Scary Stories For A Rainy Night - Ep. 303 - Blood on Snow

Summary

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Scary Stories and Rain — Episode 303: Blood on Snow

Date: December 20, 2025
Host: Being Scared
Theme: Spine-chilling, true scary stories—real accounts told with calm narration and soothing rainfall, ideal for uneasy nights.

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Episode Overview

This episode of Scary Stories and Rain presents a series of unsettling real-life horror stories, each recounted with evocative detail and a quiet, unnerving tone. From haunted houses and doppelgangers to near-misses with possible abductors and stalkers, the stories are meant to leave listeners with goosebumps and an appreciation for those all-too-human instincts that remind us when something is deeply wrong.

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Key Stories & Discussion Points

1. Unleashing Evil in the Family Home

[00:31 - 07:30]

• The host (Being Scared) shares a listener-submitted tale about a blended family that unwittingly disturbs a hidden evil in their home after discovering a sealed, mysterious room.
• Highlights:
  • Discovery of a hidden, sealed room in the garage containing black duffel bags and tools (“like the ones coroners use…”).
  • “After he opened the door, we were no longer alone in that house, and Matt was no longer Matt.” — Narrator [03:15]
  • Sudden, alarming changes in Matt’s behavior: sleepwalking, nightly pacing, expressionless staring, even violence (“There was no white in his eyes. They were pure black.” — [04:45]).
  • Doppelganger sighting: Matt’s brother J.J. claims to see himself in the living room while standing at the top of the stairs (“We believe that what JJ saw was his doppelganger.” — [05:35]).
  • Ominous parting shot as the family finally leaves: the father hears a guttural voice say “Get out” from a bathroom vent while alone. [06:25]
  • After moving out, “the house is always for sale or for rent,” hinting at a lingering evil influence.

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2. Terrifying Encounter on a Nature Trail

[07:30 - 13:45]

• The narrator and her dog hike in Alabama, where she senses danger from a suspiciously overdressed man in the wilderness.
• “I got the most intense ‘you need to get out of there’ feeling in my gut that I’ve ever had.” [09:30]
• The man unexplainably appears on a different trail, references military observation, and gestures to the secluded river spot where she was (“I can see what the military was talking about when they said you can see everything from up high.” — [10:30])
• The man aggressively follows, tries to pet her dog, and has a suspicious, dark liquid in a bottle he seems desperate not to lose.
• Her dog’s defensive action causes the man to drop the bottle into a ditch, and she flees through the woods, later escorted to safety by a stranger.
• “What the heck was in that bottle? And why was it so important that he had to risk seriously injuring himself to go get it?” — Narrator [13:30]

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3. Stalked at the Domestic Violence Shelter

[14:18 - 21:10]

• A worker at a domestic violence shelter tells of a chilling night on solo shift.
• “Our office had windows that showed our tall pine trees in the backyard… But at night all you could see was darkness leering at you.” [14:50]
• A resident alerts her to someone outside in the night; after investigating, the narrator sees something dash into the trees.
• When police arrive, they find a fake leaf from a camouflage suit, raising fears the ex-military, abusive partner was trying to sneak in.
• “They might as well have commanded me to crap my pants.” [20:00]
• The incident catalyzes better security and leaves the worker haunted by the experience. “I felt as if I had lived three lives in one night.” — [20:40]

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4. The Man Under the Bed

[21:10 - 28:33]

• Recounting childhood events, the storyteller describes waking to find a man crouched by her dresser, assuming it’s her prankster Uncle Dave—until she learns he never arrived that night.
• On another occasion, a slender hand emerges from under her bed; she’s paralyzed by fear and the experience ends in a blackout.
• Real-world horror intrudes: Later neighborhood investigation reveals a convicted sex offender with grotesque habits known for lurking in the area.
• “After that, I started sprinting from my bedroom door and then taking a flying leap mid room landing with a thud in my bed. I was convinced if I did not do this, if I walked up to my bed like a normal person, someone hiding under my bed would grab my ankles.” [28:00]

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5. Stranger Danger — Pizza Delivery Suspect

[28:33 - 32:40]

• A story from the late 90s: a boy narrowly avoids an abduction attempt by a man posing as a pizza delivery driver needing “help” with his car.
• Child’s instincts—“a tingling sensation in the back of my neck”—save him as he hurries home.
• Years later, his mother reveals another parent reported a similar incident; the man fled when questioned.
• “At least I was safe at my friend’s house or at home.” [32:35]

