Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 12x25: Scary Situation in George Washington National Forest

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Stories in this Episode: The 10-year-old Psychopath. | janebaddall (0:40) Potential Kidnapper Waiting for Me | Capital-Afternoon-22 (8:19) Sketchy Night Bus Barber | Slade (11:20) Unsettling Grindr Hookup Request | KitchenTour9119 (15:35) Online Chat Gone Wrong | AlleyKatArt (22:45) Not all TMI is bad | The-Morningstar (30:40) Scary Situation in George Washington National Forest. | EmiM493 (38:38) Extended Patreon Content: The Creepiest Thing That Happened at the First Hotel I Worked At  | Anonymous My Stalker Introduced Me to His Wife and Kids | Jessie Bloody Woman | EternalNude Due to periodic changes in ad placement, time stamps are estimates and are not always accurate. Upcoming LNM Live Tour Dates: 8/10/24 : San Diego, CA @ House of Blues: GET YOUR TICKETS 8/11/24 : Los Angeles, CA @ The Moroccan Lounge: GET YOUR TICKETS 8/18/24: Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s: GET YOUR TICKETS 9/19/24: Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall: GET YOUR TICKETS More Dates to be announced soon! Follow: - Twitch - https://twitch.tv/crypticcounty - Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/ - Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/ Check out the other Cryptic County podcasts like Odd Trails and the Old Time Radiocast at CrypticCountyPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts!    Get access to extended, ad-free episodes of Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast with bonus stories every week at a higher bitrate along with a bunch of other great exclusive material and merch at patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast. This podcast would not be possible to continue at this rate without the help of the support of the legendary LNM Patrons. Come join the family! 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. To submit your story to the show, send it to [e-mail].    

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It's time for NLB action with BetMGM, your place for all things baseball. Log in or sign up today. BetMGM.com for Tays and Seas. Must be 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. This podcast contains adult language and content. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a story to share, send it to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com. Enjoy the show. There is only one person I have met in my life that I'm positive was a psychopath, and it was a 10-year-old little girl. The summer after I graduated college, I was living in a house in Berkeley with a few PhD

students. It wasn't the best neighborhood, but it wasn't the worst either. There were a few families living in the neighborhood, including the people in the house next to us. It seemed like a reasonably nice two-story house, but on several occasions there were police cars or ambulances and other emergency vehicles outside of the house. We never really questioned why, as police cars weren't a rare sight in the area. Plus, we had only ever seen a young girl and her mom at the house,

so nothing seemed overtly abnormal or concerning. One afternoon, my roommates and I had just finished smoking a joint in our backyard when we heard a knock at the door. I opened the door, and it was the mother from next door. I was taken aback. And even more so when she said hi, I wanted to ask you guys something. I don't want to have to call the police. At first I thought that she must have seen a smoking weed or smelled the smoke.

While it was Berkeley, it technically hadn't been legalized just yet. So I was bracing myself, thinking that we needed to apologize and talk our way out of this. But then I noticed that this woman was visibly shaking. She was terrified as she continued. I just don't know what to do. I'm having a situation with my daughter and I just really need another adult there. My roommate, who we'll call Sean, and I immediately agreed to go with her, while my other roommates stayed behind to observe what they could from a distance.

We were all incredibly confused by what the hell was going on. Since this mother was asking some stoned students to be adult witnesses, we figured she must have been truly desperate for help. Shawn and I walked over to her house with her, and she explained that her daughter had some issues, which were currently manifesting as her standing on the roof of their house, threatening to drop her mom's work computer off the edge or jump herself. Shit just got very real, very fast. Sure enough, as we walked up the driveway to the house,

this kid was standing on the roof of their two story home, dangling a MacBook Pro over the side. And this disturbing sing songy voice, she said, look mommy, no hands, no hands mommy. Shawn and I immediately made eye contact with the child and we were both just so creeped out. This was not a normal kid. The way that she was speaking reminded me of the twins from The Shining.

She wasn't crying and didn't seem remotely distressed. On the contrary, it appeared that she was enjoying tormenting her mother. This was beyond standard amusement too. It was like it was some sort of sick game to her. Her mom explained that her daughter had issues like this for many years. She has a psychiatrist and a therapist and the mother had called both. They recommended calling the police. But the mother has been through this quite a few times before and she doesn't want the child to have to go through the ordeal of being restrained and taken to the hospital yet again.

