My brother saw a ghost as a kid.
Two decades later, I realized what he actually saw.
***
I was about 7 years old; my brother about 10.
It was well past our bedtime when our mom woke up off the couch to put us to bed.
Up the stairs and to the immediate right was our parents bedroom.
Going left put you in the middle of a hallway.
Taking another left down that hallway led to my brothers room.
The opposite end was my room which was also across the hall from our upstairs bathroom.
At either end of the hallway are windowed doors we always kept locked and rarely used.
The past few nights Ive been too afraid to walk to the bathroom.
I keep seeing a man wearing stripes at the end of the hallway..
I, on the other hand, was terrified by it.
Oh, thats right!
I never told you because you were too young at the time.
They said it matched the description of a man they were looking for in the area.
It turns out he had escaped from jail on a murder charge.
Immediately a man knocked my husband to the ground and was holding him down.
To make matters worse for my husband, she was driving a minivan.
He was begging and pleading with them, but no one was listening.
My husband finally had the novel idea to show them family pictures on his phone.
I was yelling for security, so panicked my chest constricted and I could barely get any sound out.
It was only then I realized he did not have our baby with him.
And I was so confused, why would the muggers have called the police?
My husband would never hurt a child.
I kept trying to understand what the man was saying and suddenly, it all clicked.
I looked around for the woman who had the baby carrier and she was halfway across the parking lot.
Not one person tried to stop her.
Within the next couple minutes, police had arrived.
The police, to my horror, assumed that she must not have had bad intentions.
Still placing blame on my husband.
A small sampling Do your husband and the baby look dissimilar?
Is there a chance she thought he was abducting the baby and she was trying to intervene?
Did she seem groggy or confused, could she have mistaken either of them for her own family members?
Parking lot kidnapper (and parking lot skeptics), you better hope we dont meet.
This happened to me about a month ago but it still boggles me.
People for the most part hold their backpacks in front of them, men dont manspread etc.
But thats when the trains are full.
So usually I can sit down at this point.
- Im not a Japanese woman.
Im often the only obviously non-Japanese woman on my train in the morning.
But despite my appearance, Im fluent in Japanese.
Its some skinny old japanese dude (60s???).
He starts to reach for my legs again, presumedly to uncross my legs himself.
Sadly though, yet another thing you dont do here is get involved.
He did this for at least five minutes.
I didnt blink or break eye contact.
I started plans B through P of how to get off this train at the next stop.
Still take the same train but havent seen him since.
So last night, I was at a classmates house working on a group project we have due tomorrow.
So I left his house pretty late at about 11 and started down the road back towards town.
I looked and saw that I was almost to the pulloff where I could turn around.
When I looked back, my heart skipped about five beats.
I panicked and accelerated backwards into the pulloff, which messed up the undercarriage of my car pretty bad.
I was grateful that my buddies parents were kind enough to let me stay the night.
But holy shit, Im still so shook up over it.
One time I went to the bar with one of my friends.
I had just turned 21 so I havent been to much bars up to that point.
When I sat at the bar a cute girl came and talked to me and my friend.
She said her name was Candice and I noticed she had really really bright red hair.
I assumed she dyed it.
It was pretty, but unnatural.
This girl was flirting with me and my friend.
She could tell my friend was already very drunk.
She offered to buy us drinks.
My friend went to the bathroom.
Before he came back he was kicked out by the bouncers.
He was too drunk.
Candice and I went outside with him.
She kept telling him to go home with her.
He was so out of it he could barely answer her.
I told her he was too drunk and that I couldnt let him go anywhere.
I told her the only way he was going anywhere was if I tagged along.
At this point I had a few drinks and I was pretty buzzed so I agreed.
We took my friend to the taxi and walked to her car.
I slightly stumbled on the way to her car.
Wow youre pretty drunk huh?
She said smiling as she held held onto my arm yea i said.
I dont know why but I just felt slightly shy and anxious.
Everything was just happening too easy for me so I felt uneasy.
We got in her car we drove down the street.
Wanna stop at the liquor store and get some more to drink?
Ill buy it so dont worry about paying she offered.
I didnt want to drink anymore than I already did.
I was already buzzed and wanted to be able to carry myself throughout the rest of the night.
I told her I was already drunk enough but she insisted.
She went in the store and came out with a lot more than just a pint.
I assumed she wanted to drink more also and thats why she got a fifth instead of a pint.
On the car ride we passed the bottle back and forth but she took tiny sips.
I tried to take tiny sips but she kept passing me the bottle and telling me to drink.
I tossed the apple juice bottle full of liquor out the window before she saw it.
I took a couple more sips of liquor and finished the bottle.
She didnt react to it.
She just kept letting me call her Carla without correcting me.
For some reason I thought she lied to me about her name initially.
We drove up to her house.
I pretended to trip and stumble into her front door.
She helped me walk inside by holding me up.
I thought that was strange but assumed she didnt want anyone walking in on us.
