← Southern Cannibal's Scary Stories
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My wife and I travel often, city to city, and at one point we had settled down in Vegas for a few months. There was one night we were arguing after work, headed towards Henderson, a city outside of Vegas with lots of isolated streets out that way. I was sitting reclined back in the passenger seat when we ran over something and the tire definitely popped. My wife got out to check and confirm it. Within seconds a woman in a very nice car pulled up behind us. I saw she was a woman and I laid back in the seat, still mad, still stubborn and figuring she was just checking on my wife, assuming she was alone. The woman said she had a brother in law with a tow truck. He could definitely tow the car free of charge to a shop. My wife asked why she was being so kind and she said something like, you know us sisters gotta stick together, I'm helping you out. She then got back in the car and my wife told me that she was going to follow us with her hazards on to this empty and dark parking lot in front of some grocery store that was nearby to get us out of the road. I still didn't think this was that weird at all. My wife was very confident this woman was genuine and really wanted to help. So we pull into the parking lot and my wife got out. I'm still laying in the back. This woman doesn't even know I'm here yet. She starts talking to my wife about how she changed her life within a year. She could put her on to what she does. It seems believable. She looked very nice and her car was definitely expensive. My wife keeps insisting that she can just call a tow truck. She felt bad that she was taking time from her that we could afford it. The woman kept insisting that her brother in law was coming. Be patient, he really doesn't mind. She even offered at some point to drive my wife around the area looking for a shop that was open. But my wife had already googled some places herself. She told her that's smart. And they kept talking. No suspicion, honestly. She then starts asking my wife why she's in Vegas. We had New York plates. She says, for adventure and doing something new, blah blah blah. The woman asks if she has a family she's close to or a boyfriend. She could introduce her to some friends to help her get well acquainted or whatever. Then she motions over to me and says, well, I have a husband and the woman looked like a deer in the headlights. I politely waved. She leans over and finally sees me, stares for a few seconds and then immediately gets in her car like instantly. I never saw someone look at me like that, like she had to get away from me. She tells my wife that she has to go to a store that's opening soon. Her brother in law is taking too long, but he'll be there in an hour at least. She told her not to leave. He will come help. One hour, okay honey, she said. My wife was confused and tried to ask if she'd be there too, but the woman just drove off. We knew then that something was wrong with that situation. We both just stared at each other in confusion. I still have no idea why that happened. We called a towing company and fixed the car within 40 minutes, drove back to wait because my wife was persistent in believing the woman was going to come back or her brother in law would and she wanted to let them know she didn't need their help. I told her that I didn't think they're coming back, but we did wait. No one came for nearly two hours before we drove home. I did some research and found out a lot of traffickers use women because they seem more trustworthy. Vegas obviously has a large presence of these things as well. The woman was almost desperate to keep my wife there. It was all so weird. Now when I look back, it seems more obvious that there was danger there, but at the moment the woman was so charming and endearing that it seemed like she genuinely was trying to help. I still don't know, but I'm pretty sure she ran off because I was there and she didn't anticipate a man to be there. So I grew up in Vegas. I moved there when I was in the second grade. I was around seven or so. My mother was working at some sort of motorcycle repair shop in Arizona that just wasn't really paying the bills all too well. She jumped at the offer of a new job, of course. Fast forward about five years. I'm in middle school now. My brother and I were almost exactly two years apart. I was about to turn 12, so he was 10 at the time. My mother, being quite low on the seniority list, was forced to work late nights. That left me and my brother home alone after school more often than not. Our nights were usually pretty uneventful, usually consisting of us avoiding whatever homework was assigned, warming up leftovers in the microwave, and watching whatever sparked our interest on the tv, which was usually either WWE wrestling or some kind of cartoon. We usually ended up in bed before our mom got home, but occasionally we'd wait up for her one night or I suppose one afternoon considering it was still broad Daylight. Everything was pretty normal. My brother sat on the living room floor, engulfed in whatever was on the tv and I was using my mom's desktop computer, feeding my virtual pets. Then there was a rather aggressive knock at the door, which was very odd. I was sort of an outcast child. I didn't really have too many friends, nor did my brother. Even then we lived in what you can consider a senior living community. My mother was the youngest adult there and was around her mid-30s. My brother, being too short to reach the peephole, doesn't