Halloween is supposed to be one of the best days of the year—but sometimes it can turn into a real-life horror story. From tragic accidents to parties gone wrong, these Redditors have seen their glorious Halloween dreams crash and burn. Sometimes there's no trick-or-treat in sight...only tragedy.
1. Check The Calendar
I got put in handcuffs when I was 14 because people had called law enforcement about a guy in a mask walking around houses and cars...on Halloween. Yeah.
2. Rabid Dog
When I was around eight or nine, I went over to my friend’s house to fool around for a few hours before a Halloween party which we would be going to together. In the backyard, his sister came up to me and asked where their dog was. They had a four-year-old black chow-chow who was fairly docile and a lot bigger than me.
I pointed her to the dog who was chewing on a bone. That turned out to be a huge mistake. In a split second, he went from chewing on the bone to chewing on my arm. I tried to run but he had a vice grip on my arm. After what felt like an eternity, he eventually let go. At the time, my friend’s parents weren’t home either so his sister called an ambulance.
My friend and his sister ran inside and left me outside in the backyard with the dog circling and growling at me. The maid came running outside and threw a chair at the dog which made him back off. Also, while I was out there, I felt strange. There was no pain and there was a ton of adrenaline in my system, but I sort of felt at ease.
I also started to reflect on what just happened. There was a lot of white stuff which looked like whipped cream (tissue) oozing from my wounds along with a ton of blood. There was blood everywhere. It stained the concrete and grass. Everyone was crying too. Paramedics arrived and really everything up until the ER was a blur.
I had six cuts, three cuts on the inside, and three on the outside of my forearm. I needed four stitches for two cuts, a few more for miscellaneous cuts, and 10 more stitches for the inside of my arm (muscles and whatnot) which came out to 20 or so stitches total. But that wasn't the scariest part. The doctor said I was lucky to still have my arm as the dog’s mouth was just the right size that it missed several vital veins and arteries.
It was very traumatic but thankfully it didn't ruin my friendship. Funnily enough, I was back at his house after a few weeks, petting the dog again (with a lot more caution). I think it’s safe to say, we did not go to the party later that night.
3. Jedi In An Uninhabitable Land
I grew up in northern Canada and when I was probably five or six years old, I got myself a Darth Vader costume—one of those vinyl costumes and capes with a lightsaber and a thin plastic mask. I thought I was so cool back then. Well, it being northern Canada, it was exceptionally cold that year, like below -30 degrees Celsius.
I went out that evening bundled up and ready to show off my cool outfit, but it was so cold that the costume just cracked and disintegrated as I went around the block. Due to the weather, I barely got around the block, but by the time I was home, I just had the lightsaber and mask. The rest of the costume just fell apart in pieces as I moved.
4. Hit The Floor!
In my junior year of high school, my cousin and I volunteered to drive some of the younger kids from church and chaperone their trick-or-treating. We were walking down the street, back toward my truck, when I heard a familiar sound but that didn't click at first. I heard it again and felt something whiz past me and hit the concrete. Then my heart just about stopped.
I realized it was someone firing an air rifle. Just as I came to that horrifying conclusion, a little girl let loose a blood-curdling wail and fell down. He had shot her in the eye. My cousin took off running toward someone’s yard, leaned down, and grabbed a hunk of gravel/concrete from the driveway and chucked it into the tree (he had a 92-mph fastball), and hit the kid, knocking him from a branch and onto the ground.
I'm wrangling seven kids, from six-to-twelve years old, all screaming and crying while my cousin is beating the boogers out of this guy's sinus cavity. Parents are running outside, and there’s chaos when the authorities and paramedics finally show up. Long story short: The kid got charged. Sadly, the little girl (only eight years old) lost her eye from the incident.
5. Guilty Conscious
When I was around 11 or 12, I went out trick-or-treating with a friend. We ran into some older kids my friend wanted to hang out with so we tagged along. They wanted to go pumpkin smashing. I was a rule follower and didn’t want to be around trouble, but I let my friend talk me into it. We come to a house that had a bunch of great pumpkins.
You could tell this family spent a bunch of time on their pumpkins. There was a candy bowl with a note, so the kids start destroying the pumpkins. I just watched, feeling uncomfortable. A couple of days later, I’m reading the paper and see a letter to the editor from the owners of the house. They listed the address. It said how awful it was and how it wrecked their kids who had spent so much time on the pumpkins.
