As The Raven Dreams Podcast - 40 TRUE Scary Story Compilation - All Scary Stories From April 2023

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Today we have A collection of EVERY SINGLE (non-glitch) Scary story from the Month of April 2023. This collection includes The following stories: Scary Easter Stories, Paranormal Stories, Scary Night shift stories, Internet Stalker Stories, Scary Birthday Stories, Hitch Hiker stories, Spring Horror Stories, Scary Road Trip stories, and more true scary stories from YOU! Thank you to all the Authors that participated in today's compilation! Support the channel for Early Access AND more! Patreon ➤ https://patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Join ➤ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkW0ihdMHfBUjQrMKjRto6g/join Or Check out the Merch Store! ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams 'As The Raven Dreams' is a community where we explore the darker parts of human existence through true and harrowing stories. From sinister encounters with strangers and stalkers, to terrifying experiences that defy explanation and unsettling mysteries that linger in the shadows, I am here to tell you the most haunting narratives ever whispered. Much Love, and Sleep Well... --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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com or to Today's video is a compilation of all the true scary stories that I narrated in April of 2023. If you were listening, you may have heard some of these, but they were some damn good ones. So, hopefully you all enjoy and, of course, sleep well. I had a really weird encounter with the guy online about two years ago that I thought would be interesting to share. In the end of the whole thing, nothing really happened to me, but it was a bit eye-opening to the fact that these people exist in our modern world,

and this kind of thing happens, even to this day. What's worse, it was on Facebook, of all places, that this whole thing unraveled. So, a couple of years ago, I got a friend request from a name that was vaguely familiar. Like, I knew the person's name, somewhere, but I honestly could not place where I knew him from, nor could I place a face to the name. Their profile was pretty well locked down, so going to it, all I could see was his profile photo, and that wasn't his face. It was a photo of a young child fishing. Like I said, his name seemed really familiar, but I just could not seem to figure out where I knew it from.

so I just kind of assumed that it was someone from high school that didn't make much of an impression on me, or something. I ended up accepting his friend request, and as soon as I did, I got a direct message from him. Like, immediately, to the point that I almost assumed that this could have been a bot, and they were going to pitch some kind of scam to me. The message said, Hello, G-Man 12, thank you for accepting my request. How have you been? Which was definitely a bot-like message. I ended up responding with something like, I'm fine, but how do I know you?

He replied with the sad face and a, You really don't remember me? I told him that I didn't. And he mentioned that he went to the same high school as me. Of course, this information is easily accessible, so I kind of just prodded a bit extra to see if they were just scraping my page for information to claim that they knew me. But then he mentioned a specific class.

Ms. Browers, biology class, fourth period of sophomore year. He said that he and I were partners in the Cell Biology Project, which made it all click. I actually did know this guy. He was someone that I was acquaintances with. I wasn't super close to him, but he was someone that I had, met in the past.

So I was a bit more comfortable with adding him as a friend. I mentioned that I knew who he was now and apologized for not remembering him, saying that it had been a long time and that I had a bad memory. Just trying to make light of the situation. We chatted for a bit, just catching up on a few things that had happened over the years. And really, it was a pretty normal conversation. The next day I had actually... gotten another message from him, it was just a hey.

So I responded and asked what was up, just making small talk again. He sent a message that said, I promise that what I'm about to say to you is not a scam or anything, it's not an MLM, but I have to shoot my shot. Obviously, this message did not bode well. I assumed that he was about to try to sell me on some kind of pyramid scheme, but it was actually weirder than that. He mentioned that he was about to go on a retreat for a group that he was a part of,

and that he wanted to talk to me about going with him. I asked what kind of group he was referring to, because it was a bit weird to put it that way. And he told me that it was like a church group, and that it was what they called a self-focus and healing retreat. And they encouraged people to bring friends that may benefit from it. He then mentioned that he saw I was going through some tough times and that it may really help me. I told him that I wasn't really religious and that I did appreciate the thought because I was going through some things.

But I didn't really see me fitting into the group if it was for a church. He pushed it a bit further, saying that it wasn't a religious retreat and that all were welcome. I said that if it was for a church, how could it not be religious? and he mentioned that they were not the type of group to push faith on their visitors, and that they would not be trying to convert people. It was simply about trying to find yourself and committing to self-reflection. This all sounded really weird. An event called a self-focus and healing retreat for a church group

that wasn't faith-based or religious in nature. I was definitely curious, so I asked him if he could give me any information on his church, expecting something like a website or something. He then told me that he could actually get me in on one of their sessions, which was, again, a weird word to use. I asked if it was an in-person thing, trying to get out of it, and he mentioned that, thanks to COVID guidelines, they had moved their normal sessions to be online through Zoom calls. I relented, and said that I would just go ahead and sit in on the next one and see what it was all about. It was an hour of my time on a Tuesday.

It wasn't a big deal to me in the end. The minute that Zoom call started, I knew that this was way more than just a little church get-together. When the session started, there was a group of like ten men that walked into the camera's focus, and they were all wearing white robes and masks. Not like a certain group that one may associate with this kind of dress. They were actual masks, not hoods. They covered the entirety of the men's faces, with holes only cut out for their eyes. The ten men then started chanting and stepped in unison to create a circle on the stage,

and after about five minutes of chanting, they formed a line and stared straight into the camera. No joke, this entire line of men then started to undress, like stripping down from their robes to literally nothing except for the masks. I have never clicked off of a Zoom call so damn fast. This was a cult. This guy was trying to recruit me into some kind of cult, and apparently they needed to be naked to do whatever they did during their weekly meetings. I will give them credit.

for taking it online to be considerate of those that may not be able to make it in person, but yeah, not for me. The guy then sent me a message about two hours later asking me what I thought, and I mentioned that it seemed a bit cult-like, and that I didn't stay for the whole thing. He got pretty irate, and asked me when I left. I mentioned that I left whenever the old men on stage started getting naked, and he went off.

He started on about how I didn't understand the importance of what they were doing, what they're stripping down signified, and since I left, I missed the entire point of the session. I told him again that this was a cult, and that I didn't need to understand it. Needless to say, he blocked me, which was fine with me. I wasn't really interested in all this because, yeah, cults are not my thing. That's the strangest thing that I've ever dealt with online, and I'm kind of glad that I haven't gotten a message from him about it again at all, and that he decided that blocking me was the proper way to deal with it. And if I'm being completely honest, I kind of almost wish that it was just a pyramid scheme. This happened a few years back when I was visiting with my family for Easter.

I was living on my own at this point, but since my grandmother's birthday wasn't April, and we typically did a small Easter and birthday get together with my parents and siblings. This year I was bringing along my girlfriend, who I had been with for almost a year, so that she could meet some of my family, so I was pretty excited about that, and thankfully she was too. My grandparents lived in a quiet little neighborhood that was basically like, a retirement community. They lived in what was essentially condos, because they were connected, but they were also more house-like, more so than an apartment. They had their own buildings,

and even backyards and patios. It was a pretty nice area, and their neighbors were your fairly typical retired people. They left you alone for the most part, but would always make sure to greet anyone they saw coming or going. I had been there and stayed overnight a few times when I was younger, so I had fond memories of the place. So we went over there on Sunday afternoon. It was about an hour's drive for us, and we got there a little earlier than anticipated. My parents were already there, so I introduced them and my grandparents to my girlfriend, Whitney, and we all just sat around and talked for a bit. Shortly after, my siblings started to show up one by one.

My younger sister and older brother both had a kid, so my grandparents were pretty excited about hiding eggs for them. After the egg hunt, we had dinner about an hour or two later, and then we all just kicked back while the kids dug into their Easter baskets. At one point, my grandpa, my dad, and I were sitting in the living room talking while the rest of the family was scattered about. My dad was mid-sentence when we heard what sounded like someone softly tapping on the door. It stopped my dad as we listened to see if there was maybe one of the kids playing around when the knocking happened again. So my dad got up and went to the front door to see who it could be. Yet when he opened the door, there was no one there. So we went back to our original thought of it was probably someone messing around,

and continued our conversation. Shortly after, the tapping happened again. So my dad shouted towards the kitchen and asked where the kids were. My mom responded that they were out back with my sister and Whitney playing, so my dad got up and walked into the kitchen and continued their conversation. My grandpa and I sat there silently for a moment, until Whitney walked back into the room and asked me what that knocking sound was. It caught me off guard at first because I asked her what she meant, and after she explained the same five-knock pattern that happened twice, which was similar to what we heard.

However, what we heard was a quieter tapping sound. What she actually heard startled her and my sister, as it sounded like a very loud banging. The condo was decent-sized, but it definitely wasn't big, so if there was a loud banging, we should have heard it too. After talking to a few others there, my mom and grandma in the kitchen said they didn't hear anything. My brother who was in the bathroom didn't hear anything either, nor did my brother-in-law who was out front smoking.

My sister and Whitney heard a loud banging out back and the other three of us in the living room just heard it tapping. It was odd to us that those of us that did hear something was so vastly different. yet those in the kitchen who were in between the living room and the back door heard nothing. With no explanation, we just continued with our night shrugging it off as something that was just weird. As it started getting a bit dark, everyone came back inside, but we had the screen back door open because it felt nice out. As we were all talking between the living room and kitchen table, we then heard another,

knocking. This time, everyone looked towards the door, telling me that everybody heard it. My grandpa made a joke about my sister-in-law being late to the party, and we all chuckled as he walked to the door. Yet again, when he opened the door, there was nobody there. He walked out front looking around and then came back in with the look of confusion. There was no one out there. We all had heard it clear as day, but my grandma tried to make a light of the same. the situation saying that someone must just be playing a prank. My dad didn't like that idea, though, and said that he wanted to walk around to see if he could spot someone.

My brother-in-law agreed to go with him, and they shut the door behind them. Shortly after they left, as we were starting back up with conversation, we were all startled by a blood-curdling scream. It sounded like a woman screaming for her life. I think we all pretty much jumped up when we heard it. and looked at each other to make sure everyone was okay. This then caused my brother to head for the door, and I followed closely behind him. I was worried that something had happened outside, or maybe my dad and brother-in-law found something or someone.

As we walked out, I didn't see anyone in the front yard, and the street was seemingly clear, other than a few parked cars on the side. That's when we heard it again, a very loud and piercing. scream, but I couldn't pinpoint a direction that it was coming from. I called out for my dad with panic in my voice when I saw him and my brother-in-law approached the front yard from the privacy gate that separated the front from the back. He ran up to me and my brother and asked if we were okay and what had happened. We then explained to them that we had just heard the scream and wanted to make sure they were

okay. They pretty much told us the same story. However, they said that they only heard one scream, and that was the second one. How the hell could they have not heard the first one when it was clear to us in the house? They said that they walked around the entire condo and didn't see anything. They told me to go back inside and call the cops, while the other three continued to walk around. I ran back inside and grabbed my phone to call the police with trembling hands. I remember trying to stay calm as I looked over to Whitney and the rest of my family

to tell them that I was just calling as a precaution. It felt like hours before the police finally showed up, but it hadn't really been that long. My dad and brother-in-law greeted them in the driveway and explained what had happened. There were two that came, and they actually called for a few more so that they could check the surrounding area. They had us all stay inside, but my brother-in-law did. didn't really leave the front stoop. So, this is where things went from terrifying to bizarre. They came back and asked us all specifically what we heard,

when we heard it, and from what direction did it sound like it had come from. We all described the exact same thing, except when it came down to where it sounded like it had come from. My dad and brother-in-law claimed that they never heard the first scream, but the second one sounded like it was coming from the front. While we were inside, those that were at the kitchen table, closer to the open back door, said that it sounded louder from back there. If so, it makes even less sense how they hadn't heard it.

But for me, I could not pinpoint a direction. Both times it sounded like it was right in front of me. Like I had my eyes closed and if I were to open them, I would see who the screams were coming from. The cops were trying to pinpoint a direction, but we really weren't that much help, so they said they were going to ask some of the neighbors because clearly they would have heard this too. But they came back shortly after and said that the about dozen or so other homes they knocked on claimed that they did not hear anything. Not a peep. They also said that they didn't have anyone tapping or knocking on windows or doors either. I think if it weren't for all of us having such a similar story, they would have probably thought that we were lying.

So they looked around a bit more and even drove by a few nearby streets, but when they found nothing, they said that they would have to leave. They then told us to call back if it happened again or if we spot anything suspicious. After they left, we were all dumbfounded by the situation and had lost any kind of party. mood. We all started dispersing and going home. My mom later informed me that they ended up staying the night there, because after we had all left, they started hearing what sounded like someone pounding on a window in one of the rooms. But once again, there was no trace of anybody. The grass hadn't been pulled down near the windows. There were no marks or smudges on them. My grandma was getting worried and my dad didn't want to leave them alone.

so they stayed. However, that was the last event that they'd had for the night. Thankfully, I guess. We all kept an eye on the news for a while, wondering if there was going to be a report on someone who was injured, killed, or kidnapped in the area, but nothing ever came of it. My grandmother even went and talked to some of the neighbors herself,

and they all told her the same thing. They had never heard anything. It was definitely a freaky situation, but it was the only thing that ever happened in the area. It was, however, enough to spook my grandma enough to want to move, which they did a year after that. We still to this day have no explanation for the screaming or the knocking, but I just hope that there wasn't someone really out there in distress. And honestly, it's something that sticks with me to this day. Lazzang sur-gillet,

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50 tours 50% per cente per capita, DePas Bonanza, depobmineine of 10 dollars. Way back when I was 15, maybe 16. I used to be a member of a medium-sized online forum that was designed for indie authors to share their work and get feedback.

Or even win small prizes for little contests and competitions that they held. I was actually one of the most active users on the forum because I was really giving being an author everything I had. and I was putting a lot of effort into writing short stories from my collection. My whole situation started during one of the writing competitions that I mentioned. I don't recall the theme. I just remember that I was super confident that I could write a decent little story for it. Much to my surprise, I actually won the competition.

The prize was a $20 target gift card, so it wasn't like it was some big contest for a major reward, but to me it was an amazing feeling knowing that I had won this contest, where dozens of people had entered. The day that I won, I received a private message from one of the head mods of the forum. At the time, I only knew him as white oak, and after a while, which I'll explain in a bit, I did learn what his full legal name was. That said, for the sake of the story, I'm just going to refer to him as, as White Oak.

So White Oak sent me a DM with the message saying, Congrats on winning our monthly writing competition. Your story was chosen by a majority vote of the mod team, and, as such, you have won a gift card. I just need to know where to send it to and to whom I'm sending it, and I'll get it in the mail right away. And being a super excited 16-year-old girl that was feeling like she had just won the entire world,

I responded with my first and last name, as well as my home address. At no point did I pause to think that maybe I should have asked my parents, or not sent this random person my home address, because I thought this was going to be a professional trade-off. I won a contest, I was getting a prize. After I sent that, he told me that he would get the card in the mail here as soon as possible, and, once again, told me that my son. story was perfectly written, and just really talked up my prose. I was elated that someone that was

so important was giving me attention. He was important to me, at least, because he was a big shot on the forum. I thanked him. We had an informal conversation, and that was pretty much where I thought it was going to end. I thought it was just going to be him complimenting my work, and me thanking him. Of course, that's not where it ended. About a week later, I hadn't received any word on the gift card, or whether or not it was on the way, and while I didn't want to be pushy, I decided to send White Oak a message to just ask if he had sent it yet,

as I was super excited to get it. He messaged me back pretty much right away and said that he was going to send it in the next day or two. but he hadn't yet. I thanked him again and just mentioned that I was still excited about the whole thing. After a few minutes of not getting a response back, I thought that that was the end of the conversation. But then, White Oak sent me a message saying,

You know, you're really beautiful. I was a bit confused. He had no way of knowing what I looked like. I messaged him, asking where that came from, and he responded by saying, Oh, I looked you up and found your Facebook. I was looking at your pictures and just wanted to tell you that you were beautiful. To say that I was a bit shocked would be an understatement.

I responded by saying, oh, I didn't expect you to look me up. In his words, he couldn't help himself because of how sexy my name was. And he said that he was very happy to know that I was just as sexy as my name. At this point, I knew that he was probably just going to keep going with it, so I figured I would go ahead and shut him down and tell him that I was only 16, and that he should probably move on. He then told me that he, again, in his words, preferred girls my age because they were less likely to fight back. I was mortified by this comment. I didn't respond to this message. I figured that I would move on instead, and it would just go away.

Unfortunately, on this forum, there was no method of blocking people or ignoring them, which was either a major design oversight for the page, or was done maliciously, based on what happened later. So, because of that, I had no way to stop him for messaging me. And he did keep messaging me. He would send me a message daily telling me how much he loved me. He would send me random messages asking me to send him naked pictures of myself. He would send me messages telling me all the things that he was doing to himself

while thinking of me and creeping through my Facebook. After several days of putting up with this, I decided I would move to take action against White Oak. I figured I would contact the owner of the forum with a message and tell him what is second in command. man was doing. This did not go as I expected. Of course.

I sent him a message with screenshots of the messages that White Oak had been sending me, and I explained that I had given White Oak my information for the gift card that I won in the contest. I tried to give him as much information as I could, and explain the whole thing as best as possible. And the screenshots that I took were more than enough to really display what was happening. He did reply, but his response was that he would just have a talk with him about it. He didn't say sorry. He didn't seem to really care or that he was shocked at all. About two days later, he sent me another message that said,

I spoke with White Oak about the situation, and he told me that it never happened. I believe him, please do not contact us about this again. I was livid. He was literally believing that White Oak had. never sent me any of the messages, even though I literally had receipts. I messaged him back saying just that, asking how he could believe White Oak over me when I had screenshots of the conversation. And then I mentioned that I would be passing the information on to the police, since I was a minor.

I thought for sure that he would see this and see that he needed to take it seriously. But then, the next day, when I went to log in, in to see if he had replied to me, my account was gone. Like, completely, gone. I tried to log in and had kept giving me an error saying that my account didn't exist. When I tried to do a forgot password, it said that my email didn't exist in the system. He had completely purged my account, probably as a way to cover for White Oak. As now, I had no live access to my account.

I still had the screenshots, but a lot of good that would do me if I couldn't prove anything was on the site. At this point, I decided to bring my mom and dad into the situation. I told them that I had won a writing contest and that I had given the site my information for the gift card. I told them about how the guy had found me on Facebook, and I gave them my screenshots and explained the whole thing. They were not. happy. Obviously. And they implemented several controls in my internet usage, which was fine, but when my dad contacted the police, they basically told him that there wasn't much they could do without information

on the person, since all I had was a username on a random forum. Again, disappointing. But this was around 2008 or so, so I don't think they had the forensic capabilities that they do now. I can't really say that I fault them for it. Maybe they could have done something more, but it was what it was. And then, the final bit of the story. About a week after this all happened, I had signed into my Facebook, which I admittedly should have deleted it, considering that's how he'd found me.

I saw when I logged in that I had a friend request from a man named Gary T. At first, it didn't. click in my head who it was. I accepted it, and as soon as I did, I got a message saying, I'm sorry we had to delete your account. I miss you so much, and I'm glad that you accepted my request. I responded with some harsh words, and, thankfully, Facebook does have a block option, and I blocked him.

I felt sick that he had really found my Facebook, and that he thought I would seriously just sit there and let him stay on. my friends list. Thankfully, that was the last time that I ever heard from White Oak, or Gary T. The only reason I thought about submitting this story was that White Oak came up in a conversation with my sister. I had completely put it out of my mind after all of these years, but she mentioned him for some reason during one of our conversations, and it led to me thinking about the whole thing. That night, I actually went home and googled his name. And after a bit of digging, I found out that he was in prison, at least probably.

I found a story about him being arrested and charged for lewd behavior with a minor, as well as several counts of soliciting minors. From what I read, he's going to be in prison for a very long time. So, at least with that fact out there, I guess I never have to worry about meeting White Oak, ever again. Back in my early 20s, I used to work for a large

tech company that made and repaired a lot of large expensive equipment. Most of it was medical related, but there were a few other cleaning and sanitizing things they did as well. Now, with that type of equipment,

came a lot of pretty important partners and stacks upon stacks of confidential information. Of course, you, You can't really hide those kinds of machines easily, so that meant that the building I worked in was huge. Not to mention the entrances in every room or office had restricted access. Everyone had a badge, and your badge would only let you in to the rooms and areas you were supposed to be in. When I started, I got lost once, and I learned my lesson.

People gave you weird looks if they didn't recognize you, so I caught on pretty quickly. I was hired to do data entry, but pretty quickly they had me doing other tasks, including filing, and I even found myself helping with a lot of tech support questions. I would say that a majority of the people that worked there were older, so there was always an issue with someone's system, and they could never quite understand how to access the task manager. But I did genuinely enjoy it. Other than them always thinking I was a genius with tech, Everyone was kind and inclusive and never demanding, which honestly was not what I expected when I started there.

Anyways, that was just to give a little background as to where I worked. That was where the story took place. I usually worked the normal Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift with occasional late nights when I wanted to get ahead, or if I was behind. At this point, my wife was out of town visiting her mom, so I decided I would get in some extra work to get ahead of things. There was a new partner coming in, and from what I've experienced, it was going to get crazy. So if I was going to be alone that night anyways, I thought I might as well get some more work done so I could be ahead. By 5 p.m., I started walking out, and most people were already gone. by then as well. I went home, had dinner, took a shower, and then I went straight back to the office.

By the time I got back, it was already dark and the parking lot was nearly empty. I buzzed myself in through two sets of entry doors, and then used my cart again in the elevator to get to the fourth floor. It was pretty dark in the building with some of the main area lights being motion-activated, so as I walked away from the elevator and down the hall towards the east side of the building where my office was, the lights were beginning to kick on as I passed them. Saying I got a bit of a scare when I saw some guy standing by the stairs would be an understatement. I lit out a small yelp and expletives, but then, trying to be a grown man, I laughed and just said something like,

Hey, man. And the response that I got back was, Sorry. But he didn't look up from his phone. I just took note of what he looked like and carried on towards my office. At first, the guy himself didn't alarm me. He was wearing the green and black striped shirts that our janitors normally wore with black pants. He also had a mop and bucket with him, so I just assumed he was one of the janitors working late. I go to my office, leaving my door cracked open, call my wife really quick.

to give her an update and then started working. It wasn't too long after, maybe 30 to 45 minutes, when I start to hear something outside. It was talking. But it was just one voice, and the person sounded very angry. I couldn't quite make out everything that was being said, but there was a lot of sighing and F-bombs. I started getting a bad feeling, so I slowly got up and walked to my door, listening from the doorway I could hear the voice a bit more

and it definitely sounded like it was a one-sided argument like someone was practicing what they were going to say to someone else if that makes sense I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong though and I didn't feel comfortable trying to leave so instead I quietly shut my door locking it I then closed the blinds in the narrow window by my door and turned off the light.

I then went back to my desk and tried to continue working, but also kept getting distracted listening to the arguing. At one point, I stopped entirely as I could hear somebody dragging their feet near my office. I remember nearly holding my breath as I heard the doorknobs being jiggled and the sound of the card reader denying access. I didn't have panic attacks or anything of the like prior, but that's the thing. only way I could think to describe how I was feeling. I was starting to feel overwhelmed, and I had this thought that I was in danger.

But I just froze in place, hoping that the door lock and access machine would protect me. Shortly after, I heard what sounded like somebody kicking the door, shouting another expletive, and then walking off. I waited several more minutes before I finally came back to reality and contemplated my next steps. I thought calling the cops sounded like the smart thing to do, but even if I did, they wouldn't be able to get past the first set of doors without security buzzing them in, and there was no one on the security post due to the time. So I would have had to have left my office, unprotected, just to let them in. I decided to stay behind my locked door and called my wife again to let her know what just happened. I probably downplayed it a bit, not wanting to worry her. She told me that I should at least

call my boss to let them know, and I agreed. I called my boss and had to leave them a message, and then I just waited to see if I could hear anything again. When it was seemingly silent, I opened my door and looked out again, not hearing or seeing anything. I took this opportunity, leaving all of my stuff except my wallet and phone in the room, quietly letting it lock behind me, and I ran as fast as I could out of the building. I even took the fire escape stairs to not be in the center of the building, in case that person was still there.

I was able to leave and get home unscathed, but was still pretty freaked out. The next day, I went into work as normal, prepared to tell my boss about what happened. However, before I could even turn my computer back on in my office, my boss was at my door wanting to talk about the voicemail. I explained everything that happened, and I could tell by the look on his face that something was not right. He said that the janitors were only supposed to be there during normal business hours. So he was immediately suspicious when I told them they were there. Unfortunately, their access cards would still let them in. But the problem was that they all knew that they should not be there.

Other than the fact that they were there so late, the rest of the experience was definitely not okay. So he had me go with them to security to review the tapes that night. What I saw seriously scared the hell out of me, I was hoping that I was just being paranoid. but knowing now what was behind that door made me realize that my feelings were warranted, which I think was worse. We watched the footage as the guy scanned himself in, bringing with him the mop and bucket that I saw.

He walked around the two floors that he could get to and then had stopped and was looking at and doing something on his phone where I saw him, so long that the lights had turned off. Shortly after, I walked in and saw him. the guy and then went to my office. That's when the guy continued on going to each office door, trying his badge and, of course, being denied access. Janitors were not allowed in the offices, unless accompanied by someone with access to that room

due to confidential information. So he even stopped and tried my door. While the fact that he was trying all these doors was pretty unsettling itself, it's what he was carrying that made it more terrifying. This guy was holding a hammer in his other hand. He had left the Mopin' Bucket in the hallway and just had this hammer and the badge. You tell me what he was planning on using that hammer for.

As I stood there watching this, trying not to flip my lid in front of the boss, he asked me if I recognized the guy. I confirmed that he was the guy from last night, but I didn't know who he was. The problem was that the security guy watching the footage with us did not know the guy either, which was a problem. They see the janitors all the time and have had to help them with access to some rooms, so they were pretty familiar with them. This guy, he was not, though.

