As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 030 - Unexplained Stories and Creepy Reddit Stories (Ft. P.A. Nightmares and To_42 Reads) - 11 Scary Stories

Episode Date: June 17, 2022

Hello and Welcome to the 30th episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today we have a great collection of creepy stories featuring To_42 Reads and P.A. Nightmares! Please check them both out on YouTube, just search their names! ➤ 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... DjStone1991, Amaryllis_LD, Jakeyisbakey, MemeLordOneOhOne, NurseSyla, Toematyto_Toemahto, and authors that requested anonymity.  ➤ 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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If you have a story that you would like to hear featured on this podcast, please consider sending it my way. Just go to as the ravendreams.com and click the button. to submit your story. And of course, thank you. This happened to me over several years when I was a kid. I'll try to keep them in order the best that I can,

but I'm also trying to list out some of the worst events that I can remember. I've told a few close friends and my spouse, but I won't be using real names because I don't want my experience to cause others to look for the house. It's really not worth the possible trauma, in my opinion. As a kid, my family lived in this old house. It was a single story with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a basement. It was my parents, myself, and my little sister.

When we moved in, I was walking and talking on my own, so around five or six, I believe, and my sister was still an infant. I remember when we moved in. I felt off, like something just didn't feel right. I always felt scared being in there, especially alone. I remember trying to explain it to my parents, but they told me it was just because it was a change in something different and that it would pass,

and I would be happy about having more room, etc., etc. I tried to let it go, but that sense of fear never went away. It was always the worst at night while I slept. I started seeing a dark figure standing in the corner of my room, and most nights I felt paralyzed with fear, and all I could do was cover my head, close my eyes, and hope that it went away. Sometimes, I would just be frustrated that I couldn't sleep with it

and would whisper things like, go away or leave me alone. At one point, I even threw my pillow at the corner, which seemed to make things worse, as I could see the whole room go pitch black. Like, it just shrouded me with its darkness. There was usually light coming in from my window from the moonlight, but when this happened, my eyes were wide open, and I could not see anything.

At the same time, I felt like I couldn't breathe, like I was choking. I managed to let out a scream, and the next thing I knew, my mom ran into the room, turning on the light. I sat up crying and screaming, and she comforted me. I told her what happened, and she told me it was probably a bad dream. I told her that it had happened for a few nights, She actually slept in my room with me that night. I actually fell asleep and stayed asleep after that.

However, the shadows did not stop. I kept seeing them almost every night, but I stopped trying to anger them. Sometimes I would fall asleep in the living room, or my sister's room, hoping they would let me sleep there or carry me to my room without waking me so I didn't notice it. When that wouldn't work, I would sleep with my light on so the darkness couldn't get me. However, I would wake up feeling like someone was watching me, and to my surprise, my light would be off, and I would see it in the corner. The part that I really hated was when it would attack me.

I would have accidents. This happened for years, and I hated myself for it. It was embarrassing, and I hated that my mom would have to clean it up. I started doing my own laundry just so she didn't have to. My mom didn't really deny my claims, but she didn't support them either, for the longest time. My dad, however, always made sure to make me feel pathetic. He was verbally abusive to no end, but it was just to me. He wasn't like that to my sister, nor to him.

to my mom unless she was trying to defend me. He told me I was far too old to be wetting the bed, to be afraid of the dark, things like that. So I did my best not to talk about those things around him. My mom and I seemed to have a code after some time to get around it. The thing is, my dad wasn't always like that. I remember before we moved there, and even when we first moved, moved, he was very kind and supportive. I originally wanted to do everything with him, and it quickly flipped, and I became more and

more distant with him, and I was attached at the hip to my mother. She just couldn't understand what I was going through, or at least maybe didn't want to admit it. As I got older, I tried living with it the best that I could. I would have things move around in my room. I could feel something tugging at my ankles or my hair when I slept. I could even feel a presence when I was taking a shower. But as soon as I left the house, I felt this huge weight lifted off of me.

I loved school. I stayed there as much as I could because it wasn't escape from the house. I wasn't really into sports, but I even asked to, to be on the softball team just to be out of the house more, but my dad said no, because I wouldn't take it seriously and he didn't want to waste his money. So I did anything I could to stay out. I went everywhere I could with my mom, but as soon as I came home, it felt like a parent standing in the doorway, seething with anger towards you, and you just knew you were going

to get an earful as soon as you went in. The basement was probably the worst place. I wouldn't go down there alone, and it was even a struggle to go down there with my mom. The first time I went down there was after I followed my mom. The basement was used mainly for storage. Thankfully, there was actually a laundry room upstairs with the hookups, and even built an ironing board, so there wasn't much of a reason for me to go to the basement anyways. So she had to get something from down there, and after we came back up,

I realized I had left a toy and wanted to go get it. I turned on the light, ran down the stairs, and as I started making my way back up the stairs, the light went out, causing me to trip on a stair and scream. For some reason, I was frozen in place, and I didn't know what to do when I felt that presence again. I screamed again from my mother when I felt, felt something pulled me backwards, causing me to lose my balance and fall down the steps.

Shortly after, the light came back on and my mom was running down the stairs. I just remember trembling and screaming to get me out, and my mom picked me up and brought me back upstairs. She finally got me to calm down, and I tried to explain to her what happened. She said I probably fell when the light went out, throwing my balance off. and that she would have my dad check out the light. That confirmed for me that she wasn't the one to turn it off either. I knew that it was that same dark figure. It was the same feeling I got when I went to bed,

and I vowed to never go back down there alone, fearing it would do something worse to me. As I got older, I started getting more and more used to this presence. The accidents stopped occurring as well as the screaming, but it was traded for full sleep paralysis. I would see the figure, but I couldn't move or scream. I could only lay there and cry, hoping that it would go away. My sleep schedule was completely screwed.

I eventually got a lamp that I kept on at all times, and when I would wake up to it being off, I would immediately try to turn it back on. Sometimes it worked. Other times, it wouldn't. I found myself falling asleep on the bus, going to and from school, sometimes in classes, and especially at lunch.

Whenever I could, I would. And of course, if I was caught sleeping in class, my parents were informed and I would get another earful from my dad. So I started hiding that as much as possible. When I was old enough, I even tried staying at my friend's houses as much as I could. To my surprise, I had a few friends stay over and each of them told me that my house was creepy, and they felt like they were being watched the whole time.

The ones that admitted to feeling that, I would spill everything to them. These were the friends that I have really bonded to because they believe me and what I went through. I even tried things on the religious side. I tried saying prayers as I slept when I saw the figure. I slept with a crucifix under my pillow and above my door, and it really didn't seem to do a damn thing. One of the worst encounters for me caused me to move out. I was 15, about to turn 16,

and was excited to make plans for my birthday party. My mom and I were making plans, and she was trying to involve my dad in it, but he had no interest in me. He would give a dismissive response, and it would just turn up the TV if we got louder. I think my mom could tell that I was upset and said we would talk more about it the next day and got ready for bed. That night, I remember hearing my dad telling my sister good night and that he loved her, and then he didn't say a damn thing to me. I went to bed in tears that night. I was upset and confused.

Why didn't he seem to love me like her? I was angry. Why was she so special? I must have cried myself to sleep that evening because when I woke up, I was still wearing my jeans, but I could feel that presence again. This time, though, all I could feel was anger.

It was heavy, like something was pressing on my chest and hard. It almost took my breath away. It was intense enough that it made me pass out again. The next day, I woke up and felt physically ill. I went to the restroom when I started feeling dizzy and I got sick. I decided I would take a shower hoping that it would make me feel better, but to my horror, as I undressed, I had bruises all over my chest. There was no way that I could have done it to myself.

