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- [00:01]
Sasha
Sasha hated sand, the way it stuck to things for weeks. So when Maddie shared a surf trip on Expedia Trip Planner, he hesitated. Then he added a hotel with a cliffside pool to the plan and they both spent the week in the water. You were made to follow your whims. We were made to help find a place on the beach with a pool and a waterfall and a soaking tub and of course a great shower. Expedia Made to Travel.
- [00:30]
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- [01:30]
Unnamed Female Narrator
I'm a 25 year old female and this happened maybe 89 years ago and I was 1617 years old then. I'm from a small village and I went to school in the nearest big city which was about 40 km away. Because public transportation was so bad, I had no way to get home unless they came for me. I had to walk 4km. I lived in a dormitory during the week in the city where I studied. I stayed in the city during the week and went home on Fridays, then back again on Sundays. I always get off the bus at the main station when I arrive in the city around 2pm My boyfriend, who came from another town also studied in the city. He came by train every Sunday. I waited for him at the station for about an hour and a half and and then went to the dormitory together. That day was no different. I was waiting for him sitting upstairs at the station in a spot where I could see the entire ground floor from above. I had my headphones in and on my phone, just sitting there, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a homeless woman wandering around. She sometimes stood still and looked around but I didn't pay much attention. There are a lot of homeless people in that area. Time passed. I was still sitting, headphones on, phone in hand. Then I saw the homeless woman start walking in my direction. I still didn't think too much of it. When she was about a few feet away from me, I noticed she was talking to other people who were sitting nearby, probably asking for money. A few moments later, she had started walking toward me again. I saw her, but I didn't lift my head. Then she stopped in front of me. That's when I looked up. She just stared at me. Her eyes looked like she was high on something and she was slightly swaying. She was dirty, honestly, disgusting to look at. Some green liquid was dripping from the corner of her mouth and her face was dirty. She wore a thick coat, gray pants, black boots, even though it was spring, and had a black backpack. She had brown hair, brown eyes, looked around 40 years old, though she could have been younger. I saw her lips moving. She was talking to me. I took out my headphones and gave her my attention. I'm not a rude person and I always try to speak kindly to people. But when I removed my headphones, she just went silent, just stared at me. What? Could you say that again? I asked her. Then she spoke again, but I didn't understand a single word. Just mumbling. She stared at me with those glassy eyes. I just shook my head. Sorry, I can't understand what you're saying. I told her and looked at her. At this point I felt my heart beat faster. I got scared. I didn't know what she wanted and something about her made me feel really uncomfortable. She started mumbling again and while she mumbled, she began searching for something in her coat pocket with her right hand. I looked down at her hand to see what she was doing or what she wanted from me. At this point I thought maybe she needed help with something. I looked back up into her eyes and waited to see what was going to happen. Then I saw her pull her hand out of her coat and look down at her hand again. She was still mumbling. I then saw a piece of glass in her hand. She slowly slid it up under her coat to her forearm, holding the sharp end in her palm. It was pretty big and sharp, probably about 6 inches. That's when I realized something was very wrong. My eyes widened. I was scared. I asked her one last time, a bit more irritated now. What do you want from me? I knew that there were people around. It was a train station in broad daylight, so I didn't think she would actually do anything. Well, very suddenly she stepped toward me and pushed the glass toward me, right toward my neck. I reacted immediately. I jumped up in time, pushed her away and yelled at her. What the hell are you doing? She started mumbling more angrily. I had no idea what she was saying. My whole body was just shaking and I was terrified. I grabbed my travel bag quickly, all while keeping my eyes on her. She was still mumbling angrily, holding the glass shard in front of her, staring at me. Leave me alone. Go to hell. I shouted at her again and as I rushed off I saw that everyone at the station was now watching us. I ran outside the station and saw some police officers nearby. I felt relieved. I walked toward them but I didn't say anything. I knew that if I told them, they'd probably just tell her to leave and that would be it. So I just stayed close to them. A few moments later I saw the woman come outside too. She was walking in my direction angrily looking at me. I didn't see the glass in her hand anymore. I grabbed my bag and walked to a different part of the station courtyard where she couldn't see me. I was trembling, scared and in shock. I never saw her again. A little bit later, my boyfriend arrived and I told him what happened. He was surprised and worried too. He told me to never wait for him at the station again and I didn't. From that point on, I always waited for him at the dormitory. Even now, every time I go to that station, which is rare, I always get anxious and stay alert. I still live in that city now, even after finishing school and I'm still with my boyfriend. We live together. Just knowing what could have happened there if I hadn't reacted in time or if I had just ignored her. It still scares me.
