As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD 008 - Christmas, New Years Eve & Other Scary Stories - 10 #TrueScaryStories

Episode Date: December 31, 2021

Hello and Welcome to the 8th episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today we have some intriguing and terrifying stories submitted by everyday people. In Today's Episode we will have stories that happened around Christmas, New Year's Eve and then a collection of misc. Scary stories sprinkled in! ➤ Want your story featured? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/Submit ➤ Want to know where to follow me on the internet? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/the-nevermore for all my links! ➤ You can also get EARLY ACCESS By joining my Patreon! https://patreon.com/astheravendreams Today's Video contains stories by the following Authors... Background-Ice-7136, Entire_Ad6272, Jatic, Tacocat274, & Others that choose to remain anonymous.  ➤ All stories within are used w/ Either direct permission from the author- or under some level of CC license (where noted) True Stories are not verified, and should all be considered 'supposedly true'.  And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. --- 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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This took place several years ago back when Mal were relevant and a popular place to go. I was a single mother at the time, living with my parents until I saved enough to find a place on my own. My ex and I mutually split up because we didn't just jive well as a couple.

We jumped into getting a house together way too quick, and neither of us could afford it on our own, so we sold it and I moved in with them. My job was four ten-hour shifts, so I was at least thankful to have an extra day to spend with my daughter. She was seven at the time, so I was trying to spend as much time as possible with her, not to mention she was my first child. On my day off during the week,

we always had a girls' day, and would go get lunch, go to the park, or do some kind of activity together. The holidays were also a huge deal for my family, filled with events and time spent together. Hell, sometimes, they even invited my ex over for dinner since he didn't really do anything with his parents. One of my favorite things to do with my daughter, though, for Christmas was the Craft with Santa night. The kids could see Santa, tell them what they wanted for Christmas, get their picture taken, and then usually had some kind of craft there, like coloring pages, or painting an ornament, things like that, and she loved it.

Unfortunately, this one year I ended up with, working the day of the event, so I had to rush home to get changed, pick her up, and then head to the mall. They stopped at eight, and I got off at six, so it was a rush. Thankfully, we got there while it was still going, but they had already started picking up some of the craft stuff, which was upsetting, because they were doing these hand-print reindeer's, and I really liked stuff like that as a keepsake of hers as she got older. There was one kid with Santa as we got in the waiting line, and then Santa and I made eye contact.

Being the person I was, I smiled, and he smiled back and winked. Then it was my daughter's turn. As she started walking up, she asked the helper elf if she could still make a reindeer, and they started saying they were putting it away when Santa interrupted them, reassuring my daughter that she could do one and insisted that they let her do one and that he didn't mind staying a little bit later. I thanked them all, but the elf didn't seem too happy with the request.

I stood by as my daughter talked the poor guy's ear off. She kept talking and the guy would look up at me and smile. and then ask my daughter about me. Like, what does Mommy want for Christmas? What does Daddy do for Christmas? Where is Daddy? Things like that. After they finished,

she went over to do her craft and I tried to help pick up stuff as she finished or that she wouldn't use. Santa was standing nearby and we started talking. He complimented me, saying that I looked beautiful for someone with a, kid her age? Uh, thanks, I guess.

He continued talking about my daughter, talking about what he did for work outside of being a Santa, things like that. Now that I think about it, I think he was really talking himself up at the time. When my daughter finished, we said goodbye and started walking over to the food court to get dinner. As we were walking out, I started here. hearing someone shouting, hey. Of course, it was like an instinct to see who was shouting, and I turned around to see a man running over towards me and waving. I stopped as the guy caught up to me. I didn't recognize him at first until he started talking, and I realized that it was the Santa.

He made a joke about me not recognizing him without the belly suit, and I laughed a bit. He asked me for my number and if we could get together sometime. I was a bit taken aback at first, as I never had this happen to me before, and being put on the spot, I didn't know what else to do but follow through. So I gave it to him. I told him I'll look into it, and we left. That did not turn out to be a good thing to do, though. This was about three weeks before Christmas, which was one of the busiest times at my work,

so I didn't get a lot of free time, and the time I did have off, was spent catching up on sleep and spending it with my daughter. I learned the Santa guy's real name was Drew, and he liked to text me almost every hour. That same night he texted me saying thank you for the number and good night. I just responded back, You're welcome, or something like that. It was kind of like first meeting someone,

and then getting to know them afterwards. He seemed fine at first, but as I mentioned with him messaging me hourly, if I didn't respond quick enough, he would then send messages like, Hello? Are you still there? I miss you. I'm sorry, I know that I can be too much.

things like that. Again, I didn't know how to respond other than being nice and saying, no, you're not too much, and things like that, just explaining that I work a lot. Then I told him where I worked to further explain. I work at a custom clothing store where we make things like uniforms in bulk

for businesses, schools, and even just suits. We get a lot of business orders towards the end of the year, like they're using up the last of the budget, so we really don't have any downtime. A few days after telling Drew this, my boss came to get me telling me that I had a visitor, and reminded me that guests were not recommended, since we had a lot of big machinery in there.

I was very much aware of this, as I never had visitors, and never even really told anyone where I worked, other than my parents and ex in case of emergencies, so I had no idea who it could have been at first. As I started walking to the front, I saw Drew standing there with a bouquet of flowers. I again was polite and thanked him for the flowers,

but I told him that I wasn't allowed to have visitors there. I also asked him how to have visitors. he found out where I worked, and he pretty much brushed off the question. He left shortly after, and I got back to work even with everyone looking at me. He was really nice, but I wasn't used to this, so I just took it for what it was and lived with it. I also didn't really tell my parents much about it beyond that I had sort of met a guy. They were happy for me, but didn't really ask much more than that. and I didn't mention anything of our meeting each other to them.

For the next few weeks, though, it just got worse, and as you can tell, I was quite the pushover. I wasn't the hostile type, and I typically just let things be, so when he started asking me for pictures, asking me my every move, where I was and calling when I didn't respond, I didn't know what else to do, but oblige. He just started calling me, endearing names, started sending risque pictures and asking for them in return,

and I just slowly became more and more of a recluse, afraid to go out and run into him. I ended up running late to drop my daughter off with my ex, and I never did that, and I guess between that and the way I looked, He could tell there was something wrong. He finally coaxed it out of me and started asking about this guy, and I explained it all to him.

He said I needed to report it to the police and stop responding to this guy. He also asked for his address, and that's when I realized that I still had no info on where he lived or did, other than that he was a mechanic. I didn't know what. shop or where, hell, it could have been a shop out of his own home. He knew more about me than I knew of him. Like I said, my ex and I didn't work together, but we did still care about each other,

and he even told my parents and older brother about it when he came over once, so they all convinced me to start by blocking his number. That only worked for so long, and he then would begin calling. calling and texting me from different numbers, so I had to get a new phone number. This just enraged him as he showed up at my work again and caused a scene. Thankfully, I told my boss about this when I changed my phone number, so they knew that his presence was not welcomed. Thankfully, my boss was actually kind and understanding about the whole situation

and was glad to call the cops on him when he showed up. The first two times she told him that I wasn't there at the time, claiming I was off or on lunch, but then he started getting more and more aggressive, so she called the cops on him. He was escorted away because we had strict rules about customers and trespassing. I also started having an officer follow me home on the days he showed up, just to be safe.

or my brother or ex would take me to and from work so I wasn't alone. It seemed to finally work as he stopped showing up at my work, and I stopped getting random friend requests from weird accounts on social media, so I was finally getting back to a normal life. My daughter's birthday was an early January as well, and all of her Christmas and birthday money was burning in her pocket, and she wanted to go shopping. The problem was that during her birthday party, I had slipped on the ice and actually fractured my ankle,

so I once again had to rely on my parents and brother for help for a bit. My brother's car was being worked on, and I offered to let him use my car if he was willing to go with me and my daughter to the mall for a while, and he agreed. My daughter loved him too, so they always had fun. fun together. We went to the mall and walked around as much as I could with crutches until we started to head out. We parked by the main entrance, and right before we walked out, there was one of those quarter machines that my daughter wanted to get something from. So, as I was digging out a quarter, my brother asked me nervously, hey, do you know him?

