welcome in goodnight strangers we did it we did it 1000 subscribers we are now officially a community this is the direct results of you supporting this channel supporting me and that is why I decided to take you on a ride an endless ride if you may please watch your step as you hop on it is now just me and you here it's completely silent all you can hear is the rain tapping on the window in front of you suddenly the radio seems to turn on in a strange it familiar voice can be heard he is telling you that there are many many more strangers just like me why here to share with you their own personal story and without let the ride begin they recently ran into an old co-worker from the time we worked at a sandwich shop in the truck stop we chatted for a while before he had to leave but I started thinking about my stay at that place specifically the creepy sandwich guy in college I worked some overnights at a truck stop it was a pretty safe place in a small town there had only been three incidents in the past four years before I had gotten tired one the truck had got robbed one group of ladies got arrested for servicing two truckers and one overdose I was never really worried even though my coworker seemed a little concerned that I was a young person working at a truck stop late at night with only one other employee with me at all times usually it was really slow most of the time and get three or four truckers come in the first hour a couple of people came in with the munchies in order three dozen cookies one time but it was maybe one or two an hour so I'd spent about three hours cleaning our vents washing dishes cleaning the lobby and those kind of things then I'd spend whatever time in between customers doing my homework the overnight boss at the other side which was the gas station was okay with it as long as everything was cleaned and temped regularly a few weeks before I inevitably left this place a guy came in 20 minutes before my shift was over so it was about 5:00 a.m. at this point my coworker had arrived early so he could fill up some paperwork he had to get done so he was just sitting in the back office when I started making this customer a sandwich making chitchat like usual nothing seemed out of the ordinary he told me he was driving from New York to Wisconsin asked me a little about how my night had been nothing crazy I wrapped up his sob bring it up and threw in a small discount for him since she seemed nice and I was just happy I was getting ready to go home for a few hours sleep before I headed to campus when I went to take his change things went wrong he dropped the coins in my hand but suddenly he had his grip tied around my wrist the next thing I knew I'm on the other side of the counter on the floor he had yanked me across the counter and still had a tight grip around my wrist thank God my coworker was there the manager on the other side had slipped into the bathroom so this guy knew I was the only one there at the moment my coworker while filling out papers was looking at the cameras and had seen everything he was out of the back just seconds after I hit the ground and before I really knew what was going on he had chased the guy outside he didn't pursue him far afraid that someone else nearby and you just come after him he ran back inside shut the doors and shouted to the manager to call the police immediately the cops came they searched the area and watched the security videos but nothing ever came from it the guy disappeared and I never heard anything about him again I put in my two weeks notice the following day after my nerves had calmed down I was switched around so work during the day for my last few shifts and they made it a policy that two people were to be working both sides of the truck stop overnight shifts from this point on I still live about a half hour from there and honestly I haven't went back since my last day just because that memory is still in my mind almost eight years later it's been a long time since I graduated high school so long that it feels says if it's all in the event that occurred in another person's life it feels like something that I read about or imagined something illusory that I've inserted myself into they say the human body replaces all its living cells every 7 years so I suppose that physically I am a different person than the one that existed a decade ago but the final conversation I had with an old history teacher mr. Cole is one that feels like it occurred just yesterday for almost 15 years I had replayed the interaction in my mind over and over again but something I don't think I'll ever forget he was standing on a site from the main crowd around the corner of the main school building he wore as sandy brown hair in a rough ponytail facial hair raggedly fashioned into a handlebar mustache a cigarette burned between his fingers adding to the brown nicotine stains that colored the tips something struck me about the way he looked at me as I took out my own pack of smokes and asked him for a light he didn't see me as a student anymore there was a coldness in his gaze something else too a kind of pity or disgust in his eyes half of me expected him to scold me for feeding such a filthy habit but he didn't he didn't say a word as he reached into the pocket of his worn faded jeans and pulled out an old Zippo we talked about growing up about how I was ready to go out into the world and find myself as a person I asked him how long it took for him to do the same I used to think about it a lot he said looking off into the near distance when you reach a certain age and you know who you are I live in a little condo near a bar just on the edge of town work 9:00 to 5:00 and then in between I drink and there ain't nobody there to stop me I know who I am and after all these years there's a kind of victory in that I'd never heard him talk this way before never in this tone he wasn't the mr. Kaul that kept his history class gripped with tales of your passionate speeches about life and liberty that had him greatly respected around campus he seemed defeated he seemed broken mr. Cole wore a wedding band but it occurred to me that he never mentioned anything about a family I chose not to ask we talked about what I had learned at my time attending the school he listened he nodded but I got the impression he was uninterested somehow unimpressed this irritated me a little sure my answer was full of cliches and platitudes but to dismiss my experience in just a glance graded against me I asked him what he had learned in his time teaching there some days I wish I didn't ask some people in this town act like they're not even aware that the outside world exists and might as well be living in a cave this place is a gutter one giant trailer park just floating through the universe somehow apart from it but that doesn't mean they can't be happy it doesn't mean they don't have value I mean there's no shame in being consciously happy while being unconsciously ignorant let's just it kid they're consciously ignorant he replied crushing the burned up remnants of his cigarettes under his boot before are lighting up another I think human consciousness is a tragic mistake in the history of our evolution he let the thoughts sink in and he took in a lung full of smoke exhaling lazily as his gaze remained pinned to the distant horizon we became too sentient too self-aware whatever drives the universe forced the creation of an element separation from itself we humans are creatures that have no right to exist by natural law we are things that operate under the false pretenses of having a self this chaotic mess of senses and feelings all somehow totally assured that we are each somebody and in fact we're all just nobody so I'm guessing you're not a religious man I said feeling rather accomplished as he chuckled at my response religion and now there's a thing there was a faint smile on his face as if the very thought of it's amused him the transfer of fear and self-loathing to a figure of divine authority I can understand the catharsis God soaks up their downs in pain with this perfect Star Wars narrative I don't know sir sounds like you could do with a little old-time religion I replied to finishing my own cigarette but not hardy enough to immediately begin another unlike mr. Coll if it's good enough for Grandma right he smiled again at least I'm not rushing towards a cosmic stop son it was about this time that I confessed to mr. Cole that I was shocked to hear him talk this way but nothing about his classes indicated he had such a pessimistic worldview I was building up to the question but he gave me a look which said that he knew well what I was about to ask do you want to know what made me this way right he asked with that same faint smile on his withered lips a lot of people want to know that I'm mostly telling the buzz off but you he cut himself for a moment shaking his head with that look of pity and disgust in his eyes my wife god rest her soul she and I well we lost our daughter when she was really young all the emotion seemed to drain out of him while he spoke he was clinical in his confession I think about her every so often my daughter and what she was spared during the better moments I feel sort of grateful for it doctor said she didn't feel a thing that the drunk driver sent her straight into a coma and after a few weeks of sleepless tear-stained nights somewhere in that dark room she was locked in she slipped off into another deeper kind of sleep I'm sorry it was all I could think to say he heard my voice quivered with sadness no don't be it's a beautiful way to go out painless happy innocent trouble with dying later is that it's too late the damage is done he had an odd way of reassuring me you want kids he asked I shrugged I had never really given it any thought don't he responded almost contemptuously I think of how arrogant and cruel this to force a soul out from the ether into the sack of rotting flesh to condemn a life to walk blindly in this meat grinder sometimes I think I should go thank that drum for getting behind the wheel after one too many they spared me the sin of being a father I confided in him that I believed there was more to life than just soul-crushing pain and grinding worthlessness that now more than ever people can act in ways that can change the world for the better he disagreed you see this is what I'm talking about he said evidently growing a little frustrated as he threw down his second cigarettes and repeated the action of stamping it out sure there are broader ideas in play mainly what is shared between us as a species for our mutual illusions never seen a dead body he asked me I nodded slowly and you'll know you look in their eyes even in the picture he can still read them you know what I see I see that they welcomed it when it finally came not at first but right there in the final moment it's relief they were afraid and now they see for the very first time how easy it was to just let it all go in those last few seconds of life they saw what they were what they had always been you me them this whole comic tragedy was never more than thrown together presumptions and stupid blind will what you need to do is just let go to finally know that you didn't have to hold on so tight to realize that all your life all your love all your hate all your memories are your heartache it was all just the same thing it was all the same dream a dream that you had inside a locked room a dream of being person mr. Cole started to walk away the keys to his truck jangling as he pulled them from his pocket good luck kid you're gonna need it I moved out of town now to a coastal city where the people aren't like those stuck in small Arizona towns sometimes I think mr. Cole was wrong but there is a brighter side to existence that he neglected to touch upon but sometimes in darker moments as I'm lying in bed after long days spent working in a cramped sterile office space mr. Cole's words run through my mind they bounced off the walls of my skull refusing to relinquish my fears feeding on my doubts it's in those moments that I know mr. Cole was right leaves of orange and yellow hue peppered the road he noticed each had its own shape and its own crunch beneath his boot normally he'd avoid them as to not to cause a ruckus but he hadn't de care for such things not anymore at least his worn blue coat gently grazed his skin as he walked down the color covered road though he barely noticed the itch the wool usually gave him his eyes reflected the colour of the gray dawn vacant of their usual life and spry occupation he had lost his joy with Margaret the only woman he'd ever come to love her brooch which he debat prior to their wedding was held tightly against his chest by his hand he could still smell the smoke from the drapes and the streaking tears across his dirty face as gunfire erupted into the night they were gone but he could not let go he trudged onward down this unknown country trail keeping barely upright with his rifle hanging clumsily by the strap wrapped around his forearm he felt a trickling down his forehead but not the cold sweat on his brow no not this time he felt the streaking liquid and once removed from his forehead his hand had garnished a new red stain it was odd the texture and bright color of the blood seemed to bring character to his worn glass the very same his father had given him when he was but a child he shuddered at the breeze that constantly blew along the trees shuddering as if cold on this warm Sunday morning a fruit fly began to buzz curiously around the wandering Lum and after another mile of his aimless march and not being one for annoyances Cole had given up on swatting at the fly he moved clumsily across the landscape his boots shuffling across the mud and dirt as he and his insect companion passed a ranch than a church then a small town leach was a tiny town on the brink of civilization and the lawlessness of the Okies the saloons were often packed with outlaws and Lomb and alike saved for a few concubines life bustle across the town as it usually did on a Sunday morning a church bell rung to call for service a deputy and some locals sprung for a quick morning drink before the sermon women and parcels and Sunday we're escorted whining children and star t-shirts and dresses to find a decent place in the congregation the routine changed at the moment he walked in there was no screaming not at first the first to lay their eyes on the man was little Timmy gornicke who after begging his dear mama for a straw penny had just acquired a treat from the local general store a cane sugar sucker colored a dark red hue he had relished its sour sweet taste as he skipped along to the morning service until he stopped and stared at the man who shambled quietly passed him the treat fell to the beaten road that ran through the marring its red surface with old tobacco and the red dirt of the South Timmy didn't need to pick it up after seeing the man he didn't so much as dare to look at redness again he ran off too stunned to scream monkey had before when encountering Derrick a bully in his learning school many turned their gaze like Jimmy had the barber stood rooted on his way to open his shop the town sheriff gagged and vomited quite close to a woman's shoes she paid no mind her mouth gave and eyes wide at the vision of Cole eyes fixed upon a horizon coal shuffled down the middle of leach no clarity on his face the breeze picked up again wafting over what little hair was leaking from beneath his hat more trickles of crimson leaked down his brow though he did not care any more he had to get home home home where his wife was home where his family was home where the flames couldn't hurt him home where the lawmen didn't burn down his home when his wife refused to [ __ ] herself to them the fruit fly buzzed effortlessly in and around his ear and then as if a natural course flew between the gunman's eyes through a tunnel of matter and bone the fly escaped passing Tufts of blood spattered air in its wake following closely to the sour sweet iron leg smell of the dark liquid the town had fallen silent save for the soft and a clumsy footsteps of coal Erichs he continued his aimless trudge into the wilderness beyond leeches Porter's and disappeared over the curving Hill just past the dry oak leaves layering the winding road humans have a knack for dismissing the impossible whether a shot to the skull kills a man or a woman lifting a filled wagon to save her newborn the soul once set on a simple goal will go to great lengths to accomplish it and much to the dismay of the residents of leech such a spectacle came and went with the shuffle of old leather boots and red colored specks of blood following suit down the dust and leaves I used to live at a small farm in the US growing up but as soon as I was 18 I moved out instantly and I'll tell you why when I was 12 me and my best friend Zack who lived down the road used to go in the woods to play since we lived in the country there was almost nothing to do we will always explore and pretend to be treasure hunters I always used to take my dad's old cowboy hat and Zack will take his old small shovel every day but if it was a bad day we would just play some games on my Nintendo 64 this happened like 13 years ago so it was the best you could get we will always go a bit deeper into the force every time we went in we usually managed to find something interesting in the woods like old coins water bottles some nice-looking stones and some other things yeah I know really lame stuff but we were kids at the time and we always thought of it as a