A (0:00)

Welcome to Scary Stories and Rain. A couple things before we begin, I have two new podcasts that I would love for you to check out. It's the same type of stories, but one with a crackling campfire background and one with more of a dark, eerie background. Scary Stories in Fire and Scary Stories in the dark. The links to each of them are in the description to this episode. Please check them out and give them a follow. It would really mean a lot. And if you're not following this podcast yet, please do that as well so you get reminded when a new episode comes out every single night. Also, if you haven't subscribed yet, you can get rid of all of the ads for $2.99 a month and be automatically entered to win every single giveaway that I do every month. Just $2.99. No more ads. All the giveaways. I want to say thank you for being here and I really hope you enjoy this episode. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible Financial geniuses. Monetary Magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. This story I am about to tell only a few people close to me have ever heard. However, I never actually explained in detail what happened that night to absolutely anyone. For this story specifically it is necessary to explain my general area I live in as it pertains to this event. I live next to Yellowstone national park which in of itself has drawn millions of tourists each year. Part of the reason I am telling this is merely a warning to people who decide to visit during the summer months. Last year in the summer of 2020, me and some of my buddies decided to go have a night out and do some camping out near a spot where we have been to multiple times in the past. After all, this was right after things started to become normal again and lockdowns were lifted. I decided to head up to the camp spot early in an effort to make sure my gear was still set up from earlier that day. I did this as an effort to reserve the spot as it's first come first serve. Therefore, with everything in hand, I left my house right before sunset. We we were all supposed to meet up within the hour so I didn't really have any concerns of being by myself. I then began my 30 minute drive up to the location. When I finally arrived I immediately noticed my tent and everything inside was gone now, just for some context, I staked the tent down in multiple areas just to be sure it stayed for the period I was gone. Inside was my sleeping bag and and a few other miscellaneous items I left just to keep it weighted down. However, everything, literally everything, disappeared as if it was never there. I looked around and even the stakes and rocks I placed on the outside were missing. I immediately knew something was wrong because I did not see any campers on the way up. Also, keep in mind I do not have cell service as it's a couple miles back back into the wilderness. I then decided to drive back down from where I came to get service and get a hold of my friends and let them know what happened. Least to say I was not happy with the situation and knew that whoever took my belongings were still in the area, as it had only been there for an hour or two. However, my friends insisted that I stayed and at least hang out for a few hours as it took weeks of planning. So once I made sure everyone arrived, I then decided to go around the area in search of any sign of footprints or indications that maybe these people were close by. As you can guess, I wasn't able to find anything. I eventually played it off and decided I would just look for it in the morning and contact the Forest Service to report it missing. I also didn't want to ruin the party for everyone and decided to stay. In hindsight, this was by far one of the worst decisions I could have ever made. As the night went on, everything seemed fine. So I thought around one or two in the morning, most of my friends decided to call it a night. I ended up sleeping in my truck. This was perhaps one of the better decisions I made that night. That along with always making sure to bring my bear spray and sidearm for protection from unexpected guests, I eventually fell asleep. However, it's important to note that I was still a bit on edge as only a couple hours before all of my belongings were taken. I decided to leave my window rolled down a bit just in case I heard anything creep up on us in the middle of the night. After about two hours of me being asleep, my worst nightmare came true. At first, I just heard something moving around outside of our camp. This was enough noise to wake me up, and I immediately froze and I didn't move whatsoever. Therefore, this was partially because I knew whatever was making the noise was large, not just a raccoon or any other smaller creature. I then was paralyzed, just listening intently to whatever was happening outside of our camp. My first thought was that it was A bear. We also had sightings recently in the area. At one point, I swear, it could have only been maybe 20 or 30 yards away. Also, another key point I noticed was that there was absolutely no other noises. Usually there's grasshoppers or birds, but it was complete and utter silence. Now, in a wilderness, that's never a good sign. It means there's a large predator or something of the like in the area. Meanwhile, it's pitch black outside and our fire had completely gone out. After about 15 minutes of not hearing anything, I decided I just needed to stop being paranoid. But just as I was about to fall back asleep sleep, I saw something to the right of our campsite. It was just a few