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A
I stupidly made the decision to go get gas at 11pm one night because I didn't make time before work to go. So as I'm pulling up to the gas station, there were a couple of cars at the pumps, which I sort of felt relieved about and more safe going in. So I went inside to pay the clerk since I'm using cash. And as I'm going to the pump to put the gas in, most of the cars are leaving except for this one truck parked two bumps behind me. I get in the car to wait for my gas to be filled and I'm on my phone and all of a sudden I see this guy walking around the front of my car very suspiciously. I sort of glanced up to see what he was doing, but at that point I had made eye contact with him. Crap. He then proceeds to ask if I have any change for gas. I just nod, no, sorry. He says, okay, that's cool, no problem. Hey, do you want me to remove your gas pump for you? I just say, no, thanks, I'm good. At this point, my gas is filled up and he knows and he's kind of fidgety as well, and he walks away behind my car. I'm trying not to glance back and be subtle about looking where he is because I don't want to alarm him with how terrified I am in my head. I'm thinking, how can I leave my car with him still around my car? He's out of sight and at this point no one is in the lot and I'm waiting until another car pulls up. Five minutes later. Nothing. So my flight or fight response is really kicking my ass on what I should do next. It's really cold out. I haven't turned on my car because the pump is still in my car. I don't know where this man is at this point. Then finally I see him walk towards his truck, but not entering it, just around it. But as soon as his back is towards me, I go for it. I take off the pump and he notices and quickly approaches me, then says, oh, hey, you know, you're really beautiful. He's still walking toward me and I nod. I then quickly but subtly put my gas cap back on. And then he says, I don't look like a serial killer to you, do I? And he has this really crazed look in his eyes like, yeah, dude, you actually do. But at this point, I just bolted in my car and drove off quickly. So, ladies, please avoid the gas stations at night or carry some sort of protection because I sure as hell will from now on. And I definitely learned my lesson. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, but it definitely could have taken a different turn of events had I done things differently. My family has houses both in Mexico and Texas, so I alternate between the USA and Mexico very frequently. On normal weeks I just cross the border from Mexico to Texas to go to school and then I come back to Mexico. I spend most of my time in Mexico, so naturally I'm quite used to cartel presence. I'm used to calling off nights out with friends due to cartel related shootings, things like that. It just really no longer surprises me. It wasn't until recently that I had an actual face to face encounter with the cartel. My ex girlfriend lives in Mexico in a gated neighborhood on the wealthier side of the city. Naturally I used to frequent her house when we were still together. One night her parents left her and her little brother alone until the next day. So she invited me over and we got pretty hammered. Around 2am we went out for a walk because we wanted to smoke some weed. The weed was from Texas by the way. We sat at the bleachers of a basketball court within our neighborhood, which was behind a very beautiful house with expensive cars parked outside. I asked her what do they do? To which she replied, to which she told me in Spanish it was the cartel. I thought she was joking until she told me how the Mexican army had their whole neighborhood on lockdown because of them back in 2014. My smile faded so quickly I got kind of mad and worried and asked her what the hell are we doing behind a cartel safe house at 2am smoking foreign weed? This all happened quickly and after 5 minutes of being there, a tall white pickup truck parked in front of the court. I immediately knew this wasn't good news and kept telling her we should leave. She told me to calm down and that it was probably just some kids making out in the truck. That seemed reasonable to me, but I had started panicking after the truck just stayed there for like five minutes without turning off the engine. As soon as we got up to leave, it took off. As we made our way to the other street, the huge weight that was lifted from my shoulders fell right back, now twice as heavy. When the truck intercepted us at the very corner of the street, she ran into a house that was still under construction. She tried to pull me in with her but I didn't budge. Because something that I've learned from my dad being a cop is that you never run if you have nothing to hide. She had the weed. I Didn't. So I kind of just stood there for a bit until the window of the driver's side went down, and then a man signaled me to get closer, so I did. As I walked up, the first thing I saw was that both of the men in there were armed, and this made my stomach drop. The passenger looked completely out of his mind. He genuinely looked unhinged. His pupils were freaking