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Hey, this is Dane and this is Scary Stories in Rain. Please join my family and follow this podcast on Spotify or Apple. And if you want the ultimate experience, you can get rid of all of the ads and be entered to win all of my giveaways every month by subscribing for just 299amonth. All of the ads gone, every single giveaway automatically entered. And starting now today, every Sunday, I'm going to release the ultimate episode. 6 to 12 hours long ultimate Scary Stories for a Rainy Night. Subscriber Exclusive and as a reminder, we are now four months away from my first movie release in theaters. Gale Yellow Brick Road A dark and terrifying reimagining of the wizard of Oz. If you want to check out the first trailer, click the link in the description to this episode and if you're not following my other two podcasts, please go check them out. Scary Stories and Fire and Scary Stories After Dark. The links are in the description thank you so much for being here and I really hope you enjoy this episode. I am a middle aged adult now and I live in Knoxville, Tennessee. At the time of this story I was in my freshman year attending the University of Tennessee. The Smoky Mountains are about an hour from the campus. My friend group and I often traveled up there to hike and chill in general. One day we decided to skip school to go hiking because it was over 90 degrees in the valley. We did inform our parents of our plan and that we would be back no later than noon the next day. Of course, this is the days before mobile cell phones. We traveled nearly two hours in order to get to our spot. Of course, being young kids at the time, we got whatever alcoholic drinks that we could scrounge up and didn't want to get caught with them. There were four of us and we felt pretty comfortable on our own in this situation. My friend suggested that we go farther to escape the heat and avoid getting caught underage drinking. As we traveled another 30 minutes or so, the check engine light came on in my friend's car. He shot me a panicked look. My other two friends were too busy drinking to realize what was happening. We quickly turned around and headed back the way we came. Within 10 minutes the car was smoking and we had to pull over. The engine was smoking and we had no service. We quickly sobered up and my friend, who I'll refer to as Shane, said that he had forgotten to get gas in his piece of crap Honda Civic that had a broken gas gauge. It was a nightmare scenario. Not a soul within sight, especially because it was a Tuesday morning in September. We figured in the worst case scenario our parents would send some police up here to look for us the next day when they hadn't heard from any of us. Luckily we had over packed food and drinks for a couple days. We decided to put the car in neutral as it was on a downward slope and have Shane sit in it to push the brake when needed. One of my other friends got in with him, so me and my friend, who I'll refer to as Jared, pushed the vehicle to get it out of the slight ditch that it was in. We figured that if we got closer to the way we came, it would be easier for us to be found. As they descended the slope, Shane could not see fully around the bend, so the farther he went, the more he could see. Me and my other friend are a bit behind Shane at this point and he is nearly to the bottom of the slope. All of a sudden we hear the sound of gravel flying about and brakes screeching to a halt. We hear the sound of his horn honking out of control. Then we hear some odd gibberish type sounds coming from their vicinity. We are super concerned and startled. Shane yells what is that thing man? And my other friend yells something of the same effect. We approached the vehicle and saw some movement in the treeline but couldn't make out anything. Shane then says get in the car. I just saw five midgets eating a deer's carcass. We both erupted in laughter and figured he was joking and just saw a deer. He remains stale in his expression and the two of us look at each other and then the other friend who was in the car with him. I'll refer to the friend in the car as Rob. Rob is usually a laid back guy, but when we looked at him he was white as a ghost and looked to a sweat dripping down his forehead. Jared then looks at me and says I think they're serious. I tried not to let the thought of something so insane scare me, but I looked over to where Shane was pointing and saw something out of a nightmare. There was blood all over the green foliage and what looked to be a deer's eyeball, among other disgusting body parts strewn about the leaves. The worst part was the eyeball was half eaten. At this point we are all freaking out so Shane hops back in and the three of us push his crappy car as far as we could muster along the fairly flat grade road. We are exhausted and must have gone over a mile pushing that car. We now approached an upward slope in the road and knew that we didn't have the might to push it up there without potential injury. We devised a game plan that we would stay for the night in hopes of someone helpful coming across the path of our broken down vehicle. The catch was we wanted to sleep in the surrounding foliage area to avoid detection from potentially dangerous people or things that could also come across our dire situation and see us as prey. So there we sat, not wanting to make a fire or give away our location to the potential threats that we had seen earlier. The dark truth that none of us wanted to face was the fact that we could have easily been followed