Yesterday morning they weren't there. I didn't do anything throughout the day to cause them, and I went to bed rather quickly the night before. When I saw this, I screamed for my mom to show her. The look on her face scared me even more. The way that she gasped and had tears in her eyes told me all that I needed to know. I'd asked about moving many times while we lived there, and it was always the same. My mom had to say no, but my dad always refused, saying I can choose when I'm an adult and have my own place and kept telling me how I was ungrateful.

The experience caused me to really beg my mom to let me leave. Obviously, I couldn't exactly move out, but after many arguments, my dad let me move in with my grandparents. It was his parents, actually, but they were amazing people. I felt my grandpa was more fatherly than he was and actually didn't understand why he became the person he did. No one ever understood it, or maybe they didn't want to believe it. Once I moved in with them, all of it stopped, of course. It didn't follow me there, and I was able to get a full night's sleep. I improved in school tremendously and was just in a much better place.

However, any time I went back, the presence was right there, nearly breathing down my neck, so I never stayed long. I also became a lot closer with my sister after I moved. out. I learned that I didn't hate her, nor did I feel jealous of her. It was all my father, of course. She did finally confide in me that she was feeling the presence too, but it didn't seem to be nearly as strong as what I felt. When she told me this, I urged my mom to get them out of there. I was afraid that they could all end up the same way. It wasn't going to be easy, though, as it wasn't until my senior year

that my mom finally gave my dad an ultimatum, which was the house or them. To my surprise, he actually chose to move. He claimed that it was because the maintenance and upkeep was getting too expensive since it was

an old house. Whatever the reason was, I was just relieved. Over the next few years, I actually went through therapy because of the experiences and due to the relationships I had with my father. Not to mention that, after they moved out, my dad started changing again. He slowly started talking to me more about what was going on at school,

what I was doing after I graduated, and he was even the one inviting me over for dinner instead of my mother. He even told me he was proud of me when I graduated. Now that I'm much older with a spouse and kid of my own, I started having flashbacks of these things as we signed the papers for our first home. My parents came over, and to my surprise, my dad admitted to feeling weird after we moved in there as well. He chalked it up to being upset and regretting his decision on the house.

The feelings of being a disappointment, and my lack of approval, upset. and angering him more. He said he felt like he was changing but had no idea why. That was the first time I learned that after I moved out. He actually began taking antidepressants, and when they moved out, he stopped taking them and began feeling like himself again. I don't recommend this, though.

Follow your doctor's directions, always. He still would never admit to feeling any presence in that place, though, but my mom and sister finally did. We all just joked that maybe the being didn't like women. My sister and spouse talked about looking up the house as history to see if something happened there, but to be completely honest, I don't want to know. I don't want it to be tied to something

risking that it might possibly follow us. And that is where I've left it. I begged my spouse not to look into it, And so far they've claimed they haven't. I just wish they would tear that house down already because it's just sitting there empty, waiting for some poor soul to walk in. Biennue at board of Viarai.

Embarked and profite. Embarked and relax. Ciroat. Bookine. Oh, that also. And profite. Villaray, the voice that we love that we love. Starting off, this happened last Wednesday.

night into Thursday morning. Recently, my company started providing armed security for an old hotel under a new name and management in Southern Colorado Springs. I don't know exactly how old this place is, but it has been an active hotel since I was very young. Well, as we started the contract, the standard for the first two months was to have two security officers working, one senior and one new. My last shift, I was paired with the really annoying rookie, and this kid was uptight and dumb. For years, it's been known that many deaths, be it suicide, natural, or even a few instances

of murder have occurred at this hotel. My concern was to make sure heavy drug users didn't sneak into the building and squat. The new kid, though, wanted to inspect everything from the littlest noises to anyone walking around after midnight, to see if they were guests or not. Well, I think when we got called to the basement, it changed the kid's overly inquisitive nature, or just plain affected him. Front desk security. The hotel radio poorly chimed out. Go for security. I replied thinking it was another guest call complaining about the neighbors or a homeless person in the lobby. Can you both check the basement?

A motion sensor trip was sent to the front desk switchboard, and I wasn't down there. You'll have to come get the key for the access stairs. The night auditor said, half awake. Thinking to myself, if we have to get a key to access it, how would someone have gotten down there? As we approached the front desk, the night auditor stated that the switchboard had gone off twice more since she called us, less than three minutes earlier. So, curious, I asked how someone could get down there without the key to the stairwell door. Oh, I forgot to mention the broken elevator. It isn't broken.

It just only goes from the first floor to the service area of the basement without the maid's key at the moment. She stated like it was no big deal. Annoyed, I grabbed the key off the counter and told the rookie to look alive in case someone went down there knowing that bit of information. At the mouth to the basement behind the doors, we began hearing heavy moans and breathing that sounded like it could have either been directly behind the door or on the complete other side of the basement. Before we go in, I'm the lead officer. you will not do anything unless I tell you to. Stay on my six, follow my lead. Do you understand?

I barked at the rookie, to which he did a quick but confident nod. I pushed open the door and announced, Security, if anyone is in here announce yourself now, as this is standard for whenever we enter an area on most of our properties, when suspected trespassers are present. The rookie followed in behind me as I proceeded. the safety lights were on on every other fixtures, so I didn't feel it necessary to turn on the full lights, since there was enough light to see everything clearly.

Towards the complete opposite side of the basement, we began to hear what sounded like someone jingling a large key ring. My first thought was, oh joy, another meth head. As I began moving down the corridor, I heard the sound of the hood of a holster disengaged. Pissed, I turned right around to chastise the rookie for drawing his gun, but angry turned into confused. He was standing there, pale and fixated, eyes forward. Did you hear that? He stammered. I replied with, it might just be a machine switching, but remember, follow my lead.

Now, thinking that there was someone at the end of the corridor in the main laundry, I unsnapped my taser latch just in case. As we approached to the end of the basement, to the other locked stairwell access, we didn't find anything out of the normal, or a person trying to nest. But as we reached the freight elevator, we found a sign that set the next set of events into motion. Security. All elevator access to the basement will be unavailable overnight from the first to the 12.

if you need access get the key from the desk. I took a picture of it to show the night auditor, but I got a chill while doing so. As the rookie and I began double-checking every area on the way back to the stairs that we came in from, we started experiencing minor paranormal occurrences, starting after the rookie found a few spiritual items. While still in the main laundry,

towards the far back secondary stairs, the rookie found an unburned bundle of white sage wrapped in white lace. I'm sitting on top of one of the large machines. Not knowing anything about sage, the rookie quickly snatched it off the machine and said, Hey, I think I found a weird joint. I turned to see him holding a bundle of white sage.

Hey, dumbass, first put that down. a second, that's not marijuana. It's cleansing sage. This kid didn't know anything about paranormal phenomenon or how to protect against it. So I told him not to pick up anything, especially if it isn't something he's familiar with. After he put it back where he grabbed it from, the first occurrence happened.

As he set it down, about 20 feet behind him, a shelf filled with clean folded town. fell completely off the wall. As we documented it for a report, a small snicker came from further up the corridor, but only like a split second of one. We began moving up to the next section where the overstock furniture and appliances were stored. An overhead pipe that was not leaking when we passed under it earlier was now leaking like a

huge crack had just happened. I thought this was odd, because I was sure with the amount of water leaking we would have heard it, regardless of our location in the basement. As I was inspecting the pipe for the point of the leak, the rookie yet again picked up something. Hey, this isn't Sage 2, is it? I looked over to see him smelling Palisanto wood tied with a red ribbon. Dude, I replied, exhausted, when he just drops it. I looked down in the puddle of water from the leaking to see a bare footprint within the water. Starting to get freaked out, I stated that we needed to get back upstairs.