So now, they had to go and review the access logs and see who was trying to get into these restricted rooms, which made things worse. My boss shared with me later that the guy who was there that night did not match the guy whose badge it belonged to. Like, it had been stolen. Even better. They ended up talking to the owner of the badge because he came in the next day, needing to be signed and let in and he was in a panic, because he realized his badge was missing.

And then he knew exactly what had happened to it. It was actually his roommate. Apparently he was kicking him out because he wasn't paying his part of the rent anymore. It was his home. He had just let his friend slash the roommate move in, and he had also been stealing some of his belongings. So he told him that he had to go. That night, the guy went on a rampage,

destroying things in the house while he was gone, and apparently stole his badge that he kept in his room. I guess that he thought he would be able to get in here, steal some things that he could sell or blackmail him for, maybe, but he didn't have access to anything like that, which made him mad. I, of course, just became a potential threat since I saw him. The guy whose badge was stolen was reprimanded pretty hard, but he didn't lose his job. He did come up and talk to me and apologized profusely for what happened, but I in no way

had any ill will towards this guy. It's unfortunate that someone he called a friend would do that, but it's also not like he had the badge out in the open. He at least kept it in his room, so other than hiding it or locking it up, what else could he have done? He did help in tracking the guy down, though, and he was arrested, so at least we didn't have to worry about him again. That was still just one of the scariest things I have ever experienced. knowing my gut instincts could have absolutely saved me that night. So, to wrap this up, I'll just say to trust your instincts. Even if nothing happens, I think it's a hell of a lot better to be hypervigilant

than to be in an I wish I would have done this situation. After hearing some similar stories on a few forums that I follow, I felt compelled to share an experience that I had as a child. This happened when I went to my friend Brody's birthday party around the age of 11. Brody and I were pretty decent friends at the time. We hung out after school at each other's houses before, but it was usually at mine. That was typically both of our preferences, thanks to his older brother. Brody had a brother that I'll just call Chad.

He was around 16 at the time of this event. Chad was a complete ass. He bullied not only Brody but any of his friends that he had over, including me. He would barge into his room when we were in there, make remarks about us, throw things at us and leave. He even on occasion would try to do things physically to hurt us, like if we were walking by, he would stick his leg out to trip us, smack us in the back of the head

or push our head down on the table as he walked by. It didn't matter to him, as long as he had some way to bully us. And if he wasn't afraid to do it to me, I'm sure that he treated Brody's other friends the same way.

The only time he didn't really do this was when his mom was around. She wouldn't tolerate it, and would immediately stop him, yell at him, whatever she had to do to make him stop. Needless to say, when she was home, I prefer to be in the same room as her. For the party, Brody's mom was renting out the local community center to have the party, which meant more people

and more opportunities to get lost in the crowd of people. There were probably about 20 kids or so that showed up, and most parents stayed there too. My parents had dropped me off and left. After a few hours, and all the games being played and cake being eaten, we started trying to come up with other ways to pass the time. One of these ways was a version of tag where one person was it, but if they start chasing you, you have to call out someone else's name so they chase them instead. So as we started playing this,

who else walks in but Chad and two of his friends? I know I was pretty disappointed in this, but the fact that a few of our mutual friends had the same reaction, told me everything I needed to know. He came over to us, grabbed Brody by the head, and told him happy birthday. Then, he asked what we were playing. When we told him, he said that he wanted to play too. My fear that he was going to ask to be it, and one of us was going to get seriously hurt.

Well, I was half right. Surprisingly, he did not ask to be it. But he and his friends got in the circle with us and we all be. began. Our friend that was it started chasing someone else, and as my attention is on the friend being chased, I failed to notice Chad approaching me until I had the wind knocked out of me. I fell to the ground trying to figure out what had happened when I suddenly felt a bunch of pressure on my back. Once I could finally breathe again, I realized that the pressure is someone on my back, like sitting on me or holding me down. Chad then got on his knees.

with his head to the floor looking at me, with this ugly and creepy grin. I tried fighting it to get up, but the one on my back had a hold of my arm and was twisting it backwards. I was an excruciating pain, from my arm to my face and stomach, and I was already having trouble breathing.

Just when I was thinking that I was probably going to get beat up, I see Chad bring a little pocket knife up to my face, and he asked me if I wanted a party-face. I started screaming, and then I heard other kids screaming and crying too. At the same time, Brody was letting out these horrible cries for help but didn't know what to do. I could tell that he was scared as hell, too scared to approach or do anything. We were only 10 and 11 years old. We were not a threat to these three 16-year-olds.

Thankfully, after what felt like an eternity, I heard Brody's mom yelling for Chad to get off. off of me. I could see his face instantly change. He tried to scramble to his feet, all while hiding the knife. However, he didn't do a very good job because the way he stood up and slit his hand back, he still ended up cutting part of my neck and chin. Once he was up, I got up to my feet as well, holding my face from the pain. His mom yelled at him and made him and his friends leave immediately, which they did. She then rushed me to the restroom to help clean up my face, but I could tell by the look she was giving me that it wasn't good. She kept apologizing to me and hugging me with tears in her eyes. I was only 11, but man,

I felt so sorry for her. She was always such a kind lady, and Brody was always chill too. I never understood how or why Chad turned out the way he did. Once we finished in the restroom, she brought me back out to the others and asked me to stay by her so that she could call my parents. They came and picked me up shortly after and took me to the hospital. I ended up getting eight stitches. The night was pretty crappy after that. My mom was pissed about the whole thing, and I remember her blaming Brody's mom for not paying attention,

but she wasn't even at the party. I tried to tell her that he wasn't at the party at the start and just showed up, so I didn't think that he was supposed to be there, but it didn't matter to her. She thought the right thing to do was to try to press charges against Chad. Thankfully, that didn't really go anywhere, and his mom settled it by agreeing to pay the hospital bills. I may have been a kid at the time, but as an adult now,

I don't really feel like that was the best course of action. But I also don't really talk to my mother anymore. That may be related. who knows. Unfortunately, this definitely strained the friendship between Brody and I. I definitely was not allowed to be over there anymore, and any time I asked if he could come over, there was always a reason why he couldn't.

Because of this, we did hang out at school, but that was it. And we slowly drifted apart until we eventually moved, and I completely lost touch with him. I really feel bad for Brody, because I'm afraid that I probably wasn't the only friend that he lost because of his brother. Chad, just for some reason, was evil, and I still have no idea why. All I know is that I now have a permanent scar on my chin, and large gatherings still kind of scare me. I do hope that Brody and his mom are doing okay, and I hope that Chad got whatever kind of help he needed,

and I hope I never meet him again. And sorry about my mom, too. Beavenu at board of Vyarai. Embarked and profite. Embarked and relax. Cirotay. Bukkinet. Oh, that also.

And profite. Viaray, the voice that we love. Growing up, I had a really close friend named Amy. Amy was actually my best friend. We met in grade school when I remember I was running late for school and didn't notice that I had mismatched socks on. Like one was pink with flowers and the other was a different pattern. It wasn't until I was sitting in class,

and I noticed that Amy kept looking at me. At this point we didn't really talk much, but when we went to recess, she stopped me and said, Your socks are weird. I looked down and realized what I had done, and we both had a good laugh, and started talking a lot more after that. I had always been a little shy, whereas she was more outgoing and spontaneous,

so she definitely brought me out of my shell at times. She also seemed very smart and mature for her age. I remember watching her mannerisms on many occasions at school, or when she would come over to my house, and I definitely learned some things from her. She would always try to wash her plate or anything she used after eating, would wipe down the table, help make my bed in the sorts.

My parents would tease me at times saying that they liked having her over, and that I could learn from her since she picked up after herself so well. I would say that my parents quite enjoyed her too, compared to some of my other friends. I just wanted to give a little backstory before I explained the actual event in question, so the events leading up to the reason that I'm writing this took place at Amy's birthday party. I was excited because not only was it my best friend's birthday, but it was the first time her mom allowed her to have one at her house. In fact, I had never been inside of her house past knocking on her door when we went and picked them up. In the past, I had thought that it was odd that they didn't do anything, but my parents tried explaining to me the possibilities as to why they didn't,

such as money restrictions, maybe a religious thing, even. But my mom called her mom one year, and she said that it was okay if we wanted to take her out or something for it. So we did, and just never questioned it. Anyways, back to the party. She was going to have about ten of us there, including me and her sister Lexi. So only about seven extra people, but we were all excited about it. I wore my favorite dress, and we got her a doll set that could easily be shared and played with her sister. I was the first one to arrive as I wanted to be there to help out with anything if I could.

To my surprise, her mom had decorated quite well. There were streamers and balloons all over the living room. She had cake and all kinds of snacks and drinks. It looked like a full-blown party, which confused my kid brain even more as to why she had never had this before. So the party was in full swing. Almost everyone showed up and we were all having fun. It was drawing to the end of the party, and a few people had already left.

So, as kids do, we started coming up with our own games to play as we waited for the parents to pick more people up. One of those games was hide-and-seek. It was going to be me, Amy, Lexi, and three other friends playing. One of our friends was the seeker, so the rest of us started dispersing to find the best hiding spot. And we started outside, but no one said that we couldn't hide inside. So I thought the best place would be in Amy's closet. The doors had those little wooden slats in them, so I could see into the bedroom too, so I closed the door and pushed my way behind some clothes and waited.

It couldn't have been too long, but being a kid, I started getting bored standing there waiting. So I had looked up at her hanging clothes and was trying to see what they were. That's when I heard someone whispering. I looked back through the slits into the bedroom and saw an older lady sitting on the bed smiling and looking at me. I hadn't seen this lady prior at the party, but I assumed that she was probably their grandmother, by the looks of it. She honestly reminded me of my own grandmother. I was still in hide-and-seek mode, though, so I stood still staring at her, but then she softly called me by my name, still looking in my direction, and padded the spot on the bed next to her.

I still don't have an explanation for my actions, but I felt like I needed to go sit with her. So I slowly opened the closet door and sat on the bed facing her. She still had a warm smile on her face, as she said that I reminded her a lot of Amy. I asked her who she was, and she then confirmed that she was her grandma. I asked her if she'd gotten any cake, because I didn't know what else to say, and she chuckled and said no, but that it was okay. But then she asked me if I could do one thing for her, and I agreed. She asked me to tell Amy Cake's happy birthday, tell her mom that she was proud of her, and to tell them all that she loved them. I didn't understand, so I told her that they were all still here, and that I could go get them if she wanted.

She again chuckled and said it was fine and that she would be there, and then motioned towards the door so that I could leave. Confused and ready to get back to playing, I waved goodbye and left the room closing the door behind me. I found Amy coming into the house to look for me, while the rest of them were still outside. She asked me where I had been, and I explained that I had hid inside her closet. And we had a small playfight about it,

and all met back up outside. Everyone had started doing their own things, so Amy and I called dibs on the swing set while we started to talk. That's when I brought up the lady. I asked her why her grandmother wouldn't come out of her room, and she questioned me. I told her again about the lady in her bedroom who said that she was her grandma, and that she wouldn't leave the room. I then mentioned what she wanted me to tell them and mentioned how she called her Amy Cakes. And I giggled because I had never heard that before. or heard anyone else call her that.

Then, as I was explaining all of this, I noticed that Amy had stopped swinging and was just standing next to me with her arms crossed. I tried asking her what was wrong, and she looked like she was about to cry. I immediately tried to apologize, thinking that maybe I had upset her about the nickname, but she quickly ran into the house,

so I followed her. We ran past her mom in the living room that was talking to another parent that had arrived and into the room that I was in prior, the room I believed to be Amy's. She stopped in the doorway, and I waited there silently for her to say something. When she didn't talk, I decided to and explained where she was sitting. With a shaky voice, Amy finally spoke to ask me what she looked like. I explained what I could remember, including her clothes,

and she just started crying. I didn't know what I did or said and just kept apologizing, but her mom eventually noticed and came over asking what happened. I then briefly explained about the lady, and I could see the look on her mom's face changed from one of concern to just sadness. She told me to let someone know that their parents had arrived, and that she would be okay. I couldn't help but think that I did something to upset both of them,

so I decided not to say anything to her sister and just carried on with the evening. After some time, Amy came back out and was smiling and ready to play with us again, until I went home as well. So, obviously, this was difficult to me, as I didn't understand what had happened at the time, but apparently Amy's mom had even brought it up to my mom, which prompted her to talk to me about it. What I later learned, as many of you have probably figured out, was that Amy's grandma had passed away just a month before her birthday.

The room that I was in was actually her old room, and Amy's mom had been redoing it to give the girls their own separate rooms. However, Amy said that she was having trouble sleeping in there as she said she felt someone was watching her, and she would just be overwhelmed with sadness, assuming it was because of her grandma. After I told them about this, Amy said that she slept in there that night, Talking to her grandma, she laid in bed, and she had a dream of her that night where she told her everything was going to be okay. That part, of course, she told me about after we were a bit older, as well as some of the rest of this.

I've become really close friends with Amy and her family, and I learned that her grandma had become pretty ill, and her mom was taking care of her. because the machines and medications they had in the house for her, they didn't like having company over to make sure nothing was broken, stolen, or misplaced. This also required a lot of sacrifices by them because they couldn't leave her by herself, which is why they never went or did anything. Amy helped a lot with her little sister, Lexi, and some of the house chores, which explained why she seemed so mature and was always so willing to help at my house.

And, of course, her mom, Rhonda, had been in a really dark place lately, after she had passed. Losing her mother and feeling like she was a bad mom for seemingly neglecting them, which caused her to throw this big party in hopes to get back to doing stuff like that. So, when I told her what her mother had told me, it lifted her spirits, too. I don't think that I'm sensitive to the paranormal or anything, and, in fact, at my age, I didn't even hardly understand what a ghost was. So I think it was just a difficult thing to process for everybody. I'm just glad that they didn't get mad at me or something,

but it is still something that we talk about to this day. They said that they have never seen her, but sometimes felt like she was with them after that. She just teases me that I got to send her off, and I didn't even know her. Hey there. I've been listening to your channel for a few months now, and hearing some of your older videos reminded me of an event that happened to me and a friend last year, actually. This happened when me and my friend Morgan took a road trip to Las Vegas. It wasn't the first time we had done this, and we've also learned a few things since our first trip, so by now, I felt that we were a bit more prepared.

I took my car to the shop to make sure everything was working as it should be, and then we made a well-prepped cooler of healthy snacks and drinks, as well as a few energy drinks, and we packed our bags and probably over-packed, but made sure that we had everything as well as some extras. I even refilled my emergency kit that I kept in my trunk. It had the normal first-aid stuff as well as a towel and a blanket, things like that.

I had a few people making fun of me for my kids, including my boyfriend, saying that I was overdoing it, but I always said I'd rather have it and never need it than, well, you know. I was living with Morgan and her sister at the time, which made it even more convenient for us, meaning we were able to leave when we wanted

without wasting more time for meeting up. We stopped to have a light breakfast and coffee, and then got on the road. The drive for the most part was pretty uneventful. I mean, it was a great drive. We did it in early spring so it wasn't cold and not too hot. It was honestly perfect. We just didn't have anything crazy or hectic happen or get in the way.

We had several planned stops on the way, including a national park and a museum, both of which were fantastic. I got to make my own Gio'd, and it had a beautiful amethyst in it. I believe we had just hit the Nevada border and decided to stop at a hotel for the night. We still had probably a day's worth of driving to do,

so we wanted a place to stay and freshen up. The hotel was your average-looking hotel. We took our much-needed showers and enjoyed the included breakfast the next morning, then just headed back to our room to get out of there. This is where things gone, pretty chaotic. We had probably only been on the road for about an hour,

just talking or whatever, on a pretty open highway. There weren't many cars whatsoever on the road, which was pretty nice. But then I had a Jeep with dark tinted windows come up behind me. They weren't riding too close or anything, but it was just something I took notice of. However, they did start getting closer. and I again made a mental note of it. However, it wasn't consistent.

They would get close and then let off, and this would repeat. That's when I mentioned it to Morgan, because I thought if they were in such a rush, why not just go around? It wasn't a single-lane highway or anything, so they very well could have. Morgan said something about them either just being an ass or trying to be intimidating, and said not to worry about it too much at the time.

However, it kept happening, and they were pushing it with how close they were getting, which made me lose my train of thought while we were talking. I pointed it out again to Morgan, and she turned back to look at it. We both agreed that it was getting weird and said that we should slow down. I was using cruise control, so I wasn't going under, and was probably going slightly over. We were hoping that they would grow impatient and finally just pass us. It looked like it was finally happening when the Jeep went around

and was then in the lane next to me. They were parallel to me, and because of what they were doing, we both looked over at them. The side windows were also dark, so we didn't see the driver until they rolled down their window. What we saw was some noise. normal-looking guy, completely bald head, wearing some kind of plain t-shirt and sunglasses. Yet, I could tell by the wrinkles on his forehead and clenched jaw that he looked furious,

and I had no idea as to why. I kind of looked at him with a, Can I help you, look? Because I didn't know what his problem was. As mentioned, it's not like I was driving erratically or stopping him from going around. The guy then motioned for me to pull over, and I immediately shook my head no. This only seemed to enrage him more as he began to yell at me, and telling me to pull over. I think I speak for both of us when I say that we were starting to grow a bit uneasy. There weren't many cars around, and, at that exact moment, we were the only ones. The guy then slowed down and got back behind us, so Morgan immediately,

pulled out her phone and started recording it. I just continued driving, hoping to see an exit soon. I was trying to change the GPS to the next exit, or gas station, or anything that would put us around more people, when we felt the car jolt forward a bit. This guy had now hit my car. Morgan started screaming and we were both asking what the hell this guy was trying to do. Then he rammed us again.

I'm trying to keep us on the road while having a panic attack when Morgan said that she was going to call the cops and turned back around in her seat. She was trying to explain to the dispatcher what was happening, and we were struggling to give our location. I knew the name of the highway but kept missing the mile markers due to being so obviously distracted. I was able to find it thanks to my GPS and the operator instructing Morgan to check it. As they were talking to us about what to do, the guy again went to the next lane, windowed down, and started shouting something that I couldn't make out.

I guess he wasn't satisfied because he then hit my car from the side, which made me swerve. I had to try to correct it so that I didn't run off the road. Morgan again was screaming to the operator what was happening when he hit us one more time, closer to the back. which caused a very hard fish tail to start. And, yes, I know how to correct a car when that happens, before someone says something, but my efforts were in vain because the guy again managed to hit me, causing us to careen into the oncoming exit barrels,

right at the exits that we were going to try to take. We slammed into it on the passenger side. Both of us were still conscious, but hurt, so we were completely aware that this guy had driven past, but backed up to look at us with a creepy smile before taking off again. That was the last time that we saw him. We sat there, sobbing, terrified that this guy might come back. And I was, of course, worried about how damaged my car was.

We weren't even in the same state that we lived in. How would we get home if it was totaled? It wasn't long before another. car approached us and stopped to see if we were okay. It was an older guy, like a lot older, so we weren't exactly afraid of him. He just looked like a normal good Samaritan, honestly. I started explaining what happened while also trying to help Morgan find her phone that, of course, went flying out of her hand. Once we found it, the operator was still on the phone, which, by the way, after hearing the screams in the crash,

I applaud them for still being there with us. We told them what had happened, and they explained that officers were almost there. I was able to get out of my door, and Morgan had to climb over to my side to get out. The old man stayed with us until the police arrived, and we gave him a hug thanking him for trying to keep us calm and offering his coffee to us.

We gave the police as much information as we could about the man and the vehicle, and how this came out of nowhere. They tried to play it off his road rage taken too far, but if so, it was only one-sided. Like I said, I never even saw the Jeep prior to him tailgating me. I didn't recognize the man, nor did Morgan. We tried to explain this to the police, but whether or not, they believed us, they did agree that this was taken way too far. We had my car towed to the nearest auto shop, and the cops gave us a ride there for us to wait. Sadly, the whole right side was smashed in, and we were unable to open the front passenger door,

but just about everything under the hood was still fine. They did replace the wheel on the passenger side since it was bent or something, and they tried to pull out some of the dents on that same side, but the door was still pretty difficult to open. Overall, we were really shaken up, and the fact that we were so close to our destination, we thought it would be a waste to turn back. Once we calmed down and the car was done, we took it slow, driving on some side roads until we were ready to get back onto the highway. I was still super nervous about it.

worried that somehow this guy may have exited or been in the same area, but, thankfully, we never had any more incidents. That's not to say that I didn't have a slight mental freak out any time I saw a Jeep or someone that was following too close. We did give the police our information in case they ever saw the Jeep or the guy, but as of me writing this, neither of us have heard from them. This experience was terrifying for both of us, but it also left us confused. Again, I get road rage. I've shamefully flipped some people off for cutting me off, but I would never try to risk their life. On top of this, I have no idea what the hell I could have done to set this guy off. We do still go on road trips, Morgan and I together, and with us,

others, but I don't think that I'll ever forget the feeling I had that day, or feeling like I was being targeted, or even the feeling that someone wanted me dead, or at least severely injured. So, if you're out on the road, just take precautions. Make sure that people know where you are, and how to read mile markers. Oh, and always wear your seatbelt. Hey there. I've been a long-time listener, and I had a story that I wanted to share with you that, unfortunately, happened to me. I used to work at a liquor store for a little over a year.

I actually quit after this event occurred. I'm a single and first-time mother. My baby is almost ten months old, so, needless to say, she pretty much never leaves my sight. Sometimes my mom would vote. visit and help me take care of her or watch her while I slept at my place, but it's not very often as she lives about an hour away. That's more so when she just comes to visit on the weekends. I'm in my early 30s and had been with the same guy for the last seven or eight years until he learned that I was pregnant. Then he claimed that he never loved me and he was just there for the ride, etc., etc. So,

he moved out of the apartment that we shared, leaving me to pay the rent alone, which I couldn't afford. After a nightmare of a move and more debt to deal with, I moved out too and at least found a place that I could afford on my income. Before all of this chaos, I had a steady job at a staffing firm, irony, and they laid a lot of people off, which left me desperate to find anything that would pay me.

That's how I ended up working at the liquor store. To my surprise, they treated us better than I expected. They even had benefit options and were flexible and willing to work with all of us when it came to our schedules. This was a huge relief for me because I didn't have someone that lived close by to watch my daughter, nor could I afford to pay for a babysitter or daycare. So, I told the owners, which was an older couple, about having some. such a young child, and their wife, Darla, was smitten when she saw her the first time. She told me that I was more than welcome to bring her with me, since it's not like she was

going to be running down the aisles, potentially breaking things. This was such a huge stress lifted from me, knowing that I could work and still keep my eye on my daughter. I usually stayed behind the counter at the register, and she stayed in her car seat. Darla actually brought in a small bassinet that she had bought specifically for me, and she kept it in the back room. When I worked, I would bring it out and set it up, which gave her a bit more wiggle room. They really did treat me like family.

The pay was decent, too, so I knew I would eventually need to find a job where I made more, but, for the moment, I was feeling happy again, and felt like I belonged, so. I was definitely getting comfortable with the job. Anyways, sorry for the ramblings. I didn't really have a set shift and would work days or nights, basically wherever they needed me. This happened when I was working the closing shift, which was from about 5 to 11,

but more typically until midnight, after all the closing work was done. It usually wasn't too busy being a smaller store, so it wasn't unusual to be alone on the next. night shift, which I was okay with too. We had a few of our regulars come in as normal, but then after 9 or 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night, it was pretty dead. I would turn on the TV that was behind the register or just watch something or play a game on my phone. The owners were okay with this, as long as when a customer came in, we were paying attention to them. Maybe not watching them

like a hawk, but checking the above mirrors to make sure they're not stealing anything, and making sure you're giving them your attention. It made sense to me. So, on this night, I had my daughter in the bassinet, and she was sleeping. I was playing Sudoku on my phone when the doorbell chimed, and a guy walked in. I greeted him, and when all he did was look at me and quickly look away, I immediately took a mental note of what he looked like. Whether they're rude or suspicious, those people tend to stand out.

Unfortunately, he was kind of hitting both labels. He was wearing jeans in a gray hoodie, with the hood pulled up. It had been raining, though, so I could see the hood was a little wet, and I assumed that maybe that's why it was up. He had a bit of a beard growing that stuck out from the hoodie, but not much. and, after opening the door, his hand remained in his front pocket when he walked around. This is when I started feeling a little uneasy about this guy. I would glance up at the mirrors and would see him constantly looking up at it too,

and he would quickly look back down when our eyes would meet. I started watching his movements closer, and I noticed that he was looking around the store. Not like he was trying to find something, but more so casing the place, this started to worry me. We weren't in a bad or shady part of the city, and, in fact, the store was part of a strip mall of stores, which actually had a small open bar at the end, so even though I was alone in the store, I was definitely not alone in the middle of nowhere. While doing my best to not let him notice my nervousness,

I slowly dialed 911 on my phone and just let it sit there without hitting the call, button, and then slid it back under the counter. After he walked up and down every aisle, he came back towards the front while also looking down the back where the office was. He then approached the register, empty-handed, mind you, and turned his attention to the small shooter bottles that we kept up front on the counter. He grabbed a few, and laid them in front of me. I asked them if he had found everything that he was looking for.

While looking down, he said, kind of. He then looked up, making direct eye contact and then asked, Are you here alone? I at least wasn't stupid enough to tell him the truth, so trying to sound as intimidating as possible, I told him no, in that the boss was in the back and asked if he wanted me to get them.

He gave me a sinister smirk, declining my offer, and tossed a few bills at me. After giving him his chain, she grabbed the bottles and put them in his pocket, which is when I noticed there was already something in his pocket. Something long. I wanted to scream right there, but to my surprise, he just left. I watched as he walked around the corner, and when he was out of view, I quickly went to lock the door. At this point, I was pretty freaked out, and reasonably so.

