← Southern Cannibal's Scary Stories
Southern Cannibal's Scary Stories
CREEPY Social Media Horror Stories With Dark Ambience & Rain
02:24:54
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- [00:02]
Narrator/Host
Ready to soundtrack your summer with Red Bull Summer All Day Play. You choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best. Are you a festival fanatic, a deep end dj, a road dog, or a trail mixer? Just add a song to your chosen playlist and put your summer on track. Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit red bull.com brightsummerahead to learn more. See you this summer. This episode is brought to you by Prime Obsession is in session and this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice off campus Elle every year after the Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point and more Slow burns, second chances chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime.
- [01:01]
Storyteller/Guest
When I was a teenager I had a weight problem. I was obese and really miserable about it. I know it was my own fault, but it's easy to fall into self loathing and just blame the world for your problems. Sometimes I used food to cope with my problems the way one might turn to substances like alcohol or cigarettes. Only with food there's no hiding your problems. I ballooned and by the time I was 18 I was too big. I'm also a woman. I felt terribly insecure and the worse I felt, the more I ached. It was a disgusting cycle and I can't even recognize myself when I look back at how I once was. I was also in denial. I avoided mirrors and photos and I felt myself becoming reclusive. I had experienced a sexually violent crime and this honestly contributed so much to where I found myself. During this time in my life I was at rock bottom, in an utter mess. I was searching online for validation and I stumbled across something that only changed my life for the absolute worst. It was a page dedicated to telling people to accept their way regardless of whatever it was. I ate it up. To be honest, I fell down this rabbit hole of people basically saying obese was genetic and not your fault and that it's impossible to change. People said that if you tried to lose weight it meant that you hate all overweight people and they spouted conspiracy theories and other extreme lies. I found myself in a group chat on Instagram with a bunch of other women, all of us bonding over our weight struggles. One of these women I'll just Refer to as Ada, she told us she was £450 and that she'd been overweight her entire life. She said that diets always failed and it was all fads and impossible to even slim down. She told us everyone would gain back any weight they lost and said that our bodies wanted us to remain at the weight we were all currently at. She told us Big Pharma wants us sick and wants us to think that obesity is wrong to profit off of us. She said that the studies saying that obesity leads to heart issues, joint pain, etc. Were all lies. She said because thin people get heart attacks or can have back pain, it shows that weight isn't the real issue. I really wish I was kidding here. I know any rational person can see many flaws in this logic. The back or joint pain a thin person feels would be due to something other than weight, whereas in an overweight person the weight would be the cause or at least worsening a pre existing issue. But like I said, I wanted to be in denial. I was vulnerable to being brainwashed for some reason. I wanted to believe it was all out of my control so that I could play the victim in my life. I wanted to be told it was okay and continue to wallow in my own bullshit. It sounds so sick, but it's true. And it was very unhealthy of me. I sunk into this group hard. We would all chat in the group and Ada would encourage us to stay up late. We were all in different time zones, but it wasn't a huge gap. Some of us were two hours ahead, no one was like 20 hours behind anyone. She encouraged us to stay up very late into the night, which is something I've since learned cult leaders like to do. If any of us had doubts, she would shut us down immediately and then threaten to block us from the group. She told us to buy certain books and also engage with certain social media accounts. There are quite a lot of fat acceptance people on the Internet. You'd really be surprised. I'm not sure if this story is maybe too political to share. I don't want anyone to try and find Ada online or harass anyone posting fat acceptance content. But it's still around now and I think it's a chronically online fringe community pretty much. But looking back at everything, I really feel like Ada manipulated me and a lot of the others. I feel like I was in an online cult. It's the only way I know how to describe what happened. Sorry for rambling on with the story, but I ended up in Ada's group chat because I would scroll through certain tags on Instagram. I won't name them for privacy. Ada had a small account and she had a story highlight called readme. I clicked and she said if you messaged her, she'd add you to the group chat to connect with like minded souls. I messaged and that was it. I was in. Ada charged us money to help us heal our relationship to food and our bodies. She put in the group chat that it was her way of giving back. She charged US$50 each session and she said we would have one hour to chat with her. We could book as many as we needed, but this allowed for one to one intimate discussion. I know it sounds crazy, but I decided to do it. Whenever someone in the group chat said they were feeling unhappy about themselves, Ada would then remind them the negative body talk was prohibited so as to avoid triggering the rest of the group. I felt terrible about myself. I really thought talking to her would make me feel better. I booked a session and our session was via a video call still on Instagram. I gave Ada my sob story and she listened. I confessed that I was feeling bad physically. I told her I had back pain and that it even hurt to walk one mile. I ended up with blisters and just discomfort and that I sweat like hell. Ada told me that this wasn't my fault and not the fault of my weight either. That I was healthy and that I had to work on nourishing myself more. She told me to intuitively eat. And she told me she had a manual that I could purchase for 60 bucks. I know how this sounds, but I was so sucked in already I didn't buy the manual thing. I don't even know if it was something she wrote herself or what. But I continued to book sessions with Ada, but I still felt rubbish about myself. I told her I was struggling and she tried to make me hate skinny women. She also tried to make me hate skinny men too, but mostly just focused on other women. In the group chat, the other women were also echoing similar sentiments. People would post about how real women were overweight and how skinny people just wanted to commit genocide against overweight people. It was batshit crazy and just insane. But I couldn't see that at the time. Honestly, I never truly felt happy in that group. I continued to eat like shit and do nothing. I felt crippled by depression and anxiety. When I was 20 years old, I was forced to move to a new area. This entire time I've been sucked into this movement in group chat. By the way, when I moved away, I finally realized that I had to get my shit together. Life was passing me by. I was so unfit I could barely clean myself. It's really humiliating to admit such a thing, but it was real. My stomach was so large it hung and I left wet patches on seats due to the sweat. I didn't own any skills because Ada always said to never weigh yourself. I realized that I wanted to explore the new area I was in, but I couldn't. Walking even 10 minutes was almost impossible, and I was only 20 years old. Standing hurt my lower back. My feet were always sore, and whenever I slept, I felt like I couldn't fully relax my upper body. If I did, my airways were obstructed. I had told Ada my concerns, and she called me fatphobic. She said that the fatphobic society was getting to me and that I had to keep on as I was. I was having serious doubts, though. I would see people lose weight even if it was a thin person losing a few extra pounds and they didn't do fad diets. It had poked holes in so much of the bullshit that I was being fed by Ada. Excuse the unintentional pun. I only had one friend at the time because I was so lost in my own crap. She had lost 15 pounds after gaining some in university. She never gained it back. And I had started wondering if losing weight would be possible for me. I mean, if I just ate healthily and moved around more simple, basic science. But my head was all warped with lies and conspiracy. One day in the group chat, I had voiced that I wanted to make some changes. I was totally dogpiled. All of the women told me I was falling into toxic diet culture and that I'd end up with anorexia if I started dieting. Ada then demanded to talk to me privately, and I agreed. She then lectured me about how I was being a bigot and that I was still on my healing journey and that I needed to avoid getting sunk into diet culture. I didn't defend myself, and I started to doubt myself again. I thought that maybe everyone was right. I mean, the people I'd seen lose weight probably gain it back eventually. I decided to tell myself they only lost it because they were already slim and that I was just meant to be very large. Yet despite the crap I kept telling myself, I knew deep down I was talking. I knew it wasn't true. So I decided to try very slowly to change a couple of things in the hopes I'd feel better. And I decided it didn't matter if I'd lost weight. At least that was what I told myself. I enrolled in a small college and I had started to take small steps to better myself. I started talking to my family and friends about how I felt and they told me that Ada sounded like she was taking advantage of me and just trying to hold me back. My family admitted they were extremely concerned about my weight, but they also knew that I wouldn't change until I was ready myself. They said they would love nothing more than for me to lose weight and they would be more than willing to help. My head was a mess. I was always told not to watch fitness gurus, but I started too. I even began watching people reacting to the fat acceptance movement. I watched videos that Ada had warned were people bullying us or mocking us? I realized she was wrong and most importantly, I realized that I was wrong about everything. I decided to weigh myself and it made me cry. I was flooded with shame. I was £400 at 20 years old. I was reeling, but I shouldn't have been so shocked. I didn't turn to food to cope. Instead I sat with a feeling of shame. I remember telling Ada all about it and she told me the shame wasn't okay to feel and she encouraged me to eat food. She went on a rant about how I was giving into the shame and she was really terrified for my well being and that I was clearly on the road to developing anorexia. She really used the word terrified. I remember thinking to myself, what the hell am I doing here? As she spoke to me. I was pretty quiet in the group chat for a few days. I changed my eating habits without even consciously telling myself I would. I cut down on my portions and I cut out most of the calorie filled drinks and snacks. But I still did eat unhealthy things. I remember people asking where I was in the group chat and I decided I had to be honest. I wrote a series of huge messages and I sent them with my heart pounding. I remembered that I put my phone down and on silent. I was terrified to look. I eventually forced myself to look and it was ugly. Ada had tried to call me 90 times. I'd given her my phone number and I'd only avoided my phone for about half an hour. She had texted me abuse and she had blocked me on Instagram and I was no longer in the chat. I searched for the other group members and they all shunned me too. I was blocked by each person. At first the messages were Ada demanding I pick up. She was swearing at me. They then slowly descended into pure abuse. She called me a dumb bitch, called me a fatphobic and ableist, called me a cunt, told me I was a disgrace. It really stung. She told me that she had wasted so much time in me for me to only abandon her and to betray my own movement. She said that I was on the wrong side of history and also compared me to a well known man with a black mustache. Yeah, I really wish I was kidding. I know it sounds crazy, but at the time I was really hurt. This was a group that I invested two years of my life into and now I was out of it. I was scared I'd made a mistake, but I knew deep down I would die if I continued down this road. I watched videos on YouTube about nutrition from actual experts and I started to slowly change. I went into a slight calorie deficient and I stopped eating unhealthily. It's embarrassing, but I had to learn basic facts. Facts about food as if I was a toddler. I learned about protein and the importance of it as well as how it's a great way to start your day for feeling full and nourished. I'm not saying it was easy, but in a way it kinda was. I got used to it. Whenever I wanted to gorge on food to deal with pain, I just sat and forced myself to feel it. I took up journaling and that helped too. I began losing weight. I was nervous, but I was excited too. I managed to lose 105 pounds in 12 months and I remember crying. I had it in my head that I really wanted out of the 400, 300 pound category. Although I still had a massive journey ahead of me. I was so proud of myself for reaching this point and £100 is a hell of a lot to lose. I was still very large, but I could see a huge difference and I felt it too. I could actually walk around now. I could walk a mile without getting blisters on my feet. I got my hygiene back and my dignity as a human being. The weight loss began to slow down as I knew it would as I crammed closer to a healthy range for myself. But it didn't matter how long it took, I was determined to do it. I kept going and I just kept working on my mental health. I ended up deleting and remade all of my social medias. I started getting out more. I had joined an app for meeting new people and I even got myself a little part time job. It took a long time, but I finally got to a healthy weight for myself. I have loose skin and I do plan to get surgery for it someday, but for now it's a reminder of how far I've come and just how messed up I used to be. I ended up going to therapy and joining a gym. I managed to make good friends too and I graduated with a degree that I really wanted. I have a full time job now and I never take the little things like going for a bike ride for granted as there was once a time that I couldn't do them. I even got myself a puppy when I hit the 190 pound mark as a reward for my hard work. I felt like I was now fit enough to walk a dog and I got a golden retriever. His name is Doeball and he's given me so much happiness and peace. I still think about Ada in the group chat from time to time. I always wonder where they're at now. I really believe Ada was a very unwell woman who preyed on others like her. We were all vulnerable and just fell into her charms quickly. It still scares me how susceptible I was and how I was willing to believe her lies and misinformation. Ada taught us that the government specifically was out to get us. She would often say that they held meetings and had an entire secret department dedicated to planning the mass extermination of overweight people. I seriously took her word for it for literally no reason. I hope this story doesn't piss anyone off. I mean no disrespect to anyone, but I want people to know that it isn't too late to turn it all around. You really can do this. There are some people out there who seek to take advantage of you and they just might do it with luring you with falsehoods. Sometimes people use your insecurities against