Growing up always comes with a handful of creepy, thrilling stories that never truly leave your mind. Whether you heard frightening sounds or spotted a creepy figure, everyone has a scary story to share. But trust us when we say that few can compete with these twisted tales...
1. Imaginary Friend
When I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend named Jessie. A couple of years ago while visiting relatives in Ireland we were all exchanging ghost stories, when my mum brought up Jessie. When I was a kid, Jessie was my imaginary friend. Or, I thought so. My mom's story made me rethink everything. She said that one time, when my dad was on his way to work, I asked him to bring back coal for Jessie's gran.
I'd ask for weirdly specific, old timey stuff like that for Jessie a lot. It never bothered anyone until we went on a little trip to a field we visited a lot when I was young. When I arrived, I suddenly ran off and went straight into a graveyard. I ran straight to a small grave and stopped and just stared at it. The headstone said "Jessie." So yeah...my 'imaginary friend' was a ghost.
2. The Break-In
About 10 years ago, in another town in another state, it was the middle of the night and I was sitting on a sofa with my then-boyfriend and our two lesbian friends, talking and eating donuts. It was almost 4 am. Now we were in the back room of his house, sort of an extra room, that really only had this sofa in it. The room is behind the kitchen and connects to the backyard and the basement.
The kitchen had a new mattress standing in it that was headed for the bedroom the following day. It was big so it took up most of that room. You couldn't really get to the sink or the microwave, but you could see the glow of the blue nightlight, and all the other lights in the house were off. I just happened to look over into the kitchen as one of the cats jumped off the counter and hightailed it out of the room.
That's when a shadow on the blue-lit wall caught my eyes. I immediately froze in fear. The shadow was the upper half of a man; a short bald man, and he was sketchy. He crouched and ducked, looked left and right, and then ran into the front living room. My immediate thought was "holy someone is breaking in." I thought I was seeing someone run by the outside of the house through the window.
I told everyone about this and as I was telling them it was slowly dawning on me that it is impossible that I would have seen someone who was outside cast a shadow from a nightlight inside the kitchen, from behind a mattress. Plus, the person would have to be extremely tall for me to see the entire upper half of their body crouched down if they were outside the kitchen window. My heart almost lurched out of my throat.
3. Senior Year
The summer between junior and senior year of high school I went down to the lake to an old abandoned house. One of the friends I went with took a book from the house. Later on, in the middle of the night, the guy claims that his mother got up, came into his room, and told him to return the book to the house. The next morning, he asked his mom if she remembered doing that last night, and she told him no.
4. The Funeral
It was October 11th, 2001. I was 14 years old and my grandfather crossed over the rainbow bridge in his sleep, an empty bottle of alcohol at his bedside. During the funeral, my mom then put her arm around me and cried with me, I felt her, heard her crying into my cheek, her voice mauled by my jacket. When I opened my eyes, my mother was standing 20 feet in front of me.
5. Halloween Story
When I was 14, I went to a Halloween bonfire at my buddy’s place in a rural area. He had a large backyard that was surrounded by some woods. I took a break from the bonfire and headed to a nearby bush to take a leak. When I was going to the bathroom, I saw something out of the corner of my eye in the woods, which was about 50 yards away.
I looked directly at it and saw nothing. I went back to my business but then, out of the corner of my eye I saw the large shadowy figure once again. I looked over and saw nothing. At this point, I remember in science class that your peripheral vision is better in locations with very little light. So, I look towards the area where the figure was without looking directly at it. That moment, I witnessed a chilling sight: It appeared as if someone was pacing the edge of the woods looking over towards the bonfire. I rush back to the group and tell them.
The kid who lived there ran into his house and told his dad. The dad comes out with a pistol and heads to the edge of the woods. He comes back and reports nothing. It's possible my eyes could have been playing a trick on me, but I'm almost 100% sure I saw a person stalking us kids. The nearest neighbor was a mile down the road. It's just creepy that someone in the middle of nowhere would be watching a bunch of kids…
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6. Sleepover
I shared a room with my sister around the age of 7, but she was off at a sleepover party the night it happened. As a little kid, I was terrified of lots of things - I'd never seen anything close to a horror film (not even The Nightmare Before Christmas) because of how jumpy I was. So naturally, the dark freaked me out.
I was really nightmare-prone, which caused everyone to say this was a dream later. But this was different. It was more vivid. Too realistic to be a dream. I was hiding under my sheets like the cowardly kid I was when I decided to poke my head out to get some cool air, and I saw something in my room. Something clearly not human.
I called it an alien at the time because that's the closest thing my horror-ignorant mind could liken it to. Now, I see it as more similar to the Rake or the Mothman. Its head was big and egg-shaped, like those stereotypical gray aliens. Far too big for its tiny, slender body. It was totally naked. Pale gray or ashen white skin, the lack of light made it hard to tell.
All the bones were visible. Its tiny shriveled sack and schlong just hung there between its legs. Its hands were way too big for the toothpick-like arms. It was standing at a really unnatural angle. Its eyes were totally black and shiny, seemed to be the only feature on its weird head, and were sunken in little red holes. Most unsettling of all, it was just staring at me.
After a few seconds of being completely paralyzed in fear, I pulled the covers back up over my head - what else could I do? I stayed there for the rest of the night until I fell asleep. I know this thing wasn't human. I told my parents the next day and they said I was dreaming. I made up a lot of stories back then. I remember a lot of them vividly, and the rest of my childhood is really, really hazy.
