I was out with my boyfriend one evening when a strange woman suddenly approached me.<\/p>\n
She looked nervous.<\/p>\n
She glanced at my boyfriend.<\/p>\n
Then at me.<\/p>\n
Before I could ask what she wanted, she pressed a sealed sanitary pad into my hand.<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
“What is this?”<\/p>\n
She leaned closer and whispered:<\/p>\n
**”You need this.”**<\/p>\n
Then she walked away.<\/p>\n
I turned toward my boyfriend.<\/p>\n
He laughed.<\/p>\n
“That was weird.”<\/p>\n
I wasn’t laughing.<\/p>\n
I wasn’t even on my period.<\/p>\n
Something about the woman’s expression made my stomach tighten.<\/p>\n
So I went straight to the restroom.<\/p>\n
I locked the door.<\/p>\n
Then stared at the unopened package.<\/p>\n
Why would a stranger give me this?<\/p>\n
I carefully tore it open.<\/p>\n
At first, everything looked completely normal.<\/p>\n
Then I noticed something tucked inside the wrapper.<\/p>\n
A tiny folded piece of paper.<\/p>\n
My hands began shaking.<\/p>\n
I unfolded it.<\/p>\n
There were only **two words** written across the paper in shaky red ink.<\/p>\n
I read them once.<\/p>\n
Then again.<\/p>\n
And my blood ran cold.<\/p>\n
**”RUN NOW.”**<\/p>\n
I stared at the message.<\/p>\n
Run from what?<\/p>\n
My boyfriend?<\/p>\n
The woman?<\/p>\n
Someone watching us?<\/p>\n
Then I heard footsteps outside the restroom.<\/p>\n
Slow footsteps.<\/p>\n
They stopped directly outside my door.<\/p>\n
I held my breath.<\/p>\n
Someone knocked.<\/p>\n
Three times.<\/p>\n
Then my boyfriend’s voice came through.<\/p>\n
“Are you okay?”<\/p>\n
I didn’t answer.<\/p>\n
He knocked again.<\/p>\n
“Honey?”<\/p>\n
I looked down at the note.<\/p>\n
Then something clicked in my mind.<\/p>\n
The handwriting.<\/p>\n
The red ink.<\/p>\n
The strange woman’s terrified expression.<\/p>\n
She hadn’t been warning me about a random stranger.<\/p>\n
She had been trying to tell me something about the man standing outside the door.<\/p>\n
I quietly put the note in my pocket.<\/p>\n
Then flushed the wrapper down the toilet.<\/p>\n
When I finally opened the door, my boyfriend smiled.<\/p>\n
“What’s wrong?”<\/p>\n
I looked directly into his eyes.<\/p>\n
“Nothing.”<\/p>\n
He took my hand.<\/p>\n
“Let’s go.”<\/p>\n
I followed him outside.<\/p>\n
But I didn’t get into his car.<\/p>\n
Because the strange woman was standing across the street.<\/p>\n
She was watching us.<\/p>\n
When our eyes met, she slowly shook her head.<\/p>\n
Then pointed toward my boyfriend’s car.<\/p>\n
I looked at the vehicle.<\/p>\n
And froze.<\/p>\n
A small object was hanging beneath the rear bumper.<\/p>\n
It was a tracking device.<\/p>\n
I slowly stepped backward.<\/p>\n
My boyfriend noticed.<\/p>\n
His smile disappeared.<\/p>\n
And for the first time that night, he stopped pretending everything was normal.<\/p>\n
I whispered:<\/p>\n
**”Who are you really?”**<\/p>\n
He didn’t answer.<\/p>\n
Instead, he reached into his pocket.<\/p>\n
And that’s when I realized the two words inside that sanitary pad hadn’t been the real warning.<\/p>\n
They had been the beginning of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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