you. I know that overweight people can be bullied and Ada used that to manipulate us into extremist thinking. Never underestimate just how easy it can be to fall prey to cult groups. It really can happen to anyone under the right circumstances. This happened back in 2020 when everyone was in quarantine. I'm a girl and I was 13 when this story took place. Because everyone was stuck inside, I had started searching for new things to try and keep myself entertained. I remember this game on the computer that I used to play and I decided to play that as there was nothing else to do. It was an older game so not many people knew about it or really played it much anymore. There was also enough people on the server though to not have to wait too long to start a game. I had met some nice people on there and for the most part it was great. I had a lot of fun playing and I looked forward to it every day. I had my name as my username, I just spelled it a little different for safety. Still, I got a lot of attention for being one of the only girls playing. I only met three other girls in the months that I played the game. I know this is stupid, but I would tell people my real age when they asked. I remember thinking it was funny seeing their reactions to a 13 year old girl playing a game that had mostly 1830 year old guys on it. I never had a problem with it though, until this one guy. I joined a random game like any other day and chatted with the people in the lobby. As I waited for it to fill up and start the game, this one guy started talking to me. We'll call him D. D kept making jokes and at the time I thought he was really funny. We played together and that was that. The next day I saw D was online so I joined the game he was in. This continued on and we played with each other all day, every day. We had started talking to each other quite a lot and he had started asking me more personal questions. He asked where I lived and stupidly I told him I only said what state I lived in, but I still feel really dumb for that now. I asked him where he lived and he had told me a continent in Asia. I won't say the name for privacy reasons. I asked him how old he was, to which he said he was 26. Then he asked how old I was and I told him. D seemed surprisingly fine with that, almost happy about it. I remember him making a joke saying he's old enough to be my dad. I thought it was funny at the time, but looking back I know how weird and disturbing that is now. As the days went by, I noticed D started flirting more and more with me. I brushed it off though, and just assumed I was reading too much into it. Eventually though, it escalated and he had started calling me baby and sending me hard and kissing emojis. I feel so stupid for this now, but I just went along with it. I mean, I really liked talking to D and I thought I might make him mad if I told him to stop. At some point D had started calling me his girlfriend. He had never even asked me to be his girlfriend, but again, I just went along with it. I remember some people in the lobby saying that it was weird and he was creepy, but I ignored them. I really wish I would have listened. D then started saying some sexual and really inappropriate stuff to me and also saying everything he wanted to do to me. And at 13, I'll admit I didn't even understand everything he was saying. I do now though, and it makes me sick to my stomach to even think think about it. He would constantly ask me for my social media and my phone number and asking to FaceTime and also saying how he really wanted to see me now. I may have been stupid back then, but not that stupid. I always made up an excuse as to why I couldn't so we only ever talked through the game. The more we played though, the worse he got. I remember D saying how he wanted to see me naked, how he loves me and how he was going to marry me and that I'd come live with him and we'd be together forever. He told me that I couldn't tell anyone about this though because he'd get in trouble and then we couldn't be together. The way he said it though made me feel like this was all my fault, like I was the one who wanted this and I would get him in trouble. This continued on with him saying more disturbing and sexual stuff each and every day until eventually I just had enough. I blocked him on the game and then deleted the game soon after. I never wanted to play it again. I felt sick to my stomach just thinking about everything that happened. I haven't heard from him since, thank God, but I still think about him sometimes and I wonder what would have happened if I'd really gave him my social media. Something that still bugs me though is I live in a pretty small state and my name isn't super common. You can find stuff on Google just by searching my name and state. Part of me's still paranoid that he'll show up someday looking for me. I know this wasn't super scary, but this experience still haunts me to this day. Please everyone listening, be smart and don't make the same mistakes that I did. I've never told anyone in my personal life this story because I just feel so stupid for not realizing he was a creep sooner. But hopefully someone out there can really learn from my mistakes. Stay safe out there. Focus features in Blumhouse present Obsession When
- [23:51]
Narrator/Host
I have a crush on a guy no one knows.
- [23:53]
Storyteller/Guest
Be careful. I wish Nicky love me more than anyone in the entire world. Who you wish for? Obsession is 96% fresh on rotten Tomatoes. I love you so so so so much. It's blood soaked nightmare fuel broken split you put on her. You have been warned. Obsession rated R under 17 nanometer without parent only theaters May 15 with special engagements in Dolby Girl.
- [24:18]
Narrator/Host
Winter is so last season and now spring's got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders that perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done. Hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear open that envelope. It's time for a little in person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic.
- [24:52]
Storyteller/Guest
This whole story took place online over discord. For privacy I'll call my ex A and myself J. A is from the UK and I'm from Asia. I'm a 16 year old female now. I've been told a lot and I myself feel that I have this certain charm both offline and online that attracts many people to talk to me and befriend me even though I'm very shy. But that also attracts a shit ton of predators. So I met A in mid century September over the user phone. I didn't really think much of it and had started talking on his server when a friend of his had added me a few days later. I was feeling really depressed and while talking to A on his server I'd spilled it out. He asked whether I wanted to talk about it and that he'll always be there. I then thanked him for that. Later he sent me a friend request to check up on me and I honestly felt better since I was an honor student. It was the school and academic pressure which was really overwhelming me but nothing serious. Anyway, so he and I started talking and getting to know each other a little bit better. A had his selfie as his profile pic and he even has a soundcloud profile which hit 3,000 followers. He kind of looked like Justin Bieber but even cuter and more handsome. He was also very sweet to everyone and smart and all around just a perfect guy. I kinda started liking him as my very first serious crush but had to crush myself because of my academics and his female friends they just gave off the back off girl kinda vibes. So fast forward to January. We had developed this cute intimacy but still unsure if it was platonic. He was also really sick and a bit depressed around Christmas last year and I was there for him. We always both comforted each other in our ups and downs but I decided to isolate myself for about a month off discord this time it was actually the whole February to study for my finals and I did this previously for 47 days when a missed me even more. I was so out of it so I didn't let him know and just went off for a month now. I wasn't cold or anything and I didn't mean to ghost him. I was really just going through stuff and our relationship being platonic hurt me even more. I even lost one of my dear professors in school since childhood in mid February I wanted to talk to him but there was no going back. When I returned after the break and texted him, he then said hey, I've missed you so much and he later told me that he had a bad panic attack somewhere in February and I wasn't there. I still regret that I stayed close to him in March while also giving my finals and we were really growing close to each other. Other we started dating in April and boy was it so fine. He was very romantic, caring and so gentle. Also, I'm not the casual type but the serious lover type. It's just really wrong and I want serious relationships if at all. The funny thing was that A never gave off any red flags except for not texting me in just one text. I had to text him twice for him to notice me, but I completely understood his busyness. Also in March he ended up losing his childhood dog and again I was there for him. He was even disappointed in his new job in it and I comforted him again, a critical situation for our relationship. He got out successfully through it though and decided to adopt some kittens. Fast forward to the end of May. The other day I had this nightmare where I lost his discord, all of his socials and it was as if his virtual existence was gone. So then I got on the streets and started looking for him all over the world, but to no avail. I woke up and I started sobbing the next day to my teddy bear for five straight minutes. Losing him was the worst thing for me at the time. When I woke up I had asked him to virtually hug me and he told me that he was right here, that he really wished he was there to protect me, which made me feel better. Little did I know that it was my intuition. So about two weeks ago I was quite bored and I decided to do a wholesome prank on a I signed into my alternate and I added him there, changing my typing etiquette. I complimented that he has a really great voice and how I got his discord from soundcloud. I had jokingly asked him what his age was, to which he then replied, oh, I'm 27. Of course I thought he was kidding so I then said 27? Hmm, you must be married. To which he then said back, nah, but I wish I couldn't believe my eyes but I thought maybe he was aware it was me so maybe he was just playing around too. I then said but you're a really great person and you've got a great voice and you look so good so why not? A then replied back with saying that he had a bad history with girls. Then curiously it made me ask so are you single? Yeah, I am actually he replied back this was just way too much to process. I had never felt so heartbroken and betrayed. Was I with a fucking 27 year old who lied to me the whole time that he was 20? Why didn't he trust me enough to even confess that? I mean I was trusting him more than anything in the the world. I could barely breathe and I then confronted him on my main account. He casually said to me look I don't like my real info being around online so I lie about my age left and right. The stuff that I share is either half a lie or completely made up. People have faked trying to be me before J and I honestly don't remember us talking about it. I told him just how fucked up that was. To which A then said I should have been more vigilant. Did I really say I was 20? And that was just enough for me? I told him that he was a fucking predator and that he really needs to get some help. He then unfriended me and left all of our mutual servers and so did I. I tried reaching out to him on Instagram by making a temporary account to apologize for calling him a predator. He even deleted all of the potential info messages from his side in our chat from 4000 messages to 917 now. Luckily I have the screenshots of our last talk on Discord. Also one more thing before two weeks before our breakup he told me that his dad had cancer and I really wanted to be there for him for that. I don't really want to judge him on one aspect since he's a good person aside from this fuck up and nor am I holding onto any grudges. I was even planning to find some good UG colleges for data science or astrophysics in the UK just so I can move in with him and start it in real life. But well, I guess fate has different plans. I really do hope A has the best in his life. This was really a wake up call for me that sometimes people aren't aren't who they seem to be. I'm 22 years old but I was 16 at the time of this story. I Was very lonely and depressed as a teenage girl. I really felt invisible to guys my own age and I seemed to never really keep friends. The one who I lived across the street from moved but and I was still friends with her on Facebook. One of her friends had sent me a friend request and he was 38 years old at the time. I didn't really see anything wrong with it, so I added him back. He messaged me asking me how I knew my friend, so I explained. Then we just had a normal conversation and I was being nice and polite. But then he slowly started getting FL flirty and I'm not gonna lie, I really enjoyed the attention. So I let it continue even though I knew it wasn't right. He started trying to convince me to send inappropriate pictures and out of fear of being alone, I did it without even thinking. Then he kept trying to find a way to try and meet me and also saying what he'd like to do with me. I slowly grew uncomfortable with this, but I didn't want to tell anyone because I didn't want to get into trouble. But one day out of nowhere, he just stops messaging me. So I found out later, a few weeks later while watching the news that he ended up getting arrested for farting with other minors as well. And he got caught. I don't know what he was charged with or how long he went to jail for, but it's absolutely disgusting that he was doing this with so many any other young girls. Let this be a lesson. Never let an adult, no matter who they are, compliment you beyond saying you're pretty or try to spend alone time with you. Don't fall for it and please stay safe out there. So to start this story, I'm a 28 year old female. I'm very petite at 5 foot 33 and around 130 pounds. I'm also pretty curvy, which has always brought me some unwanted attention. I'll be making some changes to provide some anonymity to the people involved. I work for a very busy trucking company, so I don't have much time to meet people. I started dating one of the mechanics who worked in our shop. We'll call him Drew. Everything was going well and we kept it quiet as we didn't want it to be public knowledge. Workplace romance has a tendency to get dramatic and neither of us wanted this. There was also another mechanic at work who we'll call River. He was always a bit of a strange guy, but I guess strange is relative these days. He had been on short term disability as he broke his ankle, I sent him a friendly get better soon message as it seemed like the nice thing to do. Several people at work also joined in and sent get well messages. He only responded to mine, though, and then said, thank you. I'm glad you think of me. I thought that that was a little weird, but just said back, yeah, we're all thinking of you. You need to come back to work soon. To which he then replied back with, why don't you send me some nudes? I thought, okay, that's just gross. Then I ignored it. A day goes by with no messages, so I figured it just must be his sense of humor. Then he adds me on Snapchat. He started sending me videos of him, well, you know, playing with himself. I didn't respond and then deleted him. Then he added me under a different name. I told him to stop, and then he said, oh, come on. You know you like it. Bella, I'm in love with you and I know you feel it too. So again, I ignored and deleted him. I then debated telling