out I still wanted to be kind and not to embarrass him in front of his family I've never felt breakups should be public displays Tim did not take this well he pleaded and begged saying if I just tried to go to church with him I would see the light not sure how since he knew I didn't want to then I was ruining his family's tradition he tried to argue that if we married I could stay in the States but I didn't want to marry for a green card in the end we both parted in tears and with other things unresolved a few weeks pass in silence as I focus on school and just recharging I'm getting ready to graduate and dealing with the reality that my biological parents won't get to see it because of our finances weren't very good at the time and try to focus that my other family and sister will at least see me get my diploma then joy upon joys my mom wrote to me to say she's going to visit for a week to see my graduation I wanted both of them there but was so thankful that at least one of them would be there I happily told my friends about it and we all started talking about who we'd be giving our graduation tickets to I can't remember how many we had but I remember I had a few left over after inviting my mom other parents and two brothers and one of my friends asked that Tim was coming I wasn't sure if I wanted them there after what had happened but at the same time I had been to his back when we were friends I'm like an idiot I reached out and asked him if he wanted to come as a friend Tim became irate ranting how I was being selfish his anger was so explosive that it shocked me and he finished it by saying to me there are five priorities in life God family health school and friends not order but you don't seem to get that your order is family friends school health and then God you need to sort yourself out at the time I was too shocked to react at first because I muttered a small but that is how I see things they are what matters before walking away I gave my extra tickets to a classmate who needed them more because he had one of those massive close-knit families graduation comes and I received my diploma with tears and pride knowing that which high school diploma doesn't mean a whole lot it is my first set of proof that I can dedicate the time needed to learn something I tossed my cap look forward after and immediately go off to get the real thing our school kept them hostage so we would have to behave during the ceremony and look for family when I found them I can instantly tell you that something was off they smile at me but clearly something is bothering them I asked what was wrong but they just brushed it off making an excuse that someone had one of those stupid annoying horns with them I didn't believe them and in the end my mom told me that Tim had shown up she knew a little bit about the drama going on and figured he was just there to say congratulations well spoiler he wasn't he said he needed to talk to her about me and how I needed to be saved then I was destined for eternal torment because I wasn't embracing the church or what my woman duties were meant to be she asked him what he meant and he said to obey her future husband she lost it nye did too when she told me we were not engaged and even if he was I am NOT some dog that's meant to follow orders and the words of a pastor I once had God made Eve from Adam's rib not from his head for she was not above him not his foot for she is not behind him but his side for she is equal and so that he can place his arm around her to protect her when needed I'm not religious but I've always liked the way of explaining Adam and Eve so to hear that Tim thought I was his to order around made me furious the last I spoke with him I let him have it I yelled and threatened telling him if he ever thought he had any rights to decide what I deemed important in my life that he had another thing coming he tried to argue that I needed to be saved and finally I just screamed I screamed that I didn't need to be saved that I didn't want to be saved and I'm happy as I am they stared at me saying that I didn't mean it I said I did and that if he kept pushing as he was then I didn't want to speak with him again I told him it was making our friendship unbearable and defeated and learned to respect people's opinions on religion the next relationship he would be in wouldn't work either he got angry and said that I was destined for hell and in a fit of rage I told him our relationship is how you've made it that way to which I left immediately I live in the States for a month after that and we didn't talk about it his family tried to plead for me to apologize to Tim for what I had said but I told them that I had meant it because of his constant bullying after that I wasn't welcomed at their house anymore not that I never even wanted back to him try to reach out to me again a few years later with some sort of over religious story and how I was like the main character I told him I would like it if we could be friends but if he was going to send me religious texts like before he needed to delete my contact info we haven't spoken since he ended up dating a dear friend of mine a few years later only to mess it up the same way he had ours my friend had asked if I was okay with them dating to which I told her honestly that that wasn't for me to decide just because he was my ex didn't give me