26 People Share The Real Life Terrifying Run-Ins And Close Calls That They Can’t Forget
When he glanced in the rear view mirror, he saw a full grown man in what he described as "large boots and a dirty, dark, thick jacket and dirty pants" in a full on SPRINT towards our car.
By Eric Redding
www.instagram.com/vdubl/
1. Hello?
When I was in my early 20s, I was fresh out of the closet and lived in the French Quarter. I started getting hangup calls from someone (presumably a hookup).
After a few months of sporadic calls, someone showed up outside of my window at around 2 AM and started blasting a tape recording of me saying, “Hello…? Hello….?” then drove off.
2. Early Dismissal
When I was in third grade, I remember getting called to the front office to be dismissed. I ALWAYS knew when I would be getting dismissed before hand so this caught me off-guard. Maybe my mom was going to surprise me with a day off? Maybe?
Anyway – I get about halfway to the office and my teacher comes up behind me screaming at the top of her lungs to get back in the classroom NOW! And grabbed my arm super hard (which I understand now as an adult) and drug me back into the classroom. I thought I was in trouble. … She immediately slammed the door shut behind me and locked it, then flipped the lights off. I’m so very, very confused.
The classroom phone was lying on her desk instead of being hung up on the wall. She whispers into the phone that I’m officially back in the room and in lockdown. Then an announcement over the schools intercom informs the entire school that they need to be in lockdown and that all students need to RUN back to the classrooms. Queue silent panic.
….long story short. Some random guy tried to dismiss me from school to kidnap me. We don’t know who he was or anything about him. My mother was immediately called to dismiss me after being phoned about the incident. She had to show her license and walk all the way to the classroom to physically walk with me. Three days after this event (happened in a Friday) we had full photo name tags for ANY non-student (aka an adult) who wanted to walk through the office doors. You had to give your license #, scan a copy of your license, take a current pic to be printed on a temp badge, then be cleared to enter the actual building by scanning the photo-ID temp badge.
Makes me sick to think about. I now have a three year old daughter who I am slightly nervous about sending to school in a few years. Fortunately school security is way more amped up than when I was in school back in the 90s….
3. Tragedy At The Ski Lift
A person was shot in the head three feet away from me in the spot I was standing not 5 seconds before in queue.
I was skiing with a group of my friends, and I let a family take my spot in line because it would have fit the lift exactly at 10 people. We quickly swapped spots and I turned around to my friends putting my back to the father who now stood in my spot. Then he just dropped. No loud bang or anything, just a thud as the guy hit the snow with blood splattering all over my back. I see his face everyday. . .
We found out later that there was a group of people hunting where they shouldn’t have been, and that it must have been a stray bullet.
4. Sexual Intimidation
When I was 11, my mother and I lived with her boyfriend who I hated. He was occasionally physically abusive to me and was always intimidating. Anyway, when it got super creepy was one rainy Saturday morning. My mom was at work so it was just me and “Rick” home. The phone rang at about 8am and I jumped out of bed and went to the kitchen to answer it. It was my little league coach calling to confirm that my baseball game had been rained out.
I headed back toward my bedroom but had to pass Rick’s bedroom to get there. As I did, there he stood, 6’2″and buck naked. Not wanting to chat with any grown naked man, I averted my gaze and tried to shoot into my bedroom. As I tried to shut the door I felt something block it open. Rick had followed me to my room and stuck his foot out to keep me from shutting the door. He stood right by me, towering over me and asked what the call was. I told him but he just stood there, two feet away, naked and glaring at me for what was probably 30 seconds but felt more like 5 minutes. He said nothing but stared angrily at me.
I was already terrified of him from some violence he had committed against me before but this was different. This felt like a strange, sexual intimidation. Very scary for a young boy. Very creepy. He finally turned around and walked away. Nothin like that ever happened again but I did later learn he had some strange sexual issues. I was left with the feeling that he was sizing me up on a very creepy and unhealthy way. It has stuck with me almost 35 years now.
5. Parking, At Night
I used to have a shit job at a casino that got me working some pretty weird hours. Some days I would work a normal 9-5, others I would go in at 6PM and not leave until 2 or 3 AM. Not a big deal except by that time in the morning, all the parking spaces around my apartment building would be taken, so I had to park a few blocks away and walk to get to my building. I would park, get my pepper spray and keys in hand, lock my car, and walk the block or two to my building. I never felt like was in any way unsafe until one night when I found a parking space across the street from my building that happened to be in front of a bar.