treasure I had a small box under my bed to put the things I found in it and so did Zack we had an awesome childhood but some creepy [ __ ] started happening over some time one day while we were exploring the forest we came across a well we got really excited thinking we actually found something good we checked it out but there was nothing special the well was dry we pretty much got our hopes up for nothing we headed back home another day was over the next day was a Friday and when we got back home from school exactly went back to his house I went back to mine now long after having lunch Zack was at the door I grabbed my dad's hat and opened the door when I opened it Zack was there with two other boys they were much bigger than me and Zack Zack introduced them as his cousin's saying they were staying with his mom and dad for the weekend their names were Danny and Simon they were both 15 3 years older than me and Zack they wanted to come with me and Zack into the wood I agreed so we went there it was just a normal day for the most part was X coz ins were totaled ass holders saying sucked being in the woods and asking us how we never get bored out there later that night around 11:00 at night I got knocks on my bedroom window it was Zack and his cousins they told me to come down I managed to get downstairs without awakening my parents I opened the door and the cousins I asked me if I wanted to go to the woods I had never been out there at night and to be honest I didn't want to go and I told them that when they said hmm your loss they went off in the direction of the treeline I changed my mind grabbed my dad's hat and ran after them I caught up to them and we started to walk deeper into the woods all scared shitless and by the look on Zach's face he was scared as well the cousin stayed in front signing the flashlights on the spooky trees I know this we were going in the direction of the well I know the place like the back of my hand so I had a planning case [ __ ] hit the van we were coming up on the will suddenly the cousin stopped and turned off their flashlights we asked them what was wrong they stood still like statues they went around then since we've stayed behind them and I froze as well there was a person standing in front of the well not looking in our direction thankfully I stood there like a statue not knowing what to do then one of the cousins I think it will assign them whispered turn around slowly and walk away slowly don't make any sudden moves I complied and we all turned around I started walking back slowly so that figure wouldn't notice us then the terrible happened I stood on a stick by accident and made a snap it was loud far away enough from that figure so we all stopped again I looked back and the figure was now looking at us I almost fainted with fear then Danny screamed wrong we all floored it I dropped my hat while running back but I didn't stop to pick it up I had no idea if the figure was following us since all of our footsteps made it hard to make it out I didn't look back either so I didn't know we've all managed to make it back safely I ran into my house and slammed the door shut my parents were awake and I got shouted at by my parents I was grounded for a week but they also looked really relieved my mom hugged me and said I'm so glad you're safe I was confused and asked them what they were so worried about then they told me something that made me even more scared they told me that recently an escaped killer was on the loose and who was last spotted in our area and what my dad saw that I wasn't in my room since he would usually check up on me and the front door wasn't shut it thought I had been kidnapped and they were about to call the police when I came through the door after hearing that I started crying my parents asked me why I told them what had happened their faces were full of horror after telling them that they called the police immediately later on they arrived I explained everything to them they said they will take a look in the woods so they did half hour later they came back with nothing they said that next day they would bring more cops to search the area some more and warned me not to go back into the woods I obliged I could barely sleep that night because I was so afraid that the man would come for me the next day more cops came to our farm and started investigating in the woods they also went to Zacks house my mom came in and said she found my dad's had on the doorstep I remember that last night I had dropped in how did it get there I thought about that some more and the man in the woods came to mind I started panicking again my parents calmed me down and asked me what was wrong I told them about the Hat they had nervous looks on their faces my dad took the hat to a cop outside I managed to calm down again and the rest of the day I just played video games since my parents grounded me around lunchtime we got a knock at the door I answered it it was AK and his mom his ex mama asked if she could talk to my parents I told my parents they were at the door then they told us to go in my room and play something I put my ear against the door and listened his ex mom told my parents that Danny wasn't in the house in the morning after hearing the news about that creep in the woods she began to worry one thing didn't make sense though all forward was made it out safely I was confused then Zack told me something I scared the living [ __ ] out of me he said Danny had left the house when they got back he left while Simon and Zack were sleeping although Zack wasn't sleeping Zack said he looked out the window and saw him walking to the woods he wanted to stop him but he said he was too scared to go out there again he never came back I asked him why he left Zack didn't know then Simon came over to hang out later on I asked him if he knew why Danny left the house he said he had no idea Danny always used to carry around his dead mother's ring with him since his mom had died a year prior to the events with the story he always used to keep it in the box and he would take it wherever he would go and Simon checked the Box in the morning and it was empty he must have dropped it while we were running from that guy last night he said after that day as weeks went by the guy in the woods was never called the cops started an investigation on Danny's disappearance he was also never found and me and Zack never went back into the woods again once we reached 18 we bought a house between each other and became roommates nothing's better than having a roommate as your best friend I'm 25 now and I live with my girlfriend I still hang out with Zack but even after all that time I still think about that night every day and probably will for the rest of my life this story takes place two weeks ago Saturday morning at the time I'm 16 and live in a small town in Canada with this being said there isn't overly much to do and it surely didn't help I had little to no friends by nature I'm a very curious individual I was super into spirituality and stuff like that but was that was astral projection astral projection is like an out-of-body experience it's like going into another peaceful dimension of love and unity that's probably how I would describe it to someone who wanted to know the basics of it before the incident I decided to do my daily meditation in try astral projection I've been able to Astra project before but just not for very long this time I felt different I felt as if I could have a great projection upon the vibration stage I thought the pop and floating soothingly out of my body there I was peacefully laying there I noticed something odd it seemed like a cord was attached to my body I didn't find any worry in this I've had experiences where people see the cord it shouldn't hold you back from anything the projection was beautiful for the most part I saw some sandy beaches with people playing with love it was selling I felt one was whatever this strange thing we call life is I was life about halfway through my projection I noticed something strange the cord seemed to have a melancholy feeling to it now that may not make sense to you sitting here in this current dimension but it makes sense in the astral world you can just sense something wrong looking close at the text of the cord I saw nothing different at all actually but upon that glance of looking at the cord you could feel the stress and hatred but that's something you didn't expect in the astral world at all I decided to turn back and see what was going on this wasn't normal right every time I inch closer and closer to the end of the cord suspense trickled down my body goosebumps arose around me like gravestones plunging from underneath the soil something wasn't right at all upon reaching close to the bottom of the Rope I saw nothing besides one single figure he Wentz by the name of car he didn't say this but in the astral world you know everything about an entity once you look at them Kaah was fragile we could clearly inflict damage of meetin he had the eyes of hatred and the heart of a loner he didn't move every time I looked away weird little entities would appear around car the closest thing I get described was black smoke that it was so different it was physically alive I rushed as fast as I could to the end of the road I couldn't believe my eyes wherever my body lay it was build with dark spirits and evil evil things my body was in pain I could sense it I didn't know what to do was this all a dream I couldn't tell but begs to be put back into my body I pleaded and cried I was in pain not only at a physical level as I could clearly sense this but also on a spiritual level something I thought I would never experience especially in this dimension eventually being put back into my body I noticed I was in a form of sleep paralysis I saw the exact same dark beings before it was my astral projection just a third-person view of these twisted Souls playing games with me like a piece of meat was this on my imagination that was the last thought I remember I am a raw waking up the next day remember everything and assuming it was all a dream maybe it was a dream but one thing I do know I'm going to stay away from astral projection for a while in the year 1998 among Gottman addition on Barney apparently they were looking for immigrant children I was pretty ecstatic at a time we would always wanted to keep acting a try I was eight years old wide-eyed and really did take my first step into what I thought was my future career once reaching was said something seemed off unmatched my mom and pointed out of the kid seemed glazed and enthusiastic they just tired Gillian she said I wave to some of the kids but I just ignored me it wasn't exactly a welcoming cost we met with a producer who was more than enthusiastic about me joining the cost of kids I'll tell you what chillin why don't you go and sit and mingle of some of the kids while I have a talk of your mom he said I felt a little weary leaving about my mom go on my mom said motioning me out of the room I opened a door and exited this stage where some of the kids were hanging out near the tree house prop hey I say approaching the kids they lived a friending person super tired and distressed one of the girls even had a black eye you should go one of the boys said what why I asked Cheston I watched as Barney appeared from backstage hello kids he giggled who wants to play the key to remain silent well then why don't you introduce me to your new friend he said reaching out to shake my hand um Gillian I say well Gillian I sure do hope you join us in playing a few games and seeing some songs we sure do love it here he said giggling louder and a lost sentence seemed rather strained leave he whispered before running backstage what was that about I asked I could see someone staring at us from behind one of the proper sheís I didn't recognize him as anyone from the show but the kids knew he was there too they remain quiet until the person shifted we love it here everyone does one of the girls said forcing a small chest then a mom reappeared with the producer and casting director thank you so much for be in touch my mom said she shooed me out of there as fast as she could that he noticed something weird - I asked she mumbled something about a pay being too low and the contract being too lengthy it wasn't until years later when I turned 18 that she told me the truth she too had seen the man in the bushes and recognized him instantly he was a child sex trafficker that she'd seen on the television a few weeks ago according to her Schieffer they were drawing children in of the show and abducting them it would explain whether we were looking for so many immigrant children to get star it just seemed easy to get away with when a children weren't American basically the entire show was a hoax to this day our fear watching children's shows from our own child I often wonder what happens behind the scenes years ago in the late 90s I was on my way from the house in Central Texas heading to Laredo to pick up a load it was early morning around 4:00 or 5:00 I have just come off a string of days at home so I know I wasn't tired I'm one of those two lane winding roads in the absolute middle of [ __ ] nowhere when I see something on the side of the roads at the edge of my high beams at first I just thought it was roadkill as is usually the case as I get closer I see that it is roadkill and there's something crouching over the carcass I remember thinking either this guy's taking the others as a trophy or he's [ __ ] sick as I got closer still I can now see that this guy's eating the [ __ ] deer he's spoiling chunks of meat from the stomach and bringing them up to his face at this point a stop spin motion and looks up at me not in my truck but I mean here it stands up and that's when I see it's [ __ ] huge brown and covered in hair I remember thinking at this point a whole [ __ ] this thing is standing on the tiny shoulder looking at me and by this point maybe three seconds have passed and I'm about to the point in the road he's standing yet I didn't even think of stopping in fact I started to lay on it and get the hell out of there as I'm passing it and it's looking at me again not at the truck it's looking through the driver's-side windshield at me he obviously has the intelligence to know that there's a driver in here and knows where I'm sitting as I start to pass him I can still see its head above the hood of an old needlenose Pete an old truck design where the hood goes straight out from the windshield and known for being tall and difficult to see around but this thing is [ __ ] Giants I remember seeing what will look like human intelligence in its eyes it still scares the [ __ ] out of me I can read minds in fact right now your psyche you can't really read minds just kidding it doesn't work like that from the time I was a kid I realized I was different I could tell what people were thinking and while you might think that would be cool it's actually confusing and people think you're scary I learned pretty quickly not to talk about it it took longer to figure out how to use it people are thinking all of the time if I'm within about 50 feet of them I can hear their thoughts in my head it was awful to get used to my mom was the only person who knew the truth and since she's gone my secret is forever safe you see all thoughts sound the same I don't hear them in the thinker's voice I hear them in a weird androgynous voice that sounds the same no matter the thinker so without some clues I'm stuck wondering who the thought is coming from I spent most of my childhood with all my teachers thinking I had trouble learning when in fact I was trying to figure out how to stop the thoughts of the other 25 kids of my class from overwhelming my brain anyway I don't have many friends and relationships are hard you might think reading your partner's mind would be great but trust me when I say you do not want to know everything they find annoying unattractive or weird about you but are too kind to say it's not easy professionally I found a way to use my special gift I turned myself into an above-average student by realizing I could figure out what everyone else thought the answers were on exams and I did quite well when I could get some solitude and work on papers myself without others thoughts intruding I went to law school and opened a small firm with my best friend Nathan we specialized in contract negotiations and got a great reputation for our negotiating skills as it turns out having someone in the room who can read the mind of the other side helps a lot plus he understands my need for solitude even if he doesn't know that it's due to me being over overwhelmed by hearing the thoughts of others he just thinks I have a sixth sense for negotiating which in some ways I guess I do sorry I'm rambling I'm pretty scared right now and don't have time to get all this down my problem started two weeks ago we were in the middle of our largest negotiation ever our merger that would really put us on the map however the other side has only met us in person a handful of times so I've been of limited use and it's been stressing me out we are getting ready for a few big sessions and I know I need to deliver not surprisingly I've been having nightmares almost every night I was tossing and turning one night when I heard the thought clear as day it was enough to make me sit straight up in bed going to slip in and slice his throat one of these windows must be a lot he needs to die it was the voice that means I'm hearing someone's thought I ran to the window and looked