August 23, 2025 • 48 mins
College is supposed to be a time of growth, late nights, and unforgettable memories—but not all of them are good. In this episode, we share true terrifying stories from and around college campuses. These stories remind us that higher education isn’t always about textbooks and lectures. Sometimes, it’s about surviving the shadows that lurk on and off campus.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, kitties, this is the Crip Keeper and you're listening
to Uncle Josh's true scary stories. Be careful what you
ask for, you may get it.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
College basketball Creeps by Togpi seventy seven. I've never shared
this story with anyone. I was always too afraid to
be judged for it, so it's something I buried down
until my friend brought it up the other day. We
both have daughters, and we're talking about how we could
educate them on being safe when they are teenagers and
(00:54):
experimenting with partying. Well, my best friend and I were
seventeen years old. We went to the beach for spring
break with a couple of our guy friends. My friend
was talking to this guy she had met through mutual friends,
and he wanted us to meet up with him at
a house that he and his friends had rented together.
Our guy friends had ditched us to meet girls, so
we decided to go ahead and go to her friend's
(01:15):
house to hang out with them. When we got there,
it was the middle of the day and he took
us inside and introduced us to everyone. Turns out almost
all the guys were on a basketball team of the
same university. We all hung out and they were all drinking.
My friend and I were not. One guy came out
with two glasses of what appeared to be whiskey and coke,
(01:37):
and against my better judgment, I started to sip it,
as did my friend. There was one guy who appeared
to not be athletic, and he was the only person
at the house who was not friendly towards us. I'll
call him Mike. Suddenly I started to feel very buzzed.
We were laughing and talking, and one guy asked me
to put on his jersey. I grabbed it and put
(01:59):
it on over my clothes. No, take off your clothes
and put it on, he said, in an aggressive tone.
I was feeling more tipsy at this point, and I
knew something was very wrong. Our parents had let us
drink with them multiple times. I knew what it was
like to be drunk. I knew how much I could
handle before I was drunk, and one drink never made
(02:19):
me feel like I was getting wasted. Quit babysitting that drink.
Drink up weakling, one guy said, and everyone laughed. Even
though I had stopped drinking, I could still feel more
and more buzzed, especially since our drink barely tasted of
any whisky. My dad always had whiskey at home, and
we would drink a couple whiskey pepsies on occasion. I
(02:41):
would feel relaxed, but this was much different. We should go.
Our friends are waiting for us, I said, and headed
for the door, and a couple of guys stood in
front of us. No, no, no, no, you can't leave.
Come sit down over here for a little bit. As
they ushered us back to the couch, the sinking feeling
hit my gut and I knew we were on borrowed time.
(03:05):
Trying to stay calm, I laughed and said, I need
to pee. Come with me. I grabbed my friend's hand
and we went to the restroom together. We both stood
there and we had already read each other's minds. I
put my hands on her head and looked her in
the eyes so we could both focus. We need to
leave now, I said. Our phones both had spotty service
(03:27):
all over the island. I'm guessing because there was so
many people packed on it. I said, take my keys,
tell them you're going to get your purse and I'll
stay here. You go get the guys and come back
for me. As I opened the door. Mike was standing there.
My heart sank. He was rude to us earlier, and
(03:50):
he probably heard us talking. Instead, he said, follow me
and be quiet. Something inside me trusted him with everything
I had in that moment. We followed him down the
hallway to a garage and out to the front driveway.
Hurry up, get out of here now, he said. We
(04:10):
ran to the car and I drove off to our hotel.
I remember driving, but I don't remember getting to our condo.
The rest of the story is from our guys friends
telling us what happened. Apparently, we walked in and the
guys asked us where we had been, because it was
already nighttime and we were supposed to meet up to
barbecue some wheaties. They said. We didn't say a word,
(04:31):
just walked to our room and closed the door and
passed out. We didn't come to until the next day,
and both of us had excruciating headaches, as if we
had drunk a whole bottle of cheap vodka by ourselves.
To the basketball douchebags who tried to take advantage of
two teenage girls, let's never meet again, or I will
kick you in the dick and thank you, Mike. I
(04:55):
hope you're out there hearing this and you remember the
brunette and blond little girls you save that day on
the island.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
The Campus Psycho submitted by Eric. Eric is not my
real name, but you'll see why I'm going by that soon.
This is true, and it happened when I was in school.
I heard the story about the marine you did not
too long ago, and I thought I would share something
crazy that happened to me when I ended up meeting
up with a psychopath. I was a freshman in college
(05:30):
and this was around nineteen ninety three. I lived in
an all guide Dorm'm in a school in South Carolina,
and I'm not going to say which one. This was
in the late fall, and I'll never forget the day
because our RD bought a pay per view fight for
the dorm and we were all going to watch it
in the common room that afternoon. I had everything all
planned out. I had to work my job on campus
(05:50):
as part of my aid to pay for school, and
then I was going to hit the fitness center, jog
across campus, and then get ready for the fight. I
knew there was going to be a couple of beers involved, too,
so hey, this was going to be really cool. I
thought my job was easy that day, and I finished
up around four, ran to the weight room and worked out,
then jogged back to my dorm, just like I thought
I would. It was a great day, and I knew
(06:11):
it was only going to get better. At least that's
what I thought.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Then.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
I'm going to jump back a couple of months to
the beginning of school. I was taking an intro to
sociology course and I met this girl. She was cute
but kind of odd. She sat in front of me
almost every class for the first couple of weeks, but
then started coming in after me and sitting down right
next to me. This was a lecture hall with about
three hundred seats and there were only like eighty people
(06:39):
in the class, so it was odd for people to
sit next to one another unless they were friends or whatever.
So one day she let's call her Anne, started talking
to me before the prop started doing his thing, and.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
We exchanged names.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I'm a pretty outgoing guy, so I was never shy
talking to girls and stuff. But while she started the conversation,
she was relucted to answer any of my questions about her.
The same thing happened again the next class, but this
time afterwards we left the hall talking more and Anne
was beginning to lighten up a little bit. The next
class in Sosia was canceled. Hell Yeah, Nintendo time. Her
(07:14):
dorm was next to mine and she was walking the
same way. We kept chatting until we got to her dorm,
and then she just stopped and kind of stared at me.
I smiled back and was all like, okay. Then she
just turned around and went into her dorm without saying
another word. I shook my head and went to my room.
(07:35):
My roommate was there and I told him about Anne.
His girlfriend lived in the same dorm as her, and
he said he'd ask his woman about Anne. We played
some Tecmo football in my Nintendo.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
For a while, and I just forgot about it. For
the next few social classes. I didn't see Anne, mind you.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I wasn't totally looking for her, but with only eighty
people in a three hundred seed auditorium, it's kind of
easy to notice who was there and who wasn't. When
I got back to my room later that day, Anne
was sitting outside of my dorm room door. I said hi,
and something cheesy like hey, looking for me. She stood
up and stared at me like she had the last
time I saw. She didn't say anything, so I finally
(08:14):
opened my door and asked if she wanted to come in.
Blank stare followed by a nod. I went into my
room and she quickly went over to my bed and
sat down.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
So, what's up. I noticed you haven't been in class?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
You did, really?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
She said this very eagerly. It was kind of weird. Yeah,
you're not missing that much. The class is boring. I
space out a lot and don't pay attention, but it
is pretty easy course.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Really, don't you.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Think I don't pay attention to it either, I'm easily
focused on something else, she said.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
With a small laugh. Oh really, like what another class?
I sometimes do my homework for other classes while I'm
sitting in there. She stared at me again and didn't
say anything for like a minute. We just stood looking
at each other faces.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Never mind, forget it.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
She said finally, and quietly. She started tapping her feet
on the floor back and forth, like tap dancing, again,
silenced between us and just staring. Okay, that's cool, I said.
I started asking her questions about where she was from,
and all that stupid small talk we do with people
we don't really know. She actually started talking and a
little of the weirdness went away. I went to my
(09:25):
mini fridge and got out two bottles of water and
gave one to Anne. We talked about school and bullshit,
and after a while she took the bottle out of
my hand and put it up to her face and
ran her tongue around the rim of it and handed
it back. I'm not fucking joking. She licked my water bottle.
She smiled the strange smile at me and slowly said.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
You're very pretty. Eric.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Who the fuck tells a guy he's pretty? The things
were quickly going back to being weird again. I said
thanks and put my water bottle down on my desk.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Can I have that?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Asked Anne?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Okay, I guess the things were beyond weird now things
were actually uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Would you like to eat at the dining hall tonight
with me?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I'm actually meeting some guys tonight, but maybe another time
would be cool, I said, and didn't say anything. She
just stood up and put her hand out to me
and touched my face. Okay, I'm a man's man, but
I kind of backed up a little and bumped into
my desk and chair.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Do you have a girlfriend?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah? I do. Back home, Kim goes to college.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
There are you too serious? Boyfriend and girlfriend?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I guess so.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
We've been together since our sophomore year of high school.
She got a scholarship to play soccer there, so that's
why we're long distance now. I pointed to a picture
of us that I had on my desk.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Oh, well, I guess I should go.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
She picked up my water bottle and went to the door.
She didn't turn around, but right before she left, she whispered.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
When I'm in sociology, I think about you, Harry.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
She then opened the door and left, never looking at
me once again. I stood there, wondering what the hell
had just happened. My roommate came in and I told
him what was going on, and he said, dude, that girls.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
A little fucked up.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
My girlfriend says she doesn't really talk to anyone, and
her roommate said she like never sleeps. I'm glad she
likes you and not me, brother. He laughed and turned
on my TV. After this, I only saw Anne in class,
but she never sat near me and was always gone.
Before class ended. Then the weird thing started to happen.
I would get these strange emails with poems that would
(11:34):
start out about love and then end in violence, like
people getting.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Killed or hurt or whatever.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Now, back then, practically nobody had a computer in their room,
so we went to these labs and used computers there.
