Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - 3x26: The Church In The Woods - Let's Not Meet

Episode Date: May 4, 2020

Stories in this episode: Church in the Woods - outworlder39. Creep has been stalking my home for almost a year, tried breaking in two weeks ago. - redclock0413. Tinder gone wrong... - kristie_bug07. Just trying to go home. - Summer_Hawkorb. Visit PrettyLitter.com today and use promo code 'MEET' for 20% off your first order. Try Sundance Now free for 30 days, by going to sundancenow.com and use promo code meet. Follow Let's Not Meet: - Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/433173970399259/  - Twitter - https://twitter.com/letsnotmeetcast  - Website - http://letsnotmeetpodcast.com  - Patreon - http://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast  - Merch - https://www.teepublic.com/user/letsnotmeet  - Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/andrewtatelive

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My name is Andrew Tate and this is season three episode 26 of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. I grew up in Ohio in the 70s, and me and my childhood friend Joe were outside all of the time we could manage it. Joe lived on a farm that bordered a pretty big forest, and my parents would drop me off in the morning, and we'd stay in the woods all weekend. We'd only come out for school. We loved pretending that we were funtearsmen. We'd build shelters, traps, practice making fire with sticks, the whole nine yards.

When we got to be in high school, we got this notion to pull a stand-by-me. This was based on the movie of the same name that had just come out. The idea was that we would walk the railroad tracks out in the country. But instead of looking for a dead body, we'd find cool bridges to fish from, and camp a little ways off the tracks. Of course, we knew this was dangerous, and we'd likely be trespassing, but we were kids. We had a lot of fun. We did find beautiful rivers.

We discovered bridges that no one went to. We fished. We hid from the trains. That night we camped in the woods just near the tracks and made small hidden fires. Nothing bad ever happened, it was idyllic. In fact, it was so fun we did it multiple times. Never had a problem. After high school, me and Joe went our own ways.

We both left home, but always stayed in touch and always tried to coordinate visits, so that we would see each other occasionally. One summer in the mid-90s, it worked out that we were both in town for about a week. We'd do stuff with the family during the day, and at night, we'd either catch drinks at a bar or sit outside Joe's house around the fire and talk about the old days. One night, Miyunjo got to talking about our standby me trips. Well, nostalgia and beer are a hell of a mix. Soon we decided to take a day and walk the rails.

We would camp one night and then walk home. The day came, and we started out early in the morning. We had my wife drop us off in our old spot where we used to start, right outside our hometown. She thought this was absolutely crazy and made sure to mention it. When she pulled away, Joe suggested that instead of walking the usual route, we'd take the opposite direction, just to be adventurous. We knew the land well, and we had a map, so I gave a what-the-hell, and off we sat. The day went fine. It was fun, and a little sad, but in a good way. We found a

bridge and sat on the edge, smoked a joint, then moved on. We had no fishing gear, but we brought some canned food and other stuff. Before night started to set in, we picked a spot to camp. It was a thick forested area, a trees on every side of the train track, so you felt like you were in a tunnel. We had brought small hammocks to sleep in, but before we set them up, we decided to do a little scouting of the perimeter. Now this is what we used to do in the old days as well. We'd walk the area around a little bit to make sure that some dudes' house wasn't just

over a hill, and we were actually camping in their yard. We walked maybe a hundred or so feet into the woods up a small incline. So we figured we didn't see anyone from the top of this short hill, and we would be fine. But when we got to the top, we saw an old building down at the bottom, about a hundred yards into the woods. It was barely visible. We pondered what to do. We both assumed that it was a sugar shack or something, because there didn't appear to be any clear road into it. From where we were, there didn't look to be anyone in it, either. It was all quiet.

No movement could be seen. No lights. We decided to walk a little closer, just to make sure. We came down the hill very slowly, and as we neared the building, we saw it wasn't a sugar shack at all. It was an old church. It looked like it had been abandoned for years. It was a squat-sacking building whose wooden planks were almost black from years of moss and rot. Across still stood on top of the place, all weathered in black. None of the windows had glass, and there were no doors, just open doorways.