out but saw no one in the dark I live alone in a remote area kind of a necessity with my condition and shouldn't be able to hear anyone unless they're near my house I shook it off as probably a nightmare and still not being totally awake the next night it happened again as I stood looking out into the darkness surrounding my house I thought I saw a movement but couldn't be sure either way I was done with messing around someone was sneaking up to my house in the dark with thoughts of murder on their mind I bought about 20 motion activated lights that day and stuck them all around my house that night several popped on and I heard someone curse in my head I didn't hear anything after that whoever the psycho was that took care of it I still added an alarm system state of the art and started coming into work earlier and staying later which was easy as I was not feeling ready for the negotiation we had coming up the day of the big negotiation came and the office was packed I hadn't had any other issues at the home but I still hadn't been sleeping well with the stress as I walked into the meeting I heard one thought cut across the rest I hate him I looked around it could have been any one of the fifty people in her office thinking about anyone I brushed it off and went into the meeting negotiations were brutal tons of minutiae I not enough of bigger picture stuff we went for ten hours with only a few breaks we cleared out to let people run to the bathroom when I finally got it one of the partners on the other side was going through notes and I found myself in the room alone with him he was concerned about the total amount we were going to push for and thought about how high they were willing to go before I can't wait it was a full 15 percent more than we thought you would be able to get I almost have ran out the door to Nathan's office this is the biggest they're going to go before walking away I slid it across the desk he stared at the number are you sure if we push this high and this falls apart we're screwed I nodded I know this will work it did that night the whole office celebrated together hearing the warm thoughts of my co-workers washing through my head was an intoxicating feeling I decide to duck out on a high note and head home I walked into the parking lot and headed to my car that's when I heard it clear as day in my head finally a chance to kill him can't believe he just wandered off by himself I spun around looking for a masked killer the parking lot was empty I ran to my car the next day in the office it happened again I was in the break room when I heard someone's thought those dim lights are keeping me away but I could do it here if I get a chance no mistake this time and it wasn't random at all I took my computer and went home over the next three days I considered everyone in the office it had to be someone senior enough that my death would give him a chance at a promotion but junior enough that they felt disrespected for some reason by me and who had been with us long enough that they felt I was a problem that needed to be solved with my weird hours and need for solitude I went through the names a hundred times I checked Facebook and Twitter profiles I barely slept and had narrowed it down to two possible suspects I stared at their faces trying to figure out which one of them hated me so much that they wanted to try and kill me Nathan finally called after the third day I didn't show up at or call the office worried about me he asked if I was eating or sleeping both answers were no and I told him that someone at the office was trying to kill me he said he'd pick up some food and we'd figure out how to catch this murderous monster he showed up with takeout and took one look at me before telling me to take his shower which I guess I needed I came upstairs and started getting ready to shower when I heard it again can't believe he installed all the security and then just let me in the front door I ran to my bedroom door and locked it before looking for my phone it was downstairs on the counter where I left it I'm writing this hoping someone reads us and can report what happened here nathan is knocking on my bedroom door now asking me to come downstairs to talk to him I can hear his thoughts though and how he does all the work and my weird Lucky guesses gets all the credit and how killing me will finally give him the chance to get the recognition he deserves I don't think I have long until he gets in here I can hear him thinking about how strong the door is and he just remembered that there is an axe by the back door for firewood many years ago I was working the graveyard shift at a hotel it was late and I was really tired I just wanted to go home I wasn't supposed to leave early so I wrote a note and left it there for my boss to see when he got back the note said I had left early because my brother was stranded outside of town and he needed me to pick him up it was a complete lie but I needed a good excuse to leave early I drove home and went to bed a few hours later I was awoken by the sound of my phone ringing it was my brother he told me he was stranded outside of town and needed me pick him up that's so weird I said that's the exact lie I made up to tell my boss so I could leave early that's not weird I'll show you what's weird when you get here my brother replied I drove over to meet him and when I arrived he took out his phone and put it up to my ear he played a message that he received when he woke up that morning it was a creepy computerized voice and all it said was you're stuck it freaked us both out and we could never figure out where the call had come from and that's the strangest creepiest thing that's ever happened to me in my life I've lived where I lived for three years it's a nice apartment in an amazing location but they were built in the late 90s in the last few years the city that I live in has had a massive population boom and the people have been non-stop pouring in good weather amazing economy cool place to do stuff because of this I have seen the landlord staff start to do heavy maintenance on the apartments to bring them up to date to attract more people to them my neighbor lived in his apartment for something like six years before he ended up buying a house and moved when he moved the landlord immediately started redoing his apartment as one to bring up-to-date there are two stories to the apartment when my bedroom is on the direct other side of the bedroom wall is the staircase in my neighbor's apartment in my bedroom my bed is right up against the wall they were completely stripping the place clean it was one of the first ones that they did such heavy remodeling to for weeks I would always see the workers over there painting and redoing the floors etc a few days before this happened was no different I left and saw them doing maintenance on the kitchen and when I came home from work they were gone for the day nothing unusual a single bit the part that is unusual is what happened one particular night I was awake around 1:00 a.m. watching TV in my room when I heard someone on the other side of the wall slowly walking up the stairs and then very obviously stopping halfway up where the person was stopping was directly when my head laid on the other side of the wall I could feel him listening to me breathing I immediately turned off the TV and sat there for a few minutes extremely quiet and still I heard nothing and then after what felt like an absolute eternity and heard the person start walking the rest of the stairs to the second floor my survival instinct kicked in instantly it was very obvious that someone was on the other side of that wall listening to me I also knew that it was only a few days before this happened that I saw the maintenance redoing that apartments kitchen I knew that there was no way someone already moved in that fast I quietly get out of bed and went to a room or had a better view of the outside of the apartment I obviously couldn't see if there was movement in there from the window but I had a good angle to see if anyone walked out i sat there for around 15 minutes just staring outside to see if I saw anything at all nothing I went back into my room and laid down in bed again I didn't play the TV I just sat there waiting to hear something I was messing around on my phone for around 20 minutes and silence until I heard movement in the stairs again this time though the movement didn't start from the top to the bottom the movement started in the middle of the staircase meaning that the entire time I was sitting there in silence and that person was just on the other side of the wall listening to my every move that terrified me so I called the cops I gave them all the information of what was going on and they informed me someone would be out very soon I went back to one room and watched out the window again only a few moments later a police car pulled up and a cop got out to examine the building in the apartment he was looking around and shining his light in the windows I heard him knocking on the door and shortly after heard him talking to someone but couldn't make out what they were saying I was totally puzzled by this the officer walked over to my door and knocked I went downstairs and he informed me very nicely that someone just moved in there I laughed and was completely embarrassed I even said to the cop that it was a hell of a way to meet your neighbor I felt embarrassed but more importantly felt very relieved about the entire situation I brushed off the whole thing is it just being late in my mind playing massive tricks on me the next day I went to leave my apartment when I saw something that made me stop dead in my tracks I went outside and took only a few steps toward my car when I saw maintenance over there carrying out the old refrigerator I was puzzled I walked over to the apartment and I looked in the door that was wide open the kitchen was still being worked on and not a single piece of furniture can be seen I was legitimately speechless I walked over to a maintenance man and said didn't someone move in here and he informed me know that the apartment wouldn't be ready for showings until at least three weeks I ran back upstairs into my apartment and called my landlord I asked her if someone is staying there and she said absolutely not I told her where I experienced the night before she was floored she told me that they would change the apartments locks immediately she also suggested that I call the non-emergency line to the police department inform them that no one lives there I did just that and they asked me to come down to the station I told them all of the information and detail of what happened they were able to quickly figure out what officer came to check out the situation so he could help identify the person who answer the door the officer described the man in detail and I confirmed that I've never seen him around the apartments before there was a search around town for a few weeks until the whole thing just sort of fizzled out and I stopped hearing about it and started seeing less and less patrol cars randomly in the parking lot after that night I never heard another thing in that apartment around a month later an older couple moved in and they're very nice when I saw the moving van a lot I went outside to introduce myself to them but to be completely honest the only reason I went out there was to see if any of them match the description of who the cop saw not even close I'm certain that the person who is in that apartment got away with it I had an extremely hard time sleeping the following weeks of that happening to me I actually ended up moving my bed into the smaller second bedroom because it bothered me so much I have zero idea what the intentions of the person was or what he was doing in that staircase but it's easily one of the most chilling things that ever happened to me there are things in this world that should not exist among those are things that should never be seen I'll be honest I'm a thief although I do prefer to be called a burglar or if I'm feeling extra fancy a cat burglar I don't do anything crazy like bank robberies or steal portraits from the Louvre more of your common everyday house crasher you know a little B&E before breakfast that's breaking and entering for the layperson with this revealed don't let it deter you from believing the story I'm about to share it was last night when all of this happened I've been casing this place for a bit large house fancy stuff inside rumor had it that the owner had a couple of items were Alex now were worth millions something to do with dark magic one was supposed to be a scepter that held the spirits of the Dead another was said to be a knife that put the spirits into the scepter I'm not one to believe superstitious things like that probably some old folklore from back in the day even then it didn't matter to me if it was a wand to some of the Tooth Fairy as long as it could net me a decent amount of cash my security was pretty lakhs which made me wonder if the rumors were even true there was only one way to find out under the cover of night I made my way into the mansion a few cameras and an alarm on the window or child's play to bypass faster than a knife fight in the phone booth I was in the place was huge marble floors were immaculately polished a chandelier hung from the ceiling they even had a grand staircase that led to the upstairs it went to the second level and then split to either side it was hard not to give a whistle of appreciation the information I had said that what I was looking for was downstairs a pity really that place was by far the most luxurious building I had ever broken into sight seeing would not be possible quickly I went to find the way to where I needed to go without a map it would have been easy to get lost fortunately I knew a guy who had installed some equipment there a while back he had drawn me a little map down a long straight hallway I crept past the suits of armor and into the back of the house unlike the rest of the mansion the downstairs was dank and reminded me of a dungeon musty smells penetrated my nose water dripped from overhead pipes and moss grill on the stonework and looked as if the house above had been built on a sort of ancient torture chamber regrettably this is where my map stopped the rest of the way would have to be done blind for the amount of money this target could catch it was worth it room by room the search began solid wood doors with bars for windows stood in front of each chamber some of them were small enough that'll look into them but tell me whether or not what I wanted was inside others were so large that I had to go in and check them out a search took a long time and the further I went the more odd things became initially the rooms were empty later on some of them had chains on the walls or other items that could have been used for torture in one there was an Iron Maiden I have seen pictures of those before and this looked like an exact replica another had a rack in it a long table with thick ropes at both ends and a wheel to turn them at this point I was getting seriously concerned thoughts of turning back crossed my mind all the money in the world would be useless if I were caught and put into one of those things yet greed has always been one of my main vices and it spurred me on I thought of how odd whatever was down here must be and how much money it would get me I checked my watch it had been half an hour since my search began the underground area must have been at least double the size of the mansion above and went on forever shrieks of pain caught my attention now I may be a thief but I'm also a nice guy if someone was getting hurt down there I would have to help them my altruistic morals kicked in and I abandoned the objective for the item just for a short time to go and see what was happening echoes from the stone walls made it difficult to pinpoint where the cries were coming from when I got to where I thought they originated and there was nothing there in fact the entire hallway was made of solid stone I sat down to think for a second this whole thing was not going according to plan my head rested on the cold rocks when all of them moved a sharp click was heard then a part of the wall gave way it pulled back and revealed a secret passage what the hell I muttered to myself this kept getting stranger and stranger screams rang out again now it was clear that they came from the passage that had recently opened morbid curiosity took over down the dark hallway I went slow and uncertain as to what was on the other end stomach twisted into knots chest tightened and it felt like I couldn't get enough breath after what felt like forever a light finally shined from the end of the tunnel I didn't dare open the door that was there whatever was going on on the other side I didn't want to be a part of instead I looked under the door the space was wide enough to see most of what was happening there was a stone altar on it was a person I couldn't make out of he was male or female though from the screams I would guess female on the left side was an old wood chair and the chairs had a wooden doll to the left of that chair there was a stand that held the scepter it was gold with purple crystal on top a crystal radiated a soft pulsating light on the opposite side of the altar for me instead a man he wore strange masks one of the eyes had a symbol around it like beam shooting in all directions the other eye was closed it had no nose and the mouth was a sinister smile he had raps on his arms all the way up to his shoulders