As I looked up, I saw Drew standing by the entrance intersection, hands bawled in a fist, and just staring at me angrily. I immediately started freaking out and telling my brother that we needed to go now. He grabbed my daughter to pull her in front of us, and I started grabbing my phone to call the cops, when he just started screaming. I turned around and saw him charging toward us. Afraid he was going to hurt me, I shoved my daughter to the side and braced for impact, when I heard a grunt and saw my brother fall to the ground.

Drew was punching me, calling me a cheating whore, and my daughter was now screaming. Time just seemed to slow down, and I didn't know what to do. Thankfully, there was a mall security, guy nearby, and another random guy that had pulled him off my brother and subdued him. My brother, however, is not as forgiving as me, and he pressed charges on him.

I was also given the opportunity, too, since he'd pushed me out of the way. I never saw him again after that. I was incredibly thankful that my brother was with me that day, because I had no idea what he would have done to just me and my daughter, but I also felt bad as my brother had to get a tooth replaced and had a black eye for a while. He teased me about owing him, but I think he was also just happy to be there that day. So, overall, if I learned anything, if someone asks you for your number, and if even a part of you isn't comfortable with it, say no. You are. You are. You are. You. You are. You. You. You are. You. You are. You. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. You are. And if, if if if if even a part of you isn't comfortable with it, say no.

You are not obligated to give it to them. And also, tell someone if they start getting controlling. Don't go through what I did. It only lasted about a month or so, but it was one of the worst times of my life. So, Drew, I hope that you never meet me or my family again. a little less human these days, aren't they? But isn't the whole point of progress to make things more human?

That's why, at TD, when we design a product, whether it's an app for making trading easier or monitoring your account for fraud, we ask one simple question. How does this help people? That's how we're making banking, more simple, more seamless, and more intuitive.

But most importantly, that's how TD's making banking more human. I have a story that happened. and on New Year's Eve, way back in the day. By back in the day, I mean the 80s, back when I was about 19 years old, and still lived with my mom and dad. I was actually preparing to move out and get my own place since I'd gotten a decent job right out of high school,

and I'd been able to save up a good amount of money, thanks solely to my parents not kicking me out the minute I had turned 18. though I could promise you, they probably wanted to. I have an older brother that was 22 at the time, and he and I never really got along in any capacity. He was always the bully, and I was always the one getting in trouble for his BS, which definitely left a bitter taste in my mouth when it came to doing anything with him. To this day, we still don't really talk.

and I no longer live in the same state as him, nor my parents. I kind of moved my life forward and decided I wanted to do my own thing in the world. It's not really important, but it does paint that I was always a bit of a black sheep when it came to my family. On this particular year, my mother and father were planning on going out to a party with my father's co-workers, and since I had worked all day and was just getting home as they were getting ready to leave, I decided I was just going to stay home and watch TV instead of doing anything for the night's festivities. I was drained, and I was thinking that falling asleep on the couch was a better idea than partying with my parents and other people their age. They finished getting dressed, told me to have a good night, and that they wouldn't do.

be home until around two or so, and then left me to sit on the couch and doze all. My dozing didn't last anywhere near as long as I'd wanted it to, as I was interrupted by the sound of the front door unlocking, and a familiar voice that I was hoping to not hear. My brother, Brett, and his group of a-hole friends walked in as loudly as they possibly could, causing a nice night of doing nothing to quickly turn into me being annoyed. As soon as they walked in, Brett started in on me for not having a date for the night, for staying home, and then made a comment that even mom and dad were out partying. I shot some choice words at him and then asked why he was there,

to which he replied saying that he and his friends wanted a place to party for the night. and since mom and dad were out, they were going to hang out in the backyard. I rolled my eyes and went back to watching the MTV New Year's Eve Bash. He laughed, and the group of them went back into my parents' room and came out with several bottles of alcohol. I once again ignored them, and they all walked out to the backyard. After about 20 minutes of them yelling at each other, about whatever it is they were yelling about,

I heard Brett shout my name. I huffed, got up and went to the back door, and asked what the hell he wanted. He told me to come out and help them around their bonfire. The bonfire in question was going to literally just be the old metal drum that my parents had, that they burned leaves and stixen from old trees in the yard. I declined in the most polite way that I could, and he told me that, if I helped him, he would let me sit out and drink with them. Now, I hated my brother, and I still do, but something about the allure of being allowed to sit with older guys and drink was an interesting thing to me.

I'd literally never drank in my life. I was only 19, and it wasn't something that ever really had come up in my life. Part of me got stuck in that It's what the older guys are doing And then if I do it I'll be one of them mindsets So I told him I would help But he had to pour me something first This was a huge mistake

He poured a mix of several different things And then handed it to me And then taunted me saying that he'd bet that I puked The second I sipped on it I just stared at him and then literally downed the entire cup, which tasted like actual death. I have no idea what he mixed, but it was like four different hard liquors. I barely even made a face, and I just maintained eye contact,

which caused him to laugh and tell me to help with the fire. We all got the wood pieces that were cut up and filled the barrel to the top. Then he poured a bunch of literal gasoline on it, and lit it. The fire caught, and was burning pretty nicely. And I was just impressed that he didn't catch himself on fire. As the night went on and we were sitting there, I was pretty much just silently drinking something slowly,

and I was feeling the effects of that first thing that he had given me after only a little while. Again, that was the first drink that I'd ever had, and it was something like two shots of four different liquors all mixed together, so to say that I was a lightweight and that it was hitting me, that would be an understatement. And then being on my second or third drink, I don't recall which, I was probably more than tipsy. That night, I learned two things about drinking. When it hits me, it hits me like a bus. and I'm an absolute a-hole when I'm drunk.

I don't remember a lot of the night, but I do know that the whole party only lasted about an hour before I started in on my brother about something. From what I've been told, I pretty much just stood up and started calling him names and yelling about him being the favorite. Him being the guy that he is, he decided that he was going to take advantage of my being

drunk and angry, and make me the butt end of his jokes so that his friends would get a laugh out of the situation. I do have very vague memories of things that were said, but I can tell you right about when my brain kicked back on. It was right when he started yelling at me about how much of a loser I was. I remember him saying something like, the fact that you still live with mom and dad at 19 shows how much of a loser you really are, which, for some reason, really hit a nerve.