yards away from our fire pit and probably about 20 yards from me. To my absolute horror, it was a person. I immediately freaked out. This was no average person either, let alone the fact that it's three or four in the morning and you're in someone's campsite. This person was wearing what I made out to be some kind of mask. I got a very good look at whoever it was, and it was a deer skull on their face. They were wearing a black robe, and that's about all I noticed. I sure didn't want to leave my truck and confront this person, so I did what I thought was best. I turned my truck on and began honking the horn until all my friends were awake. I rolled down the window and told them, we need to get out of here. Immediately after seeing what I saw, then did exactly that. Meanwhile, this person hasn't moved, mind you. Just as I thought it was bad, the situation got even worse. More of these figures began appearing in front of us through the trees, wearing the same outfits as mentioned earlier, but with a multitude of different masks. I immediately put my truck into reverse and began speeding away. They began walking closer and closer, but luckily I was able to drive out of this spot in time. As I began to speed down the road out of there, three more of these figures appeared out from the side of my truck, this time with a dog and way more aggressive than the previous ones I saw. They began throwing rocks at my truck and chasing after me. At one point, they were literally right next to my passenger window until I accelerated even more and eventually lost them. As I looked back in my mirror, I saw only one figure left, just simply peeking and staring at me behind a tree. This image is forever seared into my head. From this night on, I refuse to ever go back up there. I have never, ever spoken of this to anyone, even When I was around my friends that experienced this, we never mentioned it to each other. It's been over a year now since this happened, and all I can say is that I believe these people were in some sort of cult. I heard other stories about similar events happening and even cattle completely disappearing. It's very barbaric. And you wouldn't think that such a beautiful national park that attracts so many people year round would have such dark and disturbing secrets. My advice to anyone that decides to travel to these mysterious and preserved parks of intrinsic beauty would be to always bring protection of some kind. Likewise, make sure you let others know about your plans and never go alone. There are hundreds of missing persons reports across the national parks inside the United States, and I could have very well been one of them if I had stayed just a few minutes longer. Nature has a way to attract very different types of people. Some want to explore and push themselves to their limits. Meanwhile, some simply don't want to be seen and lurk in the darkness of night. A former Green Beret once told me, the key to survival was always being aware of your surroundings and listening to your instincts. If a particular situation doesn't feel right, chances are it's not. Stay safe, everyone. I'll tell you the story about the two times that I was almost kidnapped in the same spot. I was in high school and in the best shape of my life. I wasn't an athlete or anything, but I was growing into a woman's body. Five, eight and a long, youthful body, almost completely muscled. For that short period of my life, I was actually interested in maintaining myself. So I started a morning routine of going for a walk before before breakfast. I lived in a neighborhood adjacent to this great park where I spent my life growing up. Soccer practice, dates, you name it. I believed that by hanging upside down on the monkey bars once a day before breakfast that I would stretch my spine just enough to keep growing taller and to alleviate any compression that might cause pain as I got older. On a hot summer summer morning before 10:00am I rolled out of bed, got dressed, and headed for the park. I don't think it's necessary to describe the area beyond the fact that it was completely surrounded by houses. It was a pretty safe spot. The parking lot comes first between my street and the park itself. In the lot, I could see a white van. The park district has vehicles that look just like it for things like picking up litter, sanitizing the playground, and bringing out the mowing equipment. I thought this van was here to trim trees or something, so I paid it little attention, and headed for those monkey bars. Before I could make it to the playground, a voice stopped me. Hey. A man called from the driver's seat. A second voice came from the passenger seat. Come over here. I walked away, disinterested, but knowing that two men had rolled their windows down to watch me and talk to me made me feel self conscious. I didn't want my shirt to roll up while I hung upside down or stretch my hamstrings and give them a show of any kind that would give them the satisfaction. These were grown men and I was in high school. Needless to say, I was prey and I knew it. Pretty creeped out, I decided to go for my routine walk, determined not to let two idiots change my workout. A woman has the right to go about her business. Fear turned to anger as the white van with the windows rolled down crept alongside me. I was on the sidewalk, so a safe enough distance from the van on the road. I couldn't remember what they were hollering at me, but you can bet it was degrading, sexual, and not at all what grown men should say to a minor. My anger boiled up