Forget sleep. After reading these, it’ll be a thing of the past. From sinister peeping toms and eerie noises in the dark to the unexplained, these stories are creepy enough to have us up at 3 AM with the lights on and eyes wide open.
1. I’d Rather Have Been Wrong Than Right
I lived in an apartment a few years ago. Four units upstairs, four units downstairs. I lived upstairs, and the apartment below me was vacant. I kept hearing footsteps through the apartment, and I knew I shouldn't have. Nobody was downstairs.
I asked someone to come over and listen, just to see if I was crazy. Maybe I'm just hearing other apartments since it's empty downstairs, and everything is echoing. Wrong. I kept hearing the footsteps. This went on for a solid hour. Finally, I called the landlord and the authorities. Later, I learned the horrifying truth.
Apparently, someone had broken in through the windows downstairs, and was walking back and forth through the apartment with a knife. Absolutely terrifying.
2. Working Overtime
I work in a small building with three wings and my office is located in a little back hallway of one of the wings. I share the office with another girl and it's usually pretty quiet. One evening she and I were the only ones in our wing still there and we both heard a door loudly shut in the hallway.
We were both a bit confused and, upon peeking out, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. The next two weeks, I was staying really late to catch up on hours so I could have a winter break, and I began noticing little noises in the hallway. It was when I was positive nobody was in the building.
It sounded like a shoe sliding on the floor. This happened a couple of times. Earlier in the evenings, it would just be me and the janitor, and she started getting really spooked. She said she heard doors slamming in one of the wings even though everybody had left.
We investigated one night to find that all of the doors were properly locked, but I noticed that the kitchen light was on, even though the door was locked. The janitor freaked out because she knew she'd turned the light off before locking the door.
I also recalled the light being on a couple of nights when I was the only one there. I started to ask around if other people in the building had experienced anything weird like that, and one lady said some of her room decorations would have moved when she came back from the bathroom.
And here's the one that really creeps me out: another lady said that one day she noticed a footprint in the middle of her desk (it's that black material that shows skin prints pretty easily). To be honest, I'd rather it be paranormal stuff, because the idea that there's a person doing all this really creeps me out.
3. Save The Date
We moved into a new house a few months ago. As we were in the process of purchasing the house, the renter who was living in it died unexpectedly of natural causes in his mid-40s. It happened right in the middle of the living room.
Shortly after, we move into the house, and almost immediately our two-year-old daughter starts talking about the ghost that lives in our house. Now let's be real here—she is two and two-year-olds are VERY impressionable.
Halloween had recently passed, and she had this Halloween-themed picture book that she loved to read, so it's entirely possible that all this talk of ghosts was just coming from looking through that book on a regular basis. Still, she was always telling me that the ghost was in her play house in the basement, or that the ghost was on the stairs, or that the ghost was standing in the corner.
She never seemed to be afraid of the ghost, and considered him to be her friend, so I wasn't all that concerned even if there really was a ghost haunting our house. If he's a nice and helpful ghost, it could certainly be a lot worse. I would often tell the ghost that he was welcome to stay if he wanted to, but he was also welcome to go if that would make him happier.
I was about 30/70 on the ghost being real and she could see and talk to him versus the ghost being just her imagination fueled by her Halloween book. One day, when we were going out to the car to go to daycare in the morning. It was still dark out, and rainy.
My daughter told me that the ghost was on the back deck, and then she told me that today was the ghost's birthday and she wanted to sing him “Happy Birthday”. Once again, I mostly disregarded what she was saying, as she is birthday obsessed and has in the past made us sing “Happy Birthday” to Mickey Mouse, a bowl of fruit snacks, and the bathroom.
So we sang and wished the ghost a happy birthday and went on with our lives. Later that day, out of pure curiosity, I looked up the obituary of the man who had lived in our house beforehand. And wouldn't you know it? It was his frigging birthday.
4. Not Going Alone
When my grandpa was young, his sister suddenly got sick and quickly fell into a coma. They say she had a fever and would shake and even sit up in the middle of the night even though she was not conscious. She got progressively worse over the next few days and needed some sort of help.
My grandpa and his oldest sister Glenna stayed behind while the rest of the family went to the neighbor’s house 10 miles down the road for some food and medicine. As soon as the family got home that night their mom went to the sister's bed and started to put a cold cloth on her head. Immediately her eyes flew open.
For the first time in days, she looked her mother right in the eyes. Then she said, "The lord wants Glenna”. She fell back and twitched before going back into unconsciousness. The next morning both Glenna and the sister passed on. The younger sister from the fever, and Glenna from unknown causes.
5. Whistle In The Dark
So I had this whistle that was pretty awful. It was super obnoxious, with this terrible (but very distinctive) sound. It was like the dying cry of a goose, followed by a rattling noise. It always hung off a bright orange lanyard, which I'd hook on the door handle of my front door.
Every morning, I'd get up and see the awful whistle hanging from my door. Now, right next to my front door was a window that didn't quite latch—it wasn't open all the time, but if you pushed on it for long enough, it would give way. One night, it was raining hard as heck. I woke up at 4 am to the sound of banging downstairs.
I assumed the wind had blown the window open, and I didn't want the carpet to get soaked, so I got up and went to close it up again. Sure enough, the window was wide open. As I went to close it, I couldn’t believe what I heard. In the distance, I heard the whistle. It was gone.
The lanyard and the whistle were off the handle, and someone was blowing the whistle somewhere out in the storm. I checked the house from top to bottom—nothing else was stolen. Just the whistle. I fixed the window.
6. Don’t Mess With Mama Bear
It was winter break, my freshman year of college. I drove up to visit one of my friends in Northwestern Pennsylvania for New Years. I needed to be back home the next day for work, so I decided to drive back at like 2 am. I was driving down Interstate 79 and I maybe saw two cars in a 60-mile span.
I came up around a bend and saw what looked like a black bear in my lane and I swerved and went off the road and crashed into the tree line next to the highway. I was in the middle of nowhere and the bear just booked it into the woods. My car was totaled and I knew I wasn't gonna see any cars for hours to help me out.
I called 9-1-1 and they said they would come in like 20 minutes. I got out of the car and stood up on the shoulder of the highway and waited. After about five minutes I heard some rustling in the bushes and there it was, the stupid bear.
It turns out, when I went off the road I hit a cub and mama bear was furious. I booked it over to the back of the car and hopped in the trunk. Thank god I had a big Ford Expedition so the bear couldn't mess with it too much. For another half an hour the bear tried ramming the car and was trying to get at me in a frenzy.
The authorities showed up and the sirens scared mama bear off into the woods again. It was the most terrifying experience of my life.
7. Kids Say The Creepiest Things
My daughter slept in the bed with me for a few years after her father and I had divorced. Probably ages three through six or so. My bed was against the wall, and she slept on the side of the wall. I slept on my side facing her, so my bathroom was to my back.
We had not fallen asleep yet, but had just been laying there being quiet and still. What she said to me was so disturbing, it’s unforgettable. All of a sudden, she asks, "Mommy, why is there a man standing behind you”? My body turned ice-cold, and it felt like all of the blood drained out of my body.
I finally got up the nerve to turn over and look. There was nobody there. She had said it so seriously, but the little toot was totally joking! I have never been so scared in my life, and to this day I will not sleep with my back facing that bathroom door! This was 13 years ago!
8. Got The Pass
I was hunting with my father-in-law. It's well before sun up (maybe 5 am), and we hiked to a patch of trees and sat down, him maybe 70 yards south of me, with me facing out into a clearing. He had a flashlight and I didn't have one on me at the time. It was so dark you couldn't see a hand in front of your face.
After about 20 minutes, I hear something really big walking maybe 10 yards in front of me. From the sound of the leaves/branches breaking, it sounded human-sized. It startled me and I loudly call for my father-in-law to turn on the flashlight. Right in front of me (where the noise was coming from), I hear his voice say "Naah, it's cool”.
The noise happened again about 10 minutes later and I called out to him, assuming it was him making the noise. No response, so I made my way over to his camp and asked him if he had just walked near me. He said he hadn't gotten up the whole time, and was confused why I would have heard his voice.
9. Lullabies In The Night
This happened during my senior year of college, Christmas break 2006. I worked for a professor that asked me to house/dog sit for him while he was outta town to see the bowl game that we were in. He was gone for three days and had a huge piece of land in the middle of nowhere. I invited my girlfriend at the time.
He had horses and fishing and a gator to ride around on, etc. So, the first two nights went down with no incident, but the last night, his little floofy dog is having a fit. She keeps barking at the back door. At first, we ignore it, but decide to lock the dog inside in case of a coyote or something.
After a while, we start to get a little creeped out. I keep saying it's probably an animal and we'll be fine. My girlfriend (not too bright) wants to go investigate to see what's outside. She goes outside and says she saw something small and grey (probably a coyote) and it ran off. So, just an animal, no worries.
But by this time, we're pretty spooked. The dog now starts barking at the window on the other side of the house, we're still trying to ignore it, but a little worried. We decide to get into bed...awkward silence...then I hear it. It sounds like a young girl singing a soft, eerie lullaby.
I don't say anything, hoping that my mind is playing tricks on me. My girlfriend says, "Let's get the heck outta here”. I say "Why”? she says, "You didn't hear that little girl singing”? "Ok, let's get out”. and we got out. I even called someone to talk to me while we walked out to my car.
The next morning, went to clean up the house and such. Most scared I've ever been. Ever.
10. Even Creeps Want A Plus One
I was living in Fort Wayne, IN, for a short time and the house I stayed in was on the outskirts of the main city—set way back on a dirt road in a farming area. The house is over 200 years old and I would routinely freak myself out because of the age, location, and my only other roommates were two cats.
Anyways, during one of the coldest nights in January (-15 F), I heard someone frantically ringing my doorbell at 2:30-3 AM. I slowly approached the door to get a glimpse of my unexpected company before they realized I could see them. Suddenly, I heard them thump across the wooden, wraparound deck leading up to the front door and make their way to the big glass side door.
