[Music] when I was 22 I started seeing a guy who I met on a dating app for a while his name was Hunter we went on like four dates in the span of a little over a month at first things seemed all right our first date was a quick coffee date less than an hour more of a screening process to make sure he seemed normal our our second date was at a nearby bar for some drinks we both got a nice buzz and it was a nice time our third date was dinner and this was
when I started to question things question if I really clicked with his personality or if I felt like there was something slightly off about him the date ended with a kiss still the first and only time we ever kissed so I convinced myself that because I let him kiss me things went all right it wasn't until a couple weeks later that we went on our fourth and final date we went out for drinks once again however this time I went into it with a less excited mindset and I was paying more attention to little quirks
in his behavior that I realized were kind of unusual it's hard to explain exactly what I mean but some of his mannerisms just gave off antisocial and borderline creepy Vibes he started to drink way too much on this date as well and he started getting really touchy feely at the bar trying to kiss multiple times I'm not a fan of PDA especially not when sitting at a bar with people next to me I politely turned down his advances and within a few minutes I mentioned I was tired heavily implying we should leave he asked for
the check paid it and then we grabbed our coats and left as we were walking to our cars he stopped me and very bluntly asked me if we could go home together I said not tonight I'm tired and have worked tomorrow which was a lie he shockingly kept trying saying he draged me to work tomorrow and such I found it to be absurd whether he was drunk or not I also wasn't a fan of him drunk driving home I made the decision at that point that I wouldn't see him again I went to my car
in the parking lot across the street and started driving home slowly just because I had a couple drinks in my system I wasn't drunk but I was still very cautious I was also overly alert of my surroundings looking around for cops which perhaps is why I picked up on the fact that the same car was behind me still after I made at least three turns and at a certain stoplight I realized it looked like Hunter's car I texted him are you following me he texted back pretty quickly saying yes I just want to make sure
you get home okay I called him but he wouldn't pick up this was so weird and quite frankly creepy I pulled over and texted him to stop following me I'm fine he stopped in the middle of the street for a second I presumed to read my text and then he drove off p asked me he didn't text back not until I got home and was in bed he said as follows I hope I didn't weird you out tonight sorry I got so drunk next time we should do something a little more lowkey like dinner at
my place or something I didn't answer so the next morning he followed up with oh no is the vibe dead I still decided to wait a bit to respond not even 2 hours later he sends me a question mark so I decided to reply now before it got worse I said hey I had a great time getting to know you but I just think our personalities don't click that much I also really just want to focus on myself right now I hope you understand after this was when the angry text started coming in the worst
of which being no I don't understand you strung me along for four dates to tell me that how about you pay me back half of everything I bought for you then there were a few other angry texts that involved personal information so I'm not going to include them but they were enough to prompt me to block him I thought this would be the end of it but then I started receiving no caller ID phone calls non-stop I ignored all of them until he finally seemed to get the message and stopped the next day when my
parents weren't home I got home from work to find a bouquet of flowers on the stoop along with a card the card was an apology from Hunter asking for a second chance he somehow knew where I lived that Disturbed me in his mind he somehow must have thought that this would come off as Charming or sweet when in reality it was extremely alarming I sent a long and final text to him to please not contact me anymore and never come to my house again or I'd file for a restraining order I kept his number blocked
so I wouldn't see his response I thought things would be over now but I couldn't be more wrong it was not long after this that I was home alone for the night my parents house is big and I had a loft bedroom which meant my bedroom was the highest point in the house I awoke in the middle of the night to something I wasn't sure what it was at first but I felt as though I was hearing noises from downstairs I tried my best to listen closely and then I heard what was very obviously a
door opening from outside my bedroom one of the upstairs doors nobody was supposed to be home that night even in my haze from freshly waking up I still immediately thought Intruder I crawled out of my bed onto the floor and shimmed under the bed before calling 911 I texted everyone in my family asking who's home I heard some distant noises from somewhere in the home one of the other bedrooms and then my bedroom door opened and footsteps came up the carpeted stairs after they reached the top step there was silence the whole room was carpeted
