Have you ever experienced something that felt like a “glitch in the matrix”? From slips in time to places that simply shouldn’t exist, there are some moments in life that you just can’t explain. These Redditors came together to share their eeriest experiences—and they’re so creepy, they’re impossible to forget.
1. Two-Faced
Nearly a decade and a half ago, I this extremely unsettling experience while working at a gas station. One day, I observed a young couple getting slushies from the back of the store. I was startled when the teenage boy glanced towards the cash register. The reason? It seemed like he had a significant facial disfigurement. But then it started to get really weird. When he turned towards his girlfriend, his profile appeared entirely normal. At first, I thought I was going crazy.
But then, they both strolled to the front of the store, and to my horror, the boy's face looked distorted again, like some king of terrifying gargoyle. I threw glances towards the girl, hoping she might notice too, but she seemed oblivious. Eerily, every time he faced her, his features normalized. I promise you, his distorted face looked as shocking as a Halloween mask — an expression it seemed impossible for anyone to pull.
It still haunts my mind to this day. As our interaction concluded, and as he completed his payment and looked at me, a sharp pang of animosity surged from within me, tangible like an entity. It seemed like I had imbibed a goblet brimming with pure resentment. Once they left, the shop returned to normalcy. To this day, the experience remains inexplicably perplexing for me.
2. The Twilight Zone
In the '80s, my aunt won a whopping $14 million in the lottery. She used her winnings to build her dream house on a huge plot of land. While she no longer owns the house today, it's still standing, remodeled by its current owners. Sadly, my uncle, the one who bought her the ticket, died from a sudden heart attack in 2000. The grief was too much for my aunt, leading her to leave her once-dream-home, which then remained vacant for over ten years.
Before the house was sold, my cousins and I, our dads, uncles, and a family friend went there to retrieve family mementos and reflect on some good old memories. It was no easy task, by the way, due to the complete lack of utilities and overgrowth inside the home as it had been vacant for years.
Strange noises kept us awake until 4 in the morning which I now suspect were signs of the old, large house falling apart. To lighten the mood, we decided to gather around a fire in the backyard, share farewells, and then head home.
There were four levels in the house, two above ground and two below, each with an exit to the backyard. As we made our way up from the lowest basement to the yard, my older cousin's friend, B, had to go back downstairs to retrieve something he forgot.
After a considerable wait and no sight of B, concerns began to rise. My dad and uncle went to check on him but returned with no news. The situation took an even worse turn when we realized all doors were locked before we exited, except the one we used. This left us no clue about B's whereabouts. We decided to wait, all eyes on the basement door.
Suddenly, B called my older cousin, and revealed something so disturbing, it's impossible to forget: He was at his house, which was well over 40 miles away. This chilling revelation filled the silence around the fire and stirred the air with an unsettling dread.
Then, something even stranger happened. Amidst the unbearable silence, a loud sound rumbled that felt like a colossal generator shutting down. The uncles, who were laughing a moment ago, froze in the middle of what they were doing. They went silent with faces locked in what looked like stifled laughter. My dad and older cousin started shaking them, genuinely scared.
Before long, we retreated to the safety of our car, locked ourselves in, and anxiously waited for the others. After a while, they came uphill toward us without uttering a word, which made the experience even more hair-raising.
On the way back home, my dad warned us never to speak of this mysterious night. He insisted, several times, that there are some realities we should accept as unexplainable. Since then, although my cousin and I discuss it quite regularly, we've never had the courage to reopen the topic with the others. The one time we did, the unnerved reactions we received made us decide to never press about it again.
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3. A Double-Edged Sword
My buddy Ian and I were spending a few days at my granddad's beach house on Cape Cod. On the third night, we began our evening with a few drinks, which extended past midnight. We were pleasantly buzzed – no more than that, really – and stepped out into the chill for a final smoke. Along the way, we noticed a collection of blades on my grandfather's garage wall.
Blame it on the buzz or the thrill of youth, but we thought: "Why not have a sword fight?" Safe idea, right? We grabbed a couple of swords and started play fighting then and there. After a while, our pretend battle led us onto the main road. Mission: Ridiculously fun night.
That's when things took a strange turn. Our light-hearted duel started to feel more like a real fight. Suddenly, we were immersed in an intense clash. While it's unclear what triggered this shift, we found ourselves in the middle of a fierce battle. It escalated quickly, and then I scored an unexpected victory.
In a shocking and unplanned move, I managed to strike Ian. He turned deathly pale and I released my sword in total surprise. I stood in stunned silence... but my sword had pierced Ian. I couldn't wrap my head around what had just happened.
After what felt like an eternity of uncontrolled anxiety, I ran to ask for help. Alerting my grandfather to call 911, I dashed back to Ian, waiting together until the police and ambulance rolled in. Following the first assessment on site, we both were rushed to the hospital. There, we were separated, and while Ian was attended, I was left in limbo.
Several nerve-wracking hours later, a doctor and a cop showed up to go over the unfortunate news; Ian hadn't made it, with widespread internal bleeding and a damaged liver. Shell-shocked, I went outside and lit up, trying to process the reality. But then a man showed up and asked for a light.
Turning towards the man, I couldn't believe my eyes – it was Ian. Mirroring my confusion, he asked me, "You alright, man?" We were back on the main road, swords still in our hands. Taking a puff, I instinctively fought back when he took a swipe and we made our way back home. I didn't recount the horrifying visions I'd seen to him until years down the line, which he dismissed as a joke.
We often have a laugh about it now, he jokingly labels me "the swordsman" every time we hang out. And that's my odd glitch.
4. Blink And You’ll Miss It
Eight years back, I lived alone with two cats in my two-bedroom apartment. I was seeing a girl, let's call her Elsa for now, who was living on her college campus about 45 minutes away. She would often spend her weekends at my place, coming in by Friday and leaving on Monday morning, due to our resident-school distance.
Now, imagine this: it's Saturday, around 11 pm. Elsa and I are plopped on my couch, engrossed in a movie, which one exactly, I can't recall. Earlier, we had slept in a little, so we were very awake, fully dressed, and stone-cold sober. We were laughing, chatting, and sharing a good time, with my TV lighting up the room, while I had the kitchen light on for a little more ambiance.
My cats were comfortably asleep on their favorite chair, all appeared normal. That's when “The Jump” suddenly happened. You know how in movies, they smoothly switch cam shots between dialogues, and you barely notice it? That's how sudden it was.
We were having an easy-going moment, then out of the blue, I found myself sitting at the base of my bed, no clothing, surrounded by darkness. For a moment, thoughts raced through my mind. Was I hit by something? Had I had a seizure? Was it all a really weird dream? Where was Elsa?
Then came the disturbing part. Turning right, I found Elsa, equally unclothed, next to me. We were both scared out of our wits, to the point I couldn't even form a full sentence. Eventually, after surveying our situation and realizing we were safe, she managed to ask me what had happened. Neither of us had any memory of what transpired.
In fact, aside from our immense fear and puzzlement, there were no other signs of anything unusual. No injuries, no aches, no signs of foul play. I then decided to check the time on my phone, and to my surprise, four hours had inexplicably passed, it was 3 am.
I found our house completely shut down, everything was off. We decided to visit the ER, where no signs of toxins or injuries were found. Elsa even had a CAT scan, but it came out normal too. I considered all possibilities: a gas leak, poison in our food or drink, even neurological issues, but nothing added up.
What really unnerved me was how we both jumped forward in time evenly, four hours to be exact. We both had precisely the same experience. It was quite a conundrum, one I couldn't stop thinking about or discussing with Elsa, even if it frightened her. I scoured the internet for clues but got no closer to understanding that surreal occurrence, and it continues to haunt us. Yet, I still wonder, what exactly happened to us?
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5. Road To Nowhere
When I was 19, I had a car, but I haven't driven since that one night. I can't risk it. That night, I was trying to get home from a friend's place out in the country, and I had to navigate these back country roads. Night driving wasn't my strong suit, so getting lost wasn't a surprise.
I attempted to use Google Maps, but my 3G coverage was nonexistent. Feeling like I was headed the wrong way, just a gut feeling, I pulled over to figure things out. It was May, but when I stepped out, it was unexpectedly freezing. The weather had been mild, even brisk at night all that week.
As soon as I stepped out, something felt off. Not only was it unseasonably cold, but the forest below the hill where my car was parked had vanished. In its place were four large houses, unlike any I'd seen in the area. They had domed roofs with skylights and entryways resembling classic igloos. Panic set in, and I tried calling my dad, forgetting about the lost coverage. Then, I heard a voice below.
Looking down, a guy with a dog was standing in one of the front lawns, speaking in a language that sounded almost alien to me—elongated vowels and weird "chirping." Dumbfounded, I was considering desperate measures to wake up back in my car. Fully awake, freezing, and panicked, I retreated to my car and drove for a few more minutes before passing an utterly unfamiliar vehicle.
This car had a strange symbol on the windshield, lights accenting the chassis, no outboard mirrors, and made an inexplicable slithering sound. As it passed, the driver seemed to notice my different car, slowing down as I did. That was enough for me.
I pulled over seconds after it passed, took deep breaths, turned off my car, and sat for a while. Eventually, I mustered the courage to step out again. This time, it was barely cool, and I recognized my surroundings. I was only a 20-minute drive from home.
Walking down the road, I saw a familiar billboard in the distance. Afraid that getting back in my car might trigger another change, I decided to stay outside. To be safe, I thought of opening the car door and grabbing the flashlight from the driver's side door compartment.
Walking back, the car was gone. I hadn't looked back after shutting the door, and I considered that I might have forgotten its position. I walked back, but no car. I checked my phone; hours had passed, so I called my friend, who picked me up.
I fed him a made-up story about the car breaking down on a different route through the woods, and I decided to walk home. He laughed, called me foolish, and agreed to help me look for the car the next day. We spent most of the day searching, but my dad eventually gave up, reported it stolen, and to this day, the car hasn't been found. I firmly believe it's on the side of the road in an alternate dimension or parallel universe.
6. 23 Years In One Night
Alright, here are some details to start with: I'm a 22-year-old currently serving in the Marine Corps. One night, I experienced a dream that was so vivid, it felt more like an actual memory. It kicked off with me waking up and living out my day-to-day life, routine and all, and days just kept passing by one after another.
In this "dream", I end my time in the Marines and pursue college. I pop the question to my girlfriend of eight years, tie the knot a year later, and nine months afterward we welcome our son, Timothy. It's one of the happiest periods in my life. I'm attending school and making a living as a Lyft driver. With my VA benefits, we're managing to live quite comfortably. My wife has a small part-time job which helps too.
Fast forward about two years and we're expecting again! This time, we're blessed with twins - Johnathan (John) Matthew and Gracelyn (Grace) Marie. As they come into the world, I’m wrapping up my degree with just one semester to go. We're able to scrape together enough to move from our two-bedroom apartment and secure a nice four-bedroom house using the VA home loan.
After finishing school, I become a pastor. The days continue to roll by. The first significant milestone is Tim graduating high school and enlisting in the Marine Corps, just like me. John, the academic, graduates with honors and gets into a trade school to become a mechanic. Grace, despite our advice against it, gets married right after she finishes school.
