Jill (6:22)
This happened in 2017 or 2018. I was around 27 at the time and had been single for a few years. I got on and off Tinder frequently because as many of you know, it's a freaking circus on that app. I'm happily married now and glad to be off that app forever. Over the years I was on there, I had some good dates, some great dates that ended up ghosting me, and some painfully bad ones. This story is probably one of the weirdest days that I ever had. One night I was swiping away and came across a profile with pictures of someone who I now know as the online influencer hot Dr. Dr. Mike. I didn't know who he was at the time, but I wish I'd reversed image search the photos. I can't remember the name of the profile, so we'll just call him Nick. As I scrolled through the photos, I thought to myself, man, this guy is suspiciously hot to be on Tinder. I swiped right anyways, because you never know. I kept swiping and at some point later in the evening I got a notification that Nick had matched me back. Even though in my gut I knew this most likely wasn't real, I'd started chatting with him anyways. I was very much a let's meet up and grab a drink and just see if we hit it off type of girl. I didn't like texting back and forth for weeks and never actually meeting up. We ended up making plans to grab a drink downtown that very weekend and part of me was excited, despite thinking the photos were fake. Stupid, I know. I don't know what I was thinking. I was blinded by the slim possibility that I might actually meet up with a guy that looked that good. When Saturday evening came, I decided to take an Uber to the bar downtown since I'd be drinking. I'm a lightweight. I got pretty done up and even decided to wear heels, which I rarely ever did. The driver dropped me off at the planned meeting place around 6pm and I texted him to let him know I was there. He texted me and he told me he was running late, so I sighed and sat down to wait. About 15 minutes later he texted me to see if we could meet up at a different brewery that was about 3/4 of a mile away. I was really annoyed and I didn't want to pay for another Uber so I begrudgingly said yes and decided to walk there since it wasn't too far. This was a bad choice since I had heels on and my feet started killing me almost immediately. I was super flustered and went to text my friend to let her know where I was going. I was dumb, but at least always let someone know where I was. I said something along the lines of I'm so freaking pissed he's making me go to ABC Brewery instead and I'm walking there now in heels. I pressed send and put my phone back in my purse when it vibrated. A few minutes later, I opened the notification to see that I had texted that to Nick instead of my friend. I felt my stomach rise up into my chest. How did I manage to do that? I was mortified and I tried to play it off somehow. I honestly don't remember how I did, but he seemed okay and he said he'd be at the brewery soon, never even acknowledging that I'd clearly sent him the wrong text. When I got there, I had grabbed a spot at the bar and ordered a beer. I figured a little pre game might calm the nerves. I sat there for what felt like forever and by this point he was almost an hour late and I was well into my second beer. I texted him again and he assured me he was almost there. Normally I'd just have left because if a guy is going to be that late into a first date, well, it's not a good sign. But I'd paid a pretty penny for the ride downtown and I figured I'd at least enjoy some beers before heading home. Now, remember how I said I'm a lightweight? After a couple of IPAs, I had a pretty strong buzz. I'd also not worn my glasses because I usually only use them when a screen or night driving is involved. After I'd been there for well over an hour And a half. Someone walked up behind me and said my name. I turned around and there was. Well, not the guy in the photos, that's for sure. He had the same hair color and some similar features, but I'd definitely been catfished. Honestly, I wasn't surprised, but I did freeze up. I wish I would have called him out at that moment, but I was too nervous to say anything. I started trying to convince myself that maybe this was the same guy, but the lighting was just bad or that I didn't have my glasses on, so maybe I just couldn't tell. We awkwardly had some small talk for a moment, and then he had ordered us some beers and suggested we go and sit outside on the patio. I said that sounded good and excused myself to the restroom first. I flew into the stall and opened the profile and yeah, I couldn't try and lie to myself anymore. Was this guy so delusional that he thought he could pass for this man in the photos? Or was he counting on his date, just not pointing it out, just like I was doing now? This was a wonderful summer night in downtown Denver, so it was pretty busy and and I was relieved to go outside where there was a little less noise. Here's the point where I really made some stupid decisions. I can't even blame being young and dumb because I was close to 30, but