The only time I ever used email was to email
my friends and get assignments from professors. It wasn't like
today where you can attach stuff like pictures and documents. Anyway,
I knew it had to be Ann because I had
my girlfriend's email and this wasn't ed. I told Kim
(12:01):
about Anne, and she teased me, saying that I was
the desire of all the girls at my school.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah right.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
One day I left Soci class to take a leak,
and when I came back to my seat, my notebook
was gone. And two days later it was back in
the desk I had sat and the last time, and
the words I Love you were on the cover and
what I think was lipstick. It wasn't ink, and it
was kind of greasy. I looked around the room and
saw Anne on the far side, not looking at me
or anything.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
It had to have been her.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
The next day, my roommate said there were some messages
for me on her answering machine and he was grinning.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Who was it from? Yeah, you guessed it, Anne.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
I'm paraphrasing some of this because it's been a while,
but I do remember most of it. My roommate does too,
and we still talk about it.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Hi, Eric, I just wanted to say hi, and then
I missed talking to you. I'd like to talk to you.
Can we have a coffee or something? I have something
I might to tell you. Call me back when you can. Bye.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Then, Hi, Eric, I just got back and didn't see
a call from you, so I say I call you again,
So call me Okay.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
I didn't want you to.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Get the wrong impression, and I'm not trying to break
you and your girlfriend up.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
I just missed talking to you. Call me.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
What the hell wrong impression? And did she really think
she could split me and Kim up? Why even bring
that up? Next message?
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Hi, Eric, it's me, and please let me know if
you want to talk because I want to tell you something.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
I want to tell you that I like you, I
wouldn't like you, Eric. I want you.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Message for.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I want you inside me.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Eric.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
I need you, and I don't care about your girlfriend.
She doesn't have to know. I just want you to
call me here.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
My roommate was holding back laughter, and I said, you're
an asshole. You're really enjoying this, aren't you. He burst
out laughing, and I told him that it really wasn't
that funny. He said, yet it is. You're the asshole
for not seeing that it's funny. And just then some
guys from down the hall came asking what was so funny.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
What we were laughing about.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So asshole roommate plays them the messages and they were
all dying, and I started to laugh too, but still
a little concerned. Anne was thinking this way she didn't.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Even know me.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
I didn't call her back and didn't get any more messages.
But one morning I was heading to the shower and
when I got back to my room, someone had tied
a rubber around my door handle, and it was full
of what I had hoped were egg whites. I thought
it was the guys that did it, but no one
ever brought it up or laughed about it.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
When I said good one, guys, they were all like,
what the fuck are you talking about? Then I started
getting these drawings slipped into my room. They were really good,
I have to admit.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
They were usually of two people sitting together or whatever
romantic poses, and they all had the words us.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Written on them. Again, they had to have been from Anne.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I told Kim everything about it, and she told me
not to worry. I never saw Anne in class ever again,
but she did call and leave messages. She never called
when I was actually in my room, though, like at
night or on the weekends. One message was just her
saying my name over and over for like three minutes. Finally,
(15:27):
one day I came back from my work job and
I realized things were not good. The picture I had
shown Anne of me and Kim was stuck in my
room door.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
With a knife. This is all true, guys.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I didn't touch anything and went to get my ra,
who then took me to the rd's office so I
could fill a report out. That's when I told them
about the phone calls and stuff. But because no one
could prove anything, it went nowhere. I'll admit it now.
As I watched the campus police taking the knife in
the picture, I was scared. So now we're back to
the beginning of my story. I ran up the stairs
(16:02):
to my dorm and saw the big screen set up
in the common room, was getting more excited about the fight.
I saw my Ra and RD in the main office
with a campus police officer and a county sheriff. The
campus cops said something to my Rd, and he nodded
and then caught my eye and waved me over.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So I went into the office.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
The sheriff told me to take a seat, and I did,
And I remember getting nervous, thinking that I was in
trouble for having a beer or a little weed in
my room. That's not what they were there for. But
I'm sure all of you have been pulled over or
had the cops talk to you, and you immediately get
that scared feeling. Do you know Anne her last name,
sort of. She's in my sociology class and I've talked
(16:42):
with her a couple of times. Why what's going on?
Can you tell us where you were this afternoon?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, I said, I.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Told them about my job, and then the gym and
then jogging back to the dorm. You know, look a
little sweaty there, partner. Sure you didn't go anywhere else?
Can people verify where you were? I didn't say anything,
suddenly thinking something.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Serious was up. What's this all about? And yeah, there
are lots of.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
People who saw me at the fitness center and my
boss can verify that I was at work. What the
fuck's going on here? The cops looked at one another,
and I was getting that light headed feeling and my
stomach was starting to turn over. They asked me more
questions about where I was and how I spent my
time at school, and I think I just sat there. Son,
we have a female in the infirmary right now who
(17:30):
says you attacked her and tried to rape her in
the stairwell over dorm. I almost shit my pants. They
kept talking and told me that I wasn't under arrest,
but I needed to go with them to the Sheriff's station.
I remember wanting to cry, yeah, real manly, I know,
but I did. I told them that I didn't want
to go and I didn't do anything, and that I
(17:50):
needed to talk to my parents. They said they would
get me in touch with them, but I still had
to go with them.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I was scared shitless. I was being accused of rape.
We walked out to.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
A cruiser and some of my dorm friends were outside
and saw me getting into the car. They all just
stood there staring, and I looked back at them, wanting
to scream for them to help me, but I knew
they couldn't. After we got to the station, my parents called.
My Ard had called them and told them what was up.
And I'm not going to go into the whole account
of what happened there, but my parents did eventually show
(18:23):
up with a lawyer, and things got pretty intense. Anne
had been found in a stairwell with all these cuts
on her arms and legs. Her face had been mashed
up too, and I guess there was.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Blood all over her clothes.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
My parents didn't buy the accusation, and I don't think
the police did either, But procedure's procedure, I guess. My
parents took me home and wanted me to stay there
for a few days, and the police said that would
be okay as long as I didn't leave the state
and would have to come back if they needed to
ask me more questions. When they said that, I was
beyond terrified. What was worse was that the word traveled
(18:56):
fast and Kim found out before I even got home.
She said she believed I didn't do it, but she
was still kind of distant. It took a little while
to get over her boyfriend being accused of being a rapist.
All right, To make this really long story shorter, it
turns out that Anne had done everything to herself. She
actually cut herself up, and the investigators even figured out
(19:17):
she had smashed her face on a door to the
stairway and found her own skin cells under her fingertips
were from where she had scratched her body. She waited
there until someone found her and kept saying my name
over and over and screaming no. She had left a
threatening message on my answering machine saying something like she
was going to have my baby no matter what, and
that she was coming over that night to force me
(19:37):
to sleep with her. My roommate brought that to the
CoP's attention, along with all the other stuff she had done.
Even the condom was her, as they figured she had
a pack of trozens of the same type in her room.
They also found pictures she had taken of herself masturbating.
The picture of me and Kim she had somehow stolen
from my room. There were also pictures of me from
(19:58):
all over the place. She had taken pictures of me
on my job at the library, social class, dining halls,
house parties, you name it. My name wasn't Mud at school,
but I felt weird. It's just about everyone heard about it.
No one passed judgment, but I was embarrassed and felt
like I was that guy rapist, even though I wasn't.
(20:18):
After that first semester, I took a semester off and
then transferred to the school where Kim was. She slowly
got over the fact that I'd been accused, but I
graduated and so did she, and a few years later
we got married and had been married for sixteen years.
I never found out what happened to Anne, other than
that she wasn't allowed to go back to school, and
I think she was hospitalized for a long time. Yeah,
(20:40):
no shit, Anyway, that's my true story. Let me tell
you that whole ordeal is scary. Looking back from the
messages and notes to the accusation and people even thinking
you're a rapist, even if they know you're not, is
a very, very scary thing. I hope it doesn't happen
to anyone else listening to this. Thanks for reading this,
and thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Stalker in Community College by Brisso Lena. This happened like
six or seven years ago. I played soccer for one
year in community college after high school. I knew this
guy because he worked for the athletics department and he
was another student. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had a one
(21:26):
hour gap between classes. This guy noticed me in the
library asked what I was doing there, and I told
him I had an hour long gap, and he started
coming regularly to hang out. I didn't mind, because he
seemed like a normal guy. He wasn't waiting for anything,
but he just wanted to hang out. He brought me
little gifts a few times, like chocolate and stuff when
(21:49):
he was being a little too sweet for someone that
he barely knew, and I wasn't thinking about red flags
with the gifts. I remember he always downplayed it. He'd
be like, they had extra KitKat bars today in the office,
do you want some. He never said that he purposefully
bought a kitcat for me. I know a lot more
(22:11):
about boys now than I knew back then. I think
he knew that buying me gifts would be too much,
but he still wanted to do it. Without doing it.
The soccer season ended for us before Thanksgiving, the only
teams that kept playing after that were going to the
playoffs and not us. After Thanksgiving, we had finals. In
(22:34):
that brief period after the soccer season and before Thanksgiving,
this guy asked me about my classes for second semester.
To be honest, I hadn't been super organized with course
registration and I honestly didn't know, and also the counselors
were completely clueless. I didn't tell him that, but I
remember saying that I didn't want to have another gap
(22:55):
hour like this because it wasted so much time, and
I don't think he was happy to hear that. He
also asked me if I was going to play another season,
and I said no. I needed to manage my time better,
and playing soccer every day was not helping. I think
my mistake was that I just said too much and
unfiltered everything. I used to do that a lot back then,
(23:19):
saying too much without thinking about how it could affect
other people's feelings. When I told him all this, that
was the last Thursday before Thanksgiving, so no more hour
gaps to hang out anymore. We had Thanksgiving break, we
took our finals, and we had winter break. Everything was great.
