One minute, all’s well. The next, something just feels “off.” Your pulse quickens, your palms go sweaty, and your stomach is in a knot. It’s like red flags, alarm bells, and someone screaming, “Run!” all at once. While your brain can’t process exactly what’s going on, your intuition usually knows.
Call it a sixth sense, gut feeling, inner voice, or a hunch; we all have it. The difference is that some of listen, while others don’t. Those that do will tell you that there are times in life when we act fast, and ask questions later. Many a life has been saved by someone doing just that.
A curious person recently asked, “What was the scariest ‘We need to leave… now’ gut feeling that you’ve ever experienced?” and more than 2,500 comments followed. Bored Panda has put together a list of some of the most harrowing stories. From people escaping kidnappings, stabbings, shootings, and other potentially brutal attacks, may they serve as a reminder for you to always trust your gut.
#1
I ditched a babysitting job last minute-the family was pissed but I think I saved my own life… I used to walk two blocks to the family’s house, this one evening I stepped outside and noticed a man in a car just sitting on the side of the road. I started down my driveway and I heard his car turn on, I got three houses away and noted he was following me. I quickly turned up my neighbors driveway and ran to their door and had the dad walk me back home. The man in the car peeled away – it was the 80’s so there was
no checking cameras etc. I do feel I prevented my own kidnapping that day-trust your gut.
Image source: JustJulie1313, Troy Tumbin
Not everything in life can be explained. Some things are just felt… and need to be trusted.
We all have intuition. But not all of ours is the same. “It’s shaped by a combination of biological wiring and life experience,” says psychologist Smriti Joshi. “We often think of it as a feeling that comes from nowhere, but in reality, it’s your nervous system picking up on subtle cues — changes in facial expression, tone of voice, body language — and matching them to patterns stored from past experiences.”
According to Joshi, our brains create shortcuts based on what has felt safe or unsafe in the past. “That’s why gut instinct feels so personal: it’s not just general intuition, it’s your intuition, shaped by your own story.”
#2
I was at a party and it was getting weird so I wanted to go home. I was offered a ride home from an older gentleman. On the way he said he was too tired to drive all the way that he’d just get me a room and come get me before work, that my house was on the way to work. My house was about fifteen minutes away. We pull in, he goes in to pay for the room. Better bet when he got back I was gone. None of that made sense.
Image source: Late-Difficulty-5928, Elena Helade
#3
My dog thinks every person he meets is his long lost best friend. He once spotted a man walking on the other side of the park and tucked his tail and hid behind me. Left immediately.
Image source: sujins, Andriyko Podilnyk
Joshi says gut instinct is an evolutionary trait, and served as an important survival mechanism for our ancestors.
“Long before we had the ability to rationalize or weigh up pros and cons, our ancestors relied on fast, instinctive responses to threats,” explains the expert. “Today, we still benefit from that wiring. Gut instinct helps us respond quickly when something feels off, even if we can’t immediately explain why.”
#4
When I was about 12 (around 1970) I was walking to the bus stop to go home after swim club and this older guy started walking by and talking about how cute I was and that I should come try driving his fancy car. I started walking faster and he started putting his arm over my shoulders. I saw an old woman in a fur coat and fancy hat looking at us and ran over to her yelling “oh there you are grandma I was looking for you” and grabbed her hand and clung on for dear life. She have me a huge squishy hug and played along until the guy left, then she walked to the bus stop with me and waited until I got on my bus.
Image source: Kind-Section6364, note thanun
#5
Working as a mental health crisis counselor. I got a very eerie feeling with a client. He was friendly and cooperative but something in my body said RUN.
I made an excuse and left the assessment room, then asked the cops who’d brought him in to come with me. When they opened the door he was hiding behind it with a knife in his sleeve. He went with them no problem (72 hour hold), but if it’d been me with my clipboard instead of 3 armed cops… who knows.
Image source: moca_wawa, Timur Weber
#6
Husband and I (boyfriend at the time) were driving from PA to FL for a vacation. We stopped in Virginia at a McDonalds for lunch and just sat down to eat.
Husband always has a 6th sense and suddenly told me we needed to leave. Kind of grabbed my arm and walked out of there fast. Left the food on the table. We get in the car and are just leaving when the guys he saw in the parking lot are coming into the McDonald’s to rob it.
He had noticed them while looking outside and knew something was going to happen.
I was and still am completely oblivious to everything g around me. Have no sense of self preservation.
Image source: Racheli30, Elisabeth Jurenka
Because our gut feelings are shaped by our own, individual stories, they’re not always accurate. “It can sometimes be distorted — especially if past trauma, anxiety, or unconscious bias is in the mix,” says Joshi. “It’s also possible for gut instinct to misfire when we’re overly stressed or tired.”
But that’s not to say you should ignore your intuition just because of your past. Instead, the expert advises that you learn to tune into your inner voice. When something feels off, ask yourself: “is this feeling rooted in fear, in pattern recognition, or something else?”