As supportive parents, we respect her decision and I have the honor of walking her down the aisle. Not long afterward, I become a grandpa. Holding my grandson is as magical as holding my own child for the first time. Fast forward to 2042, my daughter is pregnant with her second kid. One day, when she's seven months along, I go to sleep and then... I really wake up.
Can you imagine my shock when I find myself back in my 20s, and it's 2019? I've never felt such profound loss, realizing that the family I cherished was all but a dream.
7. Don’t Wake The Baby
This morning, I wrecked my car, and I felt so silly. Here's how it went down: I was going up a hill, and there was a truck with a trailer turning ahead of me. I was a good distance behind, but I slowed down because the truck was moving at a snail's pace. Just as I decided to speed up, the truck abruptly stopped, leaving the trailer blocking the road.
I hit the brakes hard, trying to stop, but I ended up sliding into the trailer. The next moments were a bit fuzzy, but I recall seeing the front of my car crash into the Mansfield bar as the trailer came through my windshield. The whole thing lasted only a few seconds, but I knew my car had gone under the end of the trailer, knocking the bar loose.
I saw it swing into my windshield, hitting me in the face. The next thing I remember is the metal slamming into my face, and I could taste blood. My face hurt, and my two-year-old in the back seat was screaming. Despite my intense pain, I had to make sure he was okay. I reclined my seat enough to twist around and check on him.
Luckily, he was securely buckled in his car seat, showing no signs of injury. He was just scared, having been asleep a few minutes earlier. When he saw my face, he screamed louder and cried even more. He kept yelling “Mommy!” “Mommy!” in between sobs. The last thing I recall is hearing the guy I hit calling for an ambulance. As I drifted off, I could hear my baby screaming, but I didn't have the strength to get to him.
Suddenly, I woke up in a panic, and my eyes shot open as I hit the trailer again. However, this time was different. The trailer twisted and swung in the opposite direction, throwing a riding lawnmower into a ditch.
When the car came to a stop, I turned around, and my two-year-old was still asleep in the back seat. I felt confused and scared, thinking I might be stuck in a loop of crashing into the trailer. It sounds silly, but that was my first conclusion. I sat there bewildered until I heard the guy I hit urging me to say something or he'd call 9-1-1.
I turned to him and assured him I was fine. Not a scratch on me, and my little one was peacefully sleeping. This time, things were different. Instead of hitting the center of my car directly, I hit the driver's side of the other vehicle. I wasn't injured at all, not even a scratch. Previously, my face had been hit, and I felt pains in different parts of my body.
There were other vehicles behind me, and the usual post-accident procedures took place. Law enforcement was called, and they started sorting things out. A lady in the car behind me eventually came out and offered us to sit in her car until everything was done. I declined, but she asked if I was sure I was okay.
Then, she said something that sent shivers down my spine. She said she thought I'd be hurt because she saw the trailer come through my windshield—just like the first time. When she looked at the front of my car and saw my windshield intact, she was also dumbfounded. I don't know if this was a glitch, divine intervention, or just a coincidence.
Did my mind fill in the blanks, making her perceive the accident differently than what actually happened? I'm not sure, but I'm incredibly grateful that my baby and I are both unharmed.
8. Well, I’ll Be A Monkey’s Father
I've got a son, just 10 months old. He's an awesome little guy, just starting to crawl and explore. Tonight, after his bedtime bottle, he fell asleep on a big pillow in our living room. I picked him up and tucked him into his crib down the hallway before letting the dog out and settling in for some TV time before bed.
My dog decided to retire to my bedroom for the night, and after about an hour, I turned off the TV. That's when I noticed my son, asleep on the same pillow as before. Since there's no way he's crawling around that quickly yet, I figured I must have missed it earlier.
I gently picked him up, tucked him snug on my left shoulder, closed the front window, and made my way back down the hall to his room. But when I walked in the room, I noticed something odd in the soft glow of the nightlight- my son was already in his crib fast asleep. It took a moment to grasp what was happening.
How was he on my shoulder and in his crib at the same time? My surprise was soon amplified by my dog's puzzled bark from behind. I looked down and realized I was holding his monkey toy, not my son. Mind you, I'm pretty sure I can tell the difference between a 25 lb boy and a 1 lb toy!
I've checked for carbon monoxide, the windows were all open, and I've only had a single drink tonight. The oddest part is that my big black lab won't leave my son's room now. It's seriously perplexing me.
9. An About Face
Something extremely bizarre happened today and it really threw me for a loop. Earlier, I had an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat doctor because I had a sore throat. At the end of my half hour appointment, I was sitting across from the doctor while she wrote my prescriptions. We were interrupted by a knock on the door, and without waiting for an answer, a man walked in.
He was a tall man with a slight slouch, probably in his 30s or 40s, with thinning blond hair. He was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. I figured he was the next patient and was just eager to get his appointment started, so I gave him a quick look before going back to the doctor. The doctor asked him to wait outside and said she'd be with him in a few minutes, and then went back to writing.
The man didn't leave right away though. Rather, he stood silently in the doorway for several more seconds. Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw something odd. There was something weird happening with his face that wasn't there before. I couldn't see clearly, so I took another look.
Trying to explain what I saw is really hard. The best way I can describe it is like a glitch effect you'd see in a corrupted video. The man's face was now a blend of different shades of pink, distorted and almost pixelated. I only got a brief look though, because he quickly turned and left the room.
As he was leaving, in profile, his face looked as flat and featureless as a Lego figurine's face. It was such a weird and unexpected sight that it took a minute for it to sink in. I initially thought maybe I was just tired or it was some kind of visual trick.
But then I locked eyes with the doctor. She stopped writing, holding her pen midair, and asked me tentatively, "Did you see it? His face..." "Yeah," I replied. And that was it, we didn't talk about it anymore. She went back to filling out my paperwork and I went home, feeling a bit dizzy. When I was leaving, I saw the man in the hallway on his phone. From what I could see, his face had returned to normal.
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10. Just Another Manic Monday
Around four or five years back, I had a job at Little Caesars Pizza. Normally, I'd be inside making pizzas. But, we'd launched a new special, 'Monday Madness' - pizzas for just $4 on Mondays. So, they needed someone to spread the word, and being the lively and quirky metalhead that I am, I volunteered to wave a sign around every Monday to drum up some business for the store. It wasn't glamorous work, but I enjoyed it.
One Monday, while doing my sign-waving routine, I saw a van speeding directly towards me. It hopped the curb and crashed into me, pressing me against the control box for the streetlights. As the traffic lights turned off in a blink, I passed out. When I came to, I was still at the corner and everything was normal. There was no sign of the van - but that isn't where this story ends.
I was shaken and decided to head back to the store for a break. I had barely walked 15 feet from the spot when I heard a loud crash. I turned around - a van had hopped the curb and crashed into the electrical box, causing the traffic lights to turn off. Needless to say, I took the rest of the day off. This eerie event is still vivid in my memory even now.
11. Nine Lives, Two Stories
Back when I was in high school, my little sister, mom, and I had a tradition of having dinner together every night and sharing stories about our day. At the time, my sister was still a youngster in elementary school. One Monday during summer vacation, we were having our usual dinner chat when my sister recounted an incident about how she and our next-door neighbors spent an entire day searching for their new cat that had slipped away outdoors.
Fast forward to two days later, during our routine dinnertime catch-up, my sister repeats the exact same cat story from Monday. Both my mom and I exchanged puzzled looks, because we clearly remembered hearing this tale before. So, when we asked my sister if she was confusing the days, considering she had shared this story just two days ago, she stared back at us with an expression of total bewilderment, unable to recall ever mentioning it.
This is where it gets spooky - on reaching out to our neighbors to verify the cat incident, they confirmed that the whole episode had actually occurred that day, Wednesday, and that they weren't even home on Monday.
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12. Down The Rabbit Hole
When I was little, my mom used to take me along for her gynecological check-ups in downtown Austin. Her doctor's office was tucked away on the fifth floor of a hospital building. The waiting room was a delight, adorned with illustrations of a forest scene. As a kid, it was like embarking on an adventure every time we visited.
One special woman we always looked forward to seeing was Alison, the longtime nurse and receptionist. She had such a warm personality that all of us kids fondly referred to her as Alison Wonderland. She was a part-time babysitter for us. She'd read books, get us coloring books, and patiently sit through our silly knock-knock jokes.
Fast forward a few years, I became an adult, got married, moved back to Austin, and found out I was pregnant. Now I needed an OB/GYN of my own. I remembered that doctor my mother used to see, who was fairly young when I was born. So, I decided to try and find him.
My mom happened to be in town; she had moved a while back and decided to accompany me. As we circled back to those old office visits, the roles had reversed. Funnily enough, the journey was so reminiscent of the old days in so many ways.
However, this familiar trip hit a roadblock. To our surprise, there was no fifth floor in the hospital building anymore. We brushed it off as a memory lapse. Maybe it was the fourth floor, we thought. But no, the doctor's office was not there either. We even entertained the thought of walking into the wrong building. But that wasn't the case; we had taken the same path from the same old parking garage as before.
It was as if that doctor, and dear Alison Wonderland, had vanished entirely. Strangely enough, my mom, brother, and I possess these shared memories, but no one else remembers them, not even the hospital staff. We even checked our newer issued birth certificates, but they only read "Attending physician." It's absurd but true, one of our shared childhood memories cannot be corroborated. It seems like they never existed.
13. Weekend Warriors
When I was 19, and in a relationship with Alan, my high school boyfriend, my best friend Jill, Alan and I planned a weekend adventure. We had a history of going on trips together, as Jill and I worked at a medical equipment company and often came up with exciting ideas for the weekend. So, the plan was simple, we decided to drop by Alan’s place on Friday, sleep over then embark on our trip early Saturday.
The day arrived, and after finishing work, Jill and I grabbed our guitars and backpacks and headed to Alan's. Chatting, gaming, strumming guitars, and filling ourselves with pizza took us till midnight. We then decided it was time to rest up for our early start. Jill took a spot on Alan’s living room futon, while Alan and I withdrew to his room.
I was up bright and early, nudging Jill awake around 7am, reminding her we had adventure to start. After a brief period of preparations, we found ourselves snug in Alan's '92 Ford Taurus, set to take off.
That’s when things took a strange turn. Our next memory was of Jill and I backing out of Alan's driveway, later that day. It was 6:30 pm. I couldn’t remember anything about our adventure, and slowly, as we stared into each other’s baffled eyes, we realized we shared the same blank memory.
The logical thing to do was to check with Alan, so we drove back inside his yard. Seeing Alan with an equally puzzled look confirmed our suspicion: none of us remembered anything beyond backing out of his driveway. We tried to piece together the day's activities, but none of us could recollect a thing. The disturbing part was, neither of us remembered what was supposed to be our planned adventure.
Ultimately, we had to settle at accepting this as a form of 'abduction'. We've referred to it as such ever since, though it's still as puzzling now as it was feeling traumatizing then. Almost eerily, the topic now gets casually mentioned in our conversations, despite none of us having an explanation or recollection of what really happened that day.
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14. In The Eye Of The Storm
When I was 13, my dad and I went through something that still messes with my perception of reality. It went down on a summer afternoon between softball games. My sister and I had both made all-star teams, and she was in the middle of a game. Mom stayed with her while Dad took me home to change and grab a quick bite between a doubleheader.