move, only slightly reacts when he looks at me. I get up from the computer chair and make my way to the front door to glance out the peephole. I see a man in a black ski mask staring back at me through the peephole. It definitely didn't seem real. It sort of seemed like something from some cliche movie, as if he were dressed to rob a bank or something. I was immediately terrified and I obviously didn't bother asking who it was. I silently stepped away, shut the TV off, grabbed my brother and our small black Pomeranian, and ran towards my bedroom. Once we were safely hidden in my closet, I then informed him of what I saw outside. He didn't say much, but was visibly shaken up, just quietly standing there holding our dog. I slid the tiny flip phone our mom left us for emergencies from my pocket and I dialed 911. I whispered to the operator the entirety of the call as I didn't think the man had left, considering the knocks persisted after we had left the living room. Yet somehow she understood me and sent an officer over. Immediately after the call ended with the operator, I dialed for our mother. I explained everything to her. She ended up leaving work early and ended up home around the same time the police had. I'm not quite sure what deterred him from pursuing further, but of course the man was gone by the time they both had arrived. The officer was very clearly not taking any of it seriously, most likely thinking these two young boys were paranoid from staying home alone. It was probably some young men just playing a joke on a friend of his. His explanation, however, like I stated previously, we lived in a senior living community. Who could he possibly be playing a joke on his dear grandmother? He then gave my brother and I stickers as if that would console our nerves after seeing some masked madman pounding on our door. Fortunately for us, I never saw the stranger after that. After that experience, my house, however, had been broken into as well as my car three times. Thankfully, though, none of us were present when any of this Took place. Since then, my family and I have moved out of state and installed a security system. So this was a couple of months back. So we went on a family vacation to Las Vegas. I know. What a choice. One night we had decided to check out Fremont Street. I had my son with me, who's two and a half, which at the time I regretted taking us to Fremont street because it's like walking into the pits of hell. A lesson learned. It smelled like sulfur and someone was shouting things from the Bible. Well, we decided to leave right away, but my mom and sister needed to use the restroom. So that leaves me, my son and my stepdad while they go to the restroom. Well, I'm holding my son and we're watching some people perform. I think they were singing. Anyways, this man approached us. He looked homeless, dirty clothes, a rough beard, and he had a beer can in his hand. Now, this man was acting like he could barely walk, yet he didn't smell like alcohol, which was odd. He starts trying to talk to us, mostly to my son, which my son doesn't even talk. He tried asking his name and age. My stepdad sees this and he gets in between us. The homeless guy then looks him up and down and laughs and then just walks away. We brushed it off and we left. The next day, we're far from Fremont street, walking on the strip by the Coca Cola factory and shop, heading into the Rainforest Cafe. And that's when the same homeless man from before approached us again. He had different clothes on this time, but the same beer can, which again, he didn't smell like alcohol. It was almost like a prop he was using. Anyhow, he stared at me and stopped in front of us so we couldn't pass him. He then says to me in a frustrated tone, isn't he a little old for you to be holding? I was in shock and my mind just couldn't get the words out. I said something dumb like, aren't you a little old to be drinking? My family just laughed, which I don't even know why I said that. He stared at me for a few more seconds before me and my family passed him. My family then realized that it was the same man. Another part to this is everywhere. This man was a woman. Was too. She was dressed normally, though. Looked young, like in her 20s. Always smiling at us. I feel we ran into her a handful of times. She was always alone, but looking at us, I feel like maybe these were human traffickers and they were possibly trying to target us. Or it's all coincidental, but Vegas is huge. Like, what are the odds that I'm running into these same people so often? This happened a while ago. I'm a youth transport agent and travel a lot because of it. Basically, parents pay me to escort their teenage children to a program of their choice for troubled youth. My job is to make sure they get from point A to point B as safely as possible. This particular trip had us flying to the Las Vegas airport. Now, as we're getting on the tram that would take us to the terminal for baggage claim in the parking garage, a young man in his early 20s wearing name brand clothing and fairly good looking, got into the same car as us and and immediately had started Talking to the 15 year old girl I was escorting. While they were talking, I was closely monitoring the situation and the first thing I noticed after his age and attire was that he had no baggage, nothing at all. No backpack, no briefcase, nothing to indicate that he had just gotten off a flight. Not only that, but he was asking her some very personal questions like where she's from, who she's with, how long she was going