Absolutely Chilling True Stories
Everyone loves a good horror story, but what happens when the nightmares from the big screen show up in real life?
Whether it’s creeps in the alley or phantoms in the attic, real encounters with things that go bump in the night are far scarier than anything Hollywood could dream up. The Reddit folks below will never forget their hair-raising experiences.
1. Man Down
Back when I worked the night shift as a security guard, I would experience mild hallucinations due to my poor sleep schedule. One night, I was doing my patrol and I started feeling particularly out of it.
I kept getting those flashes of movement in the corner of my eye, but I was convinced it was just my brain screwing up.
At the site I was working, there was a large warehouse filled with chemical waste. There was only one light on in it. As I was going along, I saw a pale shape on the ground and quickly recognized it as a body. My adrenaline spiked and I nearly passed out. My mind blanked and it took a second for me to regain my senses.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a CPR dummy the workers left out for training.
2. Sneaking Around
Officer here. I was dispatched to a house at about 1 am for a prowler. We got there and spoke to the residents. Long story short, they saw two people wearing masks in the yard across the street. It was like two weeks past Halloween, so it seemed believable. We checked the area and didn’t see anything. It's worth noting the residents didn't seem inebriated or crazy at all. We had no clue what we were in for...
Sometimes you'll get a similar call and get there to find the resident strung out and seeing things. However, back to the story. An hour later, we got called back.
This time, we had our dispatcher on the phone with them while we were surrounding the area. About five of us were in a perfect position when dispatch told us they could still see the prowlers in the next yard.
We started to move in. Dispatch said the residents saw the two prowlers wave and move into the shed. Guess where I was? That's right, next to the shed. I gave verbal commands, banged on the door. There was nothing. I thought, “Screw it, fine.
I'll come in after you”. I got the doors open and I couldn't believe my eyes. It was...empty. I even thought to check for a trap door. Nothing.
It was raised about four inches, so there wasn’t even a possibility of a door leading out. I checked the area again and found nothing. I talked to the residents.
They said as I was moving in on the shed, the two prowlers had put their finger to their lips, giving the “shhhh” sign, and then they both waved.
They had walked into the shed as I was next to it. We went over every possibility trying to come up with an explanation. If the caller was just screwing with us, they had no prior history of it.
I'm not much of a believer in paranormal stuff but I can still appreciate a situation where I cannot logically explain what just happened.
3. A Fruitless Romance
I was visiting my hometown and decided to pick up my old high school friend and take him to dinner and a drink to catch up.
He was kind of stressed and told me that his ex, with whom he had broken up with over two years prior, had been stalking him and harassing him. I drove him home afterward, and it started to drizzle.
As I dropped him off at his house, we both noticed a bag tied to my side view mirror. It had likely been attached when we were at the restaurant. We opened it to see a bad photo of a tree, taken at night with flash.
There was a brief letter, obviously written from his ex. It said: "I buried our first love letter under this tree years ago. This tree is growing from our love”.
I made sure my friend got into his house alright and got the heck out of there.
4. Listen Up
I was hiking down a trail with my dog in remote northern Wisconsin, when I just got a weird feeling. At the exact same time, the hackles on my dog went straight up and he began acting really anxious.
I then came into a clearing in the woods, and got hit with what I can only describe as a soundwave.
It was like someone was blasting a subwoofer right next to me but there was nothing around. The nearest road was maybe a mile away. Something told me to get the heck out of there.
So, I quickly turned around and hiked as quickly as possible the rest of the way back. I didn't hear that bass sound after I left the clearing but for a while, I still felt like something was following me.
