Whether we want to believe it or not, there are some things that go bump in the night. Certain midnight encounters stick with us for the rest of our lives, and there will always be glitches in the matrix that we can’t ever figure out. But if we could know the answers to those eerie mysteries, would we want to? Certain events, like the ones these Redditors experienced below, are best left unknown.
1. The Phantom Intruder
When I was in college, I housesat for my parents. I’m a bit of a scaredy-cat, so I locked every door leading up to the bedroom when I went to bed at night. I had the weirdest dream that someone unlocked each door and turned on every light, and I felt cold and woke up to my dog barking. Sure enough, all of the lights in the house were on and every door was open and unlocked.
My dog wouldn’t stop barking in the hallway, but there was nothing there. I sat in the shower with my dog and phone the rest of night, scared out of my wits. To this day, I still have no explanation for that night's events.
2. The Bloody-Faced Man
One afternoon in college, I came back from classes and decided to sit on the couch and have a snack. After that, I just passed out. I had a nightmare of some bloody-faced demon thing screaming in my ear at the top of its lungs. I then woke up and went about the rest of my day. My roommate comes back later that night, and goes into his room as I’m sitting in the main living area.
At some point, he lets out this random startled scream. Panicking, I run down the hall to see what’s going on. His words chilled me to the bone. He looks at me and goes, “I swear to god, someone with a bloody face just walked from your bedroom into the bathroom.” I never told him about my nightmare I had earlier in the day. After that, I didn’t sleep for two days straight.
3. Open Door Policy
I used to work at a 24hr Subway. Well, one day I was doing the dishes, and my co-worker was cleaning the toaster oven and bread oven. Out of nowhere, around 3:30 am, I heard our door chime go off. Out of habit I say, "Welcome to Subway" as I turn around. But nobody's there. My co-worker's gone too. I thought "Okay, maybe he hopped the counter and went outside."
Heading back to the sink to finish the dishes, I hear the door chime again. Nobody. Checked the bathrooms. Nobody. "What...the...heck." I ignore the dishes, and stand at the front counter, eyeing the doors. A couple minutes later, my co-worker comes through the back door where we get our deliveries. "Where'd you go?" I asked him, turning towards the back door area.
"To take out the trash," he replies. Okay, I think, I'm just imagining things. But nope, just then, the door chimes again. We both turn around to see nobody there, but this time the door was wide open. But here's the freakiest part: Our doors are weighted so they'll close on their own if you let go of them. Door stayed open for a couple minutes as we stared...Then suddenly slammed.
Not a windy night, and our doors wouldn't even stay open like that on the windiest of days. Have no idea what caused this, or why it happened on that particular night, but after I got a different job, I was told it never happened again. Told my boss about the incident and we all looked at the cameras. Nobody could explain it.
Wikimedia Commons, Corey Coyle
4. Missing In Action
We lived in a house a few years back, and random things would just go missing, then they'd turn up somewhere else. We never really thought hard on it because they were never expensive or important things, so because of this none of us ever mentioned it to each other. Fast forward and my mother loses an earring one day.
Not a huge deal, but it's a nice dangly pair she wears frequently. Maybe a month later, I come home and find it perfectly laid out in the middle of the ground at the end of a high traffic hallway. I take a photo and show mom when she gets back, give her back her earring, and we discuss the oddity. I mention that lately I've been misplacing random inconsequential stuff like staplers, and she looks at me sharply.
She goes that's weird...Me too. Our housemate gets home and we mention it, and he goes “Oh man so weird, my razor vanished for a while and I found it back on my sink one day.” So basically, we're all convinced there was a friendly ghost attached to that house that just misplaced things to let us know they were present.
5. An Unexpected Guest
I'm a paranormal investigator, so I live for the creepy and paranormal. I seek it out. Throughout my time as an investigator, I've experienced a lot of creepy things, but the strangest happened at the Sallie House in Atchison, Kansas. My team had arranged toys on the floor in Sallie's room because it's said that "Sallie" will move them if you do that.
We'd just finished a dinner break in the kitchen downstairs and went upstairs to check on our equipment in Sallie's room. But when we got to the top of the stairs, the door to Sallie's room was closed, even though none of us had closed it. Someone knocked on the door and asked, "Is anyone in there?" The response made me jump out of my skin.
We heard a distinctly male voice say, "No. Just leave." I need to point out, we were all downstairs together. No one had gone upstairs to close the door, absolutely not. But, any investigator will also tell you in old houses doors sometimes close. However, no men were upstairs. We had two men in our group, both were downstairs.
6. The Banshee’s Cry
One time, I was camping with friends from high school. We had decided to sleep around the fire, not inside of the tents, since it would be nice to sleep under the stars. I fell asleep in the chair after a while, but I woke up to very loud screaming from the forest surrounding the campground. It sounded exactly like a friend of mine, Jeff, who had been sleeping right by me.
Well, I didn't see him in his chair anymore. I woke up the person next to me and asked where Jeff went. They told me he was just across the way, sleeping elsewhere on a bench. I then went “Okay” and fell asleep. The next morning, I was asking people about the screaming. It turns out that nobody else heard it but me. To this day, I know I heard screams. I just don't know who was yelling.
7. It Lives In The Attic
In the house I grew up in, it always felt like you were being watched. I’d see shadows out of the corner of my eye and dark mists that would dissolve when you looked straight at them. My older sister was always scared of the attic especially. She would barricade the door to it whenever we were left home alone, just in case.
I went in the attic quite often to get various things. It’s where we kept large toy containers, old clothes and stuffed animals, and I just liked seeing what I could find. It always felt like I was being watched, though. One time I went up there, and as I reached the top of the stairs, I saw a large, translucent alien-shaped white head looking at me from behind a box.