I pulled into the space and got my keys ready. I noticed a guy smoking in the doorway of the bar, about 5 cars down, but he was looking in the other direction and didn’t seem to care that I was there. I got out of the car and was about halfway across the street before he noticed I was a girl and I heard him yell, “Hi sweetie!” I ignored him, and that must have pissed him off, because he yelled, “Bitch!” I started sprinting to my building when I heard the sound of him running up behind me.
The building I lived in at the time had been built a long time ago, and everything was outdated, including the security system. After 10 PM the doors would lock automatically, and you would have to put a key in the lock and turn it for the doors to open, and it would take FOREVER. I finally got the door opened and had just shut it before he got there and was yanking on the handle and screaming at me.
My skin was crawling for a few days after that.
6. In The Hotel Bar
I work in a medium sized city hotel, for some reason we seem to attract the weirdos. First story happened to the late duty manager as she was doing her nightly walk around before handing over to the night porter (about 2300)
As she’s walking around checking all the doors that should be closed/locked are, she finds the door to one of the function rooms is unlocked, she walks into the room, the lights are off and as it’s dark out she flicks on the light to check the area. Stood in the middle of the room, in the pitch dark is an older woman, slightly disheveled and crazy hair (Think bag lady) just staring at her. Now this woman has obviously come into the hotel much earlier in the day, or she would have been noticed as she walked past reception and down the hall to the function room, turned out she’d been stood in there in the dark for a good few hours.
DM tells her to leave, she just stares daggers at her and walks out without saying a word.
The second story happened to the night Porter at the same hotel. Following a report that something had gone missing from the staff room one night, we reviewed the cctv tapes the next day.
It turned out that some bloke had managed to get in through an unsecured delivery entrance downstairs and nicked some belongings from the staff room one night, the creepy thing is, having done this, instead of leaving the way he came, he went upstairs, through the kitchen and into the bar.
Now the bar is separated from reception (where the NP spends most of his shift) by a curtain, the intruder then proceeds to spend a good 4 hours just peering through a gap in the curtain at the porter, when the night porter comes into the bar area to set up for breakfast, this bloke just ducks behind the bar and continues to stare at him. Eventually as the sun comes up and the NP goes to the toilet (or wherever) the guy just walks out the front door.
Even just watching the tapes creeped me out. You could see the NP felt uncomfortable just by the way he looked around all night. After we showed him the tapes he said he had felt uneasy that night, but didn’t know why.
We never caught the creepy thief, the creepy lady however does make an appearance every now and again, generally trying some odd stuff, but most of the time we catch her before she manages to scare anyone else half to death.
7. Ninety Nine Isn’t One Hundred Percent
I was seeing a girl occasionally, friends-with-benefits setup. About 2 months into our fling, I have a ridiculously vivid dream of the girl having a C-Section and giving birth to my son. I can remember holding my son, the feel of his warm, smooth, fragile skin, in this dream. I remember dreaming about looking into his milky blue eyes, smelling his milky-breath as I bent down to kiss him. . . This dream was POWERFUL realistic.
I told her about it. She laughed. She has an I.U.D. in, she tells me, and cannot get pregnant. Phew. Just a silly, albeit realistic, dream.
We have a good laugh at my expense.
Fast Forward 3 months, she’s gained some weight and is having strange bouts of nausea. So goes to the Doctor. She was pregnant, with an I.U.D. (and the use of condoms 99.8% of the time), at the time of my dream.
The doctor says at one point: “Too bad you didn’t play the lottery that day. 99% isn’t 100%.” They remove the I.U.D. – 4 months later, she has a baby boy.
In the delivery room she jokes: At least we don’t need a C-Section.
16 hours of labor later – emergency C-Section.
He turns 1 on April 5th (Just a few days from now).
Pretty awesome – but still creepy.
8. “I Never Asked For Much”
When I was 13 I used to sneak out of my house and walk around the forrest near home as a means of rebelling against my parents who thought our neighborhood was really dangerous (which it wasn’t). I got to the edge of the forest at probably 1230-1pm and I immediately noticed a really tall lanky man walking around the perimeter but I know it would’ve been impossible for him to see me from where I was.
