Sheer Terror: 30 People Reveal The Scariest Thing That Ever Happened To Them

“My parents have told me that one night they were up watching some TV after putting me to bed (this was when I was young enough to still have a baby monitor). We lived in a two-story apartment, and my bedroom was on the second story. They heard someone talking softly through the baby monitor, saying ‘Oh, what a beautiful baby’… needless to say my dad flipped and grabbed a baseball bat and ran into my room, but no one was there.”  —inchcape

“It was a house where my family stayed. First thing me and my sisters started noticing, its kinda hard to explain but when our doors were closed with could see a shadow at the bottom of the door like someone was standing behind it adding to that my room was downstairs next to the laundry room and garage, my girlfriend was in my room while I was in the garage smoking and she heard someone walk by the door and could heard stuff being moved around the laundry room, no one was home except the two of us.”  —shutupuralwaystalkin

“Two weeks ago, I got out of the shower to find a man’s handprint on the upper part of my bathroom mirror. I haven’t had a male over at my place in over a year.” —Haceldama

“When I was a kid and lived in my old apartment my mom befriended the downstairs neighbor and would often invite her over for coffee and tea because she was always so lonely. A few weeks went by without hearing from her so we both go downstairs and knock on the door, it was like a movie where when you knock the door slowly crept open as if it had been this way for a while. We walked inside and found her in the bathtub covered in blood and the smell was disgusting. Apparently the lady’s girlfriend left her and she couldn’t handle the pain. My moms way of comforting me was ‘Don’t worry, Mark. She was our friend so she won’t haunt us.’ Gee, thanks mom.” —Marattmor

“I was at my mother’s funeral sitting down while somebody was giving a eulogy. All of a sudden it got cold and I turned to see a bunch of leaves flying around my mother’s urn. Later that night my Dad and I were driving back to the hotel we were staying at. On the way, I just felt nothing but chills going down my spine. We arrived at the hotel and when I got into the room, I went over to shut the window shades but something caught my eye and I looked down at the parking lot down below. It was a faint white figure that looked very much like my mom and it just smiled and vanished.” —CaptainFireball45

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“I’d just moved into a basement suite. Every time I went out I would lock the deadbolt but not the door handle but when I came home a lot of the time the deadbolt would be unlocked and the door handle would be locked. At first I thought I was just confused about which one I had locked so I started paying more attention. It kept happening and I realized someone must be going in when I went out. I assumed it was the landlady and was annoyed but didn’t say anything at first. Then one day I came home and found the wrong lock locked again. I went in pissed off and opened the fridge to get something to eat. There was a book in the fridge that I had never seen before. I collected old books and this one was published in the early 1900s which creeped me out completely because it was like it had been left for me. I finally called my landlady and asked if she was going into my apartment and told her what had happened. She freaked right out, said the last person who lived there was a really creepy guy with mental health and drug problems. She got all the locks changed that day and it never happened again.” —Show_Case

“I was about 9 or 10. It was late at night and my bed was right under the window, I was just gazing out looking up at the sky when I saw what looked like a UFO. It was a white orb, rather large, shot straight into my line of vision, then moved in a few circles, then shot away. It came back and did the same thing, only it was closer and larger, it made no sound.

I immediately got creeped out and walked from my room, around the corner and was about to walk into my mom’s room but the door was locked. Her door was facing the stairs which went down to the living room/kitchen. Suddenly I heard someone coming up the stairs and a snorting sound. I looked down and saw this tall slender figure walking up the stairs straight at me. I remember saying ‘Dad?’ but then saw that it was something … inhuman. I immediately froze in fear, the creature or whatever it was, tall, slender, two slits for a nose, large black eyes, got right up into my face, continuing to make that awful snorting sound. Kind of like the sound a pig makes.

I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t move, I just collapsed as it towered over me and bent down, pushing its face right into mine. Finally I blacked out.

The next thing I know I was being awoken by my mom at the bottom of the stairs. She asked me how I got there, and said I must have slept walked.

I’ll never forget that face and that snorting sound. and I think I’d die of a heart attack if I ever saw it again.” —atclubsilencio

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“My wife and I stayed at a small rental property in Bath, UK this spring. Whilst in bed I heard the gate to the property (right outside our bedroom window) open and close quietly. This immediately made me jump up and become alert. I heard someone trying to quietly walk on the gravel walkway to our front door until the motion sensor light came on. I saw a person’s shadow dart against the wall outside of our room and instantly went into attack mode. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife from the wooden block and stood at the front door ready to pounce. It was silent for way too long and then I heard someone running away and the gate slam. My wife said that once the motion light turned off the person took off running. I have no idea what their intentions were but I almost stabbed the hell out of someone that night. It still gives me goose bumps thinking about it.” —Nappyboy28

“Our old house was at the corner, pretty secluded and near a main road.

