TW/ P*dophilia, Manipulation
Very short and brief vent but, just realized one of my closer haunt friends has genuinely turned out to be a true monster.
I'd known this individual from the 2021 haunt season, and they've convinced me to let them drag me around haunt-hopping with them, which I wasn't a fan of, but their charismatic demeanor made me dismiss any logical questions.
I'd initially taken note at first meeting them that there were many haunt actors weren't fond of them, or downright hated them, but I brushed it all off as "oh, the world's cruel."
Around two years ago there was a major friend-group split with the huge group we were both with, due to allegations at the time I'd believed were false from denial and, at the time, lack of evidence. I'm a "innocent until proven guilty" kind of person, and still am.
Over this past year, they started acting weird even around me. It wasn't the goofy side of them I was used to. This version of them was darker, quicker to lose their temper, feel allowed to insult you any day masking as teasing, though any light-hearted banter from your end made them snap as though you were being serious.
They'd shown some physical aggression towards me several times last year into this year, playing "punch buggy" at me while I would be driving us to and from the haunt, though instead of light fist taps, they would genuinely punch me as hard as they could into my shoulder, while usually driving on the highway going 70 or 80 mph.
At a recent Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcast performance we were helping stagehand for, as we were waiting for the audience to enter, I was sitting in one of the theater chairs drawing on my iPad. They'd randomly walked over, kicked my bad leg which my iPad was resting on (bad leg being the one with my deformed femur) and just walked off without saying a word. No idea what would've made them think that was a good or funny idea, but it'd ticked me off.
Speaking of the driving also, last haunt season they'd convinced me that their mom said they couldn't use her car for us to commute with, so I would drive us 3 hours each total drive-time for haunt days. Over that past year, they'd be constantly guilting me into lending them "grocery money" which turned out later to be money for their vapes.
They had, and still owe me over $400, and I'd told them for the 2025 haunt season, I wouldn't be able to help them build our haunt sets until they pay me back. Magically, they never needed my help, not for building sets, nor for driving. They had access to their mom's car all this time and was just using me.
Just earlier today, they had told me that our Rocky Horror director wanted to talk to them about the allegations a few years back, they just kept repeating to me "I'm getting a lawyer" instead of "I will be okay, I know I'm innocent." That was already making me start to question everything.
Not even an hour later, they sent me this: "Haunt director fired me. I'm done. It was nice knowing you [my name]." I immediately knew at that point then, someone(s) had caught, and/or exposed something true that was absolutely horrible, and having to discover that news, and the atrocious things they had done to a 16 year old minor, just left me so disgusted and hollow.
All the lying and denial, telling me everything was just "false accusations" they knew our friendship was over when this proven evidence came to light. On top of that, the manipulative s*icide-baiting to try to get me to worry about them had immediately stopped me from trying to respond any more. I just hit the block button on everything and watched as our mutuals flooded to my DMs on Facebook, asking how I was since the news, or if I'd seen any of it.
I think it was clear to a lot of our mutual friends that they had me on a tight leash, and I just followed along blindly at first, then later out of fear of them lashing out at me since I'd seen them snap at so many others. Though now that leash has been completely snapped, and I'm finally free.