As soon as he finished that sentence, I went on the offensive and started looking for something within my reach to throw at him. Within said reach, there were literally two things. My drink and the fire. And my brain was not making the best decisions. I reached into the barrel, and I grabbed a deep. decent-sized chunk of a log that was burning on one end, which drunk me didn't realize had actually burned my skin at the time.

I remember yelling something like, I wish you would just F off and die, and then heaving the piece of wood as hard as I could at him. Now, I had a really good arm. I'd actually played baseball in high school, but my aim was garbage because of how buzzed I was. When I heaved the burning piece of wood, I missed my brother by literal feet. What I didn't miss was the window that was behind him that went straight into the living room. At first, my mind wanted to go into freak-out mode, because I had just broken the window and my parents were going to kill me for it.

But then, I noticed the glowing on the other side of the window. It honestly felt like it happened and happened. half a second. I went from yelling, throwing the flaming wood, to watching the living room catch, and let me tell you, there is nothing more sobering than standing in your backyard and watching your childhood home go up in flames. As much as I hate to say it, I just stood there and watched it catch and start to burn more. My brother and his friends tried to get inside to put it out, but whatever I had hit with the log had started burning super fast, and the entire house was filled with smoke, and they couldn't do a damn thing. They had to run next door to tell

them to call 911. The firefighters came and tried to put it out, but they took too long to get there to fully save the house. Like I said, I just kind of stood there, and I know some people will judge me for it, but it was such a surreal situation. Everything I had ever owned, ever known, loved, and experienced was going up in flames right in front of me because I did something stupid. This was my fault. For obvious reasons, this was the worst night of my life. I can't even remember anything my parents said when they were contacted and rushed home. I can't remember anything my brother yelled at me. Hell, I don't even remember anything the firefighters or officers that showed up to the scene had told me. I just remember being stuck inside my head and screaming at myself.

I will say that the only good thing about this was that no one was hurt or killed, but it was obviously a breaking point for me. I'm not going to bore you with the rebuilding of everyone's life. Just know they moved on and, well, it's something that's always. killed me inside, I also have moved on. Like I said earlier, I don't much talk to my family anymore, being the black sheep, and I think this was the last straw for them, and I was pretty much ostracized. From this, I learned that I should avoid alcohol, and I haven't had a single drink since that night. And if I had to give a lesson to anyone out there, drink in moderation.

and responsibly, and remember that drunks and fire do not mix. This event actually took place on New Year's Eve between 1999 and 2000. For those of you who were around back then, you know how big of a deal that specific night was. There was widespread panic because the banking systems supposedly not being able to handle changing from 99 to double zero, and some people thought the world was legitimately going to end because of the new millennium. It was a crazy time, and there were a lot of people either prepping for the end or that were planning on living it up like it was going to be the last night we were alive. Most of us that were in our early 20s were definitely planning on living it up.

I would say that we were the original yoloers. Sorry, I'm old and don't get to use hip lingo like that in my daily life. Anyways, I wasn't the doom and gloom kind of person when this was going on, and I wasn't really afraid of what was going to happen. Now, I'm not a smart person when it comes to computers, and I would never claim to be as smart as those people that wrote the banking software, So I just kind of assumed things would be fine. And as history would show us, they were.

So I'm glad I was right on that assumption. Back in those days, my best friend and I were renting a small house that her uncle owned, and while we weren't the partying type, I had just happened to turn 21 about a month prior, and we both had plans to do something fun on this particular. their New Year's Eve. My neighbors were throwing a bit of a neighborhood party at one of the houses at the end

of the block, and I was all about getting out there to get to know some new people. She had made plans with her new boyfriend and wasn't going to be home that night, so I figured I could have a good time at the party. Well, yes, I was a stupid kid back then. I was also a total little little. lightweight and wasn't dumb.

I knew that I needed to take it easy and not get too drunk. The party was actually pretty tame, thankfully. It felt just more like a massive social gathering than a real party. There were people that were getting drunk and acting stupid, sure, but for the most part, we were all just kind of hanging out and getting to know each other. At around 10.30, I decided to... that I should probably just have a drink myself, that this was a party and I was going to have fun.

On my way over to the table, I ran into one of the neighbors that I knew and was talking with him about things. And when I turned to walk over to the drink table, I accidentally smacked face first into another person. I apologized for not paying attention to where I was going. He said it wasn't a bit of a big, deal and then reached out to introduce himself.

He said his name was Ben, that he had moved to the neighborhood recently. I shook his hand, told him my name, and then said that I lived about a block over with a roommate. We talked a bit after I had grabbed my drink, and it kind of felt like we were building a friendship. He was a really nice guy, seemed to be pretty smart, and I thought he was decently attractive, so I was enjoying getting to know him. Ben seemed like the kind of guy that I would hang out with, and like he could be a decent person to possibly make a relationship with.

So, with that, and the couple drinks that I'd had, I was definitely letting my guard down while talking to him. We spent a good portion of the night just talking about things, and we even hugged each other at midnight. I wasn't about to kiss a stranger. It was a pretty good night overall, and I'd had a pretty good time. As the night was winding down, and as I'd had a few drinks, I was kind of feeling like I should wrap up everything

and decided that I would go ahead and start heading home. I mentioned that I wanted to go ahead and head home to Ben, and he asked me if I wanted a ride. It was a bit iffy at first, but in the end, I figured it was better to go ahead and get the ride than walk home slightly drunk in the middle of the night. I took him up on it, and we headed out. Now, I know what a lot of you might be thinking.

This was a terrible idea, and it was, but not right away. He drove around to where my house was, I hesitating pointed to the small blue house that I was living in. He pulled up in front and parked for a moment. I was a bit worried that he was going to try to make a move or ask if he could come in or something. But, thankfully, he told me to have a good rest of my night and that he would see me around. I thanked him for the ride and got out. He drove away and everything seemed like it was going all right.

I headed in, got into my pajamas, and then fell into my bed and passed out. I was out cold. After the drinks and it being around one in the morning, I was out like a light. That is, until I started to hear something that pulled me out of my sleep. I wasn't exactly sure what I was hearing, but it was enough to wake me up. I sat up in my bed and grogly looked over at the clock. It was 3.30. I shook the sleep off and tried to look around to see what the hell was making a weird tapping noise.

I got up, looked around the house to see what exactly was going on, thinking that maybe the sound was just a fan running or something, but I really could not figure it out. I shrugged it off and went to the bathroom, but the whole time I was sitting there, I just kept hearing this weird tap and click noise. Part of me almost figured it was in my head, or something outside, like a branch on a tree

was hitting the siding or something like that, and it stopped after a few more moments, so I seriously just brushed it off. That is, until I walked out into the living room and heard a really loud banging on the door. Obviously, I jumped. I didn't expect someone to be banging on my door at 3 a.m. The banging was immediately followed up by a deep voice saying,

This is the police. Open the door. So, at this point, I will say that I was in a state of half-drunk panic. I had no idea what the hell was going on. I was awoken from a comfortable sleep by a tapping that I couldn't figure out, and now someone claiming to be the police was banging on my door at 3 in the morning. I was hesitant at first, mostly because why would the cops be there? But when I glanced out the window, I noticed that there were two cop cruisers sitting out

in front of my house, and two of the officers were stationed with their weapons ready. I took a deep breath, and I responded by saying, saying something to the effect of, Who are you with, and why are you here? He responded with his name and his department, and he told me that I needed to exit the house immediately. I told him I was going to come out and then open the door with my hands up. He quickly grabbed me and pulled me to the side.