I felt sick. I showed my friend and he thought it was cool and took it to show those other kids. I realized then that our association was more about living on the same street than friendship. I still feel terrible.
6. No Chill
I was going out with a girl back in high school whose birthday fell on Halloween. Her brothers absolutely hated my guts for no reason whatsoever. I wasn’t a troublemaker, didn’t do things I wasn’t supposed to, and tried really hard to get on good terms with them. Anyway, she threw a birthday party for herself in her older brother’s basement—and it turned into my worst nightmare.
I showed up with a couple of friends and while the party was pretty lame, I was there for her. When I went to give her the gift I had wrapped, her older brother grabbed me by the collar and shoved me outside on the concrete steps. I asked him what his problem was and he told me to get out of his house. His sister tried to get him to stop and told me it was okay to go back inside the house.
Her other brothers then showed up shortly after and…well, I got my butt handed to me. I ended up just leaving the party with a black eye and a bruised-up face. I lied to my parents that I picked a fight with someone and lost. We broke up shortly after.
7. Awful Costumes
My worst Halloween was with my horrible ex. He was invited to a costume party by work friends and told everyone would go all out for it. So, he decided that we would go as a "fairy pimp" and "fairy hoe," basically a pimp and hoe with wings. He decided that I had to dress super slutty, getting me clothing from a stag shop for me and some cheap premade pimp outfit for himself.
My costume cost over $100 and we did not have that type of money to spend. We went to the party, him looking awful me looking like a literal streetwalker, something I've never been comfortable with and he knew that. I was super over-dressed (technically underdressed, as I was basically in panties and a bra), meeting these people for the first time in October in Wisconsin.
It was cold, embarrassing, and a waste of money. I had a bad night, felt completely objectified—in a bad way—but my ex loved having the ''sexiest" girl at the party by his side, even though he largely ignored me (unless I started talking to someone other than him, that was interrupted right quick as he needed to be the center of my attention). I was only 24, and it took me over a decade to enjoy costumes again.
8. Eye Hate Halloween
Some years ago, I was at the elementary school that my children were attending. It was a few days after Halloween, and I was dropping the kids off. Anyway, there was another mom in the office and her daughter was a kindergartener who was just returning to school after an absence because of a trick-or-treating injury.
A pause here for all the moms: The kid is physically fine, although she might be emotionally scarred for life. She tripped while running across a yard in the dark, as you do, and face planted into a tiny cute cemetery decoration that had a tiny pointy plastic fence around it. The fence actually went INTO HER EYE and got stuck!
Okay, so it didn’t go into the eyeball but it shimmied its way between her eyeball and eyelid and she couldn’t pull it out! You’d scratch her eye! So, they had to transport the poor screaming tiny person to the ER with a fence sticking out of her face. They got it out with miraculously minimal damage. She had to wear an eye patch for a few days.
As of our last encounter, the child hates all things Halloween.
9. A Bloody Halloween
I was taking my then two-year-old out for his first time trick-or-treating (he's 15 now), and I was 41 weeks pregnant with my second child. I went into labor and my water broke after about 45 minutes of walking around our neighborhood. When I got to the hospital, because I'm diabetic, they had to draw blood to run some tests.
The nurse left the empty collection vials across the room, so when she finished with the first vial, she had to cross the room to get the next one. She didn't clamp the IV tube when she took the first vial off, so when she walked away, there was a literal fountain of blood spraying out of my arm. I started laughing hysterically. She turned around, started laughing herself, and said, "Well, Happy Halloween, I guess!!" It was awesome!!
10. Goody Goody
I had to wear a dress for school all the time. This one was below my knees and when I was running, my feet got caught in the dress. I fell and skinned my knee and my legs. I went trick-or-treating anyway because the blood made my costume look more real. It was freezing out and I was shivering. Somehow, I managed to fall again and scraped my hands.
Since it was so cold, it hurt even worse. While I was dealing with that, my friends wanted me to go to the neighborhood across the road. I said no and told them I was hurting too much. One of the kids I was with said that I was a goody-goody because my parents wouldn’t let me go and that I was lying to them about being in pain. Still, the worst was yet to come.
He took my candy, and I went home bloody and empty-handed.