She was frightened and exhausted and had no idea what to do. So, I just started talking to the kid. I told her about how I used to love climbing on the roof of the house, and now I'm into rock climbing. I said that I bet that she would love to do that too, while noting it's much safer than climbing around the edge of a roof, especially if the proper gear and safety precautions were used. I let her know that what she was doing was unsafe, and it was really scaring her mom.

Lastly, I told her that if she came down, I'd talk more about climbing with her, as well as show her how the pet geckos that we had climbed up the walls. I was just pulling things out of my ass, saying anything to try and convince this little girl to get off of the roof safely. I had no idea what to say or how to mediate a situation like this. I was just trying my best to diffuse the tension and get her to come down. The girl was flat out ignoring me at first, continuing to taunt her mother. But eventually, she seemed to get bored and irritated with my attempts to engage with

her. So, she turned around and climbed back towards the window where she got out onto the roof. Then she ran down the stairs and came outside to meet us. Once she was standing in front of us, she then said in this same sing songy way, I dropped your computer on the roof and now it's broken. I'm sorry, mommy. Do you forgive me? There was zero remorse in her voice. And now it's broken. I'm sorry, mommy. Do you forgive me?

There was zero remorse in her voice. It sounded so disturbing and manipulative. I was blown away that this type of behavior was coming from a 10-year-old girl, as I had seen this kind of portrayal in demon children from horror movies. Her mother was still shaking and looked overwhelmed. So I offered to go up and get her computer from the roof.

She agreed and escorted me through the house and up the stairs, with her daughter trailing behind. The girl was clearly irritated with me spoiling her game and repeatedly attempted to order me to leave. I ignored the child as I climbed out of the window and onto the roof. I found the laptop sitting by a gutter, seemingly unscathed. I climbed back through the window and handed it to the mother. At this point, the girl realized her bluff was called, so she skipped off to her room.

Her mom proceeded to explain that this whole situation was triggered since she changed the password on her laptop. She had to do this after the girl logged into it and ordered over $2,000 worth of stuff after she stole her mother's credit card. She has been doing things like this her entire life and there isn't a single medical professional who has understood why. They had to move the girl's younger sibling into a separate apartment where he lives with their father since they were afraid that she would hurt him.

The mom was crying as she explained that she and her husband had been trying their best to get their daughter the help that she needed but nothing was working and they were at their wits end. I did my best to reassure her about everything, gave her my phone number, and told her to contact me if she needed help in the future. Then, after that, Shawn and I got out of there and went back to our house. She never contacted me or dropped by again. We moved out a few months later. I grew up about 15 miles outside of downtown Portland in a semi-rural area. My family and I lived on a windy country road in the hills where the homes were spread quite a distance apart from one another. Our closest neighbor was about a 10-minute walk away from us. Our house was set back from the road and had a gravel driveway that took a sharp turn,

so it wasn't possible to see the house from the road or vice versa. On one warm spring day, when I was 10, I was riding the bus home from school. As the bus squeaked to a stop at my driveway, I looked out the window to my left and I saw a man in a gray pickup idling on the side of the road. He was parked perpendicular to my driveway, nearly blocking it. Being so young, I didn't think anything of it. But when I got to the front of the bus, the driver held her arm out, blocking me from going any further. Do you recognize that truck or that man?

She asked. I told her that I didn't, so she opened her sliding window and motioned for him to move along. He looked at her, and then continued looking straight ahead, but did not move. He wasn't looking at a map or anything, he was just sitting there. The bus driver then got onto the intercom and spoke to him through the speaker. She told him he needed to move along, but he continued to stay right where he was. The bus driver then sternly said, Sir, you best move along.

I'm not going anywhere until you get out of here. He finally left after the bus driver told him to leave. She waited for a few minutes before letting me out, and then she said that she would wait to make sure that I got up the driveway and into my house. I told my mom what happened as soon as I got home, and the next morning she came with me to catch the bus and thank the bus driver. After that incident, my mom and stepdad hollowed out a section of a tree

at the end of our driveway for a hiding spot. From that spot, it was possible for my siblings and I to watch the road while we waited for the bus in the mornings. Nobody was able to see us. This incident gives me chills when I think back. If my bus driver hadn't been so vigilant in looking out for me, I would have been a goner if the man in the pickup truck was up to no good. Which seemed likely since he was ignoring my bus driver when she was telling him to

move. Since my driveway has a sharp turn and a steep downhill slope, it would have been out of sight from the bus within seconds. There would have been no witnesses. I'm 25 and I was born and raised in Arizona. This happened to me about 8-9 months ago. I'm a huge stoner and I don't drive since I have a fear of cars. So I decided to take the bus to a dispensary a few miles away. It was around 8.30pm.

