14x25: He Shows Up Every Night

Not all group chats are the same.

Just like not all Adams are the same.

Adam Brody, for instance, uses WhatsApp to pin messages, send events, and settle debates using polls with his friends, all in one group chat.

Makes our guys' night easier.

But Adam Scott group messages with an app that isn't WhatsApp, which means he still can't find that text from his friends about where to meet.

Hang on, still scrolling.

Now the address is here somewhere.

It's time for WhatsApp.

Message privately with everyone.

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This podcast contains adult language and content.

Listener discretion is advised.

If you have a story to share, send it to let's not meetstories at gmail.com.

Enjoy the show.

This happened in 1997.

I was about four when my mom, brothers, and I went to the water park one weekend during the summer.

The park was set up so that once you walked through the entrance, you'd run directly into a food court with a little information station.

To the left was an indoor arcade with a little roller coaster directly outside of it, and behind the arcade building was an enormous wave pole.

To the right of the entrance was a kitty park, and then, behind the kitty park, was a lazy river and all the water slides.

Since my brothers were older and wanted to ride the big rides, my mom and I split off from them and headed to the kiddie park.

I was playing for a little while, making friends with other kids, when this one little boy asked me if I wanted to go to the wave pool.

Since I was little, my mom told me that I wasn't allowed to go to the wave pool without an adult, so I told him I couldn't.

He then said it wasn't a problem since his dad was already over there waiting for us.

He also said he already told my mom that his dad was going to watch us.

Since I had been marveling at the wave pole ever since we got there, I was sold on this plan and I followed him over there.

My mom didn't even notice at the time because the lawn chair she was sitting in around the kiddie pool was blocked by all the other children running around.

and the kids slides.

So, this kid and I headed to the wave pole and met his dad, who immediately took my hand and then guided me to the wavepool.

I remember only being in there for about two minutes tops until he picked me up and carried me back out of the pool.

I don't think I even asked where we were going.

I just assumed we were going to the food court by the entrance, since that's where we seemed to be headed.

Right as we reached the entrance gates, a lifeguard approached us to confirm my name.

I let the lifeguard know what my name was, and I began to cry because I thought I was in trouble.

The lifeguard then pulled me away from this guy, and I saw my mom running up to us, sobbing.

Years later, my mom and I were revisiting this story, and she told me that she noticed I was missing pretty quickly, so she told a lifeguard to close off the entrance to the park.

I was wearing a yellow bathing suit with pink flowers on it, and I had two yellow ribbons in my hair, so I was easy to identify with the given description when the man was trying to carry me out of the park.

I asked my mom about the kid who brought me over to him, and she said she had no idea what I was talking about.

She said that the man who was carrying me was by himself, and he ran to his car in the parking lot as soon as the lifeguard took me out of his arms.

So, to the weirdo at the water park, let's not meet.

I'm a 23-year-old male, and I live in California.

Last year I decided to use Tender for the first time.

I had previously used hot or not and plenty of fish, but mostly just got bots and scammers, so I didn't feel like I was off to the best start with online dating.

However, I was feeling bored on a Friday afternoon, so I decided to try my hand at Tender.

So I downloaded it to see what would happen.

After creating an account, I began swiping people.

A half hour had barely passed, and I had already matched up with someone.

For a little context, I am what many may consider bisexual.

I don't like labels, but I suppose that's technically the category I fall under.

As such, I matched with a 25-year-old guy who we'll call Aiden.

Aiden was what I would call attractive, and his interests were similar to mine.

He said he was into gaming and coding, just like me.

I decided to go ahead and send him a message, but before I even had time to type a single letter, he sent me a message.

His message read, Hey, I saw you're new to tender, so I thought I'd reach out and say hi.

I said hi back, and the two of us began talking about our love for video games, movies, and coding.

He told me he was a full-time coder, and made a decent salary, only working four hours a day.

He asked me if I would be down to come and chill with him.

I then offered to have him come over to my house because I was alone, and he lived with his parents.

He seemed really excited by this, and said that he would love to come over.

We agreed on him coming over an hour later so that I had time to tidy up my room and get my PC ready for gaming.

After about an hour or so, I sent him my address and he said that he was on his way.

Now normally, I wouldn't have invited somebody over to my house without meeting them first, but this guy seemed harmless, and he was attractive, so I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

In what seemed like seconds, I heard a knock at my front door.

I looked out through the peephole and I saw that it was Aiden.

He had a bottle of red wine in his hand and a smile on his face.

We hadn't discussed drinking wine together, but I did, in fact, like red wine, and the brand that he had with him just so happened to be my favorite.

I opened the door and greeted him.

I told him that that wine was my favorite and asked him if he was a mind reader.

He laughed and said that I just struck him as a red wine kind of guy.

I asked him how he planned to get home if he ended up drinking too much, and he said that he uber to my house.

We ended up having a couple of glasses of wine on my back patio, just talking about life and work.

We also shared our coming out stories with each other.

