I’m French, I’m 20.
In my high school, there was a special line. It was for musicians and allowed us to go to high school only in the morning and to take advantage of the afternoon to work at the conservatory (classes, personal work, etc).
Most of the time, we all went only towards the closing of the conservatory, that is to say around 9:30 pm, in order to make the most of the time we could spend there. By winter, of course, night fell earlier. Because of this, as well as some testimonies from previous students in this field reporting some assaults, the girls often returned earlier, sometimes accompanied by their boyfriend. Personally, preferring to work to the maximum because of my delay (I had just enough points to get into this line), I continued to leave late, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends. That night, I came to the highschool alone.
Ah, gee … I forgot to mention two details. First of all, I had no beard or mustache at that time, so I was mistaken for a girl, even from the front. Secondly, we all took a shortcut to go back to boarding school, which saved us at least 5 to 10 minutes.
In short. One evening, like every other evening, I decided to leave. This time, my friends were not there. Leaving the conservatory, I started my usual route (15 minutes walk at most). Finally comes the shortcut, I was only a few minutes away from school. The alley was not one of those dark, creepy alleys worthy of bad horror movies, on the contrary. It was quite wide, rather well lit, with buildings with windows lit most of the time, which always ensured a little security, because if we had to scream, someone would hear us.
Knowing that the boarding school closed relatively late, it gave me plenty of time to walk more calmly. I liked the silence and, with the exception of two or three cars, this street was very quiet. I enjoyed it. But the silence was broken when I heard weak footsteps behind me. This caused me blood for a very simple reason: I watched a lot of horror movies. I then had two thoughts, either one of my friends or an average person, or I became a target myself. The second option seemed unlikely to me, but for some reason, I decided to put all the odds on my side.
Continuing to walk, I tried to place my phone so that I could see the reflection. I managed, but the black screen did not allow me to discern anything about this person. I waited then for the next car parked, placed at about fifteen meters, to try to see it better. This time, I managed to discern his clothes. He was not someone I knew.
At the time, I didn’t realize it, but looking back, I think more and more he saw me looking at him in the rearview mirror of the car.
Suddenly, the pace accelerated, just a little bit. I was then accelerating a little too. But it accelerated again. We continued then. Finally, I started running. I was approaching the hospital fence, which meant that at the next turn, I’d be in front of the door to the boarding school. But I suddenly remembered that to get in, I would have to ring. Was there anyone at the office ? Or were they all on floors ?
More and more frightened, tears began to flow down my cheeks. I kept telling myself inwardly, “Why me ? Why me ? Why me ?”
I was running as fast as I could, when a noise relieved me like never before. This noise was none other than that of a car coming from the other end of the alley rather quickly, in a few seconds they would have caught me ! But the strange man didn’t want to give up, not now that he was so close… Yes, close he was, because a few seconds before the car passed I felt him trying to grab my bag, but the handle slipped between his hands. Then the car passed, one of the passengers lowered the window and screamed :
“Hey, what’s going on ?”, looking at them, I think they saw my tears and my expression, I started to run more and more, thinking, “What if they were in cahoots ?”
I reached the door, and pressed the doorbell at least ten times very quickly, before turning around and seeing… that there was nobody. The car passed in another street, probably not having seen that I had turned the corner, as for the man, he had simply disappeared. Finally, the door opened, I went in and closed it again very quickly, before going up crying, the supervisors not understanding anything about my stammering.
However, I have not finished this message.
First, I’m still not over this experience. I don’t sleep in the dark, I close the curtain of my velux for fear of seeing a shadow again, and I check every night a dozen times that my door is locked. I took martial arts classes to defend myself and I always take a phone charger for the day.
Secondly, I didn’t tell anyone about this man, except my friends and the monitors, not even the police.
And finally, I thought about it, and I know why, even though he was so close to the car, he tried to grab my bag. As I said, I was walking past a hospital fence, which was easy to climb. I know what would’ve happened if I just slowed down a little, and I know where he went missing.
I’ve finished. Sorry for my bad english.