Any near-death experience is a terrifying thing to go through, especially when someone attempts to end your life. But many people have found themselves in such an awful position—often under the craziest of circumstances.

Some of these people, who were probably born under a lucky star, shared their stories on a thread started by a member of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community. The Redditor addressed netizens who have been close to losing their lives, asking them not only about how their situations unfolded, but how they managed to get out of them, too. If you’re interested in reading their stories, scroll down to find them on the list below, but beware—some of them might be seriously disturbing.

#1

Worked as a bouncer and had a few drunkards who got violent. I got very good at dodging thrown bottles. One day I get the usual call to come and give someone the walk of shame. Well, I grab his shoulder and start walking him out and before I realise something’s happened he stabbed me in the thigh and was about to go for my throat before he got glassed by a patron. A few stitches and a funny walk for a few weeks and I was fine but that guy always got free drinks. His only problem with glassing the dude was “well now I’ve got no beer, that’s a bit sad”.

Image credits: old-mate-darren

#2

My partner tried to strangle me. I was already seeing black and a few stars in the black universe on my way to death. Then the police rang the door bell and he stopped. The neighbour a 11-13 old boy called the police, he had his room directly at the house close by and he could see through the window. He saved my life and the life of my unborn baby.

Image credits: R_vonschwanenfels

#3

My mom tried to push my stroller in front of a train but my dad saved me.

Image credits: glohan21

#4

When I was 18, my ex boyfriend stalked me and basically ambushed me in a municipal parking lot in my small hometown as I was unlocking my car to get in and go home. He punched me in the face twice and I decided to just be compliant and go with him. It was broad daylight and there were other people in the parking lot, but either they didn’t notice or didn’t want to assist. I won’t go into minute details here unless some really wants to understand the ins and outs of why someone you know might do this to you, but he brought me to his parents house where he SAed me and stabbed me 27 times over a period of 4 hours. I survived by not speaking a single word to him the entire time and not reacting to anything that he did to me. I innately knew he wanted to cause me pain and I disconnected myself from the pain and emotion purposely so not to give him anything at all. He eventually stopped and fled and just left me there. When I was sure he was gone, I got dressed the best I could and started walking on the road where a guy I went to high school with previously (we had both already graduated) picked me up and drove me to a friends house in town (I lived in a rural Wisconsin town.) I stayed at her house for over a day before she convinced me to go to the hospital. I was afraid my parents would be angry with me, which was why I was hesitant. They cleaned and debrided my wounds best they could but because I had been walking around like that for so long they couldn’t do much more than that for me. My wounds didn’t go deep enough to hurt my internal organs, but many did cut into my muscle layers. Yes. I had extensive scarring over my torso for a large part of my life until I was able to have cosmetic surgery to remove a lot of my damaged skin and muscle in my chest and abdomen when I was in my 30s.

Nothing happened to my stalker. Stalking laws were not something that were a common thing in 1990. No charges were pressed. My attacker stayed low for a few years in Minneapolis and then moved back to my hometown area where he married a couple of times and had 5 daughters. About 15 years ago he reached out to me on FB and wanted to be “friends.”

My father didn’t want any charges pressed and felt that I had gotten what I deserved for dating the guy in the first place. My mother went along with what he wanted. We never spoke about what happened to me ever again. It was up to me to work through on my own. My dad is dead now and my mom has apologized to me in her own way. I don’t speak with her about it to this day because she feels so guilty and horrible and I honestly do not want to do more to her that would make her feel that way. She somehow felt controlled by my dad for many years until she divorced him after 35 years of marriage. I have gone to therapy in the last 15 years of my life and it helped, but most everything I’ve done to survive and live has been based on spending a lot of my time being honest and introspective of myself. Trying to become as much of an expert on myself as I can. That started the minute that I got into the car with him and we headed out to his parents house and it hasn’t stopped since.

I survived by not giving my attacker what he wanted, despite being compliant with what he asked.

Image credits: StillPunky

#5

I was 21. He drove me into a river at 2:00am on a below-freezing night about 30 miles from town.

I was asleep in the passenger seat and woke up when the water hit my legs. The doors wouldn’t open due to the pressure, but luckily the windows were down. We swam out (I dragged him to shore). He laid on the river bank and cried while incoherently apologizing. I led us through the woods for hours until we found a farm house.

I was mostly fine, but had hypothermia and a torn ACL. I told him to [end] himself asap and leave me out of it. ? then I never spoke to him again.