they were covered in blood he wore no shirt and had loose black pants on no shoes on his feet either there were strange marks all over his torso some of them looked familiar like I had seen them in shows about mysticism before he drew his knife across the body that lay on the altar then flicked the blood onto the doll and the scepter this was repeated a number of times I wanted to run but something kept me there some dark part of me wanted to watch what happened screams renewed every time the man made another cut well five or six more happened while I watched after the man flicked the blood the last time he yelled something in a language I didn't recognize then plunged the knife deep into the heart of the sacrifice lightning shot from the hilt and struck the scepter the screams stopped vile rose in my throat it was all I could do not to lose my lunch another peek under the door showed the man had moved towards the doll he was chanting something it rose in intensity then with a yell he finished that's when everything changed now at first I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me but soon it became clear that the doll had moved first his arms then his legs they began to stretch and wiggle next his head turned right towards the door his eyes slowly scanned down they looked right into mine this is what happens to curious little cats Frankie the doll said to me it knew it knew my name not another word had to be said I was up and down the hall as fast as I could go you're next you're next Frankie I could hear it say the words echoed off the stone walls nothing followed me or chased me the entire way out of the mansion I went back out the exact same way I came in I haven't been able to sleep a wink every time I try that doll haunts my mind been thinking of skipping town hopefully that's enough to keep me safe but if that thing knew my name what else does it know about me I pray that it can't find me I really wish I had never seen it to begin with this happened years ago but it still affects me to this day the summer I graduated high school I was still living at home I was up late one night and was packing for a camping trip with my friends it was unbelievably hot and had the window open as I sat and folded clothes it was around 2:00 in the morning and the next thing I knew there was a hand coming through the gap in the screen of my window I screamed in the hand flew back out I was stunned but there was a part of me that wondered if it was my younger brother pranking me I got up and looked out the window and just saw a figure of a man staring back at me I ran into my brother's room and he was there playing video games we called the police who came and searched the area they found nothing mourned me and my parents to lock the windows and doors and left we were all still shaken up and my mom had a feeling that he would come back it turned out her mother's intuition was right she went outside and waited on our back porch after 20 minutes or so she saw a man dressed in black slink into our back yard along a tree line there was an offense on that side unfortunately he hid behind a tree for a few seconds and ran to another tree and hid there slowly working his way towards my window my mother yelled something to him and he took off running the police came back out again found no trace of him I never opened that window again not even with the curtains my parents installed some motion detecting lights and that seemed to be the end of that about six months later my friend and I got an apartment downtown together we were really excited as this was their first place on her own the apartment wasn't exactly the best quality but it was fun to be living in the city the downside was that it was Street parking only after a few weeks my car got broken into nothing was taken but a single Rose sat on the passenger seat it was creepy but I vowed to be vigilant and safe I always tried to park close to the entrance near the lights but often it was difficult to get those spots and I would often have to park further away on darker streets things quickly began to escalate at this point my car was broken into at least once a week most of the time a flower was left which always surround the ground but once a pair of men's underwear was left and even more creepily once a bag of tootsie rolls as there were my favorite candy this made me wonder if the person knew me personally and I started to become suspicious of everyone there was a laundry room in the basement of their apartment and one day I went down there to get a load that finished drying as I started to fold I realized all of my undergarments bras and panties were gone another week I had a male friend over from school and his tires got slashed during the visit by the time the first letter arrived I'd already started making plans to move somewhere else the letter described the love for me that had been going on for years he noted things that proved that he'd been watching me closely I was able to arrange another friend to take over my lease and I moved in with another friend on the other side of the city it was a secured building and had an underground parking garage that was only accessible to tenants I felt much more secure in the extra money spent was well worth the peace of mind things were quiet for a few months and then my roommate got a boyfriend most of us were worried about Ashley's new boyfriend from the beginning for one they met on myspace after he reached out to her another reason was that the new boyfriend Matt was extremely good-looking and while Ashley was a wonderful person she just wasn't the type typically accept someone like him to date ashley was thrilled she had never had a boyfriend before and really felt like he was the one I thought he was weird and creepy from the beginning Matt was on the quiet side and always seemed to be sporting an uncomfortable leering smile it was difficult to carry on any sort of conversation with him because he would always make it weird with some random facts that were completely unrelated what we were talking about I deleted my myspace when the initial stalking began but I created a dummy account to learn more about Matt it didn't look like he'd really knew any of his friends in real life there were only pictures of himself and the rest of the information was vague my friends and I gently tried to discourage her from seeing Matt he technically hadn't done anything wrong but he was just so strange she would immediately get defensive and we'd shut the conversation down Matt started to spend more and more time at my apartment and I found myself finding any excuse I could to avoid coming home one day I came home from work and found Matt on my couch alone drinking a beer Ashley had been called into work and she told him he could just hang out I was furious because I didn't want to spend any time with him so I grabbed the beer and a snack and headed off to my room and shut the door about 30 minutes or so he knocked on my door and suggested we watch some TV you can get to know each other better because we both loved Ashley I didn't want to but I decided that maybe I would give it a try he put on a movie and I tried to just focus on the movie because I didn't want to talk at one point I glanced over to Matt and he was just staring at me with a smile on his face I snapped out what back at him and he just continued smiling and said I just can't believe it believe what I asked he said nothing and went back to watching the movie still smiling I had no idea what he was talking about but the interaction had every hair on my body standing up I excused myself and locked the door to my room another month or so went on and managed to avoid being home for as much as anything beyond sleep and showering Matt practically lived there and it even brought a bunch of his things to Ashley's room I really didn't want to move again but I was beginning to look for other options on their 6-month anniversary I saw a huge bouquet of flowers on the table and an already open card prop next to it I rolled my eyes and was about to leave when I decided to see what the weirdo wrote to her when I opened the card my heart started beating through my chest without even reading the words he wrote I was shaking the handwriting was exactly the same as the one the stalker had sent me I kept them as evidence and dug him mad at my desk for comparison the handwriting was unique and identical Matt was my stalker I called the police first as they were on their way I called Ashley and asked her to come over she was at work but said that she would be there as soon as she could I was terrified to tell her because I knew that she would be shattered the police took a statement from me Ian actually went to Ashley's work to get more information from her and they ended up breaking the news to her apparently Ashley called Matt and let the furious message even though the cops told her not to say anything and he completely disappeared after that there was no Matt or anyone matching his resemblance at the place they said he worked Ashley had never been to his apartment because he said that he was staying with friends while trying to save money for a trip to Europe his family lived out of state and she had never met a friend of his because he had said that he had a falling-out with them because he was choosing to spend too much time with Ashley it was all wise in the end she was dating a stranger we don't know if Matt was his real name either the cherry on top of this whole thing was when we went through Matt's things he had left everything when he disappeared and Ashley and I decided to go through everything there was a duffel bag full of gym clothes but in one of the compartments there was about ten pictures of me all were taken from far away with the exception of one of me sleeping the sheets were current so I know I had to have been in this apartment and it was before I started locking my bedroom door there was a few pictures back before the incident of my parents which made us think that it was him as well two pairs of my missing underwear were there and I shudder to think what he did with the rest a Starbucks lived with my red lipstick marks a necklace that I hadn't even noticed missing and a few other random sick souvenirs the police never tracked him down I decided to accept an opportunity overseas that I had been considering and I got the hell out of there unfortunately Ashley and I had drifted apart she had a really hard time accepting that her first love with a complete psycho I think I had some underlying anger myself for believing all of his lies and letting him into our lives I don't know what his in-game was what he had tried to hurt me or was he simply just content with being in my world I'll never know being stalked really does change you even when I lived across the world I looked over my shoulder everywhere I went I had no social media accounts attached to my real name I'm married with children now and know that he moved on to torment some other poor woman but every time I visit my hometown I'm tense and I keep a low profile part of me will always worry that Matt will resurface someday again this happened to me when I was seven years old and living in Texas with my parents one weekend the carnival had come to our town and my parents surprised me by taking me there I remember being so excited I couldn't wait we finally got to the carnival and all the lights the music was just great and I remember the smell of the popcorn and seeing the cotton candy and I talked on my dad's hand and I said daddy daddy can I have a cotton candy and my dad looking down into my eyes and said yes so we went over and he bought me a cotton candy and we were walking around and this clown came up and asked me little girl do you want a balloon I have a red one a blue one a yellow one or maybe you would like a doggy one this clown creeped me out so I went behind my dad and started talking on his hand again because I was scared of this clown this clown was kind of tall kind of skinny and he smelled I remember how bad he smelled and his calm suit looked dirty to me well anyways my dad said not at this time so we went on through the carnival and this clown kept following us and I said daddy daddy that clown he keeps following us and my parents said it's okay Patricia that's his job and we came up to the mirror house and my parents thinking I was old enough at the time allowed me to go into the merit house by myself at first I was a little scared but I winded up going in there and looking at myself in the mirror how one was made me fat and the other one all stretched out and all of a sudden I heard this evil laugh that came out of nowhere and I got really scared so I kept trying to get out of there as fast as I could when I heard that laugh again and that's when that dirty old mean clown grabbed me and I screamed as loud as I could but I knew nobody would come in to help me because this is a carnival after all and little kids scream right I managed to get away and ran out of the mirror house and I ran up to my parents screaming and crying and my dad asked Patricia what's wrong and I said daddy daddy that clown that clown he grabbed me and he hurt me daddy and as my dad was looking at my arm that's when we all heard from somewhere in the ride that evil laughter from that clown I just want to clear a few things up here I am by no means your average girly girl nor am I considered small I stand at five foot four and let's just say I have a decent amount of muscle on me I have an athletic build yes thick is my category I thought I'd include this tidbit of info because who the hell would have the balls to one oh follow me when there are much easier targets leaving a gym let's begin I had just finished my workout after yoga and I was walking to my car I get in and I notice this new on the roon f250 pull up behind me at this point I think nothing of it why would I they stay parked while skating my music situated maybe I took a selfie or two and replied to some friends on snapchat you know the usual [ __ ] girls do before we go anywhere another bit of important information I might add I come from a blue family meaning everyone I associate with friends and family are all officers or higher rank of course I've already got a convo going with one of my best guy friends another officer before I begin to pull off here is where [ __ ] gets weird the truck almost immediately takes off right behind me doesn't even hesitate I'm not even sure I paid attention right away to the move I didn't quite realize it until I turn onto the main road of the light and put two and two together and realized and then it's the truck that's come up behind me while parked I got a bad feeling right away and told my friend that I was being followed he tells me to either speed up or slow down and see if he mocks my moons I actually got over and fall back and this guy slows down and gets behind me I tell my friend this and he told me whatever I do don't go home I figured well no [ __ ] if this guy wants to joyride he'll get one I turn into my neighborhood which is huge and from there I took so many wrong turns and made complete circles at one point and by this time I'm getting fed up I call a detective I know that lived a few streets down for me and quickly tell him what's going on and thankfully he was home he tells me to ride by his house slowly and he would pull out behind him once he see us go by I do it and the detective pulls out behind him he tells me to then exit the neighborhood by this time I'm about to exit the creepy truck has already began to fall back I go a bit down the main road again and I realized I seem to have lost him at a light near my neighborhood exit I called the detective to confirm I've lost him and he tells me he went down a completely different Street and ditched him once he reached the highway I touch base back with my friend to let him know I'm fine but hauling ass back home I arrived safely went straight to the gun cabinet and the detective came over for a bit in case [ __ ] got crazy and creepy in case the guy showed up he tells me he ran his plates and he didn't see any past arrests no previous history other than your average traffic violations he radios in and tells them to be on the lookout for the creepy guy and gives the description of the truck in case anything weird possibly happens so also who thought it'd be a good idea to follow me from the gym and guess you were wrong I was on my boat when the sheriff approached he said another teenager had gone missing and needed my help his theory was that she wandered home from a friend's house drunk last night and sat by the docks where an alligator pulled her into the water we both knew if anyone could get to the bottom of it it was me I was known around these parts for making the big catches my once-living of giving tourists fishing trips was a distant memory after I switched to the more exciting venture of Gator and shark catching I had built my capture contraption on the side of my boat it was based on a claw toy I had seen as a kid essentially I could reach into the water and pull out anything instantly placing it into a large net when a local newspaper ran a story on an alligator who ate a dog I knew my first test was coming the subsequent photo of the alligator in my net and then Phil from the coroner's office pulling out a pink collar from its gutted throat brought me more and more work I had officially captured nine sought-after alligators I told the sheriff I would meet him up in the South glades after I cleaned up my net he was eager for me to