“Will you be my Valentine’s?”
The message notification popped up on my phone, glaring at me in the dark of my room. Anxiety bubbled in my stomach as I stared at the text until the screen went black. I felt a chill down my spine as that same no-name number flashed in my head. A number, that no matter what I did, didn’t ever seem to stay blocked for long. This message was nowhere close to the strangest one I had been receiving from this number for the past year, but it still caused me to feel uneasy and anxious.
The whole situation made me want to cry because despite being constantly harassed and borderline stalked by the person on the other end, there was nothing I could do. They had never outright threatened my safety nor was I in any immediate danger so the police wouldn’t do anything. Besides, it’s hard to get a restraining order against someone you don’t know. When I received my first message from the number, it was probably a day or two after Valentine’s Day of last year.
It read somewhere along the lines of, “Hi, I just wanted to wish you a happy late Valentine’s Day. Love you.”
To which I replied, “Thanks, you too, but I think you have the wrong number.”
In hindsight, I wish I had never responded, but I thought it was just a harmless mishap. I didn’t want to be rude and I find it quite normal to wish someone a happy Valentine’s Day without there being any romantic relation between you and the other person. That there, had initiated the start of a very stressful and anxiety filled year.
The messages that followed after that were pretty normal at the start, however. The person would ask me how I was and how my day was going. Again, I thought it was harmless so I engaged in small talk with them, asking them in return how they were and how their day was. Somewhere along the line though, I had gotten really busy with both my work and personal life and stopped message them as often. This seemed to spark their obsessiveness as whenever I would check my contacts, I would see ten plus unread messages they had sent me. From asking me normal questions and asking if I was fine, but soon they started asking me about things I never told them.
This behavior had honestly creeped me out so I stopped replying to them all together and blocked them. I thought it was a done deal, but a few days later, I’d see them at the top of my contacts list with dozens of unread messages. In a span of a few days, the messages had gone from just slightly obsessive to full-blown obsessive and even possessive in a sense. From that point on, they’d constantly message me about things they imagines us doing together, send me messages of their love for me, and would even sometimes insult me for the lack of my responses. But one thing stayed the same, they always asked me about things they shouldn’t have known about, as if warning me that they were watching me.
As I said previously, no matter what I did, they never stayed blocked. After mulling over everything, I found myself more angry than anxious. I quickly opened up the contact and before I could even second guess myself, I typed out a very not so well thought out message and sent it.
“No, I don’t want to be your Valentine’s and I never will. I have no idea who you are, but I do know that you sicken me. Every time I see your messages I feel anxious and nauseous. You are nothing but an obsessive creep who has filled my past year with stress, fear, and annoyance. Please don’t ever contact me again or I will involve the police, I’m serious.”
I stared at the screen, holding my breath as I waited to see if they would respond, but after about 30 minutes there was still nothing. I let out the breath I was holding, but despite the lack of response, I still didn’t feel all that relieved. Anxiety and fearful anticipation flooded my nerves, making sleeping all the harder. Not wanting to dwell on it any more, I blocked the number for hopefully the last time and placed my phone down. I would not allow this person to scare me any longer.
The next day it was Valentine’s Day. A lovely day for couples that I would’ve loved to celebrate by treating myself to something nice, but unfortunately, I had a lot of work to do. The message from last night had been long since forgotten as I headed into work, feeling more at ease than ever before. I guess some part of me figured that everything was over now and I could rest easy without having to worry about the unknown person. Regardless, I went throughout my day as usual albeit it was a bit more busy than usual due to an approaching deadline.
I worked late into the night, not leaving the office until a little before 9 p.m.. As I walked out to my car, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. There were only two other cars in the parking lot, both of which were far from mine, and it was extremely dark. Each step I took echoed out into the silent night which only helped to increase my feeling of unease. I cautiously glanced around as I felt something was off, almost as if I was being watched.