- [07:13]
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- [08:12]
Unnamed Female Narrator
This may sound bad to some, it might sound harmless to others, but I was never found out about these things. It wasn't illegal as far as I can tell, but I am not sure what I am about to say counts as I just really want to talk about it though. If my post is removed, I will understand. This all happened when I was 15, 17. I was in middle school. To start off, I had very few friends and my family life was not that great either. I didn't feel alone, nor did I want any friends. I just wanted to get the school day over with and be alone in my room. I had no bad thoughts before these years. I was going to second period math when I saw him. A guy around my age, tall, with blonde hair. He was very quiet, but he had many friends. When I saw him at lunchtime, I had never paid him any mind before. But something about him made me feel weird. Like I wanted to get to know him, to speak to him and to be near him. I must confess, before this, I had never felt romantically inclined, nor sexually to anyone or really anything. So these feelings didn't feel like love to me. But maybe it was just delusion that pushed my next move. I would always watch him. When I had lunch, I got in line just like normal. But I always knew where he would sit. He never changed spots and I stood behind him, still and unmoving. It really felt amazing to be near this person for no good reason. Over time, it was more than just staring at him. I followed him in the halls of our school and I knew his entire schedule. I knew his full name, age, birthday, his house and his family. I didn't think it was weird. I just wanted to know more about him and to be with him in a way that I couldn't really describe. I told myself it wasn't love because why would I love a person I've never spoken to or really even know? It got to the point that I always thought about him. When I got home, I'd go through the pictures I took of him from school that day. I was almost excited. What if he caught me? Would he tell me to never speak to him again or go near him? Would he think it was nice and speak to me how I want? What would happen? I didn't even care what happened. It wouldn't change how I felt. Nothing did. I got bold. One day he had to walk home, so I followed him through the nearby wooded area. He was a pretty thick guy, so he was quicker than I was. And I did get tired of walking so far, but I was determined to follow. I didn't want to follow him home since I already knew where he lived and I wasn't going to go that far. He almost saw me many times as the path he was taking was normal for him, but not for me. It was rocky, with dead leaves all over. I tried to be quiet and not let him notice me. Eventually I left, satisfied with new pictures of him walking to add to my delusion and to my growing collection. I regret every bit of this. I didn't study for school like I normally would, so I'd sometimes talk to the teachers and they would tell me how I needed to get higher grades to pass the class. So I tried to get back into the flow of doing work more often. When I was moved to a different biology class, I saw him there in the back. I was sitting right next to him with a reasonable gap between us. I felt so happy that I would finally get the chance to speak to him without worry or anxiety or people listening in. During that class, he would sometimes look my way at me. But I didn't think too much of it at first. Maybe he was just doing it to look near me at someone else. But it kept happening, so I would do the same. We would stare at each other. It felt so. I don't even know how to describe it. Eventually, I tried to talk to him and ask for help with some notes. I never really spoke to anyone, so this was new to me. I only spoke to teachers and sometimes if I had to other students. He was nice, and he would speak to me in a tone that I was unfamiliar with. It was pleasant. It didn't last too long as I realized that he had found a poem that I'd written to him that I was not going to give him. He took the paper from my desk and I just stood there next to him, honestly more worried than I thought I'd be. He didn't say anything. He just sat down and we didn't speak. During that period, I left and went online to find his socials. I apologized to him and I said I understood if he didn't want to speak to me. He said that he knew that I liked him, which shocked me. But to be honest, it was obvious to everyone but myself. He never knew that I followed him or took pictures of him. At least I don't think so. I later found out that he was not supportive of me liking him, as he was a straight male and I was not his usual romantic interest. Over time, I did stop following him and I never spoke to him after that. But he would still stare at me very often. I don't know why I had done this with one other person. The same game of following and taking pictures. But this other guy was cut short. As I moved away. I honestly don't know