since I'd been drinking, I decided to just see the date through. I was 100% not interested in this guy, but was also curious about what kind of person shows up to a date as a blatant catfish. I wish I could remember more of the conversation, but I was buzzed and this was years ago. We sat outside for a while and he spent most of that time talking to me. There wasn't a lot of back and forth. It was just him bragging about things. But then he dropped some really weird bombs that still stick with me. At one point, he had casually mentioned his age and it took me aback. I was like, um, that's definitely not what it said on your profile. He just looked at me and replied, oh, really? Yes. Sometimes I don't like to tell people my real age. And then just proceeded to keep talking. I can't remember the exact age because the age itself was fine, but the fact that there was another lie there really made me question what the heck I was still doing there. Not too long after he mentioned how he had been dating this lady who was way older and that she was so into him because he's so rich, but then got mad when he tried to break up with her. So she took everything from him. Then he dropped that he was living in his office at work. I was just like, wait, so you live in an office building? To which he then replies, yeah, I usually sleep under my desk. It was just so weird. I tried to bring the conversation back around to his age, but he continually dodged the subject and kept mentioning how he usually likes women in their 40s or 50s. Since the conversation was getting more uncomfortable by the second. I just really wanted to get out of there. One of my best friends worked at a bar that was pretty close to where we were. By this point. I definitely passed being buzzed and was feeling pretty drunk. I decided that I needed to convince him to continue the date at the bar where my friend worked. I had been texting her throughout the night and at the time I just needed someone else to see how crazy this whole situation was. He agreed to drive us over there since he hadn't had much to drink and I was feeling pretty broke. So I decided to let him drive us since it was so close. 1010 would never recommend getting in the car with someone you just met. Especially one who's a giant red flag like Nick was. I don't really drink that much anymore because my body hates alcohol, but in my 20s I very much had a YOLO mentality. As soon as I took my very first sip of a drink, I always thought I was invincible. Anyways, we walked to his car, which was parked kind of far away, but that was to be expected on a Saturday night in Denver. We got in and he immediately started to try and make out with me. I was shocked and disgusted and I pushed him off me. He tried a few more times and I just kept pulling away. He was acting really aggressive, so I tried to just play it cool. As the reality of the situation hit me, my brain started screaming at me that I was an idiot for getting in this weirdo's car. I'd watched enough forensic files in my life to know what could happen next. Surprisingly, he stopped and he drove us over to the bar without further incident. I went inside while he parked the car. I filled my friend in on the situation and pulled up the Tinder profile to show her the pics and told her to take a good look at the guy when he comes in. He eventually showed back up and my friend mouthed, yeah, that's not the same person and started to laugh. It wasn't too busy, so she took a break and came outside to have a smoke with us. This weirdo immediately launches into a 10 minute rant about how the earth is flat and we never went to the moon. I know that's a pretty popular conspiracy these days, but at the time I hadn't really met anyone who actually believed that. He was practically foaming at the mouth over it, which made us both very uncomfortable. My friend and I just kept looking at each other and she eventually just told him to shut up. He really didn't like that much and seemed to be taken aback that someone spoke to him like that. I couldn't help but smirk at the look on his face. Then by some miracle, my phone started ringing. Have any of you ever had a friend call you and say something just to get you out of a date? I'd used that move before and it was probably always painfully obvious it was a lie. Looking back, I wish I'd just been more upfront in my 20s, but I was always too scared to just be honest with strangers. I had a go to friend. I'd usually have to make the call and say that her car broke down and she needs a ride or something of that sort. I looked down and saw her name come up on the phone. For some reason, I hadn't even told her about this date, but she called me absolutely sobbing. She had been drinking herself and going through a really bad time in her life, so I immediately told her I'd be right there. She said not to come over, but just that she really needed someone to talk to. I then told her give me an hour and I'll call you right back. I'm in the middle of a situation. I felt really bad that I couldn't talk to her right at that