Drew, but again, didn't want dramatics. A couple of weeks go by and no messages, thank goodness. I figured his crush must be over. Oh, how wrong I truly was. He came back to work for light duty. The day he came back was the absolute worst. In the morning toolbox meeting, I could feel him staring at me. When I looked. He had his phone up, and I assumed he was looking at something on his phone. Nope, he was actually taking pictures of my ass. To which he then sent to me on his new Snapchat identity. Snap story, with a caption saying, check out this fat ass. Looking good. I was so upset about this that I just went upstairs without a word. I was pretty shaken up, so I just started my work without a word. My cell phone started blowing up with messages from friends on the Snapchat, such as, is this you and Bella? Why are there so many pictures of you with your pants down? I finally looked to see what was happening. He had followed me to the bathroom and then took pictures from under the stall door without me even knowing. I was so upset about this. But this time I saved all the messages and photos. Drew had sent me a message asking if I was okay, although I was far from it. I just said, sure, I'll be fine. I didn't want him to worry about something that I didn't want to believe was potentially a very bad situation. So anyways, lunchtime rolls around and I always left to go let my dog outside to pee at lunch. Once I returned, I Tried the back door code to get in, but it wouldn't open. I tried again and I then heard a very creepy laugh. River was holding the door closed. I started to yell for him to let me in and that this isn't funny. So he opens the door and he's now standing there in his coveralls, but the zipper near the bottom was open and he had his private area all hanging out. Which I might add was also caught on camera. My boss takes our security very seriously. I was scared and mortified and instantly had tears stinging in my eyes and I pushed right past him. Drew heard some commotion, so he came to find me asking if I was okay. I was so shaken that I just ran to the bathroom. River then told him that I had tripped. As Drew was messaging me, river saw my name on his phone and that's when things blew the fuck up. River started to get mad at Drew then asking, so what? Argue with Bella? To which Drew replied back with, yeah, why is that any of your business? To which river replies with, she's my girlfriend, we're in love and we're moving away together. So what do you think of that? Our HR department was then notified as another mechanic who will contact Dustin, came upstairs to report that there seems to be a fight starting. River was then brought upstairs by Dustin and my boss asked what the issue was. Then they asked me for my side of the story. Shaking, I showed them all of the messages I saved. He's clearly lying, I said. River then started laughing and then said, it's ok, baby. Tell them. Tell them that you need Daddy to take good care of you. I was beyond scared. Daddy, what the fuck is he talking about? River, you know none of this is true. I'm dating someone. I don't care. You belong to me. We're in love. I actually had to leave that office as I was shaking in fear. At this point, he ended up being escorted from the building by Dustin. As things got a bit aggressive, Drew for one second started to believe him until I showed him the crazy messages. That was very upsetting to me. By now, everyone now knew that he and I were dating and that river had delusional ideas that he and I were in a relationship. He asked me why I would send a get well message, like it was my fault that he took it as I was interested. Even after River Driver was gone, I got messages from several new numbers and Snapchat IDs and I ended up having to get a full protection order in order to stop him. His messages ranged from him telling Me. He loves me to calling me a stupid bitch and telling me he'll kill me if he can't have me. Once they served the protection order, he finally stopped. Drew and I broke up as it really hurt me that he somewhat vague victim blamed me. We've remained friends and he's a great mechanic but a terrible boyfriend. As for River, I hope we never meet him again. I do really hope that he got the help that he so desperately needed. Remember, just because someone's nice to you does not mean they're interested in you. I was 21 when this happened. I was shopping at Walmart, getting some groceries. While I was there, there was a random woman that looked to be around my age who came up to me. She asked me who I was and I told her my name. She said that I seemed interesting and she had asked for my social media. I gave her my Facebook and she left. But. But as she left, she kind of looked at me, giving me the creepiest smile and kind of did the I'm watching you kind of gesture. I thought it was odd, but I didn't think too much into it and I continued my shopping. When I checked out at the self checkout, I saw the same woman there. I checked out, loaded my groceries in my car and drove back to my house. When I got home, I had got a friend request from the same woman. I confirmed it and she had sent me a text message asking how my day is. I told her it was fine and I was going to be a little busy today and that I'll talk to her later. She said it was fine and a couple of hours later, when night fell, she had sent me another message. I couldn't believe what it said. She asked me if I wanted to have sex and have sex that she's never had sex before, but that she wanted to try it with me. I told her I was bisexual and that I had a boyfriend. She then replied back with don't worry, he doesn't need to know that it will stay between us. I told her I wasn't interested and that we can just be friends, but she said she wanted to be more than friends. I then replied back with, um, what part of I'm not interested aren't you understanding? She had totally went off on me after that, cussing me out and like totally losing it. My boyfriend came over to my house later that night to spend the night. When he arrived, I'd showed him all of the messages the woman sent me. He was disgusted. And then about three hours later at one in the morning we heard four loud bangs at the door, then someone screaming. It was the woman. I guess she had looked up my name and found my address. And she had actually showed up at my house. She was screaming like a psycho. If I can't have you, nobody can. I told her to get the fuck off my property or I'd be calling the police. She said she had a knife on her and that if I didn't let her in, she was going to cut herself. My boyfriend then immediately called the police and they were literally here in about five minutes. As soon as they arrived, they arrested her. I showed the officer all of the messages and she said to drive to the police station to make a statement. My boyfriend and I got in my car and we drove to the station. The both of us gave our statements and I ended up filing a restraining order against her. I've since deleted the the messages and blocked the woman's account. Now I only friend people that I actually know and trust. Please be careful who you talk to on social media, as you never know what could happen. I just want to say when all of this happened, I was 18, and I was young, innocent and naive. Now that I'm in my mid-20s, I would never, ever let this happen again. It was my freshman year at college, and as one could imagine, I was excited to be on my own for once in my life. So excited to be on my own that I decided I was going to take summer classes on campus. That way I wouldn't have to worry about coming in when the big crowd of freshmen came, and I would also already know where everything was. Plus, it meant I could get away from my parents even faster. But mainly all I could think about was boys. You see, I never dated anyone through high school, so I thought I would find my one true love at college, because, of course, that's what all the movies told me. Anyways, about two weeks go by, and me and one of my roommates, I had four, by the way, we're all hanging out in the lounge area showing off pictures from Instagram while we're showing our friends, family, etc. Well, my roommate, who I'll call Tracy, had showed me a picture of her and these two guys. One of the guys was Tracy's boyfriend, and the other was Tracy's boyfriend's best friend. I'll call him Sean. Now, Sean was very attractive, and I even told Tracy that I thought he was hot. And she told me that he went to the tech college near us and that he was single now, a day or Two ago goes by after this and she tells me she told Sean that I was interested in him and he wanted to know if he could follow me on Instagram so he could DM me. At the time I really trusted Tracy because she seemed like a really cool chill girl. So I excitedly told her yes. Oh how I really wish that I never told her yes. I talked to Sean for about a week before I was comfortable enough to give him my phone number. At first he seemed super sweet. He would always send me text messages first thing in the mornings telling me to have a good day at class and that he couldn't wait to FaceTime me that night. And we would FaceTime every night. first I really loved it because I never had a boy give me so much attention. And like I said before, I had never dated anyone so I was just really over the moon. Then he was even interested enough to talk to me, but it started to get annoying. He would text me almost every second of the day and try to facetime me at least four times. When I wouldn't respond to him, he would ask if I was okay, why I wasn't answering him, and if I was seeing another guy. If I was seeing another guy, it would make him really mad if I was. I, of course, once seeing the messages, would try to reassure him that I was okay and that I wasn't seeing anyone. Like I said in the beginning, I was young and naive so I didn't really see it as a red flag. Things kept going downhill though. It came to a point where he had started asking for pictures of me either just selfies or pictures of me in the mirror. I wouldn't send them though, because I just wasn't comfortable and he would brush it off saying he was fine and that I could send him pictures of myself whenever I was ready. One day I was in class for a long time because it was lab and it started at 7pm and it wouldn't end until 10pm that night. For those of you who don't know, labs in college can last from 24 hours and mine just happened to be 3 hours that night. Once class ended, I headed to my dorm and I took out my phone. I clicked the button on the side, lighting up the screen. I had 380 unread text messages, 10 missed calls and three voicemails from Sean. Before I could even react or read all the messages, my phone started to ring. Instead of it being Sean, it was actually my dad. He had called to make sure that I was doing alright because he had Gotten an alert from the phone company that I had gotten all those messages. I was still on the family phone plan. I don't know why, but I just lied to him and laughed it off, saying that I was just in a group chat with a bunch of girls from school. Once I got off the phone with my dad, I then quickly went to look at all of the messages I had gotten. Most of them were demanding why I wasn't answering him and that he would come and find me if I didn't answer him. The voicemails were crude and mostly of him saying that was he was going to find me and that when he did, he was going to punish me for not answering him. After this, I just completely blocked him on everything I could think of. Completely freaked out about the whole thing. About a week goes by and I start to slowly forget all about the incident. Try not to think much about it. At least that's what I was trying to do. During that whole week, I felt like someone was watching me. But I just brushed it off as me being paranoid. At the end of the week, my roommate Tracy, who I'd been avoiding, then comes up to me, shouting at me, saying how I broke Sean's heart and he had called her, crying, saying how he didn't understand why I stopped talking to him. I couldn't even get a word in because of how fast she was talking. She finally called me a self centered bitch and then walked away. I went to class right after that, not realizing that I forgot to lock my dorm room. You see, I lived with four girls and each girl had their own room which would lock from the outside with a key. Well, when I came back from class, I noticed that my door was slightly cracked open. My heart dropped into my stomach. I hesitated going in. My hands were shaking terribly. But I finally got the nerve to push it open. Nothing. There was nothing out of place. Or so it seemed. Even though there was nothing out of place, I could have sworn that I closed the door before leaving for class. Even though I don't remember if I locked it or not, I know for sure that I closed the door. So I asked all of my roommates, including Tracy, if anyone had gone into my room that day. And they all denied it, even Tracy. But I just knew in my heart someone had been in there. I tried to brush it off, but I couldn't. So one weekend, when I knew that all of my roommates were going to be out of town, I switched dorm buildings and I roomed with a girl that I had gotten to be close friends with. After I moved in with her, I then told her all that had happened and she said that she would walk with me to my classes, which thankfully we had most of our classes together except for the one night I had lab. She would walk with me to my lab and then wait until my lab was done to then walk with me back to the dorm. One night though, she had actually gone out of town to go see her parents or something. I was walking back from my lab and it had gotten really late that night. I heard someone walking behind me but I didn't pay any attention to it since class was just let out. But as I was walking I could hear the steps getting closer so I started to pick up my walking speed. At this point I could tell someone was following me and I was really afraid to look back. As the footsteps increased and got faster, I started running as fast as I could. Now let me tell you, I'm not athletic by any means. Somehow though adrenaline probably, I was able to sprint in my dorm building, still hearing someone running behind me and I thankfully already had my keycard out to get into the building. I then swiped in on the door and then slammed it shut behind me. Looking up from slamming the door, I see someone who's probably about 10ft away from the door staring at me. Even though the person's hood was up and I couldn't see their face, I could clearly see that they were looking at me and I just knew that it was Sean. Not wasting any more time. I go to the raid that was up that night now bawling, telling them what had just happened. He called the police and I then told them everything that happened, but they basically just said they couldn't do anything since I didn't see his face. After all this happened, I called my friend and told her what happened and she never went out of town again. If I ever had any late night classes, I eventually ended up deciding that college just wasn't for me and I dropped out. I moved back to my home state and I went to cosmetology school to become a hairdresser. I still haven't dated anyone yet though. Maybe it's the fear of something like that happening again. I'll never know. I do know that I'm super careful with who I talk to now and who I give my social media and phone number to. I'm still scared to go to places by myself even though it's been years and I'm states away. Even so, I really hope that I never see Sean again. To start off my name for this story is going to be B and I'm a 15 year old freshman. This whole ordeal started last year. There was a boy in my class that I had a crush on. We'll call him J. J and I eventually started talking to each other on Snapchat, where I quickly realized he wasn't someone I wanted to