Anyway, I watched him walk off till I couldn’t see him anymore and made for the forest path which is lit up by really dim orange overhead lights. Started walking and singing “bubble gum bubble gum in a dish” when I saw the same dude from before like 30 feet away standing under the light. Total movie shit, couldn’t see his face really or anything. We both just stood there for a second and he said in a super calm voice, “I never asked for much.” I turned around and started to run and looked back and he was stepping into the trees. True story, cliches and all.
9. We Both Got A Bad Feeling At Once
My friend and I were walking home together from a party and I was extremely under the influence while she was my sober mama. The main street we normally used was blocked due to an accident so we walked down a random dark residential street. Two guys walking in the opposite direction walked right past us. A few steps later I get the most intense gut feeling and my friend and I at the same time turn to look at each other and then behind us. We see those two guys sprinting now in our direction. Never have I bolted that fast while being drunk in my entire life. We get to the end of the street and there were lights and a cop car. We looked and the guys had slowed and stopped. We also immediately ran into two old friends from high school. Guardian angels man, thank god.
10. I Still Remember Him Slowly Swimming Toward Me
When I was 11, I was at the beach. I realized a sketchy guy was sort of following me around. Everywhere I went, he was about 20 feet away just kind of glaring at me. He was probably in his mid 30s, your average, bearded creeper from the early ’90s. I realized something was wrong when I got separated from the friend I was with and jumped into a little tide pool that had a “rip” effect going. The guy jumped in on the other end and I was getting dragged toward him. I can still remember the dude’s slow, deliberate frog stroke as he got closer and closer. I had a huge surge of adrenaline and managed to claw my way out of the water. I took off running, screaming for my friend. It was a pretty busy day at the beach, and I imagine a grown man sprinting after a kid would have raised eyebrows. I stuck like glue to my parents until we left. That guy probably would have made furniture out of my skin.
11. My Sister The Sociopath
I was 4, my sister was 6. She takes me to our front porch and says “I’ll race you to the other side of the street… Ready, set, GO” I Ran. I heard tires lock up and look to my right and see a plume of white tire smoke, he stopped about 5 meters from me. I will never forget the look on the driver’s face (I’m 39 now). I look back to the house and my sister is still in the same spot on the porch, smiling. Bitch. Needless to say, she is a sociopath and I haven’t seen her in over 10 years.
12. Whispering And Then Nothing
It wasn’t me but my dad was heading back to Lancaster, Ca where we lived, from Vegas. I was only a baby. So he was between the Antelope Valley and Victorville. He stopped to pee on the side of the road in the pitch black middle of nowhere. He said he started to hear whispering. Then suddenly an overwhelming wave of fear hit him. He isn’t prone to fear but he said he pissed on himself trying to get back in the car. That it is the most scared he has ever been, that as he started driving his heart was slamming in his chest. When he got home my mom and grandmother were freaking out as it was now 5 AM. He left Vegas at 8PM, it should have been a 3ish hour drive since there was no traffic. So he lost hours of time and no idea what the fuck happened.
13. The Horror That They Did Absolutely Nothing About It
This happened in the mid 60’s. We lived on a dead end gravel road with out any street lights. It must have been summer because the front door was wide open with only the screen door closed. It was after dark and the whole family was in the living room watching TV. The “whole family” included both of my parents and my two other siblings.
My attention was taken away from the TV show to the sound of a car slowing coming down the road and a woman inside screaming the most blood curdling scream I have ever heard, before or since. I’m sure none of us decided to get up and look out the door, we were just there and looking in no time flat. The car had turned around and was parked facing down the road the way it had come in, no lights on inside or out. It was an older model car that looked very much like this one except it was painted black or another dark color.
The screaming just went on and on. My heart was pounding and I couldn’t catch my breath. Finally my Mother moved first and turned on the porch light. A long moment later the car started to slowly drive off on down the road. She continued to scream as the car drove out of sight.
At this point, my Mother shut off the front porch light, and everyone just went back to their places and sat down. No one said anything. No one did anything. I couldn’t believe my parents weren’t going to DO anything. No one ever spoke of it again. That’s the creepiest thing about that night. Not the spooky car with the screaming woman, but my zombie parents with no reaction to a nightmare in their front drive.
