I saw my death in a woman's eyes

Something kind of strange happened to me in my mid-twenties, and it’s stuck with me for the last decade plus. It was a moment of mutual menace, a negative confirmation of the adage that “all people are good at heart.”<br><br>In the late 90’s, I started locking my car during the day while I was at work. I did this because I had a series of small cash thefts and missing lunches from my car. One morning I woke up to go to work and my car was completely gone. I didn’t have roadside assistance, so I had to have it towed off the police impound lot and pay a bunch of fees and fines. Obviously it was stolen and I should not have been charged, but I made the mistake of not reporting it missing because I didn’t notice it was gone right away. Lesson learned.<br><br>After that, besides locking my car, I started setting my alarm and always, always reported my car missing - even if I only noticed it was missing a few hours after the fact. Some might say I was overreacting, but living in LA in the 90’s, my car was like a second house to me. It got broken into four or five times in my first year of living there, so I was very protective of it.<br><br>A few months later I woke up at 4:30 am and noticed my car was missing again. This time I knew exactly when I parked the night before - 2:30 am - so I knew it must have been stolen between then and now. I called the cops, got my friend to drive me around and look for my car, and finally found it a few blocks away. When I found it, it was idling on the street and someone inside was fiddling with the steering column. <br><br>I jumped out of my friends car and walked towards my car slowly, so as not to startle the person inside. As I approached, I looked into the drivers side window and saw a woman with short, bleached blonde hair, a few missing teeth, and a scowl on her face. She looked slowly up at me, scowling even more deeply as she realized I was there. The scowl turned into a sinister, evil little smile as she stared straight through me and into my very soul.<br><br>I was frozen in place as she put it into gear and pulled away, leaving me shaken and confused. When they drove past me, I saw she had a man in the passenger seat. He was big, with a red beard and a t shirt with the sleeves cut off. He reminded me of a Hell’s Angel, probably because he had that exact tattoo on his arm. He, too, smiled as they drove away. <br><br>I don’t know how I wasn’t carted off to the insane asylum right then and there. I told the police what had happened, and that I got a good look at the woman and the man in my car. They took a report, but I never heard from them again. I moved out of that apartment a few months later, and over the next couple years, I forgot about that night. I got a new car, a new place to live, new friends, a better job, and a new lease on life. <br><br>But I never forgot the look in that woman’s eyes when she stared at me.<br><br>A few years later I moved to a new house in Echo Park. It was a big house that I split with a few roommates, and it was a very fun and happy time for me. I was doing a lot of improv at the time and had a steady girl. I had a friend who lived on the street behind us, and so to visit him, I would often walk through the alley between our houses. I would take the alley route because it was shorter and it meant I didn’t have to walk all the way around the block. <br><br>One night I was walking back from his house, alone, at about 10 pm. I was in a daze as I walked down the alley, and I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, until suddenly, I did. There was a van parked in a place I’d never seen a parked car before - it was pulled as far over as it could go, to the side of the alley, right next to a fence. I was already past it, so I turned my head backward as I continued walking. <br><br>The van had no rear windows, just metal. The side windows were tinted but not all the way, so I could see shadows of people inside. The van was maybe 15 feet behind me, and I could hear the engine idling. I didn’t want to look back, so I continued to walk at my same pace. I could feel their eyes on me, and I could physically feel what their intentions were. I was heightened and ready to run, but my legs felt like jelly. <br><br>I had to keep walking because the street was another 40 feet away. I heard the side door slide open. I didn’t look back. I heard a woman’s voice and a man’s voice. I didn’t look back. A few breaths later, I made it onto the street. I turned left and ran to my front door. I opened it, rushed in, and shut it. <br><br>I was panting and shaking. I looked through the peephole and saw the woman and man from my car almost five years earlier. They looked just as they had on that night. The guy had longer hair, but the same red beard. He looked right at the camera as if he knew I was watching. The woman was grinning like a possum.<br><br>I called the cops. This time they came right away. When they arrived, I didn’t have to describe the people I saw to them. I took them outside and pointed out the van, the woman, and the man. They arrested them on the spot. <br><br>I had to go to the police station and identify them. I didn’t recognize anyone else in the van except the woman and the man, but there were four other people. They were all arrested for various things, mostly Grand Theft Auto. I learned that they had been arrested many times before and they had a MO - they would pull up to a car, she would lay on the ground and reach under it with tools, until they got the door open. She was super skinny, so she could fit pretty much anywhere. <br><br>I don’t know if it was just a coincidence that they were in that alley that night, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. I think they were looking for me specifically, and I think they had been looking for me for years, since the night I ruined their thievery by catching them in the act. I think they saw me walking down the alley alone at 10 pm and thought they had their chance to hurt me or kill me. I think the woman would have been happy even if they just got away, and I had to watch them drive off in my car for the second time in my life. <br><br>But I think the woman would have killed me if she had the chance. When she smiled at me in my car five years earlier, it was a look of death. When I walked by her van, she was waiting for me. She saw me every day and thought about me every day. And I think she would have killed me that night, and laid my body out on the ground and smiled, and laughed as they drove off. <br><br>So I guess the point of this is to be careful out there. Sometimes people who already hate the world hate you specifically even more.