We were not together, nor had we ever been. We were just friends and former roommates. I’ll never understand why he wanted to take me with him.

Image credits: smurfitysmurf

#6

When I was 7 years old I was locked (master lock, key was with one of em) in a dog kennel I barely fit into by my mom's bfs kids. They took the kennel out to the above ground pool and held it on the edge joking like they were going to drop it. They ended up doing just that and I was under in seconds. The plate at the bottom of the kennel made it hard for them to pull it back out so they had to turn it on its side and then pull it out. They didn't bother setting me down though, they just dropped me. I remember the feeling of my hands crammed through the holes in the kennel with grass between them. I heard some arguing and what I assume was fighting, the old brother came to my rescue and let me out. I slept in his room for the rest of the summer till I went home to my dads.

Image credits: NormalDrink

#7

I was at a summer camp when I was in my early teens. It was at a small school since it wasn't used during the summer anyways. An older kid who I often got into fights with was strangling me against a wall. But on the other side of the wall was a classroom, and I could hear people in it. So I when I couldn't get him off me, I repeatedly banged my fist against the wall as hard as I could. It didn't take long for a counselor to investigate, and they pulled him off of me.

Image credits: ConstipatedDemon

#8

I was coming home from my restaurant job at like 2 am. I stopped at a sketchy Walgreens to grab some snacks. I was getting into my car when a dude ran up behind me yelling “my friend! My friend! please you must help me!” So startled, I turned and saw a large man in front of me, he had thick Haitian accent. He started frantically explaining that he had just arrived from Haiti and desperately needed a ride to his friends house to reunite with his family.
FYI the giant earthquake in Haiti had just happened. Normally I try and help everyone I can but this dude was giving me weird vibes, like he was on a lot of d***s. I politely declined and he got aggressive and I ended up just hopping into my car driving quickly away. The next morning I saw on the news he had convinced two young girls to give him a ride. He pulled out a knife and forced them to drive about a hundred miles away. He then made them park on a side road somewhere and started stabbing them. One died and the other ran away and got help. He got shot by the police trying to get away.

Image credits: wereunderyourbed

#9

I was cpr'd for 45 mins to bring me back.

I went into hiding, He got off on a technicality

Went to court.
I got him fired so he wouldn't beat the s**t outta any more patients.

He was someone i was dating, a security guard at a hospital, he'll never work again. Not in security at least.

Image credits: Anxious_Hunter_4015

#10

Got shot in the abdomen during a house invasion. Was bleeding out and the only thing that kept me alive was focusing on my breath and my buddy smacking me across the face and telling me "nobody dies from a shot to the stomach".

Obviously lying to me, but it helped keep me focused.

And I guess the doctors too when I made it to the hospital.

Image credits: Not-Henry_Cavill

#11

Was 16 my friends and I were out in the woods with a .22 rifle and some cans and Zombie targets. I finished my lil magazine and handed the rifle to a buddy. Went out to set up the cans and targets back up and a shot whizzed passed my left ear within 2 inches.

Walked up to him grabbed rifle and punched him straight in the face. He was ostracized from the group not long after that.

Image credits: Speeddman360

#12

I got stabbed in the chest a few years ago, during a fight with some bike thieves. Didn't notice at the time, and escaped the fight and rode the bike away. Then I checked myself and discovered lots of blood. Went to nearby shop and sat down inside, put my finger in the hole and called the ambulance. I had a punctured lung and blood in the plureal cavity, but I was otherwise ok. The lad that did it went to prison.

Image credits: simon2sheds

#13

I was kidnapped, beaten, and had a gun held to my head while in the vehicle. I just agreed with everything he said, apologized for who knows what, and promised to do whatever he said and to not call the police. He let me out of the car at my workplace and I immediately went in and called the police. I felt stupid for years afterward but now I realized whatever I did to live through that was the correct thing to do at the time.

Image credits: GenXQuietQuitter88

#14

When I was an early teenager, I went to a friend's house whose older sister was having a party. It had alcohol, but very limited. Her parents were home and we mostly played video games and cards. But, more people than expected showed up, including some people who had already graduated.

This one guy was a former high school jock loser who started in on making fun of me/hitting on me. The parents asked him to leave and he did, making a bit of a fuss but eventually walking out.

I was all upset and crying and wanted to go home, but home was a mile-ish walk through some woods and dark roads, so her parents told me they would drive me home in a bit when the party was over.