#7
This was in the 1970’s. We were about 10. Friend spent the night. We got up very early on Sat and went for a bike ride to our local school/playground. We were resting on some benches when a man approached and asked us if we would help him move some chairs into the auditorium. I got the creeps instantly and said no but my friend said sure and walked off with him. A few minutes later she came running out crying and said he tried to grab her.
We rode our bikes home and woke up my parents who called the cops. They showed up with big books of mugshots. I remember going through them on our living room table.
They asked me why I didn’t go with the man. I remember saying “I guess it was women’s intuition” because I had heard that expression somewhere. I remember them stifling a laugh and me feeling dumb.
Image source: Stewie1014, Diana Light
#8
About 20 years ago, I was at a bar in Philly with a girlfriend. It was in a fairly rough area(esp after dark), and it was getting close to 1:00 a.m. A few of us had driven over from New Jersey. The bar was in what looked like an old house that had been converted into a club. We were having a great time, and I was planning to stay at my friend’s place afterward, so our other friends left about 30 minutes before we did. She lived alone in the city and was always a little oblivious to what was going on around her. After our friends left, the two of us were out on the dance floor, completely caught up in having fun and not really paying attention to anything else. Then it suddenly hit me that we were the only women left in the club. When I looked around, I realized there was a large group of men kind of slowly closing in around us on the dance floor. And we were the only people dancing on the dance floor. The moment I made eye contact with a few of them and saw the looks in their eyes, it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. I immediately grabbed my friend and said, “We need to leave. Right now.” We ran out of there as fast as we could.
Image source: SammieStones, Andrii Olishevskyi
#9
A few years ago, my mom texted me in the middle of the night that she “felt weird” and asked if I had a thermometer she could borrow. She lives with us, so I let myself into her apartment to check on her.
She was dizzy, confused, and I don’t know, I just had a bad feeling. She argued I was overreacting but I woke my spouse up and we forced her to go to the ER. I had no idea what it was, but I was so scared and I just knew we had to get out NOW and get to a hospital.
It was septic shock. She ended up being in the hospital for about a month and the doctor said she probably would have died if we hadn’t gone in when we did.
Image source: EvilAbed57, Getty Images
Jonathan Page is a professor, cognitive neuroscientist and co-founder of the World is Round, LLC. He’s spent much of his career researching physiological responses to stress and how stress influences behavior. According to Page, your mind is your most valuable weapon when it comes to protecting yourself.
“The ‘threat detector’ system in your brain (largely the amygdala) offers 24-hour surveillance. When a threat is detected, the alarm bells sound, jump-starting your fight-or-flight system,” explains the expert, adding that you must then use conscious awareness to either confirm or dispel the threat.
#10
At a beach with a slightly older family friend when I was 10ish and they were probably 14ish. Parents had stayed at the house and let us go down to the water. This middle aged guy in jeans and a leather vest came up to us and started making small talk. I got really uncomfortable right away, it seemed weird to be wearing jeans on the beach, but my friend seemed fine and was engaging. Then he said something like “what are two pretty young girls like you doing all alone out here.” And I was like NOPE. So I just said “oh we aren’t alone, our parents are right up there” and pointed to a random beach front house. Then I grabbed my friends hand and basically just took off running back to the place we were actually staying. My friends dad freaked out and called the cops but the guy was long gone.
Image source: HiddenSquish, Rendy Saputra
#11
Was sitting up against a wall of building in college.
For some unknown reason I just turned to my friend and said let’s move. We literally moved about ten feet further down. A few seconds later someone threw a broom through a window on the upper level, showering the place we had just being sitting in plate glass.
Image source: mrbuddymcbuddyface, Neal E. Johnson
#12
I bartended at a dive bar in a college town and it was a busy that day. A lot of college students in which was irregular but not unheard of. In walks an older man, overweight with white wispy hair. Sunglasses and khaki shorts, loafers, whole nine. As soon as he breaches the threshold of the bar, I whip around and am absolutely flooded with dread. Never seen this guy before in my life and definitely didn’t have the staff to keep an eye on him the whole time but all of my alarm bells were screaming that he was up to no good. He walked around and looked around, then left. Maybe a total of 10 min in the bar, never said a word to anyone that I saw.
After he left I went to the door guy who immediately said “wow that guy gave me the creeps, wonder he wanted in here” so I guess the entire staff was watching him the entire time.
It was like a physical wave of evil coming from the man. Never experienced such a physical reaction to a stranger before or since.
Image source: FuckeenGuy, Daniel
According to Page, the “threat detector” in your brain works by gathering information from the environment and comparing it to an expected pattern. “If the pattern doesn’t match up with expectations, the alarms are sounded,” he says, adding that the key is to develop an elaborate pattern recognition system.
Page notes that gut feelings can be as faint as a slight twinge in the stomach or strong enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. “Allowing those feelings to surface is the first step, but then you must do something with them.”
