Terrifying & True | A First Hand Account of Being Stalked!

This story began when I was 19 years old. I was living in a large Canadian city. I had graduated high school the year prior and was struggling to find a job while deciding what I wanted to study in college. For context, I was living in a crowded neighbourhood and just a 5 minute walk up the street, you would reach a busier road with lots of little cafes, small markets, pharmacies, bars, restaurants, parks, pretty much everything you needed was nearby and everybody knew everybody.

My father spent his retirement days taking a walk up the street to meet his buddies at a bar. One of his close friends worked as a janitor at the pharmacy just across the street and due to his troubling back pains, he offered me a job to help him clean the building after-hours to help ease the pain off his back and he would pay me cash every week. Of course, I accepted! It was short hours, easy cash and very close by. Best of all, I would have an empty building to work in and did not need to interact with people.

Since the pharmacy building was just across the street from the bar my father would most likely be at, I would stop to chat with him before going to work. One of my father's "friends", let's call him Frank, a 60+ year old man, was having a beer with my father one afternoon. Frank was always really friendly to me and I didn't mind interacting with him. However, things have shifted and I started feeling afraid of Frank.

One evening as I'm working in the pharmacy clearing out the trash and mopping the floors, I glanced out the front doors, which thankfully are locked by this hour, I notice Frank pacing back and forth right in front of the building. I thought nothing of it and continued cleaning up. An hour later, I pass by the front doors again and notice Frank is still standing outside. By this point, it's nearly 10pm and dark outside. I unlocked the door and asked if he was ok, he responded by saying he wanted to know what time I got off work. Being young and naive, I thought that was ok to ask since I knew him and I told him I finish whenever I'm done cleaning up but I did not mention that I was nearly done for the night.

Luckily, by the time I was finished and was ready to head home, the street was completely dead silent and deserted. The very next night, I headed out to work at 5pm and began cleaning up. This building is divided into two separate buildings, the main one and one office next-door as a different address. This means sometimes I need to exit the main building and walk outside to get to the other building. This night, I had my mop with me and a few garbage bags heading into the next-door building. As I stepped outside, there was Frank standing around again facing the building as if he's waiting for me. I felt uncomfortable and a little bit afraid. He tried talking to me but I cannot remember what he was trying to say as I was too focussed on hurrying over to the next building. I got inside and locked the door right behind me, leaving Frank outside. It was a small office building so I was done within 30 minutes. As I headed to the door to head out, Frank was still standing there! I did not want to leave until he was gone. At some point, my boss calls me on my cell phone to ask why I'm taking so long. I couldn't help but explain to him that Frank (which he is friends with also) was standing outside waiting for me. A minute later, I heard my boss come outside and yelled at Frank to leave me alone while I am working. Thank goodness.

I finished my work for that night and peeked out the doors to see if the coast is clear before heading home. I was relieved to see that not a single person was out there. Then again, it was beyond 10pm. I walked up the street to wait for the crosswalk to turn green so I can cross and head home. As I'm waiting, I hear someone behind me. I turn to see who it is and sure enough, it's Frank. I wanted to cry of frustration and fear. He approached me and began a normal conversation, pretending he wasn't being creepy at all. He was telling me that he wants to take me to the movies, THAT NIGHT. I laughed and was too shy to tell him to f*ck off and said "What? It's late already!". He said it's okay, there are movies that late at night anyway and insisted I went home to change, meet him back at the corner and he would take me to the movies while he waits there for me to come back. He asked for my phone number and being too scared and stupid, I began giving him my digits, luckily I snapped back into focus mode and changed the last 2 of my digits. I pretended to go home to "change" and to "meet him" later. I hope he waited there all night because I went to shower and got into bed, peacefully sleeping.