I heard a moan/groan and then someone jiggled the door knob. By this time I am calling 9-1-1 and cowering in my room with my pistol drawn. During the 25 minutes it took for the authorities to make their way up there to investigate, I could hear and see the shadows of people outside each window, trying each one to see if it slid open.
When the officers arrived, they walked around the house and made a disturbing discovery. They only identified one set of footprints in the snow...and one set of drag marks. They could identify where and when the person being dragged was "seated" down in the snow at various entry points while the other guy was checking for a way in.
I moved shortly after—not because of the attempted entry but because Fort Wayne, IN is a terrible place to live.
11. Woke Up On The Wrong Side Of The Bed
Like most couples, my husband and I have a designated "side" of the bed. I sleep on the right and he on the left. My comfortable sleep position is laying on my left side and facing the window, away from him. He alternates between facing the bathroom door or me.
One night a few weeks back, I'm fighting my sleep. I'm lying on my left side, per the norm, but I just can't get comfortable. My neck is sort of sore from laying on my left so I turn over and face my husband. When I turn over, I am not only faced with my husband's back, but with a large shadow standing over him.
Immediately the shadow stretches to me and somehow communicates for me to turn over. I remember thinking its face was contorted, somehow expressing malice, but I can't for the life of me remember what it looked like. I didn't hear a voice, but the communication was urgent and angry. Like it wanted to hurt me.
Without thinking, I turn back around and quickly fall asleep. To be honest, I'm not even sure if I was dreaming. The next morning, my husband and I wake up around the same time and go about our usual routine. I don't say anything because my husband doesn't like to talk about supernatural stuff or the like (which I felt it was).
However, this morning is strange and he seems to be uncomfortable. After a lot of prodding, he finally admits he had an awful nightmare. He dreamt a demon was trying to make him do things while he was sleeping, "really evil stuff" (wouldn't elaborate) and I woke up during this and the demon went to attack me.
I didn't tell my husband that I remember the same thing, only I wasn't sure if I was asleep.
12. Unwanted Company
My family moved into this house when I was eight and it was bigger than any house we had before and had a massive unfinished basement. That basement had windows that lined three of the walls so it wasn't the dark basement that most people think of but for some reason, I was still terrified of being down there at night.
Every time I would go upstairs, I'd sprint upstairs because I felt like something was following me up. For 11 years, that went on and my family acted like it was just my imagination. For the last few years, my dad had moved his office down there since he worked from home and he was bent on having a guest bedroom in our house.
Now, one thing about my dad is he never really stops working. When everyone else is getting off work early on Fridays, he always kept working until he was done. That meant he would be down in the basement way after it got dark.
Then about a year ago, I was back home from college for the summer and my dad got rid of the guest bedroom after ten years and moved his office in there. I felt the same when I went down there, but it kept getting worse.
I started noticing that my dog would never go down there with me even though he used to love being down there since there was space for him to run around. He would stand at the top of the stairs unless I forced him down there. Then once he was down there, if I took my eye off of him, he would sprint upstairs.
It started getting to the point where I was overcome with fear even walking down there during the day and I just started avoiding it completely. My dad asked me why I wouldn't go down there and I told him that I couldn't explain it and I was just scared. That’s when he told me the truth about why he moved his office.
Whenever he was down there after dark, he couldn't bring himself to look away from his computer screen because he always felt like something was behind him and that he would sprint upstairs after he turned off his computer and he would see shadows and stuff sometimes on his way up.
Also, he has a friend that does the psychic medium stuff and she told him that while she was visiting, she felt something really evil whenever she passed the basement door and that she was worried it would try to hurt us. He also told me that when we first moved in there, I would regularly tell them I saw people in our house but I'd forgotten about that.
My dad is the most rational person I know and even he was scared. He started talking about getting the house cleansed and over the course of the next two months, that feeling of fear and being watched was no longer only in the basement, it was everywhere.
It got to the point where even when I was outside, I was scared to look into the house because it felt like something was there. We ended up getting the house cleansed and all went back to normal, but for a couple of months, I was constantly overcome with fear.
My dad and I were the only ones that felt it. And my dog too—I guess but I can't exactly ask him about it.
13. Life Imitates Art
Years ago, around Halloween, my family had gathered to watch scary movies. My mom loved these shows. My dad didn't care much for them, so he would get up every few minutes to work on something or other. We had started watching Hitchcock's The Birds, and it was getting late, probably close to midnight.
It was getting cold. Not just the late October chill of the foothills we lived in, but the house was getting cold. At first, my mom just asked my dad to turn up the thermostat, but after a couple of minutes of the furnace running and the house not warming up, he realized he'd need to go check the furnace.
He grabbed a lighter and headed downstairs. A minute later, we hear him shout for us. "You have to come see this”! He says with something that sounds part excitement, part nervousness in his voice. We get down there to see him shining a flashlight into the furnace.
Peering in, first, we just noticed the pilot light was indeed out. Then we saw the reason. A lifeless bird. Something about the size of the palm of my hand, maybe a sparrow, had flown into the furnace from outside and put the flame out.
14. Five Of The Longest Seconds
In 1993, our family lived in a small town called Ritzville, Washington. I was five years old at the time and what I experienced has left me thinking about it every single night for the past 22 years. I shared a room and bunk bed with my little brother.
The room had a small, fairly deep closet located a few feet from the foot of the bunk bed. Located on the wall was a small vent that at night, when the living room light was on, would shine through, giving my room a slight ambient glow.
Well, one night I had to go to the bathroom, and when I sat up and was about to take the covers off, I noticed that at the foot of the bunk bed was this...tall black figure with a giant oval head that spanned the width of the bunk bed staring at me.
It had two small yellow eyes that were far apart and I noticed this thing stood around six feet tall. Its skin was charcoal and lumpy. I stared at it for a good five seconds before I threw the covers over my head. Five seconds of this...monster being ingrained into my head. I could feel the evil surrounding it.
I was up for a while before I fell asleep again, so I have no idea how long it was there. In the morning, the first thing I noticed was the closet door. I make it a habit to close closet doors every night but it was wide open.
My mom was the first to know about it and you know how most parents kind of waive off their kids' experiences as a bad dream? She didn't. She knew I saw something because she'd seen things too. I had nightmares for weeks after seeing it.
In my dreams, this "being" picked me up and started torturing me. I haven't seen it since and I NEVER want to see it again.
15. Meet George
I worked the graveyard shift in a hospital kitchen about five years ago. Before the kitchen was renovated a few years prior, our dishroom used to be part of the morgue. While I was training, I'd frequently feel like someone was watching me, especially when I crossed into that part of the hallway.
Every time I went into the dishroom, something would be moved, turned over, or missing. Assuming it was my co-worker, I didn't think anything of it. About a week later, my co-worker leaves, and I'm left on my own. Every night, I would hear carts being moved around, dishes being put away, and silverware rattling.
If I would leave for a minute, I'd get back and my radio would be switched to a different station. It got to the point where I was terrified to come to work every night. I called my old co-worker, told her what was going on, and she very calmly said, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about George".
Apparently, George was a nurse/medical examiner who had a stroke while at work. He was in his 50s, I was told. From then on, everything actually went quite well. I introduced myself to George, asked him to please keep it down, and as long as I said hi to him as soon as I started work, he didn't seem to want to bother me anymore.
It took us a little while to find a radio station we could agree on, but we worked harmoniously after that. When I left the job a year later, I made sure I told the girl that replaced me.
16. Mythical Monster
I used to live in the bad part of town but the community was very close and we all played soccer together inside the apartment complex. Nobody really cared since we never broke a window and they would usually come out and chat with each other while they watched us play.
Anyway, we were all tired and decided to take a break and I went to lean against a tree. From where I was sitting, if I looked to the left and the right, there were two dark alleys that led to the back area of the apartments. Out of the corner of my eye, two shiny eyes caught my attention.
I just stared for what seemed ages and I got that sensation that I was about to be jumped. I tried to tell people something was there but the words wouldn't come out and there was also the fear of looking stupid in front of everyone. Then, whatever that thing was, it came out fast and ran from one alley to the next one.
There were at least 20 people there, and everyone saw it. You could hear all the girls screaming and the panic in everyone. I had no reaction. I just stood there and along with a couple more people. We were the closest to this creature. It did not attack us though, it just ran by and disappeared into the dark alley.
I honestly thought it was going to kill me as it was huge, I'd say maybe seven to eight feet tall. After that, we all just stayed home and tried to figure out what happened that night—but being in a Mexican neighborhood, all the families believe in this stuff and said it was the Chupacabra and the fear eventually faded.
The scary thing is I googled Chupacabra years later and some pictures look very similar to what we saw that day. A tall, black figure with the bony body of a starving dog that ran like a raptor but more upright as it had long hands but not to proportion with the rest of its huge body.
17. Gut Feeling
One night I just couldn't sleep. Every time I laid down to sleep I got this overwhelming feeling and almost thought I heard a voice urging me to get up, so I got a book and stayed up just listening to the thunderstorm while feeling a bit silly.
Four hours later, at about 2 AM it felt like something was telling me to go get a glass of water. This was really weird, but as long as I was already staying up until 2 AM because of a feeling, I might as well get a glass of water. It may have ended up saving my life.
As I walk down the stairs, I hear a sound coming from the office. A flip of the light switch reveals it's the first couple of drops of a leak. The roof had just been redone the week before, so I was really mad. Forgetting about getting a drink, I grabbed a bucket and was walking back into the room when the plink...plink...of the leak changes.
Suddenly it's like a hose is pouring straight into the middle of the room. I threw the bucket underneath, and as I'm running back with trash bags to cover the computers, it changes again. There are now sparks shooting off of the floor and this stream of water looks like a ribbon of glowing plasma twisting and branching through the air.
I stared in shock for a moment before dropping the plastic to hit the light switch and sprinted to the circuit breaker. The rest of the night was waking up my family, climbing into the attic to make sure nothing was on fire (scorch marks, yes, flames or coals, no), moving electronics out of the office, and emptying buckets.
It turned out that the storm had loosened and finally tore free a piece of flashing. The angle of the roof had then funneled all that water straight onto the heater and electrical wiring for that section of the house.
