My first trip home freshman year in college, a very shy girl who had yet to go on her first date, I went to a friend's house after she got out of school. My dad had told me to be home before he left for work.
My friend and I both fell asleep while talking and I was late late late. I decided instead of walking "the long way" I would take the shortcut through the parkway woods - 20 minutes to home vs 1.5 hours walk.
As I started the walk I was passed by a young, blonde/blue-eyed kid on a bicycle. I was in a good mood and thought to myself, hello kid on bike... halfway home I saw the kid up ahead on the path, bent over his bike as if he was fixing the chain or something. I thought, poor kid on bike has trouble with his bike. As I went to go around him he dropped the bike, grabbed me and dragged me into the woods. He tore at my clothes while hissing in my ear "I want to lick your hair, let me feel your cunt".
At the time there had been a series of articles, I can't remember the author's name now, about what to do if you were attacked.
I went through all the options, begging him to let me go. I started screaming as I was terrified and had run out of ideas. By this time he had ripped my clothes enough that his fingers were inside me. When I screamed, although we were in the woods and there were no houses close enough to hear me, he started laughing hysterically, jumped off me, picked up his bike and took off. I was barely able to make it home.
When my mom came home from work I told her what happened and she called the police. Two men came and asked me to tell them everything. It was embarrassing, humiliating, and excruciating for me to repeat what had been said and done. After taking my statement, they said detectives would be coming.
Two more men came, and I had to go through it all again as if the first two hadn't even been there. At the end, they said because I was in the parkway woods, it wasn't their jurisdiction and I needed to talk to the parkway police!
Two more men came... made me go through it all again. At the end they said I needed to be available 24/7 in case they had a suspect and needed me to come in and identify him. I timidly said that I was in college 8 hours away and needed to go back to school at the end of the weekend. They flipped their notebooks closed with a bang and said "well if you can't be bothered to be here to help us I don't know what you expect us to do". And that was it.
When I went back to school I couldn't go anywhere alone. If I heard footsteps behind me (didn't matter whose they were) I became so weak that my friends had to hold me up and help me cross the street.
My fear was so great that I now couldn't go on a date or have anything approaching a normal relationship with a male. This experience scarred me for life; it affected every relationship I've ever tried to have and has made me fearful any time I am out of the house.
This happened almost 49 years ago and except for not being sure of the author (although I'm pretty sure it was Honor Blackman) I remember everything as if it were yesterday.
Anonymous (New York)