what compelled me to do these things. I hope I don't do them again. I now live happier than when I was in these situations, so I hope things can sort themselves out for me mentally. The story may not sound so bad, but I left out details on purpose due to them being private and somewhat disturbing. This might not be one of the freakiest stories of all time, but it's a great reminder that you should never fully relax in a taxi. In the place where I live, the taxi service is pretty well developed. We have a global app where you have an ID as a passenger and the driver has one too. There's a rating system so you know what to expect and people get punished for doing bad things. You feel pretty safe with that system. It's not like the old days of completely random taxis. I've never had any serious trouble with drivers until yesterday. I needed to travel from one small town to another, passing through a big city. Everything felt off from the very start. The taxi was showing up weirdly on the app's map, but I thought, oh well, that happens. The Internet and GPS can be glitchy sometimes. Eventually the driver arrived and we started the trip right away. Something just felt wrong. The driver didn't mark that the drive had started in the app. I didn't even see the awaiting status which drivers sometimes use to get extra cash for waiting. I usually tolerate that, but this was just strange. We were also taking an unusual route, not the one I'm used to. I even had a weird what if he starts heading in the wrong direction? Not toward the city center, but out to the suburban area instead? And damn he did. He had been pretty silent since the beginning of the trip and it became very clear that this was not an accident. He still hadn't started the ride in the app and we were literally driving in the opposite direction, one that had no chance of leading to my destination. At that moment, I genuinely felt scared. It's a horrible feeling when something like this happens and you're alone. I'm a 27 year old female by the way, and I'm in a car with a stranger. I gathered myself and asked, hey, excuse me, what path did you choose? I don't need to go that way. Immediately he changed direction toward the correct route, started the trip in the app, and looked absolutely furious. And keep in mind, the trip was about an hour long. He continued driving, but still not exactly as the navigator suggested. He stayed on the correct general route, but kept making odd choices, especially as we got closer to the end of the trip. At that point I had called a friend and casually said that I was almost there just in case so someone would know I was expected and on my way. He remained silent the entire time. When I finally got out of the car, I was literally shaking. I understand that it's likely that he wasn't planning the worst case scenario we're all thinking of, but his actions were absolutely not okay. What if I didn't have the app working? What if I hadn't checked the road? What if I didn't know the route at all? The most chill explanation is that he wanted to take the longest route possible to get more money, maybe an extra hour of driving. But that's ridiculous and even then not acceptable. I wrote to customer support and reported the situation. Hopefully I just don't get him as a driver again.
- [17:08]
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- [18:06]
Unnamed Female Narrator
So my story happened a few years ago when I was 10 or 11. At that time, my mom and dad had just divorced and my mom moved into a small apartment. The building had two apartments per floor right across from each other. In the first few months, we never really saw the neighbor who lived in front of us, but suddenly we started seeing him more often. I remember the first time I saw him. It was behind the building in the small garden. He was there with his dogs and I don't know if I felt scared. Not just scared in a usual way, but this feeling like something was wrong. It was like he was staring at me, but not in a normal way. I couldn't explain it, but it made me feel uneasy. There was just something about him, his presence that felt strange even though I couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was. It just felt wrong. A few days later he came to our apartment and he asked my mom if he could buy me toys and even underwear My mom was naturally scared. I don't know what happened next, but I just know that she kicked him out of our apartment right away. Then about two weeks later, it was around midnight. My room was right next to the front door, and I suddenly started hearing knocking. But it wasn't just regular knocking. It was like someone was trying to force the door open by jiggling the handle. It started slow at first, but then it got faster and faster. I could hear it and my heart started racing. I was frozen in fear. I tried to get up to wake my mom or even look through the peephole, but I couldn't move. I was so scared that my body just wouldn't cooperate. I know that it wasn't a