The softball field was less than a mile away, just a three-minute drive. But during those three minutes, the sky went from sunny to a seriously ominous, dark gray. Now, we're in Rhode Island, where weather changes more frequently than most folks change underwear. Still, it was weird. I don't recall driving into a storm cloud or understanding how it got so dark so quickly—it just did.
Dad mentioned the possibility of a thunderstorm postponing my second game because of the threatening weather. Another odd thing was that our street, a usually bustling dead-end with cars parked everywhere, looked deserted when we pulled in. Each neighbor had their designated spot, but this time, it felt unusually bare.
I went inside to change and grab a sandwich while Dad checked his work email downstairs. I headed back out, and the dark cloud cover made going back to the field seem pointless. While munching on my sandwich, I got this eerie feeling. I glanced to my left and saw a massive tornado heading down the street toward me. I watched in disbelief as my neighbor's gutter flew off, and shingles ripped away. Tornadoes weren't a thing where we lived, and I was probably in shock.
The next thing I knew, Dad grabbed me and pulled me inside, yelling. We rushed down to the basement, and the chaos ensued. Dad swore, tried to call Mom, and I sat there, struggling to comprehend what just happened. When Dad reached Mom, she said there were no storm clouds, but she pulled my sister from the game and warned everyone at the ballfield. The game stalled, confusion reigned, and we heard nothing from the basement.
After the longest five minutes of my life, Dad returned, pale as a ghost, telling me it was gone. I headed upstairs, and I immediately noticed the sun was out. Stepping outside, the cars were back in their spots, and my neighbor's house was perfectly fine. No local news reports, no one else saw it—even two neighbors, who claimed they were home the whole time. It wasn't a small tornado; it couldn't have materialized and disappeared so quickly. Dad avoids talking about it, and when he does, he brushes it off as a freak incident confined to our road.
He noticed the same oddities, like the suddenly reappeared cars and the magically repaired neighbor's house. He's not the open-minded type, and the cognitive dissonance makes him uneasy. I don't push him too hard, but it's clear he's disturbed by the whole thing. Reliving it still gives me the creeps and seriously makes me question reality.
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15. Throw In The Towel
So, this is a very odd thing that happened to us last night, involving a towel and our bathroom. I was in our bedroom, getting a load of laundry together in a rush. We have a bathroom attached to our bedroom. It's located in the far-left back corner and there's a small hallway that leads to it. There is only one door in and out of the bathroom. There are no closets or windows in there.
We also have a walk-in closet located in the same hallway, adjacent to the bathroom, which you pass on your left-hand side before getting to the bathroom door. My husband entered the bedroom doorway, which is nowhere near the bathroom door. You have to walk into the bedroom, and across the room to the back in order to get to it. He asked me if there was anything I needed to do in the bathroom, as he was going to be taking a shower.
I quickly told him no and heard him close the bathroom door behind him. A few moments later, I took the hamper a short distance to the laundry room and set it down when I realized I had forgotten to grab some facial towels from the tub in our bathroom. Without even thinking about it, I quickly rushed back into our bedroom and towards the bathroom.
The door was open, so I simply walked in, reached into the tub to get the used facial towels. I also grabbed a towel that had been hanging from the shower curtain rod. Afterward, I walked into our walk-in closet to retrieve the hamper of dark items. I was ready to walk out of the bedroom with said items when it hit me. Wait. Wasn't he just taking a shower in there a few moments ago?
I didn't remember him passing me and it would have been a very quick shower, which is not like him. He always takes long, steaming hot showers. I set the items down, called out for him from the bedroom doorway, but didn't get a response. We have an open-concept layout so it's fairly difficult to not notice someone entering a room, but it happens.
I walked towards the bathroom again and, sure enough, the door was closed and the shower was running. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. I was trying to retrace it all, maybe he had passed me? Though, any possible explanation was refuted. He wasn't in the bedroom when I walked in, he wasn't in the bathroom when I walked in, and he wasn't in the walk-in closet when I walked in, either.
I couldn't have walked into the bathroom without seeing him, if he was in there. He wasn't in the shower, and the shower was off, curtains pushed to the side when I had retrieved the facial towels. He couldn't have passed me after I had left the bathroom, to go into the bathroom, shut the door, and turn on the shower without me noticing. There wasn't anywhere for him to hide, either.
Another thing that was strange to me, when I began to analyze it, I couldn't recall the mirror being fogged up or the bathroom being steamy when I entered it, as it usually was. I was sitting on our bed, waiting for him to come out so I could ask him. Then, I heard him yell out for me. I walked up to the bathroom door and asked him what was wrong. He said he needed a towel.
There were no other towels in the bathroom, either. I gave him a towel, then he dried himself off and got dressed. I asked about it, and he assured me that he had not left the bathroom. He was in there the whole time. He said he walked into the bedroom, saw me getting the laundry together, asked me if I needed anything from the bathroom, when I said no he walked into the bathroom, closed and locked the door behind him, and proceeded to take a shower.
He did think it was very strange because he was absolutely certain that he had set his towel on the curtain rod, though when he turned around to grab it, it was suddenly gone. My husband was in the bathroom, then he wasn't, but then he was, all at the same time, and I took his towel.
16. Aladdin’s Lamp
During my final college semester, I had a brush with death thanks to a football player not watching where he was going. While I was unconscious, I led an alternate life. I met a fantastic girl who made my heart flutter and brought a blush to my cheeks. After trying to win her over for months, and dealing with a few not-so-nice boyfriends, she was finally mine.
Two years later we got married and shortly after, she gave us a beautiful daughter. I had a great job, enabling my wife to stay at home. When our daughter turned two, we welcomed a son. He became my little sunshine, and I loved doting on both him and my daughter each day.
One day, an odd shift in perspective caught my attention—I couldn't stop staring at a lamp. It seemed 3D, but not in the usual way. Increasingly obsessed, I stopped going to work, eating or drinking. Even the bathroom became pointless.
After three days of my strange obsession, my wife, now very worried, tried to get me help. As my sense of reality started slipping, she safely relocated our kids to her mom's house. Then came the shattering realization: The lamp wasn't real, neither was the house, my wife nor my kids. The past ten years hadn't been real!
This revelation seemed to distort my vision further—the lamp expanded, smothering everything else in sight until all I saw was red. I heard random noises, felt excruciating pain and then mumbled, "I'm missing teeth" before finally regaining consciousness.
I woke up on a sidewalk, surrounded by strangers, utterly bewildered. An officer lifted me, rushed me across the sidewalk and into his car, which was less confusing than being left on the sidewalk but still pretty disorientating. He took me to the hospital to check on my injuries.
The following three years were a battle with depression. I mourned the loss of my wife and kids, forced to face the fact they weren't real. The fear of losing my sanity became overwhelming, as I'd cry myself to sleep, hoping to dream of them. Although I never dreamt of her, sometimes, I'd catch a fleeting glimpse of my son in the corner of my eye, forever five years old and just out of earshot.
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17. Sleep Paralysis Meets Lucid Dreaming
When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I struggled with gnarly sleep paralysis. One night, I crawled into bed and, in the dead of night, I felt the familiar onset of an episode. But, something was seriously off - it was clear as day that there was a shadowy form of an adult sitting at the foot of my bed. I understand this is a common perception among folks dealing with sleep paralysis, where your brain dives into defense mode due to the situation at hand.
Experiencing hallucinations becomes the norm. But the thing that still gives me the creeps about that night is what unfolded next. I somehow drifted back to sleep and found myself dreaming of the very same scenario, but this time I could move, I could use my voice. Panicked, I went haywire, tossing everything around the room, kicking and shouting.
The shadowy figure rose from the bed, swung open the door, and left. When I woke up the next morning, a chill washed over me. My room looked like a tornado had hit, with bedclothes strewn about and the door ajar, a sight that would usually unsettle me. There was always something about that dream that felt alarmingly real. It's been over 20 years but the memory is as fresh as if it were yesterday.
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18. Don’t Chase Your Own Tail
About six years ago, when I was 14 years old, I was walking through the small trails throughout my parents’ property that we lived on at the time. This was a regular thing I used to do because I had just moved into the area and there was all sorts of old-fashioned farm equipment and old shacks in the woods on the property. My parents were pretty wealthy and they had purchased well over 100 acres of land.
There were even a few streams that ran through there as well. It was sometime in the afternoon that I was walking on this narrow path and I noticed a golden retriever run out into the path in front of me from out of the brush. I was curious, considering I didn’t have a dog and there were not any neighbors within around five miles of the property.
It began to bark, and stopped in its tracks, looking at me with a very agitated look. A few moments later, a man around 19-20 years old comes running out of the brush and stops in his tracks and looks really confused to see me and yells, "Hey, what are you doing here?" and starts to chase me. I instantly sprint as fast as I can back to my house.
I didn't have any intent of looking back at him but I heard him yelling "HEY WAIT" and the voice sounded eerily familiar. Eventually, halfway through the thickly wooded thicket, I couldn't hear his voice anymore and he didn't seem to be following me. However, that didn't stop me from getting back to my house as fast as possible.
I told my parents this and my stepfather actually went and retrieved the rifle from his safe and proceeded to go look for this guy for an hour or so before basically finding no evidence of this happening. I actually got grounded for this, because they thought I was lying, and my parents being very strict basically assumed it was just another tall tale from their rebellious child.
Now that you've made it through this part of the story, this is where it starts to get absolutely weird. Around five weeks ago I visited my parents’ house with my girlfriend and her golden retriever Bentley. The first few hours of the visit went just fine. I talked with family, had some drinks, enjoyed being at home for a change instead of working my daily 9-5 shifts. It was nice.
I stepped out to let the dog out and to smoke, and for no reason, Bentley decides to dash into the woods full speed. As fast as I could, I ran out after him into the thick woods and eventually actually lost track of him. It wasn't until about five minutes of walking into the woods that I heard him barking at something.
I quickly ran to the sound and found him no more than 15 feet away from a kid playing in the woods. I looked at him confused, and said, "Hey, what are you doing here!" I start to walk towards him, and the kid booked it as fast as he could and ran through a thicket of brush and literally completely vanished. I've never experienced something like this.
During the moment, I actually had no idea, but the kid was wearing the exact same clothes I used to wear as a 14-year-old. I've told my girlfriend about this and even she thinks I’m insane, but it actually happened and I can’t explain it. Anyway, that's the story about the day I chased my past self.
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19. Lights Out
Just before Christmas, my partner and I were each doing our thing at home. I got thirsty and headed to the kitchen for a drink. It was dark, so I tried to turn on the light but instead flicked it off. When it didn't come back on, I just figured the bulb was burnt out.
"Hey, could you buy a new light bulb when you're out later?" I called to my partner, but my message got lost in our house's layout. So she came to ask what I meant. I was surprised by her question – the kitchen only has one light source besides the fridge.
I explained that our kitchen lamp was the problem. "But it's working perfectly," she replied, seeing light where I saw darkness. She started giving me odd looks, like I'd lost my mind a bit.
She kept switching the light on and off, and while I saw no change, she insisted it was working fine. I started to think she was playing a trick on me and asked her to stop messing around and just get a new bulb. But she insisted the lamp was okay.
Increasingly sure she was pulling my leg, I proposed a test: I'd take before-and-after photos of the light with my phone. If she was right and one of the photos showed the light on, I'd do anything she asked for a week.
