My Third Evil Ex: Pyro (AKA: How NOT to Deal with a Stalker)

This was another evil ex that I took on while dating Momento. However, I can't really count this as an ex. We were never in a relationship. Despite this, the energy that I spent while dealing with this situation made it seem like like a relationship. Let me explain a little further...

As I've mentioned before, I was in a gifted program within my school, basically meaning that I got to go on lots of nifty field trips. It was difficult to get along with most of the people in this group, mostly because it was a constant argument of whose penis IQ was larger, but we mostly tolerated each other and got along decently well minus one person: my third evil ex, Pyro. Partly because I was too nice of a person, but mostly because I was pretty sure if there was going to be anyone snapping and shooting everyone it would be him, I decided to reach out to him. I was his only friend within that group, and curse my overly flirty personality, he thought I had a crush on him.

I was fine with just talking while on these trips. But, one way or another, he found my AOL Instant Messenger screen name. It's not like it was hard considering I made this very public, but something about him discovering that screen name set me on edge. I really should have listened to my instincts, which is the best advice I can give anyone reading this. Your instincts and your gut feelings are your best friends. If you feel like someone's behavior seems off or if someone's making you nervous, LISTEN TO YOUR GUT! In this instance, my gut was telling me this guy was being creepy. He didn't say anything overtly creepy or weird, but something gave me pause. I should have listened.

We IMed for about a month before anything really weird happened. I could tell that he had a crush on me but, because I wasn't telling anyone about Momento for fear of the news reaching my parents, I had no way to completely turn him down without feeling like an ass. So, instead, I gave him gentle suggestions that I might not want to date him. Unfortunately, these went over his head and, after that first month, things started to get weird. He decided to confide in me that he had a second personality named Alexander Pyro.

I think my life should be turned into a drinking game. Every time a person confesses to Anna that they have personality disorder, take a shot.


I took this as a sign to create distance as fast as possible. I had one crazy person in my life and wasn't looking for another, thank you very much! So, I stopped returning his IMs. He got a hold of my phone number and tried to call me - another bad sign. I never picked up my phone to blocked numbers after that. I avoided him in school as much as I could, but when we had to make contact, I tried scoot away as quickly as possible.

Everything seemed to be going well. He had stopped attempting to contact me. Then, one morning, I tried logging into my e-mail only to discover that my password wasn't working. I thought this was weird, but decided that it was probably a glitch with the program that would sort itself out later. I then tried signing into Facebook, only to discover that my password wasn't working there either. Already figuring out what was going on, I decided to try MySpace as well, just in case. Unsurprisingly, I couldn't log in. Having a pretty good idea as to who the culprit was, I signed into AIM.

His screen name was there and waiting. I confronted him and he admitted that Alexander had made him do it. Pyro told me Alexander had done it to prove that they had some sort of control over my life - to prove that I couldn't just leave them alone forever. I told him to give me the new passwords to my accounts before I took serious action, and he agreed, apologizing "on behalf of Alexander". I changed my e-mail address before changing all of my passwords and continuing to ignore him.

He would send me the odd instant message now and again, and he tried to text me a few times, but I just continued to avoid him. I thought that was a fine plan until my birthday arrived. I opened my locker that morning to find a case of Monster energy drinks, a box of chocolates and a card, signed from Alexander.

A line had been crossed in my mind at that point. I actually told my parents about it for the first time that night. My dad ate the chocolates and I threw out the Monsters. They wanted to go to the police, but I told them not to. The only thing that had occurred illegally happened too long ago for the police to do anything. We just had to sit and wait.

It didn't take very long. He and I were placed in the same health class. I decided to inform my teacher that he and I couldn't work together in an upcoming group project and she asked me to stay after class and explain why. I spilled everything and she sent me to the principal's office. I had to write about every last thing he had done that made me feel uncomfortable. I also had to print out the logs of instant messages we exchanged. The principal and assistant principal were really understanding and had my locker moved so that he couldn't break in again, inadvertently moving me closer to evil ex number four. He was no longer allowed to go on trips with the gifted program that I was attending and he was removed from my health class.

He never bothered me again. In fact, after I went to the principal about my problems, several other girls came forward to thank me. He had played the same game with a few other people who had been too terrified to say anything until I did. I was a frickin hero.