Transcript
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Storyteller (1:29)
This was about five years ago when I was 11. I remember I was on my way home from school. It was a little late because my train had gotten delayed about two times, but honestly it didn't bother me. It was Friday and I had nothing to do. As I got home I had received a text from my angry mother. I had no clue why she was mad, but she was texting me some crazy nonsense and somehow put the blame on me and proceeded to end the text with I'm not cooking. I left $70 on your desk. Go buy something to eat and drink. So that's exactly what I did. By the time I got home I changed my clothes, went outside and walked to a gas station which was only about half a mile away from me. I've always walked at this gas station either by myself, with my older brother or with another guardian. So honestly I thought it would be no big deal to go by myself because I was always so hyper vigilant about my surroundings. Since I was diagnosed with PTSD at a very young age, it made me extremely hyper aware. As I got to the store I saw this man inside the walk in fridge where there was just a crap ton of beer and as I was walking around the store to get some snacks I noticed him staring at me a couple of times. It felt like I needed to be more aware but I brushed it off just thinking he was making sure I wasn't doing anything dumb. But I was wrong as I was paying for the stuff at the counter. After being there for like 30 minutes, the same man was just standing next to me. It was at this point where I got scared. The man stood tall, he looked a bit muscular and his eyes were visibly dark. It was terrifying. As my stuff was getting put in the bag and as the pizza was done, I had picked up my pizza and left. But then the man decides to have a conversation with me. He greets me with a hello, I greet him with a very clear and shaky hi and he started to ask me questions like how old are you? I replied back with my age stating that I'm only 11. I had tried walking some other way around, but he keeps stopping me in my tracks and I was just thinking of all the terrible possibilities if I screamed ren or let alone hit him with my bare hands for him to leave me alone. As I stated my age, I had noticed his eyes widened even more and he proceeded to look me up and down where he then asked what kind of alcohol do you like? I stayed quiet and I told him I don't drink unless it's a special occasion and he started asking me even more alarming questions like did you know that you can live without a kidney? At this point I had to play dumb for a bit and I just replied back with no, but that's nice. Actually, it got to a point where he'd started asking me if he can give me a ride home and I declined his offer more than 20 times. He eventually gave up, left me alone, all agitated and I speed walked home. It wasn't until the following year I saw him again at the mall and I nearly pissed myself. I refuse to go to that mall now because I don't ever want to bump into him again. This is a completely true story and it just happened an hour ago. For context, my wife and I are on vacation in Mexico. We both honestly are loving it here and the situation doesn't change that, but I am re evaluating security. My wife and I went out to dinner and walked back to our hotel. We get inside our room, we're setting things down, etc. A few minutes go by and there's a knock at the door. A man quietly says something in Spanish in an inflection that's trying to get our attention. Thank room service or something. My wife looks at me wondering who would be at the door. At this point I should clarify that we did have the do not disturb tag on the door. A few seconds go by and there's another knock at the door. My wife signals for me to go to the door and so I go over. At this point we've made no sounds for probably a minute before endearing the knocks. Just as I reached the door, the keycard unlocked the door and it opened. A dirty looking man had just opened the door and was about 2ft away from my face. I put my hand on the door to prevent it from opening any further. I think he was just as surprised as I was. He starts speaking Spanish and I hear the word wifi somewhere in there. I then say no hablo spanol and broken English. He tries to ask if the WI fi is down. My wife says it's not. I'm kind of just shell shocked by what just happened and I keep my hand on the door as he talks and eventually leaves. I shut the door and engage the physical lock this time. I usually do this, but we had just walked in and wanted to set stuff down. I talk with my wife and we try to gather our thoughts about what just happened. Essentially a man knocked, got no reply and then he let himself in and asked about the WI fi. No, this was a clear burglary attempt and he had a master keycard and thought we weren't home. A minute or two later after this went down and we've collected ourselves and then understood what just occurred. I passed this information to the front desk just in case this guy attempts the other doors as well. They seem to take it seriously. No updates beyond that. The fact that this just happened has my mind kind of blown and I don't know if I fully processed it yet. Like what if we were back 30 minutes later? Probably would have lost some stuff. 