Because I was in just the right place at just the right time, I was able to protect the floor from the electrified water/contain it with the bucket/wasn't standing in it after coming down the stairs, shut off the power before the scorched wood ignited, cover the computers with plastic before they got wet, set up buckets/plastic, and clean up the water before the wood floors were damaged.
In the end, because of that urging to stay up and to walk past the office door, all that night cost us was a coat of paint for the ceiling. The roofing crew came back and fixed the roof at no cost because it was only a week old, and everything was okay.
It still made my skin crawl to look at the scorched wood inside the attic and on the ceiling and to think about how my parents and sister and even the dog slept through it until I shook them awake. Well, technically I tripped over the dog while waking up my parents, but...close enough.
18. Falling From The Sky
My dad used to visit some clients who lived in a creepy isolated farmhouse. People claimed to have seen ghosts and spirits around the farm since the 1850s, and the owners of the house joke about it frequently. On one visit to his clients, they sat in an empty room around a desk.
Now, this room was literally empty apart from the desk, no bookshelves, no furniture. They were discussing the area when my dad brings up the ghosts spotted on the farm, and the client tells him about a middle-aged man who passed on here 60 years ago.
10-20 minutes go on, and they go into more business-related stuff. And literally out of nowhere, drops an obituary. A freshly cut, obituary. My Dad catches it out of the air and inspects it. It belonged to that very man they were discussing earlier. And to clarify, there was NOTHING in the room for it to fall from.
19. Gliding Along
My 21-month-old daughter has never been a good sleeper. No matter what we try, she rarely sleeps through the night. We've set up two night lights, a regular one across the room and behind her little dresser and a red one by her bed. She's in the ballpark of where fear of the dark and imagination can manifest and we were trying to get ahead of it.
The last couple of weeks, she's been waking up and acting completely frantic, crying in a way that she doesn't normally cry. If I try to leave her alone, she doesn't just cry no...she sounds absolutely terrified and it's not her normal "scared" cry. Three nights ago, I was woken up by the sound of a pig snort at two different times.
You might say that I woke myself up snoring, but my wife and I do not snore unless we are congested, and that's not the case at the moment. It was an odd thing, but I simply went back to sleep. I point this out because my daughter has started making pig snorts. She has a little stuffed pig, but we haven't been teaching her that noise.
Two nights ago, we were woken up around midnight by her cries on the monitor. I went into her room. The red light that was on when we put her to sleep was unplugged from the wall. I tried to get her back down but she wasn't having it. She kept looking over my shoulder.
The door to her room is across the room and was behind my back but she wasn't looking at it...rather she was looking at the glider (a kind of rocking chair) in her room. I looked back at it and, for the briefest of moments, I swore that I saw a shadow move from the light of her normal night light back into the shadows.
"It's 2 AM and my mind is playing tricks on me," I said to myself, half out loud. I said it out loud because of the feeling slowly washing over me...the feeling that something was there...unseen eyes watching me. It made me uncomfortable...powerless. I haven't really felt that feeling. What happened next still creeps me out.
I tried to play it off and asked my daughter, "Is there someone here”? "Uh huh”. It's one of the few things that she will clearly say. "Where are they”? There was no one in the room with us. She pointed at the corner, where the glider is. We keep it locked because we rarely use it, so I knew it wouldn't be moving.
I still looked in that direction. "There's no one there, sweetie. Are you sure”? I was hoping she'd shake her head no. "Uh huh”. "Okie doke. Put her head down on daddy's shoulder”. I was patting her back, half to comfort her and half to comfort me. She patted my shoulder back.
She put her head down and we swayed for a few minutes, but she wasn't closing her eyes. She was watching the glider. I waited a few more minutes and asked, "Is someone still here”? "Uh huh". "Where are they”? She pointed to the same place. This time, something caught my eye that I'd completely overlooked before.
Her stuffed pig was on the floor next to the glider. She looked absolutely terrified. She slept with us that night. Last night, she cried, but wasn't pacing in her crib. I went in to check on her and the red light was again unplugged. I rubbed her back and told her everything would be OK.
She fell back asleep. She does make the cutest, content noises when she's sleeping well. Well, I thought she was sleeping well. I went to leave the room and she'd start crying. She was fidgeting, which was abnormal for her. She's normally a fairly still sleeper, like I am.
She was sleeping on her stomach, which was normal but she was keeping her hands tucked under her body. Normally she sleeps with them out, like a typical toddler/baby sleeps when on their belly. I moved her arm out and she quickly tucked it back in. We did this back-and-forth thing with me rubbing her back, walking away, and her waking up for about 20 minutes.
I started to walk away for the last time, so certain she was asleep. "Dada”? I turned to see her pointing at the glider, which was illuminated by the night light. Nothing was there, but the lever was in the unlocked position. I started to get light-headed and my chest started to tighten. My legs felt like lead.
I started to hear a distinct buzzing sound in my head. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was adrenaline, maybe it was something that I have no idea about. I willed myself to move, grabbed my daughter, and took her into our room. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep last night.
We ended up selling the glider to clear up some space in her room. Once we sold that, however, my daughter started sleeping in her room. After most of her life sleeping in our bed and then on a pallet on our floor, it took three nights for her to sleep in her room.
20. The Watcher
About three years ago, I moved from my old childhood and family house to a new home where we currently live. The move was about 20 minutes away so not too bad although I did have to move schools. So in the new house, I got a pretty cool room, it has a loft that hangs above my bed and is where I'm typing this right now.
It has my computer and record player and not much else, only three people could be up there comfortably. It hangs about half over my bed six feet down, and across from my loft and my bed is a large window overlooking the street and the empty property lot across the street.
I never open the curtains or the windows because it hits direct sunlight and is too bright. So, when we moved here, our next-door neighbor is also the guy that owns the neighborhood and built the house as well.
When we finally settled in and hung out with their family for a while, they opened up and told us some stuff about what happened when our house was being built. They said that a random dark car with tinted windows would come by some days and just watch them build for hours.
If they ever approached the car thinking it was us just looking, the car would zoom away. We were concerned but not scared in any way at this point so not much else came of it and we went about life as usual. A few weeks later, our neighbor has another story to tell us—but this time he is freaked out himself just telling it.
He told us that within the past few nights, things had gone missing from his garage. As a builder, he tends to have a lot of tools lying around so he didn't notice at first, but then bigger things started vanishing like propane tanks and even a table saw. The final straw, and the scariest part, was that his blaster was missing.
But it wasn't out by the tools, it was in his locked basement safe, with a security system guarded house. His spouse and kids were away on a trip so it was only him home. The next night he decided to stay up to see if he could find anything.
He said that the same car that watched him build our house, pulled up to his home around 3 AM that night. A very average-sized man got out, and when my neighbor opened his front door holding a baseball bat, the man very calmly got back in his car and drove away slowly. He said it was like the man was expecting him.
So at this point, our family is freaked out. But it didn't stop there, of course, it couldn't. A week later our neighbor called us frantically and told us that outside the entrance to the neighborhood was a duffle bag full of all the small tools the person had taken. A note was attached that read, "I wasn't finished with them”.
Okay, what the heck. At this point, we’re terrified, so terrified that within the next month we had a security system installed. Nothing came of these events for the next few months. All of the above happened around last February. That November, of course, it had to escalate again and scare us all.
So one day my family and I are outside my house walking the trails of our backyard forest. We own about four acres of land so it’s nice sometimes to walk back there. I run ahead myself to catch up with our dog who had probably found an animal. When I reach him, he is barking past the treeline to where you cannot see anymore.
And there is a figure, a figure of a man just standing there staring in our direction. I tried to study the figure as quickly as I could so that if this stuff ever happened again I could make sure it was him.
It was a man, a normal height and weighted man, with no facial hair and an abnormally large nose. No glasses, very short hair, was wearing black jeans and a black jacket. That's all I could get, before he just casually walked away, like he didn't see me terrified.
I ran back to my family to tell them and to have them come with me because I sure wasn't about to go after this dude myself. Not a trace. So the reason I told you about my room, in the beginning, sets up the last part of my story.
One day in December, very similar to today, I was online with some friends. And all of a sudden, a very silent thud came from my window. Mind you, its 2 AM and everyone in my home is asleep.
I go down the ladder of my loft to the window and gingerly peel back the curtain to see the same dude across the street in the empty lot. I nearly lost it. He sees me in my window, and his response? He walks away slowly into the woods, keeping eye contact with me until he is no longer in view.
21. The Gatecrasher
My dad and I both feel that there is something outside the gates at my cottage. I don't really know how to describe it, it just feels like there's some incredibly evil entity just outside the gates, when you go near there at night.
It's sort of similar to the feeling you get when someone is staring at you but less human (if that makes any sense), as well as an intense wave of fear. Anyway, one night about three years ago, we were having a bonfire with a bunch of the family (I'm fairly sure it was Thanksgiving weekend), and the topic naturally turns to ghost stories.
After a few stories, my cousin mentions that he always gets creeped out walking near the cottage gate at night and he described the feeling as like being watched, coupled with intense fear. Of course, we three idiots decide to go over there to check it out. I should mention that both my dad and cousin had had a few drinks.
They weren't falling over themselves, though. I was completely sober. So we get to the gate, and we all feel a bit creeped out. Of course we do, we were just hyping up this creepy swamp creature. Therefore, to really test this out, we decide to go out on to the road and walk down the hill toward the swamp.
My dad and cousin were talking smack and basically daring whatever it was to prove it exists. I'm just hoping nothing happens and we can just go back to the warm bonfire. All of a sudden, my dad is upside down, then he's on the ground.
It looked like he was picked up by his ankles, and turned upside down before being dropped. There is no way it could have happened like it did if he had simply slipped downhill. He's a pretty big guy, and not super nimble. So we helped my dad back up and basically sprinted back to the fire.
My dad had a big scrape on his face, and no one believed our story. I wouldn't have either, if I hadn't actually seen it.
22. Near-Miss
I was about 19 living with a roommate in an apartment complex. Occasionally I get mild bouts of insomnia but nothing serious, usually just a delay in my bedtime of an extra two or three hours. One night, I suddenly just cannot sleep.