But seeing that thing in my room is one of the childhood memories that stuck with me the most. I have no idea what it was, and despite my fascination with horror stories, I don't think I want to know.
7. Scary Evening
Had a guy knock on my front door in the middle of the day and kept hiding off to the side so I couldn't see who it was. I yelled as loudly as I could that I was calling the cops and got a good look at his van as he drove off. Reported it. Later that week the man was in the news for the worse possible reason: he was a serial offender, and he was on the hunt for new blood. I just remember that I almost opened the door to yell at him in the face. Thank god I didn't.
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8. Ghastly Creatures
Ever since I was really little my family has always encountered a really weird ghostly phenomenon. one night I was asleep and I heard a knocking on my door and a girls voice saying "Open the door!!! Let me in, I want to play!! Open the door!!" At first I thought it was my sister, but as I woke up I realized it was a much younger girl's voice.
9. The New House
When I was 3, my family had just moved into a new house, and I mean brand-spankin’ new. We were the first people on our street to move in, and they didn't finish building all the houses until a few weeks after we moved in. Anyway, here's my story. One night when I was about 4 1/2, for some reason I woke up in the middle of the night.
This was around the age where I was sure if I thought long and hard enough, that I could get x-ray vision like superman, and whenever I'd wake up in the middle of the night that's what I'd try to do. I'd sit there in bed for 10-15 minutes, trying really hard to see through walls, or my dresser, or even just the back of my hand before eventually giving up and just going back to sleep.
This particular night wasn't any different from any other, I woke up, saw the Toronto Blue Jays clock on my wall, saw it was around 1 am, and went to work trying to see through the back of my hand. About 5 minutes into my routine (I never did get x-ray vision in case you're wondering), I heard what sounded like a whisper.
I thought maybe it was my sister, who was just a year older and in the next room so I kept on trying my best to just see through something until I heard a man call my name, and I just about peed myself. I sat there frozen in fear, I didn't know who it was, my father at the time worked the night shift and didn't get home until 4 am most days.
I don't know how to rightly express just how terrified I was at what happened next, or to really express what was running through my mind, but the voice laughed at me, and said it was going to get me, and then silence for the next 5 seconds until I screamed out loud. I woke everyone in the house up, my mother ran into my room and asked me what was wrong, but I was crying a lot.
She sat with me for what must have been close to half an hour until I calmed down and was able to tell her what happened. I asked if it was dad and why would he be playing such a mean joke on me, but she said he was still at work and that I must have been dreaming. The thing about that whole ordeal, about how terrified I was, is that I never again felt comfortable in that house.
I never again slept with my door closed, and at least once a week, for many YEARS, I would wake up and just yell for my mother because something didn't feel right. It turned me from a self-assured child into a child that was afraid of everything. To this day I'm not sure if it was my father or not, my mother said it wasn't, but the house was brand new, the land it was built on used to be farmland, and there was nothing else on the land but massive fields of crops.
My parents still live in that house, and nothing like that voice ever happened again, but the room that was mine still creeps me out if I'm over there at night. I don't know what it was.
10. Scary Night Experience
I'm a kid who likes his sleep very much so my dad often had to wake me up as I slept through my alarm. One night I fell asleep and then woke up to a hand on my shoulder and then I feel the covers yanked off me all the way off the bed. I shot up out of bed because it was a habit at this point because this is when I knew my dad was serious. I opened my eyes only to realize that nobody was there.
11. Zombies Galore
About a year ago, I was lying in bed after having just finished reading an excellent zombie novel. It was the middle of winter, and slightly after midnight. I couldn't sleep, as my mind was still crawling with zombies, so I lay awake staring at the ceiling with the dog snoring away next to me. Suddenly I heard three loud thumps from the glass of the window across the room.
Very hard and very steady. Like someone pounding on the glass with the flat of their hand. The sound scared the daylight out of me and woke the dog, who started barking. I sat there trying to reassure him (and myself) that it was OK and there was some sensible reason for it. After a few minutes we both calmed down, he went to back sleep and I followed about half an hour later.
I was woken up in the middle of the night by the same sound. THUMP THUMP THUMP. The sound came from the same window, with the same steady interval between thumps, and just as loud as before. The dog woke and started barking again. Both of us were freaking out, and I couldn't bring myself to turn on the light and go look out the window.
The only thing I could think to do was run out into the living room curl up on the couch with the dog, a blanket over both our heads. The next morning, I woke on the couch feeling exhausted, having slept only intermittently. The dog was sitting at the door to my room looking alert and looking back to me and whining. I went back into my bedroom and looked out the window.
There was nothing unusual looking. No marks on the glass or anything. My apartment is on the top floor of our 6-story building. The fire escape was on the window nearest to the bed, not the one near the window where the sound came from. Whatever had hit the window had had a six-story drop beneath it. At a loss for any other explanation, I figured it must have been a bird running into the window.
I had no explanation for the fact that it seemed to do so three times in a row, at very steady intervals, on two separate occasions, and with a sound much louder than could be made by a lightweight creature bouncing off the glass. The fact that it had happened late at night, a time when birds aren't typically flying around, I also carefully ignored in my hope for some sane explanation
Somewhat satisfied with my rationalization, I went to work and felt much better for the rest of the day... that is until one last fact filtered into my mind. It dwelt there for the rest of the workday nagging at me and I rushed home to confirm my suspicions. Reaching the window again, just as the sun was setting, I felt a chill run down my spine: my troublesome suspicion was accurate.