I froze, terrified, and locked eyes with it for a few seconds before it slowly lowered itself down to hide. I turned right back around and left, telling myself I had imagined it, but I was too scared to go in the attic for years after that. I didn’t tell anyone for years. My parents eventually sold the house and we moved, and I’ve never felt the same way anywhere else I’ve lived.
8. The Music From Next Door
I lived in an old house in Athens, Ohio, which is reported to be one of the most haunted American cities. During the first year I lived in my apartment, I frequently noticed this strange music that seemed to be coming from inside the house. It's hard to describe, but it sounded like a keyboard or an organ. It sounded faint and was played in the minor key.
Always sounded the same. Regardless, I just chalked it up to my downstairs neighbors, and it never bothered me enough to investigate. It was definitely coming from inside our building, though. The following year, my original neighbors moved out, and my new neighbor, Sarah, moved in. We became friends. One night, she was hanging out in my apartment and the music started up.
She asked me pointedly where the music was coming from, and I said I didn't know—she didn't have music playing in her apartment? She said no and we both looked at each other uneasily. Sarah asked me if I ever saw or heard weird things, and I said that other than the music, I hadn't. The way she asked implied that she had, but she didn't want to talk about it.
A few months later, her boyfriend moved in, and she later confided in me that she saw and heard things: Specifically random tendrils of what looked like smoke swirling inside their bedroom. Doors slamming or opening without explanation. Her boyfriend hated going to the basement so much that he'd sing the whole time he was down there to do laundry.
Thing is, I hated the basement too because it hadn't been changed much since the house had been built and there was a creepy room that looked like where you'd keep nefarious things. I always felt like I was being watched when I was down there. One day, I graduated and was getting ready to move. I went out of town for a few days, so my parents were watching my cat at their place a few hours away.
The night I got back to Athens, I decided to start packing some of my books. I fell asleep and woke up in the middle of the night to a giant crash. I was tired and disoriented, so I assumed the noise came from Sarah's place. The next morning, I went to my living room to find that a giant antique mirror hanging over my fireplace had crashed and shattered into hundreds of pieces.
The nails supporting the mirror were intact, still in the wall. After that, I was finally prepared to admit that the place was haunted. I know Sarah saw and heard way more than she ever admitted, but she didn't like talking about it because she still lived there. She moved recently, so maybe I'll get more out of her now. I never really believed in ghosts, but too many unexplainable things happened.
I did do some cursory research into who owned the house. I learned a woman was the original owner. Back then, the house was for a single-family. She sounded like a quiet woman—a widow who died at an old age. In her obituary, I learned she loved to play music and had founded the Athens music appreciation group. I wonder if I kept hearing her favorite song to play . . . .
9. Nightmare On Elm Street
My boyfriend and I woke up in separate parts of the house in hysterics, undressed and covered in sweat, just totally drenched in it. When we both finally calmed down and talked, we made a disturbing discovery. We both realized that we had the same dream of being surrounded by a group of black and white people with no mouths.
10. Guardian Angel
My great-grandmother had a favorite rocking chair. The night she passed, my mom and I had already been to visit my grandparents and my great-grandmother a couple of days before. We all knew her time was coming soon, so we wanted to make it memorable. She even met her first great-granddaughter when my cousin brought her daughter to see them.
The night after my cousin left with her daughter, I had a dream that I was talking to my great-grandmother and she had been sharing some wisdom and saying goodbye. My mom woke me up in the middle of that dream, at 4:30 in the morning, to let me know that she had passed peacefully in her sleep and we needed to say goodbye.
Of course, in the grogginess that comes with being woken up from a sound sleep at 4:30 in the morning, I had said “but I just said goodbye...” and freaked my mom out. Fast forward a couple days past her cremation, we noticed her perfume scent randomly in the halls, the kitchen, and occasionally hovering around her chair. Now, any time I go to see my grandparents, I’m always greeted shortly after entering their home by the smell of her perfume. It’s paranormal, but the heart-warming kind. Miss you, grandma.
Wikimedia Commons, Levi Clancy
11. Hallway Of Horrors
I was living with my now mother-in-law in a house she had just purchased a few months before. We had all had various weird "feelings" or experiences in the house, but two really, really stick out. Collectively, there were three dogs living in the house at the time. One evening, we are all sitting with our backs to the hallway (this is significant) watching a movie.
All of a sudden, my German Shepherd and my terrier both perk up their ears and start staring down the hallway behind where we are sitting. I mean, full attention. I notice and turn around. The light in the hall was off and it was dark, so of course don't see anything. Five minutes later, they're still staring and now growling intensely.
This time my wife and I turn around, and our jaws drop to the floor. We both watch as the light switch on the wall gets flipped to “on.” Dogs went CRAZY and so did we! Then, a few weeks later: Same scenario, light is off and we are watching a movie. My German Shepherd loved to play fetch and we always had a million balls around to entertain her.
This time, she's staring down the hallway and wagging her darn tail. This time, we all notice again and start to watch. I swear to God, a ball, a single orange tennis ball, came rolling down the hallway towards her. We all went white. There were a few others, but man I hated that hallway. It never felt like a bad energy, but my feeble little brain was still scared nonetheless.
One more story...My mom-in-law was having these dreams a few weeks after moving in about the house catching on fire and burning to the ground with us all inside. Horrible. About three weeks after these dreams, we woke up one morning and distinctly smelled smoke coming from the house somewhere. Panicked, we all started searching and eventually came to the garage.
On a rafter, we noticed smoke coming out from around a fluorescent light fixture. At that moment I realized...my God, it's attached DIRECTLY to this old dried-out beam! The light was left on all night and it was clearly burning the rafter ever so slightly. Lights are not supposed to be secured on to a rafter like that. So we like to think our ghost hosts were looking out for all of us. After that, her dreams stopped.
