Real Encounters

*Don't go jogging at night*

Last night, my sister and I (24 and 26) decided to go jogging at night by our house. We don't live in the best area, but it's also not the worst. That is to say, most of the people in my neighborhood are well meaning good folks, but there are also still some shady characters that spill over from the really bad areas surrounding us.

So, down the block from our house, there's a block that stretches really long with a church on one side of the road and an elementary school on the other. The school takes up the whole square block, so my sister and I decided to jog around the perimeter. This isn't the first time we've done this, but this is the first time we've done it at night.

Several laps in, as we jogged along the side of the school that runs along the main road, a white car drives by in the same direction that we're running in. For reference, at this time of night, there's not many cars on the road here. There might be one or two cars every five minutes on a busy night. There are also no people out; we didn't come across any other pedestrian the whole time we were out there. My sister and I are both vigilant people, so we take a glance at the vehicle. The car had heavily tinted, pitch black windows, making it impossible to see the driver or anyone else inside.

This made us both tentative, as the car was driving at a slow pace, matching the pace of our jog. My sister, who's a few years older than me, told me to stay calm and just look straight. We were coming up on the corner of the school where we'd turn left to continue along its perimeter. Continuing to talk through the side of her mouth so as not to alert the person(s) in the car and let them see we were alarmed, my sister told me to run really fast once we turned the corner.

You might be thinking that they could have just as easily turned the corner with us. That's true, but once we turned the corner and got to the end of the block, we'd be turning left again since we were jogging along the perimeter of the school. The car, however, would not be able to make another left turn as there was a stone barricade that stopped cars from driving along that side of the school as a safety precaution in case children ran out of the playground during recess.

So, the plan was to turn left, jet down the street, and make the second left that they wouldn't be able to make. Well, we never had to do that because just a couple of feet short of the corner, the car suddenly sped up and made a quick right turn, driving out of our sight.

We still made the left turn and jogged about halfway down the block before we felt safe enough to stop, catch our breath, and take a good look behind us. They were gone, but we didn't feel safe continuing our workout, so we decided to make our way home.

We start to walk back and reach the corner we just turned around when we see headlights quickly approaching across from us, on the road the car just sped down. It was the white car again. They must have double backed. My heart dropped into my gut. I said something along the lines of "oh my gosh, its the same car" to my sister, who had also already picked up on it.

We were walking at this point, not jogging. If we turned right, we'd be walking along the side of the school. If we turned left, we'd be walking towards home, which was about 2 blocks away. If we went straight, we'd be heading straight for the white car, which, at this point, was just sitting at the intersection with no indication of making a move.

What was scarier now was that the front passenger window was open and a guy was hanging out of it. In other words, his legs were in the car, but he was seated on the window ledge so that his entire body hung out and his arms rested on the roof of the car for support. He was a young guy, probably in his 20's, and looked kind of rough. And if there was a chance before that their actions had nothing to do with us, it was pretty much gone now, as the guy was staring directly at us.

So, to put it into perspective, we approach the corner about the same time the car approaches the opposite corner with the guy hanging out the window staring straight at us.

Before another second goes by, my sister grabs my arm and pulls me down with her as she does a squat. She gets back up and does another squat. She continues to drag me with her up and down as she squats, but I give her a really confused look and never take over to voluntarily squat with her. I bulged my eyes and gave her a look that screamed, "are you literally doing squats when there are potential killers right across the road looking at us??!!!" She just whispered through gritted teeth, "just go with the flow." My sister would later explain to me that she did that because, no matter which direction we ran/walked, there were no cars, no people, and a lot of open road. We had nowhere to run and effectively get away, so the only strategy she could think of was to stay put and possibly throw them off. The last thing she wanted to do was to show them that we were scared because predators like this feed on fear and often pounce when they think their victims feel cornered.

Scared? Puh-lease. We don't even notice you guys. We're just having a nice work out, doing squats. That was the vibe we were trying to give. But inside, we were freaking out, our hearts racing. At this point, we could hear people talking in the car, as the road was dead and there was nothing to drown out their voices. But they were too far away to make out their words. About a minute passed like this, the car just frozen at the intersection, the passenger's eyes frozen on us, and the windshield too black to see the driver, or any other passengers.

Then the most wonderful thing happened. We could see headlights from a car approaching on the road to our left. I was already planning in my head to wave it down for help once it got to the intersection. But the nearing presence of another car must have prompted the men in the white car to make a move first.

They slowly turned left, which meant they were coming right at us and would be turning right past the corner we were standing on. My sister threw the "we're not scared" play right out the window at that moment, throwing her arm across my chest and pushing me back with her a few paces in case they made a move to grab us before the other car approached the intersection.

As they made their way by us, we could finally see what we were dealing with. There were four guys in the car: the driver, the front passenger hanging out the window, and two back passengers. They all stared at us menacingly as they passed, and we stared back, my sister's arm still across my chest like a mama bear holding her cubs back. And the scariest part of all came when the front passenger, whilst looking at us, says, "the wolves are hungry tonight." Then, he cocks his head back and starts howling to the sky while repeatedly banging the roof of the car with his hands. The other guys in the car join in howling and the back passenger on our side sticks his head out as far as he can and bangs the side door of the car with his arm.

The chilling part about that is that my sister and I had been part of a children's theater production of little red riding hood months before, and we were both wearing the t-shirts we had from that event. They were red and said The Little Red Riding Hood on the front. So, as soon as the guy made the wolf comment, my sister and I made the connection. Whatever their intentions were, they were sinister.

They guys continued to howl as they drove, and once they got several feet ahead of us, they sped off, taking the red light at the next intersection. The other car had pulled up at this point, but with the guys gone, we ran home as fast as we could. We figured they would double back again to terrorize us some more.

Thankfully, we had it home, locking all the doors behind us. We promised we would never work out at night again.

Credits: Reddit, thelightningqueen