#13
I got followed through a grocery store after dark one night. It wasn’t late, the guy was on his phone the whole time, and he kept appearing in the aisles I was in. He never made eye contact with me – even though I was throwing darts through mine – and he just kept checking out merchandise in the aisle like he was looking for something he couldn’t find. I even backtracked and he showed up in the same aisles. When I went to check out he showed up two people behind me, still on his phone, still checking out merchandise. So I basically grabbed my stuff and ran walked to my car, unlocked the door before arriving, and then jumped in locked the doors started the car and backed out all in one motion.
He was right next to my door.
He casually turned around and began walking back towards the store.
Image source: mamabear00420
#14
This isn’t as crazy as some of the other stories here, but years ago I was at a cafe working on my laptop and this guy kept staring at me. It made me feel uncomfortable, so I left and went to the library to work. I found a place to sit and a few minutes later I felt someone staring at me. It was the same guy. He looked at me and smiled and my stomach just dropped. I left and went for a walk around town before heading to my apartment hoping that he wouldn’t follow me there. He didn’t, thankfully.
Image source: ProsciuttoPizza, Getty Images
#15
Ohhh I have one!
I was 21? With my friend getting some drinks outside in Philly. A girl our age who looked very cool/artsy/well dressed came by and chatted with us. She invited us to a party with her friends in a high rise by the river.
We go and it was FANCY. She came down to meet us and took us to the elevator that opened right into this penthouse apartment. Immediately bad vibes.
There were no other 20somethings like we imagined there would be. Just 3 men in their 40s in this expensive apartment. The elevator was already heading back down and that seemed like the only way to get out of the apartment. Plus my friend and I didn’t want to be rude so we sat at the marble counter as one of the men went to this extensive wine cabinet with all these fancy wines and pours us some glasses.
The girl our age disappeared into a back room with one of the men so my friend and I were just sipping wine at the counter as the other two hit on us. We were texting each other saying “this seems so sketch. We should go. How do we go?”
I decided to get her on the balcony alone so we could talk. I said I needed a cigarette and one of the guys said “oh I’ll come with you” and I said “no I want my friend” and he said “she can smoke later”
So they basically separated us. I was smoking on the balcony as this guy kind of cornered me and I texted my friend “call the elevator if you can. We need to get out”
I came back in and the girl who invited us ran out of the back room TOTALLY undressed, chased by the half-undressed man she went in with. They were both laughing and she was like “come on girls! Come to the bedroom!”
Just then the elevator blinged and we got on it and hurriedly pressed the door closed button before the drunk 40-yos had a chance to stop us.
We RAN from that building. Idk what that was but it wasn’t the 20-somethings party we thought and we both got terrible vibes.
Image source: Lazy-Point7779
Like Joshi, Page advises that when your inner alarm starts sounding, you should ask yourself “Why?”
“Obviously your subconscious saw a pattern that didn’t match expectations: What was that pattern? Figure out why the alarm bells were sounded,” he says. “If the answer is not immediately obvious, then be cautious. Sometimes the threat is only discovered later.”
#16
Was at a jazz bar in a bad part of town with my coworkers, went downstairs to have a shot. Looking back I feel like the shot tasted SUPER salty in a weird way. Talked to a couple strangers and then started heading back upstairs to listen to the music and I got this WEIRD feeling right when this random guy approached me and invited me to leave with him. I was like “oh how nice” (not a normal reaction to the situation) and noticed how strongly his cologne smelled. He told me to come home with him and my brain STOPPED being able to process the idea of “no”.I don’t know what possessed me to do this but I gave him a big hug and told him he smelled amazing and that I needed to go to the bathroom and walked away. I remember his dumbfounded look and now I think maybe my reaction completely took him off guard because he just stood there and watched me walk back upstairs and then turned around and left the venue. As soon as I got to the bathroom whatever I had been spiked with hit me and I couldn’t stand up and was literally buckling at the knees while the room was spinning. I gathered EVERYTHING I had and found the coworkers I had come with and told them someone gave me something. I remember them both half carrying me back to the car and then me waking up 12 hours later on my coworker’s couch. Thank GOD he had daughters and most likely thought of them while he was making sure I was safe.
Another time was when I got that gut feeling to flee while walking around at sunset. Found out later a couger was in the neighborhood stalking people. I don’t ignore that feeling EVER.
Image source: BoxBird
#17
Hurricane Ian (category 4) was on its way to FL, a day or so before landfall. My dad wanted to stick around at home to try to protect his things. Then later he says, let’s get the family a hotel with a nice pool and I interject with “I DONT CARE WHERE WE STAY. WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW. AND YOU’RE COMING WITH US.” I normally never snap at him but this was the exception. As it turned out, Ian made a direct hit in our area and devastated the region. He later said he was glad we left when we did.
