Alright, so this is my first time posting here- which I guess makes sense, unless I was unlucky with these random encounters but anyway- this happened last night, so I’m still a little shaken up and weirded out. I journaled about it, but a friend of mine told me about this subreddit, so I figured this would be a better place to write this since I’d be among friends, so to speak.
I live in the city. Crime is pretty bad in only a few clusters of areas, but where I’m at it’s okay. Okay enough that walking around at night is fine. The only issues we’ve had in my neighborhood involving criminals were car jackings but that was a couple of years ago.
Anyway, even though I’m in the city, there’s a huge field next to a school by my house. This field fits two full baseball fields and then some- it’s massive. At night it’s a fun place to go and clear your mind, or just enjoy the night sky since you can actually see the stars out there, despite being in the city.
So on the far end of the field, opposite of the school, it is the darkest at night- just really far from street lights or anything, and there’s this big tree, seated in the middle of that back area. On that tree are a pair of DIY swings I like to go to and hang out for fun or if I’m on the phone or something.
So last night I went there around 9:30PM. Pretty empty there considering it was a school night. From the swings I could see people way off in the distance by the road on the other side of the field and some people all the way by the school directly across from me. So where I was, I felt cozy and secluded.
I went over there to call a friend of mine. I had my airpods in with transparency mode enabled, but talking with him and swinging, I really couldn’t hear anything else. So I was swinging along and we chatted for about 2 minutes, but then he said he needed to call back, so I let him go and saw I had a text from my gf. I stopped swinging to look down, and for whatever reason, I looked up and around the area.
In the dark, I saw a figure walking directly towards me. Maybe 30 yards out. I very quickly felt a tinge of discomfort. I did not tell anyone I knew I’d be out here, and this figure was B-lining straight at me. He wasn’t walking straight on from the school either, he was approaching from a diagonal angle, so it felt very deliberate that he was heading straight towards me.
I sort of froze for a moment. I thought to myself that he must know I’m here because I had been swinging just a moment ago, and my phone was on, so the brightness was illuminating me a little, especially with how dark it is out there. So my next thought was maybe it’s a dog walker or something, but as the figure came into view better, it was clearly a man who was wearing and black or dark colored hoodie. He looked bigger, tallish, maybe 5’11” or 6’. He just kept walking straight at me with a steady pace.
Finally I got up and swiftly began walking at a calm steady pace away towards the school, sort of diagonal to his path. I didn’t want to appear panicked I guess. He looked at me as we crossed. I could not see his face, but I could see that he turned his head at me as he kept walking to where I was. Without skipping a beat or anything he immediately sat down in the swing I was just at and began swinging, looking at me. I know he was looking at me because he turned his head my direction once he was sitting down. My gut told me this was an older man based on his build/look but obviously I could be sure.
As I walked away from the darkness where he was and towards the school, I got the feeling he would start following me, so I tried to keep an eye on him as I walked, but it’s so dark out there I couldn’t see him once I was far enough away. Once I got to the school, I tried taking a long exposure shot of that area on my camera I had brought but the photo was too blurry to see anything. My buddy called me back soon after, so I answered but told him to give me a moment because I was still scanning the area. He was a little spooked by the sound of my voice, and as he was asking me what was wrong I noticed someone standing near the trees next to the school. This must have been 20 yards away. This did not look like the same guy, but it felt equally off to me because he was just standing completely still in the trees/bushes facing my direction. I looked at him, began speaking on the phone, sort of trying to show him I was on the phone, and then he moved away and turned around.
After that I walked home, just totally spooked and confused. My mind was racing about what would have happened if I stayed, and why they guy was walking straight at me. The disturbing thought dawned on me that perhaps he thought I was a kid or something. My gf suggested it may have been a drug deal and I happened to be the first there on accident. The friend I was talking to and my gf recommended I call the police to give a description in case the guy was out there for kids, and there were kids nearby. I did, and later that night an officer called me to confirm the description. I felt bad because I didn’t have much, but he said it was okay and they’d keep an eye out for suspicious activity.
Anyway, I hope this is the last time I post here. It was so bizarre. I have so many questions. I’m glad I got out of there though, my gut told me it wasn’t safe and I didn’t question it.