talk to. He would say things about about his life being so bad. Then Sal was the only good part about his life along with the typical pick me tics. I quickly shut him down and I thought that was the end. Another detail I want to mention is that he had given me his tik tok. His username said I love ut, which was his ex. The two of them had broken up about three months before, which was a major red flag. I finished the school year without any problems and I went throughout my summer without a thought of J. However, in late July I was tagged in a TikTok video by someone I didn't know. The TikTok in question was a compilation of pictures of me from my Instagram. Needless to say, I was completely baffled. Maybe 10 minutes later I was tagged in another another video and so I texted my best friend and I asked if he knew who it was. He almost immediately suggested Jay. I texted Jay on Instagram and I sent screenshots of the videos he posted. He said that he did indeed post them and he was even proud of it. He talked about how he loved me and that it wasn't something he would give up on. I blocked him and I ended up just avoiding him at school and I thought he moved on. I saw him with a new girl who turned out to be his girlfriend and I finally felt free. That was until yesterday night when he used two accounts to try and reach me on Snapchat, both of which he made them look like it wasn't him. So yeah, I guess he's still stalking me and I don't know what to do to get rid of him. I just really hope he stops soon. My name is Zach and this is the true story of what happened when I was just 13. It was September and I had just gone back to school after summer break. Everything was fine for the first week. I was happy to be reconnecting with my friends and generally being back to school, but I didn't know it would be so short lived. On that Sunday night I had dinner with my family before heading up to my room and I glanced out of my window to see an orange van parked there, not out of the ordinary. As I Lived on quite a busy road so I thought nothing of it and had played some video games before bed. The morning after I was awoken by the sound of a rough engine and it was the same orange van pulling up to the same spot. I thought I was a little odd at how early he parked up, but again I just went about my day. It took me around 68 minutes to get to school so I always walked there. Everything in my day was going fine. While at lunch I decided to have my crafty cigarette as I did behind the bike sheds at school. But when I looked left all I felt was a chill go down my spine as I had then seen that same orange van parked across the road. This happened until Friday before a man around 5060 jumped out and then approached me. At this point I was really scared and I didn't know what to do. The man who I'll call Ron had started asking me many questions about me and my family, if we argue often, how many people I live with, and so on. I was already freaked out at this point so I just ran home as fast as I could. When I finally got home I was thinking that maybe he got the hint and I felt just a little bit more relaxed until an hour later and he was then parked in the same place. At this point I was so happy. It was the weekend. I decided to stay inside all weekend long and just play video games with my friends online. It had turned 6pm on a Saturday and I was feeling so relaxed I hadn't even looked out the window. I was about to start a new match with my friends but my phone rang. I looked and it said no caller id. I thought it was my mother as she would often use her work phone to call me and my siblings. I answered the phone and as I usually say hello, I got no answer back in return, just very heavy breathing. This happened about four times before A voice then finally spoke. Hello Zack, I instantly recognized was Ron. I started to panic and I looked outside and there he was. He was looking up out of his car window at me and smiling. I was way too scared to tell any of my family so I phoned my friend who I'll refer to as Jack and I told him everything. He instantly knew that I was telling the truth because he had noticed the orange van around the school too. We spoke about it for over an hour before we decided to call it a night. But as soon as the call finished, my phone range rang again. This time I answered and I then asked what do you want to which he then replied Back with you. I've been watching you closely on Instagram. I just hung up after that and I went to bed really scared. The day after this happened, my friend Jack came to my home to walk with me to school. After I called him to tell him the orange van was still outside, we left my home. Only this time, as we were walking, the orange van had followed us slowly. This is when we decided to run. As we got to the end of my road, the van sped up and then blocked us off. Ron stepped out of the van, grabbing my arm, then saying, I want you. You're coming with me. He also put Jack in the back of the van to stop him from talking too. I then asked him, why are you doing this? Where are we going to? Which he then replied back with, I already told you, I want you. We're going home. As he then shut the van door. Me and Jag panicked as Ron started driving away with us. We searched everywhere in the van for something to help get us out. Just as we had given up, Jack had spotted the prison pace of the van's metal lining that was loose. We started to pull it off as quietly as possible. As it finally came off, it made a loud noise and Ron then banged on the van, shouting at us quiet while driving. Me and Jack then took the metal and we forced open one of the doors. Ron was driving at a high speed, so we had no choice but to jump out. There were two people who were walking down the street at this time. They came to our aid as we jumped and they kept us safe until the police came. Me and Jack told the police the full story, but Ron and his van were never found. I'm not really sure, but I think he was using fake plates on the van. How else would he not have been found? I know this might sound fake, but I really was almost kidnapped by this psycho in his van. A month after all this happened, I had finally started to rebuild all of my confidence. With all of the security measures in place, I was finally starting to feel like the old me. And I made sure that my Instagram account was private. I came home with my mother from school feeling happy and decided to play online games with Jack. Later that night, I got a notification on Instagram, a new message request. I opened it and my blood turned cold upon reading it. It said, I'm still watching you, and I dropped my phone to the ground. After that happened, I deleted all of my social media accounts. From that day forward, I'm probably not going to make any new accounts for a really long Time for context. My name is Laura, and at the time I was in my teens and I had just broken up with my high school boyfriend. Everyone knows that high school relationships are somehow different from other relationships. After feeling sorry for myself, I ended up going on an old chatting site called MySpace, which if you teens never heard of it, look it up. Anyway, I came across a cute guy whose info said that he was a car dealer and newly single. I felt like it wouldn't hurt messaging him and maybe at least find a friend. We'll call him Matt. A few weeks later, we had talked for a while and then decided to meet. He picked me up in a decent car and he said he just wanted to hang out and talk alone, preferably somewhere quiet. We went to the park, talked, and he seemed quite normal. The only issue was how overly dressed he was for just a park date. Plus he had cologne that was overpowering. On the way home, he had started telling me about his ex. He said that she always decided to break things. I mean, anything. Plates, TVs, mirrors, anything. He even started saying how it turned him on and how he loves breaking stuff. Okay, red flag. I decided to end this very nutty relationship. When I told him that we shouldn't talk anymore, I immediately heard a loud shattering sound over the phone. Then he told me to break something right then. Before I knew it, I then heard glass shattering in the background. I was stunned. This nut ended up yelling at me to join him on the breaking stuff. I immediately hung up and felt like I just hung up with a psycho. So the next day I was at work and I got a message from a different name saying to look outside. There was Matt's car just sitting there, obviously staring at my office window. I thought for sure that I was gonna need to call the police and get a restraining order. My mom, before I even went on a date with him, said that she got bad vibes from him. Well, it turns out she was right. Yeah, parents are sometimes right, I guess. About three weeks later, I got a call from my mom telling me to turn on the news. There was Matt being charged with robbing two pharmacies and stealing thousands of oxys. I really think maybe the addiction took over his brain, but I'm so glad I ended up breaking things off with him. Moral of the Be careful of who you're talking to online. My name is Carissa, and When I was 21, I met my biggest mistake. His name was Eric and we met on MySpace. Yeah, MySpace. We met and he showered me with short term gifts and being Young, I fell hard. I grew up in a family who hardly ever showed me much attention. It was usually just all about my twin brothers. Anyways, Eric had shown me more attention than I'd ever known. As time went on, though, he became more possessive, and it eventually came to where he didn't even trust me. Attending my own college classes, which, mind you, I was always faithful. I ended up quitting school and cutting all relations with my family. He was the typical abuser. He ended up being more verbally abusive at first than physically. Unfortunately, we ended up on drugs and had our son taken. This is where it gets ugly. He basically made me start dancing at a strip club and see John's on the side. Then it got to the point point where he said I owed him a threesome, even though I was just doing him a favor. I can literally remember him dragging us to nightclubs just to try and find a girl. The Johns I saw were mostly okay, except for one night when it was only supposed to be one guy, but ended up being four. The rage in his eyes. When I didn't bring home the money that we needed to get high, I could always expect a sucker punch right to the the stomach. Why didn't I leave? I felt like I had no one else. One night he threw this crack party, which I had zero idea about. As soon as I walked in, he had asked me how much money I had. It was sick. I was so naive and like I said, I wanted the attention. As the night went on, I had saw him talking to these two girls, with which I knew what was coming. But this time it was just bluntly rude. We lived beside his brother, and he told me to go ask his wife for 20 bucks to borrow, obviously for more drugs. I had to see what he was up to first. As I was leaving, I had peeked through the curtains and I saw those two girls giving him head. Yeah, right there in my own apartment. I ran back there in disbelief, showing my anger. Everyone seemed to scatter, which infuriated him even more. Remember, he thought if I was doing it, he could. I got so nauseous because I knew I was gonna get the ultimate beat down. I ran to the trash and threw up. I then took off to the bathroom thinking I'd locked the door, but I didn't. Believe it or not, it came running in with that same bag of trash, pouring it all over me. I quickly turned on the shower, but not before I got another shower. Yeah, he urinated on me. I was eventually able to close the shower curtain and he left. I cannot begin to tell you just how degraded I felt. For anyone to urinate on someone, it has to be the bottom of the bottom. The really messed up thing was that I still went to work that day and put on a happy face. Now, thank God he's just a memory. Well, actually a nightmare. Girls, please don't let any male or female degrade you like I was. You matter. You're somebody. My name is Jennifer and this story takes place in 2004 when I was 16 years old. I want to give a trigger warning because it involves sexual assault. I can't exactly remember what month it was, but it was in 2004. But it had to be around a holiday or something of sorts because the whole extended family, like my aunts and uncles were all at my parents house. Despite whatever holiday was going on, though, I happened to be up in my room on my computer decorating my MySpace. Yep, for those who remember my space. Anyways, I was minding my own business when my uncle, who's my stepmother's brother, came into my room and then sat down on my bed and started talking to me. I can't remember the full extent of the conversation. I'm sure some of it was about what I was doing, but the parts that I do remember disgusted me. Like I said, I can't remember how we got on the subject because it's been damn near 20 years by now. However, I remember he had made a remark to me about pouring chocolate on myself and then him licking it off me. Being in shock, I just kind of laughed it off. But in my head I was kind of like, uh, what the fuck? Because why would he even say anything like that to me? Anyways, flash forward about a week or so. Back then I used to smoke and drink a little like the rebellious teen that I was. So my uncle had contacted me and said something about how he had some weed and some vodka and if I'd like to come hang out or whatever to smoke and drink. Honestly, I wasn't even even thinking about what he had said to me previously when I had agreed to meet him down the road for him to pick me up. I had met him down the street where he picked me up and he then started driving to his house which was a good 45 minute drive because he lived about two counties over. On the drive to his house he had asked me to sit a little closer to him, which immediately threw up red flags in my head. Honestly, I didn't know what to do at this point because I was nervous and scared. I Scooted over on the trunk seat just to oblige him, even though I was nervous and in a panic. He then proceeds to put his hand on my leg and then keep it there the remainder of the ride to his house. So we get to his house and we go inside. He pours me a drink of the vodka he bought while I roll a blunt with the weed he bought. At first everything was fine. We were joking and laughing. But then he goes and lays on his bed and he asks me to join him to watch TV with him. I go sit in a chair in his room, and then he insists that I lay next to him on the bed. Honestly, like I said before, I didn't know what to do. He literally lived out in the middle of nowhere, and I knew that if I contacted my parents, I'd get in trouble. And I didn't know what my uncle was fully capable of either. So I proceeded to get on the bed and just do what he said. He asked me what I wanted to watch, and back then I probably just said MTV or something along those lines. He then looks at me and says, what about a porno? And I kinda just look at him in shock and I was just like, um, what? He then turns on one and some very uncomfortable five minutes pass by because at this point I'm just like, what the fuck did I just get myself into? He then proceeds to undress me and get on top of me. I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but I think you all know what happened. I just laid there scared, not knowing what to do while his sweat dripped onto my body. While he did what he did. Finally, when in was over, I was just so disgusted at myself, I decided to take a shower to get the sweat and everything else off of me. He asked if he could join me and I quickly said no. But that didn't stop him from physically washing me himself. After all this, I then begged him to bring me back home. I really felt so disgusted and ashamed of myself. Even though I know it wasn't my fault. I blamed