For a moment, I had thought back to the person behind the no-name number and my blood ran cold. I hurriedly picked up my pace and shook my head, trying to convince myself I was just being paranoid. I wanted to believe that I was tired from a long day at the office. As I reached my car, I fumbled with my keys momentarily before unlocking my door. As I was about to get in, I heard rapid footsteps coming up behind me and before I could even turn around, something hard connected with my head. My vision spotted as pain exploded in my skull. As I crumpled to the ground, my vision went black; I was unconscious.
It was sometime late when I startled awake with a pounding headache and slightly blurred vision. I was in a state of confusion and panic as I looked around, trying to see where I was. My arms and legs wouldn’t move how I wanted them to, causing my panic to worsen. I looked down at the duct tape that painfully bounded my limbs to the chair I was seated in. In my confused panic, I didn’t even realize there was someone else in the room with me until they spoke.
“Hello Katie.”
I froze as the voice sounded oddly familiar, but in my painful and confused haze, I couldn’t put a face to the name. Instead, I turned my attention in the direction of the voice and was met with a masked man, leaning against a table off to the side of me. My vision was clearing and I could clearly see I was most likely in a basement of some kind.
“Who… who are you and what d-do you want from me?” I asked, my voice hesitant and shaking.
He laughed, but he didn’t sound amused in the slights, “I’m hurt Katie, truly. I thought you’d recognize me from my voice, but I guess not.”
“I-if you show me your f-face, perhaps I’d recognize.. you,” I replied.
“Don’t…,” he said, slamming a hand down on the table, “play games with me.”
I jumped as tears pricked at my eyes, “I’m n-not! Please! I-I truly don’t know who y-you are! Please, just l-let me go! I promise I won’t s-say a word!”
He stood from the table and began pacing back and forth in front of me, “No, no, NO! See, I was nice, I messaged you everyday. I asked how you were, asked how your day was, asked about your job and family! Told you about what I wanted to do with you. And FINALLY! When I had gained enough confidence, I asked you out for Valentine’s Day!”
He stopped in front of me before kneeling down to be at my eye level, “But what did you do? YOU SAID I SICKEN YOU! YOU CALLED ME AN OBSESSIVE CREEP WHEN ALL I DID WAS SHOW MY LOVE FOR YOU!”
I shrank away from him as much as I could as tears rolled down my face. Realization hit me as I now knew that he was the stalker, he was the one who sent me all those messages. I felt sick to my stomach as thoughts of what he would to do me raced through my mind. He furrowed his brows before wiping a tear off my face before standing back up. The haze I felt was starting to clear away as my brain worked overtime trying to figure out who he was and what he was going to do with me. He had to be someone I know, someone who knew where I worked and about my personal issues.
I felt winded as I started putting the pieces together. With the evidence laid out in front of me and his voice as the clue, I felt horrified.
“Y-you’re Jared, Jared from the g-group therapy! B-but why?! Why Jared? If you liked me, y-you could’ve just said so!” I asked, desperation bleeding into my quivering words.
“You wouldn’t understand,” He said, removing his mask, “I was infatuated with you, but you would have never looked my way. So, instead, I needed to contact you and not have you aware of who was. That way you wouldn’t have any preconceived notions about me. I’ve loved you for so long, poured my heart out to you, but you never returned my feelings. Instead you spat in my face and pierced my heart with those sharp words of yours’. But it’s okay, I know how to fix this. Since you don’t love me, and I can’t have you with anyone else, I’ll just kill you.”
He glared at me with eyes that petrified me. This was longer the same Jared I knew. Madness was apparent in his eyes as a small but sadistic smile was spread across his face. I wanted to scream and shout at him, but I knew that would not help me. I needed to calm down and appeal to his feelings. I needed to convince him that I loved him back. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again and staring at Jared with both sympathy and fondness.
“Jared, please listen to me. I had no idea that the person messaging me was you. I am so sorry that I hurt you and betrayed your trust, but I honestly didn’t know it was you. I thought it was a stranger who was stalking me, you have to understand. If I knew it was you, I wouldn’t have acted that way. I would’ve happily returned your feelings.”
