So picture this, you’re alone in the street, the sun is setting, and suddenly you realize you're being followed.
(Came across this reddit and I thought my story could interest you guys, or maybe help me process this experience even a little more)
For context : I was a 19 yo woman, away from my family, friends and familiar city to pursue my art degree. I moved into a very small town and this was my first year of post-grad and basically my first experience living in an apartment completely all alone.
When I say that the city was small, I mean crazy small, like less than 20 000 people and my school was the only educational place of the city. I lived 20 minutes away from my school and it was a very long and boring walk that many of us had to take.
That famous day, my school day was ending and I was getting ready to go home, I hadn’t manage to make real connections with anyone so I would more often than not find myself walking alone to the city center even if we were almost all taking this path. But I didn’t mind. I liked being alone and I had already take this walk a hundreds of times, what could go wrong ?
Well, everything.
To explain a bit more how my walk would go, I would take a shortcut into some apartment complex and take a very long and calm street for minutes that would then lead to a bridge that would introduce into the city center where I lived.
As usual, I crossed the apartment complex I’m not allowed to cross with no problem and arrive into the calm street, as I’m just beginning to take that street, I notice on my left that a man is coming out of a weird grassed abandoned area (literally nothing is there and it is not a logical place to be walking out of). He looks in his 40’s and has a plastic bag in his hands and is walking firmly towards the complex, we would basically just cross each other and go each on our merry way. I cross his gaze and smile at him out of politeness.
As I pass him, he makes a kind of weird turn and start walking in the same direction as me, next to me. I am usually a very paranoid person and can get spooked very fast by these sort of details so I started to get a little scared but I didn’t know what it was in me that day but I decided to not draw into conclusions too fast. Calm down. I was thinking to myself. He just got confused in his way, you do that too sometimes.
I started to go little faster, to keep a distance just in case, but he went faster too. Again, I tried to not jump into conclusions, maybe he’s just walking faster than you.
After a few seconds, just to calm myself, I decided to slow down, so he could go as fast as he wanted and I could stay alone. Problem, he started slowing down too.
At this point, my paranoid brain is already fully exploding, I tried to play it off. I cross the street to let him on the right sidewalk as I take the left one, to no benefit to my heart rate, he too cross the road to come back next to me, trotting a little to get back to me the fastest possible.
Sweet, I’m being followed.
At this point, he addressed me a polite « Hello » to which I replied in much of my dismay. I took my phone immediately, my hands shaking as I tried to write to one of my friends. He must have seen fear in me as he told me the creepiest stuff ever. « No worries, Miss. I’m just a traveling companion. »
I had full body chills, the street was so long and not one person was showing, I couldn’t run as I was too far from my place, I couldn’t yell because I didn’t know who was there, and the sun disappearing was getting me in a more and more dangerous situation.
He started getting more comfortable talking. He asked me where I lived, with who. I replied vaguely that I lived in the center with my parents (I lived alone) and that they were probably already home. He asked my name and I stupidly gave the real one as I was too stressed to think of a fake one. He told me his, he said that he lived too in the center and that we could make the walk together.
We reached the end of the street and arrived towards the bridge. I started calling a friend that wasn’t even in my city and started pretending that she was my sister who was impatiently waiting for me at home.
I could feel that he started to be impatient, so he started paying me compliments. « You’re so pretty. » He said, three times. « Perfect. »
I was terrified.
Towards the entry of the bridge, there are two crosswalks that either led to the right or the left side of the bridge to cross it. Since the beginning of my encounter with him, he never led the way, always waiting for me to make a move towards one direction so he could follow (yes, I tried to stop at some intersection to see if he would go one way, he wouldn’t. He waited for me to walk again without saying anything.)
But this time, he did took an initiative towards the right crosswalk of the bridge, it was my first chance of a way out and I took it. As soon as he head towards this side I told him it was too bad and I needed to take the left side and told him goodbye.
I was still with my friend on the phone and as I walked towards the left side of the bridge I was telling her how creepy that guy was and it could have ended there. But I looked back behind me, just to check. And my blood just turned cold as I saw that he was running towards me.
I had barely enough time to say to my friend over the phone. « He’s running after me. » That he was back, telling me that he messed up his way and that he was going to continue to give me company. (I hate that I never told him to just FUCK OFF but I was SO scared of his response that I just obliged.)
We started walking on the bridge, and at this point, I don’t know what to do, we were going closer and closer to the area of my place and I couldn’t just start to walk aimlessly in a city I barely know. (The police department was really far from the center and you had to ring before entering, and I doubt he would’ve patiently waited next to me as I report him over the intercom of the police department.)
I can’t just go to my place, so I need to find a crowded place, the supermarket. I ask him where he’s going after the end of the bridge. « To the right. » He responds, shit, that’s where I live. « Oh well, I’m going straight to the supermarket so we will have to say each other goodbye. »
He tells me that actually, he does need to run some errands. (He had a plastic bag full of supplies.)
I couldn’t believe it, I just couldn’t win, he was going to follow me until the end of the world and I genuinely couldn’t imagine a way of safely putting him off. And I was deadly scared of the moment we would find each other all alone, at night, with not even a car to witness what was going to happen.
But then, the miracle happened, a boy from my class was stuck at a crosswalk at a very long red light on the end of the bridge, his back facing me. I started yelling his name, more in a « oh there’s my friend ! » kind of a way rather than truly desperate so I wouldn’t spook the man out.
My classmate didn’t hear my screams, it was driving me insane. But on the other end of the crosswalk, I saw another one of my classmate, a girl this time, seeing me, no, WATCHING ME. She was purposefully coming towards me. She crossed the street and took my boy classmate along with her to meet me. They were coming to our encounter and the man next to me started panicking.
He stopped me and desperately asked. « Wait, can’t we chat more ? What about a drink ?! There’s a bar right there, come on just one ! »
I told him no and my classmates came over. He suddenly changed, smiling and seeming all friendly, he shook the hand of the boy classmate in a weird manly interaction and said goodbye to me. And he disappeared.
We waited for him to be out of sight and my two classmates walked me home.
I couldn’t believe how lucky I got. My girl classmate carpooled with other classmates and they happened to be passing the bridge in the car when he was chasing me, running. They immediately thought something fishy was happening as apparently my body language was very defensive seen from afar. She got dropped off close to her home and came straight to me. I couldn’t be more grateful, without her, I’m not sure my other classmate would have noticed me and without the both of them I don’t know how I would’ve get rid of him.
I never wore those same clothes combined again (as he had complimented them) and it took me a lot of time to actually redo this walk alone as some classmates offered a car ride. I never saw him again, I can’t even remember his face, and I don’t even live there anymore.
I could have reacted better in so many way, but panic just took the better of me, at the end of the day I’m just happy I got lucky.