We got close enough to see the inside, and there were rows of pews, and a built-up section in front for a preacher to stand. We didn't go all the way in. We didn't want to. Beyond all that, there was no sign of anyone else, no footprints, no paths, no roads. It was an abandoned church. We left immediately and went back up the hill to our spot that we had picked the camp. Having a hill between us and the church made us fill a little better, but we were still a bit uneasy. We chalked it up to the natural creepiness of seeing a church in the middle

of the woods. Besides, at this point, it was dusk, and we decided to rig up our hammocks and go to sleep and move on in the early morning. Night set in, and as we lay on our hammocks and shot the shit, we began to hear something in the direction of the church. Our conversation went a little like this. Did you hear that? What the fuck is that? It sounds like people singing, and it did sound like singing. We both slid right out of our hammocks and hunkered down, straining to hear more. We listened for a minute or two, and the singing continued, but it wasn't getting louder. Finally, we decided to creep back up the hill, and see if we could spy where the sound was coming from.

We could still move very quietly in the woods from the old days. It was second nature to us. The moon was barely out, but it provided just enough light so that you wouldn't walk right into a tree. But it was near pitch black. We didn't use flashlights as we slowly crept up the hill, and we didn't talk. When we got to the top, we saw a light in the distance. It was coming from the church, got to the top, we saw a light in the distance. It was coming from the church, and the singing was coming from inside. Joe and I put our heads close together, and had a hushed conversation that boiled down to, can you believe this shit? The light looked to be a candle light from the way that it

flickered. And though we tried, we couldn't make out what was being sung. It sounded like church music, but in another language. We sat and watched for a while, trying to see who it was in there, but we only saw occasional shadows. We had no intention of getting closer, either. We had about a football-filled length between us, and we aimed to keep it that way. The singing continued for a bit, and then it stopped. After that, a booming male voice began to chant. That was already freaked out, but this voice thoroughly scared this shit out of me.

It sounded like some old Testament preacher you see in movies, but again, it was like he was speaking in a different language because we couldn't understand a single word. Eventually, it got to where the single male voice would say something and then a bunch of voices would answer in a song. This lasted for a while, and then they all broke into this long-sustained whale that just kept getting louder. It got so loud and so disturbing that I had to cover my ears. And it stopped.

At this point, I was just getting ready to say, let's get the fuck out of here. When Joe put a hand on my shoulder and hissed, they're coming out. We were far enough away that we couldn't make them out really well, but we could see that it was a line of figures walking out the open doorway, all holding hands in single file. We could see some of them had flashlights. They began to sing again, and the light from the flashlights began to move towards us on the hill. We booked it back down to our campsite, grabbed our shit, and ran to the tracks. Once there, we ran down the tracks in the direction that we had come from. After a few minutes, we stopped and looked back, and we saw lights coming down the tracks in the direction that we had come from. After a few minutes we stopped and looked back and we saw lights coming down the hill.

They were actually moving, erratically, like whoever was holding them was shaking them. We continued to run in spurts and walked as fast as we could. We eventually stopped seeing the lights and came to a road. By our map, we knew a small town was about 15 minutes down it, and we walked there, got to a 24 hour gas station and called my wife to come get us. My wife and other friends all just thought it was kids messing around, but I heard those voices, and they sure as hell didn't sound like kids to me. Not sure who those people were, but it was definitely the creepiest thing that ever happened

to me, out in the woods. If cats could talk, they'd probably say exactly what's on their mind. Don't touch me, but keep touching me. Hey, look at that glass on the table. Watch me break it. Wouldn't it be nice if cats could tell us when something's wrong? Cats are notorious for hiding their illnesses, but with pretty litters, health detecting formula, there are no secrets. Pretty litter is the world's smartest kitty litter. Their proprietary formula changes colors to help detect

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And now that you can get litter bags auto-shipped, you don't have to deal with last- trips to the store, and shipping is free. I love their health detecting formula and my friends with cats say that they'll never go back. Today, you can get the world's smartest litter without leaving home by visiting PrettyLitter.com and use promo code MET for 20% off your first order. That's PrettyLitter.com promo code meat M-E-E-T for 20% off. Now back to the show. So I'm a 23 year old female. I live in a townhouse with my two children, two and six months

old. My fiance did live with us until about two weeks ago when I caught him trying to sleep with other women, and I made him move out. I must stay at home mom, and when he did live with us, my ex worked evenings. Let me set this scene. We live in a tiny town in northern Pennsylvania. My line of townhouses sits in front of a big field that runs into a line of woods. As far as I'm aware, these woods stretched for at least a few miles, and I'm not aware of any houses in there or any roads that lead through them. My living room has three windows that look into a field, and my bedroom on the second floor only has one window that faces that way as well.