11. Eyes On The Prize
We have a baby gate blocking our dogs from accessing our hall with the front door. One Halloween, someone accidentally left said gate open. As my mom opened the door for a trick-or-treater, one of our dogs, who used to have a habit of taking off, saw the open door and took her chance. She went bolting straight for the exit.
Mom immediately dove down to stop the dog and when she stood back up, accidentally smashed her head on the door handle hard enough that she stumbled and felt dazed. She still managed to hold onto the dog. She closed the door on the trick-or-treater who had seen all that happen but was just still standing there, waiting for candy, and she yelled for my dad to come because she was bleeding where she had hit the door handle.
She ended up having to go to the ER and get five stitches on her head. Probably the best part is, when mom and dad opened the door a few minutes later to go to the hospital, the kid was still standing there, holding out his bag, waiting for the candy. He was totally unfazed by the bleeding woman he had just seen get injured. He apparently only cared about getting candy.
12. Justice Is A Dish Best Served Sweet
I was trick-or-treating with three buddies during my freshman year of high school. We were joking about being a little old to do it, but it was all in good fun. Some kids, two years older than us, were running around in skull masks doing rowdy teenager stuff. They decided to completely ruin our night. To begin with, they thought it would be a good idea to take our candy. They were much larger than us and had no trouble.
One of them grabbed my bag and another one grabbed me and threw me down in the street. There were no serious injuries, but I had skinned knees and palms. I was angry. I filed a report and the officers took it seriously. We got out the yearbook and identified three of them and they were picked up that night. They were charged and got a ton of community service and had to pay for my mom's lost pillowcase, the candy, and the damaged clothing.
I caught some flak for it at school from their girlfriends (they were ordered not to talk to me), but I didn't really care because I felt like justice was served.
13. To The Rescue
I was about 15, waiting with friends above an underground train station for more friends before we went to a party nearby. Suddenly behind us, a woman jumps off a walkway down like 10 meters. We all run down. She's bleeding from the head, not really conscious. I'm already tipsy so I yell out asking if anyone else knew first aid (I started training when I was 13) and no one does, so I get to it.
I got someone else calling an ambulance and someone gave me their shirt to stem the bleeding. I run through DRABCD and the more severe trauma stuff I'd been taught, gathering details so I could get someone to take notes for the paramedics. They arrived after about 15 minutes. I gave them everything I got (she was high, trying to kill herself).
We helped them carry their gear up the stairs to their truck and wished them luck. I give my flannel overshirt to the guy who was now shirtless (he didn't want his bloodstained shirt back). There was a dark patch on the ground for months after where the blood had soaked in. I had to walk by it every day for school.
14. Journey To The Underworld
When I was seven, my older step-sister was supposed to be babysitting me while our parents went to have fun. She was going to take me trick-or-treating. Instead, she and her two friends tied me up and locked me in the basement next to the furnace, turned out the lights, and left. I spent the entire evening in the dark basement next to the furnace. Bite me, Courtney!
15. New Friends
I moved into my parents’ house in the suburbs after college (they moved to a new city and state while I was in college). So, I had barely started making friends. Well, I sort of invited myself along with some people I barely knew. We were supposed to go out and hit a few bars. I had a lot of time on my hands, so I made a costume for myself. It was a crayfish, and not subtle.
This was before cellphones, so I confirmed the day before I was to meet them at their apartment and head out. I get in costume, drove 45 min to the city, buzzed the door, and there was no answer. I waited for a half-hour and buzzed again. This time they answered and told me they all went out to dinner and they were not going out.
They didn't even invite me in to hang out but told me to have fun and made a few bar suggestions. I got back into my car and had to give myself a pep talk to go out and not drive back to my parents’ house. I sucked it up and went toward the first bar. When I stepped through the doors, my heart sank. The bar was empty. I was alone. It was more depressing than I thought it’d be.
This bar sold silly string to spray on people (part of the deal). I had bought a can along with my drink. So, I sat there for about 40 minutes drinking by myself as a few others entered the bar. Eventually, I got the courage up to talk to someone and kept trying until someone chatted with me. By closing time, I was leading a conga line and the DJ was playing creole music (usually rock and dance music).
