She knew she needed help. She felt paranoid all the time – her heart thudding loudly in her chest, and her ears pounding with blood. Her feet felt like they were not her own and her hands trembled all the time. She had no idea what was going on.
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Was she losing her mind? She felt like nothing was making sense anymore. It was as if she was living the life of someone else, watching her surroundings as if peering through a distorted fish-eye lens. What she found out later was unexpected.
Somebody’s watching
Jessie from Raleigh, NC, just finished a day at work and was headed towards her car when she felt something strange. She felt like she was being watched and in the corner of her eye, she could make out someone behind her. When she turned around to look, nobody was there.
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Jessie felt scared as she continued walking. This time, she made a fist around her keys, planning to use it as a weapon in case she would be attacked. She still felt like she was being watched even as she climbed into her car.
She is not alone
When Jessie finally arrived home, she was still shaking from the strange experience she had in the parking lot. She prepared some herbal tea in an attempt to calm herself down. However, when the kettle boiled, she saw another shadowy figure behind her. She turned around quickly. Was she followed home?
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Jessie went through every room in the house looking for a sign that she is not alone. She shook her head when she could not find anything. She then returned to make her cup of tea, wrapping her hands tightly around the mug, as if the warmth from the cup can protect her.
Going paranoid
Jessie felt tears in her eyes. There was no doubt that she was genuinely scared. She felt bile rose in her throat as she cried harder and her chest had tightened up. Did someone follow her home? She suddenly did not feel safe under her own roof.
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What was happening? Why does she feel like someone is stalking her? She tried to dismiss all these events as coincidences – perhaps signs of stress. Perhaps she had been working too hard the past few days and it has finally taken a toll on her. Little did she know that things will just get worse from this day on.
The first post-it note
When Jessie woke up the next morning, she found a yellow post-it on her desk. She froze when she did not recognize the handwriting. Jessie checked it and saw that it was a list of errands that she was actually planning to do. But who wrote the note and how did that person know about her errands – errands that she told nobody about?
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Jessie tried to be reasonable. Maybe she was sleepwalking. Maybe she woke up in the middle of the night and was in a half-asleep state when she scrawled it down. That is probably why the handwriting looked different. Jessie tossed the post-it in the trash and did not give it another thought.
Blanking out
Jessie did not encounter anything strange until she returned home and started watching a TV show in the living room. As the show took a commercial break, she checked the time on her phone and took a bathroom break. When she returned to the living room, the commercials were still playing so she sat on her chair and got her phone. She was shocked at what she saw – the time indicated that 20 minutes had passed. That could not be right! She was sure she did not take a long time in the bathroom!
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Jessie paused the TV and did a rewind on the channel. She saw that the TV show she was watching did come back on while she was gone and that 20 minutes of the show had passed too. Jessie was dumbfounded then confused. She was sure she only spent a few minutes in the bathroom – how could she lose a whole 20 minutes?
Back to the post-it
Jessie did not know what to do. She knew something was wrong but she had no idea how to ask for help or how to explain to anyone what is going on without sounding crazy. Jessie considered that maybe she was just sleep-deprived and stressed out. She tried to put everything at the back of her mind and continued watching the TV show.
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Later that night, Jessie cleaned and cleared up her kitchen as she always does before going to bed. When she saw the trash can, she noticed the post-it note that she threw away earlier that morning. She reached for it and took a picture of it – just in case.
Leaving for work
The next day, Jessie had to go to work, which was a welcome distraction from her current predicament. As she walked to her car to leave for work, she suddenly felt it again – the feeling that someone was watching her. Jessie felt a panic attack coming once more.
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Jessie knew she had to face whoever it was that was spooking her. She tried to calm down and focus on the mysterious figure she keeps seeing out of the corner of her eye. But every time she tried to look back, the figure disappeared. Was she losing her mind?
The second post-it note
When her day at work was over, Jessie felt nervous about heading towards her car once more. Luckily, she did not feel spooked at all and she did not see the mysterious figure anymore. Maybe whoever it was got bored and decided to leave her alone. Jessie felt relieved as she drove back to her apartment.
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All sense of relief went away quickly when she walked into her apartment. Another post-it note was there. This time, the note was placed on the back of her desk chair. She could tell that the handwriting matched that of the first post-it note. When she read the note, it told her to make sure that she saved all her documents.
Setting up surveillance
Jessie started to freak out. How did this post-it note ended up in her apartment? She inspected every entrance and window of her apartment, looking for signs of a break-in. She went through every room of her home trying to see if anything was misplaced or missing.
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Jessie could not take it anymore. Who was writing her notes? She decided to set up a webcam that had a clear view of her desk. She can view the feed from an app on her phone. Jessie decided to record everything, hoping that she will get some answers soon.
Mental exhaustion
Jessie could hardly sleep all night. She kept her phone close to her, wanting to be alert in case the webcam picked something up. By the time she was about to sleep, her alarm for work started beeping. Sleep deprivation made her physically and mentally tired as she took a shower.
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On her way to work, she was relieved not to experience anything out of the ordinary. But as soon as Jessie arrived in her office, she felt a bad headache taking place. It was so painful that the bright lights around her gave her vision colorful spots. She knew she needed to go home.
An overpowering smell
Jessie spoke to her boss and asked to take the day off because she was not feeling well. She probably looked terrible because her boss sent her home right away. When she was outdoors, the fresh air hit her face and it lessened the pain she was feeling in her head.