myself for years and years for what happened to me. Fortunately, that was the last and only time he ever did that to me. I do want to say, although I still haven't told anyone in my family to this day, karma has come and bit my uncle in the ass. He had a stroke roughly 10 or so years back, and he's been paralyzed from the waist down ever since. I hate to feel like a bitch, but a big part of me feels like he got what he deserved. I'm 29 years old and I'm an autistic introvert and I really hate being touched when this happened. I was 20. I grew up in a small town in southwest Ohio. I had just gotten back from my uncle's house in Oklahoma. I have horror stories about him too. But anyway, I was on MeetMe way before it was MyYearBook.com and that was also before Facebook, but after MySpace, well, I was kinda lonely. So I just started surfing to see who would catch my eye. I got a message from this dude on the MeetMe app. We hit it off online. It took me about a month before I actually decided to meet him. He messaged me one day and asked if we could meet. After I gave it a bit of thought, I agreed. My problem is that I neither had my license nor a car, so my only other option besides walking was riding my brother's bike. I went through my contacts and I even asked my dad. All of my attempts were met with a no, even though I had $10 on me for gas. So as I was on my way to his house. Stupid, I know. I was about halfway there when I got the shock of my life. I was riding on the side of the main road going through town. I hit a sewer drain and somehow my front tire got launched in the sewer grates and sent me flying over the handlebars. Luckily there weren't any incoming cars in my lane at the time, but the folks at the front, Frisch's, Big Boy across the street and the passing drivers all got a good laugh from it. I, however, did not. Well, he turned out to be a jerk because he had a car but refused to drive me home when I offered gas money. Then suddenly his car had all these problems. Before I left, I had asked my friend to pick me up from his house when I called from his wi fi. I was broke and I couldn't afford to pay for phone service. Keep this in mind, this story isn't about my ex. If interested, maybe I'll write more about it in another post. It was time to call my friend. I called once, no answer. Called again, no answer. I called a third time and she finally answered, only to tell me she was busy to wait an hour and then she'd get me. I waited the entire hour, very uncomfortable because of his behavior towards me, was going somewhere where I really didn't want it to go as his behavior was starting to get more erratic and threatening. I then said it's about time to head out soon because it's going to get dark. He begged me to stay. I called my friend again, hoping she'd say she's on her way or that she'll be there soon. But the answer never came. So I just decided to start walking. I was devastated. I knew the walk was going to be a long and difficult one. I couldn't ride the bike. I decided that I'd have to leave my brother's bike behind. Well, about 13 miles into my walk home, I checked my phone to see what time it was. It was 7.30pm it was about to start getting dark. This black Ford F150 the stopped and asked me if I wanted a ride. He seemed nice, but I'm naive at times and I often miss red flags even though they're smacking me right in the face. There's no other vehicles on the road at that time, so we sat there for a few minutes while I decided When I finally decided to get into the truck, I had noticed a tire iron on the floorboard. This is important to this story. He was heavyset with short black hair, thin framed glasses, and a mustache. He wore a gray shirt and blue jeans and brown boots. He started with the typical questions like so what's your name? How old are you? Are you single? I replied matter of factly that I was just walking home from my then boyfriend's house. We went about four and a half miles from the place place where my family lived. And then he went on this rant, you know women nowadays are too easy. They'll fuck just about anything with a dick. He then reached over and reached into my spaghetti strap shirt under my bra, then grabbed my breast and started rubbing it. I froze. He stopped and then he went into my sweatpants. At this point I'm now trying to come up with a way to get the hell away from the this man. But then I remembered the tire iron that was right by my feet. I asked if I could please have a cigarette. He said yes. So I set down my backpack between my legs on the floorboard just to make it look like I was looking for cigarettes. The backpack was slightly on top of the tire iron. I then grabbed it and said if you don't stop the truck, I'll make us wreck. He still didn't stop driving. I was thoroughly pooping myself at this point. I swung my arm backwards and then busted his back window out and then screamed at him to stop the truck. He was screaming and cussing me out and calling me all sorts of colorful terms. He slammed on the brakes and I then hopped out of the truck running behind the truck to the left side on the road again. More stupidity on my part. Now where we were stopped at was part of a national reserve that I happen to know quite well. You might be asking yourself why did an OP run the other way? Well, on that side of the road was a bit of fenced in land and the gate was always locked. Anyway, I'm in the woods heading towards my family's house. I knew if I didn't get home soon I was going to get lost in the dark woods. I was much bigger than I am now and I was sweating heavily so I needed a few breaks. My heart was pounding so hard and it was really hard to catch my breath. I swore that every little noise was him about to grab me. I made it home in about an hour of trekking through the woods. I had told my family everything that happened and they shrugged it off like normal. It made me feel very invalidated. My family has never been a source of comfort or safety. Just another reason why I don't trust anyone. When I calmed down and cooled off, I decided to go confront the so called friend. I looked in the parking lot for her van. She was home. I had knocked on her door and confronted her and she finally came clean. She said that she was home the whole time. I told her what happened and then she didn't even care at all. I was really hurt and furious with everyone in my life at that point. I haven't talked to her since. To my so called friend and that dirty old man. Thank the gods I'll never meet either of you ever again. Writing this story brings up memories of which I've repressed for many years for an introduction I'm a 22 year old college student in Wisconsin and I have autism as well as a learning disability. Social media isn't new to me in any way, but I do keep close tabs on it more than ever. I guess I'll start with when I first encountered a few groups on Facebook. Which reminds me, does anyone even use Facebook anymore? The first part of the story may be a bit boring, but I will get to the part of the unpleasant encounter. Also note information will be limited in some areas because the person may be getting wind of the story. I was at a point in my life at the age of 1819 where I was searching for some friends who were like me, but there were few in between. One day while searching online, I had received an inspiration invited to an autism group online. Now I was in the process of getting a diagnosis for autism, but I wasn't at the time I accepted the invite without a second thought, I really should have dug deeply into the leader of the group. As the days went on, I was learning more and more about autism until I got a personal message from the leader of the group about a meeting that she wanted to have with me via via FaceTime. I agreed again without any hesitation and I began talking to this person. I will not mention their name or if they're male or female, just in case they're still trying to reach me in other ways in the present time. The meeting itself was seemingly normal and there was some personal info shared, but not enough where I could get in deep trouble. A year or two went by and things drastically started changing. The leader was more pressing on gaining info from me and I gave this person the info on a silver platter. I want to note that I was really suffering from deep identity crisis because of my undiagnosed autism. The leader had gotten info on someone close to me that's really cared for me my whole life. Eventually, things that hit a wall, I and my careperson and I fought verbally and well, things were, let's just say, rock bottom. Online, I was kicked out of groups and discord where the leader had started. Help centers for autistic people. Little did I know I was dealing with a cult leader like no fucking lie. This person was a leader of a cult pretending to help vulnerable people online. This person was very religious and also discussed ways to be with God and whatnot. I'm not religious in any way, so the topic of God definitely made me weary. Over time, I was told by a former friend online that the leader had recruited me and was barely able to separate me from my family. I was used by this individual and I didn't know. A few of the leader's followers tried to find blame me for the research into the leader and its members, and that alone left me with severe anxiety that lasted for months on end. Years later, the former friend and I were part of a new autism group that was way more helpful. But it turns out that the new group wasn't much better. Although they weren't a cult of any kind, the group did and still to this day participates in bullying of parents and they also shun anyone who doesn't follow along with what they say. This group was very strict with its online rules and parents were run off from receiving care for their loved ones. A few of the members of the group actually blocked me and some tried to follow my page to stalk me. I was again at a very low point of my life and I felt I had no one to support me. Sadly today my support team is limited and oftentimes I'm rejected from groups. Still to this day I know overall this wasn't really a creepy story, but it tells the tale of not really knowing who you're talking to online. It's really scary not fully knowing the people you're friends with online without ever meeting them in real life. Now I'm mainly only part of my college support group online and I have actually met some of them in person, which allows me to know that there are people that do care about me. My trust in people is greatly low because of these events and I want others to know that if they're in a similar situation, the help is out there. It may take some research, but there are people that generally care about your well being. Please stay safe online guys and take care of yourselves. You matter
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Storyteller/Guest
I'm a 20 something year old female. The story takes place when I was between the ages of 9 to 10. I'm sorry if this is long, but I've never told anyone this story before in as much detail. When I was nine, some of my classmates began creating Facebook accounts. I started to ask my mom if I could create one too because I wanted to play Facebook games with my friends and after months of pestering her, she finally agreed. I should also mention that I ended up deleting my Facebook when I was a teenager, so I have no idea if Facebook even still hosts games. My mom and she ensured my account was private and that she had my password. A year passed without any issues until I was 10. I won't mention the game, but there was a virtual reality game that I had started to play with my friends. I had asked my mom if it was okay and she checked it out herself before agreeing that it was okay as long as I only spoke to my friends. The game basically gave you an avatar and any messages you sent were public with a character limit so your avatar could talk to the other avatars. The only way to send private messages was to add someone as a friend within the game. You could travel in the game to parks, clubs and other people's houses. I know it sounds dodgy to allow a 10 year old child on such a game, but I was a very quiet and responsible guy kid so my family trusted me and I feel like the Internet was in a really different place back then. Anyway, one day I befriended a stranger at a party within the game. I can't remember if they were the host or a guest at said party since it was so long ago, but I remember attending and we started chatting. I'll call her Beth. Beth thorn next to my avatar and just simply said hey, how are you? And I replied. I didn't really think much of it because it didn't strike me as an odd thing to say and I didn't want to be rude. We ended up talking about random things. The memory of this is quite hazy, but I remember that we didn't share any personal details, just chatted about what we enjoyed about the game as well as ch chatted about our avatar's outfits and hairstyles. She ended up sending me a friend request and I accepted it because we had a nice chat and it felt okay to do. I can't remember when we next chatted, but we ended up becoming genuine friends. Eventually she would come to my avatar's house and I'd go to hers and we'd have normal conversations. I didn't give her my real name at at first I lied and said I was called Hannah. She told me her name, but I'll obviously call her a fake one for privacy reasons. She asked me what age I was and I told her the truth. She told me she was 12, which didn't seem like a scary age difference to me. Like I said, we continued to chat for a few weeks. I never told my friends about about her though, because I felt like I couldn't, which will make sense as the story continues. After almost two months of talking, she said she had to confess something and that she would understand if I didn't want to be her friend anymore. I was nervous and I asked her what was wrong. She told me that she had lied about her age. She wasn't actually 12, she was 14. Looking back, this was a huge red Flag button. I was innocent because I was a kid and up until this point, she seemed so normal. I also felt like I couldn't judge her because I had lied about my name as well. So I told her it didn't matter what age she was, that I really valued our friendship, no matter what. Then I had told her my real name and I explained that I lied for privacy reasons. She told me she didn't mind and that she understood. After this, our conversation started to get really personal and it made me feel a little uncomfortable. But I also felt understood by her. I'm now a lesbian, and I was also aware of that as a kid. I didn't have the language to explain myself. I knew that I was still very young, and I also knew that that many people didn't like gay people. When Beth told me she was a lesbian, it made me feel like I wasn't alone in how I felt. I told her that I was struggling because I liked girls and I was really scared of what all that meant. This is when things started to get really dark. For a few weeks, she would talk about how she discovered she was a lesbian. And she told me not to worry about how I felt because it would be okay in the future. However, she had started asking me sexual things after a while. She asked me if I'd ever kissed a girl. I was only 10 years old, so of course the answer was no. She asked me if I wanted to kiss her and I said I didn't know. She told me we could kiss using our avatars and that if I wanted to, we could do it. I felt hesitant. I really liked Beth and I looked up to her a lot. I felt important and special because I had a friend who was 14, and to me, being 14 meant she was so cool. Looking back, I could now see that she was meticulously grooming me, slowly pushing boundaries to see what she could get away with. And I was just a kid, so I couldn't even see it at the the time. I ended up agreeing to kiss her and it made me feel grown up to do something like