Some people like to be scared. That’s why true crime, horror movies, and scary stories by the campfire are so popular. Research shows that by the end of 2024, 42 million Americans were listening to true crime podcasts monthly. What’s more, by 2025, true crime saw a 50% increase in listening hours on Spotify.
However, there is a difference between being scared in a controlled environment and by what you choose and being seized by dread in real life. Plenty of creepy things happen to people IRL, and these stories from one online thread are great examples.
They come to you from people as responses to a fellow netizen’s prompt, “What is the creepiest/strangest thing that has happened to you (or a friend or family member) that creeps you out to this day?” So, if you’re ready for some real-life horror, scroll away and see the type of true horror even the best Hollywood screenwriters probably couldn’t come up with.
#1
My great grandfather awoke to a man standing in the corner of the bedroom watching him and my great grandmother sleeping. They lived out in the middle of nowhere so they never used to lock their doors. Apparently this man had just broken out of a mental institution and walked there.
Image source: jackogreen, Getty Images (not the actual photo)
#2
Creepiest thing will forever be the man who watched me at my window. It’s nothing paranormal, but honestly. I was texting my girlfriend, playing a game, and I heard rustling outside my window (keep in mind I live in the basement as an “apartment” at my mom’s house). I don’t have any curtains, and I turned off my iPod. I could see someone actually staring at me. This went on for about 10 minutes. I texted my little sister to get the bat and turn on the lights upstairs. After he saw the lights, he ran off.
I have never been more creeped out, except for the recent occurrence. Thought I imagined the “FWOOSH” and “PLOP” sound in the middle of the night. I brushed it off. Next morning, stepdad was cleaning the yard and found the A/C cover in the other window well. I went upstairs to get ready to wash my mom’s car when they told me. They asked me if I heard anything, so I told them. I keep a knife and an aluminum bat with me.
For the people who will likely ask why we haven’t called the police: We did the first time, they said they couldn’t do anything. Short of breaking into the house, we’re stuck dealing with this person (or people) until they do break in.
Image source: anon, Getty Images (not the actual photo)
#3
Creepiest thing I remember ever happening to me didn’t involve “paranormal” things.
I was walking to the store late at night probably around 11-1 am don’t remember but the streets were isolated. I live in the bronx in a not so safe area but I’ve grown up around the “not so nice” people in this neighborhood all my life to not be afraid that anything will happen to me since a lot of them actually look out for their neighbors (they still aren’t nice people to others but I digress.)
While I was walking the streets were completely empty until I heard footsteps behind me, being the cautious person that I am I turn around to take a good look at the man for a long minute just incase I had to identify him later, growing up in an unsafe place this is typically my line of thinking. Being that I’m a short girl (5’1) and this man was twice my height I was a bit creeped out but kept walking like normal.
After a while he caught up to me and asked if I was Dominican I sternly said yes and kept walking he then asked if I was 18 (this was 3 years ago at the time I was 17) and I replied no and was ready to cross the street because he was freaking me out. As soon as I said no he looked at me disappointed and said oh never mind then and ran away from me. It was such a small thing but it really creeped me out thinking about what may have happened if I had told him I was 18 and what exactly this guy was planning.
Image source: NoImDominican, Anthony (not the actual photo)
#4
Kidnapping attempt in the 1980’s.
Sacramento neighborhood late at night, visiting a friend when I was maybe 9-10 years old. Three of us walk out to go play at this park / elementary school several blocks away at around 10:00pm at night. We were playing Frisbee in the street in front of the school and our Frisbee lands in the street as a white van pulls up and stops, as if to allow us to get our Frisbee. I walk toward the van and grab the Frisbee, then move to the side to allow the van to pass.
As the van passed the sliding door opened and a guy dressed in black like a ninja came flying out and tried to grab me. He had a harness on and the van had been rigged with a telescoping mechanism that allowed him to come out around 5 feet while hanging from this harness (like they do in some haunted houses where people appear to be flying) and it was operated by another person inside, also dressed in black. So there was *at least* 3 people involved in this attempt.
I barely dodged his attempt to grab me and all 3 of us ran toward the elementary school and hopped the fence (about 6 feet tall), ran along the fence though bushes and then hopped a second fence (about 15′ maybe) that allowed us to be inside the school.
We were scared as hell and could hear the van driving around and assumed they were in hot pursuit. We found a way to get onto the roof of the school from inside, thank god, and proceeded to observe the van driving around the school for at least 30 minutes in an obvious attempt to find us.
This scared us even more because one would think the would be kidnappers would flee, but I suppose they thought we could identify them. This was before cell phones so we stayed up there until around 45 minutes after we last saw them. It appeared that some of them were searching for us on foot also, which added to the fear. We eventually escaped and went back to my friends house, and never told anyone in our family out of fear of being punished.
Image source: Skeptic1222, Hakan Kayahan (not the actual photo)
#5
I’ve been talking to a woman in her 20s for about two weeks. Haven’t made any plans to meet up, but have been flirting a lot. She informs me her father ran a background check on me.