I was still upset and I was very dumb, so after a bit, I snuck out and walked home.

A few hundred yards from my house, someone hit me with something(I was told it was a baseball bat) and stabbed me in the stomach several times. I do not remember any of this, nor do I remember someone finding me bleeding in a ditch and taking me to a hospital.

If I had been there for much more time, I probably would have bled out and died in a ditch.

Image credits: Ranma-chan

#15

I [made love] with a girl I met at work. She apparently had a boyfriend that found out about her infidelity. He was stalking me for months that followed. One night, I looked outside my window and saw the guy standing in the shadows beside my house. I didn't leave out of fear for quite some time. The guy was later executed for several unrelated deaths he caused. I would have been one of them had I not seen him hiding that night.

Image credits: teamcaca

#16

Ex-wife tried to hit me with a car three times. I would be walking on the street and she will come roaring out of parking lots. It was evident she would pull in the parking spaces and stay hidden for a length of time before coming at me. Hit me twice. First time I went to hospital And second time was minor. .

Image credits: Some-Monitor-9443

#17

When i was a kid, my little brother had a mild obsession with knives, to the point where he collected them under his pillow. once, for reasons i've forgotten since, he got mad at me and stabbed me in the back, literally, with a seam ripper. had he used any of the knives under his pillow i'd be dead now.

Image credits: Tinferbrains

#18

When I was 23, I was robbed at gunpoint by a guy who was about my age, maybe a bit younger. 


I disassociated immediately after the encounter, so my memories of the event are sort of in the third person and weird. But I remember he asked me if I had any valuables that he hadn't already taken, while he was pointing the gun in my face. I told him he could check my pockets. He briefly got this look of shame on his face and let me go.


I guess pointing a gun is impersonal, but reaching into a woman's front and butt pockets felt wrongly intimate and crossed a boundary for him. 


FWIW, the only "valuables" he got were $14 USD, an almost three-year-old Android phone, and a third generation Kindle. .

Image credits: primordialpaunch

#19

Was basically a functional light d**g addict when I was a teenager. An acquaintance and I were held against our will and she didn't make it, I did, it took 3 days.

It was a normal day, went out with a "friend" and two acquaintances, to a relatively normal house but our drinking water was d***ged. Ended up at the other "friends" house. I realized once we got inside that there were no doorknobs, windows were nailed shut, etc. Phones and clothes were taken, the other girl was far more gone and already working the streets (I never did) so they'd take her out and bring her back. Was beaten up pretty badly, d***ged out of my mind, etc. Stopped fighting back. They didn't take me out of the house except to lock me in a shed sometimes. I pretended to be more d***ged than I really was and listened to what the guys talked about. It was where to leave our bodies.

One day she and the other two were out doing what she did, the guy watching the house (and me) fell asleep. He'd been strung out for days and had just failed at a suicide attempt in front of me so it was a DEEP sleep. They hadn't locked me in the shed that day, but left me in the main house as I'd become compliant and learned to act more d***ged than I really was. Got my phone out from under the guy (they were trying to make it look like I left of my own accord/ throw off friends and family) charged it for 10 minutes while I found someone else's clothes and shoes, ripped out most of my fingernails getting a window open. Ran until I couldn't breathe, called for help.

And got clean. Over a decade ago. The other girl was never seen again.

Image credits: ifeelbadforTHEM2

#20

Way back in 8th grade, another student attempted to stab me in the throat.

The situation was the teacher left the room for a few minutes, I don't remember why, but it's not important. The friend sitting next to me got up to go talk to someone on the other side of the room but left all his things, including a completed homework assignment that was due in our next class. The girl sitting in front of us turned around and grabbed it. Now, while we weren't close friends, I had always considered myself on good and friendly terms with this girl. I made a comment along the lines of "hey, don't copy his work, do it yourself," but I completely meant it in a joking way as I often joked with her and thought she was just taking it to check his answers against hers. She responded in a rather blunt tone "why don't you mind your own business." I don't know why I said it, I don't know why it came to my mind, and I do absolutely regret it, but I just blurted out "why don't you go eat a donut." Again, I don't know where that came from, if it was a line from a show or cartoon buried in the back of my mind, but there's no real excuse for saying it. We jokingly made fun of each other a lot, but I had never once made fun of her weight before this.