so I couldn't hear any potential footsteps steps and then I heard the drawers next to my bed begin opening I held my mouth with my hands to mask my breathing I could feel my heart racing I heard a man's voice say God [ __ ] damn it under his breath in that moment I thought wait that might have sounded like Hunter's voice I still didn't move and I prayed my phone did not get any notifications now I heard more rumaging sounds he was going through my entire dresser then I heard and felt the bed move
as he sat down I was staring at the outline of Two Shoes through the bed skirt even in the dark it was visible I don't know what he was doing on the bed but he sat there for over 2 or 3 minutes before getting up and I heard him say under his breath fing [ __ ] I heard all the drawers close and then I heard footsteps walk back down the stairs the door shutting and then sounds of footsteps walking down the stairs to the living room I called 911 now and I still whispered into
the phone just to be safe I stayed on the line and stayed under the bed for 10 to 15 minutes until one of the police officers showed up and I went down to meet them at the front door and even that was tense after letting him in I told him everything he didn't already know from the phone call he responded to as such he did a sweep of the house and during that another officer arrived this one female who also assisted in the search it turned out every window was unlocked and one of the windows
the dining room one is big enough for someone to crawl through though I don't think anyone ever pictured someone squeezing through the bush in front of the window and then crawling through it I gave a verbal statement of everything I was given a report number and they left when my parents returned home the next day they already knew everything from my texts and phone call with them we went to the police station with my report number and gave as much information as possible such as text screenshots including him admitting he was following me home they
said they'd investigate though without solid proof it was him inside the house it was tricky I think the case lost steam when I really didn't have any proof of anything I did however successfully get a restraining order against him and I was advised to never accuse him of having broken in nor ever contact him again he thankfully didn't but from that point till the moment I moved out of my parents house I was always uncomfortable he would be creeping around outside even today I sometimes fear he might find out where I currently [Music] live I
was in the sixth grade when this happened this all started on the week of Halloween when I would stay after school to help decorate a haunted house for my school's Halloween Carnival I often got to stay and Fuller around with some of my friends while getting awarded with pizza for helping decorate along with my friends there was also this other kid who would stay late I'll call him Chris we had gotten along for the entirety of the time that we would stay after school and he never once gave me any reason to feel uneasy around
him he was genuinely a funny and cool kid but anyway fast forward 2 weeks I was suddenly approached by a group of girls in my grade who were all excited and had wide grins on their faces I asked them what was going on only for them to tell me that I had a secret admirer and that he would be texting me tonight now I'd be lying to you if I told you that I wasn't excited or at the very least curious about this I wanted to know who later that night when I was about to
go to sleep I got a notification from messenger it was the only app I had at the time that I always used to communicate with my parents whenever I was home alone the message was from Chris I had completely forgotten that I added him on Facebook on Halloween I opened the message and it read Maya I need to talk to you I was concerned and quickly replied yeah what's going on everything okay to this day I wish I hadn't replied the typing bubbles appeared and stayed there for a good 2 minutes which meant that he
was still typing it felt like forever until his message finally came through I didn't expect what came next in a long paragraph he confessed his love for me and and how I've been driving him crazy since Halloween he also proceeded to explain how he tried to impress me during recess and fed with his soccer skills but that I never seemed to notice him he said that he was growing tired of being ignored and it ended with I want you to notice me so I guess what I'm trying to say is will you be my girlfriend
I cringed at every word I stared at the message for a long time what the hell I barely even know this kid and I drifted apart from him a long time ago I was trying to come up with a way to let him down easily as I didn't want to hurt his feelings I told him I didn't like him like that and that I wanted to just be friends I could tell right away that he didn't like this answer he kept asking me why and I had to come up with a reason each time until
he eventually stopped answering the next morning was a nightmare for me some of his friends kept coming up to me and telling me that Chris wanted to kiss me which he told the entire grade he wanted to do and that he would do it even if it meant cornering me taking this as a threat I decided to tell my teacher she told me to stay inside during recess and lunch and that if he ever got even close to me to run right back to the classroom this wasn't enough for me I reported him to the