that far, considering how slow we were going. We sat there in the dark with flashlights in one hand and beef jerky in the other, not speaking much aside from the occasional what was that sound? Me and Shane were tasked with staying up the first shift until around 3am Then Rob and Jared would take over. Shane had brought a weapon with him for us to shoot for fun originally, but now it was our only form of defense. Around 1am we heard the dreaded sound of gibberish, eerily similar to what we had heard earlier. Me and Shane looked at each other, both scared out of our minds. Shane pulled out his weapon and awoke our other two friends. The gibberish woke them up very quickly. The odd thing about it was it sounded like it was coming from above us. We soon realized that it was approaching our direction and we had heard it directly above us, along with a snapping branch. That's when we realized that it was in the tree that we used as shelter. We all sat there, stiff as a board. Suddenly we heard three distinct loud thuds and subsequent sounds of gravel footprints. We watched the direction of the vehicle. Suddenly we hear the terrifying sound of a shattered window and Shane's car alarm going off. We see the lights come on in his car and that's when we see something that we will never unsee. We were originally confused because we could not see anyone, but then we saw it. A person that must have been less than 2ft tall. It was the most unsettling thing I have ever seen. It had a beard, big ears, long mangy hair, disproportionately large feet, and worst of all, it wielded what appeared to be a very large knife. Suddenly we hear the sound of gibberish again and spot more of them, about five in total. One had what looked like a deer horn in its hand. They all looked alike and of the same stature. We then heard what sounded like a horn being blown and some very loud INAUDIBLE GIBBERISH they scrambled back in our direction. At this point, we were all lying in the prone position behind a hump in the ground, covered by the foliage. As much as possible, we heard them start to climb up into the tree and then suddenly stop. Shane peeked up and then dropped just as fast as he had stood. I heard a gibberish sound again, this time so loud my eardrums hurt. There we were, lying down, trying to remain hidden, and we saw one of these creatures standing there, flaring its nostrils as though smelling for us. It drops down on its knees and touches Rob. Rob then says, please just leave us alone. It must have stood there forever staring at him before we heard the sound of gibberish coming from the tree above. It then proceeds to get up and climb the tree. We all sat there without moving or speaking until the early morning. Finally, we hear the sound of a diesel truck engine approaching and an elderly couple gets out to inspect our car. We run out of our hiding spot and tell them what must have been the most confusing story of all time. He didn't seem to believe us, but said that he would get us some gas and some help. Finally, he comes back after what felt like an eternity with a full gas can and ensures that my friend's Honda Civic will start. He then says, make sure you know what mushrooms you're eating next time. When we finally got home, our parents were worried. Since it was nearly 5pm we didn't tell them of our overnight terrors and just said that we had lost track of time. I have always been very close to my grandfather, who is Cherokee Indian. He is the only person I have told this story to. He claims to have had a similar experience with these people before. He told me of the legend of the Yunhwi sunzi, the Cherokee legend of the little people who roam the woods. They are apparently known to antagonize people throughout the years. He added that they are mostly a positive force, but do major harm to those who disrespect them and their territory. He jokingly said, you can thank your heritage that you're still alive, but part of me thinks that there is some truth to that statement. This is a long story and it's kind of hard to understand, but these are hands down the scariest moments of my life. For some context, we live in the suburbs, surrounded by houses, malls and little shops. However, There is a 10 mile long trail that cuts through the deep woods near the Downport entrance. About two miles into the trail, there is an abandoned factory. My friends and I used to go down to the factory at night to explore it. We are all big guys as we play football together. I'm 64 and £260. The biggest guy there and the smallest is probably Thomas who is shorter but still ripped. So we were never really scared and would often go in a group of at least four about four times a week. We knew the layout of the area well and nothing bad ever happened. When I went with them, we had to walk the two mile trail in complete darkness, which was honestly worse than the factory itself. Until strange things started happening. There is a heavy MS.13 gang presence in the downport area, so that was the only thing that we were really scared of. Alright, enough exposition. Let's get on with the story. The first time we went it was me, Chuck, Thomas and Dylan. We were just exploring because it had been months since our last visit. The place was covered in debris and graffiti looking really scary in the pitch black darkness. We were surrounded by miles of woods with no houses in sight. The woods emitted a constant ambient noise of bugs, deer, branches and leaves rustling, so it was never truly quiet anyway. The first time we went nothing really happened, but it was starting