Scary True Stories Told In the Rain | Thunderstorm Video | (Scary Stories)

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free premium membership for 30 days when entering the promo code scared you will receive 10% off the Premium Membership put your trust in me get on this it's - lang comm forward slash scared [Music] [Music] some background information I am a male 29 years old living in the u.s. in the New England area I live with my folks and our house isn't super secluded or anything but we do have two acres of land surrounded by woods in our back yard down a rather steep hill this happened about six years ago now and nothing like this has happened since I was home alone for the weekend as my folks had gone to visit my older brother out of state and I was tasked with taking care of our animals including chickens ducks geese and our beloved canine companions we have always had way too many dogs and at this time we had ten of them so taking care of them was a job all on its own my folks had left Thursday evening and most of Friday passed without incident until around 12:30 Friday night I was still awake in my bedroom on the computer browsing around when my pitbull who we had affectionately named butters began to whine up my door wanting to go for a walk I didn't mind as it was July and the temperature outside was perfect for a nice midnight walk I grabbed his leash his collar and my flashlight and headed downstairs as he followed excitedly we made our way outside and down the hill across the field and onto a trail that I used frequently for this purpose the trail led through the woods and into a clearing with a pond and another trail that led even deeper into the woods butters still hadn't gone to the bathroom yet so I continued down the other trail at the same time letting go of the leash as I knew that he liked to go off the trail a bit to take care of business butters took off ahead of me aways but he always knew to stay within eyesight finally he took care of business and I had called him over to me so that I could take hold of his leash again and start heading back when he stopped in his tracks his ears perked up and his tail went rigid he began to growl and raise his hackles while looking further down the dark and twisty path of the trail I called him over again worried that he was gonna take off into the night after a squirrel or something but he completely ignored me he was totally focused on something further on down the trail I began to approach him hoping to grab hold of his leash but as I started towards him he took off like a bolt of lightning down the trail barking like a mad dog into the darkness ahead I started running after him hoping that he would stop but he was too fast and before I knew it he was completely gone from sight I could still hear him barking in the distance but it was faint and soon enough I could no longer hear him either I stopped running to catch my breath as I knew trying to catch up to him was a futile effort at this point I started calling out to him while continuing to walk down the path shining my flashlight into the woods hoping to spot him nearby or something I was starting to worry as he usually never acted like this I mean sure he had run off on a walk before but had always come right back when called I wasn't walking for long before I heard something coming from further on down the trail I aimed my flashlight in the direction the sound was coming from it sounded like something bounding down the path toward me but I couldn't see anything suddenly butters came flying out of the woods and down the path toward me I thought he would stop at my feet so I could grab his leash but he blasted right past me and almost knocked me over I started to feel like something was wrong as I couldn't imagine what had my 100-pound pitbull so spooked I spun around after him shouting at him to stop but just like before he wasn't listening and soon he was out of sight again now I was alone in the dark without my buddy to protect me from whatever it was that had him running at least he was headed towards the house this time I hoped that he would come back at some point so that I wouldn't have to walk the trail alone but I didn't hear him at all in fact it was eerily quiet no crickets chirping just an ominous quiet needless to say I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible as I made my way onward I spotted something in the darkness ahead of me I couldn't tell what it was exactly I called out to butters hoping it was him but whatever it was it didn't react to me at all I felt very uneasy all of a sudden as a chill shot down my spine and a cold sweat began to form all over my body I moved closer hoping to be able to see it more clearly as I slowly raised my flashlight towards it the light gradually revealing the path ahead until I could see the boots of someone standing on the trail I jerked the light upwards to reveal a man standing there facing me this guy was huge built like a brick wall and very tall I'm 6 1 and this guy looked like he towered over me from where I was standing he had long scraggly brown hair and a long dirty brown beard with bits of leaves and dirt stuck inside it his jacket was covered in dirt and his jeans were ripped and heavily stained with god only knows what he was standing sort of half-cocked swaying back and forth in place like a drunk this was private property but even if it wasn't it would still be very odd to see someone hanging out in the woods at night it was very dark and pretty much impossible to see without a light of some kind I felt nauseous as my stomach dropped suddenly my knees felt weak and I thought about running but whoever this man was he was standing between me and the way back home I just kind of stood there my flashlights still shining in his face he didn't react at all not even to shield his eyes from the light It was as if he was in some sort of trance I don't even think he was aware of my presence at all until I called out to him just as simple hey are you all I didn't even have time to finish what I was saying the sound of my voice seemed to break him out of his trance and to my surprise and absolute terror he began sprinting towards me screaming like a madman I stumbled backwards and almost fell over as I turned around to run back down the path his boots stomping on the ground his mad screaming approaching fast he was absolutely crazed like a rabid animal and he chased me down the trail further and further away from home I was panicked at this point my heart was pounding in my chest as adrenaline coursed through my veins I was scared real scared as I couldn't imagine what this man was going to do to me if he caught me I know I couldn't keep running in this direction as the trail eventually Peters out and sort of dissolves into the woods after a certain point I thought maybe I could lose him if I turned off my light and hopped off the trail to hide and let him pass the man had stopped screaming and I dared to steal a quick glance behind me I could see that the man was still keeping pace with me I shut off my light and pushed myself as hard as I could hoping to gain a bit more distance between us the path turned ahead and I thought if I could get around that corner and hide before he caught up I might be okay I had never run so hard and so fast in all of my life and it was beginning to take its toll on my lung I had asthma and it was getting harder to breathe when I felt like I had gotten far enough ahead of him I jumped off the trail and hid behind a large pine tree just at the outside edge of the path I pressed myself up against the tree and tried to quiet my heavy breathing as much as I could it wasn't long before this crazy bastard came bounding around the corner he was a lot closer than I had thought and I hoped that he hadn't seen me turn off the trail to hide he stopped about five feet away from my hiding place and began searching around for me I really didn't want this guy to find me but I was too afraid to move he started shouting incoherently and violently thrashing about the brush just a few feet away from me I had to get him away from me I slowly bent down against the tree and felt around on the ground for a rock or a stick anything that I could throw to distract him luckily my hands found a good-sized stone and I took hold of it and waited for a break in the noise he was making I wanted to be sure that he would hear it when I threw it in between the sounds of his thrashing and growling I tossed the stone away from me and across the trail it smacked into a tree crossed away and fell to the forest floor with a thud the crazy man stood upright and took off in the direction of the sound still thrashing around violently and shouting gibberish I wasted no time and quickly but carefully made my way back onto the trail and took off sprinting towards home I kept my flashlight on as I was scared on my trip over something I wasn't running for long went to my horror I heard the maddening screams of the madman chasing behind me yet again I was tired and still pretty out of breath from earlier but the man hadn't slowed at all if anything he was even faster than before I was giving it my all but I could tell he was gaining on me fast I had made it to the clearing past the pond and to the small trail that led to my backyard I practically launched myself down the trail I could see the light from my house at the top of the hill the man was a laughing as he chased close behind I blasted out of the trail and into my yard quickly making my way across the field I got halfway up the hill when I realized that couldn't hear the man anymore I stole a quick look behind me and stopped in surprise the man was no longer chasing me he had stopped at the entrance to the trail and was just standing there looking at me I shined my light at him and he gave me the creepiest smile and wave that I've ever seen as if we had been playing some kind of a game that he had lost and then he simply turned around and walked back into the woods I made it back to the house to find butters waiting at the door like nothing had ever happened wagging his tail excited to see me I rushed inside to call the cops and they sent a couple officers over I described the man to them and they searched around the area but didn't find anything thankfully though they stayed and patrolled the neighborhood for the rest of the night and that made me feel pretty safe I don't really know what more they could have done in the dark anyway I couldn't stay mad at butters for bailing on me I was just too happy and relieved that we were both home and safe I never expected anything like that to happen so close to home and on our private property from that point on I never went for any midnight walks without a knife and some pepper spray I work in a well-known nursing home in Australia which has branches all over the country the facility I work in is the largest one and has a lot of residents all with many different backstories some are love stories some are war stories but some can be horrific and this one stands out from all the rest I was working a morning shift which began at 6:30 a.m. and I was delighted to see that I was in one of my favorite wings of the facility I love my job and my residence so I always engage with them and have a great rapport with pretty much all of them when I got to my floor I began getting the residents out to the dining room for breakfast with the other nurses and I was sad to see that one of the residents I enjoyed talking to had passed away and in her room was a new lady after my moment of sadness I looked forward to getting to know this new Lanie so breakfast began and the nurse in charge of the dining room asked me to feed the new lady I saw earlier I was happy to because I could have a good chat with her over breakfast before I went over to her my colleague said she can talk but she's very quiet I guess he mentioned that because he knew I enjoyed talking to the residents so I go and sit with her in the lounge where she was watching the morning news on TV peacefully I introduced myself and explained that I was going to feed her this morning she nodded so I sat down and got to work my colleague was right she was very quiet I worked with that not pushing for conversation just letting her do her own thing then a news report about Ivan Milat a notorious serial killer came on the TV and I noticed she perked up a little the news reporter went on to say how with the new development of Technology it would deter new or would be serial killers solve cold cases and even catch serial killers that remained unidentified and wore on the loose as soon as the reporter said this the old lady beside me let out an excited loud laugh and said well you bastard still haven't caught me and she continued to laugh I was taken back and startled I continued to feed this woman but for the rest of the report on Ivan Milat she kept a manic and huge grin on her face that I will never forget a little later I had to do paperwork on this lady because she is new and needs to be monitored I read through her file and my blood ran cold she didn't have any disease that impaired her cognitive abilities the only reason she was here was due to an aggressive cancer development so she wasn't a crazy lady spouting nonsense she was serious I am currently in my late 20s but at the time of these events my eighth grade school year had just ended I was excited that I was going to be able to spend the entire summer with my two closest buddies and that we would be heading into ninth grade together we didn't really do much other than just hang out play ps2 play some basketball outside and message girls from our class on instant messenger which I hope most of you remember what that was if not then I guess I'm getting way too old we would usually hang out at my house because my parents were always pretty cool with my friends being there and the way my house was set up we pretty much had a ton of privacy which was awesome for teenage boys being idiots my house at the time was located on a pretty quiet street but my neighborhood was in close proximity to the more rough sections in my hometown a close walk from my house was a corner store that sold really cheap soda chips and candy this was obviously a frequent destination for me and my friends about a week after eighth grade ended my two buddies were spending the night like they always did we thought it would be a cool idea to sneak out of the house after my parents went to sleep and walked to the corner store a few blocks away of course not to do anything crazy but just to have the thrill of being out late when we're not supposed to be and being a foolish teenager I had no awareness of the danger I was potentially putting myself and my friends in around 11 o'clock my parents went to sleep and that's when we decided to sneak out at first the thrill of being out was awesome but the feeling would soon change when we got to the store we went in there with about $20 and we planned on spending it on snacks we all split up to grab certain things I was in the back corner looking at the soda when I saw somebody lurking in the opposite corner the only reason why this was concerning