There was a screen on the outside of the window. The noise had very clearly be the sound of the glass being struck. Whatever had hit the window had to have done so from inside the room.
12. The Older Woman
When I was really little my parents would let me stay up late on the weekends and watch TV until I fell asleep. Well, one night I was almost asleep on the couch when I heard a noise on our front porch. Sitting on my front porch swing was an older woman, probably in her 50's wearing nothing but a nightgown, covered in blood and holding a huge kitchen knife. I still have nightmares about her.
13. The Creepy Neighbor
One night I was walking down the street with a few of my friends in the city we live near when we passed a certain ground-floor apartment. The curtains were drawn and the guy who lived there was sitting with his back to the windows, watching a late-night detective movie. As we were initially walking quite slow, I was able to get a closer look at what he was watching when I passed in front of the windows. It wasn't a detective movie he was watching, he was watching us. Watching us, watching him.
14. Tripping Up
When I was a kid I used to go and visit my uncle’s lodge in the school holidays. It was on this huge property and backed onto the edge of bushland, so my brother and I always had a whole bunch of stuff to do to keep us occupied. I remember I was with my dog one day playing near an empty creek when he suddenly just took off into the trees.
Everyone else had gone into town and my dad was asleep inside so I was pretty much alone and decided to go after him. He was much quicker than I was and I got lost pretty quickly. I was starting to get a bit upset because I couldn't find my dog and I had no idea where I was so I turned around from where I thought I came from and tried to run back and get my dad so he could help me find him.
From what I remember I tripped over a tree root or something and fell down this embankment. I must have hit my head on something because I woke up in the bottom of this small gully not knowing how I got there, everything was still a bit fuzzy. What actually woke me up was my dog licking my face. He was lying down right next to me.
How he found me I don't know, but I was really happy to see him. But then he started barking but it was a bark I hadn't really heard him do before and he was still lying flat on his stomach, that's the strange thing I remember about that part. A really strange lying down, grumble sort of bark. It scared me a little bit.
I turned to see what he was looking at and there was a guy standing there. I remember he had this really faded cowboy hat thing on that had a big chunk missing on the side. “Hey kid, you had a pretty bad fall, but you should be alright. Let me get you back to your home” he said in this really, really deep voice. Then he walked over to me, picked me up, grabbed my hand and we started walking back through the bush.
The two things I remember from that walk were holding his gloves which I thought was weird because it was the middle of summer and really hot at the time. The other one was my dog was walking too close to me, I was pretty much tripping the whole way back because he kept smacking into the side of my leg on the way back.
The guy didn't say anything though, in fact, I don't actually remember him saying anything at all apart from the first time he spoke. I don't think we walked for that long because we reached the creek bed really quickly and I could hear my name being called out by my dad for dinner. I started to run straight up to the house and remembered I forget to thank the guy for getting me here so I turned to yell “Thanks mister” but he was already gone.
I just figured he was in a hurry or something. A few days later I was in the supermarket with my Mum, it was one of those small country town ones that kind of sell everything and everyone knows everyone else there. So, I'm kind of just wandering around and there's this photo up on the wall of this guy in a cowboy hat with a big chunk in the side missing.
It was the guy who helped me in the woods! I wanted to thank him or something for helping me before so I ask the person working there who he is. His answer chilled me to the bone. Turns out he was the original owner of the store around thirty years ago but keeled over in a freak accident in the woods where my dog and I were.
Apparently back in the day he used to grow vegetables for the store himself in the middle of these woods (I don't know why, I guess the soil was more fertile or something). He went one day to see how they were growing when a really bad storm started up. Apparently, he was trying to get back but his dog (who always went with him) fell down a really steep embankment into a small gully so this guy went after it.
While he was down there a branch broke off a tree and hit him, breaking his back. They didn't find him till weeks later. His dog was also found with him, by his side. That's how I found out that the man who saved me was a ghost.
15. Beware Of The Noise
It was about 1 am when my friend heard a noise outside his front door. His front yard is really dark so he looked through the peephole rather than opening the door. He couldn't see anything but could tell something was below the peephole. He decided to open the door slowly. Thank god he did. As soon as the door opened a crack, an older lady whose face was covered in blood tried to run into his house.
16. The Helpful Neighbor
My mom was babysitting the family one night in winter, and the phone rings. It's the neighbor across the street. The neighbor tells her, "Don't turn around, but we are looking at your house right now, and we can see you and your siblings watching TV, and we see the back of your head while you're sitting on the sofa". "Ok," my mom says, thinking this is really weird. "Well," the neighbors say, "We also see a man right outside the house staring right into the window of the room you and your siblings are all in.
17. The Creepy Drive-by
So I was driving by myself in the afternoon. I stopped in Amboy and snapped a picture of the city sign, just to prove I was there to friends who dared me to take that route to I-40. I got back in my car and proceeded to drive up into the mountain range between Amboy and I-40. Once I reach the top I am driving north through a canyon with high grass on both sides of the road.
Up ahead I see some stuff in the middle of the road. As I approach, I slow down to see a red Pontiac Fiero stopped sideways across both lanes, a suitcase open with clothes scattered everywhere and two bodies laying face down in the road, a man and a woman. I stop a hundred feet or so away and the hair on the back of my neck is standing up.