I am not sure how that happened. On the way back to my car with my costume in tatters, a bouncer at the door of another bar asked if I was a lobster. I said I was a crayfish earlier. He told me I could have a crayfish drink for free after hours. I went in and partied with the staff. I made some friends and got home at five in the morning. Parents were a little upset at the time I came home, but those are the breaks.
16. The Worst Day
On Halloween 2014, my dad passed on. He had cancer and I had a flight out on November 1st to say goodbye. I got a call early on Halloween morning telling me to get on a plane as soon as possible. During my layover, I got the call he had passed. The holiday still kind of sucks for me.
17. Holy Day
My parents are preachers and Halloween fell on a Sunday one year. In the place where we lived, it was normal to have two services on Sundays and, despite being 12 and the church being a mere 30 feet from the house, I wasn’t allowed to go trick-or-treating. My dad insisted on dragging me out Saturday night. It was embarrassing to knock on doors and see the confused faces of the occupants.
They weren’t expecting any trick or treaters the day BEFORE Halloween. I finally put up a fight and refused to go to any more houses after one guy, who went to my parents’ church, laughed in my face and told me to leave.
18. The Ghost Of Elevator Pranks
Okay, so this was Halloween night 2019. I was out partying with my friends and we decided to go club hopping. I had recently started to get panic attacks during that month and anxiety was a new thing for me. Since stags weren’t allowed, I had to accompany my friend to this last party which was on the rooftop of a fancy tall building.
The party was packed but we still managed to get in. It wasn’t really fun for me, but I had to leave home, so the deal was, I enter and leave in five minutes. It was past midnight and law enforcement showed up to shut the place down. Since this was a rooftop party, the only practical way to get out was the elevators. The bouncers had closed the doorways to the stairs and the lifts were taking hours to finish their trips.
It was a very tiny lobby with intoxicated people fighting with the bouncers to give access to the staircase. I’d already started getting a panic attack and I thought I couldn’t breathe because I was alone. I thought I’d die, and no one would notice. When I asked the bouncers what was wrong, they said that apparently someone was selecting every floor for the elevators to stop.
But turns out neither law enforcement nor the bouncers could find out who it was. Also, if there was anyone selecting the elevator on each floor, the person had to be super fast to select 14 floors. Everyone was scared, and people started screaming and crying. I managed to get into the third trip and again, all the floors were selected with nobody on any of the floors.
It’ll always be a mystery, maybe it was a ghost. When I got out of that place, it was such a relief. This would have been fun otherwise, but instead, it was an extremely terrifying night for me since every minute felt like a year with the panic attack and ghostly things happening. Happy spooky season y’all!
19. Pushing The Limits
In my 20s, one of my friends would have a giant shindig every year. My ex and I went three years in a row, and each year, he became more and more of a sloppy mess. The first year wasn't too bad. But during the second one, he ended up rolling around in the grass in the backyard, making a fool of himself. However, the third year was so much worse...
We showed up a couple of hours early to help our friend set up. But as soon as we got there my ex decided to take one of those giant "yard" cups that people carry around in Vegas and made himself an enormous Long Island iced tea. He drank that thing in 15 minutes tops. He started to get sick right as people started to show up.
He spent the whole night sitting on the back porch, vomiting like he was starring in the remake of The Exorcist. For some reason, his friends thought I should have been sitting with him rubbing his back or something. I wasn’t going to do that. He put himself in that position; he should have to live with the consequences.
It was always his friends who encouraged him to drink like that, so I left him with them and went home. We broke up after that. I don't care if people drink, but what I can't stand is someone getting sloppy like that when they know they're pushing their limits and keep going anyway.
20. It Doesn’t Pay To Be An Angel
I was seven or eight and dressed like an angel. My parents took me to the science museum where they set up little houses for the kids to trick-or-treat in. I got so much candy and was so proud of myself. But when we left, all my candy was gone. The little boy behind me had been taking scoops of my candy and putting it in his basket. I cried a river that day.
21. It’s Alive
When my son was little, he had to be the first man out, and the last man in. I pushed a stroller around, and he would off-load his ill-gotten booty. So, on this particular occasion, we were at the last house on the last street, and I’m on the sidewalk, waiting for him to make the run to the door. I looked down and saw one of those plastic snakes that kids have at Halloween laying on the sidewalk.
As he was coming toward me, I reached down, picked up the snake, and got ready to throw it at him. Only, the rubber snake started moving. It was at this time I realized that it was a live snake in my hand. I was a grown man, screaming like a little girl. I’m never going to live it down.