5 minutes later we walk in on a guy in our hotel room. What if we went to bed earlier tonight? Could have been asleep. The AC is loud and I don't know if I would have heard the door knocking through my sleep if it was going to go down. Surely the way it did was optimal, but those ifs are crazy. I'll definitely be storing our valuables in the safe now. Should have done this too, but we just recently got here. Lesson learned. In the future, stuff is going to immediately be in the safe and the lock is getting immediately engaged. Hey guys. So a creepy situation happened to me a while ago. Just for context. I live in Germany and I'm 23 now, but I was 20 years old at the time. Now to the story. I was on my way home from a party in the city. Since I'd been drinking, I took the tram. Unfortunately, I had to get off at a stop because the tram only went that far, about three stops from my actual destination. Since it was dark around 1 or 2am and I didn't feel like walking through a forest, I decided to wait 45 minutes for the next tram. There were a few houses nearby, a swimming pool and the forest. At the tram stop, no one was around. Then a woman approached me, around 50 years old, with a backpack. She seemed quite confused, but not threatening. She was wearing slightly ripped jeans and shoes. She randomly asked me what my name was. I told her it was Tom, a fake name. She asked if I was also taking the tram and I said yes. Then, out of nowhere, she sat down on the ground and had started telling me this story, warning me to be careful. She said that she'd had problems with some Bulgarians involved in pimping, etc. It was so random I couldn't really process it. She seemed drunk and she also gave off the vibe that she might have a mental illness. Still, I felt like she needed someone to talk to, and people like that can be unpredictable. So I listened, even though it didn't feel right. She kept talking about her daughter and her son, and then later claimed she didn't even have a son, even though I had asked her how old he was. She kept circling back to the Bulgarians like it was some kind of obsession or tic. She mentioned her daughter was a prostitute and that she didn't want that for her, and she repeated that a lot. She asked if I had a girlfriend, but before I could answer, she immediately switched back to talking about her daughter again. This went on for about 25, 30 minutes, until she asked me if I had a cigarette. I said no, and she said that maybe she's still handsome. She started shaking out her backpack and tissues and chains came out. And then suddenly a knife fell right out of the bag. It was kind of like a small dagger. I was shocked and froze a bit. She kept looking for the cigarettes, all while I was thinking, crap, this is getting way too creepy. The fact that she seemed mentally unstable didn't help at all. She didn't find any cigarettes, just sat back down on the ground and just said, well, I guess we're not smoking. Then the knife was laying on the ground the whole time, and I tried my best to ignore it. My instinct was to run, but I didn't think that would be a good idea. I didn't know what might happen if I tried. So I stayed calm and kept the conversation going, asking her random questions she didn't really answer directly, just kept rambling. Eventually she gathered her stuff and picked up the knife. She asked me if I thought it was cool or something. I just said yeah, it's cool I guess, or something like that. I had no idea what else to say. Then she said a sentence I'll never forget. I only used it for the Bulgarian no one touches my daughter. She said it in a serious tone and then she laughed and said it was a joke. I kind of forced a fake laugh, but by then I was just way too creeped out. Thank God the tram arrived shortly after. My goal was to sit at the very front near the drive route just in case anything happened. But out of nowhere she decided to not get on the tram. No idea why. She stood up, said goodbye to me, and just told me to stay the way I am. When the tram doors opened and I quickly got in, she waved at me and then she disappeared behind a hedge. When I got home, I thought about it a few more times. She definitely had some sort of mental illness, but at the same time she was kind to me. Kind of like she had two personalities. Sometimes serious, sometimes nice. I still don't know what the deal with the Bulgarian was. Maybe he didn't even exist. Maybe she lost her daughter and made this whole story up as a way of coping. Or maybe her daughter really was trapped in prostitution and she was planning something. I never saw that woman again. And that's probably for the best.