Hey everyone, my name is Owen. I have never posted here before. Even if I wanted to, I’m a terrible writer. I do love reading some of your stories here though. Some of you are fantastic writers! Sometimes I wonder how much I read here is true. I know that we aren’t supposed to post real life encounters here, but I wanted to share this with you guys anyway. Especially with all the social media posts I’ve seen on this subreddit lately. About three months ago, I had to travel to another state. My uncle died, and I had to be there for the funeral. I helped get his family’s finances in order, and honestly I just had to make sure everyone was okay.
During my absence, I have not spoken to my wife. We rarely talk anymore. To be honest I’ve been avoiding her for quite a while. Anyway, when I returned home, she was gone. I have reported her missing, but I think she’s dead. She loved attention, so she had a lot of social media accounts and posted frequently. After waiting for a few days, she still had not come home, so I decided to go through her accounts to see if she said anything.
I found little pieces of the story all over. Some on reddit, one on facebook, one was on twitter. And a couple were in a word document. She used that to go through her wording and make sure everything sounded perfect before she posted. Anyway, I have gathered everything I could find, and I think I have it all in the right order.
____________________________________________________________________________
I have been married to my husband for 12 years. We met at a party during freshman year at college. He was the guy sitting in the corner laughing with a large group of people but not drinking. After probably my third drink, he came up and started talking to me.
He was sweet, funny, and kinda cute. We exchanged numbers that night and our relationship progressed naturally. Well, mostly naturally. He proposed senior year. I accepted, but I had doubts. I told my family about the proposal. Everyone said that they had already accepted him as family and they were SO HAPPY that i had found such a wonderful man. I couldn’t tell them my doubts.
A few days later I had a girls night scheduled. We all met up at Casey’s apartment to gossip and drink wine. I told the girls my feelings. Sharon said that I was crazy. Jen told me that if I left him, she would go after him. Since everybody thought he was so perfect, I decided to let him marry me.
I never loved him, but I did always like him up until seven years ago. I realized that he was TOO kind. TOO compassionate. He was always lending money, or pet-sitting, or babysitting. I can’t tell you how many times someone was having a “hard time” and he let them stay in our house.
He stopped being funny. He started working more often and became serious. I can’t even fight with him! Whenever I try, he just tells me that I’m right and continuously apologizes. It’s pathetic. I resent him. I don’t even want to look at him.
But I can’t leave. If I do, I’ll lose my beautiful house. I’ll have to give up my designer clothes and my vacations. I would have to go back to WORK. But I finally found something that makes being around him tolerable. Cheating. So once every few months I create a dating profile and choose someone to spend the night with. Then I go home, delete it, and pretend everything is fine.
Anyway, tonight is one of those nights. I was scrolling through different profiles when one caught my eye. The name on the profile said Xander. The description was a lot of useless information: 32m, love spaghetti, favorite color red, let’s have fun ;) The picture was just a white sheet ghost on a black background.
It was obviously a prank account, but I was drawn to it. It was exciting to not know anything about the person I am going to meet. The danger was even more exciting to me. I sent him a message asking to meet. He immediately responded so now we are going to meet at a local bar tonight.
******
He never showed up! I waited for two hours and if he was there, he never came up to me. Why would you do that to someone? Obviously, this has never happened to me, so can someone tell me how I’m supposed to feel? I’m back home now. I’m so angry and sad and embarrassed. Thank God my husband left this morning to see his family. I can’t let him see me like this. He would probably try to comfort me. Is there a way that I can find this guy’s identity? I think it would really help me get over my pain to tell him everything he missed out on.
******
It’s been six days since my failed date. Everywhere I go I see an old man. Like, I even saw him outside the lingerie store. Am I being stalked? I don’t know, because I never see him look at me. He’s just…there. Could this be the person I was trying to meet? I don’t know why he would be following me. It’s not like he’d be capable of robbing or assaulting me. I’m starting to get paranoid though. Today I lost it. I started screaming at him in the middle of the park. He still never looked at me. I can’t handle this stress. My hair is already starting to turn grey. I’ve pulled out four different strands now. FOUR. And I know I have been getting paranoid, but I swear my hair is falling out. It looks like twice the normal amount on my pillow in the morning or when I wash my hair. When i went shopping today i bought a lot of extra food so i won’t have to leave the house for a while.
********
My eyes are dark. I have bags under my bags. I look like I have crows feet. I definitely have less hair than I did a week ago. I’m starting to look….old. I hate it. I’ve been too afraid to go outside. I closed all the blinds and windows in the house. I don’t want to see him. But I have an appointment with my surgeon today, so I guess I’ll have to leave. Obviously, my looks are WAY more important than some creepy old man.
***********
My consultation went well, for the few of you who actually care. I will get my surgery next month. The old man is gone. But it made me so paranoid that I kept seeing a middle-aged man out of the corner of my eye. EVEN IN MY HOUSE! As soon as I try to look at him, he disappears. I’m starting to feel weak. I’ve barely even eaten since this whole thing started. I just want to go to sleep. But I can’t. Whenever I close my eyes, I dream about a young man. Nothing in particular. I dream about him watching tv, eating, mowing the yard. I think it would be less unsettling if they were nightmares instead of just watching a normal life. Are we connected somehow?
**********
I finally figured it out. I’m embarrassed that it took me so long. The middle-aged man is now gone, replaced by the young man from my dreams. He’s beautiful like an angel. He stole it from me. He’s pretty proud of himself too. He doesn’t even try hiding anymore. He says that there’s no reason to now. We’ve talked quite a bit while we wait for me to die. I’m going to write down some of our conversation:
X: You know you’ve hurt a lot of people, right?
Me: How could I hurt others just by doing whatever makes me happy?
X: If you still don’t get it, you never will.
Me: You won’t even try to explain? You’re killing me, and you don’t think I deserve even that much? This is bullshit.
X: The problem is that it’s not something you can explain. It just is. For the record, I’m not killing you. This was a test. You failed. This is the consequence. I didn’t choose this, It’s just my job lady.
Me: What about my husband? If you know so much, then you know that losing me will hurt him.
X: Have you ever noticed that you never refer to him by name? Only by relation to yourself. You are all you ever cared about. That is both why you were tested and why you failed. And being attached to someone like you is much more painful than a death would be.
Me: What are you anyway?
X: You know what I am and where I came from. You just don’t want to admit it to yourself yet. That is why the dreams bothered you so much.
Me: Why do you seem so happy all the time?
X: It’s just a job, but I truly enjoy watching you humans suffer. Especially the ones like you. Humans have the urges of demons and the arrogance of angels. It is detestable.
I think I’m finally ready to leave. I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to live in this frail body either. I have very few regrets in life, but I do feel bad for you Owen. I could never love you. I don’t think that emotion is something I’m able to feel. I wish you had found someone else. Someone to give you the love and the family you always wanted.
____________________________________________________________________________
I wanted to post this as a warning to you guys. What happened to Kaylee is an extreme (and hopefully) rare example. But I wanted you to see this. Sometimes we all need a reminder to be careful. We don’t feel fear the same way we did near the beginning of civilization. So, we forget to be careful. I loved Kaylee and I would have done anything for her. And now she is gone and left me with nothing but a crazy story. Do me a favor and hug your loved ones close tonight. You never know how or when they will be taken from you.