Being a Marine, I reach under the seat and pull out a 9mm pistol and chamber a round. Something seemed very wrong, it looked too perfect as if it were staged. An ambush? Was I being paranoid? Something was just wrong. Getting out of the car seemed unthinkable, I felt like I was in a horror movie. As I scanned the road, I saw a line I could drive.
Pass the guy in the road on his left, swerve to the right side of the woman, behind the Fiero and I'd be on the other side. I dropped it into first gear, punched it, and drove the line I planned. I passed the back of the Fierro without hitting it or either of the bodies in the road. I continued forward a couple of hundred feet and slowed down so I could breathe and let my heart slow down.
As I looked up into the rear-view mirror, I saw that the two bodies had gotten up to their knees and twenty or so people emerged from the tall grass on either side of the road by the car and bodies. At that moment my right foot smashed the gas pedal to the floor and did not let up until I had to slow down for the I-40 east onramp.
I will never know what would have happened to me had I gotten out of the car to check on the bodies or stopped my car closer to them. Somehow, I do not think it would have been good. Sometimes real life can be scarier than a movie.
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18. Digsy
When I was thirteen, my mum and dad invited our previous neighbors from the block of flats we lived in until I was five years old. Anyway, I'd been sent to bed but could still hear everyone talking about this and that, until the woman neighbor said 'Hey Digsy's Mum, do you remember when Digsy used to complain that there was someone in his room?
Well, there's a family that's just moved into the floor above who have a three-year-old son. He is complaining of the exact same things Digsy did.'
19. Night Of Dread
I've always been a night owl. I have never been able to fall asleep easily, so I have a tendency to read, surf around, or occasionally just pace the house. I also grew up on a farm, so on nights when the moon was light enough, I would go walk in the pasture if I was feeling especially restless. This was definitely one of those nights.
I pulled on a pair of jeans and some shoes figuring a walk would help me relax. Stepping out onto the porch, some movement near the barn caught my eye. In the light, I could make out the figure of a man carrying something. The sound of the door opening must have alerted him because he started coming towards me.
The distance from our porch to the stock barn is about 25 yards, so it wasn't a terribly large distance and even in the dim light I was able to realize the man had a pistol. My heart racing, I backed into the house and deadbolted the door. Living in a small town in rural East Texas, the door had been unlocked before. Terrified, I stumbled into my parent's room and woke my father.
I told him I'd seen a man with a pistol in our backyard, and he quickly grabbed his pistol and told my mom to call the authorities. Since we lived far out, it would be 20 or so minutes before we would see any officers, so my dad and I went out to check on the animals. When we stepped outside it was silent. There was no sign of anyone in our yard, so we walked briskly towards the barn where I'd seen the man.
We had (at the time) a few cattle, goats, a bad-tempered donkey, about a half-dozen chickens, and my mangy old cat, Velcro. None of them were to be seen, the barn was completely empty. They slept close by, and the goats weren't penned at night, but they always slept inside the barn. Something had clearly spooked them out of their sleep.
We did a quick sweep of the area and found that someone had tried to force the door to the attached tool shed open and failed, but otherwise, nothing else. So we called the authorities, but they didn't find much either. I wondered if I'd imagined the whole thing. The next morning though, I awoke to a sight that will haunt me forever.
In the morning when we went out to collect the eggs we had a pretty horrible surprise. Of all the places we'd looked, we never thought to check inside the chicken coop (which was a pretty large area). Apparently, whoever this guy was had decided to hide out in there when we came outside. Every one of our chickens was dead (we assume to keep them quiet).
While we were leaning against the coop relaxing and drinking our beers, this guy had been inside of it, tormenting our chickens the entire time.
20. Ghostly Endeavours
My best friend's family used to have a "ghost" according to her mom. It was from when they lived in their old house, and her mom told me they would find keys and stuff in places they had already looked. The story that got me though, was about when my friend's mom was supposed to pick up her husband's suit from the dry cleaner because he had an interview or something.
She had gotten caught up in stuff and hadn't had a chance to go pick up the suit, so when her husband got home, she followed him into the bedroom to tell him she hadn't gotten it. But then, suddenly, she realized that the suit was right there on the bed. She had no idea how it got there. She still had the ticket for the dry cleaners.
21. Locked in
Back when I was in college there was an old dormitory that was empty and locked up. The first-floor windows were covered up with thick black curtains and the doors had chains and padlocks on them. One night, a giant thud startled behind us on the same floor we were on. Nobody could have been there because we went through those rooms and we would have noticed somebody else slamming a door right behind us.
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22. The Godmother
My godmother's friend, who I'll refer to as Jim, had a son about ten years ago. Jim's father crossed over the rainbow bridge about a year before the son was born, and the family always kept a picture of him on top of their TV in the living room. Jim's son, Timmy, looked at the picture frequently but never asked who the man was.
One day, Jim was on the second floor of his house, while Timmy, who was 3 or 4 years old at the time, was in the backyard on the patio near the family's in-ground pool. Jim told Jimmy never to go in the pool when he was alone, so Tim wasn't worried. Unfortunately, Jim suddenly heard a splash. Panicked, he raced down the stairs, and just as he reaches the first floor, he hears the splashing stop.
Fearing the worst, Jim steps out onto the patio. Surprisingly, Timmy was standing there, soaked, but unharmed. Jim grabbed his son and dried him off and asked him what had happened. Timmy replied simply by saying, "I fell in the water, but then the man on top of the TV saved me."