hurry as media had already swung helicopters into action and the story was spreading fearing the Gator was a 12-footer with a penchant for human flesh he asked I find it as soon as possible I cleaned up my net and met up with him and some of his other men he had a rookie come with me the rookie was young probably not much older than the girl who had gone missing he asked me lots of questions about Gators mainly about their team how they attacked as we went out towards deeper water he looked at my capture contraption and loudly stated ten animals slam in a net it was peculiar and I was a little confused I thought he was talking about like ten capture until he told me the phrase ten animals slam in a net was the same spelled backwards as it was four words we were out there for a long time the rookie wasn't prepared and after the first six hours started complaining when it began to get dark I can tell he was scared I made a sit there in the quiet with all the lights off my gut told me it would be time soon but I had to be patient at some point he got so bored and went inside the cabin of the boat and went to sleep suddenly I pulled back on my claw contraption it shook violently splashing around in the water and as the rookie came out his worried face caught the Beast rise into the sky I slammed it into the side of the boat the rookie asked if it could bite through and I assured him that we were absolutely safe as we approached the dock the lights of the sheriff's car met us there were a few flashes of lights into my face which I didn't care for it was from the local news photographer capturing the moment I maneuvered my claws across the side of the boat drop the Gators dead carcass it was because of those pictures that I was later nicknamed the claw when they cut the Gator open they found pieces of the girl inside solidifying the sheriff's theory I remember when the car with the girl's mother pulled up to the scene she was hysterical and as expected in tears when she saw the torn clothes she let out the loudest scream you've ever heard she too was also hot just like her daughter I knew then I'd love to get a piece of her too as I hoped they never put it together and I was behind at all you see that night I was coming back into the dock when I saw the girl sitting there she was drunk the lights of my boat its blinded her just a little bit best thing about him was that she was alone the second best thing was that she was hot so yeah maybe that was the best thing I hadn't really thought about using my cloak contraption actually to capture a person before but here sat the perfect opportunity I think she was in shock when she was in the net she screamed at least if I slammed her against the side of the boat and I went out into the middle of a glades were screams no matter how can't be heard after I had my way with her I hunted for a gator I found a large one and I threw him into the same net as the girl it was a perfect instant match as its teeth snapped at her head mm-hmm I really didn't care to watch the rest as I'm not a fan of the sight of blood but now with her disposed and the Gator in tow I headed back to the dock I was going to dispose of the Gator when the sheriff came calling much earlier than expected so back out in the glades I merely waited for mr. ten animals slam in a net to go to sleep and rest oh my perfect alibi who's in the boat I became the hero of the moment for killing that Gator which is good as everyone drops their guards around the heroes there were a few boxes from the mood I had hoped to finally unpack tonight but I just didn't have it in me after work I went to the gym then traffic was hellacious and I just wanted to eat shower and crash I'd finish unpacking tomorrow I've been here a week and I'm still getting used to the creaking and snapping the house links I laid in bed watching a few scary stories to tell that night on YouTube my favorite channels are the zombified and stranger stories they're both awesome I fell into a deep sleep a bit after 11:00 would have been sooner with a stray Maine [ __ ] Tomcat I affectionately dubbed Romeo was outside meowing calling for a hook-up I wasn't hating though we're both a couple of single cats looking for love I'd leave him a can of tuna for big old Romeo whenever I saw him I always wanted a cat but was never keen on taking out a G medicine an hour or so later the phone rang who could be calling at this hour I sluggishly rolled over and picked up the phone I answered hello I remained quiet for a few seconds I could hear a slight we're two breathing and answered again hello who is this no one answered I hung up rolled over and fell back to see the phone rang I looked at the time it was 1:00 a.m. I rolled over picked up the phone I answered hello I heard a slight breathing again and said look whoever you are it's late and I'm trying to see so we have something you want to say do it already nothing not one peek I hated living and sleeping alone my whole company turned back to sleep the damn phone rang again I wanted to answer it but I couldn't move I so desperately yearned to say what the but I couldn't speak either only my eyes could move and the clock read 2:00 a.m. I began to panic breathing was difficult like something heavy was sitting on my chest I stood that way paralyzed in horror for an hour I've had night terrors but never sleep paralysis though I've heard strange and creepy stories about it pretty scary stuff could this be sleep paralysis what was I having a really Frank nightmare at 3:00 a.m. I was finally able to move again I was thirsty so I snatched the bottle of water from off the nightstand and chugged it down the phone rang again and picked up but I didn't say a word this time I finally heard something other than breathing screams multiple screams it was hella scary so I hung up immediately I went to turn on the lamp but it wouldn't work the boat may have been blown out but I wasn't sure so I got up without muscles of his own robe and headed to the gentleman with purpose but the bathroom light wouldn't turn on either so let's see the disturbing phone calls the sleep paralysis the screams that now no power I began to freak out I called mom and told her I was scared I ranted explaining what happened I was done and I waited for her to say something comforting but instead I heard a breathing and screams I dropped the phone on the floor I looked out the bathroom window and could see lights in my neighborhood this wasn't a blackout so what the hell is happening the phone rang again and I jumped my pulse is sped up I decided to ignore it it just kept ringing and ringing try to use my vintage you night crystal lamp as a weapon I removed the shade ball and yanked off the cord I went to the bedroom door carefully opened it I peeked into the hallway then proceeded towards the stairs the air was cold and I shuddered I could see my breath but it was summer so how could this be I was pushed and fell awkwardly down the steps I bumped my head and my vision became blurry I was injured I felt pain coming from my ribs I looked up towards the top of the steps I saw two green glowing eyes and a smiling lifeless sharp yellowish teeth suspended in midair with no head or body I got up woman singing in pain I walked into the living room the windows opened seemingly by themselves a gust of wind and her tossing things about me included as it mercifully landed on the sofa the phantasm was almost upon me I thought of my family and friends how they'd find me and how I love them all so much the evil that parishioner was no more than six feet away now I felt pending doom something jumped into the window I heard hissing sounds it's Romeo the wonderful world was trying to protect me I looked over at the sinister entity it wasn't thrilled in monger had a smile but instead of - Romeo inched closer and closer until it finally just disappeared out of sight he came to me rubbing up against my leg hurry Cloudland I knew what had to be doing today buying allergy medicine for myself and Romeo a collar he has earned a new fur as a home here with me it was the middle of summer and my parents had left for the weekend to go to our house in Cape Cod it's about a two-hour drive away so it's no big deal for them to leave me alone for a few days my mum had made some cold pork and pasta for me to heat up to eat whatever and I had some money if I wanted to order a pizza things were all good the first night I was alone I stayed up till 3:00 in the morning playing xbox so I woke up really late the next day I checked my phone when I woke up and so it was a little past 1:00 I've made plans to play some street hockey with friends at 3:00 so I threw myself out of bed and stumbled into the shower I take really long showers so when my parents are gone hi go mental I was in there for about 45 minutes on my phone scrolling through Reddit and Twitter and whatnot when I heard my front door open the bathroom is directly at the stairs from the back door and the thing is pretty loud when it opens and closes I immediately froze since obviously I was supposed to be alone I waited for about two minutes he is trained in trying to hear anything nothing I figured it was just the wind or maybe my parents were home early so I turned off the shower wrap my towel around myself and slowly walk down the stairs to check it out so the stairs to the kitchen where the back door is a pretty tight and walled in so I can't see into the kitchen when I walked him even though my house is old as [ __ ] and each step on the stairs makes a super loud creak still took my time and try to be as quiet as possible that probably took 45 seconds walking down all 12 of the stairs so when I get to the second-to-last stair right before I could see around the corner into the kitchen I take a little breath to compose myself in my mind I knew I was being stupid obviously wasn't anything in the kitchen there's no way I wouldn't have heard another noise and there's no reason for them to still be in the kitchen even if they were burglars more there was something in the house after sort of mentally chastising myself for being such a wuss I kind of chuckled to myself for being so stupid and just normally walk the last two stairs and turn the corner into the kitchen standing about two feet away from me in the middle of my kitchen he's a man staring straight at me perfectly still with a massive smile across his face just staring at me the thing I remember most vividly wasn't his face or his smile but his arms they weren't just at his side he held them in the strangest most abnormal position I've ever seen they were where one normally would hold their arms but he'd rotated them to the point where they were almost completely reversed as well as lifting in them up and a little behind himself I don't know why I remember this so much but it's just the most demonic abnormal position I've ever seen honest to god I think I almost had a heart attack right there looking back I can realize how freakin creepy this situation was but in the moment I just took a step to war ceiling punched him as hard as I could in the jaw sort of half slapping half pushing him towards the ground the second I connected I be lined up the stairs dropping my towel in the kitchen with my heart and beating out of control I sprinted into my room and locked the door behind me I quickly put a chair up against the doorknob like you see on TV almost without thinking I immediately called 9-1-1 and nearly in tears told the operator what had happened as I sat on the floor of my room in practically the fetal position staring at the door praying that a cop would soon be here I noticed the light coming from the gap which we might've offered stops my father was standing outside my door there are no words to describe that feeling I had I was paralyzed with fear watching the shadow across the bottom of the door shift in tiny ways I stayed balled up staring at again praying the man would go away from what seemed like in power all the while the 9-1-1 operator was asking hello sir sir are you there hello I didn't want to make him aways and even if I had wanted to move my arms to bring the phone to my mouth I don't think I could have eventually the light returned to the gap and I heard the faintest of footsteps slowly creaking the wooden floorboards as you walk down the hall it was silent for minutes as I just sat there curled up unable to even speak I heard banging on the front door and the sound of two officers entering my house I finally felt safe and they open the door to the two of them standing there well I almost crying nowadays my parents don't even leave me home alone anymore thank God I check every lock on the house before going to bed I still get nightmares occasionally my heart starts racing whenever I see someone standing still but I'm doing all right even working with sketch artists and a few lineups the police never found whoever the [ __ ] was in my house and that since shivers down my spine every time I look outside I've expected to see him standing across the street smiling under a lamppost I have no idea what he wanted what he was but regardless let's not meet ever again I'm the manager of a retail store and on the morning in question I was covering for my opener who was on vacation I normally work a mid shift so this was a nice change up for me to get off a little earlier he worked for our national chain but the store is smaller so the staff isn't that big only three of us during today opening mid and evening we switch it up to help cover vacations and family events for the rest of the team the store opens at 7 and we had been open maybe 15 minutes before our car pulls up in front of a neighboring shop who were the only store that opened that early in the complex so I just assumed that they were there for us a very skinny african-american gentleman gets out of the car he was in his late 60s with wiry hair and decked out in denim his face was sunken in and he was wearing thick glasses I had seen him in our store before but he never really does much mostly hangs around and mutters to himself he has hit on my morning girl a few times it was a small latina lesbian and very open about that all in all he seemed pretty harmless she even took his small advance with good humor on this morning though he seemed a little extra out of it and walked around his car looking around checking the doors more than a few times finally he opens his passenger door take something out but doesn't close the door after he's done turning around I see he's holding a pair of get this handcuffs he tried to conceal them in his hand after and I see one of the link is open I grabbed the box cutter from under the register and we used for deliveries and put it in my pocket I just don't like the feeling of all of this at all he then turns and walks to the door makes eye contact with me he looked surprised like I said my female employee is the normal warning girl he walks back from the door and looks around the store through the other windows almost in a panic he then looks back at me it almost glares he walks back to his car and tosses something back in I assumed the handcuffs then closes the door walking into the store and with a much less angry face he looks at me and asks is that your only bathroom and points out the one restroom we have I nod and say that it's out of order at the moment he notes back walks in front of her counter looking around more then back to me only you today I tell him that it is and asked him what I could do for him I just chase his head nothing you can't do anything for me then walks out and drives away when my employee came back from her vacation I asked her about it she said that he had been giving off a creepy vibe visibly and asking her a lot about her family and where she lived I didn't mention when had to happen with him I just told her she was done working alone on mornings and that I would be working then with her i contacted my national security guide and explain what happened he gave me permission if needs be to ban him from the store it was six months ago and I have yet to see him again I hope I never do okay so something happened to me about two to three months ago that just popped back into my mind this morning now I'm not one to believe in the supernatural but this stuff has no explanation whatsoever so a bit of backstory I'm a male and I live in the middle of pretty much nowhere in New Hampshire on a 93 acre farm or the only bad thing that's happened is a woman being stabbed anyways back in June I was doing my normal run involving feeding pigs cleaning out pens etc I started getting dark so I wrap things up and went inside to eat shower and go to bed then suddenly I was awakened to what sounded like someone banging on my car so I opened up my window to go look and surprised to see nothing except for a dent in my hood I went outside with my floodlight to look at it but it just didn't feel right I felt like I was in danger so I ran back inside and yeah and I was he moved I don't care when I got back inside the clock read T 20 a.m. so I try to go back to sleep but then that's when I heard what sounded like someone breathing against the mesh of my open window screen but the breath was hotter than what you would expect and I couldn't move because I was so panicked and then it kicked in I only had a screen between me and the person or what I thought to be a person so I booked it to the kitchen where I grabbed a knife and the floodlight then went outside slowly and when I turned the corner on my house I'll never forget this I saw something crawling towards me but on all fours