(23:41):
Winter break was when the real problem started in the mornings.
This guy literally showed up outside my house while sitting
in his car. The first time, I didn't believe it
was actually him. The second time I checked, and it
was By then it was really clear that we both
(24:02):
knew what was going on. He was stalking me and
that wasn't all. I posted on my Instagram story sometimes
about places I was. This guy literally showed up there
several times, like girly stores at the mall, where he
had zero business being. He did lots of things like that.
(24:25):
He also started pointing his phone at me like he
was taking pictures, and that was even weirder. I basically
stopped using social media over this. After winter break, this
continued when my parents were at work. This guy came
during the afternoon too. I called the cops a few
(24:46):
times and they went and tried to talk to him.
He basically told them that he wasn't going to talk
and that was it. I think the cops wanted to help,
but they could never do anything about it because he
was careful not to break any laws. He didn't trespass
and he didn't make threats, he didn't show weapons, etc.
I have no idea what he's doing now. My guess
(25:09):
is that he gave up. Maybe his little obsession kind
of became old and he found other things to pay
more attention to. At least I hope so. But if
he still comes by, I have no idea. I think
the most challenging thing is that I couldn't tell my parents,
since I knew that all of this would have completely
(25:30):
freaked them out.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
University cult Leader by Window Guy thirteen. I was in
my first semester of university. I had just graduated college
not too long ago, and had entered into a program
that after a while I would come to resent. During
that time with adjusting and taking daily transit an hour
and a half away from where I grew up into
(26:01):
the big city in order to study was somewhat of
a new adventure to me. In a lot of ways,
I was just beginning to sprout as my own individual
and trying to carve a path for my life while
simultaneously opening myself up to new experiences and a new environment.
I have longtime friends who go to the same facility
as me, but at the time, our schedules wouldn't always
(26:23):
line up. This meant that a lot of my days
were spent traveling back and forth and walking around the
city alone. I really wanted to try and expand my
horizon of experiences and friends during this period. In a
lot of ways, I was really desiring to find a
good community on campus that could help satiate my boredom
and loneliness. I can be extremely extroverted, but sometimes I
(26:46):
find that it takes a lot out of me to
try and actually pursue and maintain friendships that haven't been
established years prior. I've made friends before from different classes
in college, but ultimately, and I know this makes me
an asshole, but I would end up texting less and
less until eventually either side would end up ghosting one
or the other. Because I'm a busy guy, I don't
(27:08):
find myself prioritizing people whom I feel like aren't as
important to me as others. I know, a shitty thing
to say, but none the less the truth. One day, however,
I met Joel. I was on the phone with my fiancee,
and I distinctly remember exactly how it all went down.
As I was walking out of the school's Starbucks with
(27:29):
a decaf coffee, I had one headphone in and I
was heading to class through a small stretch of underground
passageways under the street that connects the school's library building
to the actual building that possesses classes. As I was
hastily making my way, I saw the short and stout
guy looking roughly my age at the time twenty one,
(27:50):
with a thick brown beard and a hat on our
eyes met and as I was about to simply walk past,
he asked me something in a very charismatic and calm tone. Hey,
sorry to bother you. You look like a pretty busy guy,
But I was wondering, do you mind doing a survey
about religion? It's for one of my classes. To this,
(28:11):
I regret answering and wish I had simply continued walking,
But at the time I was becoming more and more
compelled by the notion of formal religious institutions and questioning
my own religious faith, particularly leaning towards Christianity. Sure, I
replied cordially. He then introduced himself as Joel, and after
(28:32):
we went through a small survey pertaining to religious affiliations
and perspectives on religions, Joel informed me that a small
group of students like himself were planning on getting together
as a group and discussing various religions in order to
gather new insights and to create a community, of course,
with the prospect of finding some new friends on campus
and also exploring my own spiritual perspectives. I gave him
(28:55):
my phone number after he asked for it, and he
said that he would contact me in the next following day.
Upon entering our first meeting, I sat down in a
very crowded place with seats at our school facility and
was greeted by Joel alongside a bunch of other members.
They introduced themselves to me and vice versa, and they
were all extremely kind to me. We began our small
(29:17):
group meeting and I was a bit shocked to find
out that the sole topic that we were to discuss
was Christianity. I wasn't aware that we were only going
to be discussing Christianity, which was against what he had
proposed this group to constitute. Upon our meeting in the tunnel.
That being said, I was still curious enough to continue,
and I was accompanied by three other young guys of
(29:39):
my age, who, after a bit of talking with I
found out we had a lot of similar interests. Joel,
who now presented himself as a leader of our study group,
relayed how we would be analyzing Christianity through a multi
step program designed to unveil the holy power associated with
the religion to us. Since I was curious and wanted
(30:00):
to learn more about the religion as well as having
made some new found friends, I continued to attend this
study group for the rest of the semester, in which
there were a few circumstances where I questioned Joel's interpretations
and was met with hard resistance. It felt like at times,
my wavering belief in what Joel was saying would be
met with straight dismissal as opposed to actual conversation. I
(30:23):
continued to brush that off as the group that I
was working with got closer. The school's club, which I
was now a part of, provided me with exactly what
I had wanted. We even went to a church run
event together where I quit vaping and many individuals reported
mystical experiences. Things only started to get concerning with Joel
during our one on one conversations. I discussed my personal
(30:46):
experiences in belief, in my newfound religious beliefs and all
of my former spiritual experiences as well, and Joel exposed
to me a story and a few incidents that at
the time I definitely certainly should have taken his red flags.
For example, when he was younger, he had gone on
a retreat where when he was in prayer, he said
that he began to hear the voice of God talk
(31:07):
to him. I questioned at first if he was referring
to the voice of God as more of a metaphor,
but he had reassured me that he literally heard God
speak to him before. When he told me this, I
became a bit unnerved. At the helm of this community
was Joel, But in all other senses, I was satisfied
with who I was and what we were doing together.
(31:29):
Though I am not entirely dismissive of strange occurrences, especially
pertaining to spirituality, his experience talking with God in his
head came off as uncomfortable for me. He also said
that the way he would pray would involve a direct
conversation and reply with God. Out of discomfort, I wouldn't
prod him on what he meant by this. This, of course,
(31:52):
was just the beginning. After the summer had ended, I
had found myself in the most religiously devoted state I
had ever been in. Throughout the summer, I had had
a treacherous injury which made me housebound for months and
to call upon God in a lot of ways for strength.
With my newfound devotion, I was elated to fall back
into the community that I had nurtured and grown with
(32:14):
throughout the last semester, relating to something that I found
deep joy in. At the first lesson of the semester,
something was very different. Joel, as before was at the
helm of our study session, but was now perpetually interrupted
by people coming to greet him and give him praise.
It was so bad that we literally essentially sat and
(32:35):
watched for twenty minutes before we could get on with
our lesson, as more than ten people, mostly young men
of our age, came to greet this man. As aforementioned.
When not unnerving, he was extremely charming and gave the
impression that he cared deeply for everyone. Once our lesson began,
he introduced us to the second phase.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Of the program.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
He explained that this was one of the toughest programs
of the different levels that there were, as it required
even more devotion and more importantly, an emphasis on sacrifice
for those who engaged. He showed us a diagram of
a small stick person, and he showed that in this
program we would have to accept Jesus as the center
of our life. He explained that by making our lives
(33:18):
surround Jesus entirely, that we would not be losing something,
but be gaining. He also began to go over the
notion that sex before marriage is a sin, and if
that we were to continue with this program, we would
have to make the sacrifice of giving up sex in
our relationships and prove that we weren't. He said that
many guys weren't able to continue because of it. I
(33:42):
talked about this afterwards with one of the members of
this group, who not unlike me, had been in a
serious relationship with someone they loved for years. In my
personal opinion, though we weren't married on the altar, I
knew that both me and this other member felt devoted
to our partners as if we were already.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Married in a sense.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
We both expressed how Joel's behavior surrounding this was off putting, controlling,
and intrusive. After our lesson, I was a bit dumbfounded
by the intensity with which he gave his speech about
this new program that we would be engaging in this semester.
Joel and I sat down for a few more minutes
and talked, in which I expressed experiences of devotion from
(34:22):
the summer and explained my entire catastrophic experience with my injury.
He then went on to tell me that at times
he was actually able to know things beforehand. This seemingly
random and strange statement shocked me. He said, for example,
he was able to know something another member had before
they had even mentioned it, and in the way that
(34:44):
he described it, it sounded as if he was saying
he had some form of mystical foresight. I was a
bit jarred, to say the least, though I felt like
it would be impolite to question any further. Joel then
went on to tell me that he believed that if
I succes zestfully completed this program, I was primed to
become a teacher for the first program I had done
(35:04):
the semester prior leading others who would join, and that
I had a bright future in the organization. And that moment,
with what he had laid down on us in the lesson,
I felt overwhelmed by his expectations of me. It also
became evident that Joel was not a student at our facility.
In fact, he was in his mid thirties and had kids.
(35:27):
He was actually just part of an organization that recruits
people to become Christians and missionaries that works on our campus.
This means that he actually lied to me when I
first met him. He wasn't a student, there was no
group talking about various religions, and his whole purpose was
to convert me to make me join the organization he
was a part of. At this point, school began to
(35:50):
pick up a lot, and I was also working part
time to help support myself. As I was on the
train to head back home the next week, I had
forgotten that my second lesson of the pro that semester
was supposed to happen. So I texted Joel saying, hey, man,
I actually got onto the train and forgot about our lesson.
