As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 018 - Creepy Cult Stories and Stories From Reddit - 10 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: March 19, 2022

Hello and Welcome to the 18th 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 about the creepiness that comes with Cults, as well as some True Scary Stories from Reddit! ➤ 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... ricey125, Burddman01, Michael, Suspicioustraitor, Dannah, JuliaSarah14, Roary Hayes, jgear319, KeyStory7638 & A few authors that wanted 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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So this happened to me and my parents many years ago. Some of this is from my own personal memories. but also a lot of it is from my mom that she's told me about over the years. We lived in the UK at the time, and I was still a young child, about eight years or so, just about to turn nine. My parents were religious at the time, but never really devoted themselves to a church. I didn't really remember ever going to church, but we did pray over our meals or when we needed guidance, or when they would read from the Bible to me, which I think is why they were so lured in at the time,

as they didn't have a church they belonged to, so they didn't have anything really holding them back. We had a knock on the door, and I remember answering it with my mom, and there was a little old lady there with a basket of stuff. She started talking to my mom about if they were religious, or if they needed a home and things like that. Then my dad came over and they were all talking.

I remembered they invited her in, and she gave them pamphlets and gave me a small goody bag that had a folded-up coloring page of a stained glass window with some kind of scripture under it, a few crayons and a single piece of chocolate. They seemed to talk for a while because I remember, remembered they were actually making dinner when this lady showed up, and I ate alone at the dinner table while they talked.

When she finally left, my parents talked for a while about it, and finally decided that they would try going there that Sunday to see how they liked it. That Sunday, my mom and I wore our best dress, and my dad his fancy blue and silver-colored dress shirt and tie, and we headed out. The church actually appeared to be an old apartment complex that was bought out and turned into a live-in church. There was the main auditorium or chapel thing, with a few staff rooms on the side, as well as a couple of public bathrooms.

Then, and I'm going off our memory here, there was a nursery for infants and toddlers, one for kids ages 4 to 8, one for 9 through 12, and anyone 13 and up joined the adults in the main service. There was a reason for this that I'll explain later on, though. So I was put in what they called the kids' jam while my parents went to the main service. Also, my mom explained that when we first arrived, since we were new, they immediately asked us who they were recommended by. She remembered this, because it's normal for churches to get new members from anywhere, without being invited. However, and she didn't think about this until later on, there were no walk-ins.

If you were there, it's because you were invited, which should have been a red flag there. Anyways, the kid's room seemed normal to me at the time. It was colorful and had a few toys, but... but they were labeled boys and girls. The girls' toys consisted of baby dolls and kitchen cooking stuff, whereas the boys had a workbench, tool kit, and building blocks. We got to play for a while, but then we all had to gather while the adults read scripture to us. Apparently, my parents were both very happy with the service,

and she said everyone was warm and welcoming, which was different from other new churches they had been to, where they were usually looked at funny for being new. So we ended up returning that next Sunday as well. My mom said they got several calls throughout the week, but they didn't seem like they were pressuring them, just more so checking in on how they felt about the service, how their week was going, things like that,

which also turned them on to the idea of this place. So when we did return, she said they were greeted by the pastor himself and his wife asking them to join their congregation, which involved moving in there. Every floor above the first was still apartments for the most part, where other members lived and the rent itself was practically free, as long as they donated to the church, which there wasn't a specific amount disclosed at the time,

and they devoted their lives to them. My parents didn't see anything wrong with this, due to them struggling with the home they had at the time, being costly, and they thought, how bad could it be? Living there, rent-free, making donations, attending every Sunday, and being able to save money, then if they felt like leaving, they could.

Once they'd saved enough money, so they could start making arrangements to move. Things started moving pretty fast from then on. I remembered when we got settled in. We had a few people come visit us, and we were told some of the stuff that we brought we wouldn't be able to keep as it wasn't part of their vision. Like my mom and I,

we weren't allowed to wear pants or shorts, so those all had to be thrown out, only skirts or dresses. Men were allowed pants and shorts but only on special occasions. Any toy that was not part of their vision or part of a woman's life, I was not allowed to have, which included my Barbie car and fake makeup kits. Then, we also had to get rid of most of our movies if they weren't approved by the pastor.

We were allowed to keep our TV because they did have some kind of programming they pushed that were allowed, and I'm still unsure how they managed that. They also had their own library with approved books and movies, too, so it was a huge adjustment. But we were already there and moved in, so my parents didn't feel like they could back out at that point. Then came the job issue. My mother was a bookkeeper at the time for a small local, hardware store, and my dad was a car mechanic. The problem was, a lot of technology and electronics were not allowed. Since my mom worked on a computer all day, they suggested that she find another job,

or she could work for the church as a bookkeeper and still get paid a normal wage. And since cars were technically a big computer, my dad was told the same thing. He instead worked for the church as well as a repairman. While my dad was fine with the changes, being that they no longer had to worry about losing their jobs, their home, or even bills, my mom was seeing things differently from her side. There was more involved than just being a bookkeeper.

Since computers weren't allowed, she had to do everything by paper, pen, and a calculator. but she more so just kept track of how much everyone was getting paid that worked there and how much everyone was donating back to the church. If the donations were under budget, someone higher up would first question her accuracy. Then, they would want her to figure out who didn't donate enough. Everyone was required to donate so much there, and if they didn't, it was tracked, as people went door to door in the apartments to collect it.

Kind of like mail. My mom then had to report that, and they were held responsible for it. My mother wasn't comfortable with this. She understood that we didn't really have to pay rent, but why were certain amounts required, and if they didn't have expenses other than toiletries and food, why would you need to keep extra money put up? Then she learned from one of the other girls there that the people that were under would have to pay up with either money,

which they typically didn't have, or would claim they didn't have, or you'd have to pay with other collateral, which included property and children. Yeah, it was possible that your kids would be taken away if you were short donating. As for what happened to those kids, we still have no ideas. We never saw them around. Things only got worse over the years. It became blatantly obvious what our lives would entail. My mother was nothing more than a moneymaker for the church.

