The Weirdo In My Fiction Class (T)
Jan 7, 2016 9:30:02 GMT -8
Post by lyraalluse on Jan 7, 2016 9:30:02 GMT -8
The Weirdo In My Fiction Class
© Emma Lee Downs
An essay about a creepy encounter I had with a guy in my fiction class while attending community college.
The Weirdo In My Fiction Class
When I was attending community College to get my two year degree to transfer to a four year university, I signed up for a fiction class. In this class, we would work in teams of two, trade papers, and critique each other’s work. I was paired with a strange, rather thin young man with long black hair he always wore in a ponytail, brown eyes, and an overall lanky form. We will call this young man Manford to protect his real identity.
Anyway, Manford always struck me as a really weird kid but I always tried to be nice to him and offer the best feedback I could on his fiction pieces. At about the middle of the semester, we began talking during class, and it turned out that we had a lot of things in common. I started to write off the weird vibe I got from him as being overly cautious.
After talking with Manford for a while, I guess he started to get a kind of crush on me. He wrote me this card saying that he wanted to go out. Now, I had started liking Manford as a friend, but I definitely was not interested in dating the guy. So I kindly told him that I was not interested. He seemed a little disappointed, but there was no other outward appearance of freaking out or anything.
A few weeks after that, Manford asked if I wanted to hang out at his house. I had met his roommates during lunch in the cafeteria area of the college and they all seemed pretty cool, so I figured, hey, why not? It would be fun to hang out, play some video games, and goof off. So I agreed to meet him at his place and hang out for the day. And this is where things took a very dark turn.
When I showed up at Manford’s house, it took him a while to open the door and when he did, he looked like he was kind of zoned out. I considered leaving then, but I had already agreed to hang out and I didn’t want to bail on him, so I went inside. As soon as I got inside of his house, he locked the door. I could hear my brain shouting, “run, run, run,” as soon as I heard the lock click. But I wasn’t quite sure what was going on as of yet, so I remained calm to gauge the situation.
Manford didn’t really comment on the door thing. He just asked if I wanted to eat something. He walked over to the kitchen and gestured for me to sit on one of the bar stools facing the counter. I sat down and he started to make ‘lunch’ which turned out being two frozen hot dogs. He put one in a bun for him, and the other one in a bun for me. He handed it to me, and I just looked at the plate thinking, “this is odd”. He ate his own hot dog without so much as flinching. Like he always ate it that way. I kind of pretended to eat mine. I didn’t want to aggravate the guy and was still gauging what was going on.
So then I start hearing noises from a room down the hall. The best way I can describe what I heard was it sounded like maybe a couple different girls were in a room and they were whispering. And there was a male voice too which was telling them to be quiet or something. Anyway it was really weird. So at this point, I told Manford that I forgot I had a paper I had to write and I needed to get home. But Manford suddenly dropped his calm attitude and started to majorly freak out.
He told me that I couldn’t leave the house. That I needed to stay. I remained calm and asked him why. He said that I needed to stay with him. It was best to stay with him. He kept repeating that I had to stay. I needed to follow him to a room. I shouldn’t try to leave. Things would be okay.
I calmly talked him down, looking around for possible escape exits and trying not to aggravate him (or the situation) as best as possible. Eventually I saw an opportunity when he turned around, I grabbed my backpack, and bolted for the door. I unlocked the door, and booked it outside to my car. I momentarily looked back and saw Manford chasing me with what looked like a knife. When I got to my car, I threw myself in the driver’s seat, started the car, and booked it out of there.
I later reported everything to campus security and they got the proper entities involved. The next day Manford did not show up in fiction class. I never saw him or his roommates at the campus again so I assumed the police must have taken care of things. Or else he decided it was too risky and got him and his little operation out of town.
To this day, I am not sure what Manford was involved in or what his intentions for me were. But I know I was just lucky to make it out of that house alive.
© Emma Lee Downs
An essay about a creepy encounter I had with a guy in my fiction class while attending community college.
The Weirdo In My Fiction Class
When I was attending community College to get my two year degree to transfer to a four year university, I signed up for a fiction class. In this class, we would work in teams of two, trade papers, and critique each other’s work. I was paired with a strange, rather thin young man with long black hair he always wore in a ponytail, brown eyes, and an overall lanky form. We will call this young man Manford to protect his real identity.
Anyway, Manford always struck me as a really weird kid but I always tried to be nice to him and offer the best feedback I could on his fiction pieces. At about the middle of the semester, we began talking during class, and it turned out that we had a lot of things in common. I started to write off the weird vibe I got from him as being overly cautious.
After talking with Manford for a while, I guess he started to get a kind of crush on me. He wrote me this card saying that he wanted to go out. Now, I had started liking Manford as a friend, but I definitely was not interested in dating the guy. So I kindly told him that I was not interested. He seemed a little disappointed, but there was no other outward appearance of freaking out or anything.
A few weeks after that, Manford asked if I wanted to hang out at his house. I had met his roommates during lunch in the cafeteria area of the college and they all seemed pretty cool, so I figured, hey, why not? It would be fun to hang out, play some video games, and goof off. So I agreed to meet him at his place and hang out for the day. And this is where things took a very dark turn.
When I showed up at Manford’s house, it took him a while to open the door and when he did, he looked like he was kind of zoned out. I considered leaving then, but I had already agreed to hang out and I didn’t want to bail on him, so I went inside. As soon as I got inside of his house, he locked the door. I could hear my brain shouting, “run, run, run,” as soon as I heard the lock click. But I wasn’t quite sure what was going on as of yet, so I remained calm to gauge the situation.
Manford didn’t really comment on the door thing. He just asked if I wanted to eat something. He walked over to the kitchen and gestured for me to sit on one of the bar stools facing the counter. I sat down and he started to make ‘lunch’ which turned out being two frozen hot dogs. He put one in a bun for him, and the other one in a bun for me. He handed it to me, and I just looked at the plate thinking, “this is odd”. He ate his own hot dog without so much as flinching. Like he always ate it that way. I kind of pretended to eat mine. I didn’t want to aggravate the guy and was still gauging what was going on.
So then I start hearing noises from a room down the hall. The best way I can describe what I heard was it sounded like maybe a couple different girls were in a room and they were whispering. And there was a male voice too which was telling them to be quiet or something. Anyway it was really weird. So at this point, I told Manford that I forgot I had a paper I had to write and I needed to get home. But Manford suddenly dropped his calm attitude and started to majorly freak out.
He told me that I couldn’t leave the house. That I needed to stay. I remained calm and asked him why. He said that I needed to stay with him. It was best to stay with him. He kept repeating that I had to stay. I needed to follow him to a room. I shouldn’t try to leave. Things would be okay.
I calmly talked him down, looking around for possible escape exits and trying not to aggravate him (or the situation) as best as possible. Eventually I saw an opportunity when he turned around, I grabbed my backpack, and bolted for the door. I unlocked the door, and booked it outside to my car. I momentarily looked back and saw Manford chasing me with what looked like a knife. When I got to my car, I threw myself in the driver’s seat, started the car, and booked it out of there.
I later reported everything to campus security and they got the proper entities involved. The next day Manford did not show up in fiction class. I never saw him or his roommates at the campus again so I assumed the police must have taken care of things. Or else he decided it was too risky and got him and his little operation out of town.
To this day, I am not sure what Manford was involved in or what his intentions for me were. But I know I was just lucky to make it out of that house alive.