After we were done with our wine, we went inside to play video games, and we had a blast.

After the gaming, he showed me his laptop, which he had brought with him so that he could show me his work.

Eventually, I had to use the bathroom, so I excused myself to go.

I then heard him approach the bathroom door and turn the knob.

Since I didn't lock the door behind me, he just came right in completely unannounced, and without warning, he started grinding on me from behind while forcefully grasping my shoulders.

I shoved him off of me and just kind of jokingly said, That's a bit intrusive.

He just smiled at me and said, I wanted to see how you would react.

I then left the bathroom and walked into the kitchen, with him walking right behind me.

I asked him if he wanted more wine, or maybe some water, but before I could grab the water bottles from the fridge, this guy pushed himself up against me and groped me while smiling creepily.

This time I was completely taken aback.

I shoved him off of me and yelled.

I told him that we had just met, and that I didn't think it was the right time to jump into anything sexual.

To this, he scoffed.

You're just a waste of time.

You have no idea what you're doing.

You're homophobic.

You give gays a bad name.

I told him I wasn't homophobic, and displayed as much since we had been hanging out and talking.

I told him I found him attractive, but let him know that he was crossing major boundaries.

He just laughed and replied, In the LGBTQ community, there are no boundaries, so I'm just going to go.

And just like that, he was out of there.

I walked him to the front door, and he walked out without even saying goodbye or anything.

I didn't think anything else of it and decided I needed to take a shower.

So I got in the shower, and about five minutes into my shower, I kept hearing this tinking sound coming from the other side of the shower door.

I peeked through the sliding door and looked down, only to see Aiden.

To my surprise, Aiden was holding a spoon and tapping it on the bottom of the door while looking at me in the shower.

Not knowing what to do, I just pretended not to notice him as I slowly turned the shower off.

Then I got out and wrapped a towel around my waist and prepared to confront him once I yanked the door open.

But before I could do that, I heard him snap a picture with his phone.

When I flung the door open, he flew down the hall and out my front door.

I watched as he got into a white Honda Civic and drove away, which meant he had lied about taking an Uber.

I was covered up when he took the picture, so I have no idea what the hell he even got a picture of or why he took it in the first place, but I can imagine he didn't have any good intentions behind it.

I was paranoid that he would return after that, and I immediately blocked him on Tinder.

I haven't seen him since, but to Aiden, you are such a creep, and let's not meet.

Not all group chats are the same, just like not all Adams are the same.

Adam Brody, for example, uses WhatsApp to plan his grandma's birthday using video calls, polls to choose a gift, and HD photos to document a family moment to remember, all in one group chat.

Makes grandma's birthday her best one yet.

But Adam Scott group messages with an app that isn't WhatsApp.

And so the photo invite came through so blurry, he never even knew about the party.

And grandma still won't talk to me.

It's time for WhatsApp.

Message privately with everyone.

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Not all group chats are the same.

Just like not all Adams are the same.

Adam Brody, for instance, uses WhatsApp to pin messages, send events, and settle debates debates using polls with his friends, all in one group chat.

Makes our guys night easier.

But Adam Scott group messages with an app that isn't WhatsApp, which means he still can't find that text from his friends about where to meet.

Hang on, still scrolling.

No, the address is here somewhere.

It's time for WhatsApp.

Message privately with everyone.

A few months out of high school, I started working at this small grocery store known for its authentic foods from a certain European country.

Every Wednesday from about 6 to 8 p.m., this store would have a wine tasting.

The wine tasting always brought out a crowd, many of whom were regulars, and one such regular was someone whom I'll call Jeff.

Jeff was an older man, likely in his 70s, and he always wore the same outfit, a yellow button-up, suspenders, and some conservative pins tacked to his suspenders.

I knew just from looking at him that something wasn't right, but he never really approached my section of the store, so I didn't worry about him all that much.

I just made sure that I knew where he was at at all times, since I didn't want to be caught off guard if he strayed from his habitual sections.

It didn't take long for my co-workers to confirm my suspicions about Jeff.

Before our store was remodeled, the only way to get to the bathrooms was to go through the employee break room, and the break room was where our schedules were posted.

He had been caught multiple times taking pictures of the schedules.

His snooping around back there got so bad that our largest and most intimidating employee was assigned to hang out in the break room just to ward him off.

These incidents always got him kicked out, but it was only temporary, as management always allowed him to return the following week.

One time I remember seeing him standing too close to a co-worker who was barely out of high school, much like myself.

She looked uncomfortable, and later I learned that he had run his fingers through her hair without her permission, telling her how pretty it was.

Another time, I watched as a mother came in with her children for some quick purchases.

This happened to be during the wine-tasting, and the store was still open for people to shop.

I remember seeing the intense stare he gave her tiny toddler as she was wandering around.

It made me sick to my stomach, so I kept a close eye on the two of them just in case I needed to intervene.

Luckily, the family left without incident, oblivious to everything.

I thought that I was safe, though.

