My very sketchy neighbor has empty bags of plasma in his trash, which I cannot fathom a logical reason as to why.
I never thought i’d post this, but i have to share because i dont know if i am being gaslight or if im losing my marbles. Quick catchup for those who want to know what happened before without digging forever (my neighboor had what looked like empty medical bags of bluuud on his lawn trash pandas torn up his garbage a few months ago. He picked it up. Pretty uneventful) Neighboors trash was spread all over the yard, as well as mine and as i was cleaning mine up, i noticed there was again, bags that look like bluuud bags. At least 4 of them. I figured he must not have anything to hide, nobody throws away “sketchy” things in their own trash right?
So i was so curious about the bluud bags i jokingly said “ i think your blood bags are attracting the raccoons Gary, maybe you should rinse them out first”
He replied with “what blood bags”
I said “your plasma looking bags, the ones you just picked up. I was kidding, i dont think youre at fault, raccoons probably dont like blood, they arent vampires or wte”
He said “i didnt pick up blood bags, i dont know what youre talking about”
At that point i was thinking ok, my mind played tricks obviously who has blood bags in their trash?
I said “oh my mistake. They looked kinda similar to the pictures i saw and i watch too much greys anatomy so my mind got carried away hahaha”
He said “ WHAT PICTURE? Show me” and this man dropped what he was holding to cross the street to where i was standing.
I was still wearing my gloves and holding a bag so i said “uh sure, let me go grab my phone ill be right back” i was starting to feel uneasy, so i kind of ran inside and wrote a note on my fridge “gary did it” because i am dramatic that way.
I went back outside and I pulled up the google search for the neighboor, he says “i thought you said you took a picture”
I said “oh no. I didnt”
Neighboor said “ok” And walked back to his yard
My husband and the neighboor had a chat later. Gary told husband he was going to set a trap for the racoon, tired of cleaning up trash in the morning.
Really emphasized that anything, big or small, could get seriously injured if they went into his trash 💀
Gary said he was glad he only had his recycling bags outside and how much easier it is to only clean up bottles and cardboard. He also told my husband that a happy wife is a busy wife and that he should help me find a hobby, that he was actually looking for someone to paint his kitchen walls (i used to paint on my spare time) and that i should go over the next day.
I go over the next morning. His house was very clean and well decorated. It was his living room that he wanted painted. As i was painting, Gary stayed in the room chating with me. Found out he’s a therapist. Gary seems very nice and normal
I said “sorry about yesterday, about the blood bags or what i thought was blood bags i mean”
He said “That’s alright. People can be mistaken sometimes”
I said “i just get carried away sometimes and my mind just assumed it was blood”
He said (not exactly word for word since im having trouble remembering) “I assure you, i had nothing of the sort in my garbage. I was concerned you were taking pictures of my lawn in it’s disaray state, do you have any pictures of it?”
I said “no, i dont have any pictures, sorry. I wouldnt take a picture of your yard like that “
He just stood quiet for like a long time while i worked. I then said “anyway its none of my business. Im just happy to be painting. Thanks.
Basically no more chit chat. He pays me for the job, tells me it looks good.
I tell him to have a good day, he said you too.
Anyway, i had discreetly took a look in the bathroom to see if he had any cancer meds or smth related to him needing medical bags before starting work and no meds ubless he was hiding them from nosy people like me. He also insist that he doesnt have anything like medical waste in his trash. But i know what i saw, but now im questioning myself. I could have sworn 100% yesterday, but today im starting to have doubts.
I have become unlikely besties with my neighboor. The potentially cereal 🔪
I saw🩸bags on neighboors yard, he denied they existed. Then hinted heavily that anything big or small who went through his trash would get serious ouchies. He then hired me to paint his walls and then his fence. It was kinda awkward at first and i low key thought i’d end up becoming the new star of a monday merdur podcast. I found out he watches greys anatomy too Since then, i have started to take my breaks in his house and we are rewatching the whole series together. Gary will even make me pb&j sandwiches for us.
Ive noticed he has a room downstairs with a lock on it and music is always coming from there, so I made sure to avoid that whole area for now. I want to snoop around, but Gary and i’s friendship has really taken a positive turn so i would hate to ruin that. ….
A few days later while I was painting his fence, my new bestie Gary finally mentioned the basement.
He asked me to help him seal the cement in his basement and paint the walls today in there too.
He says he’s been renovating it and started clearing out his equipement. It must have a earthy floor before, a trail of dirt is coming from the door. My grand parents had one of those and it was quite a job to reno. Gary seems so chill now that ive got to know him, its totally fine to do it right? 🤔 we certainly could use the moneys. I still decide to proceed carefully, intrusive paranoid thoughts remind me of our previous encounter about the garbage.