moment, but I really needed to get out of there. I hung up and announced that I had to go help a friend and Nick gave me the most deadpan stare and said, you're lying. I couldn't help but laugh because for once it was actually a legit situation that came up. I tried to explain that I needed to be there for my friend and without changing his facial expression, he said, if you don't want to be here, just tell me. I hate women who lie. Women are always lying. Chills went up and down my spine. The look on his face was truly full of hatred. My friend dragged me inside with her and told me to wait at the bar right in front of her until my Uber came. He was still outside smoking as my ride pulled up and I tried to book it right past him. He grabbed me and tried to kiss me, but luckily I dodged that and hopped right in the car. The driver had seen the interaction and asked if I was okay. I told him yes and asked if he wanted to hear the crazy story. I was pretty shaken up at that point because the whole night felt surreal and as I said it out loud, I realized how much danger I really could have been in. I'm not sure how dangerous Nick really was, but I'm glad that I didn't have to find out. The next day he texted me, sent me a picture of his junk, and asked if I'd like to be friends with benefits. I'd finally had the courage to completely call him out. I told him absolutely not, of course. Luckily I never heard from him again. My mom thinks he was some sort of con artist, which I wouldn't be surprised about. He was pretty smooth up until the end of the night. I know this isn't necessarily the scariest story, but it definitely takes the cake for the weirdest date of my life. It's been years since I was on Tinder, but I can't imagine it's any better than it was back then. Anyone using dating apps? Please be cautious. It's a crazy world out there. You never know who you might meet. For better or for worse, this happened in August 2024. It's a lengthy story, so apologies for that. My friends and I from work, who were also personal friends, decided to have a weekend getaway. There were five of us, Mia, Claire, Kirstie, Devin, and myself. We found a quaint, privately owned cabin that was surrounded by majestic trees and wilderness, and the other cabins in the area were about a football field length away, so you still had your privacy. We arrived on Friday at about 4pm and exhausted after the long drive. We grabbed our things, got the key from the key lock and went. We checked out the cabin and me being the overthinker of the group, I went around and checked that the doors and windows were locked. They were. I also checked the rooms as I've heard horror stories myself. All was clear. We picked our rooms, unpacked, and made downstairs for dinner as it was around 5pm at this point, Dean and Clara began cooking dinner while Kirsty and Mia were outside on the patio getting the hot tub warmed up and I had the music playing. As I was setting the player up, something had caught my eye outside the front windows that led out to the car. It was a figure. At first I thought it was just someone from the other cabin taking an evening walk, but the figure had stopped right by Claire's car. I walked over and looked out the window and the Front lights were on, so I saw the figure duck behind the car as if he was hiding. I opened the door, which was still blocked by a screen door, then shouted, hey, what are you doing? I see you. The figure ran away from the car and into the woods. The girls came over and I told them what I saw. As I locked the doors again, they shrugged it off and we just all ate our dinner. I don't drink at all and the girls were tipsy already and the night was still young. After a while, they all got into the hot tub while I decided to clean up. After about 30 minutes, I had heard the girls scream making me run outside, and they were all looking in the same direction, the tree lines. I followed their gazes and saw two figures in the distance. I then shouted, hey, get the hell out of here or I'm calling the police. But they didn't move. At this point, the girls got out of the tub and headed inside, as did I, locking the patio doors. The cabin had no curtains or blinds, so we could still see outside, which freaked the girls out. Thankfully, my dad is a retired police officer and I had a gun that I obviously had a license for and my dad had always taught me how to use it. So of course I brought it with me. I reassured the girls that we would be okay and that if anyone else showed up, I would call the police. This calmed them down and we carried on trying to have a good time, which after a few hours we did. It was around 1am and the girls were wiped so they had headed to bed while I checked the doors and windows again, then walked around the whole cabin looking out the windows and saw nothing. It's probably just some kids playing games, I thought to myself. Anyway, I turned out all the lights and then headed upstairs. I didn't turn my light on and was about to get changed when I had heard a thud come from the patio wooden floor. Now, the room