this happened last summer and I still can't take my mind off the whole situation.
It's by far the scariest thing that's ever happened to me.
First things first, I am a female and I am 20 years old.
I live in a small village in England, it's beautiful and I have lived here all my life,
so I have many good memories here.
In June, I started walking to the neighbouring village everyday, which took maybe around
25 minutes to walk to.
The village is a lot more old fashioned and has a lot of history.
The journey was fun for me because I love the countryside, it's a beautiful place and
it interests me quite a lot too.
As soon as you left my village, you would be walking on country lanes that followed
you to the other village.
Usually, I would leave my house at around 11am and start heading back to my own village
roughly around 2 or 3pm.
I went alone most of the time, apart from the weekends when I would go with close friends.
Both my village and this village only consisted of houses, parks, and churches, you know,
all that sort of stuff.
When I went alone, I sat at a beautiful park and would sit on a picnic bench and read a
book or sit on my phone for hours, I even bought a phone case that charges my phone
just so my phone wouldn't run out of charge.
I did this for a month, until mid-July when I went shopping and sat in a pub at the closest
city with my friends on a Thursday.
This meant that I didn't go to the village at the usual time.
I got back quite late, maybe around 9pm.
I don't know what was going through my mind, but I decided that I would go to the village
tonight due to the fact that I wasn't tired and was in a good mood.
I left my house at 9:30, and started heading there.
It was getting quite dark, so when I left my village and entered the country lanes I
got my flashlight on my phone up.
I was walking for about 5-10 minutes before I realised that what I was doing was stupid.
Walking the country lanes at this time at night was not a good idea.
Stupidly, I continued.
It was no longer than 2 minutes later that I noticed a silhouette in the distance.
It was standing about 20 yards away next to the sign that told you which directions you
can turn.
I felt pretty awkward because I didn't want to pass this person at this time of night,
especially on my own.
I crossed the road to walk on the opposite side, and the person was just standing there
and they were staring at the ground.
As I got closer, I could make-out what they were wearing.
It was a man wearing a black hoodie, tracksuit bottoms, and some muddy trainers.
I got closer and closer, and when he finally knew I was there, he looked up and stared
at me.
For some reason, I stared back, but carried on walking.
I kept walking straight for about 10 seconds, until I heard him walking behind me.
I turned around, and he had crossed the road to my side.
I then noticed his face.
I was terrified and disgusted.
He looked like he had been on drugs for most of his life and must have been in his mid-30s.
I couldn't turn around now, I was half way there and knew for a fact that he would follow
me home if I did.
I didn't know what to do.
I still had at least 10 minutes of walking left and was in the middle of nowhere.
No people were around, and the closest building was in the village.
I had no friends in the area either, so I couldn't go to anybody's house.
I started walking faster, but so did he.
I was petrified at this point.
Things like this don't happen to people like me, or that's what I thought.
I started to cry a little, and then I heard him say in the most horrifying and evil tone
I've ever heard; "You can't escape me young lady".
I started running, and screaming.
I don't know how to explain it, but I couldn't control my screaming, it was like I was automatically
doing it, if that makes sense.
He started running too, and he was much faster than me.
"Could this whole scenario get any worse?"
I thought to myself.
I slowed down, extremely out of breath, I cursed my asthma for this.
Tears were streaming down my face, and I felt like I was going to collapse.
Then, this creep grabs me and I fall to the ground screaming louder than I have ever screamed
before.
I didn't know how I could possibly have screamed like this considering I was out of breath
and having a panic attack.
He was lying on top of me.
he was so fucking heavy and smelt so bad that I could have thrown up.
I couldn't see his face anymore due to the tears in my eyes.
I paused for a second.
Then, he whispered into my ear; "I won't hurt you, but I will break your neck if you continue
to scream like that".
Regardless of what he had just said, I continued for what felt like an eternity.
I heard a car heading towards us in the distance, I screamed "HELP ME!".
I felt a lot of relief when I heard the car slowing down.
"HELP ME, PLEASE!"
I continued.
The guy got off of me and sprinted into a cornfield.
A man and a woman step out of the car, they must have been not that older than me, and
they asked me what happened.
I told them the whole situation, stuttering and gasping for air.
The woman sat with me and gave me some water and luckily she had an inhaler.
The man shouted for the creep who we could all still see sprinting extremely fast down
the field.
Then, took off after him.