22. Ruined Appetite
When I was nine, the day before Halloween, I ate five hot dogs with hot sauce. I woke up in the middle of the night vomiting hot dogs all over the place. I'm 22 and still remember the smell. The hot sauce was my mistake. I vomited all Halloween and I couldn't go trick-or-treating. I still can't eat hot dogs.
23. Cursed Nurse
When I was 12 years old, my appendix burst on Halloween, and I had to have surgery. I was delirious with fever and one of the nurses was dressed as a clown and one as a vampire, and it scared the bejeezus out of me. I don't remember much, but my mother says I screamed, cried, and pleaded for my life before they finally knocked me out.
24. The Adult Side Of Halloween
I went with some friends downtown on Halloween night. It was a big mistake. People flooded the streets in the thousands. I've never been in such a huge crowd of people before. You couldn’t get a drink anywhere. People were intoxicated, nasty, pushing, and shoving. You’d randomly encounter the full spectrum of human emotions from the jubilant to the angry to a small group of girls crying over being ditched by their boyfriends.
Then, there was the rank stench of body odor, weed, and pee. I tolerated it for a couple of hours, but I had reached my limit. I walked away from the crowds, called for an Uber, and hit the bricks.
25. Called Out By A Zombie Clown
So, this isn’t terrible, just funny and a little embarrassing. I went to Halloween Haunt at Kings Dominion in 2016. My inquisitive girlfriend looked through a window of this painted facade that looked like a wagon. Inside, you could see the dressing room trailer for all the costumed people who are paid to go around scaring guests.
I’m already like, “C’mon let’s get out of here.” Then a clown appears, standing next to us like he was there the whole time. “Hey, she’s peepin!” he squeaks, with a red nose and everything. “Hey, everyone, she’s a peeper!” He shouts to guests passing by. He’s pointing at her with his goofily large glove. I grabbed her, and we ran and that was the time we almost got canceled by zombie clowns.
26. Wrench Guy
Some dude was walking around my neighborhood in a hockey mask, threatening kids with a wrench. We actually encountered him, but since we were with my dad (who's 6'4” and was wearing a jacket that made him look huge), he didn't approach or bother us. Then we encountered a group of his victims (around four kids who were about a year older than me at the time) outside of a house.
They were really shaken up and claimed he chased them with the wrench. So, my friends and I calmed them down while my dad and the owner of the house, who was a really nice lady, called law enforcement. The wrench guy who was caught turned out to be a 14-year-old from the next neighborhood over who wanted to cause some trouble. I don’t know what happened to him, but I assume his parents weren't pleased.
27. Party Next Door
My friends in seventh or eighth grade told me they were going trick-or-treating across town and the host parents' car didn't have room for me. But nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, they went to a party at my next-door neighbor's house. Like dude, I can see you all arriving, what made you think your lie wasn't going to fall apart?
28. Pure Chaos
My worst Halloween experience was getting tear-gassed on Polk St. in San Francisco. It was the mid-1970s in the evening and everyone was milling around in crazy Halloween costumes. It was lots of fun and very chill until some jerk chucked a tear gas canister into the crowd. Pure chaos ensued, and my throat was sore for 24 hours.
29. Cropped Out
My girlfriend asked me to go with her and her son trick-or-treating. We picked out costumes for everyone, invited the neighbor kids, and went around for about four hours. We took tons of pictures of us and the kids and a kitten followed us back to her house that we ended up keeping. We dropped off the kids with their parents then went home and got the kiddo ready for school the next day while trying to keep him from eating too much candy.
The next day at work our mutual friend asked what I did for Halloween. I told her to check my girlfriend’s Facebook because she'd be sure to post everything, and I wanted our friend to see the kitten pics. Of course, I’m cropped out of every picture. All the people we visited and all the other kids’ parents and a few of the neighbors we stopped and talked to are tagged in her post about how much fun she and her son had.
30. A Thwarted Hangover
Back in 2009, I had a perfect Allen (from The Hangover) costume complete with a satchel and wolf shirt. I made plans to travel from the college town I lived to an even bigger one and I was going to party it up, as any self-respecting 20-year-old college student should. The night before Halloween, I woke with horrible stomach cramps.