to feel uneasy. There are two main buildings and the one farther back is much bigger than the one in the front. Half of the walls are knocked down making it even scarier. As you can see the woods from every angle. We were on the right side of the bigger building and we never went to the left side because it looked kind of boring and barren. We were being reckless, throwing rocks on the roof and making loud noises. But we left because nothing happened. That was the first time. The second time everyone except Dylan was there, Roman joined us this time. It turned out to be the worst night for Roman and me. We started exploring the smaller building closer to the entrance, trying to find a way to get to the roof when we heard an absolutely gut wrenching scream coming from the back left building. We all froze and looked at each other like what was that? We didn't hear any other noises except for that scream which sounded like someone had just been killed. It was so horrifying. However, we did see other people with flashlights on the trail, so we thought it was just them being idiots. We kept looking around and eventually we made it to the bigger building. We entered the pitch black factory where the only sounds were coming from the forest and a trickling of water due to the rain the night before. The inside of the factory was covered in darkness. We went through one of the huge pride open metal garage doors and Started exploring. Thomas and I were the ones with our phones out, using the flashlights to scan the area since we were still on alert because of the scream. As we walked toward the left side of the factory, we each scanned one side of the doorway like in Rainbow six Siege. I saw an old dirty wooden wheelchair and nothing else, while Thomas saw nothing but a big wall separating two sides of the huge room. We both shone our lights in the middle where there was a shopping cart, brand new looking cans of Red Bull and a pallet with a bunch of blankets scrunched up into a small ball. Immediately we were like what the heck? And stopped. We were so loud and there was no way there could be a person right there. But we shone our lights at it. We were about 20 yards away and we all agreed that it could not be a person because it was way too small. So we inched towards it with Roman and me in the front. We were about 10 yards away when we stopped again. Everyone was silent and I swear every single noise in the area stopped. There was no more sound of trickling water or ambient noise from the woods. We all stared at the blankets and then they moved. The person underneath lifted his leg up and sat up and we were gone. We ran away so fast that I didn't even turn around to see what was chasing us. We made it back to the trail and jogged all the way back to the car without saying a word, Just thinking what the heck and oh my God. The next time we went, Bayer, Chuck, Roman and Mikey joined us. This is a short story, but still honestly bad. We were walking the trail to the factory again and reached the pitch black factory. As we entered the first building where nothing had ever happened before, we saw a truck parked inside the factory. We all ran away because we thought it was either security cops or Ms. 13. We stayed by the fence for about 10 minutes to see if we heard anyone, but we didn't. Mikey and I then walked into the factory to inspect the truck. The license plates were scratched out with duct tape covering them. The keys were in the ignition and there was a wheelbarrow, garbage bags and shovels in the bed of the truck. We heard more yelling coming from where we had seen the guy sleeping. So we got out of there thinking that this was definitely gang related. This is the last time we went and probably the last time we will ever go. We went in the evening so we still had some visibility and it wasn't as scary. However, we quickly realized that we had made a mistake because it became dark as soon as we reached the trail and it was pitch dark when we got to the factory. We wanted to go see the car again, but it was gone. There was no tire marks or any evidence of it ever being there. It had simply vanished. We decided to keep looking around because we had never seen the factory in daylight, although the daylight was close to gone anyway. We were in the first building when we heard a full on argument. A screaming match coming from the area where we had seen the guy sleeping. We walked over there slowly and we were about 30 yards away from the entrance to the the left side of the factory when out of the complete darkness, a short skinny old man with long white hair and a long white beard rolled out on his wooden wheelchair. He was covered in blood and wearing a white T shirt with a bloody stump where his right leg should have been. This guy looked absolutely deranged and he started talking to us. Roman talked back to him. The guy noticed our phones and pleaded for us to help him, saying that his friend had fallen and needed our assistance. He wanted to use our phone. He started rolling towards us and Roman told him to back up. Roman and I were the only ones talking to him. While Chuck and Dylan were already inching away, the guy kept repeating the same thing over and over again. When his friend walked out of the darkness, it was a medium built guy holding a bottle upside down by the neck like a weapon. It was obvious that he was completely out of his mind. He didn't even look at us and just stared at the floor. He was standing behind the wheelchair guy who was whispering to him. Roman and I started backing away but the wheelchair guy