This seems like the right reddit for my story
I’m not a writer just thought I’d share a scary experience I had.
It was around 2006 i was about 15 and lived in a rough part of South london. Late one night just after midnight me and 5 other friends were on a bandstand in battersea park, a large city park that isn’t a smart place to be at night, me and my friends were the type to be hanging around in hoodies and to the average person could be intimidating, looking back we weren’t bad kids just broke and bored.
Its a weeknight and winter so the park had been empty and dark for hours. We were messing around on our bikes laughing and kicking each other, I then noticed marvin looking away into the woods.
“Swear, there’s a guy behind that tree” He said pointing off into the dark treeline we all stopped playing and looked where he was pointing and sure enough there was a guy black hoodie and what looked like a balaclava (skimask) just peeping from behind a tree.
We stood for a moment confused as he then stepped out from behind the tree and moved forward ducking down into some bushes.
I can’t remember who but one of my friends shouted “ay yo!” At the same time we all instinctively turned our bikes away marvin then said “I think we should g-“
As he said this a large group of maybe 15 hooded people ran from the tree line. We obviously started riding away full speed. They were all wearing black all with ski masks. They weren’t teenagers The part that in hindsight was the most unnerving is they weren’t shouting or threatening or saying anything… they were sprinting to try and catch us I remember hearing their huffing and puffing and being so frightened I couldn’t feel my arms or legs the panic was indescribable I didn’t feel myself starting to cry.
We rode down a wide tree lined gravel road for what was probably about 2 minutes i never looked back but i just remember hearing the sound of men huffing and gasping behind us which gradually got quieter and by the time we made it out the dark park and into the lit up city streets we were all having a complete meltdown my face was soaking wet from tears we just kept saying “who the fuck? what the fuck? who the fuck?” We went back home confused and frightened.
Living in a shitty part of a major city we’ve experienced violence and teenage territorial “beef”. If your group sees another group you start some shit or whatever but this… It felt different and we all knew it. We were tough lads and most of us even then were 6ft+ but something told us to run before we even knew how many there were.
The quiet determined way they chased us felt just wrong. No shouting or “where you going pussies!?” none of that just focused breathing and grasping hands. Whatever it was was organised and just wrong.