I chose overlooked the back of the cabin, so when I looked down I saw movement by the hot tub and I knew it was the same figures from earlier. They were trying to break in. I grabbed my phone gun and went into Mia's room, shaking her awake. She woke up and I told her to go and wake the others, stay in one room and then lock the doors. Mia was scared, but I calmed her down and as she left, I called the police. I had a signal. Thankfully, I told the operator the situation, but she said that because of where we were, it could take up to 20 minutes for them to arrive. By this time I saw all the girls run into Devin's room while I was still on the phone with the police. She told me to get in the room and lock the door and then wait until the police arrived. I told her I had a gun and would use it if I had to. But before she could respond, the sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the cabin. The girls whimpered, but I told them to keep quiet as I had handed my phone to Kirstie, who was the one composed out of all the others, while I then stood behind the door aiming my gun. Multiple footsteps ran up the stairs and I heard them go into the rooms that were now open. And then I saw shadows under the door frame outside of our room. They began knocking before saying, open the door girls, we just want to have some fun. Followed by laughing. I have never been more scared in my life, but I knew that I had to be the strong one. The knocking now turned to banging and more aggressive now, and shouting. I cocked my gun and was ready to shoot whatever came through that door. And the girls were all now crying. I really didn't know how many there were. I just prayed that the cops would get here soon. Open the damn door. A voice shouted. And it was then that I saw the door frame now being forced open clearly by someone throwing their weight against it. I fired one shot at the bottom of the door and what followed was a scream and then a thud and then the banging stopped. Hey man, the police are on their way. I'm armed so don't push it. I shouted. Footsteps were then heard moving away from the door with grunts following. We stayed in Devin's room for what felt like forever. When I finally heard sirens and the red and blue lights bathing us in light and I lowered my gun, we all just waited until we heard. It's the police. You can come out now. We all just howled each other and left the room. When we were then greeted by two police officers, I saw a blood trail on the wooden floor leading from the door all the way to the patio. One officer took me to one side and I explained everything from the first encounter to them showing up. I had to explain the gun and everything and the girls backed me up in their statements and that it was self defense so I wasn't charged. The cops contacted the owner who told them that he had hidden cameras and the welcome signs above the front door as well as the back patio doors for security. We didn't want to stay in that cabin any longer, so we packed up and left, deciding to stay in a hotel in town for the night. Before heading home when things had calmed down, the owner had contacted me with a full refund, telling me that he wouldn't charge me for the damaged door. Along with his apologies, he told me that he had sent the footage to the police which showed three figures all in black climbing over the patio fence and smashing the doors to gain access. The owner told me that the police found one of the young men in the hospital. I apparently shot him in the leg and it wasn't long before he snitched on his accomplices. This was the scariest experience in my life, but I'm just glad I had my gun and I was calm in that situation and that my friends and I are alright. I work at an oil refinery chemical plant in the southern United States. I will not give the company name for obvious reasons. I work primarily around the rail yard, but we do handle business throughout the whole eastern portion of the plant. About a month ago I had completed my work for the night and had taken the company truck to part of the refinery that I was more likely to go unnoticed by my supervisor should they be driving around. This has been my go to spot to hide from the boss and sleep away the remainder of my shift for the past two years or so that I've worked here. This part of the refinery where there had been a relatively localized explosion that tragically took the life of a woman that had been employed directly by the owners of the refinery for about five years. She was attempting to fire up burners to restore power to the refinery during an emergency power outage. This took place exactly 10 years before on the same day and right around the same time in the morning. The area of the plant where this happened is still taped off and shut down to this day. On this night, while sitting in the truck, it began to rain very heavily. We had been in a relatively severe drought for the past several months, so the poor weather was welcomed by all. Especially with the notice the plant had sent over the radio stating there was lightning in the