I thought there was no way that he would find me attractive or had any interest in targeting me.

Then, during another wine tasting, he came in as usual.

Honestly, he only came in for the wine tastings and he never even bought anything.

Business was slow during the wine tasting times, so I was usually stuck standing around without anything to do.

At most, I'd just have to greet the one or two wine tasters who came to check out what the station had to offer.

Usually, no one ever shopped the things at my station, so I didn't think too much of it when he approached a case and peered in.

He didn't say anything, he just hovered and stared down at the food, which left me feeling a bit uneasy.

Now, my station was shaped like a horseshoe, with cases on either side of me, and me in the middle.

Jeff was on the right, and another man approached on the left, inquiring about hummus.

I turned my back to Jeff and interacted with the customer, delighted to have a distraction.

I gave the customer some options, then took the opportunity to step away from my station just so I could guide the customer to where the hummus selection was, which was far away from Jeff.

As I walked past, Jeff turned to give me an affronted look.

I promised I'd be with him in a second, because it seemed like he wanted something to buy for once.

As the interaction with the other customer wrapped up, I was getting ready to reluctantly head back to my station, when a co-worker of mine, whom I'll call Leo, stepped away from his station.

Go ahead and go to the back, Leo said.

I'll handle him, okay?

Just go to the back.

Relieved, I did as he said, and I didn't return to the sales floor until Leo came to the back to get me.

When Leo came back, he was mad, and I mean really mad.

Typically, Leo was chill, kind of a jokester.

He had a good poker face, and he could convince anyone that he was serious about anything before revealing his big gotcha moment.

It was always in good fun.

Anyway, when he came to the back, he was ranting and raving.

His accent was heavier and his speech had majorly quickened.

As someone who struggles to comprehend such things, I had no idea what he was saying.

I just knew that he was pissed off.

I brushed it off and went back to work.

A few minutes later, one of the girls who worked in Leo's section came to me and said, You have to be careful.

That kind of thing is serious.

I had no clue what she was talking about, but I nodded along, sort of laughing, and she scolded me for laughing it off.

It never occurred to me to ask what the hell she was talking about.

Finally, I began closing duties, which partially involved washing dishes.

I went to the back room to start, and Leo was still talking about what happened, but this time he had calmed down enough that I could finally understand what he was saying.

When my back was turned to Jeff, Jeff's hand had wandered its way into his pocket, and he was rubbing himself while staring at me intently.

This incident was reported to management, but unfortunately, they said the camera caught nothing, so nothing was ever even done.

After that, I just stayed in the back whenever he came around.

This was much to the annoyance of my managers, but I figured if they weren't going to protect me, I needed to protect myself.

COVID ended up scaring Jeff off for a few months.

I left the job shortly afterwards, and thankfully, I haven't seen Jeff since

About two years ago I was dating a guy long distance.

He was my first love.

He loved me too, but unfortunately, due to the long distance and his addiction problems, we had to break it off.

As most people do when their first relationship ends, I dealt with weeks of depression.

I had trouble sleeping for at least a month.

This caused me to be late for work almost every day, and as a result, I received a warning for my attendance issue.

I was told that if I didn't fix the problem, I would be let go.

I immediately forced myself to try to do something more productive with my free time.

So I occupied my time with freelance illustration and even attempted to go to bed early.

The first couple of days were rough, but I kept at it.

The first night that I remember getting work done and getting to sleep on time was the night that this happened.

Quick backstory, my roommate and I lived in a house that had been separated into two separate living spaces.

One of our friends rented the unit upstairs, and then we rented the unit downstairs.

I figured I should mention this because our windows were very easily accessible and unfortunately didn't have locks.

We also had a backyard that was fenced off, but much like the windows, the gate of the fence was also lock-free.

Now, on to what happened.

I was asleep, but due to being a light sleeper and being incredibly heartbroken, I easily awoke to lights coming through the blinds of my bedroom window.

I was a bit groggy from being sleep deprived and from taking melatonin, but I forced myself up when I heard whispering voices.

Through the blinds, I could see that there were people out there holding flashlights.

There were at least three of them.

Luckily, my bed was adjacent to the window, so they didn't see me.

It was all such a blur, but I remember these people, they were all wearing black, and I saw them moving towards the fence of our backyard.

My body went into autopilot.

I grabbed my phone and a box cutter, which I always kept handy since I worked at Trader Joe's, where I had to use one every day.

I then woke my roommate up, dialed 911, and handed him the phone to tell the police that there was somebody outside and they were attempting to break in.

My amazing roommate seemed to understand the situation immediately, despite being shaken awake.

Then I stomped back into the kitchen, where we had a huge window looking into the backyard.

My adrenaline pumped as I saw the strangers make their way through the unlocked gate with their flashlights bobbing around.

It was this moment that triggered me into a fit of tears.

I didn't have a cute, singular teardrop going down my cheek.

I had rivers of tears streaming down my face, which made it difficult for me to see.

