Recently, I was talking to a guy who started bragging about something that honestly made my stomach turn. He was talking casually about a couple of local hotels and mentioned an acquaintance of his who works at one of them.

The punchline of his little boast? Whenever a woman checks into the hotel, this worker immediately calls him.

Picture this: You check into a fancy hotel. The lobby is bright, the staff is super welcoming, and a worker politely hands you your key and shows you to your room. You feel completely safe. But the second that door clicks shut, that same "professional" worker pulls out his phone. He tells his buddy exactly what you look like, your name, where you're from, and why you're there. Then, after his shift, they hunt down your social media, zoom in on your pictures, and talk about your body with a cheap, predatory mentality.

The guy I was talking to shared this like it was a funny, trivial anecdote. He was proud of it. He was completely blind to how much of a psychological horror story this actually is.

It really forced me to look differently at how we interact with the world. We rely so heavily on the "mask" of a uniform or a polite greeting. Psychologically, we have to. If we questioned the motives of every cab driver, delivery person, or hotel clerk, we wouldn’t be able to function. We take a mental shortcut and equate a professional smile with good character.

But that warmth is just a social contract. You hand over your physical safety, your home address, and your sleeping quarters to people whose true intentions are a complete mystery.

And honestly, it’s not just strangers in the service industry. It’s the coworker who nods in meetings but resents you, or the boss who acts like a mentor while undermining you. We are surrounded by people acting out their assigned roles.

It just pays to remember: You only ever see the face they want you to see. You never really know what happens when the shift ends and the mask comes off.

I don't know how to start this as I'm still shaken up by this whole situation. So please don't mind if some sentences don't make sense or there are grammar mistakes. I tried to fix them as best as i could.

So, To keep myself from rambling on too much, I was on a walk today and it was already dark outside. It's starting to get close to winter here so days are getting shorter and daylight doesn't last as long.

On my walk i decided to stop at an empty park to enjoy the evening before heading home. Soon after sitting down at a bench and listening to music I noticed this one guy dressed in all black walking across the road to the park i am in. I don't think much of it first as people can go where they want and it's pretty common for people to use the park as a Shortcut. Also wearing all black clothing is very common. But I will admit though that I had a weird feeling about him from the start.

I noticed him staring at me a lot and I did stare back. At this point i was on high alert and could feel my heartbeat. We were on the opposite sides of the park and he kept walking closer to me. Still staring.

I'm already panicking like crazy at this point. Then he suddenly stopped walking and turned around to walk towards these balance beam things. At this point I'm the one staring at him. As I stared I noticed him slowly making his way to me. First one the beam, then throwing trash to the nearby trash bin and then to this weird art sculpture that was almost right next to me.

I quickly stood up and started to walk away from the park. I took off my headphones to listen if he came any closer but I thankfully didn't hear footsteps. After making it out of the park i noticed 4 older women walking and i speed walked until i was around a few meters in front of them. I kept checking behind me like a crazy person but I noticed he stayed at the park and didn't follow me. At least hopefully

I have lived around here for many years now and nothing like this has ever happened to me before. To say i was terrified would be an understatement.

I'm still shaken up by the fact that I would have been greatly hurt or worse if I hadn't left. But at the same time i feel like an idiot for not leaving sooner and trusting my gut.

Take my story as a reminder to stay Careful and safe out there. Trust your gut when it tells you something.

This happened some years ago, I think, almost nine years ago. It was a fall evening, it was very cold and windy and just very unpleasant outside. So even if it wasn't late, I decided to take a taxi home so I wouldn't have to walk from the subway to where I lived. The taxi dropped me off on my street. From the street you had walk up a few steps to reach the sidewalk. The sidewalk / pedestrian area was a little bit elevated and separated from the parking spots and street level.

As I was walking up those steps, I was very surprised to see a man, maybe around 30 or 40, sitting on the window sill of a shop. And he was huffing something from a plastic bag. This was very unusual for my neighborhood, which was generally very safe. That was the only time I ever saw drugs in that area.

So I stopped surprised for a second. Then I walked up the rest of the steps and I took a left to walk to the entrance of my building.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the man get up and slowly walk.

I hurried up to reach the entrance. The entrance was a large door and the upper part was a glass panel, a window so you could see outside. It opened with a key card. The super had recently fiddled with the spring and the door and made so it would shut very, very slowly behind you. Which I thought was a very bad idea because someone could grab the handle after you and enter behind you in the building.

This thought crossed my mind as soon as I opened the door and went in. So I turned around, grabbed the handle and shut the door as fast as I could, even made sure I heard the click it makes from auto locking. I was relieved and I thought that, well, it was all in my head and nothing bad was happening.

I managed to walk about two or three steps towards the elevator. And that's when the man reached the door and he started forcing the handle, like trying to rip it out. And then he started banging with his fists on the window and screaming. He wasn't saying any words. He was just like howling with his mouth agape, extremely loud, even tilting his head back. I walked as fast as I could to the elevator. I pushed the button. And it wasn't coming fast enough. All the while he was banging his fists on the window. And howling and howling. I was just stood there watching him. He looked like a fucking ghoul. At some point he was making gestures with his index finger towards his mouth, like pointing inwards. But again, I have no idea what any of that was supposed to mean. I took the elevator, ran inside the apartment, locked the main door and then also my bedroom.

Then I never saw anyone huffing or shooting anything up in that area again. It was the only time I felt in danger.

The door was also fixed soon after.