huge, and he was clearly tripping on something. On the other hand, the driver looked like a pretty normal guy. I dare say that he was so normal it was comforting. He asked me what we were doing in Spanish. I just replied back with smoking. Then he asked what we were smoking. I just said, normal cigarettes. He turned to look back at his partner and then back at me, and there was a long pause before I said, I don't know who you're looking for, but it's definitely not us. I'm not even from here. He asked me if I was American, to which I nodded. Then he said, show me. Fortunately, I always carry my passport with me since I crossed the border so often. He asked me about my girlfriend. I said that she was American, too. She's not. But they didn't need to know that, and he told me to go get her. I then told him I'd rather not because if they found the weed on her that wasn't there, she would be messed up. Fortunately, the guy didn't insist. After going through my phone, he told me that he didn't want to see us out this late behind that house ever again. They took off and I turned back to her, who was now peeking from behind a pile of cement bags. I signaled that we were leaving and we ran back to her house. When we got to our front yard, I had asked her to give me the weed so I could get rid of it, and she told me that she hid it under the floorboards of the house. So we ran back to get it, because if they found it there, we would be so screwed. The two minutes that it took us to run back to her house were easily the scariest moments of my life. What still makes my stomach turn to this day is the look that the other guy had on his face. I'm telling you, he looked absolutely unhinged. He didn't say a single thing, but he was staring me down the whole time with his hand around the grip of the rifle. I felt like he was just itching for me to say the wrong thing so he could blow my brains out right then and there. I'm a 21 year old female. And this happened five years ago when I was 15. My great aunt's health at the time was failing and she could no longer take care of herself. So my family decided that she was better off in a nursing home due to her being an extreme hoarder. Her house sat abandoned. I want to mention that I don't want to crap on my family in any way, but this is important for the story. My father and I were the only ones who checked up on the house from time to time. It started off small when we had noticed minor stuff being moved around or drawers being looked through. Around that time, we didn't think much of it since another person close to my great aunt also had a key to the house and we thought maybe he wanted to get some of his stuff since he used to live with her for some time. After a while, probably a month later, things got stranger. We used to roam the house more to rescue some things and just look through everything. Maybe after a week of doing so and feeling watched every time we were there, more stuff was moved around in place so we would notice it immediately. Like stuffed animals that used to sit on a shelf, now neatly sitting above one another on the staircase. Step by step, there were dirty footprints, more drawers ripped open, and the stuff inside spilled everywhere. We got very suspicious of the situation and we investigated more. We had late night drives passing the house just to check if we ever caught a flashlight or any sight of someone being in the house every night. At the time I had started telling my friends about the situation and as the stupid kids we were back then, we thought it would be a good adventure for us to just stay there for a night and play security with the mission to finally catch this person who seemed almost like a ghost to us. Another important piece of information is there was actually no way inside the house. No window open, all doors locked, and we and this other guy were the only ones with the key. Anyways, back to the day we stayed there. Me and my free friends just settled into the kitchen, not really noticing anything out of the ordinary yet except for the normal stuff that had been going on. So we assumed that they weren't around yet. We ordered a pizza and just talked for a while, waiting for something to happen. After a while, we decided that we would go for a walk with my two dogs that I had with me. I made sure to definitely close and lock the door behind me. When we returned after 15 minutes, a single lamp in the last corner of the living room was turned on. Keep in mind, the whole living room was Filled with trash. So they had to literally climb over everything Just to turn on this lamp. That's when we knew the person had to be in the house. Now we decided to go into the kitchen and keep a low profile, Just to see what would happen. After a while, one of my friends, let's call her Jane. Chickened out and wanted to go home, so we let her. Just five minutes after Jane closed the front door behind her, we heard someone walking down the wooden stairs, Obviously thinking we had all left the house. We were so caught up listening to the creaking of the steps that we only realized what was actually happening. When one of my dogs had started barking and the footsteps immediately