Starting to look a little freaked out, she agreed, so I took the pictures. The preview image on my phone's camera showed a lit room, even though I couldn't see any light. We repeated the test a few times, always with the same results. She saw light; I saw dark.
She became thoroughly unnerved and wanted me to call an ambulance or mental health hotline. She kept asking how I felt, if anything else seemed off, but other than my surprise, I felt completely fine.
For a moment, I questioned my sanity but realized everything else seemed normal. It was an utterly bizarre situation – we were both right there, sharing the moment, but our experiences differed in that one crucial way.
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20. Living In The McFuture
A couple of hours ago, I found myself deep in a coding frenzy when my stomach wouldn't stop rumbling. Realizing I needed a quick bite, I opted for the nearest spot in the western United States—good old McDonald’s. Despite being undressed and unwashed, I figured a swift drive-thru run wouldn’t hurt.
I got up from my computer, leashed up my dog, and hit the road. With my furry companion in the car, I noticed a bit of lingering daylight as the sun dipped behind the mountains, prompting the need for headlights. Winding through my neighborhood, I observed streetlamps flickering off as I passed beneath them and coming back on afterward, which struck me as odd.
Thinking it might be a mere coincidence, I continued on. However, as I reached one of the last turns to exit the neighborhood, an inexplicable wave of...something...washed over me as I pulled up to a stop sign. My dog whimpered, hiding in the back seat with fur on end. It felt like passing through a thick sheet of static electricity, accompanied by a loud feedback noise in my head and momentary blurriness. During this, my car stalled.
After restarting the engine, I proceeded to the main road, only to notice stark differences. The streets, usually black, now had a bright white iridescence. Streetlights on the medians were replaced by trees. Despite the bizarre scenery, McDonald’s was still close by, visible in a different, larger building.
I started to drive towards it—and this is where it gets really strange. My dog seemed to adapt better to the changes, happily sticking her head out the window. Approaching the only stoplight, I encountered a car with a logo I’d never seen—a silver circle with a silver Sicilian eagle bearing the letter "G." The model was labeled "Vapor," adding another layer of oddity to the experience.
Reaching McDonald’s, I faced an LCD-driven drive-thru menu featuring looped gifs of people enjoying meals. My usual order was there, albeit $2 more expensive. Paying with my credit card raised confusion, leading to an unusual gadget resembling a blood pressure monitor. Opting for cash, I handed over $20, only to receive a cash voucher valued at $11.26.
At the next window, after a brief wait, the worker handed me my bag of food. I inadvertently placed the receipt in it. Suddenly, he realized he forgot my fries and requested the bag back. This became the most unsettling part of the experience.
As he stammered through a sentence, glitching like a malfunctioning video game, I felt the familiar wave of electricity. My dog whimpered again, and the feedback noise returned. When my eyes adjusted, I found myself in a familiar parking lot, facing the usual McDonald’s.
Baffled, I went through the drive-thru again, noting the absence of my $20 and the mysterious cash voucher. As I drove back home, my mind buzzed with the inexplicable journey I had just undertaken.
21. Wheel Of Fortune
On July 15, 2013, at about 7:45 AM, I was on my way to work, approaching the intersection and getting ready to take a left-hand turn. This is a notoriously dangerous intersection on any day, and there have been many accidents there. It is hard to see if the intersection is clear from the right and the left turn is particularly hazardous.
I was running late and in a flustered state of mind. I looked to the right and believed that I had correctly viewed that nothing was approaching from the right, so I made the left turn. As I crossed the intersection, I glanced right once more and saw a vehicle heading straight for me at what could only have been in excess of 90 miles per hour. We saw each other.
I saw the look of sheer terror in the other guy’s eyes. We were that close. A collision was absolutely inevitable. There is no way on this earth that it could have been avoided. What happens next is EXTREMELY difficult to describe, but I will do my best. Across from the front of the car on the left, in almost the opposite direction to the oncoming vehicle, was a field.
I suddenly became aware of a very large “object” approaching slowly on a diagonal across this field. It was coming directly towards my car. Time was not functioning normally while this was happening, if it was functioning at all. I had the space to notice this happening, but I can’t explain how I was able to do that. The object when I first saw it, appeared to be about the size of a ten-floor tower block.
It subjectively seemed to be about two or three hundred yards across the field. The object resembled a giant waterwheel lying on its side and rotating as it approached me and my vehicle. It got closer. I saw that my first observation about its size was wildly inaccurate. It was more like the size of a small city. As it got closer still, I understood that all scale and distance estimates were meaningless. It was larger than what we think of as the world.
As the object drew near to me, a kind of sensation came over my person. Suddenly, I knew exactly what this thing was. I had seen the object before I was born and I will see it again when I die. We all knew it before we were born. We will all see it when we die. But this information is eclipsed from us while we are alive. And that was why I was seeing it now in the experience, because I was in the process of dying in a fatal car crash.
The wheel WAS reality, itself. It represented EVERY CONCEIVABLE POSSIBILITY for a life or for a world that could ever be envisioned or imagined. As it approached, I became aware that what we call our world was contained within it. It was simply one of the numberless slots or paddles in the “water wheel.” At that moment, the truly terrifying dimension of this experience began.
Words cannot even begin to describe the level of fear I experienced. The water wheel sort of rolled across me and then across the place where my car was in the road. As it did so, I began to be hit by each of the paddles in the wheel. Imagine a film of water being thrown outward from the wheel in each slot, as if by centrifugal force.
Imagine being slapped or splashed by each of these films as you collide with it and pass through it to the next one. This is what was happening. Except these weren’t just films of water. They were (for lack of a better term) possible realities or what we might think of as universes or worlds. Again, our world, our entire universe as we normally think of it, was simply one among an infinite number of these.
The event, or perhaps the imminent event, on the highway had caused me to slip out of or fall between the paddles on the wheel. This structure had some kind of cosmic purpose of sorting things into their correct natural place. I was afraid and resisted being “sorted” so the wheel stepped up its aggressive attempts to “sort” me correctly.
With this came another understanding that frightened me even more. I knew that unless I soon selected one of these realities to slide back into, that the wheel would coerce the situation by deciding for me. I seemed to file or flip through numerous conceivable (quantum?) possibilities for the outcome of the accident. I began to grow extremely panicked.
Each time I thought I was just beginning to get a handle on things, I would be slapped over violently and ruthlessly into a new slot in the wheel. Then, it happened. I found myself back on the highway in what seemed to be a very short distance back up the road, still approaching the intersection.
This is just one of the many mysteries associated with the event that I cannot explain. Did I choose a world that was a version of our universe in which the accident hadn’t quite happened yet, but was just seconds away from happening? I can’t say, because I have no memory of making that decision. I remember the look on that driver’s face as clearly as if it were yesterday. I remember him bracing back on the wheel. But I braked as I reached the intersection and that driver, or his car, were simply nowhere to be seen.
22. Grey’s Abnormality
Just a few hours ago, I was on shift at the hospital where I work as a Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT). On that night, I was responsible for 13 patients, and I've gotten to know them well, as I've cared for them over the past few days.
There was this one 73-year-old lady who was terminally ill. She's a lovely person who I've been treating for four days. We often chat during her treatments and she recognizes me well enough to not mix me up with other staff. Around 1:30 am, I was going to her room for the treatment.
However, as I was enroute, a code came in. Which meant I had to rush to the ER and help with a life-threatening situation. Despite our best efforts, unfortunately, the patient brought in passed away within 25 minutes.
Afterward, I returned to my routine check-up rounds. The first person I went to see was the lady I was on my way to treat earlier. As I walked into her room, she asked me if I had forgotten something. I said that it was time for her treatment, and she responded that I had already given her treatment a few minutes ago.
Obviously, I was taken aback, as I was in the ER at that time. She was adamant that I was the one who treated her and even adjusted her dose as it was making her heart race. Her granddaughter, who was present at the time, also confirmed that I was there earlier. I checked the nursing chart, which had no record of anyone giving the treatment.
I asked the nurse at the desk if she saw anyone entering the room, but she said she only saw me going in. She even claimed that she saw me exiting and heading downstairs after treating her. But that wasn't me, because I was in the ER!
Out of curiosity, I checked with the security guard about the footage recorded at that time. What he found sent a literal chill down my spine. He affirmed that someone resembling me, dressed in the same uniform, had entered her room. But, he couldn't see the face, as I didn't face the camera while entering or leaving.
What's stranger? There's footage of 'me' in the lady's room and 'me' in the ER, all at the same time!
23. This Takes The Cake
This took place about eight months ago. Back then, we lived in a compact apartment with our two little ones and our dog, all while trying to save up for our first home. This happened one ordinary Monday evening around 7 PM. Dinner's done and we'd just tidied up. My husband was browsing the internet and I was laid back on the sofa, perusing a cake mix box, trying to figure out if I could bake it, cool it, frost it, and dig in - all before bedtime.
My husband chuckled at some video online and, following suit, I laughed too... Next thing, WHAM! I was lying facedown on my bed. My clock read 8:00 sharp. My alarm hadn't been set. I was disoriented and smelt an overpowering whiff of coconut. I sprang up to face my husband who was also just emerging from sleep.
His expression mirrored my confusion, and we both dashed to check on our kids. They were sound asleep. Entering the living room, our dog started behaving oddly the moment she saw us, crouching and scooting towards us. Such behavior was unlike her. She had never acted that way, either before or after that day.
Our apartment was as we left it... except for one tiny detail. The cake mix that I was squinting at earlier that night had mysteriously vanished. I turned the place upside down looking for the cake mix, but to no avail. Another perplexing detail was that although we were all dressed for bed when woke up, my youngest son was an anomaly wearing the same jeans and t-shirt from the night before.
It was something neither my husband nor I would have allowed. Yet, we couldn't recall getting ready for bed or anything after sharing that laugh. Realising we were late for work, we both called in sick. We spent the day wracking our brains over the inexplicable event. Finally, my husband posed a question that made my blood cold.
He asked if I too had detected the scent of coconut upon waking. We never traced that peculiar smell. Ever since that day, the sight of a cake mix box or even the mere whiff of coconut induces uneasiness and mild nausea.
24. We Saw It Plane As Day
A couple of years back, my spouse and I were taking a drive through the national forest, roughly an hour away from our hometown, towards a neighboring town. We were on a two-lane highway, ascending a hill, when both of us spotted a large commercial plane ejecting smoke and fire as it plunged towards the forest. It was so nearby that we could see the faces of people through the plane windows.
Frozen in shock, we watched as the plane vanished behind the adjacent hill. Given there were no routes leading in that direction, we hurriedly made our way to the nearby town that was around 20 minutes away. Upon reaching, we inquired from some acquaintances if they heard about the plane accident or if there were any reports.
They looked at us as if we were out of our minds. There was no record of a plane crash, no listed emergencies, nothing. My wife and I spent several hours in deep discussion about what we had each witnessed in detail. We both are certain about the sight of the people in the windows, the release of smoke and flames. The size of the plane was comparable to a 737. Venture around national forests have led us to some uncanny experiences, but this never-seen experience tops the list.
25. Guardian Angel
I was born in 1998 and I have to tell you, this is hands down the oddest thing that's happened to me! Now, I'm not usually much of a dreamer, but when I do, they're really vibrant and stick with me. Like this dream I had. In it, my mom was alone in a shoddy, run-down house with my newborn sis, waiting for my old man to come home.