Shortly after, I made my roommate drive me to the ER. Cue an appendectomy and a night in the hospital.
31. Barney The Friendly Carnivore
When I was a child I had a Barney-ish costume (it was a homemade hand-me-down dinosaur that was the right color palette to be Barney). The main costume was the body, and there was also a dinosaur headpiece. When I looked in the mirror with the dinosaur head–its friendly felt teeth, and then my face below that—all I could see was that it looked like Barney was eating me alive. And I was not having it.
I threw a tantrum and refused to wear the head. So, if you lived in Pennsylvania in the late nineties, and had a half-girl-half-knockoff Barney shows up at your door, now you know why.
32. Stealing From Kids
Because of COVID last year, I decided I didn't want to hand out candy, so I bought about 40 bucks worth and put it in a big bowl, along with a note to help yourself to a piece or two. I even had hand sanitizer on the tray and a cooler full of waters and sodas available. I have a security camera aimed at my porch, so once my dog would start barking, I'd look out of curiosity.
The second kid to come up was probably about 15, barely in costume, and proceeded to dump the entire bowl into his pillowcase. I came around from the side to confront him and his group, which had a bunch of adults in it. The asshole kid sprinted out of my cul-de-sac while the group just laughed about it. Even when I pointed out to the adults in the group (who had children) that their obnoxious friend was basically stealing from the little kids, they just started making excuses and offered to give me back what they had personally taken....gee thanks. Keep your eight kit-kats.
33. A Bloody Halloween
I was in the fifth grade and left home to trick or treat. I got this pain in my lower stomach, so my mom took me back home. After what my mom saw in the bathroom, we figured out the problem: I'd gotten my very first period.
34. Night Of The Living Dads
I was trick-or-treating with my brothers and we walked up to this front porch and rang the doorbell. On the lawn, we spotted a really cool prop of a body in a casket. So, the man answered the door as usual and gave us our candy. However, once we got back to the sidewalk, we got the fright of a lifetime: The casket opened up and caught everyone off guard. There was a literal person in there dressed up as the most realistic zombie.
35. I Got Soup!
This is actually the best Halloween experience I’ve ever had. I'm Australian. Halloween isn't really a thing here, but we still get some kids coming to our door at that time of the year. One time, my mum had no candy to give, so she just gave the little girl a can of soup we had in the cupboard. That girl was thrilled with the can of Minestrone she got.
She screamed to her parents "I got SOUP!" So wholesome.
36. Being A Teenager Sucks Sometimes
When I was 16, I invited some friends for a Halloween party. I decorated the house (which we never did, because we lived too far from the village) bought food, drinks, and rented some horror movies for the night. None of my friends showed up for the stupid reason of "well I won't go if SHE doesn't go" and vice versa. So, I guess no one wanted to be with me for Halloween.
I felt horrible and I cried all night while my mom tried to reassure me. I never threw another party after that. It really broke my heart and made me realize how I wasn't important. So, this year I'm hosting the Halloween party and I am so stressed that nobody will come or that it will be lame if they do show up.
37. Don’t Scare Me, Or Else
I once punched a guy dressed as a scarecrow full-on in the face. I was probably about seven or eight and there was a scarecrow sitting on the porch on a rocking chair. It looked like someone just stuffed it with straw and all. Well, after grabbing my candy the scarecrow tried to reach out and scare me and I reactively punched it in the face.
It turned out to be an older guy dressed up and he told me to leave, which I kindly obliged having just punched him. Sorry dude, but don't scare people if you don't want to end up with a broken nose or worse. I’m pretty sure I broke his nose that night because, as I can recall, he was bleeding.
38. Party Crashing
I was in the fifth (maybe sixth) grade. It was the last year I went trick-or-treating. You might find this kind of funny. I was already tall. I was six feet in sixth grade. I went trick or treating by myself in this devil costume my mom sewed for me with a real pitchfork my grandparents had owned. I knocked on a door. This cute high school girl opened it up and insisted I come in.
She thought, because of my height and mask, that I was there for her party. I have social anxiety and this was everything I ever feared. To begin with, she propelled me into this room with a bunch of older strangers, and then I had to somehow navigate my way back out again. I was desperate not to be found out or to talk to anyone.
It might not sound so bad to you, but for me it was awful and I went straight home afterward. Funny enough, it was the only high school Halloween party I ever went to.