Not “googled me”. Not “read my blog”. Not “checked out my Twitter”. Hired someone to do a background check on me.
Image source: Abstruse, cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
#6
My great-grandmother once had a repairman come over to fix her water heater in the basement. After he fixed it he came upstairs and said that my great-grandfather was really helpful. He had passed away over a year ago..
Image source: ReMaine, Osarugue Igbinoba (not the actual photo)
#7
Hitchhiking home from high school (I know, I know) and get picked up by a really weird guy with stereotypical thick glasses. It was really hot in his truck (he probably had the heat on in retrospect) as we drove along a main road and at one point he mentions the heat and that it was ok if I wanted to take off my shirt (for the record, I am a guy). I said no thanks and then opened the door and rolled out into traffic when the truck was coming to a light. Thank god the door handle hadn’t been removed or anything.
Bonus: I hitchhiked around a year later and the exact same guy pulled up and asked me if I wanted a ride. He didn’t recognize me and I said no, and realized at that point that he must do this kind of thing often. I never hitchhiked again after that day.
Image source: Skeptic1222, Hugo Delauney (not the actual photo)
#8
While taking Amtrak from LA to Portland one summer years ago, this guy started chatting with me in the viewing car. We talked for a bit, we went to the bar and bought a few drinks together. Came up to a 20 minute stop at a station, and we got off together for a smoke.
That’s when I saw the platform was full of cops … who immediately began walking towards us.
And they grabbed him. Took him away. Turned out that before he ran into me, he’d spent the entire train ride trying to lure kids into the bathroom with promises of candy.
Image source: automator3000, Kindel Media (not the actual photo)
#9
Ok so I am at WalMart standing in front of the french bread. Notice this strange guy standing there, starring at the food. About 40 years old, jeans shorts, little overweight, handle bar moustache, tight shirt, flip-flops. I pick up one loaf of bread and he turns to me with a strange smile. Walk away… After a while (30 min or so) I change my mind and go back to the bread aisle and that dude is still standing in the same spot …just starring. So i put the bread back…He IMMIDEATELY grabs it, the one I just put down, and storms to the cash register. Pays and leaves. That is the only thing he bought…What the hell?
Image source: MrFromEurope, Kevin Nesh (not the actual photo)
#10
When I was six (28 years ago) my mom and dad took me and my younger sister to a MLB game, leaving my grandmother to baby sit my youngest sister. When we got back my grandmother told my folks that two guys had come by the house with photography equipment and asked whether a young girl with red curly hair lived there, and that they had spotted her and that she would be a great child model for some advertising work they were doing. When my grandmother said she wasn’t home they said they would come back another time.
My grandmother and mom didn’t think much about it, but my dad said “Something’s not right here” and called the police. 15 minutes later several FBI agents showed up and began conducting interviews with my grandmother and my parents while I ran around and showed the agents my matchbox police helicopter.
Turns out we had been targeted by a child theft ring; the photographers would take a bunch of photos and wait until the toddler threw a tantrum and the photographers would then ask the mother to go grab a toy to keep the child entertained. While the mother was out of the room, they would grab the child and bolt, leaving everything else behind. The FBI told my folks that my sister had already been sold and would have been out of the country within 24 hours if they got her. We were advised to change preschools and other aspects of our daily routine.
It still gives me the chills to think about what could have happened to her. Needless to say, mom became pretty overprotective; it was a few years before she even trusted us with a babysitter.
**TL;DR: Child theft ring targeted my sister.**.
Image source: Terefel, Samon Yu (not the actual photo)
#11
Well I’m late but whatever! So about two years ago I was in my room reading a book when I hear it. Soft as ever, two little girls giggling. Not just any giggle. It was the kind of giggling you hear in horror movies. I immediately put down my book and listened. After about a minute of holding my breath I decided it must have come from outside.
Then that night just as I’m about to drift off to sleep, I hear it again. Two little girls giggling. Now it was 2 am and I was pretty sure there weren’t two little girls outside my window at that time of night, so I began to freak out. I sat up in my bed and waited for what felt like forever just listening. Then I hear it again. I jumped out of my bed and go spend the rest of the night in the guest room. By the next morning I was convinced my room was haunted.
For the next week I avoided my room and spent my nights in the guest room unbeknownst to my family. I was afraid to tell anyone for fear I was going crazy or they wouldn’t believe me. But every time I spent more than an hour in my room I would hear those two little girls giggle. By the end of the week I was a mess. I could barely sleep and was terrified of my room.
Then one morning my brother walks up to me and says “you deaf or something?” Obviously I was confused and after further questioning he tells me about this small device he had placed in my room. Apparently its like some sort of prank device that’s easily hidden and can make a variety of different noises, my brother however choose the creepy as hell little girls giggling sound.
He wondered why I hadn’t heard it or said something about all week and I just wanted to punch him in the face. So my room wasn’t haunted after all! Moral of the story, sometimes your brother is just a jerk.