Sorry about that, dude, I'm not going to be able
(36:11):
to make it. I also have work later, to which
he replied, can you get off the train try and
get here as soon as possible. I was a bit
dumbfounded at this question. Since I live an hour and
a half away. It wasn't as easy as getting off
the train and heading back the opposite direction, and he
knew that he knew the area I live in is
(36:33):
remote and a long distance away. I also told him
that I had work, which he had plainly disregarded. No, man, unfortunately,
I can't come have a good lesson, I replied, to
which he said, again, come on, man, just get off
the train and come back. At this point, I was annoyed.
(36:53):
Not only did I feel like he was commanding me,
but that he was also blatantly disregarding the fact that
I said no and that I had worked that day.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I didn't answer.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
I talked with my fiance about how I was starting
to feel about the whole idea ordeal, and how I
felt guilty about having feelings of wanting to distance myself
from the group while simultaneously not wanting to lose the
community and friends that I had established along the way.
My fiancee told me that by the way that Joel
was acting and with regards to the things he said,
(37:26):
that she was starting to become uncomfortable with the whole situation.
I remember sitting in bed thinking about leaving the group
and how the prospect made me feel physically ill. After all,
I had been given everything I wanted in a community,
except that the Helm was a seemingly increasingly controlling and
persuasive being who was making me and possibly other members
(37:47):
more miserable. There was an event the following Friday that
was going to be at the church, which was organized
by the community. Originally, since many of my friends from
this group were going, I intended to go, but alas,
I was scheduled by my boss to work that day,
so there was no way that I was going to
be able to attend. I knew that Joel would be
(38:08):
insistent upon me coming anyways, So when Joel texted me
reminding me that the event was Friday, I told them
that I wasn't able to go because I had work
to this he replied and simply said, what bro no way,
You've got to come, take work off and find somebody
to take your shift.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
God wants you there. I was expected. He dismissed my
decision and also said that I had to be there
because God wanted me there, as if he were his mouthpiece.
I went on to text him again and inform him, no, sorry, man,
I can't do that. I just got a promotion and
I have to be there. I hope you guys have
a great time anyway, to which he then again replied
(38:51):
similarly to what he had before. This was my personal
breaking point. He knew the importance of my financial situation,
and his dis dismissile of my personal boundaries, as well
as his commanding me, made me decide to text him
explaining that I was done with the group and that
I wanted to pursue my own religious exploration without the group.
From then on, I felt as if he was slowly
(39:13):
but surely increasingly controlling me and trying to take what
he could, commanding me as if he were the leader
of my life in any way possible. It was even
up to him if I could fuck my fiancee. He
replied with a long paragraph, persisting in this sort of
overly kind manner, that I had to continue with the
group and that it was God's will for me to
(39:34):
show up to this event, even though I was completely
unable to. He was certain that this group was meant
for me and that God had told him that this
was where I was supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
After I responded again telling him to stop and that
I would not, he sent me another paragraph of similar
length repeating what he would say no matter what I
would say, and whenever I would say no, he would
overstep my boundaries while maintaining a kind and friendly tone
in order to try and push me into submission when
I clearly said no. At this point, I said I
(40:07):
didn't want him to talk to me any more, to
which he replied, Bro, why can we meet up? I
want you to explain why you don't want to continue, bro,
so we can meet up and do that, and I
can get a better sense and we can figure out
what we do from there. Even in this I knew
that he was trying to elongate his chance at bringing
me back into the group and continuing his reign of control.
(40:30):
I said I didn't want to, so he asked again.
I decided at that moment I needed to block him,
so I did. A semester later, I was walking down
the street of my school, and as I walked by
a pizza parlor, lo and behold who came out? Joel
walked over to me with one of his friends and
said that I was one of his friends to his buddy.
(40:52):
I uncomfortably stood there and his friend went inside for
a moment while Joel turned around to look at me
and asked, with his disarming gentleness, did you block me?
I replied yes. He then said you should unblock me.
That way we can meet up and talk because I
really want to know why you left the group, to
which I evidently was frustrated and said o K and
(41:15):
went on my way. That night, he texted me on
my Instagram insisting we meet up again, and I blocked
him there too. In short, I'm thankful for my fiancee,
who was the love of my life. Without her, I'm
not sure I would have been strong enough to have
left the group and his control. The fact of the
matter is that there were other guys in that group
(41:36):
who had absolutely nobody. They had nothing, and they were
prime targets for a charismatic and controlling freak. There were
members of that group who were in higher levels, so
to speak, who had done all the programs, who seemed
as if they were emaciated, but they had become such
restricted fundamentalists that their lives and their openness to new
experiences were significantly thwarted. Beware of who you let into
(42:01):
your life, and just because somebody might be nice to
you does not mean that they might not have ulterior
motives also learn to stand your ground and respect yourself.
If you say no, mean it. So Joel, you controlling
cult leader, let's not meet again.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
My haunted campus.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
Yeah yeah, everybody says all colleges are haunted. Name one
that doesn't have its fair share of ghost stories, and
I'll show you a school that doesn't teach human students.
But my school, you better believe were haunted. I go
to a really small liberal arts school in the Midwest.
We're actually pretty famous, and you've probably seen us on
(42:48):
TV or read about us in Time magazine or something
like that. Most importantly, we're an historic landmark in a
town where Civil War landmarks aren't a dime a dozen.
Each building on campus has its own ghost stories. There's
the new girl's dorm, recently hit by a tornado, that
was haunted by the ghost of a suicide. Then there's
(43:09):
the main Hall, which spent some time as a hospital
for the wounded and dying as the North fought the South.
Only a few miles away.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
We can't forget the oldest dorm on campus, where the
victims of accidental deaths are said to continue their education,
where the old school house and chapel, the school had
grafted on to campus, whose doors open and close on
their own. The most famous of these are the theater ghosts,
and being a theater major, I've heard them all. Our
theater was once the gymnasium of the school. It's an
(43:39):
interesting feature that gives the classrooms unique things, such as
a basketball court floor or a swimming pool art gallery.
Most of the ghost stories are set around the time
of the switch between gymnasium and classroom, placing them around
nineteen sixty five. There was supposedly a girl.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
That drowned in the swimming pool that later became the
art studio. Students later nickname her Mona, a name that
apparently doesn't bother her much. She likes to play jokes
on the art students, but the ones she really loves
to get are the theater kids. We would be in
the middle of rehearsal, usually around eight or nine at night,
and suddenly the soundboard would go nuts, playing pre show
(44:17):
music from whatever disc was in the machine. The lights dim,
though the power is controlled through a locked room, and
the campus two minute warning bell will ring, and all
it takes is in general asking of Mona to cut
it out and things will eventually go back to normal.
Sometimes we'll be working in the costume shop, which is
located above the scenery shop, on what is called the horseshoe.
(44:39):
It's a long, dark curved hallway that stretches above the
house that contains the costume shop, dressing rooms, media closet,
the sound and light booth, and so on. This hall
is painted a combination of dark green and black, and
when navigated during a show, becomes a tipler's way of
lighting instruments, boxes, and plastic gels. Oftentimes, sewing machines will
(44:59):
be found unthreaded, and any attempts to thread them will
reveal that the bobbins have been pulled out and are
sitting on a neat pile beneath whatever fabric had just
been worked on. Sharps carrying the last bit of neon
pink thread will disappear from the cloth they were kept in,
and when Mona is scolded lightly, of course, they will
appear two or threefold hidden in the folds of the
(45:20):
fabric when it just searched through. Many times, people standing
in the dressing rooms facing the mirrors will catch the
barest glimpse of someone hurrying down the hall silently when
no one else is in the building, and more disturbingly,
someone working alone on the stage can hear chairs being
moved in the dressing rooms, even though the horseshoe is
locked and they are the only ones with keys. Other
(45:43):
stories focus on a construction worker who is crushed beneath
the steel beam during the construction of the fly system.
Students working on the stage for an extended period of
time will head over to the connected scenery shop, only
to find that someone has pushed the doors closed, which
is never done because one or lazy, Two it's a
fire hazard, three it's the only way to get ventilation
(46:04):
under the shop, and four were lazy. Other eerie things happened,
such as freshly charged drills wind down after seconds of use,
or tools that have been missing for weeks will appear
miraculously center stage. Sometimes we had games of theater wide
hide and seek at theater parties, and during one of
the games, one of the upper classmen was it and
(46:26):
stopped suddenly left center stage. He reached out in front
of him and grabbed at air. We all laughed at
him from our hiding places, because though it was dark,
it wasn't dark enough that we couldn't tell that there
was nobody there the upper classmen. Later claimed that he
had seen very clearly the shape of one of his
classmates standing on the stage, who, when he grabbed for him,
(46:46):
laughed and dodged into the legs. Only later did he
remember that that particular classmate hadn't come to the party.
One night, a friend of mine was hanging out between
the Science building and the main Hall at about midnight.
This was a place where the old and injured horses
were put to death during the Civil War. Suddenly shrieks
(47:07):
were heard echoing off the quad, coming from the main Hall,
and she and her friends got out of there quickly.
Another friend used to work in the basement of the
Science Center until late at night, and was locking up
one night when she heard clearly the sounds of a
horse whinnying. I myself was walking through the old chapel
at two in the morning and clearly saw the shapes
(47:27):
of small children running round the building through the stained glass.
Another friend, who lived in the new girl's dorm before
it was remodeled due to the damage of the tornado,
recalled hearing the sound of a heavy trunk dragging across
the floor of the storage room above her from the
middle of the room to the window the room above her,
and that's where a girl had hung herself from the window.
(47:49):
And many, many people, including myself, who have lived in
the oldest doorm on campus, have seen the indistinct figures
sitting on the far end of the hall as they
returned to their rooms late at night. Each hall was
mirrored by an adna'll haul on the floor with it,
and the figures always move closer as you move closer
to them, and further away as you move away from them.