So i told him “not today i have my book club, maybe tomorrow ill check my schedule”
And then he said “I thought your book clubs are sunday? I really need this done today”
I said “oh thats right. I should probably check my schedule still hahah im so forgetful you know. Ill get back to you later about helping you out. Honestly, i actually have to head back home, sorry to cut this short”
And he’ insisted”i really need this done today. Ill pay you double. I have everything you need to do it so we can start right now”
I just repeated “sorry i have to head home. I have a schedule zoom call with my hubby, i forgot” (My hubby has been gone for 2 days, hes on business trip and wont be back until tomorrow)
He said nothing while i left so that was really awkward.
Its probably in my head, but i think i should not go down there. This must be what they call intuition 🥴 or this would be a very insightful future conversation topic to have with my shrink. Again, im so dramatic i refreshed the message on the frirdge “gary did it. I texted Gary later and said i was busy, sorry. He left me on read 👍
Im worried i hurt our friend ship, but are these are red flagd? I dont want to become itty bitty pieces ya know, prevention is key right?
So i my texted my husband for his opinion when i got back home. Husband is not concerned and believes i have watched too much T.V., but decided to come back a little bit earlier to help me work on Gary’s basement. Husband says this is great opportunity for some cash and insists we tell Gary we can do it tomorrow. I swear, if his basement is totally normal and Gary acts all normal today, my husband will probably think i am loony. I contacted Gary and said i could do the work on it tomorrow and asked if i could take before and after pictures. We are trying to build a business portfolio for our website. He agreed. Told him i’d be bringing hubs to help. He replied with “hope he likes pb&j”
I feel silly for feeling uneasy about Gary.
The day goes by in a flash and the reno day arrives.
I wake up 1hour before our scheduled time with Gary. I check my phone, my husbands flight got delayed 3 hours. Oh poop. He tells me to get started without him and not break our word to a client.
I get ready to head over without my husband, my uneasiness growing. ….
I went over to reno his basement, Gary led me there and he explained he hired someone else to take care of the cement yesterday, so all i had to do was paint the walls. Gary still offered to pay me full price, i declined since i was still worried i had offended him the previous day with my suspicions and leaving curtly. I told Gary husband flight got delayed a bit, Gary said he’ll still make him a sandwich 🥪
It was a quick job, basement was very tiny comparedly to the house. Found some slightly questionable looking stains and what looked like ✨️skin&hair✨️ attached to one of the bottom trims, but I just painted over it pretending it wasn’t there 😌😬 I made a mental note to maybe bring up at a later date in a guise of a joke but only when i am not in a basement. We can joke like that now.
Gary was staying in the basement while i worked. He was helping me with the tarps and tape, so even though he was hindering my personal investigation, his company was 👍
We ate our pb&j, Gary slices the crusts off for me and that’s how I know we solid besties. I dropped my phone on the floor and broke it 😭😫 yehaw. Gary offered for me to use his home phone if i needed it. Again, nice guy.
I used his bathroom and snooped a bit more and found a box of tampons and pads, which were not there before. I also found 3 boxes of hair bleach and womens “sensitive area”wax strips. Gary is bald, but i assumed Gary got a lady friend or likes to “makeover the bush” if ya know what i mean. Maybe Gary did drag, honestly anything is possible.
Before i left, Gary offered to fix my phone free of charge. I accepted and he actually did manage to fix it.
I watch too many crime shows, so I am probably letting my imagination get carried away if I assume anything about what is going on. Theres obviously good explanations for all the sketchy stuff ive seen in the last month, surely.
Also, now I need to know how to get tough smells out of clothing. The cement sealer made the basement smell 50 shades of ewww and my shoes literally smell like fishy roadkill.
2 washes through (one i soaked with vinegar) and my paint jumper still smells bad.
Husband shows up near the end. We all have good laughs and hang out for a few more hours.
We head home a little bit more wealthy and our friendship with the neighboor drastically improving.
We spend most of the week doing little jobs for Gary and hanging out with him. I feel like Gary and us are solid besties at this point.
Gary ends up inviting us to go on a camping trip with him this weekend.
He has 2 large tents and is heading out to a local camping/hiking big wilderness park with a few of his work buddies. There is a plan to go on a 10km hike up and kayaking down back, bonfire and some scary podcasts.
It sounds really fun, I have not many of my adult friends ever do things like this. This is why Garebear is my becoming my favorite bestie.