dream or anything. I knew it was real. I could feel the panic in my chest. After that, my mom and I moved out quickly and we never saw him again. But since then, I've really developed this weird paranoia that never really goes away. It feels like my brain keeps playing tricks on me. I hear a little noise and suddenly I'm convinced someone's in the house. I keep imagining things that aren't there. Like someone hiding in the hallway, watching me from the dark. I know it sounds irrational, but it doesn't feel that way at the moment. It's like my body freezes, my heart races and I can't move. Just like that night. And it comes in waves. Some days I'm totally fine, and others, it all comes back stronger than ever. I start thinking someone might come back. That someone might already be inside. Even when I lock the doors, double check everything, I can't fully shake that feeling. It's exhausting. And I hate that it still has this power over me. It's honestly really not fun. I feel ridiculous sometimes, but it happens out of nowhere. And I just can't stop the fear. It's completely irrational, but it's there. And sometimes it feels like I just can't escape it. And a few years later, someone actually broke into our house. It was a guy who was drunk or high, and I don't think he even had bad intentions. He was just lost. But that didn't make it any less scary. The paranoia is still there. Even though I try to remind myself that it's just my brain playing tricks on me. Anyway, that's my story. I know it's not the scariest one, and it probably won't be as interesting to others. And it's my first one, but I just needed to share it. I don't know how to get over it. If anyone has had similar experiences or feelings, I'd be happy to talk about it. Thanks. Warning the following story mentions animal cruelty. You may want to skip this one. This little story is from 2012. I live in Canberra, Australia. We're an incredibly boring place. 99% of the time. Not much happens, but when it does, everyone hears about it. I just started year 11 at a new school. The last two years of high school are done at a separate school, which we call College to Year 7 10. Everyone's about 1618 at this campus. I was a bit of an overachiever when it came to English, so I was placed in a class of six or seven other overachievers in an experimental English class taught by the deputy principal in charge of my grade. Basically, rather than physical books and assignments, the school wanted to trial a totally digital format, which I hated by the way. We worked almost exclusively on our personal iPads that we had to bring to each lesson. Even though the class was small, I don't remember much about most of the kids. They weren't particularly interesting. I guess I kept to myself after the collapse of my high school friendship group and sat next to the other quiet kid in this particular class. I'll call him Jimbo. Jimbo was even quieter than me. I got myself in trouble a couple of times for challenging the teacher's views, but I honestly do not remember this guy ever saying a word. One lesson, for some reason that escapes me, were we discussing our pets? Jane talked about her cat, Bob, about his dogs. Whatever. It was one of the few times I contributed without challenging the teacher. Even Jimbo still said nothing, just flicking idly through his iPad and leaning back on his chair, as he very often did. A couple of weeks into the year, I finally found a few new friends to hang out with on breaks. Jimbo is absent from class, and then the next and the next. This kid just disappeared. And after another couple of weeks, I asked the deputy where he was. This dude hated me, so he literally rolled his eyes, shoved past, and said nothing. I shrugged it off because I knew the teacher was a dickhead, but I was still curious. I brought it up to my new mates because it's not common around here for a kid to just stop showing up to school. We're a small city. Someone always knows something. If he'd moved school, someone would have heard. There had to be some kind of explanation for the sudden extended absence. One of my new buddies took me aside. I'll call him Jerry. Jerry was a good, goofy guy. He was the type to Always joke around. So when he pulled me aside all serious, I knew that something was off. Jerry and Jimbo had been friends back at their old high school. At some stage over the summer holidays, when Jerry had visited him, Jimbo had spilled a glass of milk in his kitchen. Jerry laughed about it, but Jimbo demanded he clean it up, even though Jerry obviously wasn't the one who made the mess. Jerry turned his back and the next thing he knew, Jimbo had a knife to his throat and made him clean up the spill at knifepoint. But it gets worse. So, so much worse. He tells me that Jimbo's iPad was absolutely packed with videos. Videos of him doing the most disgusting subhuman things to animals, primarily dogs. I physically can't bring myself to write the specifics of what he did to those poor souls. Thank the BTK