I got there without any issue and picked up my favorite Indica cart, Purple Punch. After I got it, I walked back towards the bus to stop and wait for the next one to come. As I walked closer to the bus bench, I noticed a guy was sitting there. I didn't think much of it, I'm antisocial, so I was preparing to silently wait for the bus. However, I didn't get a chance this time because, as I took a seat, the guy sitting at the bus stop started asking me something, but I had my headphones on so I couldn't quite hear what he said.

I took them off and asked, what was that? He repeated, do you want to get your haircut? Then he just stared at me with very wide eyes, unblinking. If I were a betting man, I'd say that he was on something. But I'm not here to judge anybody. I understand addiction very well. I definitely wasn't expecting that question, and I just awkwardly answered, oh, uh, I'm alright.

I then noticed that he was wearing an Arizona Cardinals uniform, and I just so happened to be an Arizona Cardinals fan. Since my entire socializing ability revolves around sports, I decided to ask, are you an Arizona fan? He looked at me funny for a split second and then responded, no, I just got this a few months ago. I replied, so how long have you been cutting hair? Still unblinking, he answered, just picked it up a few months ago.

Well, who taught you how to cut hair? I asked, even more sketched out at this point. His eyes shifted and he said, I learned it on my own. Come on, man, let me touch you up in the back. Mind you, he was consistently, adamantly pushing to cut my hair throughout this entire interaction. I told him, I don't have any cash on me right now, hoping that would indicate that I couldn't even pay for this service, trying to stop him to continue asking. But he just said, that's no problem,

I've got my clippers in my bag right now, come on. So then, I decided to just be real with the guy. Listen, I'm really sorry, but I don't really feel comfortable getting my haircut by someone that I don't know. And it's nighttime right now, you know? The guy never changed his facial expression, but he finally agreed. True that. And he continued to glare into my soul with his wide-eyed stare. I decided at that moment that it was time to get the fuck out of there.

Luckily, this bus stop was right in front of our local Circle K, which is a gas station with a convenience store for those who don't know. So, I just walked in there to kill some time, since the next bus wasn't showing up for another 17 minutes. I didn't linger there because I didn't want the employees to think that I was stealing anything. Granted, I had a pretty good reason to be there. I waited for about six or seven minutes as I walked out and I saw that the bus stop barber

was still staring at me. I just walked past him into another bus stop further up the street. The bus finally arrived when I boarded. I saw the haircut guy sitting in the back of the bus, but he didn't bother me anymore. I made sure to keep my eyes focused in the complete opposite direction of him the entire time. I'm a 24-year-old single male living in France. I don't like sharing too many personal things, but I wanted to share this story.

After recent events, I'm a little paranoid about writing all of this, but I still feel like I need to share. I'm an openly bisexual male, and I have a few different regular partners. I don't use apps all that much, but recently I got a message from somebody new on Grindr. He wasn't my type, and a bit too airbrushed in his photos, so something just seemed off about the messages. The correspondence felt a bit quick. It was almost like a bot, but the messages were revealing and

full of strange emotional details, like how he was feeling alone and needed company. The conversation led to a straight up hookup request. I said that I was busy that night with work, but he just wouldn't let it go. I was flattered at first, but became a bit annoyed after the messages just kept pouring in. Some time passed, and it was now very late in the day. My phone had a few more messages from him, and I made the mistake of reading them. He asked if I changed my mind about having time to hook up.

I tried to steer the chat away from that topic, but he just wouldn't drop the subject. I know now that I should have blocked him, or I should have stopped replying, but instead, I made the mistake that I keep playing over and over again in my mind. I kept the chat going. Before I knew it, Grindr indicated that he was about 100 meters from my location. If you didn't know, Grindr tracks your location and displays how many meters or kilometers you are from people.