stopped. There was only one wall separating us from whoever just came walking down the stairs. And when we finally realized that, we all got so scared and ran out of the house as fast as possible. There was a door separating the staircase from the hallway that we luckily locked as soon as we came back from the walk. So we probably locked them up there. When we finally all sat outside the house, we just decided that it was probably best if we called the police and let them handle the situation. As we waited, basically all holding our breaths and processing the aftershock of the situation, we suddenly heard someone talking quietly, probably on the phone. It was a male voice. That's when we noticed that a window was slightly open on the second story of the house. He must have opened it at one point, because, like I said, no windows were ever open. We couldn't really make out what was being said, only something along the lines of been caught. After 30 long minutes of sitting there, the police finally arrived and went inside. They looked through everything, but found nothing. He for sure had enough time to simply hide somewhere. There was a room completely filled with cardboard boxes that reached under the roof. That's when things got extreme. It was like he was playing mind games with us. He left notes everywhere in the house for us to find, with weird drawings of smiley faces and flowers saying, catch me. Placing an alarm thing under the front door that would go off anytime someone entered, Letting him know that someone was there. Trashing the bedroom, so it was beyond recognition. Destroying furniture, crapping in the toilet, and placing a flower on top of the crap. All this without ever being caught even once. Our checkups became more frequent, Turning from once a day to every hour, but nothing. We eventually decided to just let things cool down a little and ignored the problem for a while. I mean, at some point, he would eventually leave an unlivable house, Drowning in cat pee and trash. Right. Nope. Wrong. Probably about four months after, we didn't put much interest into him or the house. One of my friends said that he saw some figures standing at the window behind the curtain, just staring outside. We were just like, great, here we go again. And suddenly the interest was back. One day we all decided to turn up at the house. There were seven of us, and we were just ready to search that dang house from head to toe, just finding the place where the guy was hiding and leaving. Still, everything was locked. When we first got back inside, there was leftover and rotten food in the kitchen and a surprise for us in the living room where he crapped in a cardboard box just like some freaking dog. We decided to separate. Four of us went inside the living area and one of my friends stayed outside. And then a friend who we'll call Carl and I went into the stable area of the house because that part had a hole in the wall that connected the place where the hay was kept to the attic. But we were never able to figure out where exactly that hole in the attic was. Carl was throwing little stones at the hole that seemed to be covered with something like cardboard from the other side just so that our friends would be able to hear the sound from inside to find the entrance. All of a sudden, it knocked back. We actually saw the cardboard bending from someone hitting it. And I yelled down to my friend outside if they were finally able to find the damn entrance. All I got back from her was, no, everyone's downstairs. Just kind of shocked. Carl and I quickly made our way out of the stable into the others, saying if we go to the attic now, we've got him. Since there's no way he would be able to escape that quickly and he would have had to pass us on the stairs. We all ran upstairs, but again, nothing. Just nothing at all. After this, we just decided that we would give up and not go there again. We also realized that it might be too dangerous. He never seriously did anything to us except for creeping us out while we were wondering what he would do if we seriously caught him and stood in front of him. Our parents were also not really happy with us doing any of this. So again, months passed without anything, only sometimes driving by and seeing a faint light inside, until the house was finally put on the market to be sold. Today it's been completely emptied out and it's currently being renovated. I am aware this happened ages ago, but I'm now recollecting bits and pieces from that event and am thankful to be sane and safe. I'M honestly just airing it out so I can get some input and opinions because I really don't know what to make of it. I'll preface this by saying that this happened a while ago, back in 2019 when I was 16 years old. Hence I was very naive and gullible. I'm aware that it might not be a human trafficking case, but it does seem suspicious regardless, for context, this happened in a relatively large North American city It was late December, just a few days before Christmas. I had just finished hanging out with my friends and was using public transit to get back home. The subway, to be more specific. My friends lived in a different area so