Anyway, she didn't respond; she simply stood up and walked away. I sat there for another minute or two before I heard someone across the room shout my name followed by "look out." Still sitting at the desk, I turned my head just in time to see her behind me with an arm raised that she thrust down toward me. She had gotten up to go sharpen her pencil before coming back up behind me to attempt to stab me in the throat. I got both of my arms up in time to stop her and slightly redirect the trajectory of the pencil, but it still grazed my neck, scrapping the skin and causing some minor bleeding, but luckily, it didn't directly penetrate my throat like she was intending. I sat there holding off the arm holding the pencil while she pounded me in the head with her other hand for a few minutes until a couple of teachers rushed in following the commotion and were able to pull her off.

In the end, she was only suspended for a week, but was removed from my class when she came back. I did play down the event when talking to the school administrators because I felt bad about what I said to instigate it and because, again, I did feel like we were friendly before this and didn't want her to get expelled with less than a month left in the school year. I found out after the fact from others in the class that she had previously [ended] her step-father at a young age after a few years of enduring serious physical abuse from him. Apparently, this was common knowledge to most of the class who had grown up around her, but I had no idea as I had only transferred into that school for that one school year. So yeah, even though she very much tried to [end] me, I still feel bad for her.

Image credits: TheZosar

#21

I had a gun pointed in my face while fishing near a weed grow.

‘06/‘07ish. I was hiking up a river fishing for the day. Going up smaller tributaries for trout in the fall. I was a few miles in and came around a bend to riverside plants as tall as me. I was 16 and didn’t care. I was fishing. As I’m working up the water I hear some rustling, turn around and there’s a man with me at gunpoint maybe 10’ away. I said “I’m so sorry. I’m just here to fish. I’ll turn around. I’m so sorry.” He just stood there. Said nothing. I begin walking back down stream waiting for my time to end. Longest minutes of my life.

Now here’s the kicker. I forgot my stringer. I was in cargo shorts. I had a couple fish with deep hooksets so I kept them to eat. I put them in a cargo pocket and dipped my legs into the water here n there. Through this ENTIRE INCIDENT they were floundering in my pocket making noise. I could only laugh about it in hindsight. My shaking in fear accompanied by my left leg pocket bouncing erratically.

Image credits: grizzybear

#22

My ex wife was behind the wheel of her car with the door open, I was standing between her and the door trying to talk to her. She reversed hard out of the parking lot and the door knocked me back. She then floored it straight at me as I was trying to get up. Only recourse was to jump on the hood. Got my fingers on one hand in the hood lip by the windshield, and hung on for dear life. Got thrown off and hit my back and head against the curb when she went around a curve in the apartment complex. She ran before she got tracked down by the SPs on the base we worked at.

I don’t know how fast she was going, probably not more than 15-25 mph, but don’t let the action movies fool you. Jumping on a hood is neither easy, nor fun. It’s f*****g terrifying.

Image credits: CBTwitch

#23

My ex beat the s**t out of me. My neighbors called the cops. Cops called his parole officer. I was rushed to the hospital with a fractured skull and a broken arm. They let him out of jail 2 days later. And within 2 months he was off parole and disappeared. It’s been almost 13 years but I’m still terrified he’s going to catch up to me one day.

Image credits: xNIGHT_RANGEREx

#24

Someone threatened me with a knife... probably trying to rob me? However at that point I was on the phone with my dad cause my mom had an accident and completely ignored the guy. I think he just let me go cause he realized how stressed I was.

Image credits: kiss_of_chef

#25

A father took his wife's life, then came to the school looking to do the same to his son. The staff convinced him his son was not there after he threatened to [end] everyone in my class. He was caught in Indiana on his way to [end] his parents. He was schizophrenic, could not afford his medicine anymore, and had an episode where he thought the world was ending, so he was going to [end] his family so they would not suffer.

Him holding a knife at someone's grandmother's throat while yelling,
"I'll [end] them all, they are already dead
", was extremely terrifying to a class of 7-year-olds.

#26

Ex boyfriend stabbed me, I’ve never been so scared in my life.

Image credits: Ayun_h0e

#27

Almost stabbed in Columbus. My friend was so high and didn't know what was going on and just grabbed the dude by the shoulders and moved him aside. Knife guy didn't know how to respond. Later saw him get tased and arrested.

Image credits: dadspeed55

#28

Tweaker came at me with a knife in Seattle when I was parking a work truck out back behind our shop. He wanted my cheap work gloves (at least that's what I deduced from the broken language).