We proceeded to the second to last section. Immediately I noticed a cross on the wall, on a wall that I didn't spot earlier with lavender sage wrapped in a purple lace. Take a quick look around and make sure nothing is going on so we can go. I said trying not to show that I was getting unnerved. Nothing happened in this section. until just before we moved through the double doors, when all the safety lights behind us, back to the laundry, started flickering.

Honestly, thinking something was going to happen, but not wanting to show that I was starting to freak out, I told the rookie to move to the last room. Finally, the last area where we came in from. Luckily, in here there were only two small planning offices and the hub room. The difference between when we entered the basement till now was that the light was on inside the hub room. I told the rookie to watch the hall as I checked the planning offices,

which was quick, but when I went into the hub room to check and turn off the lights, I looked down at the server monitor for the main cameras. In the hub room, it had the whole hotel cameras on this one monitor. Up at the front desk the cameras only show the exterior, hallways of the rooms, and the pool areas. So, I took a glance at the screen and noticed the lights were still flickering in the main laundry. A big pause in the lights occurred, and the night vision started to kick on. Slowly, a figure on the screen from the laundry became visible.

I realized while intently staring that the figure was standing next to the machine that the white sage was on. A bright flash lit the monitor window as the lights came back on, and my heart dropped as the room lay empty. The person who was standing in the night vision of the camera was just gone. I looked away to the doorframe of the hub room and see a bundle of black sage nailed to the frame, wrapped in black twine. I walk out, closing the door behind me. Are we clear? The Rookie asked me. Still stunned by what I saw on the camera, I replied, We're done down here. We enter the stairwell, and we lock the door.

Back in the lobby, the night auditor came over and asked if we found anything. I'm going to go out front and smoke, and then I'll show you the issues that we found. I said, pulling the pack from my pocket. The auditor, seemingly knowing that I was startled, asked, you didn't touch the wards, did you? I looked her in the eye without a little bit of her in the eye without. saying a word. Oh dear, you did. It's now been roughly a week since I've been there and I can say, I'm not looking forward to going back. Follow-up, I found out this afternoon that the rookie I worked with

that night has departed the company. I wasn't told if he quit or was fired, but he's not on the staff anymore as of today. So I'm kind of curious if he left because of what happened. and update as of today now it's been ten days since that shift and i had a random drop-in from my command on another service area while talking to him i asked what happened to the rookie since he disappeared from the company without telling me too much the rookie three days after the occurrence had a mental breakdown and had to leave the company entirely and move back in with his parents out of state during the semi-exit interview, and he stated that he was having fits of paranoia, insomnia, and illness. The boss didn't know about the basement when he told me this, so I told him about what happened, without showing the post, so not to get snapped at. And his response was, that's what happens when you pick up Sage. I'm more convinced from what my boss told me that he's suffering from a...

a demonic imprinting. I want to preface the story by telling you all that I have personally never been much of a believer in the paranormal. And I am certainly not the type of person that will immediately say that every strange thing that happens is paranormal or some unnatural phenomenon. My fiancé, on the other hand, he's pretty much the exact opposite. He's a huge fan of ghost stories and is somewhat obsessed with hauntings and all that crazy stuff. And he is fully convinced that all of this was paranormal.

Now, while what happened was crazy, I still hold some skepticism, but I am more of a believer. I believe it all started back when I was nine. I think I was going on 10 at the time. I am in my mid-20s now, but this place has been completely burned into my memory. And I honestly feel like I remember every single second I spent in that house. When my father passed away that year, my mother was unable to keep the house we lived in.

And she worked with a bank and a real estate agent, or something to sell the house and basically break even with it. it. From there, my mother, my little sister, and I all moved into a house that my uncle owned and normally rented out. Thankfully, he was willing to let us live there for as long as we wanted, and we would pay him a discount rent as a sort of family favor. The house that we moved into was a nice one. It was a three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and the original structure was built in the really early 1900s. It had been mostly modernized,

but there were still a lot of elements with the house that were obviously old and made way back when. The house didn't have any central air system or heating, so we had to rely on windows and room units, which meant that during the summers we would all sleep in the living room, The house is set up with three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs,

and then the living room, a small day room, and a kitchen with a small bathroom on the main floor. It also had a basement that wasn't finished, so it was a bit creepy just in its existence. The first couple months living in the house were actually really nice. It was comfortable, it was larger than our old home, and my mom seemed like she was happy there. As a kid, I knew that she was hurting after my dad passed,

but I'm not sure it really hit me that he was gone for good and then my mom was likely struggling mentally. But again, it seemed like moving into the new home was going to be a good foundation for our future. Now, like I said, there was no central cooling, and we had to have room units, with the exception of two rooms. No matter how hot it got outside, the day room and the basement were always ice cold. And the air was always seemingly heavy in those rooms,

almost like it was hard to breathe when you were in them. When I had to go into the day room, I always had this weird mentality of I need to get out of this room as quickly as possible. But the basement was a beast of a completely different kind. Any time I had to go down there, I would immediately feel like I was going to start crying. I could feel like I was hyperventilating. every step into that room was one too many. Every second felt like it was draining the life out of me.

I think the first event in the basement that made me hate it happened within the first few months of us living there. I was trying to help my mom out with some of the chores and went down into the basement to help out with the laundry. I was loading the clothes into the washing machine and gain everything sorted. And I started feeling like I was being watched. It was weird.

There weren't any windows, and it was just us at home. And they were both upstairs, so I knew it wasn't them. Being young, I kind of glanced around and went to see if there was someone down there. But obviously, there wasn't. I tried to shrug it off and went back to the laundry.

But I just couldn't. not shake that there was someone there. I finished loaning the clothes in and went to go back upstairs, but as soon as I started walking towards the stairs, I felt something grab my ankle, and I felt straight on my face. There was a moment of confusion, thinking I tripped over something, but there was nothing there or anywhere around me that I could have tripped over like that. Like I said, I don't much believe in the paranormal and never really did, but this freaked me out more than I'm willing to admit. It wasn't long after this happened that my sister would complain to my mom about having nightmares.

She complained about bad dreams where a man would come out of the basement and would kidnap her. She described him as inhumanly tall, saying that his head hid the ceiling, and that he would crouch down to the bedroom while she slept. and rip her from her bed. Obviously, these were just dreams. But it was still really weird that they pretty much happened the same day something grabbed me in the basement. More than that, she had this nightmare every night until we eventually moved out of that house. As soon as we finally got out of that house, I no longer had issues with basements, and she stopped dreaming of the Shadow Man.

Eventually, when we got older, my mom did tell us that she experienced things in the house, just that she never felt comfortable telling us when we were younger. I know this isn't the most eventful of stories, but honestly, that house was always creepy to me as a kid. The basement thing was just the icing on the cake. Like I mentioned before, I'm not huge into the paranormal, and I never had anything like this happened after we got out of there. So, when I, 35, non-binary, was 16, I was on my Duke of Edenburg's Silver Award expedition. It's a sort of citizenship thing for teens and young adults.

It comes in gold, silver, and bronze levels, and involves going on an expedition in a group of four to seven. We were hiking and planning to cover about 60 kilometers in three days to meet the request. You have to avoid roads as much as possible, and navigate by map and compass, carrying literally everything you need. Anyways, day two of the hike, and we've been going most of the day. We're heading down what we think is the bridle path towards a road, which we need to walk along for a hundred meters or so, to link up with another footpath so we can keep going cross-country. We get to a pond that isn't marked on the map, but no problem. It's borderline for the size that you would expect to see marked.