area to stop work and find the nearest substantial shelter. I was watching a movie on my phone and finding it hard to stay awake with the sound of heavy rain on the roof of the truck sometime in the very early morning hours. Although I can't be exactly sure on the time, I was awoken from my half sleep by a huge orange glow that completely engulfed me. It was so intense I couldn't open my eyes past a squin due to the brightness. I can only describe it as being very similar to staring directly into the sun. I immediately recognized That I was in the middle of an explosion. However, there was absolutely no sound, no heat, and no fear. For a moment, I questioned if I was still alive. But as the orange glow died down, I saw a woman completely engulfed in flames, running for about five or six steps before falling to the ground. Since that day 10 years ago, there have been a number of pipes installed that run horizontally just above the ground in front of the furnace and meant to bypass it. I mean, she ran straight through them like they weren't even there. Then just as soon as I saw it, it was all gone. The fire was gone, she was gone. The whole space was just as empty as before. And I was back to sitting alone in the truck, listening to the rain. I obviously couldn't believe what I had just seen. I, like everyone else at the plant, was familiar with what had happened on that day. And I knew exactly what I had just witnessed. I just couldn't wrap my head around how I had witnessed an event that had happened a full decade in the past. I drove back to our shop where I promptly clocked out and went out to my personal truck. I sat there for at least half an hour trying to come to terms with what I had just witnessed. After the initial shock wore off, I felt very indifferent about didn't freak me out or anything. What I saw was just very matter of fact to me. Even still, though, I kept the story to myself because I figured there was very little benefit to telling anyone about it. An event like this is obviously hard to forget, but I've tried not to dwell on it too much because I know I'll drive myself crazy trying to comprehend exactly why I was able to somehow witness such a well known and tragic event from 10 years in the past. Then last night it happened again. We have a very small loading rack that sits in the back of the rail yard and hasn't been manned or used in years. Last night the weather was very foggy to the point you could only see lights from the refinery for about 100 yards and could only see objects for maybe 25. I was driving the work truck down to a storage tank we have and talking on the phone to my wife about the trip she had taken to visit her mom and the next state over. As I turned the corner near the rack, my phone dropped the call. I didn't think too much about it because service can be spotty in some parts of the refinery, although this area usually has a pretty strong signal. Nevertheless, I figured I would just call her back. After I had arrived at my destination. I Happened to look to my left to glance at the rack. I never had the opportunity to use it, and it had different equipment than I am used to using. I often look at it when I passed in an attempt to picture how all of it worked. It sits about 30ft from the road, so it's close enough that I was able to still make out details pretty well. As I looked over, I saw two men up there. They were wearing the old company uniform and seemed to be hooking up a large white rail car. These white cars are uncommon in our yard, but not unheard of. However, if we had one staged in this area, there's absolutely no way I would not know about it, nor is there any way I would not have seen it any of the other 10 or so times I had passed that area during the day. I could make out their faces well enough to know that neither of the men were anyone that currently works there. I also noticed the rag didn't look nearly as rusty and neglected as it usually does. It still had paint on it and it didn't look overgrown or abandoned at all. That being said, everything was a little blurry. Like instead of being in the fog, it was more like they were in the fog, like they were a part of it. Then as I reached the next turn, they were gone. The people were gone, the large white car was gone, and the wreck was back to its rusty, normal self. Interestingly enough, the fog started clearing very shortly after this, although I can say they were really connected. Once again, this took a minute to process, but I was not freaked out at all. I actually just thought it was really cool that I got to witness this time slip two times now. I asked a co worker that has been here nearly as long as I've been alive when the uniforms changed and he said it was sometime during 2015. I don't know if I also saw them 10 years in the past or or if it was a different, more random amount of time. Our company has been here since the 60s, so there's really no telling. Both events seem to move slower than normal time, not slow motion, just a little slower than normal. I don't know if this was actually time moving