Then, as quickly as he had gotten me out, two other officers ran past me with their weapons up. It was at that point that I realized that there were more than just the two cruisers outside. As quickly as this whole thing had happened, it was over, and I learned what exactly was going on. The officer explained to me they'd gotten a call of a suspicious person in the area

from one of the neighbors, and they'd sent a unit out to investigate. When they were driving around, they actually saw the person that was being reported, trying their damnedists to pry the basement window open. That is what prompted them to call for more units, and as soon as they parked to confront the person, he had managed to get the window open and got into the basement.

That's when they noticed that I was walking around. They said they'd seen me walk into the kitchen from the hallway and knew that the person they'd seen was a guy, so he started banging on the door to get my attention. As I'm sure you can assume, the person that had broken in was bent, the nice guy that I'd met at the party. What's worse, when they pulled him out of the house, he had a duffel bag with him, that had a bunch of things indicating that he was planning on this break-in to become a kidnapping,

including duct tape, rope, a map of the area, and a few other things. I really thought that Ben was an okay person at first, and I was stupid enough to take him up on the ride, but in the back of my mind, I actually think that that was the best thing to do. Thinking back, my other option was to walk home, tipsy, in the dark, and I feel like he would have had a better chance to grab me in that situation. I think him taking me home and then not trying anything, was his way of getting me to let my guard down, or maybe it was a spur of the moment,

hey, let's kidnap the girl that I met this evening kind of plot. I honestly don't know. Lesson learned from this, don't get in cars with strangers at parties, unless that stranger is from Uber, in which case you're probably safe. This all happened back somewhere around 2017. I had just turned 18 that year

and was trying to save up money to get my own place. Not necessarily because I wanted to, but because I was the youngest of four boys, and I think my parents were at a point where they just really wanted me out of the house. Not trying to complain about my parents, but they were a bit pushy about me getting money and getting the hell out. I had a job. It just didn't pay very well, and I was still trying to figure out what I was going to do for college, my career, and all of that.

Honestly, it's not super important, but it kind of frames what was going on in my life. Because my parents wanted me gone, and they had given me a pretty tight time frame as to when they wanted me out, I was doing almost anything I could to get money. It was around Christmas time, and thankfully I did have a few avenues to get money saved up. Like I said, I had my job and that was covering most of the necessary expenses. And every time anyone asked me what I wanted for Christmas, my response was 50 bucks, mostly joking, of course. That said, I also did have a few things I could sell, but that was supposed to be my last resort.

The week before Christmas, I kind of hit that last resort. Like I mentioned, my parents wanted me out pretty quickly, and they were pushing for me to find a place the first week of January. I was getting there, but I needed a little bit more, so I moved on to selling my electronics. which is something an 18-year-old never wants to do. I sold my old laptop for about 100. I sold my brother's old Nintendo consoles for some money, and I ended up at a point where I was listing my PS4 Pro, which was my prized possession.

Thankfully, they were harder to find in my area, so I was able to list it on Craigslist, for $500, with the extra controllers and a few games. And I was willing to be talked down to $400 if it really came down to it. I only needed about 200 more at this point, but it's obviously better to have more than you need in these situations. Within a couple hours of me listing it, I got several messages from people that were obviously scammers,

and spammers. But there were also a few people messaging me, asking if they could get it for like $100, because they had a sick kid that really needed it for Christmas, as it could be their last one. Look, I'm all about helping sick kids, but using that as a reason to talk a seller down to 20% of their PS4 asking price, that's just low.

I got another message from a guy that asked if I was willing to come down a little bit on the price. I assumed it was going to be another sob story about a sick kid, and he was going to try to lowball me hard. It seemed like that's how it was going to go when he mentioned that it was something he wanted, so he could play some games with his eight-year-old daughter and her mother. But then he came back with a modest request. 50 bucks off. He would be willing to give me $450 in cash that day

if I was willing to meet up with him in public. Now, I know it's not smart to just take the first good-sounding offer, but within four hours, I had gotten over a dozen sob stories and twice as many bots. I was seriously done with this already. I responded, and told him that it was his, and then asked him where he wanted to meet up. He responds, thanking me,

and telling me that they would be able to meet in the parking lot of a hotel that was around five or so miles away from where I lived. I was a bit confused on why he would want to meet in a hotel parking lot, but at the same time I wasn't about to really question the choice. It was still in public. Hotels do have cameras, plus there would likely be people around. I packed up the system with all the extras nicely in a box,

tossed it in my passenger seat, told my mother where I was going, and headed out. I got out to the hotel in question and parked. I then messaged the guy saying that I was there and to let me know when he gets there. He responds saying that they're actually staying there for the night and that he would be right down. He then asked me if I could bring it into the lobby.

At that point, meeting here did make a lot more sense, and while I was a bit iffy walking across the parking lot into the lobby with an expensive console, I had parked pretty close to the front, so I risked it. I got into the lobby with the box, and the front desk clerk asked if they could help me. I told them I was just meeting, someone that was staying there, and then sat down and waited for a few minutes. Then I saw a guy exit the elevator that looked like he was looking for someone,

and I correctly assumed it was the buyer. We did the customary greetings and moved forward to the transaction. He opened the box, looked over the items, and remarked that they all looked new. I told him that I had bought it a while back, and that I was the only one that ever played it, and that I was really paranoid about keeping the stuff clean. I mentioned that I had even opened the case and blew out the dust before I listed it, so it was in near-perfect condition.

I showed him the discs for the games that I had listed, and then also mentioned that I was throwing in my copies of Crash and Kingdom Hearts for his little one, because I knew that she would probably like them. He thanked me and said that he really appreciated it. Honestly, this transaction was going super smooth for our whole conversation. I thought it was going to just be a quick sale. He pulls out his wallet and then pulls the cash out. I see four $100 bills.

He then mentions to me that he had the full $450, but they had to spend $50 on pizza for lunch, and that because of that, he was a little bit short. Then, he says something I really did not expect, and this is going to be verbatim, because I don't want to paraphrase and have this come across as less creepy than it really was. He said, and again verbatim,

I'm sorry that I'm $50 short, but my girlfriend and my daughter, are up in the room, and I'd be willing to let you spend some time with them if you would just give me a discount. I want to further emphasize that this guy mentioned his eight-year-old daughter in this context. It wasn't just, hey, do you want to go spend time with my adult girlfriend? It was girlfriend and my daughter. This guy was willing to sell his girlfriend and their child for $50 for... personal time.

I really don't know what else to say about all of this, honestly. The whole thing left me at a loss for words. Pimping out your girlfriend for 50 bucks off of a PS4 was gross, sure, but then including your young daughter in that context, that was a whole new level of disturbing. After a few seconds of just kind of staring at him, and I guess, I guess, him waiting for an answer, I just said, 400's fine, and put my hand out. He handed me the cash and said thank you.

I just said, yeah, and turned to leave and put that whole event behind me. Honestly, I didn't know what to do after this. I don't know if he was being serious, or if he had just said that to get a discount because who in their right mind would accept that offer? Or maybe it was a weird sting, and if I had said yes, I would have been jumped or arrested. Out of all the possibilities, the worst one, and the one that seriously haunts me, is the one where this was an honest offer. It scares the hell out of me to think that this guy was being serious.