I called Darla to tell her what I just witnessed and let her know that I wasn't feeling comfortable with being alone. Thankfully, she agreed, and understood, and she said that she would have her husband, James, come down there. She also told me to keep the door locked, and just let the customers in as they appear. This is what I meant by they were always very considerate, instead of just telling me to buck up.

As far as I was aware, they had never been robbed, so it was a pretty scary situation all around. Made worse, in my opinion, because I had my little girl with me. So I waited anxiously for James to arrive and just kind of paced the front watching my daughter as she seemed to be the only thing to calm me down. Unfortunately, this would come to an abrupt halt when I heard someone trying to open the door. When I looked over at the door, my heart dropped, seeing the same guy. except this time I must have ruined his plans when he noticed the door was locked I saw his face immediately turned to one of anger and aggression and we then made eye contact

I froze not knowing what to do as my phone was on the counter which was closer to the door the door and the two walls were just glass so what was stopping him from trying to break it or worse yet how well would the glass hold with his banging and yanking on the door? Because that's exactly what he started doing. He began yanking on the door harder and pounding on the glass while yelling at me to let him in. I just kept telling him no and yelling at him to leave,

but he wouldn't let up. My daughter was now awake and crying and this guy was yelling. I then noticed that his right hand, which he was using to bang on the door, was holding something and when he would lower his arm to yell at me I could finally tell that it was a large knife I was in full panic mode at this point I went to grab my daughter ready to run to the back when the glass finally broke thank God they had an alarm system that went off when there was glass breaking so with my daughter in my arms I ran to the back and locked myself in the bathroom hoping he wouldn't try to go back there. Unfortunately, as I sat there, I realized I didn't have my phone on me, so all I could do was wait until someone came to help.

It felt like an eternity, trying to calm my daughter while also trying to keep myself calm when I started hearing somebody calling out for me. They identified themselves as an officer and said that I was safe, so I opened the door. I saw two men standing by the door in uniform, and they asked me if I was okay, and then led me out to where James and Darla and a few other random people were. They hugged me, asked if I was all right, and also apologized that I had to go through that. We then all talked to the cops about what I saw, and, thankfully, they at least had security cameras that recorded and saved every 24 hours. So we were able to provide that to the authorities. The guy also didn't get very far,

as some people that were leaving the nearby bar could hear this guy yelling and banging, and one of them in their drunken bravery chased him down. I had to identify him, and, man, I never thought that IDing someone would be so unnerving, especially when they gave me that same smirk when pointing them out. Needless to say, I was pretty shaken up by this, and I told James and Darla that I didn't think I could do it anymore.

They were disappointed to see me go, but also understood. I've been out of work for a little over a month, and I'm incredibly thankful that my mom has been able to help me with rent and groceries for this past month. Darla actually called me last week and said that they were putting in reinforced glass and a much better door because of this. which was good to hear. But she also asked if I would be willing to come back if I was only working on days. I'm still mulling it over, as it was a pretty decent paying job.

But that night keeps replaying in my head. Anyways, thank you for listening. Fan of soccer, you could assist a moment historic. You could gain my bier for the final of the Covem, of the world of the FIFA 2006 with Visa. It's just to have a card of credit

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This happened to me and my boyfriend when we went on a road trip a few years ago. It wasn't our first one, nor the last one,

so we were pretty accustomed to the road. We knew our limits when it came to how long we could drive without stopping, when we needed to sleep, Things like that.

We both typically stayed awake to keep each other company, but one of us would occasionally take a nap if we knew we were going to be switching out and driving through the night. That's actually what takes us to the incident that I wanted to share. We were taking a road trip towards the northeast to see one of our favorite bands, and it was only about a 20-hour drive. We wanted to do it in one go, giving us more time and money to spend. at our destination, so we made arrangements and planned out how long we would both drive so as to

not have one person drained or driving more than the other. I feel like this is something that a lot of people don't think about, which can lead to a lot of accidents. So make sure to plan this out to some extent before getting on the road. The drive started fine, and I agreed to drive first, and it would be more during the day, as my boyfriend, Wyatt, has better eyesight, and I also don't like to drive at night. We stopped as the sun was going down to fuel up and grab something quick to eat, and then we started back on our path knowing that we still had a bit of a drive ahead of us. However, I was starting to feel a bit drowsy,

and after letting Wyatt know, he suggested that I try to sleep some to, prepare in case we needed to switch out. I asked him if he was sure, and he said that he was, affirming that he didn't feel tired in the slightest, so I got comfortable in my seat and started to drift off. It started off as the light dozing where I could still hear the music playing, but then your body starts to feel heavy and you know that you're starting to really fall asleep. Soon after, I was pretty clean out, as I remember. I couldn't hear the music anymore.

I don't recall the details of it now, but I know that I was sleeping heavy enough that I was dreaming at the time, because I remember thinking it was weird. However, I was abruptly awoken by the worst scream I had ever heard coming from Wyatt. I just remember it sounded like he was terrified, and when I opened my eyes, all I saw was a bright light that pretty much swallowed us. It was dead of night, yet all I could see was this light. That's when Wyatt hit the brakes and swerved the car over towards the side of the road. However, this ended up being a dream within a dream, I guess,

because I woke up screaming, startling Wyatt enough to try to pull over and calm me down. I remember tears streaming down my face and asking him what happened, and what that was, but he looked confused and asked me what I was talking about. After I finally stopped talking and listened to him, I realized that everything was fine. He said that nothing had happened on the road. In fact, there hadn't even been any cars in sight, and I woke up, screaming, causing him to jump.

So I explained to him what I had seen, or dreamt, I guess, and he comforted me again saying that we were okay. Everything felt so real, down to even hearing the music playing and the low humming sound of the tires on the road. We sat there on the shoulder with our hazards on, just giving ourselves a moment to compose ourselves, talk and just calm our nerves before getting back on the road. Wyatt's then made some kind of joke and then asked me to grab a snack from our bag in the back. I reached back to grab it, and as I was turning back around and putting my seatbelt back on, we started to see some lights in the distance, coming from the opposite direction.

It was one of those quick glances for me at first, and I went back to opening our bag of chips, when we then started to hear the blaring sound of a semi-horn. Being on such an empty and dark road, it was odd to hear it, which caused us. us to look back up at it again. We watched, as we heard the horn get louder and saw the lights get closer and brighter. We watched and as it got closer, we were able to make out another light coming from the side of the truck. We continued watching as it got close enough to finally make out what the light was. It was actually sparks from where a tire should be.

The truck had its cabin lights and brights on and was practically laying on the horn. We watched as it passed us, horrified, as this huge semi-slow drifted through to the other lanes of traffic. It was grinding the cement barrier on our side. We turned around and saw this until the light was barely visible and we could no longer hear the horn. I didn't know what's to say or what's to do. If we were still on the road, what would have happened to us? And my dream, it had to be related. Right?

I woke up to Wyatt's scream, but also a bright light. Like what you would expect if a large truck was coming right at you. Right? I think Wyatt was trying to keep me calm, or maybe himself, and said, Well, that was pretty scary. I nodded in agreement, but we just continued to sit there. After a few minutes, he pulled out his phone and called 911 to report what we had just seen. while I sat there silently.

After the call ended, we got back on the road and drove in silence, practically tensing up at every car that we saw that came from the opposite side. I think that this incident did a number on both of us, because we ended up stopping at some grocery store and just slept there overnight. The next morning, I still felt a little shaken, but I tried to move on thinking that we got lucky. we'll just continue being vigilant on the road and enjoy our vacation. The rest of the trip didn't have anything similar happen

and why it seemed like he had gotten past it, but I still had this lingering in my head as to what all of that was about. I know deja vu. I've experienced that many times before, but this dream felt so real. Like it happened, but we just reset. or something. Wyatt and I have since gone our separate ways,

but we're still friends. We never talked about this since the time of that road trip, and when I had tried to bring it up before, he never really wanted to have the conversation. Other than my sister and a friend, I haven't really talked to anyone about this because it's something that still disturbs me. But I finally felt the urge to share it to see if

Anyone else has experienced something similar. That way, at least I would know that I'm not alone. Last May, a few of my friends and I decided to have a birthday celebration for one of our friends that was turning 19. Her birthday was on Friday the 13th, so she wanted to do a sort of Halloween theme with all of us in costumes and go to a local bar. We live in Canada, so we got all dressed up. some of us in a little more sexier-looking costumes, some of us in some dumb costumes, and there were five of us total. The birthday girl, Mandy, was a witch, angel dressed as an angel.

I was a zombie, and Cassie and Layla were ketchup and mustard bottles. We all met at Mandy's house and started with a few shots, and Cassie didn't really drink so she was our designated driver that night. after we had our liquid confidence, we headed out to the bar, no longer fearing what people would think of us being in full costumes in the middle of May. When we got there, it was actually quite the opposite of what we expected. Some of the patrons took pictures and asked us what the occasion was, and even bought us drinks, so we were genuinely just having a good time. However, at one point, there was a group of guys that came in, three of them. It was one of those moments where they opened the squeaking door, so we all looked, and then continued dancing and laughing.

As with everyone else that was there, they were staring at us off and on until they finally approached us. They made some cheesy comments about the angel costume, and then asked why we were dressed up. So we again explained it was for a birthday. They wished her a happy birthday, and bought us all drinks as well. We thought that that would be the... end of it, but they seemed to linger around, watching us. None of us were really giving them any attention. Cassie and Layla were dating.

I had a boyfriend, and Mandy and Angel were just doing their own thing and having fun. So there definitely were not any signals telling them that they were welcome to stay and hang with us. However, it was a bar, and no one reserved anything. So they had every right to be over by us, too. We were in a smaller section in the back by the dartboard and pool table. After a while, we all noticed that they would lean in and say something and then look over at us and nod or point. I think we all anticipated what they may have wanted, and we really were not interested in picking up a date. So, and we decided to leave and find another bar.

As we were walking out, one of the guys hollered out asking where we were going and I said home. We found another bar that wasn't too far from the first one and went in to continue our fun. However, those same three guys came strolling in not long after us. We all looked at each other to make sure that we weren't crazy and tried to pretend like we didn't see them. This time we sat at one of the back tables and decided to order something to eat, so we weren't just running on alcohol. It was only a matter of time that these guys would finally come over and, of course, One of them sat in a chair next to me. One sat on the other side next to Angel, and one continued standing.

They asked us how old we were, and we were hoping if we were honest they would at least leave us alone, knowing that we were still pretty young. But instead they seemed to be fairly happy with this idea. They made comments on how good we all looked and offered to buy us more drinks while slipping in the comment about how we must still want some since we lied about going home. I then said something about wanting to get something to eat before going home, which is why we ended up at that bar. But ultimately, we all declined the drinks. Now, no longer feeling comfortable around them.

We ordered a plate of nachos to share, but when it arrived, no one immediately touched them, due to the awkwardness of the air. So then the guy closest to me pulled them closer and started eating them. As they were devouring our nachos, they started laughing. nothing and talking about themselves. We didn't really know what to do. We just sat there looking at each other while occasionally giggling when they would say something and laughed. At one point I had taken out my cell phone and was texting my boyfriend to let him know what was happening with my left hand, which wasn't exactly easy for me to begin with. However, the guy must have noticed and was obviously mad. I could tell by the way he slammed his hand on the table and said,

hey, no phones out at the table. After looking at me angrily, he started laughing, and so did the other two. To say that I was freaking out would be an understatement. I don't know what their plans were, but I was too afraid to get up and leave, but even more terrified of what might happen if I stayed there. Thankfully, Cassie stood up and started walking away, when the guy again said in his booming voice, Hey, where are you going?

and without flinching, without a stutter or hint of fear, she said, to the bathroom? And she kept walking. I only hoped that she had a plan and waited for her to return. It probably felt a lot longer than it actually was, but she finally came back, and without acknowledging them, told us that we should go. We all nodded in agreement, but we're all waiting to see who the first person to stand up would be. That's when Angel shot up real quick.

and walked towards Cassie. The guys then tried inviting us back to their place for more free drinks, as if they hadn't already terrified the hell out of us. We all declined and finally got the courage to stand up and started walking towards the front of the bar. And, of course, they were following right behind us, as if they were part of our party. That's when we noticed Cassie's whole plan coming together. At the front of the bar was her dad.

in full police uniform, greeting us with open arms. He apologized for being late and then immediately followed up with, those guys with you? We all looked back and noticed that they were just standing around, trying not to make eye contact with us. He then followed us outside, and we were all thanking Cassie for her quick thinking, and for him for showing up to save us. Her dad has always been such a gentle giant,

but not that you could tell that by just looking. at him, so I was relieved that those guys seemed to be pretty intimidated by him, or at least the uniform. He followed us back to Mandy's place and made sure that no one else followed either, and thankfully we never saw or heard from those guys again. We finished our night inside watching some dumb horror movies on Netflix and eating all of our snack foods, so we didn't let it ruin our night. We are a lot more careful now when we go out to places like that, and now I have an emergency text set up so that I can send it quickly just in case. I have always been more of a lurker than someone who is active in groups like this,

but I finally come to a point where I thought that sharing the experience that happened to me a few years ago was a good idea. Honestly, this whole thing haunts me still to this day, and I've never been able to come up with anything rational to explain any of it. and I understand that it may not be too exciting to some, but to me, it was terrifying. I figured sharing my story here would be a good idea, since a lot of you seem to have a lot of insight to offer. So if anyone has an explanation for me, please do share. A bit of background. I live in the north where spring storms are pretty common.

You know, the kind with really heavy rain. explosive thunder, raging lightning and the occasional random tornado that will fly through and rip everything apart. As terrifying as they can truly be, I've always found these storms to be both thrilling and eerie. But I never really thought that I would have an experience of something genuinely terrifying during one of them. The story takes place on one of those very stormy spring evenings. I was home alone. My parents had gone out to visit some friends a bit before the storm started, and because of how bad it was getting out there,

it was unlikely that they would be home anytime soon. They left me with a short list of chores to do around the house, which, while annoying, was good enough to keep me occupied, since I wasn't going to be able to go outside. I was 16 at the time, so being home, alone wasn't a big deal, even during storms. As the evening progressed, the storm got even worse. The wind was blowing like crazy, rain and hail were smacking the sighting,

thunder was shaking the glass each time it hit, and it was nearly pitch blackout at 6.30. To put it lightly, it was a really intense storm. I was doing the dishes, finishing up my chore list with an episode of SpongeBob, laying in the other room for noise. The lights flickered, and the TV actually shut off. The old TV had this really annoying feature or something that would cause it to completely power down if the lights flickered like that. I don't know if it was to protect it from a surge or something,

but it happened any time we got a strong storm like this. Annoyed, I rinsed off the plate I was washing, turned off the sink and went to dry my hands so I could go to. turn the TV back on. As I walked into the living room, I went to reach for the remote when I realized how silent and creepy the room was, despite the storm.

And I think I noticed this because the silence was broken by what sounded like a whispering sound. I stopped for a second, trying to see if I could pinpoint where exactly it was coming from, but when I actually tried to listen to it, it was gone.

I shrugged to it. it off, thinking it was probably just something to do with how the wind was catching the house, and decided that I would leave the TV off while I went back to finishing the dishes. When I started washing the dishes again, I heard

another voice, but this time it was above a whisper. It was very soft, but it was at least audible and I swear I heard it say, I'm scared. I remember when I heard it, I jumped, and

I turned around thinking there was going to be someone standing behind me, but there was nobody. I looked down the hallway, checked the front door, looked out the front window, and again, there was nobody. Then, I looked out the back window and nearly needed a change of pants. Out in the backyard, standing by the back corner where there were a few trees, I saw what looked like a little girl. I squinted to make sure that I wasn't just seeing things, but my assumption was 100% confirmed when she lifted her hand and waved at me, and then walked back towards the trees at the back fence.

I had two thoughts go through my mind immediately. One was where the hell are her parents and how did she get in my yard, and the other was she's going to die if she stays out in this storm. Then I started thinking about what I should do. Should I call the cops? Should I go out and try to help her? I ultimately ended up choosing the second option, grabbing my rain poncho,

which, with how bad the storm was, did nothing, and grabbed a flashlight and started out into the backyard. I walked out and was immediately pelted by cold rain and hard winds, to the point that I was almost blown over. I kept on into the yard and started shouting for the little girl but didn't get a response. When I got to the tree line in the back, I turned on the flashlight and looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen. I kept shouting hello, looking around to see if she had just run off, but it was as if she had never existed.

There was no way that a girl her size could have climbed that fence either. and she looked like she was about four or five, and we had a wooden privacy fence around the entire yard, which, again, made me question how she could have ever gotten into the yard in the first place. I looked around only for a couple of moments. The rain was getting to be a bit too much for me, and when I was basically satisfied that I was crazy and that she wasn't there, I went back to the house.

I stopped on the back deck standing there, drenched and crouched. confused, just trying to piece together whether or not I had seen the girl or if I had been hallucinating. Almost as if on cue, I hear the voice again saying, it'll be okay. But this time, it was coming from behind me, which was the house. I immediately said nope and went back inside, shutting and locking the door behind me. I dried off, turned on every single light, and went back to watching SpongeBob at a volume that was way too loud. I just sat there completely ignoring every other sound that I heard from the storm,

or the house creaking and focused on the show. When my parents got home, they asked me why I was still awake, and when I tried to explain the whole thing, they laughed and said that I was probably just seeing things. I laughed and said, Yep, and then went straight to bed. I have no earthly idea what exactly this all was. Part of me is screaming that it was paranormal, as the girl didn't seem to really exist.

But I don't think that it was a black-eyed kid, as she wasn't at the door or begging to come in or anything. She was just there. I need to do some more research on them, though, because I don't know, enough about them to confidently say that it wasn't. But that's my story. Does anyone here have any thoughts?

Was this just a spirit out in the storm? Or was this something potentially much more malicious? While I was going to school to become an RN, I took a job working the front desk at a local hospital. The job itself was pretty easy. I checked people in and out, took calls, directed them to different units, scheduled appointments, pretty simple stuff. To be honest, the hardest part was probably dealing with the printer.

Even better, I typically worked the graveyard shift. My classes started around nine, so I would get off in time to sleep a few hours, go to school, eat and sleep some more, and then right back to work. So there was even less work to do overnights, unless it was a Friday or a Saturday. those seemed to be the busiest nights. And no, I didn't have much of a social life at the time. I had plenty of friends. I just chose to get straight into schooling and work as much as I physically could to save up money.

That way I could have more money and possibly free time whenever I landed my dream job. I guess I had goals, if anything. Anyways, so this happened on one of those nights. The only person to have shown up had already been called back, so the waiting room was empty. The TV was on some kind of game show, and I was sitting at the desk working on my homework. The whole front of the building was a plain wall except for a small cutout that had a glass sliding door that led into another small square glass area. Then there was another set of doors that brought you into the building. so if someone comes in straight from the front, I could see them enter both sets of doors.

However, if someone were to come in from the side lot or walk up from the side, I may not see them enter the first set of doors. That's what happened with this lady. I had my face down in my textbook when I heard the whooshing sound of the doors opening. I looked up and saw a lady approaching the counter. because of where I work I do pay attention to how people look and try to understand the current state that they may be in. And with her, I noticed right away that something was not right. She was very thin and frail-looking, but judging by her overall build, demeanor and way of talking,

she looked like she couldn't have been more than 40. She had on a huge jacket that she was nearly swimming in, which immediately alarmed me because we saw people dress like that when they were trying to hide a wound, a weapon, and for women, sometimes a very pregnant belly. Her hair was stringy and oily and pulled into a bun, and her face was sunken in with dark bags under her eyes. I asked her how I could help her,

and what she was there for, and she said she actually didn't need a doctor, but she asked for my help specifically. She was talking a mile a minute, jumping around in her story, but what I got out of it was that her car broke down and she asked if I could come look at it. She said that she was trying to get to see her mom who lived a few hours away, who had been at home dying of cancer. But that's why she ended up here. At first, I really did feel bad for her.

I knew my fair share of friends and family that had had cancer, and I knew how scary that could be. So that immediately got my sympathy. However, I was not and never have been a car person. Even though I'm a guy and I guess people expect me to know these things, I can get my own gas and check fluids, but that's about it. So I told her that I wasn't really a car guy. and she said it was okay, but insisted that I'd just come to see if I might notice anything. I again explained that I couldn't be of any help

and also said that I couldn't leave the building, since I was the only person working the front desk. She started to become more agitated and pushy on having me look at it, and as she pleaded, she started adding to her story, and it wasn't making sense. She kept saying that her kid was dying and needed to get home to her, but earlier she had said it was her mom that was dying. I was catching all these discrepancies,

and it was starting to make me feel more suspicious of the whole situation. So I tried to slow her down as I walked with her towards the door, hoping that this would also help. And I asked her what exactly was happening with her car. she, at first, wouldn't say more than it just wouldn't start. So, I tried clarifying to see if it died while she was driving or if she was trying to start it. Did she get any lights and so on? But no matter how much I tried, she would not give me any more information other than,

I don't know, it won't start. Please, can you just come look at it? The more that I questioned her, the more flustered and agitated she became. almost in tears that I wouldn't go out there, so I just stopped and asked her if she was okay, if maybe she was in some sort of trouble, which is when she finally let go of my arm and stepped back saying that she was fine. I told her that I would call a tow truck for her, as they could at least be more helpful than I was, and she screamed at me to not call anybody. I stood there, waiting to see what she would do next when she walked out,

angrily, saying, Just never mind, I'll figure it out. I stood there to see where she would walk to, and noticed that she walked to the side of the building, where I could no longer see her. I thought it was weird, but then went back to my desk. However, the whole interaction was still eating at me, so I decided to ask one of the med techs in the back

if they could watch the desk, while I stepped outside for a quick break. They agreed. I wasn't lying about that part. I could not leave the desk unattended. They agreed, and once they came up, I walked outside and towards the side of the building, staying as close to the wall as I could. That's when I saw the woman, and what I assumed to be her car, as well as some guy.

They were seeming to be in a pretty heated argument, by the way they were throwing their hands, and he was punching the car. I wasn't close enough to really hear what was being said, but the only thing I could make out was, No, you go. Even worse, after a few more minutes of back and forth, they both got in the car, him and the driver's seat and her in the passenger's seat, and then drove off, without a single issue. I went back into the building, pretty spooked at that point, and I told the guy watching the desk what had happened. He agreed that it was really suspicious, but since they left and didn't really do anything, said that ultimately there was nothing that we could do.

I continued working that night, but that weird feeling kept on lingering. What was her end goal? What was her plan after I got outside? The fact that there was a guy out there with her and that the car started just fine freaked me out. And I couldn't shake the feeling that I may have avoided a whole. horrible situation. I'm curious if anyone else has heard similar

stories like this. Could this have just been an attempted robbery? A kidnapping? I have no clue, but I try not to think about what could have happened anymore. Thankfully, I never saw them again. And I hope

that no one else ever fell for their sinister scheme. It's something else you now. Something new. From a exclusively on Paramount Plus, it's the series Stephen King calls Scary as Hell. Everything here is impossible, but it's also real. Sci-fi vision calls it the best show streaming right now. We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules.

Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From Binge All Episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. Back around 2006, I worked as a contracted security. guard. I worked at a lot of different places such as hotels, hospitals, tech and banking buildings, you name it. The job was always the same with minimal rules varying depending on the business. I have plenty of stories of weirdos trying to get past me, vindictive ex-workers and more that I'll consider sharing in the future, but the ones that freaked me out the most were the ones that I have

no explanation for. I'm by no means a small guy, and just standing within inches of someone was typically enough to get them to back off, but I will nope right the hell out of a haunted house. So, when my next contract was in a closed hotel, I was less than thrilled about the idea, but I bucked up and told myself that I could make it through the month and a half that I would be there. The hotel was empty because it had been shut down and the owner. went bankrupt. The people, or debtors, I guess, had rights to the property, the furniture and whatever else was in the building, so they hired security guards to monitor it until they were able to retrieve everything they wanted. I worked some of the day shifts when they needed

someone to cover them, but usually just worked the overnight ones. There was always a shift partner, and we were never alone, so that definitely helped a lot to keep my mind busy, so that I didn't dwell on the creepiness around me. If you've ever been in a large empty or abandoned building, you may know what I mean. The eerie silence is intense. When you look around and see the building is in good condition and looks like you should see people coming out of the pool area,

sounds of doors opening, people walking, and you just see none of this, it kind of puts you in a situation, where you feel like you should be on guard. Sorry, it's kind of hard to explain. Definitely like something bad is happening that you aren't aware of or will happen. It's just an unsettling feeling. Anyways, it was probably about 2 a.m. or so,

and my shift partner Trent and I were talking about food when we became really hungry. We didn't really have a lot of places nearby that delivered, so he offered to go grab something for us. This is where my stomach was louder than my brain. I thought I could totally handle being alone for a short amount of time until he got back, so I agreed and he left. So I was sitting there at the front desk, just waiting for time to pass. I played some stock games that was on my phone given to us by work,

and then pulled out the small rubber ball I had found earlier that was in my pocket. I started bouncing it off the floor to the wall and would catch it, and just repeat this over and over. Until one of these cycles, it was disrupted. The ball was coming back to me when it just seemed to fall to the ground. It was almost as if someone had blocked it from coming back to me, causing it to just stop. It was definitely weird, but I just chalked it up to losing momentum.

Maybe I didn't throw it very hard, I don't know. So I went to pick up the ball when I started hearing a thumping noise. It made me stand up straight, stiff as a board when I heard it. Then I noticed that the thumping was in the same pattern that I was causing with throwing the ball. Thump to the floor, thump to the wall, thump after catching it. I stood there listening to this on repeat for several cycles. I first thought that someone must be in here and maybe they're doing something. something else and it just conveniently sounded the same, or that someone was messing with me.

