Creeps, true stories from Reddit (Second book)

Timothy Booker has escaped, again.

Realizing this was not normal behavior for her, I started back for the house. The sun was starting to set anyways, and I was exhausted from poor sleep the last few nights. The last few are always hardest when Chris is away.

On my way home, I felt my pace quicken as I heard Mia growling. I've never heard her growl. Not at the mailman, not even at the vacuum cleaner. She was walking slightly behind me, standing between me and the dense forest next to us. The light from the sun had disappeared quickly, and the woods were pitch black.

When Mia and I got home, I shut the door and immediately locked it behind me. I never really worried about locking the door, as the crime rate is nonexistent around us, but tonight I found myself checking every door AND window.

When I was done, the house phone rang. I know, home phones aren't very common anymore, but Chris insists on having one, so he can essentially use his cell phone as a "work" phone.

"Hello?" I said into the phone.

"Hi there, Miss Emma. It's John." My neighbor from across the street answered back.

It wasn't strange that he was calling. He would call if he got an extra large hay shipping and needed Chris's help unloading, or if his wife made too much peach cobbler, and they wanted to offer us some left overs. It was a bit weird that he would call after dark, though.

"Well, I was just calling to make sure everything was alright over there." He continued, "I saw an unfamiliar car parked on the side of the road, just up the street from our homes. I thought, with Chris being gone and all I ought a call and make sure you were alright."

"That was so sweet of you, Mr. Thompson. It probably belongs to a hunter. I'm okay over here." I said back, in a thankful tone. I was thinking about how I couldn't wait to tell Chris that the old man actually cared about me.

"Alright, then. Maybe I'll call the authorities just to be sure. It ain't the season, you know? It's against the law." He said. I thanked him again, and put the phone on the receiver.

That's probably what Mia was growling at, I thought. Just hunters, probably a mile away. I laughed at myself for being so quick to assume the worst.

As I sat down on the couch, wanting to relax before bed, I turned on a movie from Netflix. I was trying to relax, but I noticed Mia standing in a tense position, staring at the basement door at the end of the hallway that was adjacent to the couch. I thought she just wanted to go down there because that's where Chris's office is. She liked to go down and sit under his desk while he worked on the computer.

I was thinking about opening the door for her, but decided against it in case she messed with some important documents or something. I was starting to get really tired anyways. I snuggled into the couch, and eventually dozed off.

I woke up abruptly. I felt for my phone on the side table and checked the time. 12:17. Less than an hour since I'd fallen asleep.

That's when I noticed it. The TV was black. The movie I chose was two hours long, it should still be playing, I thought to myself. Then I saw there was no light from the cable box, or the electric clock plugged in on the side table in the hallway. It was pitch black.

"Shit." I thought. The power went out.

I shined the flashlight around looking for Mia, and I saw a flash coming from outside the window. At first, I thought it was a reflection of my phone light in the glass. Then, I saw it again. Circling around to the back of my house. That's when I heard a shout, and gun go off.

I screamed. I'll admit that. I don't consider myself a very cowardly person, but I screamed. I ran into the hallway bathroom, locking the door behind me. I quickly closed the blinds, and sat in the bathtub with the shower curtain closed. I heard banging on the front door.

"Police! Open up!" The male voice yelled.

I didn't budge.

"Emma! Open the door, you're safe!" I heard from a familiar voice.

When I opened the door, there stood my neighbor. Next to him were two police officers. I looked outside to see five or six police cars lining street, all running, but the lights off.

"I called the police about those hunters..." Mr. Thompson started. "Apparently that vehicle came up as stolen. Since our two homes are the only ones within miles of here, and I knew no one was poking around mine..." he didn't continue with the sentence. I hugged him, and cried on his shoulder.

The officers put together that the man who stole the car matched the description of someone who had recently escaped prison, and immediately called for backup. Knowing I was alone, Mr. Thompson told the officers I should be checked on, and notified of the situation. They walked down the driveway and saw that the house was pitch black. They then noticed my cellar door, that connected to the basement, was wide open. The fuse box that was in the cellar was also open.

Upon entering the cellar door, they shouted "police", and a man jumped on the first officer, stabbing him, resulting in the officer shooting him in the shoulder, just missing his heart.

The light I saw outside my house had been the officers flashlights. The shouting was them announcing themselves... but who had been in my basement?

The officer who was stabbed sat in an ambulance getting stitched up. Luckily the wound was not deep. As I stood outside, mortified that my house was now a crime scene, a man on a stretcher emerged from the cellar doors.

Somehow, he survived the shot, but was definitely not stable. As the paramedics carried the man past, I could see who it was. The stranger from the grocery store. He was politely smiling at me. The way you do to someone you don't know but are forced to come into contact with, exactly how I had smiled at him in the store that day. And that, my friends, is when it all clicked.

The man heard Kaitlyn ask me when my fiance was coming home, as he stood behind me in line. Meaning, I would most likely be alone. That's why he left the store, almost immediately after those words between Kaitlyn and I were exchanged. So he could follow me. I was talking to Chris and mesmerized by the leaves on my way home, totally distracted.

That is why Mia barked at the woods. He parked his car when he saw me slow down and flip on my left turn signal to pull into my driveway, and Mia heard him walking through the woods, avoiding being seen by any passing cars.

The next day, after getting his name from one of the officers at the scene, I googled him. His mugshot, and criminal history immediately popped up. He had been arrested for following a woman home from a park, and keeping her hostage in her own home for 3 days before a friend called the police.

He repeatedly sexually assaulted and tortured her during the days. Although traumatized, she stood at his trial, told her story, and helped send him away for a life sentence.

When he was caught, he was sentenced to death. His lawyers eventually won one of their appeals, and he was sent to a Prison in Ohio where he would spend the rest of life. Until he escaped.

Unfortunately, this had been many years later. The man, who's name was Tim Booker, was not caught by the police until he had tortured 11 more women who he had followed home from somewhere. Eight of them were dead when they were found, all over the course of 10 years.

I'm alive out of pure luck. Don't make the same mistakes as me. I'm telling you this story as a warning, so you will pay attention to your surroundings. Watch for cars following a little too close behind you. Listen to that gut feeling telling you something is off. I'm telling you this story because, well... Timothy Booker has escaped, again.

Posted by u/rcer12