1. The Woman in White
I work nights and one day I forgot my lunch at home. I didn’t have money to spend so I decided to go home on my lunch hour and eat my sandwich on the way back. I was in a hurry so I took the back roads. At about half way there as I was speeding and noticed a woman in a white night dress without shoes standing in the road in the other lane. I slowed down as I passed her thinking she was probably drunk and didn’t want her to jump out in front of me or anything like that. It wasn’t till later as I was on my way back that I started to think how odd it was. Why would someone be in the middle of the road in their bare feet at 2:30 am? But I just reassure myself that the woman was probably just drunk.
2. Lost In The Dark
Haven’t posted here in a million years, but this seems like a good place to tell this story. A couple of friends and I drove into a horror movie once, on accident.
It was either late November or early December, and about five or six years ago. I was deeply religious at the time, and we were headed to one of those “living nativity” things, where they have actors pretend to be the Virgin Mary, Joseph, the wise men, etc. and they kind of put on a show outdoors. It was held at a Christian campground outside of a nearby city, and we didn’t know the area very well, so we had someone give us directions. This was winter in the US, so it was already getting dark when we set out.
We got to the area just fine, but we forgot the name of the exit we were supposed to take to actually reach the grounds. Luckily, the campgrounds had a big sign right next to an exit, so we assumed this was the way to go. We took this road and thought nothing of it. Crisis averted.
The city the campgrounds are next to is actually pretty large, and the exit we took is very close to a shopping district, so it wasn’t like we started in the middle of nowhere, but very abruptly this exit turned from civilization to deep woods. We thought, well, it’s a campground, so that’s about right, and we kept driving.
Pretty soon we passed a clearing on the right. The clearing was maybe 50ft, and then woods again, and at the very edge of the woods (it wasn’t full night yet, so you could still see) was this HUGE stone gate, with wrought-iron doors. It looked like a cemetery gate, but it didn’t lead to a path or anything, just trees. Had no fence around it either, just the gate. We kept going, remarking to each other that it was kind of creepy, but still, we didn’t think much of it. It was starting to get foggy, at this point. I feel like maybe I should point out that despite it being winter, it wasn’t that cold and there wasn’t any snow. A little while later, we came to some houses. This is where things got weird.
The first house was just a standard white suburban house, but in the driveway, which was very short, was a van with all the doors open. The hazard lights were on, too, like the car was on, but nobody was in it or around it. The house was completely dark.
We were a little nervous now, wondering if maybe something bad happened, like an accident or something, and the driver of our car (not me) slowed down to look. Then, my other friend in the front pointed ahead. As it turns out, all of the houses on this street were like this, on both sides of the road. Lights out, cars in the driveways, all of the doors on the cars open with the hazards on.
At this point we’re more than a little freaked out, thinking we’ve driven straight into Silent Hill or a particularly mean prank if nothing else. Though it seems a little strange for there to just be a community-wide prank in the middle of winter, nowhere close to Halloween. We still haven’t seen any people, mind you.
For whatever reason we still continued to drive, maybe to get out of there faster. There was a little bend in the road then, and the instant we started through it, this massive black dog, sort of german shepherd looking, came out of nowhere and ran full-tilt at the driver’s side of the car. I’m still not sure if the dog actually made contact with the car, but if not, it came incredibly close. After charging us, it didn’t retreat, either, it stayed in the road, barking its head off. Our driver did a quick u-turn and we got out of there as fast as possible, ditched the nativity thing, and never tried to go back.
We found out when we got home and talked to the person who gave us directions that it wasn’t even the right exit we were on, and now, several years later, we’re not exactly sure which exit we took that night. All I know is I’m glad we chose to get out when we did. I don’t want any part of whatever was going on there that night. No thanks. Hard pass.
3. Glowing Eyes On The Autobahn
I was driving a van across Switzerland on the autobahn in the dark very little lighting as I came down the hillside into a valley I noticed what I thought was a man running down the right-hand lane in the distance it’s 2-2.30 am, some moonlight, as I get closer he’s running really strangely like loping so as I’m going past him ( I’d decided not to stop )! Out of politeness and not to blind him I flick my main beams off and as I do it he, it turned his head and his eyes reflected like a dog every hair stood up on my body and I put my foot down there were no woods around or houses and the nearest town most of been 30 miles truly terrifying.
4. Out Of The Cornfields
Driving on a rural road in Indiana heading to work at 4 in the morning. Corn fields on either side of me, a man came out of the fields covered in blood. I freaked out and sped around him. Called the police. Turns out he crashed into the field and wandered out.
5. Surrounded
This one time I was driving home from a night class and hit a deer on a road about a mile away from home. The thing went flying and fell in a ditch on the side of the road. I immediately pulled over and grabbed a flashlight to see if the deer was okay. I’m not sure how it managed to get away without me noticing but it was gone as soon as I was out of the car. I looked around for a bit too see if I could find it and determine if I needed to get someone to put it down or if it would be fit to let go (this wasn’t the first deer I’ve hit). What was kinda creepy though, after looking around I was completely surrounded by deer on both sides of the road. All of whom were just staring at me, completely frozen and silent like they were judging me.