As he drew closer, he said that he was staying at a place on the same block as me and said that we could hang out. He was staying at a hotel by the sound of it, and since he didn't know exactly where I lived, I thought that I would be fine. I figured I was going to him, and I didn't think about it from the other perspective. I thought that he'd just be waiting for me. But I had no idea what I was in store for. At this point, it was even later, technically early in the morning, and

it was freezing. I walked around the city block until I was over at his place. I found that it was some sort of hostel or lodge with private rooms. It was really shitty. I could tell that it was dirt cheap and made for tourists. I double-checked the location that he sent me, and this was it. I still had a chance to turn back, but I didn't. There was a lockbox and a couple of sets of doors that I had to navigate through to get to him. It took a while and my hands were extremely numb from the cold, and they struggled even more by touching all of the metal hardware on the doors.

Eventually I got through the entrance and walked into a hallway. The hallway was scarcely lit, and I was pretty much surrounded by concrete going all the way up to the ceiling. I went up some flights of stairs until I was walking along the top corridor to find the door with his number. When I arrived, the door was slightly open, but there was no light on inside. I should have left at this point, but I still didn't. I opened the door and walked through. When I pushed the door open, I couldn't see anyone.

The room was so small and dark. All I could see was a dirty bathroom with towels in the sink and all over the floor. Other than that, I only saw a bed and a closet. There was a TV above the bed. I then finally heard a sound. It was a guy. I heard a sort of muffled, come in.

I stayed where I was. Hello, I called out. Then I heard the same, come in again. Even though I could hear him, I couldn't see him. Every bit of my brain was telling me to leave though. I turned around and looked at the hallway behind me since the door was still open. It was completely empty. When I looked back into the room, I saw this shape emerging out of the dark.

I don't know who this guy was, but he was big. He was not at all like his photo. He was fucking tall, somewhere around 6'2 or 6'4, much taller than me and very large. He was a bulky guy. And the thing that hit me hard at that moment was that he was absolutely soaking wet and basically naked aside from a t-shirt that was sticking to him. He had been hiding in this little alcove, and when he showed himself, I was afraid. I was shaken up by how little he resembled his photo.

He lurched forward and reached for me, but I jumped back and hit against the side of the door. Come here, he seethed once again. He kept saying that over and over. Come here, come here. I told him no, and I asked him to turn a light on since I could barely see his face, but he said no and explained that he doesn't like to have lights on. I grabbed the door with my hand and I began to leave.

But he placed his hand on the door which stopped me in my tracks. Then he reached for me and grabbed me in a very inappropriate place. I told him I was leaving and that I made a mistake by coming there. He extended his hand out to me and this time I saw more of his face. He had this look in his eye. It was so frightening. It's at this point that I finally confirmed that he was a completely different person from the photo he had online.

I then stepped back into the hall and jumped down the stairs. I threw open the double doors on my way, and I didn't even bother to make sure that they were shut or locked correctly. I just ran right out into the street, then ran the whole way back to my apartment, where I kept the lights off and the doors locked. Then I blocked him. This situation was off from the beginning. I don't know why I went as far as I did.

Honestly, the best case scenario would have been having the most awkward hangout of my life, but the worst case scenario, I don't even wanna think about it. Needless to say, I'll be staying off the apps for a while. I was a fool to go out to meet a stranger. My gut told me to turn around more than once, and I definitely should have. Trust your gut. Transgender Women

Transgender Women So to start, I'm a transgender woman. I'm single, and I make my status as trans very clear on my dating profiles, except for plenty of fish. They consider that to be talking about sex, as if they see that information listed on your profile and they will straight up ban you. So, instead, I state that I'm a huge proponent of trans rights. So, this guy who was living about an hour away messaged me.

He was kind of cute, but something about him was mildly creepy. Something seemed off. But knowing that people can't help how they look, I gave him a chance, just like I would want. We started talking and he mentioned that he was a smoker, but he said he was trying hard to quit. He said he only smoked when he was really stressed or upset. We had a nice conversation and he asked for my number.

Without thinking about it, I gave him my number and told him that I was getting ready for my evening class, so I'd be slow to respond to him. A few minutes later, I got a text. Hi, it's me, from Plinyafish. He used his name. Now, usually when I start texting someone that I met on Plinyafish, I send them a quick message that says something along the lines of,

Hi, it's Allie. Since my profile might be a bit vague, I want to mention, just to be clear that I'm a transgender woman. I know it's not everybody's cup of tea, so if you're not interested, I completely understand. About 20% of the time, the guy won't be interested, and in some cases, they'll be rude. And that's when I block them. The other 80% either immediately ask inappropriate questions or ask for inappropriate pictures. Others will casually accept what I say and just keep talking. Or I'll be met with dead silence.