One night I woke up to hear my mom yelling, I was sleeping on the futon and this guy wearing all black just strode over me running. The burglar ran off before he got anything. I was more surprised to be woken up that early rather than the fact a burglar just broke into the house.

Wasn’t the first time the house got broken into, certainly not the last. We weren’t rich by any stretch mind you, pretty much lower middle class.

Other than that, I woken up to sleep paralysis, and at the time was pretty convinced whatever that was behind me—as I was lying on my side—it was evil. I could just move my eyeballs and all of my instincts told me not to look at it.

All I felt was pure fear.” —Cykosurge

“I was outside with my brother and best friend just talking and shooting around the basketball at night. I don’t know why or what made us do it but we all were looking at the sky as we were talking and all of a sudden we see a triangular, dimly lit craft that was flying fast over us. What struck us was how silent it was and how clear we can see it. it was at least idk 100 feet high. We all ran inside and just told my family. In the end, I really just think it was a military aircraft, but who knows.” —TwitchMoments

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“This was back when I was a little kid in Eastern Europe. My cousin and I were walking through the woods, we were maybe eight to nine years old. It was more like a large urban forest, big enough to get lost in. Suddenly we saw a man standing in the bushes, he was wearing nothing but tighty-whiteys, dress shoes, and a watch and had his back toward us. We kind of just froze there, staring at him. He must’ve heard the rustling behind him and slowly turned around. He had the creepiest smile on his face and started slowly moving toward us while making a beckoning motion with his finger. I remember being frozen with fear for a few moments before turning around to look at my cousin, who was no longer there. I could only see his heels flashing in the distance as he was running away. Of course I followed immediately and I don’t think I’ve ever ran that fast before or since.” —LenyAK

“When I was 16, my friends and I had and apartment inn the building his parents owned. It was an old building, in Chicago and had tunnels that Al Capone and company had built that his dad blocked off.

We used the roof as a place to go and smoke cigarettes. You had to get through the attic to get there, though. There were no lights so the only lights we had we from our shitty flip/brick phones.

One day, my friend Manny and I were going up to smoke. I told Manny I had to piss, so I did in the apartment.

I went up and felt like there was someone there. It was pretty common for us to mess with each other, so I said, ‘Manny, I know it’s you. Quit fucking around.’ I followed this shadow figure, thinking it was him.

I yelled, ‘Stop playing, I know it’s you’ as I followed this figure. Then I heard, from downstairs, Manny, say, ‘What?’

I was terrified. I had just followed ‘him’ to a corner. I ran back downstairs and asked if he was there. He was, talking to his gf at the time and I told him I didn’t want to go upstairs.

I know what I saw. People always try to say ‘maybe the shadow was your own’ That’s not possible because I had a Motorola flip phone at the time and I was only holding that in front of me.

I saw a shadow person, and I know others have, too.” —-eDgAR-

Related: 10 People Share Their Eerie Encounters with ‘Shadow People’

“I was living in my car for a few months. I would just drive out of town and park off the side of the road on logging roads or whatever to sleep.

Found this one place to park which was nice because it wasn’t too far away but also far enough that no one else would be there at night.

First night I was there I had a waking dream that someone was outside my car looking in. Freaked me out but whatever. Parked other places for a few nights.

Went back there for a few nights and had similar freaky nightmares both nights. Someone outside the car, trying to get in, etc. Basically said fuck this place and avoided it for a while.

Was tired one afternoon and decided to go back to have a nap. Laid there for about ten minutes before hearing a noise and suddenly there’s this homeless dude walking his bicycle down out of the bush right past my car. I recognized him as someone who runs around picking bottles out of trashcans. Creepy as fuck, guess he lived in a camp in the bush right there.” —-obliviouscommenter-

“I’d been living in my first apartment alone for maybe two weeks. It was a basement apartment which meant cheap and the windows were right at ground level so you could see legs and shoes walk by. There were two bedrooms. I slept in one with the blinds closed, but the other room’s window had some water damage so I kept the blinds all the way up to let it dry out before maintenance came. That room had nothing in it but spare boxes from moving in.

One night, I was asleep and then suddenly completely awake and alert. Every fiber of my being was suddenly on edge. I looked at my phone and saw it was around 4:00 A.M. I laid in bed for a minute before I turned towards my closed window and saw it: a large dark shadow of a person with a flashlight trying to see in to my bedroom. I instantly freaked. I quietly grabbed a small hunting knife and stealthily moved to the hall so I could see into the other bedroom—the one whose window coverings were WIDE open. As I peeked around the corner, the person was scanning the floor of my bedroom methodically with the flashlight. They were big, had on heavy boots, and keys that jingled.

