A man approached me on the street and whispered something so terrifying to me it leaves me speechless to this day.

I was ten years old when this happened to me, I am 16 now. Before anyone wonders, my parents never taught me not to talk to strangers but I instinctively knew not to and I am so glad that I did. I can imagine this story ending a lot worse had I been the curious type. <br><br>One winter evening, I came home from school and decided to go to the grocery store. I had to take the same route to and from school as well, so I walked it every single day and was comfortable doing it alone. I was a kid, so I didn't really realize that it was already dark outside and I was walking alone. I got to the grocery store fine, bought a few snacks and headed back home. About a quarter of the way there (which is about a five minute walk), there was a wooded area with a path leading to God knows where. Everytime I walked past it I wondered where it went, but it was not a well kept path and looked private so I never explored it. <br><br>There was a man standing near the path and as I got closer I saw he was looking at me. I felt a little uneasy, but he was standing near the path and not on the road so I thought he wasn't going to bother me. He had black, curly hair and a thick beard. He was wearing a red sweater and jeans. I remember him being quite tall, but I was a kid so everyone was tall to me. I think he was around 6ft4. I passed him, looking at the ground and he said "Hey there little girl," in a very deep and terrifying voice. I didn't answer him, just sped up my pace a little. He was right behind me, I could tell. I started to panic a little, but knew I was almost home. <br><br>He finally caught up to me, almost jogged up to me, and I started to run to the house across the street from mine where my friends family lived. This man jogged next to me, staying right next to me, and said "You smell so good," in that same, deep voice. I didn't answer and ran inside the house I was going to, I started to run towards the door and he grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him, along with the same deep voice he said "I want you." I broke free and opened the door and saw my friends mom standing there. The door opened into the living room and she was standing right there. I looked behind me and the man was gone. I thought for a second that it had all been in my head, but then I saw him walking away down the road. <br><br>I told my friend and her mom what had happened, I didn't tell my parents at the time. But I never took that route again and never walked anywhere alone, not even to school. It didn't really occur to me that the man didn't even walk towards me and confront me until I got older. He let me go once I opened the door and was around other people. <br><br>A few months later, while browsing online I saw a list of missing children in my town and realized the road I took was almost the exact area where several children went missing. The description of the suspect was a tall man with black, curly hair and a thick beard. I realized then that this had been the man who approached me. I told my dad about it and he was very shocked that I hadn't told him or my mom, but he was glad I wasn't taken. <br><br>I think about it a lot, how I was so lucky that day and how many other kids weren't. I'm sorry if this story is poorly written, I'm still pretty young and am working on that.<br><br><br>EDIT: I think I accidentally deleted some comments? I'm so sorry to those people who's comments got deleted, please know that is not my intention