People do tend to walk their dogs in the backfield, and kids sometimes play back there, but I rarely ever see anyone close to my house. For that reason, I tend to just leave my blinds and curtains open because I guess I just enjoy the view. So in July of 2019, I'm laying on my bed trying to fall asleep. All the lights were off, but I had my window and blinds open since it was so warm. I was looking out the window and I noticed small red and white lights just outside. I got up and looked to realize that the lights were coming from a drone. I ran downstairs to where my fiance of the time was sitting in the living room, then ran to the window.

I told him what I saw, but of course, when he went to look, it was gone. I was paranoid that the drone maybe had a camera on it, and someone was watching me with it. I kept my blinds closed for a while after that. Fast forward to January of this year, I guess I stupidly got comfortable and assumed that whoever it was flying that drone was a one-time creep. My blinds were opened and I had just gotten out of the shower. I was sitting on my bed, pretty much naked except for my underwear scrolling through my phone. When out of the corner of my eye I saw lights again, out of the dark window. It was that damn drone again.

I ran out of the room and waited for a few minutes. I peeked back into my room and it was gone. I quickly shut my blinds and got dressed. Honestly, I felt sick at how stupid I was to leave my window open again, especially when I was practically naked. Now for the really disturbing part. My two-year-old son and I were out in the field two weeks ago. Three days after I kicked out my boyfriend, we were playing ball. I had my six-month-old strapped to me in the baby carrier.

Probably about half an hour after we had been out there, I heard a slight whorling noise coming towards us. I looked up and I saw that damn drone flying towards us. I looked around and I didn't see anyone. It stopped right over us. I freaked out, I grabbed my son, and dragged him into the house. Looking back at the tree line every so often, as we went, I knew they had been hiding in there.

I went inside and closed the blinds, then I called my mom and told her about the situation. She told me just to keep an eye out. I said I would. My son likes to line his toys up along the window sill, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to open them up just an inch or so. A little while later, after we ate dinner, and it was almost dark. I was feeding my six-month-old, and my son was playing. He was standing over by the window lining up his toys. He started saying, Dadda, Dadda. I assume he was just missing his father and dismissed him by saying that he was going

to see him that weekend. He kept on saying, Dadda, Dadda. I looked up and I saw him pointing to the window. Under the little gap, the blinds didn't cover. I froze. I remembered that he calls any man with facial hair, Dadda, because it reminds him of his father. But there was actually no way someone would be bold enough to actually come up to the window.

Not when my neighbors are literally right there. Anyone could see them, but there aren't any lights out there. So unless someone actually stepped out of their house, I guess nobody could actually see them. Maybe it was my ex. But he should be at work at that time. I ran to the window and moved my son. I didn't want to lift the blinds, but honestly, I was sure it had to be the person who had been creeping on me for the past year, and I wanted to see who it was. I pushed the blinds up and was looking at a man who I definitely never saw before.

Crouched and front of me. He was bald with a white mustache and goatee. I have no idea how old he was. He could have been anywhere from 30 to 50. When he saw me, he smiled and stood up. I yelled and told him to fuck off that I was calling the cops. He just stood there, smiling at me, like some freak. I was about to close the blinds again when he said something that I couldn't hear.

I told him to leave again and he said louder this time. I just want to talk to you. I shook my head no and yelled the same thing to him. He started to slap his hands in the window, yelling, no, no. Over and over. I grabbed my phone, scared he was going to try and break in and dialed 911. My kids were crying from the yelling and I felt like I was on the verge of tears. I told the operator what was going on. The whole time I was on the phone, the man was pounding

on the window screaming now. He was yelling all kinds of nonsense, and I only caught some of it. He said, he's been watching me for months. I'm beautiful. He wants to come in with me. He'll kill my children if I don't let him in. The operator told me to go into the upstairs room and hide until the police arrive. My town doesn't have a police department, so we rely on the state police. She said it could be about 20 minutes, but to stay on the phone with her, the man was practically punching my window now and just screaming like a maniac. I was about to

grab my kids and run upstairs when I heard someone else screaming. The man bolted. I looked at the window and I saw my neighbor and his girlfriend. I opened the window and my neighbor said that he heard the man so he ran around the building. He said that when the guy heard him, he ran back into the woods and disappeared into the tree line. They said they also called the police. I thanked him a hundred times. The police arrived ten minutes later. They did a quick search around the building and the trees, but obviously they didn't find anything.