Image source: SoFullofDoubts, Johnny McClung (not the actual photo)
#12
This happened to my friend. She told me that when she was little she was playing with her little brother and sister one night. Her little brother looked out the window and said “who is that man?” They all went to the window to see what he was talking about. She said there was a white figure sitting on top of the telephone pole. Looked like a man. He was staring at them with a huge creepy smile. Then he just stood up and jumped off the pole and simply vanished before they saw him hit the ground. She said it scared them so much, her sister won’t even talk about it.
Image source: DontDreamitBeeit, Getty Images (not the actual photo)
#13
I delivered newspapers in a fairly rural area the summer after I graduated high school. One night, it’s pouring rain and I’m driving down this dirt road that is an end to a farmer’s house. I’ve been down this road a few dozen times and know the routine – drop the paper off in the box at the end of the drive, back up the road and off to my next stop.
This time, as I am getting out of my car to place the newspaper in the holder I see this man in the ditch wearing a drenched white shirt running at me as fast as he can. He got within 20 feet of me. I could see what my mind pictured as a hatchet or axe. I had never ran so hard in my life.
EDIT: I ran back around the front of my car, jumped in and took off. Everything happened so fast that I almost didn’t realize where I was.
It must have been about 5-10 miles later that I attempted to call 911. No signal using my Motorola flip phone in the middle of no where in the year 2000. I had to stop at a farmer’s house to call the police at 2:00 am.
Turns out the guy [ended his own life] within an hour of his run with me in that wooded ditch.
EDIT: I had not thought about that night in a long time. Kind of rattled nerves again thinking about it.
Image source: anon, Nadine Ginzel (not the actual photo)
#14
A few years ago when my grandpa was really sick me and my family were around his bed all saying our last words to him, things were going normal, as we were all crying and saying goodbye. A little later his breaths were getting less and less frequent and we knew he was about to go. But on his last breath his eyes opened up really wide he smiled, looking the happiest he had in years, and then he was just gone. Too this day I still can’t imagine what he felt/saw.
Image source: kyguy3000, Kampus Production (not the actual photo)
#15
My boyfriend works night shift, and I was asleep alone in the house. I get woken up in the middle of the night by my puppy whining in the living room, and I assume it’s because he wants outside. I’m just about to open the back door, when I hear this weird scratching/clicking sound at the front door, like someone was sticking something in the lock. I go to check, and I can see the silhouette of somebody standing there through the window in the door. I then notice there is a second figure in the living room window, although it’s too dark to make out any features. I know they can see me because I didn’t have any blinds at this point, and they just stood there. I totally freaked and called the cops, then my dad. I huddled in the kitchen out of sight of any windows and waited for someone to come. My parents live across town and showed up before the cops. They were gone at this point, but the neighbours across the street were up and saw the car. I ended up staying at my parents place that night, and when I came home the next morning, I noticed the basement window was partially kicked in. I got a security system installed the next day. I still have no idea who it was.
Image source: Cupcake1964, Cynthia Vh (not the actual photo)
#16
My parents were on their honeymoon to key west. When they arrived at the hotel to check in, they were told that the room would be non-smoking. With my dad being a smoker they requested a different room. They got the room switch and went to their room. As they got off the elevator the smell of fresh paint was overwhelming, down the hall their was a painter with all necessary supplies laid out around him and was painting the wall. As my parents walked passed him they casually greeted him and the painter had absolutely no acknowledgement of their presence. Whatever.
When they got to their room the smell of paint was even worse in there, so bad it wasn’t even bearable so they decide to go to the front desk to change rooms. When they explained the situation the attendant looked very confused and informed them that there wasn’t a scheduled paint job on that floor for that day but agreed to change their room. My parents go back to their floor to grab their luggage and the painter is completely gone. All supplies cleaned up and gone within 10minutes-and the smell of paint was completely gone. At this point my parents were freaked out but didn’t think much of it and go to their new room. The next morning on their way to breakfast they overhear a tour guide talking to a group. My parents tuned in when the guide mentioned the floor that they were originally supposed to stay on.
Apparently a long time ago there was a painter on that floor painting and fell down the elevator shaft. Now my parents don’t normally believe in the paranormal but after an event like this that they had no explanation for it freaked them out a good bit.
Image source: mdb2408, cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
#17
My Aunt was sitting at a table at a wedding in 1988 and the man beside her kept touching her leg. His name was Paul Bernardo and a couple years later he was arrested.
Image source: anon, cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
#18
Well, quick story involving my brother and I. He was around 21 and I around 18. Parents were out of town, so we decided to have a couple of beers, sit by a fire in the backyard and chill.
Gets to be around 3am and we hear the crunching of leaves in the woods, sounded like 20 feet or so away. Our nearest neighbor lived a few miles away, so we were a little freaked out.
We both looked at each other and sprinted to our shed. The shed had a door like a garage, and as we turned to shut it, we saw a human-like figure running at us. We slammed the door, locked it from the inside and moved to the back.
There was pounding at the door for around 20 minutes or so, and we heard what sounded like cackling. After the noise stopped, we took turns on watch and waited till morning. He grabbed a shovel, I grabbed a crowbar, we opened the door and saw…. nothing.