I told her that I had to use the bathroom.
I walked into her bathroom, locked the door and looked in the mirror.
I just felt strange, i felt like something was off.
I felt myself becoming more drunk from finishing the bottle ealier.
I turned on the sink to make noise and made myself puke up the liquor I drank.
I turned the sink off and I could hear her talking to someone hes drunk as hell.
He can barely stand up.
Who was she talking to?
I walked out of the bathroom and into the livingroom.
The moment i stepped into the livingroom i saw her walking into another room.
I didnt see her face or anything.
I just saw her kind of walk fast into the room.
The livingroom was pretty dark.
Hey where you goin?
I slurred like I was drunk.
She walked back into the dark livingroom and up to me lets go in my room she said.
I looked at her bright red hair and then into her eyes.
Her face was different.
It was another girl with the same hair.
Thats when i realized.
It was another girl with the same wig on.
It was a wig the whole time.
She had changed it with the girl from earlier for whatever reason.
My heart felt like it stopped.
But i tried to look like I had no idea it was a different girl.
She said its fine just hurry up in there i went into the bathroom and locked the door.
I heard her whisper something to someone again this time I think I heard a male voice whisper back.
I didnt look behind myself or anything.
I called a taxi and went home.
I take a stab at think what happened that night.
What was she, or they, planning that night?
Why did she tell me a fake name?
Why was she trying to get my friend and I so drunk?
I thought maybe a robbery but she kept spending money on us.
She kept buying us drinks and even paid for my friends taxi cab.
And mostly, why did she wear a wig that she gave to another girl to wear?
Who was she talking to?
What did it mean?
And what was in that room they tried to lure me into?
No cars, no people, nothing.
Just an empty house.
I said, hello… Nobody answered.
I said to my coworker, Theres a woman in my room.
Then I asked the woman, What are you doing with my stuff?
I was in shock and she was obviously very flustered having been caught mid robbery.
She dropped my bags and fumbled around with her purse and a white plastic bag.
By this time my coworker was behind me watching all the insanity unfold.
This woman was scrambling and walking towards the door and I said, Whats in the bag?
I went into my room and its been ransacked.
I did a quick look around to see if anything had been taken.
All of my electronics were still there.
Even my passport was shoved in there!!
Then I looked on the counter and I saw that she got into my medication.
She mustve left it behind in her hurry.
She also left behind a necklace that mustve fallen out of her bag when she was scrambling with mine.
The police got there and took our statements and looked around the room as well.
But after our statements were taken, there was nothing else they could really do so they left.
I got my coworker and asked her to help me pull at this mirror on the wall.
This woman had been LIVING IN THE WALL BEHIND MY MIRROR for God knows how long!!
She had access to me and my room at all times!!
One of the officers called the original officer to come back and take pictures of this.
She explained to him whats going on and all I hear over the radio is No fucking way!!
He comes back, takes pictures, and is just as mind blown as the rest of us.
Obviously we packed up and left immediately.
Whats even crazier is she has probably been there a long time.
But nope a junkie was smoking just on the other side of my mirror!
She had access to other rooms too.
She could have been hanging out in peoples rooms when they were gone.
Anyway this was insane and Im taking a little time off.
Ill go ahead and be blunt.
It isnt an ego thing, just a small hobby I find interesting.
My first month or two I uploaded most everything to a Tumblr account.
I never made it onto huge cam shows or anything.
It also allowed for messages that I occasionally replied to.
That was my first mistake.
It went smooth for the first while.
Until, i ended up getting a message for an account whos username was pretty much jargon.
It was something pretty normal, Looking for a boyfriend?
Which i promptly replied to with No.
Im in a relationship.
I appreciate the offer though.
He responded with a slurries of profanities.
Now, this may seem like your typical Nice guy post but it gets worse.
Soon, i was getting more messages from a different account.
He went into depth about he was going to stalk, and promptly assault me.
It was sickening, but dropped it because it was on Tumblr and he couldnt possibly find me.
Within the week, i was getting HUNDREDS of messages.
I had to mute notifications because they blew up my phone.
A unique message, which were all gross.
They got worse, however.
He detailed how he would study my behaviour to learn my nightmare and use it against me.
At that point, i was angry but stuck.
I couldnt fight back, so I ignored them.
Sadly I made the mistake of posting my face at a diner in my hometown.
It was a quick snapshot I had taken at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant and made a comment about the food.
He took this as an invitation and reversed image searched it.
I had also posted it to Facebook, which contained my hometown, school address, and personal life.
He messaged me from an account with yet another nonsense name.
Thats how i knew i fucked up.
He told me he knew where I was from because of the photo and Id regret rejecting him.
I snapped and said Id call the cops if he kept acting this way.
Well, he didnt stop.
He actually went the extra mile and headed to my home town.
He showed up at my part time job.
Lucky for me, i wasnt at work that day.