inside, and before I let them get away with making me feel so violated, I decided to express myself too. I shot my middle finger high in the air and wagged it around. Now here is where the big oops happened. I know that this road darts into several no outlet neighborhoods, and turning into one, especially if you're not from around here like these guys were, means that you're going to u turn and come back around. That's exactly what they did. As soon as I saw that white van accelerate angrily and swoop into the adjoining street, I knew they were about to come back for me. My stomach dropped and I knew that I had only seconds to hide. No, I wouldn't reach the park in time. I knew that by the time I reached it, they would spot wherever I was going and attack me. I was close to a turn off into another neighborhood where I knew Mr. D lived. Mr. D was a police officer and whose son happened to be dating my sister at that time, so I had his number. I never ran so fast in my life. I dove behind a conifer tree in his front yard and made myself as small as possible in the shadows. Sure enough, that white van came from the opposite direction, inching down the road at only five miles an hour. The windows were rolled up this time, probably to make it easier to get away with stuffing a screaming girl in the back without anyone hearing. They stopped at the intersection where I disappeared. I took my phone out and texted Mr. D. Hi, it's me. There are two guys following me and I'm hiding in your tree. Help. I watched through the pine needles as the guys pulled over and got out, talking quietly and looking around. I hated them just watching as they talked about me. The front door swung open and Mr. D came out in full uniform. It turns out that I had texted him while he was leaving for work. He did not look for me, but stamped down to the end of his driveway and looked down the street. Seeing those men notice a cop staring at them and watching that white van speed away was a magnificent sight. The second time I was almost kidnapped on that curb happened the same summer, but this time it was raining lightly. It was dim and kind of muggy outside, so I remember that no one was outside except for me. I started jogging regularly in the evening and that day was no exception. I thought that the rain would keep me cool and enhance how much longer I could go. Indeed, indeed. I was helped so somewhat by the rain, for I had been running for a while and wasn't that tired yet. I kept my eyes focused on the sidewalk in front of me, but I could see the park slide past me in my peripheral vision. I was on the opposite side of the street as the last incident. A pretty beat up olive green sedan came rolling quietly up the road with its headlights off. I thought that was weird, but knew that it would soon pass me. The sedan was in the oncoming lane so we were face to face for a few meters and I noticed that it slowed down significantly before pulling over to the curb. I was running towards this parked car which already rang my alarm bells. My suspicions flared into overdrive as the driver's side door opened and a tall bald man built like a refrigerator came out of it and crossed over to the passenger side. But I tell you, I amazed myself in that second before he even crossed in front of the first headlight. Before my foot could finish another rhythmic step of a long jog, my brain sent a flaming hot shiver of adrenaline through my body so fast that I actually sprang up in the air. When my foot landed and pushed me off the pavement, I spun around in midair and darted in a new direction away from the man. The phrase fight or flight ceased to be a figure of speech as I actually witnessed it transform my body and put my conscious self into autopilot. If there's something I learned that day, it's that you can't choose fight or flight. Your body will do whichever it wants automatically. You might be programmed to be a fighter, or you might be someone like me, whose flight mode is so powerful that it thrusts you into space like a glitch in the Matrix. I didn't spring in the direction of the sidewalk. No, that was too dangerous. He would just follow me in his car. I actually saw houses whirring past me as I made my way through backyards and patios. I wish I could say I never ran so fast in my life, but as you can recall, I had already run from my life once before, about this fast. I dared to look over my shoulder and I could see a dark blur of a large human maneuvering unnaturally through the backyards on my trail. I don't know how, but I outran him. I think it was my knowledge of the neighborhood, having lived there all my life, and knowing which house had a fence, which ones led to more coverage, which would lead to dead ends, etc. I burst into my house and blubbered the whole story out to anyone who could listen. To be blunt, no one really cared. It's not like I had evidence of this happening, and because there was room for possibility that I misinterpreted his stopping and getting out to maybe ask for directions or check on a tire. That's exactly what my family chose to believe. For a long time I felt angry. Angry that these men came to my turf, my home, my neighborhood, and made me fearful. I couldn't think of a way to violate someone even if I wanted to. But men like these do it in their free time. I stopped working out after my second close encounter with abduction. I guess I look fine as a 23 year old shut in, but that's mainly thanks to my strict diet of vegan chocolate, antidepressants and atheism. And that's my story. This story may