dreadharbor

[dreadharbor]

Part Five: Is Anybody Out There?

Two months go by. I think it's now March/April because now we're finishing up May 2025. Everything has been fine. He hasn't mentioned lights or sounds. He's sleeping better because I'm being kept up because he's snoring. Honestly, that's great because I know he's resting. But for a few days, I notice him mumbling to himself, talking to himself, humming to himself, moving his index finger around like he's a conductor conducting an orchestra. I say, "honey, what is going on? You've been mumbling to yourself and talking to yourself. the past few days."

He lets it go. He's angry.

"I'm not okay. I've been keeping it down. I haven't said anything. I haven't brought it up. I still hear noises. I still see flashes and dashes and shadows. I see them out of the corner of my eye. They're so fast, you wouldn't see them if you're not paying attention to them but I am. I can't concentrate on anything else. They're here. Always. They're within feet of me. My truck is unlocked in the morning. My work truck is unlocked in the morning and things aren't where I left them. Stuff is moving around. Things in the back garage aren't where I left them. I still hear them going through our trash at night. Everywhere I go, there's 3 or 4 drones following me. There was a helicopter following me. There's SUVs with blacked out windows that follow me all day. I'm tired of my friends and family calling me crazy. I'm tired of no one believing me."

Now to today, May 26th, 2025. He's contacted the sheriff's office and nothing came of it. He basically says, "of course they haven't, they're the government." This has been going on since September/October 2024. 7-8 months, give or take.

I hear noises in the house. I have experienced my car being unlocked when I was sure I locked it. I have experienced things in different places than where I thought I left them. I've seen one black dot out of the corner of my eye when I wasn't paying attention. But I haven't experienced anything like he has. I'm not being kept up at night the same way he is. I'm able to live my life normally. I've been careful not to rationalize anything for him. I've been careful not to say anything incendiary about this around him. I've just been sympathetic and allowing him to tell me what he is experiencing.

We've been getting into arguments because we can't enjoy each other. He doesn't want to be at home with me because he can't stand seeing the flashes and dashes and shadows at home so he goes to his buddy's place to work on his boat or to help him his buddy with his boat or building a shed most days of the week. He speaks to me horribly. He's not communicating with me.

Our relationship is suffering but I'm not here to ask for relationship advise. I'm asking if anyone has ever experienced this for themselves and come out on the other side. I'm asking if anyone has been me in this situation. I'm asking for anyone's opinion. My opinion is not what matters here--I am looking for anyone who might have experienced this.

Thank you for getting this far, if you have read all the way up to this point. I know it was a lot and I appreciate you. Please let me know if you need any more details from me--it took me 2 hours to write this and I'm sure I left other details out.

For those of you who didn't read the whole thing, and I respect that, TL;DR: My boyfriend did cra.ck for a few months and now he thinks the government is after him. He's hearing noises and seeing things that make him think they're trying to build a case against him to arrest him.

[dreadharbor]

Part Four: Fucking DO Something

I realize that we have this little camera thing that we got for Christmas one year that we've never used. I suggest that we set it up if there are people on our property. We set it up in the main garage (not the stand-alone garage in the backyard) because that is the main door that my boyfriend hears these people coming into when they search his truck. We spent so many nights watching that camera on both of our phones to see absolutely nothing. We get no notifications that anyone has come in.

He has also told one of his close friends about all of this and the friend eventually got tired of hearing about it and my boyfriend doing nothing about it so he buys my boyfriend this $500 camera system to set up around the house. My boyfriend asks me for $250 to pay for half of it.

Sure.

I give him the $250 and my boyfriend and his friend set it up. It is hard-wired and we can watch all the cams from an app on his phone or god damnit our fucking TV in the living room. This becomes the new thing that we watch. I come home from work, the TV is on with all the camera feeds up. I ask to watch something else so we turn the TV to Hulu or Netflix but he's on his phone watching the feeds. I fall asleep on the couch and he is awake at 1:00 am watching the cams. Eventually, I just start watching with him. To this day, we have seen nothing. No one. I think we've seen several spiders, some neighborhood cats, a couple of possums, and at one point, I think a ghost (which was super cool because I live for that shit).

I can't remember how much time has gone by. This is now maybe... January? February? In addition to the shadows he sees in the backyard and the sounds he hears, he's added drones following him. I've been trying to help him rationalize everything. He's basically set up different Home Alone style boobytraps at all of the doors just in case anyone tries to get in but he is still saying he hears someone in another room, especially kitchen.