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6. Chased at Night in Her Own Neighborhood

[32:40 - 38:20]

• After a night out, a woman realizes a man is following her closely home; her quick thinking (pretending to call her mom and noting nearby witnesses) likely thwarts his intentions.
• “I can see clearly this older man carrying a lot of bags in his hands right behind me. We make eye contact and just as that happened, he started running towards me.” [36:35]
• Her decoy phone call and the presence of others scare him off.
• “I still don’t know for certain what that man’s intentions were, but they definitely weren’t good. And of course, I’m glad I never found out.” [38:10]

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Notable Quotes & Chilling Moments

• “After he opened the door, we were no longer alone in that house, and Matt was no longer Matt.” — Narrator, [03:15]
• “I can see what the military was talking about when they said you can see everything from up high.” — Unknown man on the trail, [10:30]
• “They might as well have commanded me to crap my pants.” — Domestic violence shelter worker, [20:00]
• “Someone hiding under my bed would grab my ankles.” — Bedtime leap ritual, [28:00]
• “At least I was safe at my friend’s house or at home.” — Thankful gamer, [32:35]
• “I still don’t know for certain what that man’s intentions were, but they definitely weren’t good.” — Woman arriving home safe, [38:10]

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Timestamps for Core Segments

• [00:31]: Haunted House & Possession
• [07:30]: Trail Encounter with a Suspicious Man
• [14:18]: Shelter Stalker with Camouflage
• [21:10]: Man Under the Bed Story
• [28:33]: Pizza Delivery Lure Attempt
• [32:40]: Chased Home at Night

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Tone & Storytelling

The host uses a calm, almost hypnotic voice, carefully balancing unease with a sense of safety-in-retrospection. The stories blend supernatural suspense with real-world horror, trusting listeners to draw their own lines between the unexplained and the all-too-real. The stormy rain backdrop enhances the tension and intimacy of each account.

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Summary

“Blood on Snow” delivers more than just campfire scares; it’s a powerful reminder that sometimes our instincts are our best defense, that real monsters wear familiar faces, and that sometimes, the scariest stories are true. Every account is told with a personal touch—rattlingly strange or heartbreakingly human. For lovers of quiet, ambient horror and true crime, this episode is both a lullaby and a nightmare.

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Transcript

[A]

Chronic spontaneous urticaria or chronic hives with no known cause. It's so unpredictable. It's like playing pinball. Itchy red bumps start on my arm, then my back, sometimes my legs. Hives come out of nowhere and it comes and goes. But I just found out about a treatment [e-mail] Take that, chronic hives. Learn more at treatmyhives.com hey, this is.

[B]