12. Not Quite Human
My partner and I were driving along a road and we see this shape in the middle of the road. It looks like it could be a kangaroo, but the closer we get to it, the more human it looks, but kind of oversized. It is surrounded by a bunch of smaller shapes, and we start to think maybe it’s a giant bird, because it looks feathery. But it’s definitely human-shaped, but not quite, like it had monstrous features.
We’re driving slower now, like walking speed, and I’m frantically telling my partner to drive around it and not leave the car. We see the little shapes up closer…and they’re plastic chairs, surrounding a huger scarecrow. Now, you think knowing it’s not an actual monster would help calm you down, but a freaking scarecrow surrounded by small chairs in the middle of a quiet road at night doesn’t ease any mood. We laugh about it now, but it freaked me the heck out.
13. The Vanishing
I dropped my mug onto the floor accidentally one day. It should have been no big deal, but it turned into my weirdest "glitch in the matrix" moment. I heard no noise when it hit the floor, and when I went to pick it up, it was gone. I honestly went to bed and pondered what happened and slept feeling incredibly uncomfortable. I never did find the mug; it remained missing even days later. Still bothers me to this day.
14. Father Knows Best
March 2015. My father had just passed a month ago. I wasn’t sleeping well and I would stay up later and later every night. When he was alive, my father always used to scold me if I stayed up so late because it would ruin my sleep schedule and affect my work, y'know, just standard parenting stuff. So I'm thinking about this one night when I couldn't sleep. It’s about 2:30 am, and I’m watching YouTube on my PS4 to distract myself.
Then, the power in the house flickers. I didn't realize it at the time, but that was the start of the strangest night of my life. I check the window, there's no rain or wind or anything. I figured somebody hit a pole somewhere. Couple minutes later, power goes out for a second, then comes right back on. Nothing was affected, which is weird because when power goes out, the electronics usually reset. So I check the window again, but still see nothing happening outside.
A couple minutes later, power goes out for almost a whole minute. From the couch, I can see the streetlight outside is still lit, as well as the other houses on the street. Power comes back on and EVERYTHING is still as it was. Video continues where it left off, clocks haven’t reset, nothing. It’s now 2:37 am. I audibly said “ok” and went to bed.
Next morning, I wake up for work. The clock on the oven says 11 am. My phone says 7:23. It was around 11 when my father left the house the day he passed. Fast forward to January of this year, the third anniversary of my father’s passing, I can’t sleep. I’m upstairs at my NEW home, watching Netflix. Power flickers and goes out.
I immediately said “ok I’m going to bed.” Power comes back on. Next morning, getting ready for work, oven clock says 11:41am. Dad doesn’t like when I stay up too late.
15. The Disembodied Voice
A lady’s voice was coming from my closet and asking for help. My closet door was cracked and she said, “Help me. I see you through the cracks.” Every synonym for the word scared was coursing through my body. I went and checked to see if there was a woman in need of help, but nothing was in there but my clothes and shoes.
16. The Ghost Of Houses Past
When I was about five or six, I was sitting on the back deck of my family home, which was an old farmhouse. I remember this old lady walking up the steps and going straight into the house without acknowledging me. I followed her inside to see who it is, and my mom is standing in the kitchen, which was right off the back deck.
I ask her who's here in the house, and she gives me this confused look. Around that time, the original owner of the farmhouse passed, and I am 100% convinced it was her.
17. The Shadow Of The Valley
I was miles deep into the middle of the desert, driving a dune buggy with friends, and we stopped to check out an abandoned mine that my buddy had explored in before. My buddy stayed behind while the girls and I went inside to look around. About 100 yards into the mine, a man's voice calls out "help me please!" along with strange whimpering noises.
We all froze and stared at each other wide-eyed for a few seconds before the voice called out again and the girls took off running for the exit. I wanted to run too, but something was telling me it was my buddy playing a prank on us and I didn't want to fall for it. Convinced he was calling down from some sort of hole above, I called back and followed the voice, hoping for triumph over his little joke...
Instead, I found an old man and his injured dog trapped deep down a 30-foot drop. Saved both their lives.
18. Alarm Bells Are Ringing
As a child, I was an Army Brat who moved around a lot. Because weird stuff would always happen, I kept insisting that every house I moved to was haunted. It wasn't until my second year at university that I had a chilling realization. I clocked onto the fact that it was me who was haunted, not the houses.
Last year I was on the way to my house from my job at a bar at about 3 am. To get into the house, you have to walk down a privately owned alleyway. Just as I reach the entrance to this alley, a man runs up behind me and spins me around. He's clearly had a bit too much to drink and starts trying to grab me, touch me up, and convince me to remove my T-shirt. Naturally, I'm very uncomfortable and scared.
I remember that the window to the house had an alarm that went off if the window was hit. I figured if I could get down the alley and hit the window, my two male housemates would wake up and help. The only issue was that every time I walked down the alley, he'd grab me again. After maybe five minutes of a struggle, the man hit me.
Next thing you know, the alarm on the window goes off, waking up my housemates and scaring off the man. The next day the authorities were called. We gave them access to the CCTV footage at either end of the alley. Later that day, my housemates and I decided to check the footage to see what caused the alarm to go off. There was nothing.
No bird, cat or any other animal. The alarm just went off. This had never happened before and didn't happen anytime after, either. I'm convinced it was my ghost. It used to freak me out but I'm kind of glad it's around now.
19. The Red Right Hand
I was sleeping in my basement, which is pretty much my bedroom, and I woke up at some random time in the night for no reason. I rolled over and saw a black figure, probably around 5’ 10” and typical male physique, standing at the side of my bed. It was standing between the bed and the stairs, so there was no way to get out.