Nothing will get me to relax and I eventually give up and just sit in the front room playing heavy rain all night as it had just come out a few days ago. The next day, when I head off to work, exhausted with 0 hours of sleep, I get a chilling text from my roommate.
It read: “Dude there are officers all over the apartment complex. Apparently, nine apartments including our downstairs neighbor were broken into last night WITH PEOPLE HOME SLEEPING. Some people even reported things being stolen from the rooms they were sleeping in”.
It hit me that had I not stayed up all night and left the light on in the front room I would have been robbed or worse.
23. Narrow Escape
I was out in the middle of nowhere at a musical conference my wife was presenting at. It was held at an old church retreat camp.
One of her presentations ran way over, so the lodges cafeteria was closed. With no car, no phone (this area was so remote there was no coverage for mobile), and no vending machines, the only resort was to walk into the nearest town and get food.
I grabbed a coat and flashlight and had no issue on the trip down and snagged a pizza from a spot along the highway around midnight. On the way back it was a different story. I got a severe feeling of discomfort, I could feel eyes on me.
This was out in the middle of the woods, so my first instinct was that an animal was following me. Knowing most predators like to hit from either above or behind I turned on my phone light and kept it pointed behind me and swept my flashlight up and down as I walked.
The whole walk back I heard rustlings, first along one side, then following behind. I kept a steady pace and acted cool...even though I was terrified. Shortly before I was back on site, the feeling left, no more sounds. My wife and I enjoyed pizza and slept in. Two days later we got a shock from the news.
A homeless woman was found less than 1,500 yards from our site that had been mauled and partially consumed in what appeared to be a cougar attack. Estimates of the time of death were the same night I went out for pizza.
Flickr, Santa Monica Mountains
24. A Smack And A Soak
My wife and I were on vacation, staying in a hotel (as one does). Our last night there, I'm lying in bed, trying to fall asleep, and I feel something smack my arm, which was outside the covers. Not hard, but not gentle either.
It wakes me fully up, and I look around, and I figure it's one of those things that you just hallucinate when you're about to fall asleep. So I lay there, trying to fall back asleep, but...well, I feel increasingly odd about my arm outside the covers. So I eventually tuck it under the covers, chastising myself the whole time, and fall asleep.
That morning at breakfast, my wife says she has a story for me. She woke up at 1:00 AM or thereabouts because...our shower was on. Like, fully on.
This was a European room, where the shower is only divided from the rest of the bathroom by myths and social convention, so the whole bathroom was soaked, and she had to wade in there to turn it off. The shower isn't a knob, it's a lever you turn counter-clockwise to turn off. And when she grabbed the lever, it took A LOT of effort to move.
She really fought hard. Which was not how it had been previously. But she got it turned off, cocked an eyebrow, shrugged, and went back to sleep. Only to wake up at 3:00 or so, when the shower was back on again. Fully on. Lever turned the other way.
So she waded back in to shut it off, got totally creeped out, ran back to bed, and waited for daylight. And, of course, the kicker is that she told me her story before I said anything at all about mine. Apparently, we had a haunted room.
25. Footsteps In The Snow
Once upon a time, I was lounging around at my boyfriend's house with a friend. He lives in this huge house, with a big pond out back and four floors. It's about 20 years old. My boyfriend was out for the night, and my friend and I went out on the back deck for a smoke.
It was about midnight, and we were chatting away, laughing, having a good time, looking out over the pond, when suddenly my friend gasps, looking down at the ground below her. I look down to see what she's looking at, and I almost started screaming.
A blizzard had just passed the day before and we had been the only three people at the house since it hit. Or so we thought.
When we looked downwards, there were 10 or so trails of fresh footprints in the snow, going to every window, every door, and eventually up the staircase that led to the porch, with the footprints ending right where we were standing. But that wasn’t all.
The most shocking, terrifying discovery was the group of frighteningly tall and wide men who were standing statue-still in the back left corner of the yard, by the pond, in a horizontal line, shoulder to shoulder. All we could see was the shape of their bodies and their eyes, staring at us.
The two of us look at each other, our animated conversation silenced by fear. I call out to them, greeting them kindly. No reply. They continue to stare. We call out again, and again. The men didn't even move. We suddenly hear footsteps crunching in the snow, and it sounds like someone is coming up the stairs to the porch where we were standing.
The footsteps are quick, and heavy. We stand still in shock, until we hear a low, gravelly voice whisper from below us, "Run". We run into the house. I lock the doors and the windows. My friend grabs a blade from the drawer and hands one to me.
We peer out the window and they're not moving, and they're still staring at us. However, they're ten feet closer to the house than they were before. I start crying. My friend is frantically trying to call her boyfriend, but for some reason, we have no cellphone service when we usually have full bars. There is no landline.
My texts aren't delivering, my calls are failing. My friend looks out the window and exclaims to me that they're now even closer to the house, but still in the same formation. Still staring, unmoving. I tell her to keep watch on them and I run outside to the front of the house.
From the front yard, I can still see the men standing in the backyard. They've moved closer to the house, yet again—now they're standing about three feet from the basement door, staring. It was so dark, I couldn't see their faces or clothing, just their bodies and eyes.
My friend is screaming at me from inside the house. I run next door, to the neighbors, and frantically bang on the door. They open the door, greet me, and I hurriedly explain the situation to them while keeping watch that the men don't escape through their only exit (the front yard).
The neighbors telephone 9-1-1, and come stand in the driveway with me. As I go to point out the men, I realize they're gone. My friend comes rushing out of the house, barefoot in 60cm of snow, crying too, screaming that they're gone.
She had looked down to check her cellphone for a signal, and in that split second, the men had disappeared.
26. Near Miss
Back when I was in college there were a number of break-ins reported from various apartment complexes that lined a single street. You could easily walk from one apartment complex to another in a few minutes. A lot of these units had large back porches that you shared with your neighbor.
The kicker is that below the porches there were these big air conditioner-like things. You could easily climb up on these things and hop up onto the porch and since a lot of college kids left their doors unlocked, it was incredibly easy to get into someone's apartment.
The reports were all from females who awoke in the middle of the night, sometimes during storms, to find a man standing over their bed watching them sleep. If you woke up he would run out of the house. I thought it was creepy but I didn't think much of it. I was taking a summer astronomy class and it was a lecture followed by a lab.
Since we needed it to be nighttime to do the lab, often I wouldn't get home until around 12. It was about a five-hour class in total so I would often go home to bed exhausted. One night I did this as normal. None of my three other roommates were home at the time. The next morning, I woke up to my roommate telling me there was an officer there and he wanted to talk to me.
I went downstairs and apparently, last night they had caught the man during the break-ins lurking around our apartment complex. They had asked the man to show him all the places he had broken in. Apparently, he had pointed at mine. It was then my roommate told us that he came home late last night and the backdoor was open.
We think he was trying to enter as my roommate came home and upon hearing my roommate, hurried out the backdoor without closing it. It didn't occur to me till much later that maybe that wasn't the only night, unaware to me, that he had entered our home.
27. Call For Help
Working as a 9-1-1 dispatcher, I got a 9-1-1 call from a house. I call it back, but it's been disconnected. This is actually fairly common and happened whenever it rained. The backstory on the house is that it was vacant and used to have an active landline.
The theory was that the water was somehow getting to the telephone system to the house, and was setting off false alarms. Well, we get one, and I thought about just saying "Forget it" but I stuck with protocol and sent an officer. The vacant house had just caught on fire. The day after a rain storm.
Never found a witness, and the house was saved.
28. Room For Rent
I was 20 and living in my first apartment, a two-bedroom apartment that I shared with a roommate and my two cats. I picked up a roommate because I was a young female living alone for the first time.
My roomie (let's call him Ben) was a friend of a friend, being processed out of the forces due to a psychotic break where they then realized that he was also schizophrenic. This was the mid-90s so I'm sure the terms have changed by now. My friend vouched for him, and I had hung out with Ben socially before a few times and thought he was really great.
Anyway, Ben lived his whole life with voices in his head but he thought they were the voices of his consciousness and not something malicious or wrong—until the day they went from normal to disturbing. They told him to take someone's life.
This brings us to the then-current situation, where he was living at my place until his paperwork was done. Ben was an awesome roommate. He cooked (very well), cleaned, liked good music and movies, and was a hottie too. We got along very well, especially when he was compliant with his meds.
But then, there were days when he wasn't as compliant. Those days were terrifying. I would walk down the hall past his room and see him sitting on his dresser and peering at the wall very closely. It was a blank white wall. Nothing there. No smudges or spots.
I'd ask what he was doing and usually, he'd never break his gaze and say "nothing". I'd ask if he took his meds today, and he'd say "no". Can you go do that for me? "Sure”! and he'd hop down and take his meds and go about his day.
This happened a few times over the next few weeks, him sitting on his dresser staring at the wall from a few inches away. So I finally asked him, "What are you looking at”? His answer made my blood run cold. He turned his head slowly and looked at me, "You REALLY do not want to know”.
I felt every little tiny hair on my body stand on end. I asked Ben to please take his meds and backed out of the room. One day I walked past and this time he was crouched on top of the dresser instead of just sitting on it, nose almost to the wall at the same spot. My cats were sitting on the dresser too—also looking at the same spot.
I started to cry and yelled at Ben to take his meds and my cats shot out of the room. Ben's paperwork came through not long after that and he moved to the other side of the country. I missed his cooking and company but not the creepy staring and wondering if he took his meds.
I had three more roommates to take over his now-vacated room and they all moved out after a few months—but that’s not the creepiest part. One left all of his things and disappeared. This was before the days of prolific cell phones, the internet, and email so I don't know what made him just take off.
I know he left as I saw him walk out the door one day and never come back. I pawned his stuff to pay for rent. I eventually decided to move as my two-year lease was coming to an end and didn't bother with another roommate. I didn't close off the second bedroom, but I did clean it out and sort of decorate it.
On the dresser (where Ben used to perch) I had an empty crystal vase that I found at a thrift shop. I was 20, and playing around with religion and Wicca, so I also had things like books and an athame (a ceremonial blade), on that dresser.
