Vol. 235: Disturbing TRUE Stories From Reddit
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In 2023, my partner and I found ourselves in a bit of a transition phase, living in his mom's house while we worked and saved up for a place of our own. Every day after work, we had a ritual to unwind. We'd head out to the woods and the hills just outside of town, a peaceful escape from our busy lives. Those walks became a daily ritual, a time to catch up, clear our heads, and enjoy a bit of nature together.

These woods are vast, stretching 12 miles long and about 4 miles wide, with different sections separated by farmland. Trails wind through each area, making it possible to trek the entire span, if you're up for it. We always visited a spot called Windown Woods. Nearly every day we'd go there after work, walking along a path that formed a loop around a dense circle of trees, which, from above, might look like a lopsided donut.

One evening, as we walked our usual trail, we noticed a man in the distance coming down another path. This particular trail went beyond Windown and connected to the main meeting point we needed to reach to get back to the parking lot. The first thing that struck me was his odd attire. He wore office shoes, but was carrying a pair of hiking boots, which seemed strange for a walk in the woods. We joked about it at first, but as he continued toward the path intersection,

He just stopped and stood there, not looking lost, but rather like he was waiting. I felt a growing sense of unease. There was no phone or map in his hand, no sign he was trying to get his bearings. He was simply standing there, watching. We considered turning back and taking a longer route to the car, but since he'd seen us, we worried it might look suspicious. We decided to continue toward him, feeling a bit trapped by the situation. As we approached,

I noticed something that added to my discomfort. A handle sticking out of his backpack. It was definitely either a hammer or an axe. No phone, no map, no reason for him to be just standing there. Everything about him felt wrong. We walked past him as calmly as possible and headed down the path toward the parking lot. But then he turned and started following us. My partner, who's normally unbothered by my paranoia, felt the same fear I did. There were no other cars in the lot.

so he had no reason to go there. Trying not to outright run, we quickened our pace and finally reached the car, locking the doors as soon as we got in. We drove off without looking back. Even now, I wonder if he was just another hiker or if something far more sinister was going on. Fast forward a few weeks, and we were at a friend's birthday party, sharing stories, when we mentioned our unsettling encounter in the woods.

Two friends there, who work on a nearby nature reserve called Fine Court, looked visibly shaken by her story. They said they had something to share that would make our experience even creepier. One night, one of the girls was closing the reserve with her manager. After finishing up, her manager told her she could leave early, so she went to her car, relaxed for a bit, and then headed home. Later that night, her manager texted her, don't come into work tomorrow. The girl found out later that after she left,

Her manager had been attacked by a man who emerged from the woods and tried to steal his car keys. He managed to fend off the man, got into his car, and called the police. The police, it turned out, had been piecing together a series of incidents from that same evening. Earlier that night, a local resident had reported a break-in at a neighbor's home, and even earlier, a mental health facility in a nearby town had reported an escaped patient. The police had eventually connected the dots.

uncovering a disturbing chain of events. Apparently, the man had escaped the facility, changed his appearance, and walked miles to a remote village where he broke into a home, believing it was abandoned. Unfortunately, an elderly couple lived there. The husband was wheelchair-bound, cared for by his wife. Upon being discovered in the home, the man took the wife's life. He left her husband behind and wandered into the woods in search of a car to steal.

That's when he ended up at fine court and attempted to take the manager's car before fleeing back into the woods. As they told the story, my partner and I were chilled to the bone. The incident happened the same month as our encounter in Windown. The timing, the area, and the man's behavior lined up perfectly. The police eventually found him wandering in the woods the next day. In hindsight, I'm almost sure he was trying to scare us into going back into the woods, where he might have had the upper hand.

Out in the open with two of us, he must have thought twice about acting. The memory still unnerves me and I needed to share it to get it off my chest. Some encounters stay with you forever and I'm grateful we made it back to the car that day.

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we've got a Patreon where you can support the show and get early access to new episodes before everyone else. Just head on over to patreon.com/malevolentmischief or check the link in the description and join our community today. This happened four years back. It was the middle of winter, and the night was unseasonably warm without a hint of snow on the ground. I left my apartment around 8:00 PM to go for my daily walk. I worked nights and my schedule was screwed up.

hence the 8pm walk, figuring I would cross the bridge into the city nearby. For further context, I'm a tall guy who's fairly athletic, and I was in my late 20s at the time. I'd rarely had a problem walking at night, and at the time, I felt safe to do so. I put on my headphones and headed towards the bridge. The first 20 minutes were uneventful. I passed by old houses, a subpar Mexican restaurant, a really good Mexican restaurant, a sketchy gas station,

some newly built upscale apartments. And finally, I was at the river, enjoying the view of the bright lights over the dark flowing water, not yet frozen. I crossed the bridge into the city and hit a crosswalk button at a four-way intersection, then noticed someone standing on the corner opposite, the only other soul I'd seen outside that night. Seemingly, she was doing nothing, and I assumed she was waiting for an Uber to come pick her up, since she didn't seem to be waiting for the light to change.