not be scary to some, but it remains as one of the most unnerving things I have ever experienced. In the summer of 2017 I was working at a satellite campus of my university as a residential assistant. Allow me to give a description of this campus before continuing the story. It was once an estate and for a college campus, relatively small. To put things into perspective, I was one of only 22 students on the entire campus in the spring semester and one of 60 in the fall. I am not sure what the population was during the summer, but you get the idea. Not only was it small, but it was very old. The former estate was built in 1712, over 300 years before this story takes place to save on budget when acquiring the property. My university did not demolish any of the older buildings. They just stood there, empty and condemned. One of these buildings was a big mansion at the center of the campus, which served as the administration building for the university that owned the property prior to my own. The most prominent feature of the campus is the old windmill, a historic landmark and a playhouse for the daughter of the family who owned the estate. The story behind the windmill goes that the daughter used to run to the top floor, waving to the seafarers as they sailed on by. One night, while coming down from the top floor of the windmill, she fell down the steep stairs, broke her neck, and died. Rumor has it that her ghost wanders through the windmill, and while the structure remains locked throughout the year, some say they can sometimes see a lit candle coming from the top floor window. I wish I could say this is where my story takes place, but unfortunately it doesn't. With all of this being said, this campus is no stranger to the paranormal. As this campus is very small, there are only six residential buildings for the students to live in. These buildings are all named after historic nearby towns, and one of which, Sagapanak, is said to be haunted. The dorms are arranged in two rows, three in the front and three in the back. Each dorm is only two stories with two suites on each floor. When you walk in, there are doors to the left and the right leading to each suite, and a staircase leading to the second floor where the two other suites are. As an ra, one of my duties was to make rounds. This involved us going to each suite to make sure that the main doors were locked and that the residents didn't need anything. One night, it was time for us to perform our nightly rounds before closing the RA office for the night. The other RA and I decided to do them together since it was a rather tedious activity. To expedite the process, I would check the first floor doors while the other RA would go upstairs to check the second floor doors. As we are in Sagapanak, I am standing around waiting for the other RA to come back downstairs when I notice a couple of pairs of shoes at the bottom of the staircase, A pair of brown work boots and black sneakers. Nothing too far out of the ordinary, right? We make our way to the next building, and seconds into stepping into it, the other RA and I stop dead in our tracks. At the bottom of the staircase is a pair of brown work boots and black sneakers. I quickly stepped outside to check what building we were in, and to my disbelief, I found myself staring at the sign for Sagapanak Dumbfounded and creeped out, we decided to end our rounds there and close up shop for the night. To this day I am still not sure if what had happened to us was due to paranormal activity, a glitch in the Matrix, or an unusually silly mistake that neither I nor my partner noticed. How did we end up back in Sagapanak? If this does have a supernatural explanation, who or what wanted us back inside, I will never truly know it was a Thursday in August of 2002. I was 12 years old and had lived with my mom for the past six years since she and my dad got divorced. Soon after their divorce, my mom met a new man who moved in with us a few months later. Looking back, I can remember a few times where he had shown red flag behavior. Like one Evening maybe in 1999 when we, my sisters and I were watching a TV show finale very late, he was drunk and came into the living room smashed the TV with his hands. Back then the TV screens were made of glass. He cut his hand badly and yelled at us while bleeding. My mom forgave him after. He probably came up with a million excuses in the following days. In the beginning of 2002 my mom finally decided to have a break in their relationship and her and I moved into a different apartment a few miles away to get some distance. Me, still being the naive kid who thought she could have two dads, wasn't very excited about the idea. I already hated seeing my mom and dad split and now I had to let go of a man I had gotten used to over the course of all these years. I was still just a kid and ignored all the signs and I even remember resenting my mom for leaving him. As I said, my story starts on Thursday 8th August 2002. I was in school and not feeling very well. I also noticed some type of rash on my hips so my teacher sent me to the doctor and the diagnosis was shingles. I can still see the doctor right in front of me telling me that if the rash gets worse and goes all the way around my hip, it could potentially be very dangerous. So I went home for the day and was allowed to stay home the next day too. Friday the 9th On Friday morning my mom woke me up about 20 minutes before she went to work so she could check on me, have a little breakfast with me and bring me back to my bed to