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 in 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 an only child and when I was around five my dad married a woman who had four children from previous relationships. They have since divorced, but during their marriage we had quite a few horrifying experiences. The first happened at the house where my dad and now ex stepmother got married. It was a beautiful old Victorian style home with four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a lovely backyard. They had their wedding ceremony in our living room in front of the fireplace. The pastor from our church officiated and I think that's what stirred up the evil that lurked in our home. This is my dad's story and I don't remember it because I was too little, but I will tell it exactly as he told me. He and my brothers, who we will call Matt and jj, planned on going fishing for the day. My dad asked Matt to go to the garage and get the fishing poles. While retrieving them, Matt noticed a light coming from the wall. He went and got my dad and they found what appeared to be a hidden room in our garage that we did not know existed. My dad called the landlord, reasonably annoyed that we were paying to light A room that we did not even know was there. On the phone, the landlord became very defensive and said, you are not to go in that room. It is locked and sealed off for a reason and wouldn't elaborate any further. My dad decided it wasn't worth the fight and did what the landlord said. Matt, however, being a rebellious and curious teenager, decided to investigate further. He broke the lock and opened the door to find very large black duffel bags, like the ones coroners use to transport bodies, along with odd tools like a chainsaw and some large rusty knives and men's clothing. My dad caught him lurking and scolded him, telling him to stay out of there. After he opened the door, we were no longer alone in that house, and Matt was no longer Matt. One night, my dad awoke to what sounded like footsteps coming from the hallway outside the master bedroom. They were pacing back and forth, back and forth. Dad crept to the door, opened it, and saw that Matt was pacing up and down the hallway. He told him to go back to bed, and Matt just turned and stared at him, expressionless. This continued night after night, and it really started to freak my dad out. One morning, he woke to find Matt leaned over his bed, not inches from his face, just staring at him, emotionless. He yelled and told him to get out, and Matt just calmly stood up straight and walked out of the room. My dad locked the bedroom door that night, and Matt stood outside of it and rattled the doorknob all night long. His weird behavior did not stop there. A few days later, my dad and stepmom were in the kitchen just talking, and Matt came in out of nowhere and attacked my dad. He went insane, hitting and thrashing, and my dad had to put him in a chokehold to get him to stop. My dad said that there was no white in his eyes. They were pure black. Another experience happened to my brother jj. At the top of the stairs, there was a railing that extended left and right, and from there you could see the entire living room. My dad walked out of his room to see JJ Standing and staring into the corner of the living room. He tried to get his attention, and upon further inspection, saw that he looked absolutely terrified. JJ pointed into the corner of the living room and said, dad, I'm in the living room. What are you talking about? My dad asked him, confused. I'm in the living room. We believe that what JJ saw was his doppelganger. My parents decided to move us out of that house. The last thing that happened to us there was when my dad was the only one in the house, grabbing the last few things left behind. It was a scorching summer day so dad decided to take a shower. He swears he saw something walk past the shower curtain in the bathroom. He quickly got out and was sitting on a toilet to put his socks on when he heard a sort of low growling noise coming from the vent below him. He bent down and a low guttural voice said get out. Blowing hot air onto him. He ran out of the bathroom, out of the house, and never went back. Since then, every time we pass the house or hear from old neighbors, the house is always for sale or for rent. My brother lived a very troubled adolescence but has since straightened up, found comfort in religion and now has a family of his own. He tells my dad he does not remember anything that happened in that house or attacking my dad. I think we really pissed off whatever was in that house by inviting a pastor in and my brother was just unlucky enough to be the one who let it out. My dog and I love to hike. She's a Blue Heeler mix I found in 2019 and we have been inseparable since. We were living in Florence, Alabama at the time and decided to go to the TVA Nature Trails, which is home to about 30 trails and over 180 miles and is beside a river. I was familiar with the area so I knew where a lot of the trails led, crossed over, etc. It was either late fall or early spring when this happened. We got to the parking lot and my