who had been acting nice all this time suddenly flipped a switch and started screaming at us. Come here. I'm gonna kill you. He began rolling towards us and Roman and I started taunting him, telling him to walk over and do something while we ran away. Out of the corner of my eye. When I turned around, I saw the other guy running on all four doors, screaming like a monster with the broken sharp bottle in his hand like a knife. We got out of there. I jumped over the fence like an Olympian. They kept screaming at us until we were out of sight. Keep in mind that it was already dark again by this time. We are never going there again. The cool graffiti just is not worth it. I went to a Renaissance fair for the first time in my life in 2017 at age 28. I was super excited to finally go and had a few items I was going to look for. The day of the fair was very fun. Picking up beers to carry around to different booths and browsing things that came be bought in any regular store. It was not too hot and I found a great kilt that I purchased. But something happened that day that turned the next two days into some of the worst of my life. By the time I went to bed that night, my head was swimming and my vision was mercurial. But that can easily be explained by heat, alcohol and exhaustion. The day after the fair was a Monday and I had to be at my still new job before 8am in downtown Dallas. Driving to work is when I started to feel that something was terribly wrong with me. I noticed this first by my reaction to music. If I started listening to a song, I had to finish it even if I didn't like it. The voices of the classic rock songs I know by heart had shifted up or down a half a step in timber. I also was starting to literally see the music laid out on the freeway in front of me. By the time I got to work, I was pretty freaked out. I felt like I had taken a hallucinogenic drug. But the thing was, I didn't take anything. I don't like the idea of taking anything because if anyone was going to have a bad trip, I knew that my neurotic and macabre brain would make it happen. I also have severe katsuratophobia. Mock me if you want, but everyone has a story behind their worst visceral fear. While I was sitting at my desk and talking to my boss, the chief operating officer, I saw dozens of Satans or cockroaches crawling around the walls and floors behind him. I also felt like I had to hold onto my desk to keep from falling over. My boss's voice was constantly changing decibels and I was just trying to keep it together for dear life. Trying to work that day was hell. At one point, I had to go up to the wellness room in our office meant for breastfeeding mothers, so I could lie on the floor in complete darkness and silence for an hour. While I drove home that evening, the bizarre reactions to music intensified. If the songs changed tempo suddenly, it freaked me out. If there were high and low notes, rapid fire in the song, I could barely breathe. I will never be able to listen to the Devil Went down to Georgia the same way Again. That night I tried to enjoy this unwelcome trip by something solo in nsfw with disastrous results. One of the most physically painful nights of my life. The next morning I felt a little better but was not back to normal because I took no drugs, I was legitimately worried that I was having a psychotic break. Break. I have an anxiety disorder and my mental health has struggled over the years. I ended up calling my psychiatrist's office to beg for an emergency phone session. While I described everything I had been experiencing, he listened patiently and said that I could have been slipped something at the fair, but also could be experiencing a psychotic break. When I got to the NSFW disaster, he was completely shocked by what happened and said there was no way my brain did that to itself. The conclusion was that someone slipped me a cocktail of very powerful hallucinogens into one of my beers. To add insult to injury, I learned that the most powerful drugs like that also get out of your system the fastest. For that reason, I still don't know what some cruel person gave to me. For God only knows what reason, I held it together with my job and left with no lasting effects except the confusion and curiosity that I still have six years later at New Balance we believe if you run, you're a runner, however you choose to do it. Because when you're not worried about doing things the right way, you're free to discover your way. And that's what running is all about. Run your way@newbalance.com Running hello friends, guess who? That's right, it is I, the Replacer. Once again, I've been called on so you can play the new Call of Black Ops 7 with three expansive modes, 18 multiplayer maps, and the tastiest zombie gameplay you you've ever fricking seen. Available November 14th pre order Call of Duty Black Ops 7 now rated M for Mature. This is a real good story about Bronx and his dad Ryan, real United Airlines customers. We were returning home and one of the flight attendants asked Bronx if he wanted to see the flight deck and meet Kathy Andrew. I got to sit in the driver's seat. I grew up in an aviation family and seeing Bronx kind of reminded me of myself when I was that age. That's Andrew, a real United pilot. These small interactions can shape a kid's future. It felt like I was the captain. Allowing my son to see the flight deck will stick with us forever. That's how good leads the way. In 2019, my husband and I were newly married with a one year old daughter. He had recently reconnected with his stepfather and he invited us to a fourth