So I decided to check the floor above me, where it sounded like it was coming from. I took the stairs and started looking over the floor. I didn't immediately see anyone, so I continued looking down the halls, checking to see if any of the doors were open. We were given a master key that opened any and all of the doors of the hotel, including all of the rooms. But from what I could see, there were no open doors. Then I heard what sounded like a door opening or closing.

I turned to look towards the hall where I thought it was coming from and made my way in that direction. This is where I started feeling anxious. Something was not right, and I didn't know what it was. But not seeing the cause of the sound immediately was starting to be. make me panic. With my hand on my taser, I shouted out, This premise is closed to the public. You should leave now, or you will be prosecuted by the owners. I was hoping that I sounded burly and threatening and didn't let my fear show through,

but I was even more so hoping that whoever it was would just leave. However, it wouldn't be that easy. As I stood there and started to make my way down the hall, I heard it. what sounded like feet stomping or running, but I was still not seeing anything. The stomping continued to get louder and faster like it was coming towards me, and I froze not knowing what to do. Then, suddenly, I felt a strong shift in the air and it got really cold. This is where my fight or flight finally kicked in, but I wasn't about to fight something that I couldn't see, so I darted back downstairs to the first floor and out the front door. I refused to go back in that building alone. I called Trent to see where he was at,

and he said he was pretty close by, so after I hung up, I took a minute to pull myself together and went back in, but I turned all of the lights on on the bottom floor. We usually just had the light on at the desk and the lobby, but I wanted to be able to see all around. me at this point. When Trent got back, I told him that I thought I heard sounds upstairs but didn't find anything and played it off as possibly hearing things or just echoes. So he brushed it off too. We didn't have any more experiences that night.

I had to work there the next night but had a different shift partner, and he seemed nervous from the start. I'm not one to make fun of people's fears, but I did ask him. him what was up. He then explained how that place gave him a really weird, off feeling that he just couldn't shake. I asked him to explain more and he told me his past experience, which was similar to mine. He even mentioned the stomping and running noises that he'd heard. So I probably shocked him when I started rambling about my paranoia of this place too, but he agreed with me. We both joked about how under no circumstances would we go to the second floor, and we definitely weren't going

anywhere alone. After talking to some other guys that worked there, one of them mentioned how he was friends with one of the previous owners, and they told him that he felt the place was haunted, as they'd experienced the same thing. I was mentally freaking out. I was glad to know that I wasn't just being a coward, and that others were experiencing this, too. But then I also had to acknowledge that this, whatever it was, existed. I did work through it, but I tried to swap shifts as much as I could because I don't do ghosts.

Thankfully, I never had another experience, but I also avoided any situation that may have given me one. Oh, and they've since leveled the place, so Good riddance. A number of years ago, I was pretty active in a few sites that were basically like mini social media pages that weren't very well known. There was one in particular that I really enjoyed. It was a page that was dedicated to a specific game, and that's a pretty decent-sized MMO. And I like to lurk the boards and just kind of read what others were saying or talking about. I did get active on the board at one point, and that's when I ended up. up having a conversation with the person that, very quickly, became my long-distance

slash online girlfriend, Amanda. I was young and still pretty naive about things on the internet, but she and I became pretty fast friends and had a lot in common. We talked a lot in DMs on the site and discussed pretty much everything. She was the same age as me, 17, and she had a lot of the same issues that I had. Basically, she was just like me, and we hit it off pretty quickly and got close. We ended up agreeing that we should give it a shot to see what happens, and I was over the moon because I've never been much of a social butterfly, and I've only ever had one girlfriend

in my life before this point, and that was in middle school for like three months. Obviously, the relationship started on the MMO board, and we chatted there a lot. and then it went over to email so that we could get a bit more personal. It wasn't anything lewd or anything like that. It was just us talking a bit more about ourselves and saying things that we didn't feel comfortable throwing out there on a potentially unsecured forum. We emailed each other non-stop,

and I tried to go a step further and ask her if she had a Facebook account so that we could be friends on there and get a bit more into real-time communications. She told me that she didn't, and that she didn't feel safe using Facebook, because it was watched. I asked her what she meant, and she told me that, if you use Facebook, you were on a list of people that were being watched. I know that Facebook isn't exactly the best platform, and yeah, they're probably on the short list of pages that are checked by the government agencies, but they aren't interested in me. a 17-year-old from the northern part of Mississippi. But I had to respect her opinion, no matter how strange it was,

and just say that it was okay and that we could keep talking through email. After a while, she ended up messaging me and asking for a picture of myself, because she, in her words, was really falling for me and needed to know what her prince charming looked like. If that message didn't make me swoon a bit, then nothing would. I went and got my mom's digital camera and took probably the worst MySpace-style selfie that has ever existed. I was a bit of a scrawny kid, so I had to make myself look a bit bigger than I was, and with a bit of camera trickery, I made it work. When I sent it, she responded with a heart and told me that she was absolutely in love with me.

and just kept complimenting me and telling me how amazing I was. Like I said, I was elated with the fact that someone was out there giving me positive reinforcement. At this point, you may be asking which part of this was the creepy part, and that's actually still coming. In fact, it's what happened next. I will say that, at the time, I wasn't exactly super secure about my information. I wasn't paranoid or anything, but I did still keep some of my information hidden and secured. Like, I had told Amanda my first name, and she knew how my last name started, just the first letter.

She knew the city I lived in, but that was pretty much it. I guess outside of knowing what I looked like. I didn't anticipate that, with just my first name, last initial city and appearance, that she could ever find me in person. but that is exactly what happened. Kind of. A few weeks after Amanda and I had started, quote-unquote, dating and chatting a lot, she kind of went silent. I was a bit concerned, but at the same time,

I had sort of moved past the excitement of having this random online person compliment me. That may sound shallow, but that's pretty much all the conversation were. And after a bit, you kind of grow numb to the constant compliments. I kind of assumed that maybe she had moved on a bit from us as well, and just left it at that. Then, on that really awkward Saturday afternoon, I was sitting on the computer in the living room and playing the Sims. I heard a knock on the door, and I assumed it was just the mailman delivering a package or something like that. So I hopped up and went over to the door and pulled it open. And I had no idea who the person was that was standing there. The man on the other side of the door gave me a huge smile, said my name, and kind of gave a bit of what I guess was a squeal.

It was a strange happy sound. That much I remember. I kind of stared at this guy in confusion. I had no idea who he was or how the hell he knew my name, and I kind of said that to him. Like, hi, who are you? He then dropped a bombshell on me, which I'm sure that you're all expecting at this point, and said that his name was Arnold, and that he went by Amanda online.

My heart sank. This middle-aged, overweight, balding man was my online girlfriend. Amanda had told me that she was my age, and had described herself in detail, although admittedly she never gave me any photos, which I now know why. Not a single word of the description that she gave me included bald, middle-aged, overweight, male, or creep that would show up at my doorstep on a random Saturday afternoon. I replied to him with, your Amanda? The girl that I met online, Amanda?

Sort of shyly said, Well, yeah, I know I'm probably not what you'd expect, but I'm her. Now, this is where things got really awkward. My dad walked into the room and asked me who it was at the door. I can't even begin to explain the feeling that hit me. I had no idea how to explain to my dad. that this guy at the door was pretending to be a 17-year-old girl online, and that we were dating, and that he had somehow found where I lived, and was now at the front door.

I tried to say that he was just some guy, but he cut me off and said, I love your son, and I drove almost ten hours to meet him. I'm not going to get into the whole conversation or everything that happened, but I will say that my dad was very confused, and then very angry. Amanda, or I guess Arnold, tried to keep saying that we were lovers and that he was there to come get me and that we were going to live together, and a bunch of other really creepy things that did not help my situation at all. My dad then told Arnold that if he didn't get off the property, he was going to leave in an ambulance, and after a bunch of arguing and the police

showing up, he did end up leaving. He hadn't actually done anything. There were no lewd comments ever made between us, no promises of anything, so technically all he did was show up on the doorstep of a minor that he met online, which, I guess, isn't a crime in and of itself. So he was basically told to drive off. Obviously, that was the last time that me and Amanda, or Arnold, ever saw. spoke, and I blocked his email.

This was absolutely too creepy and awkward for me, and it absolutely destroyed my trust in people online. I'm older now, and a lot smarter about things, and I don't really have any reason to develop friendships on the internet. One side effect of this is that I, now, just assume that everyone online is a 50-something-year-old, balding man that's overweight, which has kind of become a running joke on the internet. If the situation wasn't so terrifying for me at the time,

I could almost laugh at the fact that I lived through it. Long time lurker, first time poster here. After having spent hours reading so many truly terrifying tales on this forum, I finally decided that it wouldn't hurt to share my own, and that maybe it could help others stay out of similar situations. This happened to me a very long time ago, and it still haunts me to this day, and it's the reason that I vowed to never get into a car with a stranger ever again. I won't even get an Uber because of the possibility of something like this happening again, and I'm way beyond college-aged now. At the time, I was a deeply broke college student.

I had made a very dumb mistake of going home to my very unsupportive parents for the holidays that year, and that was a mistake that I will never live down because of all this. It's not really relevance to the story, but I'm not the person that my father wanted me to be. I live a lifestyle that he abhors, and he was very clear that because I am quote-unquote different. He no longer loved me, and that, to him, I was dead. Then, that year, I thought I would go ahead and get a bus to make the long trip to them to surprise them for Christmas. That lasted about a day.

My father refused to talk to me, and the only time he did say anything to me was to tell me that he wished I would keel over so that he never had to see my face again. Of course, my mother was never willing to go against his wishes, so she just sat there and let him say it. Sorry, this was a bit of a tangent, but it does show that my home life was tumultuous, to say the least. Longer story short, after that first night, my father told me to get out. So I did. I grabbed my bag and I walked out the front door. The only problem with that was that I didn't have a lot of money and now I needed to get all the way back to my apartment, which, if I had to walk, was going to be a very, very long.

long walk. Add that on to the fact that this was December, and it was snowing. It was more likely that I would end up dead on the side of the road about a quarter of the way there. So, I did the next best thing. I decided that I would trust some random stranger to get me, at least part of the way there, or somewhere that I could afford to take a bus to get closer and then repeat the cycle. After about an hour of walking and waving down cars as they passed, an older rusted pickup truck actually slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. I was a little hesitant, but the cold wind was absolutely making me less susceptible to red flags. When I got to the window, it was a middle-aged looking man with a scruffy beard, older, slightly tattered clothing, including the generic lumberjack

plaid overshirt. He looked like someone you would expect to drive an old slightly rusted out pickup truck in the middle of December in the Midwest. He reached over, rolled down his window, and asked where I was headed. I told him that my destination was where I lived, but then said that I would appreciate literally going anywhere in that direction. He then said that he could probably get me about halfway if I could spare a few bucks for gas.

I told him I could do that and tossed my bag into the back under his tarp, and then I hopped into the passenger seat. As we began down the road, the conversation was cordial enough. He was making small talk about himself, what he did, asking me what I was doing out in the cold. I told him that it was a family thing, and that I was no longer welcome at home anymore. He sort of scoffed when I said that,

and then said something about how parents aren't supposed to abandon their kids. I noticed that as he was talking, though, he kind of kept glancing over at me. His eyes lingering a bit, his hands kept hitting the seat near my leg. I was really hoping that I was just imagining it, and maybe he was just really relaxed with strangers and talked a lot with his hands. But I kept my guard up a bit more than normal. My instincts were starting to tell me that something was a bit off. After a little while, he kind of circled back to the family question,

asking me what the family dispute was about because I had been a bit vague when he asked the first time. I mentioned that my dad was less than accepting of who I was, and he kept prying, asking what it was about me that my father had an issue with. I tried to dance around it a bit. But after being asked numerous different ways, I had to just tell him that it was because of my sexuality. My dad was unhappy with the fact that I was gay, and that because of it, he had disowned me. I will say that when this happened, the world was a lot less accepting of people, which is why I was a bit evasive of the question. after I said this, the man nodded and basically reiterated that a parent should never abandon their child,

which made me let my guard down, just a little bit, thinking that maybe he was on my side. Of course, the bells started ringing when the man took a turn onto an exit ramp off the highway, and then started down a bit more into a remote area. As he drove, I started to take in everything around me. noting various buildings and landmarks just in case things went south. I won't say what he said to me next, but I will say that, despite his comments about how it was wrong that my parents didn't accept me, he very clearly did not accept me either, and he knew that my life was in his hands.

Then he mentioned that he was sorry for what he had to do, because I seemed like a nice enough kid. But he didn't have a choice. I tried to play dumb and ask him what it was he meant, and he kind of just laughed and started to reach for something in the center console of the truck. I knew exactly where this was going to go. And thankfully at this point, he had pretty much slowed down to a stop, so as he reached, I unlocked my door and I hit the ground running.

As soon as I jumped out, I could hear him screaming at me, yelling about how I wasn't going to get far, and that me running was just going to make it hurt more. I ran in the direction of where I knew the nearest buildings would be, and I did what I could to hide in the trees off to the side of the road to make sure that he didn't find me. I have no idea how the hell I got away, but I did. Honestly, I'm not even sure if the man really looked for me,

or if he had just accepted that I had gotten away, and that he had successfully scared the hell out of me. The part that really sucked was that I had to leave my bag in the back of his truck, so I lost all of my clothes. I had my wallet on my person, so at least he didn't get that. I took a few minutes in the woods to catch my breath and just waded out, but then started off toward the gas station that I had noted earlier. Thankfully, nothing further really happened.

I got to the station, and I told the clerk what happened, and he offered to call the police for me. I took him up on this offer. The cops showed up, and I tried to tell them what happened, but of course they didn't really seem to care. Because I was making a report on this, though, they did offer to drive me to the station, and then from there I could at least get to the bus stop and wait for the next bus. if nothing else, the guy had driven me quite a bit closer, so it was much easier for me to get home from there. I never hitchhiked again after that, like I mentioned above,

and I got a really good lesson on trusting people. Some people have this deep, ingrained hate that they will not let go of, no matter how friendly they are. Obviously I got home okay after that, but I pretty much never went anywhere that wasn't available by a bus, and I got my own car soon afterwards, so that I could just drive myself. To anyone out there that reads this, please do be careful, and remember that not everyone, no matter how polite, will be a good person. Trust your gut, find alternative ways to travel.

and do everything you can to avoid situations that don't feel right. I have a strange and creepy thing that happened to me a while back, and honestly it's something that I genuinely cannot explain. I used to be a driver for a rideshare service that's pretty well known, and because of that, I was out on the road for a lot of the afternoon and evening. I would typically do the job until around 10 p.m. at night, and then head home from there, and go to bed to wake up to do my day job. It was a rough schedule to follow, and I was losing a lot of sleep because of it, but it is what it is. This whole thing took place in mid-April, and we were getting hit with some pretty intense spring storms.

Where I live, we get the major rain and thunderstorms through April, to the point of getting tornadoes. But money is money, and I was at the point where I needed to get paid. Plus, rainstorms meant that there was a chance of more clients, because people don't want to walk out in the rain. I was out taking the riders to where they needed to go, and I had finished what I planned to be my last ride, and I was heading back to the gas station.

I then saw a young man walking on the side of the road, soaking wet. Part of me said that he was fine, but the other part of me thought that I should ask him if he was okay, at the very least, because I would want people to do that for me. I pulled over, careful not to splash him as I stopped, and rolled down the window asking if he needed a ride. At first he seemed a bit standoffish and hesitant, but, after a few moments he nodded and thanked me, then walked around and got into the passenger seat.

I asked him where he needed to go, and he asked me if I could take him to the Walmart that was in town. I lived over in that direction, so I was more than willing to do so. I mentioned that I could get him there and mentioned that I did have to stop at the gas station, though, because I was about to be on E. He said that was fine,

and that he could use something to drink anyways. We headed off, and the whole time we were driving, he just kind of stared at the road, not saying anything. I didn't want to push him into any small talk if he wasn't comfortable. I just mentioned the storm and said it was pretty crazy, and he nodded with a slight smile. The whole ride, this guy looked like he was really upset, like he wanted to cry but was holding it back.

which was why I really didn't want to push him into chatting. We pulled up to the gas station, and I parked at the pump, and he just kind of stood around for a moment while I filled my tank. I then asked if he was going to go inside to get his drink, and he mentioned that he didn't have his wallet, that he left it behind. I could tell that this kid was going through a tough time, so I told him that I would buy his drink if he wanted it,

and again he seemed a bit standoffish. I said that it was fine, and that I would be happy to do so so long as he paid it forward and helped someone else out in need in the future. He nodded and again thanked me. We walked into the gas station, the guy at the counter greeted us,

and as soon as we got in, the guy said that he was going to use the restroom really quick. I said okay, and I watched him walk toward the back where the restrooms were. I then went over and got my soda and then waited near the counter. After a few minutes,

the clerk kind of looked at me and asked if I needed help with anything, and I said that I was just waiting for the guy that came in with me. He gave me a very confused stare. I mentioned that the guy I came in with had gone to the restroom and then said that I was just giving him

a ride to the Walmart. He then said, you didn't come in with anyone, sir. I described the guy in detail, and mentioned that when we walked in, he went straight to the restroom. The clerk said that that was impossible, because the restrooms were locked after 9 p.m.

And in order to use them, you had to get the key, and he still had the key. He then pulled the key out from under the desk, attached to a little keychain animal, thing, and said that in order to get into the restroom, he would have had to have used that key. I was a bit confused. I watched the kid go into the restroom, or at least I thought I did. I watched him go to the door and reach for it and then went to get my soda, which was by the

front counter. The restroom was in front of me the whole time until I was standing there by the counter, waiting for the guy to come out. At which point, I was near the hole where it was. I asked if I could go check on him in the restroom, because I was certain that he was in there, and the clerk said that that was fine. He handed me the key, and I went to the restroom. I knocked, and when I got no answer, I unlocked it. It was completely empty, and it looked like it hadn't been used for a few hours.

I looked back at the hallway and there was no exit there. It was just the one door to the restroom and the closet where all the soda syrup pumps were. There was literally nowhere to go in this area. He was nowhere to be seen. At no point could he have exited this hallway with the restroom without me seeing him. There was no exit, hole, window, or method that he could have gotten out of the building. I walked up and just kind of stared at the clerk like, What the hell?

He returned my very confused look and asked if I was okay. I kind of mumbled that I must have been losing my mind and just paid for my soda, thanking the clerk for his time and help. I walked out to my car and sat there in the driver's seat and just pondered what the hell this hall was. There was no way for him to have gotten out of that station without me seeing. him, outside of him somehow climbing through the ceiling. Which, yeah, I don't think that happened.

The clerk said that he didn't see me walk in with anyone, which makes me think that this kid never existed. But he got in my car, and I spoke to him, and I drove him to the gas station. I honestly have no idea what to make of this event, and it's one of those things that's serious. messed with me for this last year. I swear that this kid existed. I swear he got in my car and walked

into the station. But everything else seems to point at him never having existed. Was this some kind of spirit? Did I give a ride to a ghost or some kind of paranormal anomaly? I have no clue. And I honestly don't think I'm ever going to know.

I have a story that honestly sounds like a bit of an urban legend, but it actually happened to me back whenever I had moved to the small town that I used to live in, back in the spring of 2003. I don't want to give out my exact location, but I will say that I lived in a small town in the southern part of the Midwest, in a town that was definitely more rural than urban. It was a nice little community. and I chose to move there because the company I worked for was expanding into the neighboring city, which was only about a 20-minute drive.

I wanted to be close to my new home office, but I kind of wanted to avoid actually living in the city itself. So I compromised and moved into the small town on the outskirts. Like I mentioned, it was nice. And for the most part it was just the people who lived there, a general store, the church and a few other small businesses. As is the case with most small towns, there were a few warnings to those that were new,

specifically to avoid certain places outside of the town to the west, which is where the whole urban legends thing comes into play. Nothing screams campfire story, like being told to avoid two places, the old mines, and the forest that had grown over it. I actually asked someone why I should avoid the forest and if it was because the land was unstable from the mine.

And they told me that there were things that were far worse in the woods than unstable ground. Again, I know this literally sounds like a horror movie because that's what I was thinking the entire time. I had just moved there. I was being warned of things in the woods, and people were being ominous about everything involved. This was literally the plot to a scary movie that I swear I saw back in the early 90s. And, much like those movies, I was going to go ahead and just treat these warnings as noise. I wasn't much of a rebel. I just wasn't going to let some nonsense pull me away from the walking trails, out in the

unincorporated parts of the hiking areas. When I moved to the town, I told myself that, on the weekends, I was going to make more time to become in tune with nature, and that I was going to take my dog, Maddie, hiking out in the woods so that she could get used to it as well. About a month into living there, I finally decided that it was time to put my plan into action. It was a bright and beautiful spring. time Saturday, it was warm, the sun was out early and the air was just perfect. When I got up, I knew right then and there that this would be the day that I took Maddie

out onto the trails for a nice hike, and that it would be the start of a new hobby for us. I got dressed for it, got Maddie all sorted out, got a backpack full of water and food just in case, as well as whatever essentials I thought we would need. And I was beyond ready to go. We drove out to the walking paths and parked in the lot near the park. I took a while to study the map that was posted and look at how the trail curved, made a note of how things were situated in my head, in case I got lost and had to use a compass to get back.

Being 2003, I didn't have a smartphone or GPS on me to get back anywhere. And then, after a good amount of debating, I went ahead with the plan and started out into the woods. Now, my plan had me going on the walking trail that would circle back from the west, around the south, and then reconnect at the east. However, at the furthest south part of the trail, you could keep going and could hit that spot of land that people had warned me about. I, of course, I was going to check this area out. if for no other reason, I was going to prove that it was all just a bunch of Bologna. Maddie and I got out onto the trails, walked around,

and after a while I decided that I was at the right spot and started to head off the trail towards where the area was, then I was told to not go. At first, it wasn't that bad. It was just a thicker area of the trees with no real distinct markings. But after a while, it started to be able to do it. started to get a bit strange. As I pressed on, I noticed that there were spots

where the trees seemed to just be dead, completely lifeless. Which isn't necessarily too out there, but it was weird to see random trees that were just completely void of leaves in the middle of this lush forest. As I moved south,

the dead trees seemed to become more abundant, until I hit a circle of them that was completely brown and decrepit. At this point, Maddie started whimpering and pushing against my leg, as if she was trying to let me know that something was wrong. At this point, my courage turned to genuine curiosity. Something was really strange here, and I kind of wanted to go a bit deeper to see what I could see. I pressed into the dead zone until I got into an area where it was more open.

This circle of dead trees wasn't huge. It was just dense and obvious, and in the middle there was a clearing that was decent sized that seemed to have been cut out. As I entered into the clearing, the air seemingly grew colder, and it hit a level of silence that was painful. I could hear my heartbeat, my breathing, and the soft whimpering that Maddie was holding back. I stood there in the clearing, looking around, and trying to piece together what exactly it was, when I noticed that the air felt, I guess, stale is the word I want to use. And it had a smell to it that was just empty. I tried to walk further into the center of the opening, but Maddie was refusing to move,

which was incredibly unlike her. She was an adventurous dog, and usually did not disobey me. if I tried to pull her in a direction. And to see her like this made me hit that point that I was second-guessing my actions. If she was this scared, then something was going on. I decided that it was time to go ahead and go back, that I'd spent enough time investigating this mystery. As I turned to walk back the way I came, the silence was broken by what sounded like a stringed instrument. like a violin.

I know that that sounds really weird, but as I was walking away, I started to hear something that sounded like somebody playing a single, out of tune, and constant note on a violin. That was my absolute breaking point. My slow pace doubled, and I pulled on Maddie's leash and told her to come. We started with the fast walk,

but moved into a jog to get back to the trail. which we did, thankfully. When we got back to the trail, everything seemed to be back to normal. It was warmer, the air was moving, and life had returned to the forest. I stopped to catch my breath, take a big drink of water, and tell myself that I would literally never go back that way again. After a few moments, I got back to my walk. We still had half the trail to go before we could get to the car. I felt fine.

A little freaked out over what we saw as it was definitely unnatural, but Maddie, on the other hand, was kind of freaking me out. Every few minutes or so, she would pause and look back in the direction of where we were. And each time, she would let out a whimper and try to pull me to keep me going. She did this for the rest of the walk back to the car, like she was waiting for something to follow us. or like she thought there was something there in the distance. Thankfully, she stopped doing this after we got home,

and she hasn't had that level of paranoia since then. We also haven't gone back on that trail since that day. Because I didn't want to get too close to it all. The whole feeling was unnerving and terrifying. But I think I was actually feeling a bit more scared with how Maddie was acting on the rest of the hike. I feel like she felt something was following us, like she knew it was there and she was keeping a close eye on it the rest of that hike. Part of me wonders if something did try to follow me out of there,

but just didn't? For some reason? I don't know. Obviously, I wasn't the only one to have dealt with this. Considering people had warned me, which just makes me more curious as to what exactly it was. some kind of break between our world and the supernatural, some kind of demonic ground,

I have no idea. I no longer live in that town, and, unfortunately, Maddie did pass away a couple of years ago. But the memories of that hike, the feeling I got when I found that clearing, and the way that she reacted, that sound that I heard and just, everything about it.

Those memories have never left me and they probably never will. So, this is something that happened to me when I was much younger. I recently watched a YouTube

video that reminded me of this and I wanted to share it with you. Back whenever I was about eight or nine, I believe, I went to an Easter egg hunt with my family, at our local church. Now, at the time, we lived in the middle of nowhere within the Midwest, and the state or county

had recently started projects to expand the area. It was mostly just open acreage, but wasn't even being used for agriculture. So, I guess they just saw a lot of opportunity. Signs and fencing started going up all over where they were going to be building an apartment complex, some sort of strip mall, another grocery store, and even planned on expanding some of the roads. I was a kid, so I didn't really understand all of it. I just remember my dad not being too keen on the idea, and my mom was constantly being optimistic about it.