to me was because he was facing me and not facing the shelves or the products I pretend that I didn't notice him because who knows maybe it was just a coincidence as I looked at the Faygo sodas I noticed in the reflection of the cooler that a shadowy figure was now moving closer and still facing me I quickly grabbed a 2-liter and went and found my friends I darted away and when I looked back the figure was standing right where I had been just a moment to go and still facing me I was freaked out but didn't want to let my friends know that I was I also want to add that there was nobody else in the store other than us the cashier and whoever this person was we grabbed our stuff and cashed out I was trying to be quick about it but my friends were being stupid and loud perhaps trying to show off but honestly I was just freaking out we started walking back the several blocks home I was moving pretty good and finally my friends stopped and asked what my problem was I told them what had happened in the store and they seemed pretty rattled as well we continued moving quickly my house was maybe only 100 feet away at this point when we noticed that the person from the store was now rushing full speed up the hill towards us we bolted and ran as fast as we could lucky for us the lunatic was still quite a ways away we ran into the front door and for some reason still tried to be quiet as to not wake my parents we turned and locked the door made sure all the lights were off the person reached my house and started to bang on the front door angrily that's when I finally gave in to logic and woke my parents who immediately called the authorities I tried yelling through the door that we called the cops and the person didn't seem to respond he just kept trying to open the door and continued banging on it after a minute or two he took a decorative stone from our front yard and broke the window next to the front door that is when I finally got a good look at the guy he tried to climb into the window and the broken glass knocked his hood off he was completely expressionless he had dirty blond hair was clean-shaven and honestly looked like an average Joe he was about halfway through the window when my dad came out with a bat and started swinging it at him before there was too much of a struggle we saw the lights and heard sirens the cops got out of the car screaming and pulled the man out of the window it was the most intense thing that I have ever seen in my life the man was obviously arrested apparently he had no criminal history and no history of drugs or alcohol when questioned by the cops he said honestly I was bored and I just felt like being evil we had no idea what his intentions were but just felt incredibly lucky that we somehow came out of that event physically unharmed mentally I still think about that night over a decade later I used to stay up for hours thinking if we weren't that far ahead of him he could have caught up to us and possibly hurt us I also used to stay up for hours and fear that he would show up at my house again when I least expected it it just goes to show you that even the most harmless decision can sometimes lead to consequences you regret the most this is a short story that happened to me several years ago but still affects me to this day now objectively speaking this may not be very scary for others but the image is burned into my mind and it is something that I don't think I will ever forget school had just ended three weeks prior and my friend and I were just hanging out enjoying a surpassingly beautiful summer night I live in a very quiet little town there really isn't much commotion or really much of anything that goes on we have one main school and our graduating class is tiny compared to most around midnight we were pretty sick of playing games and wanted to do something different he suggested walking around outside on the beautiful clear summer night without much hesitation I agreed it was after midnight in a quiet town I figured not much could go wrong my parents were asleep but they trusted me so sneaking out just a walk probably wouldn't have been a huge issue we ended up staying out for a couple of hours we talked about movies wrestling and what our plans for the rest of summer would be up to this point it had actually been one of my favorite nights in a long time just to be able to enjoy the nice breeze the moonlight and have some good old-fashioned conversation we were already on our way back home and were probably only about five minutes from my house we were walking down a very low lit Street on the right side were some old houses where 95% of the lights were off and on our left was just trees my friend pointed out as we were walking that the way one of the lights were hitting the trees it looked like a person we laughed at first but were kind of amazed at how much it really did look like a person but after a moment the laughter faded as we realized that maybe this wasn't just a shadow select the fools that we were we decided to explore and I pulled back a few branches and saw there was actually a woman standing there she had a huge disturbing smile on her face she was old probably in her 70s I would guess she was dressed normally and had lots of nice jewelry on she looked how my grandma would dress for holiday parties but the scariest part was she was just standing there like a statue smiling at us for a moment we just stood there in shock and within a split second her smile vanished and she jumped out and made a huge grunt and scream we ran as fast as we could back to the house to my knowledge she didn't follow us or anything I know most people may not find this particularly scary but in the middle of the night when you find a creepy old lady hiding in the trees it rattles you a bit nothing else of note came from this incident but as I mentioned previously I'll never be able to get the image of her smiling and then suddenly screaming out of my head [Laughter] if you're like me staying home alone every day in the summer can become a drag I've always been someone who needs to stay busy all the time I don't like being alone and like to always be active last year after finishing my freshman year of college I decided to take a summer job to make some extra cash I worked for a landscaping company the owner of the company agreed to pay me under the table based on the different jobs that we did for the first few weeks it was great I was getting super tan and jacked from all the lifting the first three weeks he paid me and I was getting paid quite well but by the time we got to the fourth week is when things started to get weird he usually paid me on Friday but didn't pay me this week when I brought it up to him he just smiled and said that he was gonna start paying me every two weeks I was kind of annoyed but basically said whatever because I figured that I would have a fat paycheck in another week fast forward to the next week I don't get paid now I'm upset I've been doing hard work for two weeks and not getting paid I called my boss and asked what the deal was and he claimed he just forgot and was sorry I shrugged it off and said whatever that it was fine we agreed to meet on Saturday for the payment I went to the spot that he told me to meet him at and he handed me an envelope I took it and told him I would see him on Monday when I opened the envelope it was pay for one week I called him furious but he insisted that he paid me the previous week I flipped out and told him I didn't want to continue working especially under the table and that it was making me uncomfortable a few days later he called me and begged me to come back for a huge job that we had next week and that he would pay me double I agreed thinking this would definitely be my last job and I could take the cash and move on Monday comes and I meet him at this huge house surrounded by nothing but open field we started laying mulch and setting up the front yard before I knew it I was alone I didn't see him anywhere I started to worry because I had no idea where he went and I got a little annoyed that I was doing all of this work by myself after an hour or so I finally see him emerge from the back of the house he looked frustrated and almost a little nervous he came up to me and in a very soft voice he said can you go see if you can get the water turned on in the basement I tried and I couldn't get it please it was a weird request but I honestly wanted to get out of the heat for a second so I accepted once in the basement I found the water hookup in a matter of seconds but what I noticed right away was that the water was already on I turned around quickly and that's when I saw my boss and a skinny woman standing behind me he had his hands out facing me and she had one hand behind her back almost as if she was concealing something before I could speak he said you shouldn't have come down here and just so you know I am sorry thinking quick on my feet I kicked him in his ankle and ran right through the skinny woman I got to my car and drove away and called the police the worst part about all of this was that there was literally nothing they could do because I was working under the table and there was no records of this man's company even though I had seen one of his trucks with the logo on it fortunately for me this guy didn't know where I lived it almost seemed like the company was a scam from the start but I'm not sure what his intentions with me ever were I know there is a lot I could have done differently but this is easily the weirdest and scariest experience of my life was this psycho really gonna try to hurt me over a week or so of pay either way I hope I never run into that Landscaping psychopath again summer break is an awesome time to kick back relax and even enjoy some traveling unfortunately for me my summer break did not consist of vacationing or kicking back my old roommate Dave was going on vacation with his fiance and he asked me to take care of his golden retriever Millard always trying to make a quick buck I quickly accepted I planned on staying overnight with Millard while Dave was gone for a couple nights feeling lonely I asked some of my friends to come over and hang out for a while we sat outside eat some wings and just hung out for a couple hours I had to work at 6:30 in the morning so I kicked them out at around 11:00 and decided to get ready for bed I put on the TV and made myself comfortable on the living room couch I started to doze off instantly and while I was going in and out I heard the doorbell ring I kind of jolted awake and just sat still for a moment I thought perhaps maybe it was the TV and maybe I just woke myself up thinking it was the doorbell that was quickly proven false when the doorbell rang again my heart was practically jumping out of my chest I grabbed my watch and saw that it was 11:47 p.m. who the hell would be at the door at this hour of the night I slowly approached the door as the bell rang again for the third time it was a shady looking guy with a backwards cap on he had a big brown bag in his hand I opened at the front door a crack while still keeping the chain on and didn't open the screen door and I asked what he wanted in a very soft and unconvincing voice he said hi I have your food delivery I immediately told him I didn't order any food he proceeded to tell me my address and then followed with this is your address right I have your delivery more annoyed than anything else I told him once more that he had the wrong house and slammed the door in his face and then turned all the lights off the house I was staying in was a split-level ranch and for those of you who don't know what that is it's kind of like having a one-and-a-half story house the basement is usually a living room and it's not completely underground the windows are usually high level so I went to the basement part of the house and was looking out the front windows I saw him outside sitting in his car with the car not on still parked in the driveway I was a little spooked so I called my brother to tell him what happened he told me not to worry and it was probably some kind of mistake I agreed and went back to look out the window and the car was still there in the driveway but he wasn't inside of it anymore I grabbed the dog and locked myself in Dave's bedroom she barked and growled all night long not sure if it was because she could hear things or because she was stuck in the room I hardly slept that night and when it was time for me to leave for work I got ready in the bedroom and ran out of the house as fast as I could I had a brief moment of relief when I noticed the car wasn't in the driveway but that soon changed when I turned the corner and the car was parked on the side of the road I went to work terrified I blasted my friends that day asking if it was some kind of practical joke and they all assured me and promised me that it wasn't them I came back to feed Millard after work with one friend and we noticed footprints all around the house and scratches on the siding of the house where one of the back windows were it looked like somebody had actually tried to break in and were unsuccessful in hindsight I realize I should have got the license plate number but I just thought maybe I was being paranoid I could have also asked what company they represented so I could call to see if it was a real order or not when Dave returned I brought this up to him and he said he'd never had a similar experience maybe it was a fluke maybe the delivery person was pissed that they got pranked and we're now stuck with the bill or maybe I could have been in real danger either way this is one summer night I still burning up to my friends when they want to hear a scary story being single sucks on Valentine's Day it sucks even harder when you work in an expensive fine-dining establishment on the edge of Boston Common bussing the tables of happy doting couples who are fawning over extravagantly plated dishes you try to ignore their little displays of affection focusing on your work instead of being consumed by feelings of jealousy and disdain don't get me wrong number nine Park is a great place to work the tips are killer but it's still utterly depressing so in the run-up to this past Valentine's Day I made myself a little tinder account complete with a witty description and a few choice photos at first swiping through endless faces was almost as soul-destroying as working a Valentine's shift almost every profile either smacked of desperation or dripped with vapid arrogance but I soon found myself matching with a couple of attractive local girls as well as a few out-of-towners studying at Boston University one girl in particular was simply stunning her arms were covered in nautical tattoos intricately colored octopi and jellyfish while captivating hazel eyes shined almost as bright as her dyed orange hair Marie 27 her profile read be my Valentine now as a lot of you may know you have to have a pretty thick skin to use tinder slowly but surely my matches replies dropped off as their interest waned some even laughed and unmatched me when I said I wouldn't be able to make a Valentine's Day date until after 10:30 p.m. when my shift finished but Marie never