I just rolled over and straight up started praying. I rolled back over…and it was gone. The next morning, I was in the shower (also in the basement) and the curtain was pushed to the side, not like all the way, but it noticeably moved. Then when I got out of the shower, my cello’s D string was plucked three times then rung out. But the creepiest thing was yet to come.
I went upstairs, where I saw my little brother. He had this vivid red handprint that reached all the way across his neck and cheek. It was too big to be his own hand. But the man I had seen hovering near my bed? It was the right size to be his...
20. Don’t Look Now
I have a weird warning system that functions without any obvious triggers. For example, I once hiked through the forest to some old castle on a hill. To get there, I needed to cross a bridge that goes over a 20-meter deep canyon. I've been there a thousand times, as I used to live in the area. This particular time, though, I started to get a weird feeling as soon as I stepped into the forest.
It got stronger and stronger until it was pure fear. I thought I must have eaten something wrong, because there was no reason whatsoever to be afraid. So I tried to ignore it and went on. Right before I stepped onto the bridge, that weird feeling acted up so wildly I almost turned back. Again, I convinced myself that I was being stupid and made it to the middle of the bridge.
One has quite a nice view from that position into the forest and the rock formations below, so as always I stopped and looked down to the right side of the bridge. Then I turned to the left, but before I could look down, that feeling didn't let me. At that point, I really thought that I must be going crazy, but still I "obeyed," didn't look down, and made my way to the castle ruin complex that started right behind the bridge.
After I’d been there for 15 minutes, some officers arrived, started to scream at me to come down, interrogated me about who I was, what I did there, who I saw on my way to the castle, how long I have been there…and how come I didn't see the dead guy under the bridge, on the left side. Apparently, he jumped shortly before I arrived.
21. Don’t Go Into The Light
20 or so years ago, I was driving east on Highway 60 at night. There were two of us in the car, and we noticed a really bright light on the right rear side. I mean really bright. We then remembered that the train tracks were there, so we kept driving without really thinking about it. Well, the light stayed with us, which was weird because trains usually don't go that fast out there.
So, then my friend rolls down the window and looks back to see what it is—and suddenly the light vanishes. Also no sound. So now we're a little freaked. We pull over to check things out. A chilling realization sets in. There are no train tracks next to the road on this section of road. Now we're really freaked out, and bolt out of there ASAP.
Wikimedia Commons, Tony Webster
22. The Endless Night
I was driving down this back road after work, trying to get home since the main road was blocked from an accident. I enter this area where there are no houses and trees overhang the road, almost like a tunnel. Well, about as soon as I enter the tree tunnel, my headlights shut off. It’s like 9 pm in the fall, so it’s pitch black.
I immediately stop and back up, but my reversing lights aren’t working either, so I just hold the wheel straight. I had only driven a couple seconds in, so I was maybe a hundred feet into the tunnel, but I had been reversing for about a minute at this point and couldn’t see anything still. I check my phone, it’s gone, the screen doesn’t turn on or anything, my watch stopped ticking, and nothing electronic in my car is working.
At this point, I’m freaking out. I'm looking around and I can’t even see the road or the trees that were supposed to be around me. I step out of my car and look up, and can’t see any stars or anything, no moonlight. I walk to about where the other side of the road should be, and I just keep walking along a flat plane. I walk backwards straight so I don’t lose my sense of direction.
I manage to get back in my car and just start driving. I was going about 80 for a solid 10 minutes, on what was supposed to be a winding back-country road with a 40mph speed limit, before I just decided to wait it out and sleep until morning, if there was even going to be a morning. I fall asleep, and wake up to the sunlight coming through my window. In the middle of a field.
In the middle of nowhere. No houses nearby, nothing. I go to check my phone, and it’s still dead, but the screen turns on to let me know it has no battery charge left. Car turns on and all of the lights come on. Onboard GPS tells me I’m about 5 hours away from my house, in a borderline uninhabited part of the state. Full tank of gas. No mileage difference from the day before.
My watch is ticking normally and showing about what would be the correct time given the sun’s position. I start the long drive home and haven’t travelled that road again and never, never will.
23. The Haunted House Of Mouse
I work at several attractions at Disney. I first started working for the Mouse, I learned that most of the buildings were haunted in one form or another. Generally, I take this stuff with a grain of salt. Show me the science or prove it to me, then I'll believe. But I swear I've had two separate encounters with two ghosts in two different attractions, and let me tell you, I believe a heck of a lot more now.
Experience one: In a slow-moving journey through time, you come across a scene where a famous painter is lying on his back, painting the ceiling of a building. There is a ladder going up to that scene, and the rumor was that a maintenance guy had a heart attack during his shift one night and dropped at the base of the ladder.
No one found him until the next morning, and he had already died. It became a tradition upon closing the ride for the night to tell him good night, or else havoc would come down upon the ride the next day. Silly, I know, but we all played along with it for kicks. I never really believed in it, everything seemed very circumstantial. Then, I had an experience that changed everything.
On one particularly slow day, I was riding through the attraction when all of a sudden, it stopped in that scene I mentioned earlier. Now, if you've ridden this ride, you'll know that it's basically a train car with two rows. Well, as far as I could see ahead of me, there was no one. As far as I could see behind me, there was no one.
The ride system is pretty sophisticated: When someone hops out, there are pressure-sensitive mats on one side that trigger the ride to stop and show on our ride display screen exactly where it is. On the other side of the ride vehicle, there are photoelectric beams that also give the exact location of this intrusion, as we call them.