And that's the end of it. I told my parents, they didn't really seem to. care. I didn't report it to the cops because I didn't know what to tell them. I got the money together and I moved out and I've been on my own ever since. I really do hope that that guy wasn't serious, but if he was, I am so very sorry that I never did anything more in that, as an ignorant and confused kid myself, I didn't know what to do in this situation. Something else here now. Something new.

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I was always ecstatic when it came time for Christmas as a kid. I was always that kid who went all out with it, but that was also partially my mom's fault. She loved buying us matching outfits. My older brother and dad didn't care for it, but we enjoyed it. So, needless to say, I was never short on festive outfits. I loved to decorate our living room in the tree. I remember I was very picky at like six or seven years old

about how the ornaments and garland were strewn out on the tree. I always made it to where we had an extra strand so I could use it as decorations in my room or my backpack or something. Another part of this exciting time for me was Santa. I was a firm believer, and you can bet that I did everything I was supposed to do. To make sure that I was on that nice list, from doing chores, homework was done as soon as I got home from school. I behaved as much as possible, as long as my brother wasn't pestering me, things like that.

I made a very organized wish list, and I laid out the best cookies and carrots for him and the reindeer. However, the one thing I was never able to do was catch him in the act. I wanted to see him leaving the presence and see how we got in, since we didn't have a fireplace anymore. Every year, I tried staying up all night. Being a kid, though, I didn't have many options. I tried counting, reading. I tried to work. I tried to watch TV on a very low volume so I didn't wake up my parents, but I would always end up crashing. Of course, one of those years that I would end up falling asleep early would be when I finally got to see him. This Christmas Eve was like the others. I tried to stay up as late as possible

with my parents while we watched a movie, and I thought I would eat as much sweets as my parents would let me, in hopes that I might get a sugar high and keep myself awake. They didn't fall for it, though, and they rushed me off to bed around 10 p.m., so now I had to try and stay up on my own in my room. This, of course, didn't work, and I ended up crashing from the sugar maybe an hour or two in. However, I woke up around two in the morning to use the restroom, And as I was heading back to my room, I could hear shuffling sounds coming from the living room. How our house was set up was the front entrance led in to the back living room, where we usually had the tree and presence set up.

To the left was a small hallway with stairs leading to the second floor, where my parents' room was, but at the end of the hallway was our more used front living room, and the other side of the front room had my room, my brother Isaiah's room, and the bathroom. I looked around the hall where the bathroom was and tried to look down the hallway where the back room was. That's when it finally clicked in my little head that I was finally going to meet Santa Claus, in my own home. I slowly tiptoed towards the hall to get a close-up of the middle. man in red. I got to the end and saw a big, dirty red bag sitting next to the tree, and the man bending over moving around presents. I just remember standing there in awe, not knowing what to do next,

so I watched him for a moment when I noticed that he put the present he was holding into the bag. My little kid mind immediately thought Maybe he got the houses mixed up And thought this was a good time for me to help I slowly whispered This is the last name household And I've never seen someone turn around so fast in my life It actually scared me too

He just stood there staring at me for several seconds With the widest eyes so I apologized for scaring him and told him I didn't want him to get any presents mixed up so I was letting him know our names and then I told him my name was Jasmine and my brother's name was Isaiah he continued to stand there for a few more seconds

until I asked him if he'd had the cookies yet to which he seemed to relax a bit more and softly said no I smiled and asked if he wanted to try them now. He smiled back and said yes. So I swiftly grabbed the tray from the kitchen table, which was back behind the living room on the other side. When I came back to the room,

he was still standing there and looking around, so I handed out the tray to him. He took a cookie and the glass of milk and began eating it. I was excited. because I had asked to make homemade cookies that year, and I was telling him how I made them. That's when he was smiling and kneeled down to look me in the face and said, I can tell you've been a good girl this year. I remember being so excited about this because if Santa is telling you this directly,

it has to be true. And why would I not get what I wanted from my list then? I hugged him and remembered talking. to him for a while longer about all kinds of things. I even mentioned my brother not believing in him, and that it was going to be funny telling him this. That's when he became more serious, and said that I couldn't tell my brother about him being here,

or anyone, for that matter. Curious, I asked him why, as I thought it would make more sense for people to believe in him. His response was something to the, the effect of that, it's the small mysteries and random gifts that appear that make him more believable. He just seemed so wise to my child's self. Shortly after, he mentioned that he needed to get going so he could finish the work,

but then I asked him if I got this specific doll that I wanted. He said yes, but that next year I should ask for something bigger, like, a game console because I've been so good. I told him that I would, but that my brother asked for one this year, so I wanted to make sure that was okay. He again looked back over at our tree and smiled, and said I could, but to keep the door unlocked on Christmas night, so that it's easier for him to get in. And he also asked to keep it unlocked tonight as well, in case he needed to come back to drop off extras. and then winked at me.

I excitedly agreed to do so, and as he approached the door, I asked him to wait there, and I ran to grab the carrots for the reindeer's. I wanted to ask if I could feed them to the reindeer's myself when I saw my brother grogly standing by our rooms and staring at me. When I saw him, I cut my question off in the middle and started staring at him. and that's when he started walking toward us and asked, Jasmine, who is that? I started looking over at Santa,

and he quickly shoved me to the ground and started struggling to unlock the door. My brother started running toward us and shouting for my parents. He then yelled at me to get them, but I just froze in fear. My brother was now trying to fight Santa and stopping him from leaving. Thankfully, my parents heard the commotion and came running out of their room. That's when Santa punched my brother, though, and managed to run out the door. My dad took off out the door after him, and my mom was helping my brother up,

and was asking if we were okay and what had happened. If you haven't guessed yet, my dreams of meeting Santa were crushed when I found out that it was a cleverly disguised burglar, trying to steal all of our new presents. My dad didn't catch him, but at least saw which direction he went, and the cops ended up catching him later that night. His bag of presents had a few of ours, as well as some of the neighbors. If I hadn't caught him in the act, he may have gotten away with it, or at least got a lot more before he was caught.

For my age, I was heartbroken, and it was hard for me to get past that, but I'm also a bit thankful because I was able to distract him until my brother woke up, which stopped other families from having an unexpected surprise as well. So, just lock your doors and your windows, guys, no matter how safe you think you are in your neighbor, I'm posting this encounter here as other means of trying to research what this might be have failed,

and I'm starting to get really worried. So if anyone has any ideas about what this might be, and more importantly how to deal with it, then I'd appreciate your suggestions. This is an encounter that's happened to my sister a few times now, and each time it's gotten worse. For context, my sister worked at a large event location in Suffolk, UK. I'm putting the real location in case it's relevant to what this thing is, but I'm going to be a little bit vague for the sake of anonymity. Because of her job, she would often end up driving back home from Suffolk,

across the county border to Norfolk, quite late some nights. When it had already gotten dark and she'd always be doing this, drive alone. A couple of months ago, whilst she was doing this, she gave me a call while she was going down a secluded country lane, as she had just seen something on the road, that something was a tall white figure standing to one side, dressed in flowing, dirty white material. The thing apparently had long limbs and stood slightly taller than a normal person, and she said she saw, saw its face very briefly underneath the material, not for long enough to register what they looked like,

but just enough to realize what she had done. Now, being paranormal enthusiasts, me and my sister already knew a little bit about women and white ghosts. And so seeing this figure freaked her the hell out. Not only that, but she had her windows open and after she passed this figure, her sat-nav stopped working. She got lost and even started to feel breath on the back of her neck.