Image source: TropicLikeItsHot_, Chandler Cruttenden
#18
Back in high school, my boyfriend at the time and I went on a night walk in my neighborhood (he lived in the neighborhood adjacent, maybe a 10-15 min walk total between our houses. We had walked these streets for years now, day and night with 0 problems. But on this night, at the stop sign at the end of my street, were a group of people. Because of their demeanor (loud, rambunctious) I was pretty sure it was my next door neighbor and some of the people from the party they were hosting that night. Now for context, police were not strangers to that house as there seemed to always be issues. When we got about halfway down the road and could see the stop sign illuminated under a street light, we noticed the group. They were busy yelling and what not with themselves. We stopped, obscured by shadows and no street light where we were. My boyfriend suggested we continue on our walk and act as if they aren’t there. I couldn’t explain it, I had never felt this way about them before, but I was terrified. I had this guy feeling they shouldn’t know we were here. I convinced him we should turn around, and as we made the decision we heard a gun shot from the group. We jumped into big trees off to the side of the road and watched that group run back down the road, towards us, to their house. They were carrying someone back. Cops showed up not too long later and someone has been shot I wonder what would have happened to us had they known we witnessed what happened.
Image source: kwizzle1994
Maggie Blyth, former national chief officer lead for policing on Britain’s Violence against Women and Girls, encourages women in particular to report things that feel “off.” Just because gut instinct isn’t evidence of a society/”>crime doesn’t mean it can’t be investigated.
“Gut instinct is a powerful thing and we often hear of women who felt a sense of danger or unease in situations when they were right to listen to their gut and get help,” Blyth told Refinery 29. Reporting something “that doesn’t feel quite right” so the police can check it out for themselves is “never wasting police time,” Blyth says.
#19
When my sister and I were young, maybe like 5 and 3, we were in Kansas eating at a diner just off the highway and my sister had a strange feeling and wanted to leave. My parents finally agreed and shortly after the diner was destroyed by a tornado.
Image source: sherbimsly, Shelby Cohron
#20
Not my gut feeling, but my mare’s. I was riding in Natchaug State Forest and started up a side trail. It had a fairly steep climb and lots of turns as it wove between mountain laurel and rocks so there was no view ahead or around beyond maybe 10′ at most.
We went maybe 1/8 mile up, and my mare stopped and refused to continue. She is the most obedient, obliging trail horse so my first thought was she had something physically wrong, so I hopped off to look her over. She looked perfectly fine, just looking up the trail with what looked like interest but not fear. I remounted and tried to continue up the trail, but she still refused.
I decided it wasn’t worth it to insist on going forward, so turned around to head back to the main trail. She was more than happy to go in that direction and continue our ride, as long as it was anywhere else!
My guess is that she knew there was some critter (bear or mountain lion… whatever the authorities may claim about there being no mt. lions in Connecticut) that it would be unwise to come face to face with.
Image source: BoondocksBonita
#21
Got off the bus in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago to stay the night with my boyfriend. It was late, probably 11 pm. While I was crossing the street, a man rounding the corner of my bf’s building noticed me and immediately sped up his walk.
I entered the apartment building’s vestibule to wait for my bf to come get me, hoping the man behind me on the sidewalk would just walk by but he entered the vestibule. My heart immediately dropped but thought maybe he lives in the building and I’m just being unfairly judgmental.
He pretended to push the buttons on the call box and was mumbling to himself. My gut in that moment told me this wasn’t going to end well if I didn’t get out of the vestibule — just as I was putting my hand on the door to leave, the man turned around, attempting to pin me against the wall but only got my shoulder so I was able to slip out.
I ran for my life down the sidewalk. He started running after me. Then I hear my boyfriend yelling at the guy. I turn around and my boyfriend is starting to tackle him and the guy gets loose and runs the other way.
It’s scary to think what would have happened if A.) I didn’t have my hand on the door already before he attempted to pin me down or B.) my boyfriend didn’t come downstairs at the moment he did. I’m not a very fast runner and there were plenty of dark alleys around.
I’m very lucky.
Image source: tin-f0il-man
#22
I was dropping off a rental vehicle at night, probably 9pm/10pm so just parking and dropping the keys in a box.
I set up my Uber and I sat in the car and waited for it to get closer before dropping my keys in the box. When it’s close and I get out I notice a man walking by the key drop off. As I walked up, he opened the box for me and I said thank you and walked to where my Uber was. He started following me, which was the opposite direction he’d been walking. It was a slower pace that sped up, but luckily my Uber was parked a little ways away. When I got in and looked back he had double backed and was now going the other way again.
If you are alone, especially female, please please be careful and mindful of where you are and what is around you. If I had dropped my keys off and stood around waiting for my Uber for 5-10 minutes who knows what would have happened.
Image source: MirandaS2
#23
We need to stay…..
Just moved 3 Provinces away from home.
6 1/2 months pregnant.
Living with fiance’s parents in the middle of BF nowhere, at least 1 hour from any hospital.
Went to the city for date night. Something told me that we needed to stay the night at a hotel instead of driving home.
4:20am was calling the ambulance to said hotel room. 5 minute drive to the ER
5:45am baby girl born via emergency c-section.
If we had gone home that night, her and I would have both persihed. That was 21 years ago.