I had to travel back alone in that direction. The subway wagons were mostly empty. It was already dark out. I recall it being around 8 9pm maybe. I was sitting on an individual seat where the setup was structured in a way that had another seat perpendicular to my current one, which was empty. This one guy, who looked to be relatively young, plopped down on the adjacent seat and he greeted me with a smile instantly. I didn't think too much of it at the time since in all honesty I really thought he was cute physically. He had a middle part, chestnut hair, was relatively tall and very slim, and had nice facial features too. I don't remember his face in a very detailed manner, but I remember thinking that he was really cute. He was dressed in a sweater and jeans. He didn't look disheveled or overly casual either. Upon sitting down, he greeted me smiling, presented himself, and he shared his name. We then started making small talk and he brought up the fact that he had finished university, which made me ask for his age. He claimed to be 24, which seemed to match his appearance. What really creeps me out is that in response I told him I was 16 years old and he didn't seem even slightly phased by that. Matter of fact, he was smirking and had formed a small visible grin, talking about how he missed being this young and advising me to stay in school. He then proceeded with asking me about what I was doing alone in the metro, my plans before that, and if I had any plans coming up in the next few hours, to which I stupidly answered no. He then started expressing how him and his friends had come up with the supposed dare where he had to bring a random girl over, a complete stranger to their party by accosting them randomly, such as this very occasion. I remember finding it hard to believe, so I insisted on going home about a handful of times to which he started pleading with me, claiming it would be fun and if I were uncomfortable, he would bring me right back to the subway station. I kept insisting that my mom would get mad and asked him if there was another day we could do that, but he just answered that it was a one time thing, that it's a very uncommon gathering, and that he hasn't seen these friends in a long time and that he wouldn't see them after the event, most likely because of a full schedule. He also kept pushing the fact that he wouldn't keep me up for too long. I eventually gave in. I know. Super stupid. I still can't believe it to this day. We had gone through a few subway stations and got off in a pretty desolate area which was known for its drug use, prostitution and poverty. But to be frank, I didn't know that at the time. Although it was pretty obvious that specific neighborhood still has a pretty tarnished reputation to this day. The guy, let's call him Ben, then revealed his real name to be different from the one that he initially had given me and was seemingly Slavic. The name he revealed most likely was also fake too. He then started asking me pretty intrusive questions such as what are your darkest secrets? What's your home life like? What's stressing you out right now? Why did you decide to come along? He claimed to just like getting to know people beyond the surface level, hence why he was being this intrusive. I, in all honesty, was a straight A student, so I simply told him that my studies were my main concern as of now. To which he then answered back with oh come on, there's gotta be more than that. We had to be about 15 minutes in at this point when a car slowed down next to us and rolled its windows down. A man let out a hey. But was immediately shooed away by Ben. Ben then told me that the man was a supposed john, which I didn't know that meant the driver was essentially a client in that sense. I started to get weary but still made it to the hangout a few minutes later, which was located in a regular townhouse. It wasn't worn down or anything. I was greeted by maybe five, six guys who were seemingly well over 25. Two of them looked above 30 as well. They all stared at me and immediately asked me how old I was and I told them I was 16. One of the guys seemed sort of phased out and let out a oh come on man, that's my sister's age. They might even be in the same high school. They all kinda just laughed it off and moved on. They never spoke about it again and barely even asked me any questions except for how did you guys meet? Also, it was obvious that someone's dad owned the place. As an old man was dozing off on the couch, we were all gathered around a table. The host served me some food along with the other guests, but I refused to eat as I was honestly starting to feel a bit queasy about the situation. Everyone except for me had finished eating. Then we all went upstairs. Ben started playing the guitar and another man joined in by playing some keys on a piano. Then they asked me to film them using Ben's phone, so I did. When that was going on, I honestly had started getting terrible vibes and really felt the need to leave. So I put down the phone and slowly made my way through the frame of the door. One of the older guys was standing near it and he asked me what's up? And if I was enjoying their company. We had