But as I said, I was getting ready to go to class so I hadn't seen the messages yet. A few more minutes went by and I was about to text him my go-to message when I got another text from him. Who the fuck is this person and why is he paying for your cell phone bill? I replied, where did you even get that name? He said, answer the question, who is he? I was stunned as I realized he must have paid one of those shady websites that list personal information to inquiring people for free.

He was seeing my dead name. Well, if you must know, I'm transgender and that used to be my name, I explained. I was about to tell you, when I had a free moment from class, please do us both a favor and lose my number. It's incredibly invasive that you dug up this information and I don't want to talk to you anymore. Do you still live at this address? Then he supplied my address. I'm coming to see you so that we can talk about this in person, he replied.

No, I lied. I moved a few months ago. Like I said, you need to leave me alone. Do not contact me again. He then said, since need to leave me alone. Do not contact me again." He then said, "'Since it seems like you have something to hide, I'm going to run a full background check on you. You lied to me, and I don't appreciate that.'"

I replied, "'I'm sending screencaps of this conversation, along with your profile and your photos on Plenty of Fish, to my best friends who work in law enforcement. My ex-boyfriend also works for the sheriff's office in your area. Don't text me again." After that, I didn't hear anything else from him for a few weeks. I made sure that my doors and windows were always locked, and the aforementioned friends and ex checked up on me from time to time. Eventually it just became one of those weird things that makes you laugh uneasily whenever

you think about it. But then, one day, I saw the guy at my grocery store. He had the same dark hair and thick framed glasses. He was just staring at me, watching me as I shopped. I texted my ex about it, which led to us getting back together in a casual sort of way, and my ex started staying the night with me a few times a month off and on. One night when I was alone, though, I just kept getting this weird feeling. And I was smelling smoke.

I lived in a little apartment complex. It was tiny. There were three separate apartments that shared walls, but they didn't share plumbing or air ducts. I don't smoke and am very sensitive to the smell, thanks to asthma. The apartment that I lived in had a wall unit AC, so I turned it off since I assumed it was pulling air from the neighbors' guests who had been chain-smoking outside. Although I was uneasy, I had a video for my American Sign Language class due the next morning, so I was up all night practicing and recording my video. I was signing the same story over and over again until it was almost a dance rather than narration. A couple of times, I had to start over since my cat was going berserk.

Finally, at around 7 AM, I had the video finished and sent in. I was so ready for bed. Before I went to sleep, I double-checked to make sure all of the doors and windows were locked. Then I set an alarm and went to sleep. When I woke up, I got ready for school quickly since I was running a bit late and I had to hurry out the door. Right before I left, I saw something that bothered me, but I didn't have time to check

it out, so I rushed off for school. My classes went smoothly that day, and I found out I got an A on my ASL video. After school, I stopped for groceries on my way home from class. When I got home, I took a closer look at what had been bugging me before I left. Each apartment had small garden patches on each side of their porches. Mine was nothing but gravel that the previous tenant had put in. It was tidy except for a pile of cigarette butts. It looked like someone had dumped an ash tray in my garden.

There was no other trash, just that pile of cigarettes. It was right in front of my bedroom window. I didn't think anything of it at first. I just got a broom and a dustpan, then swept it up. As I was sweeping, my neighbor, an old man, came out of his apartment and asked if my boyfriend ever got a hold of me. I asked him what he meant, and he told me that there was a young man waiting for me on my front porch, on and off, for a few hours last night.

He said that since he'd seen the guy around before, he thought that he was my boyfriend. I asked my neighbor what the man looked like, and he told me it was a man with dark hair and thick framed glasses, And he was chain smoking. I then texted my on and off again ex and let him know what happened. The cops came and took statements, and I gave them all the screenshots that I had. I moved out of state a few weeks later for unrelated reasons. I've also since legally changed my name and had those records sealed. I don't give out my number to guys anymore. Ladies and my fellow queer family,

please use a texting app when you're getting to know someone. Don't give anyone your actual number until you've been able to get to know them, because for $5 or less, Creeps can obtain so much information about you just by running your phone number. This happened a few years ago between my first and second years of grad school. It was summer, and I had scored a last-minute internship with a small ad agency several states away from where I lived.