I just thought it was cool, because our teacher mentioned that we could be getting a new school eventually. Sorry for the run on there, but it is a little relative. to my story. And we attended the same church for as long as I could remember. And every year, they held an Easter egg hunt as well as their normal Easter service. On this year, with one of the apartment complexes being completed and applications being accepted, the church wanted to do something bigger, to hopefully attract more attendees.

They had signs everywhere, and kept mentioning that the egg hunt was going to be here. huge, and it was. I remember my family, which consisted of my parents, myself, and my little sister all being there. I had an older brother, but he was too old to do the egg hunt, so he was with his friends from church at the time. We all went to the yard behind the church to prepare for the hunt. The yard out back was huge. There were trees scattered within the flat grassy area, and then further back was another line of trees. I think that there was a walking path back there, but I also never went, so I wasn't sure at the time.

They hid the eggs all over the place. Within the yard, in the grass, the bushes, in crevices of trees and branches, there was a small side parking lot that was blocked off because they had a few booths over there for games and food. And there were even some eggs hidden over there, too. us kids had free reign of the area to hunt them, but we're told to try to leave the ones just sitting in the grass for the very young kids, which was fine. I was very competitive at things like this, and maybe even candy motivated. They weren't all candy, though. Some had small trinkets in them, coins or small bills, and some had Bible verses. So, since they weren't all candy, that meant that they were all candy.

I wanted to get even more, to increase the chances of the candy that I got. Anyways, as the egg hunt began, my parents told me that I could go wherever I wanted, while they held back to help my little sister. So, I immediately went by the parking lot and got a lot over there. I even grabbed a few that I found from the trees. I liked to climb the tree in our front yard, so it wasn't hard for me to do the same to get the eggs. now because I was looking at my bag quickly filling up it motivated me even more to continue

and I thought of the genius idea to check all of the trees I climbed up several of them and I found even more this led me further away from the main group and closer to the forest of trees in the far back and before I realized it I had made my way in to those trees after searching a few more and no longer

longer finding any eggs, I decided that I probably went too deep and that I should leave. However, as I looked around, I couldn't figure out which way I had come from, which way was the way out and which way was getting deeper. And even worse, I didn't see a path anywhere like I was expecting. I thought maybe I could remember a tree that stood out to me, one with some kind of memorable markings or anything, yet I found nothing. I continued to walk aimlessly, but it was getting me nowhere. Being so young, the only thing I had left to do was scream out and cry. I fell to the ground and sobbed for a bit, thinking of all the different things that could

possibly happen. At the time, I didn't think about just continuing to walk in one direction until I found an exit. I just assumed that I would get deeper in. into the woods and get even more lost. As I sat there, I opened one of my eggs and I ate a piece of candy. While I did this, I heard a crunch from the ground and looked up. Near a tree that was a few feet ahead of me, there was a woman standing there and looking at me. Seeing a random person in the woods with me startled me at first, but the lady herself wasn't scary at all.

Nor did she throw off any red flags. In fact, I remember thinking that she looked like she was straight out of a fairy tale. She was wearing a wispy dress. It's the only way that I know how to explain it, as well as a fluffy and patchy knit jacket. She had long-braided copper-colored hair that also looked frazzled towards the top. She had a brown burlap bag strapped to her back and was also carrying another bag by hand. Her face looked kind and concerned, though. After my initial jump, I asked who she was, and she just asked,

Are you lost? You shouldn't be in here by yourself, but you know that already, don't you? I confirmed that I was indeed lost and explained how the Easter egg hunt had distracted me. She slowly approached and said that she wasn't going to hurt me, and began to dig around in one of her bags. Then she sat down across from me and handed me something wrapped in paper. I stared at it for a moment, and she told me that it was a sandwich and that I could have it, as a way to prove that she was nice.

Again, a few things here. I was nine years old. I guess you could say that I wasn't really talked to about stranger danger due to the small town that we lived in, and that everybody knew everyone else. I guess they didn't really find it was necessary. I'm not sure of their reasoning, but this is me, explaining my next actions. Also, I had breakfast that morning and we wouldn't be eating until later for our Easter dinner. Combined that with running around and climbing trees, yeah, I was pretty hungry.

I unwrapped the sandwich and took it apart to see that it was just bologna and cheese and mayonnaise. I didn't like mayonnaise, though, so I scraped it off the best that I could and just ate it with one slice of bread. As I ate it, she just watched me with her chin resting on her hands. As I finished it, she started asking me about things such as my name, my age, if I had any siblings, where I went to school, just simple things. As I answered her, I started feeling more and more relaxed and calm. I don't feel like it lasted very long, but after some talking, I asked who she was, and if she was lost too. She just smiled and said, Oh, I'm just lucky.

I remember at the time thinking that must be her name, partially because we used to have a dog named Lucky. And I told her this. This made her laugh, and she seemed happy to hear me talk about Lucky. Shortly after, she then told me that my parents were probably worried about me, and that I should go. I agreed, but then made a comment about not knowing how to get out. She gave me another one of her soft smiles, took my hand, and said that she would help me, and started leading me in one direction.

We came up to a tree that had a lot of vines wrapping around it, and she stopped. She told me to keep walking in the direction that we were, and to not turn whatsoever, and to not look back. She then said I would find my way out before I could count to a hundred. At my age, I thought that that wasn't honest. thing to say, but I just smiled, bragged about my counting skills, and began walking. It wasn't long after that that I found a break in the trees, and I could hear a few people shouting my name. But right before I continued walking, I heard the lady clearly say, Goodbye, Chase. And since I wasn't good at following directions, I looked back. But the lady was

gone. However, one of the reasons I was looked back was because of what she had said. My name is Alexander, and I had told her that earlier. But I hate the nickname Alex. So a lot of people call me by my middle name, which was Chase. If anything, I would have expected this lady to call me Alexander, or maybe Alex, but not Chase. How would she have known that?

In perplexed, I continued through the trees and nearly fell over a small edge of dirt, I saw a few people that I recognized standing around and several people shouting my name, including my mother. She sounded frightened, so I shouted back for her, and everyone turned to look at me. My mom ran over to me and asked where I had been, and I just told her that I got lost in the woods. She quickly disciplined me for going in there, but then just asked if I was hurt or anything. I shook my head and told her about the lady that had helped me out. out. She looked at me confused and looked back towards the trees, but then just picked me up and brought me back over towards the church. The thing I hadn't realized at the time was that it had

been several hours since I went into those woods. It certainly didn't feel like I was gone that long, but that's why everyone was so concerned. They were about to call 911. Later that night, I tried to explain to my parents what had happened, and I described the lady that helped me. I remember the look on their face was one of disbelief at the time, probably thinking that I exaggerated some details, but it was all real. Every detail I remember about her was so vivid that I have not forgotten. I've been in those woods since I've gotten older, both alone and with my older brink. brother, but I've never seen that woman again. I've even talked to other people that have gone into those woods, and they said they've never

experienced anything like this before. However, since that experience, every time I've gone in there, I've had this strong sense of peace and felt safe, like there's someone that is always watching over me. I have never seen or had anything like this happen. A little backstory. It was my ex and I living in a one-bedroom apartment, the one that I still reside in today. This older guy I had met, Dan, owned this house with four different units, all one-bedroom. Well, he got lung cancer, and boom, six months later, he was gone.

his grandmother originally owned this place, and I'm not sure of who owned it before her. Anyways, after he passed, my ex and a neighbor who lived in one of the other units, Sharon, decided to make a Ouija board and do it. Now, Sharon was Dan's niece, and they were curious to see if they would get any answers. Neither of them know how to safely use Ouija, and when I had found out about it, this, I was a little upset, as I've had experiences with them before. None really good, to be honest. I don't like that you have to give an entity permission to use your body as a conduit to move the planchet. I prefer spirit boxes or other methods. At this point, I've always been interested in

the paranormal and have had experiences, but nothing quite like what I'm about to detail. So, a couple of days go by. I've forgotten all about the Ouija board. I'm getting home from work. I work the second shift, so it was past midnight, and my ex was also working so the lights were off. And it was dark when I arrived. I come through the door to see shimmering bits of light reflecting off of my living room floor.

I quickly turned on a light and was shocked to see a tempered glass pain that had come from a coffee table, I had put it on top of my wooden coffee table. Well, I start recording as I thought somebody had possibly broken in. I checked the place first, obviously, and it's not like it's a big place for anyone to hide. But the glass pane had exploded wall-to-wall with glass. I still find glass to this day from that table.

Now, it had all spidered out. from a covered candle that happened to be used in the Ouija session. I've dropped stuff on this table, and it's had its fair share of usage, but the only thing I'm aware of that can create the force that was needed for this glass pane to explode would be a rapid temperature change, which it was summertime in New England, or something contacting it just right to make it shatter. But this wasn't just a shatter. the entire chunks were blown off of the table in every direction.

It was quite spooky, honestly. When my ex got home, I was recording the video, and she was just as uneasy about this as me. Long story, kind of short, that event kicked off a month long of intense, poltergeist activity, that neither of us had experienced before. It was getting to the point where we were lost as to what to do. get a priest? I had sage cleansed the place, but it actually made things worse. The last straw for me is when we had just gotten home from grocery shopping, about a week after the table.

And I know beyond a doubt that I placed the cat litter on the kitchen table. My ex left to go back to the store because we forgot something, so I went outside to have a cigarette. And I can see my front door, but I can't see inside the house. My cat was outside with me sitting by the window. Now, the cat litter bag was made of a plastic that had a very distinct sound, and then all of the sudden I heard what sounded like someone picking it up, placing it on the floor, and then tipping it over.

I heard and felt the thud as it hit the ground gently. My cat's ears were straight up and extremely focused on whatever was happening inside the house. I go up to the door, which has a window on it. Without entering, I look through in the cat litter bag was in the middle of my kitchen floor. I mean, we would have had to have walked around it. To be sure I wasn't going insane, I called my ex Becky and asked her what I did with the bag of litter. She said that I put it on the table, and I know that I did. There were a couple of other events that led up to this.

so I'm laughing in just pure shock as to what the hell is going on and then I decided to enter the apartment as soon as I tried to take a step in well the only way I can describe it is that I felt something passed through me I started shaking uncontrollably and that persisted for hours and then I started crying but it didn't feel like my emotions

I was baffled and had no idea why I was crying. Becky got home and asked me why I was crying, and I was just like, I don't know. And then laughed. But, yeah, totally the most bizarre thing I have ever experienced. My conclusion is that I'm not sure if it was a coincidence or what. But someone gave me some Native American stuff to try, and it did taper off after that, which was a relief. My honest opinion

is whatever they made contact with on the Ouija board was not our friend Dan who had recently passed. It was malevolent, for sure, as it was getting more and more aggressive, and it literally felt heavy in here. I would get home from work and would sit down, but would all of a sudden feel this overwhelming presence. Like, very oppressive.

Your body can sense the same. stuff. Like, have you ever entered a room where people were just arguing or something, and you can just feel the tension in the air? And your instincts kick in trying to tell you that something is off. No, that's what it would feel like. If I figure out how to add the video, then I will. Have any of you had similar experiences like this? I mean, this made me open my eyes quite a bit, and started rabbit-hulling with the subject as I find it fascinating. So, yeah, I'm just curious what you guys think about this story, or if you've had any similar experiences.

The story is hard for anyone who didn't see what happened to believe. Sometimes it's still hard for me to believe, but I'm hoping that someone on here can relate or explain. About three years ago, I was in my hometown with some friends, and it was around 12 at night. night. We were near these soccer fields in our town, and there were six of us packed into a vehicle. We were at the top of this hill that overlooked the soccer fields, and at the edge of the field there was a thick tree line. As a group of kids about to head to college after that summer, you can probably imagine what we were all doing there at that time of night. This is one reason nobody believes any of us when we tell them what all six of us saw.

Anyways, I'm in the middle row of seats, and we're all talking, laughing, just doing our thing, and all of a sudden the two people in the front starts to freak out. And I mean like panic, scared kind of freak out. They started saying that we should go because they saw something really weird in the tree line across from us. We all laughed at them and blew it off and continued what we were doing. A couple of minutes later, the two people next to me, start to also say that they saw whatever it was in the tree line. At this point, I'm getting nervous too, but I still hadn't seen what they were talking about.

I asked what it looked like. They told me it looked like a big, blue person. I laughed so hard that I thought my friends were all in on some kind of prank to make me scared or something. But then they made me keep looking where they had seen the entity. about two minutes passed, and as we sat there in silence waiting, I saw it. Across in the tree line, what looked like a transparent yet solid blue being slowly stepped out of the trees.

It looked like there was energy flowing through its human-like body. It was a light yet bold blue color. The entity had to be seven or eight feet tall, and we all confirmed that we were seeing the same thing and described it to each other. The being stood there for a minute and then turned around and walked back into the woods. We waited there in disbelief for a while before deciding that we should get out of there. I tell a lot of people about this story

and hopes that one day someone will believe what happened or give some sort of explanation. Hello, Raven. I've been a fan of your stories for a while now, and I've particularly enjoyed the trucker stories that you've done. And while my story may not be a trucker story, it was one where I was on the road, and I thought I should go ahead and share it with you and your audience.

This was a long time ago. I don't want to say when, exactly, as it would date me, and I don't like to think about how old I am. let's just say it was a number of years ago at this point. I've never shared this story anywhere else online, but maybe by sharing it, I could help out others that could be in potentially dangerous situations. It was sometime in the middle of autumn when this happened.

It wasn't too cold yet, but it was starting to hit that point in the fall, where it starts to rain a lot, and the rain is really cold. like when the weather is wanting to shift over to snow but it isn't quite there yet. You live in the Midwest, you know what I'm talking about. It was starting to get dark, and I was driving home from a long day at work, and I was just kind of staring off at the road trying to keep myself from dozing off until I got home.

The sun was starting to set. There was a light fog that was trying to lift itself up through the rain, and really, it was just a lovely autumn scene. I live a bit out of the main town that I'm near, so I have to take some back roads to get to my neighborhood, meaning that I don't really run into a lot of traffic, be it other cars or foot traffic. I rounded one of the corners near my home,

and as I did, I noticed a man walking a bit up the road with his hand out stretched like he was waving at me. My first thought was, this guy needs help, and I've always been a compassionate guy. So, despite the inherent risk, I figured there was no harm in at least pulling over to see if he was okay, or if it was an emergency. I couldn't have lived with myself if I drove by and then found out that it was something serious that I could have helped with. I pulled over, and I rolled down the window asking the man what was going on. if he needed help. He looked like a pretty normal guy.

Longer, slicked back hair, probably in his late 20s or early 30s, business casual-looking clothing, and a well-trimmed but thick beard. This may sound weird to some, but if I had to stereotype him, I would say that he looked like the kind of guy that would work at best by for the geek squad. I know that that sounds kind of weird, but that's where I would place him if I had to. As soon as I rolled down the window and asked if he was okay, he leaned into the window. He asked if he could get a ride to town, which was about six or so miles in the opposite direction. I asked whereabouts in town he needed to go, and he mentioned a small apartment complex on the opposite end,

which wasn't too bad. I knew the area, as it was the complex that I lived in before I bought my house, so I told him that I could go ahead and give him a ride. He mentioned that he didn't have any money or anything that he could give me for it, and I told him that I didn't care, and I was just happy to help him get out of the rain. He shot me a smile, thanked me for my generosity, and then pulled the door open. He tossed a backpack into the pack and sat in the passenger seat. Now, I'm a pretty big guy, so I wasn't really feeling threatened by him. He seemed pretty relaxed, so really it was just a matter of getting him there and trusting that he wouldn't pull anything crazy. I pulled into a driveway, turned around, and headed back, and while I was driving, I tried to make some small talk.

He seemed pretty willing to talk about things, so, again, I wasn't really getting any red flags. I asked him his name. He told me that his name was Alan. I asked him why he was out walking in the rain like that, and his answer was vague, but was basically, I was told I wasn't welcome where I was anymore. I assumed that this meant that he was just kicked out, and I wasn't going to push it. After this, though, I noticed that his answers, started getting shorter, or he would just chuckle slightly when I would say something, and his focus just stuck to the road that we were driving on. Like, his eyes almost started to look vacant,

and his smile was just a flat frown as he kept his head looking forward. After driving a bit more, the rain really started to pick up, and it was getting to a point that I was struggling to see where I was going. I mentioned that the storm was getting pretty bad, He sort of grunted in response, and I followed it up with, uh, if you could, just point out where I need to turn. I don't want to miss it. After I said that, he lifted his hand and motioned to a parking lot by what used to be a gas station, but was vacant at this point.

He softly asked me to pull over into the parking lot, and I confusingly obliged. I wasn't sure why he wanted me to do so, but I guess, that he'd had his reasons. I pulled in, parked the car, and assumed that he was going to say something or just get out. He sat there for a few, very uncomfortable seconds. Like I mentioned, I wasn't physically threatened by this man, but this was...

Well, it was unsettling. The dead look on his face, the fact that he was just sitting there silently and staring at nothing, I asked if he was okay, and I could see that he was starting to cry, like tears were welling up in his eyes and falling down his cheek. I felt bad, but at the same time, this whole thing was very weird. After just staring for a few more seconds, he turned to look at me with an unnerving intensity,

the tears still streaming down his face. He very quietly asked me, what my name was, and I told him, just saying, oh, it's, uh, then my name. He kept to stare on me and nodded slowly, like he was agreeing that it was my name or something. A few more silent seconds passed by until he spoke again, and when he did, he said, well, I want you to know that you're lucky. You're not the one that I'm looking for tonight. He then reached behind himself to grab his backpack, shoved my door open, and just walked away from the car out into the storm.

I was left shaken and confused, completely unsure of what the hell had just transpired. I watched him walk out into the rain and continue down the road, but after a few seconds I realized that I needed to get away from there, just in case he changed his mind. I threw it in reverse, and I drove off with my hands tightly gripping the steering wheel. I spent the rest of the drive home with my heart racing, just trying to process what he meant and who he was. Over the years, I have oftentimes wondered about Alan and what that meant. Who was he looking for? What was he planning on doing to the person he was looking for? And what would have happened if I had been that person?

The memory of the whole thing still haunts me, and it made me way more cautious when dealing with strangers. I can tell you that I've never picked up another hitchhiker since that day. I'm not saying that every person is like Alan, and maybe he wasn't even saying that in a threatening way, but I am saying that being vigilant and trusting your instincts can potentially save your life. or keep you out of these kinds of situations. My simple act of kindness

could have potentially been a brush with something malicious. And because of it, I now have this chilling story of a hitchhiker that scared the hell out of me. A couple of years ago, my boyfriend planned a surprise birthday party for me, and I was sufficiently surprised by it. It was also where this story

of mine took place. To go back a little bit first, my boyfriend and I have been together since high school. After we graduated, we started attending different colleges and he was a few hours away, so he was staying in the dorms. I was attending a local community college, so I found an apartment within my budget, with the plans of my boyfriend moving in when he was done. College was fine for the most part. It seemed like the normal school stuff.

I met some new friends, had some high school friends attending there as well. The schoolwork and teachers were fine, too. But there was one guy that I could never really get away from, though. And that was Ricky. Ricky was in the same program as me, so I saw him a lot. One of the classes had a project that we had to work on in groups, and I was paired with Ricky, and another girl named Micah. Micah was pretty cool.

She was typically more reserved, but she was kind and very smart. I was happy to be on her team. Then, Ricky, he seemed like he was trying to show off since he was teamed up with two girls. He would talk about things he'd done, like stunts or past jobs that all seemed to end the same way. He would say that the atmosphere changed or he didn't like the new management, so he would quit. I could tell that Micah couldn't care less and wanted to talk more about the project and I was a little more willing to cut him off, which is what I did.

So I would steer the conversation back towards our work. This is probably where my view of Ricky really started to shift. While working on the project, he started rambling about something and Micah spoke up and said, Can you please stop talking about yourself for one session? I kind of chuckled and made a comment about making the quiet girl tell him off. I guess he realized that he was outnumbered so he got up and left the room. So we continued working and got the most done that we had compared to the last sessions.

He ended up catching me in the parking lot later after that class and stopped to talk to me. I wasn't rude or anything and just treated him like I would anyone else. He asked me a few questions about the last. project, and then when the conversation seemed to die down, I started saying something about needing to go when he interjected and said, you want to go make out in my car? With the most serious look on his face. Not knowing how else to react, I just started laughing and his face didn't change. So I stopped laughing, and then asked if he was serious. But he didn't respond, so I just said no thanks, and that I had a boyfriend.

Then he laughed and just said, okay, cool, before waving and walking off to get into his car. I stood there confused for a quick second, and then went and got into my car and immediately called my boyfriend to tell him about what had happened, the whole time laughing about the awkwardness that was that moment. My boyfriend laughed too and thought that it was weird, but then asked if he had ever done that before,

or had tried flirting with me or someone else. I told him not that I was aware of. He said that the guy just seemed awkward, but to be careful, because you never know. And I agreed with him. So the next class was pretty weird. I tried not to make eye contact with him while we worked, but I could tell the whole time that he was just staring at me with a stupid grin on his face. It was obvious that Micah noticed this too.

probably made it obvious when in the middle of working. He again said, You sure you don't want to make out? Micah looked just as embarrassed as myself, and I again told him no. The session ended pretty soon after that. However, this did not deter Ricky. Any time I saw him, he would ask that, whether it was in the parking lot, or in the school,

even if he was around with other people. I told my boyfriend each time, who was start, to become concerned. He suggested that I tell someone at the school, which I did. However, all they said was that they would have a talk with him and that was it. So then he stopped being so verbal about his advances and instead decided that he would wink or make kissing faces at me or make other suggestive hand motions towards me.

Now I was starting to get creeped out. Thankfully, the teacher was actually understanding and said that Micah and I could continue working without him, since we were doing all of the work anyways, and even gave us permission to work in the teacher's area if we needed a place to get away from him. But it seemed like the less that I saw him, the more aggressive he would become. I saw him one time in the parking lot and tried to guilt-trip me about the project. I told him that he needed to talk to the teacher about it as it wasn't our time. choice, and he made another suggestive remark.

I told him that he was disgusting and creepy, and quickly left, as he stood in the parking lot with that same stupid grin. The last event that I mentioned happened the week before my birthday, and between that and Ricky making me feel gross, I decided to cut classes the following week. I got most of my assignments from the teachers ahead of time, which was nice. that way I didn't have to be behind, and I told Micah, so that we could schedule time outside of the class to meet up. My boyfriend was going to be doing the same and driving up to stay with me for the week, so I was pretty excited, and I didn't want anything to ruin our week.

My boyfriend, Adrian, showed up within the next day or so, and we had a nice day together. Adrian said that he wanted to take me somewhere specifically for my birthday, so he suggested that I get my oil changed. I had a better car, so we usually drove mine when he came up. And he encouraged me to go meet up with Micah that day in case I didn't feel up to it after my birthday celebrations. I was talking about the adult things that I wanted to get out of the way so we had more time to spend together,

so this was a load off knowing that he was okay with me doing this all on the same day. So he sent me off with a hug and a kiss, and he stayed at my apartment, and then said that he might go visit with his parents. So the day went fine. And about the time I was finishing up with Micah, I texted Adrian, and he even told me that I could invite Micah back, and we could all go have dinner or something. I thought that that was convenient because she had asked me if I wanted to grab something to eat anyways, so we headed back to my apartment.

Then neither of us were expecting to have people scream surprise as I opened up. the tour. This man had this whole party planned out, and I, none the wiser, thought he was just being nice and having me do all this stuff. Anyways, the party was great. There were probably about 15 or 20 people there, including both of our parents and friends. When we did the cake, Adrian was teasing me about something, and I ended up putting cake on his face. This started him trying to wipe it on me while others around us were taking pictures and laughing too. It was legitimately a great time. Shortly after this, though, while I was wiping my face off,

Micah came over to me and softly asked if I had invited Ricky, or if my boyfriend was friends with him by chance. I was at first confused by this because she knew how creepy he was being, and even if I knew about this party, I sure as hell would not have invited him, She motioned towards the living room, and I rushed in there to see him helping himself to the food on my table. I had so many things circling in my head. The people here were all pretty close friends, including the only two from the college that I had met.

So the people that were here were invited either by text or a Facebook message. I had no idea how he found out about the party, or even more concerning, how he knew. where I lived. I didn't want to cause a scene, and, to be honest, I didn't know how he would react, so I just said his name. He looked up at me and said something along the lines of, oh, there's the tease. I asked him what he was doing there, and then just bluntly said that he was not welcome. And he started going off. He started saying some pretty nasty things about me.

I was scared, angry, and embarrassed since our parents were there. Adrian had gone to the restroom to clean up, so he'd walked out while this was happening and tried asking what was going on, but I think he figured it out pretty quickly. He started approaching Ricky telling him that he needed to leave now before we called the cops, and his face lit up. He really said, Oh, is this the guy you've been cheating on me with? Then he tried making these crazy accusations of us.

Not only were they completely false, but I could feel myself getting red as my parents and his parents were looking like they were getting uncomfortable. Adrian started getting a bit more aggressive towards him and pushing him towards the door, and my dad had also started walking towards the door too. Ricky tried to give one last hurrah, saying that he would fight Adrian for me and then pulled out a knife. I was terrified at this point and there were a few of us shouting, but thankfully nothing else happened. My dad used to be a security guard, so he managed to do something to make him drop the knife, and Adrian helped knock him to the ground. They had him restrained pretty well, and I went to grab my cell phone to call the cops. The whole time Ricky is still going on and on about things that he's done to me or wanted to do to me,

to the point that Adrian ended up hitting him in the head pretty hard. It didn't knock him out, though, and he just laughed. It felt like forever, but the police did finally arrive, and they arrested him. After they left, we tried to pull the party back together, which was pretty rough for me. I had locked myself in my bedroom for a bit because, yeah, I was pretty embarrassed, mostly by the things that he was saying. They were all false, but the fact that he said all of that in front of people, and in so much detail was just horrible.