The best they ever had, they said. She had to be subservient to my father, making sure she was home before him with a clean house, dinner-made, the works. All the while, behind closed doors, telling him this isn't a good place, and that she was worried. My father, on the other hand, loved it. The building was in decent condition, and a lot of the men worked on stuff there, so he never worked a full eight-hour day. He got to sit in a back office most days, waiting for someone to put in a request.

If anyone gave him any trouble, he would report it, and they again would be dealt with in a manner that we never knew about. Then he got to come home and then not lift a damn finger while my mom stressed to make sure everything was right. He tried to call my mom many times, tell her things like it would be okay as long as we followed the vision. I became distant with my father, as nothing I did seemed to interest him or was worthy of his time. I noticed he actually started favoring a young boy that he was teaching in his job. He talked about him all the time to my mother, about what he did, what was memorable,

but when my mom brought up how well I did on a test, it hardly got more than a cool. School wasn't the best for me, Of course, I was homeschooled in a way. One of the floors became the school. Boys and girls separated, of course. We were taught the minimums, like basic math and English. We read from the Bible, and then we had our role classes,

which involved our gender-specific courses, such as cooking and cleaning for the girls. When I got older and started attending the 9th through the 12th grade, and Sunday sessions, there were more classes added, such as how to take care of a baby, and clothes making, sewing classes. Some of the girls that I became friends with were great, and I became close to them, but other than that, I started feeling isolated and alone. My father obviously no longer cared.

My mother definitely showed interest, but you could tell something was really. wrong. She was becoming a shell of herself, so I didn't have anyone to really talk to. Then the classes started to get even more real once I turned 13. I was now to join the adults in main service, and the classes also involved more adult-oriented topics, including choosing a career so I could prepare for the classes that I would need, as well as the birds and the bees. Since I'd been there at a young age, it wasn't really something that I heard or talked about with anyone, so to hear this the first time in class was awkward for me. Not to mention, my parents didn't exactly get a syllabus or a warning beforehand,

so when my mom asked me what we learned, she was shocked. Their teaching was pretty cut and dry, and suggestive. They basically explained that we're put here to be the womb for our husband and the earth, and therefore we should be thankful when we are chosen by a man, and so forth. However, my mother would also learn that that did not mean there would be a one and only. While the members were devoted to one man or woman, the pastor was. devoted to any woman he wanted.

And the last that she knew of, he had nine wives at the time. And if he chose you, then you would now be devoted to him and your husband gets a chance at another wife. Not only did my mom work with several of his wives, she was also invited to be his tenth. She ended up telling my dad about this, and his only response was pretty much, do as you're told, I can find someone else. I know this broke my mom's heart as well, knowing that he didn't even want to fight for her, but she didn't want to become just another number either.

At this point, my mother was already trying to find a way out, but it really cemented in her when I joined the first adult service. They always announced the young boys and girls that are joining, but the looks and conversations with me at that point became, weird. I had boys my age, up to my dad's age, approaching me, congratulating me and telling me how beautiful I was, and how much I would make a great wife and great kids.

This made both myself and my mom uncomfortable. Sometime around when this happened, my mom talked to one of the wives about all this, about becoming a wife in my future. She said she needed more time to think about it, and the wife said that that was fine because we had to have a ceremony anyways for the marriage and the coming of age.

So, she was told she had about a week to think it over, but it was also heavily hinted at that she did not have a choice. So my mom asked about the coming of a thing, age ceremony. She explained to her that it basically was for the girls that have turned 13, which was their legal age, the churches, and this meant that they needed to become a submissive wife, and that included having children. Her well-being was one thing, but she didn't want to subject me to any more than what I had already witnessed. So my mom was ready to nope the hell out of there.

Thankfully, she was in the right position to do this. By this time, being selected by the pastor and all, she was very highly regarded and trusted by the pastor and his wives, so she had access to the church's money and was able to leave the premises, unlike most people. With this, she'd been siphoning money as she did the books, making everything look fine, and taking some from my dad's wallet and stashing it in a hidden place.

Then, the day before the ceremony, she asked to leave to go and get a few supplies to help make my dress for my ceremony, as well as a few of the pastor's favorite foods, as a thank you gift for choosing her, and she was allowed. Later that evening, after dinner, my father had actually left to go on a date, and my mom and I started putting things into motion. She was worried that I may say something, so she waited until the last minutes to mention it.

She had me run to grab my school bag and fill it with anything that I needed or wanted to take, which really was just some clothes and a few items close to me. My mom did the same, and we walked out. It was nerve-wracking at first, as there was a lady at the first, as there was a lady at the front that stopped to talk to us. She told her where we were going, checked the list to make sure we were approved, and we headed out. We walked for a while before we ended up catching a bus, which we were then on for an hour or so. My mom said she was just trying to get distance between us first.

Then we made it to a shop and they let us borrow their phone. My mom ended up calling her sister, which she gladly invited us. us to stay with her, but she was still a few hours away. With a lot of looking over our shoulders, though, we finally made it. There was a lot of hugging and crying, and my mom was trying to explain everything to my aunt, as she hadn't talked to her since we had moved there. We basically planned to hide out there until my mom could figure out what to do next, but unfortunately we ran out of time.