ever failed to reply sometimes within seconds of me sending a message granted her responses tended to be mono syllabic almost shy but she was seriously enthusiastic about the idea of getting together she said she got lonely on Valentine's Day and she needed me to be there for her on that night sure it was unusual for me to get such attention but as I said it sucks being single on Valentine's Day I met her after work at a little late-night place in Chinatown the kind of stereotypical Asian place adorned with outdated Chinua Zuri among a sea of red velvet she said she liked the garlic noodles there so I figured it would be a surefire way of getting her back to my place afterward Marie was even more beautiful in person I'll be it with a melancholy look about her as she sat alone at a small table for two waiting for my arrival I opened up with an apology hoping she hadn't been waiting too long it turned out she was just as shy in real life as she was online she barely spoke and when she did it was just the odd word I reminded myself that it wasn't exactly charisma that I was looking for but it didn't matter how shy she was right now just that I can get her back to my place after a few drinks we ate in silence which didn't bother me too much since I was absolutely famished from a long tiring shift occasionally I would catch her staring at me her expression blank and emotionless any other time I might have considered it creepy but let's just say I wasn't quite thinking straight thanks to the prospect of getting laid for the first time in a while once we finished I paid the bill tipping the Chinese waiter generously on previous dates I had always tried to impress the girl in question with a generous tip usually they're pretty impressed by the gesture associating it with kindness and thoughtfulness but Marie didn't even react she just kept staring at me across the table her gaze unflinching even as the waiter reached across the table in front of her we were walking along Boston Common back towards my apartment when she finally spoke up she asked me if I knew the story of st. Valentine the patron saint where the festival is named after I remember shaking my head only too happy to listen to her now that her shyness seemed to have abated quietly in a voice barely above a whisper she explained that st. Valentine was executed by the Roman Emperor Claudius for marrying Christian couples and secrets on the outskirts of Rome I actually thought that was kind of romantic at the time I tried to lighten the mood by mentioning just that but she didn't react she just carried on with the story she grew a little more animated as she explained that once Claudius had heard rumors that Christian converts were festering in the city's suburbs he ordered them to be hunted down and punished for their heresy Praetorian guards men the most loyal of the Emperor's soldiers scoured the city for Christians horrifically torturing prisoners to extract extensive confessions one such confession led to the home of a man in the valentine who when tortured himself revealed that not only had he pledged fealty to the one true God but that he was sanctifying marriages of local couples in the name of Christ enraged the Praetorians dragged Valentine into a local square before summoning the townspeople to witness the execution it was messy violent truly horrifying to watch the Imperial soldiers sword was blunt an almost ceremonial addition to his uniform it reportedly took a long long time for the soldier to hack off the head of the confess'd christian priest after he was beheaded st. Valentine ascended to heaven as a blessed martyr and heard the gates of paradise with his own bloody head cradled delicately in his hands kneeling before the gilded throne Saint Valentine presented Christ with his own severed head a symbol of the pure love and devotion that led to his martyrdom I was impressed I had no idea that such a brutal story was behind the holiday I remember turning to ask her how she knew such a thing but I was met with a gaze that sent a chill through me she then told me that she had always wondered what it would be like to be the recipient of that kind of love and devotion the kind that could lead someone to see their own death as little more than an act of loyalty and worship in service of someone they truly loved it was about this point that I began to actually feel unsafe around Marie I have since had friends tell me that I shouldn't have been such a wimp that girls that are a little crazy tend to be the best in the bedroom but they can't understand the sense of imminent danger I felt as Marie's hazel eyes were fixed unblinkingly on mine we carried on walking as I racked my brain for an excuse to get home alone and I eventually settled on something involving having to be up early for work I knew the lie didn't work she didn't say a word to me as I flagged down a cab and helped her into it I told her I would call her but it was like she could smell the untruth like this had happened countless times before and she could recognize the pattern but it didn't end there she's been following me for weeks I made a complaint to Boston PD but the officer taking the report was practically laughing as he wrote it out no one believes that this girl could be dangerous but can you imagine how terrified I am when I walk out of my apartment building and see a stuffed animal sitting on the porch a teddy bear with its head sawn off jagged fluff dropping from its severed head as it sits delicately in the Bears hands a lone Valentine's Day card sat next to the decapitated teddy bear a message written in some dried dark red fluid as I opened the card I began to feel the intense metaphysical sensation of being watched from somewhere be my Valentine it read a little backstory before I jump into this I'm a 23 year old male and this was my first apartment it's actually a duplex but the neighbors on the back side seemed nice and nobody in the community ever had any issues with them I moved in with my best friend over a year ago and everything seemed great I've spent many nights here with him before I moved in and I never had a problem the neighbors seemed nice and the neighborhood as a whole isn't too bad we have your standard crackheads that stroll up and down the road but nothing too bad before I moved in I made sure I introduced myself to the neighbors and asked them if they ever had any problems to which they all assured me they have not my roommate is a marine and he deployed to Afghanistan shortly after I moved in the first month of me living here by myself was great it was quiet and calm and that was something I never really had at my parents house I have five siblings that were always over there with their families so it was always loud needless to say I was enjoying myself and my new independence after the first month of my roommate being gone I noticed that my neighbors in the back side of the duplex will call them Joe and Susan started to get into arguments a lot they were usually over within a couple of minutes so I never really paid any attention to it over time a couple of minutes turned into an hour and then two hours and then all night long the yelling got louder and I could hear things being thrown around and broken all the time it sounded like they were constantly moving furniture and smashing glass I was annoyed by this and debated on calling the police but I decided against it because I doubted anything would be done about it my sleep schedule started to get worse over time and I would constantly wake up covered in sweat and paranoid that someone was watching me I usually have one to two sleep paralysis episodes a week so I just attributed it to that and thought that it was just getting worse six months into my roommates deployment Susan started to kick Joe out almost every week he would pack his things and get into his car and drive away screaming at her the whole time Susan worked most nights and when she would leave for work I would oftentimes hear him come back and slam more things around and leave before she got home sometimes though Joe would come back and move furniture or what sounded like that at least and I would never hear him leave Susan would come home and I wouldn't hear any fighting or any more noise it was off and on like this for several months before the first major incident happened it was 3:00 a.m. and I snapped out of sleep in a cold sweat I could hear screaming and glass breaking from Joe and Susan's side of the duplex they were at it again I peered through my blinds in my bedroom just in time to see Joe throw a TV through their side door I quickly called 911 the situation both the cops and the landlord showed up at around the same time my landlord Ken asked me what happened so I gave him the past five months history of their fights and the noises I've been dealing with the cops arrested Joe and Ken told Susan that if Joe came back he would have vicked them both I'm sure you can guess that Joe didn't move out he bonded out the next day and immediately came back and pounded on my front door I opened it to see what he wanted and when I opened the door I could see that he had a large kitchen knife in his hand I anticipated this and he wasn't expecting me to be pointing my ar-15 directly at his heart Joe did you need something did you put me in jail no the police put you in jail all I did was call them you better watch yourself kid you have to sleep sometime at this point I closed the door and called my landlord Ken I explained to him what happened and he showed up with the police five minutes later I never heard Joe start his car and leave but when the police searched his side of the house they couldn't find him they stationed an officer outside of the duplex for a week but he never showed back up everything was quiet for the next few months with the exception of the constant noise of what I thought was furniture moving around I didn't see him or hear him arguing and I thought my life was going to get back to normal the only thing wrong now was me constantly waking up covered in sweat and my sleep paralysis let me explain what it's like to those of you who have never had sleep paralysis you wake up and you cannot move a muscle your mind is awake but your body isn't it's common to hallucinate crazy things almost as if you're dreaming so when I would wake up every night unable to move covered in sweat and seeing the same dark figure standing at the foot of my bed I just assumed it was sleep paralysis and that it wasn't real I assumed that until the day of my roommate got back it was around 2:00 a.m. when my roommate heard the same furniture moving noises I had described to him having just gotten back from an active combat zone he wasn't taking any chances he grabbed his service weapon and sidearm and proceeded to clear the house every room was cleared except my room my bedroom door doesn't have a lock on it so he opened the door and turned on the light and that's when the gunshot woke me up when I came to my senses my roommate was standing over Joe screaming at him to stay on the ground and he was telling me to call the police I didn't understand the full gravity of the situation until after Joe was placed in an ambulance and the police sat me and my roommate down to figure out what happened apparently my roommate was sitting on the couch in the living room when he heard movement coming from the ceiling assuming it was an animal he didn't really pay attention to it that was until he heard something hit the ground in one of the back rooms after he opened my bedroom door he saw Joe standing over my bed with a knife the same knife he pulled on me earlier in the year my roommate didn't hesitate and placed a shot and Joe's right shoulder I was not aware that there was a crawl space to the Attic in my closet when the police crawled up there my blood ran ice-cold I could hear it what I thought was moving furniture was actually Joe in the Attic crawling to my side of the duplex apparently that's where he hid when his wife would kick him out and I would never actually see him leave that's where he hid when the police were looking for him and then it occurred to me that I was having the same hallucination of a man at the foot of my bed almost every single night he was watching me while I slept and could have taken my life whenever he wanted the case is still active I've changed names and left out a lot of details so I don't compromise the case but since he's been in custody I have yet to have that hallucination of a man standing at the edge of my bed I'm not gonna lie I had a great childhood I had loving parents say I still do I got along with my sister all of my family took care of me and brought me up the best way they could most of them were University teachers and researchers so I also had a pretty big Bank of knowledge at my disposal we never had too much money since my country was going through a pretty bad economic crisis during my younger years but it was enough to get us a nice little house next to my grandparents my old man's mom and dad we were always extremely close I love knitting and taking care of the garden with my grandma watched football matches and carpentering with my grandpa my school days went pretty smoothly I didn't have the best grades but they were good enough so at 18 when I finally finished high school and managed to get into a good college my grandparents decided that they were going to give me a pretty amazing gift I was going to spend a month with them traveling through Spain for the most part I had a good time as expected the trip bonded us even further and I loved every minute of our time seeing beautiful art and architecture but none of that mattered compared to what happened in a single fateful night I have denied and shrugged off the memories for an unbearably long time but something made me remember and nothing will ever be the same again that probably will never ever again forgot what I went through no matter how hard I try to block them out of my life again the memories will consume me this is why I must tell my story before it is lost forever it all started during the third week of the trip we had already visited Madrid Segovia in Toledo next up was Granada home of La Humber the most lavish of the era of palaces in the Iberian Peninsula it had been the final bastion of resistance of the last Moorish King where he spent the final days of his reign a fairytale town Tabata was filled to the last inch with tourists we were standing in a hotel called Lonardo I remember that we arrived at night about 8:00 p.m. at for a four hour long train trip the lobby was pretty nicely decorated and shiny and the staff was nice so we weren't expecting in the least bit what we were going to find upstairs there was a pretty tall building for granite on standards we were staying in the second-to-last floor the 10th if I remember correctly this meant that we had a good view of the whole city and that was pretty much the only good thing about the place the corridor leading to our room was old and musty covered in a pink and peach striped wallpaper that had suffered a few decades of constant humidity probably from a leaking pipe it had a low ceiling the long