We thought we had imagined it until we saw the footprints. My brother wears size 13.5 (US), and these prints were at least 2-3 inches bigger. No shoes, and one too many toes on both feet.
We got back to the house, called the cops, they sent someone out to check on us, we showed them the prints, they took pictures and told us to call if anything else happened. Moved out around 3 months later. Old neighbor called me up yesterday and asked if i had seen anything strange around. He described the footprints to me perfectly. They were outside his window.
Image source: anon, Plato Terentev (not the actual photo)
#19
It was my first year of fatherhood. My wife, son (approximately 7 months at the time), and I had just moved to a house. Being a young couple it was a small older home. Most of the neighbors were the original owners and literally dying off all around us. My neighbor across the street was 88 and bought her house brand new in her 20’s. So I imagine someone died in this house sometime before we lived there.
Anyway, it’s been a long day and the baby is finally asleep in his crib in our bedroom. I passed out on the couch from just being extra tired from getting up every night multiple times for the past several months. All of a sudden I wake up to my son in screaming at the top of his lungs lying in the doorway between my bedroom and living room. The house is completely dark and quiet otherwise. I rush over to pick him up from the ground and soothe him. It dawns on me at that point that he isn’t in his crib. Or covered even though it’s winter and my wife is still in bed staring at us. I check all around to see if he somehow learned to walk, climb his crib, and then rolled over. No way. I’m creeped out and mama is creeped out, but whatever it’s late and he’s quiet again finally. Her and I go to the kitchen to get something to drink and talk about why he was on the floor. He starts screaming again and we both go check. I flicked the light switch and walk over to his crib. 3 to 5 seconds go by and the light goes out! The switch is still up and the bulb blew, but not instantly it was delayed. No clue why, what, or how that all happened. I have never ever EVER been so scared in my life.
Image source: GrumpUhLump, Pixabay (not the actual photo)
#20
When my aunt was in college she took a night lab class that would let out late. One night she was walking back to her car and someone came up behind her, pressed what something into her back, and told her to keep walking. Suddenly a man coming toward her who she had never met before looked at her, threw open his arms for a hug, and said, “how are you? I haven’t seen you in so long!” He then whispered, “play along. He has a gun.” My aunt immediately played along, hugging back and acting excited to see this stranger. The guy who was behind my aunt quickly backed off and walked away. The hero took my aunt to the nearest emergency alert post, pushed the button for her, and told her to stay put while he went to get help. He never returned.
Image source: anon, Josué Sánchez (not the actual photo)
#21
When my grandfather was still alive, he had the habit of jingling change in his pocket. He passed away around 1994, fast forward to 1999 when my little sister is about 5. She, like many kids had an imaginary friend that she said would wish her goodnight. When we asked about him, she said “He is a nice old man who comes tucks me in and jingles his money in his pocket, and that makes me laugh !”. We all are like “Ok, whatever. She must has overheard one of us telling a story about him jingling his change or whatever.” Skip forward a couple of days to us all flipping though a photo album, when out of a family picture of about 15 people, my sister points to my grandpa and says “That’s him ! That’s the money man !”. She picked the man who passed away before she was even concevied, out of a crowded picture.Still gives me chills, but its also kinda comforting knowing he was watching over us.
Image source: aka_kerr1, Annie Spratt (not the actual photo)
#22
I worked with a lady once who was pretty old, I’d say about 70 years old. Since our job was pretty boring, we talked a lot and she had all kinds of crazy stories. But this one creeps me out still. She said when her grandma [passed away] they had her buried in a wood box in the backyard, as was pretty custom in those days. Well years later they have a family plot in a cemetery and decide to dig her grandma up to move her to the family plot. She said when they took the lid off the coffin, it had claw marks all over the inside. The grandma had apparently been buried alive.
Image source: DontDreamitBeeit, Pavel Danilyuk (not the actual photo)
#23
My best friend and I were having a sleep over at her house. We were teenagers, and for some reason we were home alone. We’re goofing off upstairs when suddenly we hear a crash downstairs. We of course freak out for maybe 30 minutes before we get the nerve to go check it out. I grab a bat and we slowly creep down the steps. In the kitchen, we find a glass bowl had fallen and broke, but the really creepy part is that all the pieces had been picked up and put in another bowl on the table. We still have no idea how that happened.
Another time with the same friend, we decided it would be fun to sleep outside in my friend’s parent’s camper. In the middle of the night I woke up to the silhouette of some guy standing in the doorway. He stands for a minute and then walks out. I was still half asleep and wondering if that really happened when I fell back to sleep. The next morning my friend tells me about a “dream” she had about someone coming into the camper. Of course, freaking out ensued. Apparently someone (a hobo perhaps, she lives right next to the tracks) had been sleeping there without anyone knowing.
Image source: stardust7, CHUTTERSNAP (not the actual photo)
#24
I had a dog once that was super loyal and loving and would always come running to me when I called and would almost crash into me whenever I had treats for him. One day sitting in the living room, all of his hairs stood up on his back and he was just staring over my should growling and showing his teeth. No matter what I would do to try to get him to come to me, he would never break his stare at that one spot and just kept growling. I eventually carried him out of the room because it was freaking me and my roommates out so bad.
