Let's Not Meet~ Reddit Horror Stories

"I know you're in there, little girl"

This happened when I was 9. Keep in mind, I was very short (still am haha) and was the smallest girl in my age group, so I was an easy target to say the least.

When I was young, my family moved us from a third-world country in Asia to a Western "safe" country. During that time, foreigners weren't that widespread here, so in fear of being discriminated against, my parents weren't fond of asking for help. Even from the police (this is important later). My family was not well off and to keep afloat, my parents had to work long hours, often leaving me home alone for a few hours after school.

I had been walking home from school with my neighbor, Dan, who was my age, when I noticed he kept looking behind us with a troubled expression on his face. As if something was wrong. Every time I turned around though, I saw no one. Whenever I asked him what was up, he just dismissed it and said nothing. Thinking back on it now, I think he didn't want to scare me. I brushed it off as Dan playing a prank on me and we went home even though my gut was telling me something wasn't right.

After about 20 minutes of being at home, I suddenly hear a loud knock on the door. This is VERY unusual as no one usually visited, so to me, this was already a red flag. I crept to a window that had a view of the porch and discreetly lifted the corner of the curtain to see who it was without being detected. I saw a tall man, around mid to late 20's, short hair, and he was wearing a long black coat with black pants. What scared me was his demeanor. He looked VERY TENSE, almost angry and was glaring at the door VERY HARD. I barely saw him blink. All the while, he was constantly knocking. I watched him for a couple of minutes, until it seemed like he was leaving. I immediately called my parents and they told me to never answer the door and that it was probably a door-to-door salesperson or something.

I thought that maybe they were right until the knocking soon began again. Only this time, he was POUNDING the door, almost as if he wanted to break it. I was so fucking terrified. He kept pounding and pounding and after a solid 10 minutes, he shouted "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE LITTLE GIRL." I nearly lost my shit. I frantically kept calling my parents, telling them what I heard and that I think this man was going to hurt me. My parents, not wanting to get in trouble for leaving a 9 year old home alone (the legal age here is 14), didn't want to call the police and kept telling me if I just hunkered down into the room furthest in the house and waited, he would go away.

Now to be fair, my parents aren't horrible or uncaring. The house is built solidly and there was no way of entering or exiting except for the heavy front door where the man was. Even the windows aren't easily accessible. But all this meant to me was that I was trapped. I remember crying so hard and being terrified for my life but trying to be silent just in the off chance the man could hear me. By this point the man kept alternating between pounding the door and staying very still and silent. I knew because I kept creeping back to the window, hoping the silence meant he went away but he was always there. Giving that same intense hateful stare as if he wanted to me feel it through the door. It felt like he had been standing there for hours but in reality, this whole ordeal lasted about 20 minutes. Thankfully after that 20 minutes, I heard nothing and couldn't see him either.

Not long after that, my Mom came home early to check up on me. She checked around the whole house, the surrounding area and even asked the neighbors, but the man left no trace and no one else had seen him. The only sign he was there was a couple of scratches on the door. When Dan was questioned by the adults, he just said that he noticed a man following us from near the school area but the man kept his distance so he couldn't get a good look at him. He also wasn't sure whether it was just someone who happened to be walking the same way as us so he didn't want to say anything. We never found out what the man wanted with me.

After that, I wasn't allowed to be home alone for a long time. Instead of going home, I'd go to Dan's house after school until one of my parents picked me up. As far as I know, I never saw the man again. Honestly, I wish they called the police because after that day, I became permanently paranoid about strangers.

To this day, I still get anxiety if someone knocks on my door, even if I'm expecting someone.