row of dim lights and a carpeted floor with a greyish hue to it that had probably once been beige the room itself wasn't too different was the added discomfort of an old bathroom stained bed sheets in an old springy mattress that could have been at least twice my age nothing like what we had seen in the pictures nonetheless we were more interested in the city itself than the boring old hotel said we unpacked as quickly as we could and went out for a nocturnal bite and a short walk before going out though we complained to one of the receptionist's about the state of our room he politely explained this particular hotel that passed through several owners in hotel chains like an old hand-me-down that no one really wanted but accept it anyway apparently the owners had only bothered to refurbish the lobby and left the rest of the building just as they found it fair enough the hotel staff had nothing to do with the owners carelessness plus we had already paid for our stay and did not at the time know the will to fight him out of place so we had our supper got the feel of the town and came back at about 11 the first night was surprisingly not bad we were completely exhausted from the long train ride and wanted nothing more than to get our fair share of sleep and that we did I woke up after a dreamless night I didn't even notice the hardness of the old mattress I felt great it all started when we were getting ready to leave our room that morning it was 10 past 9:00 when we heard a lone knocking on the door and then there came the voice cleaning service there was an old lady's voice with a deep Spanish accent I opened the door and let her in I gazed at her while she greeted us with a good morning in barely understandable English she was very peculiar old woman her wrinkled skin was rather pale but it was covered in brown stains from years of exposure to the Sun her hands looked rugged and calloused roughened by years of hard work she had deep teary green eyes that contrasted with her silky black mane I couldn't help but stare at it her hair looked so soft that it could have belonged to a ten year old only the odd gray hair gave it away we finished grabbing our things and were about to get out when I suddenly remembered that I forgot him to grab my wallet I told my grandparents to meet me downstairs and went back in the room quickly I searched for the wallet on the nightstand but it wasn't there I was reaching under the bed when suddenly the woman said don't worry I already picked it up she reached out her hand I think Tarin took the wallet and as I did our skin touched her skin felt damp and cold too cold for an instant it felt as if the body had been filled up with melted ice a sudden urge to get the old lady out of my sight as fast as possible grew inside me so I quickly said goodbye and practically ran out of the room but as I was closing the door I felt that coldness grow inside me once again and turned around the cleaning lady was staring directly into my eyes smiling a knowing smile the smile said that she was in on the joke and I was not I slammed the door shut for the rest of the day I had the old woman in the back of my mind every time I zoned out I would remember that seemingly unexplained coldness by it felts deep in my bones to my great satisfaction though I still managed to have a good time I had managed to convince myself of the irrationality of being scared by a simple old lady no such a wuss but other time we returned to the hotel that night I was crossing my fingers in hopes that I wouldn't have to see that woman ever again my grandparents decided that they were going to stay at the 24-hour lobby bar for a while to grab some tea but I decided to go straight to our room I was ready to sleep tight and get ready for one more final tourists day of non-stop walking in Granada it wasn't to be before getting in bed I got the sudden urge to have a hot shower it had been a long day and I deserved it it was a long shower while the water flowed through my hair I thought about how happy the three of us were and of all the pictures and postcards what we were going to bring back home but then the cleaning lady came into my mind once again and I started to get anxious why hadn't my grandparents come up yet I was about to grab a towel and get out when I heard a loud bang the lights suddenly went out and the water got cold a power failure oh well I should have expected it from a building in such bad conditions naked wet and in the dark I blindly reached for my phone and turned on my flashlight there was exactly 12 o'clock why hadn't my grandparents come back I wrapped the towel around my waist and reached for the door handle while holding my phone in the other hand the door didn't budge I tried harder but nothing happened that always stuck what terrible timing suddenly I heard footsteps great my grandparents said come grandma grandpa are you there I called her no answer I called that again still no reply I started to get anxious if it wasn't my grandparents then where the hell was in our room and what reason would they have to not reply to my calls the footsteps continue I tried the handle again and was about to try to slam my body against the door but luckily thought twice before doing it if the person that I come in my room didn't want me to open the door is it a good idea to confront him after all if he was armed the encounter could get me badly hurt or worse so I locked the bathroom door on my side as a safety measure and decided to call 9-1-1 but then I remembered they didn't have any service I hadn't bothered to buy a phone ship for the trip so I tried the internet but of course it had gone out too long with the electricity I was getting desperate but footsteps continued outside the room for a few seconds and suddenly I froze the footsteps were nearing the bathroom door this was getting out of hand and then I heard it then knocking only one thought filled my mind the cleaning lady everything hit me all at once I felt her outside my door there was the same agonizingly cold wet feeling from that morning but away way worse it was the same feeling you get when that freezing early winter rain hits you hard on the face but deep deep inside your bones and there was dread two bucket loads of dread feeling my heart what could she possibly want from me was that thing outside the bathroom door either she it was too much and so I froze my knees turned to rubber and I collapsed into the corner unthinking and unmoving I was knocked out of my state of trance by sudden bang the woman or should I say creature that stood outside the bathroom and grown tired of knocking it banged on the door harder and louder this time the door wasn't holding much longer at this point the adrenaline had kicked him and placed my phone on the counter grab the toilet ceramic lid and got ready to hit whatever a monster came to the door suddenly the door opened violently what was standing right in front of me did not look like a monster there was no mistaking when I managed to see from the dim glow coming from my phone's flashlight it was the cleaning lady all right she looked nothing like what I had seen that morning they're perfectly black hair and short longer it was so long that it spread around the floor like spilled water she stood naked and still might hit the door looking straight at me unblinking when I saw when I looked at her eyes make me grow still let me the adrenaline fade away and the coldness and dread take me once again they were not the deep green shade from earlier that day anymore in fact they weren't any colour at all they were wiped completely white a pair of colourless lifeless balls then she started walking towards me in a perfect line as if she were being guided by a vector I dropped my weapon there was the least human walk at ever witnessed It was as if a creature some unknown dark being had put on a suit and was trying and failing to look like a member of our species the beast in the old woman's body walked in the same otherworldly fashion until it got right next to me and opened its mouth revealing a set of perfectly white teeth I was completely paralyzed it opened its mouth so wide that its jaw started to crunch and it's skimmed tear the gray liquid started to pour from its throat in that moment I realized what it was about to do I felt that in my gut it was going to take a bite it was going to feed yet I couldn't move the coldness just wouldn't let me then there was another feeling acceptance my body had given up given up to the creature I was to be a part of it a new skin for its collection just like the one it was wearing right now out of nowhere I heard a second bang somewhere in the building and the light filled my eyes the power was back that blinked for the first time even felt like a million years and when I opened my eyes there was nothing in front of me it was gone then close my eyes for one last time that night the next time I opened them that was no longer in the bathroom corner I was laying in my bed the next morning it was as if absolutely nothing had happened had it all been a terrifyingly real nightmare that is what my body led me to believe as a coping mechanism my brain made me forget it made me think of the events of that night as near products of my imagination and it worked the rest of the trip went by just as expected I came home just as expected and continued on with my life just as expected this was four years ago every time I came close to thinking about the events of that dreadful night a cerebral mist clouded my memory two years ago something clicked something that made everything come back to me It was as if a ticking time bomb had been planted that night my brain just waiting for the right time to explode one night out of nowhere I started to dream my first dream was a perfect recollection of that terrible night ending just seconds before I succumb to the creature ever since I have been blanking out several times a week losing track of time and forgetting whole parts of my day spans of several hours have been getting blurry but the worst part of my day is nighttime when everything comes back to me a dream of coldness of death sometimes I can see people scared people the dark being always closing in on them but they can't move can't run the coals won't let them I never got to see the end of those nightmares not that I needed to I have considered several times visiting a psychiatrist but I don't think it'll do any good and I'm pretty sure I know why even if I don't want to say or think it I have since come to terms with my fate and the inevitability of the truth so I'll tell it to you as a final goodbye I think that that night in Granada I might not have escaped the monster after all only several people know about what happened with blueberry I've never told all of the confusing bits and pieces strung together properly and it took me two weeks to compile this I'm going to start by sharing memories and details that I had filed away extra well and they've all started flooding back sophomore year in high school is when all of this started that would be 2003 his real name was Michael Dean but he was called blueberry by our circle of friends I have long forgotten the story behind the moniker but I imagined that it was selected mostly to distinguish from the many other Michaels around he was tall Gorky acne afflicted and a junior who had a hands in pockets angry wore a deep dimple in the middle of his chin an absolutely unintelligible manner of speaking unintelligible to the point where his secondary nickname was Michael mumble I don't remember anything particular about that meeting really just a few passing words and a mutual friend stepping in to wave an introductory hand back and forth while repeating our names to one another in quick bursts like a squeeze on a rifle I was a spunky fifteen-year-old discovering a whole new diverse world out there and in retrospect I see how my giddy naívi vet left the door wide open the blueberry to step through he would talk well mumble to me before first I struggled to understand what he said behind his tight lips now hardly ever moved so our interactions were usually brief and consisted mostly of me smiling brightly and nodding along before politely excusing myself I often picked up on his awkward anger and aggression stuffed so deep into his smug 6-foot frame all teenagers are angry hell even spunky me had my moody sprees but blueberry's anger was different it was a warped twisted stubborn narcissistic permeating calm autistic kind of anger I remember thinking to myself but it just burnt the air around him so being 15 I had no car so I took my lunches at a subway that sat two blocks away from the school sometimes I went with friends but more often I went by myself I liked the quiet and the chance to regroup from schools caves he appeared one day mumbling away across from me in a booth while I pasted on a slightly puzzled smile lips tight over my mouth for the food wondering what on earth he was saying and then the letters came my best friend Christi and I wrote tons of notes during our class periods to fold up into neat squares and swap with each other in the halls this is how we plotted and schemed before the advent of text messaging we had designated hallways where we would hand off our paper squares and one of these hallways was where I would also see blueberry one day I just had slyly palmed Christie's note into my hand when I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder and paper slid into my other hand there was blue Bree staring fix Lea at me with a slight smile with a surprised chuckle and a nod of acknowledgement they talked to blueberries note into my purse along with Christie's as soon found out not only was he Michael mumble he was also Michael muddled while his handwriting was neat and printed and I was far from illiterate I could not make heads or tails of his train of thought he wrote as he spoke in a mashed inverted manner where in the subject matter was vague at best all I could make out of the letters he gave me from that day on was that I was part of the subject matter something about my considerations or me not seen filling up a paper margins were badly drawn frogs babbling about druids and more frogs I got these letters often usually daily I probably wrote a short note on the back to him once maybe twice at most but they came steadily as ever as spring wound down I began to get more and more uneasy around him to the group blue Bree was just blueberry a slight oddball in any case who was usually in the background and I began to avoid him but he seemed blind to them in retrospect at the age of 25 I can safely say that people pick up on when you are avoiding them but not Lubert the lunchtime interceptions and notes continued when he can manage it and then came the gifts I was a writer back then I always had notebooks that I constantly filled up with any scribblings that came into my head I wrote in the chief smaller sized spirals that you can pick up at any drugstore fine you better than to buy nice fancy ones they'd last me a week at best but it was a fancy heavy bound journal that blue brie gave me one day in the hallway after school I didn't know what