At this point—as a single girl alone in a shitty apartment I thought this was it. I was 100% prepared to take my little hunting knife and fight this fucker. My adrenaline was sky high. At that moment, my phone buzzed and I got a text from a friend on the police force who literally asked, “What’s going on at your apartment?” I thought—yep, this is a bad guy…he’s peering in my windows and is going to bust in any second now…but then he went away. I didn’t hear from my police friend after I texted him back.

I decided to go lie down on my bed and just wait to see what happened next. Not five minutes after lying down, someone knocked on my door with incredible force. The panic mounted again. Now—I have no peephole, no safety chain…just a deadbolt. At the top of my voice, in case it’s a murderer I want to wake people up, I yell, “who is it?” I hear a meek voice reply that it is the police. My first thought is now that is a clever plan to get a girl to open her apartment door. I stood there silently before I heard the voice say again, that I wasn’t in trouble. I opened the door a smudge, ready to slam it, to see two cops, one backed away from the door and one up the steps. They must have seen my tiny little knife or something.

They proceeded to apologize for scaring me—they were the ones looking in my windows. I yelled at them and possibly cried a little … the adrenaline finally broke, okay? I got the whole story from my friend the next day—turns out a fellow resident of the apartment complex had gotten drunk, lost his keys, and broken into his own apartment to go to bed. They thought it was mine and were confused by the lack of broken windows….I was terrified at the time, but it’s a good story now.” —miles_kilow

“Went to my aunt and uncle’s house one family vacation about 10 years ago. We drove from South Texas to some small town in Missouri, can’t remember the name, we arrived there at 1:00 A.M. Family consisted of myself, 2 younger sisters, mother, father. Most of the family was hungry from the long drive and wanted to see if a McDonald’s was open. I was tired from the long car ride and wanted to stay at the house. Mom said one of my sisters would be staying as well. I settle down into the living room watching TV, slightly dozing off. I can remember hearing pitter-patter down the hallway and assumed my sister was just running around, she’d be eating sugary snacks the whole way up. I get a call from my mom asking what I wanted to eat and in the background can hear both my sisters arguing. I hear a giggle somewhat behind me stand straight up and look around, nothing. I ask my mom if my sister ended up going with them, which she confirmed. I stood in the corner of the room till everyone got back.” —Faux_F0X

“I was outside playing with friends one afternoon …we were around 9 or 10. We lived in a quiet area. As we were playing, we noticed a man in a truck drive by over and over again. Each time he passed my friends’ yard, he would drive slowly. We then realized that this man was recording us with one of those old handheld recorders. It freaked us out. We ran inside their house and called his mom. She told them they needed to stay inside and that I should go home. I tried explaining that my mom wasn’t home at the moment. But she still made me leave. I lived about a mile or two down the road. I’ve never run so fast in my life. I was terrified that man was going to find me as I was running back home. When my mom found out what happened…she was super pissed off my friend’s mom hadn’t allowed me to stay at their house until she could come pick me up.” —heylookitsatyler

“When I was a teenager I was home alone one weekend and I was sleeping in my parents’ room since there was a TV in there. Sometime around 2:00 A.M. I felt like I was being stared at from the direction of the hallway. I looked up and I saw a shadow person looking at me. It was weird because it was a pure man-shaped black mass and I could see him in the dark hallway, I’m guessing light from the TV helped. I sat up and stared back but I was terrified. We looked at each other for probably 5 seconds and then it turned and walked down the hall, a few seconds later I heard a loud crash. I was so scared I turned the TV to the Disney Channel and stayed awake for as long as possible. When I woke up the next morning I walked down the hall to the bathroom and that’s when I noticed a mirror that was hanging and fallen off the wall and was shattered. My family still doesn’t believe me but I know what happened.” —nessag

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“June last year a man from Pakistan began messaging me on Facebook, assuming it was a scam account I ignored his attempts at conversation and thought little of it. Six months later the random messages started to pop up again, several times a day, with personal information about me he couldn’t possibly know.

Every day for almost four months this stranger wrote to me knowing details about my life that I’m certain aren’t on my Facebook profile. He knew where I’d worked, where I live, my phone number, the brand of smokes I buy, how I’d become unemployed, my parents separating and my daily routine.

I’m not easily spooked but he was trying to get under my skin and it was working. I told a few close friends who were skeptical at first, figuring he’d gotten my information off Facebook, until they read the message thread for themselves and could see how serious it was.