Then, as we go a bit further, we realize there's a crossroad with two paths meeting, and the second path definitely should be marked, but isn't. Much debate begins. We've been standing there for about five minutes going over the map, trying to figure out where we are when we hear an engine coming closer. Weird, given you're not supposed to drive on bridle paths, but we see a little van,

Citrone, Burlingo's sort of size, rather than transit. It's coming toward us, and we move back off the path, because it's hard to tell someone off for driving on a bridle path after they've run you over. The van goes past us a little, and then stops and,

reverses. A middle-aged bloke leans out and asks if we're okay. We say yes, but then ask if he can tell us the way to the road. Figuring, even if you've taken the wrong path, roads are far enough between, that it should still be the right road, and then we can reorient from there and get back on track. Then, it gets weird. He points to the path that we came down. Yeah, you just go down that there past my pond, it's about ten minutes. I tell you what, why don't I give you a lift? We say no,

it's not allowed, but he gets out and opens up the back of the van. It's carpeted and has what looks like cameras and light equipment, which he starts moving about telling us to get in. We refuse again,

explaining that we would be breaking the rules. Besides, even if him telling us to go the way that he didn't know we came from hadn't weirded us out, the equipment definitely did. Eventually, he gives up and closes the van to get into the front and leaves, by going down the branch that we came from, the one that he told us would lead to the road, but we knew didn't, which was not the branch that he'd been about to go down, before he reversed to speak to us. As soon as he was out of sight, it took us about four.

five nanoseconds to decide that we definitely were not going either of the ways that he seemed interested in going down, thank you. We decided to go down the branch that he'd come from, reasoning that he couldn't have been running around back paths forever, and if he did come back looking for us, he might be less likely to look the way that he came from. We reached the road in less than ten minutes. Single, freaking, creepiest experience of my teen. years. We literally walked along the road behind a hedgerow so we'd be harder to see from the road

for a mile, until we found a phone box, called our expedition leader, and got him to come pick us up. We heard engines two or three times, and we dropped to the ground behind the hedgerow every time, scared that it was this guy looking for us. I think all of us ended up in tears in the back of the minibus once the adrenaline wore off. I want to start this story off with just a little bit of context. I am a 32-year-old man, and I have two sons, age 10 and 12. Unfortunately, it didn't work out with their mother, so I don't get to see them as much as I want to,

but when I do see them, I'm making a point to plan something big. Last year, because of the whole COVID situation, there was no way I was going to plan an event with the boys at any place that was indoors. So I decided when summer break rode around, I'd book a camping trip, and the three of us would spend some time out in the wilderness. When I was a kid, camping was pretty much the only bonding time I got with my father. He's a very distant and emotionless man, and I wanted to pass down some of the knowledge that he passed on to me about nature.

Plus, what preteen boys don't like camping. The trip was planned for mid-June, not too long after they got out of school. We live in the northern central U.S., so the summers aren't terrible, and I was banking on it being decent weather the whole time. The trip that I had booked was supposed to be for eight days total, which I figured was enough time to get the basics in, enjoy the view, give them some knowledge, and honestly just have a good time. The camping ground that I'd booked was gorgeous.

It surrounded a couple of legs, and there was a storm shelter less than ten minutes up the road just in case. When I told them about what we were going to do, they were psyched. Their mother? Not so much. But it wasn't about her. It's about spending quality time with my boys. We got there, and it was perfect weather. The sun was out, it was slightly overcast,

but didn't look it was going to rain anytime soon. The spot that I had chosen was great. It was a short walk from the lake, and my youngest immediately asked if we'd go to swim in it. I agreed, so we all got into our swimming trunks and headed down. When we got back was one of the first weird event occurred. My truck's driver-side door was open. I was a bit annoyed with myself,

for forgetting to lock it, but to my surprise, nothing was missing, at least nothing that I could tell. I shirked off as a possible thief that maybe had realized there was nothing of value in the cab, and just gave up. That night, as the boys were sleeping in their tent, and I was lying in the bed in my truck in a sleeping bag, which was good enough for me. I was staring up to the sky, and started hearing what sounded like soft breathing or whispering. At first, I thought it was them waking up and talking to each other about something, and I didn't want to disturb. them, but when I started to focus on it, I could tell it wasn't them. The voice that was whispering, or breathing, or whatever, was definitely feminine.

I sat up and looked into the tree line to see if I could see someone out there. I didn't see a thing. I swear, I sat there for around ten minutes just scanning the horizon, and each tree in between to see if there is something out there, but it came up empty. After a few minutes, the sound stopped. I'm not going to lie to you, my parental instincts were definitely kicking in, but at the same time, I was kind of freaking out. It's not every night, you hear a weird woman's voice whispering to you in the woods.

Except it was every night, at least every night that we were there. I asked the boys after the second night if they had heard it, but they told me that they didn't. I kind of tried to play it off as I was just trying to scare them, like it was a prank or something, but instead, I was confused as hell. Was I losing it, or was I just hearing things out in the wilderness? that night, which was the third night of her eight-day trip, I decided I would stay up later and see if I still heard it,

or see if it was just my brain messing with me in a half-sleep state. Sure enough I did. I was sitting there in the bed of the truck, just listening, and through the silence I started hearing whispering and breathing coming from somewhere. Then it got worse. I grabbed my flashlight and shined it out into the trees, trying to see if there's some kind of animal making the noise, and I saw...

Something. I have no idea what it was, but it looked human-like. It was almost like a person, but the limbs were too long, and the hair on the head was stringy and black. I immediately grabbed my gun and jumped out of the bed, stupidly planning to run at this thing, but by the time my feet hit the ground, it was gone. I just stood there, dumbfounded, and scared as hell.

Honestly, that was the worst part of it, and there really wasn't much more that happened. I didn't really sleep after that, but I convinced the boys to sleep in the cab of the truck instead of their tents. I pretty much sat in the bed and dozed off slightly each night for ten or so minutes at most. I think the boys knew something was wrong, but I didn't tell them about it because I didn't want to scare them away from the trip. I didn't even hear the whispering again after that, but I still struggled to sleep because part of my mind was telling me this thing was going to come back, and it was going to have malicious intent. I'm grateful it didn't. We finished our camping trip and headed home.

And while it's only been a year, I don't really think we're going to be going camping anytime soon. I grew up in a pretty good age, just before phones and iPads took over childhoods. My friends and I grew up in a small town in Lake Ontario, so we got into all sorts of shenanigans that were water-related, be it jumping off the piers, making huge bonfires by the lakes,

or one of our favorites, sneaking on the boats. Only the ones out of the water and not in use. They were kept off to the side of the actual marina, down a dirt road that hooked around a densely forested hill. It was early fall, so a lot of the boats were out of the water, and the marina was pretty quiet. I was probably 10, maybe 11 at the time, and my best friend, let's call him Ron, was about nine.

It was late afternoon and we were on our way to climb onto some boats, the ones that hadn't been covered for the winter season yet anyway. Another way onto the road from the actual Marina was down a pretty steep hill. We would butt slide down it and approach the boats from behind, minimizing any chance of Marina staff seeing us. We approached like normal, and Ron began ascending up the metallic scaffold the boat was poised upon. When we reached the top, I began my approach. But upon climbing, I noticed a car, which I can still picture to this day clearly.

