Chapter 1

This happened today. Im a female, 5'1 and 165 pounds, not super strong but stocky with some muscle. This is relevant later in the story.

My fiance and I own a remodeling and cleaning service. We turn apartments for the people that own my mother in laws apartments. For context the complex has 3 buildings with 10 apartments each so we are there all the time and have gotten to know the residents.

Anyway, today my fiance was doing some repair work to an apartment while I was cleaning it, he was replacing a window that had been kicked in, when he pulled the window out, it shattered so he had to run to his shop(about 35 minutes away) so I decided to sit down and eat lunch while he was gone. Mind you the window is out so there was just a hole in the wall. This apartment is in the ground floor so anyone could have just walked up next to the window from the side yard which is very visible from the parking lot. I was sitting in the living room up against a wall listening to my creepy story YouTube videos(blue spooky, malevolent mischief etc) I had saved, I had my earbud in so I couldn't hear much from that side but had a clear view of the window if I looked left.

Out of nowhere I hear a loud bang near the window, I look and there is a man standing there. He said "hey, what are you doing in there", I said "we are turning this apartment, just taking a break for now", he said "oh okay" then mumbled something I couldn't quite make out and walked away

For context the apartment is set up so all the windows are on the front side of the building, the room i was sitting in had a big window directly in front of me and then two French doors to the left of it with big picture windows on them, the front door was behind me but i could still see it if i looked to my right as i was sitting right at the corner of the wall. Also its about 3pm so I can clearly see the man walking in front of the building. I figured he was out taking a walk and got curious about the window so I just went back to my video, next thing I know the front door is opening and this guy just walks in like he owns the place.

I stand up and said "you can't be in here", he continues to walk into the room that I'm in and asks "how much a month do they charge for these?", i said "1300 because its a 3 bedroom, but seriously you aren't allowed to be in here, we are only allowed in here because WE are maintenance and cleaning" he smirks at me and starts to walk toward the hallway, starts checking out the bedrooms and the bathrooms and all i could think was "great, now he knows I'm alone here, if he hurts me or worse, no one will know what happened". he looked the be about 50, 270-280 pounds and pretty built so he could easily overpower me

I call my fiance, no answer. Call my mother in law, no answer. Right about that time the guy that lives a floor above where we are and is always out on his deck calls to me "lauren! Can you come look at this for dale(the apartment manager) and let him know what you think" "i said, be right there henry!", im guessing he saw the guy walk in after he saw my fiance leave. Dude in the apartment isn't getting the hint and is just standing at the end of the hallway staring at me and smiling. My fiance calls me back and I answer "hey babe, did you find what you're looking for? Oh okay, ill be right there to help you" my fiance is confused and I start telling this random guy "I gotta go and can't leave you in here"

He starts walking towards the door and pauses right when he reaches me, i take a step back toward the French doors, he was just smiling at me, not saying anything, then just leaves. I book it toward the door and sprint to my mother in laws apartment, thank god she was home. I was pretty shaken up but waited about 20 minutes and walked back to the apartment with my MIL as I had left my purse in my panic to leave. Henry came down and checked out the apartment before we entered and told me he got a good look at the guy and a picture of his car, license plate included.

I called the apartment manager and let him know what happened and all he could say is "no one with the description lives there but ill let everyone know to be on the lookout for him at both complexes" great. I'm so lucky this didnt go bad and will be carrying from now on when we go to these jobs. Just a reminder to keep your head on a swivel no matter how safe you feel in certain situations.