Of course I considered the possibility an acquaintance of mine was behind the account posing as this man. Unfortunately the timeline dated back to 2012, had hundreds of photos, check-ins with family and friends on the other side of the world and appeared legitimate.

He intimidated me for months dropping facts about my life every now and then to scare the shit out of me. Finally he explained he wanted to come to Australia and if I helped him he would pay me. At first I was amused that he thought I could be of help, making a joke of his idea. He obviously didn’t appreciate my response because he started mentioning my dad and sister.

I was more angry than scared by that point and decided to contact the National Security Hotline. I figured if this individual was willing to pay a stranger on Facebook to worm his way into Australia they’d want to find out why. They also didn’t think I was batshit crazy, so that was a huge relief after all the looks others had given me.

A few days passed after the call, the messages continued but I had peace of mind knowing I’d reported it. Maybe I had overreacted? Maybe I was batshit crazy? Or perhaps one of my friends was behind it all!

Obviously the authorities weren’t taking the situation as lightly as I’d thought, because detectives turned up at home to get the story from myself firsthand. As bizarre as the situation was, it was comforting knowing that they listened and had my best interest after being made to feel like an idiot for months.

The messages stopped the same day I spoke to the detectives at my house, giving me reason to believe action was taken when they left. I’ll probably never know the details, but it’s probably best that way anyway.” —Birchwoood

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“I was a kid when this happened so just keep that in mind as you’re reading this story. My great grandmother had recently passed away and we weren’t that close or anything but whenever I went to my grandparents’ house where she was living she would always smile at me and give me a thumbs up. I don’t know why but that thumbs up always made me smile and giggle a little.

One day after school on my way home I am thinking about my great grandma and remembering her thumbs up. I get home and run downstairs and about halfway down I trip. At the bottom of the stairs was a gate and the roof was only seven feet high or so. The gap between the top of the gate and the roof was maybe four feet. When tall people walked downstairs they had to duck on the last step so they didn’t bump their head. I feel like I should have either hit the ceiling or at least crashed through that gate. Instead I landed softly on the ground and my first thought was of my grandma giving me a little smile and a thumbs up. Pretty weird. I was young though so I may have just had a wild imagination about the whole thing but I swear as an adult I remember that happening and its such a clear and vivid memory.” —Planet_Kolob

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“This happened just a few years ago, when I was still engaged in a trade many of you would frown on. I was a young and desperate man, and I guess if you are good at something and you enjoy it, you may as well make money from it. I never had any problem with most of my clients, I guess because I was solicitous and nice to the extreme, and also because I’m tall and built and can be intimidating if I have to.

This is one of the darkest transactions I ever had. I’ve only played this particular game once, and only because the distinguished gentleman I was with was very persuasive. He may have put something in my juice or food though, because I felt very intense that time. I know you’re not supposed to ingest or drink anything when in a stranger’s house, but he came highly recommended by a friend so I felt safe, and I was a bit hungry TBH. In any case, he certainly took me by surprise.

After eating, when we entered his bedroom, I was curious because he had plastic sheets in his bed and a bit beneath it. When it comes to golden showers (pee play), usually one asks for it beforehand so I can drink lots of liquids, and the sheets are on the floor or rug. I thought perhaps he’s OC and doesn’t want any of the massage lotion/oil to seep into his bed.

He got a big dark wood box and put it on a table beside the bed, between some candles. When I undressed him for the massage, I was a bit surprised. For such a rich gentleman he had so many scars. Particularly in his torso especially in the chest and back, but also in his upper arms and legs. I thought that was why he was offering more than the usual—because he was ashamed. The massage went on for an hour.

After that, I was getting ready for the finish, getting on top of him and licking his neck while stroking him. He had other ideas however. He opened the box and showed me the shiny things inside. And he told me what he truly wanted. He was damn persuasive.

It was the only time I engaged in blood play. And it was a different high. I honestly would’ve run away screaming if he told me his fetish prior to meeting, but his timing was impeccable, and he played his cards well. It really stoked my fire that time, and I would’ve had another go at it if I were different. But it brought out some things in me that were disturbing. I guess I liked it too much? I dunno. He did say he was very turned on by my enthusiasm.

I still think he drugged me. We were the only ones in his chamber, but the feeling that someone was watching us only increased as things got more intense. I wasn’t freaked out at all though—if anything it turned me on a lot. In the end I was very handsomely rewarded for my services.

I moved to a distant city shortly after that. When my friend contacted me about three months after, I told him I already left. He told me it ain’t important. It would be all expenses paid, we just have to agree on a sched. The offer was very tempting, and I was thinking of how that gentleman really goes for whatever it is he wants. I decided to decline, saying I’ve stopped and left it at that. My friend tried to sway me with better offers, at one point saying that the gentleman would be open to meeting me at my city. I always gave a blunt refusal.