I've been very paranoid since then and stayed at my parents' few nights after it happened. I don't know why the guy targeted me or why he waited so long to do something. I'm just happy my neighbors were there to intervene. Or who knows what would have happened. So to the creep who's been stalking me and my family for the last year, I genuinely hope we never ever meet again. You're already there, hero. But if you want to take it to the next level, turn up Bull Loose in your backyard. Bull Outdoor can help you design, build, then deliver the outdoor kitchen of your dreams.

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I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a Gigillionaire? Yeah, I have AT&T fiber. The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. This wine, I'll fetch you a better one. Straight forward is better. No equipment fees, no data caps, no price increase at 12 months. Live like a Gigillionaire with AT&T fiber. Limited availability in select select areas, visit at AT&T.com slash Hypergate for details. This was over a year ago, so I'm safe now. I had broken up with my now ex back in January of 2018, my doing. I was angry at everything and had joined Tinder.

I talked to a guy that seemed pretty cool and was quite attractive. I talked to him quite a bit, took a lift down to where he lived. Now, his dad had passed away not too long ago, so he moved back in with his mom to help out. I found that very sweet, and so I thought nothing of it. We took a lift to Walmart, and to the liquor store as his mom had requested some wine. I had bought a pizza to bake at their home to make a decent impression. I also purchased her wine, which she gave me cash for despite my protests, again, trying to make a good impression. This home was gorgeous.

They had an old, tiny jukebox, and the freaking sink taps in the bathroom were installed in the mirrors. Water flowed from a spout in the freaking mirrors. His mom was as sweet as southern tea, and seemed to have taken a liking to me. So this guy had been messaging his lesbian best friend, we'll call her C, and explained that he had helped her out after she broke her ankle and such. Again, I thought, what in ice sky? We drank, we had sex, and everything was cool. I had told him, I had borderline before we met up, and had warned him, I had scars from

previous cutting incidents, but nothing recent. He was fine with it, and had warned him I had scars from previous cutting incidents, but nothing recent. He was fine with it, and understood. The next morning, I had an interview at a major company's call center, and his mom offered to drive me. She was a sweetheart. I did great at the interview, and was offered the job. I immediately texted this guy to tell him the good news. So one day, when I was home, I had slept for about eight hours and I woke up to a dozen

text messages and over 20 Facebook messages from him. It ranged from, hey, how's it going to fuck? It's hard to say this. I had seen the messages progressed as I quickly scrolled through and saw one that says, and I have a picture of this still. Those cut marks on your arm, yeah, I wouldn't have dated a cutter anyway. Most of them are fucking pathetic that need to get some serious fucking help. Might as well keep doing that since it seems to be your only friend.

I blocked him. Then I posted it to my Facebook page, so if anyone knew him, they would know what he was actually up to. Now, I get a friend request from his lesbian friend, C. She filled me in. She was not a lesbian. She had just broken up with him hours before befriending me, so they were still dating when he had me over. And he told her I was a lesbian. Also, that he goes by his middle name. I had done a basic search with the name that he provided, and on his Facebook page to make sure he wasn't a felon or some shit before meeting up with him. Well, when I did the search with his real first name, sure as shit.

So many charges, including child pornography. He had been stalking her, pinging her phone location, and messaging her shit like, oh what, you're not going gonna leave your house now? And he told her to kill herself. She had gotten the cops involved. She sent me a screenshot of the messages he was sending. We talked a bit more and while I'm not a medical professional, it was kind of clear something was wrong. He was lying. He was lying.

He was manipulative, aggressive, angry, and obviously his moods would flip faster than mine. I offered to send her what I could of the messages in case she could use them to build a case against him. Shortly after, I get a friend request from a name I don't recognize, something generic like Mike. Then I get a message, hey, it's Jay. How's it going? How's your job at the new company?

He even named the company that I was hired at. That was freaked out. He knew where I worked. The building was secure, but the parking lot, not so much. I got Pepper spray and called my dad, who has been in the police force and such since before I was alive. He advised not to carry a baseball bat because if it was wrestled from me, it could be used against me.

But Pepper spray was a decent choice. He also said that while online bullying isn't something the police can do much about, if he messages me again, it goes into the harassment area, and it needed to be reported as soon as possible. I was getting off of work after midnight, and I was scared shitless. I parked as close as I could to the building as possible. Pepper spray in hand. Fortunately, I haven't ran into him since. I do not want to meet him again. I've also moved since and changed jobs. If it sounds too good to be true, it really fucking is. So this was about 5 months ago.