I'm losing my shit now, right? We're sitting in the living room, trying to have a good night, and he goes, "there's someone in the kitchen right now. I see their shadow." I stand up and I go, "this kitchen?" and I quickly walk into it because it's 10-15 feet away from the living room and it takes 3 seconds go in and no one is there. I come back.

"They're gone by the time you get in there," he says.

I'm upset, but I'm not hysterical at this point. I ask, "how? If these are actual people, they have one exit, babe--the bedroom. For them to do that, they have to leave the kitchen, walk across the squeaky floorboards in the bedroom, jump over the stuff in front of the door, unlock the door, go out the door, and lock the door behind them in the 3 seconds it took me to get to the kitchen and I can see the backdoor from the kitchen."

"I don't know how they're doing it."

On another occasion, he's looking at the cam in the garage and he says, "Someone's in my truck right now." I go, "okay," and I get up to go to the garage. He doesn't stop me. Later, I get upset about this because if you really think someone is in there and I'm in danger, fucking hoe-grab me and tell me to sit the fuck down. I go in and I look around the garage. I look in his truck. I look under his truck. Same story--if you walk into the house from the garage, immediately, you can see the living room, our bedroom, and the kitchen. There is one other exit from the garage which is a side door (that can be seen if you're standing in the doorway from the garage and the kitchen) that has all kinds of stuff in front of it--a bucket, a mop, a broom, etc. If I walked into the garage from the kitchen and someone was in his truck, they would have to exit the truck without being seen, close the door of the truck without making noise, jump over everything in front of the door, unlock it, go through the door, and lock it behind them, all without being seen on the cam that is facing that door in both the kitchen AND the came outside of the house.

At this point, rationalizing does not work. Physically explaining how these people cannot get in and out of the house without being seen or heard is not working. He's seeing lights from pictures they're taking. He's seeing grid lines. There's noises in the house. The notifications on his phone are going off nonstop and he's saying it's them. I'm saying it's 5:00 pm in the afternoon on a Tuesday and people are driving past the house after work. It's the kids playing in the street. It's the stray cats around the neighborhood. It's the mailman. It's bugs.

"Look at that, that's a drone."

"That is Mars."

"It's been following us."

"It's a CELESTIAL BODY of course it's following us."

One night, he fucking breaks down. Trying to explain things is not working. We're having a civil conversation about all of this because he just does not have the energy any more to get upset. I read the room and I talk to him calmly.

"Honey, the cams show nothing. A lot of things you're experiencing have an explanation. Please help me understand why you want so badly for something to show up. Help me understand why the lack of evidence isn't comforting to you."

He shakes his head and says, "I don't know what to do anymore. I need help. I need to talk to someone."

THANK FUCKING GOD HE SAID THESE WORDS.

"Okay, I think that's a good idea. With everything that's going on and knowing that I will always be here for you without judging you, tell me what you think is happening."

"I think the government has technology that they're not telling us about that they can use to walk through walls and become invisible."

In my head I'm fucking screaming but I did ask him to tell me what he really thought was happening and my god, did he do that. So I say...

"Okay, thank you for telling me. I understand this is a lot. Are you in a good place for me to tell you my experiences and what I think is happening?"

He says yes.

"I think you've been under a lot of stress and I'm worried about you. With everything at work, you not sleeping, you not eating, coming off of the substance, I'm worried that you are on the brink of a psychotic break and there's been a chemical change in your brain. I don't mean that to belittle you or anything. I'm just experiencing things a bit differently from you and our experiences are two vastly different things. I know that you are not open to therapy (this is a different story for a different time--basically his friend died and his therapist ghosted him so he doesn't trust another professional to open up to when he is experiencing crisis) so I want to offer you two options, if you are willing to pick one."

He nods.

"Option 1: If you would like to go down the road that the government is here and they're breaking into our house but there is nothing we can do about it, we hang tight and say, 'they'll go away once they realize they're searching for nothing.' Option 2: Do you still believe in The Secret?"

(If you are unfamiliar with The Secret, it was a self-help, guidebook that had an accompanying documentary in the early 2000s about manifestation and setting intentions)

He says he still does believe in The Secret.

"Okay, Option 2 is that we use The Secret since it's a belief system you agree with. You are under a lot of stress and I can help you through whenever you see lights or hear sounds and we say, 'Our home is safe. The house is making natural settling noises. Lights and flashes are normal stimuli like a car's headlights. The cameras going off are because of normal things outside--animals, kids playing, cars.'"