It was so very hard to say no. The money offered was considerable. But I have a certain instinct about these things, and I felt something very off, very wrong about it. In the end they stopped.” —LasaroM

“This happened recently, it was midnight, I was at the train station waiting for my train to arrive, and there was this really tall guy walking my way carrying a suitcase. As he came closer I noticed he was struggling to carry the suitcase as it looked rather heavy and oddly enough it was leaking some sort of liquid, not water, but it seemed more thicker. As this guy approaches he orders me to take the bag, the tone of his voice was a little aggressive and he didn’t sound sober, taking a closer look at him, I noticed he’s covered in dirt up to his face and cuts on his forearms, I said ‘sorry’, struck for words I started to walk away, my train starts to arrive and the guy follows me saying things I couldn’t quite understand, I hop on the train, door shuts, he is outside pointing at me yelling more gibberish, train slowly departs and suddenly punches the window in frustration with his eyes locked on me, relieved I’m on the train, fellow commuters looking at me puzzled with all the commotion of me and that guy. Creeped me out.” —dcel8

“My parents sent me to live with my grandmother when I was seven. They had to work in another city for a couple of months while waiting for my big brother to finish middle school.

I was ecstatic to live at my grandma’s, since she would spoil the hell out of me. She lived in a two-bedroom house with four of my aunts and my uncle. However, three of my aunts and me slept piled into one bedroom while my uncle and grandma slept in the living room. The reason? One of my aunts was schizophrenic and had a whole bedroom to herself.

My aunt had been crazy for years (my grandma wasn’t the best making her take her pills) and she would spend hours talking to herself and drawing with crayons on the wall.

Looking back, it’s creepy as hell. But as a child I was having a blast living in a house where I was the sanest person around.

This ended rather abruptly when I woke up with my crazy aunt pointing some scissors at my neck.

The most plausible story is that she wanted to cut one of my hair strands, as she had picked this habit of cutting hair for a couple of months. However, we never knew for sure.

Almost immediately my parents picked me up, and moved to a very old house where earthworms came out of the toilet and shower drain at night. As a child I thought I had woken to a living nightmare.” —unlimitedanna

“Only scary because I was there. In one day I had two close calls with elephants. First while on safari our guide stopped in a clearing. As I was getting out he freaked out and told us to get back in the car. As we do an elephant bursts into view trumpeting and charging. The truck fails to turn over once. Twice. Third time was not the charm. And finally on the 4th attempt it turns over and we tear out of there. Turns out we had parked between mama and her calf. We spend the rest of the day laughing about it because what else can you do, until on the path to our camp we come across a drunk bull elephant (there is a tree that has a really sugary fruit. Elephants have learned to knock the fruit down and let it ferment for who knows how long so they can come back eat it and get blasted) Anyway we then spend about three hours getting false charged by a bull elephant and we couldn’t move. Because if we moved he would have known we were not a strange green rock but something smashable. And we couldn’t just hit the gas because the truck wasn’t very fast in reverse. It was a long day for everyone. I especially felt bad for our guide because that safari was his first one back on the job. He had been out for two years because he had been charged by and elephant and caught a tusk in his side. shudders” —rowingpostal

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“I was about 12 or 13 years old. One time I’m walking to my psychiatrist for my weekly appointment. It’s a half hour walk and after dark. I enjoyed walking, especially after dark when things were quiet, peaceful, and slow and no one else around. No, I didn’t live in a dangerous neighborhood nor did my walk take me through any dangerous neighborhoods.

As I’m about half way to my destination, a car, a Cadillac, comes driving down the street. Some people, both male and female, in the car are sticking themselves half way out the windows and are taunting me and jeering me as they drive by. A bunch of people in their late teens or early 20s. I ignore them and keep on walking. About a minute or two later, the same car comes down the street again and those people are jeering me and taunting me again. I don’t know who they are. Maybe they live in the neighborhood. I still ignore them and keep walking.
Another minute or so goes by and again they come driving down the street, taunting and jeering me. Now I’m worried. They’re circling the block over and over, deliberately focusing on me.

As soon as they reach the corner and make their turn and are out of sight, I duck behind some bushes in someone’s front yard and wait. The car comes again down the street. This time, not seeing me walking down the street, they’re not jeering. They pass right by me in my hiding place and turn the corner. I think they think I’ve finally reached my destination, one of the houses on the block, and went inside and as a result, drove away. I thought wrong. Stupidly I leave my hiding place and go back to walking on my way to my psychiatrist. I should’ve stayed there behind those bushes much longer because I hear the car approaching. They spot me and start taunting and jeering me again. They turn the corner.