I don't remember it with complete clarity, and I'm not the best at story you're telling, so bear with me. I'll do my best. This was about 2 a.m. in downtown Denver. A friend of ours hosts a D&D session every Sunday. Me and my partner normally stay the night, but we had plans the next Monday, and had to go early. We say our goodbyes to everyone grab our backs and head out.

It wasn't a long walk at all to the car, even a block away. Me and my significant other started walking and chatting about the session. Then we both got silent at the same time. Someone was behind us. But I don't know how we both knew he was going to be bad news. I don't know how we both knew he was going to be bad news. He continued to follow us to the parking garage and right before we entered he spoke up. Are you ladies 18 or older? Now I'm a bigger girl. I'm 5'10 and I definitely knew how to hold my own against creeps. This guy struck me as being different.

He was a good foot taller than me. Blonde blue-eyed male with one hell of a disgusting smile. Me being the dumb polite person that I am, I said something like, uh, yeah, why? And he proceeded to start saying things like, do you pay your taxes? With the quick response of, sorry, we aren't really at that stage in our lives yet. He quickly responds with a long rant about how taxes are terrible.

And you should never pay them. They're using our taxes to kill people all of the time. The government is killing people. Everyone's killing, and they get away with it so easily. At this point, he begins to move closer and closer to us. My partner is backing up into the garage, and my dumb ass is too scared to move, just trying to keep him focused on myself rather than her. He gets within a few inches of my face, and I try to casually step back and keep my movements looking natural, and I straighten my back out, compensating for the fact that this person is larger than me.

His breath was horrible. You could smell the alcohol with every single word that came out of his mouth. And his blue wristband was still on. I don't know if that's a bar thing. All I know is he had one. He continues on with his rant, and my significant other tries to argue back a bit. He starts to move away from me towards her. When she stops arguing with him and his rant, it goes from taxes to political figures and genocide. You know, I could kill anyone I want and get away with it. Anyone can. The government is watching and they don't care. They'll never know. His words weren't really making sense though. We're all killing this planet. It could all be solved if we were less

of a population. Mind you, this guy was back in my face, staying as close as possible. If either of us went on our phone or our watches, he'd shift to them completely. Not to compliment him, but he was very perceptive for someone I assume was drunk out of their mind. The conversation continues for about five minutes, maybe ten. It felt like an hour though. I introduced myself using my character name and I shook his hand, which allowed me to see a bunch of track marks on his arm.

I'm freaking out on the inside, thinking I'm going to get stabbed today. I've never been in a fight how the hell do I handle this all the while just miling and agreeing. His behavior shifted still staying way too close to me and he starts scratching himself all over reaching into his left pocket over and over every time he says, kill or references it. Honestly, at this point, I was more pissed than scared and started trying to work around him as I was stepping back as he was leading me into a wall. It wasn't working no matter how hard I tried to walk or where I was trying to go. He was always right there in my face, talking about killing anyone he wanted, that it would solve the world's problems

if people just went out and killed hundreds of others. I got fed up and I stepped quickly to my right and then backed up straight out of the garage. He followed, so did my partner behind him. We were finally out in the open. I sent so many desperate looks for people walking by as he kept getting more and more pushy and even closer to me, so much so that he was almost chest to chest with me. I don't know what came over me, but I grabbed my significant others' arm, and I mustered up the best smile I could, and I said, I want to hold your hand. As a gay person with a few homophobic and crazy people encounters, this is my worst idea ever. She handed me her hand, and I pulled her over to me, and this man that seemed like a huge threat backed up so quickly, saying,

Oh, you two are together. I'm not cool with that. I have a great night. This guy turned tail because we were gay. The one time my sexuality has ever probably saved me rather than put me in danger. We waited until he was far enough away, then we ran straight to the car. The second we got in, we locked the doors and drove off. I was shaking the whole car right home.

We actually passed him later down the road. Man him made eye contact. As per usual, to the guy who stopped us on the street that night, let's not meet. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. This week you have heard, Church in the Woods by Reddit user Outworlder 39. Creep has been stalking my home for almost a year and tried to break in two weeks ago by Reddit user RedClock0413. Tinder date gone wrong by Reddit user ChristyBug07.

And finally, just trying to go home by Reddit user's summer hawk orb. Don't forget to send your stories and to let's not meet stories at gmail.com to hear them on the show and for any questions email me at Let's Not Meet Podcast at gmail.com. If you're interested in getting more content head over to patreon.com forward slash let's not meet podcast To get access to the hours and hours of bonus content I have on there. I'm updating it every single week I'll see you guys next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet 18T fiber presents a straightforward moment. Your wine? Thanks.

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