slower or if my brain was just taking longer to process what it was seeing. These are the only times in my life that I've ever experienced anything like this. I don't know if it has something to do with the plan to the area or me. I will say the city where this took place is where one of the most well documented UFO sightings and abductions took place. Maybe this is just a place where odd things happen. I'm sorry if my thoughts seem jumbled. Reliving this while typing it has proven to make it difficult to keep my mind on track. I would love to hear of anyone else that has had a similar experience to this. This started about a month ago on the weekends. To help better explain the story, I'll explain my house. The house is actually a rather large two story house. It was split into three separate apartments well before I ever moved in. There are two down on the first floor and one upstairs. The apartment next door is occupied one of my best friends and the upstairs apartment is very recently empty. I've lived here for six years with a roommate, our three cats and my dog. Her and I have never had any issues prior to this, but very recently our dog started barking randomly at nothing during the night or so we thought. He would look out a window very intently then run to the front door barking the whole way. We actually thought he was just seeing a cat or a rabbit and brushed it off, just telling him to hush. One night my friend neighbor came knocking and said that he thought he had seen someone out on his porch. He said that he had grabbed a cane and tried to follow them but they jumped over the porch and then ran off. Since then, we made sure to check every single time. My dog seemingly barked at nothing during the night and my neighbor had seen a figure suddenly bolt at least twice upon checking. We've called the cops, but they said there wasn't much they could do. They asked if there was anyone we could think of who may be messing with us, and while there were some neighbors we had occasionally had to call the landlord on, there was no one we could think of. The issues we'd had had never been more serious than them just being a little loud at 3am on a drunken Friday night. So we continued to live our normal lives. My roommate works third shift while my neighbor and I work second shift, although he had just recently switched to this shift from third shift himself. Nothing ever happened while I was home alone and I figured it was over. Recently, however, I got a girlfriend and due to scheduling I'll always usually spend the night at her house in the middle of the week as those are often when my days off occur, meaning at night there's no one home except for my dog as my roommate only has the weekends off. Last week I was at my girlfriend's and things weren't really going well. We had a bit of a fight so I was laying in my bed mulling things over in my head, unable to sleep. As I'm laying there at around 2am My phone buzzes. I check it and I see a text from my roommate asking me to call her. When I get the text, I figured she's on break at work and just bored or just wants to shoot the crap about Overwatch since it had just come out and I hadn't gotten to play it yet, not having been home. I give her a call and she says she's at home and thinks somebody had been in the house. I ask her what makes her think that and she says that our friend and neighbor had gotten home late from his job around 1:30. He said he'd been home watching random stuff on YouTube, laughing rather loudly since he thought he was literally the only person in the house. He said he thought he heard someone walking around and at first thought it was me until he then remembered I was at my girlfriend's. He wondered why my dog didn't bark until he realized I had taken my dog with me since her kids wanted to meet him. He called my roommate to ask if she'd called off work when he said he started hearing a scratchy meow sound outside his window. He walked outside to find the eldest cat outside meowing to be allowed back into the house. Our cats never go outside normally, but had once before, so he just scooped him up and went over to our apartment and then put him down. He told my roommate this and she said that she had then told her boss who told her to come home. Roommate came home and said that she had found our front door totally unlocked, which she never leaves unlocked, and the door to our sunroom was also shut. We never shut that door since our cat's litter boxes are in there and they wouldn't be able to get into them if we did. She's checking around and finds boxes moved out of our hall closet and a bunch of my card game and board game boxes just scattered around, not at all how we had left them. She said she then heard a meow and found one of our cats shut in the bedroom. Every day before she leaves, she always makes sure that no cats are in there since one has a bad habit of pissing on the bed if shut in there. Also, our bass guitar was knocked off its guitar stand and onto the floor. None of the cats weigh enough to knock over that thing, especially not