This time I run towards my destination but I know I wont get far before the car and those kids catch up with me again. So to that effect I decided to hide again behind the bushes in front of an apartment of an apartment building. This time resolving to stay there for good until the thugs in the car gives up their searching for me. I’m hiding there behind the bushes for not long. Maybe about 30 seconds or so when the guy whose apartment it is pops out from his apartment, asking what I’m doing hiding in his bushes. At first he probably thinks I’m a burglar or something, but I explain to him how I’m walking to my psychiatrist and how I’m being followed and harassed by a bunch of kids in a car, which was why I’m hiding in his bushes. The guy can instantly tell from the tone of my voice and my facial expressions that I’m telling him the truth. He can see how scared I am.

Just then the car comes down the street and pulls right up at the curb directly in front of us. They look at me and the guy I’m with. Not a mean looking guy (in his late 30s-early 40s), but tough and serious looking enough. He’s not wearing a shirt. But he’s wearing a sleeveless undershirt which reveals that this guy’s upper body is very well toned, slightly muscular, and no fat.

I’m looking at the car and I realize that it’s missing a few people inside. The car doesn’t look so full now. The guy I’m with just gives them a mean stare. He asks me, ‘You know them?’” I explain that no, I don’t know them at all. I haven’t the slightest idea of who they are.

Just then, as the car is sitting there, about three of them approach walking from the other direction. The car was traveling east to west. Those three were walking on foot from west to east. So that’s why the car seemed not so full. They were looking to escalate the situation. They weren’t satisfied with just driving by and taunting me. They changed tactics. A few of them got out of the car up ahead and started walking toward me while the ones in the car took another turn around the block. Their plan now was to physically trap me in between themselves and their car. Perhaps grab me and drag me into the car with them for whatever reasons. But seeing my tough guy guardian angel with me, the kids walking toward the car instead got into the car and it took off.

The guy offered to stay with me for a little longer or if I wanted to, to duck into his apartment to stay there until I was sure that it was safe to continue on my journey. I had a feeling that this was the last I was going to see of those guys and their car and I didn’t want to be late for my appointment. So I thanked the guy for his offer, but declined. And decided to head on my way. The guy went back into his apartment and closed the door. I looked at the closed door and hoped that I didn’t make a mistake by turning down the guy’s offer of better safety, because I was still scared. Thankfully I was right about not seeing the car again. The rest of my walk I was unmolested.

I reached my psychiatrist’s office. I told my therapist about what happened. He insisted on calling the police. The police came and took a report from me. That’s the last I heard of it. On my way back home, I usually took the same route that I came from, up the same streets. But this evening, I varied my way home, taking some different side streets to walk on. Never saw that car or those thugs again.” —WallyPlumstead

“Around when I was five or six, my mom, aunts, cousin and me when down to Jamaica to go to the funeral of my great grandmother. After the funeral and everything, me and my cousin were playing around with dominoes while everyone was asleep except for my grandfather who was on the veranda. Fast forward an hour or two later this guy come up to the house asking to see my mom and my aunt, it was a cousin they had knew growing up, so my grandfather kept asking what to do want with them just to notice that my mom cousin was drunk. So they just kept arguing with my mom and my aunt eventually coming going on the veranda so see what was going on. So their cousin asks will they come out to talk to him, which they wouldn’t because it was like 4:00 in the morning or so. At some point during this I wake up and ask what is going on but they tell me not to worry. While this whole exchange is going on, my grandfather notices a car driving up and down the street and notices that someone was in the bushes so he starts to figure out something was off so he grabs his machete at this point the cousin and the guy in the bushes leaves in the car that was driving up and down the street. Next morning they learned that their cousin was there to rape them and kill everyone when they were done. Overall the experience was pretty traumatizing as a five or six year old then.” —Arararararagi_kun

“All of this happened when I was 12-16 years old. I am now 25, and haven’t felt a ‘spirit’ ever since I’ve felt better. Before I start, I would like to point out that English is not my first language, so I apologize for possible mistakes. Please feel free to ask if there’s anything that is not clear.

My mom and I used to live in a three-story apartment. The upper floor was basically my own, with my room, a bathroom and a tiny hallway. I think it all started with my mom asking me where I put certain things. She couldn’t find documents that had been in the living room before. Or small things such as pens. Naturally, she blamed me, but when things that belonged to me went missing, she no longer believed that I hid them.

Apart from this, the television turned itself off and on a couple of times. However, none of this makes you think “Shit, this apartment is haunted.”, so we weren’t too worried.