My boyfriend, whom I loved, had left me.

I hadn't been able to sleep.

The job that I loved was threatening to fire me, and now I had these assholes in my backyard who woke me up to try and do God knows what.

So then they began to look through our backyard shed, which, keeping up with the theme of our windows and gates, did not have a lock.

Inside the shed there were bikes that belonged to our friends who lived upstairs, the bike that my dad bought for me, some old TVs, and other miscellaneous items.

One of the intruders made their way to our back door, but in a fit of tears and anger, I beat him to it.

I then flicked our kitchen lights on and swung the door open.

The stranger was right in front of me and jumped backwards since I clearly caught them off guard.

Also, to be fair, I was holding an incredibly sharp, extended box cutter, and I was crying profusely.

I let them have it.

I yelled at them for waking me up and told them I was depressed.

I remember screaming, how dare you try to rob someone who's barely holding it together?

I was essentially yelling to no one since after a couple of seconds they booked it right after I confronted them.

The police came, took our statement, asked for their description, and said that they would look around.

They never found anyone, though.

I sort of regret not following them, since I probably could have gotten their license plate or something.

At the same time, I already did too much by confronting them the way that I did.

Looking back, I realize how risky that was, and I feel really bad about that.

I'm not sure what came over me, but it was likely the anger and sadness that I had been holding on to.

Seeing these people made me see red, and I just let it out.

I have certainly learned a lot since then.

For starters, I had our landlord install locks on our windows, and I started seeing a therapist.

It may have worked out for me, but to anyone else hearing this, please don't be as brazen as I was, especially if you're in a situation with other people whose lives could potentially be at stake.

I should have waited for the police, or I should have at least yelled at them through the window instead of face to face.

In conclusion, I hope I never encountered those people again, and I assume the feeling is mutual.

This is an ongoing situation.

I'm not sure of what to do about it.

My house sits fairly far back from the road, around 150 feet, maybe a bit further.

I have three vehicles parked between the entrance to my driveway and my front porch, and I had obscured the view of the cars from anyone walking or driving by.

I live in a rural area, on the side of the road, with no stores or anything like that nearby.

So someone getting lost looking for an address or something out there is highly unlikely.

There's really no reason for anyone to be out here unless they know someone.

While the road I live on is a couple of miles long, there are only six houses on it because it's an agricultural area with wide distances between neighbors.

Also, there are no street lights out here, so it's nearly pitch black outside at night.

Recently I was waiting for the mom of the boy that I sit for to come pick him up.

It was pretty light out.

It was about 7 p.m., so it was just starting to get darker outside.

When the kid's mom came to get him, she and I were talking outside for a minute while he was inside finishing a match on Apex.

That was when we both heard a noise that sounded like someone trying to stifle a cough.

The noise was coming from the kiwi orchard that borders my house.

I thought that it was her kid because he tries to jump scare me all the time.

He's not very stealthy, and he always coughs or laughs when he's trying to set me up to try and scare me.

He's always giving his position and intentions away, and it's so common that I literally paid exactly zero attention to this cough.

A couple of minutes later, the boy came flying out the front door, and they left.

I didn't even realize until later that hearing the cough was weird.

Later that night, I was sitting outside on my front porch when I decided to smoke.

It was sometime between midnight and 1 a.m.

My lighter was dead so I lit my cigarette in the house on the stove and then ran outside with it.

I was sitting with my back to the road smoking.

I didn't have any porch lights on and I had my phone screen on the dimmest setting because I didn't want to entice the mosquitoes.

About halfway through my cigarette, a man spoke up from somewhere near me and asked if he could have a cigarette.

At first, I literally thought an ad had popped up in the background tab on my phone or something like that.

But then the voice asked again.

So I turned around, and he was right behind me.

Barely five feet away.

I mean, if he took two steps, he could have had his hands on me.

It surprised me so much that I just froze.

This guy was tall, very tall.

He was easily somewhere between 6'3 and 6'6.

He had a beard and long hair, and he was barefoot and shirtless, but he was wearing what looked like blue or grey pants.

He also had on this really long coat or robe type of thing.

It was tough to tell in the dark, even though I had turned my phone flashlight on.

I didn't know what to do or say.

My heart was pounding, so I just pulled out my my pack, and when he started to step forward, I said, No, stop.

You don't need to do that.

Here, take it.

And then I just tossed him the whole thing.

When I told him to stop, he did, but it was a bit of a weird stop.

He put his hands up, chest height, with his palms out and said, that was a good idea to toss it.

And then he just stood there for a second.

I had no idea what to do or say.

But before I had the chance to say anything, this strange guy just backed away.

He walked backwards all the way back to the road.

He did this until I could no longer see him.

I didn't hear any footsteps after that, so I don't know if he kept walking or just stopped at the road.

I also have no clue how he got so close to me or where he came from, or how he knew I was smoking, unless he was close enough to smell it.

It was so bizarre.

I had never seen this guy around, but I've heard noises around my house every single night since.