that. It's so embarrassing now, but at the time I felt cool. After we made our avatar's kiss, she started telling me that I was so hot and that I was turning her on. I didn't know what that meant at that age, but I didn't want to look my age by admitting that I knew that it had to mean something. Grown up. And I felt really awkward, but I didn't know what to do. I can't even Remember what I said in response? I just remember after this incident she started telling me I was hot all the time. She would also tell me that I was sexy and that she really wished I could be her girlfriend. We still had normal conversations, but anytime she told me how sexy I was, I felt uncomfortable. I certainly didn't feel hot or sexy, but I also felt special because I had a 14 year old complimenting me in such a way. I had told myself I had to grow up and stop being so childish and that this is what people do when they liked each other. After knowing her for a few months, she asked me to be her girlfriend. I was excited about this and agreed. Looking back, I didn't even have a crush on Beth, but I thought I felt romantic feelings for her because she was grooming me. She made me feel so special and cool and I really mistook that as having a crush on her. She suggested that we add each other on Facebook if we were going to be girlfriends and since we had been chatting for so long, I agreed to this and we found each other and added one another. Although the game we were on was on Facebook, adding someone on the game didn't make them a Facebook friend. When I saw a photo of Beth for the first time, I thought she was really beautiful and her profile was real. She had plenty of normal photos, although I thought she looked a little older than 14, which was confirmed when I looked at her birthday the year she was born. Warren had her as being 16, turning 17 in less than six months. This made me feel confused, so I messaged her on the Facebook game about it. She told me that she was so sorry for lying, she was just scared that I would think she was weird if she told me the truth and that she didn't want me to feel uncomfortable talking to her. She made me feel really silly for asking her why she lied to me and I felt guilty because she told me to. Didn't matter what age she was because we got along so well. I told her she was right and I then apologized for making a big deal out of it. This was another huge dangerous red flag that I ignored. A week after all of this, she was telling me how hot and sexy I was yet again. I was beginning to get used to it at this point and since she was my girlfriend and we'd actually seen each other's faces at this point, I told her that she was hot too, instead of simply saying thanks in response. This made her bold and she told me she wanted to make our avatar's kiss again. I Said okay and we did. Then she told me we should put our avatars on the bed. We were in her avatar's house and I did what she suggested because again, I was only 10 years old. What happened next makes me feel sick and ashamed to remember and type out. She told me we should take our clothes off and do stuff, if you know what I mean. Again, I was 10 years old. I had no idea about sex, especially not sex between two females. I was really scared and uncomfortable, but I didn't know what to do and I didn't want to hurt her feelings or look like I wasn't mature enough to be a girl girlfriend. She had started to tell me I was so mature for my age and that was why being her girlfriend was okay. I believed her. The game had an animation where your avatar could bow down and when the avatar was naked they basically had flesh colored underwear on. Beth started to press the bow button to make it look like her avatar was doing something sexual to my avatar. Then she had started messaging me and telling me what she was doing to my avatar. Like weird virtual sex type stuff. I didn't understand what was happening and I was literally frozen in fear. I didn't understand why I felt so wrong. I just knew I was genuinely afraid and I felt sick. She stopped doing this after a while and she told me I had to do something to her. So I just made my avatar bow too and copied something she wrote to me. She started saying really gross stuff and how she was touching herself in real life. She went offline really fast after this incident and I remember feeling so sick and wanting to cry. I didn't understand why I felt so dirty, but I felt like I had done something wrong because I hadn't stopped it and that I just did what she wanted me to do. I was confused because I didn't like what was happening and I thought I should have liked it because Beth always told me I was so mature for my age, but I didn't feel that way. She got me to do sexual stuff with her a few more times and every time I felt really uncomfortable, but I always went along with it anyway. Bear in mind that she was completely aware that I was only 10 years old. Anyway, I had been keeping all of this to myself until I finally cracked one day in school. Our class used to do an activity where we would sit in a circle on the floor and the teacher would pass us a small candle or ball and we would only chat if we were holding the object. Everyone in the room would listen and it was A way for us to chat about anything and everything. I don't really know how it got so deep, but one of my classmates ended up talking about his parents separating and because he shared something so serious and vulnerable, I found myself sharing a little about Beth. I said that I had a friend who was making me uncomfortable and my teacher must have immediately recognized how serious it is for a child to say such a thing. She asked me what I meant and I said I felt like I was being stalked on my Facebook. I can't remember exactly what she said, but she somehow managed to end the circle time without dismissing me or freaking any of the class out. She then spoke to me privately about it and I told her that I had befriended a 16 year old girl on a Facebook game and I felt like she wouldn't leave me alone. My teacher was rightfully horrified and she contacted my parents that same afternoon. My mom immediately wanted to know what was going on. I didn't tell anyone the full details because I was just way too ashamed and I also didn't want to come out. So I had told my mom that I added someone from the Facebook game onto my actual Facebook account and that I felt like she was suffocating me, that she was always messaging me on the game and telling me I was hot. I didn't go into details and I didn't say anything about her making me have virtual sex with her or making me regret girlfriend. My mom knew Beth was clearly a pedophile and a predator and she then went onto my Facebook and then blocked her completely. She also went on my game and blocked her from there as well. Every time you exited the game, messages disappeared so she never saw anything on the game and we never messaged each other on my actual Facebook account. Looking back, Beth probably did this deliberately to avoid detection. My mom gave me a huge lecture not because she was angry with me, it was a concerned lecture about how I should never add strangers or talk to them as well as never give out personal details. I understood and I stopped using the game and I ended up shutting it down for some reason. Some years later, I stopped using the game and it ended up shutting down for some reason. Years later, I never heard from Beth ever again. I still think about her occasionally and it makes me feel disgusting to know that she preyed on me as an adult. It feels worse to look back because I know there's no way I'd ever talk to a random 10 year old and I'd certainly never do any of the gross shit that Beth did when I was a young teenager. I told myself Beth didn't mean to make me uncomfortable, but I can now see it very clearly. She really took time in grooming me and what she did was inexcusable and wrong. She committed crimes and was a predator. I should have told someone everything, but I was too ashamed. Thank you for reading my story. My message to anyone listening is to please stay safe online. You're never too old for Internet safety. Women can be predators too, and never ignore red flags. Someone lying about their age and being a lot older than you is weird and creepy. And parents have the right to be worried about their children online because let's face it, it's a very scary world out there. Stay safe, everyone. So a couple of of weeks ago, my niece and I were on TikTok live, just talking to random people, people from other countries, groups, questions and answers, and other things that you do on live. We kept rotating the people in the Live with us until this one guy joined our live. He was talking to us about getting more followers, which my niece is pretty big on TikTok, so she was really interested in getting more followers as to the fact that she wants to be an influencer. He started off normal and telling us different tips, and then he started getting very sexual, making us uncomfortable, saying that the main way a female can gain a large following is to dance with barely any clothes on. After that, we ended his joint on our life. We continued on the life and he starts sending roses and flowers, insane amounts, commenting how much money he had and that we should do what he said and all this other crazy shit. We ended the life and we were completely creeped out. We figured we'd come back to it later on in the night. So fast forward about two hours later and I'm hanging out with another friend and my phone starts going crazy with Snapchat messages and ads. It was him. How he found my Snapchat when it wasn't even on my TikTok and never once mentioned my name or tag or anything is beyond me. He also found my Facebook and Instagram account. I continued to get messages over and over again until I blocked him. He was asking me if I wanted to make some money doing inappropriate things. Then more accounts started popping up all over the place and adding me. I had to delete all of my social media accounts and change my number. He had even gotten a hold of my old address. It truly terrifies me how he was able to find out who I was without being pinned in any videos or the Live account. I never even mentioned my real name or my relationship with my niece. While on the live, he continues to make new accounts to harass my niece and I and I've even contacted the the police, but because he's in another state, they don't see it as a threat. If anything else happens, I'll definitely provide an update. Before I get into telling this story, I want to warn that the story has pedophilia mentions, suicidal stuff as well as emotional abuse. Before we get into it, some background information. My name is Kate, I'm a 22 year old trans male and yes, specifying I'm trans is important for this story. At the time this started I was 18 and it ended when I was about 20 or so. I've been a fan for a little while on this channel and I've heard numerous stories from other people and I've really debated for a while telling my own story. I don't know how scary some may actually find it, but as my dad always says, the scary events of your own life are the scariest you yourself will ever go through, so I won't judge myself too harshly. I also apologize if the story seems to jump around a lot and gets very long. Some of the fear and pain from this time still really affects me to this day. Now this story mostly takes place on the social media called Discord. If you don't know what Discord is, it's like if you combined old chat rooms, forums and video chat services like Skype and made it into one site, an app, and originally it was built for gamers, but nowadays it's used by numerous groups of people. As the story proves, I got the app when I was about 16 or 17 and while I originally didn't use it that much, I had soon started using it to regularly chat with like minded people, gamers and content creators mostly. Unfortunately, I have a controlling mother and because of her I was rather isolated even at that age, which may actually explain some of my over trusting tendencies in this story and which brought me to Discord to begin with. I slowly ended up moving away from the gaming community for reasons not related to this and I ended up joining the roleplaying community. If you didn't know, around this time roleplaying was decently popular on Discord and still is to this day. At the same time I ended up seeking mental health help on one of my old gaming communities that I was still in as I was dealing with a toxic and abusive lover at this time and to tell the story of her would be a whole other topic so I'll just leave it at her name was Riley. Riley and I had another one of our rough breaking up only to get back together a few days later patches. So I was venting one night in this server when I came across a user named Dessi. I don't recall his full username anymore and that wasn't his real name, but I'll call him Desi as stating his real name still hurts and makes me feel sick. He was a lonely, suicidal and depressed and was also venting and I noticed and I had talked him down from this. As a result we ended up becoming fast friends and I texted him every day about everything, most notably my problems with Ry and drama that I was going through with other discord friends at the time. Typical 18 year old stuff to be honest. At the time I was just slowly coming out of the closed off religious influence of my mother and my church and I was also exploring being part of the LGBTQ community. I of course told Dessi this as he was a very close friend. He took my coming out very well though. At the time I told him I was gender fluid, not trans, just to see if going by female pronouns would still make him and my other friends comfortable. Dumb. I know he respected both my pronouns, surprisingly, and he was also very lovely towards me at the time when I said that I was only into women. I'm bisexual, but at the time I was in denial about it. For anyone wondering, I also at the time told him about my mental illnesses and disorders like depression, anxiety and autism. However, I also told him that I was seeking a diagnosis for a disorder called did, AKA Dissociative Identity Disorder. A brief explanation for those who don't know. It's a disorder that splits up your memories and personality in what's known as alters, and it generally results from childhood abuse or trauma. It was very supportive and understanding, but he also made it a little weird and this was the first thing that he ever did that made me uncomfortable. Among a trillion things to follow, he was massively into zodiacs and astrology and he told me, oh, that's normal, you're a Pisces, right? Pisces always have multiple sides. I do too, as does my girlfriend. I was a little weirded out by this. DID is a serious mental disorder and he was chopping it up into zodiacs. I brushed it off though, figuring he was more implying it was a funny coincidence. Plus I was new to astrology and I didn't want to come off judgmental about a belief or side of spirituality that I didn't know about. I promise this becomes important later on. Months went by and I soon developed this rather popular Discord server within my community of friends and the larger communities that I was in. A lot of my friends were there and even Riley was Desi naturally, of course, ended up joining and met my best friends at the time. For their privacy, I'll call them M and K. K is still my best friend to this day. Soon we all bonded and we formed a sort of family out of my server. This had really filled me with so much joy as I didn't at this time connect with my family much at all. My dad was distant and my sister and I were on pretty rough terms and I tended to ignore her. So as you may imagine, I spent a lot of time with my newfound family, came out as trans, and soon we moved on from my old role playing server and into a group chat. This is where things slowly went