First of all, I apologize in advance for any spelling or grammatical errors that this text may contain. I am French and do not fully master English. I have never told this story to anyone, but I felt the need to express my trauma at some point.
On the first of October 2015, I decided to move to Lille, a French city located in the north of the country. I had just started my second year of toxicology to continue my studies in the same field. I scoured my computer for a long time looking for an apartment, I quickly found one and moved in without further delay. It was quite big, in a district far from the center and not very well known. I felt quite comfortable there, but the owner was a bit too much for me. He waited in the entrance sitting on a chair, almost during the whole evening, apart from that he seemed totally normal. One evening I brought my girlfriend home, he seemed particularly upset that day and didn’t even say hello. At first glance it was nothing serious. After a few weeks in this property, I quickly realized that he was jealous of me and my girlfriend. I had once spotted him in the background of a selfie of our couple. It was very scary by the way, I didn’t want to talk to him about it right away but I just took it as personal craziness, maybe I was worried about nothing? Until he followed me on October 19 to a hiking trail I used to take, he followed my every step, every direction, without slowing down, not even saying a word. I was worried but I still felt able to stay in that apartment, I just had to dodge him and not stay alone so much.
On November 7, while I was taking a shower and listening to music, I heard my door being picked. It was as if someone from the outside was trying to open the door. But it was only my girlfriend who had the spare key, but it wasn’t her. I heard a hoarse, guttural voice whispering words near the shower that were too incomprehensible in my shocked state. From my mirror I immediately saw the face of my owner who seemed much dirtier, much more neglected than the other days, he was calmly walking towards the bathroom. But I was naked, and in a house that was supposed to be my privacy, I felt the fear rising, despite my 21 years, I was afraid of his intentions, surely sexual. I immediately started to heat the water in the shower to the maximum in an attempt to burn him and make sure he was safe, so I did, he continued to move forward and I sprayed him with the scalding water from the shower. He let out a cry of pain, I then turned around to grab my phone and call my girlfriend to come and get me. My landlord went back to his apartment and didn’t come out until I left. I ordered by message 4 days later that I would not set foot in his property again and that I would find another apartment. After some problems with papers and contracts, I managed to find another apartment and I am safe again. Even today the trauma resurfaces in the darkest moments.