Now, we stop this ride pretty often. If someone takes too long to get into the ride vehicle, we stop it and then start it back up again. Well, in this case, they started speaking over the intercom into the entire ride. That usually means someone is out of a vehicle somewhere on the ride. A few minutes into sitting there, I start to hear keys jingling, two sets headed in my direction.
I'm completely alone, and here come my fellow Mouse employees, looking rather concerned. "Did you jump out?" they ask. Of course, I hadn't, which I told them. They look at each other, and back at me with this creepy expression on their faces. They asked, "Did you see anyone?" I hadn't. It was just me. Then they reveal why they were so freaked out: "The mat and the eyebeam were both triggered in this scene."
We all sort of stare at each other and sort of whisper the ghost's name at each other. They leave, and within five minutes, we are moving again, but I never went on that ride alone again.
24. The Lizard Man Of East Saint Paul
I used to have this recurring nightmare about this lizard man/monster who could see what I could see out of my eyes. So I'd run and hide, and he didn't know where I was, but then as soon as I peeked to see if it was safe—he'd know where I was! So I'd have to leave that hiding spot and go find a new one, and then it would happen over and over and over again. A literal nightmare. But here is the real spooky part...
I once mentioned the lizard man to my dad. His face went white as a sheet. His voice was all shaky and he just said, "This dream took place at our house in East Saint Paul? The one with the apartments right behind it?" And I said "Yes! That's where I'd always go to hide!...how did you know that?!" And he said, "Because I have the exact same dream."
I don’t know if it was just the way he said it or just the overall situation or both, but I still get goosebumps thinking about it. It's quite chilling.
25. A Sixth Sense
My great-great-aunt was in a nursing home about a year ago. Her husband had passed back in 2012. They had been together since she was 19, and she was in her 90s. We would visit, and once a nurse took my mother aside and told her, "This may sound crazy, but I am a sensitive and there has been this man standing in the corner of the room watching her. When I see this, this usually means she doesn't have long, maybe two days at most."
My mom calls me, tells me about it, and we rush to the nursing home to give her our goodbyes. After the last person visited her, she passed.
26. Fire In The Sky
I used to live out in the country, way back almost to the end of a long road. There were only two houses that were actually lived in that far down: my dad’s and the old lady at the very end of the road. There’s my dad’s house, and around it kind of off to the side were a bunch of old medium-sized barns and sheds scattered around.
I used to let my cat out sometimes and she would roam around the yard, then come back up and paw at my window when she was ready to come in. One night, I had done just that, but after a long while I got a little concerned. She usually only stayed out for an hour or two tops, but it had been way longer than that. So I decided to go out and get her.
I go out through the side door on the house. That's when I started to feel like something wasn't right, like I wasn't alone. I needed to get my cat, though, and if something was there, I chalked it up to a raccoon or other critter. I grabbed the flashlight and set off for the barns, calling for my cat. I found her huddled up in one of the barns, and she did NOT want to leave.
It was like she was terrified of something, and she was very stiff when I picked her up. I hadn’t taken but two or three steps when this light shoots across the sky directly over me, illuminating everything almost like lightning. It made this odd “wooWOOM” sound as it passed. My cat FREAKED out and started growling and clawing at me, which she never does.
I actually dropped her because of it, and she took off towards the house as though she were running for her life. I did the same. I’ve never figured out what that was. I’ve read about comets and things like that, but nothing says anything about the odd noise I heard, or the reaction my cat had. It could’ve been something simple and explainable, but man did it freak me out at the time.
27. Monster Hospital
I was working at a nursing home, and did the night shift from 10 pm to 8 am. First, I took care of 16 ladies on night duty, on my own. The halls have 16 rooms, with a sister hall, same layout, next door, only separated by a sliding door. There's a nurse who oversees the two adjoining halls, but I never saw her very much, so it often got lonely.
As it was a nursing home, the ladies who live there are older and can get really sick really fast. One lady was sent to the hospital for pneumonia and was gone in four days. One night, around 3 am, another lady—same hall neighbor to the lady at the hospital—started screaming "Get him out of my room!" Thinking a male resident had wandered from the other side of the building, I ran over to her room...
But I didn't see anything. Now, this is a lady who is VERY with it and never has issues or hollers out. But tonight she is absolutely beside herself. I figure she had a bad dream and try to calm her down. It took about 15 minutes. When I leave her room and get back to the office, I see that the nurse is on the phone...It turns out that the lady at the hospital had passed. Exactly 15 minutes ago.
28. Midnight Train To Nowhere
I was driving to pick up my friend from the airport around 10 at night. His girlfriend was also with me as she wanted to see him as soon as possible. We were going down some dark, super lonely back road. I've never been that way before, but I was following good old Apple maps. Eventually, we came up alongside a train that was matched with our speed, so we couldn't see out past it on the right side of the car.
After a couple minutes of that, we came upon a train yard on our left. A very spooky, very generic horror movie train yard. Nothing crazy yet, except for the fact that it went on and on and on. We probably spent 10 minutes driving at 45 miles an hour down a dark back road with a train yard on our left and a train on our right blocking the view.
Eventually, we made it back into society and picked up my friend from the airport. We told him all about the spooky train yard and train and were excited to drive back and show him just how much it was like a generic horror film. We drove back down the same roads. It wasn't there. We never passed a train yard. There were no trains on the tracks.
Friend's girlfriend and I flipped out. We swore up and down we drove right along the train yard for a long time. The drive home felt much shorter.
Wikimedia Commons, Vince pahkala
29. Touched By An Angel
I was about 17, and I was in my bedroom crying my eyes out over something. Home could be difficult at times, and that evening I was really upset. I really needed someone to talk to, but the only phone in the house was downstairs where my parents were, so calling a friend wasn't an option. I didn't know what to do to deal with what I was trying to live with, and I really felt that it couldn't go on for much longer.