Image source: Nervous-Inside-1111
#24
I was out for a walk at 11:30pm, I’d been out for a few days with a migraine but was feeling better. It’s February in Canada, I looked it up later it was -15c that night.
About a kilometre and a half away from my house I had this feeling that I had to go. I had to get home. Something was wrong, terrible wrong.
Turning around is the last thing I remember. The next thing I know it’s 2:30am and I’m trying to key in a code for the garage to open the door because I don’t have keys, I can’t remember the code. It’s the last four digits of my childhood phone number but I couldn’t remember it to key it in.
I texted my mom to ask her to let me in, I have screenshots of the texts, they’re nonsense. She finally understood that I was outside after I texted “borch” to her and she realized I meant porch. She gets me inside, the light of the hallway hits me and the dull ache that existed turning into knives. All I could do was mumble about the entity. I have no recollection of that.
At 3:30, I’m inside. I took Tylenol for the “headache” and laid in bed in so much pain I couldn’t cry or move or do anything. She asked me where I was, I couldn’t name the town, she asked me what my birthday was, I didn’t know. I finally fall asleep around 5 am.
TL;DR: hemiplegic migraines cause a sense of doom when they’re coming on. I’ve only had that one but now get to live in fear that it could happen again, anytime.
Image source: champagne_pants
#25
I was coming back to Missouri from Colorado and due to where I’d been staying in CO, I decided to go through Nebraska. Western Nebraska is one of the most desolate places I’ve ever seen. I hadn’t had signal on my phone for like thirty minutes when I pulled off for gas in this little town and when I got to the gas station, some town residents were ambling around and I caught a couple glances from them- nothing overtly weird. I looked at my phone and I still had no signal at all. Then I got this weird vibe- a feeling of being watched from all sides. It occurred to me that I could be overpowered, snatched, and thrown in a ditch out there in that vast middle of nowhere, and no one would ever have any clue what happened to me. Nothing weird happened, but I decided my 1/3rd full tank was enough and I stopped pumping gas, got back into the car, and left. Been in a lot of small towns for gas before and since and nothing else like that has ever happened.
Image source: raise_the_sails
#26
Puerto Rico. Was there for a conference and hanging alone in my hotel’s bar. There were four women (also mainland Americans) about my age who came in and sat next to me. They’d just graduated medical school and were having a celebratory vacay. We chatted for a while and since I was there for work (and alone) they invited me out with them for drinks. They also said they’d feel a bit safer having a dude with them when they left the hotel.
First hour or two was no biggie. Went to a couple bars nearby, had fun just hanging and talking.
Then we went to some bar they saw on yelp that supposedly had great live music. It was back in a long, winding alley. As soon as we all walked in the air changed. Seemed like half the place was watching us. I caught the vibe before them, and went ahead and settled our tab with the bar. Came back to where we were standing and realized a group of not friendly looking guys – like 7-8 of them, had shifted where they were standing to block the exit and kind of corner us into the side section. They did that while I was away from the women at the bar.
I quietly pointed that out and told them our tab was closed and they caught the same vibe immediately. We had to snake our way through these guys – who all were immediately bumping into me to keep us from leaving. We somehow got through the door and took off sprinting up the alley, which was tight because there were scooters and mopeds packed like sardines along both sides of the street.
4-5 of the dudes followed us out, and walked right behind us until we started sprinting. Got to the main road (tourist type of street) and they just fell back and disappeared into the alley.
Don’t know what they were planning but it felt like the entire bar was just trying to decide who was going to mess us up first, the minute we walked in.
Image source: lebowskiachiever12
#27
I went to go pick something up from Facebook marketplace. Usually when I go pick something up, I always take someone with me but this time I didnt have anyone. When I got to the pick up place, which was an apartment complex, I texted fhe seller to tell them I was there. I was right outside the apartment. I didnt see any movement im the apartment windows or anything. It took a minute for the seller to respond.
The seller then told me that they didnt realize that they left the item in a nearby storage unit facility. They texted that they would meet me there for the item.
I still didnt see any movement in their alleged apartment and they told me to head there without them.
I got this weird feeling fhat something was off so I told them that I didnt want the item anymore
They were telling me that they were sorry about the mix up and that they were a real person and fhat they promise they weren’t scamming me
They even sent me a voice memo to prove they were a woman and stuff but I just left
Standing there outside fhe apartment felt so weird and creepy and going to the storage facility felt like an even worse idea so I just blocked the seller and left.
Image source: Novel-Giraffe-48893
#28
When I was in elementary school, I used to walk home from school in the summer. It was a small town of like.. 1,000 people. Everyone knew everyone.
One day, on my way home, a couple men in a van stopped next to me. I had never seen them before. They asked me where the store was, and I just pointed down the street. I could literally see it from where I was standing, but they kept asking me to get in the van and direct them there. I
kept telling them it was right there, and can they not understand me.
After a bit, I started to realize something was wrong and just turned around and went into the pharmacy behind me. My family was friends with the lady who ran it. When I went in, they immediately left.