My father managed to get a hold of a phone and called my aunt looking for us. I remember being scared, and my mom telling me to be quiet, as my aunt was calm and collected the whole time. He asked if we were there, of course, or if she had heard from us to which she said she hadn't for years, and then she started asking how he was, and if we were okay. He seemed to get more assertive in questioning her, but she didn't let it get to her. However, for her safety as well as ours, we made the decision to leave. She made it a lot easier for us, though, and actually bought us plane tickets to Canada. We called her from the hotel that we stayed in, and from there we lived free.

It definitely wasn't easy, though. To say we were paranoid for a while, well, that's a little. an understatement. We both cut and dyed our hair, and my mom went by her maiden name, and she actually helped me in changing my legal name as well, hoping to at least spot down the process of anyone trying to find us. My mom found someone new a few years after moving to Canada. He's not religious, too, and he's been super sweet and supportive of both of us. They're not legally married, though, as my mom is fearful that if you're not. If she filed for a divorce, of course, my dad may find us and come looking.

I think we all three agreed that we were okay with that. If we never run into anyone from that group or my father ever again, it would still be too soon. This true story is about my first encounter with a shadow entity that haunted me for several years in my childhood home. This encounter happened a few years after my first experience, where I heard a woman's voice calling my name. It had been a couple years since my father passed. My mom had started dating a man that she met at church that would soon become my stepfather. It was a warm summer Sunday night, and I was home alone as I didn't want to go to the evening church service. I loved Sunday night TV, and I was watching my favorite.

it shows. I was hungry and went to the kitchen to get a snack. I could easily see the TV from the kitchen table, as our home had an open floor plan. Everything was good, and I was enjoying the shows and having my snacks at the kitchen table. Then, the lights flickered and dimmed. It wasn't uncommon during this era to have brownouts in this area of South Carolina. This time was different to the though. The atmosphere in the house became heavy, dark, and evil. It got really cold, and I was immediately weirded out. The lights flickered for a minute or two and then went back to normal. Okay, weird. And I did feel uneasy. I remember losing focus on the TV and being hyper aware of something or someone being with me. I tried to brush it.

it off and continue to watch TV, but I could barely focus on it. A few seconds later, I saw this shadow figure out of my peripheral moving around the entrance of the hallway to the right, and a door directly in front of me that looked into an unlit, dark, formal room. The hallway went to the back of the house where the bedrooms were. I'm spooked out big time, but I hesitantly go to investigate this shadow figure. I looked down the long hallway, formal room, and bedrooms. There was nothing there.

There shouldn't and couldn't have been anyone else in the house anyways. They would have had to have entered through the back door located behind the den, through the mud room and passed my line of sight. It couldn't have entered through the front door in the formal room. It was an oversized heavy solid wood door secured by a bolt lock, and difficult to open due to the frame swelling from the humidity. This door made a lot of noise when simply unlocking the bolt, and definitely when opening it.

We rarely used it. So it was not possible that someone entered the house without being seen or heard. I'm very spooked and uneasy, but I try to convince myself that it was just a flicker of the power and that I was imagining the shadow figure. I lost my appetite, and went back into the den leaving my food on the table, and started trying to watch TV.

That heavy feeling had not left the house, but I tried to ignore it, hoping it would go away. A few minutes later, I saw the shadow standing to my left in the kitchen out of the corner of my eye. As I turned to look at it, it slowly faded. So I'm now frozen with fear.

The lights dim again, and I hear a scraping noise from the outside of the house, which sounds like someone dragging a rake or something meddled on the brick exterior walls. I noped right out of my house immediately, and ran into my neighbor's backyard. I'm scared to be inside or outside of my house at that point. I'm terrified more than I ever have been in my entire life. I don't feel safe in the neighbor's yard either, but I'm a few hundred feet away from my house. My neighbors aren't home, and their house is completely dark. From where I'm standing, I can see into the den through the large picture window.

The room is lit by one lamp, and I can see shadows moving about. At one point, I saw the shadow watching me through the window. This lasted for several seconds that seemed. like an eternity. It wasn't shaped like a person, but more like a tall, dark void of empty nothing. Around three foot wide and over six foot tall. It went beyond the top of the window that was three feet tall, six feet wide,

and the top was six feet off the floor. This entity did not feel friendly. It felt angry and hostile. It oddly felt familiar, though. A minute later, I see headlights coming down the driveway. It's my mom and stepfather to be. A sense of relief came over me and that heavy feeling dissipated. Almost immediately, the shadow disappeared and everything went back to normal.

My mom sees me in the neighbor's yard and is immediately upset that I'm outside. I incoherently try to offer up some kind of an explanation, but I'm rambling gibberish. My mom, being short-tempered, says, Just get your butt inside. There's nothing in there. I hesitantly did as I was told. When we got inside, she was not happy about the kitchen being a complete mess.

My food was scattered all around the table and the floor. I didn't do that. I usually cleaned up after myself. I had no explanation and had given up on trying, to explain what happened. I knew it would sound unbelievable anyways. I have no real explanation for this experience, even after decades of research into the paranormal.

Perhaps it was my father's spirit, angry about the presence of another man in the house that he built, or when my friends and I found a Ouija board in the closet and asked it a couple of questions. That's another story for later. The visitor or something similar would return again soon. The scraping noises would also return a few more times over the years. It's really great to tell these events after all these years, so thanks to all those that are interested.

It's never too early to plan your summer story in Europe with WestJet, from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets. Begin your next chapter. Book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent. WestJet, where your story takes off. Upon curiosity, I was stumbling upon Google Maps, checking in on places that I've been before. For some reason, I decided to check out the childhood home

that I have lived in for 11 years. I observed the Google Street View in the back alley of this bi-level home in northeast Edmonton. I encountered what appears to be a ghostly face peering out of the window in the master bedroom. I immediately took a screenshot, and I sent the picture to my father, who later shared the photo with the family. Over a family gathering,

my father discussed the time before I was born that he heard what sounded like an animalistic growl coming from the TV. The TV, however, was not turned on. Throughout the time being in the house, we didn't own any dogs or cats. adding to the fact that this happened in the middle of the night. Nobody was active outside during that time. When speaking to my dad regarding the past house and its history behind it, he recalled a man who died of cancer who lived in the house.