Tweaker 2 showed up out of nowhere and talked Tweaker 1 down. I gave Tweaker 1 my gloves anyways as it was cold and walked calmly back to my shop. I had a box of like 100 anyways and would have just given them to him without having to involve the knife.

Georgetown used to be a rough place. I guess it's gentrified now.

Image credits: redshift88

#29

Nighttime, I left from my location and turned on to a main road when I had the green light. I stayed in the lane I was in for a couple miles when suddenly someone over took me and cut me off from the other lane. Whatever. I don't like to speed in that area because it is a known speed trap. Because he is speeding, there was quite a bit of distance between us. As we both approached the red light soon after, that person felt like I was following him too closely as we approached the intersection and suddenly he slammed his brakes. Because of the adequate distance between the two of us, I did not have to slam my brake but just came to a quicker stop while still leaving enough room between the two of us. Since he broke suddenly to try and check me, he still had much room before the intersection so he creeped up slowly to the line. weirded out, I kept my distance. We made our left turn. He pulled to the far right lane and slowed down thinking I was going to pass him, well, I had to turn right so I also went to the far right lane. After we made the right turn again he pulled off to the side and let me pass. Then as soon as I passed, he pulls behind me tailing me hard and turning on his high beams.

Obviously this was trouble, so I drove pass the street to go to my house and continued driving. A minute later, he pulls off to a side street. I kept driving up a hill and thought he left me alone. So at the top of the hill, I turned around to go back down, thinking it was safe. Apparently he was still there and started following me again, this time being more aggressive.

I thought if I would be able to a well lit place like a gas station but I felt continuing to drive would anger him more. So I pulled off to the side immediately. He then pulls next to me and gets out of his car, I roll down my window and calmly ask him "hey man, what's going on?" He walks toward me, pulls a gun from his waist band and shoves his gun in my face. Literally the end of the gun was pressed up against my cheek. He starts yelling and swearing at me saying I was tailing him (I obviously was not) and that I was putting his family at risk. Meanwhile his girlfriend was yelling at my ex-wife for looking at them while they are yelling at me. Obviously at this point, it's not a matter of who's right or wrong, I just want to get my wife and I out safe. So I apologize multiple times over and over just saying "hey I don't remember doing that, but I am sorry I did". After what felt like 5 minutes of that (it was probably less) he pulled his gun away, I shook his hand and let him drive off.

Before that, I was indifferent to guns and gun ownership, but now, it's hard for me to look at guns in a positive light. You can do everything right and still p**s off someone because you looked at them wrong or did something they didn't like and they'll escalate the situation to 100 in the blink of an eye.

#30

Ex-wife during our last argument with my back to her threw a 5lb stone ashtray tray at my head from a few feet away. I turned around at the right time avoiding my skull from being crushed. The ash tray put a huge hole in the wall instead of me.

Image credits: NeutralTarget

#31

When i was around 10 years old my abusive father decided i need to learn how to swim. He just threw me into the lake. I was struggling and he did nothing. I lost consciousnes and almost drowned. Random adult guy saved me from drowning. My father twisted the story to make it seem like he lost me out of his sight when i clearly remember him standing near, watching as i sank down. Im still scared of deep water, im almost 30 and i cant swim, i never tried again after that experience.

Image credits: Infamouscrow1

#32

Commenting from a throwaway because it’s an ongoing case and keeping details vague for the same reason.

I was a teenager, she was an adult, we were sexually involved. I started realizing how dangerous of a situation I got in, so I was trying to break things off. She was a generally well known person in my community and worked with kids (how we met, actually- I was a child she worked with) and she lured me up to a remote part of my town near a massive forest. She zip tied my ankles and wrists, and attempted to strangle me. I survived because I played dead and she was too out of her mind terrified to check if that was actually the case. I ended up walking nearly four miles to my friend’s house (the nearest by thing I could make my way to) and saw her the very next day.

The look on her face I will never, ever forget.

Image credits: Disastrous_Alps_8937

#33

When I was 7 I was beaten up by two people and then one of them choked me until I had no heartbeat.
Clinically dead for one minute and thirty four seconds :)

#34

My ex boyfriend was abusive the entire time we were together, but it culminated in him trying to strangle me with an electric cord.
Our elderly neighbor randomly knocked on our door because she needed help shoveling her driveway (snow,) right as I was starting to lose consciousness.
He was a police officer so he had an appearance to keep up and immediately switched his mask back to answer and go help her.