to be in town, and if anyone she knew was there, that kind of thing. At this point, I stepped into the conversation and I made sure he had to keep his attention on me, not the young woman I was with. This seemed to upset him a little and he kept trying to direct his questions to her and I would answer before she could. I kept throwing glances at my partner and could tell that she was also concerned. See, Las Vegas is a pretty well known area for human trafficking. Inside of the airport bathrooms are signs telling you who to contact if you're being trafficked. It's that big of a concern. And at this point I was convinced that this guy was trying to steal this child away from us. We stayed glued to that girl the second the tram stopped. We didn't have any baggage to pick up. It was all carry on. So we weren't following the large group of people heading down the escalators towards baggage claim and instead cut off to head towards the parking garage where our rental car was parked. At first the young man looked like he was going to go down towards baggage claim with the crowd. But at the last minute, when he noticed we weren't going that way, he cut out of the crowd and continued to follow us. At this point, my partner and I had been silently communicating and we were both on the same page. This dude was sketchy. We told the young lady we were escorting to stay as close to us as possible until we got into the rental car. This guy followed us all the way to the elevators. After my group got on, I turned on to him and I told him that he was not getting on this elevator, he needed to wait for the next one. Before the door closed, he was on the staircase running up them. By the time he got to our floor, we were already halfway to the car. He tried to follow us again, but I silently let my partner know to keep going while I stayed behind. I turned to him again and told him that I knew what he was doing, that my partner was calling the cops, and then finally he hightailed it out of there. We did end up calling the cops, but couldn't stay for a statement because we were already heading out of the state. After giving the statement over the phone, the police agreed that it sounded like he was attempting to human traffic the teen that we were escorting. The young woman had no idea what was going on until we were driving off and she asked why we were being so weird. I'm so glad we were paying attention because I'm almost certain that guy was trying his damnedest to take that little girl and I'm really glad he didn't succeed. I am a male lead flight attendant flying international flights around the world. I cannot say the airline name for privacy reasons. I had a trip from the UK to Las Vegas, Nevada. On this flight I had a new flight attendant who had just recently joined, so he was put in the condiment. For those who do not know, the lead flight attendant always sits by the front left door. As I mentioned, he was on economy, so he was seated in the middle section of the aircraft. So on the flight I realized that he was constantly coming to the front and trying to talk to me all the time. Which was fine for me until these visits became more frequent. He was very strange as after a while finishing with typical aviation chatting, he had started asking about where I'm from and if I'm single. This shook me as I've never had anyone asking me this on a flight before. I told him that that is very unprofessional to ask your lfa. The look on his face was telling me y' all, he was a curse. He quickly turned around and rushed to the back of the aircraft. After landing, we were heading toward the allocated hotel to take a rest before the flight back to the uk. On the way, one of my attendants told me, hey Patrick, this new guy, he was very weird. I then replied, yes, I noticed. Then she told me he was asking all about you, whether you're single or taken what your Favorite things to do are which routes you usually fly often. I knew that it was going to be a long day. Once we got to the hotel, I handed everyone their keys and the I noticed he had gone. I was furious as I was absolutely tired and just wanted to sleep. I then received a text from an unknown number. Hey Patrick, can I get my hotel key? It was him. I told him that he meant to stay at reception while I collect and hand out the keys. He said that he's already upstairs so he wants me to deliver the key to him. I knew where this was going so I told him he needed to get downstairs, which he eventually did. Finally heading to my room, I noticed quiet footsteps behind me. I looked back but I didn't see anything. In the middle of the night around 3am, I noticed some cracking sound coming from the door. I immediately was shocked and scared. So I jumped up and looked out the peephole and what I saw shocked me. It was him. That new guy was all naked standing in front of my door. I. I slammed my door open and then yelled at him. What the hell do you think you're doing? I know, I'm sorry, but I really like you. You're really cute. Get the hell out of here you freak. I told him then slammed the door shut. I was really pissed as I didn't want to spend another nine hour flight with this total creep. But I knew that I had to. For the record, I'm not gay and I have a relationship with a girl in the uk. Later that night I received at least hundreds of messages from this guy saying that he's really sorry, he didn't mean to harass me, etc. I told him to get lost and that I'll be reporting him to HR once we land back in London. The flight back was uneventful except that I couldn't