The street, ordinarily busy during the daytime, was silent. The light changed, and I crossed, headed in her direction. As I neared her, I noticed that she would cast glances in my direction, then look away, almost sheepishly. She did this multiple times, and I figured she was unnerved by me. I sympathized, figuring it must have made her uneasy, us being the only two people on a dimly lit street. As I passed by, I took in her outfit.

Mostly because I thought she looked cold. She wore a knitted hat with tassels, a sweater that looked too thin for the winter, tight jeans, and a little plastic children's backpack on her back. I thought she was in her teens at first, but upon closer inspection, she appeared to be in her late 20s or 30s. She had short cropped, light brown hair and a pale complexion. She was skinny and was of average height. I was maybe a head taller than her. I walked by and continued down the street.

I passed by high-rise hotels on my right and left, and made my way into a central park during peak hours. This place would be packed with tourists and locals alike, but that day, at an odd hour and with the pandemic in full swing, I felt like the only man in the city. I admired the brilliant display of lighted trees as I crossed through the center of the park. Then, figuring I was at a good halfway point in my journey, I made my way around an old marble and stone library back towards the bridge.

As I turned the corner of the library back onto the street from which I'd come, I nearly collided with someone moving towards me. It was the same woman I'd seen not ten minutes earlier. My noise-cancelling headphones were still on, so I pulled down one side and said something by way of apology. She said nothing in return. Instead, she stepped back from me and stood below a streetlight, not making eye contact. She stole tiny glances at me, that same tick I'd noticed before. I put my headphones back on.

Not at a good night, and headed towards the nearest crosswalk. Reason told me that she must be headed in the direction I'd come from, since we'd nearly run into each other headed opposite ways. But some part of me whispered that she wasn't headed that way. Sure enough, when I turned to look, she was trailing close behind me, her strides surprisingly long and energetic. I found this odd enough that I continued to watch her out of the corner of my eye,

Shortly after I reached the crosswalk, as I stood there waiting for the light to change, she caught up with me, passed me by, and stopped. A car went past, and as it did so, she squatted over a plastic bag a few meters from me, rifling frantically for something, looking up at me on occasion. I hit a button on my headphones, stopping my podcast, so that I could hear her better. What I found disturbing about the motion of her looking through her bag is that it struck me as fake.

as though she were pretending for some reason. She was barely looking inside, and her careless motion struck more like bad acting. Something about her motions, the way she kept looking at me, felt wrong. The light changed, and I began to walk quickly, but she was faster. She stood suddenly, darting past me towards the museum, swinging the half-open little pink backpack over her shoulder. I watched her silhouette disappear into the darkness beyond the reach of the streetlights. I hoped that that was the end of that,

and after a few beats of not seeing her, I let my guard fall a little, restarting my podcast. Beyond the museum was a patch of poorly lit sidewalk in front of a squat building with mirror-like windows. I wasn't far from the bridge now. As I made my way back there, I turned my head to look at the reflections of the buildings and streetlights in the windows. To my horror, a dark figure sprinted silently towards my reflection, dreamlike. I'm not sure why, maybe out of sheer confusion,

But I turned to meet her as she hurtled towards me. Perhaps surprised by my sudden turn, she halted mere feet from me, staring. Her eyes were wide and looked frantic, wild. She kept looking at my arms, then back at my face, as though sizing me up. My accidental bluff had worked, and in the darkness, I suppose I must have looked more prepared to fight back than I felt. She gripped something small tightly in one hand, though she held it off to the side.

And in the shadow of the building, I couldn't see what it was. Seconds dragged as we stood there, staring at one another, immobilized by fear and confusion. I waited for her to make some move, to attempt to use whatever object she held in her hand. Just then, to my enormous relief, a car trundled slowly past. A bit of my strength returned, and over my blaring podcast, I felt more than heard myself shouting at her. "What do you want?" No reply.