The noises that I've been hearing aren't right up against the house or where my cameras could catch him, but they're further out in the Kiwi orchard.

Too close for comfort, though.

I'm not sure of what to do.

I asked the sheriff to patrol out here, if they could, but they are hardly ever out this way.

And I can't report him, because I don't know where he is or if he's doing anything to be reported for.

It's creeping me the fuck out.

I have a weird feeling about this guy, and I don't know what I can do about it.

Not all group chats are the same.

Just like not all Adams are the same.

Adam Brody, for instance, uses WhatsApp to pin messages, send events, and settle debates using polls with his friends, all in one group chat.

Makes our guys night easier.

But Adam Scott group messages with an app that isn't WhatsApp, which means he still can't find that text from his friends about where to meet.

Hang on, still scrolling.

No, the address is here somewhere.

It's time for WhatsApp.

Message privately with everyone.

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Not all group chats are the same.

Just like not all atoms are the same.

Adam Brody, for instance, uses WhatsApp to pin messages, send events, and settle debates using polls with his friends, all in one group chat.

Makes our guys' night easier.

But Adam Scott group messages with an app that isn't WhatsApp, which means he still can't find that text from his friends about where to meet.

Hang on, still scrolling.

No, the address is here somewhere.

It's time for WhatsApp.

Message privately with everyone.

One night recently, around 3 a.m., my brother and I were woken up by loud banging and crying at the front door.

We live in a rough neighborhood, so naturally my brother grabbed his shotgun, cocked it loudly, and yelled, It's 3 a.m., go away, through the door.

We were both very tired and freaked out.

We had recently had a girl from the neighborhood break into my car, so we assumed it was probably her.

I looked through the window on the front door since we have one-way film on it, but I couldn't see anyone else around.

So I crouched near the door and listened.

Finally, I was able to determine that it sounded like a young kid, completely hysterical, begging us for help to call her mother.

I told her I was calling 911 and that help was on the way.

My brother, in full adrenaline mode, then opened the door, still holding his shotgun.

He yelled at the girl and told her that she needed to calm down.

I didn't agree with his approach, but in all fairness, she woke up about half of the block with her screaming while pressing up against our door.

After he opened the door, I got to see her.

Honestly, I was expecting it to be somebody looking to do some weird shit to us, so it was surprising to see that this was a kid.

The look in her eyes, while she was kneeling at our doorstep, made my heart drop.

I was thinking she was around 14, but she said someone crashed into her car down the street.

She told us that she left her phone behind in the wreck, so she couldn't call her mom.

I tried to empathize with her, but things weren't adding up, so I asked her a few more questions.

She kept begging me to go down the street with her, but I told her there was no way I was going to do that.

I said we had to wait for the cops.

About 10 minutes later, we saw three tow trucks drive by, heading toward where we told 911 the crash happened.

So, I felt safe enough to walk with her down the street.

On the way, she kept asking to hold my hand.

I remember thinking, you look like a teenager.

You're barely dressed, and I'm a grown man walking through the neighborhood who just woke up.

That would not look good.

I awkwardly asked how old she was.

She told me 17, then grabbed my hand anyway.

I didn't feel comfortable, but her emotions were definitely outweighing mine at the time.

Halfway there, the cops showed up.

I flagged them down and explained the situation.

Meanwhile, she peeled her eyelashes off, handed them to me, and repeatedly told the officers, I have really bad A D H D and anxiety.

No joke, she handed me a full set of false lashes.

I really didn't want to touch them, but I took them just to help her feel safe since she wanted to hand them to me.

One of the cops pulled her aside, and the other started casually asking me a few questions.

He told me they got another call about 30 minutes before about a teenager who was running across someone's lawn barefoot.

As I looked at her, I realized she was barefoot this whole time.

Then I saw them cuff her.

I think they suspected she was on something, which at that point, I was thinking the same thing.

As they were wrapping her up, the officer noticed that I was still holding onto her eyelashes.

When he saw this, he asked, What are you going to do with those?

The only thing I could manage to say was, I guess I have to sleep on it.

I just want to go back to bed.

On the way home, I talked to one of the neighbors about it.

He assumed that the initial call to 911 was from her parents, and he said he didn't want to get involved with any domestic drama.

Honestly, I assume that's why no one else got involved.

I couldn't go back to sleep after that.

I was shaken up and pretty worried about this girl.

I have no idea what really happened, but I imagine it was a traumatic experience for her.

I'll definitely be praying for her and her family.

This happened five years ago, and I'm sharing it now because I want to warn others.

This is quite difficult to talk about for reasons that will become clear.

In In 2017 I went to a friend's birthday party.

It was her fortieth, so it was a pretty big deal.

I had recently lost my job and I was struggling with my mental health, but I had a very supportive husband and a good family life.

I was debating whether to go to this party or not, but I figured it was a private party, what could go wrong?

My husband was supposed to go with me, but our child care arrangements fell through at the last moment.