I think he did not mean to invite us initially, it came up in conversation that he was heading there after work friday and our interest probably prompted Gary to extend the invitation. What a polite guy.
I just bought a new tent a few weeks ago and our original weekend plans were canceled, so this feels very kismet. We are excited to go.
I have prepared-> our tent, hiking boots, one 2 people sleeping bag, pillows, snacks&drinks, box cooler, ice, tarp, lots of clothes, 2 first aid bags (one for car/one for backpack), water canisters, sunscreen, diy bug away… im sure ill remember a few more things to pack.
Cell reception sucks, so what should I get as preperation for emergencies? Walkie talkies? Flares? Bear spray?
Also, i’m really starting to believe his past sketchy behavior might be all in my head. This guy is a boring kind of normal and he’s super kind. I have serious guilt about my earlier suspicions.
I contemplate if i should just ask him again about the 🩸 bags so I can just get closure on what i saw and if we are now friends enough for him to share.
I shuckled to myself for having an impossible thought that our Garebear is a vampire. …
Friday morning we meet up with Garebear and he informed us that none of his work colleagues could make it. Gary said something about them last minute canceling because of their wives making them stay home for canada day. Garebear said “a shame too, i had all made them pb&j. More for us” We end up using Garebear’s spare tent since his is a pop-up and he swears it is a camping game changer.
During the drive, Gary tells us theres a change of plans and he knows a more “natural” camping (and it is free) My hubby is down for the adventure and ready to save a buck, but the sudden change of plans made me uncomfortable. I remind myself that I am too dramatic and to get a “fictional” chill pill.
We get to on a dirt road and continue on foot for almost three hours until we get to wood trail. By the looks of it, this trail is often used and I assume it is a public trail.
Canada has many trails leading to the huge trans canada trail.
Gary gets all giddy and hyped when we reach an abandoned house after another few hours, (aprox we did 20km). He says “we’re setting camp here! Look at this beauty, perfect ambiance for our campire stories tonight”
Did i say “fu€k that shit “ and listen to every fiber of my being screaming GTFO of here?
I did not, i instead set up the pop up tents while the guys gathered wood and set up the fire. The pop up tents take less than 10 minutes for me to set up by myself. Gary was right, a serious game changer.
Garebear pulled out 3 sandwiches from his bag. Hubby devoured his and asked “more?”
Gary replied “shoot, i only made 3”
Hubby asked “What about the other ones for your coworkers”
Gary replied “oh. Yeah. Forgot them. Sorry”
Husband was small sad. I was small suspicious again.
Silly garebear must be tired and confused from the hike, i thought to myself.
We start drinking around the campfire and take turns telling stories.
Garebear’s turn and he tells us about a infamous serial killer who would hitchhike with couples and lure them into the woods, where he would cannibalize them and bury them in unmarked graves in the woods. Supposedly, he is still out there, satifying his blood craze and delusions, drinking blood from his victims after draining it into IV bags. He adapted to avoid getting caught and now stalks his prey for months until he finds the perfect opportunity.
I tried to look as stoic and chill as a cucumber.
I probably did not look the part while I was trying to send emergency signals to my hubby with my eyes, to which hubby said to me”are you okay ? Did you get smoke in your eyes?”
I go to my tent and take out my defensive tools just in case.
Im too creeped out to sleep. I tell them i am not feeling well and stay hunched in the middle of the tent, holding onto to my bear spray and little pocket knife. The guys eventually go to bed after nightfall. I watch over my poor clueless husband who is sleeping so peacefully. I hear rustling and moving but i stay in my tent, ready for it. It felt like an eternity. Nothing happens.
Morning comes and Hubby gets up to pee and tells me in a panic thay Gary is gone. His tent and his camping stuff gone. He even took most of our supplies, compas included and other things of importance.
We were lost and after wondering for a few hours trying to get back, we had to call emergency services to come get us.
They say it looks like no signs of foul play, that Gary must’ve left in the middle of the night. They hinted that maybe he was playing a prank on us and trying to scare us with him “dissapearing” in the middle of the night. That we should tell him not to do that again, people can die of exposure if they get lost and too deep in the woods.
We get home and it does not look like Gary is there.
My husband says I am being dramatic again and Gary is just fine. He said “Gary’s probably having a laugh at us right now” 👍
He even insists we should not bother the police with an innocent prank and Gary could get into trouble. He says its a guy thing. That men prank each other.
He left me alone while he had to go on another long business trip, big meanie 🥺
I call the local police department anyway, but after I tell them that Gary is missing and the fact that he pacled up and left himself, they tell me a full 48 hours must have passed before they can start a file. Again, they reassure me that it sounds like this is just a distateful joke. Go home and relax they said.
