this is a disturbing memory from my young childhood I was about 7 or 8 years old my mom would usually take my brother and I trick-or-treating but this particular year after school she dropped me off at my friend Shawn's house where Shawn our friend Johnny and I would go together Johnny and Shawn were a year older than me we met while I was playing with my brother on the Block Johnny and Shawn lived around the block from me Shawn had a weird upbringing that I never really understood his sister was like 20 years old there was a big gap between them she was always his caretaker it seemed whenever I was at his house his house always smelled like cat and his sister always had a different guy over it seemed like his sister was always cold to me in the sense that she'd never acknowledge me or say hi or anything Shawn's dad was never in the picture and his mom I believe was always working out of town I guess I only met Shawn's mom a few times we never really stayed in touch for long enough for me to figure all this out anyway my mom dropped me off at Sha's expecting that Shawn's mom would be trick-or-treating with us after saying goodbye I went into his house Johnny was already there we all had big pillow sacks to fill with candy this was around the time that I learned that neither Shawn's mom nor sister were coming with us to supervise I was young so I sort of felt slightly uncomfortable knowing that Johnny and Shawn would be leading the way but at the same time I felt a sense of excitement that we'd have more freedom I knew for a fact my mom would not have approved of us going on supervised though So eventually we were off into the neighborhood walking around doing our rounds door too quite a few people asked if we were alone or where our parents were and Johnny would always be the one to use the same lie that his mom is up ahead with his sister it worked every time this was on a Friday so we didn't get to start at trick-or-treating until around 5:00 but we didn't have school the next day so we intended on going until our pillow sacks were completely full we took a break after a couple of hours and went to Sha's where he heated up a bunch of frozen pizzas at the time I was so jealous of the apparent Freedom he had in his house not having parents who cared about what he did but looking back now I count myself super blessed to have grown up in a household with two strict parents after we hung out at his house for an hour and watched Halloween specials on Nickelodeon while eating pizza and candies Johnny eventually was picked up by his mom but Shawn and I wanted to keep going so we eventually headed back out for round two it was dark out now and it had to be past 8:00 p. m. there were a lot less trick-or-treaters now we tried to go to certain blocks we hadn't gone down yet which meant straying further away from Shawn's house we found a block we hadn't touched yet and continued knocking on doors some houses didn't answer at this hour and mostly everyone else had a comment about us being alone or how it's getting late we noticed a man pushing a stroller a couple houses down behind us he was walking very slowly in our Direction probably a dad trick-or-treating for his young child as we continued going door to door the man with the stroller got closer eventually we heard him going sh and singing softly eventually he caught up to us and he said how's the trick-or-treating going boys and we replied good at the same time and then he said it's pretty late I'm on my way back to my house I can give you guys the rest of my candy Shawn and I looked at each other with telling faces as if we just hit the jackpot Sean asked what kind of candies and he said a bunch of bags of different things he said he didn't get to give much away because he wanted to take his daughter out for a trick-or treat stroll he did have a bag dangling on one of the handles of the stroller which was filled with some candies the stroller was fully covered by a folding piece on the top so we couldn't see his daughter he said she's asleep and he didn't want to wake her up but he pointed ahead and said his house is just up this way so we followed behind him as he pushed the stroller he was walking a little faster now as we walked I realized there was next to no one else out at this point even though it was a Friday night it seemed like a quieter side of the neighborhood the man talked to us as we walked asking us questions what part of the neighborhood we were from where we went to school basic stuff I led Sean answer most of the questions him being even just a year older than me at that age I felt like he was the one who should take lead on multiple occasions as we walked the man would lean into the stroller and talk in a high pitch to his daughter then he turned back and smile at us we finally made it to his house he led us up the walkway with the stroller and unlocked his door after he opened it he brought the stroller with his daughter inside first and then invited us to come inside Shawn led the way so I followed I was the want to ask if we could leave the door open and the man paused and then said yeah of course he said he'll be right back as he goes to get the candy bags he pushed the stroller into the middle of the living room only about 10 ft away from where we were standing I nudged Shawn because I felt uncomfortable I whispered why would he leave the candy so far away sha didn't respond instead he turned toward the living room and then walked up to the stroller he lifted up the folding part that was covering the baby and and he looked Disturbed he hurried back to me Whispering let's go he was fullon running once we got outside and I followed behind which was a bit tougher because we had those heavy pillow sacks I still was confused about what he saw but just then we heard a woman's voice y' excuse me it was one of his neighbors she came running over to us and asked if we know that man and it was at this point that Shawn spilled the beans and said he offered us his leftover candy but he was pushing a stroller with a fake baby in it I remember getting Goosebumps as he said that the woman said yeah that man doesn't have a child I saw you was walking by with him she took us to her car and drove each of us home I know getting into a stranger's car after that was another questionable move the woman came to my front door to talk to my mom about what we just told her my mom was distraught after I told her every last detail about the night she sent me to my room while my parents called the police on that man my parents never told me anything about what happened after that I believe they wanted to shelter me from any more exposure to the situation my mom didn't want me going over to Shawn's house anymore and I know she had quite a bit to say to Shawn's mom I did see Shawn at school once in a while still and we' remain cordal but our friendship was never the same after that [Music] night it was Halloween night 2016 I was tasked by my parents to hand out candies to all the kids for the day my mom bought a million bags of candy that I knew we'd have left over for weeks and I'd be the one regrettably munching on them for days if not weeks to come as I was trying to lose weight I always told my mom she went way overboard with the candies the house was in a culdesac on a dead end we hardly got any trick-or-treaters usually however we did have some loyal kids who'd always come to our house knowing how much candy we'd give Halloween was on a Monday this year I was in college I conveniently had Mondays and Wednesdays off this semester so the first half of the day I went to the gym and then worked on my assignments for class it was always around 400 p.