any right to say that he could or couldn't date but reminded her to not let him bully her about religion she had just left the Mormon Church to this day I think he's still single and trying to find some girl that he can save with religion and while I wish for him to find his special someone some day that meets his needs willing I will say this Tim I'm glad we'll never meet again as an ocean is now between us so I was walking through the town center with my husband we were just talking about what bills needed paying etc I looked over for me and straight in front of me was a man this is no ordinary man this is a man whose face is etched into my brain and my memory a memory I locked away many many years ago when I was around 8 my aunt who had a few learning disabilities lived on her own she was not very clean lived in a one-bedroom flat with around five cats it stunk it was dirty but I used to go by to help her tidy up and look after the cats there was a man who lived in the upstairs flats we'll call him see she also had cats and his cats had kittens she had befriended my aunt and used to come talk to her they seemed like good friends but I didn't like him too much one day while I was there see turned up he had been up feeding kittens for most of the night as the mum cat was rejecting them he said he was tired and if he fell asleep to wake him in two hours to feed the kittens two hours went by and my aunt said we need to wake up see so he can feed them my aunt tried to wake him shaking all he did was grumble and tell us to get away from him while he was sleeping my aunt started to laugh thinking he was joking and started pulling at his foot she hid down on this foot and shouted see you need to get up and go feed your kittens all of a sudden he jumps up no emotion on his face look straight towards me and start to march his way across the room I tried to run for the door but he managed to catch me around my neck his hands went tighter and tighter I wanted to scream and cry I wanted my mom I thought I was going to die as he raised me off the floor with his hand still around my neck slowly creeping up the wall I was eight around fifty six pounds so was not big at all on very petite I could feel the life being drained for me all of a sudden I felt my body sliding quickly down the wall I felt a very sharp pain at the top of my legs where it meets your bum and realized that he had slammed me down on a radiator that was on the wall and with that he let go straighten herself out and said I'm going to feed the kittens and left I was crying so hard I just wanted my mother my aunt just stood there with her mouth open she didn't try to help but just stood there screaming while he did it funny thing is as I knew she was screaming but in that few minutes that it took to happen it was like silence for me pure silence all I remember is just looking see in the eyes thinking I'm never going to see my mom or brother and sisters again why I won't rang my mom she got a taxi straight to her house my stepdad came and went - fine see he had disappeared no one knew where he was for two weeks my stepdad waited outside the flats but he didn't come back some cat protected people came and got the cats and kittens and took them away the police showed up as my mom was ringing them and a neighbor had heard the commotion and rang them as well they took statements and took us home I saw had to have photos taken my injuries around my neck and just under my bum where I had a big gash from the side of the radiator I had to have a dress by a nurse for a while but it was okay and fortunately just left a scar she went to courts and luckily I didn't have to attend because of my age all he got was one year conditional discharge I was told this means if he did anything within a year he would have this charge to put onto whatever the charge was and was not justice it was a joke I was scared to leave my home they want to play out with friends my aunt went on not to talk with family and actually marry that man only lasted about six months I wanted so much to wreck the wedding I hated him I hated her I hated them I hated them to the point I cried why should they be happy when they stole my light my light was now dark it divided a lot of the family it took a long time for nightmares to stop and the anxiety he was going to come finish what he started I put it away in the box never wanting to open it again and there he was stood right in front of me right there I wanted to go slap beat him but also wanted my husband to just hug me tight and tell me I was okay as I look back he looked at me but I don't even think he knew who I was but I certainly knew who he was as quick as I saw him he was gone I stood on my feelings for a few days but I think it's time to put them back in the box where they belong [Music] this was a few years ago I was 23 and I just graduated University with my journalism degree I graduated this semester later than my friends and as a result was still slinging beers at a restaurant while most others had bagged internships so were working their nine-to-five s I was frankly feeling a little lost and desperate to be doing something for my career enter my series of poor life choices I was working a day shift at the restaurant so bartending and serving all the lounge tables it was a really quiet afternoon in this stout old man probably between 