23. Haunting Of The First House
My wife and I buy our first house in February of 2010. We immediately fell in love with it as soon as we laid eyes on it. First, it was small things, like things upstairs being moved (put in completely different rooms than where they belonged). We have no kids and no one was visiting. The windows were all shut, the television was not on.
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24. Wake-Up Call
I was about 6 or 7 when this happened to me. I used to sleep in my parent's room often. I would kick my dad out to sleep in my bed so I could sleep with my mom. I woke up in the middle of the night and something compelled me to walk back to my room. I looked at my dad and saw him sound asleep. Then I had this urge to look out the window.
Now my room faces the street and there's a street lamp that provides some light. I can also see the front porch from my window as well. Anyways, I saw a shadow of this boy, just standing there on the front porch. It seemed like he was wearing 1930's attire with a newsboy cap. I'm staring at this shadow for a few minutes, confused.
So, I go back to my parent's room thinking I've gone crazy. There was a nightlight in the room that faintly illuminated the room, just like the streetlamp outside of the house. I was already under the covers when I saw the same shadow of the boy next to my side of the bed. I couldn't see any facial features or anything. It was just a black shadow of this boy.
I called out 'Hello?' several times to this shadow but it didn't respond. I eventually gave up and put the blanket over my head and snuggled closer to my mom and fell asleep. That's probably the creepiest thing that has happened to me.
25. Large Marge
The lady in my old house between was creepy. She was a large woman, over six feet. She wore logging chains around her neck, a dress, and work boots. She would tell us the Devil would be coming for us. The adults told us to leave her alone and to avoid her. We would run the distance between my aunts and my grandparents because when you passed by she was watching out the windows. It was creepy and we never went alone.
26. The Lion King
Every time I have watched The Lion King someone I know has crossed over the rainbow bridge. Happened 3 times when I was a child. Always happened the same way. We'd be watching it as a family, and then the phone would ring during the movie and we would receive the news of a relative dying. No one in my family has watched that movie since.
27. The Fear Factor
So, a little background: I'm a Navy kid and I moved all around the east coast until my dad retired when I was 14. When I was about 8 or 9, we lived in Newport, Rhode Island in your standard Navy housing development. The units on our street were recently remodeled, but my best friend at the time lived in the only unit on the street that wasn't.
His name was Michael, and we'd hang out all the time after school and on the weekends. He'd always sleepover at my house, but never let me stay over at his house. I'd only ever been in his house twice, and I'm about to tell you why. The second time I was at Michael's house, we were sitting in his living room watching Power Rangers.
It's early afternoon and his mom is making us lunch. Michael's mom yells out "Gosh darn it! Why didn't anyone tell me we're out of cheese?" or something along those lines. She comes into the living room to tell us she's running to the NEX convenience store down the road to pick up some cheese. She leaves and we continue watching TV.
We never left the chairs we were in while Michael's mom was gone. About 10 minutes later she gets back to the house and heads to the kitchen and SCREAMS out loud. It made both Michael and I literally jump out of our chairs in fright, then we both start laughing because we thought she was playing a joke on us. I turned around expecting her to be standing there, but she was still in the kitchen.
She yells "Michael?! Michael?!" and we go running into the kitchen. "Michael, did you do this?" We both shake our heads. Every cabinet was open. The refrigerator was open. All the drawers were pulled out to the point just before they'd fall out of the counter. Michael's mom tells us to go to my house to finish watching our shows and as we're leaving, she calls Michael's dad, crying.
We get to my house and finish watching Power Rangers and then whatever show was on after that. Michael says he better go home and find out what's going on and leaves. I tell my mom what happened and she explains that Michael's mom has been experiencing lots of weird things over at their place and tells me I'm not allowed back in his house. I was unaware of any of this and my mom says it's because they don't like to talk about it.
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28. Ghostly Connection
When my mom was 9 years old, her mother kicked her out of the house for the day and told her to go play. My mom did so, and pretty soon her father joined her and played with her for a few hours, which was unheard of him to do since he was a stern, unemotional man. When she got home, she made a chilling discovery. She found out she had been locked out of the house for the day because her father had succumbed to stomach cancer the night before, and her mother wanted to be alone for the day to make arrangements.
29. It Happens Later
My dad's aunt had driven down from Louisville for the weekend to visit with the family and brought the kid with her. On the way past the church graveyard, and my dad's cousin asked my grandfather that if he were in a coffin would he be buried there. The next Sunday after church, he was crossing the road to the parking lot when he got hit by a car and passed.
30. The Haunted House
I grew up in a haunted house... So, I have many of these stories. This house was three stories tall and 5,000 square ft. It was moderately new. It was built in the ‘60s, located in the middle of the woods. Creepy enough, without the haunted part. One time we were all watching tv downstairs in the "basement" (basically just the ground level floor at the bottom of the house.)
The kitchen is right above the tv room. It's nearly 10 pm. All of a sudden, we hear what sounds like a man with work boots on, stomping through the kitchen. We pause the movie and all look at each other, like, "Oh no, not this again." My grandpa tells us to stay downstairs. He goes upstairs and returns about 5 minutes later.
"All the doors are locked. All the lights are off. There is no one in the house." We all just stare at each other completely freaked out.. and resume watching the movie. When I was little, I used to see black figures walking around the upstairs section of the house. We had this balcony, thing, that overlooked the library/conversation room.