I didn't want to go without my husband, but I felt I needed a night out with friends, and the birthday girl kept asking if I was coming, so I went.

Everyone who was there had been invited by the birthday girl.

There were about half a dozen people that I knew really well, but I hadn't met anyone else.

I assumed that the birthday girl had good judgment and figured everyone present had to be okay.

We were all having a great time laughing and dancing.

At one point, I stepped outside to cool down and smoke a cigarette.

A fellow party goer, who was a male, joined me outside.

We talked about the birthday girl, how we knew her, and we talked about football since we discovered we were from the same city and supported the same team.

We returned to the party and he asked me if I wanted a drink.

I said no, and raised my glass to show him that I already had one.

I then put my drink down and went to dance with the birthday girl.

When I returned from the dance floor, I took a big gulp from my drink.

And after that, everything got hazy.

I pieced the rest of the story together from various sources and photos from that night.

There is a photo of a male party guest with me, with the venue's door open.

I was smiling at the camera with my arm around the security guard and the male party guest next to me, kissing my cheek.

I do not remember this.

I also saw another photo of me and this male party guest.

I was leaning against him with my eyes closed, and I don't remember this at all either.

I woke up the next morning at home, on the sofa.

Initially my husband was furious about the state in which I came home, but he didn't know how badly it could have ended up.

Several friends saw this male party guest try to guide me into a car that was waiting outside and stopped him.

When they challenged him, he said I had agreed to leave with him, but I was so incoherent as this was happening.

And needless to say, I have no recollection of this whatsoever.

A female friend of mine wound up taking me home.

I don't remember this, but I'm grateful, since I'm certain that my friends saved me from something horrible that night.

Once my husband heard the whole story, he was very supportive and concerned.

My friends who brought me home told my husband how quickly my behavior changed and how quickly I had become uncoordinated and incoherent.

I saw the birthday girl recently, and she told me that this male party guest is currently in prison for assaulting his girlfriend in 2020.

So everyone, please remember, always be careful with your drink.

Never leave it unattended.

Watch out for your friends and make sure that they're watching out for you.

I've decided to share this story in case anyone has had a experience.

Back in the summer of 2023, I was camping with my family in Beaver Creek, Montana, at a campground.

We were camping there for a few nights while on our way to Yellowstone.

During the first night there, I had the most unsettling experience I've ever had.

My mother, stepfather, and his brother had all gone to sleep at around midnight, while I stayed up for about an hour by the fire.

It was pitch black when I decided to snuff the fire out and head to my tent to sleep.

After about twenty minutes of lying down, I began hearing sniffing noises coming from outside my tent.

Fearing that it was a bear, I just laid there, frozen.

This continued for a while until I heard the familiar breathing and shaking noises of a dog.

This made me feel a bit more relaxed as I assumed a nearby camper's dog had just wandered over.

I eventually stopped hearing the dog, but then I heard footsteps walking around our campsite.

Along with the footsteps, I heard the sound of a large stick being dragged along the ground.

This made me freeze in fear again as I thought about some random stranger walking around our campsite in pitch darkness.

Then, suddenly, an obvious camera flash had gone off right in front of my tent.

As I was still frozen solid, it started to feel as though an animal or person had laid down on the corner of my tent.

I felt the presence of this for about five straight minutes, and it kept feeling as though something was lightly fidgeting with the corners of the tent.

Still frozen in place, I prayed for this to stop.

But then I decided it would be better to acknowledge this person and let them know I was aware of the situation.

Just as I sensed the zipper of my tent being touched, I called out, Who's there?

This ended up waking my stepdad up.

He called out to me.

I was too afraid to open my door, but seconds later, when I knew he was out of his tent, with his gun, I emerged.

Nothing happened thereafter.

And this struck me as odd, as I never heard or sensed any movement going away from the campsite.

Plus, my mom and stepdad had their dog in their tent, but their dog never even reacted to any of this.

I slept in the car for the next two nights, and thankfully nothing else happened.

Has anyone else had any weird encounters like this in Montana or near Yellowstone or in general?

Not all group chats are the same, just like not all Adams are the same.

Adam Brody, for example, uses WhatsApp to plan his grandma's birthday using video calls, polls to choose a gift, and HD photos to document a family moment to remember, all in one group chat.

Makes grandma's birthday her best one yet.

But Adam Scott group messages with an app that isn't WhatsApp.

And so, the photo invite came through so blurry, blurry, he never even knew about the party.

And grandma still won't talk to me.

It's time for WhatsApp.

Message privately with everyone.

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Not all group chats are the same, just like not all Adams are the same.

Adam Brody, for example, uses WhatsApp to plan his grandma's birthday using video calls, polls to choose a gift, and HD photos to document a family moment to remember, all in one group chat.

Makes grandma's birthday her best one yet.

But Adam Scott group messages with an app that isn't WhatsApp.

And so, the photo invite came through so blurry, he never even knew about the party.

And grandma still won't talk to me.

It's time for WhatsApp.