downhill. However, as the weeks and months went by, Dessy exhibited more and more erratic and controlling behavior. He kept being weird about my masculine identity, trying to imply that I'd be better off as a woman and that I'd be more desirable as a woman. He suddenly claimed to have the disorder that I was seeking a diagnosis for. And he was would use his alters to control me or guilt me at any given opportunity. One of these supposed alters was named Sen. Yeah, that should tell you about everything of where this was going. Sen often was in my DMs more than in the group chat, and at the time, the others didn't even know who Sen was. As a result, Sen unleashed all of what would later be Dessi's true colors and darkness on me pretty much constantly. He would tell me that Dessy was horrible and was going to hell, baiting me to compliment Dessy and defend him. He also attacked me verbally, insulted me, and had even threatened me on several occasions. A lot of my religious trauma, and trauma in general was used against me by sin in those days. And every time I had enough and tried to set a boundary towards Dessie in general, Dessie would just claim that he couldn't do do anything and that sin was responsible. It was always about sin being at fault. Every time I was depressed or had suicidal thoughts, Dessi told me he would kill himself instead, forcing me to comfort him. Instead of caring about my own feelings. Anytime I had a breakdown, Dessy always made it about himself and he found a way to make me feel bad for being depressed. Dessi also protested, right Riley and I's Relationship constantly, though not in a caring way, more in a subtle I want you to myself kind of way. This got even worse when I announced that Riley and I had finally broken up. Dessie seemed happy, almost too happy. As my friend group grew, it soon became a complete nightmare as Dessie by then was obsessed with me and constantly calling all of us and getting angry if any of us were busy or had other calls to get to. I had also found out that Dessy and his girlfriend had broken up, making Dessi all the more possessive of me. He had started calling me his son and was constantly asking everyone where I was whenever I'd go offline for just a few minutes. My only relief during this time was someone who was, I believe, a niece or family friend of Dessi's or something like that, named Del. She was young, right around 11. And yes, she wasn't supposed to be on Discord, but she was really adorable and I really enjoyed talking to her and Dessie about her day. Dessi's horrible mind games unfortunately weren't done well. Remember that religious trauma that I mentioned earlier? Yeah. He decided to play that card again and pretended he was possessed. Lord, it was cringy. But for a minute I almost believed that it was real and tried every religious trick in the book. One of the tricks I tried was a prayer. But then I noticed something odd. The demon claimed prayers did nothing to it. By demon, I mean Dessie, by the way. Now that wasn't entirely weird. I wasn't a pastor or anything. Plus, despite being religious back then, I was pretty open minded and I considered how I was raised about demons could have been wrong. But then my logic worked. Why would a demon just decide to take over someone and of all things, text their friends on Discord? When the demon continued texting, I quickly figured out that it was Dessi faking it. Especially after the demon claimed other religions have demons too and that their tricks might work better. Why would a supposed demon try to help me with ways to get rid of it? I tried to call him out and say that I knew that it was just Dessy, but he continued acting, now spamming me with really weird sentences that were supposed to scare me or something. I guess the next part, however, made my stomach drop. Remember? L. Well, this supposed demon then spammed her DMs too. Suddenly it clicked. It all made sense. L wasn't a real person. Elle was Dessi. I felt sick for months. He made me believe she was real. I screamed at him again, but unfortunately I didn't cut him out of my life at that point and I just forgave him. I really shouldn't have, especially with what all he did over the next year. But I won't get into all that as it's really disturbing and triggering. Let me just leave it at this. He ended up getting kicked out of the group, but unfortunately that wasn't the end of it. Later on he returned after insisting that he sought out therapy and had gotten help for so many of his terrible actions. But he had only turned out somehow even worse. He grew even more controlling and he was now actively making me his therapist, so to speak. The things he told me, the awful things he told me, the horrid thoughts he had, the desires he had, how much the group actually annoyed him, how much that he favored me and K and adored us, all the dark things he told me I could never even type or say. It would just be way too much to talk about and it really scares me to this day. Finally, after a few more incidents that I don't want to get into, I had enough. I kicked him out of the group chat and out of my life for good. Later on, however, I learned the full extent of all he had done. His claim of having alters obviously bullshit. The incident with L. Well, he turned out to be a pedophile who had really fantasized about minors. I also ended up cutting out my old friend group as most of them were really toxic. And later down the line, Em and I also cut ties mutually as our friendship had also become very mutually toxic and unhealthy. Since then, I've left the church, cleaned up my social circles, gotten engaged, grown my bond with my best friend K, and I've made a whole new bunch of friends. And I'm now in the process of getting diagnosed with DID and ptsd. I still use discord to this day, but I depend on it a lot less for friendships and mental health help than I did back in the day. This story wouldn't have even come to my mind to tell, especially since I've left that life far behind me were it not for the fact that he recently tried to contact me again by trying to find Friend me on Snapchat. I of course rejected the friend request, but it brought all these memories flooding back. The story was messy and I couldn't fit in room for the full extent of all the messed up things Dessy did. But what I want to tell people is to never do what I did. Let this story be a warning to you. Never forgive a guy like that. Over and over report people like him and always trust your gut. Always block those who make you uncomfortable or hurt you, and never bond with someone you originally had met in a VIN channel in some random discord server that you barely spoke in. It's cheesy as hell and a lot to say, but it's true. Stay safe out there. My name is Bethany and I am a 19 year old female from the UK. My story started when I was 18. I had just left college and I was working part time at a local bar before university in the fall. One day on my shift I got a message from a college friend called Abigail. She said, hey, did you know you're on this website? Confused, I clicked on the link she sent. It was a really disturbing bottom of the Internet level website and the category was called Internet Sluts. My heart sank as I then saw multiple pictures of myself, both from my private Instagram and my Snapchat story as my coworkers, old friends and some family follow me. I've never posted any risky photos, just ordinary selfies when I felt good about myself. The worst thing was that my name and age was listed, as well as hundreds of views and depraved comments threatening sexual assault towards me. As I scrolled further, there were stolen photos of all my former female classmates as well, some of them being close friends of mine. The weirdest part was that whoever had anonymously passed posted all of her photos, had even gotten to the extent to AI photoshop some innocent images with naked models, creating fake and decent images of my classmates. The worst part was this account had been active for over a year while some of us hadn't even turned 18 yet. What concerned me the most was a lot of these women had clearly been hacked with some very private photos posted. However, all of the women of me were unedited straight from my Instagram with no further hacking into other social medias. I had no idea why whoever this was had spared me from the hacking. Although I was grateful my very personal photos were not leaked, it was somehow more concerning as to why I was the only one less severely attacked. I felt extremely nauseated in my shift and tears welled up in my eyes, causing others to ask me what? What was the matter? I've previously been in an abusive relationship, mentally and physically, so some of these vile comments reopened some old wounds for me. I left the bar to freak out in private, yet luckily my partner was there too and he was a great comfort. I contacted the police immediately, listed the site's name and how damaging it was for me and all the other women to have our photos stolen like this. The website had thousands of stolen images, from friends to sisters to cousins and even mothers. The police were unhelpful, inferring that if you don't want indecent photos shared, don't take them in the first place. Through an intense amount of sobbing, I explained that these photos were stolen. And I highlighted that my photos specifically were not suggestive, but were still subjected to these depraved men. Men. Even if they were sexual, they were personal photos and that is surely illegal to upload them to such a website. It felt like 101 victim blaming. So I ended up hanging up after giving them all the information I had. A few days passed and social media was a wildfire of college girls all reporting the same thing by the same person. The worst part was who did it. Abigail messaged again explaining who did this to us all. People say that it's always the person that you least expect, but when this happens, it's devastating. It was Charles. Charles was a close friend of mine for five years and we had what I thought was a rare 100% platonic, supportive friendship that I truly valued. He even stayed in my place with our other friends friends multiple times and bonded with my family. My dad loved him so much that he had often carpooled with them and they formed their own friendship. I was devastated to find out it was him. I text him frantically asking how he could do this to me, to all of us. He just put a simple I'm sorry and then blocked me. It's been a few months now. More than seven police reports have been made about him and his behavior. Despite all that, no arrest has been made. I really hope one day that justice is served in its own way. And I can't believe women get treated this way by their so called friends. It's absolutely despicable and disgusting. So for some background, I used to be poor as hell and I had a female friend who had encouraged me to get into camgirl stuff. If I could go back in time and change it, I never would have done it. I wish I had just kept struggling and trying to get a better job instead of exploiting myself like that. But I was young, desperate and naive. I was only 19, trying to save money money to go to college. I have no contact with my family for reasons that aren't important, relying only on myself. Sadly though, one of my friends wasn't a positive influence on me. I followed her advice and I would advertise my stuff on Twitter and some other places Part of me was relieved to be earning money, but I knew deep down that what I was doing was. Was really depressing and grim. But I just felt trapped. And I was so desperate for money. I didn't rake in millions or anything like that, but I earned enough to be able to save for college and pay rent on my shitty place. One of my regular clients, who I'll call Bill, was always very enthusiastic, constantly throwing money at me and complimenting me. He never asked me to do any anything that felt degrading, so I preferred dealing with him over some of the other guys. I never saw his face because his profile was blank. And when I did private web stuff for him, he always had his camera off. I knew he was there because, well, let's just say he made his presence known. Sometimes he'd ask to talk to me. No sexual stuff. And that was always a relief. Looking back, I guess this was a red flag, but at the time, I was just glad to feel like I was being treated like a human again, as opposed to a sex doll. I never told him anything personal. I just listened to his problems. Now I know this was him using me in a way, but I prefer being an emotional punching bag over anything else. He told me about his rough upbringing and how he felt lonely, etc. I felt sad for him and I offered some advice at times, but I mostly just listened to him. One day, after two months of this, he had asked for my phone number. I told him I couldn't give out that information, and he started to guild trip me. I started talking about how lonely he is, how he's never had a friend or even a girlfriend, how he's a virgin and he really struggles to connect with people. I felt uncomfortable, but I still refused to give him my number. I told him I was sorry. I didn't mind chatting to him through a webcam, but I didn't feel comfortable giving my actual contact details out. He told me that he thought we were friends, and I stupidly said that we were, but that I just had to be careful. He seemed to understand, and everything went on as normal for a few more weeks. I was hoping I'd have enough money to start college by the time I was 2021. I'd managed to get a better job with better pay, but I had kept up with the cam stuff because I was really just desperate to have enough money. I just wanted this phase of my life to be over, which is sad. It's never nice to wish your life away. But this period was rough. My friend was now trying to discourage me from even going to college, telling me I should just stick with the cam stuff and going on about how I could end up super wealthy from it, etc. She offered to be my manager and it was then that I realized she only persuaded me to join in the first place because she wanted to be my pimp or something. I felt a sense of betrayal when I realized this, and I had tried my best to cut her off. She would still show up at my work though, all friendly, as if I wasn't obviously distancing myself from her. Without this friend, I really had no one. Well, except for Bill. We continued just talking sometimes, and one day he told me that I seemed sad. I didn't tell him about anything that was going on in my life, but he tried to get it out of me for a good five minutes before he dropped it. It. When Bill had been a client for about four months, he started telling me that I should quit the cam girling and he told me he was rich enough to take care of me. I told him I appreciated that, but that I wouldn't be doing this forever. I had other plans. He was quiet for a long time and it was really awkward, but I always had to let him lead the conversations. He asked what my plans were and I thought there would be no harm in telling him that I planned to go to college and make something of myself. This made him go silent again before he did a 360 and then snapped that a girl like me was nothing but a whore and that girls like me don't need to waste time in school. I was shocked at his outburst and it really stung, but I couldn't show it. I was scared to defend myself, so I just stared at him like an idiot. He then started crying and he told me he didn't mean that. He just didn't want to lose me because he loved me. I was very uncomfortable at this point and internally freaking out, but I didn't know what to do, so I told him it was okay and to try and calm down. He then disconnected from the chat and I didn't hear from him for a week. I was starting to think that that was the end of Bill when I had received a message on Twitter from what seemed like a random spam account. It was a message that