m. that the sound of kids outside would indicate that trick-or-treaters were out the first time the doorbell rang was I guess somewhere between 400 p. m.
and 5:00 p. m. the day went as you'd expect there's nothing interesting about handing out candies all day to little kids and my dog veto barking like crazy every time the doorbell rang I'd say from the first trick-or-treater to 8:00 p.
m. there were maybe 10 to 15 total as I said that culde saac was out of the way for people to come it was more effective for trick-or-treaters to pass it and just keep going straight it being a Monday night things quieted down much earlier than usual I'd say I got enough homework done I put a dent in my projects and so I had some of my mom's leftover stew and went to my room to watch Game of Thrones I was literally two episodes in when I heard the unexpected sound of the doorbell veto started barking again I looked at the clock and it had to be like 9:30 this was definitely beyond the cut off time for trick-or-treaters I went downstairs to the front door and opened it on the other side of the glass storm door was a very tall man in a clown costume with a very scary looking mask I knew it was a man just based off the frame of the person he was alone he waved at me and then pointed at The Brown Sack he was holding it looked basically empty I didn't open the storm door I just said through it sorry we don't have any more candy and slammed the door shut I locked it right away I instantly regretted opening the door I genuinely thought it was just some kid or an unfortunate mother or father who worked late and wanted to get some last minute trick-or-treating in with their kids whoever I just saw on our stoop was not a kid hell it didn't even look like a teenager the frame of this person was massive and the clown costume just made him look even bigger thankfully I didn't grab the candy bag before opening the door so he couldn't see that I was lying I hovered by the door for a bit just to listen and see if I'd hear footsteps walking away but not only did I not hear him walk away he rang the doorbell again veto once again started going ballistic veto is a rat terrier his bark is not intimidating nor would he ever actually defend the home from an intruder I picked him up and carried him upstairs after turning off the lights downstairs this was my half-ass attempt at getting him to think I was absolutely never opening that door again tonight I put veto in my room and shut the door so he wouldn't keep barking I stood at the top of the stairs listening and then I heard through the front door the storm door being forced open like there was a loud snap implying that the latch may have been broken from Force I then heard both knocks on the front door and then the door not moving around at this point I decided to hide my room I was incredibly unsettled I texted my family group chat about what was going on no one answered though of course I knew that whoever that was had to get bored I would have texted all my guy friends asking who it was but all my guy friends are short I resumed the episode I was watching I was truly just trying to pretend he wasn't there what else was I to do the doorbell rang once again though this was a nightmare I kept telling veto to shush I had my blinds closed too I didn't want that [ __ ] clown knowing what room I was in I tried calling my Dad but he didn't pick up I called my brother who picked up saying he wasn't alone and I knew that meant he was with a girl I told him check my texts there's some guy dressed as a clown at the door and he won't go away my brother said it's a Halloween prank and to just ignore it he seemed like he was in a hurry to get off the phone so I hung up I hoped he was right it honestly made the most sense to be a prank so after a few more minutes of sitting on the edge of my bed anxious the doorbell did not ring again I finally felt safe to relax again and lay back down I started drifting away slowly so I turned off the TV to allow complete silence and darkness in the room and very shortly after that I drifted to sleep I don't even think I was asleep long enough to enter REM State and have a dream when I woke woke up to Tito growling and quietly barking as he would do when he was waiting for approval from one of us I told him to be quiet and he stopped I looked to see what he was looking at he was looking at the window I listened there was a sound coming from like right outside the window the slightest thumping sounds and I could almost swear the sound of something rubbing on the window my bedroom was on the second floor of the house it's not like anyone could be outside my window but I wondered what it was I got up and pushed open the blind on my window and boy was I wrong that man dressed as a clown was at my window all I could see was that horrific mask on the other side of the glass he tilted his head as he looked at me screaming my lungs out Tito didn't even bark from what I remember or maybe I just blocked everything else out I ran with my phone out of my room into my parents' bedroom where I locked the door and dialed 911 I was too shook to even cry my whole body was shaking and my voice was trembling as I spoke to the 911 operator I must have asked the operator once every 20 seconds to get the police to hurry up she tell me the same thing every time they're coming as fast as they can the police got to the house in roughly 10 minutes they examined the exterior of the house to look for any attempted entry points all they found was that the latch on the front storm door was broken like I figured and leaned against the side of the house by my bedroom window was my dad's ladder that man went into our storage shed outside and found my dad's ladder to use to climb up to my window to avoid this going any further I went to go sleep at my guy friend Adam's house to this day I don't know if this was just a sick sick prank purposely played on Halloween or if there was about to be a horrible crime committed with the sick novelty of it being Halloween it was late October Saturday hallow weekend I think Halloween was on a Tuesday this year so the big party night was the Saturday before my friends and I were still