to say it was an odd gift from someone who I barely knew there was something tainted about the journal it was beautiful a plush notebook edged with the design of an ancient map of China when I swear that covers were of suede it was expensive enchanting and it gave me the chills the first 10 pages consisted of yet another letter he had been to me the first several paragraphs talked of how I was the only one who wanted to stood him and that he loved me I stopped at that point I could never bring myself to write in or throw it away instead I tucked it in a keepsake box that slept underneath my bed along with all the other notes and trinkets I told myself I was giving all the wrong signals I told myself I was being silly and overreacting to someone who was perfectly nice Christie told me you're lucky that someone buys you something so nice without even trying to sleep with you friends told me ah blueberries just a goof but he's all right I was grateful when the Sun rolled around and then came Junior when school started back up I had a boyfriend named Adam brightly dyed red hair and a red car so blue Bree inevitably faded into the background whether he liked it or not he had no driver's license nor a wish to get one strange for being a teen as he was then he opted for the alternative of a bicycle and walked everywhere looking back I realized that this made it harder for him to intercept me at lunch when I zipped off to meet my older boyfriend at home for the hour-long break the only times I would see blue Bree was when I was pulling out of the parking lot and I would see him doing his brisk frustration fueled strides in whatever direction his eyes were always either angrily fixed at a point in the distance and his chin in a slight line of frustration or seemed to be searching the sea of high-school students flooding the parking lot for who I think was me every now and then he would spy my cherry red Volvo station wagon which was embarrassingly hard to miss and he would stand for the most part humans can get a decent read on others this wasn't the case with blueberry I could make neither heads or tails of him and his behavior around me and eventually my teenaged hormones finally said screwed by which I mean I made no more efforts I decided that the best way to fix the situation was to not give a shit if he talked to me I would respond with short sentences then bluntly turn and walk away I didn't avoid him neither did I approach him or wave at him in the hallways like I had the year before he was just another guy in the background let me add that in the meantime the letters never stopped and the gifts came almost like clockwork their journal left on my car with the first four pages scribbled with words that I never bothered to read the bouquet of daisies or roses given to me in the hallway though I promptly gave to a lonely looking freshman as I turned the next corner a book of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen to be exact on my birthday also with an inscription inside the journals books and letters were hardly ever actually read nor used and all found a new home in that keepsake box underneath my bed I could never explain why I felt compelled to tuck them into the keepsake box but I just did at times I would feel guilty and I would look for anything that I was doing to lead to this insane boy what on earth compelled him in order to buy things for a girl that just didn't care but in the end my teenage psyche always lost interest and went back to scheming over how I was going to work around curfew and catch that wicked show happening at the local music venue on a school night my junior year of high school wound down much like this when school let out for summer I was just happy to be able to be with friends and not worry about blueberry as he was a senior and had been in his last year of school with us I came home one afternoon and sauntered into the kitchen to grab a snack my father had come home from work barely beating me by five minutes as I could tell by how he had already taken off his jacket and suitcase Anne had brought him the mail this was part of his workday routine I could time the man by his routines practically and he was leaning against the kitchen counter and plucking the bills from my mother's overflow of catalogs when I came up to peck him on the cheek and offer one of the two apples I had retrieved hey there hon he mumbled taking the Apple whoa hold up kid you have mail lucky you he flipped a rectangular manila envelope towards me and I took him who's sending least snail mail I think to myself popping open this sealed flap maybe it's grandma Oh does it feel like a check in here I start to hum a Smith song as I pry open the brands that anchors the flaps girlfriend in comma oh no I really didn't want to see her pour the letter out and it's a single page of mind notebook paper shake the page girlfriend in koma my eyes focus on the first line and I really didn't want to shit I knew that handwriting blueberry I remember yelping in surprise and dropping the letter as it had burnt me I remember grabbing the envelope I'm flipping it over to see where the addresses should be and I don't know why I already knew it wouldn't make me feel better to see the street numbers I called home along with my name carefully printed in the center it didn't make me feel better however to see that a city in Colorado was listed in the top left turn address delivery had left Texas or so I hoped because it sure made me sick to see that there was no postage stamp he had to have hand-delivered it to my home which he had somehow tracked down the letter frightens me in both its content as well as the fact that blueberry had found out where I lived i grilled all of our mutual friends and all swore that they hadn't been the ones to give up the information in the letter itself he had sounded almost angry with me for upset that I hadn't made good on several sorts of agreements thankfully that was the last I heard of blueberry well for a few years anyway those events took place in 2005 fast forward to spring 2008 where I was living in Albuquerque New Mexico but preparing to move back to my hometown to kick a nasty drug habit and get a fresh start online I had taken a break from packing up my apartment and headed to the library to clear my head and check my myspace all hey or 2008 there was a firm request waiting for me yep the cliche reappearance that the protagonist soon rose it was blueberry still to this day I have no idea what possessed to accept the request but I did goddamnit I accepted and immediately I got a message from him it was quite civilized actually he asked how I was doing and even offered an apology for his behavior in high school I was pleasantly surprised and appreciated the gesture and sent him a response saying so along with a brief synopsis of my plans on moving come only after ensuring that he was still in Colorado as his profile said by the time I clicked send my allotted time on the computer was up so I logged out and headed back to my place to prepare for the move home the next day three days and one state later I was back at home and finally feeling human as the bumps and bruises of the maneuver subsided it had been a very busy few days and I gladly plopped down in front of my father's laptop to check my emails in social media they logged into my myspace and began to work through the stacks of accumulated messages they opened the reply from blueberry he had been sent almost instantly after I had sent mine several days ago well that's a coincidence blueberry was moving back to our hometown as well Godspeed to him in all endeavors was all I thought in it I didn't think I would be running into him often as a rolled group of friends had long since disbanded to get married move away or to get locked up I had just picked up a job waiting tables at the 24/7 diner chain Denny's unenrolled in a summer College course life went on but not for that long I had just started this swing shift of work and I was at the counter filling up salt and pepper shakers and setting up on the floor before the dinner rush hit when he walked in I knew who he was while he was still in my peripheral he slid into the swivel chair and mumbled what I can only imagine was a Halong then he put his right hand on mine which was wrapped around a salt tumbler that I had been rappelling terror and confusion paint my insides another spike in blood pressure as he squeezes down hard if only for a second before releasing his grip and he starts to mumble I should have told him to piss off that day I should have listened to my gut which is screaming profanities at my rationalizing everything away brain I knew that he moved from Colorado back down to our hometown because I was there I knew that he had taken my reply on myspace as a sign of declaring my undying love to him in his twisted mind I knew deep down that he was the same scary dick that found out where I lived in high school but a part of me could truly thought that he had matured past the point and that all was wishful thinking instead I smiled politely nodded and excused myself to do anything but be around him I ended up going to the bathroom and dry heaving anxiety it's a bitch I was stuck I was the only waitress on the floor into a seven which was a good three hours away and I had a credit card payment due in three days I couldn't leave the floor I remember talking to myself like a crazy person he had only said one word I was being ridiculous nobody is twisted enough to do that over a girl that's barely spoken to him or returned any affections ludicrous and who knew what he actually said back there or was he meant by touching my hand he could just be surprised to see me so who's the crazy person here me then why did he look at me as if he would glow to him as if he was hungry dry-heave to the porcelain gods again and then I dart off to the floor I stay busy staying away from the counter and staying away from blueberry unbeknownst to me while I went about avoiding him blueberry applied for a position as a dishwasher which is always open in diners and was hired on this spot I found out the next day as I clocked in and saw him carefully studying the employees schedule I should have said something then but I didn't I was afraid I didn't have time to think either I managed to somehow change clothes timely apron dry heave yet again from anxiety several times before my shaking legs found their way onto the floor like I said before so much of it is a blur I don't remember specific incidences happening up towards the end I remember Friday night bar rush when he yelled at a 65 year old man a regular of mine and the reason he yelled was because he thought he was looking at me with perverted eyes I remember how many times he tried to stop me while I was neck deep in the weeds with drunk and hungry customers catching my arm ruffle each time and make me stop and look at him the last time he grabbed me so hard a bruise bloomed in place of his fingers next morning I remember the look of pure hatred and frustration that he gave every one of my male customers and I remember how he said he would slip them from ear to ear if they ever touched me I remember when my shift ended and I held all of it in until I made it into the walk-in freezer I had just let out a half sob when the freezer door had swung open and blueberry had made himself in front of me I remember the metallic taste of fear as I looked up at him what next he was looking forward to the talk we would have afterworld he said oh they talk about us oh god no I remember wanting to scrub my forehead with lye from where he bent down and kissed me before exiting the walk him he made me sick being so close to me dirty I remember the desperate need to lean I clocked out knowing that he wouldn't be off work for hours until after I was I could escape I pulled out of the parking lot and stopped at a red light two blocks down find a friend to statement figure all of this out god I need my job then the passenger door opens shit it's him when the hell did my passenger door not lock shit did he he prompt my luck shit he's in my car and I am none he acts like this is a normal thing for us to do and my logic freezes he gives me directions to his house telling me how happy he is that I came around after all these years of denying that what was between us was real that couldn't breathe a part of me is giving up a part of me is so angry at myself for being so weak and unable to stop all of this wait I'm not completely new there is some anger left in me I'm starting to get angry at this person who was repeatedly refused to take no for an answer who intentionally came back to our town with the narcissistic presumptuous intent of claiming now that I had supposedly come around he came into my job and made shorter moon fast hard and aggressively because he knew this was what I would do the only words I had ever heard him speak clearly and without a single mumble was a threat to slip my customers throat from ear to ear he walked out of his first night of the job just to follow me and got into my car as I was at a spotlight screw that as I had the opportunity to sit in process the absurdity and increasingly disturbing levels of the situation I became temporarily lost in a fugue state of memory realization and gritty resolve we reached his place and I snapped back to reality immediately I saw that the front lawn was teeming with drunken partygoers his roommate her throne a keg party that drew enough people to fit a high school stadium to this day I consider this the only reason I felt brave enough to do what I did next there were too many people around to see and hear things I knew it and he knew it and he didn't seem happy with it his face is one that still haunts my nightmares that was range like a child having his toys taken away from him that's exactly what I was to him I later realized I followed him into the house I let him take me to his room I stood in the open doorway and balked as he tugged on my wrist to pull me into the room the god knows what reason and it was like another person was speaking through me stay the hell away from me I never have and will never be interested in you as a friend or anything else you know what the hell you have been trying to do and you've been trying to do it since I was 15 don't come near me again you need professional help you son-of-a-bitch then I realized how quiet it was I swear to god everyone in the party stopped and stared at us it was so quiet and all the blood in my body was pumping in a war dance of fear disguised as range I saw him falter and we locked eyes I could tell he was grasping and then I tried to pull away but he was strong shit then he screamed god I'll never forget how angry he looked he wasn't mumbling he screamed so clean just lay with me tonight why won't you just lay down on the bed Youth he lurched forward like a tension bearing spring to drag me into the run it was at that point that the bodies flew at him several of them they tackled Bluebird eats the floor beer was flying everywhere the froth was landing in my hair and my shirt was wet with the faint scent of fresh hops there was screaming hands on hands girl