14. *Knock, Knock*
Econo Lodge in South Carolina. People were knocking on our windows at night, then on the other side of the walls. My mom built a barricade on the door and called the cops. Took them 25 damn minutes and when they got there they said nobody was there, we left and went to a nice Holiday Inn. I was 10 and it was just awful.
15. Who’s Scared Now?
Stayed home from work one day and was cooking around lunch time. Heard a knock on the door and quietly checked the peephole. Didn’t know the guy so I just went back to cooking. I start hearing these weird noises at my door and can see the top of his back when I checked the peephole again. I stroll over and grab my nightstand 40 cal. Walk back to the front door and just swing it open violently when he got it unlocked. With my pistol by my side I calmly ask him “can I help you” and he does a full backwards summersault down the stairs and ends up running off with a serious limp. I’ve seen him in the park twice prior to me moving a few months later (he would avoid eye contact and bolt).
16. Only One Way Down
Visited my folks’ mausoleum to pay respects. Weekend. Clear weather, about 9-10 in the morning. It’s an outdoor one, two stories, U-shaped, built around a courtyard. Open side to the north. Parked about 50 yards away. Glanced up as I parked and observed a male, dressed in a black suit, white shirt, I think black tie, looked Hispanic, clean shaven, early to mid 30’s. He walked toward a sink/cutting station in the NW corner of the second floor, where my parents niche is, then pivoted and walked back south out of my line of sight because of the layout. [Probably about ten feet on the second level was visible from where I parked.] I turned to pick up my flowers from the passenger seat then immediately exited the car. Walked the 50 yards and up the flight of stairs– and no one there. After paying respects I confirmed the stairs were the only way down.
17. More Than Just A Thief
I was 11 and living in the States. My parents and I lived in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. One day my dad noticed a lawn chair had been dragged through from outer back garden to the front at my parents window. The sealing of the window had almost completely been removed. Basically someone had meticulously taken the time to take the sealing out of a window in order to pop it out. Turns out the week prior a neighbor’s house had been broken into, so we chalked it up to someone trying to steal our shit.
Over the next month, things like this kept happening until eventually my mother was being driven so crazy by the idea of someone being this desperate and not getting caught that she ended up staying in the guest room near the front of the house with a golf club handy.
The night we caught the fucker is still so vivid. I was up watching late night cartoons as a lot of kids do when my dog started growling so low and deep I started to freak the fuck out. I’d never heard something so menacing before and I instantly knew that somethings was wrong, every hair on me stood up. He was staring straight ahead at my window where the blinds were drawn, but it was as if he could see someone right through them. Next thing I know, I hear my mum scream at the top of her lungs, “CAUGHT YOU NOW FUCKER!”. As any smart 11yo would, I ran out of my room as quick as lightening to see my mother busting out the front door and chasing this asshole down our little suburban street with a golf club. Obviously the guy was too quick and got away.
The police were called and within the next 20 minutes, the guy was in the back of a police cruiser. My mum was called out to identify him and as she confirmed he was the right guy, the officer who had entered his name into whatever system they used turned to his college and said “Registered sex offender on Parol”. I was old enough to know what that meant. The next day my mum did her research and found the guys name/history. Turns out he was in jail for previously raping a 12yo girl. The guy wasn’t just trying to steal our possessions, he was a fucking child molester. She later spoke to a friend who lived 3 streets away from us; turns out she’d been given the piece of paper that said he had moved into their vicinity. The entire experience is still quite surreal to me. All those what-ifs hung around for a while, but we didn’t let the bad vibes get to us too much knowing the guy had been thrown back in jail.
18. A Child’s Offhand Comment
One night while tucking my 2 year old (now 4) to bed. I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She told me that she used to be a grown-up. She said that when she used to be a grown up, she was my grandmother. (My grandmother passed away in 2007) she then proceeded to tell me a story about a kitchen mishap where my grandmother tripped and spilled boiling water when I was young and playing near her feet. Freaked me the fuck out. I’ve asked her several other times since and really haven’t heard anything since. Very strange though to say the least.