make sure that I would rest after she left. I remember lying in my bed and being relieved that the rash had gotten better overnight when I suddenly heard a noise from the hallway. My room was not connected to the hallway, so I could only see the adjacent room. And since my mom had left a couple minutes prior, I assumed it was her and called out to her. Seconds later, my mom's ex boyfriend appeared in my door frame asking me what I was doing home and why I wasn't in school. After I told him that I was sick and had shingles, he immediately said to me how much he missed us kids and my mom and how sorry he is for not being there and that he would love to talk to my mom and make things right. Since I was still unhappy about their breakup, I said stupid stuff like I missed him too and I wanted them to get back together. I cannot believe I seriously believed that. At some point, after a few minutes of small talk and him pretending to care about my well being, he made me promise not to tell my mom that he came by before he left. I obviously told her the minute she came home because I couldn't keep secrets from her and I also just wanted her to know. And again, me being a stupid 12 year old did not even question how we even entered the apartment without a key, without someone opening the door for him. I never in a million years would have thought that this might be illegal or inappropriate behavior. I knew that man and he had lived with us for a number of years. The same day, just a few hours later, my dad drove me to my grandma's as I had planned weeks in advance to stay the weekend with her and I already felt much better. Better. My mom was supposed to pick me back up on Sunday, but on that morning my mom hadn't answered her phone for about 12 hours, which was unusual, a friend of the family picked me up, drove me home, and still no news from my mom. Since there's a rule in my country that a person has to be missing for 24 hours before breaking the door to the apartments and she became missing on Saturday evening. The police were only allowed to open the apartment on Sunday. My sisters, my dad and I all went inside. I grabbed all of my school supplies and went to the bathroom. After exiting the bathroom, I found my mom's dental prosthesis on a counter in the hallway. Not realizing it could be potential evidence, I picked it up and brought it into the kitchen where my dad was sitting with a police officer. My dad later told me that as soon as he saw the prosthesis, he knew something had happened. My mom had her teeth fixed just a few months prior and would not leave the house without that. After picking up our Stuff from the apartment. My dad drove us back to his house and we waited. Monday morning and still no message from my mom. We didn't go to school that Monday, but planned on returning the next day. Tuesday morning I woke up on my own, even though my dad had said he would wake us up and take us to school. I was about to go downstairs when I saw the village priest leaving our house. Police had found my mother the night before. On Monday evening, one of my mom's neighbors went upstairs to do laundry in the attic when he noticed one of the doors being locked. No resident from the apartment building had a key to this specific room, so they had to call the landlord to open the door. I tried not to think about what they discovered since it was the middle of summer and my mom had been dead for about 48 hours. My mom was murdered by her ex boyfriend after he returned to the apartment on Saturday afternoon to talk. The last person my mom spoke to was my aunt. Shortly before they hung up, my mom said, there's someone knocking on the door. It's him again. I gotta go. I'll call you later. He gained access to the apartment the same way he did on Friday, with a credit card. He was arrested only a day later in a bar after telling the barman that he had done something really stupid. Yeah, I'll say. Eight months later, in April of the following year, my sister and I had to testify in the murder trial. But before we gave our testimony, our father argued with the court and made sure that we didn't have to face the killer. I remember sitting down in a large and very cold room, My father right by my side, holding my hand, lawyers to my right and to my left, as well as the judge in front of me. I remember being asked about the day he came into our apartment and answering all of the questions as truthfully as I could. They sentenced him to nine years in prison. Manslaughter, in effect, was the official cause. Seven of those nine years he spent behind bars. And as far as I know, he moved back close to our hometown, close to where it all happened. Over the years, people have told me that I was lucky. He could have killed me too. If my mom had still been at home that day, if she had left just a few minutes later, maybe she would have run into him downstairs. Or if he had gained entry to the apartment while we were still eating breakfast. Lots of ifs and could haves. I know I won't be able to change the past, but I am sure glad I can control my future in 2014 I moved to England from Canada to gain work and travel experience and also to quote unquote find myself. I ended up living in Essex with three other roommates. They were all women, all a bit older than I was. I was 24 at the time. Megan was 31, Cherry was 34 and Cassie was 38. Megan was from New York, Cherry from New Jersey and Cassie from Poland. All four of us shared this three story flat. The back of our home was the living room and kitchen. The back wall was