hands ney was digging into blueberries iron fingers I could feel my blood slowing the pockets where he had me firmly my arms must be blue I thought to myself and I saw the girls three of them blonde and red there you'll yell to run and to get away from him his fingers are slipping claws but the long solar nail was of the three women are too much and he flinches with a jerk that forces him to let go he disappears under the heap of bodies and my legs worked again I ran to my car and ran the hell away I still don't know who the men who tackled him were neither do I know the names of the women who scratched their own nails into Bluebird skin so that he would let go and they could flank me in protection as I ran to my car still to this day I don't think I've ever been faced with a truer definition of solidarity than that act right there they didn't even know who I was when they aldo then I don't know what kind of spiritual forces out there roaming the purple evenings with those who were alone are more nights than not I say a little thank you to the skies hoping at least one of them hears me I owe those strangers a great deal now that I've said that their thing of this part of the story is it's not over it hasn't gotten bad yet not by a long stretch at this point I wish I could say that it was all over but it wasn't stalkers are persistent they don't think like you and I do what I had done the night I told bluebury known was something good and bad good in that I had acted loudly enough to become a person to him not an object bad in the sense that I had set down boundaries that conflicted with his intense and I had done it in a crowd of people profoundly embarrassing him I knew the where he had just seen me as a living doll before he would now see me as someone to be punished this is what I thought to myself Oh as I stared at the ceiling stained with the sharp gold light of noon Sun I had barely slept after crushing through my front door and quickly desperately checking each window and doors locked in my father's house before collapsing into a heap by the bed my father wasn't hung as he usually stayed over his new girlfriend's place I didn't mind it was nice to see him in love it took the years of his face and I didn't want to put those years back on with my predicament I didn't want to see the look in his eyes if he saw bunches of broken blood vessels blossom the ran of my arms endo spirals of pain didn't want to see him on Bluebird in the same room even no didn't want him to feel disappointed or upset in me I had kicked the habit and worked diligently on my decision-making skills but my helplessness in dealing with blueberry seemed to me a return to life that I thought I had left behind none it was better to figure this out myself he had spent enough sleepless nights worrying about me I was suddenly thankful for my parents recent divorce my mother stayed behind in the house I grew up in and my father had rented out a lovely house in an adjacent neighborhood blueberry couldn't possibly find me here with that comforting thought I pulled myself out of bed and dressed I remember picking a shirt with sleeves that covered the bruises he had left I didn't even care that it was easily a hundred degrees outside anything to keep from seeing and remembering his brand on me I padded towards the kitchen stopping at the large glass window panes I padded towards the kitchen stopping at the large glass window panes that faced the open school yard across the street pulling back the blinds I took in the grassy sun-drenched view I liked the house it was open I could see anybody coming but it was quiet for now in the kitchen I stepped into the cupboard and plucked a fresh bag of chips I was starving I had just started to pull open the bag of chips when the banging started they were a parody of polite knocks I had no idea how he found me still to this day I don't know but it doesn't matter how just that he did but I knew who was behind the door just as that person knew that I was hiding in there somewhere at the very first echo of blue briefs fists hitting the front door my legs turned to dust beneath me the bag of chips burst as I collided with the linoleum my body's momentum transforms that potato shards into millions of traitors echoing every moon I was sobbing silently hiding behind the fridge and watching the shadow slide along the floor where I had been just seconds ago gazing out the window with that force sense of safety and then he knocked again and then there was silence my phone buzzed on the counter I stretched my arm upwards and clutched that little electronic beacon of freedom a text from 303 area code Colorado him the text illuminates the screen my dear I know you're there let me in I have your favorite Subway sandwich for you and a surprise Jesus how did he get my number my sleeve has been pushed back from the reach of the fun I see the bruises again a friendly reminder from bluebury some of them are the same shade as his name the knocks have been quiet and there are no more shadows on the wooden floor by the window I remembered there was a click in my brain at that moment something finally connected my survival instincts have finally triggered as I shift from fro into overdrive I am no longer a human I am the Gazelle running from a lion chips crunch under my shoes as I snap up to my feet keys and phone in hand and run for the sake of everything I love in the world I hear metal creak behind me in the kitchen just as I slam open the front door and all the sunlight outside charges every cell in my bruised body and from the front steps I dive into the car through the open passenger side window I leave the perfect arc of rubber marks on the driveway as I reverse swivel my head and scan the yard for him there is nowhere to hide in this wide-open neighborhood nothing he is unseen the gas pedal is one with the floorboards I am thankful that the students of the elementary school across the street are not out for recess because I would braid them into the sticky tarmac without a second thought if they had stood between me and my safety that is my level of fare I keep driving blowing through all yields and stomps I wonder if I'm crazy and my phone buzzes with another text from Colorado no not crazy scared not of death not yet anyway scared of what he will do to make me return to his normal see I am adult to him what happens when the dough starts to speak when they run like a gazelle away from his playroom walls what happens if the lion catches the gazelle I dry heave and son at once oh god the fear I feel like he's with me right now watching it does occur to me to call the police but what do I tell them they would look like I was crazy just like everyone else had reassured me the blueberry was I'm just on so very old maybe I still am crazy I am 55 in the 25 year old after war but I know that I can't be alone at this moment I pick up my phone and dial for Brandon he lives the closest and have to read our twice blueberry keeps texting and the alert makes me exit my keypad his messages tell me about the lack of appreciation for the things he does i dry-heave I'm still going finally I'm able to input all seven digits hello Brandon's voice is an angelic sound I cry all that comes out is the name of the street I'm on he directs me to a park a block away from where I am and I see him he sees me I leave the keys in the ignition but turn off the car and I run across the green fields to him I feel like I can't do anything but run for dear life Brandon catches me holds me tight in the arms with two big hands my bruises hurt under his palms and my lungs are on fire I can't stop my legs from twitching I babble I'm not crazy I'm not crazy he found me please don't tell him where I am Brandon please then i collapse on the soft grass Brandon tells me later that he pieced the story together from what he could hear me say curled up in the fetal position on the grass babbling about blueberries bruising and being an object he wasn't sure what to make of it and admits that he thought I was back on the shit and was just having a bad calm down then he goes to retrieve the keys from my car in the ignition my phone is on the front seat still lighting up incessantly with messages from a 303 number Brandon sees this he opens my phone and read several of the 52 messages sent in the last half-hour that's almost one every 40 seconds he says he couldn't bear to read any more after seeing the one that included a photo of my open underwear drawer it dawned on Brandon the blue brie is inside my home and enjoys letting me know Brandon hugs me and talks with me until Carly and Kate get to the park Carly and Kate will take me to their house where we will call the police Brandon has warrants so he can't be with there with us but before he leaves he hugs me so fiercely that it reminds me that I am Liam not plastic he whispers into Carley's ear and advises her to check the messages on my phone if she doesn't believe she makes it to the message where he tells me he will shave my red harlot's Hara if I didn't come back and be good my phone rings and Carly answers it's my father Kate drives my car home they stay as I hear what has happened the next-door neighbor had been in her kitchen when he saw me run out the door and peel out of the driveway the clue she said was how I had thrown myself in the car through the window as if I couldn't waste a minute opening the door she went closer to her window to watch the scene as my car faded away she looked at the front door of the house and she saw a tall thin man coming out of the front door and staring in the direction I had gone she said he looked angry and eyelets terrified she called the police my father unaware of this came home soon after the neighbors called the police blueberry was back outside on the porch by then perched on his step watching and waiting my father stared at the strange boy on his steps he saw the tire tracks in the absence of my car bluebury calmly looked up my father met his gaze and blankly said that he was thinking about getting her a vanity for her birthday my father tells me that bluebury stood up and placed himself between my dad and the door my father was a criminal defense attorney for thirty years he is a stoic tough man who has defended countless rapists killers thieves and addicts and the truly innocent before a jury of peers not much shakes him yet the tremor in my father's voice is perceptible as he tells me this he stares bluebury down and simply says do you pay for this house boy I don't answer to you and get out of my way bluebury moves and my father goes inside disturbed by the boy on the stairs and glad that I'm not there in the kitchen he sees the crushed bag of chips on the floor the mess in the kitchen and he could see the signs of frantic movement itched into the carpet of chips he can see that the back door is wide open and that I would never leave it like that he also remembers that the front door had been unlocked he and I shared a paranoia of unlocked doors and it was then that my father knew something was very wrong he feels sick he Sprint's to the front door hey kid he roars a blueberry retreating back he had taken off down the street when he heard the sirens the police cars called by the neighbors pull up at this point one patrol goes in pursuit of blueberry and the others stay talking to my father who was calling my phone and are astute neighbor who relates what she had seen through the window the police asked if I knew who this man was on the stairs then Carly gives them my phone an answer my father sees one of the pictures over the cops shoulder turns pale and closes his eyes I said he years put back on his face I can't stop crying I can't get a word out all I can do is leave them all to my bedroom where Carly holds up the bed skirt as I reach underneath and pull out the three keepsake boxes that I had filled with the last five years worth of blueberries gifts and mostly unopened letters Carly brings me a year and I try harder and harder as I open up the page with his class photo on it and point to his full name I am crying this hard because it's over I'm crying this hard because it could have been over long ago before this point the officer bags up all the contents of the boxes and flashes of cameras capture any traces of what happened that afternoon I give a short statement once I can speak coherently they don't find blueberry but my father secures protective orders quickly with the connections he has he looks so tired it must have been so easy to protect me when I was small when he could be the barrier between me and the monsters he dealt with on a daily basis at that time had long since passed all he could do now was make phone calls and pray to a god he didn't believe in he did not tell me about the journal left on the doorstep until years later the one that he didn't turn over to the police the wonder had photos of me sleeping photos of me naked fresh out of the shower even some of me kissing my ex-boyfriend Adams face in these was scratched out and left Hollow all of them taken at times I had assumed I was alone I arranged to stay the night with Carly she tells me the next morning that I had started screaming in my sleep and they did not stop and she crawled into bed with me and wrapped her in her tiny arms I am grateful to her I think her touch is what kept me from remembering any nightmares I had that night it felt so good to just sleep we moved soon afterwards my father-in-law we spoke of the incident only once more when I walked into the kitchen of the new house and saw my father at the table with bourbon in his hands flipping through a mound of papers with the other they were the letters from bluebury he had retrieved them after evidence processed them he intended to put them away of his safety deposit box I'll never forget the grim reasoning behind his voice as the lawyer and him spoke well if you ever turn up murdered at least I'll have this and the journal to prove exactly who did it so this all happened throughout my high school experience I'm currently a junior at my school and this all started the second semester of my freshman year the first incidents were close to the end of the freshman year they were a few my sophomore year and then it's only been one so far my junior year and it's all completely true I tried looking for the police records that go with it but I couldn't find anything because of how long it was the guy in question I'll call him Alex is Asian with really short hair and something like 5'4 he's in the same grade as my oldest sister he's also an avid user of cigarettes alcohol and the likes he even bragged to me that he got his license taken away because he went 60 miles an hour above the speed limit on a highway a damn highway with the limit of 65 miles per hour that meant he went at 125 so basically an ill behaved boy was chasing a really good girl I'll give you the entire story now and I hope it makes everyone who reads this a little more careful when making new friends the second semester of my freshman year I took an art class in hopes to get an elective credit I was sitting with some friends talking about the projects we were making and Alex walks through