When I was a freshman in college, someone got my e-mail address and started insulting me over MSN. Most of the messages called me fat or ugly or stupid. I rarely replied, and soon I simple blocked that address from messaging me at all. Later I discovered that not only was it someone at my college, but also was someone in one of my classes who saw me every day. I confronted her and told her that if she had anything to say to me that she should say it to my face instead of hiding behind a monitor. That was the end of the problem.
–Anonymous
–Anonymous
When I was in grade school, I had a teacher who apparently picked a student each year to make miserable. By Thanksgiving, she had me convinced that I was so stupid that I wouldn't know what 0 + 0 was.
My mother met with the principal and teacher to resolve the problem, but they simply suggested sectioning me off from the rest of the class. My mother thought that suggestion was ridiculous and ended up homeschooling me the rest of that school year. As a result, it's made me really standoffish, but at least I don't feel the need to make other people miserable so that I can feel better. Plus, even if people try to bully me now, I just ignore them because eventually they just get bored and give up.
–Anonymous
I had recently moved and was living alone in a small town in Georgia, working only about three blocks from my home. Normally, I would walk to work and ride home with friends who wanted to do the "coffee and breakfast" thing in the early morning. Occasionally, though, I would also walk home and felt comfortable doing so since the distance was short and my house certainly seemed secure--with burglar bars on my bedroom windows and three locks on the front door. The first sign something was wrong was when my new kitten mysteriously disappeared.
I had no idea how he could have gotten out of the house and even asked the landlord if he'd accidentally let him out. But I never found the kitten. About three weeks later, we worked late on a Saturday night until around 2 A.M. My managers and their 12-year-old daughter gave me a ride home; and as I was getting out of the car, their daughter said, "I think you should come home and stay the weekend with us." I laughed and told her that I would do it another time, but tonight all I wanted to do was relax and sleep. I unlocked my front door, turned on the lights, waved to them that I was in, and went inside. I dropped my purse by the couch like I normally did and went straight to my bedroom to write some letters to friends back home. Around 4 A.M.I finally went to bed. Suddenly, I got the feeling that I wasn't alone in the room. I was lying on my stomach, and when I lifted my head, a man (who seemed seven feet tall at the time) jumped on my back and yanked my head back with one hand while jabbing me in the back with something--I couldn't tell what it was. He told me, very calmly, that he had both a knife and a gun and that if I didn't cooperate, he would kill me. He then turned me over and raped me. Afterwards he put a pillow over my face and held it down. I struggled, but then realized that if I wanted to live, I had to play dead. I stopped struggling and he got off the bed and ran out the front door. He had no trouble figuring out how to quickly undo all three of the locks. I waited for what seemed like an eternity and then grabbed a robe, ran next door, and pounded on the door like a madwoman--I hadn't had phone service hooked up yet, so I needed someone to call the police for me. The police got there pretty quickly and, on the whole, were very kind (with the exception of one officer who asked if I was sure I hadn't dreamt this). But then an officer discovered that a screen from one of the front windows had been removed and placed behind a rocking chair on the porch and the window, although closed, was unlocked.
Further investigation revealed that the police-issued-size can of Mace I always carried in my purse had been removed and placed on the entertainment center. My recliner also had been moved, and the officers concluded that my assailant had probably been hiding behind it the entire time I was awake and writing letters. That my assailant knew the layout of my house, knew I carried Mace, and knew there were three locks on the front door made the police believe that he had probably been watching me for some time--and that perhaps when my kitten went missing, he either took the cat or let the cat escape. I was taken to the hospital and met with an advocate from the Rape Crisis Center; she helped me through the rape exam and offered a lot of valuable support afterwards as well. Unfortunately, my assailant was never caught.
–Anonymous
–Anonymous
I used to play volleyball at a local gym. It was always a pick-up game with no set teams and open to the public. Generally, everyone was friendly and new visitors warmly welcomed. One guy, however, had been coming for several weeks, but no one had spoken to him yet because he always sat off to the sides until the game started and left as soon as it was over. He never really smiled or anything, which made some of the women who played there nervous. To me, though, he just seemed like a hard-working, serious kind of guy. I started calling him my "shadow" one day, because if a shot was just out of my reach or beyond my fingers, he always seemed to be right there to hit the ball back into play. At that time I lived out in the country with my daughter and my cat, and I never really told anyone anything personal about myself, whether it was my last name, phone number, or even the city where I lived. One day I got home from work and the guy from the gym was in my driveway. He asked if it was okay that he had stopped by to say hi--he was just glad I spoke to him since no one else ever did. I figured he was just a lonely and misunderstood kind of guy, so we chatted a few minutes and then he left. The next time I came home from work my house had been completely cleaned; he called later to say he wanted to thank me for being kind to him and hoped it wasn't out of line. What was particularly unsettling was that my house had been completely locked. I then started finding flowers in my car when I left work, always with cards that weren't signed--and again, my car was locked. I had a law enforcement friend check the guy's background, and he checked out fine--assisted with town events, volunteered with the fire department, just generally a quiet loner type. He was, however, also married. I told him that since he was married and I had no interest in dating that he needed to stop. I thought that was the end of it until some close friends started warning me that they'd seen his truck parked along my road, partially hidden by bushes. While I was at church, his truck was seen in the back of the parking lot. Even when I was at work, I saw his truck in the vicinity. Since he wasn't threatening or harassing me, I didn't feel like I had any real legal recourse. I think my law enforcement friend may have said something to him but wouldn't tell me whether he had or not. Since this took place, I've moved three times and no longer see any signs of the guy or his truck.
–Anonymous
–Anonymous
I used to be an online chat and game junkie. One of my "friends" in the online community said that he wanted to meet me in person on a friend level. While it seemed weird, it also seemed kind of cool. He said he had the money and frequent-flyer miles, so he wasn't worried about the cost. I would joke with him and ask if he was a stalker or a murderer or some kind of pervert, and he assured me that he just wanted to meet one of his good online buddies, no strings attached. After several weeks of him insisting on this, I finally agreed. I had dated guys I had met online before and knew all the safety rules and precautions--I even taught a class a few times about dating safety online. He called when he claimed he had arrived at the airport and said he was taking a shuttle to the hotel to shower before we met for dinner, and he gave me his room number. My first mistake was not telling anyone that I was meeting this guy or any information about him. He was staying in a city about 45 minutes away from
where I lived. I drove there and called him; he said he had some business calls he had to take and was running late, so he would just meet me in the hotel lobby. This still wasn’t a problem, since it was a public meeting place. Once I got there, however, he said he was still running late and that I should just come up to his room while he finished getting ready. I thought about it, and, even though I knew better, I agreed and went to his room. He opened the door, half-dressed and clearly in the process of getting ready, and invited me to wait inside while he finished up. He closed the door, shoved me onto the bed, and then raped me for several hours. He held a knife to my neck a few times and said things like "I can slit your throat right now and leave on my flight and no one will ever know until room service finds you in the morning" or "Did you really think that I would honestly tell you ahead of time what my plans were?" He finally stopped and walked into the bathroom, and I grabbed my clothes and ran. I managed to get dressed in the elevator, ran to my car, and left.
–Anonymous
–Anonymous
During my senior year of high school, I was walking from the gym to the main building and a guy I sort of knew came up behind me and smacked my ass. I turned around and punched him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. My guidance counselor heard me telling a friend about the incident, and the next morning I got called to his office. I thought I was in trouble, but he handed me the school roster and asked me to figure out the guy's grade level. The guy got in trouble; and for the rest of the year, every time I saw him or his girlfriend, they just gave me dirty looks.
–Anonymous
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