[Rebound]

This is all true and that fact alone made me laugh later at the irony, but it has triggered anxiety and paranoia that lasts long after.

I was on the first significant vacation to my home town in a while so one day I just went doing touristy stuff in the old part of town.

I was wandering pretty aimlessly and decided to have a look through the mall. I scooted across the street and then looked to my right saw a scruffy looking man in a rumpled Canada Post shirt and jeans just before I turned left and up to the mall entrance.

He followed me into the mall, down the stairs to the basement, and into the first store I came to. He stayed as long as I did and left when I left. At the next store, I entered and walked halfway in and turned around and he came in and walked past me. When I moved closer to the counter, he moved near to my previous spot. I left and went down the first passage I saw. It had no public access but I waited at the dead end to see what he would do. By this time I was prepared to vigorously assault him.

Nothing happened so I came back out and he was standing at the counter by the cash as though he had been waiting for me there.

I made for the stairs. I suddenly needed fresh air. When I started walking toward the exit, I became aware of a well-dressed man walking swiftly on my right as though to catch up with me. Note at this point I was already walking quickly. I sped up, he seemed to increase his effort. To make sure this wasn't all in my head, we came to the entrance of a smoke shop and I stopped dead, intending to go in. He nearly took a spill trying to get stopped. He walked past me on my right. I pretended to look at some of the shelves then turned to leave and he was standing right in front of the shop looking at a mural on the opposite wall.

I later realized it might have been security of some sort. They would have reason to believe I was a shop-lifter or something with all my aimless walking around the area.

But now, I can't stop thinking about it. At the time I was totally out of my mind and I keep reliving the emotions I felt. If that first guy had followed me down that empty hallway, I would have attacked him, of that I am certain. I don't get in fights let alone start them, but I was truly in fear for my safety. If they were real or rent-a-cops, they created a situation that could have easily escalated very quickly. I very nearly did something when he approached me in the second store. I stared right at him all the way, daring him to act.

I was frightened, but I was getting a charge out of having what I felt was a justifiable reason to attack someone. Apart from obviously being triggered a lot when I'm outdoors, at other times I'll just think about it to relive the emotional rush. That's not good, in my opinion.

Sounds like something from George Orwell or Alfred Hitchcock or even Rod Serling. Or maybe the Shadow knows?

Originally Posted by TheByzantine

Sounds like something from George Orwell or Alfred Hitchcock or even Rod Serling. Or maybe the Shadow knows?

We are living an Orwellian nightmare.It's much worse than 1984. I see unmarked police cars following me all the time.I can't stand to be in public anywhere because of the cameras.
It is real, and they want to have control over us all. Next will be government mandated implants.They will have to kill me to get one of those.And it gets worse. Bank cards,library cards ID cards.......They can all be monitored. Believe me they do it. They hack your computers whenever they wish. I do not trust anyone.I don't have any friends either.

I cannot have friends because I don't want them to have to go through what I'm going through.