principal who told me he would do something right away and this gave me some relief I feel I should mention that I lived right across the street from my school and everyone knew this including Chris which leads me to what happened next later on in the week I was walking home home from school I hadn't even been inside my house for more than 2 minutes before I heard someone knocking on my front door I peaked out the window just in time to see someone ducking behind a parked car across the street it had to be
Chris he must have been following me my mom opened the door to find a piece of paper on the floor and not surprisingly it was addressed to me I read the note out loud and it said there was a surprise waiting for me under the Cadillac in my driveway which at the time belonged to my brother my mom went to check only to find nothing but it was after this day my brother's Cadillac stopped working I still have no idea what Chris did to the car but my brother was forced to sell it unfortunately my
nightmare doesn't end there I was constantly harassed by Chris's friends telling me to give him a chance and that he would treat me right there was even a moment when I caught Chris taking a picture of me walking home and the only reason I saw him was because I barely heard the sound of an iPhone camera behind me who knows how many photos of me he had on his phone and every morning I woke up to a message from him with something along the lines of I can't wait to see you at school or I
bet you'll look beautiful today the harassment and stalking were only getting worse and it was making me fear for my safety especially now that he knew where I lived finally I got a call into the counselor's office and I felt relieved expecting her to tell me that Chris was going to get in trouble or that the cops would get involved anything instead what I heard was worse the counselor proceeded to tell me that boys will be boys that they do crazy things when they're in love and that I shouldn't be mad about this she told
me I should feel flattered as this kind of stuff was bound to happen and that the only thing I could do was to accept it and learn from it at the time I didn't see the problem with her words as I genuinely believed her but looking back on it now this was an insane and disturbing thing to say to a sixth grader who was being sexually harassed and who was fearing for her safety almost every day that afternoon I came home from school telling my mom everything the counselor told me and she was rightfully Furious
I was called to the principal's office again that same week this time with my mom present I remember very clearly my mom telling the counselor and principal what are you waiting for for something bad to happen to her before you do something she continued to ask why it was taking so long for something to be done they both stayed silent my mom ended it by threatening the counselor and telling her to never speak to me again unless she was present but unfortunately I don't think the school ever did punish Chris which to this day enrages
me he basically got away with everything it doesn't even end there one night during the weekend when my parents had gone shopping I was about to go to bed after watching a YouTube video on my iPad when I heard something at my window now I'm on the second floor so this was especially strange the only thing that hits my window are birds accidentally flying into it I sat up listening lening then it happened again it sounded as if someone had thrown something at the glass then it happened again and again they were consistent thuds and
it was starting to freak me out I finally got the courage to get up from my bed and see what it was my heart dropped into my stomach when I opened the curtain and looked down to see Chris holding a handful of rocks looking up at my window he somehow had managed to figure out which window was mine he was about to throw another when he noticed me I could ever so slightly see that he was saying something but I didn't stop to see what I remember going to see if every window and door was
locked and thankfully everything was when I returned to my room I received four messages from Chris why did you leave I just want to talk I'm sorry all they wanted was a kiss please forgive me you are not who I thought you were bye I blocked him after that thankfully I never had another incident even though I had to see him throughout the entirety of my school years from sixth grade to senior year the last thing I heard about him was that he was arrested God Only Knows for what the saddest and scariest part of
my story though is the fact that a counselor was comfortable with telling me that this kind of behavior was a compliment and a learning experience for me as a girl I just hope that woman no longer works with children and that I never have to see Chris again [Music] I want to stay as Anonymous as possible with this this was a very serious occurrence that I have PTSD about and unfortunately it scarred me I'm changing all towns and names in the story so there's no way it gets traced back to me I've been a very
reclusive person most of my life it started at a young age even in my early school years my teachers would tell my parents I had anti social behavioral problems I would even be included in some of the I guess you would say special 20-minute classes for speech and behavior in elementary school at the time I didn't comprehend why I was being brought there while the rest of my class wasn't Middle School was when the pressures of the social hell that school is really started to set in kids started forming their friend groups and that only