He had to have thought all of that, and fantasized it, which still grosses me out thinking about it. I eventually came out after my mom and Adrian came and talked to me and convinced me that everyone else was back to having fun. Overall, this made me actually file a restraining order. I talked to the school about it, and they seemed to reluctantly make changes so that I didn't have to see him anymore.

I had a few online classes, and I'm sure that they changed things for him because we were never on campus on the same day, it seemed. However, he did try to say he was going to press charges on Adrian, but nothing happened with that, thankfully. Like, he dropped the charges or something, because he got papers saying that it was either dropped or dismissed, I don't remember. But, yeah, that was probably one of the most memorable birthday. that I've ever had, and I hope that I just never see Ricky again. For background, in early 2021, my mom was very sick due to COVID, thyroid issues, and sepsis from a recent surgery to drain her lungs because they kept filling up with fluid. Eventually, her lungs had filled up with so much fluid and her body was so weak that,

on Easter, her heart simply stopped beating and she collapsed. My little brother gave her CPR. It was his first time ever, and he was only 17, and miraculously kept her going until the paramedics came, without a single broken rib. Against all odds, they revived her and she pulled through all of the surgeries they did on her. When she finally woke up, she discovered that she couldn't move her legs due to Gillian Bar syndrome.

where her antibodies attacked her spine nerves. She's had to relearn how to swallow, use her muscles, go to the bathroom, and walk, and is still in that process. However, she's almost at a point where she doesn't need a wheelchair anymore. Everyone thought that she wasn't going to make it, but she pulled through miraculously. My mom said that before she was resuscitated, she went to heaven. where she was in a sunny and quiet park. She said that it was beautiful. She saw our family pets who recently had passed,

including my soul-made Black Cat Chubby, who helped me through my adolescence. Chubby specifically was commanding her attention like he always did whenever I wasn't home to give him love, because I was always his first choice, but Mom was his second. And then she saw her grandma, my great-grandma, holding a baby. Great Grandma told her that when she is ready, the baby will be hers to raise.

My mom realized that it was the baby she had miscarried in between me and my brother, and then she snapped back to the earthly world where she couldn't remember anything for a few minutes. Not even me, my dad, or my brother. My grandma, my mom's mom, passed away last week. She got very sick the day after Christmas. We had made the decision as a family to send her home from the hospital with hospice care, as the doctors couldn't get her kidneys to work the way they should. She passed over the course of a week at home, surrounded by family,

and in a very similar manner that my mom almost did, from fluid in her lungs. She had congenital heart disease since June, among diabetes. hypertension, and some other heart issues, which caused her lungs to fill up, and so she had to get them drained every two weeks. But her body was tired and ready to go. We had the funeral yesterday, and I've been in pieces since. I like to think that grandma's in heaven with my great-grandma, my grandma's mom, holding my mom's baby, excited to meet and love another grandchild. This is my second post here,

and it's again about my personal experience after walking in the night park near my house. It's right on the edge of the city, and while the park looks like about two square miles of wild nature, it's surrounded with city on three sides, and with a suburban area and mall from the fourth. Thus, it's not some wild. Wildlands, or Bigfoot.

But apparently this place has something. As always, after work, I sometimes go to this park at night. The place is safe. There's no animals bigger than squirrels, so there's nothing to really worry about. This time, I decided to not walk by the trails and alleys but to go in the distant part, where on the bottom of a wide ravine flows a small and shallow stream. The stream supports local ponds. The shores are open and have some sticky black clay on them in some parts.

The local village long ago was named Black Mud after this. But in many places, a meter or two from the shore, there's bushes and trees. I was going by the shore. The night was clear enough and there's no trees above the stream, so I could see without a flashlight. Nothing suspicious. only the ordinary night forest sounds. Then I saw some movement behind in the bushes in front of me,

where the stream turns from the shore. Here, I should add, that overall, while I'm a bit afraid of the dark, yes, it's a strange combination with night park walks, I got used to the park at night. I visited it for years, so almost every part is familiar to me. Besides, it's fully surrounded by civilization. So I saw the movement in those bushes about 15 meters away from me. Slowly, in trying not to make sound by stepping on a branch on the shore,

I walked forward between the bushes where there was some free space, enough for me to get forwards and in between them. Behind them there was a small meadow and then... Well, here it's hard for me to tell. My mind, since then, wants me to think that I saw a dog, but I can't remember the visual of the dog. No breed, no size, nothing. I don't remember what I saw there, but what I did next was that I instinctively rushed backwards to the stream. I took from the ground the biggest branch that I could see, and I ran away from there,

looking backwards often, but there was nothing. I stopped only on the hill and half a mile overlooking the foresty ravine bottom around the stream. It was calm and quiet. I finally dropped my stick and confusedly went home. So far, I have no idea what that could have been. But back then it was like I was in panic mode for a few minutes, and then it was okay again. Like an on-off switch. I've been a fan of your content for quite some time,

and I thought that it was a good time to go ahead and finally share an event that happened to me several years ago. Hopefully it can be a good lesson to others, and I know that I didn't handle the situation the best, and one lesson I learned from this was that sometimes it's best to just keep your mouth shut. Some people out there have ill intentions, and it's best to remember that and avoid situations, where you can act on them, if possible. Anyways, on to the story. Back in the spring of 2012,

I had taken a quarter off from school in order to kind of find myself, which sounds sort of dumb, but I was newly 19 and struggling to really decide what I wanted to do with myself as far as careers go. I had completed a couple of quarters of college already, but it was all core classes. And I was feeling the stress of having to figure everything out, so I decided to just take a couple of months to myself.

During this time, I had also decided that I should look into part-time work so that I had some extra money as I didn't want to fully depend on my parents. I'm not saying that I didn't appreciate them. I just didn't want to be a burden. I ended up landing the night shift at a local convenience store, which was really just a small gas station that sold pizza. It was a decent job, it paid okay, but I think the biggest benefit was, in fact, the pizza. The only part that I struggled getting accustomed to was the fact that I had to work until midnight.

And working that shift meant that I was the one that had to go do the thorough cleaning. I'm not much of a night owl, which may sound a bit contradictory to the fact that I took this job, but I was young, and like I said, still trying to figure stuff out. One night, in the middle of May, which would have been about two weeks into me working there, I was manning the front of the store by myself when my other co-worker did the stocking. We had already finished up the store cleaning, which meant that, for me, it was pretty smooth sailing for the last half hour of the shift. At one point, this muscular-looking guy comes in and stares at me really intently as he enters the store. It was one of those, if-looks could kill moments.

I had never met this guy, never seen him before in my life, and I had no idea of that. why he seemed to have a problem with me. As he walked by, I asked him if I could help him, not even in a snarky way, in a sincere customer service way. He stopped walking, stared at me, and just slowly shook his head while clenching his jaw, and then walked past me without a word. I was a bit confused, but I just thought that maybe this guy was in a really bad mood. and my asking him that was too far.

I ignored it and went back to sitting there doing what I was doing. After about five or so minutes, this guy walks back up to the counter with a soda and a bag of chips. He goes to drop them on the counter, and I go to grab them. But before I could, he opens his mouth and says, Get your coworker to ring me up. I stared at him for a moment just like, my man, what?

He repeated his demands. I relented and stepped down to shout for my co-worker Dylan. When he asked what was up, I told him that I needed him up front. He came up, I mentioned that he needed to ring up the customer, and he made a comment about how I was on the register. I then mentioned that this guy specifically requested that I get somebody else to ring him up, and though I could see that he was frustrated, He shrugged and went to ring this guy up.

The whole time he was ringing him up, this dude was giving me the side-eye. His jaw was still clenched, and his fist was balled up. Like, he really wanted to attack me. I stood off to the side, just past the counter, sort of awkwardly waiting for this to finish so that I could go back to doing my job, and Dylan could go back to stalking. Dylan finished ringing him up. took his money and then wrapped up the transaction as he turned to walk away i told him to have a good

night which yes it was a bit of a jerk thing for me to do this guy clearly was not happy with me for whatever reason and i should have just kept my mouth shut when i said this the man stopped dead in his tracks and turned back towards me i lifted my hands and said my head my head apologies, but this guy started walking in my direction and stopped with his face right at mine. At this point, I realized that I had really made a mistake by being such a smart ass, and how much larger this guy was than me was way more obvious when we were on level ground and he was right in my face. He grabbed my shirt, with his free hand, and pretty much lifted me off the ground slightly.

which, again, made me realize that this man could probably crush me. He then stared me straight in the eyes and aggressively said, I swear to God, Jeremy, if I ever see you again, I will break every bone in your puny little body. Got it? I just sort of nodded like I understood what he was saying, and as soon as I did, he shoved me, hard, into one of the rats. Hard enough that when I hit it, it fell over and I went with it.

Then he turned and just walked out of the store, got in his car and left. All the while I was lying on the floor, staring at the lights, wondering who the hell Jeremy was. My name is Adam. It's always been Adam. I have always gone by Adam and I don't know anyone named Jeremy, nor are. have I seen this man before. There's no way that I could have done something to warrant this aggression. Dylan came over to help me up and basically had the same thought that I did, and he asked me

who Jeremy was. I told him that I honestly had no idea, and explained that I didn't know that man, that I had never met him, nor seen him before. We both kind of went back and forth about how confusing this was. And by the end of it, we agreed that there must be some guy out there named Jeremy that looked just like me. And he did something to make that man very mad. We got the store all cleaned up and got the rack back up, and I wrote a note to the boss to explain what had happened,

just in case he watched the tapes and saw the whole thing play out and had questions. In the end, I came out of this encounter, mostly unscathed, and I never saw this guy again while I worked there, which was, admittedly, only for the duration of that spring quarter. I will say that about a month after I quit, Dylan texted me to tell me that he ran into the guy once after I left, and he seemed completely normal, which then tells me that I was definitely the cause of his distress. I'm glad that he never had to act on his threat, and to Jeremy, whoever you are, I want you to know that you owe me one, and that you should be a bit more careful about who you piss off. Quick warning on this story.

This story is pretty messed up and does include mentions of sexual assault to some degree of detail. So if that is something that you personally do not want to hear, I recommend skipping to the next story. And I'll give a few seconds of silence here for anyone who wants to pause and scroll down to the next story. When I was 16 years old, my best friend and I made the dumb decision to get matching tattoos from an older man who was doing tattoos illegally out of his home. He was well known in the area within our age group for giving cheap tattoos to minors. He had recently gotten out of prison for giving minors tattoos,

and not practicing under state guidelines. Needless to say, I don't know what the hell we were thinking. But, hey, when you're a rebellious 16-year-old, dumb as hell and have a chance to get a tattoo for $20, I guess any and all common sense flies right out the window. So, we set up a time with him to go over to get our tats. I don't remember the exact time we went over, but I remember it was all ready. dark, so it must have been late evening. It was just the three of us alone in his house, or so I thought.

I remember feeling very eerie being there, something about him and the energy of the place that felt very off. But, being the dumb teen that I was, I chose to ignore those feelings and go through with it anyways. We were there for about 30 minutes, got our tattoos, and then left. Fast forward a few months, I see his picture and name on the news.

At first I thought he got busted again for his illegal tattooing, but little did I know it was so much worse than that. He had been arrested for one of the most heinous crimes that one could commit. Turns out, he bought an old police car, a cop costume, some handcuffs, and he would go into parts of Portland that prostitutes frequented, impersonating a cop to arrest them. He would bring them back to his house and chain up the victims in his basement where they wouldn't be heard. There, he would repeatedly assault and torture them. I was absolutely sick to my stomach when I found this out.

I cannot imagine what these women went through, and I still don't really want to know all the details. This was all happening around the same time that we were at his house, so the chances that one of his victims were there at the same time we were is fairly high. I thank God that nothing happened to us, but there's also a part of me that feels guilt. What if someone was screaming for help while we were there and we just couldn't hear them? Why didn't he kidnap us? We would have been the perfect targets. Every time I look at the tattoo, it's a horrible reminder of what could have been, so I'm planning on getting it covered up. Thankfully, all of his victims are alive, and I hope and pray that they're able to recover from this horrible act.

He will be in prison for life with no possibility of parole. Always trust your gut. When I was around 11, I got very into fairies, but... more in a witchy way, I guess you could say. I realize that's kind of odd for a kid to be into things like this, but you've got to know that I was very imaginative and a somewhat lonely kid. I have always loved fairies, and my mom got me a book on them. It included fairy language, and a list of gifts to offer fairies when you wish to interact with them.

Of course I wanted to contact them what little girl wouldn't. For about a month, I wandered out to my back woods and by a river, because according to the book, fairies liked to hang out around water, and I would leave them little notes written in the supposed language, along with little gifts and offerings. I would make them little leaf baskets, leave them candy or flowers, things like that. I even recited a chant. I think that part of me knew that it was silly and that I'd probably never get results,

but damn if I wasn't determined. So I kept on. At one point my gifts and notes started disappearing from the bench that I left them on. I figured it was the wind or birds taking it, but a small part of me hoped that it was something else. A month of this nonsense, and I was getting very discouraged. I decided to leave a few more gifts for them, and this time I weighed them down with small rocks, so that they wouldn't blow away and I would know for sure.

A day went by, and my gifts were still there. Another day, same thing. Then, on the third day of checking, I found the gifts gone with the rocks still there. Only the rocks were moved around. I don't remember how soon after that this happened, but eventually, I got what I had wanted. I wandered out into the woods and saw by the river two monarch butterflies. They were very large and I wanted to see them up close.

However, one landed on a branch close to the path where I was standing, and I noticed that this butterfly had limbs. Tiny, thin, pale, limbs. Hands, feet? I stopped dead in my tracks and looked hard to make sure that I was not hallucin. It was broad daylight and I could see it very clearly. It wasn't a butterfly. It was a fairy.

She had long, thin, brown hair that went down past her feet and a blue dress that looked like a small scrap of fabric. But what terrified me above all else was her face. Her eyes were giant, black, bug or alien-like eyes, but she definitely had a face. and she definitely saw me. I didn't even try to go look at the other one because I ran. I was so scared that I bolted home and locked my door. After freaking out and keeping an eye on my backyard, the backwoods through the window, I went back.

No surprise, they were gone. And I never saw them again, despite me trying over and over again. My gifts were never taken again. and I felt sad and stupid, because I felt like I had ruined my chance to have fairy friends, but knowing what I do now, it was probably a blessing that they left me alone. What do you guys think? Has anyone else seen a fairy? And did they look like this?

I just need to find someone else who has seen what I have seen. It's something that I'll never forget. I remember her so clearly. That's I could draw her. So I have a story about a guy that I met on the internet that ended up being, well, I think creep is probably an understatement, but it's the best word I can think of to define him. I'm sure some people out there have more appropriate choice adjectives for him, but creep works for me. Anyways, this was a good number of years ago. I was pretty active on a social media platform that doesn't exist anymore.

I had garnered a decent following by posting stupid pop culture memes and references. Pretty shallow, I know, but it was fun, and I was like 16 at the time, and I liked the friendships that I was making, mostly because I didn't have many friends in real life. Most of the people that hung around my page were pretty decent, to be honest, and I rarely had to block anyone or report them. One day, I had gotten a message from someone that had followed me saying that they enjoyed my page, and they thought that I was a pretty cool person.

Obviously, they hadn't met me, and I didn't put much in ways of personal information out on the page, but again, I was young and that kind of validation was something that I wanted. They seemed pretty normal at first, just telling me that they liked my content, and, about how much they enjoyed this show or liked that band. It was a pretty normal conversation for the most part, and then they followed it up with a pretty common ASL, which, for those that don't know, is age, sex, and location,

asking for information about me. I told them that I was 16, female, but then said that I didn't really want to give out my location. The other person said that they were 19, male, and that they lived in the same state that I actually lived in. Obviously, he didn't know that, but I was kind of irked to see that he did live in the same state. He didn't push me at all to tell him where I lived, though, so although I was a bit, I said irked earlier, but I don't know if that's the right word,

I still talked to him, because he didn't know that I lived in the same state. And we talked every once in a while, just chatting about him. whatever, mostly him telling me about the movies and things that he liked. Then, out of seemingly nowhere, he started hounding me and asking me for more information on who I was, and then telling me that he loved me. I told him that he was being a creep, and that if he didn't stop, I was going to have to block him. Then, he threw out, go ahead and block me, Caitlin, if it'll make you feel better about yourself. I was... sufficiently freaked out, because I had never told him my name and there was no indication that

my name was Caitlin on my page. I immediately blocked him. The fact that he knew my name told me that he had somehow gotten information on me, and I wasn't going to risk him being a creep even more than he already had. But, of course, if that was the end of this, it would be a rather boring story, and this was certainly not the end of it. I thought that he was just going to go away after being blocked, but he was just getting started with me, apparently. The next day I got a DM from an account that had literally no information associated with it. To the best of my knowledge, this site required information like a name and such, but the name was blank. The picture was plain white, and the description on the account was just not done with you yet.

I knew right away who it was going to be, and I wasn't surprised when I saw that the message was, I have something for you. I stupidly said, what do you want? And he responded with an incredibly inappropriate image. I won't describe it, but you can probably guess what it was. I blocked this account, too, but it didn't matter. Every other day he was messaging me with gory image. images, pictures of himself naked, and other various disgusting things.

It hit a point where I just ended up logging off my account entirely, and basically forgot that it existed. For about two weeks, this was sufficient enough to stop him from being able to harass me, until I checked my email one day and saw a message from an email address that was just random characters. Sure enough, when I clicked that message, I knew that it was him. I knew that it was him. The message was a picture of me from my prior year's school yearbook. It had my first and last name, home address, school address, and then another very disgusting photo of part of his body.

This was where I knew that I had to end this. I needed to get someone else involved. I ended up bringing it up to my mom. I was a bit slow with explaining it, but after a while I basically just put it out there that this guy now knew where I lived. Where I went to school, had my full name and picture. I showed her the email, and she told me that we needed to tell my dad, and he said that we needed to take it to the police. Thankfully, the police did take it seriously, because this was a fairly credible threat,

and he was sending adult content to a minor. We ended up making the report. My parents basically told me that I wasn't allowed to use the computer anymore, and they informed my school of the situation too. That way, if someone was found around the school, or if anyone came up there for me, they would know that it could be this guy. Even worse, that is exactly what happened,

and how this all ended. It was about two weeks later, and there was an announcement over the intercom that the school was going into lockdown, and that all students needed to remain in the classrooms. We were all a bit curious and scared. This was the early 2000s, so this wasn't a common thing to have to go through these kinds of things. After several hours, they announced that the lockdown was over, and then my teacher got a call and they asked me to come to the office. When I got there, my parents were there and I had to sit in with them, the administration, and the police to discuss the situation.

Apparently, this guy had come into my school and told the front office that he was my uncle, Ronald, which actually was my uncle's name. And, worse yet, he was an emergency contact for me, and he told him that he was there to come get me out of class for the day because I had a doctor's appointment. Thankfully, the front desk person knew my uncle, and had his photo on file on the computer. And this guy was not him. Plus, they knew that there was a potential threat with this rando, and they asked him to wait in the lobby while they called me down. They then called the school resource officer, and he immediately cuffed the sky. Fun fact about this creep. He was in his mid-40s, not 19, like he said, and he didn't actually live in the state. He was from Texas. I know that I didn't mention where I lived, but it was nowhere near Texas, which meant that he

already knew where I lived when he asked, and that's why he said that he lived in my state. I have no idea what this guy's intentions were, though I can kind of make some incredibly disturbing assumptions, but I'm glad that I ended up talking to my parents about it. I was banned from the computer for something like two years at my house, and I was fine with that. Sure, it was nice having the validation of strangers, but it clearly came at the cost of my own safety and security, and that was absolutely not worth it. In the end, he went down for a number of things, including the cost. content he had on his hard drive.

And I don't think he's going to be getting out of prison. Like, ever. I'm thankful for that because I never wants to meet him ever again. So I'm going to start by saying that I'm basically a skeptic when it comes to the paranormal, although I love hearing stories and listening to others' points of view when it comes to that kind of stuff. And this is why I'm having such a hard time understanding what happened to, to me last September. My dad, grandma, grandpa, and I were attending my cousin's wedding in a small rural town,

just outside of South Haven, Michigan, late last summer. We rented a small house in town, which was located in a very wooded area, just off of a small lake. Something felt extremely off as soon as I got out of the car at our rental property. That's the best way that I could describe it. something felt off and I was immediately uneasy, but being the skeptic that I am, I shrugged it off and chalked it up to being tired and anxious. The night that we arrived, my dad and I were having a smoke outside and noticed how weird everything sounded. It was about 11 p.m. and there was no one else around. The trees were crackling incredibly loudly and we were hearing strange animal noises, but nothing too out of the

ordinary, just the type of animal noises you would hear in rural Michigan. But they just sounded particularly strange to us for some reason. We said our good nights and went to bed. The next morning my dad told me that he went outside for a smoke at about two in the morning and heard what sounded to him like someone close by banging on metal siding. He said it sounded like it was next door, but didn't hear anything leading. up to or proceeding the loud banging, like footsteps or anything like that. We shrugged and laughed it off.

The second night was when I heard the thing that I still can't stop thinking about six months later. It was about 11 p.m. or midnight, and I was having my last smoke of the night. My grandparents were already asleep and my dad had just gotten into bed, but was still awake and watching TV. I was sitting on the stairs outside with my back to the house. looking straight out into the backyard. I then heard somebody shout my name in a very abrupt manner,

loud and fast. It sounded like they were shouting toward me from the front of the house, like they were standing on the front porch shouting for me, knowing that I was at the back of the house. It sounded just like my dad, but it couldn't be him because I didn't hear the front door open or close or anything. Being a skeptic, I reminded myself to stay calm and I quickly walked into the house.

My dad was sound asleep. There was no way that by the time I got to him, he could have gotten back into bed. I woke him up and asked him if he was outside screaming my name. He looked confused and said, of course not. I started to get really freaked out at this point. I tried to go to bed, but couldn't get that scream out of my head. I was up all night trying to figure out what happened. I was honestly contemplating leaving, getting a hotel room somewhere close by and returning in the morning.

Miraculously, I must have fallen asleep sometime around three in the morning. We woke up the next morning and I was so ready to get the hell out of that town. As soon as we left, the uneasy feeling I had the entire weekend disappeared. When I returned to work the next day, I told my co-worker the weird experience that I'd had. her face immediately dropped. She proceeded to inform me that this is quite common in the Appalachian area, regarding cryptids and other types of creatures. Apparently they try to get your attention by mimicking someone close to you,

and when you look at them, they kidnap you or something along those lines. But I was in Michigan. I tried to look up information about the town that I was in, but didn't find anything remotely interesting. as anyone else had a similar experience? So let me start by saying that my brother and I are extremely experienced desert campers, and we've lived near deserts pretty much our whole lives.

I have never in the 20 years of my life, for one second, believed in anything paranormal or anything to do with evil spirits, unlike my brother who has always sensed presences, and been able to see mostly what we call Jin, also known as demons, until last night, which is safe to say, marks the last time we will be camping alone in the deserts.

We always have the same place that we like to go when we went to camp, with minimum effort. And our day started as normal as ever, but as we got closer and closer to our destination, I saw my brother's mood completely, shift. And when I asked what was wrong, he just shrugged me off and told me to keep driving. When we arrived, I felt completely fine, but my brother was still unusually quiet. It was around 1 p.m. at that point, and we were planning on leaving at around 12 to 1 a.m.

Because of the heat, we made the terrible decision to set up under a few trees and a source of water, which in Middle Eastern culture is where the Jins live at night. Not that I believed that at the time, of course. However, we still set up our camp and continued on as normal. Now, my brother always says that when he feels a presence, or several in this case, he gets extremely unlucky. First, he almost dropped a box of coals on his foot. Then he spilled an entire bottle of coke on his phone.

Then he dropped it into the sand, and then proceeded to smash his elbow on the edge of the chair he was sitting on, which is now very swollen. And last but certainly not least, when he was looking through one of the boxes, he felt something cold and sharp pressed right against his arm, and he realized it was an unsheathed knife, which we packed with its case the previous night before. and he later said it felt like something pushed his hand into it, right where his veins are. All of these events consecutively, within a matter of a few hours, was certainly making us both uneasy, and I, for the life of me, could not figure out why he was suddenly so unlucky. As I was starting to question his clumsiness, a random couple appeared out of nowhere, informing us that they were stuck in the sand and needed hell. We drive a land cruiser and they had a Nissan Ultima, so we didn't expect to encounter as many issues as we did.

We first dug them out without any issue, but as we pushed them out of the sand, they ended up getting stuck again. If you know anything about dune bashing or desert camping, then you understand the physics behind how wheels get stuck in the sand, and the way this Nissan was stuck was incredibly unusual. It was literally stuck somewhere with plenty of space available for grip. And later on, my brother said that as we were digging them out of the sand, that's when he really started feeling the evil presence around us, but didn't want to say anything so as to not ruin the trip and freak me out. We ended up having to tow them out of the sand, which again was far harder than it had to be.

First, our toe strap broke off their bumper. Toe straps cost $200 and was fine, but their bumper was slightly damaged. Then we almost got stuck ourselves, and a 20-minute job took more like 90, which again was extremely unusual. And, in hindsight, was just the beginning of all the crap to come. When we came back to our camp, we noticed how everything around us had gotten unsublished. unusually quiet. The area that we were in has hundreds of birds around, and as far as we've seen, three cats, who sometimes pay us a visit.

But there wasn't a single noise at all, other than our fire, which was dying out unusually quick. It had gotten dark quickly, so we had to scramble to build a fire to cook our dinner, before we were asked to help the couple. And I had noticed the silence, but it hadn't bothered me. However, my brother suddenly grabbed my hand as we were sitting down to eat, and said with clear fear in his voice that we should go as quickly as possible, and that he didn't feel safe. To ease both of our minds, we prayed.