I remember thinking "Please, someone, just help me!" Not a prayer as such, as I'm not really sure if that does any good, more sort of a mental scream into the void. There was definitely no one in the room with me, and I had my back to a chest of drawers. And then I felt something on my left shoulder, as if someone was standing behind me and resting their hand on me.
I could feel the weight of each individual finger, and the palm cupping my shoulder, and I could feel warmth from it. It didn't scare me, but it was enough to stop me crying. I guess the feeling lasted for a minute or so and then just stopped. I have no idea what it was, but it was enough to calm me down. I wish I could feel it again.
30. Kitchen Creep
The very first hotel that I worked at, I started at the front desk and worked the 3pm-11pm shift. There was someone there with me from 2pm-10pm, so I always had a little more than an hour where I was alone at the desk. Our kitchen closed at 10pm, so usually by 10:15pm, it was only the bartender and me still there, just hanging around.
One night, it was almost 11 pm and there was a huge noise that came from the kitchen area. The bartender and I ran back there and saw that every single pot, pan, ladle, spoon, everything else that was hanging from the ceiling racks, were on the ground. After our shift, we watched the camera back. The footage made our jaws drop.
There was NO ONE in the kitchen when it happened. I have no explanation for it other than it was one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me, and I could not get out of there fast enough.
31. The Man In Black
My mom and I visited my grandma at her senior home and left at like 10 pm. I went out the front doors and bumped straight into this dude's chest. I said sorry and backed away, but when he didn't respond I felt a bit weirded out…and looked up to see this HUGE tall middle-aged dude (I think he was like 7') with a black fedora and black suit and really wide eyes and a briefcase.
He had huge wide eyes, and he kept staring at me without blinking or saying a word. Then my mom called for me to hurry up and follow her to the car. When we got in the car, I asked her who she thought that man was. She said "What man?" I explained what literally just happened, and she said she didn't see any man. I turned around and the dude was gone. Creepiest thing that's ever happened to me.
32. Goodnight, Moon
I don't believe in ghosts or the paranormal, so this one freaked me out. My parents own a 300-acre ranch in George West, Texas. My stepdad and mother were going out of town for a week and asked me to look after the animals. I decide to spend the week there in the guesthouse and make myself comfortable. Now, this ranch is in the middle of nowhere and the nearest neighbor is probably like 10 miles down the road.
One night, I finish feeding the cows and decide to take a walk in the woods behind the cow pen. It was late, and I'm scanning the woods with a flashlight and just walking. I remember taking my phone out because I had thought I felt it vibrate. The screen says the time, but I see there is no signal. Okay, whatever. Seconds later, I hear what sounds like a woman singing a lullaby.
I freak the heck out and become paralyzed due to shock, I scan the woods with a flashlight in hand. I don't see anything, but the singing is getting louder. I ran out of there like a little girl and went back to the guesthouse.
33. The Lady In Blue
when I was in high school, I’d have my then-girlfriend over to my house almost every day. every night, I’d have to drive her home, and since I was like 16 I had the whole “no driving after 9:00” thing. so, I’d drive her home at like 8:30 and get back on my road at around 9:00. But this is when something strange and bizarre happened. To this day I can't explain it.
One day when I turned off onto my road, I went up it about half a mile and see this girl, like a teenager, in a blue dress with a light blue ribbon tied around her waistline, walking down the road. It was around fall and she was barefoot and grinning ear to ear with mascara stains running down her face from some heavy-duty crying.
I told my then-girlfriend the story, and she didn’t really believe me. It happened the next three nights, and each time I just stared at her, my heart beating hard in my chest. I never stopped to see what was the deal—who in their right mind would? The fourth night, I waited until 10:00 to bring my girlfriend home. I didn’t see anything, and I haven’t seen her since.
34. Animal Instinct
I was around 15 years old and babysitting a neighbor girl down the road from my parents’ house. The house was older, but I never thought it was "creepy." They also had this awful rat terrier that would bark at everything...worst dog ever. Once the girl went to bed, I sat in the living room and was watching TV. The dog started freaking out, but instead of barking at the door like normal, she started barking at the corner of the room.
Then she would run to another room and bark and come back to where I was like she was following something. Finally, she stayed in the kitchen barking for a solid two minutes. Afraid that she was going to wake the girl up, I went into the kitchen to quiet her down. When I walked in, I immediately froze. Every single cabinet door in the kitchen was open.
All of them! I grabbed the dog and ran into the living room. After she stopped barking, I went back into the kitchen and closed everything. Thankfully, the dad finally came home soon after. I refused to go back and my parents never believed me. I still get freaked out when I think about it.
35. In Search Of Lost Time
When I was younger, I was at a friend’s house and my mom called me to come home. I left on my bike, but when I got home, my family was crying and freaked out. I asked what was wrong and they asked me where the heck I was. I eventually looked at the clock, and it took me over three hours to get home from my friend’s house, which was only like 4 blocks away. I still to this day have no idea what happened and don’t remember the bike ride home.
36. Passing The Torch
This was a couple of years ago, but I still remember it vividly. It kind of happened in a dream. The dream itself wasn't that creepy. In fact, it was very pleasant. In my dream, I spent the day with my step-grandfather. He tried to teach me how to golf, we jogged together, and ended the day at his house. He needed help cleaning out his room up in the attic, and I was happy to help.
As we were cleaning, though, I started to notice a theme between all the items we got rid of. Old baseball cards, baseball caps, his entire Strat-O-Matic records...all of these things were very important to him. When I asked him why we were getting rid of these things, he just told me that he didn't need them anymore. It was about then that the dream ended.