It was pitch-black outside and Mom was nervously waiting by the door, crossing her fingers that Dad'd show up soon. The modest shack only had a single room lit by four or five flickering candles. I was coolly chatting with her, telling her that everything was going to be fine. Then suddenly, she started thanking me for keeping her company and protecting her.
And then I woke up. I thought it was a strange dream, but just shrugged it off and went about my day. Fast forward three days later. It's Friday, me and my folks are hanging out in our yard around a bonfire and out of the blue, they start joking about how my mom would puncture my dad's bike tires when they lived in Mexico. Now, you should know, they're from Mexico and came to the States in '95.
Naturally, I asked what's that all about and that's when they filled me in. Apparently, back when my sis was born in 1991, they were living in a shabby shack in a less wealthy part of a tiny Mexican town. Dad, always the night owl, would go out on his bike, grab a few drinks and roll back home only the next morning. So my mom, wanting him home, decided to puncture his bike tires. I had a good laugh over that one, but it changed when they added more details.
My mom told me she was scared stiff being in that tiny house alone since it was in a spooky alley, its name translating to 'Alley of the Weeping Woman.' For those who don't know, this weeping woman is a legendary ghost in Mexico who laments for her lost children. You can guess why an alley named after her would give anyone the creeps!
Mom shared how she'd be terrified being alone in that house, fervently praying for my dad to return. Then Dad chimes in with something like, "Why'd you need me? You always had your guardian angel with you." Now that got my attention!
So I egged her on and she told me about this time when she was visited by a man who seemed to materialize out of the wall. Despite the unusual circumstances, she felt safe and comfortable around him. He sat with her, reassured her everything was okay before apparently dematerializing back into the wall. She claims to have felt a comforting calm after this, which eased her fears.
Now this shook me up a bit, considering I only heard of this years after I was born, and after I'd dreamt this exact scenario. Whether it's just an eerie coincidence or something more intriguing, I can't say.
26. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner
Last night, I was chatting with my mom on the phone when she invited me for dinner. It was all going smoothly until she blurted out, "Janet will be there!" I took it as a joke and chuckled, but internally, I found it to be a bit strange. She persisted, saying I hadn't seen Janet in ages and it was about time.
Here's the kicker—Janet passed away last year. She died young due to cancer. I remember clearly as her husband came over, his spirits downcast. While I didn't attend the funeral, it was the talk of the town among my relatives.
I didn't see her body, I didn't visit her grave, and given we weren’t particularly close, I didn't mourn heavily. All the same, the memories of her death are vivid, from the sober conversations with relatives to my mom's disturbed phone call. When I finally confronted my mom, saying, "Janet's no longer with us, what are you saying?" she didn't bat an eye, replying lightheartedly, "She's back!"
When I later questioned my dad, he stared at me, confounded. I couldn't locate an obituary online, but then, I'd never searched for it previously. Sure enough, there sat Janet at dinner that night. Seeing her there gave me the creeps, yet everyone else seemed perfectly fine.
The meal was uneventful, but the odd part was sitting there having dinner with the same relatives who mourned Janet's passing. I was acutely aware of certain aunts who had cried bitterly in the same spot the previous year. Seeing Janet didn't help with the confusion, and my memories from the past year remained intact. The whole situation was just...strangely puzzling.
27. Kentucky Fried Creepy
This happened around eight years back, my two teenage male cousins were staying over at our house for the weekend during their summer break. So instead of going out for a drive, my mom suggested we walk to a KFC in our neighborhood. It was about an hour/hour and a half walk. Later, as we were walking home, we started going through alleyways between houses as a shortcut instead of the main street route.
As we were passing the last alleyway shortcut before continuing back on the main road, I felt a weird sensation, like a faint magnetic pulse waved through me. My mom and cousins later confirmed the same sensation at the same spot. We emerged on the main road and it was completely silent. It was like the world was put on mute and everything seemed very familiar but quite weird at the same time.
The roads/houses looked way older, they had cracks in them and the paint was almost completely faded away or chipped. To our left was a roundabout, which now was completely gone and there were freakishly tall trees in its place. To our right was the road that we had to take to get back to the house, we could see the small grocery store we passed on our way to KFC, yet the neon lights were much brighter and in different colors.
We stood there bewildered by it all. My mom lived in this area before I was born and we can basically navigate blindfolded through it. It's usually alive with people and stray cats 24/7. I thought we can go back and retrace our steps but when we looked back at the alleyway we came from it was PITCH BLACK DARKNESS and it was just emitting creepiness…
My mom just said to keep walking back to the house. We walked for what felt like 30 minutes. It was like we were walking on a treadmill while staring at a large image. We finally started to get closer and I glanced at my watch again and it was 9:32 pm! Two minutes only?!? Even on normal days that distance would take at least 5 minutes if you were walking REALLY fast.
We were joking around to lighten the mood but we were all obviously freaking out but trying to maintain our cool. We made it down two roads and finally reached the house. I had quite a few pet cats then and they usually run up to us when we get back to the house, this time only a few of them were around and they kept a huge distance away from us while standing still and staring at us like they had seen a ghost.
I remember going to my room and sitting on my bed looking out of my window trying to make sense of what happened but I couldn't shake the creepy feeling. The world felt terrible, not a single sound, not even a breeze. The trees were still like rocks and everything had an eerie feeling to it. I looked at my clock again and it was around 9:40/9:45pm…which again, is impossible for the distance we covered.
I forced myself to sleep that night and when I woke up in the morning everything was back to normal. We went out for a drive to backtrack our steps and it was back to normal, everything was clean and new. I can’t explain it.
28. This Split Is Bananas
Just last night, around 11pm, I began prepping for the day ahead. I started packing my gym bag. Fitness is part of my routine; I hit the gym every second day after work. I stuffed my bag with all the essentials and moved to the kitchen to grab a couple of bananas I'd set aside for a post-workout snack. There were four bananas in the bunch. I snapped off two, packed them, and left the pair in the fridge.
Shortly after, while indulging in some YouTube videos, I grew concerned that the bananas would spoil in my bag overnight. So, I unpacked them and returned them to the fridge. To jog my memory in the morning, I scribbled "bananas" on a note and left it on the table. This done, I headed to bed.
The next morning, after my regular bathroom rituals, I marched into the kitchen. My note reminded me to grab the bananas. Picking up the bunch, I was taken aback. They were whole again, seamlessly connected. It felt eerily like the previous night's detachment had been erased. As I split the bananas again, something in me was adamant that this was no ordinary error.
In rapid succession, my mind began eliminating plausible explanations. The final nail in the rationality coffin was the note on the table. This hadn't been a dream. The two bananas had spent a solid 10 minutes in my bag, and now they, inexplicably, were part of the bunch again. It wasn't tape or glue or crafty placement. They were an unbroken bunch.
I scoured the fridge, the apartment – no other fruits lay around. Living alone ruled out any external interference. This is where it gets really freaking creepy: without a doubt, I was sure that I'd stumbled upon a glitch that could only mean one thing – my reality wasn't real.
Strangely, I felt compelled to dismiss this incident as unimportant. It sent a shiver down my spine when I caught myself nonchalantly preparing for work. It was as though there was a force, embedded in my very DNA, urging me to overlook this anomaly. Even as I write this, that force struggles to make me forget. But it's becoming clear to me now: our lives are full of such glitches, and something really wants us to ignore them.
29. About Time
When I was a kid, my folks taught me to greet everyone who visited. I had to firmly shake hands and introduce myself, no exceptions. One night, when I was about 7-8, I'd had a nightmare about aging. I sought comfort from my dad who would usually distract me with Lego.
This time though, there was a stranger in the living room. As I went to say hi, dad just ushered me over to my Legos and started chatting with the guy, totally ignoring me. I didn't get it, but the Legos kept me occupied.
I soon forgot the whole episode and went back to bed. Fast-forward 12 years, I went to bed after a night out with friends, and I began to lucid dream, more vividly than ever.
In the dream, I was grown-up, having a deep chat with dad. He seemed dual-istically upbeat and listened intently. Hearing a young voice call for him, he left the room and returned with a younger me holding a box of Legos. When the kid-me tried to engage, my dream-dad sent him off to play, and we continued our chat about the implications of the butterfly effect. We agreed not to hold these future discussions until little me had dozed off.
Following that, I had a couple of similar dreams where I observed myself from the standpoint of other forgotten characters, having chats about time travel, forward life, and the risk of altering events with my dad. When I woke up, I could've sworn I had experienced time travel or even had a visit from a free-spirited version of the Ghost of Christmas Past.
It took me a whole week to process it, and even now, typing it gives me shudders.
30. International House Of Panic
My folks were vacationing on this tiny island in Florida, where dining options were slim. They were driving around and stumbled upon a restaurant. They noticed the parking lot was scantily populated, which made what they found inside all the more bizarre. Entering the restaurant, they were greeted by a room bustling with people. Everyone paused, gawked, and flashed smiles at them. Every single one of them.
It seemed like they all returned to their contrived conversations, yet kept throwing glances towards my parents. The hostess approached them, flashed a smile, and flatly told them, "Sorry, we're full. It'd be best if you leave now." The phrase my parents kept repeating was "they were like actors..." Left with no choice, my parents took off as directed. They chatted non-stop about the encounter the next day and decided to revisit the place.
They searched the length and breadth of the petite island but to no avail. The restaurant had vanished. My parents despise recounting this story and cringe when I probe them about it. Merely mentioning it sends a shiver down their spine, rendering their arms instantly goosebumped.
31. Hey Little Sister
Today, something incredibly odd happened to me. I was in the kitchen, preparing dinner, about to tell my daughter to start setting the table because her dad and sibling would be home soon. Then it hit me - I only have one kid. However, for that brief moment, my very soul was convinced of this second child's existence. I was even hit with a sense of deja vu, envisioning a girl playing around in the living room.
This wasn't my actual daughter, but in this sudden memory flash, she was. All of these thoughts and emotions surfaced in a mere second, and now, I'm left with an eerie sense of loss. It's rather disconcerting, to say the least!
32. There’s Jet Lag, And Then There’s This
My brother went on a trip to the west. According to my dad, he dropped my brother at the airport before going to work. My brother's flight was about an hour later, and it was set to take four hours to reach his destination. After finishing his workday, about eight hours later, my dad got a call from my brother. So, in my dad's mind, my brother should've only been there for roughly three hours.
But when my brother told his side of the story, it became very puzzling. He said that after his flight, his friends picked him up, they went out for dinner, he stayed over, he spent the next day sightseeing, and then called my dad in the evening. He was under the impression that he'd been there for more than 24 hours. This led to a pretty strange argument where both insisted they were right, with things like flight printouts to back up their stories. I'm still clueless how my dad seemed to lose a day, and my brother seemed to gain one.
33. It Doesn’t Hold Water
This might not be super spooky, but here's something strange that once happened. After my first class, I came back to my dorm and sat on my futon, chatting with my roommate. She was quite exhausted and while she was mid-conversation, rummaging through her backpack, she went silent and pulled out her planner. It was totally drenched. Everything else in her bag was bone dry—we both checked thoroughly for any signs of dampness.