Another co-worker came in contact with him, who begged for me to come to the front.
He got angry when she refused to say when I would come in.
Cops were called, Horny psycho finally arrested.
The saddest part was when i was interviewed, I learned he had two children and a functioning marriage.
His wife knew nothing of this behavior.
Ive gone through quite a few pervy incidents, but this one was by far the worst.
(Im an idiot btw and used to never lock the back door.)
They were not very large or tall based on how much space they took up in the door frame.
A lot of people may have heard about this girl.
At first she seemed like a nice, albeit quirky, person.
I thought she was cute and we spent a lot of time together.
Eventually she moved on to short flings with a guy and then another girl from tinder.
A couple of weeks later she started to get really erratic.
So someone could look it up if they wanted to know).
Her plan was instead to leave the country and go to South America.
Obviously he blocked her.
Obviously that didnt go over well with her).
She seemed like she was doing better.
Eventually her behavior started to seem erratic again.
She was sending dozens of texts at a time and they were all over the place.
I had just moved for a job and I lived in a small studio in a big city.
She obviously didnt take this well.
After what happened next, I loved my cramped little apartment because the staff kept me safe.
She tried texting me from 4 different phone numbers (using textfree, etc.)
but I just blocked them all and never responded.
I rushed upstairs and calmed myself down in my apartment.
Maybe I was just being paranoid.
Its a big city.
Lots of people have brown hair and glasses.
Im just worried about her.
But then the phone rang.
The desk was calling to see if I had forgotten to let them know I had a visitor.
I asked them who was waiting.
I texted a mutual friend from over the summer.
She was convinced it was him and had come to find him.
Then I deleted the textfree app so she couldnt reach me again.
I felt like it was my fault for engaging with her for so long.
I knew she was mentally unstable and I would still attempt to be her friend and help her.
Maybe I gave her the wrong idea that I could do more for her.
It gives me goosebumps to this day.
Theres a small road 10 meters from my yard where people do their Sunday walks and so on.
Only a small fence separates my small yard and patio from that road.
Seeing random people standing on my patio is not.
This one day I got home from school.
While playing, I heard this noise coming from outside my window.
But my cat had been missing for over three months.
Hope sparked and I thought OMG, did he finally come back?!
There was a guy standing on my patio.
I could hear him making high pitched sounds, almost like a cat meowing.
He was actually eating from the ashtray.
He didnt react, he kept on eating from the ashtray.
I ran upstairs to my room, locked the door and called my mom who then called the cops.
Ive never been more terrified in my life.
I hear them talking to the guy saying stuff like what are you doing?
Get over here or we will come down and arrest you and so on.
He didnt respond, but the high pitched sounds was more frequent and louder.
I decided to look through the window, feeling safe now that the cops were there.
I could see two police officers standing by my fence, one man and a woman.
He charged the female police officer with full force, and he fucking knocked her out cold.
The male officer then immediately tazed the guy, leaving him shaking on the ground, screaming still.
After a while he managed to wake up the female police officer, who seemed to be badly hurt.
He called for backup and an ambulance, and then he sees me standing in the window above him.
By this time neighbors started to arrive wondering what the hell was going on.
The police took the creepy guy with them in the car and left.
Before they left they promised to come back and talk to us about what had happened.
This is where the story takes an unexpected turn.
The male police officer came back later that night and sat down with me and my mom to talk.
He explained that the guy on my patio was actually diagnosed with severe autism.
He had escaped a facility where mentally challenged people lived, located around 5 km from where I live.
The poor guy probably thought he would find his mom in my house.
He missed the routines and he missed living there with his mom.
Still frightened I told the police officer that he needed to double-check this would never happen again.
He promised it wouldnt.
After a few sleepless nights my life got back to normal.
The years went by and the guy didnt come back.
Until one year ago.
He just stands there, looking at me.
I look at him and give him a nod.
And then I hear the high pitched noises.
Holy shit its him his hair had turned grey but the high pitched sounds made me realize.
My heart started racing and I instantly remembered the reason why he was back.
I realized that he must have managed to escape again.
16 years later and he was back to look for his mom.
I decided to carefully ask him if he wanted to come down to the patio.
He instantly jumped the fence.
I started to think he would knock me out like he did to that police officer.
He looked at me and smiled.
I offered him to sit down.
I offered him to come inside.
His face lit up, pure joy.
It reminded him of the life he had with his mom.
It almost made me tear up.
I observed him for a while, he was just completely focused on the cartoons.
I just wanted him to enjoy the moment so I didnt say anything to him.
I realized I had to call the facility to let them know.
The caretakers arrived 10 minutes later.
After a lot of convincing he got back up, crying, and they went back to the facility.
I called the facility two days later.
We made a deal.
His name is Tom, and I now consider Tom my friend.
Every Sunday from the day he returned, Tom and his caretakers visit me to watch cartoons.
They say its the highlight of his week.
It makes my heart warm.