our kitten who was shut in there, so she gets freaked out and checks the windows. One in the sunroom is open so the cats can sit in there and get some air, but the screen is untouched. She said that she went outside and found a trash can drug up against the house under that window as if someone had stood on it to peep in. So the best we can figure out is whoever this person was was sneaking around again and when they didn't hear our dog, they broke in. They must have been in the middle of looking through our stuff when they heard my neighbor laughing, panicked, and then ran off. I'm not taking any of this lightly and I'll be acquiring a gun since I'm often here alone at night. So this happened to me when I was 15 years old. I was a super lonely kid. My home life was in shambles, my mom was cheating on my dad and told me about it and I had just started at a new high school the year prior where I didn't know anyone. Creating art quickly became my biggest coping mechanism. To this day I still love to draw. I discovered the website deviantart around this time and started submitting my drawings every day. Through this I made some friends online of all ages. Some very talented people were giving me positive feedback on my work and this really inspired me. In my depression I felt like DeviantArt was a safe haven of like minded people who really appreciated one another. For the first time in a long time, I belonged somewhere. I spent many hours talking to some regulars on the site. Even now, 10 years later, a few of them are still in my life and I cherish their friendships. But this story is about someone who I never want to meet ever again. DeviantArt also allows writers to submit their stories and poetry to the site. At least they did back then. One day I was on the front page and a poem caught my eye. It was more of an angry rant full of weird, twisted imagery and anti christian subtext. Sounds stupid, I know, but it was actually quite well written and funny. At least to my 15 year old self. Back then, being a very angry, depressed high schooler, I was drawn in and decided to check this artist out. Not only was he a prolific writer with maybe 100 poems and stories on his site, but this man was a very talented visual artist as well. He created amazing illustrations of weird, funny creatures. Some of them were a little sexual like naked women, but most of them were humorous or gross. His name was Tom. The combination of Tom's writing and visual art skills intrigued me. Even though he was 30 years old, I had decided to send him a private message. We bonded. Soon we began to talk on AOL Instant messenger, which was a pretty big thing back Then I would look forward to talking to Tom every day and came straight home after school to connect with him. Chatting for five hours was a daily thing for us. In hindsight, my family probably wondered what I was doing, but they never said anything. Anyway, isolating myself in my room wasn't abnormal at this point. I was so grateful for my artistic friend. I could be as dark and confident as I wanted. When we talked, I unloaded a lot of my pain onto him and he told me about his own troubles too. Tom had even started to write poetry about me. Happy poetry. It made me feel very special because I had softened this angry dude's heart with my friendship. Or so I thought. He was reliable, always online whenever I came home. After maybe about three weeks of talking, Tom had asked for my phone number because he wanted to hear my voice. I was extremely uncomfortable with this and reluctant. He insisted and he gave me his number to call. Fearing I would lose a friend who was so important to me, I finally gave in. I should mention that I'm now 23 and I'm still a shy person. But at 15, I was painfully awkward and detested phone calls. My heart was racing and I was shaky and sweaty. As the phone rang, Tom picked up. Hello? My voice sounded shaky. Tom spoke. I knew his age, but to my relief he had sounded like a teenage boy. This made me feel less uncomfortable but still weirded out. I had no idea what to talk about and for some reason I felt like crying. Tom and I spoke for a bit. He laughed at the awkward things that I said. So I guess the conversation went alright. Honestly, I can't remember what we talked about. All I remember is that he barely spoke at all. We got off the phone and talked online more. He said how happy he was to hear my voice. I was still pretty upset, but glad that I didn't disappoint him. I hoped that he wouldn't ask me to call him again because it was such a stressful experience. But I had poured so much time into talking to this man that I was willing to be uncomfortable to preserve our friendship. My self esteem was non existent. The next day, Tom wanted me to call again. On the phone, I could hear him breathing heavily. I could tell that he was masturbating. I talked about my day at school, some random thoughts. He stayed silent apart from the breathing. Then when I was mid sentence, he hung up on me. When I asked him what happened over AOL instant messenger, he told me that I wasn't