of July fireworks show with his family in a larger city near us. We had a great time reconnecting and enjoying the show from a distance so as to not upset our one year old and allow her the experience of seeing fireworks for the first time. It was a lot of fun and a good memory is one of our first family outings. However, what happened afterward still haunts my husband and I to this day. After finally exiting the traffic from the fireworks show, we headed to the nearest gas station. My husband went inside to prepay with cash as the price was 10 cents cheaper that way, and my daughter and I waited inside the car. I always try to be aware of my surroundings, especially in places that I'm not familiar with, but it was hard not to notice demand. Standing out front of the gas station, he was leaning against the brick wall, struggling to sit still, eyes darting back and forth among the various customers at the pumps. When he noticed me in the car, basically alone, he immediately locked eyes with me and did not look away. His gaze was incredibly intense and made me very uncomfortable. Like all women, I'm used to the usual gas station creep who can't stop staring and might even make a weird remark or two. But there was something about this man's glare that was deeply unsettling. There was an emptiness behind his eyes and a primal element to his stare. I was very relieved when my husband returned to the car moments later. My relief did not last, however. The man became visibly agitated upon seeing my husband return. His face became angry and his gaze shifted quickly back and forth between myself and my husband. He began getting antsy again and started pacing back and forth, never taking his eyes off of us. My husband noticed the this too and began watching the man, trying to figure out what his deal was. The man then made a be line for our car and my stomach dropped to my knees. Something was deeply wrong and I was terrified of what was about to happen. As he made his way over, my husband told me to lock the doors and I gladly obliged as I learned from talking to my husband. Later, when the man approached him at the pump, he recounted some sob story about his girlfriend abandoning him there and asked for a ride home. My husband said that the entire time he was telling his story, he was staring at me in the car while he already found this guy scary. He said he immediately understood the man's intentions and began trying to get him to leave. He told him that no, we were sorry, but we could not give him a ride. We needed to get our daughter home and we weren't traveling anywhere near his direction. The man insisted, pleading his case with my husband. With each refusal, he got angrier and angrier, and while I couldn't hear the conversation inside the car, I noticed the change in his demeanor and I was terrified he was going to get violent. After several refusals, my husband pulled out his phone and told the man that if he didn't leave us alone, he was going to call the cops. The man gritted his teeth, gave me an angry glare, and walked back to his previous post at the front of the gas station. My husband quickly returned the nozzle to the pump, closed the tank, and jumped back in the car. As we sped off, I took one last glance behind me and the man was angrily watching us leave as he puffed on a cigarette in front of the station. When he got back in the car, my husband was pretty shaken up. As we drove away, he told me what the man had said and how unnerving it was that he would not take his eyes off of me while he was talking to him. He said he was terrified the man was going to try to force his way into the car because of how insistent and angry he was becoming. He was surprised and relieved that the man actually walked away. Needless to say, this was one of the most unsettling experiences we have ever had and I don't want to imagine what would have happened to my young family if this man hadn't given up when he did. In my early 20s, I used to deliver newspapers overnight twice a week, usually from around 12 to 6am it was one of the most enjoyable jobs I have ever had as an introvert, but being a young female traveling through the darkness and isolation of the late night made me a little paranoid. This led to some incidents that were terrifying in the moment but quickly became a laughable memory. The first scary experience I had was after having been on the job for over a month. I had become comfortable with my route and was able to do it mostly by memory at this point. In this instance, I was approaching a historical Victorian home with a wraparound porch. The walkway up to the porch was long, dark, and surrounded by thick plant life, and it was always a little creepy. This night I approached the porch as usual and tossed the paper toward the requested door. This door was at the end of a narrow, dark corridor, so I would stop at the beginning of the corridor and toss the paper as I have taken terrible night vision and didn't want to trip on something and make a big scene. I went through with my usual routine of tossing the paper from a distance when suddenly a dark shape came flying at me from near the door. I screamed, turned on my heel and ran to my car. Upon looking up as I opened my car door, I realized it was only a black cat And I had probably frightened him just as much as he had frightened me. The second incident occurred not long after the first. My route was split in half between the edge of town in ritzy suburban neighborhoods and isolated farms that took me down long dirt roads miles from civilization. One night I