carried over into high school and got worse I never had learning disabilities or anything I just had social issues which had gotten better as as I've grown older but I would still consider myself an awkward introverted person however I've made my close friends and I'm grateful for that but now let's talk about girls of course being a social recluse comes with having trouble with the ladies honestly not to get too graphic but you know it means something to my story I lost my virginity at 21 that's a bit late I'd say this was at the
age of 23 I moved out of my parents place already I had been working a high-paying job in my field for a couple of years at that point already and I bought a townhouse in my hometown it was pretty affordable but a nice and big townhouse I don't live there anymore but it was two floors it was the kind of place that would impress girls at 23 if you owned it so one day swiping on Tinder I matched a pretty decent looking girl I'll call her Emily we went on a date at a nearby restaurant
for dinner I was a little in my head thinking she was judging me or I was acting awkward and by the end of it I felt like she'd never want to see me again but when I was in bed after getting home she told me she really liked me and had fun and I was ecstatic honestly so we went on a second third and fourth date and honestly things felt great after I got out of my head we became boyfriend girlfriend fairly quickly but the honeymoon phase didn't last forever when you first start seeing someone
you get excited anytime they text or call you you crave the attention because ideally it's a two-way thing but slowly I started feeling as though she was texting me maybe a bit too much at all times of the day she'd ask where I was if I was doing something or perhaps took my time in responding she'd call me or send question marks to follow up one day when we were on the couch she demanded we share our locations with each other I wasn't thrilled about this even though I had nothing to hide I did it
anyway so we're a couple months into the relationship our location shared and this is where things went really sour she'd start asking me why I was at Phil's house and not answering her texts it got so bad that one night when I was with Phil and my friend Mark in Phil's basement on a Friday night she actually showed up to his house and Phil's mom walked Emily downstairs she didn't even hide the fact that she was pissed at me and immediately spoke in a loud voice almost a yell reprimanding me for goofing around at Phil's
house instead of answering her texts about going to some Winery the following day I asked her if we could discuss this later but she insisted I leave with her I apologized to my friends and went outside with her we had an argument in the street she wanted to come home with me but I told her no we both drove separately obviously so I drove home and told her not to follow me when I got home I sent her a long text telling her we need a break and I need space should I have done this
in person yeah probably text message breakups aren't Fair most of the time but honestly in the moment I was scared of what her reaction would be in person of course she started calling me over and over blowing up my phone with texts when I eventually stopped answering I got aggressive pounds at my front door of my townhouse and constant rings from the doorbell it got so bad that my neighbor actually came out and asked her what she was doing I heard Emily screaming at him that I'm a piece of [ __ ] and this and
that and my neighbor calmly told her to go home I listened to everything with my ear basically up to the door she did leave and honestly I was kind of disturbed I'm not saying the crazy just came out of nowhere there were definitely signs but I was blind to some of it because of the honeymoon effects the next day I remembered to stop sharing my location with her and immediately as if she were obsessively checking our texts she angrily blows me up for doing that I was more and more sure of my decision to cut
ties with her every text she sent my final text to her was I'm sorry Emily I have to block you for a while you're scaring me she surprisingly didn't come knocking or anything however I noticed she instantly stopped sharing her location as well it was exactly 1 week later I went over to Phil's house again and chilled with the guys I left around 11:00 p.m. and got home shortly after I wasn't tired and I was hungry so I threw some food in the microwave and popped on the couch to watch a movie I was browsing
all the streaming apps for something good I wanted a scary movie when the microwave beeped and it went silent I suddenly heard a click or thud from the dining room so the layout of the downstairs of the townhouse it looped around in a circle it went from the kitchen to dining room to living room to den and they were all separated by a wall in the middle however the dent of the dining room had a door not an opening I attached this photo to give a better idea to allow for complete silence I grabbed the
TV remote and muted the TV and it was then that I surely heard the door separating the den and the dining room clicking open I peered into the dining room I blurted out who's in here to of course nothing in response I I entered the dining room my blood running cold as I saw that door was opened I have a thing for keeping doors in my home shut and that door was no exception I went to the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife from the knife block I also called 911 right away I had never