Anyways. I think I avoided being kidnapped as a child. So that is nice, I guess. .
Image source: Crackbat
#29
Oh I have a good one for this.
Many years ago, my dad and I were out hunting in northern New England. My dad and grandfather were very good friends of the local native tribe and they shared some good hunting spots we could go to. So, dad and I pack up and head out very early (think 2/3am) and set up. We’re fully geared out, with safety ID gear as well. Orange high vis.
Before I continue, it is important to note this. My dad has a very, very visible scar across his left cheek from his time in the military.
So, we’re hunkered down, enjoying the quiet of the woods, enjoying our company, father/son bonding time, etc. My dad says he has to relieve himself and steps away to my left into the trees for privacy. I continue looking down our sightline keeping an eye out for any game. After a few minutes, it got too quiet. I don’t know how to describe it, but it was like if I took a breath in I’d be the loudest thing for miles. It was eerie. I started looking around for my dad because I had this growing sense of terror in my chest that I couldn’t explain. Right as I was about to move, there’s a light tap on my right shoulder and my dad is back next to me on my right side. I looked over and I distinctly remember saying “hey pops how’d you get over behind me there?” But I noticed something that made my blood run cold. My dad’s scar was on his right cheek. Before I could say anything there was this loud rustle to my left and I turned to look and my dad stumbled out of the trees, laughed a bit and said he got turned around in the dark a bit and asked if he missed any deer. I turned back to my right and there was no one there anymore. I freaked out and begged my dad to take us home and get out of there. I’ve never been so scared in my life. He tried calming me down but finally agreed to leave and we got back to the car and headed back home.
My dad later on told one of his friends in the tribe about what happened, thinking it was a funny story and his buddy told him, completely serious, that we were lucky to be alive and that there were old stories about skinwalkers and shape changers in their oral history that hunted in the woods.
Never went hunting again. Never forgotten it. My kids don’t believe me and my dad is long passed to corroborate it but to this day I will never forget the terror I felt.
*EDIT* I have had a couple people DM asking the significance of the scar placement on my dad’s cheek. According to my dad’s friend, in their tradition the skinwalker/shapechanger sees you, and makes a mirror copy of what it can see. So pops’ scar being on his left cheek normally would reflect on the right of his face if he was viewed from the front. That’s the detail I found out later that really scared me. I was never a big believer in anything like that before this encounter but ever since, I put stock in native oral legends for sure. How could I not.
Image source: PepperidgeFarmMembas
#30
Was driving from NY to Chicago on 80, and had a “we need to get off the road right now” feeling in the afternoon. Pulled off at the rest stop, and about a half hour later, when getting back to the road, traffic was at a standstill. There was a 20-something car pile-up less than a quarter mile away. I’m guessing that if I didn’t stop, I would have been in the middle of it.
Image source: maceo107
#31
I was in a row boat with my best friend and we were about 8-9 yo on a small pond within a subdivision. The sky was getting dark and then we Looked up and there barreling down on us was a tornado. No sirens. It was late 70s. You never seen two girls row so fast to the edge and our brothers came and jumped in and grabbed us and we went into the basement. It was a bad one. .
Image source: Alternative-Ebb-6953
#32
We were on a family road trip when I started feeling anxious. I’m normally a chatterbox in the car, and I didn’t even realize I was silent because I was on high alert. Our daughter was also unnaturally quiet, and my husband commented on the fact that we were both not talking at all. We both started talking about how we had a bad feeling and needed to stop somewhere safe, as quickly as we could.
My husband knew that if I was having a gut feeling like that, it was not something to ignore. The fact that our daughter was feeling the same way just made it all the more clear to him, so he pulled off at a rest stop.
And that’s how we avoided a tornado.
Image source: _buffy_summers
#33
I was hanging out at a friend’s dad’s house where others were planning on spending the night. My mom never let me go to a sleepover on school nights or if I had something to do early the next day, and while this happened on a Friday, I had an audition for our high school’s variety show at 7:00 the next morning.
My friend asked if I was going to stay over too and I explained that I couldn’t, and her dad happened to be in the room.
A little backstory, I thought he was a “cool guy” because we were friends on Facebook (you can probably see where this is going) and he always liked my posts and messaged me to tell me how mature I was for a teenager. (Yuck.)
Writing this all now fifteen years later, the red flags are screaming at me, but yeah, I was definitely getting groomed back then.
Anyway, he heard me saying I couldn’t sleep over because of my audition, and he started pushing me to stay more than any of my friends were. I explained my mom’s rule many times and he kept offering to wake me up early and bring me to the audition himself, and it finally clicked that I *really* did not want to be alone in a car with this guy, let alone get woken up at the crack of dawn by him while my friends were asleep. I very firmly said no and called my mom to pick me up.
Not long after, my friend told me to unfriend her dad and stop talking to him. She had gone over to his house unexpectedly and found a freshman in the living room. He first said that she was older than she looked, but my friend recognized her as the younger sister of one of our classmates, so he changed his story and said that she was the daughter of a coworker so it was okay that she was there.