the only way I can describe this creature is an extremely pale creature that was skinny with no hair with its tongue sticking out but this tongue wasn't human it was long and with the skin eating grain and when I saw this I ran to my house locked the door and hid in my bathroom till sunrise I don't know what this was but I do know seven when my chickens were missing and all I could find were feathers and dirt dog oh I was reminded of this after I found a decomposed chicken in my woods earlier today I guess I'll start with the background I'm a 33 year old female but this story takes place when I was a teenager living in a suburb of Chicago the village I lived in was quiet in the middle class we lived like a mile from the police station and the worst crimes we had were a murder and a couple of robberies once in a blue moon 99% of the time boring and more boring unless you had a car you were stuck just walking around the park at night with your friends anyway one night my girlfriend and I decided to go hang out at a park with some guys like 12:00 a.m. and it was a bit windy and had a full moon even got a kiss that night from the boy I liked but the night wasn't just fun than hanging out late there is a deep forest in the park with a stream and it's right next to me playground the same playground we went to the swings and jungle-gym columns there's two bridges one of wood but when everybody uses and one bridge made of rocks that's rarely used because it's deeper in the forest over the string connecting the two halves of the Forest Park area I'll get to the rock bridge in a minute they hung around the swings and chatted and just spent the evening together I'm sitting and just looking around talking and enjoying the peace and quiet and the moonlight I have a full view of the forest and the dip of the earth that I know leads to the stream I see something moving through the dip of the earth some dark shape it looked like it was crawling out of the forest and on then another on it pulls itself out of the ditch figure darker than the surrounding forest I'm sitting there frozen I think I'm seeing things it's just kind of lays there on the ground but doesn't move fill out your fear grips me what if it comes this way I look at my friends and no one notices anything I look back and it's gone did it go back somewhere with your Greenleaf book - get out of here then one friend asks did you guys hear about the urban legend of the rock bridge over the stream apparently some cater something played on the bridge and fell over the edge and died what a thing to say after what I just saw I didn't ask anyone of anything you just pretended I didn't see it but the experience stuck with me I never talked about it because it must have been my imagination things like that only happen in scary movies right but I really went to that park after that any black thing if you were real I hope we never meet again who knows what would have happened you saw me the same time I saw you I haven't been able to sleep since last night I wasn't sure to post about it because I've been trying my hardest to think of some sort of explanation but I can't I'm scared please somebody help me with this here's what happened I got home from work it was a pretty busy day so I just wanted to microwave a hot pocket let you down and just maybe watch Netflix or something it's about midnight at this point now before I go any further I'm gonna inform you that I have a home security device and planted around my home when the front door opens it lads out three beeps the front door has a screen door a second wooden door that leads into a small entry room than a third door which takes you into my house so I'm in the kitchen waiting for my microwave to finish up when I hear my front door open and then the security started beeping the kitchen is across the house from the front door so I slowly walk on over to check out who's at my front door the first thing that scared me was that the first screen door is extremely loud and creaky but I never heard it open up I also didn't hear any doors closed a peek through the window into the entry room and so nothing at this point I kind of figured maybe the neighbors have the same security system I started to walk away when I hear the same three beeps again I know I heard it this time but instead of looking out my front door I actually decided to look out the window that viewed into my front lawn I could only describe it as a deer or something crawling on my lawn was its stomach way down to the ground I watched as it stopped crawling and then stood on its back legs its mouth opened up and amid the beeping sounds just like my security system but instead of three beeps it went on to do it ten times just constantly beeping I should note at this time Netflix was already on some stupid trailer was playing in the background and I remember someone saying I'm home in the commercial the deer started croaking and has it croaked I'd hear an occasional beep in its croaks I can't explain it don't know how and I don't know why but it croaked out a long drawn-out hole it wasn't looking at the door or me it was still looking directly into the sky with its mouth wide open again he croaked out another before I could only describe it like a dog was trying to bark while vomiting or something it was guttural it was vile it definitely was not human after it croaked it seemed to gallop across the street into my neighbor's yard where it furiously dug into the grass for whatever reason it stopped halfway through and stood again and just it just looked at me from across the street in my neighbor's yard it stood on its hind legs and just stared at me it pointed its head back up and beeped once more before galloping off into another person's yard I don't live in a rural area the deer population typically stays down near Melrose Park off of Thatcher by the river I live just outside of Chicago and they're like a block west of the city limits I would say it was a crazy homeless guy but I know for a fact that I saw a deer its arms and legs were too thin to be human limbs and don't use drugs and at this moment I was 100% a week he's I need to know if there's a common explanation for something like this my sister and her family had just moved into a new house she'd managed to drop on a rather nice cottage just on the outskirts of Cheadle in Staffordshire she moved up there not long after getting married I didn't get to see her much all my delight from this rose my brother-in-law Stewart's I could take or leave in he'd always seemed quite the aloof sort nice enough but hmm you know I myself was quite busy I work night II for a company that has sites nationwide so I often find myself traveling up and down the country seems I spend more time in travel lodges than in my own home one Saturday I got a call from my sister asking if I'd like to visit the following weekend I checked my calendar and as it turned out I was scheduled to do server maintenance work on the Friday at the company's Stoke sites not more than 30 minutes drive from where my sister lived so I agreed quite delighted that I get to see my sister and niece and then you home for the first time I wouldn't have to stay in a Travel Lodge either which is always a bonus so Friday came I got finished at the Stoke office around 3 p.m. I thought it would be nice to buy a few gifts for everyone as I had not seen them in a while I was at something of a loss as to what to get my niece though in all honesty I couldn't remember how old she was two three maybe even four that's when I saw this tree dog it was in open packaging with big letters I Bruno try me big arrow indicating squeeze the foot so I did nothing happened bloody cheap - I said out loud then to my shock that lets out this mechanical sound and the Jeep tucked rock quaint I thought my niece would probably get a lot out of this so I bought it and set off to my sister's place the cottage was a nightmare to find secret it away in the moorlands ended up having to ask a farmer for directions as my sat-nav was just not up to the task seemed a bit cagey about telling me where the cottage was what you want and go therefore he asked gruffly visiting my sister I said she lives there more foolery replied which found a bit strange but he gave me the directions anyway I arrived at the cottage around 5:00 p.m. the farmers directions had sent me right around the reeking practically round the whole county the cottage was nice enough look very old and there was something slightly off about it a bit melancholy my sister in Stuart welcomed me in my niece Rose was glued to the TV what she missed tumble I said hello but she was transfixed so I sat down beside her I've got something for you and I took Bruno out of the bag doggy she squeaked excitedly press his foot I said so she did nothing happened silly doggy she said yes let's do it donkey yes well that was it then she was enamoured as it transpired my sister's invited being something of a cunning ruse to get me to babysit whilst her and Stuart went out for the evening one of Stuart's mates was playing in a pub band or something and Stuart had promised to drop in he could be a right prick at times but I was happy to spend a bit more time with my niece while Stuart and my sister were getting ready to go out I played with Rose for a bit she was a bright little kid had one hell of an imagination or so I thought she kept going on about the funny man the funny man makes me laugh the funny man says mommy's silly the funny man doesn't like daddy the funny man was pretty switched on our thoughts don't she said something that seemed a bit strange funny man is sad sometimes I don't like it when he's sad he cries but he only has one eye red comes out sometimes of course I put this down too childish fantasies Stuart had probably been watching horror films while she was still off seeing something he'd do it could be really careless they left around 8:00 p.m. my sister put rose to bed a Stuart man's playing to me about how to use this television not like a working technology on a daily basis or anything you've got least left a few beers in the fridge for me which was something so I found something half decent on the TV cracked open a can and settle them for the evening somewhat tired I felt myself dozing off then I heard a noise it gave me quite a fright a chuckle to myself there's only bruno I looked around thinking she was back and playing some kind of joke woof ruff you a nice rough scene Bruno was malfunctioning probably something to do with the factory settings maybe it picked up some audio at the shop I'd bought it from and stored it my mind grasped for explanation woof ruff you a nice ruff oh [ __ ] off I said picking up the dog and switching it off roof you drunk normally what the hell I turned off maybe there was a loose connection somewhere I frantically turned it over scrambling to get the batteries out I looked up and looming in front of me was a tall shadowy figure dressed in seventeenth-century clothing his face was livid one eye a bleeding mess and everything went dark I don't know when I came to but when I did I found myself staring up at my sister Sheila royally pissed off what the bloody hell happened all's I could say was Bruno this happened to me about ten years ago I'm a guy in network as a physical therapy assistant my first job out of school was at a nursing home that I previously interned at one thing I remember about working there was the drive it was about twenty minutes from home and a good part of it was through a Forest Preserve and it was absolutely gorgeous in the fall time the other thing I remember was one patient in particular an older gentleman named David David came to our facility for rehab services after almost dying of a blood infection post-surgery he was barely able to move at the time and required extensive help from the staff for even the most basic of needs needless to say he was in bad shape and was going to need a lot of work to recover David's family was very involved in his stay and usually one of his two daughters was present when he'd have therapy the younger one was usually there about 90% of the time her name was Sarah David and I seemed to hit it off pretty quick we were both from the same area and despite me being a quiet person we always seemed to have something to talk about I have to admit he was a challenge to work with sometimes usually because of his physical limits and also that he would want to give up a lot of the time but either I or Sarah was there to give him support and keep pushing him forward so one day I left work to go home the drive had been like all the others before it around 20 to 30 minutes depending on traffic at the time the house I grew up in had a kind of long driveway that was inclined in the middle and then flattened out when you reached the garage this was the spot I usually parked in when I would get home so I parked and got out and that's when I saw someone standing at the top of the incline part of my driveway it was Sarah now let me remind you this happened two years ago so it's hard for me to tell you exactly what I felt right then and there but for a young guy who considered himself relatively strong and brave I know a sense of fear came over me added to shock I had no idea if she'd followed me all the way home and for a larger woman had made it up my driveway in no time I didn't remember being in my car long after I shut the engine off so my car was on the left side and a metal fence was on my right behind me was the garage door which was closed cetera and I just looked at each other like we both immediately knew this was wrong and after a bit she started to walk towards me I'm pretty sure I hadn't moved a muscle yet Sarah spoke but all she could do was spit out a few words at a time would you you know ever want to I remember her half smile mixed with a look of guilt as she spoke I can't that was all I could say I guess she was asking me out but who really knows there's an awkward silence for a bit before she spoke again I'm sorry she just repeated it and then turned and went back down my driveway I waited until she was out of sight before I moved an inch I just saw that she was driving off from wherever she parked down the street luckily nobody else was home and I never told anybody about what happened not my family my friends or even my girlfriend nobody now you would think that that was the worst part of it the next day guess who was at her dad's therapy session it felt so uncomfortable her on one side of the dad and me on the other he was a large person himself so luckily I had a buffer between us I tried to act professional and like everything was cool but every once in a while she would whisper I'm so sorry and I did my best not to draw attention to it or just smile and say it's okay but it wasn't okay and I even considered going to my manager but I didn't tell him either it was like I didn't want it to be real eventually David left our facility he had made a remarkable recovery and was able to leave on his own using a walker he went home with the caregiver and life went on I never did see or hear from him or Sarah again a few years later I was at church with my wife and kids when an older looking woman walks up to me and says hello she knew my name but I didn't recognize her at first she told me that David was her father and that I had worked with him at the nursing home a few years back she wasn't Sarah this was David's other daughter I asked her how David was doing and she said that he had passed away about a year ago she thanked me again for him and we talked a bit longer before she turned to leave but stopped and then turned back to face me what she said next I remember clearly to this day I still can't believe what my sister did to you tall man creek the first step on the stairs cried Frank had waited for this moment the night the tall man would come he closed his eyes and listened thud the third step smacked against the riser his right arm shook and he studied it with his left hand fear and anticipation licked at his heart flutters erupted in his stomach and he wondered if he could go through with it thud creak thud creak four more steps to the door Frank skin burned his blood coursed and spread the fire of anger throughout his body his arms stopped shaking and the butterflies fell cold and his gut ping the loose pin on the door popped as the tall man inched the door open Frank rose from his squad in the dark he peered through the crack that served as his vantage of the room beyond scrape the tall man's jacket brushed ever so slightly against the doorframe Frank watched the tall man into the room and slink across it with the Grace and stealth of a prowling Tomcat the tall man true to his name stood six and a half feet tall head to toe black concealed every inch of his frame the tall man retrieved a small rag and a glass vial from his pocket he poured the contents of the vial upon the cloth the tall man stood next to the bed above Frank's daughter Sara silent was the closet door as Frank slid it open his steps were unheard as he approached the tall man from behind Click Clack Frank pumped his shotgun the tall man stood still a stone bang busy butcher the ping of water droplets smashing against concrete rang through the darkness my skittered along pipes their nails clicked in rhythmic tics every sound cracked like a whip in the still air musk and mildew drenched every breath with their pungent presence Chop slap Chop slap a foul duet echoed from deep within the darkness the song was muffled but it carried just enough to be heard a man sat against