I'm a practicing pagan, so she called me while she was driving, thinking I could help, and I talked to her to calm her down and talked her through some bits that I thought might help. Namely, telling her to not look at her back seat or her inside mirror if something was behind her, to not stop driving, and to invoke the name of a local pagan deity for protection, and then to tell whatever was with her that, whilst she meant no disrespect to it, it hadn't been invited into her vehicle, and so she respectfully requested that it leave. It took about 20 minutes on the phone with her until she finally managed to get off the back roads that she was on, and in a town,

soon as she did, the breathing on the back of her neck disappeared. The sat-nav started working again, and her sense of dread started to lessen. I told her when she got home to burn sage incense around her car and herself, and to draw a pentacle to put under her pillow for protection, and to also try to watch something funny before she went to bed, so she wasn't falling asleep scared. Then, I told her to always make sure that there was something like a bag or personal item on every single one of the empty seats in her car whilst she was driving that way in the future, as an empty seat can be seen as an invitation. And that seemed to be the end of it for a while. However, about a month later, I got another call. The same thing had happened.

Her lights had stopped working on the drive, so she pulled over, and when she looked up, she saw the tall white figure again, right by her passenger side door. Tall enough that she only saw its hand and body in the window, but she thought it looked as though it was reaching for the door. Freaking out, as she realized she'd forgotten to put anything on the seats behind her, she immediately locked the car and started driving again, and called me. We repeated the same actions as before. This time, though, I noticed heavy static on the radio in the background whilst on her phone. It was only afterwards that my sister told me the radio hadn't been on. Finally, last night, I got another call from my sister.

The same thing had happened again. As she'd been driving, she'd seen the figure standing next to a give-way sign, and said the figure was easily as tall as the sign. One arm pointed to the ground, and the other was stretched out to the side over the sign itself. Its face, this time, seemed to be completely covered in the white material that it wore, but its arms were long and thin. Once again, she called me.

Once again, she felt breath on the back of her neck, and again she'd realized that she had realized that she had. forgotten to put anything on the seats behind her. This encounter was much worse. She's driving a new car this time, and this one has sensors on the seats that can tell when someone is sitting on the seat without a seatbelt done up. And, well, the sensor on the dashboard starts blinking at her to tell her someone or something was sitting behind her.

Not only that, but it started blinking from seat. seat to seat as if the thing was moving around in the back. Not only that, but this time as she's driving, her lights give out completely, so she has to slow to a crawl so that she can see where she's going and doesn't drive off the road without actually stopping. I go through the same actions with her as before and go through the polite request that anything in the car leave, and this time it doesn't go well. She gets the fright of her life when a pair of rolled up socks that had been in her bag in the back

gets thrown into the front, thrown hard enough that it hits the air freshener dangling from her inside mirror, and bounces off the dashboard. I suspect that the thing may have been trying to get her to look into the mirror, to look at it. She's really freaked out now and she starts to smell burning, but she sees a car driving up ahead, so, she speeds up to try to catch up with it, so she's not on the road alone. It gets close enough that if it were to break, she'd also have to break to stop herself going in to the back of the car.

She looks down for a second to try and turn her lights back on, and when she looks up, the car is gone, just completely vanished. It almost sounds cliche, but trust me, when you're hearing this live as it's happening from someone who's in tears because they're so scared, it doesn't feel, cliche. It feels downright, terrifying. Again, though, she manages to get past the country roads and into a town. However, at this point, she realizes that she missed a whole stretch of road.

There was a roundabout on the road that she was on, that she should have gone over, but just, didn't. It was as if she skipped an entire section. When she gets to the town, though, her lights come back and her sat-nav starts working again. But the sensor in the back still reads as if there's something there. She gets home, turns the car off, and realizes why the centers were reading something. Her bag, which had been zipped up in the footwell of one of the back seats, was now open on one of the chairs and stuffed

from inside her back was everywhere, scattered about over the seats and on the floor, as if something had picked it up, opened it, and started going through it. I've implored her to make sure she's covering all of her seats in the future when driving alone, and to get a pentacle that she can keep in the car for protection. She's going to go to a mutual friend of ours, who has some experience seeing things like the, to see if they can help. But I've been researching local ghost stories and folklore

and even trying to find other experiences of tall white ghosts on the road like this. I haven't been able to find much. One last thing. It's not even the same road that this has been happening on each time. If it were, I could just tell her to go home another way. But this has been happening on different roads, and different sections, but always in the same journey coming back from Suffol. Does anyone have any idea as to what this might be?

And if so, do you know what she can do to get this thing to just leave her alone? So, my girlfriend and I recently started dating. Being young, 17, myself, and her 16 and dumb, we decided to sneak out as much as possible to Stargate. The first night was amazing. We found a spot not too far from her house. We hung out and looked at the stars. The second night was different.

We went to the exact same spot, and everything, just the area, felt off and uncomfortable. Then we heard a tapping on the back of my car. This will remain a constant event, by the way. We decided to go to another spot to see if there was dead. better. We parked after about five minutes of driving, where a cornfield in the forest met. We felt better for about 15 minutes, and then decided to chill in the car. After about a minute, the tapping started, and we immediately left the area. While looking for our third spot, we noticed a bridge on Google Maps, so we went there.

Right as we got there, it felt so heavy and so off. I don't know how to explain it. We sat there for about five minutes before I felt this pressure on my head, and all my senses felt dulled. That's the best way to describe it. My girlfriend asked if I was okay. I tried saying no, but I couldn't. I said yes without any control,

and after another couple of things, minutes, there was a loud scratch on the back of my car. I know that it wasn't a branch or anything, as there were no trees close enough to hit my car. We shot up and left. I dropped her off at her house and started on my way home. Not even a minute after I dropped her off. She says something grabbed her. She had scratches. I stopped to make sure that I didn't have to go help her. I like something was behind my car. I looked in my mirrors, and I saw this figure. Everything about it looked off, and it was pure white.

I looked at my passenger window, and there was another one looking at me, almost studying me. I sped home that night. The next night, we wanted some answers. So we made a visit to every location. First off was the stargazing spot, and then the cornfield, and then the last bridge. The stargazing spots in the cornfield didn't feel as bad as the previous night. And then we reached the bridge, and it was unbearable being there. But I was dead set on getting

answers and getting peace with the situation. So being 17 and stupid, I got out of my car. I walked a good few feet in front of the car, and standing in the tree line was my girlfriend. She looked me dead in the eyes and said, Help me. I stepped forward out of natural instinct, and then I realized a few things. One, my girlfriend was in the car. Two, the thing trying to act like my girlfriend,

had its jaw unhinged, and the eyes were this cloudy, dead look to them. And three, this one's the worst, there was this big, bony hand on, on the right shoulder. I ran to my car door and I drove off. It's pretty hard to shake me or make me scared, but that turned me into a five-year-old girl. I dropped her off and went home.