Image source: Loyd_Rage, You Le (not the actual photo)
#25
I have a story that didn’t happen to me, but rather my friend’s dad. This guy isn’t the type to [lie], so I believe him 100%.
My friend’s dad (we’ll call him Jack) and his brother (we’ll call him Tom) lived with each other in the 80s. It was just the two of them living in the house, no one else. So, this one night Jack is coming home at night and walks into his living room to see a bunch of old people sitting around talking. As he walks in, they all just quiet down and awkwardly look at him as he walks by. He doesn’t see Tom anywhere, so he just assumes Tom will be back to tend to his guests. Jack has work the next morning, so he goes in his room to get some sleep, but is kept up from all the people talking. He walks out from his room and is promptly met up with Tom who is coming out of *his* room to tell Jack to keep his friends quiet. However, Jack was coming out to tell Tom to keep HIS friends quiet. They walk out from the hallway into the living room only to see that it’s empty with the leftover smell of musk.
Image source: MilkChugg, Curated Lifestyle (not the actual photo)
#26
I supervise the night crew (4-midnight) at a Subway. The day crew has never mentioned it, but the night crew always make jokes about our “SubGhost”, although I’ve stopped being sure that it’s actually a joke.
Now here me out. I’m not saying the Subway I work at is haunted… but I’m not saying it’s not haunted, either. It’s open 24/7, so past midnight just one person stays by themself until day crew rolls in around 6 am, and I always spend at least an hour a night alone, and quite awhile with just one other person. Sometimes we hear voices. The music is off, there’s only 1 or 2 of us, but we can hear people having a conversation, although it’s too quiet to pick out words. The first time I heard voices I looked at my supervisor and asked if she heard them too, and she looks me in the eyes and casually says “Yeah, it’s the SubGhosts talking”. It sounds like a joke, but now I realize when I’m training a newbie on the late shift I’ve given the casual “It’s just the SubGhost” response more times than I can remember.
There’s voices, there’s weird crashing noises, sometimes when no one is in the room things fall off the counters for no discernible reason. Once our owner bought new paper towel auto-dispensers to replace the old push dispensers. I was alone right before the graveyard guy came in, when I heard a towel dispense. I walked around the corner and everything was quiet. I was about to walk away when another towel came out. Then another. Then another. Finally it goes full SubGhost and dispenses the entire roll continuously without stopping, much like when a cat finds out how to unroll your toilet paper. It only stopped when there was no paper left. No one else was around, but a few days later the owner switched them back, so we now have the manual paper towels thingys back.
If there is a SubGhost, s/he’s a homie, and I don’t really mind. Stupid day crew is oblivious, but us night crew tend to become quite familiar with the sandwich spook, and it’s presence is so constant (it’s a strange night when something *isn’t* explained that by “SubGhost”) that the voices have almost become comforting.
Image source: shinydragonite, Mahmut Yıldız (not the actual photo)
#27
This didn’t happen to me but it happened to my cousin & was witnessed by another cousin & an aunt. For an ease of the story we’ll say my younger cousin’s name is Jenny, my older cousins name is Jane & my aunt’s name
is Myra. So Jenny & Myra are in NYC to visit Jane while she’s in her master’s program. They tour around NYC & stay at a hotel I think in Manhattan some where. Anyways, middle of the night Jenny is having nightmares. After talking with her after the fact, she describes sleep paralysis to the tee. Apparently Jenny was being drawn in and suffocated by a massive TV that drove her through the bed & into the ground. She woke up screaming & crying & vomitted/pissed herself in the bathroom. My aunt Myra goes to help her & wash her off. They both head back to bed soemtime later.
Anyways, they get back to bed. A while later, my aunt checks on Jenny who is staring directly at her with a blank expression. She’s now sleeping with her eyes fully open. My aunt is creeped out all the while she & my other cousin Jane are hearing whisperings and children’s voices. So they leave first thing in the morning but here’s the creepy thing. There’s a photo of a my family at Serendipity where Jenny has fully blackened lips. Not photoshop blackened but they’re perfectly black almost as if she had put on some make up or lipstick. But of course she didn’t, I’ve seen the photo & can post it when I get off work but it’s really weird since it’s so symmetrical in the picture. To this day we have no idea why her lips showed up like that. Sorry for the structure, typin on my phone.
TL/DR: Cousin had nightmares all through the night, looks like El Vira with no make up added in a family photo the day after.
Image source: AsianRainbow, Greg Pappas (not the actual photo)
#28
My mum told me one that’s kinda creepy.
When I was a baby, maybe about 6 months old, she put me into my cot to sleep one afternoon. It was a high sided wooden thing with a drop side for access that required you to press in 2 little nubs, one each corner to release the side.
She came upstairs and found me outside the cot, asleep in the middle of the floor about 2 metres from the cot. The sides were up, there is no way I could have opened it, I couldn’t stand and the sides were far too high to jump over.
Apparently she never felt comfortable leaving me in the room after that.