killer. But without the people, he'd been stealing them from backyards and luring strays. There was even a teacher at the school who had come to find out why his dogs were going crazy so late. And then he saw Jimbo scamper off into the night. There was a vast paddock not far from the school that I used to go smoke weed in, because the grass was tall enough to keep us relatively well hidden from the rest of the world. Absolutely huge. A good kilometer square, if not more. That specific paddock in question, I learned, had been his killing fields. I was just getting high in the opposite corner, closer to the houses that lined one side. If we decided to venture diagonally across for whatever reason, we very possibly could have come across something he'd done. The iPad that he'd recorded it all on had been less than a foot away from me. For weeks he'd flicked through the images of what he'd done so casually in that little classroom of six or seven students. Hell, he knew that each one of us had pets. He also had a bucket list found on the iPad, the top item of which was graduating to killing humans. From what I know, Jimbo was convicted for animal cruelty and nobody's heard of him since. I sold the socks off my feet for $10. Someone bought the socks off my feet at the grocery store. Alright, so for some context, I'm a 30 year old female and live in the Midwest United States. About a week ago, I was shopping at my local grocery store for a few things that I needed. I noticed a man near me in the dairy section, looking at me intently a little bit. So I smiled as I walked away. I go through the checkout line and bag up my groceries and head out to my car. As I'm loading my items into the back of my car, the same guy I saw in the store pulls up behind my vehicle and says, hey, I have a question for you. And I just said, sure, what's up? Can I buy your socks? At this point I'm thinking that I must have heard him wrong. So I ask him to repeat the question and he proceeds to ask the same question. Can I buy your socks? I'll pay you $10 for the socks on your feet. I said, umm, why? Then he said, you know, it's kind of my thing. I replied, um, like a foot fetish sort of thing. To which he then said, yeah, something like that. Now mind you, as he's asking me this, he has my car blocked in and he's reaching into his inner jacket pocket. Now as a woman, I'm always aware of my surroundings and such. So at this point my brain is thinking about the worst case scenarios. I'm thinking this man is about to pull out a gun and kill me if I don't give him my socks. So I just said, hold on, let me put this cart back. So I walk back to my car after returning the shopping cart and he's now exited his car and is right next to my driver side door. Now I'm panicking and I'm scared for life. It's fight, flight or freeze. And I'm frozen solid, honey. So I sit in my driver's seat with this door left open and I proceed to take my socks off my feet and hand them to this guy. He just says thank you, you're beautiful and your feet are so pretty. He then hands me the $10 and walks back to his vehicle and drives away. Now this is by far the creepiest and scariest thing that has ever happened to me. And at this point I'm no longer wearing socks out in public. It's kind of funny. Tell me what you all think about this and what you would have done in this situation. This happened about one hour ago, so my memory is still fresh. First off, I am living very rural in a small village with maybe 10, 15 houses but close to the highway. You can drive there within maybe five minutes and also about 10 minutes away from the town. If you cross the street, it just takes you about a 10 minute walk to reach the forest. First Christmas day in the afternoon, my partner and I decided to go for a little digestive walk as we were really stuffed from all the food. It was about 5pm and already dark when we left and we Had a big and bright LED flashlight with us. I also took my camera and my flash, as I love taking pictures of nature at night. We decided to walk on a little country road towards the forest and then turn right, following a small graveled cycle track close to the forest border, which connects our village and the next. It's maybe about 15, 20 minutes of walking between villages. In the middle part of the track, you have to walk through a small bit of forest. It's rather dark and the trees are very high and quite dense. When we entered, I saw our flashlight reflecting on something and I recognized a car being parked there on the side of the track, close to the trees. This struck me as odd as cars are not allowed to drive there and the path is very narrow and hidden, so I was a bit cautious. My partner pointed to the light inside of the car and it seemed to be empty. I also noticed the windows were frozen, so it must have been parked there for a while A bit. In the front of the car, I spotted a tree with an intriguing structure and I asked my partner to point the flashlight towards it so that I could focus