19. At Night In A Mining Town
Visiting a friend who lives in a community with a main road that leads back into the mountains and an abandoned mining town. I was parked with my friend on that road right at the point where it turned from a well-light, regular suburban road into a dark, winding mountain road. There was a gate right behind our car and you could see the reflective sign illuminated from the brake lights of the car.
We’re talking and drinking coffee and generally not feeling too out of place or anything. We were parked under the last street light before darkness on a road perpendicular to that gate. Out of nowhere my friend looks in the rear view mirror and his eyes go wide. He slams on the gas and we speed off, he’s breathing hard and obviously scared. I scream at him to tell me what the fuck happened and he says this-
By chance he pressed the brake lights which illuminated more of the dark surroundings than the normal running lights of the back of his car. This caused him to notice that when he glanced in the rear view mirror a full grown man in what he described as “large boots and a dirty, dark, thick jacket and dirty pants” in a full on SPRINT towards our car, and so my friend sped out of there.
There were always stories of what goes on down in that abandoned mining town. A lot of movies are filmed there, and people can visit the town and a ranger lives there. Some people say occult shit goes on there. People have been found murdered and robbed down along that road, and evidence of cult practices also happens every once in a while according to people who live there. When my friend was telling me what he saw all I could think of was that guy grabbing us, robbing us and murdering us. Throwing our bodies in the thick foliage that covers so much of the area around the thin road.
I looked over and my door was unlocked.
20. *Tap, Tap*
When I was 9, I slept over at my best friend’s home one day. In the middle of the night I heard this faint tapping on the window. I saw a silhouette of a man with his hand on the window, just looking through the curtain and tapping slowly. I woke my friend up, he saw it and we ran to his parent’s room.
Now, just last month, I was talking to my bestfriend and he brought up the that happened. Turned out to be very frequent as it happened before in the past. One day, my best friend’s dad hid behind the shed waiting for the same guy to tap the window again but never showed up.
They moved out obviously.
21. A Midnight Hotel Check-In
Cody, Wyoming, Midnight…
I had just finished a very long day at work. I am a medical courier, and I am regularly on the road, staying in hotels, and life is never dull. This particular evening I wound up on a 500mi drive that ended in Cody Wyo, at around midnight.
It had been cold, it was December after all and this is Wyoming. The roads had been very so-so that night, they weren’t clear, but they weren’t treacherous, it was one of those drives in the dark where you are on edge the whole time. Staying alert for 500 miles in the dark, on roads that were nearly abandoned at this time of night, with light snow and heavy winds, it takes a lot out of a person. This particular week it had been very busy, I had been in 4 states that week by the time I reached Wyoming that evening.
The drive to the patients house was up a windy slick road, and the drive was uneventful. After I had dropped the medicine off to them and called the boss to let them know I had made it in and was heading to a hotel to get some sleep. Pretty usual conversation, we talked briefly about how much they would reimburse me for the hotel room. They always say $80-$100 its pretty typical, and fair, since the cheap hotel in Cody Wyo is about that price.
I however am 31 and a good nights rest, a good free breakfast, and a nice AM soak in a hot tub are requirements for when I catch myself in a hotel room. I know that by the time I get to the hotel I have put on serious miles, so I treat myself, one, because if I am staying in a hotel it has been a profitable day and I can afford to treat my self just a little, and two, I feel better after a good nights rest, a great breakfast, and a nice soak. I will not name the chain of hotels I stay at, but I frequent one chain because its the best value hotel in my home town, which is back in Nebraska. Tonight I pulled into the hotel, which I have stayed at 3 or 4 times now, so I am familiar with the place. I had called ahead about 8 hours before when I was leaving Denver to call and book a room, and let them know they would be expecting me at midnight. I walk into the hotel with my bag, dusting off the snow that had fallen on me while I got my stuff out of the car and walked inside.
Its very quiet, there’s no music and the tv isn’t on in the lobby. I wander to the counter, leaving a trail of wet shoe prints behind from coming in out of the snow into the lobby, my shoes squeaking as I approach the counter. When I get to the counter there is no one at there. On the counter is a bowl of ice cream, with a brownie from the restaurant connected to the hotel, the local paper is open to the comics page, and the Sudoku is half filled out with a pen sitting there. Hanging on the back of the chair is a small ladies coat with fake fur fringe around the hood, on the floor next to the chair are a pair on smaller pink and black Nikes, and a black purse.