6. After The Accident
My brother and I were driving back from a festival. He was driving and he hit a guardrail and we were pretty shocked from the experience but alive and in one piece. I took the wheel from him and I don’t know what it was but I kept seeing “foggy people” (foggy grayish people-shaped things) in the fields next to the highway the entire drive home (2 hours or so). I also kept having the feeling somone was sitting in the backseat, but when I looked in my rearview mirror obviously no one was there. This all happend way past midnight.
The weird thing was, a few days later I told my brother and he told me he saw the “foggy people” too and he also had the feeling someone was sitting in the backseat..
Still creeps me out thinking about it.
7. The Crawling Man
A man crawling like Spider-Man INHUMANLY fast along the ground toward my car.
He came off the side of the road and just sprinted at me in that Spider-Man crawl.
Urgh.
8. Backwoods Alabama
Used to work second shift got off around 11:30 one night, drove over to my girlfriend’s house and stayed there for few hours. A pretty bad thunder storm starts up and I decide to head home. (My dog hates storms didn’t want to leave her alone.)
There are two ways back to my house from hers, one runs through town and takes 20 minutes or so, one is a single lane dirt road and only takes about 8 minutes. This night I chose the dirt road, there are 0 houses on this dirt road for about an 8-mile stretch.
It’s raining hard as hell, I’m in the middle of the Alabama backwoods creeping down this dirt road, I come around a curve and there is a very large man standing right in the middle of the road, wearing a black hoodie with his hood up, dark colored pants, and dark shoes. I slammed on the brakes and stopped, he takes a few steps towards my truck, and I freaked out and threw my truck into reverse, backed up, and he runs towards me and then darts into the woods.
Due to being in the middle of nowhere I didn’t have cell reception so as soon as I got home I called the cops and reported it. Two nights later a woman had a similar experience he actually tried to get into her car.
Police searched the woods several times and found a “camp” but never found the guy.
9. The Girl On The Swing
In a suburb just outside of Nashville where I grew up, I used to take a shortcut from a busy road to my friend’s house near a lake. This shortcut was probably only four miles long or so and was peppered with houses and play farms along the way. Every so often I would drive this stretch of road late at night (12-2 am). I would often see a small girl in a white dress with long blonde hair swinging on a wooden swing in the middle of the night. Like clockwork, if I was driving by this house very late, she would be in the front yard swinging. For whatever reason, my underdeveloped pre-frontal cortex, high school self thought this somewhat normal and never checked it out further. I will always wonder if I was witnessing an apparition or a girl who just loved to swing.
I will always wonder if I was witnessing an apparition or a girl who just loved to swing.
10. The Witch’s Cemetary
My girlfriend, while we were visiting her hometown, wanted to drive by a cemetery where they buried women accused of being witches and others(you could tell who the “witches” were by the fortress of iron surrounding their graves). We had her parent’s dog in the back seat asleep; we played that dog into the ground prior to going. She claimed that there was a point, where the nicely paved road meets the old broken gravel road, where you feel a faint disturbance/discomfort/anxiety.
Sure enough, as soon as we hit that exact point, the pooch immediately wakes up and starts crying unusually loud. Prettyyyy Creepyyyy.
11. The Johannesburg Albino
This happened around 20 years ago, in Johannesburg South Africa where I grew up. I was driving back very late from a night out at a club. I’d had a couple of beers (v stupid, I know) and, wanting to avoid the main roads, I took a detour down a very quiet and winding back road that bypassed the main road and popped out near my house. Would take a bit longer but much less chance of the cops stopping me.
This was about 4 am, absolutely nobody on that road at the time. Going pretty slowly, I rounded a sharp left bend in the road and as I did I saw a woman, clearly of black African descent but with the most remarkable albino colouring. Alabaster white skin and hair. She was standing on the verge of the road staring directly in the direction where I was coming from. She was dressed in nothing but a flimsy white skirt. No top, no brassiere. Bare breasts, barefoot.
She was grinning. Not just a smile. A manic, horrifying grin showing all her teeth and as I slowly passed her we locked eyes. As we did, I noticed she was holding a small knife, like a builder’s Stanley boxcutter, and her hands and wrists were covered in blood.
I absolutely crapped myself, nearly lost control of the car and as soon as I had passed her I sped up. I could still see her in the rear view mirror, looking at me and starting to walk in to the middle of the road following in the direction I was driving.
I spent a few seconds driving away as fast as I could, watching her in the mirror the whole time and all I could think was “oh my god what the absolute fuck is that.” Then I rounded the next bend and lost sight of her. I got home, about 10 minutes later, absolutely shaking with fear and in a near panic.
12. The Escapee
I was driving home late one night. Somewhere between 1 and 3 am. The stretch of road I was driving goes through the back end of a couple of counties in the Deep South. Nothing around but forests, fields, and the occasional group of shacks huddling under a light that only barely keeps away the night. I’d driven this stretch of road many times before, even at this time of night, so it wasn’t really a big deal. Just a long trip. Since there was rarely any traffic that time of night (during the day you could always count on at least a handful of cars somewhere around), I was able to turn the stereo up and push the pedal down.