She hadn't taken her planner out nor stashed any water bottles in her backpack for a week, ruling out any chances of the planner getting wet that way. It hadn't rained in over a week either, so the source of the water remained a mystery. Honestly, I just thought she was too worn out and possibly wasn't remembering things correctly. But, the story doesn’t stop here.
While still on the futon, I got up to find that one patch of my leg, which was in contact with the futon, was thoroughly wet. Yet, the rest of me remained dry. There wasn't any liquid in my vicinity. Despite that section of my trousers being drenched, none of the adjacent material was damp, and the part of the futon that was in touch with my pants was completely dry. My roommate and I were left puzzled, unable to come up with a logical explanation.
34. Rescue Me
I had an unusual dream once. I was driving home, listening to some classic tunes while it was lightly raining and the wind was blowing pretty hard. Suddenly, I noticed a badly wrecked car on the side of the road. It looked like the driver crashed into a tree. I quickly stopped my car and called for help, then went to look for the driver.
It was a young woman, right around my age, with short blonde curls. She wasn't conscious, and I saw a bit of blood. She didn't seem to be breathing, so I pulled her out of the car and began first aid. Soon, I heard sirens in the distance. I looked up for a moment and when I looked back at her, she was awake with sheer horror in her eyes. That's where the dream ended.
Not long ago, I celebrated my 25th birthday. I got lots of great gifts, but one really stood out. My uncle had put together a photo collage of my family. He mentioned finding them in an old box. After a few drinks, I decided to put it in the corner of my room with the other gifts. But as I was leaving my room, the collage fell over, so I went back to fix it.
Looking over the photos, I saw old ones of my parents that I had never seen before, which piqued my interest. There was one of their wedding day. I recognized my dad, looking dashing in his suit. Standing next to him was a beautiful woman, visibly pregnant and displaying a few scars on her arm and neck. It suddenly hit me.
She was the woman from my dream, the one I saved. My body started shaking uncontrollably. I ran to find my dad and asked him about what happened. He told me she'd been in a car accident 25 years ago. When help arrived, she was lying on the street and a man was seen fleeing from the scene. The doctor told my dad that without the immediate first aid, my mom might have lost me because of low oxygen levels.
I was still visibly shaken and could barely speak. After a while, I returned to my guests, but my festive mood was gone. It all felt so surreal.
35. Mixed Messages
I'm recently married. Not even a month in, I woke up one morning at 5:30 and noticed a text from my husband, saved in my phone as “Sam <3.” Sent at midnight, it read: "Who is this?" Which was odd because at that time, Sam was sleeping right next to me.
Now, I'm a light sleeper, so odds are I would have heard if he moved or checked his phone. Maybe it was a strange prank? I decided to play along. I replied: “Who is this?" But the response I got was strange, and unsettling: “I asked you first.” With Sam sleeping peacefully by my side, his phone on his nightstand, my confusion escalated.
I tried to clarify: "Seriously who is this? Why are you under my contact as Sam <3?" "What name am I under?" they replied. Again, I answered: "Clearly there's a mix-up. We don't know each other." But then it got weirder. Sam <3 asked if I lived in my town, which they apparently did too.
Trying to brush it off, I replied: "There you go. A simple mix-up. Weird, but it happens." Sam <3 kept questioning me and I tried to divert attention, but then they said something that froze me cold: "I was looking through my contacts, and I saw a contact named Wi-Fi, with a <3 beside it. Lol who is this? I live on Violet St., btw."
You see, my husband calls me Wi-Fi, pronounced as "wife-y," a unique term of endearment, and we live on Violet St. The two facts, coupled with a very familiar writing style, gave me chills. It couldn't be Sam - he was sleeping right next to me. I quickly turned off my phone and got ready for work, trying to push the incident off my mind.
Sam was just as confused when I showed him the texts later, with no such messages on his phone. Testing our messages worked fine. So, was it a prank or a tech glitch? Over the days, a thought kept persisting. What if it was Sam from an alternate dimension where we've never met? Our texts have been normal since then, but those messages are suddenly gone, deleted without my knowledge.
If it is Sam from another world, do I exist there too? Should I ask him to find his me if he ever texts again? I adore him so deeply, I'd want all versions of him to be happy.
36. I Hardly Know Her!
This morning, before work, I stopped by the supermarket close to my house to buy some pens and a clipboard. I walked in a rush because I was already late and quickly grabbed the items and made my way to the front. I sat my items on the conveyor belt and looked up and there was no cashier behind the counter. You know that strange feeling you get when you know someone is staring at you? Or standing too close?
I started to feel that way. I turned to my right and this beautiful woman was standing right beside me. Probably late 20s with long brown hair and blue eyes. She wasn't a comfortable arm's length apart, she was less than a meter away. I looked up at her as she smiled at me. You know the way people look at you when you know them very well? Like, know them deeply?
That is the look this woman was giving me. "Did you call for help yet? Do they know we are standing here?" she said like we were more than acquainted. I just stared at her. The way she said that combined with the way she looked at me made me feel so uneasy, like we had come here together though I had never seen her in my life. "No, not yet," I replied to her.
She walked around the side of the counter and looked into the manager's office that was behind the end of the registers. The cashier came out of the back room and apologized for the wait. I only half heard what she said because I watched the woman come around the counter, smiling a beautiful toothy grin and looking at me the whole time.
"I got herrrr," the smiling woman said in a playful tone before bouncing right back next to me, close enough that I crossed my arms to keep our hands from touching. Close enough that I could smell her hair. I looked up at the clerk and realized that this wasn't strange to her but that she definitely thought we were together. "Yall doing okay today?" said the cashier.
The woman beside me bounced back to one of those candy racks they have by the register and said, "Oh yeah! I needed gum, remember?" I just stared as she put the gum on my clipboard and came to rest again close to me. I backed away and looked at her, my face had to be as confused as it ever has been. She looked at me, smiling still, and then stopped. "What?" she said.
I looked down at the gum on my clipboard and back up to her again. "What?" she said again, this time with worry in her voice. I looked at the cashier who was confused and then back to the woman who was now looking down at the gum with no expression on her face. She looked back up at me and this time, she looked at me like you would expect from someone you had never met in a grocery store.
The smile, gone from her voice, she said, "Sorry." She took a few steps back. I quickly ran my card through and grabbed my bag from the corral. I turned back to the woman who looked lost and confused. I walked back to my car, the experience still fresh in my mind and instead of leaving, I waited, hoping there would be an answer walk out of those doors.
Maybe she had a husband, boyfriend, significant other who has a long beard and blue eyes as I do. Maybe she embarrassingly mistook me for that man. I waited for a lot longer than it should have taken for her to ring up the gum that she had grabbed. Finally, she emerged with the gum in hand and an expressionless look on her face all alone. She got in her orange Kia Soul with a Hello Kitty plushy hanging from the mirror and drove away.
I took off to work and that quickly consumed my thought processes. On the way home a few minutes ago, I remembered my dog was out of food. I pulled into the same supermarket and grabbed a bag. I got to the register and the same cashier came to the till. "You’re back again, I see," she said, "and without the girl this time." "Yeah, did you notice that woman? I didn't know her at all! She was acting so weird."
The woman kind of half smirks as she gives me my receipt, "To be honest," she said, "I thought you were being a jerk." I looked confused at her again, "What do you mean?" "I was watching the camera earlier when you guys came in together. There was a man in the same aisle you two walked to who I thought was putting printer cartridges in his backpack."
"I watched you two look at the pens for a second then walk to the register but I didn't come out because I was sure that guy was stealing ink. Never found out because that girl came and got me." "What do you mean came in together?" I said. "She walked in with you, stood behind you while you grabbed your pens and walked with you to the register, then you acted as if you had never met her."
Goosebumps my friends. That chill took over me like a freaking breeze from a deep freezer. "Ma'am," I said, "I had never met that woman in my life." At 31 years old, I can say definitively that this is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me.
Unsplash
37. Dine With The Devil
Once upon a time, we owned a racecourse in Ohio but called southeast Pennsylvania our home. The quickest way there was via the turnpike. During one trip, my mum, my sister, and I were traveling separately from my stepdad, who was towing some gear.
We took a break at a strip mall that we found after exiting the turnpike. A collection of shabby, nondescript buildings, this place did have a diner, which, since we hadn't eaten for about four hours, we gratefully wandered into. The food was awful and tasteless, and the crowd inside acted oddly, continuously staring at us. The place was lit, but barely, more like a Denny's during a power cut. Curiously, we noticed a peculiar number of bandaged patrons.
Aside from our waitress—who took our orders and collected our tab—nobody engaged us in conversation. Deciding that skipping a meal was better than revisiting that place, we wrote down the exit number in our car travelogue—a helpful guide stashed in our glove compartment—just so we'd avoid this pit stop in future.
When we reached the racetrack, a couple of hours later, my stepdad quizzed us about our journey. We insisted it was rather mundane but told him about the unfriendly diner, advising him to give it a wide berth as well. To our surprise, he found our account thrilling, speculating that we'd unintentionally feasted on phantom fare served by undead beings. His anecdote, lasting a good ten minutes, made my sister rather uneasy.
As the racing weekend concluded and it was time to head back, my stepdad suggested we drive back together. I concurred. Halfway through our journey home, he suddenly decided to stopover. I found this to be quite strange, considering we'd enjoyed a hearty breakfast before hitting the road. Upon closer inspection, I realized he was veering towards the infamous diner.
Eager for some firsthand experience, he confirmed about the presence of the diner at the toll booth. The response was chilling. Apparently, the diner we were looking for burned down. What added fuel to the surreal fire was the timing of it all—we had just eaten there a couple of days prior and now it was gone! My stepdad was more intrigued than ever, making me all the more excited for a second visit.
We decided to visit the ill-fated spot, now reduced to a pile of ashes amidst the mundane strip mall, cleaned up considerably with no trace of the calamity left. On our way back to the turnpike, we once again encountered the same toll booth operator, and my stepdad again enquired about the diner. The man reiterated his previous statement, adding that the fire took place eight years ago, a revelation which floored us—this was full-on twilight zone stuff!
Of course, I am aware how far-fetched it all sounds. But believe you me, it was the same place, the same exit, and every other building was the same except for the one we had just eaten at a couple of days before.
38. Future Shock
Back in 1992, I went through something I've never been able to fully understand. I was living in a townhouse with my baby girl, Emily. One day, while I was wide awake at home, I somehow found myself in another place – yet, it felt like present time. I was inside a seemingly familiar kitchen in the middle of the night, in front of a sliding glass door. I walked up a short staircase and opened the first door on the left which led to Emily's bedroom.
There she was, a teenager with glasses on, engrossed in a heavy-looking textbook in her small box-like room. I said hello and continued down the hallway, opening a door that led to another room. My son Robert was in there, lying down, reading a comic in his long, rectangular room. Shortly afterwards, I snapped back to reality in my townhouse.
The weird part is, as of 1992, I didn't have a son named Robert. It felt like I was experiencing two realities at once. The other "me" panicking, shouting in my mind, "Where's Robert?" Unable to fathom the idea of the younger child not existing.
After a bit, the other "me" faded, leaving only the 1992 version of myself. I thought I'd glimpsed into the future and shared this with all my friends. The next year, my husband and I bought a home, and to my surprise, I instantly recognized its layout. Emily had an option of two rooms, and she chose the smaller, boxy, one at the top of the stairs.