39. Exhausting
Back when I was in college, the exhaust fell off my car on my way home after classes. I had a rusted-out Foxbody Mustang at the time. The best part is that when it struck the ground, the hangers tore off and got stuck on the rear axle. In the short amount of time it took for me to stop, it split off into pieces and managed to blow one of the tires.
I had to pull the mangled mess out, change the tire in a light drizzle (cold October night in New England), and drive home with an obnoxiously loud exhaust. It didn't even sound good. I had to drive through a few neighborhoods to get back to the highway. I had kids and adults screaming at me because this thing sounded super threatening.
I got home, and my father was waiting in the driveway. He told me, "You better get that thing fixed tomorrow." I had maybe $50 to my name since I was working full time and going to college full time. I had to work out a payment plan with the exhaust shop. The whole thing sucked in general.
40. Inexperienced
When I was in high school, I was in a relationship with this girl and it was really intense at the time. I wasn't that experienced, so I wouldn't know how to do certain things. One day, when we were at her dad's house, we sneaked off to the pool, and long story short, we went to a bathroom and she wanted to do it. Let's just say, it all went wrong. I couldn't get hard and she still tried doing it with me.
Come Halloween, we're supposed to try again—for real, this time. I'm all dressed up. I go to pick her up and she tells me she's breaking up with me and that she has to take her sister trick-or-treating. So, I leave, go home, take everything off, go cry in bed, and later sleep. One month later, I find out she went off to a party after she dumped me to go do it with another guy.
41. Too Old
I was 12 and a man yelled at me and told me I was too old to be out trick-or-treating. I felt so bad, I gave all my candy to my little brother and just walked with him for the next hour or so. When I got home, my mom asked me why I didn’t have any candy, so I told her what happened. She asked me who said that to me and I told her which house.
I don’t know if she ever did anything about it. But since I’ve become an adult and bought my own home, I don’t care if you’re 90 years old, you’re getting candy. Halloween is for everyone.
42. Left Out
When I was in seventh grade, all my friends made plans to go trick-or-treating but didn’t invite me. It was during the school day, and I was sitting near them but not with them. I heard them talking about whose house they were going to meet at, what time, etc., but I don’t think they knew I could hear them. I was too shy to bring it up myself at that age and I was hopeful that maybe they just hadn’t mentioned it to me because I was sitting at a different table.
So, when I got home I waited by the phone to see if someone would call and invite me. Long story short, nobody did. I started crying and my dad tried to make me feel better by insisting that I could go trick-or-treating with him and my younger brother and sister. I remember feeling lame that I was trick-or-treating with my dad and little siblings, but now as an adult, I’m really grateful that he tried to cheer me up.
I’m still not sure if they forgot me or deliberately excluded me. It doesn’t seem like a big deal now but at the time it felt massive and awful.
43. High On Halloween
A few years ago, on October 29th, I had an operation on my shoulder which was closed with 12 staples. On Halloween, two days later, my young daughter wanted to go trick-or-treating. High on prescription painkillers, I thought it was a great idea to take her! With my arm in a sling, we went trick-or-treating and I ended up racing with her from house to house. It wasn't my most brilliant moment...
Between two houses, I slipped and fell directly on my arm in the sling. It sucked.
44. Grounded
I lived a few blocks over from a haunted house and I kept begging my dad to take me. Finally, for my 10th birthday, he decided he was going to bring me. We got to the house and my mom called to say that our dog got out when she opened the door to trick-or-treaters. So, we ran all the way back home, calling my dog's name the whole way there.
We walked around for a good half hour until we found an animal control vehicle. They caught my dog stealing chocolate from a little kid. After showing ID to the animal control officer, she gave my dog back to my dad and we went home. Finally, when everything was all said and done, I asked if we could go back to the haunted house and my dad said he was too tired from all the walking.
I started getting upset and slammed the door while having a little temper tantrum. My dad then grounded me for two weeks, so I didn't get to go to the haunted house nor did I get to go trick-or-treating. I waited a whole year to go back to the haunted house and the next year, a few weeks before Halloween, the owners moved away and I never got to go.
45. All Alone
One Halloween, I went downtown to apply for a job at Barnes & Noble. All of my friends were away at college, along with my girlfriend at the time, so after I applied for the job, I didn't have much to do. I was also feeling kind of down because things had gotten pretty rocky in our relationship when she left for school, so I decided to walk.
