Hello reddit.
I come here out of desperation. Something has happened to me today that I can still not comprehend. As I’m typing this, my hands are still shaking and my heart still pounds like never before. My mind is still trying to process the events that happened earlier this morning and I can not tell if what I’ve saw and felt was real or not. My only resort was to tell this story to someone and I believe you guys can help me out. One thing that I would like to settle is that English is not my first language and I’m pretty nervous typing this, so forgive me for any mistakes I make. Without any further ado, let’s start.
First, I believe some context is essential.
I’m a college student from southern Brazil currently, studying medicine hoping for one day to become a doctor. My itinerary is complex and ever-changing, so I usually arrive early at my college and leave late at night. As for such, I usually have a car to transport myself. I still live with my parents and the car in specific is not mine, but rather my mom’s. My mom worked for many years for delivery services, and so used this car for her job. After I entered college, she let me borrow this car in order to better transport myself from home to there and vice-versa. Currently, she uses her own car for work, however sometimes she still needs her work car (the car I’m using) for a variety of reasons, either it being because her car is being tuned-up or broke down, etc etc. Sincerely, I don’t mind that, her work car is already a bonus for me, so if she needs it, she can have it whenever she needs.
On this oportunate situations, I go to college through different means, usually by my friends giving me a ride or by calling transportations services such as Uber or conventional taxis. This morning was no different.
Last night, my mom let me know in advance that she would be needing her work car today. At first, nothing unusual, I will just book a cab or call an Uber and everything will go as it normally goes.
I woke up this morning at 5:50 AM. My classes start at 07:40 AM, however, since I wouldn’t be having my car today, I woke up earlier than usual to guarantee I wouldn’t be late. I would be on the responsability of another person after all.
I got up, had breakfast, dressed up, got my bag and stepped out of the house no later than 06:30. It is currently winter in Brazil at this time of the year, and since it rains frequently in my town, the day is usually dark. The sun rises around 7 AM, and the sky is usually heavily clouded, so it’s normal for this time to still look like night-time and from 8 am to 6 pm for the day to look darker than the rest of the year.
So here I was, on the sidewalk in front of my house in the usual darkness of the morning. I took out my phone and wondered what method I should use today. First, I intended in calling two of my friends whom also go to college with me, however it was early and they were probably still asleep at the time. I then decided to call for an Uber, but my mobile data isn’t the best and calling an Uber would’ve taken an eternity. The only thing working properly was my phone’s signal, which I could use to call a cab. And that’s what I did. Now, I look back and realize I should’ve never done that.
The call was nothing out of the ordinary. I called in a cab from a local taxi company, gave my address and waited patiently. It was not like if I have never done that before. 5 minutes went by, then 10, 20, and I started to worry if the company had really dispatched someone to pick me up, and that’s when I saw what I was looking for.
Turning on a street corner, came a regular white cab tagged “Taxi” on the roof of the car and the company’s name tagged on the corner of the windshield. A swarm of relief hit me and I signalized for the driver that I was the one who called. The cab slowed down and eventually came to a stop next to where I was, I opened the back seat door and placed my bag behind the front passenger seat, to which I closed the door and entered and sat on the front passanger seat, next to the driver.
As I sat down and closed the door, I told the driver that I’ve placed my stuff on the back of the seat I was sitting on and I was about to tell them where I was headed to… And what I’ve saw made me stop speaking mid-sentence.
The driver was a short young woman, probably between 30 and 35, with a short hair, colored mixed between a blonde and whitish color and, in normal conditions, I would have considered her relatively pretty if it was not for what made my blood freeze almost instantly. The woman driving the car had bulged, soulless, never-blinking eyes fixated on the road. The woman had her head slightly tilted up, looking down with those mysterious yet horrendous eyes to the road. You know when you are going downstairs but don’t tilt your head down to look where you are going but instead use only your eyes with your head still heading front? That’s exactly how she was, but her head was tilted upwards and her bulged big eyes looking down in order to see the road. Look, I’m studying medicine and I’ve already seen patients with exophthalmos, a clinical condition where patients have their eyes bulged anteriorly by an anormality in their thyroid gland, but this… This was different. Those eyes were not normal, they were big and kept starring at the road motionless, soulless with what felt like no emotion at all.
I stopped speaking and froze as soon as I saw her. The woman did not answer. Hell, she did not even look at me or even seemed to notice I’ve entered the car… She just kept starring at the road with her head tilted up. Those seconds of silence felt like minutes, I could feel every hair on my body standing up and my heart starting to pounce like a festival drum. My only desire was to scream and run from that woman, the atmosphere she passed was so uncomfortable that I can’t even descrive the feeling.