pulled up to a mailbox in front of an old farmhouse right on the edge of a large field. I grabbed a paper from my backseat and as I reached my arm out the window to place the paper in the box, I noticed the face of a creature right next to my arm, close enough that it could have easily moved forward a few feet and quickly made its way through my open window. I screamed as I struggled to process what I was seeing with my poor night vision when I realized it was just a deer hanging out next to the paper box. I am not sure how I didn't spook him, but he was totally unbothered by either my presence or my scream. I laughed, hoped to God I didn't wake anyone, and finished out my night. The third and creepiest incident was the result of building paranoia over the course of months and occurred at the end of my time delivering papers. Since starting the route, I had noticed the same vehicle almost every night driving slowly through one of the nicest subdivisions on my route. Being a lone female at around 2 or 3am this was unnerving, but they were never close enough to think much of it. I kept my eyes on the vehicle with every visit, especially since I was there at varying times of night, but somehow always managed to see the same vehicle meandering through the neighborhood. One night in mid fall, probably early October, I approached a home whose paper box required me to get out of the car and walk across the road to deliver their paper. I grabbed the paper, placed my hand on the door handle, and suddenly spotted something out of the corner of my eye. In the distance, about 30 yards from the mailbox, there was a figure standing extremely still. The figure was facing my car as if they were watching me and not moving a muscle. The figure was dressed in all dark colored clothing except for a lighter colored shirt with stripes which made some kind of reflection reflective material akin to a construction vest. I immediately thought of the slow moving vehicle I always saw in this neighborhood. Nope. I locked my doors, took a deep breath and took a second look. My brain could not come up with a good reason why someone would be standing so still in the middle of the yard at such a late hour, nor rationalize what I might be seeing. I was ready to completely abandon the entire neighborhood for the night and come back with someone else after sunrise to finish my deliveries. I decided to turn my brights on and take one last look to confirm that I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing. I flipped the switch, looked up and found myself staring at a very well made scarecrow. A scarecrow. It was then I realized that it was indeed October and our town always had a scarecrow competition. I hope these homeowners won because it was very well put together and in the darkness I absolutely could not tell the difference between the scarecrow and an actual human being. I moved on to a better job shortly after the third incident, but I was left with a lot of interesting stories from the short time on my route. Hola Sal de Janeiro. Here this holiday season the world is your stage with new limited edition gift sets packed with craveable body care and irresistible perfume mists that bring out the brightest version of you and everyone on your list. Our award winning, visibly firming Brazilian boomboom cream and cult favorite fragrances bring a little mist, a little mingle and endless delight to the senses. Holiday's hottest gifts are waiting for you@soldejaneiro.com this happened years ago when I was 19. I'm now in my mid-20s. I still remember this very clearly because of how creeped out I was back then. I was living 600 miles away from my parents in a different state. Even though there was a distance, my mom and I still talked on the phone at least twice a week and we were still really close. So when we found out her cancer cancer was back, I didn't think twice about dropping everything to drive down to see her. A plane ticket would be too expensive and I had a 10 year old Toyota that might have been a bit beat up but still got me from A to B cheaply and quietly. My parents weren't thrilled at the idea of me driving the 11 hours by myself, but my mind was made up so they offered me a deal. I would stop at a rest stop every 23 hours and stretch my legs and call them and in exchange for this courtesy, they would pay for my gas if I did not call within the three hour window though they would assume that I had been in an accident and would call me repeatedly interrupting the audiobook or podcast that they knew that I would have on. I accepted the deal and that's why I was at this particular rest stop at 2:45am this was actually one of the nicer stops, well lit, multiple vending machines that did not have huge cages around them. The payphone was not broken and it looked clean. There were a couple cars there with people sleeping in them. I still had 15 minutes before I had to check in with my parents. I got out of my car and stretched and then almost jumped out of my skin when I heard a man's voice right behind me. Uh, miss, can I ask you for a favor? I turned around and he's leaning against my car. I have no idea how he got there so fast. I didn't see him when I parked, but there he was, uncomfortably close to me. He looked like he's in his 40s. He didn't look dirty or twitchy. He was too close. But his body language did not scream threatening. And even though I was 19 years old, barely over 5ft, and at that point in my life, 110 pounds soaking wet, and even though I had already binged a lot of true crime media and knew the dangers of a girl my