Let's Not Meet~ Reddit Horror Stories

I was almost kidnapped as a child

This story happened to me in my peaceful neighborhood in my very, very small home country (literally a dot on the world map) in the Middle East. I lived in a nice and cozy kind of old house with friendly neighbors, so I never felt unsafe going out, Im a guy and I was around 9-10 years old when this happened so I was pretty dumb.

On a nice and sunny day I decided to go out and take a walk around the compound or play basketball with my friend if he was home and was done with this homework. I saw a pick-up track filled with foreigners in it. (I don't remember what they looked like but I just remember that they weren't from my country) I walked by the truck and I smiled and waved at them because I'd never seen them here and I wanted them to feel welcome, none of them smiled or waved back.

There were about 4 of them in the back and 2 in the driver side (or 2 in the back and 2 in the front side, I'm not really sure about this but it's not that relevant to the story), they were wearing buttoned shirts and jeans, with some wearing normal shirts and some wearing jackets, and I assumed they were workers because this is what most workers in my area drove and wore, but I was a little weirded out that they didn't have a company with them, because all the workers i had ever seen had company vehicles, not self owned vehicles, but I just thought they were all self employed. I stepped into the playground area and walked around then I entered the soccer field and walked around a bit and was saddened cause none of my friends were there.

My uncles house was connected to the field by a big fence so I just climbed in from the back and went in to get a coke (my uncle would let me do this because he was a really cool guy). I drank most of my coke and threw it away and then I left the house and I started heading towards my house.

I was a bit surprised to see that the men in the truck hadn't moved because i had been gone for a while but I just shook it off. As I was leaving I smiled and waved at the men again because I was a little kid who didn't pick up any red flags from them. This time, though, the driver grinned at me, it was a very creepy grin, and not a friendly one, so I just waved some more and kept walking towards my house.

When i got to my driveway I heard the truck's engine start (there were no other cars around) and that's about when I started picking up all the red flags those guys had been giving off. I got inside and locked the door behind me just in case they were following me. I then went to the kitchen and started looking out the window (my kitchen had those weird windows that were all blurry) and after a few minutes I saw, through the blurry window, something with the shape of a truck arrive and start driving around the neighborhood. This was a very small neighborhood so I was very creeped out because and I slowly walked to the stairs and when I was in the clear I ran to my room to hide.

After a while I told myself it was safe and decided to go back outside because I was sure they were gone and I wanted to play, I know, stupid, but I was a little kid. I started to walk towards my friends house that was near the playground. I then heard a car driving down where my house was and I decided to book it to one of the hideouts the compound kids would hang out at because I didn't want to check to see if that was the truck following me.

This hideout was an old house that was not being used by anyone, it had a small wood garage out front and a big garden so you can see why us kids loved it. I looked out through a small hole in the garage and my instincts were correct, that was the truck. Now, till this point I was telling myself that I was probably being paranoid but now I knew that these guys were looking for me, they stopped at every house that was near that area of the compound for about a minute, I presume checking for me, then they moved on to the next one, I quickly hid behind a bush and looked through the leaves and when I looked up I was so fucking relieved.

There was a worker there that was standing on top of a wall doing something to the house that was directly near this one and he was wearing a hard hat and holding a hammer, when the men stopped by my hideout they saw me hiding behind that bush and the driver looked me in the eyes and opened the door (I was frozen still and about to scream for the worker to come help me) and then one of the men noticed the worker and said something in a language that wasn't English or Arabic, so I didn't understand it, but I presume it was a warning that there was someone there.

The man then spit on the ground (The cops weren't advanced enough to check DNA at the time) and after spitting he got in his truck and closed the door very hard and said something in that same language that I didn't understand and sped off. I was frozen still at the time with my eyes wide open. And after a few minutes I ran off towards my house. I never told anyone except for my sister who I was very close to because she was my only sibling.

So, scary men in their old truck,

Fuck you for ruining my innocence and Fuck you for showing me how bad people can be.