Sightings of these figures weren't restrained to a certain floor,
(48:11):
but on all floors at any time between twelve and
five am. Now, these may just be coincidences, and that's
maybe exactly what they are, but for those of us
who have experienced them, they'll never just be a trick
of the eye. We know definitively our school is haunted.
Hello, kitties, this is the Crip Keeper and you're listening
to Uncle Josh's true scary stories. Be careful what you
ask for, you may get it.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
College basketball Creeps by Togpi seventy seven. I've never shared
this story with anyone. I was always too afraid to
be judged for it, so it's something I buried down
until my friend brought it up the other day. We
both have daughters, and we're talking about how we could
educate them on being safe when they are teenagers and
(00:54):
experimenting with partying. Well, my best friend and I were
seventeen years old. We went to the beach for spring
break with a couple of our guy friends. My friend
was talking to this guy she had met through mutual friends,
and he wanted us to meet up with him at
a house that he and his friends had rented together.
Our guy friends had ditched us to meet girls, so
we decided to go ahead and go to her friend's
(01:15):
house to hang out with them. When we got there,
it was the middle of the day and he took
us inside and introduced us to everyone. Turns out almost
all the guys were on a basketball team of the
same university. We all hung out and they were all drinking.
My friend and I were not. One guy came out
with two glasses of what appeared to be whiskey and coke,
(01:37):
and against my better judgment, I started to sip it,
as did my friend. There was one guy who appeared
to not be athletic, and he was the only person
at the house who was not friendly towards us. I'll
call him Mike. Suddenly I started to feel very buzzed.
We were laughing and talking, and one guy asked me
to put on his jersey. I grabbed it and put
(01:59):
it on over my clothes. No, take off your clothes
and put it on, he said, in an aggressive tone.
I was feeling more tipsy at this point, and I
knew something was very wrong. Our parents had let us
drink with them multiple times. I knew what it was
like to be drunk. I knew how much I could
handle before I was drunk, and one drink never made
(02:19):
me feel like I was getting wasted. Quit babysitting that drink.
Drink up weakling, one guy said, and everyone laughed. Even
though I had stopped drinking, I could still feel more
and more buzzed, especially since our drink barely tasted of
any whisky. My dad always had whiskey at home, and
we would drink a couple whiskey pepsies on occasion. I
(02:41):
would feel relaxed, but this was much different. We should go.
Our friends are waiting for us, I said, and headed
for the door, and a couple of guys stood in
front of us. No, no, no, no, you can't leave.
Come sit down over here for a little bit. As
they ushered us back to the couch, the sinking feeling
hit my gut and I knew we were on borrowed time.
(03:05):
Trying to stay calm, I laughed and said, I need
to pee. Come with me. I grabbed my friend's hand
and we went to the restroom together. We both stood
there and we had already read each other's minds. I
put my hands on her head and looked her in
the eyes so we could both focus. We need to
leave now, I said. Our phones both had spotty service
(03:27):
all over the island. I'm guessing because there was so
many people packed on it. I said, take my keys,
tell them you're going to get your purse and I'll
stay here. You go get the guys and come back
for me. As I opened the door. Mike was standing there.
My heart sank. He was rude to us earlier, and
(03:50):
he probably heard us talking. Instead, he said, follow me
and be quiet. Something inside me trusted him with everything
I had in that moment. We followed him down the
hallway to a garage and out to the front driveway.
Hurry up, get out of here now, he said. We
(04:10):
ran to the car and I drove off to our hotel.
I remember driving, but I don't remember getting to our condo.
The rest of the story is from our guys friends
telling us what happened. Apparently, we walked in and the
guys asked us where we had been, because it was
already nighttime and we were supposed to meet up to
barbecue some wheaties. They said. We didn't say a word,
(04:31):
just walked to our room and closed the door and
passed out. We didn't come to until the next day,
and both of us had excruciating headaches, as if we
had drunk a whole bottle of cheap vodka by ourselves.
To the basketball douchebags who tried to take advantage of
two teenage girls, let's never meet again, or I will
kick you in the dick and thank you, Mike. I
(04:55):
hope you're out there hearing this and you remember the
brunette and blond little girls you save that day on
the island.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
The Campus Psycho submitted by Eric. Eric is not my
real name, but you'll see why I'm going by that soon.
This is true, and it happened when I was in school.
I heard the story about the marine you did not
too long ago, and I thought I would share something
crazy that happened to me when I ended up meeting
up with a psychopath. I was a freshman in college
(05:30):
and this was around nineteen ninety three. I lived in
an all guide Dorm'm in a school in South Carolina,
and I'm not going to say which one. This was
in the late fall, and I'll never forget the day
because our RD bought a pay per view fight for
the dorm and we were all going to watch it
in the common room that afternoon. I had everything all
planned out. I had to work my job on campus
(05:50):
as part of my aid to pay for school, and
then I was going to hit the fitness center, jog
across campus, and then get ready for the fight. I
knew there was going to be a couple of beers involved, too,
so hey, this was going to be really cool. I
thought my job was easy that day, and I finished
up around four, ran to the weight room and worked out,
then jogged back to my dorm, just like I thought
I would. It was a great day, and I knew
(06:11):
it was only going to get better. At least that's
what I thought.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Then.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
I'm going to jump back a couple of months to
the beginning of school. I was taking an intro to
sociology course and I met this girl. She was cute
but kind of odd. She sat in front of me
almost every class for the first couple of weeks, but
then started coming in after me and sitting down right
next to me. This was a lecture hall with about
three hundred seats and there were only like eighty people
(06:39):
in the class, so it was odd for people to
sit next to one another unless they were friends or whatever.
So one day she let's call her Anne, started talking
to me before the prop started doing his thing, and.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
We exchanged names.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I'm a pretty outgoing guy, so I was never shy
talking to girls and stuff. But while she started the conversation,
she was relucted to answer any of my questions about her.
The same thing happened again the next class, but this
time afterwards we left the hall talking more and Anne
was beginning to lighten up a little bit. The next
class in Sosia was canceled. Hell Yeah, Nintendo time. Her
(07:14):
dorm was next to mine and she was walking the
same way. We kept chatting until we got to her dorm,
and then she just stopped and kind of stared at me.
I smiled back and was all like, okay. Then she
just turned around and went into her dorm without saying
another word. I shook my head and went to my room.
(07:35):
My roommate was there and I told him about Anne.
His girlfriend lived in the same dorm as her, and
he said he'd ask his woman about Anne. We played
some Tecmo football in my Nintendo.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
For a while, and I just forgot about it. For
the next few social classes. I didn't see Anne, mind you.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I wasn't totally looking for her, but with only eighty
people in a three hundred seed auditorium, it's kind of
easy to notice who was there and who wasn't. When
I got back to my room later that day, Anne
was sitting outside of my dorm room door. I said hi,
and something cheesy like hey, looking for me. She stood
up and stared at me like she had the last
time I saw. She didn't say anything, so I finally
(08:14):
opened my door and asked if she wanted to come in.
Blank stare followed by a nod. I went into my
room and she quickly went over to my bed and
sat down.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
So, what's up. I noticed you haven't been in class?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
You did, really?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
She said this very eagerly. It was kind of weird. Yeah,
you're not missing that much. The class is boring. I
space out a lot and don't pay attention, but it
is pretty easy course.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Really, don't you.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Think I don't pay attention to it either, I'm easily
focused on something else, she said.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
With a small laugh. Oh really, like what another class?
I sometimes do my homework for other classes while I'm
sitting in there. She stared at me again and didn't
say anything for like a minute. We just stood looking
at each other faces.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Never mind, forget it.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
She said finally, and quietly. She started tapping her feet
on the floor back and forth, like tap dancing, again,
silenced between us and just staring. Okay, that's cool, I said.
I started asking her questions about where she was from,
and all that stupid small talk we do with people
we don't really know. She actually started talking and a
little of the weirdness went away. I went to my
(09:25):
mini fridge and got out two bottles of water and
gave one to Anne. We talked about school and bullshit,
and after a while she took the bottle out of
my hand and put it up to her face and
ran her tongue around the rim of it and handed
it back. I'm not fucking joking. She licked my water bottle.
She smiled the strange smile at me and slowly said.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
You're very pretty. Eric.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Who the fuck tells a guy he's pretty? The things
were quickly going back to being weird again. I said
thanks and put my water bottle down on my desk.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Can I have that?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Asked Anne?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Okay, I guess the things were beyond weird now things
were actually uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Would you like to eat at the dining hall tonight
with me?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I'm actually meeting some guys tonight, but maybe another time
would be cool, I said, and didn't say anything. She
just stood up and put her hand out to me
and touched my face. Okay, I'm a man's man, but
I kind of backed up a little and bumped into
my desk and chair.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Do you have a girlfriend?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah? I do. Back home, Kim goes to college.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
There are you too serious? Boyfriend and girlfriend?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I guess so.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
We've been together since our sophomore year of high school.
She got a scholarship to play soccer there, so that's
why we're long distance now. I pointed to a picture
of us that I had on my desk.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Oh, well, I guess I should go.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
She picked up my water bottle and went to the door.
She didn't turn around, but right before she left, she whispered.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
When I'm in sociology, I think about you, Harry.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
She then opened the door and left, never looking at
me once again. I stood there, wondering what the hell
had just happened. My roommate came in and I told
him what was going on, and he said, dude, that girls.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
A little fucked up.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
My girlfriend says she doesn't really talk to anyone, and
her roommate said she like never sleeps. I'm glad she
likes you and not me, brother. He laughed and turned
on my TV. After this, I only saw Anne in class,
but she never sat near me and was always gone.
Before class ended. Then the weird thing started to happen.
I would get these strange emails with poems that would
(11:34):
start out about love and then end in violence, like
people getting.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Killed or hurt or whatever.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Now, back then, practically nobody had a computer in their room,
so we went to these labs and used computers there.