Message privately with everyone.

Top reasons your career wants you to move to Ohio.

So many amazing growth opportunities, high-paying jobs in technology, advanced manufacturing, engineering, life sciences, and more.

You'll soar to new heights, just like the Wright brothers, John Glenn, even Neil Armstrong.

Their careers all took off in Ohio, and yours can too.

A job that can take you further, and a place you can't wait to come home to.

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Our final story deals with topics like self-harm.

Listener discretion is advised.

I'll preface this by saying that I had a terrible childhood.

It was so terrible that I don't remember anything that happened from birth until I was 13 years old.

Anything that I do remember from those 13 years is a mixture of sparse memories, things my family has told me about myself, and police reports.

One thing, or I guess I should say one person, who I do remember, is this lady we'll call Auntie.

I don't know anything else that could otherwise contribute to her identity.

To me she was just Auntie.

I started seeing her when I was seven years old.

I remember sitting in her living room as she typed everything that I said on her laptop.

I didn't have a problem with her.

I saw her once every month, and she seemed gentle enough to seem like she could be someone whom I could trust.

So I did.

Seven years into seeing Auntie, when I was 14 years old, I admitted to her that I had tried to kill myself numerous times.

This was due to a mixture of multiple factors, my mother's increasing toxicity, the lack of social interaction I was experiencing at the time, and most importantly, I endured horrors during my childhood that I never moved on from.

Now, at 14, I was starting to wonder why these meetings with Auntie never actually seemed to help me, especially since I begged her to tell me why I constantly wanted to die.

But she never seemed to have an explanation.

I remember once when my mother was taking me to Auntie's house, and on the way there, I asked my my mother if I would ever get a chance to see a different person since I needed a different sort of help that Auntie clearly couldn't give.

But my mother just hissed at me and told me to be quiet.

This was also when the relationship between my mother and me began to crack.

My mother became a source of grief for me, and I cried about it during multiple sessions with Auntie.

At the end of these sessions, Auntie would try to defend my mother or make it seem like I was blowing things out of proportion.

I tried to come up with my own reasons about why she wasn't trying to understand things wholly, but I chalked it up to her just being empathetic.

I figured that maybe explaining why my mother was terrible was supposed to help me embrace it in some weird way.

And things continued to go just like that.

I'll admit, when I was 16, I was a terrible kid.

I went to parties, drank whatever what was served, and definitely didn't tell anyone what I was doing.

But then Auntie started to ask very specific questions related to what I just mentioned.

I was in shock, but again I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

I thought that the accurate pinpointing in her questioning had to be from the fact that by this point she had known me for almost a decade.

A year into the shift in our conversations, she would just bring up the parties that I went to during our sessions without even bothering to hide behind questions.

Also, around this time, the relationship between my mother and me had almost been completely severed.

The worst part of all, which is something that still affects me to this day, was that at the end of each session, Auntie started to invite my mom into the room and tell her every single thing I said.

It was horrible.

I was hearing my own words against my mother being read to her.

It was tough to hear Auntie tell my mother what I said about the increasing abuse that she had been putting me through.

It was shocking to hear all of this being said straight to her face as she sat next to me.

My grades in school began to drop, my mother forbade me from going out, and I was completely isolated.

I tried to kill myself again on my 17th birthday.

I ran into my mother's room looking for something that I could overdose on, or at least something that could push me to the edge.

I remember rummaging through everything until I went into her walk in closet.

I went into her room so frequently that I completely forgot she even had a walk in closet.

Now, in my crazed state, I just remember running into the closet and looking through every crevice.

I finally stumbled upon a suitcase leaning against the wall, under some clothes that were hanging up.

If I close my eyes now, I can still imagine it.

The suitcase didn't look old, so that was probably what made me decide to open it.

When I did, I found a bunch of papers.

The surprise of seeing all these papers locked away snapped me out of the state I was in.

I remember just sitting there cross-legged on the floor and wondering what these papers were.

After a while of reading, I realized that these were transcripts from my sessions with Auntie.

There were so many of them.

Some of them even dated all the way back to some of the first sessions that I had ever had with her.

I remember feeling sick, so sick.

I was tempted to take them all, but at least I had enough sense to only take a few of the earlier papers to make it less noticeable.

Reading through those transcripts just filled me up with more and more bitter questions.

So that night, I decided to postpone my plans and wait to kill myself until after I figured out what was going on.

I felt like I was on a time crunch.

I was feeling stressed out because I only had a year left to figure out what the hell was going on before I was faced with the looming threat of being kicked out as soon as I turned 18.

So I started to pay way more attention during my sessions with Auntie.

I remember looking around her house whenever I got the chance to.

I was trying to look for some indicators that could tell me who this psychologist really was.

I started asking my mother more questions about Auntie, but she would just deflect and repeat the same fact.

She's a psychologist.

Since I wasn't getting answers, I wound up doing something that nearly ruined my life.

I decided to steal my mother's phone.