better and photograph it with my flash. After I took a few images, my partner told um, there's someone standing behind us in the middle of the road is looking at us. Nobody was following us the whole way. I kept looking around and behind us occasionally, because at this time in the evening and close to the border of the forest, there are boars sometimes. Also, it's mating season, so they're more aggressive than usual. Indeed, there was a man standing behind us, staying out of the flashlight's reach. He wasn't saying anything, just standing there and facing us. At first I thought he might be startled, as it may seem a bit weird if someone is just taking photos around your car. It was not even legal to drive on that path with the car. I decided to get up and confront him from a distance, explaining to him that I was just taking photos of the tree. He didn't react and still just stood there. I then went on to ask him if he needed some light, and he replied that this wasn't necessary. It was odd, but I was still calm, sure about there being a normal explanation for his behavior. Nonetheless, my partner and I both just decided to get the hell out of there and followed the path leading to the next village. It was maybe five, seven minutes until we reached it. I remembered the letters on his license plate, not the numbers though, unfortunately, and googled it. And it turned out that he was from a city about six hours away from Our village. Mind you, the country I live in is in a very strict lockdown right now, so you're only allowed to travel even by car if you have very urgent reasons. After we reached the first lantern of the next village, we looked back and observed the car driving a bit out of the forest, turning around and going back inside. I was able to see that he parked there again and turned the lights off. He didn't leave the forest. We went home on a much longer way than initially intended, as I didn't want to go back there for obvious reasons. Our flashlight battery died on the way and my phone battery was low, so I didn't want to call the police back then, but I called them as soon as I arrived home and gave them all of the details. Big regret that I didn't memorize the whole license plate, but it was just so surprising that I seriously didn't think about it. Also, it only occurred to me as really strange when I thought about the frozen windows and that he could have impossibly walked behind us, plus him having no light and not responding. He did seem to be sneaking up on us when I sat down to take the photo. I think I was very lucky to have my partner, the camera in the bright light with me. I don't want to imagine what could have happened if I was alone. I forgot to mention this when I told my housemate. She theorized that he may have been spying on the houses very close to the forest border. As you can easily look into their backyards without being seen. You have to walk a bit up the hill and further, about five minutes. I think this is likely. I had the thought of photographing the driver when I entered the forest part of the path, but somehow I felt unwell about it and decided not to do it despite it being an interesting scene. In hindsight, I believe this saved me as he must have hidden behind the trees close to the car and forest entrance. If he was really planning a burglary or worse, dumping a body. I think it's not unlikely he may have attacked me if he realized I had a potential photo of his car with a recognizable license plate. We went back and found a tape marking on one of the trees. A very small hideout, more to store things than to sit in as well as some cut off part of a backpack. I have no idea what the guy was doing, but I honestly don't even want to know. I went grocery shopping today just for a few items and I was in and out of the store in about 15 minutes. Towards the end, I just walked past a couple in an aisle when I heard there she is and saw someone point their finger at me out of the corner of my eye. This caught my attention, so I turned around to see two people scowling at me, one of whom had their phone out in front of them, either recording me or taking a photo of me. There's no one else in front of them in the aisle but me. I got freaked out and quickly walked into a couple of other aisles to grab more items, hoping that I was somehow misinterpreting the situation and tried to shrug it off. However, this couple proceeds to follow me all throughout the store at a distance with their phones out. They thankfully don't continue following me while checking out or on my way home. They said nothing more to me. I live in Boston and true to the stereotype, I have no desire to interact with anyone on the street. I didn't recognize them and I can't remember any negative encounters with strangers for me to make any sense of this, I don't even have a car, so this wasn't road rage or someone pissed off over a parking spot. I'm figuring I simply look like someone else, but this event still has me in fight or flight mode.