I watched the sadistic smile fall as his eyes became normal once more. His face softened light as he seemed to be mulling what I said over.
“Jared,” I continued on, my voice softer and more calm than before, “now that I know, I would love to be your Valentine’s if you’ll have me. I’m so sorry, for what I said, but I’d really love to spend some time with you and do some of the things you had said you wanted to do together. Like cooking, you wanted to cook together, right? If you’ll allow it, I’d love to cook for you, as an apology.”
A small, genuine small broke out on his face, “Really? You want to be my Valentine’s?”
“Yes, I’ll cook you something nice as well, you just have to release me from these,” I said, nodding at my bindings.
“No! You’ll just leave me!” He responded, his face hardening once more.
I shook my head, “No Jared, I won’t! I promise! To be honest, I’ve had feelings for you as well, I was just unsure if you felt the same. After all, we only conversed a bit after group therapy and you didn’t seem interested. So Jared, I promise you when I say I’ll stay with you.”
“Prove it,” he replied, “Prove to me that you’ll stay! Prove to me that you love me as well!”
I bit my lip as a thought passed through my mind and I decided to go with it, “Kiss me Jared.”
That seemed to surprise him as his eyes widened and he just stared me.
“Wh-what?”
“Kiss me, I’ll prove it to you that way.”
He smiled once more and nodded as he kneeled down in front of me. As he leaned in, I closed my eyes and waited for our lips to connect. I tried to put as much passion I could into the kiss all while keeping the nausea I felt down. As he pulled away, I smiled at him to which he returned with a big smile. Without me even saying anything more, he pulled a knife from his belt and sliced through the tape holding me in place.
I felt somewhat relieved as I rubbed at the red marks on my wrists. I bared had time to process anything as he pulled me after him as he led me up the stairs and into his living room. I followed, trying to be as happy as possible and laughing along with him.
“I knew it! I knew you’d get it! You just needed to know that it was me! I’m so happy Katie!” He exclaimed as he led me through the living room and into the kitchen.
“I am too Jared. I’m glad that we are together,” I responded, coming to a stop by the kitchen table which I used to steady myself. I grit my teeth as I waited for the dizziness to subside and prayed the dull pounding would stop.
“Well, let’s get started cooking,” He said
“Uh uh mister, I said I’d cook for you and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Go into the living room and relax, you must be tired.” I replied with a small laugh.
I nodded, “Yeah, but did you bring my purse with us?”
“Yeah, why?” He asked.
“Can you get it for me? I have a slight headache and I have some ibuprofen in my purse,” I explained, smiling before pecking him on the cheek.
He smiled and immediately left the kitchen to get it. While he was gone, I got busy gathering the necessary ingredients for breakfast. It wasn’t even five minutes late when he returned with my purse. I smiled and thanked him before shooing him out of the kitchen. Ensuring that he was actually gone and not watching, I opened my purse and pulled out a bottle of my sleeping pills.
I got to work cooking the breakfast ingredients I could find. I knew from the small conversations with Jared that breakfast was his favorite. It didn’t take me long to get it all ready as I started plating it. I ladled a big spoonful of grits into a bowl that was separate from everything else. I quickly took a few of my sleeping pills and crushed them before adding them to the bowl of grits. Not wanting to get suspected of anything, I hastily shoved them back into my purse and set the table.
“Jared, the food is ready!” I called out as I sat down.
He came in and lit up at the food, “Wow! Thanks Katie! This looks so good!”
Before he sat, he planted a kiss on my head which I kindly smiled in return.
As we ate, I carefully observed, anxious that at any moment he’d figure out my plan. I was thankful that I always kept my sleeping pills in my purse, they could very well be the thing that helps me to escape.