sleep at the crew rest area as it only has one door that separates it from the cabin. Inside there there are just sleeping sections with no individual door. I. I was really afraid of what he could do if he came in as all the cabin crew members knew the code for that one door. Once we landed, I fled the airport immediately and I reported the incident. I never had to see him again. I'm divorced and I'm also in the military full time. I don't need to go into the details of the divorce, but the short is that she took custody of our two kids and I was granted visitation whenever I liked since it was a divorce on good terms. My ex remarried to a total idiot, but I decided to go and visit them when I had some leave. I was really excited to see the kiddos, so I took them out for food and a movie, then down to the park to play a little baseball with my son while my daughter played on the playground. This is where the story begins. As my son is hitting me for dinger after dinger, I notice that a man has begun to talk to my daughter. He's around my age, covered in tattoos, and definitely looks like a gang member. I begin all over there, ready to pummel the guy for thinking he can just talk to a kid like this. And then I hear what he's asking. Where's your dad? And my daughter points directly at me and says, he's right there. The guy walks right to me and asks where the money is and that it's time to pay up all this other crap. The the extension is over. I literally have no idea what he's on about and simply tell him to just jog on. The guy is very aggressive. I'm a fighter. I'm in the Special Forces. I have no doubt I'd have throttled this guy. He doesn't budge, though. Keeps talking and making threats about money that I know nothing about. That's when he makes a threat about the kids that I swing into action, take him by the throat and to the ground. I wasn't going to kill him, but chances are his own life flashed before his eyes, just like mine was about to, because that's when I heard the click and the words, get off of him. Now I turn to look. A younger man is standing there with a pistol pointing at me. I reiterate that I know nothing about this money and I let the guy go. I'm essentially told from there that I'll be sorry, and the two of them walk away. I call the cops straight away and head back to my ex's place with the kids. The cops are there to meet me and I tell them everything that happened. I have a keen eye. I notice that my ex's new husband is looking white as a ghost. And we all go on to find out that on a recent trip to Las Vegas, he had lost his entire life savings from gambling and to hide it from my ex, had decided to borrow the money from some unsavory types in town. Let's just say this guy was a gambling addict and my ex never knew he had gotten himself into further debt and had been trying to dodge paying these guys the money back. The guys at the park believed that I was my wife's new husband soon to be new ex husband. There isn't much more to the story. I took the kids and my ex was happy for me to do so because we were both worried for their safety. My ex ended up eventually leaving this guy as well and his problems became solely his own. I don't know if he made good with those guys or not and I don't really care. I just remember this as the day that I could have died. It wouldn't have taken much for the gunman to just pop me. I guess what saved me is the fact that me being dead meant that they would never get their money back. Firstly, I want to apologize that some of the parts of the story are a little fuzzy because this happened about five years ago. I also want to say sorry that this is so long. I met Jamie in middle school and the two of us hit it off pretty much instantly. We both had similar interests and I really liked her fiery attitude a lot. About a year after we met, she moved from the east coast to Las Vegas, but we still stayed in touch, talking almost every day after school or during the summer. We were extremely close and we shared almost everything with each other, including secrets that we shared with no one else. In short, we knew each other well when we entered high school. Our dating lives were no exception to this. We shared who we were crushing on and cheered for each other, and also consoled each other whenever we had a breakup. We even entertained the idea of dating one another because of how well we got along, but decided the long distance thing just wouldn't work. One day out of the blue, she mentioned Ryan. Jamie went to school with him. He was quiet, shy, calm, and very smart. She mentioned they were dating and I was a bit confused. She had never spoken of him before. She hemmed and hawed a bit when I asked for more details, but the general gist was that he had crushed on her for a long time from afar and then finally worked up the courage to ask her out. She accepted and I didn't think anything of it after that. I was slowly introduced to Ryan. At first he was added to our IM chats, which we used whenever it was too late to be on the phone or when the batteries on our phone died. He didn't talk much, but he seemed fine when he did. He started to pop up more often and I generally grew to like him. We would all sometimes three way call each other and he was added to a Google Doc of ours as an editor where we would write collaborative fiction. That summer 2009, I think I Saved up and visited Jamie in Vegas. It was an incredible trip and I still remember it to this day. If you go to Vegas, make friends with someone who has a Nevada id. At the time, Jamie