Absolutely disgusting.
I’m very relieved that nothing happened to me, and relieved my friend showed up before anything happened to the girl either, but I wish I had realized earlier that I was in the process of being groomed. Though, I guess that’s how grooming works.
Image source: two_oh_seven
#34
Was hanging out in the woods at night with some friends in an area known for bears and mountain lions. Started getting the “eyes on me” feeling and suddenly all the bugs and birds went quiet. Figured it was time to GTFO at that point.
Image source: lovexjoyxzen
#35
I was hiking with my three kids (8, 6, and 4 at the time) in Oregon. It was a very easy and wide trail—basically a dirt road—to a small lake area. It was a weekday so we were alone on the trail, and given the wide trail, we were spread out about 40 feet apart, the kids stopping to look at rocks and bugs and vegetation and such. The youngest was the furthest back, picking up sticks and poking things.
Out of nowhere, all the hair on the back of my neck stood up. My dad had always told us as kids to listen to that feeling if we ever had it. So I called all the kids to me, then listened—nothing. My body said something was wrong though. We waited a bit, then the feeling began to pass. I decided we’d head to the lake as we planned. We hiked the rest of the way, ate snacks and played in the water for a few hours, then started the hike back to the car.
As we came on the spot where I’d had the bad feeling, the overwhelming smell of cat urine filled the air. I looked at the edge of the trail where we’d been standing and noticed fresh mountain lion tracks.
We hustled back to the car and I kept all the kids, especially the roast-sized 4-year old, close to me all the way back.
Image source: OtherwiseH
#36
I have a cane corso/Great Pyrenees mix who rules the woods around us with an iron fist. We live pretty far out in the mountains and she’s never backed down from another animal, be it coyote, bobcat, bear, or otherwise. One night I was cooking dinner with my ex and went to go outside and throw some scraps out. New moon, cloudy as hell, generally complete and utter dark outside. As soon as I open the door I feel big dog bulk crawl in between my legs and puff up her chest to the point that I’m blocked from going forward. I fuss at her to get a move on but she is fully disregarding me, having a staring contest with something I can’t see. The hair on her back starts to stand up like when she sees a bear, but unlike a bear she doesn’t chase it off barking, but stays put in front of me and let’s out the most menacing, deep rumbling growl I’ve ever heard her produce (and haven’t heard since). She then proceeds to use all her might and start pushing backwards on me, backing both of us into the house. Proceed to lock the door and mind my own business for the rest of the night. Later that week whisperings about a mountain lion being seen came from other people on our face of the valley. .
Image source: thesocialavl
#37
After my first year of college, I went to pick my brother up from baseball practice. They were still going, so I decided to go get gas in my truck. As I turned toward the nearest gas station, I looked over and saw a van parked right up next to the door of the gas station, quite a ways from the pumps.
Something in my head told me that I should go to a different gas station, and maybe the one that another of my friends worked at, in order to talk to him. As I went past the first gas station, I saw two men run out of the gas station and jump into the van. As I turned around and headed the other direction, they drove at a high rate of speed out of town.
The next day I found out that they had taken the life of the gas station attendant and robbed the safe. If I would’ve stopped and gotten gas, I might’ve been there too.
Image source: buffalojumped69
#38
I was visiting a friend. She and I had brand new babies born a couple weeks apart. Her partner wasn’t a stand up guy. A bunch of guys popped out of the basement and asked if they could use my car to make some bread. I said no and they persisted. So I went home. As I was leaving (they lived at the top of a culdesac hill) I saw cops coming up both sides of the road. I thought that was strange so I just continued on. They were going for a flash bang raid I missed with my infant by about 2 minutes.
Image source: Physical_Spinach_337
#39
About tenish years ago, I was at a bus stop on the service road. I was at this bus stop regularly; I was on my way to therapy. I am watching the cars go by, when a guy in a stereotypical creepy white van turns to look back at me. He smiles and I don’t even want to say it was a smile because it was such a terrifying expression. He makes a very sudden right turn, and goes around the corner I’m on, onto the residential street.
I instantly got the rabbit fear. You know, the rabbit fear? I knew suddenly and clearly that I only had until he made it around the block to come up with a plan, *but there was nowhere for me to go*. Luckily the bus pulled up right then and I got on.
The man in the van was arrested a few days later because he got cocky and tried to pick up two girls at once and they beat him.
Anyway, this haunts me.
Image source: spiritofsnows
#40
Was doing a cross country road trip with my then girlfriend many years ago. We are lesbians. We stopped for dinner in a small town in Wyoming. Now, I pass as straight, but she definitely looked queer. We got seated and I immediately noticed the stares. She went outside to use the phone, I ordered, and she still wasn’t back when the food arrived. The waitress brought the bill at the same time as the food and whispered “I wouldn’t eat that.”
I immediately paid, got up, and left, grabbed my girlfriend, and pulled her to the car and told her to drive. She saw I was scared and did what I asked… As soon as we pulled out we were followed by a pickup truck with their high beams on for miles that felt like an eternity.
