I always assumed it was a myth until it happened to me

When I was growing up, my mother told me that when she was in college, she hadAccept a party invitation from a guy she kind of knew, but she later found out that he had planned to rape her and kill her at the party. She said that she ended up not going to the party and a few weeks later she found out that he really did plan on doing that to her. She warned me to be careful and always trust my gut. I always assumed that she made up the story.<br><br>It's been about a year since this incident occurred. I was in college, getting gas at a station that I had never been to before. There was a personable gas station attendant working, probably in his mid 20s. The kind of guy that you would bring home to mom. I would later find out that his name was Sam. He asked me about school, my favorite subjects and how things were going. He asked my name and told me his. We spoke for a while and he seemed genuinely interested. I have to admit that I was a little attracted to him and thought that we had a lot in common. We kept chatting and I ended up staying for about 15 minutes. We exchanged numbers and Sam asked me out. I said "yes" and he told me that he would text me in a little while.<br><br>After I got home, my best friend Emily called me to ask how my day went. I told her about Sam and she thought it was awesome. I thought things were going well. About an hour later, Sam called me and asked me if I wanted to go to his house for drinks and a movie. I told him that I was a little uneasy about that because I had only met him that day. He said that it was fine, but it would be better if we hung out at his house. I told him that I would rather meet at a coffee shop and he reluctantly agreed. He gave me the name of the coffee shop and I told him that I would meet him at 8.<br><br>Emily was excited when I told her that Sam and I were going out. She asked if I wanted her to pick me up so that she could drive me to the coffee shop. I agreed. By this time, I had already forgotten about my mother's story. She picked me up at 7:30 and we drove to the coffee shop. There was no coffee shop! It was a small park... very secluded. I immediately got a bad feeling.<br><br>I decided to send Sam a text asking him where he was. I didn't want to drive away without giving him the benefit of the doubt. He said that he was waiting for me at his house.<br><br>The bad feeling became worse. I told Emily to call the gas station where I met Sam to see if he was still working there. The guy on the phone told her that there was no employee named Sam. He had been working there for five years and never met a Sam.<br><br>I immediately blocked Sam's number. We decided to head to a park in my neighborhood and Emily called the police. They asked me for Sam's number, my address, and a description of his car. They told us that they would send someone over.<br><br>The police came and asked for more details. We told them that he worked at the gas station but they found out that it wasn't true. They asked me to message Sam from Emily's phone number, pretending to be me. He agreed to meet us at the park again and the police told us to go home.<br><br>I didn't hear anything from the police for months. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I just wanted to know what would have happened if I had gone to the park and met Sam. About four months later, I received a call from the police. They told me that Sam had abducted and raped several college-aged women in that area over the years. They said that they were able to apprehend him because of the texts that I sent him from Emily's phone. I didn't really feel any better. I just kept thinking about all of the girls that he abducted before me. They didn't have the same luck. Sam is in prison now and I hope that he rots.<br><br>Sam, I'm really glad that we didn't meet.