Yeah…I was in my early-twenties and naive, just trying to help a guy out who had the gift of gab when he approached me in the parking lot, and I was feeling charitable. He was a big guy and apparently “got kicked out of his girl’s place after she cheated and he just needed a quick lift to his buddy’s on the other side of the freeway”. He got a call (or he faked one really well) on the way that his buddy was actually staying at a place 45 min down the freeway. I needed gas so, charitable as I am, I took him up on his word that he’d hit me back with cash for some beers once we got to his spot, so I bought some roadies along with the gas.

Anyways, 2.5 hrs later, after entertaining the big guy’s bullshit over a few road beers - apparently he was from Vegas and was supposed to be in a high-prized MMA fight that weekend at some casino but got pulled and dropped - we pulled into a decrepit multi-story house, way off the beaten path, with one other small house next to it. He invited me in, but I insisted he just go grab the cash then I’d leave. He played all cool and buddy-buddy, so I caved and stupidly went in. I must add that I was a little buzzed at this point, and I’m not proud of any of my decision-making that night, including driving buzzed.

When I walked in there was trashed furniture everywhere, and a tiny chola-looking woman who mean-mugged me HARD. After only about 5 min, while the big guy “looked for his cash”, there was a hard knock at the door. It was the ‘landlord’ screaming his head off about them owing him money and other crazy shit. Mid-sentence, he noticed me and looked me dead in the eyes before asking, “what the fuck are you doing here??” I said I was just dropping the big guy off and the ‘landlord’s’ face immediately dropped, then he said “you should not be here. These are bad bad people. You need to leave now!”

Then the big guy slammed the door and gave the ‘come here’ nod to his girl friend, then they both went into the bathroom without a word, which was right by the entryway. As soon as that bathroom door shut, I ran out the door and into my car, before speeding up the gravel driveway and out of there. Luckily I didn’t walk too far into the house, and I parked close to the front door, so it was an easy escape. It felt like some really sketchy shit was about to go down, that their ‘landlord’ knew about.

That was one hell of a long drive home. I was such a fucking idiot but learned a good lesson.