He picks Option 2. I ask if he is certain that's what he wants to do. Everything is his choice. He says yes.

[dreadharbor]

Part Three: Something is Wrong

In November 2024 (1-2 months into the start of all of this), I left for Italy and then a Transatlantic cruise with my family. Best time of my life, I highly recommend Virgin Voyages. Anyway, we left Italy and the day we were supposed to pull into Barcelona, I get a call from my boyfriend saying, "something is wrong." It is about 2:00 am on the ship/wherever we are so I am being awoken to my boyfriend in a panic. I try to get as much information out of him as possible and for him to tell me what it is. He won't. He says, "I don't want to ruin your cruise." I said, "well, telling me something is wrong and then not telling me what it is isn't exactly the best move right now." He said, "I will call you back in a few hours and I'll tell you then. Go back to sleep." Ask me if I went back to sleep.

Thank you for asking--I did not go back to sleep.

He calls me around 6:00 am on the ship, just as we pull into Barcelona. He is sobbing. Absolutely fucking sobbing. I'm not even mad at this point. I'm kind of thankful because this man does not cry. He's been taught not to cry so I go into protective mode and I am trying to fix things. "What is going on? Are you okay? Talk to me, tell me what it is."

"I've been smo.king cra.ck."

Holy fucking shit.

"You've--what?"

"I've been smo.king cra.ck."

"Okay. Thank you for telling me. When was the last time you us.ed?"

"Two months ago."

"That's what the smell was?"

"Yes."

"This is why you never wanted to call the police."

"Yes."

"Are you in danger? Do you owe anyone money?"

"No."

"I thought you said you were putting a lot into savings. Is that why you've been low on funds recently?"

"I have been, and yes."

I pause. I know I probably shouldn't have asked this at the time, but now I'm hurt and I have to know. I'm still asking these questions calmly.

"Honestly, I thought you were saving for a ring to propose."

"I was."

"Did you spend that money on this?"

"...yes."

"Okay. Cut all ties with your dealer. Why are you telling me this now? I asked you, multiple times, if anything was wrong. I offered to help with building the house. Something to get you out of your depression and funk. There were other options and the option you chose was cra.ck?"

"I know, I'm sorry, I couldn't lie to you anymore. I already deleted his number. I got rid of everything months ago."

"Alright. Try to get some sleep. We'll talk later. I love you."

Two weeks go by. I'm back in the States and at home and we talk. Here's where it starts to go down:

We're talking about everything. He tells me that he's contacted a lawyer--one of his friend's friends--because he thinks the government (e.g., DEA, FBI) is watching him to build a case against him to arrest him. He explains to her that he thinks our neighbor smelled the cra.ck smo.ke through the vent and called the DEA or FBI to investigate him. He explains to her that he sees people around the house at night, he hears them going through our trash and recycling, he hears them going through his truck in the garage, and he's hearing noises inside of the house at night which obviously means that they are breaking into the house. Because of all of this, he asks if any of that is legal and is there any action he can take without the dru.g charges coming down on him. The lawyer says that if this is what is happening, his dru.g charges should be dismissed.

He starts sending her videos and pictures of unusual lights that he sees and the keyholes to our home and back garage where they look scratched because someone has been trying to break in. She basically says, "keep me posted but I'm about to leave on vacation and I won't have access to my business phone until I get back." To show my boyfriend I'm on his side, I text her (because he gave me her phone number) that basically says, "Hi, I'm sorry to contact you after hours but I'm [boyfriend's] girlfriend and I appreciate any help you're able to give us at this time." She says, "no problem!" and we don't hear from her again.

[dreadharbor]

Part Two: Did You Hear That?

Here's Part Two:

One day, in September/October of last year (2024) he smo.ked po.t in our living room and I said, "babe, I just spent all day cleaning and trying to make everything smell good, could you, just for today, smo.ke somewhere else so I can at least enjoy my efforts for today?" He apologized sincerely and went to smo.ke in the bathroom. He continued this for a few days, which I appreciated and let him know that I appreciated it.

Some days later, he smo.ked in the bathroom with the vent on (his choice), which he continued to do on his own after that one day I asked him to smo.ke somewhere else, but the smell of it (what I still believed was po.t at this time), smelled rancid. It was so off that I said, "is that a different strain of we.ed? It smells like shit, babe." He apologized and said, "yeah, I guess so," and I left it at that. I had no reason to think otherwise.