The widow he bought the house off of exclaimed that it was unknown if her husband died in the house or not. My dad also told me that the widow stated her husband liked to be in the basement. There was a specific area in the basement that I despised going in, the laundry room hallway. You could chalk it up to child imagination or child fears, but that part of the basement was always dark, and you would feel like you would get jumped in that area. The door to that area refused to close. I recall closing it a few times, only for it to open five to 15 minutes later. This was creepy in my little mind, but this was not why the entity was considered negative.

Before this is chalked up to temperature changes, this door opening happened regardless of the season or time of day. There was a time when I was about two or three years old and was heading off to bed. In my overactive child brain, I couldn't fall asleep. The current thunderstorm we were having didn't help either. I recall the back of the bed lifting above the ground, but when I noticed, the bed went down as if nothing had happened. I didn't have any siblings, nor was it humanly possible for anyone to be right behind the bed, as it was right up against the wall. This terrified me as a child, and I ran out of my room to my parents who promptly told me to go to bed. This was the start of many things to come in that high.

home. During the nights, it appeared that I could get attacked by some unseen force that didn't like me. I recall having sleep paralysis, as often I would feel a heavy weight on me. However, there was nothing in my room that was unusual. These events were often a bad omen. I recall that when this sleep paralysis happened, it would lead me to have a bad day. There were also times that I would vomit as a result of this incident. Telling this to my father, he told me he should have done something after he heard the growl years back.

The bizarre events during the night often led me to have odd dreams and wake up at odd points of the night. I would often feel like being watched during the night or waking up at one to three in the morning and hearing the TV on, or a whispering conversation. It sounded like whispering between two people.

As a child, I was fascinated by this conversation until I opened the door and heard nothing. Even as a child, I knew that something was off about the voices, but I didn't want to bother my parents at that odd hour of the night. As my childhood progressed, the activity seemed to as well. I recall a moment where my Xbox turned on during the night, and then I checked the next morning to see it turn. off, which baffled me as a child because I recalled shutting it off and playing with my Legos shortly after.

Another event that followed shortly happened when I was brushing my teeth. I recalled seeing a figure through the mirror walking towards my dad's bedroom with a top hat in a nice suit. Even though he was translucent, like a cloud, you could distinctively see that this was a man in a top hat in a suit, that looked close to being human. Then, 11 months later, while I was on my dad's computer,

I saw the same man walk down the same hallway and nothing happened. A few days after my first encounter with the man was a night that I will never forget. That night, I saw what looked like a shadow face peering in through the window. Even though I knew that that was unrealistic as you'd have to be insanely tall to peer in,

or at the very least, require a ladder, which you would have heard if someone did that. Plus, why would it move back the moment that I saw it? Around the same period, my neighbor's dog, Harry, reacted negatively to something when I went out. He growled while staring at something, even showing his teeth. At the time, I didn't understand. understand why Harry was behaving out of character.

If one were to be around Harry, one could point out that he was docile to the point that he would never react to anything. After a couple days of this, Harry was back to his old, docile self. Could Harry have seen something that I was not able to see or sense? Possibly something malicious that had intent to harm me, causing Harry to once to scare off whatever was intending to do this? Well, despite Harry's heroic efforts, this did not stop the ongoing activity in the house. Whatever lived there definitely was not photogenic, as there are no photos of whatever entity lived in that house.

I recall hearing the door to the first floor opening on its own, while watching Avatar the Last Airbender on TV. Observing the door opened on its own in such a manner that it appeared as if someone was wanting to sneak out. I went to the area where the door opened, realizing it was unusually cold, like easily a few degrees colder than the room that I had just stepped out from. Whenever I was alone, there was not one moment in that house at this point where I did not feel like I was being watched,

especially if I was in the living room or the basement. To a child, this is creepy. I often played video, video games, not only because it was entertaining, but to distract me from feeling this way. I felt that by doing this, I wouldn't feel this entity. While discussing this with my dad, he questioned if his rage moments were from the entity's influence. Could I have been under the influence of some negative entity residing at that place?

When thinking of the paranormal, having periods of inactivity is considered normal. It is common to have periods of inactivity as entities require energy to be active. If people say that paranormal activity occurs daily, they're likely fabricating the whole series of events. Unless you have provoked an entity, you will not be subject to frequent activity. As anticlimatic as it sounds, that's how paranormal activity works. However, once it's there, it often happens in brief moments. Even during periods of inactivity, I could feel like I was not alone, yet no further activity would occur. Periods of inactivity could go on for months at a time.

However, the paranormal occurrences would happen whenever something negative happened. It could have been something as simple as having a rough day at school. The activity would happen and then stop a couple of weeks later. For example, I recall putting my toy car. in a line and leaving it as I had to go to bed. I woke up and headed downstairs to continue to play with my cars and saw that they were in a large pile. I don't recall ever going downstairs and playing with my toy cars during the night.

I promptly asked my father to see if he moved them. When I got no as the answer, I was able to determine no logical explanation. There was one time in the night where I desperately had to use the bathroom, I went out of my bedroom to use the nearest bathroom. When I was heading to the bathroom, I noticed light emanating from the bottom of the doorframe. I assumed someone was in there, so I waited about five to ten minutes. By that time, I really had to go.