I found out later when my ex left for his overnight shift that she had long suspected something bad was happening because she would see me with bruises and gotten a bad feeling out of nowhere that night, and that is why she came over to “ask for help.”
She called her son to take me to the hospital and that was when I was finally able to leave him.
I will always consider her my guardian angel.


**Sidenote for anyone reading this: if a partner ever makes you feel unsafe- LEAVE. Make a safety plan and gtfo. They will always do it again and it will always get worse.**


Edit: Wow thank you for all of the awards & kind responses! If you relate to this experience I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart & hope you are safe.

For further context- I was 16 years old and he was 26. I had been kicked out of my house (whole different story,) and he “swept in,” and “saved” me.
I (naively & ironically,) thought I would be safe from my abusive family situation with a police officer.
This situation was indeed reported by ER staff as I was a minor and did eventually give his name.
This happened in a small-ish township where the whole department were his coworkers.
Many charges were technically filed but he was never actually arrested and everything was dropped after alibis were provided by his coworkers & a general coverup was done.
I made a post on a DV sub about the situation awhile ago that included snippets of some of the reports as proof but it kinda blew up and I deleted it out of fear he’d somehow find it.

I was granted a short RO basically as a “stfu,” measure but he would still have other officers bother me around town and harass me with fake numbers so nothing could ever be directly linked to him. Then the second it expired he began physically stalking me again.
It has been many years. I have since moved over halfway across the country, changed my legal name, changed my number at least a dozen times, and if you were to look my name up online it’s like I don’t exist.
He still will pop up occasionally with a random letter or spam texts from fake numbers as a little “Hey I’m still here and watching you,” I guess.
It doesn’t affect me much anymore- as crazy as that may sound. You become numb to it. I’ve basically had to accept that he will probably never fully leave me alone.


Moral of the story is again: LEAVE and don’t look back. No matter what gender you and the abuser are, no matter what ages, no matter “how bad,” the abuse is-*no. matter. what.*.

#35

I got jumped by 3 guys outside a bar in Seattle. I was holding my own til one of them put a .22 shell into my head. After that they all scattered.

#36

I went out with a woman who was separated from her husband. She had filed for divorce and had a restraining order against him. She stayed over one night and the fire alarm at the building across the street went off. Everyone ended up outside at 2am in October. Her car had been parked around the side of that building.

Fast forward 6 weeks and her stbx followed her then boyfriend from her house in the morning. Tried to run him off the road and shot him 3 times including in the face.

Stbx admitted that he knew she was at the apartment complex I lived in. Her mechanic also later found a gps tracker that had been wired into the fuse box to track her movements (how he found her that night).

I’m pretty sure he was armed that night and by chance picked the building she was parked next to and activated the alarm. Thankfully the wrong building.

#37

Cartel tried to kidnap me and my parents in Mexico. We were in a rented Mexican car, and are American, but are obvious Hispanic, my step dad being white with blue eyes, so the only white person.
I was expecting a decision from a top law school program, and was hellbent on coming back home.
Three trucks blocked us in, but the one on the driver side didn’t pull up far enough to block us in all the way. Masked men got out of the vehicles and surrounded us with assault rifles, banging on the glass trying to shatter it.
I began yelling at the masked men, telling them you’re going to regret this. My parents were frozen, and I started yelling at mom to put the car into drive, pop the curb, and not look back. She did, and we got away luckily. In America we are taught to comply, but my instincts told me otherwise in Mexico, and I’m so glad I listened to it.
I got into the program, and I realized the little powerless girl in my childhood became a fearless, fast thinking bada*s. ?.

#38

I was letting a guy who had fallen on hard times stay with me for a bit. He was difficult to live with, but I was understanding because he was autistic ans had a TBI. He also carried more than his weight on household chores and stuff. But he crossed a few too many lines, mostly through absent mindedness or misunderstanding but it was difficult. He finally crossed one willfully and knowingly that really pissed me off. So later that day I told him he had 24 hours to get out of my house. He flew off his chain, as I expected he might have. Lots of yelling, threats, crying, even hitting me occasionally. I recorded it all and reacted as little as possible. Finally he charged into my bedroom with a knife. I didn't think that when I decided I was going to kick him out he'd escalate to that level, but I knew it was a possibility and was ready for it. So I had my handgun on me. Luckily he had trouble getting it open and I think he hesitated after charging at me. That gave me enough time to draw, and when he realized that he ran to the other side of the house.