I had some friends over one night for movies and pizza and the conversation changed to Ben and the creepy things going on. Suddenly there was a huge crashing noise coming from spare bedroom and we all ran in and turned on the light. The crystal vase was in a dozen pieces on top of the dresser as if it had exploded.
One of my friends cleaned up the mess and we shut the door. I didn't open it again until the day I moved out to pack up the few things in there.
29. Curtain Call
Back when I was a teenager, my parents used to try and force me to sleep with my curtains open so that I would "get a breeze". I'd always get up and shut them. One night, it was a gorgeous evening and something convinced me to keep them open. As I'm trying to fall asleep, I hear a sound that makes my heart stop.
There’s heavy breathing outside my window. I look over, and there is a dude staring at me. I scream twice—first an “Aaaah” followed by a “daaddd help”! He jumps the fence and my dogs start losing it. My father comes tearing into my room and I point to the window.
I didn't know it, but when he stepped over to the window he could clearly see a car chilling at the bottom of our driveway. Two seconds later, three more guys sprint up to my window and start talking. My father, cool as a cucumber, just goes "You alright there guys"? and scares the bejeesus out of them.
Allegedly, the first guy had been attempting to take their cars and they were trying to “get him”. Dad calls the authorities and they were picked up—the driver for driving under the influence, the others for public intoxication, AND for admitting the threats to the officer. I still, to this day, cannot sleep with any blinds open.
30. Side Effects
In 2008, I was staying over at my grandparents’ house for the summer break. The place was 40 km from Chennai, India in a nice town. People were nice, no history of unsavory stuff. It’s a very religious and spiritual town, everyone knew everyone, kind of nice.
The last night before I left for home, we watched a documentary on the beginning of life and it was nice, and I slept by 11:00 PM. At 11:34 PM, I heard crows cawing, weird I thought, at exact same time, I saw a crow looking at me inside the house, and then it flew towards the idols of our gods.
The Hindu religion has multiple gods, my grandparents are strict followers and very particular about that room. I saw that, woke up, and went there, nothing, so I came back and slept. Still 11:34 PM—weird, I thought. Out of nowhere, I heard the most horrific, scream/shriek, filled with pain and disgust and hate and anger.
Suddenly, I have an out-of-body experience and see myself outside the house. I see a tall dark hooded figure, floating towards our house, and every time it comes closer, I can hear the dragging of chains and then I see that thing coming up the stairs towards my room.
I open my eyes, it’s still 11:34 PM, I sort of have this dreaded feeling that this demon or this tall hooded creature is standing right behind me at the entrance of the room. I try waking my mom up, she is drooling and in deep sleep, my brother too—we all were sleeping in the same room.
I now have no choice but to face that thing, so I get up and just look outside the door, and there it is. It’s tall, approximately eight feet tall, hooded, and I can't make out the features of its face, but I stared into its eyes. They were hollow. It felt like forever but it was just a few seconds, that thing just turned into dust and just hit me.
When it hit me, I couldn't breathe, my windpipe swelled up and I started wheezing. I open my eyes up again, and the lights turn on. My grandfather, granny, mom, and brother all are staring at me and grandfather just injects me with something and I am breathing normally again. I pass out.
The next day we go to doctor, and he tells me I almost didn’t make it. My windpipe still has swelling and they couldn't find any reason behind it. After some time, I started developing these water boils all over my body. Doctors were not able to find out exactly what it was.
They were painful, it did hurt a lot, but I just took the pain. I told my mom and grandparents, but they didn't react much to it. After that day, I have seen that thing couple of times more. But the thing that changed is my personality. I somehow became more confident, stronger, and fearless.
31. The Doppelganger
I lived in this dark, creepy-ish rental house from fourth to seventh grade. I don't know if the house was actually haunted or not, but my mom, my sister, and me always got these creepy feelings around various areas of the house (particularly the closet and bathroom in the main bedroom).
Anyway, my sister who was a little bit younger than me would tell me about how she saw the disembodied head of a woman floating above my bed at night, looking at me sleep. I admit, at night, I would get the eerie feeling that something I couldn't see was watching me, but trying to be the tough nine-year-old, I brushed off what she was saying as the ramblings of a seven-year-old.
Nothing really happened for months and I even forgot what my sister said about the disembodied head, until one night I was in a particularly deep sleep when I suddenly heard the bloodcurdling scream of a woman right outside my ear.
At first, I thought it was my mom or sister messing with me but when I glanced across the room, I saw my sister sleeping in bed and went to my mom's room and saw her sleeping as well, and there was no other woman in the house that could have possibly done it. If that doesn't creep you out, something creepier happened to my sister.
In sixth grade, I was away at science camp for a week, so my sister had the room to herself for the entire week. One of those nights, she woke up and saw me standing in the doorway. At first, she thought that I had come back early from camp, so she spent about a minute asking me why I had come back from camp so early and how it was.
Thing is, while she was talking to what she thought was me, it didn't say anything and all it did was stare at her from the doorway, which gave her a cold chill up her spine. Once she realized it wasn't me, she said the thing pretending to be me gave her a creepy smile and waved at her before turning around and walking down the hallway towards the main bedroom.
32. How Many Ghosts Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?
This is a brief account of an experience I had almost a year ago in the warehouse where I work alone. No one I've told has believed me, but perhaps you all will. I work in a warehouse that my father purchased. He bought it for 25% of its cost from a farmer who seemed very excited to be rid of it.
It is in the middle of Mennonite country, with no neighbors for a half-mile around. Look out the window...you see cornfields and scraggly trees. Cell service? Forget about it. I work here alone, painting and preparing the front office portion for eventual functionality.
To get to the front office, you must go through a hallway from the main warehouse, into a secondary office, and then through another door into the front. I frequently hear bumps and thuds and occasionally will go into the warehouse and feel air movement, but I've always attributed it to drafts and animal life in the roof.
There’s only one thing that has ever made me uneasy about the building. It’s the fact that all of the door locks are reversed. Whoever installed those locks didn't intend to keep people out, they intended to keep something in. I was in the front office when I began to hear the thudding.
I ignored it and continued to apply masking tape to the door I was working on. But this time, it was accompanied by a screeching sound. Not loud, but audible. I was freaked out, but convinced myself that it was just an angry raccoon or squirrel that had found its way inside. I continued working—until I heard the slam.
The door to the secondary office had been open; it sounded like it had violently slammed shut. I peeked around the corner and saw that I was right. The secondary door was now closed. I tried to logic it through in my head that a strong draft had sucked it closed, although I knew there was no such draft. The thudding began again.
Close this time. I've never been able to put a proximity on it, but now it sounded like it was right on the other side of the door. I froze, unsure of what was happening. My eyes locked on the door handle, which began to turn. The door disengaged its latch and slowly swung open. Wider...wider....nothing there.
Nothing visible, no air movement, just quiet. So quiet. A quiet that seemed to overwhelm me with its presence; a quiet so thick I couldn't breathe. The quiet was shattered when the screech came again. This time, it was clearly human. Pained, angered, and emanating from the main warehouse. The door slammed.
That entirely broke my frozen fearful state...I ran. I got into my car and drove until I was in cell range to call my father. He didn't believe anything about the doors closing, but agreed that the building had something weird about it. He told me he'd be right out. Fast forward half an hour.
My dad and I met up and drove back to the warehouse. I showed him the door that slammed, showing him that it was separated from both the front office and the main warehouse, so no draft could have closed it. I told him about the thuds, the screeching, and the sudden quiet that overcame the building.
He decided that we should check the main warehouse. Emboldened by his presence, I led the way. Something you should know about this warehouse: It was formerly a furniture manufacturing place owned by a Mennonite farmer. They made handmade chairs, tables, etc. Because of all the cutting that went on, the floor is thickly coated with dust.
We walked into the warehouse and saw nothing out of the ordinary. The dust was untouched, the doors were closed, windows were locked. The only thing out of the ordinary was one of the hanging fluorescent light fixtures. It was hanging askew, and swaying slightly.
Insisting we take a look at the mount to ensure it didn't just break loose, my dad grabbed a step ladder. He supported it while I climbed up and grabbed the swinging light. What I found sent chills down my spine. I looked on top of the light...and saw a hand-print. A single, fresh, inhumanly large hand-print.
No footprints in the dust around the light, no signs of a presence. I climbed down and switched places with my father. He saw it and said, "What the heck? There's been no one in here for years”! He climbed down and told me he'd been suspicious of someone breaking in and stealing parts from the warehouse light system.
He couldn't believe me that this wasn't human...that something wasn't right here. The last thing he said was "Nothing is here. Next time, just go back to work”. And then, as if to show its presence, the thud returned. This time it wasn't just a thud, but more of an earthquake. The entire building felt like it moved.
The heartbeat-like thud was then overlaid by the screech. The awful, awful screech. It felt it like was coming from the walls themselves. We ran. We ran and I haven't returned. My father hired someone to finish my job and has since moved into the office.
He's heard the thudding, but thus far nothing has happened further. What actually happened? I don't know. Nor do I ever care to know. What I do know is that there is something paranormal in that building and the man who sold it to us knew.
I'll never forget the sound of that lock turning by itself or the feeling of the deafening silence.
Flickr, Marco Verch Professional Photographer
33. Double Whammy
My mom used to work in this daycare late at night, cleaning it when no one else was there. She would often clean it all alone, and wouldn't be back until early in the morning. Well, weird things started happening when she was cleaning.
The first things were minor, like toys going off when she wasn't in that particular room. No big deal. But then once, while she had another person there with her who worked for her once in a while named Nikki, they were joking about how it seemed haunted.
The infant room was the place where most toys would go off, and my mom was telling Nikki this and prompted Nikki to yell hello outside of the room to scare her. Nikki did this, and according to them both an Elmo toy went off yelling, "Hi it's Elmo”! Nikki refused to stay too late after that, sufficiently freaked out.
My mom however decided to stay and keep cleaning, as late as she pleased. Brave woman she is. She was about to enter the toddler room at one point during one of her shifts when she saw something impossible.