age alone at night with an out of state license plate, my dumb self asked what he needed. He told me that he accidentally locked his keys and his phone in his truck and asked if he could borrow my phone real quick to call his friend. It will just take a second and it will really help him out. And I almost handed him my phone. I was reaching into my pocket to hand it to him with a Pollyanna, no problem. And then I actually looked at his face. Like I said, this rest stop was surprisingly well lit. And this guy looked really normal except for his eyes. He had dead shark eyes. You know what I'm talking about. It's the Ted Bundy, Dick Cheney actress in a Glade commercial who's trying to convince us that she's in love with some dumb guy who doesn't know how an air freshener works. Eyes. They're smiling, but the eyes are vacant and creepy and staring way too hard. I got that feeling, that run away feeling. I knew immediately not to hand this guy my only way to call for help. So I put on my best customer service smile and told him, oh, I'm sorry but but I don't have a charger and I need to save all my battery for the tracking app that my parents have on my phone and I need the juice to call my parents, which I actually have to do right now, but good luck. And I turned and walked about 20ft away and he does not leave. He was still just leaning against my car watching me. And now I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to leave him alone with my car because he creeped me out. And he had a serial killer face. So going to the bathroom is out. But I also wanted to get away from him, prove that I'm not going to help and maybe he'll leave. I could technically get into the car, but I would have to get really close to him unless I crawled over my passenger side seat and he's not moving. So I did the first thing thing that came to mind. I called my dad and my dad for the first time that night did not pick up the phone. When I heard his voicemail, I glanced back. The guy still had not moved. He's standing still, staring at me. So I faked a phone conversation with my dad. I angled my body so that the guy couldn't see that I had hung up the phone and loudly said that I should be home in about 30 minutes, when in reality I was still at least four hours away. I mentioned exactly where I was and reassured the fake caller that this was a good rest stop with plenty of lighting and a couple of visible security cameras. The guy still had not moved and I am running out of steam on this fake conversation. In the years since, I've thought of a lot of things I could have said while pretending to talk to my dad. But in that moment I was beginning to seriously freak out and my mind went blank. So I hung up and did not know what to do. I had hoped the fake phone call would scare him off, but he was still leaning against my car. I stalled for another couple of minutes. I bought cookies from the vending machine. I walked around a little. At this point, he's been leaning against my car staring at me for at least 10 minutes. I honestly debated waking up one of the men sleeping in their parked cars and asking for help. And just the thought of having to wake someone up to help me get into my own car annoyed me enough that I stopped stalling and headed right back to my car. I decided that unless he touched me, I'm just going to pretend that he's not there. He waited until I was unlocking my car door before he started talking to me again. He told me again that he really needs to use my phone. He's stranded here unless he can call his friend to bring the spare keys. He's not angry or begging. His voice sounds weirdly friendly, but he had been creepily watching me for way too long while blocking my exit, so I'm not falling for it. I almost pointed out the working payphone just in case I'm wrong about this and I was being rude to a guy who needs Help. But then he leaned forward as I was getting in and I lost all nerve and slammed and locked the door as fast as possible. He didn't move until I started the car and put it in reverse. And then he finally stepped back and let me pull out. I didn't even have my seatbelt on. I was so focused on getting away from him. And then halfway out of the rest stop, my mom called me. My mom who would freak out if I didn't pick up. And it was already sick and I needed to put on my seat belt. I could still see him in my mirror. He was standing right next to where I was parked, with his back to me. He was far enough away that I felt okay parking again to answer the phone, but I kept my engine running and I kept watching him. I don't want my mom to worry, so I told her everything is fine, where I am, my ETA, etc. Now that I was in my locked car away from him, I was beginning to feel like I had overreacted. She scolds me about speeding and I tune her out because the guy is moving. Now, as my mom lectures me about road safety, I watch the guy cross to a truck, unlock the door, and get in the keys. Being locked in no longer seemed to be an issue for him. I watched the truck head back out to the freeway and drive out of sight. I had to pretend to be fine to not upset my mom. I didn't get back onto the road for another 20 minutes, and when I did, I did not speed. I did not want to see that truck. I found out years later that the closest city to that rest stop has a major problem with sex trafficking and that girls who look like they don't live nearby or maybe look like they are living out of their cars, tend to be targets. I don't know if that was what was happening or if he was trying to just scare me into handing over my phone.