70 and 80 years old was brought up to my section with two menus I took his drink order and he told me he had a friend coming soon so he would wait to get food after a half-hour no one shows I started to feel bad for him and I still had my managerial access even though I was bartending so I offered him an appetizer on the house while he waited but he looked dejected and refused at this point he was the only customer so I sat with him to keep him company he told me about how his friend was a photographer and she had offered to take his photo as reference for him to draw a self-portrait from he said that his neighbor always calls him the thinker and she had painted his deck for him so he wanted to give her the drawing of himself in the pose as a gift but he sighed and said he didn't think his photographer friend would be joining him after all he got this sad look on his face and said it's hard to find people to help with this once you get to my age all your friends are dead immediately I jumped up and said I'm actually a photographer I just graduated the degree majoring in photojournalism I can take your photo do you have a camera we can take it right now he said he wanted the photo to be realistic though with a background of trees so he refused and here's where I get stupid I tell him that we can meet the next day it's my day off we can go to a nearby park and I'll bring a professional camera in my head I'm thinking that this is great I have a reason to use my expertise to help someone instead of hate watching the Kardashians all day while everyone else is at an office we agree to meet at a cafe by the park first to have a coffee and talk then we go take the photos I went home a static thinking I did a good deed and I made a new old man friend who can share his wisdom or whatever we met at the cafe and talked for a while he kept insisting that he would pay me $300 but I told him I just wanted to help him he was getting increasingly sheepish though and saying he didn't want to get embarrassed alarm bells were ringing in my head but I couldn't figure out why he was acting really strange and fidgety but I chalked it up to him not like him being photographed as we were finishing the coffee he admitted that the neighbor didn't really paint his deck but she actually gave him a topless photo of herself which was why he wanted to give her the portrait he had a weird look in his eye and I was immediately uncomfortable and put off by his demeanor and the sudden story change at this point I just wanted this whole thing over with so I said something stupid like oh wow well that's nice anyway let's get going I had walked through the cafes and sit in the park or only about two kilometers away from my house but he said he couldn't walk to the park so we can take his car so I got into his car I know when we're inside he takes out a photo album that says the topless picture she gave me is in here do you want to see it so I said no not at all and I proceeded to not get out of his car I truly cannot explain myself he starts driving and were looping through this giant park I keep pointing out places where he can perch to do the thinker pose they says it's not secluded enough says he doesn't want to be embarrassed at this point I finally realized what a ridiculously insane situation I put myself in I'm a young defenseless woman in a car with a man I don't know who is looking for secluded places in the woods great I wondered what photo of me they'd use in my obituary I finally convinced him to pull over next to a bench I had my body half out the door before he said wait how should we do this I gave him a confused look and asked what he meant well should I take my clothes off in the car or out in the bench if I was a cartoon my jaw would have been on the floor I kept the door open and my foot outside and asked us what he meant and he said well I told you I wanted to be realistic I'm a sculpture the thinker is naked I thought you understood sir please at no point was that a discussion and I have already basically invited myself to be ended here I say as much a nicer term since I still don't want that that come to fruition so he tried this sad act and said that this is why he didn't want to be embarrassed he offered to pay me $500 I say a series of no nope and never but I'm still trying to get out of here alive so I told him that if he stays fully clothed I will take a photo of him on the bench in the pose and email it to him he can imagine the rest he put the sad act on again but agreed as I'm leaving he insists on giving me a hundred dollar bill for my trouble even though I continue to say no but he puts it in my hand I have ran the entire way to the University bar and spent the day drinking and feeling violated and awful and confused and upset with myself and with him I spent the dirty money on fancy whiskey for my boyfriend because I didn't want it I never sent in the photos but wait there's more months later I went on a trip to the mountains with some friends two of whom I worked with at the restaurant I had moved SD cards around and put an old one in my point-and-shoot camera honestly forgetting about those photos because I never even looked at them one of my co-workers was scrolling through the photos we'd taken while we were eating and she scrolled all the way to the beginning and said I recognize that man turns out