gut told me to back my car into the parking lot. I never do that, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. I was still in my car getting my fanny pack ready when I looked forward and noticed a man in his late 40s or early 50s who looked very out of place. He was wearing jeans, a brown blazer and leather dress shoes. In any other context I might have just assumed he was heading to a job interview or something like that, but this was a Sunday afternoon and we were in the middle of the woods. I had a really bad feeling about him and kept my eye on him while I laced up my boots and got my dog out of the car. He never looked over at us as far as I know. I watched him start down a path and decided to go on a trail that did not run into his trail. Here's where it goes down. Let me paint the scene for you. The river is to my left and my dog is playing in the water. The trails make a backwards lowercase Y shape to my right. Two of the three trails come down a pretty large hill, probably a 50 foot drop in elevation on each trail alone. So the little river coast was almost tucked under a cliff. You wouldn't know I was there unless you were trying to see down onto the beach area. While my dog was playing, I got the most intense you need to get out of there feeling in my gut that I've ever had. I listened to that feeling, leashed up my dog immediately and started walking back towards the trails. I got back to the Y and had to choose which path to go when I heard the parking lot man shout something at me from the highest of the trails. Based on the trail he went down from the parking lot, he should not have been there. He must have turned around after I started down my trail and went down that trail or something. The paths don't cross and it's literally from the opposite side of the park. As I was processing that this man was not where he should be, I realized this could be the beginning of a true crime story. I didn't understand what he said when he yelled, so I asked him to repeat it. I'll never unhear it for the rest of my life. He said, I can see what the military was talking about when they said you can see everything from up high. Then he made a hand gesture pointing to the area where my dog and I were playing in the water. I decided to nope it out of there and started heading back to the trail we came down. There's an important part of the terrain that I didn't mention yet, leading down to the river. There's a large ditch between a couple of the trails, probably a 20 foot steep drop from trail to the bottom with a bridge that goes over it. I was fairly close to the bridge when I heard him, so I went that direction. The man proceeded to run down the hill of the trail, meanwhile asking all kinds of questions about my dog. I couldn't go that fast because my dog was thoroughly confused and was trying to protect me. The man then said, I was watching you two in the parking lot, I saw you get out of the car. Chills. He caught up behind us on the bridge and asked to pet my dog. I said no. He then asked if I had a husband, so I lied and said yes. He asked what my husband does for work and I said, he's in the army and he's gonna be really mad when he hears that you won't leave his wife and dog alone. At this point, the man was still jogging behind us to stay as close as possible. I was trying to decide how to lose this guy. Do I scream at the top of my lungs? Do I push him? Do I just deal with it and hope it doesn't get worse? Now we were walking on the flat part along the top of the steep ditch. I noticed gloves in his blazer pocket and he had a little bottle in his hand. It was a clear plastic juice bottle like vitamin water or Snapple and had a dark liquid in it that looked like sweet tea. Not the right color for the bottle. At first I thought it was probably a spit bottle for chewing tobacco, or at least that's what I hoped it was. Then he firmly said, I'm going to pet your dog, and reached down at her. She's not big, but she jumped on him with force and knocked the bottle down the ditch. The man very unexpectedly went down into the ditch after his bottle. It was so steep that he had to slide down the bank or he would have broken some bones. My dog and I took off in a different direction, avoiding human trails to hopefully lose him. We ran for about two miles through the woods until we were about a half mile from the car in a different populated area. I asked a man to walk me to my car and told him that someone was following me. He did, and then he was being silly to make me laugh and feel better. I'm so grateful to him. I made it safely back home and was livid that this guy cast a stain on one of our favorite hiking spots. But obviously I was grateful that my dog and I were alive. For a while I tried to believe that it was just some socially inept guy that really wanted to pet my dog. Deep down I know that man didn't have good intentions though I trust my gut and she was not okay in that moment. So I'm just left with one question. What the heck was in that bottle? And why was it so important that he had to risk seriously injuring himself to go get it? Hablaz Espanol Spriest du droidsch Com Dul.

