Stranger - 

There's one time when I was about 9 that I've recently recalled. It wasn't anything "supernatural," but that's what made the experience so horrifying. Consider it a Let's not meet of sorts. When my family moved, and I started my new school, I was told I had to take the bus for the first time ever. And I'd be taking it alone- as my sister went to a different school, a middle school while I was in 4th grade. Now, considering I've been walking to and from school, with my siblings, I was justifiably nervous. It took some time for me to get used to it, but about a month or two into living here, (and I'm guessing here, it was quite a long time ago) my mom sometimes liked walking my sister and I home from our respective bus stops. They weren't that far, so we'd walk home together. One day, my mom walked home with us. We had just begun the walk home from my bus stop (which was only about a block and a half away,) when my mother grabs our hands and tells us to run with her. Confused but obedient, we run. Looking behind me, I spot a black sedan, with a man inside. I can't remember his face, or much of his other features. Just the fact that he was Caucasian and seemed a little on the older side- maybe in his 30s.

We get home, and my mother tells us to go to the basement, and not to come out until she tells us to. We oblige, and my sister and I run downstairs. She grabs a pipe and I grab a 2x4. Then we waited, with bated breath, for what feels like hours. I genuinely can't remember how long it was. All I remember is my own panicked breathing. I heard absolutely nothing happen above me, which, while being a good thing in hindsight - that meant no one had broken in and my mother wasn't currently fighting a strange man to the death- but at the time, made me all the more panicked. We wait, and wait. And wait. Until finally, my mother opens the basement door. I can't recall much after that. I know I did ask what the hell happened. As my memory is a bit fuzzy, I cannot recall what she told me. Likely some simplified explanation so my 9 year old self wouldn't freak out. We never spoke about it again, and I can only assume both my mother and sister have forgotten what happened. Unfortunately for me, I haven't. To this day, I'm still rather paranoid and refuse to walk home alone now. I absolutely hate silence as a result of that day. As for the man... I still don't know who he was or what he wanted. I just hope to never see him again.

Jade - USA