The creepy bit came when I woke up. That morning, my parents broke the news to me that my step-grandfather had passed in his sleep. As for all the things he and I threw away in the dream? That was the extra chilling part. Those were all given to us in his will.
37. Past Lives
I bumped into a girl at university in the alley behind my college, and she seemed really familiar. I felt like I knew her better than anyone, but at the same time couldn't place her at all. She was looking at me funny, too, and I asked if she was okay. When I did, she expressed exactly what I had been thinking about her. She felt exactly the same way.
She said she felt we might even be married, and it seemed that way to me too. Even though I'm a gay man. I kind of figured I would bump into her again at some point, but I never did.
38. The Floating Children
Not me, but my mom. She grew up in a ranch house in Colombia that used to be some kind of hospital ward. When she was little, she and one of her sisters saw little white gowns floating around their bed at night. They were obviously terrified and fought against sleeping in that room so fiercely that my grandmother actually had a priest come and bless the room to set their minds at ease. After that, no more floating gowns.
39. Little Boy Lost
I was eight years old on Christmas Eve and lived on the third floor of a large house that was converted into apartments. I had trouble falling asleep. One night, I saw a boy floating outside my window wearing one of those old beanie hats with the propeller on top. I threw the covers over my head, tried to ignore it, and eventually fell asleep.
The next morning, my parents told me that they saw a figure of a small boy sitting at the end of their bed and asked if it was me, which it was not. Well, a few years later, we had some plumbing work done and they had to tear up the floorboards. They found an old book that had pictures of the property from about 60 years prior. Its contents sent a shiver down my spine.
There was a picture of the boy I saw in there, and it turns out that he was shot during a hunting accident on the property and passed. Still freaks me out to this day!
40. The Headless Horseman
Me and my wife both saw a green, severed, floating head when we woke up in the middle of the night. This happened on separate occasions and in different rooms. Neither of us believe in ghosts.
41. Voices From Beyond
My godmother is on a paranormal research team, and she uses an EVP machine, and the things it catches terrifies me. After she walked into the child section of a cemetery on a case, you can hear multiple voices on the EVP tape say, "Go away. We don't want you here. Let us rest." Her daughter was also having weird stuff happen to her in the cellar at the restaurant she works.
She felt like she was having her hair pulled and stuff. So she took the EVP in, and the tape has a voice saying, "Pretty Hannah. Love Hannah." That's her daughter's name.
42. A Warning Sign
I work in a relatively old building, it’s something like 200 years old. It used to be a hospital, and there are some toilets that aren’t frequently used because they're in an awkward place. On several occasions, I've heard someone whisper my name despite the fact the area is empty. On one occasion, I heard them say my name followed by "Watch out." Nothing bad happened, or has happened. Probably my mind filling the quiet…right?
43. The Gentleman Ghost
I work at a building where after midnight, it's often just me and my co-worker. One night, I was scheduled to go home at 3 am. As I walk out of the office and up to the elevators, the elevator dings and the door opens. These are elevators that stay either on the top floor or the ground floor, and I'm on neither. I have no explanation for why it would just be there waiting for me.
I almost didn't even get on, but instead I just said "Uhh thank you, please don't show yourself to me," just in case.
44. The Trauma Ward
I was on call at a hospital, and as I was going to leave for the night, I walked the long, empty hallway to return my pager. As I returned down that hall, a terrifying sight made me stop in my tracks. I noticed a woman limping down the hall toward me, sobbing and crying, "Help me." Mind you, it was 2 am, and no one should have been in that part of the hospital. When I blinked, she was gone.
45. Intruder Alert
I shared a room with a guy in college who was a musician. He’d stay out late almost every night and come home around 3 or 4 in the morning. Our room was a straight shot through the kitchen from the front door. One night, I woke up to the bedroom door opening and figured it was just my roommate coming home after a gig.
I thought it was strange that he turned the light on when coming in. He knew I was a light sleeper and would normally use his phone’s light to shine around the room if he was looking for something while I was asleep. My bed was twin-sized and positioned against the wall connecting the bedroom to the kitchen. When he came in, I was facing the wall.
I kept my eyes closed and pretended I was still asleep because I didn’t feel like having a conversation while I was still half-asleep. I heard him go to his side of the room, opposite of my bed, and rustle around his desk and dresser looking for something. Sometimes he would grab some clothes for the next day and go stay at a buddy’s house, so I wasn’t concerned.
Then I felt him start reaching under my bed. I kept a few things under there, but he would normally ask before straight-up taking anything of mine. At that point, I was really confused and annoyed by all this, so I made it a point to passive aggressively roll over on my other side and face the middle of the room and the direction from where he was reaching, just so he knew I was angry that he was ruining my beauty sleep.
Then I heard nothing. But I could feel he shot up from under the bed and was just standing there. I never opened my eyes, but I figured he would either apologize for waking me up or something. But he never said a word. He just stood there. After probably two minutes with the light still on, I heard him leave the room and go to the kitchen.
I opened my eyes after a couple more minutes because he left the light on in the bedroom. He wasn’t in the kitchen, but he had pulled a knife from the knife block and left it on the table. I checked around the house and couldn’t find him, but quickly realized my Xbox, book bag, wallet, etc. were all gone. He’d taken them all. Or rather, someone else had.
I called my roommate to see if he had been home…but he was miles away at a party. He still had his house keys and never gave them to anyone else prior. I must have accidentally left the door unlocked that evening, which was the one time someone decided to check the knob. The authorities never followed up with me after that night, so I doubt they ever caught the guy. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I ever did open my eyes and see that guy standing there or if I chased him out to the kitchen.
46. The Fatal Aura
When I was in high school, my girlfriend’s parents would let me stay overnight on the weekends so long as I slept in the RV that was parked in back of the house. I had done it multiple times, and my girlfriend would come sit outside with me for a while until she got tired, and then she would go inside and I would listen to my Walkman while I tried to fall asleep.