The only time I ever used email was to email
my friends and get assignments from professors. It wasn't like
today where you can attach stuff like pictures and documents. Anyway,
I knew it had to be Ann because I had
my girlfriend's email and this wasn't ed. I told Kim
(12:01):
about Anne, and she teased me, saying that I was
the desire of all the girls at my school.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah right.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
One day I left Soci class to take a leak,
and when I came back to my seat, my notebook
was gone. And two days later it was back in
the desk I had sat and the last time, and
the words I Love you were on the cover and
what I think was lipstick. It wasn't ink, and it
was kind of greasy. I looked around the room and
saw Anne on the far side, not looking at me
or anything.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
It had to have been her.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
The next day, my roommate said there were some messages
for me on her answering machine and he was grinning.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Who was it from? Yeah, you guessed it, Anne.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
I'm paraphrasing some of this because it's been a while,
but I do remember most of it. My roommate does too,
and we still talk about it.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Hi, Eric, I just wanted to say hi, and then
I missed talking to you. I'd like to talk to you.
Can we have a coffee or something? I have something
I might to tell you. Call me back when you can. Bye.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Then, Hi, Eric, I just got back and didn't see
a call from you, so I say I call you again,
So call me Okay.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
I didn't want you to.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Get the wrong impression, and I'm not trying to break
you and your girlfriend up.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
I just missed talking to you. Call me.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
What the hell wrong impression? And did she really think
she could split me and Kim up? Why even bring
that up? Next message?
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Hi, Eric, it's me, and please let me know if
you want to talk because I want to tell you something.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
I want to tell you that I like you, I
wouldn't like you, Eric. I want you.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Message for.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I want you inside me.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Eric.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
I need you, and I don't care about your girlfriend.
She doesn't have to know. I just want you to
call me here.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
My roommate was holding back laughter, and I said, you're
an asshole. You're really enjoying this, aren't you. He burst
out laughing, and I told him that it really wasn't
that funny. He said, yet it is. You're the asshole
for not seeing that it's funny. And just then some
guys from down the hall came asking what was so funny.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
What we were laughing about.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So asshole roommate plays them the messages and they were
all dying, and I started to laugh too, but still
a little concerned. Anne was thinking this way she didn't.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Even know me.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
I didn't call her back and didn't get any more messages.
But one morning I was heading to the shower and
when I got back to my room, someone had tied
a rubber around my door handle, and it was full
of what I had hoped were egg whites. I thought
it was the guys that did it, but no one
ever brought it up or laughed about it.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
When I said good one, guys, they were all like,
what the fuck are you talking about? Then I started
getting these drawings slipped into my room. They were really good,
I have to admit.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
They were usually of two people sitting together or whatever
romantic poses, and they all had the words us.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Written on them. Again, they had to have been from Anne.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I told Kim everything about it, and she told me
not to worry. I never saw Anne in class ever again,
but she did call and leave messages. She never called
when I was actually in my room, though, like at
night or on the weekends. One message was just her
saying my name over and over for like three minutes. Finally,
(15:27):
one day I came back from my work job and
I realized things were not good. The picture I had
shown Anne of me and Kim was stuck in my
room door.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
With a knife. This is all true, guys.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I didn't touch anything and went to get my ra,
who then took me to the rd's office so I
could fill a report out. That's when I told them
about the phone calls and stuff. But because no one
could prove anything, it went nowhere. I'll admit it now.
As I watched the campus police taking the knife in
the picture, I was scared. So now we're back to
the beginning of my story. I ran up the stairs
(16:02):
to my dorm and saw the big screen set up
in the common room, was getting more excited about the fight.
I saw my Ra and RD in the main office
with a campus police officer and a county sheriff. The
campus cops said something to my Rd, and he nodded
and then caught my eye and waved me over.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So I went into the office.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
The sheriff told me to take a seat, and I did,
And I remember getting nervous, thinking that I was in
trouble for having a beer or a little weed in
my room. That's not what they were there for. But
I'm sure all of you have been pulled over or
had the cops talk to you, and you immediately get
that scared feeling. Do you know Anne her last name,
sort of. She's in my sociology class and I've talked
(16:42):
with her a couple of times. Why what's going on?
Can you tell us where you were this afternoon?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, I said, I.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Told them about my job, and then the gym and
then jogging back to the dorm. You know, look a
little sweaty there, partner. Sure you didn't go anywhere else?
Can people verify where you were? I didn't say anything,
suddenly thinking something.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Serious was up. What's this all about? And yeah, there
are lots of.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
People who saw me at the fitness center and my
boss can verify that I was at work. What the
fuck's going on here? The cops looked at one another,
and I was getting that light headed feeling and my
stomach was starting to turn over. They asked me more
questions about where I was and how I spent my
time at school, and I think I just sat there. Son,
we have a female in the infirmary right now who
(17:30):
says you attacked her and tried to rape her in
the stairwell over dorm. I almost shit my pants. They
kept talking and told me that I wasn't under arrest,
but I needed to go with them to the Sheriff's station.
I remember wanting to cry, yeah, real manly, I know,
but I did. I told them that I didn't want
to go and I didn't do anything, and that I
(17:50):
needed to talk to my parents. They said they would
get me in touch with them, but I still had
to go with them.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I was scared shitless. I was being accused of rape.
We walked out to.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
A cruiser and some of my dorm friends were outside
and saw me getting into the car. They all just
stood there staring, and I looked back at them, wanting
to scream for them to help me, but I knew
they couldn't. After we got to the station, my parents called.
My Ard had called them and told them what was up.
And I'm not going to go into the whole account
of what happened there, but my parents did eventually show
(18:23):
up with a lawyer, and things got pretty intense. Anne
had been found in a stairwell with all these cuts
on her arms and legs. Her face had been mashed
up too, and I guess there was.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Blood all over her clothes.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
My parents didn't buy the accusation, and I don't think
the police did either, But procedure's procedure, I guess. My
parents took me home and wanted me to stay there
for a few days, and the police said that would
be okay as long as I didn't leave the state
and would have to come back if they needed to
ask me more questions. When they said that, I was
beyond terrified. What was worse was that the word traveled
(18:56):
fast and Kim found out before I even got home.
She said she believed I didn't do it, but she
was still kind of distant. It took a little while
to get over her boyfriend being accused of being a rapist.
All right, To make this really long story shorter, it
turns out that Anne had done everything to herself. She
actually cut herself up, and the investigators even figured out
(19:17):
she had smashed her face on a door to the
stairway and found her own skin cells under her fingertips
were from where she had scratched her body. She waited
there until someone found her and kept saying my name
over and over and screaming no. She had left a
threatening message on my answering machine saying something like she
was going to have my baby no matter what, and
that she was coming over that night to force me
(19:37):
to sleep with her. My roommate brought that to the
CoP's attention, along with all the other stuff she had done.
Even the condom was her, as they figured she had
a pack of trozens of the same type in her room.
They also found pictures she had taken of herself masturbating.
The picture of me and Kim she had somehow stolen
from my room. There were also pictures of me from
(19:58):
all over the place. She had taken pictures of me
on my job at the library, social class, dining halls,
house parties, you name it. My name wasn't Mud at school,
but I felt weird. It's just about everyone heard about it.
No one passed judgment, but I was embarrassed and felt
like I was that guy rapist, even though I wasn't.
(20:18):
After that first semester, I took a semester off and
then transferred to the school where Kim was. She slowly
got over the fact that I'd been accused, but I
graduated and so did she, and a few years later
we got married and had been married for sixteen years.
I never found out what happened to Anne, other than
that she wasn't allowed to go back to school, and
I think she was hospitalized for a long time. Yeah,
(20:40):
no shit, Anyway, that's my true story. Let me tell
you that whole ordeal is scary. Looking back from the
messages and notes to the accusation and people even thinking
you're a rapist, even if they know you're not, is
a very, very scary thing. I hope it doesn't happen
to anyone else listening to this. Thanks for reading this,
and thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Stalker in Community College by Brisso Lena. This happened like
six or seven years ago. I played soccer for one
year in community college after high school. I knew this
guy because he worked for the athletics department and he
was another student. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had a one
(21:26):
hour gap between classes. This guy noticed me in the
library asked what I was doing there, and I told
him I had an hour long gap, and he started
coming regularly to hang out. I didn't mind, because he
seemed like a normal guy. He wasn't waiting for anything,
but he just wanted to hang out. He brought me
little gifts a few times, like chocolate and stuff when
(21:49):
he was being a little too sweet for someone that
he barely knew, and I wasn't thinking about red flags
with the gifts. I remember he always downplayed it. He'd
be like, they had extra KitKat bars today in the office,
do you want some. He never said that he purposefully
bought a kitcat for me. I know a lot more
(22:11):
about boys now than I knew back then. I think
he knew that buying me gifts would be too much,
but he still wanted to do it. Without doing it.
The soccer season ended for us before Thanksgiving, the only
teams that kept playing after that were going to the
playoffs and not us. After Thanksgiving, we had finals. In
(22:34):
that brief period after the soccer season and before Thanksgiving,
this guy asked me about my classes for second semester.
To be honest, I hadn't been super organized with course
registration and I honestly didn't know, and also the counselors
were completely clueless. I didn't tell him that, but I
remember saying that I didn't want to have another gap
(22:55):
hour like this because it wasted so much time, and
I don't think he was happy to hear that. He
also asked me if I was going to play another season,
and I said no. I needed to manage my time better,
and playing soccer every day was not helping. I think
my mistake was that I just said too much and
unfiltered everything. I used to do that a lot back then,
(23:19):
saying too much without thinking about how it could affect
other people's feelings. When I told him all this, that
was the last Thursday before Thanksgiving, so no more hour
gaps to hang out anymore. We had Thanksgiving break, we
took our finals, and we had winter break. Everything was great.
(23:41):
Winter break was when the real problem started in the mornings.
