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Encounter

The place where I work is in a five story building and the fourth floor belongs to my office. Each floor has two firms and the second on my floor was a finance firm. Overall, it's a nice environment, the view is amazing and I really enjoy my work. There is one thing though and it's not about the building or my work, it's me. You see, I hate awkward elevator moments and try my best to avoid it. Since it's only the fourth floor I take the stairs many times. For instance, if there are a bunch of men or only one guy waiting near the elevator or if it's someone I don't like interacting with, I stall my time towards the elevator so they can go first or just take the stairs.

I grew up in a very conservative family which has made it hard for me to interact with the opposite gender and my school also played a huge role in it, if the teachers ever saw you converse for more than a minute with the opposite gender, the trouble would not only be for the students talking but their parents, class teachers, principle and at times their friend groups could get involved. Never wanting that to happen, I avoided most conversations with boys unless it was absolutely necessary. This sure did trouble my work life at first but not really, because I only have to interact with the board members every month and other than that my assistant. Outside work, if i had to talk to strangers or stranger men i had to come up with strategies and honestly for an introvert like me who doesn't really go out it wasn't something i had to do regularly.

This one day, i had planned to work late so that i could take a leave the next day, other than me there were couple other people also working and since i wrapped up first around nine, i did not have to keep the keys of the main door with me, which meant that there was no way these guys would contact me for a stupid reason to show up, i had finished what was planned for tomorrow and my assistant could take care of the rest.

Hoping and praying that from the firm next to ours no one would be at the elevator, I took a peep and obviously on a tiring day as such I was taking the stairs. The weird jerk from next door was at the elevator and he would be the last person I would get in the lift with. The building has two separate staircases, one on the right and one on the left next to each office and the elevator shaft being in the center, if one was to take the stairs from the reception of the ground floor it would be obvious that am avoiding people but from the top floors you could do it without the people waiting near the lift finding out. So sulking I started to go down the stairs taking my sweet time. Finally at the ground floor on the last step I paused, thirty feet away give or take a couple feet, was a shabby looking huge guy, standing there, but facing towards the exit. He looked like a homeless guy with a baggy, kind of torn jacket, shabby pants, unkempt long hair, dirty hands and worn out boots.

He stood inside the building, a couple feet away from the glass doors, right in the center. I couldn't see his face since he had his back facing me. Either I could go back upstairs or fight my fears, not wanting to go back, I decided to summon the courage of walking past him. I thought if i could walk really fast and run away he might not be able to catch up and i would be out. So went in a deep breath and silently a step forward to feel like he moved, backward....... a step.. in my direction? "am hallucinating, it can't be, or can it ?", hesitantly, looking right at him, I took another step, to which he took another step backward.....

I froze in my tracks, heart beating and my brain trying to figure out what's going on. One may ask, where is the security at the main gate or the one at the glass door ? answer: i don't know. Where is the receptionist of the building ? this one, well, she leaves by eight. And what of the weirdo who was at the shaft upstairs? He must have left before me. I did not know where he disappeared, for the first time i wished that i took the awkward lift.

I decided to go back upstairs, moved a couple steps back , while looking at him, to which he took two steps back, maintaining the distance that was made before I moved back. Startled, I ran and heard heavy boots follow up. "CRAMP! shit........" my knee had started to cramp, and i took a turn on the second floor, hid in the supply room which was beside the stairs and I saw him, he looked like i had seen him before, maybe at the grocery store's pavement, or near the bank or at the mall's pavement, or maybe i saw him at all these locations. He was following me... everywhere. He was huffing hard and coughed. "dear! ohh dear!" he called. Fear was striking in me, I had to form a plan. I could either go upstairs or run down into the parking, the car and then out.. simple, i just needed him to be near the opposite stairs or near the lift, that way i could run out faster than him.

Panting and frantically looking around, searching for me, he moved towards the elevator," perfect", i pushed the door and ran straight down stairs, i heard him chase me. I ran down the stairs, into the parking lot, towards my car and stood near the car door as I knew I would spend minutes looking for the damned car key, that was more than enough for any one to finish me and hide my body with everything cleaned. So, I hid behind the car as I heard him approach the parking and silence........ after which followed ,"LUCKY YOU!! I DON'T THINK I REMEMBER YOUR CAR, but you're not out either, well, IT WILL TAKE NO TIME TO FIND YOU". My hand in my bag, slowly moving around for keys, found them, and let out a sigh. He was two cars away or what it felt like from all the sounds he made, he sounded drunk. i crawled at the drivers door and unlocked the car and " AM IN!!" I screamed, "BANG" on my window and he laughed. I drove the car out at a frantic speed and dialed 911, which was to be done earlier, but I think fear gets the best of a person.

The next day I got a call from the cops explaining how this man was still at my workplace building, passed out. They had arrested him and found a handful of pictures of some girls, around ten of these were my face. I felt like a rock was stuck in my throat while I heard that. He had knocked out the guards and the jerk from the elevator, they had lost a lot of blood, but were safe.

The police told me that they didn't know why he was doing what he did and that he refused to utter a word, but, since then I have always moved with someone or my boyfriend and have always had a weapon with me for protection and have even moved cities. The scariest encounter ever.