Once again, I checked into that very bathroom to be in use. Impatiently, I went downstairs and used the other bathroom. When I went back upstairs, I noticed the other bathroom. I noticed the upstairs bathroom was unoccupied. I couldn't hear anyone leave the bathroom, nor did anyone see me go up or down the stairs. Assuming nothing of it, I went back into my room and tried to drift back off to sleep.

A few minutes later, my father came in to check on me. I lied and said I was sleepwalking instead of using the bathroom down stairs. I can't conclude if this was paranormal or not, since my sick mother was in the house at the time, which made me unsure if it was her or not. Though upon talking to my father, he didn't recall her using the bathroom at that time. The house also made some noises that I cannot explain. I've been in other homes, and I've spent the night there with my family, and I didn't hear any noises from the pipes.

Both older and newer homes did not replicate the same noise, or have any noise per se, which baffled me. The noises sounded like banging on hollow pipes, or something metallic. No, I'm well aware that this could be something with the house, and I would agree. You can't conclude something as paranormal as that type of hollow metal banging. I only bring it up because it only happened in this house, and not the other houses that I've been in before. For now, I'll call this normal house noise.

unless I get further evidence regarding what the noises were. The banging, oddly enough, only happened when the heater or conditioner was inactive, and occasionally sounded like someone was moving in the pipes. However, these pipes were so narrow that nobody could ever fit in them. I always chalked it up to normal house noise as that was the only logical explanation behind it. Maybe it was indeed normal house noises, or maybe it was. paranormal. Eventually, I moved out of that house.

Since I moved, almost nine years ago, it's gone through quite a few occupants. The changes in the occupants piqued my curiosity, as I wondered if the occupants before encountered anything paranormal. I don't believe that I should be bothering the current owners with frivolous requests and questions. However, if I notice any social media post regarding that house and its haunted activities, I will gladly share my story with whom ever posts it.

Perhaps Edmonton could be more haunted than we realize. I can confirm that whatever was in that house has definitely sparked my interest in the paranormal. This is my first story submission, and hopefully it gets through. I want everyone to listening to know that this story is 100% true, and I still occasionally think about it to this day. Back in the summer of 2018, I briefly dated a guy, let's call him Zeke. It didn't last long, though, maybe two to three months, and our relationship primarily ended due to distance.

In that short time, Zeke had opened up to me about deep personal things. One of those very deep things was about his little brother who had passed. passed away. Let's call him Nico. Nico was a weed smoker, which there's nothing wrong with that, but one day it did tragically cost his life. No, it wasn't because of the marijuana itself. His dealer, to Nico's oblivion, had given him weed that was laced with a heavy dose of fentanyl. He had smoked it, and everyone thought that he was just taking a nap.

After no one could wake him up, he was rushed to the ER and pronounced brain dead at the hospital. They took him off life support that very evening. Nico was only 20. This tragedy happened very quick, and Zeke and his sister, let's call her Emery, had no time to process it. Nico passed away in 2017, maybe eight months before I had met Zeke. And at the time, Zeke and Emory, were still, understandably, heavily mourning the loss of their brother. Aside from all the background stuff, here's where the story gets chilling.

Throughout the duration of these three months, I probably drove the seven-hour trip to see Zeke five times and stayed for maybe four days to a week at a time. So really, we were together in person for most of that short-lived relationship. It was summer and I wasn't working, but he was. And I didn't really mind the drive. I actually liked road trips. He was at his childhood home,

staying with his parents that summer, and I stayed at their house with him when I visited. One morning, Zeeke was making breakfast in the kitchen downstairs, and I was hanging out upstairs in his room watching TV, when I suddenly kept getting phone calls, an unknown number. I brushed it off as a crazy scammer, but after multiple calls, I decided to answer on what was probably the fifth call.

I hesitantly sighed and said, hello. A muffled young male voice responded. Hi. I responded, who is this? Muffled, he responded, is this Dana? Before I answered anything, I asked. Who is this? His voice briefly became more clear.

I'll tell you if you can just confirm if you're Dana or not. Proceeded by dial tone noises, static, and more screeching on the other end. I responded, I'll tell you who I am if you can tell me first. You called me. Everything then got muffled again. I heard a sigh on the other end, followed by... This is Nico. Is this day?

Dana? Now, in my mind at that moment, a call from my boyfriend at the time's dead brother, was the last logical reason on my mind. I honestly thought this was some random just trying to mess with me. I asked, Nico who? Again, he questioned, is this Dana? I hesitantly responded, yes, it is. I then heard a bunch of white noise and scratching noises. Through the white noise, he responded. You know Zeke. I paused for what must have been 15 seconds. You might have the wrong person.

Which was kind of a stupid statement, considering he knew my name, but I was nervous and I don't like random calls from restricted numbers. His voice echoed back. I definitely don't. I nicely responded, but firmly questioned. Yes, I do know Zeke. How do you? actually know him. The voice, still heavily muffled, said,

He's my brother. That's when it hit me. My heart sunk, and I could feel my body go pale. My palms began sweating, and in my racing mind, all I could think of was, could it be? I took a deep breath and calmly said, Nico, Zeke's only brother passed away last year.

His voice echoed, and I heard another loud scream. screech. Yes, I did. Just tell him that I miss him. I made it up safely. I said, whoever this is, this isn't funny. It's messed up. He laughed in a warm, friendly way and said, Red Ball, closet. Before I could respond again, the line went silent and he hung up. I felt a bit intrusive with what I did next, but I had to know. So, I went into Niko's room, which the family had left intact, opened the closet door and there on the floor was a red ball. My racing thoughts were confirmed, and I felt a bit dizzy after that.

After Zieg was done making breakfast, I asked him if he could show me some old videos of Niko before actually telling him what had happened, and I told him that it was just out of curiosity because I never got to meet him. Zeeke smiled and was more than glad to show me some videos. Well, during the first video, the next thing was officially confirmed. Nico's voice in that video was the exact same as the voice on the phone.