[A]

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[B]

I worked at domestic violence shelters and I've seen a lot of disturbing things, some paranormal and some just the truest chills of human nature. One of these instances was when a woman came to the rather large shelter I was working at after leaving her partner. Pretty typical, except her partner was an ex military sniper. Naturally she came in during the weeks our regular night shift worker was off on vacation, so I had been voluntold to take off my regular day shifts and work alone. I started my shift and nothing much happened. At first I helped the residents get their medications, did some chores while watching Netflix. Usually I'm a horror junkie, but I never watch it at work because it would make me extra jumpy and I was certain the place was haunted. There were women who had passed in the building, but most of the spirits were chill and I'm certain they were messing with me at times. Our office had windows that showed our tall pine trees in the backyard, designed to give us privacy for our residents sakes. But at night all you could see was darkness leering at you with no shielding from curtains. Naturally our backs were turned to the window too, so we were just vulnerable. The windows had tints, but it didn't matter because we could still see outside regardless if something could see us. By this point in my job I had seen multiple residents, ex partners, trying to peek in or break in, but nothing like this dark night with not even a glimmer of moonlight. I went to complete my assigned chores as I could finish them and then chill until everyone got up. This morning I took my time in the basement where most of my chores were. The basement is the floor below my office where the residents stay day. When I returned, I started getting cozy for my shift, blanket on some goofy rom com playing and I'm just chilling. That is until I felt like I was being watched. I had a habit of always feeling like something was watching me. As I grew up in a house with a similar window situation and was a very anxious kid, I initially brushed it off as me being super paranoid. Not a bad thing. But I checked the many cameras that we had and didn't notice anything out of place inside or out. I continued snacking and watching my movie. Around 2am when most residents were asleep, one of them knocked on the office door. This always spooked me at night, but when I went to answer was one of the residents looking very panicked. She explained that she believed she heard someone out in the backyard while she was in her room and was worried that it was one of the many women's ex partners. The women all have windows that can open to the backyard. Too small for anyone but a small child to fit through, but they are still there. So I double checked with this resident that hers were closed. We had a policy that all windows had to be closed closed at night especially, which we enforced at curfew at midnight. She said hers were closed, but that it sounded like someone was in the backyard. I suggested she go to her room, close the blinds and I would look into it again. I peered outside into the darkness, both on the cameras and with my eyes. I saw nothing out of place, but I felt an absolute pain pit in my stomach as the darkness stared back at me. I let this woman know I didn't see anything but would check regularly. She thanked me and said that maybe she was just paranoid. I reassured her the building was secure, but I understood her fear. One thing about working at a shelter is that even if you are scared, you cannot show it to the residents or they will panic, rightfully so tenfold. Despite my stomach being in knots, I kept a calm and cool demeanor. At about 3:30am, feeling a little better, I went to sit down and noticed something dash into the pine trees. Absolutely petrified and going against my human nature which said to bolt like a madman, I went to investigate near the window. At this point I was cautiously crawling because I didn't want to be seen by some wild man. I couldn't see anyone, but I again felt that gaze and noticed one of the pines move. When I say that I have never called the police quicker, I mean it. Luckily, because my workplace was well known by the police, they arrived pretty quickly. I met them at the front door, explained the situation and mentioned the woman with an ex military partner. The police fanned out and looked around the pines. No one was found, but they did find something that disturbed the pines and one of those fake leaves from a camouflage suit. They might as well have commanded me to crap my pants. They suggested that it was possible someone with a military background was in the pines that night trying to scope out the shelter. I felt as if I had lived three lives in one night. The police said it appeared that the person had left, likely after seeing the flashing red and blue lights. The police then left and said to call back if I felt unsafe again. The rest of the night was uneasy until my manager and other co workers came in. Luckily, I have never seen curtains put up so quickly and security guards hired this woman and another resident with an ex in hell's Angels were no longer with us. I have no certainty it was the ex military partner, but just based on how I felt I was being stalked like prey and how she described her ex partner, I do believe that it was him. I no longer work at that job, but that night, that one night haunts me. My Uncle Dave is super awesome in a really goofy sort of way. He's always playing pranks on me. He once convinced me that a hot pepper was a pickle and got me to eat the whole thing at Chili's, which prompted me to wash my mouth out with soap in the restroom. He lived in Connecticut and when my family moved down south to this neighborhood, we didn't see much of him. One weekend, after several encounters with a creepy guy, Uncle Dave announced he was coming for a visit and would be staying in our guest room. My mom let me stay up late to wait for his flight to arrive. However, after seeing me fall asleep on the couch several times, she ordered me to bed and said I could see Uncle Dave when I woke up in the middle of the night. I woke up with this eerie feeling. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and goosebumps covered my body. I had this uneasy feeling that someone was watching me, stiff as a board and trying not to move my head lest I announce to the watcher that I was awake and aware of their existence. I moved my eyes around the room to look for anything out of the ordinary. My night light was on in the corner of my room, which created a pretty decent glow. It was easy to make out the details in my Beanie Baby collection, my desk, my dresser, and the man crouched next to the dresser. I could see this guy with dark hair sitting with his back against the wall and his right side leaning up against the dresser. His knees were pulled close to his body and I could see his teeth and the whites of his eyes gleaming. He was facing me. I stared at him for a long time and he didn't move. At first I was terrified. Then I remembered Uncle Dave. Of course he always pranks me. It's his life mission. He's probably trying to trick me again right now. If I cry or scream, he'll jump up laughing and shout, Gotcha. I can't let Uncle Dave win. I stared at him for a while and he didn't move a muscle. He never gave up the game. After what felt like hours, I felt this sense of dread fill me. As much as Uncle Dave loves prank pranking me, I couldn't picture him staying up all night long to do this weird creepy prank. A small voice in my head tried to convince me it was someone else, not Uncle Dave. I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. I peeked and saw the man was still there. He was not a figment of my imagination. I closed my eyes again and imagined myself shouting for my mom and how she would dash in and rescue me. Even if this was Uncle Dave, I wanted no part in the prank. At some point, after hours of adrenaline, I crashed and fell asleep. When I awoke in the morning, I immediately checked by the dresser and saw no one. Feeling relief wash over me, I felt first firmly convinced that was Uncle Dave being dumb again. Leaping out of bed and rushing out of my room, I ran into the living room gleefully shouting hahaha. Uncle Dave, you got me again. That was the dumbest prank ever. My mom turned to me with this weird look on her face and told me that Uncle Dave was still in Connecticut because his flight was delayed. I figured my mom was in on the prank too and told her what happened, insisting that Uncle Dave was there in my room. When she shook her head no, I felt a wave of horror wash over me as I tried to figure out who was that in my room. My mom told me I was just imagining things and she wouldn't entertain it. Fast forward a bit later and I am again in my bed. My night light is on. I had somewhat forgotten about the creepy man and was more focused on stuff like Captain Planet and Game Boy. I woke up in the middle of the night to that same eerie feeling. I checked by the dresser but didn't see anything. Feeling relieved, I settled back into bed and tried counting sheep. While lying there, I saw a slender hand creep up the side of my comforter from under the bed. It felt around looking for something to grab onto. At that second, every alarm system in my body was screaming. Except for of course, my mouth. I tried so many times to open my mouth and shout, but nothing would come out. I felt paralyzed. The hand was on my bed for probably only five minutes, but it had felt like the longest five minutes of my life. I lay there petrified and fantasizing about running out of the room or calling for my mom. But I could not get my mouth or legs to work. Instead, I lay there frozen. I eventually was able to call for my mom, but in the middle of shouting mom. My nightlight turned off. I don't remember what happened after that, but I think I must have fainted from pure fright. When I woke up, I stood up on my bed and took a flying leap Then ran out of the room and into the living room to tell my mom what had happened. My dad checked under my bed and again told me it was all my imagination. Despite my mom trying to convince me that I was crazy, I was firmly convinced that a man had been in my room not once, but twice. After that, I started sprinting from my bedroom door and then taking a flying leap mid room landing with a thud in my bed. I was convinced if I did not do this, if I walked up to my bed like a normal person, someone hiding under my bed would grab my ankles. I had a bed skirt on my bed so it was impossible to look underneath for any creepy lurkers. As time went on, other things happened. Somebody stood in the pitch black of my backyard one night and made human meowing noises at my window. Someone tapped on my window once. The screen on my window had been pried open once. I saw a red Jeep parked in front of our house several times. When I finally told my mom about the Jeep, she went white and started making all these phone calls. Apparently the guy who lived in the dark house had been previously accused of assaulting a child, but was convicted of indecent exposure. The court took away his driver's license and had him register as an offender. When my mom heard he was violating his conditions and following kids in the neighborhood in his car, she called the cops. The cops went to his house and ended up searching it inside. They found this weird wooden chair with a large hole in the seat. Allegedly the guy would ask the neighboring farm girls to sit on the chair. He would lie on the ground underneath and. Well, you can use your imagination for the rest. Sometimes he would ask the farm girls to defecate. Apparently one kid got a new bike out of all of this. The farms knew about this guy and his chair, but never once reported him because they liked getting free stuff. I don't know what his name is or where he is now. I tried googling some keywords with my old neighborhood to see if anything pops up, but I couldn't find anything. I also have no idea if he was the guy who was in my room. But after hearing about him and remembering how he would follow me to my house in his Jeep, I became pretty convinced he was the guy who was hiding in my room twice. I was 10 years old and it was the late 90s. I was a fat kid and the other kids certainly let me know it. I remember when the movie Free Willy came out and that became my name for the better part of a year or so. Needless to say I didn't have many friends, and as those who don't have friends do, I gravitated more toward my console and computer games rather than basketball or boxing or whatever the kids did outside. I did make one friend, however, who lived a few blocks away. Steve was older than me, a nerd, and cool as hell. I won't get into particulars of our friendship, but he introduced me to all sorts of great games. Diablo, Dungeon Keeper, Duke Nukem. Games that weren't always age appropriate. He would even loan them to me sometimes. One Saturday, I called up Steve to ask if he wanted to hang out. He said he would ask his parents, but they declined due to some travel plans they had. So I asked him if I could borrow one of his games, and he agreed to loan me a little gem called starcraft. Now, anyone who knows Starcraft would not be too surprised to hear that I about jumped off the couch and hustled my fat butt across the neighborhood to Steve's house. I was so