We engaged in light conversation all the while I was trying to hide the fear that threatened to make me hurl the food I was eating. I just had to keep this act up for a little longer. Just a little longer. I know from experience that adding these particular sleeping pills to food increased the drowsiness effect along with a few others. We soon finished our food and I sent Jared back to the living room while I cleaned the dishes. It was partially so that hopefully he’ll fall asleep soon and so I could stay away from him for as long as possible
Once the dishes were done, I slowly made my way into the living room and to where Jared was seated on the couch. I went to sit beside him, seeing as how he looked to fighting to stay awake but was starting to fail.
“Are you tired?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah I am,” he answered.
“Come, lay your head on my lap. Rest, you deserve it,” I said with a smile.
He nodded slowly and laid down. I absentmindedly ran my fingers through his hair in a soothing manner. I watched TV as my nerves screamed at me. He turned, looking up at me, which cause me to stare down at him.
“You’ll stay with me, won’t you?” He asked, his words starting to slur together.
I smiled and laughed slightly, “Of course, I won’t leave you.”
He returned my smile and closed his eyes. I sat there for what felt like an eternity, playing in his hair, waiting for him to fully fall asleep. It wasn’t until about 40 minutes later that I was confident he wouldn’t wake up from me moving. Carefully, I slid out from underneath him and replaced my lap with a pillow. I quickly searched his pants pockets, making sure his car keys weren’t on him. Upon not finding any, I made my way to the kitchen and grabbed my purse and looked for them there. I went back to the living room and searched around before finding them on the table by the door. I almost breathed a sigh of relief, but my paranoia of it waking him prevented me from doing so.
I unlocked the door, and before I opened it, I paused. I need evidence if I was to go to the police. With that thought, I headed back down to the basement and took a few pictures of the chair that I was strapped to not even two hours ago. The same chair that could easily have been where I would die. The thought made my stomach churn so I disregarded it and begun searching the rest of his house. I went through each room, not finding anything. I was becoming discouraged until I found a locked room on the second floor. I pulled out his keys and tried each one until I found one that unlocked the door.
Opening the door, I turned the light on and stood in horror of what I saw. There were dozens of pictures of me pinned to walls with hearts drawing on them. There were pictures of me cut out and pasted onto pictures that he had of himself. There were love letters that spoke volumes of his obsessive and possessive behavior. Pushing my unease and nausea down, I took multiple photos of all of it and quickly made my way back down the stairs and out the front door. I didn’t even bother closing it behind me as I rushed to his truck. In fear of waking him, I unlocked the drive’s side door with the key.
Getting in, I put the truck in neutral and let off the brake to allow it to roll down the small incline of his driveway onto the road. Once I was out enough, I turned the truck on and put it in drive, not daring to look back. I floored it to the police station with my flashers on, allowing myself to release the breath I was holding. Tears fell down my face as I rushed into the police station and yelled for help.
Officers rushed to me and I showed them the bruising on my wrists and the photos I took while explaining what happened. That was enough to send them to Jared’s house while I was taken to the hospital due to my head injury which was thankfully not as serious as I thought. I couldn’t stop crying from both relief and that I actually made it out. It wasn’t until the next morning that I heard that Jared was successfully arrested and in jail after having been still asleep until the cops showed up. He wasn’t happy and had gone insane and practically uncontrollable as he shouted about how he was going to kill me and that I was a traitor.
That was the final straw that finally convinced me to move out of this city. I had already been offered a job opportunity in a different state, but I was hesitant with deciding what to do. After this, however, I needed to desperately get away. Jared was in jail at the moment, but one day he’ll be out and I wanted to be like a ghost when he did. I accepted the job as soon as I got out of the hospital and started packing immediately.
This event truly showed me that you never truly know a person. You don’t know what they’ll do to you or anyone else, and that horrified me. While Jared’s intentions probably started off pure, somewhere down the line he became obsessive and downright horrifying. He is my very own Valentin’es horror story and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to the view the holiday the same again. But tell me, would you have been his Valentine’s?