Also. When my younger brother was born he was put into that room as his bedroom. One evening me and my mum were on her bed playing with my brother who was about 1 year old and we heard this noise coming from his room.
Panicked my mum went to look and one of his musical toys was in the cot playing to itself despite not being activated.
Image source: JdotAllan, Gigin Krishnan (not the actual photo)
#29
One time my friend and I slept on the floor in the lounge at my house overnight. We got pretty wasted, and decided to go for a walk. We walked to the cemetery on the other side of the block and looked inside. We were staring right into the depths of the cemetery. It was about 2am.
At the same time, we both screamed and ran like hell. We had seen a clear, white object move quickly across the cemetery. We initially thought one or the other of us might have imagined it because we were drunk, but we had both seen it at the same time. We ran all the way home, and didn’t leave the house again until morning.
Image source: beatleforce1, Veit Hammer (not the actual photo)
#30
I was 14 or so years old, my mom was grocery shopping and my brother was at his friends house. I was all by myself at home. The phone rang and it was my grandma screaming frantically at me. She eventually calmed down enough to say she got a call from my mom saying “Help, the kids!” over and over again. She said it was our number on the caller ID. I told her this was impossible, my mom was out shopping. She was adamant. My mom walked in while my grandma was still on the phone and my mom calmed her down and assured her we didn’t call her.
She was still freaked out so we went over to her house. She showed us our number on the caller ID at a time when nobody should have called. It was very creepy.
Image source: anon, Fellipe Ditadi (not the actual photo)
#31
There is a real creepy path that leads back to my house (which can be avoided but the alternative is way longer and as i am lazy…) whoch is completely pitch black and through a wood. One night after coming home from work I see a hooded figure a few feet away from me, doing something, looking at the floor. The figure takes one look at me and runs ahead up right into the path I have to take, nowhere to be seen. As I walk towards what he was looking at I see that he was trying to BURN A STILETTO SHOE!
The creepiness set in, and I though about calling the police, but what could I have said (“Mr officer I saw a guy burning a woman’s shoe”).The worst thing was that he ran straight ahead to where I was walking, so I made sure that I had my keys in my hand, ready to take him on if he came at me i the night, but he didn’t. I was a training to be a journalist (and I am one now) and checked the newspapers and made inquiries afterwards but nothing… but sure creeped me out ever since.
Image source: captainplisskin
#32
We had a dog that we got from an animal shelter when he was a few years old. He was the biggest, sweetest teddy bear to us, but if anything trespassed in our yard he’d immediately attack it.
Well one time we came home after being at the store he came up to us with a finger in his mouth, we saw the living room window cracked open with blood and 2 other fingers laying in the window.
We assume someone tried breaking in through the window and they probably quickly regretted the attempt.
Image source: BananaBoatBooty
#33
I got one more story. My little niece & my sister were in Vegas. They were alone on their floor & walking to the room when my niece is looking around at everything. My sister is getting that creepy feeling & my niece just turns around & says: “but mommy, I want to play with the children!” and points at nothing in the hallway. My sister freaks out bolts into her hotel room.
Image source: AsianRainbow
#34
Just a few months ago, while I was still in school, I rented an old house with two of my friends. I lived in the basement and they each had a room upstairs. Several strange things happened to me while I was living in that basement.
The first was that I had just gotten a dog and he was about 4 months old at the time. Now and then, right when I turned the tv off to go to sleep, my dog would start whining and growling at one corner of my room. He would usually not get on my bed because he wasn’t allowed, but during these times, he would jump on my bed and get as close to me as he could, all without his eyes ever leaving that corner. This happened about 5 times over the course of 4 months.
Then, toward the end of the school year, when I was about to move out, the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my life occurred. Under our stairs was a little door that led to a small space that had a dirt floor. There was also a really weird, old wooden piece of what looks like a map nailed to the inside of the door, so it’s a pretty spooky place. Up until the day before this incident, we had kept a small chair in front of this door that I laid my coats and things on, but we had some friends over the night before, so we brought that chair upstairs.
It was dark (probably 8pm) and I had just been upstairs in the kitchen. I had just gotten off the stairs and was about to open the door to my room, when the door to the little closet under the stairs opened so slowly and with THE loudest creak I’ve ever heard in my life.
I stood rooted to the spot, frozen in fear, staring at the closet, waiting for whatever was about to come out of it. I literally stood there for about 5 minutes, absolutely terrified. Eventually, I opened the door to my room and locked it as fast as I could. I wasn’t sure either of my roommates were home, so I called my female roommate and she was there. I spent the rest of that night upstairs with her, still too scared to go back downstairs. I should mention that I’m a 21 year old man who does not scare easily.
Now I know many of you will probably say it was the wind or the fact that I had just come down the stairs or something just as my roommates did, but I’ve had those things happen to me before and been kind of creeped out, but this was different. The second I heard that closet open, and looked over to see it opening so slowly, I felt this sheer terror. It honestly felt like there was someone or something else in the room with me that wanted me to see that door open.