started to talk for a minute and he claimed to be an accountant. He then started leaning in and tried to slightly hover over me against the door frame. However, I stepped back into the staircase and made it to the front door, opened it, and went out to the driveway. Luckily, the door wasn't locked. Ben followed and asked me if I wanted to leave. I immediately said yeah, and this time he didn't insist on bringing me back in. I should also add that right before leaving, I had told Ben that my mom was relentlessly calling me and was worried, to which he obliged. On our way back, he proceeded to ask me if I was genuinely 16 and not below that. He told me that if he were my dad, he would never let me out of sight again because of what I just did going to the party in the first place, which was the dumbest thing he'd ever seen any girl do, especially since I had no reason to do that. According to him, once he accompanied me back to the subway station, I had asked him for a Snapchat. Yeah, I was a complete moron. I also asked for any other social media he had. He told me that he doesn't use his phone like that and that he was fully off the grid. I went back home and I never heard from him again. Although I didn't get conventionally harassed and it's a pretty outdated happening. I'm honestly scared. I could have been a potential victim for human trafficking. I'm wondering if there's any way I can leave an anonymous tip to the city or something. I was searching through public records, but I couldn't find anything. At the time I'm writing this, I am 18 years old, almost 19, and the events of the situation still haunt me to this day. At the time of this event, I was about 15 or 16. I thoroughly enjoyed being around friends. It brought me a sense of happiness and a feeling of not being alone. With that said, this is the main event that still sends shivers down my spine and it makes me stay very aware of my surroundings. So on the night this occurred, it was a late Friday night. Me and a buddy of mine that I had met in school and had known for three years at that point had come over to sleep after school. We started off the night just watching movies and eating some ramen before deciding to go for a run down my road and then back at around 2 or 3 in the morning. Now, for context, I've always been a taller guy and at the time I was around six'one six'two I'm currently six'six and Toby was around five'seven five'nine but he was a heavier guy. We had run down the road late at night before without any fear because there were the two of us and we were bigger people. My road is three and a half miles long in the countryside, with each house having five to nine square acres each. My house was a half mile into the road and we planned on running to a small bridge which was just a mile from my house, then running back. So that's what we did. We both put on headphones and jogged to the bridge. I made it there first just because I wanted it to feel like a competition. Once he made it, we both started walking back to my house without our headphones in, just talking about things. Little did we know our whole night was about to be ruined. I'd say about five or six houses down from mine, we had noticed a car driving the direction we were walking. We don't really pay it any mind since it was just people driving at night. That's not exactly a weird occurrence. As the car was passing though, we both looked to watch it pass. Mind you, we're still walking with Toby maybe 10ft in front of me. The car was an older, dark green four door of some kind with I'd say around 10% tint on the windows. Enough to see that there was a driver, passenger and someone in the backseat. But it was just dark enough with the tint to not make out any of their faces or tell what they're looking at. Then the car passes. We both see the brake lights of the car light up. I say Toby's name in a panic and he says, mine then. The thing that haunts me to this day is seeing the car come to a complete stop. Then the reverse lights almost immediately after. We both, without hesitation, decide to run up a driveway in an attempt to run away because the situation seemed terrifying and just not right. I try to jump the ditch while Toby, who is in front of me, takes the driveway. I absolutely eat crap and bang my knee trying to jump the ditch, but I clear it enough to immediately get back up and run full speed down the driveway. At this time, I look over my shoulder to see the headlights of the car now coming into the driveway. My heart is beating out of my chest at this point with nothing but adrenaline giving me the will to run. We then decide to run around the back of this house and hide behind their small shed. It's probably a good time to mention that the homeowner's cars were already there, so so we knew it wasn't them. We also didn't look at the car to see the people because we didn't want to be seen by ourselves. Looking back on it, I think if I would have seen them, I would have started crying out of pure fear. We stay there for maybe 10 seconds and then Toby says, you see that propane tank in the neighbor's backyard? That's where we gotta go hide next. I'm speechless at this point and I'm