That balcony connected to my grandparent's room-- their room connected to a bathroom-- the bathroom connected to the sewing room-- the sewing room connected to the staircase landing, that connected to the other side of the balcony. So, it was all a big loop. That floor, in itself, was extremely haunted. When my sister and I used the bathroom, we went together, in case something bad happened.
One time we were in my grandparent’s bathroom and she was peeing. I was standing next to the sink and saw something move out of the corner of my eye, in my grandparent's bedroom doorway. I looked and saw a huge black figure walking around the room. I started screaming "black thing! Black thing!" and my sister and I jumped up and ran through the sewing room, towards the stairs..
As were running, we heard the "black thing" running through the bedroom and across the balcony. We could hear it running behind us as we went down the stairs, then it stopped once we reached the kitchen. Crazy.
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31. The 30th Birthday
My roommate and I had a party for his 30th birthday. As I’m sitting there, I keep hearing this dragging noise, followed 15 seconds later by a light plop. I started to see the balloon with the number 30 on it and drag its way to my room and then just sit there. A few minutes later, it would go back out and just repeat the process over.
32. Running In Fear
My friend and I were at the park a couple of blocks away when we noticed some teenagers throwing a knife against one of the trees. We decided to leave but they had noticed us looking at them. The one with the knife started chasing us down the street. We ran as fast as we could and luckily down the block a nice family was out in their front yard.
33. Freshman Fear
When I was a freshman in college, I was on a film shoot near Barstow on Route 66. Outside the film shoot, we noticed a “KEEP OUT” sign on a storage container, so we decided to look into it. Big mistake. We found a letter that said that the building we were in was a place to test hallucinogenic substances while they were in the army.
34. Sleeping In Fear
This sounds really crazy and I don't care if you don't believe me, but here are the facts: For years, I'd go through periods where when I was trying to fall asleep, I'd see a bunch of faces when I closed my eyes. They were all angry faces, very angry and menacing. They'd come towards me then kind of fade off to the sides, two rows, one on each side.
Sometimes it was just angry eyes. Human, animal, cartoon - all very angry. It took a long time to realize that when I saw these faces, it meant I was about to dream about a place I actually really liked. The place only existed in my dreams but it was like an alternate universe for me. I had memories of that place like anyone does about their childhood, but it didn't exist.
I don't want to expand on the dream place because I'm trying to get back there again and I don't want to ruin my chances. I told a few people once about this place, specific things I remember. Then a few nights later the angry faces were back and I was all excited about "going" to my favorite place again. When I got there, various people who lived there, people I "knew" and liked, suddenly had angry faces, like the ones that usually come before I "go" to this place.
They shot me. Three times. In three different rooms. Twice I woke up after getting shot. I didn't wake up in real life, but I woke up in my dream. I thought, "Wow, I'm glad I made it through that," looked over, saw another old "friend" with a now-angry face, and get shot again. I didn't wake up the third time. This "shooting" happened about 7-8 years ago.
I've really missed the place. I keep trying to force myself to remember the angry faces, thinking if I can fall asleep visualizing them, they might show up. Nothing ever worked, until two years ago when I had an experience I'll never forget. I was dreaming I was in some kind of street market, either an old-timey one or one located in a country that wasn't at all modern.
A woman was leaning over a well in the middle of the town square, she was wearing a large-brimmed, purple hat. She looked right at me. An angry face, like the old days. I was both freaked out and kind of relieved. Like somehow, I wasn't forgotten by that place and those people I used to "visit." That was two years ago. I now work in a hotel in the heart of downtown Chicago.
I see a lot of people on the street. I sold my car last winter and take public transportation, so I see more people now than I used to when I'd just drive by in my car. I'm in crowds fairly often. And six months ago, I saw that woman. I wasn't dreaming. I checked. That woman from the well was there, and she had her angry face on.
In the last six months or so, I've seen 10-12 more people who were glaring at me, the way those faces used to. Then the people disappear into the crowd when I try to follow them. I'm kind of scared but I'm also kind of thrilled. I know I sound crazy, but these people might be following me around in real life now. I still can't get back to that place I used to go to, though.
35. The Vacation
When I was younger, we went on a vacation in Maine. A few nights into our stay at this house my parents started hearing singing at night. They said that it would start and stop for about 20-30 minutes. The first few nights they didn't think much of it. The next day my parents found photos of a "boy’s choir” that was there during the 1920s.
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36. Thunder And Lightning Very Very Frightening
This happened to a friend. One night, just as he finally fell asleep, thunder woke him up. As he adjusted his head on the pillow and tried to get back to sleep, lightning struck. It illuminated his window, where he saw a man trying to get into his bedroom! The lightning startled both of them, and thankfully the burglar ran away.
37. The Abandoned House
I grew up in a small town in Kansas that I have since gotten out of. One time a good friend of mine spotted some creepy abandoned house on some off-road several miles outside of town. At the top of the stairs inside the house, we saw some scary junky. He was holding a pistol and yelling at us to get out of there.
38. Crazy House Story
I came home from work one day to find my door partially opened, my cat sitting on my porch, Internet Explorer opened on my computer (this was about 4 years ago...but I never used IE in the first place, so that’s creepy in itself and I still don’t know how that happened). The next day someone burned my house down.
39. Duck Hunting And Dreaming
When I was about 10, my father and his friends had gone duck hunting and weren't due back until late that night. Around midnight my father and his friends came home and the noise woke me up, so I listened at my bedroom door to hear what was going on. I found that no matter what was being said, I knew EXACTLY what the next person was going to say. It was like I had dreamed the entire conversation just before waking up.