the wall the damp stone chilled his battered skin for days the chops and slaps whispered dread into the deepest seat of his being a place within himself where primal fear ruled supreme but now it calmed him he knew what awaited him the others who went into the light before him had not returned he was the only one left he took comfort that he never heard their whimpers or screams from beyond the light his arm quivered as he brought a bit of the stones due to his cracked lips chains rattled and the collar around his neck dug into his skin as he struggled to meet his hand light surged like a wave and crashed against his frail form his eyes retreated from the radiant force behind sunken lids his time had come Marcus the voice was calm and sweet it held the warmth and vibrance of the Sun home crept to the forefront of his thought a little cabin just off the beaten trail in the backwoods of Kentucky he remembered the smell of honeysuckle and the dance of fireflies in the night fear shredded like darkness in the light and acceptance lifted the last heavy stone from atop his shoulders his eyes opened brothers whoa Oliver's flashlight cut through the shadow of night and basked the trail ahead and a cone of light on either side of the path the gnarled tree stood watch their twisted branches hung above his head their bony fingers suspended just above his jackets hood Tommy where are you his voice met no response his words melted into the darkness and died come on this isn't funny you're going to be big trouble when mom finds out you were playing in the woods again Oliver knew he would be in just as much trouble a twig snapped as something scurried through the underbrush next to his right ankle Oliver's heart raced and goosebumps broke out on his skin he patrolled the light along the side of the trail and saw nothing Oliver a whisper broke the silent air behind him Tommy he turned around Tommy peered from behind a tree several yards off the trail come on booger it's time to go home tension released its grasp on his heart upon finding his brother Tommy squealed playfully as he ran into the darkness in stark defiance of his older brother get back here Oliver yelled he sprinted after Tommy the path he traced weaved between the trees and rocks with no rhyme or reason no matter how fast he ran tommy was just out of reach Tommy wasn't hard to follow his red and white striped sweater stuck out against the dark woods it was all wrong Tommy had never been nearly as fast as Oliver and he was a huge chicken to boot he still slept with a nightlight to keep the monsters away Oliver chased his brother into a part of the woods he didn't recognize the trees bordered a small lake its water still fog rolled into the woods and wrapped around Oliver's ankles Tommy stood on the bank looking out over the water beside him was a woman her hair was black as night and her green dress billowed like the fog encircling them Tommy who is that Oliver's voice cracked his heart pounded so hard he could feel it in his fingertips Tommy didn't make a sound he remained planted in place like one of the many trees around them ma'am I need to take my brother home now thanks for finding him his voice betrayed him it quivered and quaked something wasn't right about this strange woman he could feel it Oliver took a step forward twig and leaf crunched underfoot she took Tommy's hand and they skid across the surface of the water like they were skating on ice Oliver ran to the bank let go of my brother he picked up a rock and chucked it at the woman but they had already reached the center of the lake far beyond Oliver's range stop he cried the woman's head spun around to face him her face was twisted into the most sickening smile Oliver had ever seen her eyes glowed yellow through the mist that now slithered up and coiled around them like snakes Tommy Oliver called a final time the woman's jaw dropped to her chest in a blink her scream shrill and cold split the air and filled the night tears streaked Oliver's cheeks fear drove him beyond words beyond screams Tommy didn't flinch he didn't make a peep Oliver kept his flashlight trained on his brother unsure of what to do he just stared on for a moment his flashlight flickered for that brief moment the world was trenched in complete darkness when it came back on the woman was gone the fog cleared and as it melted off the surface of the water Oliver silence broke his cries rang loud true manifestation of fear in turmoil erupted from him like a torrent in the middle of the lake floated a red and white striped sweater I can't get his face out of my mind the glowing white eyes the wide stare and the huge smile with big t keeping me terrified in my dreams I told myself that I could handle a weekend alone and then my mom and dad wouldn't need to be there I told them that I was old enough to stay on the run for a weekend and I would lock the doors and you was in the fridge I wish I had listened to my parents and left the lights on I hadn't been scared like this in years I'm going to be 13 soon so I shouldn't be scared of stuff like this now but I don't know if what I saw is fake or if it's real my nightmare has come to life and I don't know what to do I started to have weird dreams a few nights ago I had a dream on Monday where I was in this big floating forest where I was up in a tree and the tree themselves were high up in the sky I had been here before but this time was different it was dark out because there was a lot of nearby clouds shrouded out the sauna I had fun jumping and climbing in between the trees and enjoying the sounds of birds and monkeys on tow I saw someone as it came close to what looked like a house in a tree there was a man nearby he hid behind a smaller tree trying not to show himself I tried to call out to him hi my name is Nathan what's yours he slowly peeked his head out from behind the wood and stepped over and behind the tree to show himself it was a tall skinny man with fur on his body and stripes along its stomach his fur was a mix of black and gray I was a bit thick on his body except for a patch of red fur up near the neck that look like a bowtie what I saw next I found strange he finally showed his full face and I won't lie when I say this his face kind of freaks me out at first glance he had two white eyes a small nose and a really big smile the first thing I noticed was his teeth he had very large and very wide teeth some of which poked out from behind his mouth when they were closed some of which poked out from his mouth when they were closed I didn't see his ears but but I could tell you heard me after he started to talk had a really nice voice when we first talked yes I apologize for hiding I was unsure of whether or not you and I were supposed to me he spoke proper English and seemed friendly enough even though he kind of looked strange hi yeah my name is Nathan what's yours mister he chuckled before he told me his name smiles you didn't call me mister smiles is very nice to meet you Nathan he slowly took wide steps closer to me it was almost like he was trying to skate towards me he was so much taller than me and had to reach his hand down shake line his hand was soft as a grabbed mine I couldn't help but smile as I looked up at him even with his teeth he looked very friendly up until I looked all the way up at his face a second time I feel my hand being gripped by his as his white eyes became wide his smile widened with his eyes and revealed a second row of teeth behind the first that began to shake as his mouth opened thank you mr. Nathan it is time for breakfast but as he was about to bite down on me I woke up in my bed in hot sweat wondering what the heck thing was that was trying to eat me in my dreams I went to school the next day and felt bored during class so I decided to doodle the appearance of mr. smiles the form of mr. smiles was the form I called the gentleman's form because he looked like he was wearing a weird suit with his fur I always found myself drawing what I dreamt about the night before in history class because it was so boring mr. smiles was an interesting thing to draw as scared as I was when he tried to bite me in my dreams he just felt like he was only a part of my dream I let her realized he wasn't just a part of my dream I had another dream Tuesday night only this time I was in a dark forest on the ground I didn't know where to look but the sound of owls kind of freaks me out I walked on for a little bit until I saw someone who was tall in a long dark coat in the distance I looked a little harder at the face I was looking at me and realized it was mr. smiles part of me was telling me not to get closer to him but I decided to get closer because I still thought that this was all part of my dreams he started out by getting closer with his big toe and heroin just covering the edge of his eyes hi there Nathan good to see you I was hoping to run into you again tonight do you happen to know where I could get a bite to eat right as he said this he started lunging for me flinging his jacket open revealing his two long arms extending out to reach me I started to run away hoping there was somewhere I could go but mr. smiles managed to trip me up by throwing his hat and tripping me over it as it landed in front of me where I was running I turned to face him and woke up right as he was about to bite down on me again this version of mr. smiles looked darker and less pleasant if the same voices before but looked very different this time it was almost like he was trying to hunt me down he was looking for me in my dreams and wanted to eat me I drew this new dark form of him in my journal in history class the next day hoping to try and figure out why he was after me I couldn't find out exactly why he was after me but I didn't see him later on that night on Wednesday I went back into my dream and found myself unable to find either for me mr. smiles the gentleman's form or the dark form I found myself back in the floating tree for stuff in the sky I was happy again in my dreams the trees were pretty in the sky was bright with the Sun and the darkness from the clouds were gone I slept well that night and woke up feeling great on Thursday I drew the floating tree dream in my journal in history class on Thursday to help clear my head of what I saw on Thursday night I was back in the dark and creepy forest but there was no sign of mr. smiles or so I thought dream didn't last as long and I woke up feeling weird the next day I tried to draw out the forest to destruct myself from mr. smiles but I kept hearing his voice in history class come on out and play Nathan I want a friend to come play with me won't you be my friend Nathan I'm so very hungry I did not see you earlier in the forest will you come back to visit me I could use a snack could you use her friend Nathan I think we both deserve a bite to eat I went to the bathroom after history of class I want to go and wash my face to try and wake myself up some more the lights inside were off but there were enough lights coming from the window for me to wash my face i tilted my face down to wash and as I lifted my face up in the mirror I saw mr. smiles in the corner of the bathroom near one of the urinals bring his coat and hat hey Nathan I've been looking for you I ran out of the bathroom as quick as I couldn't shut the door behind me I went off to my classroom hoping that I wouldn't be followed I tried to forget about seeing him earlier in the bathroom but I couldn't get his voice out of my head all day I was afraid to watch my parents leave to go on their three-day vacation but I didn't want to feel like I was getting in the way my mom asked me if I was okay being on my own nature that I would be fine my father was less convinced so he told me to leave the lights on I should have listened to him the one thing that mr. smiles never did was show up when the lights were on I went to sleep at 9:00 tried to fall asleep but but as soon as I fell into my dream I found myself back in the forest together I merely tried to find something for a lawyer and head to it instead of looking for mr. smiles I found an old wood house and tried to run to it I knocked on the door hoping for it to open but read as I knocked a third time I began hearing knocking from my front door I went to the side window to see who it was on the front door and so it was my aunt Stacy she was trying to call me for outside the door I looked at the clock to see what time it was because I thought it might be a trick it was 9 p.m. and that was really my aunt Stacy at my friend to her Nathan it's me your aunt Stacy your mother called me and asked me to come and check on you she told me it was okay for me to stay the night with you were you okay with that I was about to tell her yes until I saw him again mr. smiles the only thing was this time he looked terrifying his hands were shaped with the claws and the coat was gonna revealed a long jet-black body with fur that covered him everywhere and hid him mostly behind the tree in my yard his white eyes were huge and his teeth looked like they were shaking as he stared at a and Tracey I didn't know what to do I didn't want to let mr. smiles and but I didn't want aunt Stacy to end up hurt Ronnie and Stacey it's not safe go to your car and get out of here please he's right behind you and Stacey was confused what are you talking about Nathan but before I could tell her why mr. Small's was right behind her hello my name is mr. smiles do you mind if I have a bite he then opened his big mouth and swallowed aunt Stacy biting at her waist and cutting her in half I ran to my room and locked myself inside I turned on the light and blocked out the windows I should have let aunt Stacy in we should have done something other than to scream and tell her to run I keep hearing mr. smiles as I write this down I tried calling my mom and dad I tried to call the police but nobody's answering I don't know if this is a dream - or if it's real if someone finds this watch out for mr. smiles don't let mr. smiles catch you when he's hungry you might end up being his maximum Jim stared at the house the must have been a mistake this couldn't be the place he pulled the folded up advertisement from his pocket and read it again Help Wanted need twenty to thirty year old man or woman from meal planning and preparation experience not necessary inquire in person at two three nine Woodland Street he looked at the house number two three nine and this was Woodland Street it had to be the plains yet something was wrong the house was in bad disrepair the front porch was rotting in or several holes the steps leading up to the porch appeared as if the slightest weight might cause him to break off and then there was the entrance the storm door had mostly torn loose from its hinges and was barely hanging on the main door was standing slightly ajar as if someone had gone through in a rush and forgotten to close it the front yard of the place was littered with debris pieces of wood and an old rusted red wagon that probably hadn't been used for many years an old rocking chair lying on its side and other clutter Jim hesitated it must have gotten the address wrong no one could possibly be living in a dump like that he almost turned to go back down to the corner and wait for the next bus but he needed the money and the job might really be legit and wouldn't hurt to go up and knock on the door if no one answered then he would leave no harm done if someone was inside and really wanted help and was willing to pay for it well Jim decided to go for it he crossed the front lawn and stopped at the foot of the steps he carefully placed his right foot in the first step and tested it and moved a bed but seemed like it would hold his weight made his way up to the porch without incident stepping around the holes he went to the front door and rapped his knuckles against it there was no answer he waited a few moments and then knocked again still nothing Jim side looks like they got the address wrong he thought he was turning to leave when a voice called out hello yes Jim replied I'm here about the job please come in called the voice the door was standing slightly open and Jim pushed it the rest of the way he found himself looking down the length of a long haul with doorways lining it on both sides it was dim inside the place but he could see a light shining out the doorway on the left all the way at the end of the hall and here in the kitchen called the Vaughan's it still sounded like an old person speaking but there was a slightly different quality to the voice and eagerness a sense of urgency that wasn't there before for the last time Jim thought about just leaving this just didn't feel right turn and walk away there'll be other jobs then he stilled his resolve and entered downs he wasn't a coward and he wasn't going to run away like a little kid scared of shadows he walked down the hall and into the room at the end Jim found himself in a small kitchen there was an oval-shaped table with four chairs in the center to the was a back door and to the left another doorway leading into what appeared to be a larger dining room an old man sat in the chair two gyms left leaning forward his elbows on the table before him this man was mostly bald safe for a few strands of white hair just above his ears he was wearing a white wife beater grey pants and was barefoot the old man smiled a huge smile at Jim when he entered the room not good dinner time the man's dad the house was felled suddenly of the sound of heavy footsteps lots of them coming from all directions Jim felt motion behind him and turned