just trying to breathe. Then without a count or anything, Toby starts to run. So I follow him and we actually make it there unseen. We sit there for maybe about 20 seconds. These seconds felt like minutes though, and in these seconds, we decided to look back in the neighbor's yard. Mind you, there's now probably 1112 acres between us and the car. But in the car we can see three men. They were getting back in the car when we glanced. We then decided to just run the rest of the way to my house. As we're running though, we can see the car driving down the road at a fast speed. Luckily, it was in the middle of the night and they most likely couldn't see us running on the back of the property lights. We make it to my backyard and jump the fence and then run to my carport. We both looked at each other and Toby almost had a slight grin on his face. While I'm pretty sure I was pale as a ghost in that moment, I actually vomited in the grass out of pure fear and anxiety as he then went inside me. Not wanting to be alone, I follow him. I get inside and continue throwing up in the bathroom just inside. Toby is also in there with me telling me it's okay dude, we escaped, we're safe now. And just general things along those lines. We talked more about it and we came to the conclusion that we were almost kidnapped or robbed. I didn't tell my parents nor did he tell his when he got home the next day and I don't really know why. I guess it's because we were so shaken up about it and we didn't want to bring it up after the fact. Neither one of us slept that night out of pure fear that we would see the car's headlights pull down my driveway. To this day we still talk on a normal basis and sometimes we bring up the event, both saying it was the scariest thing to ever happen to either one of us. But I never saw that car on my road again and still to this day I get creeped out looking back on it, being reminded just how eerie people can be. The story happened just a few years back when I was visiting an old friend in Cologne, Germany, while at the same time taking advantage of him as a free stay for a meeting with my LARP group. For those who don't know what LARP is, it's basically like real life role playing. Imagine a Dungeons and Dragons game, but instead of people sitting around a table with dice, you have people actually dressed up as their characters, actually roleplaying in real life. LARPing was my hobby since I was 14 and after I got a job that paid pretty well, I had started to go a bit more all out when it came to stuff for my hobby. One of the things I had spent a solid amount of money on was my character's armor, important for this story, the chainmail I wear under my outer armor. After the meeting of my group, I mostly got out of my LARP outfit because I didn't really want to walk through Cologne, Malay, which is one of the more dangerous places in the city as a medieval knight, but since I couldn't fit it all in my backpack, I kept my chainmail on as well as my tunic and pants. On my bus ride home I noticed some guys seemed to have an eye on me, but I guess it was because I still looked very out of place. When he got off on the same station as me, I didn't really pay him much attention. I was almost at my friend's place and decided to call him asking if we should meet and get some dinner, which he agreed to before I even ended my question. I arrived at our meeting spot first and Waited. Then I noticed that same guy from the bus again who now was walking straight towards me. I got closer to the wall to make space, but he didn't pass me. He stopped before me and pulled a knife on me, demanding my bag, wallet and phone. I was willing to give him my wallet, but I tried to explain that the bag only had some armor and foam weapons in it. But it seems that even just talking was enough to set this guy off. And suddenly I felt two fast stinging punches in my stomach. It hurt like hell and I dropped down and the guy grabbed my bag. Honestly, the next things were not really in my mind. I was barely able to notice anything other than the voice in my head just screaming, you just got stabbed. So the next thing I noticed was my friend shaking me. My bag was open and my stuff was all over the place and he was holding my helmet with blood on it and he then said that he saw the guy throwing my stuff around after the bag was most likely too heavy and big for him. Some of my friends seeing me on the ground, managed to grab the first thing he could, which was the helmet, and even bashed the guy with it until he ran away. We later checked my stomach and even though I had two giant deep blue bruises which hurt like hell, I only had small cuts since the chainmail had stopped the knife to this day, I get sick in my stomach whenever I think back on that day and I remember that if I had not worn a piece of my LARP clothing that day, I would be dead. Literally killed over a bag full of costumes, €150 in my wallet and a 10 year old phone. The world is really messed up. I was 18, living in college dorms, several hours from home and working as a waitress at an upscale bar and restaurant. I'm short, barely 5 foot, so I'm used to people being creepy and trying to intimidate