This guy literally showed up outside my house while sitting
in his car. The first time, I didn't believe it
was actually him. The second time I checked, and it
was By then it was really clear that we both
(24:02):
knew what was going on. He was stalking me and
that wasn't all. I posted on my Instagram story sometimes
about places I was. This guy literally showed up there
several times, like girly stores at the mall, where he
had zero business being. He did lots of things like that.
(24:25):
He also started pointing his phone at me like he
was taking pictures, and that was even weirder. I basically
stopped using social media over this. After winter break, this
continued when my parents were at work. This guy came
during the afternoon too. I called the cops a few
(24:46):
times and they went and tried to talk to him.
He basically told them that he wasn't going to talk
and that was it. I think the cops wanted to help,
but they could never do anything about it because he
was careful not to break any laws. He didn't trespass
and he didn't make threats, he didn't show weapons, etc.
I have no idea what he's doing now. My guess
(25:09):
is that he gave up. Maybe his little obsession kind
of became old and he found other things to pay
more attention to. At least I hope so. But if
he still comes by, I have no idea. I think
the most challenging thing is that I couldn't tell my parents,
since I knew that all of this would have completely
(25:30):
freaked them out.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
University cult Leader by Window Guy thirteen. I was in
my first semester of university. I had just graduated college
not too long ago, and had entered into a program
that after a while I would come to resent. During
that time with adjusting and taking daily transit an hour
and a half away from where I grew up into
(26:01):
the big city in order to study was somewhat of
a new adventure to me. In a lot of ways,
I was just beginning to sprout as my own individual
and trying to carve a path for my life while
simultaneously opening myself up to new experiences and a new environment.
I have longtime friends who go to the same facility
as me, but at the time, our schedules wouldn't always
(26:23):
line up. This meant that a lot of my days
were spent traveling back and forth and walking around the
city alone. I really wanted to try and expand my
horizon of experiences and friends during this period. In a
lot of ways, I was really desiring to find a
good community on campus that could help satiate my boredom
and loneliness. I can be extremely extroverted, but sometimes I
(26:46):
find that it takes a lot out of me to
try and actually pursue and maintain friendships that haven't been
established years prior. I've made friends before from different classes
in college, but ultimately, and I know this makes me
an asshole, but I would end up texting less and
less until eventually either side would end up ghosting one
or the other. Because I'm a busy guy, I don't
(27:08):
find myself prioritizing people whom I feel like aren't as
important to me as others. I know, a shitty thing
to say, but none the less the truth. One day, however,
I met Joel. I was on the phone with my fiancee,
and I distinctly remember exactly how it all went down.
As I was walking out of the school's Starbucks with
(27:29):
a decaf coffee, I had one headphone in and I
was heading to class through a small stretch of underground
passageways under the street that connects the school's library building
to the actual building that possesses classes. As I was
hastily making my way, I saw the short and stout
guy looking roughly my age at the time twenty one,
(27:50):
with a thick brown beard and a hat on our
eyes met and as I was about to simply walk past,
he asked me something in a very charismatic and calm tone. Hey,
sorry to bother you. You look like a pretty busy guy,
But I was wondering, do you mind doing a survey
about religion? It's for one of my classes. To this,
(28:11):
I regret answering and wish I had simply continued walking,
But at the time I was becoming more and more
compelled by the notion of formal religious institutions and questioning
my own religious faith, particularly leaning towards Christianity. Sure, I
replied cordially. He then introduced himself as Joel, and after
(28:32):
we went through a small survey pertaining to religious affiliations
and perspectives on religions, Joel informed me that a small
group of students like himself were planning on getting together
as a group and discussing various religions in order to
gather new insights and to create a community, of course,
with the prospect of finding some new friends on campus
and also exploring my own spiritual perspectives. I gave him
(28:55):
my phone number after he asked for it, and he
said that he would contact me in the next following day.
Upon entering our first meeting, I sat down in a
very crowded place with seats at our school facility and
was greeted by Joel alongside a bunch of other members.
They introduced themselves to me and vice versa, and they
were all extremely kind to me. We began our small
(29:17):
group meeting and I was a bit shocked to find
out that the sole topic that we were to discuss
was Christianity. I wasn't aware that we were only going
to be discussing Christianity, which was against what he had
proposed this group to constitute. Upon our meeting in the tunnel.
That being said, I was still curious enough to continue,
and I was accompanied by three other young guys of
(29:39):
my age, who, after a bit of talking with I
found out we had a lot of similar interests. Joel,
who now presented himself as a leader of our study group,
relayed how we would be analyzing Christianity through a multi
step program designed to unveil the holy power associated with
the religion to us. Since I was curious and wanted
(30:00):
to learn more about the religion as well as having
made some new found friends, I continued to attend this
study group for the rest of the semester, in which
there were a few circumstances where I questioned Joel's interpretations
and was met with hard resistance. It felt like at times,
my wavering belief in what Joel was saying would be
met with straight dismissal as opposed to actual conversation. I
(30:23):
continued to brush that off as the group that I
was working with got closer. The school's club, which I
was now a part of, provided me with exactly what
I had wanted. We even went to a church run
event together where I quit vaping and many individuals reported
mystical experiences. Things only started to get concerning with Joel
during our one on one conversations. I discussed my personal
(30:46):
experiences in belief, in my newfound religious beliefs and all
of my former spiritual experiences as well, and Joel exposed
to me a story and a few incidents that at
the time I definitely certainly should have taken his red flags.
For example, when he was younger, he had gone on
a retreat where when he was in prayer, he said
that he began to hear the voice of God talk
(31:07):
to him. I questioned at first if he was referring
to the voice of God as more of a metaphor,
but he had reassured me that he literally heard God
speak to him before. When he told me this, I
became a bit unnerved. At the helm of this community
was Joel, But in all other senses, I was satisfied
with who I was and what we were doing together.
(31:29):
Though I am not entirely dismissive of strange occurrences, especially
pertaining to spirituality, his experience talking with God in his
head came off as uncomfortable for me. He also said
that the way he would pray would involve a direct
conversation and reply with God. Out of discomfort, I wouldn't
prod him on what he meant by this. This, of course,
(31:52):
was just the beginning. After the summer had ended, I
had found myself in the most religiously devoted state I
had ever been in. Throughout the summer, I had had
a treacherous injury which made me housebound for months and
to call upon God in a lot of ways for strength.
With my newfound devotion, I was elated to fall back
into the community that I had nurtured and grown with
(32:14):
throughout the last semester, relating to something that I found
deep joy in. At the first lesson of the semester,
something was very different. Joel, as before was at the
helm of our study session, but was now perpetually interrupted
by people coming to greet him and give him praise.
It was so bad that we literally essentially sat and
(32:35):
watched for twenty minutes before we could get on with
our lesson, as more than ten people, mostly young men
of our age, came to greet this man. As aforementioned.
When not unnerving, he was extremely charming and gave the
impression that he cared deeply for everyone. Once our lesson began,
he introduced us to the second phase.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Of the program.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
He explained that this was one of the toughest programs
of the different levels that there were, as it required
even more devotion and more importantly, an emphasis on sacrifice
for those who engaged. He showed us a diagram of
a small stick person, and he showed that in this
program we would have to accept Jesus as the center
of our life. He explained that by making our lives
(33:18):
surround Jesus entirely, that we would not be losing something,
but be gaining. He also began to go over the
notion that sex before marriage is a sin, and if
that we were to continue with this program, we would
have to make the sacrifice of giving up sex in
our relationships and prove that we weren't. He said that
many guys weren't able to continue because of it. I
(33:42):
talked about this afterwards with one of the members of
this group, who not unlike me, had been in a
serious relationship with someone they loved for years. In my
personal opinion, though we weren't married on the altar, I
knew that both me and this other member felt devoted
to our partners as if we were already.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Married in a sense.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
We both expressed how Joel's behavior surrounding this was off putting, controlling,
and intrusive. After our lesson, I was a bit dumbfounded
by the intensity with which he gave his speech about
this new program that we would be engaging in this semester.
Joel and I sat down for a few more minutes
and talked, in which I expressed experiences of devotion from
(34:22):
the summer and explained my entire catastrophic experience with my injury.
He then went on to tell me that at times
he was actually able to know things beforehand. This seemingly
random and strange statement shocked me. He said, for example,
he was able to know something another member had before
they had even mentioned it, and in the way that
(34:44):
he described it, it sounded as if he was saying
he had some form of mystical foresight. I was a
bit jarred, to say the least, though I felt like
it would be impolite to question any further. Joel then
went on to tell me that he believed that if
I succes zestfully completed this program, I was primed to
become a teacher for the first program I had done
(35:04):
the semester prior leading others who would join, and that
I had a bright future in the organization. And that moment,
with what he had laid down on us in the lesson,
I felt overwhelmed by his expectations of me. It also
became evident that Joel was not a student at our facility.
In fact, he was in his mid thirties and had kids.
(35:27):
He was actually just part of an organization that recruits
people to become Christians and missionaries that works on our campus.
This means that he actually lied to me when I
first met him. He wasn't a student, there was no
group talking about various religions, and his whole purpose was
to convert me to make me join the organization he
was a part of. At this point, school began to
(35:50):
pick up a lot, and I was also working part
time to help support myself. As I was on the
train to head back home the next week, I had
forgotten that my second lesson of the pro that semester
was supposed to happen. So I texted Joel saying, hey, man,
I actually got onto the train and forgot about our lesson.
Sorry about that, dude, I'm not going to be able
(36:11):
to make it. I also have work later, to which
he replied, can you get off the train try and
get here as soon as possible. I was a bit
dumbfounded at this question. Since I live an hour and
a half away. It wasn't as easy as getting off
the train and heading back the opposite direction, and he
knew that he knew the area I live in is
(36:33):
remote and a long distance away. I also told him
that I had work, which he had plainly disregarded. No, man, unfortunately,
I can't come have a good lesson, I replied, to
which he said, again, come on, man, just get off
the train and come back. At this point, I was annoyed.