A new routine of mine involved star-gazing through the kitchen sliding door at night, away from mosquito bites. Come 1995, my son Robert arrived and eventually claimed the long, rectangular room. Did my vision materialize? Not quite. Though Emily never wore glasses, and Robert had a bunk bed, many details were eerily similar, but with a few incongruences.
Unsplash
39. Fifth Avenue Freakout
A while back, when I was in New York, I found myself strolling on Fifth Avenue, near Central Park, heading towards downtown Manhattan. After covering about three blocks, I decided to change direction and veered east towards Fourth Avenue. As I rounded a corner, not into a back alley, but a regular junction, I came to an abrupt, stunned halt.
Suddenly, there were no more buildings or cars. All the city noises had vanished. Where they were, only trees and an open area lay to my right. The paved street and sidewalk transformed into a dirt path. I stood there, right on parched soil. The path was now etched with deep tire tracks. Further along the unpaved road, a dark brown house stood with a modest fence surrounding it. A horse-drawn wagon, loaded with wooden crates, creaked its way over the rutted dirt path a block or so down the road.
Panic swept over me, causing my thoughts to spiral. I started fearing being stuck in that spatio-temporal anomaly forever. I was dressed in a mini skirt, certainly not an appropriate attire for that era. Neither was my contemporary speech. Fearful thoughts of being misunderstood as insane and getting locked up in an institution started haunting me. I hastily retraced my steps and found myself back on Fifth Avenue in a blink.
Since I was backstepping, a man bumped into me without warning. I muttered a hurried apology. The roadway I had just retreated from looked ordinary again. Traffic sounds filled the air. My heart pounded like a drum and I flagged down a taxi, driven to escape the city as fast as possible. Fascinating as it all had been, it was equally terrifying.
40. Between Two Fires
A long time ago, Grandpa and Grandma were on their way to a nostalgic family farm in Pennsylvania. Grandpa was a city boy, but he used to spend his summers at this farm while growing up. It's been almost 25 years, but his love for the farm and eagerness to show it to Grandma, as well as introduce her to his cousins, brought them back.
As they got nearer to the farm, Grandpa started telling Grandma about a quaint little town that they'd pass by on the route. Soon enough, they arrived at this town. Grandpa was astonished as it appeared as though time had stood still. But, as they were about to leave the town, they noticed a hotel ablaze. A path was blocked by firemen handling an old-school, horse-drawn fire wagon equipped with a water tank.
Finding it weird but attributing it to the rural ways of Pennsylvania, they moved on once the water wagon cleared the way. Upon reaching the farm, they met Grandpa's uncle and cousins, and shared the dramatic fire incident. This is when Grandpa suggested they should go help. His relatives looked severely shaken.
Then one of the cousins dropped a bombshell - that town was a ghost town. Around 20 years ago, the very hotel had been destroyed in a fire that spread and decimated the town's main street. Most people moved out once their businesses were ruined. In fact, only his uncle and cousins still lived around these parts. Grandpa and Grandma were dumbfounded.
They had just driven through this town, witnessed a fire and even smelled the smoke! Baffled, Grandpa, Grandma, and a few cousins hopped back in the car and retraced their route. But this time, there was no town, just the charred remnants of a few buildings.
Pexels
41. Two For One
Just before the Christmas break last year, I finished work at 3 pm instead of the usual 5 pm. My plan was simple: go home, mow the lawn (a promise I made to my roommates, since I live in Australia), tidy up, then take a three-hour drive to my parents' place in Sydney, aiming to arrive after dinner time.
Here's how it should have gone: leave work at 3 pm, get home by 3:50 pm and start mowing. By 4:30 pm, I should have been cleaned up and ready to leave by 5 pm for Sydney and then arrive at my mom's by 8:30 pm. What actually happened was quite different. I got home, immediately started mowing the lawn, ran inside, undressed, and jumped in the shower.
Next thing I know, I'm waking up in my parents' shower three hours away. It was so shocking, I almost collapsed. Apparently, I had arrived at my mom's before she got home, mowed her lawn, hopped in the shower, and promptly fainted from mild heat exhaustion. My mom found my car in her driveway, a freshly cut lawn, and me passed out in the shower.
However, here's where things get weird. She woke me up a bit past 6 pm on that Friday. Given the 250km distance, even if I raced there from work and broke the speed limit, I couldn't have gotten there much before 6:30 pm, and that's without accounting for the time to mow the lawn and take a shower. The drive usually takes about three and half hours considering the winding city/mountain route.
The next morning, I confirmed with my roommates that our lawn was indeed mown by the time one of them got home at 5. My work clothes, covered in grass, were found in our bathroom. I distinctly remember mowing our lawn and undressing for a shower. However, I don't recall showering, driving, or even mowing the lawn in Sydney.
Interestingly, I found my work clothes with grass stains in my bathroom, but in my mom's shower, I was wearing a clean set of clothes, without any memory of changing into them after the initial lawn mowing.
42. Like Father, Like Son
I'm in law enforcement and back in November 2012, I was out on routine duty when a Dodge Challenger SRT 8 ripped past me on the freeway, clocking 99 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. I quickly turned my car around and initiated a pursuit. The Challenger was outpacing me, pushing up to about 131 MPH – the max my patrol car could do. The car zoomed off onto a particularly straight, hilly road with a T-junction at the end.
I was almost losing sight of the Challenger when I saw its tail lights as it turned East at the crossroads. That's when things got...werid. As I approached the intersection, I realized I was driving too fast to make the turn, roughly around 95-100 MPH.
I slammed on the brakes, staring at the looming dirt mound ahead. I shut my eyes, praying for my kids’ safety as I believed I'd made a fatal error. But, surprisingly, no crash followed. Opening my eyes, I found myself driving east from the northbound road, coasting at 50 MPH. It nags at me till today, wondering what saved me. Is this reality still, or a dream? Or did fate intervene? I wish I had answers.
Eventually, I did catch the guy as a highway patrol officer had laid out tire spikes a few miles ahead on the eastbound road. According to my dashcam, I was 35 seconds behind the Challenger.
When I got home, I shared the crazy story with my dad. What he told me next floored me. As a truck driver, he had been in a similar fix, battling slippery roads with a truck suffering from hot, non-responsive brakes. He recollected his truck veering off and then, miraculously, moving smoothly on a different road.
But the eeriest part? The same issue had occurred with my car – I couldn't brake at two stops signs due to my brakes overheating from the chase. I remember seeing them glow orange after the pursuit ended. His story spooked me, made me feel weird. My emotions are all over the place. I'm now wondering if anyone else in my family has had this uncanny experience.
43. I’m Not My Best Self
Yesterday, my boyfriend and I decided to take a long hike around a nature reserve in southwest UK. It's our usual getaway when we want to escape the city. The weather was scorching (around 31C), and as we approached the end of the walk, I was physically exhausted but mentally okay. I had consumed about 2 liters of water and snacked on fruit cake, so I wasn't dehydrated or hungry.
We reached a massive rock formation that my boyfriend wanted to climb, but I opted out, even though I'd done it before. While he started climbing, I walked about 200 meters away, planning to meet him on the other side. As I looked back at the rock, a sudden anxiety hit me, worrying that he might have gotten hurt, taking longer than usual.
It's essential to note that I've struggled with anxiety and low self-esteem since childhood due to trauma. I'm actively working on it, but I've always seen myself as someone lacking confidence and independence. Also, I'm recovering from surgery, making me physically weak. I'm below average height with dark blonde hair.
Moreover, I'm partially deaf post-surgery, unable to hear higher-pitched sounds like birds or the wind. Back to the story, I thought, "Where is he? I hope he's okay. Do I need to rescue him?" Suddenly, I felt like a different person. My next thought was, "Rescue who? I came here alone. Why am I thinking that? Do I need more water?"
Nothing around me changed, but I had become someone else with a different past, though still myself. This new person felt a bit disgusted at feeling anxious and weak because it wasn't her usual demeanor. She had camping gear in her backpack and planned to camp alone for a few days—a thought I'd never entertain. She knew the way back and confidently planned her camping spot.
I looked in the mirror, and my hair was dark brown, shorter than before. She was a bit taller, more muscular, and had a soldier-like demeanor. I, on the other hand, work at a desk, not overweight but not in shape either. The main difference was the confidence she exuded. Unlike me, she only needed herself and was practical and level-headed.
Strangely, she had an image of my boyfriend in her mind, even though she'd never seen him before. Feeling uneasy, she turned to head back the way I had come. About halfway, I looked back at the rock and saw my boyfriend there. I reverted to myself but felt scared and sad because I'd never felt so strong and determined before.
The worst part? It felt like a better life had been taken away. The experience lasted about five minutes, but it was the strangest thing ever. I can't stop thinking about how it felt to be someone else and how her thoughts felt so different. I was a mature woman, more confident, and capable. It was an entirely different personality.
These thoughts surfaced only after I changed back. When I was her, my thoughts made sense in her situation. I was angry, but it was a constant feeling, not tense or constantly worrying. The scariest part is that if I hadn't seen my boyfriend, I might've kept walking toward her planned camping spot. Would I have unpacked a tent that wasn't there?
Since then, physically, I've been fine—no heatstroke or headaches. But mentally, I can't stop thinking about it. Last night, I had a dream where I was her again. Waking up, I was crying, feeling like I had been very happy and now had to return to my normal life, even though I rarely remember my dreams.
44. Riding Off Into The Sunset
I was doing construction work in Arizona. It was autumn and the nights were a pleasant 70 degrees. My friend and I had just finished a job on a housing development just outside Yuma, towards Tucson. We parked our pickup truck off a dusty trail, on a hill overlooking the desert. We were about a 15-minute drive from the highway, I-8.
We each popped open a cold drink, preparing to watch the stunning Arizona sunset. Suddenly, about 2-4 miles away, something appeared on the desert floor. It was a cylinder-shaped structure or possibly a vehicle. We were both taken aback and could only remark, "What on earth is that?" It looked like a giant bullet standing upright, glowing brightly.
Then, a spiral staircase seemed to materialize, leading down from the top of this strange object. We noticed several small figures descending the ramp. We were both dumbstruck. Everything was happening so quickly, only about a minute had passed. Suddenly, the creatures stopped in their tracks and vanished into thin air. That's the last thing we both remember.
Next thing I knew, I was coming to — similar to waking up after being knocked out. It was approximately 6:30 AM, and I was sitting in our truck, my friend alongside me, in Tucson — that's 90 miles away from where we’d been, just a block away from my home. We never discuss this experience since we doubt anyone would believe our story. Yet, this unexplainable incident has made me a lot more open-minded.
45. Hanging On The Telephone
About five years back, my family experienced something odd that we still can't explain. My parents and two sisters were touring Europe, while I stayed home with my hubby and our one-year-old kiddo. So, at 3 AM my phone rings, and it's my dad.
Normally, pop’s mindful of the time differences, so I shrug it off, thinking he's muddled. Again, my phone rings, and now, with several missed calls and a bunch of messages, it seems urgent. These texts read something like, "Stay strong, we're returning to be with you." I wonder what they're talking about.