And then I came to this bridge. Nothing really noteworthy about it – it’s not ancient or a covered bridge or all that spooky. Just a concrete span over swampland, trees growing right up near the edge and turning the road into a dim trail at the bottom of a dark canyon. I’d been over this bridge many times before and aside from being fairly long, it wasn’t really noteworthy. Until that night.
It was humid out and as the temperature dropped there was a little bit of fog. Not enough to really slow me down, but I had to turn off the high-beams. So I’m shooting across the bridge and it hits me that it seems to be taking longer than normal to get across it. Maybe I was just tired? Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me?
And then I thought I was finally getting to the end of it, I saw a figure walking on the opposite side of the road. At first, no big deal, right? Guy walking in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. Probably lives nearby, probably drunk. Watch them to make sure they don’t fall in front of the car.
But my mind is already racing. I mean, this is the middle of nowhere. There are no houses around. There are no lights but the stars and my headlights stabbing out at the darkness.
And as I whiz by going way too fast for my own good, I notice two things: First. the figure is wearing what appears to be a straight jacket, the sleeves undone, and the straps trailing to the ground. Glaring white against the background of the night. No mistaking it. A straight jacket, hands covered, straps dangling and waving as he walked. Second. It has no face. Not like, there’s no head there. There’s a head shape. And the place where a face should be, but no face. Just an expanse of darkness that I took to be his skin.
I chalked it up to going really fast, contrast between white jacket and dark skin at night, and thinking creepy thoughts. I mean, surely I couldn’t have just seen that. I tried to spot him in my rear view mirror, but it was so dark there was nothing to be seen. I slowed down a little and was suddenly off the end of the bridge and on normal two-lane blacktop again.
I briefly considered turning around, seeing what it was. Surely it was just a trick of the light or my mind playing tricks on me. Right?
But I still remember being my heart pounding and fear as I sped on through the darkness, driving home.
13. hillbilly mutants
Middle of nowhere rural PA, heading to a state park known for stargazing. I knew that it was a slow, dark, boring drive even though it wasn’t that far but it was all windy narrow mountain roads and very dark.
We’re on the main road, still about 1/2 hour away from the turn we need to make when I see a sign telling us to turn left to go to that park. I’d heard they were connecting a couple of roads and that there’d be a shortcut to the park from this main road so I assumed it was finished and we’d stumbled onto it.
We turned left to take the shortcut and almost immediately regretted it. In just 2-3 miles, we’d gone from beautiful, quaint countryside to some creepy dilapidated town that scared the bejeezus out of me. My husband seemed fine so I told myself I was just overreacting.
I see a fire up ahead to the left, near a fork in the road. As we get closer, it appears to be an enormous bonfire surrounded by Wrong Turn type mutants all milling about the fire. They were some shitty campers and a couple of trucks parked around them. The houses looked like tarpaper shacks or the oldest, cheapest hunting cabins you’ve ever seen. The whole scene was depressing.
They were all guys and all dressed like old-timey prospectors or something. Looked like the Mountain Men guys who hunt bigfoots and such but totally menacing and evil. About 15-20 guys, no women or children in sight even though it’s only like 8 pm (but it’s winter in PA so fully night).
As we approached, they all stopped talking and turned to stare at our vehicle, then a couple started walking towards the road. I was consumed by this overwhelming feeling of dread and suddenly scared for my life.
Before I could say a word, my husband floored it, probably doubling our speed and swerved around the creepers as we flew up the hill, taking the fork on the right. He was white-knuckling it and slowed as soon as the fire faded from my sight but I was terrified that they’d come after us.
My husband just said, “I don’t know what the fuck that was but it wasn’t fucking people. Where the fuck are we?”
The whole thing was so frightening but I couldn’t really express WHY I was so terrified, I just was. My husband is never afraid of anything, real or paranormal (we’ve explored a number of haunted sites and he’s totally unfazed by everything — he gets happy & excited when I’m ready to have a heart attack & pee myself) so the fact that he was freaking out scared me more than anything.
We eventually made it to the park but didn’t stay long as we were both exhausted and still on edge. We did not leave the way we came and took our usual route back, avoiding the new road to the park. We talked about it all night but really couldn’t figure out what was going on there that scared us so much, just that the “people” and the place itself seemed wrong and evil.
He put it best when he said, “those fucking hillbilly mutants looked like they’d eat you and rape me.” So once the sun was up in the morning we decided to go back and check it out in the daylight. We took the same major road and made the same left turn at the sign for the state park.
We were in a small town that looked nothing like what we’d seen the night before. There was a little gas station and a tiny market on the right and some small but neat houses on the left. We eventually came to the fork in the road but the “field” to the left where we saw the weirdos and the fire and everything was mostly a pond. We checked maps, drove around for hours and talked to locals but there was no other turn off of the main road pointing towards the state park except for that turn and the one miles further ahead that we normally used.
That was almost 10 years ago and I still have no idea what the hell we saw that night.
