The Note in the Lunchbox That Saved My Life
It started out as something simple—harmless, even. I had packed an extra lunch for work one day, and when my coworker, Andrei, caught the scent, he leaned over with a grin.
“That smells amazing. Could you make me one sometime?”
I laughed, agreed, and handed him a container the next day. But when he returned it, I found more than just an empty box. Inside was a crumpled paper towel, scrawled with shaky handwriting:
“Get away from him before it’s too late.”
At first, I thought it was a joke. Maybe some coworker being dramatic. But the uneven letters, the urgency of the message, and those chilling last words made my stomach knot. I glanced across the office. Andrei sat at his desk, typing like nothing was wrong.
Was he pretending?
A Warning That Couldn’t Be Ignored
That night, I showed the note to my roommate, Mara. She frowned. “Are you sure it wasn’t him? Maybe some twisted joke?”
But why would Andrei write a warning about himself? That’s when Mara suggested something that chilled me even more: maybe someone else had their hands on the container.
The next day, I tested him. “Hey, how was the chicken yesterday?”
“Delicious,” he said with a grin. “You have wonderful hands.”
He didn’t flinch when I pressed him about the container. No guilt. No nerves. Either he was an incredible liar—or someone else had interfered.
I stopped making him lunches. And that’s when I noticed Olivia. Quiet, reserved, almost invisible—except for the way her eyes followed Andrei every time we spoke.
One evening, I confronted her with the note. Her face went pale. “You found it,” she whispered.
The Truth About Andrei
We met at a café where she told me everything. Years ago, she had worked with him—only then, his name was Adrian.
At first, he was charming. Then strange things started happening. Notes. Objects moving in apartments. A coworker driven to the brink, until she quit and went to the police. No evidence. No charges. And then—he vanished.
When Olivia saw him resurface at our office under a new name, she panicked. With no proof, she didn’t know what else to do but warn me.
Her story made my blood run cold. Suddenly, the offhand comments Andrei made about my neighborhood, the gym I went to, the little details I’d never told him—they all felt sinister.
HR, Disappearance… and a Chilling Email
The next morning, I went straight to HR. They ran a check. Days later, Andrei stopped coming to work. Eventually, HR called me in.
The man wasn’t Andrei at all. He had used multiple fake identities. Behind him trailed harassment complaints, but never enough to stick. HR reported him to the authorities. He would not return.
Relief washed over me—until two weeks later, when an email arrived. No sender name. Just two words:
“Thank you.”
Olivia got the same. We blocked the addresses, but the chill lingered.
The Final Twist
Months later, the news showed his mugshot. Arrested in another state for stalking and impersonation. But the name on the screen wasn’t Andrei—or Adrian. It was another alias entirely. He had been running this game for years.
This time, though, he was caught. An anonymous tip had led to his capture. And I had a feeling Olivia and I played a part in that.
The Lesson I’ll Never Forget
The note in the lunchbox saved me. Saved us both.
It taught me that sometimes the smallest signs—a scribbled warning, a whisper, a gut instinct—can be the difference between safety and disaster.
Never ignore them.
