They Were Harmless
I was once driving in through the country and it was pouring rain in the middle of the night. I had to drive very slowly as I couldn’t see any of the signs on the road (this was before GPS).
At one point, the rain fell so hard that I even had to pull over to the side of the road to read the signs and figure out if I was going in the right direction.
I didn’t get out of my car due to the rain, so I just craned my neck forward, trying to make out where I was. That’s when my passenger door suddenly opened.
When I looked over to my right, my blood ran cold. This random man got inside my car, sat down, and looked at me. I instinctively started yelling and screaming at the top of my lungs.
I flailed my arms around in case the guy tried to attack me. He started screaming as well and then jumped out of my car as quickly as he had come in.
I quickly leaned over, closed the passenger door, and sped off down the road. I was breathing so heavily trying my best to calm down, nearly in tears.
I kept replaying that moment in my head for the rest of my drive and I suddenly remembered that the man had smiled at me.
That’s when it dawned on me. That guy had probably been a hitchhiker that I hadn’t seen who thought that I was pulling over to give him a lift.
Only, once he got in my car, I greeted him by screaming and trying to hit him. It was probably the scariest encounter with a stranger I’ve ever had—his too. Turns out, we were both harmless…I think. Story credit: Reddit / AndFinrodFell