he did the exact same thing to her five months prior to my idiocy at the same restaurant only she did let him get down to his skivvies a week and a half ago my friend Mary and I were chillin at my apartment around 11:00 p.m. not doing much and so we decided to go play pool at a local smaller than average bar about five miles at most from my place I've been there before and it was never really busy most nights and it was more my type of bar because the setting was much more intimate and you could actually have a conversation with the person next to you we met this one bald guy who was playing pool when we got there and we asked if we could join him he seemed like good company and we were having fun playing pool I want to note this guy was not at all creepy he seemed like a pal fast forward to a cigarette break outside an average-looking guy approaches the three of us and starts striking up a conduit me honestly I had quite a bit to drink so I really don't remember much but my friend Mary said that he seemed into me he seemed harmless so I gave him my facebook info why not long story short we exchanged texts over a period of like five days I learned that he had previously worked as a vet tech that's what I do currently he asked me out I was a little skeptical because I just gotten out of something not too long ago but I've never really had the chance yet to date someone who loves animals as much as me so I thought it might be cool to see how things sort of align on Saturday evening he picked me up to take me out for some food we had an OK time but I wasn't super feeling his energy I got this weird gut feeling and my mama always told me to follow my gut my gut has never been wrong and I'm so glad I listened to it this time this guy is 32 and I'm 23 I've dated a few older men I don't go looking for older guys but it just and out that way and he just gave me this predatory vibe the whole time I can't really explain it but it's similar to how someone would look at a meal after not eating for a long time and it gave me chills I bailed early that night so I could work the next day at 9:00 a.m. he sent me about 20 messages over nights up until about 4:00 in the morning via Facebook that evening about how he was so happy to meet me yada yada 20 messages it freaked me out so I blocked him I thought that that was the end of it but no fast forward to last night I was just minding my business playing some Mass Effect Andromeda romancing some blue alien chicks hanging out with my dog I just so happened to walk out of my room I wanted to note that it was extremely hard to hear people knocking my door when I'm in my room with the door closed it's all the way across my apartment so I walked out and heard knocking I was expecting no one as I was planning on lounging under a rock my entire day off but I peeked through the hole in the door and guess who was knocking I have no idea when he got there I sprinted into my room adrenaline pumping and pantless trying not to have a panic attack I didn't know this guy why was he at my door bad news too was I had broken my phone recently and my roommates had moved out the same weekend to move in with her boyfriend so a legit thought I'm gonna die here tonight covered in cheeto dust with hairy legs this is about 9 p.m. at night I called my friend Mary the girl who had been bar with me who booked it over to my apartment from her place which was about 15 miles from mine he had been knocking on my door for about 45 minutes when she showed up she filmed him so we have his face on camera and eventually she convinced him to leave mainly because she threatened to call the cops once she got to my door I opened it and found a bag of Kiwis which was kind of random and a small bouquet of flowers found on my doorknob oh and he also tried to give my friend some dank if you know what I mean in exchange for talking to me what the heck I mean you really can't barter when it comes to me a living breathing human hey friends thanks for listening be sure to subscribe and click that notification bell to be alerted of all future narrations if you got a story be sure to submit them to my subreddit our let's read official and give and receive feedback from the community and maybe even hear your story featured on the next video and join my discord to interact with me and other listeners directly and if you want to support me even more grab early access to all future narrations for just $1 a month on patreon and maybe even pick up some let's read merch on Spreadshirt and check out the let's read podcast where you can hear all these stories and long compliation form and save huge on data located on both Spotify and Apple podcasts links in the bio thanks so much friends and I'll see you again soon

Channel: Lets Read!

Views: 88,737

Rating: 4.8714194 out of 5

Keywords: true scary stories, scary stories, scary true stories, horror stories, true horror stories, true stories, scary horror stories, reddit scary true stories, ASMR, asmr sleep, true scary stories from reddit, true horror stories from reddit, lets not meet, stories from reddit, reddit, lets read, asmr reading, true creepy stories, creepy stories, subscriber submitted scary stories, subscriber submissions, true scary stories reddit lets not meet

Id: XIDgPeBoZqw

Length: 50min 18sec (3018 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 19 2019