I was stalked by a man I saved from drowning and then he tried to murder me after 9 years

It was July 2008 and I was 17 years old and had just left school. My friends and I were at my parents beach house in Mauritius (I’m from South Africa but we had a holiday home in Mauritius so I was familiar with the local staff I used to see there) after one of my friends’ mother had said that she wished we could be there as our school leaving trip was only 4 days and we could have celebrated elsewhere. I had someone that I could stay with there so I invited them all and they said yes. <br><br>I’m not a great swimmer but the beach was one of my favourite places so I spent the week in the water at the beach. I am still not sure why one day I swam out very far and then I could not get back. I had swum far enough to not be able to stand and I could feel the current pulling me out to sea. I was panicking and my arms were cramping up. I was calling out for help but realised I was too far out for anyone to hear me. I remember giving up hope and I had just started to resign myself to drowning. <br><br>The next thing I knew was that I was choking on water and someone was slapping me in the face. I remember them pulling me up off the sand and holding me against them. I remember looking up at my rescuer’s face and thinking they were an angel. They were one of the very tall, muscular, long haired black men who worked at the local resort. He had obviously come out to save me in his red swim shorts and they had a white logo on them. He was so strong and beautiful, I was still a teenager and I remember feeling embarrassed at my reaction, but also I had just nearly died so I was weirded out and completed. <br><br>He pulled me over his shoulder and walked into the water, swam back out and then walked us both back to the beach. It was still a weird feeling after the relief of being resucked from certain death that I now felt so safe in this stranger’s arms. After he had sat me down, he sat down beside me and held my hand. My friends and family were glad I wasn't dead and they were very thankful to him, but I could see in his eyes that he wanted more thanks. <br><br>It actually made me feel better to have that physical contact and I remember being grateful to him for it. After that day, he spent more time with us and would join us for meals. He walked me through the market and bought me flowers and trinkets. I cannot remember seeing him without me at one point. He also started holding me and kissing my hand every now and then. It was weird because although I still did feel scared after the drowning, it was getting worse when he kissed me or held me. <br><br>I obviously loved him and thought he was handsome and strong, but every time he kissed me or held me I felt stressed. I couldn’t work out why. I decided that I loved him and I didn’t expect him to be able to read my mind so I decided to talk to him. <br><br>One night, he said that he wanted to go and have sex with me. I said no. I said I didn’t believe in sex before marriage and I wasn’t even married to him. He got angry and said he wasn’t going to marry me and that I was a whore and a slut, that he had just said that to get in my pants. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know how to say no to him because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. But he started kissing me and touching me and I said no, I was scared. He pulled my sundress off and he was trying to take my underwear off. I had never seen a naked man before but in the moonlight I saw that he was hard and I still did not want him to touch me. <br><br>I started crying and said no. He stopped and said someone was coming and after he left I looked around and I had no idea who to call. I was in so much pain. I felt so used and hurt and scared. I couldn’t go back to my parents place. I kept looking around and thought I could not go anywhere and didn’t know what to do. I thought he was going to come back and hurt me and I didn’t know who else to trust. <br><br>I decided to go for a walk and I had no idea where to go. I didn’t want to leave the area so I didn’t know what to do. I was in a lot of pain and felt like I had been violated. I started crying and I was relieved that I had no makeup on. I’m not sure why that crossed my mind but it was a small comfort. I sat down on a rock and had no idea what to do. <br><br>Eventually I saw a crowd of people and I decided to ask them if they knew anywhere I could stay. They were shocked that I was outside alone but they said I could come with them. I went with them and they were so kind and said they would help me because I was obviously in trouble. <br><br>They said they were going to help me get home but I needed to tell them what had happened. I didn’t want to so they said they couldn’t help me if I didn’t tell them. They explained that it wasn’t my fault but I still felt humiliated. Eventually one of the ladies said that she knew someone who could take me in until I was well enough to go home. <br><br>I went and stayed with her. It turned out that one of the ladies was the recently divorced daughter of one of the resort staff and that’s why they had seen him and picked me up. They hid me from him and made sure he didn’t contact me. Different people came and stayed with me because I was unwell and they didn’t want to leave me alone. I am still so grateful to them. <br><br>The lady that I was staying with said she had spoken to his boss and he had completed the rest of his contract and received his notice pay as they were worried he was going to come after me. He had apparently been calling me constantly and getting angry that I wasn’t answering. <br><br>After I went home, I didn’t want to go back there ever. I am going to get censored for this but if I’m going to sound racist then that’s the last thing I care about right now. It’s what I felt at the time and I’m trying to tell this story. I did not want to go back to Mauritius because it reminded me of black men and I didn’t want to see them because I felt violated by them. <br><br>I actually went to a lot of therapy and still had trouble around black men for years and actually still do sometimes. I want to make it very clear that I don’t think that this man’s skin colour was what made him evil. I feel sick that this is going to be taken as I think black men are evil. I hope it is obvious that this man was a monster and I am not racist. <br><br>I obviously moved on with my life and managed to go back to Mauritius. My best friend was in trouble and needed somewhere to stay so I helped him out with the money and he stayed there for a few months. I was a bit worried it would make me feel bad but it didn’t. I didn’t end up going back but my other friends did and I would stay with them for a few days if I visited them. <br><br>It had been about 9 years since I had left that place and that part of my life behind. I had moved on and was a very happy person. I had a wonderful life with friends and family and a great job and I had met a wonderful man. <br><br>One of my friends was getting married and she needed someone to look after her niece as her sister was in the wedding party and the little girl was the only child at the wedding. That was a bit of a nightmare because I wasn’t happy with my ex being at a wedding but I didn’t want to leave the child unsupervised and she was bored and scared because everyone was mingling and no one was paying attention to her. <br><br>I had managed to keep some distance between us but he said he had been thinking about me for years. He said it was my fault and that I had hurt him and dumped him. He said I had been just using him but then I dumped him. He was so angry and I didn’t know how to react, I couldn’t call for help because there was loud music playing. I didn’t know what to do and I was there with a child and didn’t know what to do. <br><br>I told him it wasn’t true and that he had attacked me, but he said I was a psycho. He said I had been calling him and sending him letters and asking him to marry me. I said it wasn’t true and he said I was a liar. I told him I was sorry but he said I wasn’t sorry and he was going to make me pay for what I did. <br><br>I tried to run out the back door but he was waiting for me and he pinned me down on the floor. He was twisting my wrists and said he was going to rape me and kill me. He was so angry and he was so strong. I couldn’t move and he was too big for me. I told him no. I told him I didn’t want to die. I told him to let me go. <br><br>He was ready to kill me. I had no idea how to stop him. I didn’t know what to do and I was pinned and alone. I didn’t know how to get away from him and he was trying to strangle me. He had me on the ground and was covering my mouth but I knew that if I screamed he would stop and if I didn