- [35:51]
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- [36:49]
Unnamed Female Narrator
One year ago I, 17 years old, befriended a young man who was 18 on Discord. We matched each other's humor and we had quite a few things in common. He was pretty secretive about himself, so it was always a surprise when he opened up, which kept me deeply invested in getting to know him. We got along very well and spent lots of evenings chatting and discussing different things. I got introduced to two more of his friends. Well, more like classmates, let's call them Steve and Luke. Their little trio had a strange dynamic. Steve and the young man that I much later got to know as Tom, after he finally revealed his name, were quite close and tended to treat Luke as their little plaything. This made me feel rather empathetic towards Luke and I tended to take his side more in arguments leading to them, often joking that he'd show up to my house with flowers if I kept defending him. There was a slight rivalry between everyone and the former trio. My arrival only made things more tense as all of them started to badmouth each other to me in private. Eventually, Tom and Steve began to avoid Luke and prevent him from joining our conversations. This continued for a while until Tom suddenly became strange towards me. He started to fully delete all the messages he sent to me and un added me everywhere. This happened a few times before. I was fed up with all of them. I broke ties and honestly I should have never picked them up again. Hey, remember me? We used to talk who is this? I said. It's me, Steve. Tom and I made a Minecraft server mind joining. I eagerly agreed and got invited into the corresponding Discord server. There were a few others in there as well who are not really relevant to the story. I got along with most of the people there, but especially with Steve. Even out of the Minecraft server and public group voice chats, we spend time together. We went down Internet rabbit holes about how slamming pixie fairies with pride flags will save the universe and such. Our mutual interest in these rabbit holes filled much of the conversation topics when we talked. This changed after March 17, 2024 when at 8pm I received eight missed calls from Steven with the text pick up. You'll never forget this. Wait, give me a moment. I said. No pick up. When do I ever call you randomly? It's important, Steve said. The calling lasted about a minute. Steve turned on his camera and asked me a short question that genuinely still makes me feel nauseous. This is your house, right? I remained silent for a good second and I tried to deny it was my house. Then another voice spoke up belonging to Tom. It was surprisingly easy tracking you down from your mother's Facebook backyard View pictures When I tell you I felt sick to the bone. I remember quickly putting on a sweater and grabbing my phone. At the time, my mind worked on autopilot and I just wanted to get them away asap. My mother asked me why I was going out in the middle of March at 9pm during a rainy night. At the time, I just lied to her that friends were there. No way you were actually real was the first thing Tom said when I opened the wooden gate in our garden. Both men stood with their backs to the streetlights and I didn't have the balls to shine my phone flashlight onto them. I remained close to the door as Steven offered me a puff of their cigarettes. I declined politely and stood there in awkward silence as the two males just stared at me. The convo was very dry and not deep. Every minute I stayed longer made my stomach twist more and more. It felt so off. I stayed there for about 30 minutes before they offered me the Wanna go with us to our car? I immediately declined and turned around to close the wooden gate to the garden again before I could. Tom quickly added that it was just a joke and insisted on drinking a cup of coffee inside with my parents. I declined and desperately tried to get them to leave. It was now 9:30 at this point. Thanks man. I really feel unsafe in my own home now. Just kidding, I told him. Sorry, hope we didn't scare you too badly, Tom said. I brushed the weird event off and just went on with my life. Though I did find myself checking more often if there were people outside waiting for me. April 29, 2024 Are you home? Tom asked. No, I replied. Are you sure the lights in your room are on? Tom says I'm not home. Go away, I told him. But I can see you lol. Look at your window on your left, he says. There. I went again to see them, this time in daylight. They had once again shown up to my doorstep together. This was my first time seeing their faces. Steve waved and nervously smiled. I nodded. What is it this time? Wanna go to so and so's house together with us? No, I don't. Please don't waste your gas anymore to drive all the way over here, I told them. Yeah. They didn't stop. Steve begged me to allow him to go inside to fill up his water bottle and so Tom could piss. I declined both and pointed for Tom to piss somewhere in the field. Eventually I gave in and I took Steve's water bottle inside myself to fill it up. When I came back, they suddenly were satisfied and happy to go back to their car and leave. Of course not before a weird request May I give you a handshake when I tell you it was awkward? Humans have this sensor that tells you how long it's okay to shake someone's hand before it becomes weird. He did not. A solid four seconds. He held my hand only to make the joke to never wash his hands again afterwards. May 6, 2024 hey, we need to talk. I really want to tell you something, Steve said after a long conversation. It finally came through what the intentions were. Steve told me he liked me. I quietly listened as he told me everything. The worst part of it all was that he knew that I had a boyfriend as well. I politely declined his confession and decided it was enough. I was going to cut all ties with these people. Following that decision, multiple alt accounts sent me messages apologizing, but I never responded to them. June 15, 2024, my birthday. A car dropped on the doormat for all the tears and pain Grief also gives you. Emotional gain was printed on the front of the card and inside of it you could find the short text Happy Birthday. Have fun. Look in your cabinets. It was a funeral grievance card. After this, there was just complete silence. Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna get on Discord for a while.
- [43:54]
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