She told me she walked in and saw a woman in an old-fashioned dress sitting in one of the chairs staring into space. Then the woman apparently turned to her and smiled, before vanishing. Believe it or not, my mom still went in and cleaned. This is just one experience she has had, she seems to have been haunted a lot in her life.
She used to work at a convenience store where she saw what she believed to be the ghost of the old owner, sweeping and humming in the corner.
34. One For Me, One For Humphrey
I work at the famous and OLD Paramount Pictures lot. The lot has a ton of history. The stage they filmed Poltergeist on is on the Paramount lot. The lot also borders Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
I work very long hours and there are times when I'm on the lot very late at night into the morning. I am a smoker, so it's not unusual for me to step away from my desk at 2 am and go smoke. The building my production office is in is very close to the backend of the lot that is bordered by the cemetery.
This happened last week. I stepped out for a break, irritated that I was still at work, my co-worker was going to meet me outside in a moment to continue our complaints about still being at work, and as I’m standing there in a huff, a man walks up next to me and asks for a light. I don't think twice about it.
I whip out my lighter for him. He said thanks and walked off. Once again, it's not unusual for people to be on the lot very late at night. Two seconds later, I realize my coworkers are looking at me from a few feet away like I'm a complete lunatic.
I asked her what she was staring at, and she said I was talking to myself and trying to light the air on fire. Sounds ridiculous, but I think I lit a smoke for a ghost.
35. Fool Me Once…
A few years ago, I stayed in an outdated hotel in Bangkok. The satellite signal was a bit scrambly but still decent enough to watch a movie so I started watching the movie Room 1408. The movie itself is pretty intense if you're into horror flicks.
At some point in the movie, the guys stuck in the room suddenly hears voices from the radio. I kid you not, at that exact same time the radio in my bed started playing out of nowhere and it gave me goosebumps. While it scared the heck out of me, I guess I must have turned the knob when checking in and it coincidently found a signal at that exact moment.
Then a couple of years later, I was doing nightshifts in a Network Operation Centre for an IT company. We had a big server full of movies and I stumbled on the same movie again and started watching it again.
I felt kinda anxious for some reason and suddenly started thinking about what happened the first time I saw the movie. The same scene comes up—and that's when the unthinkable happens. At the exact moment the radio plays in the movie, the radio at the back of the office started making white noise.
I had goosebumps like a cold front took over my body in a few seconds and felt numbingly anxious. I'm not into the paranormal still, but heck, even typing this down I still feel goosebumps thinking about it. I haven't watched that movie since and I probably never will.
36. When Binging TV Pays Off
Me and my friends live in a duplex, with one apartment on the bottom of the house and the one I live in on the top floor. I had been downstairs at a surprise party for a friend who was moving away, but went back up to my room a little after midnight. I couldn't really sleep so I stayed up way later than I ever do, binge-watching TV in the dark.
At 4:50 am, the door to my room rattles. I was like, "Okay, well, my door in particular is kind of loose and it's probably just the wind”. But then the door starts opening, and I'm just sitting on my bed frozen while this tall, skinny dude starts coming into my room.
It's dark so I thought that maybe it was the friend who the party was for, inebriated and coming up to say goodbye again. I was so, so wrong. I said, "Who are you”? and, incredibly, he told me his first name. I said, "What are you doing in my room”? and, even more incredibly, he said he didn't know.
I told him to get out right now, which he did. I locked my door behind him and called my best friend who lived downstairs (where there were still partygoers) that there was an intruder. She called 9-1-1 and sent up our factory-worker roommate who found the guy just sitting in our living room in the dark.
My friend waved a boxcutter around and told the guy to leave, and he bolted. Still on the phone with 9-1-1, my best friend chased the intruder down the street giving a description, and he was picked up by officers only a few blocks away. The super creepy part of the story?
Everyone at the party had heard someone open the door and go upstairs, 20 minutes before I called them. He also made it up our narrow, super-steep staircase, and all the way down the hall (passing three bedrooms, the bathroom, the living room, and kitchen) to my room, which is recessed and not visible from the hallway until you're right in front of it.
I really don't know what would have happened if I hadn't have gotten really obsessed with my TV show that night; whenever my door rattles I still get spooked.
37. Glitch In The Matrix
A few days ago, my iPhone would not accept my fingerprint for touch ID...any of my fingerprints. My dog stayed on the other side of the apartment from me, and wouldn't take any treats from me. I trained him not to take treats from anyone except me, to avoid poison or illness.
But he wouldn't even take his favorite treats from me or cuddle with me. When I went to hug him, he hid in his kennel. My PIN didn't work for my debit card, so I wound up running it as credit. I use the same PIN for everything. The only websites I could get into were Reddit, Gmail, and Amazon—pages where my password is stored.
Any website where I had to enter a username and password, it came back as incorrect. Thank God there's no password to wake my computer up, or I wouldn't have been able to do any work that day. The next day, everything was back to normal.
38. Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are
This story is about the first time I realized the world isn’t as safe and well-intentioned as sitcoms and Disney made it out to be. I felt unsettled, I felt targeted…it was the first time I felt terror. I’ve shared this story before, but I still think about it. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if it was even human.
I still feel mildly unsettled when I’m outside my house to this day. When this story takes place I was 13. When I was 13, I was going through puberty and I had OCD, and other undiagnosed anxiety disorders, so I’m a paranoid, worrisome, and hormonal teen. Until this night, I thought all my worrying was just paranoia.
This particular night, I had three friends at my house for a sleepover. It was summer and we want to rebel and whatnot so we decide to play ghost-in-the-graveyard which was basically, hide and seek in the dark. We were mixing up different styles throughout the night, but this round we went for a two-on-two style.
I’m not sure why we decided to go with partners, probably for some safety reason. But I’m sure glad we did. Ned and Duncan are about 5’10” tall and thin, while Devin is about 5’4” tall and thin. I’m the big guy in the group being about 5’10” tall and stocky.
During this round, my friend Ned and I are “it” while Devin and Duncan are hiding. Being “it”, we had to count inside my house and count to 60 or 100. Ned and I finish counting and walk down my driveway. We’re chatting, joking around about nonsense, and just enjoying the night.
We get to my corner and look across the street into the next corner house’s yard. It is dark, and has some pine trees but not terribly black. We think we see movement and yell out, “Oh good hiding spot guys”!, “Really original. This will be quick”! and “Just come out already”. Yet we see no more movement.
We wait about 20 seconds hoping they come out so we don’t have to run too much…but they don’t. We think we were wrong, so we shrug and turn left down the dark, short road toward the church. My neighbor’s corner property has pine trees surrounding his backyard and the properties on this small stretch of road had no lights on and had plenty of trees as well.
It was a nice dark tunnel with light at the end that was not welcoming. We walk about 10 feet toward the church and from the middle of the windy road leading up to the church, we see a silhouette emerge from the dark wooded area on the right and into the orange glow of the church’s building light.
Due to the dark and the way the light is coming from behind the silhouette, I can’t see any details of this person. It’s an odd-shaped person because it looks top-heavy, abnormally so. As if someone is holding a large oversized garbage bag that is too cumbersome...or Duncan carrying Devin piggy-back ride style on his back...which is what Ned and I thought.
We start laughing at their ridiculousness. I think they are being cocky since they are both faster than us or it’s some ploy to take us off our game and mess with us. We keep walking slowly down the street toward the figure calling out our buddies for their stupidity when I hear this very freaky whistling emanating from this guy.
It sounded like someone purposely was making a happy tune sound creepy. Drawing out certain notes, bouncing the air flow, all in a very low pitch. I really can’t compare it to anything I’ve heard before. It was just incredibly eerie and unsettling. This is when Ned and I slow down our walk and stop laughing.
The figure keeps walking slowly toward us whistling that tune that sent shivers down my spine. Ned and I try to keep our poker faces. We’re chuckling nervously saying things like, “Haha, really funny guys”. “Yeah, you’re too close to us now. Might as well admit we’re going to get you”. A
s we’re doing this, I’m still trying to discern if this is my buddies or something that has malicious intent. And because of the lighting and atmosphere, I can’t tell. All I see are shadows, shades with no distinguishing characteristics, and the orange light that is more of a distraction than helpful.
Suddenly I hear a commotion behind me and I turn to see Duncan and Devin running from the exact spot where Ned and I had thought they were; from the pine trees near the corner of my block. The street light they were running under seemed like a spotlight signifying safety and clarity.
Ned had apparently been thinking the exact same thing. We both do the stereotypical slow turn, catch each other's wide, fear-filled eyes as we face the whistler. This thing had stopped across the street and was about five feet away from the mouth of the church’s driveway.
We were just a few feet away from the parallel street ourselves. The whistler also stopped whistling. I’m staring at this mismatched, blob-like silhouette, trying to figure out why its torso looks like a large lump of clay and its legs look like popsicle sticks. Ned and I stood there in fear for what felt like a minute.
The crystallizing moment I had, realizing this was some unknown thing or man, who at the very least enjoyed messing with two teenagers or most likely (worst case scenarios were most likely for me, thank you anxiety) some mutant ghost who wanted nothing more than to tear into our flesh and laugh about it. When in reality it took about five seconds for Ned and I to realize the situation.
I booked it first back toward my house as Ned was right behind me and soon overtook me. My fear intensified when I heard a third set of rapid footfalls coming from behind me. However, by the time we hit the corner near my house and I turned toward it, I saw nothing. No one was there. Nothing was chasing us. I had no idea where it went.
We met in my backyard and Devin and Duncan were laughing at missing them. Ned and I didn’t care and we’re like “Did you guys see that thing?! Did you hear it whistling”? They were laughing at us saying we were messing with them and trying to make excuses for missing them when we had them. Ned and I are gobsmacked.
We were convinced they HAD to have heard or seen something. Nope. Apparently, Ned and I shared a hallucination, or our friends didn’t pay enough attention to care.
This whole time, I’m staring at my neighbor’s tree line and the small part of the side street I can see from my yard, making sure this eerie whistler won’t get the jump on us. All I see is pine trees, empty road, and that burnt orange light that will unsettle me for years because all it had done for me in a moment of terror was amplify that frumpy Quasimodo's creepiness.
