Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
I believe BCR's story.
When I was 21, I got to know a girl through a BBS (computer bulletin board) named Erica. She was 23. For a long time we were just acquaintances, but one night we got on the phone and talked for awhile, and it was the first time we had any kind of long conversation. At the end of the call, Erica invited me down to visit her at the bookstore where she worked. The next day I came down there, she was cute -- a short, small girl, probably like 5'2" and 105 pounds. We talked for about 10 minutes, she seemed sweet but quiet, and then told me she had to get back to work. Later that night she sent me a message on the BBS that she found me very attractive, and that she was quiet because she was "nervous" because she liked me so much. I called and asked her out, and she happily said yes. However, that date never took place because two of her friends disliked me, and talked her out of it. She called me up with an excuse, I could tell something was off, and pretty much got the picture. I stopped calling her, and that was that. No big deal, and I figured I'd never see her again. I got confirmation later from a third party that, yes, she was excited to go out with me but her friends basically said they wouldn't speak to her again if she did.
About a year later, I was meeting a group of people from a different BBS for a party at someone's house. Erica strolled in, which surprised me because I didn't think she knew that crowd. But whatever, I was cordial, we said hi to each other, and then didn't interact much after that.
However, as the night wore on, Erica started getting more and more agitated. It wasn't because of me, as I was keeping my distance from her. She started getting into it with another girl there, then started yelling at one of the guys, and I could tell she was having some kind of psychotic episode. She got worse and worse, and at one point started shouting that she knew we all brought her to the party so we could kill her. After that, she started grabbing things in the house and throwing them at people. I approached her and calmly asked her to stop, and tried to tell her that nobody was going to harm her. She yelled "FUCK YOU!" and hurled something at me. Finally I just grabbed her to restrain her from throwing shit and destroying the house. I was hoping someone else would step in, but nobody was, including the dude who owned the house.
She shouted "LET GO OF ME!! I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU KILL ME!!" I calmly told her that I was just trying to stop her from throwing things at people, but obviously she wasn't having it. She then said that she was going to kill everyone there once she got free of being held. At this point I told the other people to call 911, and I made sure she didn't get out of my grip. When she realized she couldn't get away from me, she started yelling "RAPE!! THIS GUY IS RAPING ME!!!", hoping that would make me let go. I said back, "Nobody is raping you. Nobody is going to hurt you. Everyone is staying right here with us while we wait for the police to arrive. See Jenny over there? She's on the phone with 911."
I have to admit, I was a bit scared to be forcibly holding a girl while she shouted "RAPE!", but I had like 10 witnesses who would obviously back me. I was hoping the cops wouldn't get the wrong idea when they showed up and saw this. I told the other people to explain what was going on before the cops came in, and they agreed.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly. The cops showed up with an ambulance. I let her go, and let them take over. She did the same crazy shit with them, and they instantly understood why I was holding her. In fact, they thanked me for keeping everything from escalating further, she was restrained and loaded into the ambulance, and that was that. The homeowner (or tenant, whatever) thanked me for intervening. I felt like saying, "Yeah, a little help would've been nice here, asshole!", but I just responded that I felt something had to be done before this got really dangerous.
Fortunately it was a small woman, and not some big dude.
I knew I had dodged a bullet the prior year when her friends talked her into ghosting me. I felt like writing them a thank you note.
Maybe she had borderline and not bipolar, but wow... that shit came on fast and was scary. I couldn't resolve in my head what a different person she became. Never would've pictured this when I met her at the bookstore, and thought she was quiet and sweet.