I'd never noticed him in class before which was really strange I should also put this on a timeline for you to make this a little easier follow it was close to prom season so early March and luckily close to the end of the year he started talking about whatever and we really hit it off after a week I started seeing him popping up around me in the hallways outside my classes and he talked to me during passing time I didn't think much of it being the stupid naive child I was I should also mention that he rode my bus in the afternoon Alex and I would sit by each other on the bus and talk which just encouraged further interaction with him one day my older sister who has two grades above me didn't have theater practice after school so she took the bus home and when she got on she saw me next to Alex her face had turned white and she sat down near the front of the bus I thought it was really strange so I planned on asking her about it when I got off the bus but I forgot to as problem got even closer Alex kept talking about it with me my friends and I all assumed he was going to ask me because not only did he follow me around but he wouldn't shut up about it and it was clearly showing signs of interest in me unfortunately for him however I was in a relationship with someone at the time and it was a girl I had absolutely no interest in dating him if he did ask me though I would need to say we'd need to go as friends thankfully Alex told me instead that he'd like me to tell Tania that if she didn't have a date that he loved to bring her almost immediately remembering the incident on the bus I just said she's got a date already but thanks wanting to protect her over the next few days Alex actually started talking about sexual statics things like average length of some was manhood for the average age someone loses their virginity I got super uncomfortable about this and told some of the boys in my class that if it got brought up again I'd go sit with them and they glad I offer to protect me this was my first set of red flags another instance that set off red flags about Alex it was when I got home and the doorbell rang I looked out the window and saw Alex there this wasn't the strangest part because I got off the bus before Alex did so he saw where I had lived I yelled to my mom that someone was here to see me and I went out on the front porch to go talk to him he was with his friends and yelled to them that he was going to catch up with them later and he wanted to talk to me first he told me about some mundane stuff and I was getting bored so bored in fact that I just bluntly decided to ask him if he liked me I was tired of him always beating around the bush and I just wanted a stupid answer Alex kind of froze and danced around the subject confirming my suspicions the way he avoided telling me that he liked me was really strange bragging to me about his drugs and illegal escapades my dad was also just coming home from work at the time too so I had an excuse to leave the really uncomfortable situation when my dad came in the house he told me about how nice Alex seemed and I looked over to Tania and she looked upset about it but neither of us said anything later on not on the same day though I posted a picture on my Instagram and he commented on it I still don't know how he got my Instagram to this day he commented him his phone number telling me to text him and that my dad was really chill I'm along with the demand for me to text him he continued to almost harass me on the direction of messaging on Instagram asking to hang out this was another red flag that set things off for me making me weary of him and I decided that I needed to be very careful with him from now on in early May he continued to follow me from class to class but from a further distance this was absolutely mortifying but my girlfriend at the time thought it was hilarious she said that it was funny seeing a strange boy chase a gay that had no chance with him I laughed with her on the outside but internally I was really scared it was at this timeframe that he actually showed up in my window I should mention that my parents weren't home at this time either they rocked grocery shopping while all my sisters were home alone with me I was done with all my homework and I was practicing my makeup skills so I can do the makeup of a few girls that were going to prom I had my beer buds in and I was listening to my music when I heard some sort of tapping noise I took them out listens intently for a moment then pop them back in I heard the tapping noise once again and took my earbuds out again once again listening this happened a few times until I just kept my earbuds out permanently I finally heard again and found it coming from my window I quickly wiped off my makeup and grabbed a pocketknife that I kept under my pillow I opened my curtains and it's all Alex just standing there he was trained was Julie dressed in a three-piece tuxedo with a single white rose he said something and I couldn't hear him through the glass I yelled through the glass I was going to come outside and talk to him as I walked up the stairs to go outside Tania came up to me terrified she told me not to go outside and I asked her why she told me that Alex was outside and that he was dangerous she revealed to me that he stalked her freshman year and followed her around the way he did me we both panic together and I heard the garage door open signaling that our parents were home we ran to the foyer telling our dad that Alex was outside and that he needed to do something about it he walked over to the side of the house where my window was and talked to him I never knew what he said but it kept Alex away for a while which was really nice but things suddenly got a lot worse from there Alex started talking to me again but this time it was about sex and drugs even worse than before telling me about all the drugs he had with him and about all the girls he screwed going into extreme detail I went to go sit with the other boys in the art class but it did nothing he still talked about it even making one of the hockey players uncomfortable they did their best to shield me but it only went so far this was my final red flag before I deleted his number and blocked him on Instagram I was too uncomfortable to put myself there any more social interactions with him the worst that had gotten though was two days before the last day of school I was getting ready for bed around 10:00 p.m. when I heard a knock at my window I once again grabbed my knife and looked out my window assuming the worst but praying for it to be just the bushes outside my window I saw the very dark outline of a figure and my heart had dropped I knew it was Alex so I closed my curtain and ran upstairs to my parents bedroom almost in tears about Alex being at my window my dad and I both went back down to my window and no one was there my dad thought Alex would still be there just hiding the bushes outside my window my dad decided to try scare him off and went to turn on the back porch lights and call for my dogs I didn't get any more knocks at my window for maybe two minutes I heard another knock and told my dad he just marched straight outside at this point and found him sitting by my window with his hood up I don't know what happened but the police were called and they had to escort him back to his house it was terrifying but I was pissed at that point why wouldn't he just leave me alone it doesn't stop there however in the next day during math class i sat in a spot that faces the window put my back to the door halfway through the hour one girl in the class shouts out my name telling me to look behind me I turn around as does the rest of the class and there was Alex standing intently above me silent I got up ready to punch him in the face but he ran out the door I just stood in the doorway of the room and broke into tears there are other people comforted me and my girlfriend told the teacher what was going on the scariest part however was that I never told him my schedule later that day my mom Tania and I went to the police at our school when the officer said we could do a no-contact agreement we ruled it out because it would take too long to put into place with only a few days left in school later when the officer talked to Alex asking him what he did he said it was because neither me nor my sister told him no it was near the end of the year and nothing happened with him over the summer my sophomore year though I have another class with him I immediately told the teacher about everything so that she knew and everyone in class protected me from him I had no further incidents from him the teacher actually cared about me and is now one of my close friends my sophomore year was clear of any incidences and I had pretty much forgotten the existence until recently I woke up and checked to my phone after turning off the alarm I saw that I had gotten a random Facebook message from someone I didn't know my facebook is about as private as it gets so I didn't know that it was possible to receive messages from people that I wasn't friends with on Facebook my sophomore year Alex was supposed to graduate but he didn't his name wasn't even set at the ceremony and wasn't even listed in the program Tania and I both laughed about it but we knew that it meant that he was going to be in our city longer I looked at it anyways and it was very sexual messages it was annoying and I get messages like that all the time from bots on Instagram so I would have ignored it but because it was on facebook Messenger it was a really strange I clicked on the person's a name and their profile came up I scrolled through the pictures and I saw a picture that made my heart sink a picture of Alex it was Alex's profile and he had messaged me and changed the profiles name and location I only showed it to a few people but not to my parents yet I showed it to my current boyfriend who showed it to his mom and she told me to tell my parents the reason we showed it to a teacher was because he'd been around the school grounds within the last few weeks and she may be able to do something about it nothing has happened with Alex since but if something else happens there is a chance he won't make it out of the situation alive because I'm fed up with him and he's caused me and my family enough grief please be careful who you choose to make friends with and what sort of information you give out don't put yourself through what I've been through I met my stalker when I was in middle school my school consisted of seventh grade through 12th grade and had a normal program and an accelerated program with the students in each program being pretty segregated my friends and I belonged to the accelerated program but there were the one guy in the group who from the normal program his name was Carson all in all we were typical teenagers with Carson being the group's prankster we only we could hang out at school because we were all shipped in from various parts of the county for the accelerated program so after school we would all get on AOL to chat and play games online we had even more friends how do we provide our own local friends to also chat with us one day Carson invited his friend Steve to join the chat he was nice and contributed to a lot of our conversations we learned Steve actually attended our school but he was in the normal program and had a different lunch period than the rest of us so we had almost no chance of crossing paths we insisted on meeting him however and we would schedule for Steve to come to my locker before first period the next morning we waited and Steve never came my friend and I did have a short exchange with another kid Marco which consisted of us telling him to go away Marco had Ben Carson's satellite since the beginning of the year wherever Carson went Marco would stand 10 to 15 feet away just watching us we had tried being friends with him but he was simply too strange for us he would touch your face unexpectedly or try and sneak up behind you to bite you or tell you he wanted to see you inside out his list of strange behaviors was just a mile long a few days later Steve failed to come meet us it came to light that Steve was really Marco and that the whole thing was one of Carson's pranks considering Marco has been a pleasant addition to a chat as Steve we gave him another chance to join the real group besides Carson I was the only person that really gave Marco a chance he still did the weird things he always has been doing but it was now apparent that it was all an act to get attention for being the weird guy Marco is being abused at home by his mom's boyfriend he rarely saw his mom because she worked so much Marco was the poster child for bad attention is still attention still my friends wanted him out of the group and I repeatedly found myself arguing his case to let him stay once I caught an older student a boy that lived on my street beating Marco up being much larger than either of us he was literally picking Marco up and slamming him at the lockers while he called him a freak knowing the bully and his mother I did what was my signature move at the time and kicked him in the balls while threatening to tattle on his parents about how he was treating me and my friends I believe this was the catalyst for years of torment as Marco became my satellite after that day at school Marco followed me any chance he got at home Marco messaged me non-stop typically on a private chat as my other friends wanted nothing to do with him I felt bad because he was a sweet kid besides his attention-seeking stunts and no one should have to go through life with no friends eventually Marco asked me out which I politely declined him he wasn't my friend but he was not the type of guy that I would ever be interested in dating he was persistent though begging me to give him a chance over and over again I would have to tell him no one day his approach changed you will go out with me or I'll show your mom all our chat logs there's nothing especially bad in those logs I wasn't drinking or doing drugs or really anything bad but I was pretty depressed at the times and sometimes talked about wanting to end myself with my parents so that I could effectively kiss my freedom and privacy goodbye I bluffed him telling him good luck with any attempts to convince my parents to believe him over me which seemed to work it wasn't very impressed with the stunt and stopped talking to him a few weeks went by and Marco came crawling back begging for my forgiveness I eventually caved allowing him back into the group at first he was well behaved again but slowly he started pestering me to be his girlfriend over the course of high school he tried in many different than methods begging blackmailing attacking my self-esteem catfishing threatening any guy I dated threatening to end himself and even more I tried to be nice at first but eventually had to get a pretty mean and how I said no his behavior would also reach a boiling point that forced me to cut him out of our friend group it was nearly impossible to actually get rid of him however online he would create dozens of new accounts to send messages from overwhelming my attempts to block