This seems like a minor infraction now, but back then it genuinely felt like life or death.

One day I had already packed all the stuff I would need to be gone for a while.

I was ready to spend at least a few nights somewhere.

When my mother went to take a shower, as soon as I heard the bathroom door lock, I swiped my mother's phone and bolted out of the house.

I didn't even look down at the damn thing until I was on the bus.

I remember looking through my mother's messages first, and I knew I had found Auntie when I stumbled across a message chain with an unfamiliar name.

I knew this was Auntie, since the messages clearly showed when my mother was booking the appointments.

So, as the bus drove me to safety, I scrolled up on that message thread for a while.

But by the time I got off of the bus, I had reviewed years of text messages, and I didn't find any of the information I was hoping for.

I then looked through my mother's call logs.

I noticed that she and Auntie speak extremely often.

So that's when I figured out that whatever was going on was happening on the calls instead of messages, which was smart.

But it wasn't going to get me anywhere on my quest for the truth.

Then I found a place to sit on the side of the road as I continued my search.

I looked through my mother's social media, and when I tried looking for Auntie's name, nothing came up.

I genuinely felt all hope leave my body.

And even now, sometimes I swear I can still feel that same sick feeling that I felt then.

I almost gave up.

Almost.

I think I thank myself every day for not giving up.

I remember pressing on, mindlessly swiping through my mother's social media followers, and eventually I did find Auntie.

Her account name didn't have her real name listed.

There was just some some weird fake one listed on a profile.

When I clicked on the profile, I was able to confirm it was most definitely her.

She had posted photos with some of my mother's friends, and after scrolling down her page for a while, I saw a photo that she posted of herself and my mother from years ago.

They had literally been friends since before I was born.

I felt sick and betrayed, but I also felt a bit relieved that I now knew what the hell was going on.

It was like I suddenly understood why my mother had transcripts, why Auntie didn't think twice before telling my mother every single thing I said, and why Auntie defended my mother so much.

I didn't even bother looking for a place to stay that night, I just went back home.

I was beaten black and blue for taking my mom's phone, but it didn't hurt at all compared to everything I had just found out that day.

That night I asked my mother who Auntie really was.

Instead of of defaulting to, she's a psychologist, like she ordinarily would,

she just didn't say anything.

It was like she knew that she couldn't answer that question the same way anymore.

A few years later, during my first year of university, I had the lucky chance to move out of my mother's house.

I did so just as soon as I got the chance.

An old friend of mine took pity on me and allowed me to stay with him since we applied at the same university.

To this day, he's still one of my best friends.

Something that finally gave me closure in a bittersweet way was clearing out my Instagram.

I deleted people that I didn't care about or didn't know.

As I was doing this, my heart dropped when I saw a familiar username in my followers.

It was Auntie.

I didn't think about it at all when I searched up her username in the search bar, but I realized she had been following me.

This psycho had been following me for God knows how long on Instagram.

This made things click even more for me.

I realized this was why her questions became so precise and why my mother decided to isolate me from my friends.

When I looked at Auntie's profile again, I realized it didn't even mention anything about psychology.

Instead, it said, chemistry teacher with over 20 years of experience.

To this day, I mourn the fact that most of my early adult years have been used to heal from everything that happened during my childhood.

Instead of going out with newly made friends and giving my all to university, I had to sort this out.

It sucked, and it still sucks.

I recently had my first session with a real psychologist whom I fully researched beforehand.

I almost felt ashamed when I blurted out the reason why I was sitting sitting in his chair.

But he just smiled and told me that we just have some work to do.

And he's completely right we do.

I decided to share my experience just in case anyone else has had a similar experience with therapy.

This is also for anyone who feels like they've been living in a hole their entire life.

I promise you guys, it gets better.

With a little luck and surrounding yourself with the right people, it will get better.

Anyways, Auntie, Let's Not Meet again.

Stick around after the music if you're a patron for your extended version of this week's episode.

If you want to get access, go to patreon.com forward slash Let's Not Meet podcast to sign up and support the show today, where you'll get access to ad-free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bitrate, plus bonus content every single week with stories you won't hear anywhere else.

And be sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts, like Odd Trails and the old-time radio cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

And follow me on Twitch at twitch.tv/slash cryptic county for my live streams.

This week you have heard The Water Park by Rhinus, Tender Date from Hell by Honda Guy, 1998,

Wine Tasting Creep by Vertebrae Eater,

How to Scare Off Intruders by SLC LGBT.

He shows up every night by Fast Nilth Shrieky Fit.

The Kid at the Door by Mihoi Minoi.

Be Careful by Significant Swan 159.

Unsettling Camping Experience by Philosopher 512 and finally The Psychologist by Can Revolutionary 9992.

All of the stories you've heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors.

Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online.

If you have a story to share, send it to let's not meetstories at gmail.com.

We'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet.

Everybody, stay safe.

It was 2015 and I had recently separated from my wife.

We got a divorce, so I was.

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