around and almost screamed when he saw what was coming the people approaching from across the hall were huge their faces were round and huge teeth that looked oddly like tusks protruded from their mouths they were naked and covered with thick dark brown hair three of them were entering the kitchen from the side Jim had gone in others were coming in from the doorway leading into the dining room and were six of the strange-looking freaks they came into the kitchen and stared at Jim with hunger in their eyes the old man turned his head and looked at one of the misshapen men make sure you call the newspaper and renew the ad and the man said the Freak looked down in him and nodded the old man turned back to Jim and smiled thank you dinner he said those closest to Jim seized him in their strong hands he tried to fight to break free but it was no use his strength paled beside that he began screaming but there was no one in the vicinity to hear him outside was all stone a light breeze blew scattering leaves in the yard the giant spider is a true scary story about two mysterious deaths in an elevator this tale was reported as a real incident in a Turkish newspaper and it also appeared in a book about the unexplained but there is no way to tell how true it really is the event supposedly happened in 1990 and a part of Russia that is now in the Ukraine in a bad part of town the police were called to investigate a mysterious death a man was found dead in an elevator he was slumped against a wall and there were two holes in his neck his skin was pale white and all of the blood had been drained from his body the most puzzling thing about it was that there were no blood-stained in the elevator no fingerprint and no signs of forced entry things took another bizarre turn one month later when a 13 year old girl was found dead in the same elevator was two identical puncture wounds in her throat her body had also been sucked dry of her blood rumors began to spread around the area that there was a vampire on the loose the people who lived in the building were in a panic and refused to use the elevator the police were under pressure to get to the bottom of the mysterious death so they staked out the apartment a detective and a sergeant were posted inside of the elevator riding it up and down for days on end just on the third day the elevator suddenly shuddered to a halt and the lights went out the two men were plunged into darkness they pulled out their flashlights and contacted their colleagues by radio to let them know they were trapped there was a long silence then they heard a strange click click click sound it seemed to be coming from the roof of the elevator their hearts began beating fast as they realized something big was crawling around up there that's when they notice a hole in the roof or a panel has fallen away the detective aimed his flashlight at the gap and had to fight back sheer terror when he saw something peering through it was small and had a hairy head the size of a fist was eight black shining eyes the sergeant was claustrophobic and also had a deathly fear of spiders he flew into a panic and dropped his flashlight suddenly the enormous spider sprang into the elevator and landed on the sergeant's face sank its jaws and due his cheek and started sucking out his blood the sergeant was screaming and for a moment the detective was paralyzed then the detective took out his gun aimed and fired the first shot blew off one of the spiders hairy legs the sergeant stopped screaming and his body collapsed to the floor so wounded creature race up the wall and the detective could feel its bristly hairs and the rush passed him and escaped out the hatch when their colleagues managed to open the door of the elevator they found a nightmare scene the sergeant's corpse lay slumped against the wall and the traumatising tech death was curled up in the corner the army was called in and they destroyed the spider with a flames roar but then they discovered that it had laid eggs at the top of the elevator shaft Russian authorities moved quickly to hush up the incident but news leaked out in an Turkish newspaper which claimed that Janek spider was mutated by the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster the Russian denied this and claimed the story was an exaggeration is this story true there's no way to tell for sure but it's something to think about next time you're in an elevator so this happened a few years ago when I was around 21 to 22 years old I'll start by saying that I am not intimidated in the slightest I'm a 5 foot nothing small girl I was renting a nice apartment that was unfortunately located on one of the worst parts of misreading I know I know not the smartest decision on my part but it was brand-new and beautiful my roommate and I ended up having quite a few encounters in that apartment anyway it was about 9:00 p.m. and I decided I was going up to go visit the guy I haven't seen it was a winter and pitch-black outside at this time my car was parked along the street nearest to the front door as I was making my way to my car a black small car pulls diagonally in the front of my car and slightly onto the sidewalk blocking me from going any further I am frightened quite easily so this alone got my heart racing two large men intimidatingly got out of the backseat of the car causing the interior lights to turn on which made two more large men visible driver and passenger the two men started walking slowly towards me asking our questions like do you know where the whereas now I'm not a judgmental person but these men really didn't look like they were interested in going to the library they continue to ask the standard where are you going what are you doing et cetera the whole time this is happening I'm thinking about what I can do to get away from them if I need to pepper spray is illegal in Canada or at least in my province so I was not able to do that I had my keys through my finger but realistically I knew that had no chance while I was on one of the worst locations in the city it was rather quiet on the street at the same time they kept getting closer to me and I just froze fortunately a car was driving by and slowed down seeming like they realized this was an odd situation and I was uncomfortable the two men who were outside seemed to get agitated and one said man I don't think this is gonna work they both got back in the car and sped off I was so scared that I just got in my car and just started driving I didn't think to call the police to give a description or anything the car that slowed down drove off so I couldn't ask if they had gotten the license plate his holed encounter only really lasted about 2 to 3 minutes but it truly terrified me and I'm not sure what would have happened if the car didn't slow down so thank you to that person the incident on highway 1093 in my country when I was 13 I witnessed an event that appeared to be the birth of an urban legend story I'm gonna tell you came from my own experience which I haven't told anyone for years I lived with my parents in a small old house near highway 1093 where people usually drove around 100 to 150 km/h it was broad and always filled with cars particularly in December before New Year's Eve the closer you lived to this highway the louder you Tyrael annoying it terrifying noises of the cars passing by there was a supermarket on the other side of the highway that was very important for our lives I must submit that at 13 years old I was too afraid to cross the highway directly instead my family decided to walk 500 meters to a footbridge that crossed the highway every time we went shopping the locals however do not share the same fear of the highway and simply walked across they made it look so simple all they had to do was keep looking around and never never stopped walking until one evening in late November a middle-aged woman was killed in a terrible accident let's run across the highway I remember seeing people gathered in front of the suspected blue sedan where her horrifying dead body was found but I couldn't see her body clearly because there was too many of them they said she was abruptly stopped walking then struggled to pick something off the ground at that point it was too late for her to notice the oncoming automobile those poor people little did they know she was just the first victim from when I was born an accident like this had never happened before since locals were always extremely careful during such times if they thought they couldn't make it across they'd be willing to use a footbridge instead just like we did you might wonder what was she trying to pick up they found something on the ground at the exact spot she was hit it was a coin the innocent silver coins honest reflection of the Evening Sun on my face while I gaze down at it despite only eight quarters worth it was enough to throw someone's attention away from those accelerated cars they took it off the highway this is when things got creepy only a week after that and happened again the victim was a teenage boy just two years older than me the same accident the same place he had just arrived to celebrate the New Year's Eve with his family now he was gone just like that on his way to the supermarket but this time I could see the body it was something that stuck deeply in my memory his eyeballs were rolling around blood pouring from his face and bubbling in his mouth when he tried to breathe everything inside that boy's body was crushed his parents were with him on the ground screaming the most sorrowful sound I've ever heard it was the sound of broken souls they found a coin again laying innocently on the highway not too far from his body it was the same type of coin from the previous accident but I knew it was definitely not the same one some people said it was a sick prank some said it was just a coincidence anyway The Legend of this I was starting to spread locals said it was cursed by the first woman or something far more sinister some also said that they saw a boy trying to cross the highway at midnight they described but he looks scared so he was only walking back and forth along the side but the thing was he just exactly like the teenage boy who had died in the accident after hearing this it showed me to the bone a few days after the sighting it happened for the third time but even more devastating an old woman who had just come to visit her family like the teenage boy she had found the coin while trying to get to the supermarket this time the car swerved just to collide with another one three people were killed instantly except for the old woman who miraculously remained unharmed time passed I've moved out now it hasn't happened again since then every time I hear something about The Legend of highway 1093 those mysterious coins and the boy who wandered at midnight they always give me the chills because deep down I know it wasn't a coincidence it was a prank it was a sick prank as they said let me tell you a secret it was never simple I had to sneak out of my room at night grab a coin and walk to the highway the hardest part was the throw how to make it and land it in the middle I nailed it every time then all I had to do was wait I'll never forget him the teenage boy I killed including Winnie wore I searched my closet for all the clothes like his so I could be him I could be his ghost who wanted at midnight the locals were too scared they suspected nothing I've killed five people how that is worth every penny this particular event happened almost a year ago sometime in mid-october a couple friends and I drove out to visit an old friend of ours from high school Jorge who now lived about an hour out of the city we spent the whole day with him and it was really late when we finally decided to start to drive back home my friend Lisa was passed out in the passenger seat she had had a few drinks and decided to spend the ride home asleep my other friend Sam was sitting in the back seat behind Lisa and playing a game on her smartphone I of course was driving them I was following the GPS instructions back to the freeway at that moment we were driving down a dark street with thick trees bordering both sides everything was pretty peaceful with the only sounds I could hear being that of the car moving along the road and the radio on low volume suddenly my car that had a loud jolt and it felt as if I had hit something Sam let out a shock scream while Lisa remained dead asleep I slammed on the brakes and the car came to a halt I was breathing heavily when I asked what the hell had just happened Sam peered through the back window and gasps she turned to me with an angry look on her face and shouted that I had just hit a dog I looked through the back window and sure enough a dog was lying in the middle of the road a few yards behind the car Sam is a pretty big animal lover so I wasn't surprised to see her get pissed at me she was about to open her door and rush to the animals aid when I stopped her once I had gotten over the shock of running over a dog I got a feeling in my gut that told me that something was off I'm no braggart but I consider myself to be a very attentive and safe driver my eyes were on the road at all times and I distinctly remember not seeing any dog in the world prior to the cars jolting yes it was dark but I was sure that I would have at least seen the dog in the headlights before hitting it I looked through the back window and took a closer look at the dog or at least as much as I could make out in the right light coming from my taillights it was a fairly big dog at least a golden retriever or something like that one particular detail caught my attention I could see the dog's tail wagging now I'm no expert on the mannerisms of animals but I was sure the last thing a dog would do after being hit by a car would be to wag its tail after a moment of thought I pressed my foot down on the accelerator and sped off Sam snapped at me and ordered me to go back but I told her that something was wrong with the whole situation she continued to argue but she fell silent as she turned back towards the back window she asked what the heck with a shaking voice I looked in the rearview mirror though it was dark I was able to make out the silhouettes of three large figures emerging from the trees on the side of the road the dog was now up on its feet and jumping around joyfully the three figures looked at our direction as I pressed my foot down on the gas harder and sped off Sam and I remained silent for the rest of the ride it wasn't until a few days later that we told Lisa about it we've been back to visit George a few times since then but we always make sure to leave before sunset still I dread to think about what would have happened if we had gotten out of the car a few years back I rented an apartment from a friend of mine he had recently bought it and had it completely renovated he put it up for sale but couldn't find a buyer so I offered to rent it in the meantime after moving in I realized that there was something wrong with the lady next door she was about 45 but looked much older she would sit up all night listening to Christian radio shows and talking loudly to someone it got to the point where I couldn't sleep so I went over to her place and asked her to keep the noise down she opened the door and I got a quick peek her walls had crosses painted on them in different colors words like Jesus and angels scribbled everywhere her windows were painted black letting no light in at all there was damp yellow stained carpets [ __ ] and cockroaches everywhere no dog I asked her to please keep it down she just looked at me and shut the door she then turned up the radio even louder the next night I had my girlfriend stay over I wake up in the middle of the night and see a shadow of a person next to the bed looking at us sleeping I think I'm hallucinating as I usually do in the dark when I'm sleepy but the shadow starts talking it's my neighbor and she's holding something in her hand she broke in during the night and who knows how long she stood there you should lock your doors at night she says and walks out the next morning I hear someone making strange noises below my bedroom window it's my neighbor talking to herself in tongue she has a plastic bag in her hand with her rotting dead dog inside it's hot as hell outside and I can smell death from the bag she's obviously [ __ ] insane I go upstairs and knock on the other person's door and ask what the hell is going on this guy is as scared as I am apparently she broke into his apartment one evening as well while he was watching TV with his kids he got up from the couch to get a snack only to find her behind the couch staring at him holding a power drill I called a police and they know all about her apparently she was a violent schizo known for not taking her meds they can't force her to or enter her apartment without her permission because she owns it the only thing they can do is get her when she goes outside I sit up for the next two days waiting for her to run out of cigarettes when I hear her leave at 2:00 a.m. to go across the road to the 7-eleven I call the cops they have three cars and a special van over in less than two minutes they restrain her and throw her in the van and drive off to some institution in less than a minute it's like she was never there I never saw her again I'm glad to see you made it to the end of the ride I want to personally thank you for coming along and in all seriousness thank you for supporting me in this channel and growing together with it I hope we meet again very very soon good night [Music]