Image source: anon
#35
We were hanging out at a friends house playing SSBB, and suddenly my friend pauses and mutes the tv, we start listening and there comes this slow sound of a piano-key being played (my friend has a wall piano) we all get close, and start calling out to see if anybody is there, no response, so we decided to walk out slowly and take a look at what is making the noise, turns out one of the mechanisms inside the piano was slipping and the old string was elongating, thus making it sound like it was being played over and over again, we had some laughs after that chilling moments, also I won the match with Olimar, Marth didn’t have a chance.
Image source: SantiagoGT
#36
Lived in the Hollywood Hills and this happened in the early 80’s.
Crazy knocking at my door at 9PM. I go to answer the door and there’s a lady there just hysterical, talking about “There’s so much blood…”. She looks normal and is dressed in clean clothing, so we let her in. She tells a story about seeing someone get [hurt]. I call the police, and 2 uniformed LAPD officers arrive in 10 minutes. They take the lady away, and tell us that she has was reported missing, has a mental condition and lives up the street.
All good. 30 minutes later, another knock at the door. Two different cops this time, responding to the call. They have no idea who the other 2 cops were! Take our information and statements, description of the officers and the lady as well. Radio conversations back and forth ensue, and they really don’t have any idea how any other cops could have picked her up, because they were given the call 40 minutes ago…
Image source: omegatron88
#37
This whole thing was probably just a coincidence, but it still freaks me out. I was waiting at the bus stop around two years ago, and just start chatting with this lady who was waiting for a different bus. It was just a normal conversation but there was an odd undertone that I could just barely make out, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. I don’t know what it was but I know it was there. Finally my bus comes, I get on and am the only one there. All of a sudden I hear “Hey!”. I glance up and there’s a little girl, who says “remember me?”. She reminded me strangely of the woman I was speaking with at the bus stop, but younger. You could cut the tension with a knife, and when I got off I swear she watched me as the bus left.
It was probably just a coincidence, but I’m certain that I was the only one on the bus when I got on. Honestly though it still freaks me out a little bit today.
Edit: “Little girl” probably wasn’t the best phrase. She was most likely around 11/12 it’s common for kids to ride the bus to or from school.
Image source: anon
#38
When I was child I vividly remember having dreams where I was in a toy store, or was playing with a toy I didn’t have, and if I gripped it really, really hard, I would wake up with the toy in real life.
My family was by no means poor, but very often my toys were bought from garage sales. They had bought me a really cool He-Man action figure. For too long he didn’t have a Skeltor to fight. I begged and pleaded, and my family tried to find one at garage sales. No luck.
One night I dream about playing with a Skeletor at the toy store. I wanted it SO BAD. At some point I realized I was dreaming. I didn’t want to stop playing with it. So I gripped it hard in my hands making sure that when I woke up I would have it. And I did.
I was stoked. My family asked me where I had gotten the toy, knowing that I wanted one. When I told them I took it from a dream they seemed pretty amused. In retrospect they likely bought it for me and slipped it to me in my sleep. If that was the case, they did this a few more times. Another time I had took a Power Ranger from my dream, and then a GI Joe car. Hell of a power to have as a kid.
Image source: BMLM
#39
When I was younger, maybe around 12, I was alone at home with my sister who was 10 at the time. Our mum went down the road to a family friend’s house. It was really late (past 10) and she was still not back. We were watching TV when suddenly someone hit the letterbox twice really hard and without looking we opened the door straight away (we assumed it was mum). When we opened it, there was no one at the door but in the middle of the road there was a lady just standing there staring at us. It was really dark so we didn’t see the face or anything properly and then we just shut the door. Our mum came back around 20 or so minutes later but definitely one of the creepiest moments ever.
Image source: Shawtytina
#40
Probably going to get buried but I always tell it to my friends whenever they ask about the scrape scar on my thigh. It’s not the creepiest thing to happen to me but rather the most inexplicable.
I was walking down an empty street late at night in a not-so-safe town. Up ahead, I saw this house completely marked up with “do not cross” yellow police tape. So, being curious, I stared at the front of the house as I passed it. Here’s where things get creepy. As I passed the first, dark window I hear this very audible tap-tap-tap sound, as if something was rhythmically tapping the window from the inside as I was passing it. Slightly freaked out, I began to walk a bit faster, passing the front door and proceeding to pass by the other front window. As I began to pass this second window the tapping SWITCHED from the first window to the second as if the thing inside the house was following me.
I obviously flipped and ran across the street. Unfortunately for me, the roads were fairly wet after a rainy day and I completely ate it in the middle of the road. I ended up limping to my destination with a bloody thigh.
Image source: Kawaii_Sauce
#41
One time I was sitting down watching tv and an angel statue lifted off of the top shelf and floated there for a half second before falling to the ground.