I grew more and more freaked out as I started actually whispering to myself the exact statement the next person was going to say, a full 2 to 5 seconds before they said it.
40. Detailed Dreamer
When I was younger (up until about the age of 9 or so) I would have extremely vivid, detailed dreams about things only to "re-live" them a day or two later. I still remember my third grade 'meet your teacher day', where I woke up that morning fervently telling my parents that I didn't want to go because I had a dream where I would get hurt there. As we were leaving the room, some kids were running through the halls and one of them smashed right into me and broke my nose.
41. Grandparents
When my mom was about 3 years old, my grandma and grandpa moved into an apartment on the 9th floor in downtown Columbus. After they moved in, she didn't have many friends so she developed an imaginary friend named Cathy. When he gets back my mother is playing in the corner by a window with Cathy. As soon as he walks in the dog stares straight at my mom and starts barking and snarling.
All of the hairs on his back stands straight up and he is ready to attack and my mom starts screaming and all of a sudden, the dog stops and my mom just starts crying. My grandparents are freaked out at this point and ask my mom what happened and she says that Cathy fell out of the window. After that, she never played with or mentioned Cathy again.
42. Passing
My Papa was laid to rest when I was ten years old. Since then, my Nana's health deteriorated as she obviously missed him. One night, three years later, my mother woke up from a dream. In her dream, my Nana looked up from her bed and saw my Papa standing in the doorway. He said, "It's time to go now" and offered her his hand. My mother woke up from her dream because the phone rang. My Nana had just passed.
43. Nursing At Night
My mom was a nurse and would work the afternoon shift 3-11 pm. One night they were trying to save this one guy and she stayed late at the hospital till around 2 am. He ended up passing, so she came home. But when she opened the door, something dove at her face. She thought it was the ghost of the man they were trying to save and let out a scream. It turns out it was just a helium balloon I was playing with earlier in the day.
44. The Creepy High School
I've had a few strange and creepy experiences growing up. The creepiest by far though was when I was in high school. It was summer and my mother had left her laptop home for me to use to pass the time during the day since she had left me no chores that day. Our house an old two-story building that was built in the late 1800s, early 1900s.
It has hardwood floors throughout the first floor and carpet on the second. Because of the age of the building, and the fact that the second story was a later addition, no matter where you are upstairs you can hear, and often feel when someone is walking around downstairs. If you have ever lived in an old house with hardwood floors, you understand what I'm talking about.
So, one evening I was laying out on the floor in my room whilst I used the computer. AIM was a must given the fact that it was the turn of the millennium and MSN hadn't figured out that whole Mac/Microsoft bridge yet. I remember hearing my stepdad drive into the driveway at the back of the house. Hopping to my feet, I looked through the navy-blue curtains and could see the red hue of his burgundy Chevy Denali in the driveway.
I immediately laid back down and told my friend that I had to log off because the stepfather was home and was going to be mad that I was using my mother's computer (even if it was with permission). Around this point I heard him set the alarm on his car, walk up the porch stairs, fumble with his keys, and lumber into the den where he heavily dropped his stuff. I cursed under my breath and hastily logged off.
Gathering up the computer, I slinked my way to the stairwell ready to take my licks. However, when I got to the stairwell, I noticed all the lights were off downstairs still. I thought that's fine, sometimes he doesn't turn on lights. It's his house, he knows where stuff is. So, I force a nervous chuckle and head down the rest of the stairs; into the darkness of the first floor.
"Sorry about using her laptop... She said I could..." Silence greeted my words. Odd, I thought, usually he chides me or otherwise takes me down a notch. Thinking he is in the bathroom, I set the laptop on the couch in the den and began to leave. It was then, as my eyes finished adjusting to the light, that I noticed it. His things were not where I had thought they would be.
My heart skips a beat and my eyes fly to the window that looks into our backyard and driveway. The light is on, but there is no Denali. Fearing a burglar, I rushed to the back door only to find it locked securely. Too afraid to do anything else, I grabbed the cordless phone and hightailed it to my room; locking myself in.
This is where the experience went to a new level. Sitting in my room, panting and shaking as I held the phone, I could both hear and feel as multiple people were walking around on the hardwood floor. Some people even felt like they were stomping. Realizing that I may not be alone, I thought of the only thing a crazed teenage girl could think of, I called my friends across the street.
The first friend was a talking robot. I figured she would never answer, I was used to her busy signal, but I had to try. Punching in the number quickly, I brought the phone to my ear and waited; dial tone, three-ring, voice-mail. Darn it. I dialled up the second friend. I felt I had a chance, she was never on the phone; busy signal.
Sure, the third friend, the one I was talking to online would answer; busy signal (dial-up fml). So, I'm sitting there, listening to the footsteps and the dial tone as I'm trying to figure out if I should try the first friend again. Static crackled through the dial tone and broke my thoughts as I stared at it. Almost immediately the static shift from a crackle to laughter and I straight up opened my door and chucked the phone down the hall.
The footsteps got louder and I tried to think out a resolution to the problem. I needed the third friend off the internet. I needed someone to validate that I wasn't going crazy and hearing things. But the only way to get her offline would be to go get the computer from the first floor. Swallowing hard, I threw open the bedroom door and made a mad dash for the computer.