39. If At First You Don’t Succeed…
When I was in my 20s I was playing in bands for a living and a lot of the friends I made back then were unique.
One of my closest friends was a drummer I'd played with who was a couple of years younger than us and really looked up to us, a lot of which I think was from his parents being hippies and never really giving him a "normal" upbringing. His mom was very interesting.
Excuse my ignorance here but she was a wiccan/mystic type and was always kind of doing weird stuff but super nice, always treated us like family, good lady, but goofy. Whenever we moved into a new place, she'd come by and bless/clean the house. Anyway, we just kind of went along with most of this stuff out of respect and to be nice.
My buddy and I were hanging out one night after practice and I actually got him to kind of talk about her and the supernatural stuff (he didn't like to at all) and he admitted that he was "sensitive" the same way she was, but it really bothered him when he was young and he basically learned how to turn it off.
So, of course, I push him to tell me about my place and he's like "it's fine dude, don't worry about it". He later told me after I moved there were quite a few "things" there but all felt friendly to him, like they wanted me there so he left it alone. So a mutual friend of ours was a character, had some issues, but was a good dude.
Very long story with this guy but basically he took possession of a very old house and moves in. One night when his girlfriend is out of town, he hears a dull pounding on the floor under his bed. The harder he tries to ignore it, the louder it gets. He's freaked and totally the type to freak himself out worse.
He deals with it for a couple of days and doesn't tell his girlfriend about it when she gets back to see if she hears it or not on her own. The first night she's home, she wakes him up, asking, "WHAT IS THAT POUNDING". So game on, at that point. Most people have no idea what to do in a situation like this, but hey, our buddy’s mom DOES know about this type of thing. So he calls her, she comes over, and “cleans” the house.
That night it becomes apparent that whatever she did not only didn't fix the "issue", it teed off whatever was doing it—there was more frequent, louder pounding, etc. They leave to stay someplace else for a couple of days and call her, she decides to regroup and come back. So she's got an eclectic set of friends as you'd expect, so she shows up again with an older Indigenous guy.
The guy is apparently a pretty serious mystic. So they walk the house separately and convene outside afterward to talk about what to do. Apparently all of them, totally independently and separately, stopped at the exact same spot on one of the basement walls. They couldn't really explain why other than it felt really dark, heavy, and alive right there.
The mystic guy explains to them that it's an open portal allowing a lot of bad/negative things to "come in". I guess he made some pretty profound statements about the house and my buddy who lived there (neither of which he knew anything about) that were scary accurate, along the lines of certain lifestyles creating negative energy that evil is attracted to (yikes).
He proceeded to leave my buddy and his mom outside, went in for a while, came out looking very "drained" and not a peep was ever heard from whatever was there again. The dude still lives in that same house, has a family and stuff.
40. The Escapee
While living with some friends, I got up late at night to get a drink of water from the kitchen. I didn't turn on any lights, having no trouble navigating in the dark. As I crossed through the living room, I heard some movement-type noise or something and assumed it was one of my roommates' pet cats.
Go to the kitchen, drink water, leave the kitchen. On my way back through the living room, I hear movement— noises a lot louder than an old cat should make and I glance around. There on the couch, in the very dark living room is a shape, roughly child-sized, with bright RED eyes staring directly at me. I froze.
The fear was so sudden and strong that it is in fact giving me goosebumps now. I very slowly stepped backward, not daring to even blink as I watched the red orbs watch me. After several agonizingly long seconds, I reached the kitchen light switch, ready to defend myself when this goblin thing was sure to attack me.
It was my other roommate's chinchilla. It had opened its cage and escaped from their room. It was sitting on top of a pile of laundry.
41. Whatever Works
This reminds me of something that happened to my uncle 30-something years ago in a small Colombian town called Oroque, as told by my mother. It’s a truly wild story.
This uncle was a doctor. At the time, he was the equivalent of a general practitioner, although he later became a pediatrician. He was young at the time, and was just three years out of medical school. Like many young doctors, he was always eager to prove himself, often at the risk of his own health.
This was one of those occasions. After being forced by my grandmother to take a much needed two-week vacation, he developed a fever. He (being the cocky young man that he was) refused to admit he was sick, until he literally fainted while attending to a patient.
He ends up hospitalized for three or four days, at which point it seemed he would die. My grandmother, aunt, and mother all traveled to the hospital, which was pretty far away. They took up residence in a nearby hotel. Eventually, my grandmother decides that her son should spend his last days with them in the hotel, under the care of a nurse.
My uncle's quite delirious at this point, so a priest comes, gives him the Last Rites, and the waiting begins. About a week after the fainting, some of my uncle's colleagues visit him, to say their last goodbyes. One of them tells my mom of an unorthodox last-ditch solution. He wants to bring in a medium. Here's where things get really crazy.
This medium was a middle-aged woman who supposedly could channel the spirit of a famous Venezuelan doctor and saint named José Gregorio Hernández, who’d passed on in 1919. There were certain things she would need to summon the saint, including a stipulation to leave her alone with the patient, a notepad with pen, and certain local plants, which were to be collected by her assistant.
My grandmother and her daughters were desperate at this point, so they agreed. They leave the medium alone and wait outside for a few hours until the woman emerges. My mother claims that she could hear the voice of an older man murmuring from inside the room.
The medium comes out and gives them a notepad with a set of instructions. The instructions were for what I suppose could be called a herbal potion. She took no money, and left after eating a nice meal, paid for by my family. Meanwhile, her assistant prepared the potion, which was to be given to my uncle every four hours.
Although it took another week, my uncle eventually recovered for the most part, only losing sight in his left eye. He was fired from the hospital he worked at for working with a fever, at which point he left for the capital, Bogota, and began his specialization in pediatric medicine.
His brothers, at this point, already established doctors, helped him find a new job despite his incredibly irresponsible actions. He retired a few years ago.
42. Self-Pranking, That’s Rare
Quite a few years ago now, I found myself working at a historical gaol (AKA a prison museum) as a guide/administrator. This place was one of the oldest buildings in town and had quite the reputation amongst ghost hunters so it was always spooky working there.
The early days had been fairly violent and there had been a few losses, including state-ordered hangings so there were plenty of ghostly stories passed around. While I did see some very odd things during my time there, the building was old, a haven for local wildlife and far from windproof so any stories had to be taken with a grain of salt.
We also had several dozen mannequins set up in 'traditional' poses, a few gathered in the courtyard, some in the cells and it was always fun to hear the gasps from the tourists when they saw the first one looming in the hallway. Now to the story.
As this was primarily a tourist town, the winter months were quite quiet and I could go hours without seeing another person. One day, I had 'lucked out' and managed to get a late closing one night and an early morning opening the next day. Both closing and opening required a torch as it was pitch black at this time of year and lights were not installed throughout the entire complex.
I had only had one tourist the entire day so, to defeat boredom, I decided to take one of the surplus mannequins from the storeroom, dress them in some early convict ladies' garb, and set them up in the kitchen in the ladies' wing. I decided I would set them up facing away from the door, holding a bowl in one arm and an egg beater in the other.
I made sure everything was very sturdy and closed the kitchen up for the night. The next morning I arrived at 6 am to open up and was making my way through the complex when I heard something strange.
The room I was in shared a wall with the kitchens and there was an odd, scraping noise coming from the other side of the wall as I stood there listening in the dark it stopped...started again...then intensified, accompanied by a tapping noise.
A little freaked out, I continued around the building (it was set up in circular shape with rooms on the inside) making my way slowly toward the kitchens. As I stood outside the door I could hear this irregular noise quite clearly and decided to use the sliding hatch on the door to look into the room first. I’ll never forget what I saw.
The mannequin was moving. Not just moving slightly, but quite visibly tapping one foot up and down as it slowly turned the egg beater, its arm raising and lowering. As my eyes adjusted to the dark my brain started to process what I was seeing.
Whether possession or poltergeist I was not sticking around for this thing to turn around, I SLAMMED that hatch closed and hightailed it back the way I came, not stopping until I reached the main office where I promptly bolted the door and turned on every light I could find.
At around 10 am, we had our first tourist come through the doors. I had convinced myself by this point that sure what I had seen had been some sort of hallucination. I must have heard the building settling and my brain filled in the rest, it was dark after all.
Knowing I would have to open the kitchen for the tourist to pass through I hung the "back in five minutes" sign on the front desk and snuck quietly towards the kitchen door. I slowly opened the hatch and peered in to see the mannequin standing in the same position that I had left it, not moving.
With everything back to normal I breathed a very deep sigh of relief and opened the door. Big mistake. The second I opened in the door, the mannequin began to mix the egg beater, frantically tapping its foot. I have never been more terrified than at that moment, it was broad daylight, I couldn't convince myself nothing was happening this time, it was happening right in front of me.
I was alone in a gaol with a possessed mannequin and I was the only authority figure with an innocent member of the public soon to be coming through this very room, what the heck was I supposed to do in this situation?
I remember thinking "It's only plaster and paper mache. just kill it! Smash it quickly, run like heck and never come back"! as I picked up a meat mallet and walked, extremely hesitantly towards the thing. As I got closer, it began moving quicker until I was within reaching distance.
Fully expecting this thing to turn around and bury the egg beater in my chest I grabbed a hold of its arm only to have the mannequin erupt into a terrible...croaking hissing noise. I near lost it at this point but something about the hissing sounded surprisingly familiar.
Gaining some composure I looked into the bowl the mannequin was holding in its other arm. Looking up at me, with its head stuck firmly between the beaters was a big lizard, about 40cm long. I took my hand off the mannequin's arm and the lizard began to run.
Stuck as it was, it ran around in circles in the bottom of the bowl, which turned the beater attached to the mannequin's arm, which proceeded to move up and down and cause the whole thing to vibrate, tapping its foot on the ground.
Five minutes later, I was letting the poor guy go in the courtyard while still giggling hysterically to myself and by the end of that day, that mannequin was packed up and back in storage...just in case.