Before I could fathom, my dad calls again, sounding exceptionally concerned, says he's been talking to me for an hour about something serious. Now, I hit the hay around 10 and haven't been up since. The conversation from three days back couldn’t have spun in my dad’s head, right?
That's when dad blurts out that he had been comforting me since I discovered that I was pregnant, and my husband left me. On hearing the uproar, my husband wakes up all muddled. I inform my dad that my husband is right here and I'm not pregnant. I try convincing that he must have been talking to some sleep-talker—could be me. But the call-log proves me wrong; my last call with anyone from the family was three days ago!
Suspicious, pop checks his side of the log and finds an 'unknown' instead of my number. We start to suspect a prankster mimicking me or something, but my dad and sister assert they were absolutely certain they spoke to me. They add chilling details from the 'me’ on the other side who seemed to know too much about my private life.
To prove all was well, I had to snap a pic of hubby and me and convince them to not rush back. We spent hours on the phone, trying to make sense out of the peculiar chain of events. Even when they returned from Europe, they were skeptical until they saw me in person.
We discuss it now and then, each retelling just as fascinating and spooky. Dad, however, doesn’t enjoy these talks. He listens perplexed, which is understandable given his firsthand encounter with the 'me' on the phone, who shattered the family peace, and then the real me denying everything moments later.
46. We’re Ready To Believe You
About 12 years ago, my boyfriend and I decided to rent Ghostbusters since he'd never seen it. We picked it up from the video store and then grabbed a late bite to eat. He had a couple of beers, I had one, but we weren't drunk, not even close. We got to my house, cooked up some popcorn, poured fizzy drinks on ice, and sat on the couch.
We popped the movie into the DVD player and hit play. We were wide awake, the kind of excited and flirtatious energy you have in the early stages of a relationship. It was 6 in the evening, and the evening sun was pouring in through the blinds. Then suddenly—I found myself gasping for air, the biggest breath I've ever taken. I heard my boyfriend doing the same next to me.
It was like the breath you take when you've been under water for too long. We were both still on the couch in the exact same positions, but it was pitch black and the movie had long ended. The light from the clock told us it was 4 in the morning! We both remembered the same thing. We blacked out at the same time and woke up at the same time.
We have no idea what happened. We still discuss it every now and then. It's the strangest experience I've ever had. And ironically, my boyfriend has yet to watch Ghostbusters to this day, which is a shame, because it's a great movie in my opinion.
47. A Tempest In A Teacup
So, my grandparents, newlyweds at the time, decided to spend their honeymoon in Devon. It was a place they'd visited many times before, so they were quite familiar with it. It was around 60 years ago. One afternoon, they ventured out for a walk along a forest path and after about 30 minutes, they found an enchanting, old-style tea room. Thinking it would be fun, they decided to go in for a bite.
My grandma chose a tea cake, and my grandad a scone, along with a pot of tea to share. They were particularly fond of the tea and even asked about its brand, hoping to get some for themselves. What caught their attention about the tea room was the charmingly outdated style; even the waitresses had uniforms that seemed retro but were still neatly styled.
After paying and praising the tea room with the waitress, they left, but their experience stayed with them. After a week, they chose to revisit, eager for another cup of that delicious tea. So down the same path they went, recreating their steps to the tea room.
But once there, they were met with a dead-end, just rows and rows of grown trees; the tea room was nowhere to be found. This was baffling and seemingly impossible. They had followed their route perfectly yet there was no sign of the tea room. Thinking they might've just lost their way, they wandered around the woods a bit more.
They soon came across an elderly woman walking her dog. They stopped her and inquired about the vintage-style tea room. The woman, looking puzzled, informed them there was no such place in the forest. She claimed she was a lifelong resident and if such a tea room were there, she'd surely know.
Feeling confused and a little crazy, my grandparents told the woman they had visited the tea room just a week ago. The elderly woman seemed perplexed, and stated they must be confused as the only tea room that existed in the woods had closed even before my grandparents were born. She mentioned she had visited that tearoom as a child.
As they pushed the woman for more information and described the tea room in more detail, mentioning even the tea brand, the woman was taken aback. It sounded exactly like the tea room she remembered from her childhood. They parted ways, laughing off the strange experience as a time slip.
48. Non-Playable Character Failed To Load
I met a girl in college, and after we graduated, we decided to move in together. Our plan was simple: whoever landed a job first would cover the rent and expenses while the other searched for a job in the same city. I was the one who got a job, and we moved into a small house together. However, months passed, and she struggled to find employment.
One day, I came home from work unusually early, feeling down. As I entered our place, I noticed something odd. In the living room, she was just sitting there, no TV or radio on, staring straight ahead without any movement. Curious, I stood there observing her, wondering what people do when they think no one is around.
Despite my attempts to get her attention, she remained unresponsive. Concerned, I called my dad, who has a good grasp of medicine, and he advised me to keep an eye on her until he arrived. By 4:30, she suddenly snapped out of it, heading to the kitchen to do chores as if nothing unusual had occurred. When I questioned her, she casually described a day of job hunting, which conflicted with my experience.
We had a heated discussion because she insisted she had been out job hunting, while I was certain she had been sitting still all day. Seeking answers, my dad suggested it might be an "absence seizure," a type of epilepsy, but medical tests revealed nothing abnormal.
Our relationship became tense, especially when she was banned from driving for a year due to the possibility of an absence seizure. Over the following six months before our breakup, I attempted various odd tactics to prove what had happened. Despite my efforts, she continued to have these unexplainable episodes of stillness, often accompanied by elaborate explanations of her day.
It left me with the unsettling feeling that she was only fully "on" when people were around, slipping into a default "off" state when she thought no one was watching. Strangely, some of her stories were backed up by other people, making it even more confusing. We eventually broke up, though we remain friends, and I haven't discussed this with her since. The experience still haunts me, making me wonder what others might be like when they believe no one is watching.
49. Seeing Double
My dad always woke around 3 AM for work and, as a kid, I'd naturally wake up to see him off. One morning, when I was about four, I shuffled down the stairs to see that the front door was slightly open. My dad was leaving in his signature work getup - a plaid shirt and Dickies - heading down the driveway towards his truck.
Spotting him, I flung the door further open, shouting for a hug before he left. The next moment is one I won't forget. He turned slowly, staring at me in such an odd way that left me frightened, tears running down my face as I asked him what was wrong.
Just as he was about to reach me, I felt a bear hug grip me from behind. Turning, I saw my clearly terrified father, eyeing a stranger in the same outfit. But that's not the spookiest part. The stranger bolted down the driveway after seeing my real dad. My true father then scooped me up and we swiftly retreated indoors, bolting the door.
It was the oddest morning ever, and one we could never quite wrap our heads around. If it wasn't for my dad confirming it, I would doubt my childhood memory of the event. He doesn't really discuss it now, but my mom later revealed that he skipped work that day and she had to spend the rest of it convincing him he wasn't crazy.
50. The Doppelganger
It happened in early 2000, when I was working at a juvenile detention center in a small town in Oklahoma as a corrections officer. I was working nights at the time and went to work at 9 PM. This one night when I arrived for work my supervisor looked confused and asked me what I was doing there. I said, "I work tonight." And he said, "But they said you called in a few hours ago saying that you were sick."
I was a bit confused and said, "It must have been someone else and they got the message wrong." After everyone else showed up for work that night it was a bit weirder, but we carried on as usual and assigned everyone their places for the night; I went to work in the control room where I usually work. The control room is the center of the place, and it has direct control over the cameras, doors, phones, pretty much everything.
After I relieved the guard on duty and settled in for the night, I looked at the message that said I called in. It said that I had called at 6:50 and said that I had gotten sick while out cleaning up after the storm. There had been a storm the night before and it was a bit bad, but not anything that I had to go out to clean up. It was truly weird—and it was about to get weirder.
The supervisor came into the control about that time. He was also a friend of mine outside work and we started talking about it, and how odd it was. I decided to call my wife at home and tell her about it while he was still sitting there. I picked up the phone and dialed. After two rings a man picked up the phone and with a raspy voice said, "Hello?"
I didn't know what to say for a few seconds. I looked at the phone to make sure I dialed the right number, and I had. After a few seconds, the person said, "Hello?" again in the same raspy voice. I said, "Hello. Who is this?" They replied, "This is Taylor, who is this?" My head started spinning. My name is Taylor. In almost a scream I said: "Where’s Ann?"
He said, "Ann's in bed. Who is this?" I dropped the phone and told my supervisor to ring me out, I had to get home, and I took off towards the door. I could hear Dave pick up the phone behind me and say, "Hello?" followed soon after by "What the heck!" rather loudly. I ran to my car and drove home faster than I should have, my mind racing the entire time.
I busted through the door and my wife was sitting watching TV and was shocked at me being home. I asked her who was there and she said no one has been over. After a rather long talk with my wife, I went to call the center to tell them what was going on, but the phone was dead. I went back to work and when I came in, Dave was acting weird and asked me, "How are you doing this?"
He told me that when I left, he picked up the phone and the person on the other end sounded like me. He kind of freaked out and hung up the phone. A minute later, as he could see my car leaving the parking lot, the phone rang. What he heard made his blood run cold. He said that I had called back from home and asked what the heck was going on.
He said that I was a bit irate and said I was sick and did not feel like playing these games and was telling him to stop prank calling me and hung up. After convincing him I had no idea what was going on, we went back to work. Later, I find out that the phone line for my area had been knocked down the night before by the storm.
This is absolutely the strangest thing that has ever happened to me.
51. Calling All Angels
After my car was completely wrecked, this guy with burn scars covering his face and hands approached my window. He inquired about my well-being and then casually took a seat in the passenger seat. With this surreal calm demeanor, he dropped a profound statement, saying, "I need you to know that everything happens for a reason." I nodded in agreement, replying, "I know."
The following moments unfolded as I engaged in conversations with the other driver and the authorities. Strangely, when I turned back to talk to the guy with burn scars, he had mysteriously vanished. Surprisingly, no one else seemed to have noticed his presence. It was like he was there one moment and gone the next, leaving me with an uncanny encounter amidst the aftermath of the car crash.
52. Never The Right Time
While living in Denver, I once had a friend come by for a visit. Denver National Airport, where her flight was due to land, was a little over half an hour's drive from where I stayed. Her arrival was expected at about 11:15 in the night, and promptly at 10:30 p.m., I found a text from her saying she'd already landed and wondering if I was at the airport. Wondering if her flight had come in early, we hurried to get to the airport, as I attempted to reach her over the phone but to no avail, it would just go to voice mail.
On thinking her phone might have run out of juice or something, I continued checking the flight's status online en route. Surprisingly, the information kept showing the flight still on its way. Reaching the airport before the scheduled arrival time, I found no sight of my friend, nor any fresh update about the flight. Circling the airport and waiting found us with no lead until a chiller text dropped in.
Exactly at about 11:15 in the night, I received the same text: "I just landed. Are you here?" Right away, I called her up and asked if she'd texted me while in the flight. She refused, emphasizing that her phone was switched off all this while. When she landed and we met, I wanted to check both our text threads on our phones.
In my inbox, I found those same texts from her, one at 10:30 p.m. and another at 11:15 p.m. On her phone, the conversation showed only the 11:15 p.m. text. She asserted that she hadn't typed in the message before switching off the phone. This strange happening ate up an extra 15 minutes of mine circling around the airport.
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