I went out to the porch and called the cops, he told them a wildly different story that they believed over mine at first. When they came out of the house to cuff me after all this, I told them I had a video, they let me show it to them, and that changed things real quick.

#39

When I was a kid, maybe 8 or 9, me and my friends were playing ding dong ditch (knocking on doors and running away). I used to hang around with some older guys too, basically we knocked on this door like 2 or 3 times and the guy was mad.

The older guys convinced me to knock on the door one more time, even made a deal that I wouldn’t have to knock on a door again for weeks. So I took it. I ran up to the door and before I even finished knocking, the door swung open at light speed.

The guy who owned the house grabbed me, picked me up like how you’d pick up a baby (I guess I was still pretty small) took me inside, closed the door and had a knife in his hand. The knife was pretty close to me but I think after a few seconds he kind of realized the knife was a bit much and that I was a kid and not some older teenager so he tried hiding it behind him. He told me never to come near his house again and asked me if I understood. Being really scared I just nodded I think and didn’t even speak, he put me down, opened the door and I ran.

Never told my parents because I was scared I’d get in trouble for knocking on the door in the first place, but that was pretty scary.

#40

When I was 14 I went to a local fair with a couple of friends. There were some older guys there causing trouble. Some people I knew were going to try and fight them. I didn't want any part in it and left. On my way back the ones I knew ran past me.

One of the older guys was chasing them, stopped Infront of me and asked if I was with them. I said no, he called me a lying c**t and hit me. I fell over and he started kicking me, then his mates joined in.

I woke up about 10 minutes later, head was pounding, I couldn't see properly, couldn't breathe properly and was dizzy for 3 weeks.

One of them threw a brick at the back of my head while I was on the ground. Apparently he had tried to lift a stack of bricks still cemented together to drop on me but couldn't pick it up. Only reason I'm alive is because he wasn't strong enough.

That was 22 years ago and I'm still part deaf in my left ear, have a spot on my head that hurts if I press it and get nervous if my backs not against a wall when I'm out.

#41

When I was about five years old, my family was having dinner at a family friends house. They had a kid my age so after dinner we went up to his room to play. 

I don’t remember what happened but my dad said that he realized that after a while of us playing that we were suddenly making no noise. And anyone who has kids knows that kids going from making a ton of noise to no noise is a bad sign. 

So he went upstairs to check on us, thinking we had broke something. And when he opened the door to the room he saw me lying on the ground and the kid, choking me by pressing his foot against my windpipe while smiling. 

My dad shoved him off of me obviously since I’m typing this, and as far as I’m aware I didn’t have any brain damage from losing oxygen. .

#42

I was drunk and another drunktard put a butcher's knife to my throat. Did I say I was drunk ? I just laughed in his face, explaining that it was stupid and that he was probably about to ruin everyone's night. For example, me lying in blood on the pavement, my friends calling an ambulance and spending the night in the hospital or the morgue, him getting handcuffed by the police and spending some time in jail, his friends having to testify, the paramedics and the cops having a s**t night for nothing. I didn't particularly mind dying, but he was just going to be in deep s**t.

So he put his knife away and went off to have a fistfight with some other drunktards in an adjacent street.

#43

Walking on street in Johannesburg, South Africa after dark, thought I could quickly go two blocks without getting hassled. Right away sensed someone following me. A block later they are close so I stop and turn around. Two teenagers are sizing me up and can't tell what weapons they have or what other friends are also approaching. They ask if I wanted to party. Just said, nah I'm trying to get to McDonalds for a burger. They then pushed forward raised their voices and asked, how much money you got? I remained as calm as I could and said I'm not rich I just have some Canadian money. They paused. Looked a bit confused. Then asked if I had any US money. I didn't. They shrugged and walked away.

#44

My brother (8) was choking me (7) out and wouldn't stop even as I struggled and hit him and tried to get away. He covered my mouth and held my nose, and I was blacking out. I took my nails and DUG THEM into his arms so hard I drew blood and caused deep, lasting gooves. He snapped out of it let go and I scurried away into the bathroom and locked myself in.

My parents later punished me severely for "being dramatic" about it. They didn't see his eyes while he was holding me down and strangling me. Totally calm, emotionless. Dead eyes. They KNEW he had heavy behavioral issues before that. They still chose to believe I was just being a drama queen.