I’m not sure I may have narrowly escaped something truly horrible when I was 8 years old

I was playing in the street with a rock and a stranger who said he was the neighborhood’s mayor came to me, made me ditch it and said I shouldn’t

He wanted me to go with him and I didn’t want to so he grabbed me by the wrist. He said he has tea and biscuits or something like that. Even back then I didn’t care for that one bit.

I instantly realized there was no way I was getting out of that situation by brute force so I let him believe I was going along with it.

We went into a nearby building and climbed the stairs to the first or second floor.

He didn’t let go of my wrist for a single moment.

When we got in front of his appartment’s door he started getting his keys from his pocket, still holding me.

I just knew right there and then that this was my one and only opportunity.

I bit his hand really hard, caught him completely unaware. He cried in pain and I just bolted for my life down the stairs, took my bewildered little brother who apparently witnessed the whole thing and we ran back to my aunt’s house.

I remember feeling so eerily aware and resolute. I was young but I knew this was absolutely not the time to laugh or play anymore. I knew exactly what I had to do and I absolutely had to do it.

Don’t ask me how he knew but very shortly after that the man came knocking to my aunt’s door to do what feels very much like damage control to my adult eyes. They seemed to know each other. I don’t know what he said to her because I hid behind a door the whole time until he left.

We never ever went back to my aunt’s place after this event. 20 years later I learned that my father had the police question the man but I do not know anything else about it.

This was in a developping country back in the 2000s. It is/was much less taboo for strangers to interact with little kids there. Maybe this guy really was the neighborhood mayor and he really just wanted to talk to me about religion or not playing with stones, or something.

I can simply never know.

My rational brain knows the answer but I still ask myself, am I overreacting to this story ?

My memory is fragmented, all I have is mostly feelings.

The more I think about it, the more I feel like my innocence ended right in this moment.