I figure that she, by the assumption of the coat, shoes and purse, is in the bathroom, so I stand at the counter quietly, waiting on her to return. I fiddle with my wallet getting out my card to pay for it and my ID. I scroll thru on my phone and hook to the free wifi. 5 minutes go by. Then 10. At 15 minutes the phone starts ringing. I still had no idea where she was, and I had begun to get irritated, it had been a long day and I wanted to get rested before I got up and drove home in the morning.
After the phone stopped ringing, and I started to get frustrated, I began to wander around the lobby, and behind the counter shouting “Hello, is any one here?” as loudly as possible. The area behind the counter is an employee only area. I venture back behind the counter where a hallway leads to the back of house area connected to the offices, staff elevator, bathrooms, laundry and the restaurant. I venture down the hallway shouting hello, still no one answers. It is now 1230am.
As I return to the counter and begin looking for a posted phone number for a manager, or some one of authority, the phone rings, the cordless phone still laying next to the paper she had opened. Frustrated, and exhausted I answer the phone, hoping its some one who could tell me where the woman is who is supposed to check me in. Its not. Its another guest, who had tried calling earlier for a wake up call in the morning. I explain to the gentleman on the phone my situation, and how I can not help him. He states he is coming to the lobby to help me look for the “girl” at the counter. I had not found a number to call.
5 minutes go by and the strange older man, with odd glasses and long unkept hair comes into the lobby from the first floor hallway. At this point I had been behind the counter, and had been shouting to the point I feared I may wake up other guests. I had wandered thru the back area, the lobby and the front part of the restaurant, all while shouting, and no one responded. This guy had given me the creeps, and I was exhausted but on high alert, there was an employee missing, and a creepy guy who just happened to appear in the same time she is missing. Feeling nervous about this gentleman I stay prepared for any strange behavior and keep myself at least arms distance from him the entire time. I explain where I have looked. That I have yelled. At this point I begin to go thru what I call “worst case scenario preparation”. This guy could of easily overpowered a small woman. I may be standing here with a crazy person. I keep my space, and my back towards the main entry just in case. I am a grown man, just under 6ft, I have had self defense courses, and I have a CCW (Concealed Carry Weapon) after encountering a bear at a patients house in the fall. I have no reason to believe I am in immediate trouble but this guy just gives me the creeps. It is at this point I debate calling the cops. Its now 1245am.
The gentleman tells me, maybe she’s in the bathroom, which i respond to that I had thought that myself, but I had walked by and yelled loudly when I walked thru the back and no one responded. He insists we check the bathrooms. My red flag goes off and I put another foot or two of space between us as I let him lead us down the hallway to the employee bathroom. My heart and mind a racing at this point, did this dude kill her and now he’s gonna try to kill me, I start to worry about my safety as we go down a hallway that leads to small rooms and with one exit in and out. We reach the bathroom.
He knocks and announces himself, then opens the door. The bathroom is empty. We check a few more rooms and the elevator and find nothing. We venture back to the lobby where I stand behind the counter looking for any phone number that could be a manager or supervisor. After about 10 mins I find a number and some one answers, Its now 1255am the half asleep voice on the other end of the phone is the maintenance woman for the hotel. Confused as to who I am and why I am calling I explain the situation as the creepy man stands on the other side of the counter staring at me in a dead cold manner. The maintenance woman says she will be there in 10 minutes or so. I hang up the phone.
I walk around the counter still confused looking at her stuff there, as if she just vanished. Its at this point I decide to wander towards the lobby/seating for the restaurant. Once in the doorway I turn the corner and down at the end of the booths there are a pair of legs hanging out of the booth. I had walked with in 15 feet of there while checking around before the creepy guy showed up.
I see her legs hanging and instantly the pit of my stomach turns sour and a sense of dread comes over me. Suddenly the creepy guy walks right up by me. Thinking the worst I take a few quick steps away from him and down the row of booths in the dark restaurant. With him at the other end, I look in the booth where she is laying. She is maybe 20 and very pretty. I shake her foot, she doesn’t respond. I shake again, saying ‘HEY!” Nothing.