A few days later, I went up the street to visit my dad at the bar before my next shift. The store connected to the bar had a shoe sale going on and had set up a table full of shoes outside to attract more customers. I walked passed, not interested anyway, but there was Frank just outside the bar. He stopped me and guided me to the table full of discounted shoes and said he wanted to buy me a pair, whichever I liked. By this point, I was fed up and I ignored him and entered the bar. I approached my dad and he noticed Frank talking to me outside and asked what we talked about. I was too embarrassed to tell him the truth so I said "oh nothing really". Right after I answered that, Frank was standing at the doorway of the bar talking to some guys and my blood started to boil and I ended up telling my father the truth instead. "Actually, he offered to buy me a pair of shoes". Absolutely enraged, my father stood up tall in his chair and gave me a look of "what did you just say?". I then told him everything. "Frank has been waiting for me outside of work too and tried taking me to the movies late at night one night". My father did not even waste another second. He walked up to Frank and right away punched him right in the neck in front of a crowd of people. "Don't you ever speak to my daughter again. Don't you ever approach her, you son of a b*tch!", he yelled. Frank was shocked, apologized to my dad repeatedly, looked me right in the eyes and apologized to me as he walked away.

I thought that was the end. I hadn't seen Frank anywhere for a few weeks after that. When suddenly...

My father started going to a different bar, just 10 steps away from the first one. It was a much darker, quieter and really just depressing-looking bar. The further in you go, the darker it gets. My father and I sat at a little table and started chit-chatting. From the top of his shoulder, I noticed a man sitting in the far end of the bar in almost complete darkness. I knew it was Frank but I did not panic, nor did I mention it to my father because I knew he was staying away after being throat-punched in public.

Eventually, my dad moved to sit at the bar instead of the table, so of course, I followed. Frank then sat a little bit closer to us, still keeping a distance though. After starting to feel uncomfortable from Frank's stares, I asked my father "can we sit at the front of the bar? I just want to be closer to some sunlight". he agreed, so we moved again to the very front. A minute later, Frank changed tables again, closer to us once more. He looked really angry and revengeful. I can't explain it. He just looked very pissed off, unlike the Frank I knew beforehand.

After a while, we decided to head home. It's a 5-minute walk for me, but my father being elderly with physical issues, he needs to take a few breaks here and there to rest his back and catch his breath.

While we were walking, he needed to take his first break so he sat down on the edge of someone's concrete fence. As I waited for him to rest, I noticed in quite some distance behind us, Frank is heading our way. But he was stopped, standing in the middle of the sidewalk, just staring in our direction. He was far enough away that I wasn't too worried. My dad got up and we continued walking, having no idea who was behind us. A minute later he needed to rest again. I turned around to check and of course, Frank is still there. He seemed to stop walking every time we stopped walking. This happened a few times and I was getting more and more freaked out. Frank did not know where I lived, even though I lived so close to work, where he was stalking me, he never really followed me home, thankfully. Until that day.

We got really close to the house now and Frank was catching up behind us. I did not want him to know where I lived, so I lied to my dad and said "I really need to use the washroom, do you mind if I go ahead?", of course, he had no problem with that and I hurried up home. I wanted to get inside before Frank saw which house I went into. I immediately went up to my bedroom window which faces the road we were on. This is when I noticed my hurrying home makes no difference because Frank could just wait and see which house my father goes into. As I'm watching through my bedroom window, I saw that my father noticed who was behind him. He yelled at him to f*ck off! I guess my father protected us also and stood there until Frank went way beyond him so he doesn't see where we live. After a while, Frank very, very slowly walked passed every house, my father standing a dozen feet behind him waiting for him to leave. He looked at every house trying to see if he could see me through a window. I was well hidden, he would not have seen me. As he continued making his way down the street, he got so frustrated that he started punching himself in the head a few times.

I can't help but wonder what his plan was if he was so angry and following us home that day for the first time with a face full of rage.

That was the last I ever saw of him before I learned years later that he got severely mentally ill and was put into an institution.

Frank, let's never, ever meet again.