43. The Screening Process
I was living with a roommate in a house that she purchased. I had a habit of leaving my window open. It was the first floor, a safe neighborhood—or so I thought—and had a screen on my window. Something told me to close my window one day, and then a week later, I locked the window.
That night, my roommate had just gotten home from a work trip. I was downstairs asleep when I heard a smack on my window, and then the whole window started wiggling. I turned the light on, ran upstairs to get a bat (which she didn't have anymore), and freaked out. We looked outside. Nothing.
So I went back downstairs, and tried to go back to sleep. It didn't happen. The next day, we went out, my screen had been ripped off my window and thrown down behind the houses towards the main street.
Within the week we had a security system put in. But other than a couple of false alarms by my chihuahua, we were all good. Two weeks later, we finally learn the chilling truth. A lady two streets down had been woken up with a man standing over her bed.
He didn't hurt her, and left when she told him. He was like 6'6" tall or something, which was the right height for him to even attempt to get into my room—even though I was on the first floor, it was still up high. Thank goodness they ended up catching him.
44. How To Disappear On Command
One Halloween a couple of groups from the neighborhood got into an egg fight. None of us hated each other, we were just in different cliques. As the opposing forces started to march forward we took off running to retreat to a safer distance.
As we entered the woods I quickly bolted behind a tree and everyone from the opposing side passed me by. Or at least I thought. Apparently, Bill got caught by a branch and was trying to free himself. I got from behind the tree to give him a hand since he was having a hard time.
Right as I got to him, he looked up and our eyes locked. He had a true look of horror in his eyes. I asked him if he needed some help and he muttered very lowly, "Yeah...sure," so we got him loose and I ran off to re-join the fight. The next day in school, someone walked up and said "Is what Bill said true”? I said "Yup," and walked off.
Then it happened a second time, then a third and a fourth. I responded "yup" each time. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was curious as to what they were talking about but I just played along since everyone asked it the same way. As if they are finding out that ghosts really do exist. So at lunch, I see Bill walk up and say, "Hey Bill, I have a question".
He mutters lowly "Yeah, what”? I respond "Why is everyone asking me if what you said is true"? He said, "Okay it was the weirdest thing. You. Weren't. There. Next thing I know you are standing in front of me. You just appeared out of thin air. I know there must be an explanation but dude, you were not there. I know you weren't".
I laughed and told him I was behind the tree and saw that he was stuck and just stepped out to help. He puts his hand on my shoulder and breathes a sigh of relief. He said, "Jesus Christ, I was terrified. I've been telling the story to see if anyone else had this happen with you".
So, for a while, I was the source of the unforgettably creepy moment.
45. Blink And You’ll Miss It
I was in my room and at night. I saw lights. A car that looked exactly like my mother's was there. I then heard the front door open, then shut. I went downstairs to say hi to her. By the time I got there was no one in the house, and the car was gone.
I live in the middle of nowhere and can see a mile down each side of the road without obstruction. And when I called my mother, she was still an hour away at work, and hadn't left and didn't know anything about it. To this day, I don't know who it was.
46. Boy Up Top
I lived with my sister and her kids for a few months while my nephew was a year old. I worked at night so I spent most days looking after him (and never sleeping). He had this weird habit of looking over my shoulder in the kitchen while he sat in his high chair, always at the same area above the cabinets.
It unsettled me a bit but I chalked it up to his curious little baby mind wondering about what it would be like to be up so high. It's important to note here that my nephew was a very late speaker and never said more than a couple of words until he was about two, so I couldn't exactly talk to him about it.
Fast forward to last fall, he was almost three and becoming more coherent. My younger sister now lives with them. On a phone call with my older sister, we were talking about my nephew and it came up that I used to notice he stared into the corner of the kitchen all the time.
My older sister said it was so weird that I said that because she'd noticed the same thing and my younger sister had just had a scary experience with it. My nephew was standing randomly in the kitchen doorway staring above the cabinets and my younger sister asked what he was looking at.
He pointed and she asked what he was pointing at. "Boy up top," is all he told her.
47. Knock Knock—Who’s There
My bedroom is on the second floor of the house. There's no patio/porch/overhang of any kind beneath my windows. A couple of years ago, I was watching TV in bed around 2 AM and heard a louder-than-usual "animal" sound.
It's not uncommon to hear squirrels running around on the roof from time to time. Didn't think much of it. But it kept on happening, and started to sound awfully close to the window and not on the roof. I ignored it for a pretty long time.
After at least 40-45 minutes of being irritated by the noise, I banged on the wall in hopes of scaring them off until I could get to sleep. Just two quick bangs with my fist. What happened next still haunts my dreams.
My knocks were answered with two bangs on the wall right next to the window from outside. Needless to say, I just about lost it and jumped out of bed. Now, my living room has a bay window, and is on the other end of the house, so I could look out that window from the side and see my bedroom window.
I hustle downstairs and peek out. I see a guy standing in front of my house, below my bedroom window. What I saw made my blood run cold. He's got a blade in his hand, and he's "petting" the front of my house. I call the authorities and wait.
He never leaves the front of the house even when they roll up and ultimately disarm and arrest him without much struggle.
48. Abandon Ship
About four years ago I was getting off work late around 11 pm when I hopped on the highway to head home. I got onto the I-10 in the middle of Phoenix Arizona. This a big city on the busiest highway they have. But when I got on, there was no one for a mile or two until I came across a patrol car driving about five miles an hour zig-zagging back and forth the entire width of the highway with lights on.
This was the first time in my 15 years of driving I'd ever encountered something like this and did not know what to do so I slowed down to his speed and just stayed behind him. We were the only two on the road and this went on for about twenty minutes. I started freaking out because there was just no one else on the road.
Like...was I not supposed to be here? What the heck is going on? Turns out, it was just the start of my nightmare. Just like that the cop turned his lights off and took off, and fast. So I did too, for about a quarter mile until I started coming across the most insane catastrophe I have ever seen.
There were at least a hundred wrecked cars on the side of the road and in the road. Some looked like minor damage while some were completely messed up. I remember seats from a minivan just lying in the middle of the road. But the weirdest part?
There were no people. Not a single one. No drivers, passengers, no officers, paramedics, fire trucks, nothing. It's like this huge crazy crash happened and they came and loaded everyone up and just...left. It was like driving through a scene from a movie. Completely unreal.
Four years later and I have not met a single person who saw it or found a news article on it. People think I'm crazy.
49. Not-So-Imaginary Friend
When I was very young, about three or four, I remember having a friend named Alli. Alli lived with me and I would play hide and seek with her in the backyard. Alli was a year older than me. Alli loved my mom but wouldn't stay long enough to meet her.
My mom didn't believe I had a friend named Alli, I kept telling her, and my mom first got a very white face and told me stop, and Alli isn't real. Well, one night Alli told me she had to leave, so she did. Never heard from her again. Fast forward to when I was 16. That’s when I learned the devastating truth.
My mom told me that before I was born I had a sister named Alli, and she had passed on due to complications—something involving her lungs. My mom tells me that it was probably all a coincidence since a divorce was going on during that time and I wanted a friend.
But I still remember everything about Alli, and I refuse to believe it was all pretend.
50. Welcome To The Overlook
I worked years ago at a "haunted: apartment building. I worked with a security company that had been doing night security on the site for some years. The apartment is some 20 stories tall (can't remember) and branches in three directions from a central hub all the way up. This building was the last security job I ever had.
I quit directly from this place, because I was seriously freaked out working there. There were three or four regular events in this building that I cannot explain. First is the “people in the elevators”.
The elevators in this building move on their own, and I was told its part of the system to ensure proper cable tension among other things. So at random, the elevators will go up and down, and stop at random floors without warning, but only maybe a few times an hour so it always caught me off guard.
But the thing is, on many occasions, I've heard people in these elevators, usually while passing by. There is a few elevators side by side, and when you are going up/down, you can hear the other elevators doing their up or down run rumbling around you. But on many occasions, I've heard loud conversations, chatting, like there must be three or more people loudly talking and laughing.
There are cameras everywhere, all linked to a central computer on the main floor. Every time I heard these sounds I confirmed as quick as possible with the cameras. I had just gotten in the second elevator going up to the top and heard an elevator coming back down while on the way up with people laughing in it.
Checked the footage, you see me going in, and a few moments later, the other elevator opens up on the ground floor, with nobody in it. The doors always open and close every time, part of the system. This happened several times. A new younger employee was hired to do the off nights at this site and I had to train him.
I told him to watch for the voices in the passing elevators. Only took about three hours and he heard it on his own. He raced down the lobby and looked freaked the heck out, asking me if people just got out of any of the elevators. Told him all the cameras are clear, nobody and nothing is moving anywhere that I can see. Freaked the kid out good.
Now the other main "haunting" of this building is the stairwell doors, particularly on the 20th floor. Basically what we do is take the elevator to the top, then pick one of the three branches and go down the stairwells one by one, checking the floors for vagrants, etc.
It is a frequent occurrence in this building to turn the corner to see down one of the hallways to see a door just finish closing. I've seen this so many times, it didn't freak me out at all by the time I left. But it’s a regular occurrence, and yes, I have ran like heck to verify several times.
The doors clearly open and close themselves. No other explanation. Then there’s the third thing about the building. There is a parkade in the basement. But there is a little more to it than most people know.
If you walk around the entire parkade, you'll notice at the far side there is in fact an entryway going down to a second lower level. It's well hidden and I didn't notice I could get in there for months, but one day I did. Pitch-blackness, going down.
This second closed-off lower level was totally pitch black, and was filled with old cars, rubbish, and other stuff laying around. I only ever explored it once, because that very first time. Basically, I had a couple of extra flashlights that I had just laid down and aimed off in directions.
I walked around a little bit, just to peek at a couple of the older cars down there, and that’s when a door slammed on a car far off in the black, very loudly. I could see the car that made the noise, it was half-destroyed so I could see through it entirely, clearly nobody near or around it.
I looked for a few seconds and got out of there. Yup, this place is real, and this is all real. When I pass by it now and then I always check it out. It's such a creepy building. The atrium lobby that leads to the elevators has an almost Overlook Hotel feel to it.
Sources: Reddit,