Its at this moment the creepy guy starts down the booth that I finally feel I may need to defend myself. I kneel down to draw from my ankle holster as he quickly comes down the row of booths, and its at this exact moment the girl wakes up and accidentally kicks me in the chest knocking me gently on my ass and stopping Mr Creepy in his tracks, also stopping me from drawing a weapon. She had been asleep. Mr Creepy was just a guest. Moments later the Maintenance Woman arrived and by 115am I was in my room trying to decompress.
22. A Scratching Sound
My Dad’s previous house was really creepy. When he first moved in I had a very eerie feeling, kind of like the house had something bad happen in it, but I tried to disregard this. Over the years I couldn’t shake the feeling of unrest whenever I visited. One day Dad, myself and my sister were driving and Dad mentioned that the previous owners (Mum, father and son) were killed in a car accident. About ten years ago, my sister and I were in the room downstairs where I slept in when I visited. We were just chatting, we didn’t have the radio or TV on. My Dad had gone out. Suddenly we heard this strange scratching noise coming from the wardrobe area. We ignored it and kept talking, but the scratching sound continued. It literally sounded like fingernails scratching on wood. My sister went over to the wardrobe to investigate and put her ear to the bottom where the scratching was coming from. She put her hand in the small space under which was very narrow and pulled out a picture of what appeared to be the family that used to live in the house. Still to this day we get shivers whenever we talk about it.
23. Footprints
Went to bed one night and woke up to fresh snow. Looked outside my bedroom window to see footprints walking up to my window, standing, then walking around the side of my house.
24. Stamp Collecting
My grandmother collected stamps all her life. When she died in 2008, I got her stamp jar. Being 13 at the time, I had no interest in a jar full of stamps, so I left it on my shelf in my closet, and it was forgotten. A month ago, I found it, coated in a thick layer of dust and thought, “this may be neat” so I cracked it open to look through it. Most of the stamps were uninteresting, a couple from exotic places, but one stood out. A 2015 stamp commemorating the queen having achieved the longest reign in history. Despite the fact that she’d been dead for nearly 8 years. I have no idea how it got in there.
25. The Screaming Woman
When I was 19 I was driving back from my girlfriend’s house at around 1 in the morning. I see this SUV parked at a closed gas station, with a woman screaming for help. And I mean screaming! Like the most terrifying scream I’ve ever heard. So I pull over to see what she needs. Then I see this huge guy laying on the ground behind the SUV, his head surrounded in a pool of blood. Now I am thoroughly freaked out. The woman looks Spanish and all she keeps saying is help over and over again. So I call 911 and give them the intersection the gas station is at. There is nothing around for miles, just forest in every direction. While I’m talking with the 911 operator, the woman stops screaming and gets into to passenger seat of the SUV. The man on the ground gets up too and gets into the driver seat. I’m still on the phone with 911 when I see the woman pull out her own phone and start casually speaking in Spanish. It is at this point I realize there is another huge guy sitting in the back seat. I have no idea what to think but I know I need to get out of there. Then they just slowly pull away like nothing happened. It’s a good thing I never got out of my car or things could’ve been a lot worse. I still don’t know what they were doing, but I’m glad I didn’t find out.
26. Soul Eater
A few months ago I had a random encounter with a crazy lady out front of my apartment. It was around 3am, and I had went down stairs for a smoke. I notice there’s this woman standing out in the middle of the street and it’s pouring rain, so I ask if she’s okay. She just ignores me so I went back to browsing through Reddit.
As I start walking back to the entrance I’ve got to turn a corner, and of fucking course, she’s standing nose tip to nose tip with me.
Now, I’m not a small guy, but this 5 foot 60 something year old Asian lady was fucking terrifying. I’ve come across wolves and wild boars in the wild, had a knife pointed at me, even had a gun pulled on me, but Jesus fuck she has haunted my shit since.
She was bawling, but also somehow looking someone just said Nickleback was their favorite band, you know, fucking furious. She starts screaming at me in a deeper voice than expected saying that I knew she would be there, and that I knew her true name. Me, being higher than Snoop Doggs sperm, promptly nope the fuck out of there. She starts laughing as I walk to the door and says her name is fucking Soul Eater, like some early 2000s toonami anime villain type of shit.
Yeah, fuck her. I still have a dream about her every few weeks now.