Image source: anon
#42
It was 2008. Shortly after my grandmother passed away, I was home from college on winter break. I was asleep in my childhood bedroom when I woke up in the middle of the night to a freezing cold room, which is odd because my room is an addition onto the original house and it tends to be much hotter than the other rooms in the house. Then, I noticed the blades on my ceiling fan were moving slowly even though the fan was not on and no windows were open. There was a wind-up music box on the shelf above my bed, one that that my grandmother had given to me of a girl on a carousel horse, and it started playing, slowly, as if the music was playing its way out. It was like, you know when you wind up a music box and before it stops playing music it struggles out a few last notes? It was like that for what felt like an eternity, just choking out notes of Fur Elise one little haunting ping at a time. Very, very creepy.
Image source: sciamoscia
#43
A few years ago, I taught English in Slovakia. One Friday night, I went out with the rest of the teachers for pizza and other, assuredly wacky, shenanigans.
Eventually we wound up in this weird, underground club. Not really my scene, but whatever. I went to the washroom, and while I was occupied, another guy walked in.
He said something in Slovak. I don’t speak Slovak, said sorry, can’t help you. Then I heard this click, like a cigarette lighter. I started laughing, and made some joke about how smoking wasn’t allowed, washed my hands and left. Then we all decided to head for home.
Since I can’t speak/read Slovak, I didn’t follow local news, outside what my co-workers told me. Monday morning, bright and early, I found out that someone shot up that club not long after we left. Apparently his gun jammed and it took him ages to fix it in the washroom.
I think I used up every piece of luck I will ever have that night.
Image source: Easy-Tigger
#44
Once when watching a movie in my friend’s basement, I saw movement in my peripherals, and looked over to the couch he was on. At first I didn’t notice it, my only source of light being the television, and my main thought being it was strange that my friend hadn’t seemed to have moved.
Then I saw it.
Behind the couch was a shadowy silhouette of a figure, darker than the backdrop of the lightless room. But its face.. my god. It appeared to be a mask, colored like skin, but shiny like porcelain. It was almost flawless, and practically featureless. A slit for a mouth, slightly agape, with no lips at all. The nose was pulled back, nostrils flared, and seemed as though it were a snakes. And the eyes, while not menacing, were dark gaping pits of horror.
I stared into the figures soulless eyes, for longer than I would have liked, but I was frozen with fear. After what felt like an eternity, my friend took notice of my terrified gaze in his direction, and spoke to me. I did not hear his words, as they were muffled by my adrenaline. But as he spoke, the creature began to quickly drift away, around the corner to the next room. It never broke its gaze with me.
My friend came over to me and shook me, asking if I was alright, and my instincts finally kicked in. I ran to the light switch, flipped it on and grabbed the nearest weapon, a pull up bar laying on the floor. I babbled incoherently as my friend followed me, searching frantically from room to room. As I caught my breath, I began to explain in detail what I had seen, and my friend stopped in tracks.
“Are you being funny?”
“Not even a little.”
“Dude really its not cool.”
“I’m not joking dude, I am freaking out.”
“Dude… I’ve been having nightmares of a thing like that since I was a kid.”
We searched the whole house, never found anyone, and the doors upstairs were securely locked. I don’t go over there any more.
TL;DR: I stared down a nightmare creature that was lurking in my friend’s basement. May literally be the creature from said friend’s nightmares.
Image source: zombiemicrowaves7
#45
Late to the party here.
Sleeping one night on the couch as my wife had gotten mad at me for doing something stupid (don’t remember what, but I bet that she does!) Around 2AM, I hear sounds from my piano in the other room. Not any particular piece of music, but just random keys being played over and over. I’m scared and hoping my wife hears this so she can come downstairs and check it out, unfortunately no such luck. Music keeps coming from the piano and I’m frozen, too scared to check it out. After about a minute I gather enough courage to go there and find my Labrador Retriever was attempting to get to the donuts that I had accidentally left on top of the piano and was banging on the piano keys while trying to get at them.
Image source: celica91st
#46
For about 3 months, I’d wake up and I’d see people in my room about 5 times a week. It started when I woke up and there a was a teenage-looking girl sat on my window sill smiling. At first I thought it was my curtain just set in a weird way, so I sat up to push it. I then got a closer look at her face and didn’t break eye contact with her. I touched her leg, and she laughed then faded away. I didn’t sleep too well that night.
Another notable experience is when I woke up as I felt brushing on my arm. Next to me was a Walter White sort of looking guy (bald headed guy in his 50’s) having a fit in my bed next to me. For some reason my first instinct was to press down on his chest. I could feeling him shaking for a while, then he just faded away.
Another experience which has stook around is when I woke up and there were two long feet dangling by the side of me. I looked up, and there was an African malnourished girl hanging from the ceiling by a rope, staring at me smiling.
Most of the other times it was just really average people just sort of sat on my bed, or stood in the corner. I’ve never really seem demons or monsters or whatever.
I don’t personally think this is anything paranormal, I don’t know, maybe I kept waking up during deep sleep due to stress, and I carried on dreaming for a bit.
Image source: exophoria
#47
I got into a dorm elevator to go up to my room and there was a guy already in it. We just acknowledged each other but I’ve never seen him prior to this. I knew most people in the building. I step out of the elevator, walk into my room, sit down at my laptop, and log on to Facebook. New friend request from him.
Image source: autumnx
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