For some stupid moral principle, I tried to shrug it off and tell myself it was all in my head. Perhaps that woman had a medical condition that I did not know and I was afraid of nothing at all. With that thought and a lot of internal strengh, I managed to continue the phrase where I left off and gave the address to my college. The woman again did not respond, just kept her motionless stare at the road.
After around 10 seconds or so, that woman started driving away and making our way to my college. I’m usually a very sociable person and I love to talk to new people, but this situation did not make me wake that feeling. That woman was so weird, so unnatural, almost like she was not meant to be here, and yet she was. The only movements the girl made were to shift gears, accelerate, break, just the essential to move the car. She did not look both sides when crossing intersections, did not look at traffic lights, she did not even change her sitting position, and yet managed to drive like she was doing all of those things, she never cut anyone’s front, did not run over red lights, almost like an AI drives, but this girl looked like flesh and organic, she definetly was NOT an AI. Most of the ride I felt uncomfortable, ocasionally looking at her still trying to process what I was seeing, and I swear in God’s name she did not blink not even once during the whole ride.
After around 10 minutes of disturing silence, we finally made it to my college. I said one very embarassed and out-of-place “thank-you” to her and asked how much it was, and of course she did not answer, just kept that static position she mantained throught the entirety of our time. I took out my wallet and grabbed a considerate amount of money; much more than any other cab service would have asked for a service such as this, however I did not want to take my chances with whatever this girl was. I said how much I was paying and that I would be placing it in the cup-holder between the seats, and just stepped out of the car as fast as I could. I did not expect nor wanted any change, I just wanted to get out of that car and go on with my routine and maybe forget that whole incident. While I was stepping out of the cab, I told her, even without knowing if she was listening or not, that I would just grab my bag on the backseat and leave, to which of course no response. I shrugged it off and opened the backseat door to grab my stuff.
When I opened, I saw that my bag rolled over to the opposite side from where I was standing on the way, which meant that I would have to reach all the way down on the floor on the car inside to grab the bag handle in order to take it out. I really REALLY did not want to spend any more time inside with that woman than necessary, but I still needed my material. With one fast prayer to all the gods I knew, I semi-crawled on the backseat in order to grab my bag handle and just get out of there as soon as possible, and that’s when it hit me.
Out of a sudden, a wave of panic descended upon me. My fight-or-flight response activated, my blood rushed, my heart pounced like never before, I felt a sheer wave of an iced-like cold sensation spike through my organs, the fear in me grew exponentially to such a point that the only thing that seemed rational was to scream for help and run for my life. Never have I ever experienced such fear in my entire life. Frozen by the fear and shaking like a newborn chihuahua, I slowly and painfully raised my head to look at what was making me feel that way, and I saw… her.
The woman, or whatever the hell that was, for the first time, moved. I don’t know when or how I did not notice it but when I lifted my head to see her, she was still in the driver seat, but starring right at me with those menancing, disturbing, bulged eyes and with the creepiest, scariest, most blood-curdling smile I’ve ever seen. She was not with her head tilted up anymore, she was starring straight forward at me with those eyes at the center of those giant eyeballs, and toppled with that ear-to-ear smile. That stare without any emotion behind was now changed to a different stare. I’m not sure what she was thinking, but I swear that those eyes now had intentions, she was looking into my very soul with a killer-like instinct that made every cell in my body scream in agony. This was probably the first experience I’ve had to what it feels like to be stared at by an assassin. It took half a second, but for me it felt like I was starred into for an entire hour, and as my rushing mind was comprehending the danger of the situation, the girl suddently steps on the gas and takes off with the car faster than I could follow, it’s still starring at me and not at the road.
I was still inside the car with my bag in hand when she did this and I still don’t know how I managed to jump out without hurting myself on the process. That could’ve gone wrong in so many ways but I managed to stay in one piece and leave the car faster than I ever did. As I saw the cab go, although I could not see her, I could tell clear as day that she was watching me as she drove away.
It took me several minutes to come to myself again. I puked on some plants on the side of the parking lot I was at and pratically dragged myself to my empty classroom. Even though my friends eventually came and my classes started, I couldn’t focus. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that woman… That monster that made me fear for my life more than I’ve ever imagined. I’m now in a bathroom stall, with my phone in hand typing everything I felt, feel and lived. Telling this via a written story is way easier than telling face-to-face without breaking into tears or having a panic attack. Just remembering this incident makes me anxious, nervous, I start to shake the moment I remember that smile.
If someone can tell or explain to me what I lived today, I would be insanely grateful. It doesn’t even have to be complex nor make sense, even a simple hypothesis or theory is already enough for me to calm down a little, since my mind is still anesthetized and failing to comprehend anything. I feel like knowing what I’ve experienced can make me control my emotions and understand better the situation I was in.
Anyhow, I believe that, should I need to go to college through a different mean, next time I will just walk my way there.