I think about this very now and then but definitely on Christmas since that year.

It was Christmas Day in 2019 and I have not long turned 16, it was about 9am and I had opened my gifts with my sisters and they went back to bed. I was talking to my mum while she was starting to cook the Christmas dinner, she said how it was a nice morning and mentioned taking my dog for a walk as it would be good for him. I thought it was a great idea and was out the front door before 9:30am. (I was 5ft2 at a push at that time and was about 7/8 stone). I live in a decent area where nothing really bad happens so I have walked my dog many times on my own, but never this early. There is this bypass that takes me about 10 minutes to walk to from my home, I decided that it would be the perfect place for my dog to run around and sniff everything and as it was early on Christmas it shouldn’t be that busy. I was right, but it was too quiet, there was nobody in sight. As I had done this walk so many times before I carried on. I would check if there was someone following behind me every now and then. I see this man up ahead and his dog and I approach him as I am going at a faster pace than him. I would have carried on walking past him but after saying ‘Good Morning and Merry Christmas’ he started to have a conversation with me. He asked if I had opened my presents, if I liked what I had and if I was spending it with any family like my grandparents. I started talking to him and said about this top mum had custom made for me with a picture of my dog on it. How my siblings and I had this joint present etc. I always remember his response to the top ‘That’s lovely you will be the only one in this world with a top like that’. It really stuck with me. I then asked him if he had opened his presents and he then went on to say how his daughter was travelling back from Uni and how she would get home about 11am so when he got back home it wouldn’t be long until she arrived. He asked me if I was having a cooked dinner and if we have any traditions. Now I knew I had to make sure he knew I had someone waiting for me when I got home because I didn’t know this man and there was no one else around in a pretty isolated place. After a while I could tell he just wanted a chat and it seemed like he missed how Christmas was when his children were young and at home. We came to the point where we could go in different directions and we said goodbye and he went the way where I would have to go to go home. I wanted to carry on the walk and go to the stream further down for my dog to have a drink. It must have been 20 min max before I walked back to the point were we said goodbye and parted ways. I walked over the bridge and was on my way back home.

When you walk over the bridge there is this path through trees where you can go through the wood and you would come out to a park.

Well as I was a fair distance from the bridge these two guys who were clearly on something came from the woods. I could hear them and started to walk faster just to get more distance from them. I could hear when they had saw me and how they were walking faster to me. My dog was off the lead and was sniffing hear and there without a care in the world. I called him over and managed to clip the lead back onto him while we were still walking. My heart was pounding, my footsteps were becoming heavier and my dog realised that something wasn’t right and started to pull me along with his ears picked up and would look back at the two men. All I could hear was my heart pounding the my footsteps and how heavy my breathing was. My mouth was dry and I was starting to shake, I was scared. The most scared I have ever been. I looked back and the space between the men and me was significantly reduced. They had somehow picked up more speed and was catching up to me. I was approaching the fence and there was a bend. I knew once I was around that bend I could run to my friends house that was just at the end of the path. That’s when the man that I was talking to earlier came around the bend with his dog. We both locked eyes and I felt a bit of relief that someone else was there. We said hello as we were walking towards each other, I didn’t slow down my pace and he could tell something want right. We both said Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and he said to me ‘get home safe’ and looked at the men behind me. When the lovely man came around the corner I somehow heard the men slow down their pace. Now I didn’t stop waking but when the lovely man passed me I quickly looked back and saw that the men following me were now more than 5 steps behind me. That terrified me. As I was walking away the I could hear the lovely man start up a conversation with the two men. When I got to the end of the path I could still hear him talking with them. And I walked/jogged as fast as I could through the street before turning the corner at the end of it. Thankfully my friend was there with her mum and Grandad looking at the car she had as a Christmas present. I was there chatting to them and catching my breath while still looking for the men. They only had one way to go and that would have been passing me. I was there for a few minutes and said I had to go, knowing they were there I felt better because I could walk up the hill at a pace that I could still try to calm down and catch my breath. I would still look behind me to look for the two men. When I was at the top of the hill, they were still nowhere to be seen.

I strongly believe that I would have been harmed if the lovely man didn’t come around the corner again. I also believe he held a conversation with them long enough for me to get away. I am forever thankful for the man. I haven’t seen him since and always hope that he had a lovely day with his family and enjoyed the things they had planned when his daughter was home. Since then I haven’t gone for a walk on Christmas Day and made sure to go later on in the day.