It was a blue Hyundai. I'm not sure the model or make or anything. I'm not great with cars, but it was a two-door style. A man in his early 30s, maybe. Very redneck. Excuse my lack of a better term. He was just sitting inside and staring up at me climbing up the scaffolding. Me, obviously thinking I was in trouble, dropped down, and so Ron made his way back down too. I sent an apologetic wave, but the guy only returned a smile. A kind of creepy, smile. And then he began to roll down the wind.

window. Now what are you boys doing? He asked in an almost sarcastic and witty tone. I didn't really give much of a reply. I wasn't huge on talking to strangers. Mom kind of pounded that one in. I forgot exactly what I did or said, but I just remember him laughing and getting out.

He did not look at all like the marina staff, and he just sort of strolled towards us and removed cigarettes from his bed. pocket. You want to smoke? He asked two nine and eleven-year-old kids. Like, um, I looked at Ron with a we should leave desperation. He was very much feeling it too. I don't remember if I said, no thanks, or just turned, but as we began to walk behind the boats, back down the dirt road towards the marina, he kind of strolled behind us. And as he asked, as he, he asked, and as he, he was, a little demandingly if we wanted a ride.

At this point, we started to book it. It was fight or flight. I checked behind me to see if he was following, and through the scaffolds of the boats, I could see him getting back into his car frantically. Then we could hear him, peeling out and around on the rocky dirt road. I knew that we couldn't make it back past the curve

and to the marina before him, so I grabbed Ron. and we started running the other way, back towards the hill that we had but slid down. He peeled off much quicker around the bend, and Ron and I flew up this hill faster than should have been possible. We booked it up the road to this tourist center slash gym that had just been built, pretty much,

and we ran inside frantically. Ron was in full-on tears, and the two girls working in there jumped right up to attend to us. I remember remaining fairly calm. It was only about 30 seconds into explaining our story that we saw the blue Hyundai pull in, circle the empty parking lot, except for the staff vehicles, and stop for a second. One of the ladies ran out upon our confirmation of the vehicle, and he peeled off away down the road. The police were called, and Ron's older sister came to pick us up.

I don't remember why, but I think my parents may have been. out that night for something. Nothing ever came of the police reports or anything, though, and as far as I know, this guy is still around, and that's really horrifying to me. Over the years, people have tried to argue with me, and said it was probably a boat owner or marina's staff, but I'd lived there for years, and I had never seen him before. Plus, it was all just too strange. He didn't seem to mind us on the boat. He offered us smokes and a ride, and then he peeled around to follow us, and then pulled into the tourist parking center, where when almost confronted by a grown-up, he took off. Anyways, there is my retelling of a story that I've been meaning to get out for a while, and I'm really thankful that I was there with Ron.

He was much younger, and this could have ended very differently. Cheers for listening, mates. and teach your little ones to stay safe out there and practice it yourself. Also, never trust Blue Hyandes. It'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 comes up 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 plays. I'll call something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From Binge All Episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. This story takes place back when I was a teenager. Back then, I lived with our parents in the part of South Dakota

that had a lot of wilderness. And I was one always to take advantage of the woods in the area. I was always about hanging out onto the trail in the woods to see what I could find out there. and I love to spend my weekends hiking and finding new areas. We lived near a small pond that was right by the small section of the woods that is by a cave system. I spent way too many hours of my teenage years in that cave system, and I honestly love to spend my entire days out in the wild, just taking the sights and sounds.

That said, nothing is perfect, and there were a few close calls that I had when I was young and thought I was invincible. I once fell from a pretty high ledge when I was 13 and broke my arm. And thankfully, that was all I broke. Because I could have died. No, that's not the scary story. Just to point a note that tells you who I am as a person. A risk taker.

An idiot, essentially. I used to go out and do pretty much whatever to whenever and then head home and do it all again the next day. Like I said, nothing is perfect. And I can recall two specific stories that made me feel like maybe spending all of my time out in the wilderness where no one knew where I was, maybe that wasn't such a great idea in the end.

The first incident happened during one summer where there was a good amount of foot traffic in the area. Some years there would be more tourism than others. We weren't really a tourism city, but some people there were nature buffs and would stop in the area for the scenery. Like I said, this year was when we would have more people in the area.

On this day in particular, I wanted to go down to the pond just to watch the animals down the way. I did as I always did. I got up, got dressed, and eight, then headed out and hit the path as early as I could. One thing to note, I had gone this exact same route the day before, and nothing was out of place. About a quarter of the mile into the path, I ran into the body of an animal that may be gross to most people,

but living in nature kind of desensitizes you to animal death. There are so many predators out there, bears, wolves. etc. That you kind of just accept when you see a carcass and you put yourself in a bit of a defensive mentally in that there may be a predator nearby. Now this kill was fairly fresh so that as well puts you in a position where you watch your surroundings even more. The main thing I found to be odd about the carcass was that's head was missing again a bit of a bit of strange, but nothing too crazy. Animals do weird things. I continue down the way and make my way towards a pond when I see something that legitimately makes me sick to my stomach. Down by the water,

I see what looks like a shovel or a spade or whatever, stuck in the ground near the water's edge. And on the end of the stick that points up is the head of an end of an end. animal. I'm assuming it's the head of the one that I found down on the trail, as it's a deer, and it also looks rather fresh. This alone was not enough to scare the hell out of me. As I got closer, I saw that there was a pile of polaroid scattered around the ground near where the shovel was. A hesitantly stepped forward to look at the pictures, and they were just as sick as you might think. The pictures were basically each a part of the timeline of how the people that killed the deer did so, and then beheaded it. There were about 15 pictures total, and they were each

taken at different points. There were two people, but they were wearing masks and dark clothing. Like I said, this path was clear this afternoon prior, which meant that whoever did this did so in the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure they were doing it to be edgy, but it was absolutely disgusting. I ended up hanging home and calling the police. They came and took the evidence, which was pretty much the pitchers in the shovel,

and they had the park service come out to clean up the scene, I'm pretty sure they never actually caught anyone, which lends more to the possibility of it being a tourist, that did it. The other story I have is one that's less straightforward and is more on the probability side.

Like I said, there was a cave that was down by the pond, and it was a fairly large cave. I spent many days of my summers checking it out, and I'm certain I never found every vein that it actually had,

most of because I didn't really try. and this situation proved that was the right way to do things. On this particular day, a friend of mine and I had decided that we would go through a part of the cave that I hadn't yet explored. This was an idea that he'd had that I honestly wished he hadn't. We got in the cave and we started to explore pretty much nothing was out of place until we got back into the far left and into a vein that we've never traveled.

Back in the rear vein, there was a small pocket that was pretty much looked like the size of a small room. Inside this pocket, there was what looked like a makeshift bed made of sleeping bags and some clothing. There were posters that were basically taped to the wall of the cave in a sloppy manner. There were a handful of books that were scattered around. Well, this was creepy. The part that made it worse was that there was also a lantern lying on the ground that was still lit,

which told me that whoever was staying the cave wasn't too far away. Now, you may think, that's not that bad. It's just a homeless person making the most of what was available. The problem in this lies with the fact that we lived near a federal prison, and there had been escape inmates in the past. And around this time, we found this. There was an inmate that had gone through the fence and hadn't yet been found.

Odds are, what we found was the camp where an escaped inmate was hiding out. Of course, at the time, as a kid, I didn't realize this. We just bolted out of the cave and laughed about it. and we never went back to that cave, or at least never that deep into it. I don't live in South Dakota anymore, but if I did, I can promise you that I'd probably still be out there every weekend, just like back then. Hey, Reddit, I'm a 26-year-old male who works on night shift as a security guard for a warehouse.