simply said I love you and it had my full name. I froze. I always used an alias on the campsite and any social media associated with it, but I knew that it had to be Bill. I mean, he said he loved me in our Last chat, I was really scared, but I had no one to talk to about it. I then replied asking, who is this? But they didn't respond well. A few days later, I received a message on my private Instagram, the one that wasn't associated with the campsite, and I immediately felt sick when I saw the profile picture. It was a photo of me in a compromising position, clearly taken from the campsite. I recognized the scene and I knew it had to have been Bill because the image was from a private call with him. I felt like crying. Honestly. I had some old friends on my personal social media. The thought of them seeing it made me panic. And the thought of my family somehow seeing it despite our no contact, well, it made me feel sick. I know that I put myself out there, and I know the people who paid for it are arguably messed up. Button. I don't think I deserved to have private shit like that exposed. It was supposed to be only for Bill to see, and I didn't want any of this connected to me outside of my alias and my Persona on the campsite. I just felt so violated and disgusting. I immediately messaged back saying that I knew this was Bill and to please not share screenshots of our private meetings. I reported the private profile multiple times, praying Instagram would delete it, and thank God they actually did. Well, a few hours later, you guessed it, another profile then appeared. This time, however, it was posting images of me and tagging me in them. I was shaking uncontrollably now, and I was crying. I was messaging the account, begging them to remove them and deploy. Stop this. I said that I knew it was Bill, and I told him if he actually loved me, he wouldn't do this, and that I'd do anything to make him stop posting these screenshots. When I said this, he finally responded, confirming that it was him behind the account and that he'll only stop if I promise to not go to college. I told him that he couldn't say that, and he ignored me. As the hours ticked back by, more accounts with compromising images of me then appeared. This time, however, Bill had started tagging some of my old friends. This was my worst fear, and honestly, I considered ending it all right then and there. I know that's very dark to admit, but it's how I felt. I just thought, wow, I fucked up my whole life and for what? To go to college faster. But at the same time, I was really barely even surviving before, never mind saving money. As much as I'd wish I'd Just kept struggling for a bit. Poverty makes you do some crazy shit sometimes. One of my old school friends still had my number and she actually video called me. She actually saved my life that night. She asked me if I was okay and what was going on before then. Telling me that I had to compose myself and go to the police. I told her that I couldn't because I'd brought it on myself. And she told me that wasn't true and that I didn't have to put up with this. She told me I didn't have to face it alone and that she wanted to help me. I was so overwhelmed. But I did what she suggested and I contacted the police. I was genuinely surprised that they took me seriously. And my old school friend, who I'll call Alice. While she was with me every step of the way. I wasn't living that far from my hometown. And we'd only lost touch because I just up and left for a fresh start. And we were both so busy with our own lives that we fell away. As I was saying, the police took me seriously. They told me it didn't matter if I'd done these things on camera for Bill, it had no wrong right to put them online. They tracked him down and he turned out to be a middle aged, financially comfortable man with a wife and kids. He was actually seen as a pillar in his community, but behind closed doors he was just a sleazeball. He only got two years in prison for what he did, but I guess something was better than nothing. His wife blamed me for it all, apparently. She said I was a slut who stole her and her husband's money. I'm 21 now and I finally made it to college. Alice insisted that I moved in with her and her family until I'm on my feet again. The reason I don't talk to my own family is because they choose substances over everything else. They weren't very interested in what I went through. They weren't even mad or disgusted, just completely disinterested. Anyway, Alice and her family had let me stay with them for a while. I got rid of my cam stuff, literally burned all the shit I used for the streams and videos and I closed all the accounts associated with it. I even deleted my personal social media except for my Facebook. It was honestly embarrassing showing face, I can't lie. But I was really lucky to be able to get two jobs that paid decent. I'm in college now, eventually being able to move to the next state over to do it. I still talk to Alice and we'll always be friends. I honestly owe so much to her and her family. They didn't even have to take me in, but they did. I'm sorry this is so long, but I'm sharing because the world is honestly a fucked up place. A lot of exploitation happens and it's rough out there. You shouldn't be judged. If you did what I did, you aren't a disgusting person. But that's sad that so many women feel they have no option but to go into what I did out of desperation. I can't make financial struggles disappear, but I really hope that someday we live in a world where no one feels like gaming or that anything like that is their only option. You will always be a full human who deserves respect no matter what. I've started therapy to deal with all my shit and I think it's helping. I hope anyone listening to this knows that there's always another option. The world is tough, but you're tougher. It isn't your fault if people take advantage of you or hurt you. You didn't make someone hurt you, they chose to do that freely. Always speak out when someone hurts you and ask for Bill. I hope when he gets out of jail that he continues the rest of his life in the prison of his own mind. He deserves to feel like shit forever for what he's done to me. He'll never win. You tell yourself no one wants your college era band tees, but on Depop people are searching for exactly what you've got. You once paid a small fortune for them at merch stands. Now a teenager who calls them vintage will offer that same small fortune back. Sell them easily on Depop, just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest. Who knew your questionable music taste would be a money making machine. Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Depop where taste recognizes taste.
- [137:52]
Narrator/Host
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- [138:25]
Storyteller/Guest
I'm a 24 year old female and this incident occurred back when I was 18. I joined Tinder because it's what my friends were doing and I wanted to fit in I had my age range set to like 18 to 21 and a woman came in my profile who was clearly not in that demographic. She was obviously at least 40ish but her age was set to 21. I found it weird as hell as I had swiped left to get rid of her. I didn't think much about it though. You see lots of weirdness on dating apps. In case anyone doesn't know, you can link your Instagram to Tinder but it doesn't reveal your username. It just shows people some extra photos from your feed but they can't see any identifying info so long as it's not in a photo. I had my Instagram LinkedIn and a few days later I had received a message request. It was from that older lady that I'd swiped away from. I honestly have no idea how she found me. My Instagram wasn't private. I was so stupid at 18 and I thought I was invincible. I clicked on her profile and her page wasn't private. Her photos consisted of her in fancy places, nice vacations, restaurants, etc. I wouldn't say that she was deliberately showing off her photos, just showed that she seemed to go out very often. I know this was the worst possible decision, but I decided to accept her message request simply to ask how she found me. Present day me would love to shake old me into oblivion, but like I said, I was very stupid at the time. Her message just said hey and I responded with hi, I saw you on Tinder a while ago. How did you find me on here? She replied right away as if she'd been staring at her screen waiting for me to respond. She just said I have my ways with a winky face which I found creepy. I straight up asked what age she was and I called her out for lying on her profile as there was no way she was 21. She told me that she was 50 and had accidentally set her age to the wrong age. That was such a bullshit excuse, but I didn't know what to say so I ignored her. She sent me another message a while later trying to make conversation and I stupidly started talking to her. She started asking how I was and just making general chit chat. The conversation then began to take a turn. She asked me if I'd ever been with an older woman before and I obviously said no. She said that I seemed super mature for my age, which made me cringe because I wasn't falling for that line. She asked if we could be friends and honestly part of me wondered if she was lonely or something and I felt bad for her. I said that I was always open, open to new friends, but that I found it weird that she somehow found me on Instagram and had lied about her age. She reminded me the age thing was apparently a mistake and she made a joke about being old and bad with technology, which I also cringed at. I just had a bad feeling and I was conscious of my own stupidity. I didn't say anything else and the next day I saw that she had asked me for my Snapchat. I replied saying that I didn't think someone her age who was bad with tech would use Snapchat. And her reply was again, just asking me to add her. I said no and I thought that was the end of it because she didn't reply for days. That is until Saturday morning she messaged me asking if I wanted to go downtown with her to a bar. I replied saying no. Sorry, I don't feel comfortable meeting someone double my age. I know that some people might say this was rude of me, but I just found her super weird. I just really don't see why a 50 year old woman would be interested in an 18 year old, especially considering how dumb I was back then. But then again, she probably wanted to have someone naive and dumb because no one her own age wanted her. Also, I'm in the US so I couldn't go out for drinks with her and she obviously knew that, so I didn't understand why she even asked that in the first place. She became aggressive and she called me a frigid little bitch. I was shocked. And then she said, God, I can't believe you girl. Damn it. I was so angry now. And I told her it was no wonder she was going after me because no Sign woman woman her own age would ever want someone like her. She told me I was homophobic and sexist for comparing her to a man, which I literally didn't do. I told her that and she just called me a stupid bitch. I then blocked her because I just had enough. But I was upset. I told one of my friends and she told me that I basically let her on by continuing to talk to her. Maybe she had a boy point, but I don't think I deserve to be called names. I was just upset because I had never been spoken to like that before and I barely had any dating experience at that time. I ended up just deleting Tinder. I made my Instagram private too. Well, two months passed and what happened was, well, in the past I was enjoying college and meeting new people that Way. One day I got a snap notification, and what do you know? It was from that weird old woman. I almost dropped my phone in shock, and I immediately blocked her again. No idea how she found my Snapchat. A few days later, I got another message from a blank Instagram account, and it said, hey, sorry for my outburst, but I'd really love to take you out. How about going to that bar? I was so freaked out, and I blocked that account too. My friend told me to go to the police, but I didn't. I had heard many stories of them not doing anything because the person hasn't technically caused harm. Anytime I went out, though, I felt like I was being watched. But I'm sure I was all in my head, as I had never saw the woman in person. But she lives somewhere near me, so the thought of bumping into her just scared me. For the next few weeks, she kept making new Instagram accounts to send me messages. Sometimes her messages were full of insults, and sometimes they were creepy and sexual. A few times, she'd wrote me long paragraphs detailing how she'd take my virginity. It made me feel sick. I never told her I was a virgin, but she was right in her assumption, so it freaked me out even more. I was too scared to tell my mom because she's the type to throw hands if anyone is hurting me. But eventually, after about six months of dealing with this shit, I did. She told me to delete my social media, which I was hesitant to do, but I knew she was right. I mean, what else was there to do? It seemed like it was the only way to make it all stop. A year had passed, and I was now 19. I was in a relationship now with someone that I met away from any apps. She knew about my past stalker and I decided to create an Instagram again now that so long had passed. Well, as unbelievable as it sounds, that crazy woman found me again. I had the Instagram up for like, two months and it was private, and I received a message from her. Same old shit. She said that she missed me and again asked if I would go to a bar with her. I was truly speechless. I blocked her and I changed my username, but she found me again on a different account. My girlfriend had told me to just delete my account because it's really not worth going through all that again. And I knew she was right, but it felt so unfair. I was only 19 years old and I couldn't have a social media presence because some lunatic had latched onto me for whatever reason. It was so disturbing to think that even after a year, she must have still searched for me regularly to try and keep tabs on me. When I turned 21, I honestly felt nervous in bars and clubs just in case that woman was lurking in the shadows. She could guess my age as the years went by and I was always kinda paranoid. I graduated at 22 and it was a huge relief to know that I could finally move away from the city I was in. I can't give anything away about where I am or what I'm doing now because I'm still paranoid about this woman. But I'm somewhere far away from her and I'm doing good now. My relationship friendship at 19 didn't last, but I've found my forever person now. I don't really care about social media anymore and I've sworn off of it forever. It's simply too risky to be on there. I wouldn't be surprised if that woman still searched me up from time to time despite the fact that it's now been six years. I don't understand how she even has the time. My partner isn't on social media either, but it's really hard sometimes with my family and friends. They can post photos if I'm in them because we're so paranoid about that crazy woman somehow finding them. I don't understand how she always found me or how she even got my Snapchat. I don't think I mentioned, but I deleted that too, just so she couldn't continue harassing me. I can only imagine what wild shit she'd say now. Now that I'm over 21 1, she'd probably still demand that I go to a bar with her. If this woman ever hears this, all I have to say is I really hope we never meet again. And stay away from me. I pray that she never latches on to another young girl and that she gets the help she clearly needs.
- [148:45]
Narrator/Host
Spring just slid into your DMs. Grab that boho, look for that rooftop dinner. Those same sandals that can keep up with you. And hang some string lights to give your patio a glow up. Spring's calling, Ross. Work your magic.