I get home late afternoon and open a bottle of wine.
I start stress cleaning the house, waiting for the wine to work it’s magic, until I noticed blood on my husbands hicking shoes, a fair amount on them too.
Now I’ve watched enough Dexter to know that blood splatter looks different depending on injuries. I know his shoes did not have blood on them, i packed them myself.
I wanted to text him and ask him how he got blood on them, when I noticed the police show up in front of Gary’s house.
From what I gathered of other neighbors chitchater, someone called for a wellness check on Gary.
The police spent only a few hours looking around and left without questioning me, since they already had “all the information” from yesterday.
Of course they questioned super fine Diane a couple houses down 🙄 fair enough i guess, she is a 10/10, but she sells Arbone.
Probably for the best anyway, I realize that this could spell trouble for me. I need to know what i’m dealing with before I can turn to them, besides there’s still a chance this is all in my head and i’m just being dramatic. My hubby always tells me I tend to read into things.
I took pictures of my hubbies shoes and went to town on them, cleaning them with a peroxide/water mix and tide to go pens. It mostly worked after a lot of scrubs💪 It also fizzled, which means it is organic matter 🤢 I wore gloves since blood is biohazard, eww.
I told myself “Let’s not draw too many conclusions here, there’s plenty of good explanations why there’s stuff on your husband’s shoes”
I tried to find the outfit my hubby was wearing that night, but it is odly not in our camping bag. I searched everywhere but no luck.
I did find a laundromat card tucked deep in one of his socks in his sock drawer after a semi frenzied search everywhere. There’s a number on it, but i didnt call it yet. A quick internet search gives me no known info on it.
It’s in my provinces area code so its local and it is not in my contacts. I need to find a way to become a master investigator, I try to look up ways to find information anonymously.
Gary is still not home and many of his things are confirmed missing. No missig report has been filed as of yet and nothing on the rcmp website. No apparent signs of anything suspicious was in his house, or at least none the police were able to find.
Everyone is paying attention to his house. I don’t think i can go in without being seen, but I can’t think of a good explanation to go in if i am caught.
I decide to tackle the card first.
I call the number and get a recorded voice saying “this number is not in service, blah blah…”
I end up going to the laundromat and paye&collect my husband’s things. Multiple outfits, including the one he was wearing on our camping trip ❗️ There is also a “Welcome to Florida” shirt that i have never seen before. Yay! More secrets.
I send my husband a text asking about the laundromat card.
Husband replies that we will only speak in person when he comes back from hisbtrip. No text or calls. He also told me to please not stir up a fuss for no good reason and will explain everything to me.
I remembered I have Gary’s tent so I decided to use this as my “explanation”. The tent bag was not huge , but to lug it accross the street without drawing too much attention to myself felt risky, people would notice if I stayed around his place to snoop. I figured the tent bag was black so waiting until nightime would benefit me
It wasn’t until I had crossed the street dressed in all black with an awkward looking large black bag to my missing neighboors house, did the realization that THIS would be so much worse to explain 💀 its 3am. I must gamble on my ability to pull 💩 out of my 🍑 if things go wrong.
I was committed to the cause and tried my best to execute a sneaky dash to his door. My thicc body (resembling that of 2012 Melissa Mccarthy) certainly did not help me succeed. You do not know how out of shape you are until you almost 💀 from doing a short 5 second dash.
The door was locked and I tried to climb through one of the windows, but made too much noise that the husky from next door started to serenade me with the song of it’s people. I got spooked and i ended up hiding in his broken RV that he used to smoke late at night.
I waited until the coast was clear, but it was now daylight and I could see a news van in front of Gary’s driveway. There was no way I could leave without being seen.
I sent my sister a quick s.o.s text and asked her to make a scene in front of my house so I could escape the RV without being spotted.
While I waited, I found some a picture of what appears to be Gary and my husband but i’d say it was taken almost 10 years ago. Things are just getting really weird now.
I also notice news articles abour the serial killer Gary mentioned during our campfire story.
It dates back 7 years ago, the same year I met my husband and got married. The description of the killer matches my husbands.
I’m drawn back to reality by Diane’s loud laughter. She has taken the news crew’s attention.
I take this opportunity and manage to get out. I sneak around back and make my way back to the sidewalk.
My head is spinning, but I make it back to my house.
I jump in the shower to wash off the tobacco and sweat smell off my body,
I feel much better and relax for a second, but I just heard my husbands key unlock our front door.
I wonder what plausible explanation he has for what is happening.