Luckily, I have family who lived in the same city, so I was able to stay with my aunt, uncle, and cousin for the two months I was interning. My relatives are great, and a lot of fun to hang out with. This was the summer Pokemon Go came out, and we got a lot of mileage out of that. All the same, I was a twenty-something extrovert in a new city who started meeting people through Tinder. That night was a parade of weirdness, including hits such as, the guy who sent hilariously overposed nudes from his workplace, and

the guy who I thought ghosted me, but was in fact hospitalized. The difference between those two guys and the subject of this story is that unfortunate nudes and mental health struggles aside, they were both very nice people. But the guy I'm about to talk about? Well, not so much. The city where I was staying is home to a pretty sizable Navy base, so a lot of guys I came across were military.

As a rule, I don't go for anyone whose profession involves combat, weapons, or violence in general, so I tend to avoid people in the military, cops, boxers, etc. But I figured this was just for the summer, and when I hit it off with someone in the Navy, I agreed to an in-person date. Given that I was dating quite a bit, I made a habit of always meeting guys at the same pub slash restaurant in the town center. So we arranged to meet there. When the night came, I went through my usual first date routine. Get there half an hour early, do a shot of gnarly bottom shelf tequila to calm my nerves, and start on beer number one.

About halfway through that beer, my date walked in, wearing a rhinestone studded affliction t-shirt, the likes of which I hadn't seen on a real person in at least five years, and little did I know, his tacky wardrobe was the least of his issues. Right off the bat, I knew I was a little uncomfortable, because he talked about doing drugs, which just wasn't my thing. He made several racial jokes, which have always made me uncomfortable. The more awkward I feel, the more I drink, so bottoms up. But then it went from a typical bad first date to something a little more troubling.

It started when he committed the cardinal first date sin of bringing up his ex-girlfriend. He brought up multiple ex-girlfriends, actually. In doing so, some common threads emerged pretty quickly. Namely, he communicated that he had treated them all like princesses, and they had been unfaithful to him. He said that he had always been the perfect boyfriend, and they were all evil. His utter belief in his own victimhood was uncomfortable to say the least, especially combined with the sneering disgust that dropped off of each sentence.

I had already decided by this point that we were probably not going to be going out again. At some point, I made a joke in passing about the fact that the uncle I was staying with was a retired senior chef from the Navy, and I told my date that my uncle could look up his information for me. I was just joking, but he must have taken it seriously because right then, he disclosed that a woman in his unit had accused him of sexually assaulting her. He went on to say that it was total bullshit.

She just wanted to get the hell out of Bahrain and thought that it would get her reassigned, he said. This was absolutely no big deal to him, and he painted it as typical of quote unquote females in the military. If I hadn't realized it before, this made it clear that he had a very shitty view of women in general. Around this point, I stopped ordering beers and ordered some fries, as it was time for me to sober up and bail.

Unfortunately, sobering up took a minute. And in that time, he went on to tell me about another false accusation in his life. This time, it was his little half-sister accusing their father of assaulting her. This, again, was no big deal to him. He said that she was lying under the direction of her bitch mother, as he said, who thought that it would get her sole custody. The pure vitriol in his voice when he talked about this literal child was so disturbing. As he ranted about this, I was mentally making yet another tally mark in the yes column of

the Does This Guy Hate Women chart that I was making in my head. Now regardless of whether any of these accusations were true or just unfounded as he portrayed them, he had chosen to bring up his cheating whore ex-girlfriends as he called them, as well as his lying bitch fellow sailor and his lying little sister and her scheming mother. Again, these are all in his words. He brought up all of these over the course of two hours with a woman he barely knew. He only spoke in a non derogatory way about one woman, his abuela. Every other woman he had ever met in his eyes is a liar,

a slut, a bitch, a manipulator, or some combination thereof. Thankfully, I sobered up after that and declined his offer to walk me to my car. Once I was home, I shook it off pretty easily as misogynistic pricks do exist, unfortunately, but the more I thought about it, the next day and many times since, the more I realized it was one of those situations that could have gone tremendously wrong. Had I let him walk me to my car, I would have been in a dark, half-empty parking garage with a guy who, at best, hates women.

