Dangerous to Know

I named this post after a song by my favorite singer when I was younger: Hilary Duff. Now, she writes YA, retired as a singer and actress. However, this isn't about Hilary Duff, it's about dangerous people in life and writing.

I'm usually a pretty good judge of character. I can tell who's a good or kind of shady person within five minutes or so, sometimes faster. It's just acting on those instincts that I'm really bad at. Once, I met these two boys that were older friends of my brothers that I would play baseball with everyday. Immediately, I knew these two weren't any good, but I never acted on those instincts. Something happened one day and my dad banned them from ever seeing my brother and I again.

I don't want to make that mistake again. Next time, I could end up being raped or dead in a gutter.

In fiction, it's usually pretty easy to spot the bad guy even if the MC doesn't know if he's bad since you have time to analyze the characters' behavior from the safety of your own home. A good example of this is "Do You Want to Go Private?" by Sarah Blahblahblah. The bad guy's behavior was authentic and we could tell he was up to no-good even when the MC didn't.

Now, I just met somebody who will be going to school with me at Gallaudet this fall (and he's in the Honors Program as well). I only know him through Facebook and the online discussion board for Honors students. When I first saw the way he acted on the Gallaudet Class of 2016 group we're both in on Facebook, alarm bells went off right away.

I've read some of the "Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker and I learned a lot about how to recognize potential stalkers, murderers, and rapists. I learned how a man might manipulate a woman into staying in an abusive relationship. Although this book is factual, it reads like fiction a lot of the time. It is an interesting book and who knows? Someday it might save your life. I know it's probably saved me some trouble several times.

So this character, who is in the frigging Honors Program (ugg!) has zeroed in on me and I am scared. Everything Gavin de Becker taught me bubbles to the surface...

And I'm not exactly sure what to do. O.o

So how do you handle potentially dangerous people in writing and life?