They both took me home and I thanked them both ever so much for helping me.
God knows what could have happened to me if they didn't stop, or even notice me.
I told my friends about the whole event, and a lot of people met me during the weekend
and comforted me.
The police were notified.
But unfortunately, the creep was never caught.
I didn't have a good enough explanation of his face and of course there were no CCTV
footage in that area.
Of course, I never walk the streets, especially country lanes after dark anymore.
I only visit the village every week now since this event and only ever go with my close
friend Courtney.
My lesson here is that no matter how safe your area may sound, there will always be
bad people around, and you should never walk the streets at this time alone.
The night I'm going to talk about was nearly the last night of my life and I gained a strong
belief in fate after it.
It's early August 2004.
I'm 17 years old and working a late shift at McDonalds, one of my first part time jobs.
It's a Saturday and my best friend, with whom I had just started to go out drinking, is
disappointed because I'm at work.
The shift is unusually quiet.
At 7 pm, the manager declares that one of the newbies (myself or another guy) can go
home.
It comes down to a coin toss, which I win.
I know that this sounds dumb, but that coin toss nearly cost me my life.
I immediately hop on a bus home, shower, change, and set off to meet my friend.
We go to a student union bar on the outside of Manchester.
In 2004, we were still enjoying the golden age of extremely lax I.D. procedures and easily
got into this bar on fake I.D. cards from the Internet.
We get a little too drunk.
I was so irresponsible at 17; we'd mix shots of whiskey, vodka, etc., all into a glass,
then down it.
Whilst screwing around on the dance floor, I knocked a guy's drink out of his hand.
He started to blow up and I promptly walked away.
His friends kicked me in the back as I did so.
I later learned he had been kicked out after throwing a bottle at my head, which missed
me, so I had no idea it had even happened!
We left the club, which let out into a passage beside the college it was attached to.
This passage fed through onto the busiest road running through our town, but it was
2am and dead quiet.
By this point, my buddy had bumped into some old friends from our high school and didn't
notice me break away from the group.
There was a petrol station directly opposite, where we would always get sandwiches for the
munchies.
At this point, my memory is a blur of what could be memories, or bits of eyewitness accounts
that I've constructed into false memories.
I'll tell it as if I were seeing it now for the purpose of clarity.
I was drunk off my face.
I walked / jogged towards the garage.
A car came from the car park adjoining the passage.
It was long, the path, so it easily cleared the car park and got out onto the road before
I got there.
As I stepped out into the road, this car had - Unknown to me - accelerated to 30 mph and
struck my right leg as I placed it forward on the ground.
This is incredibly important to the story and my survival.
First, about the car.
Oh god how I was lucky that I was dealing with the chump from the club.
He had a typical "look at me" modified car with a low bumper.
It was nearly touching the pavement.
This resulted in my foot being scooped up.
A regular bumper would likely have buckled and shattered my ankle at this angle, so I'm
told.
So, it hits my right leg.
I'm in the middle of a stride and this saves my life.
The car instantly snaps both bones in my lower leg, but crucially, it spins me like a coin
around the side NOT over the bonnet and roof.
I break 2 ribs in my right side as I hit the bonnet, and puncture a lung, too.
My right forearm impacts the passenger side window as I'm flipped around the car (UK car
layout), and the glass destroys my arm.
I later see in hospital that it was akin to taking an ice cream scoop down to the bone.
I bounced off the car and onto the road at this point.
My landing couldn't have been any more unlucky.
I land on the shattered fragments of window and essentially roll across a lake of glass,
shredding my arms.
I don't honestly know if I remember this.
Writing this story, I get fragments of super realistic memories but it's like my mind is
saying "hell no" and recalling them before I can properly picture them, and it makes
me feel sick.
I guess that's regression for you.
My best friend at the time called my parents and an ambulance.
I spent 14 days in hospital, had emergency surgery to repair my leg.
Cosmetic surgery on my arm.
My leg now contains a titanium bar that's great fun at airports but apart from some
late-day tingling, I walk and run normally.
I had a fantastic surgeon fix my arm without the need for skin grafts, too.
The whole bunch of people outside the club later gave statements that Mister Bottle Thrower
had accelerated and swerved intentionally into my path.
His girlfriend was riding up front and was covered in my blood.
What a lovely bloke.
He went to jail, but I don't know how long for. I moved to the South of England several years later.