complete glass that looked out into the garden. The garden was completely fenced in. The house had an interesting dynamic to say the least. Tons of stories from that time in my life. I adored all my roommates except for Cherry. After living with Cherry for seven months, I was over her antics. One day I come home from work, I lock the door, make myself something to eat and go up to bed. I brought some work home with me so I'm in my nighty with all these papers around me and my headphones in and jamming out. I had headphones on because Cherry was out to dinner with work friends. That meant booze. And then soon after that a tantrum was surely to come. I just didn't want to have to listen to her crap crazy scream crying. I am working away, completely focused until I feel something. I look up to see a man standing over me. I don't register it right away and passively say Cherry's room is on the second floor and continue to work. He doesn't leave again. Cherry's room is downstairs. You. He then interrupts me, I'm not here for Cherry. A cold chill iced my veins. My fight or flight kicked in. Just then I start surveying the situation. I look him up and down. He has a bottle of Prosecco in one hand and a knife in the other. He is about 5 10, wild, muddy brown hair and black eyes. He has a light blue polo shirt on and one side of his collar is popped up and a distinct Manchester accent. Once I focused in I realized his eyes were black because his pupils were completely dilated. Crap. I was in trouble. I needed an escape plan. Unfortunately, this man was standing in between me and my bedroom door. I needed to get downstairs but I needed for him to think it was his idea. I decided to play along. Just then he uses his knife to pop the cork. Prosecco started flowing onto my carpet. I said, oh no, let's clean that up. I prefer to drink out of a proper flute anyways. He nodded, replying, yeah, you're a proper classy bird. Let's go. I try to act as natural as possible. I try not to show that I am shaking all over and try to gain control over my breathing. We take the long journey down to the main floor of my flat. All three floors. He has the back of my nightie bunched up in one hand and I could feel the point of the knife grind raise my back with his other. I was trying to playfully speak with him as we walked down the stairs. I couldn't tell you what I was saying. I was most likely rambling. I couldn't hear anything over my heart beating in my ears. We get to the bottom of the stairs and there is a hallway to my left that leads to the front door. On my right, which is much closer to us, is the kitchen and living room. We make our way into the kitchen. I point to the cabinets that had the wine glasses. He said he knew where they were and started towards them. I now had the kitchen table in between us. It was time to run. I burst into a sprint down the hallway towards the door. My hands fumble over the locks. Shaking and sweating, I swing open the door and see two men walking across the street. They must have been walking home from the train. There was a big train station in front of our house. I call out to them for help and suddenly I am flung onto the ground. Little pebbles piercing my skin sent sharp pains where they jabbed. The intruder pushed me out of the way to run and escape. One of the men chased after the intruder while the other said for me to go inside. While he surveyed my home and to call the police. I locked the doors and I called the police. While I am on the phone with dispatch, I manically run around the house to double check all the windows and doors. Suddenly I hear a loud bang on my door. I inform the dispatch of the banging and she informs me that police weren't there yet. I thought it might be one of the gentlemen who helped me. I go to look out the eyehole and it's him. The intruder. He came back. He's banging on my door, screaming that I had his glasses and that he was not done with me. I absolutely freaked out. The dispatcher attempted to calm me down, but I'm losing my mind. She then said, they are pulling onto your street now. You should hear their sirens. I did. Thankfully. The intruder then blasts off. One officer jumps out of the passenger side while the car is still moving and chases after him. The second officer comes to my home, interviews me and the two gentlemen, collects some evidence and takes photos. After some time of him being there. Cherry comes home and freaks out. Once the situation was explained to her, she said, oh my gosh, that could have been me. Yeah, thanks Cherry. It's all about you. The next morning I am called in to identify a man they had in custody. I pointed him out. I go into a little room and the officer pulls out an evidence bag. He asked me if the items were mine. They were. They were my underwear and photos taken from my home. The officer informed me that the intruder had been stalking me for some time. Now he estimates about three months. He had made a nest outside our home on top of a hill that overlooked into our living room and kitchen. He is a known offender and dealer. He then told me how lucky I was to get out practically unharmed. Others weren't so lucky. I really hope I never see that man again. However, I would love to run into those two gentlemen again. Every day I am thankful for them. This summer I decided to pick up some graveyard shifts at my current full time job simply because it pays more and I am a university student drowning in student debt. About two weeks ago, on the rare occasion that I get to sleep during the time the sun is