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However, a new horror took over. Jessie was smelling a powerful and reeking smell around her, even as she walked towards her car. She held her hands to her nose and noticed that the people passing by did not seem bothered by the smell. Jessie rushed to her car to get rid of the scent but it seemed to follow her even if she was inside her car.
The third post-it note
When Jessie got home, she found another post-it note waiting for her. The note left a puzzling message: “Our landlord isn’t letting me talk to you, but we must do.” How was her landlord involved in any of the mysterious things that have been happening to her?
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Jessie checked the webcam folder where the footage would be saved. It was empty. She checked the Recycling Bin of her computer. It had been emptied out as well. Jessie was confused – she knew she had not erased the footage because she has not seen it yet. Has someone been in her apartment again and erase the footage to cover his tracks?
Skipping time once more
Jessie was too exhausted to deal with everything and went to bed. When she woke up in the morning, she was sweaty. She headed for the shower to freshen up. She chose a playlist on her iPad and checked the time, it was 8:13 AM. She calculated how much time she had left to prepare for work and decided she needed to be done with her shower in 13 minutes.
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Jessie listened to one song as she showered. She then got her iPad to change the next song when she noticed that the time indicated it was already 8:23 AM. She was shocked. One song was about 3 to 4 minutes long – how could 11 minutes have passed already?
Looking for help
Jessie broke down when she realized that everything that is happening to her lately is real. She could not dismiss it as a coincidence anymore. She was no longer concerned about getting to work in time. Jessie wanted to know what was wrong with her.
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Jessie decided to call her mother, Debbie. Her mother did not pick up. She tried calling three times, still no answer. Dread washed over her and she found herself crying in bed. She needed help. But who could she turn to?
The Reddit post
Jessie grabbed her laptop and went to Reddit. She decided to make a post and see if anyone online can help her. Reddit was a community where people shared their thoughts and experience – Jessie was desperate to see if anyone can help her.
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Jessie started a post and explained how weird things have been happening around her. She then went on to share everything she has been through. Jessie published her post and waited for any replies to come in.
The Reddit community responds
A couple of users replied to Jessie’s post. Some fed her fear with their theories such as the landlord is the one leaving her the post-it notes. Someone suggested she call the police. Jessie just did that but the police told her that she did not have enough proof for them to act on something.
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Discouraged, Jessie continued to read responses to her post. The majority have suggested that she seek professional help by going to a doctor. She thought about it, then mustered the strength to head out the door and see a doctor, dreading that all of this is a mental health issue.
The doctor is in
Jessie found a doctor and she told him everything. The doctor listened intently. He did consider that this might be a mental health issue and mentioned dissociative disorder. But the doctor also considered that it could be a physical one.
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The doctor mentioned that maybe she was not getting enough ventilation when she sleeps. After all, she had a narrow bedroom that had no windows. The doctor also suggested a carbon monoxide leak in the building. To rule this out, he suggested that she get a carbon monoxide detector.
An unexpected explanation
Jessie updated her Reddit post and a lot of replies prompted her to deal with the carbon monoxide theory first as it was the most doable one from her end. She bought a carbon monoxide detector and when she plugged it into her home, the machine started beeping and would not stop.
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Jessie took the machine back to the store thinking that it was broken. The person in the store said that the machine beeps when it detects a high level of carbon monoxide, just like when a fire alarm would start beeping when there is smoke. Jessie rushed back to the house to plug the machine back again and wait for a reading.
The carbon monoxide reading
When Jessie got the reading from the carbon monoxide detector, she found that it was at 100ppm. All this time, Jessie was suffering from CO poisoning. She was not losing her mind! Her post and her story intrigued a lot of people.
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Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook and the director of MIT’s Knight Science Journalism Progam says that carbon monoxide poisoning explains a lot. Symptoms include headaches, feeling groggy, and becoming mentally off or cognitively impaired. Jessie’s hallucinations of someone stalking her could be caused by oxygen deprivation to the brain.
Barricading the apartment
With this development, Jessie called back the police to inform them that she figured everything out. The authorities knew that carbon monoxide poisoning was a serious matter and anyone who has been exposed is in serious danger. They immediately sent a team to Jessie’s apartment.
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Luckily, Jessie only had one neighbor in the building who seemed to be less exposed as the neighbor only suffered from headaches. They immediately found Jessie and her neighbor a place to stay in for the meantime while her apartment was barricaded until the issue has been dealt with.
The mystery solves itself
Having less exposure to carbon monoxide, Jessie was able to make pieces of the puzzle fit. She realized that it was her who wrote the post-it notes and she must have forgotten about it. Her handwriting was unrecognizable probably because she was in a different state of mind while she saw it.
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As for the webcam and the missing footage, it turns out that she was not able to plug in the webcam properly. Also, the app she was using turned out to be not compatible with her webcam. There really was nothing to see in the first place!
On the road to recovery
It has been a year since the events transpired. Jessie says her health has made a significant improvement since then although she is still recovering. The carbon monoxide did affect her health significantly and she is hoping to be fully recovered by the end of the year.
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Jessie shares that she now uses a notebook daily planner to remind her of stuff instead of post-it notes. She updated her Reddit post and told everyone who followed her story that she was now in a better mood and her physical health has improved.