talking about anything sexy. Something along those lines. I apologized and I'd felt a total sense of failure. The conversation then turned sexual. I told him that I was a virgin. In reality, I hadn't even had a first real kiss yet. Tom was overjoyed by this. Now I really had his attention. At this point, it was May. Our relationship progressed to the point that I had let him jerk off to my voice and even sent him some pictures of me in my underwear whenever he asked. I had no idea what I was doing, but I felt like I had to obey him or he wouldn't be my friend. He started to write poetry about taking a girl's virginity. He became a full predator to his fans on DeviantArt. They were just fictional poems about a fictional girl, but I knew they were really about me. This both thrilled me and made me queasy at the same time. My 16th birthday was coming up in June. Tom and I constantly talked about how badly we wanted to see each other. In the back of my mind, I really missed the days before everything got so sexual. I told him there was no way I could ever fly to Florida, where he lived. Tom insisted on seeing me before my 16th birthday. Eventually, we had picked a date. He found a hotel near my family's house that was relatively affordable and even bought tickets to fly out. The plan was that I would skip school that day and then spend the day with him so he could take my virginity. I can't remember if he was even going to stay more than one day, to be honest. Before we said our goodnights, Tom wrote, will you let me get your ass too? Not a question, a statement. I came home from school one day and my mom was extremely solemn. She told me that she knows all about Tom. Apparently, I had remained signed in on aol, but I think she actually got my password to see what I was up to. I began to cry and defended Tom at first, but then I admitted that I was terrified of him. I was so ashamed that my mom saw her sexual conversations, but she just hugged me and told me, he won't be coming, I promise. She emailed Tom, which really freaking spooked him. Tom began to yell at me and blew up my phone. He told me that he spent $500 on the plane tickets that he couldn't get back. I never picked up any of his calls. He wrote me tons of emails in all caps. I still have a few of them saved. He wrote angry, violent poetry on DeviantArt and how I betrayed him. I was devastated and hated myself. On the day Tom was supposed to come visit, I had stayed at my best friend's house, which was miles away in a totally different community. My mother gave our apartment building a photo of Tom to make sure that nobody let him in. I was totally paranoid that he would pop up for a while after that, but he never did. In fact, I didn't hear from him at all. He stopped submitting any art or poetry. Over a month went by and Tom was still mia. My family and I went to Canada for a music festival. Life was very slowly going back to normal and my guilt was fading. Suddenly, in our hotel room, my phone rang. It was Tom. I tried to pick it up and I couldn't remember why, but for some reason, since we're in Canada, I couldn't talk to him. I think it's because I had an American service provider or something and in the event he had left me messages. My memory of this is very foggy. A few days later we took a train back to the US and as soon as we crossed the border I had sent him a text. I apologized for what happened and explained that I was in Canada, but that I missed him and I hoped he could forgive me. Tom told me the reason he was gone for so long. He said that the day he was supposed to come see me, he got very drunk and tried to kill himself. He stabbed himself all over, including his stomach, left hand and legs. Feeling last minute regret, he called his mother and she called the police. He told me that his whole apartment was considered a biohazard from all of the blood. And after he recovered, he had spent some time in the psych ward. Tom had mutilated himself so badly that the hospital had to amputate his leg and he lost two fingers as well. He told me that this was all my fault. I was utterly speechless and my blood ran ice cold. I refused to believe him, but lo and behold, he uploaded some pictures of himself on DeviantArt. His leg was amputated above the knee and he was indeed missing fingers. I had seen previous photos of him. This was my friend alright. It's hard to explain how I feel about this situation. I feel very sad for Tom, but I also understand that this wasn't my fault at all. I was just a very lonely child and desperate for a friend. Tom was a schizophrenic man and a pedophile as was later revealed by his explicit poetry about little girls. Eventually he was banned from DeviantArt and I never talked to him again after age 16. A few years ago I looked him up and I found his profile on a different site. Admittedly I was googling him to see if he was still alive. In his profile picture, he was sitting next to a young woman with his hand over her mouth. It looked like he found someone who was willing to visit him after all. Thank God that it wasn't me.