I am 100% positive that I had a phone conversation with Zeek's dead brother. The red ball was just too much, and the voice, it was his voice. It turns out that I did meet Nico just from the other side. This is a long one, guys, but it's worth the read. It really freaked me out at the time. If anyone has a solid idea of what this was, or if they've had a similar experience, I'd love to hear it. This happened to me a while back,

when I decided to go on another camping trip alone. I always liked camping. alone. There's something serene and sobering about being isolated in the middle of the wilderness, and I always found it relaxing. So I planned out what trail I was going to take, packed my camping gear and my rifle, for protection, and jumped in my truck. I get to this trail early in the morning and hike about 15 to 20 miles until I find the right spot, and head off the trail to find a place to put my tent up. I stumble upon this nice-sized clearing and decide that it's a nice, beautiful spot to settle down. I'm exhausted at this point, but I set up the tent at the southernmost edge of the clearing

next to the tree line, and I managed to get a fire going. I rose some weanies and start to hear a sound in the distance underneath all the forest noises. It sounded like an animal, most likely a deer, with a lame leg as it sounded like the animal was making a walking slash dragging noise. I felt bad for the poor guy, but it was too far away and it was getting dark, so I couldn't really go find it to put it out of its misery. I think nothing of it after that, and go about eating my food. After I eat, I douse the fire and crawl into my tent and insert myself into my sleeping bag. I decide that even in my exhausted and relaxed state, I can't go to sleep.

So I pull out a book that I brought with me and start to read by the light of my lamp. Hours go by and I hear that sound again, this time closer, right at the opposite side of the clearing. Surprised, I put my book down and listened to this animal walk drag across the clearing towards my tent. It's really loud at this point, and it now sounds like the hooves are all being heavily planted, with the dragging noise following seconds after, like the deer is dragging something along. It makes it to, about what I assume, is the middle of the clearing, and stops. And I hear nothing. No breathing.

I mean, not a sound from this animal. I unzip the tent and look into the clearing. There's nothing but trees and darkness. What the hell? Unnerved at this point, I zip the tent back up, and I sit there listening for the other noises. Nothing. Just the crickets and the breeze.

I decide that there are a lot of strange noises in the woods, and I tried to not let it bother me. Besides, I had my rifle. I start to doze off when I hear men's laughter off in the distance to my right, and then women's laughter and sticks snapping far off to my left. I'm up now, wondering if what I'm hearing is really what I am hearing, or just a product of being half asleep. I hear more faint laughing from a couple other different directions,

all different. In essence, old men, old women, even children, and I confirm that it's real. The noises are closing in and I grab my rifle, preparing to fire a warning shot off in the air in case they came too close. Something about this laughter, how far in I was, the noise earlier, and the time of night told me that this was not just another family strolling through. I was on edge enough already, but when I noticed that the nightlife was dead quiet,

not even the wind was making any noise. I decided that enough was enough. I unzipped the tent and fired a shot into the night. I sat there and surveyed the tree line, but saw nothing. I listened intensely to my surroundings, no laughing in the forest sounds had returned. Relaxing just a bit, and figuring that I had scared off whoever, I sat down and in my exhausted state, I fell asleep. I wake up later in a cold sweat, iracked with anxiety, and it was still dark outside.

I immediately hear two people whispering not too far from my tent. Alert, I grab my rifle and listen to what they're saying. I can't make out much, but I hear something about being lost, so I shout, Hey, who is there? The voice is false silent. I shout again. Are you guys lost? Who's there?

Suddenly, a huge burst of flame like a flamethrower erupted from the middle of the clearing, illuminating several silhouettes of people just standing around. In shock, I fire my rifle blowing a hole in the front of my tent and it goes dark. Without checking my surroundings, I get up and sprint out of my tent, making a hard left back to where the trail was. I hiked until sunrise back to my truck, with my head over my shoulder the entire way. I never heard anyone follow me,

never saw anyone or anything the whole way, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. After that, my enjoyment of camping alone left me, just like I left all of my gear in the woods that night. This is a true story. I had to scroll all the way back through Facebook to 2010. I remember there were some picks from that evening, so I could find the date that this happened.

So it was the 13th of April 2010. I used to work on Berwick Street, Soho, in a super cute little gift shop. Unfortunately, it closed down a few years ago, but it was such a cool place to work, and loads of celebrities used to pop in. That's another story. Most of my friends at the time lived or worked in the area, so there was usually something fun going on after I finished my shift,

which was normally 7 p.m. One evening, three of my friends were in town, and we ended up heading to the courthouse London for dinner. If you walk down Canterby Street, towards Liberty London, the courthouse is just at the bottom, over the road. It's a pretty swish hotel with a bar and a restaurant, but it used to be a magistrate's court. It still has a lot of the original features, including the old jail cells,

where you can have drinks, and the courtroom is the restaurant's seating area. Anyway, one of my friends had planned ahead and booked us a table, although when we turned up, there was only one other couple dining in there as far as I can remember. her. It was a weeknight, so it wasn't busy at all. We had dinner and chatted, etc. The night was just like any other night out for dinner. I'm not a big drinker, and I don't remember drinking at all, but if I did, it would have only been a glass of wine, so I was in no way drunk. I excused myself, and I told my friends that I'm just popping into the bathroom, be back in a minute. Then off I went.