Eventually they pealed off and we kept going for another hour before finding a hotel for the night.
I don’t know what their intentions were other than making it clear we were not welcome there that night, but it was terrifying.
Image source: Late_Resource_1653
#41
Went running on a trail in late autumn, kind of off season for this trail so no one else was on it, had it completely to myself. The trail winds through a small canyon before heading into dense forest, so you kind of feel sandwiched between trees and steep mountain sides. I had been hearing birds all over the place and saw small critters, but as I got deeper into the woods and was climbing higher all sound/activity stopped and the air felt heavy and suppressive. Did the dumb thing and told myself I was being paranoid and kept pushing a couple different times, and after a few stops and starts was hit hard with an overwhelming feeling of dread and sense of being watched. Immediately turned around and booked it back down the trail while my primal brain was screaming “Danger!”. Never saw anything, but the gut feeling of danger didn’t end until I was well clear of the trees.
Turns out mountain lions had moved into the area for the winter.
Image source: muhkneehurts
#42
Years ago I worked in EMS, and got called to a warehouse early morning (pre-sunrise). When we arrived, the workers in the warehouse refused to turn on the lights. We were assured that law enforcement was already inside by the workers. The inside was incredibly dark, and even with flashlights, all you could make out between the rows were people running around in the shadows.
My partner and I both decided to bail, and called our dispatcher that if law enforcement was on scene, that they either needed to bring the patient to us, or come escort us in. The dispatcher relayed to us that law enforcement urgently needed us away from the scene, and they would bring the patient (who was having a medical issue that seemed irrelevant to whatever was going on in the warehouse) to us, about a block away.
Never found out what happened, but the whole incident made my hair stand up.
Image source: pathofuncertainty
#43
One time years ago my wife and I went to a restaurant for dinner. The place looked busy from the cars in the parking lot. We walked inside and there was no one at the host stand- and the way the entrance was you couldn’t see into the dining room. The place was just weirdly quiet and my wife and I both had this feeling of danger at the exact same time- we looked at each other and didn’t have to say a word- we both just quickly left. It was very unsettling.
Image source: ilikebreakfastfoods
#44
A few years ago, my husband and I were arguing about something trivial at around midnight-1 AM. I was frustrated and close to tears, so I took the dog out to go to the bathroom before bed, but stayed out there longer to compose myself. We didn’t have a backyard at the time, so I was sitting on my walkway with the dog on his leash in front of my house. A guy came walking by, commented on how cute my dog was and asked to pet him. He was on the sidewalk. Then he started inching closer to my walk way, and my dog who normally loved people suddenly came back to me. The guy then asked if he could have water or something to drink, and started up my walkway, getting closer. My dog, who was just happily being pet by this guy, barked at him. I said no and booked it back inside. I’m normally a people pleaser to my own detriment, but that felt scary af.
Image source: MILP00L___
#45
My wife and I were on our honeymoon in the Domincan Republic. We were on a resort that was 5 resorts connected side by side.
One night we decided we were going to go to the night club which was a couple of resorts over from where we were staying. There was a train of golf cart type vehicles that drove around the resort so we hopped on it to take us there.
It had just gotten dark and we were the only people on the “train”, a couple minutes later two guys jumped on in the cart right in front of us. They were speaking in a foreign language (not sure what but it kinda sounded Russian) and they kept looking back at us, like a really strange amount of times, multiple times a minutes.
We got off at the night club, so did they. We went in walked around some people to lose them and then left the night club to go to the sports bar a little ways down the road.
I don’t know they they were up to anything bad but both my wife and I got this really weird feeling that something wasn’t right. Rumour the next day was that someone got roofied at the night club, no clue if the rumour was true, or if it was those guys, but we were glad we left.
Edit: spelling and grammar.
Image source: mgrenier
#46
There was this secluded, tree-lined trail behind my neighborhood that connects to many houses and a conservation area. i liked walking there in the evenings, but it had gotten dark sooner than i’d expected one day.
when i squinted, i noticed that a man had come out of the bushes and was standing in the middle of the trail. i figured maybe he was taking a detour, so i kept walking – but he stood very firmly in the middle of the trail and then began walking towards me.
he did not seem like he was planning to get out of the way. i suddenly felt very worried, and i was just about to turn back when someone else walked onto the trail. the man, upon seeing them, went back into the bushes.
Image source: Minute_Discipline_96
#47
I was 14 on vacation with my family in Mexico. I went back alone to our hotel room to grab something, and on the way there ran into two groundskeeper guys who started trying to talk in Spanish with me. I remember feeling uneasy, and one of them kept commenting “me gusta tus ojos” or “I like your eyes.” They were trying to get me to come with them to show me the way back to the hotel room and I just clammed up and left. Straight up ran away. My parents thought I was overreacting or that the guys were being friendly. Looking back, there was no reason for two grown men to stop a 14yo girl and tell her they like her eyes.
Image source: Salsa-Stark_
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