and Ryan were taking a break from their relationship. But I still met him one day and he seemed pretty normal. He was tall when about two years older than she and I were. We were about 14, 15 at the time. He had dark hair, dark eyes and tanned skin. We talked briefly, though I don't really remember about what. When I returned from Vegas, my contact with Jamie waned. I figured it was because of going back to school and both of us starting college prep in different programs. Phone calls became less frequent despite transitioning from house phones to our cell phones. She then stopped logging into her chat client too. She just kind of went silent. I was concerned with my own activities and I didn't want to press her while she was probably busy. Next spring, she called me late at night. Something had happened, something with Ryan. She was crying and panicking and apologizing. I couldn't understand her and it took almost an hour for her to calm down. Eventually, after she stopped sobbing, she laid out everything from the beginning. She had started dating Ryan, which was about a year prior at that point because he said so. He randomly approached her one day at school and said they were dating despite them never having spoken before. Like I said, he seemed like a nice guy and she figured it was just his way of getting over being shy and asking around, so she accepted. She also figured that he had a crush on her for a while because of how much he seemed to know about her, despite having different circles of friends and no contact. Slowly, he had started to become controlling, particularly when it came to her contact with other people. He demanded to go with her whenever she went out with friends, even if he hadn't been invited and didn't know the person who invited her. He butted in and became a part of every conversation that she ever had at school. He declared that they had to meet in the hallway between every class, even if it meant she had to run across the school to avoid being tardied. As Ryan became more involved in her life, he had started to focus on her interactions with me. He asked to be added to our chat sessions because he was afraid she was cheating on him with me. He knew that we were close and had thought about dating before. He wanted to know what we were writing together, so he had her add him into our Google Doc despite him having no intention of contributing. And though she kept it a secret, how much we talked on the phone. He requested to be added each time we did. Their break was really because she had told him that I was going to visit her. He asked her to tell me to stay home despite having planned the visit for months, and she refused. I ended up meeting him while I was there by accident, and she was legitimately scared that he might have done something to me. After I went back home, he apologized and tried to make it up to her. It was textbook abuse. With the cyclic nature of their relationship, he would mistreat her and then act all sweet to her until she came back to him. He started pressuring her to cut ties with me again and started lying about hurtful things that I had supposedly said about him or her. She didn't believe it, but he wore her down with persistence. He would check her phone and computer to see if she had messaged me. After a particularly bad fight, she snapped and she said that she was going to call me and tell me everything that was going on and she was going to leave and move in with family who still lived on the East Coast. Hae responded by shoving her to the floor and almost breaking her arm. Hae then stormed out when she cried, but she didn't follow through with her threat. He called the next day and apologized, saying that he would let her call me Sunday of that week and he would make up for what he did by taking her hiking in Red Rock Canyon on Saturday. She cautiously accepted and then went about the rest of her week. Friday around 8pm, Jamie gets a knock on the door. It's the police. They want to speak with her and her mom. They come in and proceed to tell her that they had gotten a tip from one of Ryan's friends that he was planning to hurt Jamie. They got a warrant and searched his room and car. They found a detailed suicide note about his plans to drive her out to the Nevada desert and then commit suicide with her by slashing their wrists so they could be together in the afterlife. And if she didn't agree to do it, he would stab her to death. They also found several knives in his car. After the cops left, she called me immediately and spilled everything. Then she apologized for keeping all of this from me. She felt like she could handle it all on her own and didn't want to get me involved. We ended up staying on the phone all night until both of us fell asleep. We eventually started talking regularly after that happened, but I've sadly fallen out of contact with her since then. I still check up on her on Facebook, though. She's moved back to the east coast and appears happy. As for Ryan, I believe he was admitted to a mental health facility and is still there to this day. I'm not sure what charges were brought up against him exactly, but he wasn't declared mentally fit for trial, and Jamie still has a restraining order out against him. It just really freaks me out that something like this could have happened to someone I was so close with. I talked to this guy. I met him in person, and yet he was probably already planning to kill my best friend at that point. I still get shivers whenever I think about him or think about how Jamie sounded that night