down at 3:30 to 4:00am, I was suddenly awoken by a loud sound. Me being half asleep, I honestly didn't know what the sound exactly was so I just chalked it up to being one of my neighbors dropping something because I live in an apartment with very thin walls so I just try to go back to sleep. After about 10 minutes of laying there with my eyes closed, I hear the sound again, but this time I am pretty much awake so I recognize what the sound was immediately. Someone was knocking on my window. For context, I am a single female living alone and in a basement suite so my windows are basically level with the sidewalk. Obviously I am freaked out. I don't know what to do. I don't want to move and make any loud noises so they don't know I am home and I am just frozen laying in this bed. Then I hear the knocking again. I instantly bold up as my fight or flight kicks in and run to the front door which has my keys with my pepper spray on it. The keys clink together and make a noticeable sound and the knocking starts to get more intense and loud. This is when I realize the window with the screen by my bed is almost all the way open because my cat likes to sit on the edge and I forgot to close and lock it. I start to freak out. Already having major anxiety, I start looking for my phone just in case I need to call the police. Me Being clumsy and shaking from anxiety, I drop the phone on the ground and whoever is at my window proceeds to what sounds like slit either their fingernails or a sharp object down the screen. I realize this person's intentions are either to come in or or scare me. So like an idiot and not thinking, I run to the window as fast as I can, slam it shut and lock it while avoiding looking outside at whoever it was. The knocking stops and I wait about 30 minutes without hearing anything else. I lay back down and eventually fall back asleep. The next morning I honestly couldn't believe that even happened. I start to think maybe it was a dream. So I go outside and investigate and I see an empty beer bottle and a ripped blanket. I text my only friend who knew where I lived and asked them if they were messing with me and they said no, which I figured because they don't drive and live quite far away and the buses around my house stop running well before 3am So I called my landlord and told him what happened and he says to ignore it and that this has happened before, which is creepy. Anyway, I obviously recognize now I should have done a lot of things differently and called the police right away. It hasn't happened since. Nonetheless, still super terrifying. When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more@WhatsApp.com Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless and if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should. 1. It's $15 a month. 2. Seriously, it's $15 a month. 3. No big contracts. 4. I use it. 5. My mom uses it. Are you playing me off? That's what's happening, right? Okay, give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of 45 for 3 month plan. 15 per month equivalent required new customer offer first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. Cementmobile.com and Doug here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug. Uh, limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us. Cut the camera. They see us only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Very underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts. Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra Value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5 only at McDonald's for a limited time. Prices and participation may vary. Experian is your big financial friend, helping you explore credit card offers with confidence. Some cards are labeled no Ding Decline, which means if you're not approved, they won't hurt your credit scores. See experian.com for details. Applying for cards labeled no Ding Decline won't hurt your credit scores if you aren't initially approved. Experian I live in a small, small town. You blink and you miss it. The best way way we can boast about it is a single stop sign and a gas station, which we only have because of the nearby highway. Any actual semblance of a town is 25 minutes away, so when things get scary out here, it's amplified. The occasional homeless person is no big deal. They are often drifting through, addicts running rampant and will steal everything they can from your house, but it's the normal out here. However, what happened a few years ago certainly wasn't normal. Originally, I was dead asleep in my bed. I only woke up because it was burning hot in my room, but it was summertime and there wasn't much I could do. I just remember tossing and turning until I got a creepy feeling that fell into the pit of my stomach. I glanced over to the bathroom door that was open with the light on. Everything was normal. I left the light on so I wouldn't trip and die if I had to pee in the middle of the night. Next, I glanced at the window directly across from my bed. I had no curtains, but I did have a crappy set of blinds. Part of the blinds were broken from wear and tear and the crappy AC output beneath it would make them move back and forth so you would get a glimpse outside every so often. The yard light was still going, but what made me stop was the outline at my window. The figure of someone was directly at my window, almost like it was waiting for the blinds to move to watch me. I didn't have an imagination as a child that had been trained out of me, but the sight was enough to pour every horror film