I slowly backed away from her, expecting her to move. She just watched me, that same intense look on her face. I took another step back, then another, steadily backing away from her until I felt confident enough to turn and carefully walk away. As I reached a better lit area, I began to move faster, all the while keeping my eyes trained on her shadowy form. She stood there for some time, statuesque. Then abruptly, having spontaneously abandoned whatever plan she may have had for me,

She turned for me, and without looking for traffic, she crossed the street with long strides and disappeared around the corner of a building. Something about the casual air of it disturbed me. I kept my eyes trained behind me on my walk home, afraid that she would follow me. The bridge was well-lit, and I saw no sign of her, knowing that this was the only way for her to follow me and keep up on foot. I breathed a sigh of relief. I saw no more cars headed from the city, no more pedestrians out walking. Nothing happened after that.

I'm not sure why, but I didn't call the cops that night. I still regret having not called, despite my roommates insisting I do so. I just remember thinking that I wasn't sure what to say to the cops, that I hadn't really been attacked, that they wouldn't be able to find her anyway. I made up excuses. I suppose I must have been in shock, in denial at having been nearly ambushed, especially by someone smaller than me, in my own city, so close to my apartment. One of my roommates called the cops for me.

A cop drove through the area, but by that point, she was gone. There are occasions where I still find myself thinking, deep in the recesses of my mind. Lady with the little pink backpack, what did you want that night? I'm a property manager and one year postpartum, so I return to my company part-time. This is fun because I get to float around to different apartment communities who need help and just help where needed. In September, I helped at a property about an hour from my house.

It's a bit of a drive, but fairly small property with relatively no big problems, so easy money for the day. I'm covering for a manager out on vacation, and of course, it's the dreaded 6th of the month. This means I'm handing out late letters and making calls unfortunately. Definitely not my favorite part of the job, but it is necessary. The one thing I hate about floating is the residents don't know me well, so I'm delivering late letters and calling, and they don't even know me.

Again, not my favorite part of the job, but has to be done. So here we go. I had about 10 late letters to deliver. All was going normal and fine. Some people answer the door and say "yep, sorry, I'll have it paid on such and such date." Another person didn't answer, so I left info on the door, but they flipped me off as I was walking away. All pretty normal stuff that comes with a job. I get down to about the 7th or 8th person.

I walk up to this apartment and I can tell from the outside the occupants have absolutely destroyed this home. I smelled cigarettes, cat urine, and general mustiness before I even knocked. All blinds were broken, blankets up in the window, all the works. I get up to the door, do my normal quick knock, waited about 5 seconds and was ready to post notice to the door. Right as I was folding it up to place in the door, the door partly swings open.

A gentleman wearing just his boxers and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth opens up but doesn't unlatch the security lock, so the door's not opened all the way. "What do you want?" he says as he's giving me a death glare, but also looking me up and down inappropriately at the same time. I explained I was just here to deliver the late letters and that I would be on my way now. As I'm explaining this, I notice he keeps looking over his shoulder, as if someone is standing next to him behind the door.

I find this odd, as if someone is hiding from me, especially because this gentleman won't open the door all the way. I now hear some whispering, and I know that he's communicating with someone. The gentleman in the doorway asks me to wait, and says he has things in his apartment that he needs looked at. I explained I was just there for the letter, but that he can send photos into the office and that I would get work orders in. He begins complaining about our maintenance team, and states he really wants someone to take a look in person.

At this point, I'm feeling really uneasy. Typically, I would enter and help, no problem. But between the looks this guy was giving me, and creepy who knows who behind the door, I'm just not feeling safe at this point. I defer again, trying to make myself sound unimportant, and just say I'm a floating person, I can't do anything without manager approval when she gets back. So really, there's no point in coming inside. At this point, something catches my eye upstairs.

I see a window blind move, and I notice two additional men upstairs who are both staring down at me. I'm so uneasy at this point that I think I could be sick. I tell the gentleman that I won't be entering without maintenance or the property manager present, due to it being an ongoing maintenance concern and there not being much I can personally do. He looks annoyed and finally slams the door in my face. I get back to the office and grab the maintenance supervisor for the property to chat things over regarding this encounter.

The maintenance supervisor explained to me that there used to be an old man who lived in that apartment, but then his son took over the lease after he died. He told me he's noticed a lot of strange activity and individuals around that home since the dad died, but he hasn't personally witnessed anything illegal yet, so he's just let it go. He explained they plan to make the move when the contract is over, due to condition of the home alone anyways. While I cannot prove something horrible was going to happen if I entered the premises,

This is by far the creepiest encounter I've had in property management in nearly a decade of work.

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