At worst, he actually did what he was accused of, and casually mentioned it over drinks, before dogging a child who was potentially the victim of abuse. The red flags from that one conversation alone were so huge and so obvious that, had something happened, my credibility would have been shot. People would have come out in droves to say that I was at fault for putting myself in that situation with someone who was so clearly disturbed. I honestly thank God that nothing came of it because it was another sad case of victim blaming waiting to happen. For the record, false reports of rape only make up about 2 to 10 percent of all

reports of rape only make up about 2 to 10 percent of all accusations. And that's out of the 37 percent that even get reported at all. An estimated 63 percent never are. So folks, if anyone ever tells you that they were accused of sexual assault, but it's totally untrue, run. Don't walk in the other direction. It's better to be safe than sorry. This happened to me and my partner in September of 2023. We were hanging out with our two friends, a husband and wife. Their names are John and Mary. They decided that they wanted to go camping at Todd Lake Recreation Center, which is in George Washington National Forest. They invited us to spend some time with them

at their campsite, have a few beers, and relax by the campfire. My partner and I decided that we weren't up for an overnight camping trip, but we were down to go out there and hang out for a bit, then go home. The recreation center was only 45 minutes away from us. We figured if we kept our drinking to a minimum, ate food, and just chilled for a couple of hours, we would be able to make the drive back home without having to stay overnight. We got there at around 4.30 p.m. and had camp snacks like sandwiches and chips with some alcoholic seltzers. After eating and drinking our seltzers, we wandered down to the lake with our friends and we watched their dog go for a swim.

Then we decided to head back to the campsite and start a fire. I knew that we weren't planning to stay the night, so I kept tabs on my alcohol consumption. I kept track of how many drinks I had and made sure to eat enough food so I would be suitable to drive later. In total, I had five seltzers the entire night, which was over several hours. Not to sound like an alcoholic or anything, but five seltzers do not explain what happened to us that night. I can handle my alcohol and I am responsible while drinking as I always have to pace myself, eat food,

and drink water in between each beverage." We were hanging out by the fire with John and Mary, and the next thing we know, John says, Hey, do you guys want to walk down to the lake again? My partner and I responded, Yeah, sure, let's do it. The campsite had a short walking path that led to the lake, probably about half a mile away. It only takes minutes to get there. Now, this is when things got weird.

I looked at my cell phone and I saw that it was 8.30 PM. I decided to stop and put my phone in the car before we walked down to the lake because I didn't want to lose it. The next thing I knew, I woke up in the woods, passed out on the ground, on a trail with my partner in the middle of George Washington National Forest. We were an hour away from their campsite, and John and Mary were nowhere to be found. I was lying halfway on the moss, and my partner was on his back with his head turned to the side.

It's hard to describe our positioning there as it was almost as if we were placed there perfectly. We were lost and we both felt extremely confused and sick. We both started throwing up and had to take breaks as we were walking on the trail to try and find John and Mary's campsite. It took us an hour to get back, but it wasn't because we were getting turned around or doubling back anywhere. It just appeared that we had hiked an entire hour outside of the recreation

center. My partner and I had zero recollection as to how we got there or why we were both passed out in the middle of the woods at night. How the hell can sipping on seltzers for over hours while making sure to eat and hydrate in between do this to us? We were so sick and had no memory of what happened after we set off for a walk to the lake. My partner was completely disoriented and started screaming for help.

I was begging him to be quiet since I felt so sick and had no idea where we were. I needed a moment to collect myself and get my bearings to try and get us out of this strange situation. Something I should mention is that we are both avid hikers and backpackers. We're very comfortable outdoors and in nature. We're even good with navigating around desolate locations by ourselves. While this was incredibly scary and confusing, at that moment, I was so thankful that I didn't wake up in the woods on that trail alone that night. Thankfully, he was with me. The entire time that we were trying to find our way back,

we both felt like we were being watched. It was unsettling. I was telling my partner that I felt like something was very wrong. I said that when we got back to the campsite, we needed to get into the car and leave right away. I just felt it in my bones, but I couldn't pinpoint exactly why I felt this way, since I didn't really know what happened.

We were both utterly shocked that we somehow both conveniently blacked out simultaneously. I know what you're all thinking, we were drugged. Well, we felt that too. But why would John and Mary, our supposed friends, drug us, and why would they drug us and position us somewhere deep in the forest? It just doesn't add up. We finally made it back to the campsite, and the first thing I did was open my car door and grab my phone to see what time it was.