into my head at that moment. I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled my blankets over my head and slept in a cloth oven that night. By morning time the figure was gone. I remember running to my mom's room on the verge of tears in the morning telling her what happened. She laughed at me like I was an idiot and told me it was probably just a stray cat that had climbed up there for one odd reason or another. I almost believed her since my window was pretty high off the ground. But something didn't sit right. Later that day when we were doing yard work, I glanced over at my window and saw one of our metal patio chairs had been pushed up to it. I pointed it out to my mom who who then proceeded to chew me out. That's how the cat probably got up there. Moron. Stop. Leaving furniture everywhere but I hadn't moved was heavy enough that I struggled with it. So we moved it back. And so began a pattern. At night I would see the figure, complain to my mom and we would find a chair moved back every single morning. This went on for a few weeks. My mother stopped caring about my concerns until one morning we saw where the outside screen of my window had been sliced open. I still remember her shaking her head and complaining about those dang stray cats that we had still yet to see. I could tell she was unnerved by that development. I couldn't handle it anymore and I opted to sleep in our living room that night. The only problem was our kitchen and living room connected, which meant there were always several windows. The first night of my move went well. Despite my back hurting from the couch, I avoided my room like the plague. It wasn't until about four days later when we ran into an issue. I woke up and glanced at the clock above the fireplace. It read a little past 3am I couldn't realize why I had woken up until it happened again. There was a beam of light shining in from the kitchen window. Almost like someone was shining a flashlight in. I saw it trace along the walls and land on the loveseats across from the couch I was on. I was mortified. When I told my mom, she continued to laugh at me. I gave in and decided I would sleep in my dad's room even though it had a gigantic window. He slept in the recliner with a huge tv, so I felt more safe having someone around. The yard light was directly outside the window anyways. It seemed foolproof. That was until I woke up out of habitual fear and watched through the window across from the bed. Everything seemed normal as time drug on and I felt like a moron. Maybe my mom was right. That was until I saw a lone figure come out of the woods by the backyard shed. Walk directly under the light and head to the patio furniture like he had been here plenty of times before. I still remember the large build the man had and the confidence, like he was the one who lived here and wasn't creeping around my yard in the dead of the night. I just remember listening to the TV until I fell asleep again, hoping to get another glimpse. My dad would have been angry if I had woken him up. He was grumpy on a good day and terrifying on a bad day. I didn't feel like risking it until I had solid proof because I was scared. The next morning, my mom chewed me out again for the patio furniture, which was routine almost a month later. But this time something new happened. She demanded I stop playing in the toolboxes in the garage. A bunch of tools had been taken out and left on our doorstep. Screwdrivers, a hammer, flashlights, etc. It wasn't me. I begged with my mom and pleaded with her, just stay up with me. One night we couldn't close our garage because it was an open carport and I wasn't going to get beaten for touching tools because of someone else. It was driving me mad. Finally, she agreed. That night we would stay awake in the living room. I finally fell asleep before my mom did, but I remember her waking me up in a panic. She pointed to the window that overlooked into our garage. We could see the top of someone's head as they walked back and forth. There was a sound of someone placing metal tools down on the brick steps, as if they were trying to be quiet but couldn't fully muffle it. She whispered for me to go wake up my dad. My dad was angry, having been woken up in the middle of the night by his frantic daughter. He grabbed his weapon and headed out from the back door towards the front of the house where the garage was located. We heard my dad screaming and someone dropping tools. Then a shot rang out twice. The frantic footsteps pounding out of the garage felt like they were coming from my chest. My mom peeked out of the window and then opened the door and my dad stumbled in. He had missed both times because of his unstable aim, but told us that there was a man crouching at our front door, looking at our door handle. None of us slept that night, and in the morning the law from the closest town arrived. They didn't do much besides ask if anything had been stolen for a description of the man, and then told us that we should install cameras. That was it. They said the guy was probably just looking for something easy to steal for quick money. If that had been the case, why hadn't he stolen the tools, the generator, the welder, or broken into any of the vehicles just sitting in the garage? We finally set up hunting trail cameras around the house, but nothing has happened since coming home from college for holidays. I still have nightmares about the incident years later when I sleep in my own bed. I don't know what he was looking for or why he did the things he did. It's.