Most of the nights, it's pretty dead, as we don't get many children. trucks at night. It's me, two other guards, along with the maintenance guy and two shippers who drive forklifts and stuff. So, altogether, there's six of us on average. During my shift from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., I was stationed at the cameras. The cameras have movement detection on, but were mostly black and white. The warehouse that I worked at was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere.

with only a tall field of grass and forested areas. I live up north in the USA. The road that led up to the warehouse was a dirt road that was off of a rural highway. There's a tall barbed wire fence that encloses the warehouse along with a gated area at the front. One of my co-workers was manned at the front gate to let trucks in and such. At approximately 2 a.m., I got a call from my co-worker at the gate, He stated that he swore he saw what looked like a person running or stumbling towards him in the dirt road before turning off into the field of grass.

He then said it looked like they were waving his or her arms to try and get his attention, but then dove into the field after getting about halfway. He wanted me to see if I could see anything on camera. I looked on the cameras and I could barely make out what looked like a person, person coming down the road. I thought that it could have been a buck, and the horns just kind of looked like arms. Unfortunately, the cameras are pretty crappy unless it's up close, so I couldn't tell. I relayed that information to him, and he said he wanted to go and check it out.

As security, we're not able to leave the property, but we could technically walk on the driveway and not break policy. I told him it was a bad idea, and to just call the police if he really thought it was a person. He decided not to, and to just forget about it. About two minutes after this, a car turns into our driveway and slowly starts coming down the road. It stops about a third of the way on the driveway, and then stops. I couldn't see the plate or what kind of car it was, but it was definitely not a truck. I radioed down to the gate guard to see what's going on,

and he said he couldn't see anything because of the headlights, but he could hear, like, someone opened and shut the door. At this point, I said I would call the police because they could be trying to get ready to rob us. I phoned the local police department, and they said that they can have someone there in 20 minutes. Remember, we're in the boonies. We stared down that road for what seemed to be forever,

and my gate guy was on edge because of what he saw before. The gate guard then radios me that he just heard a scream that seemed to be a woman. I asked if it could be from a mountain cat due to us being far out. He said it did sound like it, but he couldn't tell. The scream came from the field that the person earlier went into, but a bit further off. He then said he was drawing his pistol and asked how long until the police came. I told him approximately ten minutes. Then, about another minute later, the car slowly backs up and drives away.

The gate guard is pretty freaked out about this and radioed to call the police again. I told him to calm down and to just wait. I radioed Mike, the other guard, to go and assist at the gate in case something strange happens. The two were down there at the gate for about five more minutes before his sheriff's deputy came. He rolled up to the gate and started talking to the gate guard about something before reversing back up, about halfway down the driveway. He turns on his high beams towards the field and then turns on his red and blues. He then walked out towards the field, gun and flashlight drawn, and makes his way into said field. about a minute later

another squad car shows up and drives into the driveway and he gets out again towards the field another five to ten minutes pass and they come out with nothing but what looked like an old shirt or something they bring it up to the gate guard and I'm not sure what he said but then the cops looked at each other nodded their heads at my guy and then took the shirt thing and left

after the shift was over I asked the gate guy what he saw and said. He said the cops found an old hoodie that was in the field, but didn't see anything else. When they came and asked him about what he saw, he reiterated what happened prior to us calling them. They then just gave him their card and left with the hoodie. I'm not sure what it was to this day, and nothing was ever in the news. It's a bit of a long one, but I was definitely. clenching my back end when watching it on camera.

This is actually something that happened to my father while he was a tow truck driver. He did this for years as far as I can remember, because I was quite young at the time. He worked all different hours, including on-call or overnights. Depending on the time, or if I was awake, sometimes he would let me, my sister, and my mom ride with him. It was actually a lot of fun, riding back to the toad lot. Where they dropped off the vehicles they kept was a blast, too. There was an older lady that worked there, and she always had snacks open to us. They also had two junkyard dogs that were as sweet as can be.

Sometimes I'd stay up later, when allowed, just to try to go with him. We got to watch him load the vehicles, and he told us what the different buttons and switches did. Sometimes we even got to go if there was a mild accident, like someone hitting a light pole, or something like that. Of course, he's also been called to some pretty bad accidents, too, like when cars flip. or when there are severe injuries or even fatal ones. These, of course, we were never allowed to go on, and I am thankful for that now. As I got older, I was talking to him about his experiences working there, and asked him about some of the worst ones he remembers going to.

This one, though, still creeps me out. He said he even remembers telling me and my mom that we couldn't go with him because of the situation. There is a convertible speeding and swerving between lanes on a highway. It was like a main road and a highway because it had stoplights on it. It was also next to an open field, blocked off by guard railing and barbed wiring. Of course, the highway also's warning lights a few miles back to tell you when the light is red, to warn you to start slowing down. Apparently, this guy didn't see those, didn't care, or something, and thought he would try to run it.

My dad said he doesn't remember if he was racing someone or just a speeder. Sadly, there was a small decline before the end. intersection and there was a semi already at the light. The convertible must have hit the decline, got a little air, and before they had time to react or break, probably because the car was partially airbound. They went under the semi, causing the underside of the semi, tact like sandpaper. The scene was not pretty, and they were already in the process of cleanup by the time my dad arrived. However, he said they were just pulling out the body, and from the looks of the accident, he could piece it all together. He earned this one, of course, because of the gruesome details.

but also what he saw while trying to load up a vehicle. He mentioned it was taking longer than normal because they had to try to get the car from another semi, and then get the car on the tow truck. Towards the end, he was loading up the car. He felt like he was being watched, so he looked around to see the cops and other people weren't nearby, and no one was trying to get his attention.

So he looked over towards the field. From there, he saw a figure standing by a tree that appeared to just be watching him. He just stared at him for a minute to see if he was maybe just a point. bystander trying to watch what was going on. Unfortunately, you get people like that, going to these scenes and trying to get pictures or something. However, my dad noticed he wasn't holding a camera or anything, but just standing, hands to his side.

Once he finished loading up the car, he started walking towards him to see what he was doing. As he got closer, he noticed a person looked like a younger kid, maybe in his teens. He took notice the clothing he was wearing in case it came up in the future, like a missing person. or someone fleeing his scene, or family, etc. As he continued walking, he got a page, but that tells you how long ago this was. And when he looked up from the pager, the kid was gone. He looked around to see if he ran off,

but he didn't see him anywhere. So he went back to his trek, finished up what he needed to do with the authorities and left. A few days later, he said he heard additional information about the crash and saw the picture of the kid from the accident. To surprise, the kid he saw in the field looked just like him.

He said even the hairstyle and shirt he was wearing was identical. Of course, my mom said he probably saw his ghost who was trying to piece together what just happened before he moved on, and that's when he left this world. My dad, of course, didn't believe any of that. So he claims he probably just saw the kid

as they were pulling him out, and saw what he was wearing and chocked it up to him just being tired. I don't know, though. Those scenes have to be gruesome, and maybe even scar some people that would see them. But I'm thinking it was the kid passing over. He had some other creepy calls that I could maybe ask him about,

but this was one I specifically remembered. I work as a caregiver in some of the neighboring cities that I live in. I'm an RN, but I really enjoy working with patients in their own homes. Most of the time, they're a lot nicer and personable with you, but that makes sense. Hospitals are cold and lonely, and you typically don't know many people there. It's not a place that someone would want to spend longer than, say, a normal appointment in. Right.

