From the deepest darkest places in hell, spawned the devils child, I will call him stranger. When I was young, I worked two and sometimes three jobs to help me support my son. I would work at a bar on the weekends when my son was with his father. One night that I did not have to work, I went out for a while with my friends. I was not drinking; I had to work in the morning. I lived a couple of blocks away from the bar that I worked at, so I stopped to say hi to my friend that was working.

I sat there and drank water, had a bag of chips and talked to my friends. I only stayed for ten minutes and decided to leave. I walked to the door and went outside. I opened my car door and got in, and started looking for my keys that were in my purse. As I had, done a thousand times before. The passenger door of my car opened and someone a stranger sat in my car.

Stunned I just said what are you doing. You are in the wrong car, man. Get out, I told him. He was fast I will give him that. Grabbing my hair pulling it as if he was playing tug a war, only I was on the other side. Telling me to drive the car. I reacted by hitting him in the chest. I mean I slammed my fist into his chest, hitting him as if I was swinging a bat. I opened my door and tried to get out of the car. I had a friend, three cars away from me leaving. I could not breath, or scream, my mind yelling help, my feet thrashing. He pushed me to the floor with his hand over my mouth, I was suffocating. I could not breathe. I was kicking the door trying to let my friend see that I was in distress. He kept me on the floor, reached over, and shut the door. I was dead I knew that I was going to die. I kept pulling his hand away from my mouth so I could catch whatever air that was available in the confined space.

I do not know how long we struggled like that but it seemed like forever. Another car pulled up right next to mine. His hand is still on my mouth and he is telling me to shut up or he will cut me. I remained calm. I stopped struggling. I kept pulling his hand away from my mouth; I was trying to tell him that I could not breathe. He finally took his hand off my mouth and somehow I talked him into letting me up.

The stranger just wanted me to drive. I begged him to take the car and let me go. I knew as soon as he put his hands to my breast that he was not going to let me go. He kept telling me to take my clothes off; he is reaching into my shirt. I have to remain calm. I tell myself that this is the only way to escape. The keys are still not in the ignition, so I tell the stranger that I will drive him but he needs to leave me alone. I talk to him and calm him down. You need to move over; I say you are making me nervous. Do you want me to be pulled over by the cops, I told him. I ask him where he wanted to go and he just says towards downtown. I knew that I only had one chance, one opportunity to get away. I kept fumbling around in my purse knowing that I cannot pull my keys out. Would I blow it? How would I be able to get out? He was so fast grabbing me before what would he do this time stab me. I do not know how but when I calmed him down and asked him to move over by the other door, I took my chance. I slowly put my hand on the handle of the door. I kept looking in my purse and digging in it with the other hand. With my hand on the handle, I somehow opened the door screaming; I slammed it shut and ran to the door of the bar.

Hysterical, bleeding, screaming I ran I did not look back. I was sure that at any moment he would be behind me grab me before I could open the door and drag me back to the car. I opened the door to the bar and yelled to call 911, there is someone in my car. My friends jumped up and ran out the door. Men friends, that is. They saw someone get out of my car and run, no one could catch him.

My mouth was tore up, I was bleeding because he kept putting his hand over my mouth but I was trying to breathe by pulling his hand away, so he kept cutting the inside of my mouth. I slept with a bookshelf in front of the door for months and a butcher knife under my pillow. Anytime I was around people, the hair on the back of my neck would stand up. I was afraid for a long time. I am good now but I still think about it. Every year when I go home to visit, my nightmares come alive with the memories of the stranger.

In the end, I had to track this person down and find him. It just so happened that another person that I knew recognized the man in the bar that night. He knew the name and the cops did the rest. I put him in prison for 13 years. He had only been out of prison for three days, when he came after me.

I know that this situation has changed me. Sometimes you have to realize that you have the power to change a situation depending on how you react. I know that the only reason I got away was because I thought out the situation before I panicked. I was lucky I know that. I will not be a victim again. I did move away to another state, I am always looking around me, I know that no situation is safe.