We're Christian, so of course we thought it would help us. But I think that it accelerated everything that happened, and just made whatever was there with us angry. We quickly finished our dinner, and me being the skeptic, I was completely fine. I was pretty much just humoring my brother, until I started getting the nagging feeling that it was time to pack up and leave. It hit me like a wave,

and I was quite taken aback by the feelings, so I voiced it to my brother, and he agreed that we should pack up right away and get out of there. We started packing up, at a normal pace, like we were just tired and wanted to leave. and that was when we heard a sound very close to us, on the opposite side of the pond, which wasn't that big. I can only describe it as the sound of death itself,

and it seemed to go on for several minutes. And when I say that we looked at each other in absolute fear, I genuinely mean that I was ready to have a heart attack right then and there. At that point, after being frozen for a few minutes and quite, reasonably so after hearing that bellowing screech so close to us, we turned on the car, drove it back so we could see better with the headlamps, and just started throwing everything into the car, without much care, but with a whole lot of urgency. And it was like, after the screaming, that's when stuff really hit the fan. First it was the sound of twigs snapping and footsteps

all around us. Then it was the shadows behind the trees. I tried everything to try and get those shadows to change shape, walking around the trees and moving the lights, but nothing. It looked like there were people just staring at us the whole time, and you could really feel it, too. We really felt like we were not alone,

and that we were not with friendly entities either. We also noticed that all three cats were huddled, right behind our car, away from the trees, so they weren't the one snapping the twigs. But literally did not care if they were not going to move. I was still getting out of there. Thankfully, they left when we started reversing, but they too looked absolutely terrified, and were just staring at the trees, too. It also felt like whatever was there was getting closer.

I've never felt anything like it. It was a gut feeling, and you just know it's one of those natural instincts that you should not ignore. Thankfully, we were able to pack up quickly. Our tent was very close to the trees, though, and that was a nerve-wracking experience. And whilst we're packing, it's still very silent. It's very normal for the birds around that area to continue making sound until two or three in the morning. And at this point, it was about 8 p.m. so it was highly unusual.

I personally think that I was more terrified. As I was driving away back on to the main dirt path to leave the desert, I know cars very well. I know how they drive in the sand, and I know our car especially well, because we've had it for so long. I could instantly tell that the steering was off and completely fighting against me, which fixed itself the second we were on the highway.

The sound of twig snapping was still all around us, and it was loud enough to be heard over the sounds of the car, and on the path was what seemed like every bird that was in the area, just standing there, staring at us until we got close enough to force them to walk, not even fly away. At one point my brother just grabbed my shoulder and told me very sternly to keep looking in front of me, and under no circumstances to look through his window. It was the tone of his voice that told me to listen to him for the love of God. We were in a part of the desert where we had to pretty much drive through the whole of the accessible area to get on to the highway, and there wasn't a single person around us.

The only thing we saw was a very clearly abandoned Toyota Heilix, positioned behind a small dune and hidden by the trees, but that was far enough from our campsite to easily be ruled out as the source of the original screech. The worst thing that I saw was, as we were closing to the exit, now we know these deserts very well. We've both grown up here and have been riding dirt bikes and quad bikes in these deserts since we moved here, and we know what wildlife to expect. Cats, birds, spiders, goats, camels, mice, foxes,

and maybe even the occasional squirpian if you're really, unlucky, or a snake, but that's it. There's nothing else in these deserts. But we saw, standing in the middle of the path, staring directly had us, a deer. A freaking deer. I've only ever seen one deer in 16 years of living here, and that was in someone's garden as a pet. It's safe to say that I was in complete shock, and the deer was just not moving at all. until I got close enough that we could practically smell the thing

before it walked off the path whilst staring directly at us. We quickly moved past the deer, and, again, my brother said with a gasp, but very sternly, to keep my eyes on the road. I asked him as we got on the highway what it was that he kept seeing, and he very reluctantly told me that he kept seeing large figures around us any time we went through a bend, and they were all either pointing right at us or ahead of us.

I'm very glad that he didn't tell me at the time because I would have lost it. We still were yet to encounter anyone, but we still very clearly heard sounds all around us. And again, not the usual bird or cat, but very clearly big and unrelenting. When I saw the exit, I was as happy as I have ever been. but that quickly faded when, once again, we saw another deer standing right in the middle of the road, slowly walking away, looking right at us. Except, this time, it didn't really look like a deer.

More like a kangaroo mixed with a deer, and its eyes were milky and just... It looked rotten and horrible. But I didn't much care. I just stepped on the gas, and fortunately it had gotten out of the way in time. Now, when you exit the desert, you can either turn right onto a long stretch of highway, or you can go left and go through a small town and then take the back streets to a parallel highway, and as I was about to turn right, my brother, once again, with that same tone of voice, said to go to the town and to go to the right.

Later, he once again said that he saw a line of figures pointing ahead of us, so if we would have gone that way, we wouldn't have made it home in one piece. Thankfully, as we made it further and further away and close to our home, the gut feeling of being watched was going away. And, of course, having never experienced something like this before, I was distraught, and I wanted to talk about it. My brother told me as we were going home that because we were alone, the Jin wanted to mess with us,

that they wanted to scare us and most likely cause us harm, and that the way they get to you in such rural places is to force you to stop and then do whatever they want, which makes sense as to why there were so many animals in our path. He also said that they caused bad luck, and that he could feel them the second we entered the desert, which explains his clumsiness all day, and the car that got stuck in such an unusual manner.

This is also my younger brother, by three years. And naturally, any time he ever told me about this sort of thing, I just always dismissed him as him scaring himself. I can excuse the sounds that we heard and the shadows that we saw last night. I can excuse the gut feeling as just being scared, but I cannot excuse the two deer that we saw staring right at us. and I cannot excuse the car just randomly fighting against me as I was driving. The deer completely freaked me out, as did the tone of my brother's voice.

I'm also sorry if this is written sporadically as I'm still shaken up and trying to make sense of everything. And it's safe to say that we are not going camping there again, and it's also safe to say that I'm never dismissing my brother when it comes to this kind of thing again. and I am so thankful that we made it home safely. I also forgot to mention that as we were setting up our tent, it was fighting us. We would secure one end of it into the ground and instantly another end would pop out. And after we finally managed to get it set up, it looked as if something was pushing it in and it collapsed once before we got it back up.

And again, it looked like something was pushing on it, which is something neither of us have ever experienced before, and we've even set up tents in the middle of a sandstorm. I've told this story once before, but I figured I would share it again. This was when I was a kid, middle or elementary school-aged I can't remember. It involves me and an old friend of mine, whom I don't see or talk to anymore, and we'll call him Adam. I was staying at Adam's house one night,

and I planned on sleeping over that night. For some reason, at between 10 p.m. and 12 a.m., Adam and I decided to sleep at my house. I don't know why or what even compelled us to walk in the middle of the night from his house to mine. Alone, mind you, but we did. So we were walking up this hill, and the way Adam's house was positioned, it was at the bottom of two hills, one on the left and one on the right. So as we went up that hill that led to my house. We had made it up the hill, and there was three ways to go.

Left, right, and straightforward. So we turned left. My house wasn't far from the point that we turned. As we were walking, we both got this weird feeling that we were being followed and watched. I know that I did. I'm only assuming that by the look on Adam's face, he felt it too. We both looked at each other and then looked behind us, and there we saw him, or it, or something. What was before us was a figure.

Based on the body type, it was possibly male, with his hands in his pockets, and his hood over his head, and there was just pitch blackness. We couldn't see his face. It was as if there wasn't one. Both Adam and I were creeped out, so he was. we turned our heads forward and kept walking to my house. Then the footsteps got faster. We turned around once again, and that's when we saw this figure running at us. That's when Adam and I took off.

We both managed to get into my house before he could get to us, and after we both got into my house and shut the door, we turned around and looked outside thinking that we'd see him again. But nothing. We saw nothing. He was just gone. What's even freakier is when we first noticed him. We didn't see anyone walking on the road before we turned to walk to my house.

This person, or figure, was gone as mysteriously as he appeared. Adam and I were freaked out. We looked around for him from the safety of the house, and we thankfully weren't that stupid to go outside after that scare. Shortly thereafter, we went to bed. Then, we just drifted apart as friends. It was as if neither of us had the desire to continue being friends after that night. To this day, I don't know what we saw or why we drifted apart.

But I still find it creepy how shortly after seeing the thing, Adam and I had no desire to be friends after that. I don't know if the two events are connected, or if we were just both creeped out or what. but thankfully I never saw that thing again. Sometimes I do get a chill at my spine, though, as if I'm being watched. Hi, I'm Michelle. I'm currently 22 years old, and I've always been interested in the paranormal.

I set out to write about all of my experiences that I can recall, the longest one being about a house I lived in as a kid. I'm from Denmark, so my grammar isn't going to be perfect, but I'll try my best. So these are some haunted house stories from my childhood home. A little background. My mom, my then-stepdad, our dog and me moved into this house when I was 12. It was actually a basement apartment.

There were people living upstairs that rented out their basement. It's kind of confusing, but it was actually pretty big. We moved out when I was about 16, so this happened in the span of four. four years. So anyways, we moved in and everything was well. About a week after we moved in, I had a friend over to see our new living space and was really excited to show her. My dog, a very peaceful, quiet, lazy, and just not violent at all dog, went into my room and started barking his head off. He never barked. He was standing on two feet and barking at the corner of my bed. It was just really weird

So here I am trying to calm my dog But he just won't give it up When standing on two legs Which he was, he was my height For some weird reason Neither my mom nor my stepdad heard it And we even had the door open So I went out to get them

While my friend is freaking out And then he just calmed down like nothing happened That was the first weird thing to happen in that house, but not the last. We would occasionally hear high heels walking above us, chairs being pulled out, and very loud bangs, all coming from upstairs, so we asked them if anything had happened, and they told us no, they were asleep. It would always happen at night.

It wasn't until they went on vacation, and the noise continued, that we started feeling weird. They had an alarm as well, and it would go off about once a week for no apparent reason. But they never spoke about it. I remember we would eat in the kitchen and all of us would turn our heads to the hallway at the same time, because we all thought we saw someone. It was so weird. It happened all the time, and it just became the norm. We told ourselves that it was our imagination. We often thought that someone had broken in and countless times my stepdad went up there with the flashlight, but there was no one. I would often wake up hearing noises in the kitchen, thinking that my mom had woken up. It sounded like people cooking.

I would soon come to realize every time I heard those noises, there was no one. The noises would always stop when I entered the kitchen. The scariest thing to happen in that house, though, were to my house. stepdad. I went into their room, just woken up, and he says, wow, you were up early today, and I was like, no, I just woke up. And as I said that, all the light from his eyes just vanished. He told me and my mom that he had gotten woken up by what he thought was me staring at them. And when he asked me what was wrong, and I didn't say anything, I just kept staring until I walked away.

He said that the girl that he saw was wearing a white dress and had long black hair. I have brown hair, and I don't own a white nightgown, so I don't know why he would have thought that was me. So, sometime later, we had dinner with our neighbors,

where this topic came up. They told us that there was actually a murder in the house. Like, a girl actually got killed. And they even had the newspaper article. about it. It happened right outside my room.

The girl who was killed was pregnant. The man who got her pregnant already had a wife, so he killed her, and tried to make it look like a suicide, which he apparently was really bad at. The time we lived in that house, I actually wasn't having the greatest years. I spent four years in that house, and all of those years were filled with depression and anxiety. I never had hope, and it was always like a black cloud of smoke was hanging around me. Only in the house, though. I remember clearly that every time I went out, I was happy, and I thought it was weird. I told my mom about it, and she told me the same thing happens to her. Another thing

about the house is that things would go missing, and we would look everywhere for them, and then the next day they would show up on, like, a table, or somewhere really obvious, where we had already looked. I was so attached to that house that I didn't want to leave my room. I always made up excuses not to leave the house, and I was just miserable. I would have really bad nightmares of a tall black figure in our living room, with the biggest grin on his face. I've never been so scared from a nightmare, and I was really sad.

scared to be in the living room alone. One time, and this is really dark, and I don't know why I'm sharing this, but as mentioned, I was in a really dark period of my life, and I was in the bathroom, one of the darkest places in the whole house. I was looking in the mirror, and my eyes were black, and I started smiling. I swear I was crying dark, thick liquid out of my eyes. Honestly, it's so messed up, I know, but... Obviously, this was only happening in the mirror, not in real life.

The last thing I remember is me reading a book late one night, and I saw a dark figure out of my eye. I turned to look and there's nothing. It happens a few moments later again, and I look again, and my blanket on my chair is swinging back and forth. Like if someone had walked into it. It was a summer night, and I had no windows open, so it scared me a lot. I just put my blanket over my head and tried to sleep. My mom also told me that when she went to go to the bathroom late at night, she thought that my stepdad was on the computer.

So right as she was closing the bathroom door, the man sitting on the computer waved and smiled at her and she waved back, thinking it was my stepdad. And when she got out, the computer was turned off and my stepdad was fast asleep. She woke him up, asking if he was just on the computer, to which he replied no, very confused. Apparently he had been asleep for some time. The rest of this post, as the O.P. put it, are other random stories. From what I can tell, they are not related to the house, but they are good haunting stories, so I would like to include them.

It's hard to imagine it's real, but I remember this very vividly. We were moving into an apartment. I was around four. I was standing in my new room when my dad said, I'll turn off the lights. Are you coming? And at the time, I was really afraid of the dark. But for some reason, I told him I wanted to stay.

So, he turned off the light and everything got pitch black. And I saw a girl. I wasn't scared. She wouldn't talk, but I tried to talk to her. She was a little older than me, maybe six or seven. I thought that she was an angel because I didn't know what ghosts were back then, but I don't know. She was in this glowing white light and it just felt so pure. I can't explain it.

My dad got back and turned the light on again and she was gone. I never saw her again, but I thought about her a lot. One time me and my boyfriend were sleeping and I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of of the night. I opened the door and I hear people talking in the living room. I was scared witless until I realized it's a video from my boyfriend's computer. The weird thing is the screen is closed and he turned it off. So he had to turn it back on to close the video.

It's still so weird. Like, how does that even happen? It was so loud. Like the volume was all the way up. He swore that he had turned off the laptop and it made absolutely no sense. Another time, from 18 to 20, I lived in a place with staff who could help you, because of my anxiety and autism. One day I'm in my living room listening to loud music when I hear my front door open. I assume it's someone who works here, so I stopped the music and look.

It's a man in an orange vest, like worker clothes, if you're an electrician or something. something, and he has a tool bag with him as well. I'm hella confused, and I just look at him. For some reason, he does not look at me at all. We never make eye contact, and he was probably just standing in my kitchen for like ten minutes. I was so confused, because I wasn't expecting anyone to come look at anything, and after ten minutes, again, without eye contact, he just walks out again. So I contact the workers and was like,

um, who is that guy that was just here? And they're like, what guy? I explained what happened and she looks worried. So she asks her boss if they're expecting any handymen or something today and they weren't. No one had seen this guy. It was like he had just vanished. They go on and asked if I had dreamed it, and I'm like, I was jamming out to music. Like, I wasn't sleeping at all. They could not explain it. And I don't know if it was paranormal, but it was definitely weird. I've also had dreams where my mom was in the hospital.

I call her and tell her about my dream, and she goes on to tell me that she was actually in the hospital that day. I've had so many weird dreams about my mom come true. It's just really weird. All in all, I think that me being autistic and a bit sensitive, I definitely attract these kinds of things. Not quite sure if this classifies as paranormal or just a coincidence to the nth degree, but I always found it incredibly strange. My ex-husband told me of a supposed to be.

song that kept following him around, as it were. He told me that for years as a child, he had vague memories of an 80s song that he kept hearing whenever he got into an elevator. He didn't know the title or who sang it, but had that hazy recollection of a tune that was ever present in the back of his memory. When he was in his mid-20s, he heard the song again while in an elevator on the way to a very important third interview, for a just moment. as an assistant marketing manager.

This particular incident sticks with him because of the nature of the situation when he heard it this time around. While on his way to the interview on the seventh floor, the song again played triggering his memory from when he was a kid. Suffice to say that he got the job, which brought back the memory of that song that played earlier that day. This caused my ex-husband to start researching, and he finally found out the name of the song was Careless Whisper by George Michael.

He made it a point to keep track of every time he got into an elevator from that point onward to see if the song would play. Now, I know what some people might be thinking, that this sounds like a plot device from the first final destination movie, where everyone kept hearing John Denver before they died. But this situation was kind of the opposite. As my husband attributed hearing the song with good luck, as he landed his dream job after hearing the song on that one particular day.

Anyways, over the next six years, my husband counted exactly how many times he boarded an elevator, which was a little over a hundred times. According to him, 90 times out of that 100 or so, careless whisper played, which seems incredible. When he told me this story, I was skeptical, but I then witnessed it for myself more than once. The most notable time I remembered it playing, we were actually on our honeymoon and were riding the elevator up to our hotel room.

As soon as the song started playing, he turned to me with an excited look and said, See, babe, I told you. I kind of laughed and just reasoned that it was a coincidence. and maybe the song was on a kind of a loop and would play several times throughout a given day, along with all the other music. We stayed at that hotel for about five days, and without fail, every time we got on or off the elevator, that damn song would play, which, admittedly, I did find very odd.

I still talk to my ex-husband as we're still good friends, and to this day he swears that almost every time he gets on an elevator, careless whisper by George Michael always plays. What does everyone think of this? Is this just an incredible coincidence? Or is there more going on here? Growing up, I knew that I was adopted. My parents were always very open about it with me,

and they gave me as much information as they knew. or could, when I asked questions. They have and always will be my parents to me, but as I got older, I was curious about my biological parents. I wanted to know more about them, who they were, and what they looked like. Not to mention I thought it was important to know about any possible genetic or health concerns. So, with the information I was given by my parents and the adoption place that they went through, I was able to learn more about my mother as she consented to be contacted by me if I wanted it. I spoke to my biological mother on the phone, and to my surprise, she was happy to hear from me,

and the conversation just felt natural. Because of how well this went, I made plans to go and meet her in person. However, she lived in Utah and my family and I lived in Wyoming, so I made a solo road trip out of it. My parents were even happy for me and encouraged it. I was in a great mindset at the time. Things were going well, and I felt like I was both getting closure and filling some holes in my life. It was a great day to be on the road, the weather was perfect, and there was minimal traffic, and I was just enjoying the drive while also playing out different scenarios

and making plans with my biological mother. However, as the sun was beginning to set, I started to become tired. I guess probably because I was too excited, I didn't really want to sleep yet. So instead, I stopped to get a bite to eat, hoping that it would give me some energy and keep me going. It worked for a few hours, but ultimately I wasn't going to be able to avoid it. I had taken long trips like this before on my own, and I didn't need much, so I typically just slept in my car rather than getting a hotel room. I took the next exit and pulled into the parking lot of a store that was 24 hours. I felt that those were at least safer, as there was always someone there,

and, in the case that I needed to use the restroom, I have to have to be. one available. I actually did go in the store. I think it was like a convenience store, but not a gas station, as there were no pumps. I grabbed something to drink and used the restroom and started heading back to my car. As I was walking there, I started hearing someone shouting from behind me. It was as if they were trying to get someone's attention, but it didn't sound alarming, scared, or angry. But since it was shouting, nonetheless, I turned around to see what was happening. I saw a normal-looking guy, maybe in his 40s.

His hair was long and stringy, and he also had a pretty long beard. He was wearing jeans in a denim jacket with a dark-colored shirt underneath. To my surprise, he was waving me down. I stopped to hear him out, and as he caught up to me, He asked me if I had a cigarette. I apologized and told him I didn't smoke, and he seemed like he was trying to figure out something else to say or ask. He then looked at my hand as I was carrying my bottle of tea and asked if I had anything else to drink. The guy seemed completely normal, and maybe just a little down on his luck or something, or hell.

Maybe he was just a mooch and was trying to get away with anything he could for free. Either way, he wasn't being aggressive or annoying about it, so I pulled out the change that I had gotten from my purchase. I paid with a ten, so I had a five left and some ones that I just shoved into my pocket and gave it to the man. He smiled and seemed genuinely thankful for it, making a comment about how he would be able to get smokes and a drink with it. I just kind of smiled back and said something like, yeah, no problem. your night. He waved goodbye and headed back towards the store. I had parked close to the front

and then drove it to the back of the lot, parked, and settled in to sleep for the night. I drifted off to sleep pretty quickly, but then I remembered hearing what sounded like scratching. I was still in half of a sleep state and

thought that it was just part of my dream. You know the feeling. Kind of like when you hear your alarm in your dream. but then when the sound became faster and a bit louder, it finally jolted me awake, and I looked around to find the source of the sound. It didn't take me long to figure it out, because when I looked over at the passenger door, I saw the same guy from earlier messing with the door handle.

I turned on my cab light and cracked the window on my side, the driver's side, to ask him what he was doing. The guy didn't even jump or look away from the handle when I did this, so I knocked on the passenger window to get his attention. He finally looked up at me, and, with a deadpan look on his face, asked if I would let him in, so that we could talk. However, something seemed off. The monotone way that he said it and how he was persistent on trying the door put me on edge, so I didn't unload. lock the door or anything, but I asked what he wanted to talk about. He refused to answer. He just kept saying in the same robotic voice,

I just want to talk about things. Please, open the door. Again, that uneasy feeling was still there, and even though I had given this guy some money, there was no way I was going to let this stranger in my car, in a small enclosed area. I told him that I couldn't and that I needed to sleep, but he just shouted no at me and continued trying the handle. But then started getting more aggressive with it.

After this was going on for a few moments, trying to figure out what I could do to get him to leave, I decided it was best to just leave myself. I had put my keys in the glove box, and as I went to grab them, this guy's demeanor changed. He began kicking the door and slamming into the way. window. I could see it slightly bending and began to worry that he was actually going to manage to break it. With my hands shaking, I tried to put the key in the ignition and start the car. I managed to get it started and burned out before he could break the window at least, but I had to go around a median to leave, which, unfortunately, gave this guy enough time to pick up a rock, chuck it at my car,

and unfortunately caused my rearview window to crack. I got out of that parking lot and saw the guy in my mirror chasing me for a second until I reached the intersection. I had only been asleep for around two hours, but with my heart now racing, I was fully awake and decided to just not stop driving. I didn't stop until the sun came up, which I finally took a break at a McDonald's. I called my parents from there and told them what happened, but I tried to keep it lighthearted so as to not worry my mother.

After talking to them, and a quick meal, I was feeling way more grounded, and I got back on the road to finish my drive. I arrived at my biological mother's home after that with no other incidents, but I also didn't stop again, other than the normal food or restroom break. Obviously, I don't know what the other. that guy's intentions were, but because of that feeling that wouldn't go away, I can't help but feel

that it wasn't going to be to ask for more money, or just an innocent conversation. The fact that his demeanor changed within a second terrified me even more, so I was just glad that I got out of there before he was able to get in, and even more thankful that I woke up to those initial sounds. Easter is not a religious holiday for my family. My family just tend to give each other a chocolate egg and hang around the house doing nothing to celebrate it, especially as the younger kids got older and became teenagers. And I was included in that group.

There was one Easter event that we used to do that was stopped after this incident occurred. The adults in the family would wake up really early or stay up really late drinking, depending on the night, and hide Easter eggs around the garden. We would all get tiny baskets to carry and to stash our eggs. My family would go all out. Occasionally, we would invite cousins or friends over to take part in the events, and I loved it. They would be tiny eggs, big eggs, and it was the envy of all the local kids.

I also need to add that I don't have a small backyard by any means. I live on a quarter of an acre block, and, yes, the Easter egg hunt took place on it, so we were out there for a long time. That, and there were a lot of trees and shrubs to hide in. This is important for later on. Like the rest of the kids, I grabbed my basket and sped off in the hunt of sweet, sweet chocolate. I may have pushed past my younger brothers, and I'm not the first to deny it is survival of the fittest when it comes. to getting the chocolate goodness. At the end of the driveway

was a boring-looking man holding a bunch of Easter eggs. He was hiding behind one of the trees, talking to himself, and just laughing. I'd love to say that there was something really off about him, but he just looked so average, almost non-threatening.

He didn't notice me at first. I was going to call out for the adults in the family that someone had stolen our A. When he did notice me, he told me that he had even more chocolate like this in his car. And I know that my reaction is weird, but I laughed. This was one of those weird style of pranks that members of my family would play on each other. I know, we all have a pretty sick sense of humor. He actually looked angry that I laughed at him, and that only made it more funny.

Again, we have strange senses of humor. He told me to hurry up and come with him. I told him no and to give me back all the chocolate that he stole. He argued with me and he was getting really mad. Like he had somewhere to be in a hurry, and he wanted me to come along with him. Not a chance. Some of the younger kids heard what was happening and came to see what the fuss was all about. It was only when he asked them and tried to grab one of their arms that I knew that something was up.

up. I screamed and made as much noise as possible. He tried to tell me to shut up. He offered me money, and then he threatened me and tried to drag me away by the arm. I struggled to get away, and he actually left marks on my arm. The rest of the family did manage to chase him off. Fortunately, no one got seriously hurt. Now, the outcome of what happened. The police never found the guy. They took statements and the community was warned about him. I have no idea who he was and I haven't seen him since that day. Rumor around town was that he was someone that was caught once torturing small animals and that he was now moving on to human prey. There were also rumors that he was seen stealing random items off of clothing lines and trying to spy on women while they changed.