that she found out, which was only hours before he planned to murder her. The police never revealed who had tipped off the cops about Jamie, but I can't even imagine what it would be like if they didn't. This happened a few weeks ago and I'm still a bit shaken up by it. My husband and I like to take long drives in the desert with our dog. We live outside Las Vegas and we're very fortunate to live in a city with abundant, beautiful areas to stargaze or use a telescope. My husband got us one for his birthday in October, so he was really excited to try it out. We drove for IKEA up to a popular overlook and then he took out the telescope. He showed me a bunch of constellations and we even saw a shooting star. The doggo sat in the car and two windows rolled down. My dog is a pain. Straight up. She's an American cattle dog and she saved my butt before from a home invasion. She's very protective of both me and her dad. Anyway, my hubby had to pee so he told me to wait in the car for him. So I got in and locked the door. Meanwhile, I'm browsing Reddit when I hear gravel moving. Thinking it's my husband, I remark, wow, that was fast. Suddenly my dog goes berserk. She's snarling and barking, so I turn around and there's a dude that's not my husband. Idiot made a mistake though. He put his hand through an open window with a crazy 63 pound dog. She's got his hand, so he's screaming. Now I'm screaming. My husband is yelling as he runs towards us with his pants half on. The dog lets his arm go and the guy takes off. As I call the cops, my husband tries chasing after the guy, but he's like 6 foot 3 and 280 pounds and this guy was fast. Anyway, the cops do show up, tell us they'll be on the lookout for him. But to maybe stay away from that area at night. Yeah, the cops in our town are a total joke. The doggo got a cup of Dairy Queen that night and I think it was well deserved. I was in my early 20s living in Las Vegas. I just started escorting. I also worked as a bartender at a gentleman's club, putting myself through college and taking care of my two baby girls. And sadly, I was working to feed my intense amphetamine habit. Anyway, I was called to go on a date, if you want to call it that. So I got dolled up and he wanted me to meet him at a bar way across the city. It was at least a good 25 miles, but no big deal. I remember that we hit it off. He was attractive, wealthy, kind and funny. Plus he smoked weed, so even better. After a bit we decided to drive into Lake Mead towards Hoover Dam. So we are in his brand new Mercedes and I ask to stop at a 7:11. I go in to grab a water and I walk out and he's gone. Gone with my purse with all my cash, IDs, makeup and dope. I do have my debit card, but my direct deposit hadn't hit my account yet. I'm a hoe dressed like a hoe. Miniskirt, garters, thigh high, boots, boobs hanging out. So first a group of 16 year olds start some crap with me. I get into it with them and start walking to a friend's house that's close by. It's like a 20 minute walk. Next, I'm walking down a busy highway when a group of guys in a truck pulled over. They were nice enough, so I walked closer and then they grabbed me and tried to throw me in the truck. I fought. I saw myself in Unsolved Mysteries or Forensic Files. I somehow broke free and actually stabbed one with my stiletto heels. I'm now crying and running into a bar. As I turn this corner, a guy comes around and asks if I'm okay, can he help me. I tell him that I almost got kidnapped and earlier some guy jacked me and stranded me. I asked to use his cell phone, but it's dead. He says that he lives right across the street in an apartment. I'm like, okay, let's go to his apartment. And he asks if I want to get high. The dumb addict in me says yes. He says not to report the earlier incidents. I'm just like okay. And I try to call my parents instead, but of course they don't answer because it's Late. I tried to call my BFF as well, but she doesn't answer. I can't remember anyone else's number because the fool stole my cell phone with my purse. So this guy tells me that he called me a cab and it'll be a while since he lives on the outskirts of town. We talk and get high. He knows I'm an escort and he starts asking me really creepy questions. I'm getting uncomfortable. Then his dad comes into the living room. He's all staring hard at my body. And then he whispers something in his son's ear. I get the vibe that I'm gonna get assaulted. I went batshit crazy when the dad drops his pants and demands that I blow him. I tell him that I'll bite his thing off and stick it down his throat if he doesn't go away. I told the son to hand me the phone or I was gonna stab him with my stilettos. Actually, amazingly, they gave me a phone. I call my dad and thankfully he answers. And I told him to come get me. He's obviously mad because it's like 3am at this point. But he tells me to wait at the 7:11 on the corner. He'll bring me my other set of keys to the car and drive me to the vehicle left in the parking lot of the bar where I met the idiot at who stole my stuff. I leave and go to the 7 11. I've had the worst night ever. And then this homeless guy decides to try and grab me from behind. I'm so infuriated by now and crazy as crap, I beat the living daylights out of him. People inside the store pull me off him. My dad shows up and is like, you look crazy. I just laugh and I tell him the whole story. He says, at least you didn't get a run in your nylons. Better write to the company and let them know they have a good product. Okay, thanks, dad. But anyways, I was