It was 2.30 a.m. My heart sank. How did this happen? How did things go from 8.30 p.m. while we were walking down to the lake to 2.30 in the morning? walking down to the lake to 2.30 in the morning. Neither of us liked not knowing what happened to us in that six hours of lost time. So before we decided to leave, my partner knocked on their tent and said, Hey, John, we're leaving. We need to get out of here.

Something is off. What happened, man? John replied, Where's Mary? My partner and I exchanged concerned glances, then asked, What do you mean? She's not in the tent with you? John answered, No, I thought that she was with you two. So then we all decided to search for Mary. John said that the last thing he remembered was hanging out by the fire, asking us if we wanted to go down to the lake and then heading down there. Then, hours later, he woke up underneath the picnic table at the campsite.

He had no idea how he got there. However, something seemed fishy. He was far too relaxed. We found Mary down the trail leading to the lake. She was slumped over, asleep in the woods near the campsite. Neither remembered what happened and why we all ended up in those places. No one can remember what happened for those few hours. It was misty, dark, and foggy on the mountain.

I was shivering so much that my teeth were chattering. I was feeling sick, and I was just ready to go home. We got in the car and returned to our house, but it took a while to settle down enough to sleep. When we spoke to John the next morning, he laughed it off and said, maybe we shouldn't drink so much next time we hang out. I remember all of us just hanging out by the fire and then mentioning going down to the lake, but I stayed back to deal with the dog while the three of you went down there.

John changed his story from what he had said the night before. It wasn't sitting right with me. The rest of the recreation center was almost empty. We only saw one other family camping that night, and they weren't anywhere near our campsite. My partner and I were certain that we didn't drink enough to the point that it would cause us to black out, especially at the same time. We realized we were sore and a little cut up as we hashed out our theories and what we remembered over and over.

The only conclusion we could think of was that there must have been something paranormal or we were drugged by our friends. I started to get flashbacks of memories. The main thing I do remember was seeing John's face on the shore of the lake. And then… Blackness. My partner lost his phone that night, so I called the park ranger the following Monday. The ranger said that they were able to locate the phone.

It was pretty busted up, and they found it in the woods between campsites 5 and 6. John and Mary were camping at campsite 1, so we have no clue why it was found so far from the campsite. The park ranger mailed the phone back to us because I didn't want to drive all the way back out there. The next day, my partner was still violently ill, and I was still shivering with teeth chattering. I was covered shivering with teeth chattering. I was covered in goosebumps all day. We probably should have gone to the hospital, but we just laid low and rested.

In my 30 years, I've never experienced anything like this. To this day, my partner and I are skeptical about meeting new friends or allowing people to enter our lives. But we are both so grateful that we have each other and we made it home safely that night. When we got my partner's phone back, I had a horrible pit in my stomach. The phone never came back on even though the front screen was perfectly intact. Only the back of the phone was busted.

Part of me is grateful for that though, since I don't think I want to know. screen was perfectly intact. Only the back of the phone was busted. Part of me is grateful for that though, since I don't think I want to know what was on that phone. My partner doesn't have social media, but I blocked John and Mary on mine, and we haven't seen them since. We moved to another state earlier this year, but I've dealt with a lot of PTSD and night terrors ever since this occurred last September. Nothing was ever confirmed for us, but I've always worried that John, Mary, or maybe both of them, were responsible for this.

Are they doing this to other people? Thanks for listening. Don't forget, I'll be performing Let's Not Meet live on August 10th in San Diego, California, August 11th in Los Angeles, California, August 18th here in Sacramento, California, and September 19th in Salt Lake City, Utah. Get your tickets at let's not meet podcast.com or follow the link in the show notes. If you're a patron, make sure you stick around after the music for your extended ad free version of this week's episode. If you want to get access, head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast to sign

up and support the show today. You'll get instant access to hours of bonus content with stories you won't hear anywhere else and everything is ad free. This week you have heard The 10-Year-Old Psychopath by Jane Badall, Potential Kidnapper Waiting for Me by Capital Afternoon 22, Sketchy Night Bus Barber by Slade, 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. Send your stories in to letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com to hear them on the show. Finally, make sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like odd trails my true paranormal podcast and the old-time Radio cast at cryptic County podcasts comm or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll see you next week. Everyone. Stay safe This happened in December 2022.