I, mid twenties, sometimes go on walks around my neighborhood before bed. After long days on the screen, I’ve found a quick stroll around the block can do wonders for sleep quality. My neighborhood is generally quite safe and I do this walk at least once a week when in town. Tonight, I felt a little risky and had extra energy after a pretty stressful day. Because of this, I decided to walk around a park nearby.
The route is a simple, circular loop around the park. I have done it numerous times for nearly five years with nothing of note ever happening prior to tonight. The area is not well lit at all and I am usually the only person walking around the loop at this hour (usually between 11pm and midnight).
At first, everything was pretty normal. I was the only one on the road and the stars looked beautiful. However, at the halfway point, I noticed something odd. A pair of headlights crept close and began shining behind me. An electric car, with no engine noise (this is important), illuminated me on my walk. It stayed at my pace for a few minutes. This made me feel incredibly uneasy. I elected to walk further from the road, hoping that the car was just star gazing and would ultimately keep driving past me. I had a really long day and just waned to blow off some steam on a walk before bed. However, this car kept trailing me. It didn’t change its pace from my own and the driver flipped on his high beams as I walked farther off the road to ensure I was in his field of view. He stayed behind me for another couple of minutes until he realized I was not going to stop walking. At that point, the guy sped forward about 50 feet (like 15m) ahead of the nearest bend of the loop. Thinking he was out of my field of view, I noticed his car lights instantly went out. To an untrained eye or someone unfamiliar with this road, it easily would have looked like the guy drove off. But I knew better. I would have seen his car continue down the end of the loop from my vantage point, heard it roll over the speed bumps, and would have caught it stopping at the stop sign. Instead, I didn’t see or hear anything. It was as if the car faded into the night after coming to a quick, quiet stop at the the darkest section of the loop. I could have sworn I heard the sound of a door open and close, but it was not light enough to know for sure. That being said, this whole situation made me uneasy.
In fact, a little uneasy was an understatement. I felt chills run down my spine. A part of me wanted to walk the whole loop, but felt walking past where this weird guy may have stopped was simply too risky. If he was, in fact, waiting in ambush, I would be toast. Instead, I listened to my gut. I chose to end my walk prematurely and cut through a field, off the route, to a well lit street. After a minute of walking orthogonal to my original direction, I saw something terrifying. I caught a glimpse of a tall man in the moonlight (there are no trees in this area of the park, which is a field) walking toward me. In his hands, he held a weapon of some kind. It looked like an axe or a hammer. I couldn’t tell for sure but noticed he was moving fast. I decided to book it to the well-lit street ahead and made it before he got close to me. From the street, I gazed at the park and noticed the man stopped at its edge. He stared at me with a blank face brandishing what now looked clearly like an axe in his hands. Horrified, I ran to a nearby gas station, called 911, and left as detailed a description as possible about the person and the encounter. I’ve never felt so scared in my life. The most terrifying aspect of this was the fact that his car was electric. No noise was made when he rapidly exited the vehicle other than his mistake of closing his door a bit too loud. If I didn’t listen to my gut or make out the sound of a car door closing, I might not be writing this post now. So, let’s not meet again random man with an axe who decided to follow me at midnight in the park.
Also, if you ever feel any uncertainty or degree of angst in a situation like my own, please listen to that inner voice. Don’t doubt it. Sometimes, the brain picks up on things we may not have consciously noticed.