(36:53):
Not only did I feel like he was commanding me,
but that he was also blatantly disregarding the fact that
I said no and that I had worked that day.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I didn't answer.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
I talked with my fiance about how I was starting
to feel about the whole idea ordeal, and how I
felt guilty about having feelings of wanting to distance myself
from the group while simultaneously not wanting to lose the
community and friends that I had established along the way.
My fiancee told me that by the way that Joel
was acting and with regards to the things he said,
(37:26):
that she was starting to become uncomfortable with the whole situation.
I remember sitting in bed thinking about leaving the group
and how the prospect made me feel physically ill. After all,
I had been given everything I wanted in a community,
except that the Helm was a seemingly increasingly controlling and
persuasive being who was making me and possibly other members
(37:47):
more miserable. There was an event the following Friday that
was going to be at the church, which was organized
by the community. Originally, since many of my friends from
this group were going, I intended to go, but alas,
I was scheduled by my boss to work that day,
so there was no way that I was going to
be able to attend. I knew that Joel would be
(38:08):
insistent upon me coming anyways, So when Joel texted me
reminding me that the event was Friday, I told them
that I wasn't able to go because I had work
to this he replied and simply said, what bro no way,
You've got to come, take work off and find somebody
to take your shift.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
God wants you there. I was expected. He dismissed my
decision and also said that I had to be there
because God wanted me there, as if he were his mouthpiece.
I went on to text him again and inform him, no, sorry, man,
I can't do that. I just got a promotion and
I have to be there. I hope you guys have
a great time anyway, to which he then again replied
(38:51):
similarly to what he had before. This was my personal
breaking point. He knew the importance of my financial situation,
and his dis dismissile of my personal boundaries, as well
as his commanding me, made me decide to text him
explaining that I was done with the group and that
I wanted to pursue my own religious exploration without the group.
From then on, I felt as if he was slowly
(39:13):
but surely increasingly controlling me and trying to take what
he could, commanding me as if he were the leader
of my life in any way possible. It was even
up to him if I could fuck my fiancee. He
replied with a long paragraph, persisting in this sort of
overly kind manner, that I had to continue with the
group and that it was God's will for me to
(39:34):
show up to this event, even though I was completely
unable to. He was certain that this group was meant
for me and that God had told him that this
was where I was supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
After I responded again telling him to stop and that
I would not, he sent me another paragraph of similar
length repeating what he would say no matter what I
would say, and whenever I would say no, he would
overstep my boundaries while maintaining a kind and friendly tone
in order to try and push me into submission when
I clearly said no. At this point, I said I
(40:07):
didn't want him to talk to me any more, to
which he replied, Bro, why can we meet up? I
want you to explain why you don't want to continue, bro,
so we can meet up and do that, and I
can get a better sense and we can figure out
what we do from there. Even in this I knew
that he was trying to elongate his chance at bringing
me back into the group and continuing his reign of control.
(40:30):
I said I didn't want to, so he asked again.
I decided at that moment I needed to block him,
so I did. A semester later, I was walking down
the street of my school, and as I walked by
a pizza parlor, lo and behold who came out? Joel
walked over to me with one of his friends and
said that I was one of his friends to his buddy.
(40:52):
I uncomfortably stood there and his friend went inside for
a moment while Joel turned around to look at me
and asked, with his disarming gentleness, did you block me?
I replied yes. He then said you should unblock me.
That way we can meet up and talk because I
really want to know why you left the group, to
which I evidently was frustrated and said o K and
(41:15):
went on my way. That night, he texted me on
my Instagram insisting we meet up again, and I blocked
him there too. In short, I'm thankful for my fiancee,
who was the love of my life. Without her, I'm
not sure I would have been strong enough to have
left the group and his control. The fact of the
matter is that there were other guys in that group
(41:36):
who had absolutely nobody. They had nothing, and they were
prime targets for a charismatic and controlling freak. There were
members of that group who were in higher levels, so
to speak, who had done all the programs, who seemed
as if they were emaciated, but they had become such
restricted fundamentalists that their lives and their openness to new
experiences were significantly thwarted. Beware of who you let into
(42:01):
your life, and just because somebody might be nice to
you does not mean that they might not have ulterior
motives also learn to stand your ground and respect yourself.
If you say no, mean it. So Joel, you controlling
cult leader, let's not meet again.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
My haunted campus.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
Yeah yeah, everybody says all colleges are haunted. Name one
that doesn't have its fair share of ghost stories, and
I'll show you a school that doesn't teach human students.
But my school, you better believe were haunted. I go
to a really small liberal arts school in the Midwest.
We're actually pretty famous, and you've probably seen us on
(42:48):
TV or read about us in Time magazine or something
like that. Most importantly, we're an historic landmark in a
town where Civil War landmarks aren't a dime a dozen.
Each building on campus has its own ghost stories. There's
the new girl's dorm, recently hit by a tornado, that
was haunted by the ghost of a suicide. Then there's
(43:09):
the main Hall, which spent some time as a hospital
for the wounded and dying as the North fought the South.
Only a few miles away.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
We can't forget the oldest dorm on campus, where the
victims of accidental deaths are said to continue their education,
where the old school house and chapel, the school had
grafted on to campus, whose doors open and close on
their own. The most famous of these are the theater ghosts,
and being a theater major, I've heard them all. Our
theater was once the gymnasium of the school. It's an
(43:39):
interesting feature that gives the classrooms unique things, such as
a basketball court floor or a swimming pool art gallery.
Most of the ghost stories are set around the time
of the switch between gymnasium and classroom, placing them around
nineteen sixty five. There was supposedly a girl.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
That drowned in the swimming pool that later became the
art studio. Students later nickname her Mona, a name that
apparently doesn't bother her much. She likes to play jokes
on the art students, but the ones she really loves
to get are the theater kids. We would be in
the middle of rehearsal, usually around eight or nine at night,
and suddenly the soundboard would go nuts, playing pre show
(44:17):
music from whatever disc was in the machine. The lights dim,
though the power is controlled through a locked room, and
the campus two minute warning bell will ring, and all
it takes is in general asking of Mona to cut
it out and things will eventually go back to normal.
Sometimes we'll be working in the costume shop, which is
located above the scenery shop, on what is called the horseshoe.
(44:39):
It's a long, dark curved hallway that stretches above the
house that contains the costume shop, dressing rooms, media closet,
the sound and light booth, and so on. This hall
is painted a combination of dark green and black, and
when navigated during a show, becomes a tipler's way of
lighting instruments, boxes, and plastic gels. Oftentimes, sewing machines will
(44:59):
be found unthreaded, and any attempts to thread them will
reveal that the bobbins have been pulled out and are
sitting on a neat pile beneath whatever fabric had just
been worked on. Sharps carrying the last bit of neon
pink thread will disappear from the cloth they were kept in,
and when Mona is scolded lightly, of course, they will
appear two or threefold hidden in the folds of the
(45:20):
fabric when it just searched through. Many times, people standing
in the dressing rooms facing the mirrors will catch the
barest glimpse of someone hurrying down the hall silently when
no one else is in the building, and more disturbingly,
someone working alone on the stage can hear chairs being
moved in the dressing rooms, even though the horseshoe is
locked and they are the only ones with keys. Other
(45:43):
stories focus on a construction worker who is crushed beneath
the steel beam during the construction of the fly system.
Students working on the stage for an extended period of
time will head over to the connected scenery shop, only
to find that someone has pushed the doors closed, which
is never done because one or lazy, Two it's a
fire hazard, three it's the only way to get ventilation
(46:04):
under the shop, and four were lazy. Other eerie things happened,
such as freshly charged drills wind down after seconds of use,
or tools that have been missing for weeks will appear
miraculously center stage. Sometimes we had games of theater wide
hide and seek at theater parties, and during one of
the games, one of the upper classmen was it and
(46:26):
stopped suddenly left center stage. He reached out in front
of him and grabbed at air. We all laughed at
him from our hiding places, because though it was dark,
it wasn't dark enough that we couldn't tell that there
was nobody there the upper classmen. Later claimed that he
had seen very clearly the shape of one of his
classmates standing on the stage, who, when he grabbed for him,
(46:46):
laughed and dodged into the legs. Only later did he
remember that that particular classmate hadn't come to the party.
One night, a friend of mine was hanging out between
the Science building and the main Hall at about midnight.
This was a place where the old and injured horses
were put to death during the Civil War. Suddenly shrieks
(47:07):
were heard echoing off the quad, coming from the main Hall,
and she and her friends got out of there quickly.
Another friend used to work in the basement of the
Science Center until late at night, and was locking up
one night when she heard clearly the sounds of a
horse whinnying. I myself was walking through the old chapel
at two in the morning and clearly saw the shapes
(47:27):
of small children running round the building through the stained glass.
Another friend, who lived in the new girl's dorm before
it was remodeled due to the damage of the tornado,
recalled hearing the sound of a heavy trunk dragging across
the floor of the storage room above her from the
middle of the room to the window the room above her,
and that's where a girl had hung herself from the window.
(47:49):
And many, many people, including myself, who have lived in
the oldest doorm on campus, have seen the indistinct figures
sitting on the far end of the hall as they
returned to their rooms late at night. Each hall was
mirrored by an adna'll haul on the floor with it,
and the figures always move closer as you move closer
to them, and further away as you move away from them.
Sightings of these figures weren't restrained to a certain floor,
(48:11):
but on all floors at any time between twelve and
five am. Now, these may just be coincidences, and that's
maybe exactly what they are, but for those of us
who have experienced them, they'll never just be a trick
of the eye. We know definitively our school is haunted.
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