I live in Chicago, so I ended up by Lakeshore Drive and just started walking down the trails, listening to music, and looking at the lake and the people. It started getting dark, and I had already walked a pretty good distance, but I didn't feel like stopping. I ended up walking from Downtown all the way to Belmont Harbor, which is pretty far.
That harbor was very close to where my girlfriend lived, so she and I would often go there around this time and watch the water. I sat there for about an hour, watching the waves and having some cigs, before deciding I should get going back home. I could have walked over to the train I would take to her house, but I decided to walk back the way I came.
So, I walked all the way back downtown and got on my train home. I had taken time off after graduating high school, so I was used to my friends not being there all the time, but that was the first night I actually felt alone.
46. What’s The Point?
This year will probably be the worst Halloween yet. It's shaping up in such a way that I might not go trick-or-treating. My sister asked me to dress up as Ferb for a group costume but doesn't actually want me to go with her. I guess she just wants me to pose for some pictures? What's the point of making a costume if all I'm going to use it for is a couple of pictures?
47. Ruining Everything
This happened to my friend. It’s Halloween night and there’s a knock on her parents’ door. However, when her dad opens the door, he comes face to face with the most horrifying sight: There's a man with a bag on his head standing on their porch...completely silent. The man makes a move to step into their house and the dad pushes him backward.
Everyone watches as the man falls backward off of the step and smashes his head on the ground. But then the heartwrenching truth was revealed. The fallen figure was actually their grandfather, who was trying to prank the family. He was rushed to the hospital with permanent damage. He’s no longer able to care for himself or his wife who had health issues as well.
They both ended up in convalescent care. Additionally, my friend’s mother never forgave her husband, placing the blame for the accident entirely on his shoulders. They divorced shortly after.
48. Just A Stone
I went to a small Halloween get-together (me, my wife, and a few friends) and had a great time playing games and drinking. My wife even got fairly intoxicated, which is really unusual for her! We went home around midnight (we took an Uber; we’re responsible) and got ready for bed. My wife started having some abdominal pain, but we didn’t think anything of it.
It was getting close to that time of the month, nothing really unexpected. Fast forward an hour later, and she was writhing on the bed in the worst pain of her life. I rushed her to the ER, and the staff there took her into a room and started doing their thing: asking questions, drawing blood, etc. One of them took me out into the hallway and gave me the worst news I’ve ever had.
There was a chance that it could be serious, maybe ovarian cysts or some kind of aggressive cancer, and her life could very likely be in danger. I went back into the room and tried to keep a strong face on for her sake. She hadn’t heard any of this, and they’d barely started drawing blood to run tests. Then, suddenly, her pain evaporated. Gone.
She looked up at a nurse and asked if she had been given any drugs, and was told no, all they’d done so far was draw blood. Turns out it was a kidney stone. I had the bejeezus scared out of me over a little tiny stone (4 mm, as it turned out). Granted, I’m sure it hurt like absolute heck, but even 10 years later I’m furious that that person had that conversation with me before they even ran any tests.
49. Live Bait
So, I was like 10 and noticed a guy following me and my friends in a car slowly to each house. We started running quickly to houses but he would follow a house or two behind. I ended up running to a cop and told him. He told me to walk to the next house and act normal, so I did. The officer goes up to check this guy out in the car and ends up searching his car.
It turns out that the guy wasn’t after me and my friends, he was stealing from EACH HOUSE THAT DIDN’T ANSWER! So, we were his bait to knock. If it wasn’t for me this guy wouldn’t have gotten caught.
50. A Series Of Unfortunate Events
I had costume plans with a friend who chickened out on me and, instead, wanted to wear her own regular clothes while I was decked out in a ridiculous Ginger Spice costume. She DEFINITELY wasn’t influenced by her snotty roommate who called me immature for what I wore or anything. I had her drop me off after that and decided to find other plans.
I decided to try to hang out with some of my other friends (who were male) but a girl who didn’t like me refused to pick me up and let me hang out with them (I didn’t have a car at the time). So, I decided I was going to walk there. It was about a seven-mile walk. I got a quarter of a mile down the street, tried to cross, and got hit by a car. 13 years later and I still have the metal in my ankle.
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