I remember one night I was having trouble falling asleep. This wasn't so unusual for me, but as I lay there, I started to notice an unfamiliar background noise. When I removed my headphones, I realized that it sounded like people outside the RV were having a loud discussion. Then the number of voices started to multiply and multiply and get louder and louder until it was unbearable.
I searched round and round, peering out of the windows, but nobody was there. I was very shaken at this point, and I decided to run into the house and sleep in the living room and try to explain myself in the morning. Problem was, every time I got about 6 feet away from the RV, there would be a flash of white and I would open my eyes and find myself back in the RV. Now, I was nearly having a panic attack, so I called my girlfriend on the phone.
She could hear how terrified I was, so she told me she was coming outside to get me. I heard the back sliding door of her house open, I heard her walk across the deck, down the steps, across the garden stones. I finally heard her hand fumble on the RV door, but when it swung open…no one was there. Now I was pretty much in tears when suddenly I felt the presence of something behind me.
I turned around and found this massive red aura hovering there. I was overcome with this immense sense of dread and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I remember feeling like this energy was draining me, like absorbing my life force if that makes any sense. I dropped to my knees and realized that if I didn’t break free real fast, I was most certainly going to die.
I don’t know where I found the strength from, but I willed myself back to my feet and slammed the RV door open and bolted for the house. This time I actually got inside. I hollered for my girlfriend, and she came downstairs with her mom to much confusion. I explained everything that had happened, getting especially angry that my girlfriend never came outside like she promised.
She said that we never spoke on the phone and she had no idea what I was talking about, but when we compared our phones, mine showed a 1:25 am conversation completed to phone while hers showed nothing. That's when she and her mom started taking me seriously and began to look quite scared themselves. The rest of the night was uneventful, except that I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I would see a small circle of intensely burning white light.
47. Dark Doppelganger
I was having a tense conversation with someone who I was close to years ago. The conversation quickly devolved into a passive-aggressive fight that ended with the other person getting in the car and driving away. As I started heading back inside, the other person came back, got out of the car, and started our conversation again. Except this time, something was very, very wrong.
Their tone of voice was totally different and their stance was different and the feeling in the air was completely off. I don’t know how else to explain it. As the conversation progressed, the other person started saying some nasty and mean things that were completely out of character. I said, “This isn’t like you, Emma.” Oh my god, their response.
They said “What makes you think that I’m Emma?” I remember continuing the conversation and talking to the “person” for a long time, but I don’t remember anything specific. I do remember becoming more and more alarmed and knowing something wasn’t right. Finally, I told the person to go home. They complied and left.
I went back inside and started telling my sibling about the situation when the doorbell rang after maybe 2-3 minutes had passed. It was Emma coming back to apologize for the original fight. They had been driving around town for a long time and didn’t want to go home leaving things unresolved. I asked why they had said some of the things from the last conversation, and they looked at me like I was crazy.
They had no idea what I was talking about. Totally could have been lying, but that whole situation just felt dark. Scared the heck out of me.
48. When A Stranger Calls
My brother and I were home alone one night watching TV while my mother was working a night shift and my father was out. Eventually, my father came home, pushed the door ajar, and poked his head through to say hello. We both turned around and said hello back, my father closed the door. Thirty seconds after that, another man opened the door to say hello, we both turned around and say hello back, man closed door.
We assumed one of my dad's friends just came over to have a beer. Anyway, about five minutes later, I headed into the kitchen where my father was, making dinner or whatever, and I’m expecting to see his friend again. I see that he’s alone making dinner and assumed his friend was upstairs in the bathroom. I ask my father who his friend is.
My father looks at me and asks me, “What friend?” I reply, “The guy who came back with you.” Dad looks at me, thinking I’m some sort of weirdo. He says, “I came back home on my own.” Biggest whaaaaaaaaaaaat?! I’ve ever experienced. My brother was freaked out to the max. We both remember the man’s face. He was pale looking and had bright white hair.
49. Shadow Play
Something happened to me last night. I got home from work very early in the morning, 2:30 am. My house has an entryway or mudroom before you actually get into the main living area. I open the front door, step inside, close the front door and proceed to try and find the key to get through the next door to get into my house properly.
So the only light in this entryway is through the glass on the front door, the rest of the room is completely black. I can barely see my hands in front of my face. All of a sudden, I start to hear this...buzzing/vibrating?...noise behind me off to the right. House is old, so maybe just weird house noises. I’m still looking for the key when I notice that the noise is getting louder, closer, and it has risen in pitch to something as if a woman was humming loudly. Maybe it's just ringing in my ear. But that was just the beginning of the nightmare.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a shadow that I thought was from light reflecting outside. Nope, it’s moving towards me and creeping along the wall...that's when I noticed the vibrating noise was also getting closer to me, and it seemed to be coming in the same direction as the now-moving shadow. I'm desperately trying to open this darn door and when I finally do, the noise stops, the shadow disappears, and I'm hoping it was all in my head.
PxHere
50. The Imprint Of Life
My grandfather passed when I was eight and my little brother was two or three-ish. He had this big Lazy Boy chair in the living room that he always planted himself in. Everyone knew this chair was "grandpa's chair." Anyway, we went down to my grandparent's house in Florida for a long weekend to attend the funeral.
We're all chatting the first night there in the living room, and my mom was sitting in the chair. My little brother goes up to my mom and says, "Grandpa wants his chair back." My mom asks him where grandpa is, thinking the little boy probably didn't understand death, to which he responds, "He's right behind you." My mom BOLTED off that sofa immediately.
Sources: Reddit,
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