I grabbed the computer and rushed back upstairs. While I was down there, I could hear the footsteps in other rooms other than the ones I was in. Rushing back into my room, I hopped back online and forced my friend to get off the internet so I could call her. Retrieving the phone from the hallway I re-locked myself in and dialled her up.
When she answered I recounted what had happened and asked her if she could hear it. For listening purposes, I made my way towards the stairwell. Eventually, it stopped and then seemed to start back up again only lights were turning on. Inching down I realized it was my mother and told the friend I would talk to her later.
After a little talk with my mother, I found out that she had been home for about 5 minutes. This had all started at about 7 pm. Even if my mother had been way off, and arrive 15 minutes before, that would still leave me with 15 minutes of unexplained phenomena.
45. High School Harness
When I was in high school, the drama department set up a haunted house for Halloween. They had a cable hanging from the stage ceiling to which you could wear a harness and hang there. At one point, I took a break as the harness was riding up in no-no places, and while I was gone, some kids took the liberty of grabbing the noose and swinging around the stage from it.
I felt myself falling asleep comfortably and only after a few seconds did it occur to me what was happening. Whenever I think about it, even to this day, I shudder.
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46. The Babysitter
When I was about 7 years old I went on a walk with my babysitter. She says we should play Simon Says. At first, we walk faster, then skip, and then jog lightly. Then she says, "Simon says to run as fast as you can. Simon says turn here." I was slightly confused but played along. As we turned down the driveway I looked back and realized the horrible truth. This was no game. There were two guys chasing after us, one with a bat and the other with a knife.
47. Awareness
For the past few months, I've been trying to get better at staying conscious as I fall asleep (if that makes any sense). I'm completely aware that I'm falling asleep, and once I reach my half-dream state, I start hearing voices talking in the room I'm sleeping in, and occasionally seeing people as well. They'll talk about pretty much anything.
Sleep paralysis hits me hard though (that feeling when your body goes numb), so I can't interact with them beyond some verbal responses. I can look around the room most of the time too. It's really hard to maintain; too much awareness wakes me up, but too little and I'll lose consciousness.
48. The Family Dagger
This is something that happened back in the old days in my town. When someone was hovering between life and death, it was "normal" for someone from the family (most of the time it was the father) to stab the person. On rare occasions, that person would wake up from the shock. Other times, they'd croak because now they were sick and they just got attacked.
49. The Widowed
So, my mom remarried about two years ago. My dad died when I was twelve so she had been widowed for over ten years. This new relationship was very whirlwind with her meeting the guy, dating him, and getting married within three months. I didn't know much about the guy, but my mom was happy, so I just tried to be supportive. She moved into his house in upstate Virginia and invited me and my fiancé to spend a weekend in her new home getting to know her new husband.
My mom's new home was pretty isolated. It sat on a few hundred acres of lovely rolling hills, and was very picturesque. I was nervous about getting to know this guy, but really trying to make the most of it. Over the course of our first day there though, I started to feel more and more uneasy. We were being made to feel very at home, yet I still couldn't shake this oppressive feeling. I finally chalked it up to me being more upset about my mom getting remarried than I was willing to admit to myself.
That night, my fiancé and I showered together. When I turned my back to him he stopped talking mid-sentence and asked, "What did you do to your back?" Well, nothing. Why? "You have a large bruise." I hopped out to try and see it in the mirror. He was right. It was so strange; I had no idea how it got there, and the whole thing made me feel even more creeped out.
The next morning I had a complete meltdown. I woke up and just couldn't stop crying. I told my fiancé we had to leave. He tried to calm me down by telling me all the things I had been telling myself. My feelings of anxiety were just a result of seeing my mom with someone. The longer I spent with them the easier it would become. But I just had to leave, I felt completely hysterical. I knew I was on the verge of a panic attack, so in the end, my fiancé drove me away.
As soon as we were on the road I felt like a weight had been lifted. I was even feeling embarrassed for my behavior, hoping I hadn't insulted my mom's husband by leaving early. Then my fiancé broke the silence, "That bruise on your back....did you get a good look at it?" I had. It looked like some had touched the middle of my back, with fingers spread wide, with their hand at a tilt. I want to make completely clear, no one had touched my back the previous day, especially hard enough to bruise me.
Cut to three weeks later. My mom comes to visit me. The entire time she's hounding me to come stay with her again. After finally trying to change the subject for the fifth time, I level with her. Before I've even finished telling the story her face is white as a sheet. She tells me she has been feeling the same way in the house. She hates it. She wants them to move as soon as possible. And the real kicker...her new husband's previous wife shot and killed herself in the house.
50. The Parking Garage
My friend was once walking through a parking garage late at night when she noticed a man in a grey hoodie lying at awkward angles in the middle of the road. He croaked out for help and begged to be driven to the hospital. My friend saw that he had a grisly headwound and decided to be a good Samaritan. She helped him into her car and offered to put his bag into her trunk. He didn't respond so she just put it at his feet in the passenger seat.
Even though she was nervous, she got in the car and started driving. But after about five minutes, she noticed something very very wrong. The blood peeling, yes peeling, off of his face. He wasn't bleeding at all. It looked like he'd applied some kind of make-up. She immediately freaked out, but on the surface, she kept her cool. She slowed to a stop and asked the man to check her back tire because she thought the car was uneven.
The minute the man got out of the car, she screeched off. She drove to the authorities and they examined the car. The man's black bag contained a butcher's knife and a garbage bag. The man was never caught.
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