psyched. I would have skipped home if I were the skipping type. And though I didn't do that, someone did see me. I was walking back down the block about halfway home when I heard a man call out, hey. Hey kid. I paused, turned, and looked. There across the street was a pizza delivery car. One of those big chains, not a small one. The guy had a uniform on, I think, but I wasn't close enough to see a name tag or anything, and the car hood was popped up. He was looking at me and called out again, hey kid, can I get a hand? I had never worked on cars before. My dad did that sort of thing, and I think even he would agree that I'd only get in the way and probably hurt myself if I helped him with anything at that age, so I wasn't really sure what I could do. Uh, what's wrong? I asked from across the road. I just need your help with something real quick, he said, looking back down at the engine. Can you come over here real quick? I could use some help. When he dodged the question like that, I felt something I can only describe as a tingling sensation in the back of my neck. Not like goosebumps, but something instinctual. In that moment, stranger danger kicked in, and I could almost feel a tug pulling me back in the direction of my home. Sorry, I gotta get home now. The man could have been in his 30s, though I'll say that kids aren't the best approximators of age. It did seem odd to me that he would ask a child for help when there were any number of houses and doors that he could have knocked on to ask an adult. Furthermore, I remembered it being about 11am at the time, and I remember this because of how badly this encounter confused me. But that just goes to make things stranger because all I could really do to help in that situation was maybe hold a flashlight. But this was in the middle of the day in suburban Southern California. Nothing felt right, so I just turned and started walking faster and I really did feel the hairs prickle at the back of my neck now. I glanced back at the guy to make sure I wasn't being chased and thankfully I wasn't. Instead, he just looked at me and watched me walk away. It was as if he had the same realizations that I did. It was Saturday. It was early. People were home. No one was out mowing their lawns or walking their dogs. I remembered looking, looking for an adult, looking for help and finding no one. But people would hear a kid screaming for help. Maybe this is one of my bullies talking, but this guy definitely would have struggled to pick me up and carry me any distance Now. I made it home in one piece, obviously, and some years later I recounted the tale to my mother. She went silent for a good moment, then told me that one of the parents in the neighborhood reported a man in a pizza car one time. He was talking to her son. When confronted, he complained of car trouble, but when he was pressed on the matter, miraculously, wouldn't you know it, the man's car started right up and he drove away very fast. Nothing came of it that I know of, but my mom had always told me that she was grateful that I was the type to play inside, even if it made me a little heavier and I would just about ruin my eyes staying up late gaming. At least I was safe at my friend's house or at home. One night my good friend and I were hanging out having some beers at our favorite bar located in my neighborhood. We had decided to call it early since it was a weeknight and we had work and school in the morning. So we left around midnight. My friend offered to walk me home but I refused since I knew that night he didn't have his car and had to walk 20, 20 or 30 minutes in the cold to get home and I felt bad. Plus we were in my neighborhood anyway so my place was pretty close. We hugged goodbye and I started walking home. It was pretty dark out and there was no one around at first. A little bit into my walk, I noticed that someone was walking far behind Me, but I of course, didn't think much of it. I am pretty used to walking alone at night and I don't get scared easily, so I just kept walking. After a minute or two, I turned around again and I noticed that the person who was walking very far behind me has now somehow gotten very close. Like much closer than they should have been if they were walking at my pace. And I was walking pretty fast. Since I was tired and cold and just wanted to get home as soon as possible. I was trying not to be paranoid, but at this point I had a really bad feeling. I can't exactly explain what it was. It was just like all of my alarm bells started going off. So I grabbed my phone in my hand, opened my recent calls, and just continued walking. At this point, the person who just a few minutes ago was so far behind me that they were basically a shadow, was so close that I could hear their footsteps. The good thing was, I was almost home. I just had to get through the parking lot in front of my building complex. However, just as we get to the parking lot, I turn around one last time and I can see clearly this older man carrying a lot of bags in his hands right behind me. We make eye contact and just as that happened, he started running towards me. I know that every normal human being's reaction in this situation would be to start running, but for some reason, my instinctive reaction was to pretend I didn't notice or care and just picked up the phone and called my mom. My mom answered in a sleepy voice since I had clearly woken her up and asked me what was wrong. I just said something like, hey mom, I'm in front of the building and I forgot my keys. Can you please unlock the door and wait for me? Also, I have to note that while I was speaking on the phone, I noticed that there were three guys sitting on the benches in front of the building hanging out. This is pretty common. However, even late at night in my city. Now, I don't know if it was the phone call or the fact that he noticed these guys who he surely didn't expect to be there, but the man ran right past me and into the first building closest to us. At the moment, I was still very shaken up and I noticed that I stopped talking to my mom on the phone, who was mad at me for forgetting my keys and waking her up. But when the man went away, I told her exactly what happened and she freaked out and ran outside in her pajamas. I still don't know for certain what that man's intentions were, but they definitely weren't good. And of course, I'm glad I never found out.

[A]

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Mm.

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Find a Marshalls near you.

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All?

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Got it on Wayfair.

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It's.