called 911 once in my life this was a first on the phone I spoke really loud so that whoever was in there would hear that I was on the phone with the police whether this was a good idea or not I guess is debatable I said I think my crazy ex-girlfriend has broken into my house please send someone the rest of that call was explaining what exactly was going on why I thought it was my ex and her instructing me to wait outside if possible so I went outside and waited not far from the front
door surprisingly quickly a police car rolled up I once again briefly explained what I thought was going on and I led the officer into my home we both performed the most thorough search of the place together and I'm telling you no one was in there we checked the mini crawl space hidden in the closet we checked every closet for that matter we checked under the beds under the couches even the mini attic too when the coast was quite literally clear he told me to call again if I heard anything which said to me that he
believed me and knew I wasn't making it up or going crazy my night was obviously Disturbed after that no way I was going to be able to sit in the living room and watch a movie now I ate my food which had been sitting in the microwave and went up to my room and locked the door I texted all my friends and family of course about how spooked I was was but given that no one was in there I had to dismiss it as just one of those creepy moments of something in the house moving
by itself I almost texted Emily but refrained from doing so I took a melatonin and from what I remember I quickly drifted off to sleep surprisingly however I'm a light sleeper and something caused me to wake up I didn't know what it was but something in the room felt off I checked my phone and I had a bunch of texts from a random number that must have been what woke me up I quickly realized it was Emily in short without reading the paragraph she sent me she was stating how sorry she was and that she
wanted to talk she was begging me to see her to talk tomorrow in person and the rest of the texts were her saying are you awake and wake up over and over she said wake up a total of eight times over text surprisingly she hadn't tried calling me though I responded why are you awake right now this is crazy that you're blowing me up at an hour like this honestly if I wasn't sure before you're just these past few days alone have confirmed that I don't want anything to do with you anymore please just leave
me alone seconds after I pressed send I heard a scream from inside of the closet next to my bed it was Emily's voice yelling the word no and then the closet door burst open I didn't have time to think of anything besides jumping out of the bed and getting that bedroom door open and getting out of the room it wasn't locked anymore mind you once out of the room I pushed the door shut and held it shut as she tried opening the door she didn't just try opening it though she started stabbing the door and
I saw the knife she was wielding piercing through my side in the moment I decided to scream baby I love you stop instead of something like you're sick and you need help when I said I loved her she stopped and calmed down and I took this moment to call 911 again silently while still holding the door shut at this moment we spoke through the door to each other while I had 911 on the line and I came up with some [ __ ] on the spot that I was going through a rough time right now
but that I loved her and was planning on getting back with her she said in a frantic voice that's all I wanted to hear why couldn't you just be honest with me she asked me to open the door I had to stall though I told her I was scared and wanted her to drop the knife eventually she agreed and I told her to throw it across the room so I could hear it land she did so I heard the clang of the knife ricocheting off the wall and onto the floor so what I did next
I yanked the door door open and tackled Emily to the floor she screamed and fought and went hysterical I didn't care I held her down as I yelled my address and everything into the phone which was still connected to 911 I held her down all the way until the police arrived to my surprise the police literally kicked the front door down and it was so loud it could be heard over Emily struggling all the way upstairs police entered the room quickly a surprising amount of police actually Emily was put in cuffs quickly and she was
hysterically crying I think the only reason I wasn't crying was because I was in such shock this was the worst most scarring Night of My Life The Nightmare didn't end there though there was such a long and serious legal process that followed as far as getting Emily convicted I never wanted my name or any info to be out there on the internet to end up on one of those crime YouTube channels so I've been careful about leaking too much information that could get back to me Emily's in prisoned for some very serious charges no part
of that makes me happy this was someone I spent a little chunk of my life with more or less every day someone I Thought I Loved Someone who tried to kill me she was not right in the head and it still pains me how oblivious I was not only because of how infatuated I became at first but because of my own lack of self-confidence to a degree that I was so focused on impressing her at first that I didn't even pay attention to certain alarming behaviors on her part early on I know this will stick
with me forever and honestly even if anonymously it would feel good to get the story out there finally if it's chosen to be read [Music]