me now. But as an 18 year old whose father had tried to protect her from the world and had been raised in a tiny friendly town, it never occurred to me to be scared of the people who lurk in the dark. We had plenty of regulars, several of whom I became close with during my years of working there and a few of the frequent diners, and learned my name and general facts about me since I'm generally pretty open about who I am. One such man was tall, lanky and several decades older, appearing to be in his mid-50s. His name was Joe. Joe was kind, a good man with a generous nature who had owned a local shoe shop the second time I was his waitress. He had gifted me a pair of slightly worn work shoes and insisted that I accept them. Because of his kindness and the way that he carried himself, people of all types flocked to him, and one of them became the first man outside of my family that I truly feared. Joe came in with his younger brother, about the same height, slightly bulkier build, and not attractive at all, as I recall. But his eyes really unsettled me. In high school, I had fancied myself a bit of a writer, but nothing in my vocabulary then or now could help me describe how unsettling his gaze was. It seemed dead, lifeless, but I assumed I was just simply nervous. Joe was a good man. His brother was probably just less carefree, more intense. The two dined together a few times in the coming weeks, but while Joe would normally request me as a server, he asked our host to assign one of the other servers to his table after the first time. Then one night, Joe's brother came in alone and actually requested me by my name, and I was happy to oblige. For the first time, he seemed relaxed, energetic, charismatic. He was interesting, with a quick wit and a story for every topic that I could throw at him. By the end of my shift, I assumed that he just had a hard time relaxing with his brother, and that may have been true, but through the laughter and charisma, his eyes never once seemed kind. They remained, through it all, lifeless. Eventually, it was time for me to leave, but he was still there, still expecting service. My manager offered to take over the table. He'd make sure I got the tip. But it was common knowledge that I had an early morning class and likely had to do my homework. I jumped at the chance, but I went to finish some closing duties and also asked the man my last table if he needed anything else. He seemed off. As soon as I said I was heading home, he seemed to harden. His voice was clipped, and he reminded me of my controlling ex stepdad, which immediately put me on edge. I had heard that same tone often enough as a little girl. Right before being hit. I left immediately. I called my best friend and had offered to buy him dinner if he'd meet me at the diner between the dorms and my work. I don't know why I did. I just felt that I needed someone to meet me sooner rather than later. Joe's brother hadn't in any way seemed dangerous outside of the terseness in his voice before I left, but I knew that for most of my walk, which would have been poorly lit, I would be Safer with a companion. We met at the diner and we ate and laughed, then headed back to the Dorms. A good 25 minute walk, but only about 15 minutes in or so. The hairs on the back of my neck seemed to burn. Something was terrifying me and I didn't know why. I told my friend, who had brushed it off, until he looked behind me and yelled. I turned and saw him, Joe's brother, only a few yards behind us, holding a metal bar. I don't know what they're called, but you see them at construction sites, usually for reinforcement when pouring concrete, and he was holding it hard enough that his knuckles were white. It terrified me to my core and I screamed. My friend grabbed my arm and we ran. And even though my heart was in my throat and I couldn't hear anything past the blood roaring in my ears, I swear I could hear his footsteps behind us. We ran to the dorms and I told security who had us wait in the office while he looked at cameras in the lot and called the police. Cops showed up, but didn't really do anything since all he really did was scare us. After they left, the security man had asked a few more questions and made a comment about a man standing at the entrance door for a bit before eventually walking away. It was assumed he was homeless, but my blood ran cold. I had actually called in for a few days and when I went back to work, Joe was in. I told him what happened and he just nodded. He didn't even seem to question the validity of what I said. His brother, it turned out, had done some time for stalking and also sometimes attacking young women, and he had even been sent to trial for assaulting one and hospitalizing her. Somehow he had managed to avoid jail time for the assault, but Joe said it was only a matter of time before he killed someone. I didn't see Joe often after that, and I never saw his brother after that either. The owner of the restaurant was really angry for a long time, accusing me of running off a regular who had spent a lot of money when he came in. Believe it or not, it actually took a few more scary encounters to make me a little more cynical.