So the layout may have changed. I haven't been there in many years, but at the time the bathroom layout was, there was a door you had to push, a short corridor, another door you had to push open, and then you were in the bathroom. Both doors were heavy and swung closed behind you once you'd gone through them. The bathroom was a smallish room,

but nice as far as bathrooms go. There were three empty cubicles, all with the doors neatly open. I went into the right-hand side toilet and closed the door. As I sat using the toilet, sorry I know, I began to hear what sounded like whispering behind me. Behind and perhaps just off to the right. It made me turn around, but I just thought to myself it must be something coming from the room next door. The whispering continued, but I couldn't really make out what was being. being said, surprisingly, I was chill and didn't think anything of it.

It was just someone in the room next door, right? The next thing was knock, knock, knock. Three pretty loud knocks wrapped on my toilet door. Now, in my confused mind, I thought one of my friends must have come into the bathroom and decided to knock on my door for some strange reason. I was finished using the toilet and I opened the door, expecting to see my friend, or someone, but there was no one there.

The room was completely empty with all the cubicles just as they were when I entered, with the door still open. There was absolutely nobody in the room with me. Plus, if someone had come in, knocked on my door, and then ran out again, I would have heard the door and footsteps. But there was nothing, just silence.

And why would someone do that any? The hotel is pretty fancy. They wouldn't just let people run a muck in it. So, at this point, I was puzzled, but still surprisingly chill. I think my mind just went to a rational place at the time. But the whispering, what was that about? I returned to my table and asked my friends if they'd knocked on my toilet door. They all said no.

They were kind of freaked out and didn't want to. to use the bathroom alone after that, which, I guess, is understandable. All of their reactions actually made me freak out a bit, too. Did I just experience something paranormal? I can't explain it, but I definitely didn't imagine it. This is definitely a head-scratcher for me. I often think about it and what the heck it was all about. I'll never know who or what knocked on my door

and why they were whispering to me. I wonder what they were trying to tell me. Was it a ghost? I guess I'll never know. If you do ever visit London, you should pop in there. The bar is cool, and they also do have a lovely afternoon tea. Just beware if you go to the bathroom alone. There's something else here now.

Something new. From, exclusively on Paramount Plus, it's the series Stephen King calls Scarious 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. I have a paranormal experience that I would like to share. It happened to me about a month after my son was born. I want to give a little background that is importance to my story. I'll keep it short and paraphrase as much as possible. My son was born five weeks early via C-section due to complications. He was a tiny thing, only weighing four pounds. Despite this, he only spent nine days in the NICU.

When he came home from the hospital, my dear mother-in-law stayed with us to help us, as he was our first child, and we were very nervous about taking care of a tiny baby. My mother-in-law had experience with premature babies, since my husband, her first baby, was also born five or six weeks early, and was a tiny baby, too. Throughout the three weeks that she was with us,

she would tell me that she thought my late mother was around. She could feel a benevolent spirit around. my mother passed when I was 14 years old, so it was possible. As a pagan, I believe in the paranormal, and this wasn't my first paranormal experience. On to the actual story. After my mother-in-law left, I was pretty well left alone as my husband had gone back to work a week earlier. I was left to navigate parenthood with a tiny baby, all on my own. My son had long fingernails and was always scratching his face.

I would put the baby mittens on his tiny hands, only to have them fall off every time he moved because they were just too big for his teeny tiny hands. I decided that I needed to get some baby nail clippers, so I went to the store and bought a baby nail care set that had not just nail clippers, but also had a nail file and some baby mittens, which miraculously fit his teeny tiny baby hands

and actually stayed on even when he moved them. Sorry if I'm losing you, but all this is importance to the actual experience, which I promise is coming up. So for a week, I had the little mittens on his hands so he wouldn't scratch his face. I was scared to clip his nails because his hands were just so tiny. One day after bathing him and getting him dressed, I went to grab the little mittens to put on his hand, and one was missing. I looked all over the house for it, and I couldn't find it.

I was way too tired to worry about it due to lack of sleep from being a new parent, so I didn't tear the house apart or anything like that. I'm one of those people who believes that missing things will show up when you forget you're looking for it. They always seem to for me. That night, after feeding my son, putting him, him down in his bassinet to sleep. I laid down on the couch and I went to sleep as well. I had a dream that started out dark, but then there was this warm light that revealed a person.

Usually in dreams, I don't actually see people's faces, but this person's face was very defined. It looked like my mother's. In the dream, she held up what looked like a little white mitten just like the one I lost. And she smiled as she carefully placed the mitten in my hand. Before I knew it, she was gone. I woke up pretty much immediately afterwards and remembered the dream very vividly. I could feel something in the hand that was hanging over the side of the couch. I closed my hand and I felt the item.

I realized that it was the little mitten like in my dream, and I threw it across the room because I freaked out a bit. I could hardly believe it. Did my mother actually come to me in a dream and tell me that she found the mitten? After I calmed down a bit, I stood up and walked over and picked it up and looked it over. What I forgot to mention is that I had accidentally spilled something black on the missing mitten a few days before, so after examining the mitten, I realized that it was the one that I had been missing. It had the black spots on it.

But just to make sure, I went to the drawer where I had put the other little white mitten, which was still pure white, and had nothing black on it, and it was still there. So, apparently, if I were to guess, according to my dream, my mother found the mitten for me and wanted to make sure that it was returned so I could have it to keep my son from hurting his face. I know a lot of you are going to call BS on this, but it 100% happened, and it still freaks me out a bit to this day.

This isn't the first paranormal experience that I've had, and it probably won't be the last. If you like this one, I'll be happy to share more stories in the future. Hi, all. I've always lurked this subreddit, but it wasn't until today that I remembered something that I could post. warning long read ahead i'll try to keep it straightforward so i dated a girl when i was nineteen and she was seventeen i've grown up christian and she did two but different denominations she was pentecostal her parents believed in homeschooling because their pastor at the time pushed it on the congregation that was one of many things the pastors pushed that caused more grief in people's lives than they cared to admit.