pretty traumatized for a few months. Guess who actually brought me back my purse? The idiot who left me stranded. He said that his wife called and he had to go. So anyways, yeah, that's pretty much my night of hell in Vegas. My name is Kevin. I'm a 23 year old male and I live in Las Vegas. I moved here from a small town in Georgia because I wanted something different than what I grew up with. I didn't know what I was looking for exactly, just something exciting, something new. I got a job at a car rental place near the Strip. It wasn't anything Special, but it paid the bills. At first, life in Vegas felt kind of empty. Bright lights, loud music, and thousands of people. But I still felt alone. Most nights I just worked, went home, played video games and slept. I didn't really know anyone outside of work. That all changed one night when a few guys from the shop invited me out. We ended up at a strip club. I wasn't even planning to go, honestly. But they kept pressuring me, and I kinda just figured, why not? Inside, everything was loud, colorful, and kind of surreal. That's where I met her. She called herself Crystal. Long blonde hair, sparkling green eyes. The kind of girl you see in the movies. She smiled at me like she already knew me. We talked for a while. I bought a couple of dances and she sat with me after. It didn't feel fake. At least I didn't want it to. I started going back to see her more often. At first it was just once a week. Then twice. Soon I was there every couple of nights. And then we started talking outside of the club. Her real name was Mia. She was even more beautiful without all the makeup and lights. She told me that she only danced to pay the bills. And she said she had plans for something better. I believed her. We eventually started dating. She was fun. A little wild, but sweet. We stayed up late, drove around the desert and watched bad movies. I felt like I was finally living the life that I came here for. But after a few weeks, I noticed things that didn't sit right. She would get nervous at random times, jumped when her phone buzzed. She started getting strange calls, then ignored them. I asked her once what was going on, and she said, just some creep from the club. Some guy who won't take a hint. She said that he had been following her around for a while and even got her phone number somehow. He'd leave her weird notes in her locker and also send weird texts and try to wait for her after work. I was concerned, but I didn't think it was that serious. Creepy, sure, but not dangerous. Then it started happening to me. Yeah, the guy somehow got my information and sent me a text. The first message came one night when I was heading to bed. Just five words on my phone from a blocked number. Stay away from her now. I stared at it for a minute. I showed Mia the next day, but she just bit her lip and said, aw, crap. He must have seen us together. That's when I started to feel real fear. Not just for her, but for myself. The next day, I found a piece of paper tucked under my windshield wiper. She's not yours. Back off before it's too late. That same night, I saw a car I didn't recognize parked across the street from my apartment. Black suv, dark windows, engine off, no lights. I watched it from my window for nearly an hour. It didn't move. Finally, I closed my blinds and tried to sleep. But I didn't sleep that well. I eventually told Mia that I just couldn't do it anymore. It wasn't just a creepy guy. It felt like something worse. I told her I was out, that I didn't move to Vegas to deal with this crap. She got really upset, started crying, grabbed my hand. You don't understand, she said. He's dangerous, but he won't hurt you. Please don't go. However, I still left. I just couldn't deal with something like that. It was really driving me crazy. Two nights later, I walked out to my car and all four tires were flat. Slashed clean through. I stood there, breathing hard, staring at the rubber, shredded like paper. The black SUV was there again that night. Same spot. I called the police right away. Of course, they said unless I saw someone do it, there really wasn't much they could do. I filed a report. That didn't help me sleep. Then came the worst part. One night I got home from work in my apartment and my front door was wide open. I always lock it. My stomach dropped. I stepped inside slowly. Nothing looked taken. My laptop was still there, but there was a photo on the kitchen table. It was Mia and I sitting in a diner, laughing. I don't know who took it. I never even noticed anyone near us that day. There were no words on it. Not a note either. Just the picture. That was it for me. I packed a bag that night. I didn't even sleep. I left Vegas in the morning and drove straight back to Georgia and went and stayed with a family member. I didn't stop except for gas. I eventually moved in with my cousin. While I tried to figure things out, I changed my number, deactivated every social media account, started all over. I haven't talked to Mia since. I don't even know if she's okay. I don't even know where she is now. Maybe she left, too. Sometimes I think about going back. But then my heart races. Every time I even consider going back to Vegas. I still check the locks three times before bed. I still look over my shoulder in parking lots. I don't know who he was. I don't even know his name. But I know he meant it when he told me to stay away from her. So that's exactly what I did. I really hope that Mia is doing okay. And I really feel bad for whoever her next boyfriend is. Good luck, bro.