She went on vacation and the temptation to go there by myself was hard to resist. I ended up not going and I waited for her to get back. So she got back today, and we wanted to see each other because, because screw it, why not? Most of the time there was pretty okay. Until about 2.30 in the morning, the cows in the nearby farm started to get a little noisy. We decided to sit in my car for a bit, and that's what we did.

So 3.15 came around, and it was time to take her home. I dropped her off and continued on my way. I get to the first stop sign and standing in the middle of the middle of the time. the road is my girlfriend. But everything was just off about her. She just looked wrong. Then she said help me. I knew it was not actually her, so I drove off.

And as I do, there's this blood-curdling and heart-stopping screech. I look at my phone to see a text from her, saying that she saw me in her backyard and I was asking for help. As she was about to run inside, this large bony hand grabs her head, and she just books it into her house. And so, small update, I was dumb, and I decided to go to the bridge by myself. When I got there, it felt normal for a few minutes, and out of nowhere there was this heavy feeling in my chest and my head. I kind of shoved it off, and I didn't think much about it. The only way I can describe it is that I felt all the muscles in my face start to be pulled off.

I realized I had to pee, so I stepped out and walked into the tree line, and right when I was finished, I noticed something staring at me. I realized that it looked like my girlfriend. I said, hey, why are you out here? Are you okay? And it was at this point I realized that my girlfriend is, again, at her house, which is a good 15-ish minutes away. The thing said, Help me.

I need help. Her voice was flawless and perfect. I stepped forward out of instinct, and when I got with an arm's reach, it lunged at me. And then I blacked out. When I came to, roughly an hour had passed. I didn't know where I was.

I checked my phone and the time read 345. I looked at Life 360 and saw where the bridge was and my car. I was a little over a mile away. Now, I'm not in the best of shape, but I needed to get to my car, so I ran as hard as I could. I made it there in about 15 minutes. When I got in, I locked the doors and started crying my eyes out for half an hour. I needed to get home. I pulled out and started my way back, and as I was a little bit of my way back,

and as I reached the stop sign there was this scream and someone shouting help again in my girlfriend's voice I knew it wasn't her I pulled on to the road and I sped home the entire time they followed me and they screamed but I'm gonna go back there tonight

I have a really strange New Year's Eve story that may not be creepy in and of itself but it's one of those stories that has always been on my mind, and to me, it was seriously freaky. This all happened about a decade ago. I think it was New Year's Eve of 2010. I was a young guy living by myself in a cheap and pretty crappy apartment. Two years prior to that, I had been in a pretty bad accident that ended up with me getting a metal plate in my skull.

and needing reconstructive surgery on my ear, leaving me partially deaf. Because of this, my right ear only functioned at about 10%, so I had to get a hearing aid that kind of helped, but was also kind of annoying. I don't know if it was just the brand or if my particular unit was defective, but I swear almost anything would cause interference with it, and I was always having to adjust it. On this particular New Year's Eve, I was alone, which was not a big deal to me. I kind of liked just spending the time to myself and doing whatever I wanted.

I made myself dinner and was watching the news so that I could watch their party, or whatever it was that was leading up to the countdown. A while after, somewhere close to around 1130 or so, I was watching TV and started getting what almost felt like a panic attack. I was feeling normal one moment, and then the next was feeling like the whole world was crashing down. Now, I've only ever had one or two actual panic attacks, and the first one ended up with me going to the ER because I was freaking out and thinking I was dying.

But, thankfully, and that taught me how to realize what they were, and how to best handle them. The main thing that I've found helps me is to get somewhere that is significantly cooler than where I am, almost like I'm overheating and just need to cool off. It being the end of December, the coolest place I could think to go was outside. So I grabbed my jacket

and decided I would go out for a nice, almost midnight stroll just to clear my head. I got outside and started walking down toward the small park in the area. I figured I could just walk the path around it a couple times, and it would calm me down. As I was walking down the street, I started getting those interference issues with my hearing aid, and I was actually regretting wearing it out, as it was obviously going to be more of an annoyance than anything. I adjusted it and kept on. But the further I went, the more and more the hearing aid started picking up something that was loud and staticy.

Even though I turned it down to the lowest that I could before just straight turning it off, it was still getting hit with that interference. It was quiet enough that I was able to mostly ignore it and move on. That is, until I actually got out to the park. As I got there, I noted. that, even on the lowest setting, there was a shrill, a damn near deafening high-pitched screech. It really wasn't helping my anxiety, so I just pulled it off my ear and said, screw it before turning it off. As I was aggressively turning the little wheel to shut it off,

I noticed that the park wasn't as dark as it should have been. This small park only had one streetlight in the parking lot, and nothing on the trails or the playground, mostly because it's supposed to be closed after dark, and it's really not that big. I started thinking that maybe they'd installed a new light or something when I looked up, and that's where everything got weird. I have no idea what exactly it was that I was looking at. There was an incredibly bright, white light. just kind of hovering above me.

What was really weird about it, it was bright and right there, but at the same time, it almost looked like it was also in the sky. I know that makes no sense, but the best way for me to put it was that, while I was staring at it, I lost all sense of depth perception. This light was both right in front of my face and several hundred, feet above me at the same time. Something about this light was absolutely enough to suck my attention away from everything else. I felt like it was staring at me.

As weird as that may sound. It just kind of hovered there, wherever there was, and it almost looked like it was slowly rotating or shifting in a spherical manner. I honestly could not take it. my eyes off of it. Like, I physically could not look away from this thing. I wish I could explain more about this whole situation, but that was pretty much all there was to it.

It was somewhere between five to ten seconds of me just staring blankly at this glowing thing that confused my brain. And then as quickly as I noticed it, it was completely gone. I stood there dumbfounded and genuinely confused. What's worse, there wasn't anyone else out at the park. It was almost midnight on New Year's Eve, so everyone was home or partying for the countdown. So I was the only person that witnessed this thing. To this day, I have no earthly idea what exactly it was, and I have no evidence that had happened.

other than a broken hearing aid, which completely stopped working after this event. I'm not a huge believer in the supernatural, but I don't know if this thing was paranormal or an alien craft or something from the other side that had crossed over and then left. If anyone else has ever had an experience like this, I would love to know about it, because this event was genuinely freaky for me and is something that I see. still cannot explain.

I used to beaerraille. Embarked and profite. Embarked and celebrate. Rigolet. Publiere. Amir. Admir. And profite. Villaray, the voice that we love. I used to do live stunt shows at historical places for tourists or well-paying customers. I'm not sure if this is common in other countries, but Here it's a good way of how to get quite a lot of money in a really short time. I even worked for movies a bunch of times, but that's not important to the story.

We received an offer to do a show in a quite famous abandoned castle, about a two-hour's drive from my home. The place is famous for being an inspiration for many writers and poets, yet many of them wrote about horrible experiences they have. had with this place during storms. I do remember reading about a poet running away from the place, soaked in rain, after the main tower was hit by lightning. He never really wrote what he had seen that night, yet it changed him so much that the story became quite popular. We went there in the evening, ready to prepare the show

that was supposed to take place the next day. The place is abandoned. It has a very narrow courtyard. It's cut into rock itself, and with many carved stairs leading to the stone bridge, connecting the destroyed barracks with the main building. That's the only place in a good enough condition to have three rooms, good enough for sleeping. I saw the rest of my group looking kind of uneasy from that place, even though they were tough guys in real life.