One day my ex revealed to me that the pastor's son had touched or assaulted many of the kids in the church, and it was of course overlooked and brushed off. She said she believed he did something to her, but she couldn't remember for sure and didn't want to play victim if nothing had in fact happened to her. I understood, and she went on to tell me that she never felt safe at the church, and that she hated her parents for blindly following the leadership of that pastor. She described it as a very cult-like church. Even though other churches she attended that were part of the organization,

didn't feel that way. I always got a bad vibe when she told me stories of her childhood and how messed up it was because of the church organization. So anyways, that church that she went to when she was little, from birth to about 10, was in her hometown and she had moved to my hometown since. One Saturday, I was really interested in learning about her hometown, not even thinking of the church. There were just cool points of interest to see.

so we drove there for dinner and a little tour for hometown. Things were going great, and then we were heading home a faster way according to Google Maps, when suddenly she says, wait, my church is down this way. I responded asking her if it was okay to take this way, if it made her feel uncomfortable, etc. She said it's okay and actually insisted that we stopped by her old church. church so that I could see it. It was just getting dark out, but by the time we reached her old church, it was dark. She gave me a little tour from inside the car, showing me places they used to park,

or where she'd fell and scraped her knee one time, things like that. She pointed to the back of the church, and said that back there it used to be overgrown, but that they've put in a huge parking lot recently. I thought to myself, I guess they haven't installed any lights yet for it, so I shine my lights toward it, but nothing illuminates. I then turn on my high beams and nothing illuminates again. I drive closer, nothing. It was pitch black, and on each side of the church there's nothing except for a neighbor's houses,

but they're pretty far from the church. I start getting this awful feeling. I guess she could say dread. My ex was still in a that's weird state of mind. Because of her past history at this place, I didn't want to say anything, but she vibed it off of me and then felt that same dread. She started screaming, and that freaked me out even more.

I slammed the car into reverse so fast, turned it around and I got the hell out of there. For at least 10 to 15 minutes, there was a feeling like something was in the back of the car. Something horrible. Funny thing is, I still had my high beams on, and they were piercing the dark just fine when we were on the road again. She called her parents, and they told us to get out of there now and that we should not have gone there. That creeped me the hell out. To this day, I remember it very.

vividly. Since then, her and I have broken up because she started facing some tough times and wasn't receptive to any of the help that I was offering. Her parents divorced, and she then spiraled into drugs. It kind of makes me think, if whatever was in the back seat may have attached itself to her. When I was four or five, I remember my father telling me this story. There was this gnarly dead tree that was the third tree from the left of one of our gates between the two fields. My dad said that when he was a kid, he and his brother had been out in the woods when they saw a fire in the distance. Being young boys in the early 50s, they went to see what it was. Now, the story he told was that when they came out of one set of woods,

they saw a large bonfire near the tree and what appeared to be three women dancing around it. They thought it was a party or some crazy paganism. Now, this next part of the story is hard for me to remember. It went one of a few ways. Either three orbs of fire ascended out of the fire and began winding around the tree, or the women turned into orbs and flew around the tree.

or the women just began flying and the orbs were something else that I can't remember. But my dad and uncle immediately started running back to the farm. And I think he said that whatever was flying was moving in their direction, but I don't think it was quite giving chase. They went out there days later and there was evidence of a bonfire. Here's the creepy part to me. As a kid, I was afraid of this dead tree because of the story. Most of our dead trees fall at some point, just from internal rot after not being sustained.

But this tree, several years ago, sprouted leaves and is now a full tree. It's not something I could miss because, like I said, it's by a gate and you just count three trees over. It's not some tree out in the middle of the woods with a bunch of other trees. I asked my dad about the story after I noticed the tree growing leaves. He kind of chuckled, but more like a nervous chuckle. So I don't know if he is just playing a decades-long joke or what. Unfortunately now, he has brain damage from multiple strokes, and though I want to ask him again, his memory can't.

really be trusted as to whether he would remember if the story was a joke, just a scary story to tell his son, whether it really happened and he can't remember, or whether it didn't really happen but his brain would trick him into believing that it did. It's crazy, because even though his story sounds made up, the dead tree blooming always unnerved me. Every time I open that gate, even now in my 30s, my eyes are fixed on it like I expect something to happen. To avoid any confusion, I'm non-binary, A-FAB, and I'm now 16, and during the event, I was 14. I was at school, but I went to the nurse because I wasn't feeling good mentally and physically. They set me home, so I left school and headed home.

I always take the bus home and was craving some energy drinks. Usually I go to the bus stop in front of my school, but since I wanted an energy drink, I went to one a little further. So I buy my drink and wait at the bus stop when a car pulls in. He asks me if I needed a ride. I of course said no, but he kept pushing it. Like, come on, just get in. I once again say no

while my whole body is shaking He asked me some other things too Like where are you from How old are you I didn't answer those questions Right then the car passed I just started looking at the other people Who were also waiting on the bus

To see if they were okay to then see the car Just going to another girl Who was also waiting at the bus stop She did the same thing as me. At the end, he drives off and I call my mom to tell her what happened. The call went like this. Me. Hey, Mom. Hey, what's wrong? Some guy just asked me to take a ride, but he's gone now. I just want to talk for a bit because I'm stressing out. Did you check the license plate? Damn it. I forgot to. I'm sorry. I was just so scared, but my bus just arrived,

so I'll see you at home. I got home safely, and I'm so glad that I did. Ever since this event, I feel unsafe at all times, except for when I'm home. I think about this often, what could have happened. Maybe he did actually wants to bring me home, but I doubt that. To this day, I still think about how I could have been human trafficked or kidnapped, or maybe even killed. and it'll forever haunt me. 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. All 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.