After a few nights, I noticed that he kept asking me, "did you see/hear that?" at night. Late at night because he wasn't sleeping. He would pause whatever it was we were trying to watch during our quality-time, get up, and look out of all of the windows of our home: the front windows, the window at the top of our front door, the windows in all of our bedrooms, etc. Jokingly, I said, "babe, did that po.t give you super hearing? I don't hear anything."

One night, he was looking through the blinds in our master bedroom that looks out in the backyard, where we have a stand-alone garage. He said, "there's someone out there." Me, being the horror movie and true-crime enthusiast that I am, said, "call the police." Him, being the main character, did not and instead, ran out of our back door, towards the person he thought he saw, around the stand-alone garage, and back to the back door. No one was there. I'm standing there like, "Oh my god, this is a horror movie and he just ran towards the strange sound." We're going to di.e." This same thing happened for many nights back-to-back. He began sleeping with his gu.n under his pillow. At this point, he thinks someone is stalking around our home and I still have no idea that what he was smo.king was not po.t. Every night, I would suggest for him to call the police. Every night, he declined.

[dreadharbor]

Part One: Introductions

Okay, I'm going to start writing it anyway just in case it just needs to get out there. Maybe someone out there will see it. It's a numbers game, right? Just put it out there and hopefully, it attracts the right crowd.

Okay, Tumblr. Buckle up. If you are interested in reading something long and drawn out with lots of plot twists and other fucked up shit, boy did you find THE post, because I'm sure I could write this into a multi-part novel series if I wasn't lazy. I'd like to start this off with some content warnings so mods, please feel free to use this as a reference. [ahem]

Content: some dr.ug use, visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, government, aliens, ghosts, paranoia

Also, I would like to ask for an open mind when reading this. I know I'm on the internet and who knows who will pop up when reading this, I just ask for an open mind, kindness, and empathy. Coming to the internet is kind of my last resort because I am usually a level-headed, open-minded, and rational person and at this point, I need to see if anyone else has experienced something close to this. I would love to hear opinions, experiences, similarities, etc. Just whatever you say, please do so with kindness and know that your OP is about to lose her collective mind, up in here, up in here.

With that, here we go.

Part One: Introductions

I (F34) have been with my partner (M34) for the last 5 years and it has been a wild ride to say the least. There have been many ups and downs and for the downs, I have been there for him. We have worked through infidelity, alcohol abuse, and emotional abuse on his part. I have two degrees in behavior analysis and my current field is for children with autism but I feel like I have earned the credentialing in life points for adults.

My boyfriend has always been a pot.head, but a functional pot.head. He gets things done, he has healthy relationships with his friends and family, he has personal time for himself, he manages work as best as he can (as best as we all can with mild burnout), but a serious relationship is not something he has experienced so he is still working on some communication strategies and self-care. For context, he is a cis white male who grew up in a divorced household and was told to "man up," and feelings are things that should be shoved down because men are supposed to be strong. He experienced, "do what you want and apologize later." He experienced toxic positivity, where everyone told him, "it'll be fine man, don't worry so much," but given no advice or safe space to explore his feelings.

He has always been under stress with his job and unfortunately, with being the most experienced, he is the "clean up" when someone fucks up at work--he fixes everyone's mistakes with no acknowledgement from management and there is no accountability from management when others fuck up. They just send him in. He got depressed and stopped all of the construction and work on the house that we are planning (e.g., flooring, base boards, installing closet doors, adding a ceiling fan, etc. in our back bedroom). I do my best to offer my help and do those thing with him because I'm not trying to be the girlfriend that stands by and asks for a million things to be done to the house without lifting a finger. He thrives when he is busy and I want to be a part of that with the home we're building.

[dreadharbor]

First time on Tumblr in a long time

Hey guys, it's my first time on Tumblr in a long time and really, I'm here because I wanted an opinion on something.

I tried posting on Reddit but it went against some of their standards. I'm assuming it's because the content of my post has some sensitive topics including government conspiracy and some dr.ug use but it is coming from a place of concern for my partner and I wanted to see if anyone has experienced some of the same things as me.

I'll add some tags in the bottom if you would be into it but be warned, when I typed it into Reddit, it came up to be 3,000+ words. I promise it's a good read, though.

If anyone is interested in the tags at the bottom, please let me know and I'll start the story.