There were five of us. Dan, the official leader, a guy getting his career as a mafia enforcer now owning a bunch of hotels and doing this for fun. Vlad, a 40-ish-looking guy who was in business since he was a child, and was kind of a strange guy. Jindra, who was a young guy, 25 at the time, probably the fastest fighter I've ever seen. I have more stories with him. Me, usually playing the pretty-faced prince in most of our shows, and Pavel, a strong man and professional butcher hired after Dan saw him one day lifting a ram by its horns and breaking its spine with a single strike of a butcher's mace. We drank a few beers and grilled some meat before it started to rain, so we went inside to get some sleep before the show. Dan asked me to check the main gate, the only way of getting into the courtyard, and then to lock it.

It was a really heavy wooden gate with iron reinforcement. I locked the heavy padlock and I joined the rest of the group inside. I never slept better than that night, before I was woken up by the sounds of a lightning storm. I could see lights lighting up the clouds on the other side of the tiny window that are really. had. It's a really strange feeling to be in the clouds and yet see the lightning go around you. I remember the story about the poet and was strangely joyfully watching this lightning and waiting for it to hit the main tower above us. It took nearly ten minutes before that happened. The sound of lightning hitting the tall, yet quite tiny building, was deafening.

I jumped from the wooden bed blinking into the darkness around me, I checked my phone. It was midnight. There was only the sound of heavy rain hitting the solid rock around us. I wanted to go back to sleep, but then what I heard, it changed my life forever. I heard faint sounds of horseshoes. They were clearly audible from the courtyard. I wondered if someone from the village had tried to sneak in on horseback, but that didn't make any sense. The place was quite a hike on foot during the day, and there was no way somebody could ride here in darkness during a storm.

Yet, the sound of somebody riding a horse was as clear as it could possibly be. There is no other sound like a horse trying to dance around on difficult terrain, with a rider holding it back. And then I remembered that the only way of getting into the courtyard was through the gate. the gate that I locked and checked myself. None of my companions had made any sound. I thought they were sleeping. But later, I realized that they were just scared. How could this writer get here?

How can he or she be writing inside of the high walls? I had to check it out. I just had to see what this person looked like and who it was. I took a mace that I had for the show, which we only used to scare people because it was too dangerous to actually use, and I walked to the front door. Pavel was sleeping in the next main hall, and I saw that huge guy curled up in his sleeping bag with a warhammer in his hands. He looked at me with the look, don't do it, man, don't go in there. I couldn't.

I never believed in ghost or spirits, so I had to check. As I walked silently to the main door, I clearly heard the rider slowly riding his horse on the other side of the wall, and I clearly heard the horse breathing. I heard every small movement of the beast. I squeezed the mace in my hand, and I reached for the door handle. Even though it was in August, that handle was freezing. And then, I realized the absurdity of the situation. I was there, in my pajamas, holding an ancient mace ready to attack a ghost. What exactly was my plan to begin with?

To charge at it with a piece of steel? Why would I risk such a thing? It was clearly a silly thing to do, so I danced around the door for a few moments, and then I decided to go back to bed. The storm stopped at 1.36 in the morning, and with the storm, the writer was gone. This happened eight years ago, and I never stopped thinking about who was the writer or what exactly we'd witnessed. Please help me to get to some conclusion in the comments.

I could add some pictures of the place or try to get the video from the show if you're interested, but sadly, I have nothing from that night. So this happened three years ago when I was visiting my family in Arizona with my family. my mom. We were staying at my sister and her husband's new home. It was a fairly large and up-to-date house. There were two floors. The room I was staying in was upstairs and my mom's was downstairs. Since the home was new, there wasn't a lot of furniture, and my room consisted of a small mattress in the far corner, and had two doors on each side of the opposite corner. One led into an empty walk-in closet, and the other was the exit into the hallway. It was quiet, and had a single window that didn't bring in much sunlight.

Now, I'm the type of person that likes to sleep with some kind of light on, because I don't like complete darkness, but the room only had the ceiling fan. in light. I decided I was going to sleep in the dark and play Netflix or YouTube videos on my phone for a source of light so that I could fall asleep. Everything was great, except when it was night time. I always felt a little creeped out when I went to sleep, but I just blamed it on me being afraid of the dark. Still, I couldn't shake that eerie feeling I had whenever I was within the room. About a few days in, I did my normal routine of getting ready for bed and then putting something on my phone to watch. As I was drifting off to sleep, I had this odd feeling that I was being watched.

So I kept looking up from my screen, scanning the room, but there wasn't anything around. I finally fell asleep, but then woke up abruptly. I figured it was really early in the morning, so I checked my phone to see the time, and it was exactly 3 a.m. I was kind of freaked out, so I turned around to look into the room. And my heart sank, and I felt that pain that sears through your body when something instantly terrifies you. In the corner, I see this tall, dark figure. The room was already pitch black, but this humanoid thing was somehow even blacker than the darkness itself. I could see the outline.

It was as tall as the ceiling, and it had a slim figure. I remember the hands were so large with long, skinny fingers. I couldn't see its face, but I could feel it staring at me, unmoving. Man, it makes me tear up thinking about it, not because I'm going to cry, but because it was such an indebted. intense fear that I don't feel often. The weird part about it, though, is that I didn't scream or anything. I knew it wasn't human, and I don't know how to explain it. It's just that reacting felt pointless.

It was standing in the corner between the two doors, so escaping wasn't an option either. I just quickly turned around and put the covers over my head. then I turned on the first video on YouTube, and I started praying. It felt like I blinked because then it was suddenly morning. The sun was peering into my room. I turned my head to look at the corner and saw that there was nothing. Relief washed over me as I figured it was just a dream or some type of sleep paralysis. Except for when I unlocked my phone, YouTube appeared with the replay button on that

same video that I clicked when I was hiding under the covers. The fear came back as I realized that had actually happened to some extent. My sister came into the room with her two dogs to say good morning and told me to get ready for the day that we had planned. I started getting ready with the door open and the dogs were in the room with me. They both went to the closed closet door and started whining and scratching at it. That really started to freak me out, so I opened it and peeked inside with my friend on the phone because I was about to pee my pants. There was nothing in there, just an empty closet.

I went downstairs to eat breakfast, and I told my family about it. They thought it was creepy, but just shrugged it off, thinking it was just my imagination. My sister said sometimes the dogs would do that to closed doors in their house. But honestly, I felt like they had sensed something. I did actually keep sleeping in that room, though. Nothing more happened, and I kept the ceiling light on for a while at night. It just kind of weirds me out thinking back, because I fell asleep so fast after being scared like that. And then it felt like I blinked one moment, and it was morning.

My family jokes about me being abducted by aliens, but honestly, sometimes I kind of wonder. That was today's episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. Thank you so very much for listening, and I really hope you enjoyed these scary stories. If you want to support the channel further, please do consider checking out my YouTube channel.

Just search As the Raven Dreams on YouTube, and subscribing. You can also join the channel or go to my Patreon for early access to all of my content, all of it's appreciated, and never expected. But if it happens, thank you. Well, that said, friends, I will see you on the next episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. But of course, until then, sleep well.