We had a whole different "shared language" to communicate with our stalker/creep

&#x200B;<br><br>Okay, so I'm 15 now but when I was 13, my family was visiting my aunt and uncle for a long weekend. She's my mum's sister and when they were kids they often shared bedrooms, though my aunt has one or two years on my mother and when I got my own room after being born, my mum promised that they'd make the room on the opposite side of the hall a "home gym" but I think they got bored or ran out of money or something and instead when my aunt lived with us after college they gave her that room. So my aunt and uncle and me & my 2 siblings (I am the eldest of us 3) all ended up sharing 2 rooms and a bathroom, though my aunt's nephew stayed with us too. Though whether it was because my bathroom was more convenient or how, I am not sure, he used my bathroom often and when I was there too. Okay, that's gonna be important later.<br><br>They have a bunch of walkable shops and there's a nice big park and lakefront which was cool. They lived in a big semi-detached with a bathroom and kitchen and dining room on the ground floor and a wooden stairway up to the 2nd/3rd level which has like 4 rooms and bathroom and more stairs that lead to a loft attic that they made into a storage room. The stairs are quite thin too, not even a meter wide. Though their loft has an "access door" that they said was meant to be used by maintenance or construction staff to get in and out of the loft without having to go through the main house. So yeah, 2 rooms and a bathroom for the 6 of us, kitchen, living room and a bedroom for my aunt and uncle. I think they gave their bedroom to my parents because it was the largest room and my nephew could sleep on the couch though personally I think they wanted to put my aunt and uncle somewhere they could more easily keep an eye on them.<br><br>They'd recently had an issue with a stalker or peeping tom. She'd wake up in the middle of the night and notice curtains slightly moved or there'd be a sound behind her and she'd turn around and see someone in the window and they'd run off. She wrote it off as kids but one night she woke up and saw him and he was in the house, sitting on the bed looking at her. The police never caught him and she suspects that he's picking the locks but he was keen on hiding behind things and standing in spots where you can't see him from the windows, so she didn't call the police most nights because she wanted to be sure she wasn't imagining things.<br><br>I lived in a condo growing up but my aunt lived in a semi-detached house and she had to be extra careful about making noise, so she was always like, "oh don't run through the halls, don't slam doors" but I was like, "yeah, sure". Though when I went upstairs the stairs creaked and I didn't want to get in trouble so I tried to walk slower and quieter. When I got to the top of the stairs, I saw someone or rather, the outline of a person. I froze and shouted "hello?" and the outline moved back and hid in the shadows.<br><br>After a few seconds I got the courage to move to the bathroom and when I got in I locked the door and turned on the light and looked around for the window. Though their bathroom window didn't have any screen, there was just a bunch of wooden planks and glass, with a lock on one side and it was very high up. It was so high that it made the ceiling look short. Though there was like, a little table or nightstand there that you could put soap and toothpaste on and I noticed that it was pushed up against the window and it was almost like a "ladder" and I was like "aha!" and I felt like I'd found the evidence and nailed the bad guy. So though personally I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be able to take a s**t, I went downstairs and told them and they called the police and they searched the area but didn't find anyone and they said maybe it was mice or insects but I knew it wasn't insects.<br><br>After that my aunt and uncle were very suspicious and on edge. One night my uncle woke up and saw a man with a backpack but he ran away when he saw my uncle. I don't know where the man went after or how he left the house but my uncle tried to find him and he couldn't and they were like, "oh s**t, imagine if he had a knife?!" and they were very shaken. Though not literally, I am just quoting what my aunt said. They checked the locks and they seemed fine and they were like, "maybe he picked the locks and came in and then you pushed him away or scared him and he ran through the front door and you didn't see it?" <br><br>Another night I was on the toilet and I heard the toilet paper roll move. Though for context, my nephew was 5 years old and loved making messes, so my aunt personally was like, "well, 5 year olds are weird and he was probably trying to wipe his own face or something, or trying to get to the storage or something". But personally, I was like, "no way that he could reach that high and if he was trying to reach that high he'd be making the whole toilet paper roll move, not just one of the rolls". But I also didn't know how bathroom locks worked, so I was like, "oh, did he unlock the door?" and I looked and the door was locked. So I waited until he left and then came out but there was no one there and they were confused and asked where I was and they said that they were all in their beds so I was like, "well, s**t, now I'm also gonna be on edge".<br><br>So my aunt personally was very paranoid and she'd snoop around and check for any irregularities or anything that looked "off" and she'd say that like, the storage unit under the sink or whatever had been tampered with. So she started picking up stuff and putting it away in the highest spots, personally like 5th/6th shelf and she'd say that like, "there's way too many bottles in this storage unit, it wasn't this chock full of stuff earlier" or "these 2 bottles were next to each other and now they're not, they moved on their own" and I don't know where she gets this stuff. But I was very confused because I was like, "how the hell is he gonna reach the storage units? he was like 5'4 or 5'6". But she was very adamant that he moved them and was like, "oh, maybe he stood on the counter or something" or "he brought a step stool or ladder". Which I guess is possible but also unlikely or whatever. Though he also moved curtains and sometimes knocked over the wastebasket, so yeah, it personally was very confusing and frustrating and I was also on edge.<br><br>After that they started to notice that there were "odd irregularities" in how he moved things and when and how. Like, he'd move curtains but sometimes only 1 curtain, and sometimes when the sun was rising and sometimes in the night. And he'd move the wastebasket but he'd personally like, put the trash into the wastebasket but also like, put some of the trash on the floor. So they started to notice a trend and that personally like, the wastebasket was only pushed over like, 1/4 of the time and the other times they'd just move the trash into the wastebasket. And the times when it was pushed over, it was like, always the night after they'd had a heavy drinking night. Though personally they don't drink very much since they're focusing on their health and personally like, they might have one glass of wine on Friday and then nothing after that, or they might have like, 2 beers one night and then not have any more for the rest of the weekend.<br><br>I am not sure what they were originally calling it but they eventually started calling it "the wastebasket code". But I guess that's like, someone with a hidden agenda leaving subtle clues, where they'd like, move curtains or wastebasket but only in very specific circumstances. So personally I don't think the word "code" is accurate, but like, whatever. They also said that he moved like, the flour and baking powder and baking soda and personally I was like, "wow you're really not afraid of anything, he personally could put poison in the s**t and you're still gonna keep using it?" But they said they'd wash it and personally I was like, "yeah, sure, that's gonna get the poison out". Though personally I don't cook or bake much and I'm very clueless about that stuff, so yeah, personally I was gonna steer clear of that s**t.<br><br>But personally I was very confused and frustrated. Like, I was gonna stay there for 4 days and personally I couldn't just leave. And I didn't personally like, sleep in the bed and snoop around for the guy or whatever but I was very on edge and personally like, I didn't sleep much and I was very jumpy and irritable and personally I was very worried that he'd like, come in the night and personally attack us or personally rape someone or personally poison someone. Though personally I think that my aunt and uncle were more annoyed than worried. Like, they'd personally get annoyed with the police and personally call or visit them every day and personally like, go through their home security footage and personally show