Typical small town gossip that may or may not have been true. Either way, no one saw him again. The unfortunate outcome is that now we don't do the Easter egg hunt and we're just given our chocolate eggs. I do miss how it used to be, how it was something fun that we all did, and I hate how one creep managed to change something so special. I hate how it ruined a family tradition for us, but better that than one of the kids getting grabbed. I worry about what could have happened if one of the more gullible kids had come up,

and I dread to think of what that absolute creeps and tensions were. The last thing that I remember from it is seeing a bunch of chocolate eggs all stomped on and mashed up into the grass. I don't really like to eat the chocolate anymore. Before going into anything, I have to say this. I do not affiliate to any religion or cult. My belief is that all life is to be respected and that all life forms possess an energy that one should be considerate of. Two years ago, my boyfriend and I decided to go camping on Easter morning. The weather was unusually warm and sunny, so why not spend it outdoors? We packed our stuff, got the dogs in the car, and set to the road. It was very spontaneous,

so we didn't really plan where we would set up camp. Just a general direction in a national park. More in Europe. The forest was breathtaking. We drove up a dirt road along a small river for about an hour. It was a rough ride and we couldn't find any spots, as on our left was a rock wall, and on the right, a river valley. To this day, I say the place presented itself to us. I was frustrated that we were wasting light and demanded that we stop at the next turn.

We got out to stretch our legs, took the dogs, and noticed they kept going down to the river. We followed them and found the most beautiful clearing under a riverbank, right at a shallow bend of the river. We had a clear view up and down the river, but otherwise you would have no idea we were there. It was hidden away from the road. It felt like home. We found an old stone hearth, which made a beach sapling grow on it. I replanted the sapling somewhere safe before making the fire. My grandfather taught me from a young age to respect the forest.

Before the meal, I made a small gift to the forest with some tea. It just felt right. The day passed nicely, and as the sun went down, it got cold very fast. At some point, we put out the fire and got into the tent for warmth. The one thing that will always stay with me from this outing, is the pure darkness. It was so dark that I had to check with my fingers if my eyes were closed or not.

I had never experienced anything like that, and I hope that I don't anytime soon. It was deeply unsettling. During the night, I could barely sleep. The sound of the river was incessant yet low, like a constant buzz. What kept me awake, though, were the strange sounds around the tent.

I understand that nature is weird and has a lot of weird sounds. More than once, I heard something brushing on the tent, like someone would trace their hand down on it. Top to bottom, on the left, then on the right, and then behind, all over it. I just played it off as leaves or bugs falling from the trees. The next part is what really freaked me out. I started hearing muffled voices, sometimes paired with the brushing, other times on their own. There were a few voices, all obnoxiously happy.

I could hear loud laughter, singing, people talking loudly. I couldn't understand a word, but their happiness felt off, menacing at times. At the same time, I felt like I was being watched, like something like. was towering over us and counting my breaths. I felt the need to cower and hide. I barely moved all night. This kept going the whole night. Close to the morning, it seemed to quiet down, and I was able to sleep for an hour.

I woke up at the first light, and I was so relieved that it was day again. I felt it in my bones. I felt as if a pressure had been lifted. I just felt liberated. At that point, I didn't mention anything to my boyfriend about the voices. I wasn't concerned that he would call me crazy, but I felt the urge to shut up. Like I shouldn't speak about it there. The rest of the morning went by quietly.

Just before getting the last bags, I stopped just near the clearing and said, Thank you for having us. To the forest. It felt like the rest of the rest. thing to do. Not a second after, a bird started singing in front of us, like it was answering me. I whistled back and it sang back to me. I kept this going for a few more times. By the time we were loading in the car, the canopy above us was full of singing birds. It did not feel natural in any way. Those birds were huddled around us, like sending us off. It felt like a goodbye.

I can't put it into words, but I felt so melancholic, hurt, even. For a moment, I felt like I was leaving home, not for home. Once we left the woods behind, both of us relaxed. I wasn't even aware that I was so tensed. I asked my boyfriend how he felt about the experience, and he said that he heard the brushing too, and a few voices once or twice. He confessed that he too felt very uneasy.

during the night, and that the bird thing was very peculiar. I don't know what all these things were, but I know that I felt a presence with us the whole time. I felt watched. I tried to reason it out, but somehow even the memories about it feel off. I have lived in the same house my entire life, and many strange things have occurred there. But these recent events are just odd to me. My family rescued a stray cat, now my best friend, about seven to eight months ago. He's still young, about two years, I believe.

My mom has been someone who would, for some reason, have dreams of events right before they occur. She can't control them or anything, but there are sometimes of deaths of loved ones, which would turn out to be true. true. So, I guess you could say that she is open to the paranormal. I've experienced some strange things in the house, such as shadows waving at me, and I don't mean at the corner of my eye. They would be waving directly at me. But that all happened when I was younger, so I'm still skeptical about the paranormal. Although I have seen a UAP with my family when I was younger, and I still have no explanation for it, but that's a story for another time. Now, regarding my cat, there was this night about a couple of months ago

when my mom felt the cat jump on her bed. She then felt the cat walk up to her face, but she got annoyed and covered her face with the blankets, expecting the cat to bother her for food. The cat then clawed at the blankets trying to take them down from her face. This happened for about 20 minutes. This was until she got so annoyed that she got up and turned on the lights. But she then saw how the door was closed, and that the cat wasn't even in her room at the time. I was actually awake around the time when this happened to her.

I have trouble sleeping, and the cat was sleeping next to me that night. The strange thing is that I actually heard footsteps walking. toward my door, which was closed, which then stopped as I looked at the door. I then heard them continue away from my door and toward the room where my mom sleeps. Beside the occasional knocking noise and footsteps, not too much has happened since then. But last night, it seemed like something was messing with me. My cat was also sleeping with me last night, and right when I was about to fall. fall asleep, I woke up completely. As I hear the noise my cat makes with his claws when he

stretches on the carpet, which is almost like a popping and tearing noise. I sit up, and the noise suddenly stops. I laid back down, and when I was falling asleep again, the noise started up. I saw my cat wake up as well, and he began turning his head to look around the room to try and see what the cause of the noise was. At that point, I was just trying to ignore the noise and sleep, since I have school this morning. However, my cat was more annoyed than me, and he got up and walked around the edges of my bed,

looking around to find the source of the noise. The creepy thing is that the noise seemed to move around. At first, it sounded like it was right outside of my door, but then it sounded like it was in the ceiling, above me and then right underneath my bed. The noise would just continue to jump around the room. My cat walked up to the headboard of my bed, which is cushioned, and he did the claw-popping noise thing just for a second, which was not normal, as every time he would do it he would

do it for about a minute or so, but immediately after the second that he did it, the other noise stopped completely. then my cat stopped and lay next to me again and we both went to sleep. Also, for the past couple of weeks, I've been having horrible nightmares. Sometimes I can't even remember them, but I just remember the fear that I felt. And every time I wake up in a cold sweat, completely drenched. I don't know why all of this is happening, but perhaps there's a rational explanation for all of this that I just don't. know of. Maybe you guys have had similar experiences of some kind. I just need to get this out

there. And I'll update the situation if you guys want, but for now, this is what has happened so far. The OP added an edit. I forgot to add the fact that there was a time when I was whistling during the night, and then all of a sudden I hear whistling back at me from across the house. I thought it was someone in my family doing it, so I went out there. Everyone was asleep, except my mom. I went up to her and asked her if she was doing it, and she said no, and that she didn't hear it. But then I whistled again from right there, and again, something whistled back at us from across the house. This time I knew for sure it wasn't my family, since no one was in that part of the house that the whistling was coming from.

It was coming from the room that I was just in originally, and someone moved all the way over there. My mom heard it this time, and still both of us can't explain how something can clearly whistle back like that without being seen. This was way before my cat. I've also recently had times when my basement door, which has three locks on it, was wide open in the morning, even though I saw it closed right before I went to sleep. My parents have heard talking in the room while they're entering them, which the noise would stop when they fully enter. This happened in the same room that the basement door is in. I could try and record the noises that I've heard if they happen again, but I'll let you guys know.

About 15 years ago, I traveled to Spain with my best friend. We were both around 20 at the time, living a carefree young adult life. you know, just two guys having a great time. We were in a warm country, no carefully filled itinerary whatsoever, and just living in the moment, doing whatever we felt like. My friend who originally came from Spain still had family there,

which had made the month-long travel very affordable since they offered us free accommodation, a roof over our heads, a working bathroom, with fresh showers and three meals a day, if we liked. They also gave us a spare key so we could come and go as we pleased. During the day we often went swimming to keep us as cool as possible,

and during the evenings we often explored the city, went for drinks, or went to a club. On a certain day, somewhat more to the end of our month-long stay there, the father of our host family, my friend's uncle, took us out for a fishing trip. We had a lot of fun out on the sea, Although the trip was cut short because we had a bit too much fun consuming beers. The burning summer sun, too many beers,

and the wavy feeling of being out on the open sea made for a very bad case of sea sickness for both my friend and myself. His uncle thought it was funny, though. After having had an afternoon rest, or, as they called it, siesta, and a very fulfilling late-night dinner, we decided to go back out to the beach. We took a couple of cold beers with us. However, we didn't take as many as we were still feeling a bit groggy from before.

It was a beautiful night. Open sky, no clouds, little to no light pollution, making the twinkling stars very visible in presence. Being on vacation, being young on a still warm but comfortable summer night with the light breeze and a starry state. sky, it was the perfect moment to talk about the meaning of life, about what we liked to achieve one day, about what was worth it or what wasn't, if there was any other intelligent life out there, if we would live for another thousand years or so. The crashing of the waves against the sand

of the beach and the rocks was very calming, and it was lulling us into a meditative state. Only that moment in that place seemed to exist. There was no outside world. No life, no responsibilities, no obligations, no obligations, no working hard to get somewhere. It was that moment that we noticed, something was off. The crashing of the sea against the sand of the beach sounded different, harder, like something was moving in it. Under the waves, a vague shape started to form. as it neared the shoreline it started to get the shape of a dog.

We both looked at each other and noticed that we had been holding our breaths for about the minute that it took the dog to crawl from the sea to the shoreline. The tension broke because we both burst out laughing, because we had been so easily startled by something so innocent. But then my friend asked the question that made the newly regained light mood go away in an instant. Where did that dog come from? though. There's no one around. We never saw any dog go into the sea, nor was there any dogs swimming around. That thing came from under the water. Now that he had worded it like that, it seemed rather curious, and actually that dog seemed pretty big for any existing dog that I had ever seen. As it was crawling along the beach, solely illuminated by the first quarter moon,

it looked the size of a small horse, but in the shape of a dog or wolf with matted fur. It had very present to bony joints in its knees and elbows, and it walked a bit awkwardly. My friend and I were debating if we should follow the beast and decided that we did actually once to find out what exactly it was. I took out my phone and started to film it. for as far as any 2008 smartphone could film in the dark.

By the time we reached the place at the beach where it had left the water, it had already reached the sand dunes and disappeared into them. We saw that it had left a track and decided to follow that into the dunes. We weren't prepared for what we saw next, though. The beast had left a track in the wet sand in the form of individual hoof prints in a straight line, instead of a criss-cross pattern as with any four-legged animal. No horse could have walked in such a line, and even though it had looked the size of a horse,

it hadn't looked anything like the shape of a horse, nor were horses aquatic animals. We followed the track to the dunes and went over the first dune when we saw the beast standing about ten meters from us in a speck of moonlight. It didn't look anything like a dog, either. It looked like it had the lower half of a goat and the upper half of something like a werewolf or something. Just the dimensions were off, the shapes were awkward, it was such a big animal, and neither of us could place it under any existing animal that we knew of. With matted

fur and bony joints, it had just come out of nowhere from under the water, but clearly could walk and survive on the land as well, and it left hoof marks in a straight line. Because we had just stumbled through the bushes closely behind the beast and had given away our presence, it slowly started to turn its head towards us. While it was turning towards us, it stood on its hind legs. Not only was this an animal that came from under the water, as well as could survive on the land and walk on four legs. It could clearly stand and walk very well on two legs. The beast gained even more size by standing on its hind legs, and must have been around

two and a half meters big. It stared at us with red, glowing eyes. These were not to be mistaken with the eyes of any nocturnal animal with reflective eyes. These were actually glowing from within. I felt stuck in my spot. completely frozen. But luckily my friend, who was two steps behind me,

had the mind to run away and pull me with him. We ran for what felt like an hour, but must have been closer to ten minutes, because we reached the house of my friend's family before we knew it. The beast hadn't followed us, or at least not all the way. We went in and told the entire story to his uncle. Of course, he thought that we must have still been.

drunk and tired, and had seen things that weren't there. But when we showed him the recording, he went pale. He took a shovel. A gun would have been more impressive against a beast like that, but it's not like the average European has a gun lying around, and he asked us to show him where we had seen it. We searched for almost two hours, but we didn't find the beast again. However, we did find the hoof marks, albeit a bit washed up because of the current sea level.

We went back home, trying to make something of what we had just seen, but couldn't. We needed to know what animal we had seen. We started Googling all kinds of things. Of course, with the lower half of the beast looking like a goat, we stumbled upon a lot of myths about the devil, which we discarded. We had seen an actual live beast that wasn't known by humanity yet, and we wanted to know if any other people had seen anything like it. It was only when we googled hoof marks one straight line that we stumbled upon the term the devil's footprints. So it was an actual thing, or at least something that had supposedly been seen before according to myths and stories. but they must have had some truth to them since they described exactly what we had just seen with our own eyes.

The few days we had left in Spain, we spent our nights out with my friend's uncle trying to find this beast again, but to no purpose, as we never did see it again. When I came home a few days later, I saved the recordings on my hard drive, not sure what to do with it yet. I didn't want to be the crazy guy that had just seen the devil because I still don't believe that I did. I just wanted to know what animal this was and how come we haven't documented this beast yet. I tried to forget about it, but I couldn't. And a year later, I decided I wanted to publish the recording in the hope that anyone could make sense of what we had seen that night. The uncle of my friend hadn't seen the beast in all that time.

and had asked around town if anyone had ever seen it, which they hadn't. I had switched phones by then, but luckily I had the recordings saved on my desktop, where I replayed it at least a thousand times. I went to boot up my desktop, and something was wrong. I had to restart my desktop a couple of times, and after booting it up into safe mode, I got a message that my hard drive had crashed. I tried whatever was possible to try, but I couldn't. recover the recording in any way.

Fifteen years later, I'm still racking my head over what the beast we encountered could have been. But by now, it's a story my friends believed to be for making conversation. Only that friend and his uncle are still branded by the experience as well. My friend even took it so far as to go live in Spain again, near the beach where this all happened and still continues to actively look for the beast to this day. Maybe one day he'll find it. I like to believe that I'm a fairly careful person, and that I do a pretty good job

keeping myself out of trouble and away from dangerous situations. That said, as much as I've done a good job at keeping myself safe, I have one thing that happened to me that was genuinely terrifying. And while I wasn't personally hurt, it still messed with my head. It was one of those moments that you never think you'll end up in the middle of, and afterwards, it just kind of sticks with you and creeps up into your mind while you're lying in bed at night. The day that this happened, was in the middle of summer. I had literally just turned 18 a couple days prior,

and had spent a couple of days at my friend's house in a nearby town. I was actually driving home in the mid-afternoon. I think it was around 3 p.m. or so. I had the windows down and the wind blowing through the car because of how nice it was and was just jamming out to some summer pop song enjoying the drive. As I was driving down a quiet and slightly rural road, I noticed that there was a young woman down the way with her thumb outstress. which I honestly didn't know was a thing people did.

I thought that the whole thumb thing out on the road was a movie cliche, but there she was. She looked to be in her early 20s, long, dark hair, and a simple and quite cute sundress. Though I was always warned about the dangers of picking up strangers, something about her seemed harmless. She almost looked like my little sister, just older, so I guess part of me saw some familiarity in her and immediately thought, if my sister was out on the road like this, I would want someone to stop for her to see if she was okay. I decided to stop and see if she just needed a quick ride down the road, or if she needed to

go a long distance. She told me that she was needing a ride to a specific gas station about 10 miles up the road. It was in the direction that I was going, and I would have passed by it anyways, so I told her to hop in and said that I could get her there. At first, the conversation was incredibly casual and friendly. She told me her name, I told her mine, we chatted about the weather and how absolutely gorgeous it was that day. She made a comment about the song that was playing on the radio. I don't remember what song it was, but it was some top 40 song, and she was nodding along to it singing quietly.

She even told me a bit about who she was, how she was a bit of a vagabond, and she was doing an experiment to see how far she could go on the kindness of others. This was before van living was a thing, so it was a bit of a foreign concept to me, and I was shocked that it was working out the way that it was for her. After a bit of chatting and friendly back and forth, she started talking about how much she liked to listen to true crime podcasts and such. It started with her saying that, being out and alone like this, she listened to them to be aware of the horrible things that could happen.

But then she started talking more and more about various murders. cold cases, and such to the point that I could tell that she was a bit obsessed. I don't mind true crime stuff. It's not my favorite, but I was willing to hear her out because she was very clearly passionate about them. However, it shifted from her talking about the podcasts to her talking about very specific cases in very, very vivid detail. The way that she got excited when she talked about the people dying, it made me feel a bit uneasy, to say the least.

She then turned to me and literally asked, What do you think it feels like to die? If she had just made the comment, it would have been one thing. But she said it, turned to me, and just stared at me like she really, really wanted an answer. I sort of just stammered and mumbled that I didn't know,

and that I guessed it would just be painful. She laughed and commented that it would probably be the best feeling you could ever have, because, in her words, it would be the final explosion at the end of all the build-up and hype. Then it got worse. She turned back to me and said, I wish that I could find out what it felt like, without actually dying. And she seriously smiled at me, like she was expecting me to volunteer to help her.

I just sort of said, huh, yeah, and tried to keep going without making eye contact, thinking that maybe she would get how creepy she was being. But she followed that up with, if I asked you to help me, would you? I was pretty obviously taken aback And I told her that I would not be able to help her and said sorry And that I just kind of wanted to focus on driving She fell back into her seat and said Well, all right

Before just turning to focus back onto the road ahead of us And this made the whole situation feel super awkward And heavy Like how do you come back from that kind of of comment. Well, her idea of coming back from the comment was to literally throw the door open and jump out of the car while I was going 50 down the road. She opened the door, undid her seatbelt, and just jumped out onto the road while I was going full speed. I slammed my brakes and screamed as she jumped, the whole situation playing out in a horrible series of chaotic seconds.

I threw the car and park, grabbed my cell phone, and then ran over to check on her. She was pretty messed up, but was definitely still breathing. I called 911 and told them about what happened. They sent an ambulance and a few police officers, as this was definitely a suspicious situation. For some reason, the memory of them lifting her on to the stretcher to get her into the ambulance is seared into my brain. Just seeing them trying to lift her gently so as to not further her injuries, I could tell that she had broken a few things, though,

and it was not pretty. I had to explain to the police that she wasn't a friend, and how I had just picked her up and was giving her a ride. They looked at me like I was crazy. Part of me thinks they were debating whether or not, they were thinking I shoved her out of the car. I explained what she said right before she jumped, and after a while I think they got the idea,

and maybe they realized, with how distraught that I was, that it wasn't my doing. They did call me back a few days later, and asked me to come in to give an official statement, and I was actually informed that they were treating this as an attempted suicide, and that they were needing my statements to help get her into a mental health hold.

I gave them what they asked for, and that was the end of it. I have absolutely no idea what happens to this girl, and I'm terrified to think that she may not be with us anymore. She was such a sweet young lady when we started talking, but she switched over to the crazed person in literally a second. I do hope that they were able to get her the help that she needed, and that she was able to continue on her trip to wherever she was going. But this event really instilled a strong lesson in me

about not judging a book by its cover. This was something that happened when I was around four or five years old. Of course, I know this was really young, so I didn't have all the details, so this was also put together with the help from my dad. as it did involve the two of us. I remembered parts of this from my perspective, but I'll also include what my dad saw and experienced too,

so I apologize if it does jump around a bit. This was sometime in the early 90s. My family, which was my mom and dad, my baby sister, and myself lived near the border of Oklahoma and Texas. My dad had gotten a full. phone call about his mom falling ill, and they were afraid that she wouldn't make it much longer, so he wanted to go be with her in Mexico. Both of my parents were working full-time jobs, so they were kind of stuck.

My mom wouldn't be able to watch both of us while working, but they also couldn't afford to have us all go. So, they decided that my dad would take me with him since I was older, and my mom would stay home with my sister since she would, was a newborn anyways, and she could bring her with her to work. So my mom made us some food for the road, and after packing a bag for both of us and bringing my favorite toys, we headed out late one night. That way we could get through a lot of the driving while I slept. Plus, it was a little cooler. It was the middle of summer, and it was unbearably hot. The AC barely worked, and we couldn't have it on at all times. Otherwise, the car would start running funny.

We also had a very old car that could fall apart at any time, so driving at night was almost preferable. Unfortunately, we started having troubles with the car in the middle of the drive. I remember seeing a lot of white smoke, and my dad said that it was sputtering. Thank God we weren't on a deserted and empty part of the highway, though. With his hazards on, he was able to slowly take an exit, got past, and stared up. by multiple cars, and then rolled into the parking lot of a run-down truck stop. I do remember being my younger self, asking some form of,

Are we there? To which my dad told me that he had to fix the car. Instead of pulling into a parking spot, he pulled up to the curb close to the building. There was a picnic table in the grass nearby that had an umbrella over it. My dad pulled me out of the car and had me sitting at the table, and he gave me a few of my toys in a juice box. He told me to stay there no matter what while he looked at the car. As mentioned, it was very hot at the time,

and when we talked about this when I was older, he told me that he didn't want to leave me in the car and risk me overheating, so he thought the next best thing would be for me to sit there in the shade. I was still pretty close to him, where all he had to do was turn his head to the last, left and he would see me, and he would probably hear me if I tried talking to him. The problem, however, wouldn't be with me overheating, but himself. He said that he was already feeling ill and felt like his blood pressure was high,

but he chalked it up to just being stressed out and hot. He said after finding out what was wrong with it, he would sit with me to relax for a bit before we got back on the road. But he wouldn't get the... that far. He popped the hood, got into the driver's seat to get something, and ended up passing out. I didn't know that anything was happening. I just sat on the bench as I was told and shared my juice with my stuffed animal that I'd had. At one point, I saw a man walk out of the store, and I remember thinking that he reminded me of my uncle. My uncle Lewis was a truck driver, and he always

had on a pair of overalls, a cowboy hat, and sunglasses. This man was dressed the same way, so when he looked at me and smiled, I smiled and waved back. I watched him as he walked along the side of the building, seeming to be looking around, and then did a sharp turn and headed back in my direction. He then stood right across from me and said, Hello. I remember saying hi back, and I think I asked him if he knew my Uncle Lewis. He laughed and said that he thought he might, and then asked who I was with.

I told him I was with my dad and pointed at our car. The guy then said something like, Looks like your daddy could use some help. How about we surprise him with some ice cream? It's really hot out here. Again, I was really young. I knew it was hot because my dress was sticking to me and starting to make me feel uncomfortable. I could tell something was wrong with my dad by the way that he was.

acting in how much he was sweating. This guy also seemed very nice. And because he did appear to be like my uncle, I thought it would be okay. I also thought that this was supposed to help my dad, either with the car or to cool off, or maybe just to make him happy. And that's, of course, what I wanted. I wanted to help him, so I agreed to go with this guy. I stood up, and I went to walk around the other side.

side of the bench and grabbed the man's hand. As we started walking, that was about the same time that my dad woke up. He said when he came to, his immediate thought was me. He didn't know how long he had been out, so he jumped out of the car and saw me walking away with an unknown man. That's when he started running toward us, but he said that his legs felt like concrete. So his next option was to yell. The only thing he managed to get out was Maria, Peligro,

which was basically danger in Spanish. My dad's bilingual, and I was starting to learn Spanish alongside my English, but I didn't know it very well. However, one of the things I was taught was Stranger Danger. However, he would later learn this, but my dad was amid heatstroke, so, with being very weak, all he could muster, was danger. After shouting this, he stumbled forward falling onto the ground, hitting his head on the curb.

Hearing the fear in my father's usually booming voice definitely startled me. And when I saw him fall, I immediately screamed, and the guy that I was walking with took off. My dad and I both remember the guy being white, but of course, we don't know if he knew Spanish and knew what my dad had just said. or if it was the fact that my dad had caught him, so he took off. I ran to my dad who was now on the ground, and all I knew to do was scream, cry and shake him trying to wake him up. A lady in the truck stop heard all this and ran out to try and help, and after that, it all

kind of ran together. I remember a few other people helping by putting cold rags on my dad. I remember the ambulance coming and then my dad waking up. up. They had to calm him down as he was panicking because he couldn't see me initially. The lady was sitting on the bench with me trying to keep me calm and keep me out of the EMT's way. When I called out for him, though, he knew I was okay, so he calmed down too. I know the EMTs wanted him to go to the hospital to see if he'd gotten a concussion, but he refused. After he cooled down, he said he was feeling much better, and that he needed to fix his hot car still

so that we could get back on the road. The lady that was with me had my dad pull the car into the truck garage to take a look at it while he rested inside in the AC. My dad said that the issue had something to do with the radiator, and they only asked him to pay for the part, which they had, and that they weren't going to charge him for labor. I remember the lady being very kind, She asked me questions about myself, my family, all while the EMTs were there to keep me calm. She gave me a push-pop and some water and let me keep the little pool stuffed animal toy thing she gave me. It was like one of those water footballs that you'd toss around in a pool, but it was a rabbit, I think. She'd soaked it in cold water to keep me cool as well.

To wrap things up, the guy unfortunately fled. He was driving a big truck, so they had his license plate number, and knew the business thanks to the giant logo on the trailer. We used this to contact the company and police to report it, but my dad said that he never heard anything back, so we just assumed that they either never found him, or, more likely, didn't take it seriously. We did make it to Mexico, with only a day to spare before his mother passed away.

It was one hell of a trip for us, and I became even closer with my dad after that. It's like we really became partners, always watching out for each other.