So, being able to make people comfortable at home while they heal or spend their last days means a lot to me. Now, some of the people I cared for lived in sketchy places. And even some of the people could be sketchy themselves, so I still had to be a way. of my surroundings and keep myself safe, as well as my patience. I wanted to share one of my experiences with you, because I like how you mention these can be entertaining as well as educational, because even though you may have the best at heart, doesn't mean that everyone else does.

It was the beginning of spring of 2018. I was caring for a gentle old lady that I'll just call Mary. Mary had suffered a stroke and was going through PT in order to walk again. She was able to talk for the most part and had control of her arm, but we were still working on walking and building up her strength again. I was there four to five times a week, and a PT nurse was there twice a week when I was to help me. Most days she was a trooper and was willing to put in the effort,

but everyone does have their off days. It didn't happen often, so when it did, we tended to go a little easier on her. We may only go half the time or do something different, something that she wanted to do. On this specific day, Mary was feeling a little under the weather, so we didn't want to push her if she physically was not feeling well. I called the PT and told her to reschedule, and I went about my normal tasks in the meantime, such as delving out her medication in the daily containers, changing the bed sheets, doing laundry, running a bath for her, just things like that. Mary was sitting on the couch watching TV when I went to the window to open the curtain.

As I did so, I saw someone standing on the other side of the street, Mary lived in a condo, but it was like a retirement home because it was just seniors that lived there, but they weren't considered assisted living. So, anyways, this man was a bit off-putting it first. You see, he wasn't some normally dressed guy. His face looked very pale, and he was wearing what looked like a very baggy white jumpsuit and was holding a briefcase. He wasn't doing anything else, but just standing there and watching as the cars drove by. My first thought was, huh, that's kind of weird, but I moved on with my schedule.

After some time, I had forgotten all about this person. It wasn't until I was wrapping up for the day and heading out the door after a family member arrived, then I was reminded of him. I walked to my car, which was facing right towards him, so I spotted him quickly. This time I watched him slowly turn his head in my direction and smile and wave. Now that I was a little closer, I could tell the jumpsuit that I saw was actually what looked like a really old clown costume. It was baggy, and it had buttons or a design going down the front center. and the sleeves were puffy.

Again, I thought it was weird, maybe a little unsettling, but I was hopeful to keep the peace. I just waved back and quickly got my car to leave. I was going to Mary's the following day, so as I pulled up, I noticed our clown guy was sitting on the bench on the same road as the condos. There was a single bench that had a sidewalk next to it that led to the front office. his doors. There was a tree next to the bench, as well as a small flower bed, that was there as a type of memorial. The residents used it mostly, but you would occasionally see joggers or other people passing by using it, so it wasn't odd seeing him sit on it. It was odd seeing someone dressed like that and sitting there. I got out of my car, locked my door,

and I headed towards Mary's condo trying to keep an eye on this guy as well. Unfortunately, he noticed me, and immediately smiled and waved again. Instead of a full hand wave like he had done the last time, this one was a simple lift of the hand and wiggling his fingers. Almost in a flirtatious way, I suppose. It was odd, but this time I kind of just faked a smile and approached the door, When I heard the buzz, I entered the door and proceeded with my day as normal. Towards the end of my shift, I looked out the window again and saw him still standing there.

I asked Mary if she had seen the guy before. She confirmed that she did, but that he had just been sitting on the bench so she didn't see his face. She said that she hadn't seen him do anything else and wasn't particularly worried about him, so I figured I would just drop it, thinking at most maybe he was just trying to play some stupid prank. It was the following day that I started getting a little worried. It was a Saturday, and I was off Sunday, so I picked up some items that Mary asked for from the store, or picked up takeout for her or small errands like that. When I got to the condos, I again, saw the clown guy by the bench.

But as I got out of the car, I noticed that he started walking towards me. Not knowing what to expect, I tucked my keys in between my fingers and made my way to the trunk to get the bags. When I closed it, the guy was then making eye contact with me and still walking towards me.

I tried to ignore this and walked towards her door. When this man let out the most blood-curdling scream that I had ever heard. It made me jump to the point that I also yelped and dropped one of the bags. I quickly tried grabbing the bag and ran towards the door as the guy stopped moving and just continued screaming, right there in the middle of the parking lot. This time, instead of knocking first like I usually do, I immediately twisted the doorknob praying that it was unlocked.

Mary must have known that I was going to be there soon and unlocked it. As I dashed in, I quickly closed the door, locked it, and then realized that Mary was on the couch looking a little startled as well. I explained to her as calmly as I could what I had witnessed. She seemed confused and suggested that I call security to look for them, or have them patrol the area. I didn't hesitate, and I called them explaining what had happened. After about five to ten minutes, security knocked on the door to talk to me more about the situation.

They told me that a few other residents had reported it too, but since he hadn't technically done anything yet, they couldn't do much but patrol the area. They also said that when they would start their rounds, he was seemingly nowhere to be found. It was like he knew when he was being looked for and managed to hide. The security guy that night was always really nice, and he was open with me, so he actually mentioned that he was concerned the guy might know their scheduled rounds, or could have even been on the same radio frequency, and just knew when to flee the area. He told me to be careful when I come and go, and to call for an escort if needed, because

he wasn't sure what this guy's intentions were. So, as I mentioned, I can usually handle my own. But that certainly did not make me feel any better about the situation, especially from Mary and her neighbors. When I left that night, I told her to keep her alert button and phone on her wherever she went, just to make sure she had some way of alerting someone. Blow and behold, when I got back to my... car, he was back across the street, smiling and waving.

This time I drove around to that side of the road, rolled down my window, and asked him why he was there. Again, he just smiled and started his piercing screaming. So I drove away and called their main office again to tell them he was out there. It was pretty alarming knowing that he was around a bunch of seniors, some of them not being able to defend themselves, so I called Mary when I got home and even that Sunday throughout the day to make sure she was okay. Thankfully, she had no contact with the guy, but security never found him either.

Unfortunately, when I went there on Monday, he was there again. This time, I quickly made my way to Mary's door without even looking at the guy and quickly went in, alerting security. Everything else went as normal, until the PT nurse Sarah showed up. I forgot that she hadn't really encountered this guy until she was knocking at the door. I immediately went to open it and asked her if she saw the guy,

but she said that she didn't. I was hopeful that security got them, but was also worried that he just ran off again. It wasn't until the next day that things took a bit of a turn for the worse. When I arrived on Tuesday, I didn't see this guy and was relieved that he had realized his pranks weren't funny anymore. However, today was going to be a half day for me, so after I got Mary settled in for a nap, I decided to wait in the living room until her daughter showed up. I thought I would clean up and dust a bit for hers, so I went to open the curtains and there he was,

staring right into the window. I screamed, jumping backwards, trying to catch my breath as my heart plummeted into my stomach. The fact that he didn't budge within this time also snapped me back and caused me to get a hold of myself. If he was there to break in, why didn't he take off, or even try to come in, break the window, anything?

So I approached the window, to get a better look at his face. As I mentioned, he looked pale, but the wrinkles or creases in his face, I could tell he had caked on makeup, like a clown. There was some that was wiped off or faded around his mouth and eyes,

almost dripping, like he'd been crying and drooling, maybe, or maybe just spilling liquid from his mouth. He continued to smile as he slowly lifted a piece of paper, That said, smile on it. At this point, I closed the curtain and double-checked to make sure the door was locked and went and grabbed my phone. I called security first when they asked me if he was still at the window.

I went to check. Slowly I pushed the curtain aside, but he was gone. I'm not sure if I was relieved or more worried about that. After getting off the phone with them, I called 911 as well. It was kind of trespassing, with them trying to look into the window, right? At least that's what I told myself. They both showed up and were patrolling the area for a few hours at that point. They even went to the condos around the area asking if anyone else had contact with this guy.