him he would call my phone all night long and leave woeful message about how lonely he was and how he would end himself if I stopped being his friend he would show up at my house and stand outside my bedroom window randomly when my parents had parties he always managed to find out how and show up their parties were always pretty big with an open-door policy so he'd slipped right in he then ultimately do something to get thrown out like getting belligerently drunk or stuff his face with finger foods and then put them back on the serving platters the first time I really felt that marco might actually be a threat was that one of my parents Halloween parties when we were 16 one of my dad's friends had a son our age his name was Tim that was a bit of a jerk he fancied himself pretty cool and thought it would be fun to pick a fight with the weird kid to make a display of his own superior strength marco accepted this challenge we all knew he was about to get the crap beat out of him going out into the streets Tim towered over Marco that year Marco was just as Alex from Clockwork Orange with his costume including a cane he swung the cane at Tim hitting him in the head with it Tim went down quickly and Marco beat him until an adult intervened and sent him home Marco's goes to threat whenever I had a boyfriend was I'll beat him to death with a shovel and then use it to bear his body suddenly this threat seemed like something he'd be capable of our senior year of high school Marco's dead died in prison he learned the real-life lesson and his dad was imprisoned for murdering someone he'd always thought that the stad was in for drugs and Marco started to spiral out of control he said his dad was a murderer so he must also be doomed to be one he dropped out of school halfway through that year my brother said after I'd left home for college marco came to the house looking for me a few times once he figured out I wasn't there he'd just come and stand in the front yard aimlessly playing with a Bic lighter until someone threatened to call the cops one of my biggest worries was that he'd try to set their house on fire in some weird way of trying to punish me when I'd go home with my boyfriend he'd always show up at my parents house at one point he tried to intimidate my boyfriend into breaking up with me by showing him he had a hunting knife it was always a big ordeal getting him to leave a lot of the issues have now eased up just due to the distance and time I don't use much social media anymore and I'm able to see me block people on my phone initially he was calling and texting everyday hundreds of messages I tried asking him to stop but this only encouraged him more my family no longer lives in that area so I'm significantly less worried for their safety I found the most successful way of dealing with Marco is simply just ignoring him eventually his message dwindled down to once a week then once a month now I maybe hear from him officially once a year his message is typically something along the lines of please just be my friend I won't try for anything more I need you in my life the last time I actually talked to him which was about four to five years ago now Marco tried to tell me I'd ruin his life he said I had put some spell on him but now he couldn't move forward with his life he told me he would end himself and it would be my fault I finally had to tell him that I wouldn't care if he ended himself in fact it would be a relief to me his most recent mo is to call my work phone from our private number just to hear me answer the phone and then heading up he also calls and texts my brother our high school friends my brother's friend my parents my grandparents my aunt and my husband to beg them to ask me to call him Marco messaged my husband tell her she is my angel the love of my life I'm nothing without her I worry he will snap some day and show up at my house or to my job to end me I have security systems and other means of protection but I still get paranoid about it I've talked to the police about getting a restraining order but they've told me there's no grounds unless he does start showing up and threatening to end me so I guess we'll see what happens now I had always been a bit of a tomboy and never dated boys in high school I wasn't interested in dating and I was oblivious when guy showed interest in me that's why I didn't find it at all weird when I got friended on myspace by a friend I used to know by the name of James James went to my elementary school until about fourth grade when we moved just one town over back in the 90s there wasn't many ways for kids that young to keep in touch with each other so no one really had heard from him until the beginning of the story I see his request and I automatically accept it I wasn't one of those teenagers who just accepted every friend request I got I knew this kid so shortly after reuniting on MySpace we reminisced about random kid memories from where we were in the same class you know you know normal stuff that kids would talk about somehow we exchanged our phone numbers texting was relatively new back then so unlimited plans were just becoming mainstream we would text each other again about random memories and what we were doing that day one thing that sticks to my mind is that we talked about buying gyros which are sodas without a twist top cap every once in a while during our texting conversations James would add something cheesy into the mix like you just remember you're beautiful or some weird cheap corny joke like that I brushed them off or ignored them and just continued the conversations if he was interested I just was going to pretend I didn't know about it but here's where I feel like I broke out of my character James and I eventually talked about just meeting up to chill and hang out he wanted to go to this really grungy carnival right near our town about 20 minutes away from me and I was like sure why not I had only had my license for just a few months and I was always down to get away from my secluded country-house I met up with James and his friends at the carnival we walk around the grounds a bit and I meet everybody his friends were awkward yet nice they all wanted to go get Wendy's so we get in one kids big old Cadillac and just drive off as soon as we start driving I feel uneasy this kid whose name escapes me was driving all over the road hitting curbs and yelling at all the other drivers and I spoke up to him I told him he should probably treat his grandpa's car a little bit better he replied with something careless so I just dropped it when we got to Wendy's which was within walking distance of James's house I told him I wasn't getting back in that Cadillac James obliged so he walked to his mom's house borrowed their car and then he dropped me off at my truck at the carnival when we parted ways he moved closer to me from the passenger side of the car for a weird hug on my way home I got a text from James that said truck hugs are awkward and weird in my head I'm like no crap dude but I replied with something like then maybe we shouldn't do that anymore for some reason a week or two had passed I agreed to hang out with him again by his request and his request only he wanted to go walk the canal in his town so I figured that it sounded like fun he tried to take my hand and I took it away we walked the canal and talked about stuff and he asks if I wanted to go to the golf course to explore some stuff now at this point it's getting pretty dark but again I thought it sounded like fun so I offered to drive him I do like being in control it's how I feel the safest I stopped at the tennis courts and from his wallet he brings a piece of notebook paper ripped into a rectangle that read good for one free back rub I thought it was kind of funny so I scratched his back quickly and we left like I said it was getting dark we get to the golf course and James grabs my hand to hold on to it again I'm really not into him like that but I let it happen anyways as darkness closes the golf course we wander the grounds which is probably not okay and James keeps trying to wrap his arms around me I pulled away for the first few times but yet he continued he pulls me from the edge of the ground and into the road as a car is coming and tries to make out with me in the street I pull him away disgust at the metallic taste left behind his sharp braces I say I'm ready to go yet he pulls me towards him again stands there holding me in the road kissing me against my will as a blazer blares its horn at us blinding me in its headlights okay seriously it's time to go I told him I took him home and I felt funny when I dropped him off he kissed me again that one was okay I guess I think back then I was in the mindset that you have to do what the boys want for some reason I wish I didn't the third and final time I agreed to hang out with James he came into my house to show me his new huge truck that he had bought since he got his cool new job at the factory and could forward it at about 17 we sat on the couch watching family guy with my 13 year old brother popping out from upstairs to be annoying every hour or so eventually James thought it would be cool to snuggle up to me he got kind of pushy and started sticking his hands in my shirt saying I like these and I replied everyone makes fun of me saying they're small I don't know why I didn't push him off and he proceeded to try to kiss me tongue and kissing me just awkwardly trying to push and aggressively making me kiss him and it wasn't what I wanted he stuck his hand in my shorts and it kind of hurt I told him to stop and I told him it was time for him to go he tried to protest but I made up some excuse that my brother was around and it wasn't okay to do that in the living room the next day he started texting me again asked if I liked last night and I told him we needed to keep his hands to himself the next time he replies with I can't tame them but maybe you can and I ignored him here's where this gets real out of hand at this point I didn't want anything to do with James he was pushy and didn't respect my boundaries and he clearly wanted to date me or something else because the weird corny texts never stop never once did he just say hey I like you but the creepiest of all corny was after a couple of days of not speaking I get a text from James while I was on my way to work knock knock he said and I hesitated but I wrote who's there from the parking lot of my job I was a cashier at our small grocery store and there was a strict no phone policy at our register so my phone stayed in the break room at all times three hours later on my break I'm reading my texts and Jame has replied aardvark I feel really uncomfortable at this and I say art bark whoo aardvark a million miles for you this is where I just got mean to him I said you wouldn't and you shouldn't and there's some other stuff about leaving me alone he replies I'll prove it to you let me come over tonight I lied and said I can't I have to watch my brother and sister tonight James begged me please I just want to prove it to you I'll walk the whole way remember his house is about 20 minutes by car from me I'm mostly isolated roads bordered by farmland but again I tell him no I'm not allowed to have anyone over tonight I thought it was done I get out of work at 9:15 and grab my phone and there's a text from James it's kind of creepy walking on a road in the dark and I slipped you are not walking to my house right now I told you I'm not allowed to anyone over turnaround right now and walk back home I Drive home and I feel okay my brother is on the couch watching TV my brother is a champion hunter and was brought up by my father to love and respect the guns he had his bow and a shotgun in his room even though he was 13 or 14 at the time it just made me feel a whole lot better I don't get another text until midnight I'm on the road about two minutes away I tell him to turn around and to go back to his grandma's house I tell him he better not come over to my house or I will call the cops I am frozen in my chair our living room has a large window and curtains are usually open because we have no neighbors even then the curtains are translucent they don't really do anything I'm too frozen by shock and fear and I don't even know to close them anyway I look over at my brother who's fast asleep on the couch across from the room I'm too frozen to wake him up on the enclosed porch my big dogs Jenny and Tanner slept I called my mom my dad and my family friend who is a tough lady and like my second mom in many ways my parents were sleeping and our family friend was out of a bar and couldn't hear her phone so I sat there frozen on the couch TBS channel muted on my TV and waiting I don't know why I didn't call the cops I think it was because James's cousin was my sister's best friend and I didn't want rumors to start James text me telling me I'm on your Road I freaked out again and tell him not to come up my driveway that I will call the cops laughs I mentioned that he wasn't physically threatening just creepy and invasive I just wanted him gone I didn't want him around to look at me or know about me and then nothing for about three hours James texts me I'm at my grandmother's and then I asked him if he's okay and he went into a terrain of insults and criticism you don't have to be a bitch I was gonna ask you to be my girlfriend I've never done any of that I just wanted to see you in person and thought we could talk he made me walk all that way and I replied with the obvious like me politely indirectly telling him not to come repeatedly I wasn't supposed to have anyone over anyways he had a vehicle then as a test to see if he came down the driveway I asked him if he woke the dogs up he said Tanner stayed asleep and Ginny wasn't there which was true I did get up to ask Ginny to come sit with me the part that bothered me the most was that I was very clear the whole time that I did not want him over here still terrified at 4 or 5 o'clock a.m. I finally feel like I can go to my room I barely sleep and at 6:00 a.m. my family friend who comes over with her girlfriend I come out because I hear the dogs barking squeaking and excitement I sat on the porch as they unload their overnight bags and I see two objects on the front doorsteps that notebook paper coupon and a brand-new bottle opener keychain my dogs never hurt him and they never barked I heard from him a couple times after that and I pretended to be a teenager who couldn't spell the name Sara hoping he would think I changed my number

Channel: Being Scared

Views: 130,576

Rating: 4.7329068 out of 5

Keywords: scary stories, scary true stories, true scary stories, being scared, scary stories told in the rain, scary stories told in rain, scary stories rain, scary stories for a rainy night, scary video, rain, rain sounds, ambient rain, rain asmr, real rain, ambient sounds, asmr sounds, thunder sounds, sleep, videos for sleep, sleep sounds, ambient rain sounds, rainy night, rainy day, thunderstorm, rain video, creepy stories, ambient video, asmr video, asmr, relaxing sounds

Id: 47v5DWcgDys

Length: 159min 32sec (9572 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 02 2019