Around one year later, when I was 13, my depression got a bit worse, and things in our apartment got weirder.
I was asleep but woke up abruptly, only to start crying (aah the joys of puberty and lovesickness). I suddenly felt someone petting my cheek, the way you do it when babies are crying. I immediately felt comforted and fell back asleep.

I remember when I had one of my friends over. We stood in my floor’s hallway and heard somebody running the stairs up and down really loudly. My friend got pale and was genuinely shocked, as was I.

A couple of days later, I was home alone and spent some time in my room, with the door opened. I heard someone unlocking our apartment’s door, opening and closing it. I then heard someone walking up the stairs, and called out for my mom as I assumed she got home early. But there was nobody there. To this day I am absolutely sure that I even heard the key in the lock.

I felt as if I was being watched quite often. Actually it was so ‘normal’ that I got used to it. My mom also said that she saw things moving in the corner of her eyes, and that she felt as if somebody was with her sometimes, even when she was alone.

Those occurrences happened now and then, but luckily it didn’t scare us too often. We kinda got used to it, and the ‘ghost’ or whatever it was didn’t do us any harm.

Then, at age 14 or 15, my depressions got so bad that I started cutting and tried to commit suicide twice. During this time, my mom told me she saw white fog walking up to my floor. I was a bit scared, but what was I supposed to do about it?!

Then an incident happened which really convinced me that our apartment was haunted. I was in bed and tried to sleep but couldn’t as I wasn’t tired at all. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard a heavy breathing coming from my couch (which was right across from my bed). Maybe some of you saw ‘The Others’. There’s a scene at the end where you can hear the old lady breathing. It sounded like this but more ‘evil’. At first I thought that I was imagining it, but I was so shocked and frightened that I couldn’t fall asleep, and stayed awake for another couple of hours. The breathing never stopped during that time. When I finally had the guts to stand up and just get out of my room, when I passed the couch, the breathing got quieter, but got VERY loud once I was in the hallway. Luckily, my mom believed me and let me sleep in her room. She checked my room, but there was nobody there. Still, she also heard that breathing. I heard it again a couple of times, during the day and at night.

Aside from that, I saw flashes of light every day, no matter the time and weather. I read that seeing flashes of light can be a sign for migraine, but gladly I never had a ‘serious’ headache. Besides, I didn’t see those flashes right before my eyes, but outside my windows.

To this day, I’m convinced that the apartment was haunted and as weird as it may sound; I believe that my depressions basically ‘summoned’ something. However, I still can’t explain the flashes. So if anyone has an explanation or a similar experience, please feel free to comment.” —friendlycuntthough

Related: 15 Real-Life Paranormal Encounters That Will Keep You Awake Tonight

“Me and my sister lived in a haunted house in Thailand when I was 10 years old. We shared a room and there was a jack and jill bathroom separating another empty room. I guess back then and now maids are cheap so we had a maid. She would always yell at us for leaving the ceiling fan on but we would never go in that room. The room was upstairs and when we were downstairs we would hear kids running and bouncing balls and laughing in that room. One night before hearing all these noises me and my sister had a friend come to sleep over. We made blanket tents in the empty room but there was an armoire in there. When we had the lights off and just chatting we heard scratches on the wall and froze. Then the armoire doors suddenly squeaked open and we all booked it out the room! Fucking scariest shit ever. Later we found out that behind our backyard fence was a swamp and local people told us that a lot of people would dump their babies there.” —yo_yollie

“When I was a young kid my room was in the spacious downstairs rumpus area. Whilst I felt ‘independent’ in the sense that I had free roam of the area, I always felt slightly uneasy being so far from the rest of my family at night.

I to this day remember a recurring nightmare I experienced in that room. My father had given me his hi-fi player and would put a CD on to help lull me to sleep and provide a sense of comfort before I drifted off. This was a nightly routine and I would play all sorts of music, from Pink Floyd to The Stranglers. One night I woke to the music off, but the amplifier lights still bright and often flickering. In my dreamlike state I stumbled out of bed to try and turn the CD player off, only to be overwhelmed with a feeling of static. Almost like the CD player was transmitting its frequency throughout my own body, using it as an antenna.

This feeling I can only describe was like the most intense, yet painless pins and needles, and culminated in every hair standing on end. As the sensation subsided, I felt almost paralyzed. I was able to move, but it took every ounce of strength to pull myself back up into the bed. Once under the covers, the static noise seemed to materialize in front of me. Not in the visual sense but more in a dark emotive way. It was a shadowy yet malevolent feeling but still unwelcoming.