Several of them did, but it was never more than in the parking lot. I was the only one that experienced him screaming, or even, even approaching the actual homes. From that day, they had a cop patrolling the area throughout the day, but the guy never showed back up. In fact, he was never seen again after that. I know this may sound wimpy, but it was truly a terrifying situation, and sometimes the less you know makes things even worse. I've talked to my friends and parents about this before, but no matter what, I still have have no idea what this guy's motives were.

If it was a prank, it was a terrible one. He could have easily caused someone to have a heart attack or worse. I also don't understand the suit or the briefcase. I still wonder what could have been in it, if anything, and why the sign with the word smile on it? And, of course, how the hell was he able to get away so quickly every single time, without anyone ever catching him. All I can say is, I'm glad he never came back, and that everyone there was okay.

I just hope he didn't try to do it to anyone else. Summer has always been my favorite season. I love the heat. I loved playing baseball with my friends, going swimming, hiking, camping, and just about anything that involved me being outdoors. It typically put me in a better mood. no matter what I was doing, including work. Admittedly, I didn't have the best luck with jobs, though.

I never seemed to hold one longer than a year, but it was always odd circumstances. One place had been shut down for code violations, but most of us lower-level employees saw it coming. A local business went under. I was laid off from one, and one I had to quit because the managers were very toxic and abusive. So, until I found a long-term job, I worked a lot of places and experienced even more. One summer, I got a job working at a local tourist attraction. It was at a popular park that had a long trail that could easily take you a few hours to go around the whole thing. You could also rent bikes to go around it, or even pay for a reserved shelter for celebrations. I worked at the front booth, which

basically involved ringing people up that bought passes, bike rentals, or the random snacks and souvenirs that we sold. It was great, because I could take my breaks or launch outside, or even stroll around at a discount on my days off. Hell, even when I was working, I would be standing outside, taking out the trash, and such if there were no customers around. So, even though the atmosphere was great, people can still be crappy or just weird.

I've had my share of those, but this one really messed me up, and I'm still trying to figure out how it's possible. So, we stopped the bike rentals around six because the park closed around eight or nine when it got dark. We didn't want to rent out bikes and then not be back before then. The park is still open in the meantime, but the people that are left there are usually the parties, or just people passing by wanting a quick trinket or restroom break before getting back on the road.

One night, it was myself and another guy working that we'll call Steve. Steve was sweeping up the lobby so we could prepare to mop, and I had just walked out the trash from the restrooms. The sun was just starting to set, and it looked gorgeous. You could see the pink and orange colors in the sky with the silhouettes of the trees in front of it, and it was always one of my favorite sights to see. As I started walking back towards the building, I paused, watching the sky. I seemed to have zoned out because I didn't notice when a car pulled into the parking lot.

It wasn't until I heard the door open, since it had a bell attached to it, then I came back to reality. I suppose I looked around and noticed the car in the driveway, and I could tell that there was someone in the driver's seat, but because of the glare, I couldn't make out anything about them. Not thinking it was important, I went back into the building thinking maybe it was Steve trying to see where I had gone. However, it wasn't Steve that I saw when I entered, but a kid.

I would always remember because of the way he was. was dressed, he looked about nine or ten, I think, and had on shorts that were blue with white stars on one pant leg, and the other had red and white stripes. Think like an American flag. He was also wearing a green tank top with a Minecraft creeper on it, and when he turned around, I noticed the face painting he had on, which looked like it was supposed to be a Spider-Man mask, but it wasn't done very well. I remembered this because I was thinking he must have come from a party or some kind of festival or fair, and was beginning to wonder if there was one going on nearby that I wasn't aware of.

I loved going to our state fair, but that usually wasn't for a few months, around September. He was looking up at the shelf lined with the stuffed animals that were holding our state flag. As I approached him, that's when he turned to him. around and I saw his face. I said hi and asked him if he wanted one of the bears, as the shelf was pretty tall and he smiled and nodded, pointing to the blue one. As I grabbed it for him, I asked if blue was his favorite color, and he said yes. He stood there for a few minutes talking to me about how he just came from a party with his mom, and he wanted to get something for his little sister, since she was sick and couldn't go with them.

He then told me details about the party, like the cakewalk and winning a donut, and that his mom had to use the restroom and just rambled on about whatever game to mind. While we were talking, or more so he was talking and I was listening, Steve walked out from one of the offices, saying my name and asking where I'd been. I explained that I had been standing there for some time and talking to this kid, as I motioned towards him. He looked over and they both made eye contact and smiled. Steve looked confused, but his only response after was asking me to take out the trash.

Q my turn to be confused, as I told him I already did, and that I started talking to the kid when I came back inside. He argued with me that I hadn't done it yet, so I walked away, leaving the kid to stare at the bears, and I followed him back to the restrooms. Color me surprised when I went back there, expecting to prove him wrong, and the trash cans were still full. I was confused. If I hadn't taken out the trash from the restrooms, what trash did I take out? I grabbed the bags and walked by the bins in the office, behind the register and by the doors, and they all had trash too.

It was like it never happened. While walking towards the front, I saw the kid walk out of the lobby again by himself. I looked over at the Bears to see if he took it, since neither of us were at the register at the time, but not only were there no missing bears, it was even back on the shelf, right where I had grabbed it from. I continued to walk out the door to see if they were leaving, kind of feeling bad that we may have ruined their chance of buying something, but to my surprise, the car was gone. I didn't see it on the road, pulling out, anywhere, which again I found odd because there was not enough time for them to get in and drive away. It was already a weird day, so I just continued my way to the dumpster to toss the bags.

And no, there weren't any bags in the dumpster either. But, as I headed back into the building, that's when things got weird. I saw the exact same car pull up to the building. Thinking maybe they did want to buy something, or maybe they forgot something, I watched to see them get out. This time, I saw the boy get out of the rear driver's side with the same shorts, shirt, and face paint on. At the same time, a woman got out at the driver's seat and that was it. I watched as they walked by me, smiled, and entered the building. I followed behind them, looking around the lobby for Steve,

and I noticed the boy walk over to the bears, giving me this weird sensation of deja vu. As he stared up at them, I took a gamble and reached for the blue bear, and I asked if that was the one that he wanted. He nodded. I asked him if it was for his little sister, to which he responded yes. This time, he walked over to his mom, explained that he wanted to get it for her,

and she agreed. I went around the counter to wait as they made their selections when Steve came over and was talking to me about something. However, he trailed off as he. he saw the boy and the mom approach the counter. He greeted them, as I did, and as I was ringing them up, he asked them if they had ever been here before. And the mom said that this was their first time,

and that they were in the state for a family reunion, but her daughter stayed at the hotel with her dad because she wasn't feeling well. After we rang them up, the mom used the restroom and they left again, and I watched them both get into the vehicle and drive off. I immediately turned to Steve and asked him what was wrong or what he saw, and he agreed that that was the same little boy that was just in here, but the parent was nowhere to be seen. That's when I explained to him that I had taken out the trash already,

and how I knew about the car. He seemed like he wanted to believe me, but was still skeptical. And what we did agree on was that there was no way we saw that kid arrive, leave, and come back within that time frame. Not to mention that I knew what the kid wanted and why. I still have no explanation for it. And that happened a few years ago. All I can think was that it was some kind of glitch and that the time frame started over. Maybe because the kid wasn't supposed to be alone?

I don't know and I don't think all ever know. 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.