looking for last minute plans since everything was sold out ideally we wanted to find a house party we all had pretty funny costumes too and we wanted to get good use out of them my friend Kate actually decided to put on her Instagram and Snapchat stories looking for parties tonight not something I would have ever done I'd find that to be kind of Shameless and embarrassing but I was glad she was willing to do it I was surprised when she texted in the group chat that someone hit her up about a party pretty soon after she sent a screenshot of the details in the group chat it had an address start time and a few ground rules such as the party would only be indoors no backyard access and bring your own booze it also said must bring at least one girl for every guy the guy who sent the details to Kate was one of our guy friends around our age who mutually knew a lot of the same people we did apparently a number of people we knew were going to this party the house address was one town over super close so between the four of us we all went to Shauna's house and she had the open crib we pregame there for about an hour as we all finished up getting ready we waited till our guy friends confirmed that they were going then we decided to head over we called an Uber we all had our own drinks varying from four Loos to White claws to vodka Shooters the Uber driver was probably sick of us by the end of the drive when we got to the house we saw a bunch of cars everywhere the house was pretty big very spacious front yard we were four girls walking in so surely whoever was throwing this party was going to love us we didn't hear any music until we got closer to the door then we heard the beating of the base I opened the door and the first room we were in was across between the living room and the kitchen the entire house was very dimly lit only by a bunch of of orange lights hung up definitely creating a Halloween party Ambiance the place was decently crowded but honestly we didn't know anyone Kate texted the guys we knew to see if they were here yet in the meantime some older guy came and greeted us he asked our names and he said he's John Luke's dad apparently Luke was the guy throwing this party I asked who Luke is where he goes to school and he replied oh he's around here somewhere you can ask him when you see him then he asked us if we wanted to put our drinks in the cooler he led us into the kitchen where there were three big coolers of ice each one already had a bunch of drinks in it so we put some of our cans in the coolers the John guy seemed like he was 50 something years old which would make sense if his son was the one throwing the party but at the same time it seemed slightly weird he'd be so welcoming and involved in such a big party in his own house he was going around talking to everybody well it seems mostly the girls he seemed like he could have also been drunk the four of us played beer pong at one of the tables where some guys started talking to us so we started playing them Kate then said our guy friends were on the way which I was happy to hear John Suddenly yelled my and Kate's names over by the counter in the kitchen he was yelling shots my other two friends Shauna and Tracy looked slightly offended so I said can we all have one and he yelled yeah sure so we went over to the kitchen counter by him and all took a shot of tequila I gagged because there was no lime I was definitely starting to get drunk after this it was odd how much the dad of the house was trying to hype this party up he had this oddly welcoming yet unsettling presence the unsettling part because he was much older than the generally colleged age people here and he was pushing drinks on people then he asked what our poison is I wasn't going to say anything until the girls all gave their favorite drinks John started making a bunch of mixed drinks in the meantime we went back to the beer pong table where the guys we were playing were still waiting I plugged my phone into an outlet just because I was down to like 50% then I went back to the game mid game John came over with two drinks for Kade and I and then he came back with two more for shaa and Tracy they were all in red Solo cups he made me a vodka soda I sipped on it during our beer pong game whenever I had a chance I was drinking it slow because I was already drunk after we lost to the random guy I went to get my phone only to realize it didn't charge at all it was still at the same percent the outlet wasn't working I didn't feel comfortable leaving my phone on any other outlets so I just refrained from killing the battery any further our guy friends eventually showed up and it was soon after this point that things quickly became a blur I mean very quickly like one second I remember talking with our friend Jeff the next blacked out the next thing I remember was my friends waking me up in the car outside my house I felt woozy my vision was blurred my head was spinning we were in one of our guy friend's Cars one of the guys walked me to my front door and helped me inside then they all left I was alone except for my parents asleep in their room I felt I must have drank way too much but I also had a woozy weird feeling in my head that I never felt from drinking I felt dizzy I went straight to my room to bed I checked my phone and I had some texts from a random unsaved number I opened it and there were a bunch of texts already it started with me texting my name and then they responded John uh-oh after that he said you look so cute based on the time he sent this it was still during the party there was a 2-hour Gap from then until he texted me again saying where did my favorite girls go I was shocked at myself that I gave that man my number I must have been drunker than I thought but regardless I lowered my head onto the pillow and fell asleep instantly the next morning I woke up to some disturbing texts as my head was spinning I read these sickening texts after I fell asleep I got texts from John that said where are you I'm coming to your house you left something here followed by I'm here can you come to the door followed by hello are you awake he also tried calling me three times this was all at like 2 a. m.