I distinctly remember my flight or fight instincts kicking in, and the most logical conclusion I arrived at was to play dead. My thought process was something along the lines of “This presence can’t affect me if I don’t respond to it”. So I remained perfectly still, careful to not even take a breath out of sync. Eventually I fell back to sleep, but would have the exact same dream almost every night.

The funny thing is I never felt scared or threatened by this presence, more confused. It was like a higher being that had complete auditory and physical control over me.” —deepmedimuzik

“When I was 13 I experienced the ghost of my grandmother.

She died in her sleep while taking a nap on the living-room couch. Afterwards according to my father and grandfather, every now and then they could hear her make the trip from the bedroom to the kitchen and open the refrigerator door. A trip she made many times when she was alive. At first I thought my father and grandfather were making this up, having fun at my expense.

A couple years after she passed away, my father and I went to spend the weekend with my grandfather. My father and I slept on the living room couch (it opened into a double bed). The same couch my grandmother died on.

My grandfather left the house to go to a next-door neighbor’s house to play poker. My father and I went to bed in the living room. My father went right to sleep. I laid awake, reading a magazine.

After a while I heard the noise of the back bedroom door being pulled open. I heard the sound of shuffling feet. I heard the creak in the floor directly in front of the bathroom doorway. I heard more shuffling feet. Then I heard the fridge door being pulled open and I heard the sound of glass bottles in the fridge door clinking against each other (back then they were still putting soft drinks in glass bottles). Feeling thirsty, I decided to get out of bed and go join my grandfather in the kitchen for a cold drink. I go into the kitchen, only to find myself all alone.

I was puzzled. I could’ve sworn I heard my Grandfather walk from the bedroom into the kitchen and open the fridge. Then I remembered that my grandfather wasn’t home. He was over the neighbors’ house and he hadn’t come back yet. Then I remembered my grandfather’s and father’s ghost stories. Then I got scared. I raced from the kitchen, into the living room, and leaped over my sleeping father into my side of the bed.

Then I went to sleep. I don’t know how long I slept before I woke up with a start, a feeling of paralyzing fear in my body. I was frozen. I was lying on my right side. It took a while for me to work up the courage to turn my head to the left. My head was covered by my blanket. There was a shadow being cast onto my blanket. The shadow was the outline of a head and shoulders of a woman with a beehive hairdo. My grandmother used to always have a beehive hairdo even years after it went out of style, up until she died. I heard heavy breathing coming from the shadow.

I had to work up the courage to move one of my hands to remove the blanket off of my face. When I did, in an instant, the paralyzing fear I felt was gone. The shadow was gone. The sound of heavy breathing was gone.

My father was still sleeping. I pulled the blanket back over my head and went back to sleep. Only to wake up again on my right side, the paralyzing fear was back. Forcing myself to turn my head. The shadow was back. The heavy breathing was back. Again I had to summon up all my courage to move my hand to take my blanket off my face, only to find nothing there and the paralyzing fear gone.

I went through this same routine the entire night. I lost count of how many times this happened through the night. Maybe a dozen. Maybe more. But it happened a lot.

The next morning I told my father what happened to me throughout the entire night while he slept. The sounds of the bedroom door opening. The shuffling feet. The fridge door opening.

Nobody in the kitchen. Being awakened with a paralyzing fear. The shadow. The heavy breathing. The repeat performances throughout the night.

I kind of expected him to tell me that I was just seeing and hearing things. But instead he smiled and exclaimed, ‘that was grandma!’” —WallyPlumstead

Related: 8 Creepy Tales of Child Ghosts

“When I was about 10 I was having a sleepover at my friend Amy’s house. I was sleeping on the mattress on the floor and it was positioned as if you sat up you looked directly down the hall into the living room. Amy’s mum’s bedroom was to the left, the bathroom was on the right. I still remember this very clearly.

Amy was a bit of a scaredy cat; everything scared her. I remember the dogs barking next door woke us up; she was scared and tried to get into bed with me. I was like it’s just dogs go back to bed. She was scared and went to sleep with her mum.

It’s summertime so it’s light pretty early. I wake up and I see Amy aunty was sitting on the couch, staring at me!! Amy’s aunty was in air force and would visit when on leave. I remember thinking why is she staring at me … she looked away and I was looking at her. It was 5:15 A.M.

Anyway I went back to sleep, woke at more a reasonable hour and asked where aunty Sandra was. Amy’s mum looked at me, and said, ‘Huh Sandra? Sandra’s not here she’s in X City.’ I have no idea who was sat on the couch but almost 30 years later I swear it was not a dream and some lady was there.” —allycatcal

Related: 13 Terrifying True Ghost Stories You Shouldn’t Read Alone

This story was first published on Creepy Catalog.

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Featured photo: Flood G. / Flickr (CC)